Saturday Afternoon Half Measure

The enigmatic Mike Ermentraut from the classic tv dramas Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul

The End Is Out There: Guess the X-Finale

Contains spoilers for two iterations of The X-Files,  a 19^th Century book and a 20^th Century movie 

    

The truth may still be out there, but it won't be there for long. The last of Fox TV's six-episode revival of The X-Files , the cult sci-fi conspiracy television series that made stars of its leads,  David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, airs next Monday night.

How will it all end? Some uninformed guesses, intended for fans of the original series who have seen all but the final episode of the 2016 season (and wrapped in some well-informed spoilers, spoilers, SPOILERS) appear below. They are predicated on the show's tried and true formula of combining a complex, series-spanning plot (which X-philes have come to call the Mythology) with standalone, occasionally humorous digressions, known, affectionately, as the Monster of the Week episodes. You have been warned. Break out your blinding flashlight and proceed, if you dare.

Super Serious Mythology Ending Guess

All roads point to Agent Dana Scully’s demise. This season's reference to her ostensible immortality, allegedly posited in a cryptic line from Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose (Season 3, 1995),  was not a guarantee of safe passage for Doctor Dana. There hasn’t been this big a bullseye painted on the star of a pop culture juggernaut since Kirk asked Spock “Aren’t you dead?” in the opening minutes of Wrath of Khan.  As if her mother’s passing, a vision of the River Styx and the sound of Angel Trumpets over the course of the most recent adventures weren’t suggestive enough, the canine callbacks to Moby Dick only serve to remind us that Scully’s nickname is Starbuck (who died on his captain’s mad quest); not Ishmael, sole survivor of the Pequod.

The heartbroken audience, shattered by and sharing the grief that drives Man on Fire Fox Mulder will follow him on his new series- er, crusade. A new, gritty, earthbound Mythology will arise around the solving /avenging of Scully’s murder. This will be punctuated by new Monster of the Week, episodes featuring paranormal events that, depending on one’s view of Mulder’s sanity, may or may not suggest Scully’s intercession on Mulder’s behalf from beyond the grave.

Wacky Monster of the Week Ending Guess

Mulder and Scully’s grown son, William, in trope-tastic Sci-Fi tradition, uses his otherworldly powers to travel back in time, becoming, through a series of mishaps, his own grandfather, Bill Mulder!

Steve Price is a former newspaper cartoonist turned bi-coastal gallery artist, an award-winning illustrator, a professional author and copywriter, and book designer published by The New Yorker, Newsday, Image Comics, Random House, Dark Horse Comics and Hilowbrow.com

Sterling Super Draper Price

Don't Blink!

Matt Weiner is my master, now.

Breaking the Walking Mad Bad Dead Men

 I'm a fan of the AMC programs Mad Men, Breaking Bad, and The Walking Dead, all three of which have featured extraordinary production design and instantly iconic advertising campaigns. Given the recent speculation that the costs associated with one show's production deal have affected the funds available for those of the other two, the following mashup occurred to me as a possible (if not serious) solution.