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!