Credit where it's due, this is the best of the bunch. It's not god-awful like its predecessors. There aren't any mind-bogglingly stupid plot twists (well, one, but I'll get to that). While the "end of the world" aspect is brought up again, the episode is largely a race to find William. It's simplicity works in the episode's favor. Unfortunately, the fact that the ongoing story has been largely ignored means that any sense of tension is gone. To be fair, the stand alones have been quite solid, so it worked for the season as a whole, but it doesn't stop the fact that this whole thing feels rushed and underdeveloped.
Unlike "The Truth", this episode doesn't spend a lot of time just summarizing and explaining the plot of the show. It does, however, recycle some elements. This isn't unsurprising as they are both series finales of sorts. Once again, the X-Files are closed and once again Smoking Man is killed. Normally, three gunshots to the chest of an old man would be fatal, but we did see him take a sidewinder to the face and come back unscathed, so I'm guessing the finality of this death depends on whether the show comes back or not. Same goes for the closing of the agents' branch. It's been done before, but given that this is supposed to wrap things up, it really can't be avoided.
Oddly enough, it does leave some loose ends. Skinner's fate is never determined and the last shot of the episode shows that things may not be as in the clear as one would have hoped. Honestly, I could have done without that. If you're going to wrap things up, do it. That sequel hook was kind of pointless.
Before that, though we have to talk about the ending. Long story short, William lets himself get offed by Smoking Man to stop the impending apocalypse (I'm pretty sure spoilers are no longer an issue at this point, yes?) While the character was underdeveloped, it did let him die a noble and somewhat sad death. Even the two agents are rather devastated. Unlike the season opener, actual effort is put into making this a sad scene. Credit especially goes to Anderson, she was acting her ass off here.
Sadly, it's undercut the the aforementioned stupid plot development. The two agents are reeling from not only the death of their son, but the revelation that he wasn't theirs. Smoking Man cooked him up in a lab and used Scully as a surrogate of sorts.
It's now, seconds after William's death that Scully decides to reveal that she is really pregnant with their actual child. This is just stupid on so many levels. Sure it gives the two agents a more uplifting note to go out on, but really?
Overall, this episode was...adequate? It had some structural problems, but the last few minutes are really the only cringe-worthy parts. Some of the dialogue is clunky, but again, it's been much worse.
One last thing, and this is something of a nitpick, but don't the agents know Reyes? They worked with her a while back, right? She doesn't do much here, but when she does contact them to give them a warning/lead, they talk as if they have no idea who she is. I feel like this is another thing that the show did before, but I might be remembering it wrong. Maybe it was a meta-jab at the character, nobody remembers her because she really hasn't done anything important as of late. It doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things, but it's still strange.
I'm kind of hoping that this is it. The relaunch did ultimately validate it's own existence, but I'd hate to see the show try to wrap itself up for a third time. Let's just call it a job done (or a case closed, eh?) and move on to other things.
Click here to become a Swagbucks member
Click here to join our Patreon campaign
No comments:
Post a Comment