Superman07

Did anybody else notice the title card sequence said "The End" instead of "The Truth is Out There"?

Really not sure what I watched. Everybody already covered all of the plot holes. Although to me it looked like Miller and Scully were headed south out of DC past the Jefferson memorial. Guess they got to DC and decided to turn around and head out.

I really thought they were going to tie in some elements from the inbetween episodes.

I'd likely tune in for another mini-season, but it needs to be mapped out better and produced in an appropriate order (last and first were too different in tone). Maybe it's like Dr Who were you get a new show runner?

maxfisher

Caught up on this last night. This episode was so bad that it has me questioning the quality of the original run. I realized about halfway through that I was 14 when X-files first premiered and I fell in love with it. It's been years since I've rewatched any of it, so I'm wondering if the overarching mythology was always this incredibly stupid and I was just too young to know better. I did pick up the blu-ray set when it came out, so I guess I'll revisit it at some point and find out. But yeah, I would've rather not had this season at all. Even the were-monster episode fell mostly flat for me, though it was definitely the best of the bunch. I don't know how you have what, hundreds? of people working on an episode like this finale and no one has the guts to pipe up on how terrible it is.

Goat3001

I never watched the original X-Files until recently. My girlfriend is a big fan and she got me to watch a few episodes of the original run before diving into this.

And I thought this was all pretty good. I'm not surprised by the general negativity since my girlfriend shares the same sentiment as most here. I thought the finale was rushed, but not bad. If they made this a three parter and removed one of the other episodes and fleshed out the story a bit more it would have been much better.

I thought the Were-Monster episode was the best of the season. In the few episodes I watched of the original run, the light hearted, borderline comedy episodes were my favorite.

But "Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man" may have been one of the best episodes of any show I've ever watched.

morriscroy

The same can probably be said of almost anything that one found fascinating when one was young and impressionable.

(With that being said).

I wasn't particularly impressed with X-Files when it was first broadcasted. I was already finished university at the time, and had previously read books about conspiracies, ufos, supernatural/occult, sci-fi, etc ... By the time it was the early-mid 1990s, all that sort of stuff was already "old hat" to me.

I might have thought differently if I was 10 or 15 years younger.

cornflakeguy

X-Files needs to add from subtraction and kick Chris Carter the hell out of the process.

There was no reason for Reyes to be a henchman. No reason for Scully and Mulder to be apart for most of the episode. No reason to have the mini flashbacks to tell the story. No reason for CSM to even be there.

I made my wife watch these with me and after this ep I apologized to her.

cornflakeguy

Yeah and what was the whole point of he and Scully going out on a "drink champagne in the limo" date?

Why So Blu?

What do you mean? Scully isn't really a goodie-too-shoes anymore. She wanted a drink and maybe get laid. Doesn't she have the right to some fun? It's more than 20 years later since the start of the show.

hdnmickey

People calling this a total mess is exactly why this is the this is often the last place anybody should go for reviews.

Anyway, I too felt it was a little rushed but it seems to be what they set themselves up for the when the decision was made to do only 6 episodes. I am looking very forward to a next season given I believe it's as likely as other do here. Just a matter of when. They should dump one of the other Fox series and get this ready for next fall as a top tier show that gets a true full season. A full X-Files season would likely blow away most other shows on the network ratings wise (and quality wise for those that don't think these were a mess).

rocket1312

I have yet to read a positive review of this episode anywhere, so I'm not sure why you're singling this forum out. The people here calling this a mess are calling it a mess because it was a mess.

stingermck

People commenting on their FB page, for the most part have enjoyed having the series back, and are eager for more.

brainee

This episode wouldn't have been so bad if it was in middle of the season (or we knew for sure there was another season).

I've pretty much come to expect awful science in all entertainment media, so that didn't bother me so much. Though having just given a lecture going through the misconceptions about vaccinations, having the X-Files tell everyone they're a vehicle for killing the majority of the population isn't helping.

rocket1312

I mostly enjoyed having the show back and would be eager for more if Fox would commit some real dollars to it, but that doesn't make this episode any less of a hot mess.

PhantomStranger

I had no problem with any of the four middle episodes and they mostly felt like classic X-Files to me, even better than seasons 8 and 9.

A lot went wrong in the two-part mytharc bookends, everything seemed off. I still badly want the show to return for another season.

andicus

Yep, I cringed when they mentioned this coming about from vaccinations. This being fiction won't stop it from fueling up some anti-vaxxer nutjobs.

Jackskeleton

But when it returns, what would it be like? I mean, you can't really un-destroy and cripple a country. And if the level of crisis was to be believed, how do you go back to doing weekly investigations when the scale of all this has just been raised by so much?

PhantomStranger

They really went down the rabbit hole with the science this episode. They got far more specific with the alien DNA issue than I've ever heard on a mainstream network show. Someone needed to step in and edit Carter's draft into a more manageable form.

stingermck

Just ask Millennium

HN

a flaw in the vaccine affected an area of the brain and as a side effect of the "cure" it caused global amnesia, except for a select few that they'll focus on during sweeps.

feel free to fill in the blanks with medical mumbo jumbo or commercial break.

andicus

Yep. From a fantastic season finale, to a let's just skip ahead/gloss-over return the following season. I have never been so disappointed in a program.

Shannon Nutt

Someone needs to explain this new mythology to me...it's like Chris Carter gave the middle finger to the original series, saying stuff like the black oil aliens and bounty hunter aliens were just a big hoax.

I agree this episode was awful. I liked two of the six shows...the second one (with the deformed kids) and the third one (which most of us agree was the best of the lot). Carter is damn lucky FOX wants to bring this back...had the ratings been awful and this been the last we saw of Mulder/Scully, Chris Carter would become the George Lucas of his franchise (the creator who's hated for the changes he made) - he's already getting dangerously close to it.

hdnmickey

It helps if you just pretend S3 didn't exist like I do.

Josh-da-man

The vaccination stuff Was in the original series twenty years ago. They weren't just putting it in there because of the current anti-vaxxer thing, they were waaay ahead of the zeitgeist.

mphtrilogy

Maybe with a 10 episode commitment, we can get a solid next season.

I enjoyed having this back, but some of these plotlines could have used some smoothing out

Maybe vince can lend a hand...

Gunde

I only heard that many abductions were faked. Not that everything was a hoax. But who knows? That entire storyline is such a huge mess

I'll still take more X-Files though. This season I liked 4 out of 6.

rocket1312

The original mythology is/was a mess, but in a big picture sense, the storyline was mostly coherent. You had aliens plotting to colonize the earth with the help of a bunch of shady guys who were just trying to save their own asses. Some of those guys were secretly trying to combat this invasion while appearing to collude with the aliens. That was it. Along the way we were introduced to abductions, black oil, alien bounty hunters, clones, rival alien groups, human/alien hybrids, etc., but they all sort of fit under that larger umbrella, even if a lot of the smaller details and personal motivations didn't connect/were contadictory. For the life of me I can't remember how the super soldiers from seasons 8&9 were supposed to fit in, but there was at least an attempt to fit them in somehow.

This new season, however, just turned all of that upside down. Now all of a sudden it's about population control and staving off global warming. Or something. The aliens may or may not have anything to do with it other than that they were the ones who tipped us off to the potential problems and that we were using their tech. I suppose further episodes could develop it further and provide better context within the history of the show, but I'm not going to hold my breath.