The X-Files season 11 episode 9 recap and review: Nothing Lasts Forever

Gory G

othic horror and the worst milkshakes in the world are on full display in “Nothing Lasts Forever,” the second to last episode of The X-Files season 11.

“Nothing Lasts Forever” beings with two surgeons working on a patient in an industrial space. This episode is dead set on making you feel queasy, and it all starts here. From the close-up incisions to the blood bucket, to the organs casually tossed in a cooler, you had better feel pretty solid before starting in. That means some of the clips included here have gore, too.

Outside, a man sits in a van, waiting. Above him, a girl observes it all from the rooftop. She prays to God and runs off, completing a series of superhero-style maneuvers until she makes it to the operating theater. She dispatches the delivery guy and one surgeon, uttering a series of Biblical verses, including, “those who love me, I will deliver.”

Then, we cut to a normal hospital, where an emergency room physician or nurse discovers the organs sitting outside in their cooler. He is about as confused and disgusted as he should be. “I will repay” is written on the lid.

When we return from commercial, we see Scully at church. Later, she and Mulder are at the makeshift surgical theater from earlier, though it’s now a crime scene.

We see the vengeful lady scrubbing blood off her hands and, later, walking down a staircase in her family home. Her mother is crying over a picture of a disfigured young woman.

Then there’s another cut, this time to a woman who looks a lot like that same picture, but without the facial deformities. She’s blending some gore in a dimly lit kitchen, after which she takes a swig and starts bringing it around to her friends. That is, her friends who are lounging around on the floor of the living room in a sweaty daze.

Back to back

Elsewhere, we see two people — a young woman and a somewhat older man — lying together in bed. They’re actually sewn together, back-to-back, so that when the man sits up, he drags the wan young woman with him.

In a bed next to them sits a made-up redhead reciting along with an old sitcom episode. In fact, it’s the same woman in the television show. She takes a swig out of a glass. It leaves a blood ‘stache on her upper lip.

The sitcom woman soon learns that her organ delivery (from the earlier surgery) isn’t complete. She flies out into the living room and rages at the people there.

“You were all broken when I found you. Crippled, malformed, and I gave you hope.” There’s even a call-and-response routine.

It’s like this character is the product of a union between a Hammer horror film and a Tennessee Williams play. She indulges in lots of menacing kissing and blue cream eyeshadow, to name two signs.

Back at the church, Juliet and a priest are having an argument. He tells her that “she” will return, but Juliet isn’t buying it. “Oh, Father, prayers aren’t enough,” she says. He — along with Scully and Mulder — watch as Juliet walks away.

At the cult hangout, the sitcom woman — Barbara Beaumont, we eventually learn — is speaking with the conjoined man. He’s Dr. Randolph Luvenis, and he’s unbelievably 85. That’s thanks to Kayla, the woman sewn to his backside.

THE X-FILES: L-R: Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny in the “Nothing Lasts Forever” episode of THE X-FILES airing Wednesday, March 14 (8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. ©2018 Fox Broadcasting Co. Cr: Shane Harvey/FOX

“I want to be beautiful like you”

Barbara’s not having much of that, however. Someone messed up her shipment, and everyone’s getting hungry. “Kayla?” she asks the attached woman. “I think you’re ready to ascend. Do you trust me? Have I ever lied to you? Tell me your dream”.

Kayla says, “I want to be beautiful like you.” “Alright my ugly duckling, prepare to be a swan,” Barbara says as she slashes the girl’s throat and then cuts her off.

That strategy doesn’t work, however. While Mulder and Scully easily track down Juliet at her home, Barbara realizes that Kayla’s body is pretty well drained of nutrients. Luvenis and Barbara argue. She wants to eat their “children,” but he says they need more “dinnie.” Yes, everyone says “dinnie” like it’s normal for adult humans to say that to one another.

Luvenis leaves to scrounge up some more organs at the hospital. Barbara is still freaking out, so one of her followers bravely offers himself. “I’ll be dinnie,” he says. “Because, if I’m in you, I will always be happy”.

She practically leaps on him, saying she’ll do something very special. She’s going to sing a song that she performed on The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour. While she sings, the young man essentially commits seppuku.

Mulder and Scully are getting closer. They’re so close, in fact, that they walk right up to Barbara’s building. The super says he’s never seen her. But if they have the right Barbara Beaumont, her last show aired in 1967.

Dumbwaiters and bad lighting

The super shrugs. He says it’s been seven years and he’s never met Beaumont. And the other tenants? He reveals a modified dumbwaiter system that moves things through the building, even to the basement. “These people never see the light of day. Every room’s got one”.

Olivia is selected to be Luvenis’ next attachment. While she’s getting sewn to him in yet another graphic surgery scene, Mulder and Scully make their way into the cult’s apartment. It’s eerily underlit. “I believe women should have a little bit of mystery,” Beaumont says by way of explanation. But then, she makes sassy comments about Scully’s looks, so major points lost there.

Too many questions make Barbara nervous, however. The cult members leap out, throw Scully down a dumbwaiter shaft and nearly do the same to Mulder. Luckily, Juliet bursts in and abruptly stakes Barbara.

Juliet happens upon the surgery room, finding evidence of her sister but no actual Olivia. Mulder walks down a staircase, looking for Scully.

He stumbles across Luvenis and Olivia, who have somehow made their way down to the basement, too. “She’s a part of me of her own volition,” Luvenis claims. “I don’t accept the premise that we have to grow old.” Juliet clubs him before we have to hear too much pontificating.

While Juliet is having a moment with her sister, Mulder discovers Scully. She landed in a mountain of trash at the bottom of the shaft and smells great.

Now it’s Juliet’s turn to monologue. She tells the agents that “I’d gladly trade a lifetime here for an eternity in heaven.” At this point, you may wonder how her religious fervor is all that different from Barbara’s. At any rate, it’s clear that Juliet goes somewhere. Later, Olivia walks down the stairs and sees her mother praying over a picture of Juliet — presumably now in prison or a mental institution.

Religion in The X-Files

We’re almost done, but not before Mulder and Scully have a conversation about religion in front of some prayer candles. Scully tells Mulder that prayers are more like a conversation than a wish: “It’s a prayer candle, Mulder. Not a birthday cake.” But why even try if he doesn’t believe in God?

“I may not believe in God, but I believe in you. Therefore, I speak to Him through you,” Mulder says as he throws down the transitive property. Even in church, he can’t help but be a smart-aleck.

They talk about his guilt over involving her in the X-Files, along with her lost opportunity for a “normal” life married to some brain surgeon.

She whispers in his ear and it’s all very atmospheric, being lit by candles and all. We don’t hear that part, but at least her words immediately after are audible: “That’s my leap of faith forward. And I’d like to do it together.”

“I’ve always wondered how this was gonna end,” he tells her, then lights another candle. For good luck, maybe, or another open-ended conversation.

Tennessee Williams from another dimension

I’ll be honest: I thought I was going to hate this episode. That probably has a lot to do with my initial guess that vampires were involved. They’re pretty played out anymore, at least in pop culture. It’s strange, but I was relieved to see that it was actually a cult episode. Even better, it was a Gothic gross-out, like The Glass Menagerie in Hell.

Barbara Beaumont really does seem like she came out of some high-octane, mondo horror film. And she’s got all the trappings of a mad, Gothic villain — the obsession with youth and beauty, the rotting home, the propensity to sit up in bed and consume either bonbons or water glasses full of blended organs. For all that I was grossed out by “Nothing Lasts Forever,” I loved the unhinged scenes with her.

Next: The X-Files season 11: Witches and kids’ shows make strange companions

Even Mulder and Scully’s philosophical conversation was satisfying. Scully’s faith has been an occasional subject over the years, but rarely so. Perhaps it was only lightly skimmed over (we had a lot of gross stuff to get to, you know), but what was there generally worked. And what were they talking about at the end, anyway? We’ll have to wait until next week to find out.