The X-Files Finale: The end of an era or a new beginning?

Back in Time

The X-Files – Reyes and CSM – Courtesy of Fox

We go back in time several hours to when Mulder and Scully get a phone call from Monica Reyes (Annabeth Gish) that William is going to land at an airport in Tennessee. Despite Scully’s initial misgivings that something horrible could happen to Mulder, she reluctantly agrees to let him go and pursue their son.

All hell breaks loose when Mulder shows up at the airport and sneaks into the building. He finds Mr. Y (A.C. Peterson) of the defunct Syndicate. A blood bath ensues as he tries to elude the guards and then he assassinates one of CSM’s original conspiracist cronies.

When the guards find him, he ends up decimating all of them. However, when he walks away it isn’t Mulder. It is William. We now know he can change his appearance at will and explode heads which is a useful skill to have.

Scully alerts Mulder who is on the road to the fact that William may have been seen at a convenience store that has had eight Lotto winners. So, Mulder hightails it to there to try and see if he can find his son.

Only Human

The X-Files – Erika Price – Barbara Hershey – Courtesy of Fox

This cat and mouse game continues where Mulder gets so close to his son and William remains elusive. Finally, after false hope, he gets a location from one of his son’s girlfriends as to where he might be. As it turns out, William does have a human side.

Feeling vulnerable, stressed out and tired of being pursued he contemplates taking his life at a motel. Fox catches up to William. The two men finally meet face to face.

As Mulder is trying to convince William rather unsuccessfully that he can protect him, Erika Price (Barbara Hershey) shows up with her crew to capture the boy. Despite trying to warn Fox that something bad is about to happen, Mulder stays and witnesses Price’s demise in one of the bloodiest, goriest yet coolest scenes in X-Files history.

She gets blown up. Literally. The power of William harnessing his thoughts at work and just like that, he pulls a Keyser Soze and disappears again.

It Comes Down to This

The X-Files – CSM 2 – William B Davis – Courtesy of Fox

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One of William’s friends leads Mulder to an abandoned sugar factory because this is where he used to go with her. Meanwhile, Skinner and Scully while en route to the scene have a moment of truth.

What follows is fast paced and one of those instances where the viewer has to keep up. Everyone converges in this space and time with the goal of either saving William or ending his life. As Scully and Mulder are running around in the abandoned building, Skinner is being run over by Monica Reyes in an alley.

However, he narrowly escapes by diving under his car as Reyes and the CSM plough into it, or does he? CSM gets out with his gun and goes over to check. We see Skinner’s legs protruding out from under the vehicle.

Old Smokey turns and before we can see what is going on, the race is back on in the factory. William is still eluding his parents. Mulder is in pursuit outside where he ends up at the water’s edge on the dock.

This is where the CSM confronts him. Gun pointed at Mulder, he tells him that he won’t hesitate to kill his firstborn son to get at William. While Mulder questions his ability to go through with shooting him, CSM pulls the trigger.