THE X-FILES Archive. Everything there is to know about the groundbreaking science fiction series
…eat his own desk” if the The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. co-star Bruce Campbell will not become a television star of the first magnitude. It was not stated whether consumption took place, but it was The X-Files, not The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr., that turned out to be the biggest hit in the history of the studio.
Season 11
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We’re in this together again
Mulder sits by the unconscious Scully’s bed… Season 11. The X-Files picks up right after the end of the Season 10 finale. But it brings to mind something else entirely: all the times Mulder watched over Scully in the past.
First after the abduction, then when she was fighting cancer… we’ve seen it already and thanks to that we know: a great revolution is about to take place in the relationship between these two and a breakthrough in the knowledge they are gaining with such difficulty. Always been like that.
This coming full circle also seems to suggest that Chris Carter himself wasn’t entirely convinced that the outline of the mythology presented in season 10 was conducted in the right way. In an attempt to refresh the convention and introduce something completely new, he strayed too far from the axis of the series, from what once held it upright and set the tone. So he took a few steps back and focused on a different distribution of mythological accents, giving more space to investigative episodes. And it was no doubt a hit, as season 11 beats 10 by the head, dancing out of the doldrums and showing how much spirit is still in Carter and his associates (as usual, Darin Morgan shines the brightest: the episode The Lost Art of Forehead Sweat inspired by the phenomenon of the Mandela Effect, contains everything that has always been the best of the series).
The first episode of the season rediscovers the hope that was lost somewhere along the way, overwhelmed by bitterness, disappointment and sadness. Hope that humanity still has some control, that destiny is not set in stone, that there are individuals who care and who still “want to believe” – and act. Mulder and Scully clearly have a new energy, they take a deep breath, they refrain, at least for the moment, from constantly scratching their past wounds, and they allow themselves to think that the future may be different than they thought, and it is because of them personally (and not least thanks to the wonder of their enigmatic son, the messiah William, who, by the way, has finally gained some personality.)
It should be made clear that the opening and closing episodes (My Struggle IV) of the season are, after all, the weakest as a whole. It’s a stubborn piece of fabric that keeps coming apart at the seams. The X-Files mythology changed direction several times, sprouted new branches, and sometimes confused the tracks, and so for 9 (!) seasons. It’s hard to control it by squeezing the revolution into a few episodes. The new face of mythology looks like a theory presented in a discussion, like one of the possible solutions, not yet fully refined, like testing different pieces of a puzzle – do they fit the whole or maybe not? The problem is that even if they would not fit in the long run, there was not enough time to finally reject them.
The mythology of seasons 10 and 11 should therefore be treated more like a curiosity than an independent, polished and full-scale creation. It also has an additional role: it evokes old, well-known heroes and weaves them into relationships with new ones. Especially with Mulder and Scully, it works well, adding dynamism to their mutual relationships, which somewhere along the line, between seasons, burned out and twisted. We can witness a “reboot” of their partnership according to fresh rules, and for anyone who has been rooting for the pair of agents for years, this will be a very satisfying closure of the chapter.
However, the primary advantage of season 11 over 10 is the quality of the investigative episodes. In the previous season, practically only Darin Morgan’s episode stood out on the plus side, while the rest had a good, but still average level, sticking to safe ruts, tested many times before. These episodes are rather sad, grey, the same spirit of doubt and fatigue hovering over them that hung over the entire season.
Well, it was, it’s gone. Season 11 is different, and you can feel it right at the beginning of the first investigative episode, This, when Scully and Mulder transform back into a pair of perfectly synchronized operatives, decimating a group of attacking cutthroats. That shootout at the beginning (plus Scully’s spectacular slide under the table) is like a breath of fresh air. Another is an exchange of words over the graves of the Lone Gunners in Arlington Cemetery. And the ending? Like Bob’s giggle in Twin Peaks…
Why do I need Google when I have Scully?
What can happen when a doppelgänger stands in our way? This line fascinated Edgar Allan Poe and inspired episode number 3, Plus One. A careful observer will also notice subtle “returns to the past”, echoes of such episodes as Fight Club, The Walk or even Eve (the icing on the cake is also the presence of Karin Konoval, or Madame Zelma from Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose and the spooky mom from Home, this time in a wonderful double role).
As if in the background, there are subtle signs of deepening intimacy in Mulder and Scully’s friendly relationship, without declarations or fireworks, only due to neat dialogues. In addition where Mulder theorizes about the presence of ghosts, Scully sees a rather specific activity going on in the forebrain. You can recall dozens of similar disputes from the past – and thanks to that you will really feel homely and cozy.
Episode 4 is Darin Morgan’s big, big show as a writer, no doubt his X-Files magnum opus. We will find here a lot of references to old episodes of the series, including Tooms, Small Potatoes, Teso Dos Bichos and Unusual Suspects. The episode is both a tender self-parody and a beautiful closure. Morgan bids farewell to the X-files universe in his own unmistakable style. And it’s hard to imagine a more beautiful, and above all – a better-suited farewell.
Another particularly noteworthy episode is Rm9sbG93ZXJz, in which The X-Files becomes for a moment another installment of the gloomy reality straight from Black Mirror. Artificial intelligence that learns by watching people is completely skewed… why? Conversely, to what extent is our progressive addiction to ubiquitous technology distorting us? Minimal dialogue further reinforces the message of this brilliant episode, directed by Glen Morgan but written (with Shannon Hamblin) by her wife, Kristen Cloke, whom we know as Melissa from The Field Where I Died, Fox Mulder’s soul mate from his previous incarnations.
Familiar plot motifs are found in almost every episode. It’s not just about references, more or less direct, to the subject matter itself, but also to the motifs that are the distinguishing features of Mulder and Scully and their relationship. Scully’s faith and Mulder’s atheism. Her scientific coolness and his enthusiasm of an always open mind. The similarities and differences in their approach to relationships, family, passing years and aging, woven into a strong knot of shared attachment to the son. In Season 11, Mulder and Scully are once again full-blown, alive and poignantly genuine, and humor, detachment and a penchant for banter return to their conversations.
However, there is a certain, not insignificant, “but”. The problem with the last season of The X-Files is that it is very clearly, even unambiguously addressed to fans of the series, to those who fell in love with it back in 1993. I’m not sure if it will reach the casual viewer who vaguely associates a couple of agents, so he decided to watch one or two episodes out of curiosity. From the perspective of new customers, this can therefore be considered a disadvantage.
But is she really? Depends on how you look at it, because the 11th season of The X-Files is primarily a beautiful love letter addressed to those most faithful of the faithful and a wonderful reward at the end for all those who have never, ever lost faith.
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Karolina Chymkowska