The X-Files – My Struggle IV

By: Kelly Kearney

Whether or not you loved or hated the season finale one thing is clear, the show’s mythology is problematic. For all its fake news grandeur and conspiracy laden adventures, the man-made contagion arc was often confusing and lacked continuity, especially when it came to the ebb and flow of Mulder and Scully’s relationship. Are they just platonic work partners or occasional friends with benefits who risk their lives to save each other and, by default, the entire human race? Is William their miracle child or a product of some maniacal man’s dream to end all of mankind through experimental bio-rape? Questions answered with more questions If the truth is out there the series finale struggled to find it. That said, the episode did offer some shining moments that reminded us why we hung on to these character for twenty-five years. The brilliance of “The X-Files” often shines in the intangible spark that exists between Mulder and Scully, the skeptic and the believer, the mother and the father and the saviors to the entire human race. In that aspect, the finale delivered and while some chapters of this story are forever closed, we are left with the feeling of hope that these two finally get the do-over they so desperately deserved.

William’s Story

We begin with Jackson/ William (Miles Robbins) detailing his life from birth to teenager on the run. Having the ability to see both his past and future has left William pondering where it all went wrong. He was a happy kid, raised by two loving adoptive parents, but it was clear from an early age that the boy was different. By age eleven, his special powers started to interfere with the Van De Kamps lives and it wasn’t long before he was bounced from school to school, always running from his truth; he was different but why? After a few years, Jackson turned to petty crimes, using his powers for his own twisted entertainment. Causing car crashes and general mayhem landed the teenager in a reform school where he learned life was easier if he lied about his powers. That was until men from the government paid him a visit at school and from that moment on, The Van De Kamps were under surveillance. Jackson stayed under their radar until he decided to play a prank on his two girlfriends by scaring them with a Ghouli monster. The prank put Jackson back on the government watch and, in the end, got his parents killed. Now sharing visions of what’s to come with his birth mother, Jackson wants to know who he is and why he was created. He thinks those answers lie with his father, a man he knows he hates even if they’ve never met. Throughout William’s monologue flashes of the future that haunt both him and Scully (Gillian Anderson),begin to make more sense – the contagion, the end of the world and old man shooting his son on the docks of a factory. Mulder’s (David Duchovny) death has been foretold and thanks to their shared bond, Scully knows it.

While Mulder is searching motels for his son, Skinner (Mitch Pileggi) is back in D.C. getting reamed out by Director Kersh (James Pickens, Jr.) over fake news stories that have been leaked to Tad O’Malley (Joel McHale). The conspiracy peddler is airing frightening stories about a man-made contagion set to be unleashed on the world and Kersh assumes this is Mulder’s doing. Whether the story is real or not, Kersh is done with the X-Files and orders Walter to shut it down for good.

After his meeting with Kersh, Skinner runs into Scully who asks for his help in finding William. He mentions the meeting with Kersh, but she blows him off since this isn’t an FBI issue but a family one. He agrees to help and she fills him in on Mulder’s search.

Just Come Back Alive

Flashback to Mulder’s farmhouse where Scully gets a call from Monica (Annabeth Gish) offering them a tip about William on a plane in Norfolk. Scully immediately knows Monica is lying, but Mulder thinks this could be their last chance to find their son. Scully halfheartedly agrees, but pleads with him to be careful and “just come back alive.”

At the airport, Mulder doesn’t see William, but he does spot Mr. Y (A.C. Peterson) exiting the plane in a military hanger. Sneaking through the restricted area, Mulder easily disarms the space colonist’s guards. Its not long before he barges into Mr. Y’s office demanding to know what he wants with William. Mr. Y begins to explain that William has what every human wants, but he doesn’t get a chance to elaborate because their interrupted by a guard at the door. Mulder shoots the guard and then turns and kills Mr. Y, letting the answers about William die with him.

With their boy still on the run, Scully calls Mulder with a clue on how to find him thanks to a link she found between a few consecutive lottery wins. She gives Mulder the address of the last winning ticket which leads him to a gas station where he asks to surveillance footage and of his son. A black and white video doesn’t quell his need for a one on one with his boy so Mulder keeps searching while Scully is at home guiding him with her visions. After a frightening peek into the future, showing CSM (William B. Davis) murdering Mulder on the docks of some factory, Scully calls and begs her partner to be careful. Mulder calms her fears and lets her know he has a lead on their son after watching him hitch a ride with a trucker on the security cam.

An Explosive First Meeting

Assuming William is heading home, Mulder takes off for Norfolk, but what he finds is not what he was hoping for. Caught in an uncomfortable situation with the trucker, William uses his powers to kill the man by way of bodily implosion and Mulder finds what’s left of the man on the side of the highway. At that moment, Scully calls for an update and Mulder protects her from the truth about what William has become. Monster or not, this father is not giving up so he heads to his son’s hometown to talk to the boy’s girlfriends, Brianna (Sarah Jeffery) and Sarah (Madeleine Arthur). Meanwhile, William is already at Sarah’s and he is desperate to end this constant life on the run. He tries convincing Sarah to join him in a suicide pact and begs her to slip away in the night to meet him at the Timberlake Motel. The suicide pact is a no-go when Sarah tells Mulder where to find him.

At the Timberlake, Mulder knocks on William’s door and says, “My name is Fox Mulder. I’m your father.” The boy opens the door to an elated man who instantly hugs his son, but the family reunion isn’t has happy as Mulder would’ve liked. Mostly because William knows he means well but can’t stop fate and probably led Erica Price (Barbara Hershey) and her soldiers right to him. He tells Mulder he knows how this is all going to end and questions why his mother shares his visions, but Fox doesn’t. Mulder doesn’t have an answer to that but promises to help if his son lets him. William knows that’s not in the cards and tells Mulder he can’t help because this ends with his death. At that moment, Erica and her thugs show up and William orders Mulder away from the door as its blasted off its hinges. As the men in black prepare to kill them both, William uses his powers to implode their brains leaving nothing left of Erica and her goons but blood and gore. William refuses his father’s help and takes off just as Scully calls to say she’s coming to help. If their son won’t listen to his father than he will listen to her. Skinner offers to drive her and, on the way, destroys her idea of who and what William is by explaining the boy’s part in CSM’s plot to kill mankind. While we can’t hear what Skinner says because the very thought of her son being a product of some laboratory rape makes Scully literally deaf, her reaction is proof that the truth has been revealed. William is not Mulder’s son.

Meanwhile, the search for the boy ends with a tip from Sarah’s friend Maddie (West Duchovny) who claims William might be hiding in the town’s abandoned sugar factory. Mulder rushes to the lot that happens to sit along the same docks from William and Scully’s visions. Speaking of Dana, she tracks Mulder down at the factory and mother, father and son are all chasing each other in the building’s shadows. As for Skinner, he spots Monica and CSM in an approaching car and opens fire on the duo as they drive straight towards him. Monica takes a bullet to the head and CSM steers their car directly into Skinner. It’s not clear if Walter’s dead but he’s lying on the ground when CSM steals his gun and walks into the factory.

You Are A Father

After a long chase through the dilapidated building, Scully finds Mulder and surprisingly he’s calling it quits. He realizes the boy doesn’t want to be found, but it’s ok as he knows his mother loves him. Confused on how Mulder would know that, she pauses long enough to realize the person in front of her is not Mulder but William! In an instant, her son takes off again and winds up outside on the factory’s docks and face to face with his actual father, CSM. Still wearing his Mulder face, he can’t believe this man would shoot his own son but CSM reminds him that it wouldn’t be the first time. Old Smokey has no idea he’s aiming his gun at the child he hoped would be the planet’s reckoning. Raising the barrel, he shoots William in the head as the boy (still wearing Mulder’s face) falls off the dock and lands lifeless in the water. At a close distance, Mulder saw the entire murder unfold and assumes his father just killed his son. Running at sprint speeds, the irate man pulls the trigger and doesn’t stop until his father is plugged full of holes and teetering on the edge of the pier. Without thinking twice, Mulder charges forward and throws CSM’s sad sack of murderous bones, off the docks and into his watery grave.

Scully finally finds Mulder and he’s distraught after what he just witnessed and she decides it’s time to tell him their truth. William wasn’t their son, he was an experiment that was never meant to be. She might’ve given birth to him, but she was never his mother in all the ways that counted. The truth stings, Mulder’s spent the better part of this decade loving and searching for a boy he thought was his son and now he learns he never was? “What am I if I’m not a father?” Scully takes his hand and places it on her abdomen saying, “You are a father.” 54-year-old Dana Scully is pregnant and if that’s not an X-File I don’t know what is! I’m not sure what was in last week’s prayer candles, but Scully got her miracle! Obviously, Mulder is shaken by the news and embraces Scully in a mix of emotions that can only be described as both horror and happiness. Horror for the years they loved a child that was never theirs and happiness for the second chance they were granted which is anything short of a miracle. In the distance, the water ripples and William surfaces, alive and well because bullets are no match for this alien/human super child. With CSM dead and William gone, the contagion is no longer a threat and the X-Files can close leaving Mulder and Scully free to do all the things normal people do; settle down, start a family and stop chasing the shadows of the past. It’s an end fitting for a show that started as a search for the truth in the great beyond only to find out twenty-five years later, the truth was always inside them.