The X-Files Season 10 Episode 6 Review: My Struggle II
Carissa Pavlica
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Well, that happened. What, exactly? It's a bit of a mess.
Probably the worst thing to happen to The X-Files Season 10 Episode 6 was the return of Joel McHale as Tad O'Malley. His character may have fit the tone of the premiere, but in the finale, which felt far more goofy of a follow up than "My Struggle," he fell flat.
Honestly, I guess I was expecting "My Struggle, II" to expand upon what we learned about Scully during The X-Files Season 10 Episode 4, when she dealt with the death of her mother and considered what it meant to give up William.
Obviously, I was completely off.
As a matter of fact, I'm not even sure why it was titled similarly to The X-Files Season 10 Episode 1 other than it bookended the season and was the only other hour dealing with mythology.
And being that this WAS a mythology laden hour, there was an attempt to deal with all the things. It was rushed and didn't quite work out as planned.
But there was this! Seriously. Could there have been a better way to start the finale than morphing Scully into an alien? I don't think so. And just as I was hoping someone would give us a gif of it, the official Twitter site gave us a Vine. Good enough.
Play that 1,000 times, why dontcha? That's probably the best moment of the entire hour. Followed only by Mulder laughing into what was left of Cigarette Smoking Man's face when he removed half of it.
How DID they deal with all the things or, essentially, everything they had been talking about for nine seasons? By making CSM both a nasty guy and somewhat of a decent guy, making vaccines bad as well as humanity's salvation and abductions good...and bad.
In other words TOTALLY noncommittal one way or the other on pretty much everything.
The nine season nutshell version is the aliens arrived, shared their tale that humanity was doomed. No way out of it, people are BAD.
They thought, since people are bad, what the hell? We might as be really bad, save some and kill off the rest even sooner, utilizing some of the smarts the aliens we killed left with us.
How? Abducting those who would be saved and implanting alien DNA assured they couldn't be affected by a genetic time bomb that would otherwise be set off by anthrax.
I'm pretty sure that dependent upon who your parents were, you hit the genetic lottery, either littered with alien DNA or the Spartan Virus. But, it doesn't really matter, because after this hour it's moot.
In one tiny hospital, with a tiny prick of her skin, apparently Scully made enough of a vaccine (how the Spartan Virus originally infected people) to save the world. Or something. It was a little hokey.
But not as hokey as Scully being doctor enough to eyeball an infected Mulder and surmising enough to know he was too far gone to be saved by anything other than a stem cell transplant. The only person who could save him is William, and dag nabbit, they don't know where he is.
Cue the crazy X-Files music (in your head, work with me) and you'll see a UFO hovering over the bridge. Has it come for Scully or Mulder? Will we ever know???
Oh brother.
Save the William story for another six-part event series, I suppose. His arc will be shared during the first and last of the six episodes, and we'll get two great and two moderate installments snuggled in the middle of the run.
You have to wonder why anyone made the decision to make some of what CSM did other than horrific. He could have been wholly bad.
It was good to see Monica Reyes again, but I really didn't get why she was working with CSM. Didn't she say she didn't take him up on his deal for him to save her life? So why stick around?
Agent Einstein, though still strapped with a terrible name from which she can never escape, was a lot better than when first introduced. She and Scully actually made a good team, too.
Although not so good that I wanted to see them together above Scully and Mulder. Going out on an hour without the premiere couple sharing screen time also wasn't the best idea, and makes me wonder if those in power are firing on all cylinders when putting this stuff together.
Wasn't anyone standing around reminding them...six episodes. SIX EPISODES!! There is limited time here, guys. Keep your eyes on the prize!
Well. That's it. We're done. Were you satisfied with the full run? Did this ending satisfactorily wrap up your understanding of the mythology? Hit the comments. If it's coming back in any way, shape or form, we'll let you know!!
Until then, we'll watch the stars in all other things. Thanks for riding along with me! If you want to relive the experience, you can watch The X-Files online to see it all from the start.
Carissa Pavlica is the managing editor and a staff writer and critic for TV Fanatic. She's a member of the Critic's Choice Association, enjoys mentoring writers, conversing with cats, and passionately discussing the nuances of television and film with anyone who will listen. Follow her on X and email her here at TV Fanatic.
