Written by Chris Carter
Directed by Kim Manners
There's a bit
more focus to the final episode of the season than we got in its predecessor.
Whether any of this, however, leads to much in the way of more clarity is
pretty much non-existent. What makes Existence work, at least a little better,
are the more emotional moments.
It's not clear
how one should actually view the death of Alex Krycek. He hasn't had any real
focus since Season 4, and ever since the Syndicate went up in flames, we've
never been clear what side he's on. The fact that Mulder, Skinner et al were
willing to trust him at this point just shows how far the beaten path the
character has gone. Carter clearly doesn't know what to do with a character
that's long since outlived his usefulness to the series, so he tries to give
him a full death scene, where Krycek finally seems to show the faintest sense
of remorse that he has to kill Mulder, followed by the moment where Skinner,
who has more cause to hate him than anyone else in the series, finally
assassinates him. Why Mulder, of all people, should feel more regret about what Skinner has done than
the average audience viewer (or at least me, I was glad to see the rat-bastard
get what was coming to him) is hard to measure.
The intrigue
that's going on within the FBI might be more interesting if we hadn't, I don't
know, been watching this same stuff going on for eight seasons. We have yet
another informant, with the unwieldy name of Knowle Rohrer, come into the
bureau and tell Doggett that Billy Miles is part of a military program to build
some kind of super soldier. Considering that we've just seen Billy literally
pull himself back together, that seems underwhelming, and the fact that he's
lying, and is in fact conspiring with other people within the FBI would be
unsettling, if the audience wasn't way ahead of the game by this point.
And then there's
the entire sequence involving Scully and
Reyes traveling to the ass-end of Georgia
in order to finally deliver Scully's baby. The entire pregnancy storyline has
been more of a burden for the X-Files then anything else: basically
non-existent for the first half of the season, then being held as an utter
mystery even to Mulder for much of the rest, and now we are give the setup of a
miracle child, literally being born in a barn, with a giant glowing star in the
sky, and a bunch of aliens witnessing
the birth. At this juncture, its hard to know what would be worse: a baby
looking as horrible as the ones we've seen in the final third of the season, or
a perfectly human baby. Carter can't decide at this point, so in the end, we
will pretty much get the worst of both worlds.
And yet, for all
of that, Existence isn't a bad wrap up
to the season. Considering all of the big explosive moments that we've
supposedly been about to witness during it, its telling that the smaller
moments resonate far more. The moment in the car when Doggett finally tells
Mulder that there has to be a point where he's willing to put an end to his
quest isn't nearly as powerful as the one between Mulder and Scully that we got
in Requiem last year, but it pulls us up short because its being told by an
outsider. The sequence where Scully and Reyes bond over whale songs and
positive energy seems a little labored, but the fact that we finally get a
mention of Melissa has a pang that these callbacks usually don't have. The
scenes where Skinner and Doggett try to escape the FBI, pursue by Rohrer and
Agent Crane, intercut with the delivery of Scully's baby, are some of the most
energetic and daring scenes we've seen the series try all year. And the
penultimate sequence where Doggett and Reyes confront Kersh on his corruption
have a real zing to them, considering that he's had it coming for the entire
season.
What made this
episode work in a way that it really shouldn't have was, of course, the final
moments between Mulder and Scully as they hold their son in their arms. Yes,
its aggravating as hell that the only time the whole Mulder-Scully romance seem
to happen was off-screen¸ and for
them to now assume it as a given is incredibly sadistic, but seeing them happy,
with their child in their arms, after everything they've gone through would have been a satisfying place to the end
the X-Files. It wouldn't have had the emotional wallop that Requiem did last
year, but considering that we've now turned Billy Miles into an alien monster
(who's still out there; the series will perfunctorily dump him, now that they
don't need him any more) the personal moment would be a good one.
Problem is, of
course, not just that Carter and company would decide to do a ninth season, but
that they had signed Gillian Anderson to participate in it. There would be far
too many flaws in the ninth season (I'll get to them in time; believe me), but
trying to do the season with Scully and no Mulder would be an even bigger
mistake than trying to do it with Scully and some Mulder. They've come up with
good reason to end the series now, or at least their roles in it. Trying to
continue without them would have been difficult, but surmountable. But doing it
the way that they chose to, especially after coming up with a good way to end
not once, but twice, was a sin that I don't think a lot of fans of
X-Files can forgive even more than fifteen years later.
Existence was a
good stopping point. Not a great one - that ship sailed when they decided to do
a Season 8 in the first place - but at least it would've been able to give fans
of the series closure. As it is, the fine moments that this episode has - and
there are quite a few of them - are pretty much wrecked as the X-Files decides
to drag on. Its bad enough considering what Carter and co have decided to do to
permanently wreck the mythology. To decide to torpedo the one thing that was
considerably more vital to the series - well, that's a story for the next
chapter.
My score: 3 stars.
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