'The X-Files' Recap: 'My Struggle III'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

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​When we last left Agents Mulder and Scully on The X-Files, the situation was grim to say the least. The world was coming to an end, thanks to the genetically engineered Spartan Virus, Mulder was infected with it and slowly succumbing to it and the only way to save him would be by way of a stem cell transplant, with his son serving as the donor. But, saving Mulder and the world would be easier said than done. With Mulder barely hanging on, time was running out to find William, and to complicate matters, it would seem visitors from another world had focused their attention upon the intrepid agents and well, let’s be honest…I think we’ve all been dying to know just how the hell this cliffhanger was going to come to a conclusion, and also, how on earth Mulder and Scully were going to get out of this unique mess.
 
Well as it turns out, last night’s season eleven premiere, ‘My Struggle III’ was more than happy to answer all of our lingering questions and wrap up that stunning cliffhanger, by revealing to all of us…that none of it ever actually happened. Instead, that tense story played out inside the confines of Scully’s brain as she suffered through a powerful seizure and it was quickly revealed to be nothing more than a powerful vision of a potential future, one that she and Mulder had to prevent, which meant it was high time that they begin the search for their son since he is in fact, still the answer to saving mankind from this forthcoming apocalypse.
 
But as if that little twist wasn’t jaw dropping enough, there were still plenty of surprises to be found in this tale as we learned that the Cigarette Smoking Man, is the mastermind behind the forthcoming end times, simply due to the fact that he believes that mankind has lost its way, and is falling to pieces and by unleashing this awful virus upon the species, he is doing our world a favor. Because those immune can start over fresh, and rebuild the world in his image I’d wager and well, I give the series credit, because by revealing dear Carl as this all knowing and all powerful big bad, the alien invasion storylines that have hung over this saga are in essence null and void and honestly, I’m okay with that.
 
Because mankind working to save itself by defeating a man that has in essence, turned his back on his own species makes for a far more fascinating storyline going forward, and while these revelations alone would have been enough to carry this story, there was still one last surprise waiting up Chris Carter’s sleeve; in that…William’s real father is not in fact Fox Mulder…it’s Carl himself, who impregnated Scully 17 years ago with a hybrid embryo to create the world’s first superhuman and while this surprise irked fans online, once we get past all of these revelations and twists and turns, I think there’s a bigger issue that needs to be addressed when it comes to this episode outside of Carl’s admission that he’s William’s proud poppa, the fact that this story is in essence, a cop out.
 
I mean come on, no one is a fan of any particular story where the character wakes up to reveal that it was all a dream, but that’s precisely what’s happened here, and well…that’s kind of lame. Because the season ten finale was filled to the brim with powerful moments that simply don’t matter now. So, my beef with this particular tale is the fact that the series gave up on a bold new direction rather than push ahead and wow the audience and that’s quite frankly a shame. Is this enough to make me want to stop watching however? Honestly, no. This is merely one rough episode in a sea of amazing ones, and I am curious to see how they avoid the forthcoming apocalypse, so, as a hardcore fan of this show, I’ll simply put this one out of mind and move on, but man…they missed a golden opportunity here and I certainly hope there’s some amazing episodes waiting for us down the road to make up for this one. Until next time. 

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