S11.E10: My Struggle IV

[Anakerie]

I have a feeling GA is going to track down Hannibal and Will Graham and see if they have any interest in her other leg. It's the better option at this point. 

[shrewd.buddha]

10 hours ago, Bastet said:

"What am I now if I’m not a father?” 

Unbelievable. Has Mulder ever shown any paternal instincts? Ever? Did he ever have goldfish or house plants to take care of? I think he inhaled too many chemicals from wearing his Bigfoot costume for too long. 
Why, after 20+ years together, cannot Scully bring herself to tell Mulder that William was not his son, but sort of his brother? It seemed as if she detached herself from William after Skinner told her that William was basically an alien experiment she was impregnated with. But she couldn't bring herself to break Mulder's fragile father-figure ego? 

There was a lot of forced staging at the end, with the shootings on the dock. CSM gives William-as-Mulder a head shot. Mulder then shows up and shoots CSM multiple times - but no head shot ... because CSM might need to be brought back.
And while I can understand Scully and Mulder letting CSM just float off down the river - what about their "son"? No attempt to search for the body? 

Edited March 22, 2018 by shrewd.buddha

[mledawn]

Well, this season just reinforced my belief that CC can't be trusted with these characters. This was less offensive to me than S10 overall but... just STOP.

The thing that affected me the most was what happened to Skinner.

Quit it, Chris Carter. Let it go.

[Mama No Life]

12 hours ago, Dirksy said:

So I guess I’m the only one who was relieved that Sculls and Foxy got a happy ending? I mean all their enemies are finally dead, they’re finally out of the bureau and once Uncle Walter gets out of the hospital I’m sure he’ll be invited over for pot roast every Sunday. The only thing missing was a kiss, but I’m sure it’ll be in the deleted scenes on Blu-ray. And Mulder will have somebody to build rockets with!

I didn't get the impression that it was a happy ending.  Did you see his face when she said she was pregnant? And how they both were discussing that it's impossible?  I got the vibe that they were worried it was another experiment or result of some tinkering.  They seemed sad to me.

[Iceman91]

It was a tiny bit better than the other mytho episodes but still a big mess.

- The new syndicate is just blown up by William without doing anything useful, the smocking man killed without any word about his virus, so what was the point of this new mythology?

- Reyes unceremoniously killed by Skinner, she didn't have more than 2 words in the episode and we'll never know her motivations for siding with CSM

- Scully once again separated from Mulder and passing most of the episode at the phone in distress. I don't remember Carter treating the character so badly in the original version, what happened?

-No emotions, the reunion between Mulder and William was treated as a plot point, I felt nothing and then he dies and Scully doesn't care for the child she missed so much because he was just an experiment and she already has a replacement waiting so no big deal.

- Why is Mulder so trigger happy in this version? he just kills persons without asking questions or anything. And William just blows up people when he's not busy pitting his girlfriends against each other, Carter really didn't want us to like this kid.

[Hannah Lee]

OMG that was pretty bad.   I missed the first few minutes, so I didn't see the credits.   But at a certain point, after like the 5th or 6th really badly framed, blocked, shot, edited scene, I thought to myself "Chris Carter didn't bother hiring an actual director for this, did he?  He directed this thing himself! Again!"   I actually paused and looked it up, sure enough, I was right.  Argh!  It made a badly plotted, written and sort-of acted episode much much worse.  The action scenes, all the running, the way Skinner's 'death' was shot, Mulder's scenes with William at the motel, all of it was bad.

The Mulder / Scully scenes at the warehouse and on the dock, when he kept cutting back and forth to whoever was speaking, with no reaction shots, and rarely a shot of both of them in the frame together - it was awful, I was kind of dizzy watching it, and it sucked the life out of those scenes.  It was like CC was filming a ping pong match, with no interest in conveying any emotion/connection between them at all. 

 

3 hours ago, shrewd.buddha said:

Unbelievable. Has Mulder ever shown any paternal instincts? Ever? Did he ever have goldfish or house plants to take care of?  

Well, he used to ask Scully to feed his fish, so Yes.   But aside from that?  No.

 

As far as GA not coming back, after this season, I don't blame her.  For me, that horrible wig would be enough to keep me away.

[domina89]

I think the most upsetting aspect of this episode for me, personally, is that for a series that has never been just ordinary, and for two characters whose relationship has never been just ordinary- CC decides to give them such a boring, soap opera ending.  I will admit I am not a shipper, but I came to terms with my feelings about their romantic status between season 9 and IWTB. I have always held M & S's friendship as an ideal - an agape kind of love.  They have always had a higher purpose, with the struggle and perseverance of heroes.  It just hurts me to see these characters I have admired for so long not be able to fulfill the destiny they were set up to have from the beginning.  Yes the writing was terrible for this episode (and the plot and the editing and directing), but that missed destiny, or worse yet, their transformation into the ordinary- THAT was the knife to my heart.  I can't imagine this would have been the ending if Frank Spotnitz or Vince Gilligan had been around to rein CC in.  Sigh.

[festivus]

Well I've read all the posts and it just cemented that my decision not to watch this episode was a good one. Since I already vented when I read the spoilers I'll just leave it at that.

[Tardislass]

2 hours ago, Iceman91 said:

- Scully once again separated from Mulder and passing most of the episode at the phone in distress. I don't remember Carter treating the character so badly in the original version, what happened?

You missed Season 8-9 where Scully wept every damn episode and somehow could never protect William. Which is okay now since he’s not her real child. Ugh

3 hours ago, Mama No Life said:

I didn't get the impression that it was a happy ending.  Did you see his face when she said she was pregnant? And how they both were discussing that it's impossible?  I got the vibe that they were worried it was another experiment or result of some tinkering.  They seemed sad to me.

Thank goodness GA isn’t coming back or you know there’d be another dumb Scully/baby danger plot since CC seems to be stuck in 1990s storytelling. And given that if the kid lives they will be in their mid-seventies when high school graduation comes, I don’t know if I’d be happy either...

Think I’ll just fanwank that IWTB was real ending and Scully had this weird dream on the boat about alien William.

[Biggie B]

It was awful. I agree with all the criticisms already well made in this thread. What a disappointment.

I get why William was on the run - he didn't want to live the rest of his life as a science experiment - but wouldn't his powers prevent that? We saw what he did to those people in the motel room - they exploded like rotten melons being dropped onto concrete from a roof top. So why should he have one moment of fear that he'd be held captive by anyone? Who could contain him? What nonsense. The more I saw of him this season, the less sympathetic he and his plight became. I didn't think for a second that being shot in the head point blank by CSM killed him, and now if this show continues, where do we go with him? Either he needs to truly die or be killed, or he needs to confront his would-be captors once and for all and do away with them. I'm sick of the endless chase scenes. They're boring and too drawn out.

I am choosing to believe that Skinner is not dead. Injured, sure - but not dead. 

I don't think CSM is dead either. Unless or until I see him explode like the people William killed in the motel room, as far as I'm concerned, he's still out there. 

As for Scully being pregnant - it's a no for me. 

[Folk]

Gotta give CC credit. Not only did Scully ditch William at the end essentially, a super human child who destroys purity(no wonder 2012 didn't happen, based on script outakes, it explains the explosions of CC/Syndicate members) at will, who just wants to be loved and his "mother" is saying he is freak and should be left alone..........then tells Mulder she is Pregnant at 54.....Mulder stares off looking he would rather be 100000000 miles away from Scully. William, who they think is dead, heard everything under the water, looking betrayed.

You can't make this stuff up, MS series was really about William. It was very self-contained and written like somebody with ADHD. But the payoff should have been Mulder/Scully find, save William as the conspiracy closes in. Mulder gives him another shot, taking away his powers. We seem together at the end hugging, family rejoined at last. Nooooooooooo, we get some crazy messed up stuff that may have been the last episode of Xfiles.

[pagooey]

Lordy. I dipped into the spoiler thread last week and thought, Nah, those are way too DUMB to be true. Fool me twice, I guess. That's not how any of this works, CHRIS.

Since all y'all have already noted the many many ways in which this was a complete shitpile, I'm going to wish this episode into the cornfield and express some positive gratitude instead. 

Chris Carter, please retire and, I dunno, surf and toke away the rest of your brain cells. BUT. Thank you for:

• Your one good idea in the early nineties. You gave us Mulder and Scully, and they took on a life of their own and got completely away from you. LET THEM.
• Launching Duchovny and Anderson on this ride that, all things considered, was more great than crappy.
• Giving us the rare Darin Morgan gem, and fostering the genius of Vince Gilligan. 

David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, thank you for working that goddamned hard, even when you had to sell 10 pounds of bullshit in a 5-pound bag. You owned those characters; you GAVE them a life of their own and did your best to rescue them from their hapless creator. You have inspired me as a person, and you both have more than earned the right to put Mulder and Scully to bed (seewhatIdidthere). Please run out to the store for ice cream and never come back. I love you. 

Mitch Pileggi, you always seemed to be having the best time behind the scenes, and Chris did you dirty. Peace out, you sexy beast. 

Willam B. Davis...well, it was real nice of you to have that acting school centre up in Vancouver all those years. 

[Ottis]

16 hours ago, AntiBeeSpray said:

If it's the case, it better damn well be on the dvd's as well. Since not everyone has a blu ray player.

Dude or dudess, Blu Rays are like 80 bucks. A gofundme should get you over the top!

I don’t know what we just watched. So the pandemic is stopped because William is believed dead? Or it has started and now there is no cure because William is believed dead?

i actually found the opening, narrated by William, to be one of the most interesting parts of this season. Given his awareness, it also meant I couldn’t buy that he would keep running from Mulder and Scully. 

Skinner is alive. He went down on purpose, with a strategy. 

[Colorado David]

I worry for poor GA that something is going on she's not discussing. Her voice sounds awful, and yeah I know she's not old, but that's an older person's raspiness.

[CrashTextDummie]

Unfortunate, yet inevitable. The X-Files mythology is rotten to the core as a storyline and nothing good can come for it.

The only way this episode could have been salvaged somewhat is if CSM emerged from the water right after William. And then Skinner should have emerged right beside them for good measure. At least then we would have had something to talk about.

[Bastet]

4 hours ago, Mama No Life said:

I didn't get the impression that it was a happy ending.  Did you see his face when she said she was pregnant? And how they both were discussing that it's impossible?  I got the vibe that they were worried it was another experiment or result of some tinkering.  They seemed sad to me.

As they should be.  I never understood why Scully had William to begin with -- she's infertile, and with a history of being experimented on by nefarious shadow government forces and/or aliens, so turning up pregnant should lead to an immediate trip to the nearest clinic.  No, you will not be using my body yet again!  Whatever you've implanted in me is coming out.  Instead, yay, a baby.

Now she's pregnant under even more mysterious circumstances (since now we also have the whole, you know, being fifty fucking four years old thing, meaning if she had no history of infertility, hadn't completed menopause, and was actively trying to conceive, she'd have about a 0.5% chance of succeeding, so add it all up and the odds that this one was a natural conception aren't any better than the first one), and they'd be geriatric by the time the kid left home, turned into an alien and blew up the world, whatever.  So, very much not a happy ending in my book.

[Tardislass]

17 minutes ago, Colorado David said:

I worry for poor GA that something is going on she's not discussing. Her voice sounds awful, and yeah I know she's not old, but that's an older person's raspiness.

When she speaks in her normal British accent she sounds fine. I wonder if it’s not just trying to speak in an American way.

[RoseofSharon]

It was a mess of an episode but if I think what was happening was happening, then I am ok with how it went down.

People don't care about William.  I think this episode was made to make sure we knew that was ok.  He's NOT at his core a great guy.  I got the feeling they were setting him up as the next big bad if the show kept going (please don't let the show keep going) But even though we now know he's kind of terrible, Mulder and Scully don't really know that.  Scully said they had to let him go.  I think she knew he was alive but allowing him to fake his death was the best way to do it.  

I'm also not convinced that the CSM who is always lying about things really technically would be William's biological father even though he said he was his father.  Tonight he said he was William's creator.  So I was left with the impression that he probably took Scully and Mulders DNA and fiddled with stuff and then used Scully as the incubator and considered himself the father since he made it happen but when he said creator this time, I stopped thinking he was the literal father.  Not that it matters really.  Supposedly CSM is dead though without the headshot it's not for sure.  But Scully doesn't seem inclined to ever tell Mulder CSM's claims about paternity.  Anyway, was confusing as everything is, I'm going for deniability and just going to piece my own ending out of this. 

The pregnancy worked for me because we just saw that William/Jackson can create life.  He did that egg trick and made a chick hatch.  You can be sure it was supposed to be an ordinary unfertilized egg. So I watched and assumed that William gave Scully and Mulder a replacement for what they lost or were having to let go.  So it being ridiculously unlikely she'd get pregnant was fine because Williams got powers.  So yeah, it is a freaking miracle and is supposed to be. 

So by that logic (or lack of logic if one thinks I'm looney too) Scully probably at least got set up to be able to get pregnant when she talked to William at the gas station.  From how Scully and Mulder talked at the church they were still in some kind of ill defined relationship so I don't think her chances to get pregnant was limited to the Twin Episode. 

I also assume since all the players in the bad guy games are dead, the pandemic was averted.  No one controls William, he let it play out just like he wanted.  Scully was so relieved Mulder was not dead after all, so she lets William go now that it looks like he's safe.  And I forgive Mulder for freaking out about being nothing if he's not a father because a second ago he thought he'd failed to protect his child.  So grief makes you say crazy stuff. 

It is a reboot to the Scully and Mulder have a kid story but if the show isn't ever going to give me real answers about the conspiracies, I'll settle for giving the characters something they want in their lives, a second chance.     

[M.F. Luder]

I hated everything about the revival. As a longterm fan, I feel like any random fan of the original series could have developed a story arc that was 100 times more coherent than what CC put together. Every decision made for the mythology just broke whatever continuity existed in the original series and did nothing but lessen M&S's personal involvement in the mythology and their connection with each other. 

If they wanted to give M&S a second chance with a new baby, it would have been way more interesting (IMO) to have them learn that another "Emily" has been created and she needs M&S's protection. That would allow them to fix the mistake of abandoning William. I think anything that brought back something that was crucial to the mythology when the show was good (pre-season 8), and highlighted the personal stakes that M&S have in it would have been much more satisfying. Focusing on William, a character that no one wanted to begin with, and then making him so unlikable just makes no sense.

[Cyranetta]

If CSM recovered so well from being fricaseed, recovering from a mere couple of bullets and a dip in the drink will be child's play, more's the pity. If we're lucky, the various troops of aliens will have also gotten bored by the whole mess and taken off for more plausible pastures.

Besides the general nuttiness of Scully's pregnancy, what made me grind me teeth is that CC made it all about Mulder - Scully may as well not have been involveed.

[RoseofSharon]

I assumed the reason why GA wasn't in it more was behind the scene issues, like scheduling or something. 

[Batgirl]

I thought Mulder’s line about not being a father was strange— he never really got to be a father to William. But I can forgive that as him just being upset/shocked by what just happened. But I was hoping/expecting Scully would tell him something about his value to her, his work, anything— not just that it’s all okay because he’ll get another chance to be a father. 

[Sharna Pax]

2 hours ago, M.F. Luder said:

If they wanted to give M&S a second chance with a new baby, it would have been way more interesting (IMO) to have them learn that another "Emily" has been created and she needs M&S's protection. That would allow them to fix the mistake of abandoning William.

Now that makes sense. The child wouldn't even have to be Scully's biological child - just a kid who needs their help. I find it very weird that Chris Carter seems to think the only way for Mulder and Scully to be a family is for them to conceive, bear and raise a child who is biologically theirs. I can understand why they wouldn't have adopted, during those years they spent living together - their life wasn't stable enough, and for a lot of that time Mulder was supposed to be in hiding. But taking in an older kid who needs protection would make so much more sense to me than having a baby in their mid-fifties, and they would be just as much a family.

The more I think about the WIlliam plot, the more I hate it. It's basically Chris Carter using rape as an excuse to scribble out eighteen years' worth of story and start over. Sad because Mulder and Scully had a miracle baby and gave him up for adoption and mourned his absence for sixteen years? No worries! It turns out Scully was raped and the baby wasn't Mulder's, so nobody really needs to worry about him at all. Here's a brand-new baby who's really a miracle.

Look, I thought the William story was stupid from the beginning, but it happened, and you can't erase it. Mulder and Scully had a baby, and they were scared that he was going to turn out to be an alien, but then it turned out he was just a perfectly normal baby, and they were very happy and kissed awkwardly while holding him. That happened. And even if you manage to convince me that William wasn't really normal, and wasn't really Mulder's biological child (and that's going to be a hard sell, because the show seemed very clear about both those things back at the end of the eighth season), that doesn't erase the fact that for seventeen years they believed he was. And that means he's their kid, because biology is really the least important factor here. Saying Scully was raped and William was an experiment shouldn't make William's loss any easier - it just adds an additional layer of trauma.

I understand wanting Mulder and Scully to have a happy ending. That's what I want for them too! But I think Chris Carter has a very narrow view of what a happy ending is.  "This" and "Forehead Sweat" and Ghouli" were really all the happy ending I needed for Mulder and Scully. "This" tells me that the years they've spent together weren't all angst and regret; that there's been lot of fun and silly jokes and comfortable TV-watching and recreational use of handcuffs along the way as well. "Forehead Sweat" shows us that we can be nostalgic for the past without needing to recapture it. And "Ghouli" sets Mulder and Scully free from their guilt over William. Do Mulder and Scully have perfect lives? Do they have everything they once envisioned for themselves? No, but who does? Regrets, disappointments, missed opportunities are a part of life. Sure, they've missed William's childhood, and Mulder never got to build rockets with his kid,  and that's sad. But realistically, they'd be empty-nesters by now anyway. Their son is alive and well and knows they love him; they have their health and their jobs and each other, and that's more than a lot of couples their age have. I don't need Mulder and Scully to have a new baby and start all over again. I just need them to take stock of their lives and realize that they're happy, and maybe get a dog.

Edited March 22, 2018 by Sharna Pax

[janestclair]

What in the actual fuck was that garbage?  I almost don't have any coherent thoughts beyond that, but I will try to vent my frustration at THAT steaming pile of garbage being (most likely) the end of 25 years of X-Files.  To start, I actually didn't mind William's monologue, so I thought maybe we were actually off to a good start.  But no.  That was followed up with 90 percent car chases and limited Mulder/Scully shared screen time, and a ridiculous ending.  Is there anyone that actually liked this? Really liked it beyond thinking it could've been worse? Because if there is, help me out here.  Although, I guess it could've been worse.  Mulder or Scully could be dead, and they're both alive and no one is near death. But that's a pretty low fucking bar.  

I loathe what they did to Scully, one of the strongest female characters ever on television, and what did she do in this hour?  Call Joel McHale's character, and show up at the very end to announce her (ridiculous) pregnancy?  In my head canon, she's not pregnant, she's actually in menopause and only thinks she's pregnant. Her medical doctor skills are probably rusty.  (Hey, it happened on the Golden Girls.)  Chris Carter can go fuck himself.  Scully is more than a fucking baby incubator.  

Mulder's line about what he is if he's not a father was completely out of character. When was he ever a father to William?  At least Scully took care of the kid for a year.  Mulder wasn't around for that IIRC.   

Instead of all those fucking car chases/Ford Mustang ads, how about showing us the conversation between Skinner and Scully in the car, so that we could see her reaction to the news that William was an experiment?  Or even to just see what the hell Skinner actually told her.  I do not think CSM is biologically William's father, only in the sense that he fostered his creation.  Otherwise, for the better part of 17 years, the boy Mulder thought was his son was in fact his half brother, and that's completely vile. 

Skinner deserved a better ending than what he got, although I am assuming if the show comes back for season 12 no one is actually dead.   Reyes deserved a better ending than that too, and I would've liked to know why she started working for CSM.  Prior to her turning to the dark side the worst thing she did was sing whale songs.  Did we ever get that piece of backstory?  No, that would've taken time away from the car chases.  My mistake. CSM better fucking be dead though.  Enough is enough already. 

The My Struggle titles should refer to all the fans having to sit through that dreck.  Good for GA saying she's not coming back.    

[Terrafamilia]

If William can make people see him as a big ol' bug-eyed monster why can't he make them see him as something innocuous, like an old crate, a pile of junk, a fake potted plant standing in the corner? There'd be far less running around that way.

[Ghost of TWOP Past]

You're all so cute in this thread! Still trying to make sense out of the storylines, like Sissyphus. 

Meanwhile, I remembered something else that bothered me. Faux-Mulder tells Scully that William knows she loves him, and she demands, "HOW CAN HE KNOW?" Well, mostly because you've been intermittently sharing brains for the last two seasons, dope. Likewise, William beaming visions of the future into Scully's head was not voluntary, right? So the pretense that he's dead will only last until Scully gets her next apocalypsogram. 

[Batgirl]

36 minutes ago, Ghost of TWOP Past said:

You're all so cute in this thread! Still trying to make sense out of the storylines, like Sissyphus. 

Meanwhile, I remembered something else that bothered me. Faux-Mulder tells Scully that William knows she loves him, and she demands, "HOW CAN HE KNOW?" Well, mostly because you've been intermittently sharing brains for the last two seasons, dope. Likewise, William beaming visions of the future into Scully's head was not voluntary, right? So the pretense that he's dead will only last until Scully gets her next apocalypsogram. 

That, and the scene where he’s in the body bag and she tells him. 

Apocalypsogram- I like it! 

[Sunshinegal]

Too much william.  Not enough Scully.  William should not have more screen time then monica, skinner and scully.

[AntiBeeSpray]

On 3/22/2018 at 3:52 PM, Ottis said:

Dude or dudess, Blu Rays are like 80 bucks. A gofundme should get you over the top!

I don’t know what we just watched. So the pandemic is stopped because William is believed dead? Or it has started and now there is no cure because William is believed dead?

i actually found the opening, narrated by William, to be one of the most interesting parts of this season. Given his awareness, it also meant I couldn’t buy that he would keep running from Mulder and Scully. 

Skinner is alive. He went down on purpose, with a strategy. 

Hate to ruin it for you... as cheap as those are, I'd need a tv to go with it!  XD So it would be over $400 or so overall. So I'm just fine with the DVD's.

 

Hold onto your seats guys. Shots fired.  XD

https://twitter.com/GillianA/status/977221356893941760

Facepalming Scully and all. She really didn't like it.

Edited March 26, 2018 by AntiBeeSpray
that linked back to this page and not to her tweet XD

[Colorado David]

Does anybody know what kind of car that is that Mulder is driving? I want to put that on my bucket list

[catrox14]

24 minutes ago, Colorado David said:

Does anybody know what kind of car that is that Mulder is driving? I want to put that on my bucket list

It's a Mustang but I'm not sure if it's a Shelby or not. I suspect it is.

[Rushmoras]

Since I like mytharc episodes and in my opinion they are what makes X-Files great, I liked this episode as well. However, due to poor transitions between scenes it was very hard for me to figure out what is the past (real past or what William projected as the past), the present or the future. The ending was predictable, save for Skinner and CSM. Some scenes were not really believable, like Mulder versus comandosses in the hangar or Scully's speech in the end about William just being a laboratory experiment. But, all in all, I liked it.

However, the whole S11 I rate 5/10. Too many episodes that were just: "So, what happened in them? I really can't remember, cause they do not fall in any category of X-Files whatsover for me".

P.S. RIP Barbara Hearshley, I had such high hopes for you, oh, well, maybe you'll be back in Once Upon a Time, cause people don't stay dead there, because... well, deus ex machina.

Edited March 23, 2018 by Rushmoras

[Ottis]

20 hours ago, Batgirl said:

I thought Mulder’s line about not being a father was strange— he never really got to be a father to William.

Oh yeah - between this, and Mulder suddenly becoming a bad ass and taking out trained, armed mercenaries, I felt like something had happened off screen that I missed that accelerated the plot around Mulder, William and the fate of the world from "it's coming eventually" to "do whatever it takes RIGHT NOW." Mulder was starting to sound like that dad from Lost ... "Walt! Waaaalllllt!" And then he became Charles Bronson. Neither of which were in character. Meanwhile, Scully was calmly processing her way through whatever was going on, and I felt like I was following along with her, while Mulder's arc became weird and cartoony.

[Bastet]

The woman who did those great abridged season videos (where she uses dolls and funny voices to summarize each season of XF) did her usual take on this episode: https://twitter.com/ladiefantastic/status/976669844081815552?s=21

[pagooey]

3 hours ago, Colorado David said:

Does anybody know what kind of car that is that Mulder is driving? I want to put that on my bucket list

Colorado David, did you see the S11 opener, "My Struggle 3"? Mulder drove that Mustang a lot. Lots and lots and LOTS of driving. (Which, I appreciate a badass muscle car too! And a beautiful hunk of Mulder behind the wheel of it, sure! I'd be delighted to see either or both turn up in my driveway! But that doth not a coherent story make.)

2 hours ago, Rushmoras said:

Mulder versus comandosses

Excellent pluraling. ;D

Gods bless Gillian, meanwhile. Be the Carrie Fisher we lost, girl--the torch is right there waiting for you to grab it.

[Bercilak]

On 3/21/2018 at 8:19 PM, AimingforYoko said:

Actually, if you remove the "Struggles" this season wasn't too bad.

This is true of the first seven seasons as well.

[Colorado David]

wow would not have recog'd that as a mustang. thanks all!!

[MissL]

6 hours ago, Ottis said:

Oh yeah - between this, and Mulder suddenly becoming a bad ass and taking out trained, armed mercenaries, I felt like something had happened off screen that I missed that accelerated the plot around Mulder, William and the fate of the world from "it's coming eventually" to "do whatever it takes RIGHT NOW." Mulder was starting to sound like that dad from Lost ... "Walt! Waaaalllllt!" And then he became Charles Bronson. Neither of which were in character. Meanwhile, Scully was calmly processing her way through whatever was going on, and I felt like I was following along with her, while Mulder's arc became weird and cartoony.

Yeah Mulder's fighting skills were even more jarring considering I'm in the middle of a rewatch and had just that day seen Die Hand Die Verletz and watched Mulder get taken out by 3 members of the local PTA.  Devil worshipping members but still.

Im still reeling from Scully's final lines regarding William. Just no. Does NOBODY have influence over CC or common sense or were they all too tired to fight? I remember stories of David and Gillian arguing heavily against Scully giving William away to begin with but they had to give in to Chris. Man and my love was truly reignited this season and I hate that the finale left such a bad taste. Not as bad as MSIII...I think me screaming for the blood of CC could be heard across Chicago when that episode ended. But still... I wanted more. I tried not to hope for more darn it. 

[AntiBeeSpray]

30 minutes ago, MissL said:

Yeah Mulder's fighting skills were even more jarring considering I'm in the middle of a rewatch and had just that day seen Die Hand Die Verletz and watched Mulder get taken out by 3 members of the local PTA.  Devil worshipping members but still.

Im still reeling from Scully's final lines regarding William. Just no. Does NOBODY have influence over CC or common sense or were they all too tired to fight? I remember stories of David and Gillian arguing heavily against Scully giving William away to begin with but they had to give in to Chris. Man and my love was truly reignited this season and I hate that the finale left such a bad taste. Not as bad as MSIII...I think me screaming for the blood of CC could be heard across Chicago when that episode ended. But still... I wanted more. I tried not to hope for more darn it. 

I think that it could be the latter.

Found something via Tumblr that says a lot:

emceecapitalc
A couple of years ago, I read an article where Gillian was reflecting on season 10. She said that she initially suggested Chris weave a single story through the six episodes they had to work with rather than try to do a mini season of stand-alone episodes. She suggested this based on her experience with The Fall and the fact that people’s tv-watching habits have changed since 1993. But then, she said, Chris had convinced her that old school X-Files way was what people wanted so they decided to go ahead and do season 10 with four stand-alone episodes book-ended by The Struggles. The critics panned it and CC excused himself by saying that they just didn’t have enough episodes to do a good season when, in reality, they probably could have done a really great 6-episode mini-series had he listened to Gillian and actually had the ability to tell a thorough story. 

Based on that small little exchange, I theorized that CC treats Gillian as if she is still the same 24-year old girl who is clueless about how television works when in fact, no one affiliated with the show has their finger on the pulse of pop culture and X-Files fans in particular more than Gillian Anderson. In the last couple of years she has engaged with us more via social media and comic cons than anyone else and…she listens. She pays attention. But I also think that maybe up until this year, Gillian was willing to sit back and play that role of clueless 24-year old deferring to Chris’s wisdom because…hey..don’t we all sort of revert to our old roles when we get back around people who knew us way back when we were clueless kids? It’s hard to change that dynamic. Sometimes the only way to do it is to walk away and spend more time with people who will treat you like the grown-ass woman that you are. 

Really, all I’m saying is this is probably exactly how it went down in Season 11 and once again, Gillian was right. 

 

Sources: https://stupideffinbee.tumblr.com/post/172181678932/emceecapitalc-danaqueerscully and emceecapitalc

 

Just spitballing here, but it seems as if CC's attitude toward those who work for him, finally wore them out. They got tired.

 

But... I don't know what to say about DD as of late though:

 

Quote

 

Aside from yourself, who would you peg as the MVP X-Files writer?

Well, Chris really. Chris gets so much shit from fans it seems, but I think they forget that without Chris, there’s none of this. And Chris really set the frame of the show, and not only that, he had the strength of ego, the strength in his own abilities as a writer, producer, director, to allow other writers to kind of hijack the show occasionally. And when you think about it, there’s no show like The X-Files, where the showrunner has allowed all different types of tones. You can call them television auteurs, writer-directors come on and do their thing.

Vince Gilligan, Howard Gordon, Alex Gansa, Glen Morgan, Jim Wong, Darin Morgan, he allows all these different voices to come in and hijack his show for a week. I can’t believe that the fans don’t recognize what a great showrunner he is in that sense because all other shows that you look at have a sameness of tone from week to week. This show never has and doesn’t and that’s a testament to Chris, and to Chris alone. Not to anyone else. It’s like if a President is as good as the people he surrounds himself with. Just look at the Trump presidency. It’s the same with a showrunner.

 

Source:  https://consequenceofsound.net/2018/03/10-years-with-david-duchovny-on-loving-garry-shandling-missing-bonnie-hunt-and-fighting-for-the-future/

 

 

 

I think that says a lot there in my opinion. That DD views it as the writers hijacking CC's show. Really? Isn't supposed to be a bit of a team? And the amount of butt kissing here isn't funny either. For him to say that CC takes a lot of shit from fans may be true, but in a way, a lot of it is earned. You get what you give. Treat others the way that you want to be treated. From what I've seen, fans have not forgotten that he came up with the show. But in some ways, I think that CC forgot that without the fans, the show wouldn't have lasted. Sure he said a bit in MS III. But it still doesn't make up for the way he treated them in s10 and in s11. Let alone at times in the past.

Edited March 24, 2018 by AntiBeeSpray

[Folk]

That tells a lot. The revival was a cash grab, at least from CC/DD's view. The first mini-series was a money maker, because well, it had been awhile and people wanted to see if they still had it............

Then we have the delusion CC/DD have that Scully is just some bit character who doesn't deserve equal standing among Mulder. I bet everything GA suggested to make the revival actually worth it, was laughed away while they told her to get them some soda's.........snarkly chuckling at her.

I also wonder if this preggo reborn stuff isn't CC/DD trying to bring back the original pregnancy ark from season 8, which they both wanted to be the last season, but Fox wanted to spin it with Doggett/Reyes(which failed, so a win for CC/DD!!!!!). GA having nothing to do with it. I don't see Fox reviving it again with how CC/DD handled the revival thus far. It simply doesn't hold candle in modern day TV.

[Rushmoras]

So, wait? You mean we could have had a normal mini-series as it is common now instead of a mini-season? Well, fuck you Chris Carter.

[festivus]

They should have listened to Gillian. That's all I've got.

[domina89]

So I've been thinking about the pregnancy thing.  We had a reference in the season premiere to "En Ami."  I think that might be significant.  Looking at that episode a little more closely, CSM takes Scully to meet a woman who has a chip implanted in her, and who is supposedly very old but seems to be rather youthful and in very good health.  CSM also provided the chip that was re-implanted in Scully back in Season 5.  Putting all this together, and assuming the chip somehow alters the DNA of the person it is implanted in (in either a positive or negative way), is it not possible that Scully may be 54 years old technically, but her physical aging has slowed considerably since she had the chip implanted or her DNA has been transformed or regenerated in such a way as to allow her to still become pregnant at an advanced age?  It makes sense if this was the planned next step beyond the use of hormones to make the older women in nursing homes surrogates as we see in "Emily" and other episodes.  I doubt we will ever get any concrete answers about this, but I don't see it quite as ridiculous as I did upon first viewing.  Thoughts?

Edited March 24, 2018 by domina89

[Taryn74]

1 hour ago, domina89 said:

I doubt we will ever get any concrete answers about this, but I don't see it quite as ridiculous as I did upon first viewing.  Thoughts?

O.O

I think you're onto something.  

This entire series has been ultimately building up to CSM "playing God" in various ways, to the point that he even much pretty believes he IS a god now -- and Scully/William/new baby would be VERY MUCH in line with the story of Abraham and Sarah, Hagar (Sarah's handmaid who bore Ishmael for them), Ishmael, and Isaac from the Bible.  Ishmael (William) was the result of Sarah's taking matters into her own hands after God had promised her and Abraham would bear a child in their advanced age, but Isaac (new baby) was the son of the promise, the result of a miracle due to Sarah's age but otherwise conceived the natural way.  I was picking up on the Ishmael/Isaac vibes pretty heavily at the end of the ep but didn't tie it together with En Ami and (more importantly) the chip until your post.  

[spritz]

After all the build up about the quest to find William, it wound up being nothing more than one of the biggest letdowns ever on tv.

Scully experienced heartbreak and pain during all that time without William. And she gave that emotional speech to William's body in "Ghouli", regretting and apologizing for not being part of his life. And Scully supposedly had a psychic connection with William. But we are now to believe that Scully could just turn on a dime and didn't give a crap anymore.

It is a shame it had to end this way, if this was indeed the series finale.

[Sharna Pax]

13 hours ago, Rushmoras said:

So, wait? You mean we could have had a normal mini-series as it is common now instead of a mini-season? Well, fuck you Chris Carter.

Honestly, I'm glad we didn't. It sounds great, and it works great for shows like Slings and Arrows that have a cohesive vision, but given Chris Carter's skill set I think we would have ended up with sixteen episodes of My Struggle. At least this way I can mentally keep the standalone episodes that I like (which, in this season, is most of them) and ignore CC's stupid Struggles. 

And I don't mind Duchovny giving credit to Chris Carter, either. I took that quote of his to be a very diplomatic way of saying that Chris Carter's greatest skill is the ability to surround himself with people who are smarter and more talented than he is and give them room to do their thing. And I think that's true. The structure of The X-Files is very weird and always has been, but the great advantage of it is how flexible it is - you have all these little movies that are so different from one another, and the whole thing is so very Choose Your Own Adventure that you can pretty much ignore any episodes you want to ignore. I'm choosing to think of everything written by Chris Carter since 2001 as bad fanfic rather than as canon, and the beauty of The X-Files is that it's okay to do that.

A few things I forgot to mention earlier:

The real reason I will never actually watch this episode or think of it as canon: Mulder murdering people. Look, Mulder and Scully have both killed people in self-defense or in defense of others, but Mulder has never straight-up executed anyone before. There have been plenty of times when he's tempted, but he doesn't do it, because he's not a murderer. Not only is it incredibly lazy to solve your massive 25-year conspiracy by having the protagonist shoot everyone in the head, it's also something you can't do without at least acknowledging that you're doing it. It's not that I'm against ending a series by having the hero turn vigilante and commit murder. My favorite show ends that way, and it works beautifully. But you have to show the character making the decision, and you have to follow it up. For Mulder to just gun people down, without moral qualms, without conflict, and without consequences, is so completely out of character that I could never think of this episode as real.

3 hours ago, domina89 said:

is it not possible that Scully may be 54 years old technically, but her physical aging has slowed considerably since she had the chip implanted or her DNA has been transformed or regenerated in such a way as to allow her to still become pregnant at an advanced age? 

I suppose it's possible, but why now? If Scully can get pregnant, why didn't she get pregnant sometime between 2002 and whenever she and Mulder broke up? It's not like they had any reason to be using birth control. I suppose the CSM could have manipulated the chip with Science, but I think the simpler explanation is that Chris Carter thinks like a kid who's only just learned about the facts of life. He seems to be under the impression that people only have sex when they want babies, and that if you have sex you always get pregnant. I honestly think he believes that Mulder and Scully have only slept together twice. I would really like someone - Glen Morgan, maybe - to sit him down and explain to him exactly how much unprotected sex Mulder and Scully have had over the course of the past eighteen years.

[AntiBeeSpray]

18 hours ago, Folk said:

That tells a lot. The revival was a cash grab, at least from CC/DD's view. The first mini-series was a money maker, because well, it had been awhile and people wanted to see if they still had it............

Then we have the delusion CC/DD have that Scully is just some bit character who doesn't deserve equal standing among Mulder. I bet everything GA suggested to make the revival actually worth it, was laughed away while they told her to get them some soda's.........snarkly chuckling at her.

I also wonder if this preggo reborn stuff isn't CC/DD trying to bring back the original pregnancy ark from season 8, which they both wanted to be the last season, but Fox wanted to spin it with Doggett/Reyes(which failed, so a win for CC/DD!!!!!). GA having nothing to do with it. I don't see Fox reviving it again with how CC/DD handled the revival thus far. It simply doesn't hold candle in modern day TV.

That was CC's idea. Not DD's.

http://www.xfiles.news/index.php/news/reviews/1597-is-this-the-end-xfn-talks-with-chris-carter-about-my-struggle-4

Read through this... it's something.

[TVbitch]

Jesus God. I can only hope I drank enough not to remember it. 

Edited March 25, 2018 by TVbitch

[libad]

TENTHIRTEEN

"I made this."

Then I wrecked this.

Where did the suspense building go.  Where did the creepiness go?

Edited March 25, 2018 by libad
spelling

[AntiBeeSpray]

2 hours ago, libad said:

TENTHIRTEEN

"I made this."

Then I wrecked this.

Where did the suspense building go.  Where did the creepiness go?

Exactly. It seems as if CC has gotten that much more petty. And it showed in how he destroyed the show, in my opinion.

I miss what you mentioned there. Closest we got there was in Familiar. Even though I wasn't thrilled with G and D's acting at times in it.