You've probably heard the news by now: The X-Files is coming back! Stars David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson are coming back, as is creator and producer Chris Carter.
They're only filming six episodes, but that's six more than we had yesterday! So we say it's time to resolve all those dangling plot threads.
You may still be fuzzy on the details of the alien conspiracy. What with hybrids, clones, greys, bees, viruses, super-soldiers, faceless guys that like to burn stuff and at least one alien bounty hunter... It got pretty convoluted before the end.
The series finale took (quite a lot of) time to connect all those dots. But you're forgiven if you've forgotten how it all fit together.
The point is, the conspiracy and the abductions and all that jazz were explained. So we're not going to rehash it or re-ask all those questions again. We're looking at the dangling plot threads that we need resolved when the series comes back to Fox:
1. The Alien Invasion
By far the biggest and most pressing concern that left fans dangling is the impending alien invasion. The show's final episode, "The Truth," gave us a date for the invasion's beginning — which we were lead to believe the Syndicate, aka the government conspiracy, spent the entire series (and decades before) preparing for. That date was December 22, 2012, which coincides with the Mayan calendar's "end of the world" prophecy. The invasion was to be facilitated via infection from the alien virus, aka the Black Oil.
The problem is that that date has now come and gone. It could have (and should have) been addressed in the 2008 movie, I Want to Believe, but it was never even mentioned — a move that didn't sit well with fans, who want the mythology to count for more than show mastermind Chris Carter seems to care about. So what happened, and how will the new show address it? Did the aliens' alarm clocks fail to go off? Did they change their minds and decide to let us live?
2. Mulder's Sister
After years of teasing us with clones and impostors, a Season 7 two-parter appeared to close the door on the abduction of Samantha Mulder, suggesting she was taken by a serial kidnapper and murdered. Perhaps quickly realizing the frustration of fans who'd invested years into Mulder's quest, this unsatisfying answer was dismissed by Mulder himself in a throwaway line from a later episode.
So what happened to her? The search for Samantha was Mulder's entire motivation for everything he ever did. She was abducted when they were kids, and he saw it happen. We got nuggets of information here and there — including the fact that their father, Bill Mulder, was forced to choose one of his children to hand over to the aliens as part of the conspiracy — so we know why it happened. But we still have no idea where she is now, and it's too far out-of-character for Mulder to no longer care.
It's time for a family reunion.
3. William
After David Duchovny left the show for good prior to Season 9, the writers turned their mythology attention to Scully's baby, little William. William was a miracle child; he came to be even though Scully was supposed to be unable to conceive, so there was lots of consternation over the baby's connection to the aliens. (Don't start with me about the paternity thing. Mulder was the father. That was resolved several times over.)
After a two-part episode late in Season 9 saw baby William abducted, Scully quickly got him back but made the difficult decision to give him up for adoption so that he could grow up somewhere else and have a normal life and not have to worry about aliens always coming after him.
Okay, that's crap. These aliens have advanced technology, and remember they had no trouble finding William when he was born at that spaghetti western ghost town in Georgia or whatever. So they'll totally be able to find him anytime they want. Second, this "resolution" to the William storyline was more than a letdown. It was a cheat. It was the writers' using the laziest means possible to get that pesky baby out of the way. Why devote all of Season 8 to Scully's pregnancy if she was just going to ditch the baby? It's nonsense, and totally out of character for her. You can't tell me there's someone out there who could protect William better than his own mother. Have you seen her shoot a gun? She was FBI! And all those years she spent yearning for a baby while knowing it could never happen, and then she finally has a baby... No way on this Earth does she give it away!
Okay, okay, anyway... Assuming the show ran concurrent with its air date, William was born way back in May of 2001. So he'd be at least 14 years old by the time the new show airs. We need to know what became of him and most importantly, what his connection to the aliens is. Is he part alien himself? Does he have unique abilities? Is he some kind of "chosen one" or the linchpin to the invasion?
4. The Fates of Everybody Else
Skinner. Kersh. Jeffrey Spender. Cassandra Spender. Marita Covarrubias. Scully's mother. Arthur Dales. Morris Fletcher. Heck, even Doggett and Reyes.
What happened to all of these characters that (as far as we know) were left alive? Even former enemies like Kersh and Jeffrey Spender came around in the end and tried to help Mulder after so many years of fighting him. Agents Doggett and Reyes were set up to be sort of a "next generation" of The X-Files but the show ended before that could happen. The last we saw of them, they'd found the X-Files office emptied and all of the case files missing. Did they remain in the FBI?
Mulder and Scully are our priority, don't get us wrong. They're what we're going to tune in to see, because they were the show. They went into hiding after the finale, though they turned up in the movie I Want to Believe, and Skinner even popped up briefly, too.
But everyone else? Are any of them still fighting the good fight? Have Mulder and Scully had any contact with them over the years? Will any of them turn up on the revival show?
5. A Real Ending
The X-Files had a number of endings, and not one of them was satisfying.
There was the first X-Files movie, after the fifth season. The movie was a satisfying adventure of its own, but as far as the ongoing story went, it didn't really resolve anything.
There was the finale of Season 8, when William was born, and Duchovny's final regular appearance on the show. It ended in a perfect moment, with Mulder and Scully finally confirming what we'd always known: they were in love. Even if it provided no closure to the alien conspiracy, it was a beautiful moment of closure for Mulder and Scully. Bummer the whole thing didn't end right there.
Then there was the series finale in Season 9. Mulder came back to tie things up, and at least he escaped death at the hands of the conspiracy. But it ended with him and Scully on the run and Mulder's final declaration that "maybe there's hope." Are you freakin' kidding me? That's the best they could give us after nine years?
Lastly, there was I Want to Believe, the wildly disappointing second feature film. "All was forgiven" for Mulder with the government and he was able to come out of hiding. But did it end things? Not even close. Inexplicably, they set sail for a deserted island to retire and live out their days.
Wait, what? Yeah, that happened.
Come on, Mr. Carter. We need closure. We need an actual ending. It's time to finish up this alien conspiracy business. And do it justice, would ya?
Be sure to follow T-Lounge on Twitter and visit our Facebook page.
