The X-Files season 11 episode 10 recap and review: My Struggle IV

We meet up with William again in The X-Files season 11 finale. Will we get any answers about Mulder, Scully and their struggle to find the truth?

Well, we had a pretty good run. Season 11 of The X-Files turned out to be quite a bit better than season 10, which itself was a big, lumpy bag of clunkers. But they can’t all be good. That’s just the nature of television, especially with a long-running series that has a lot of narrative demands on its “mytharc” episodes.

Not to give it all away, but I’m essentially saying that you could stop with last week’s “Nothing Lasts Forever” and walk away with some pretty good feelings about this season. Proceed forward if you will, but get ready to temper your expectations.

“My Struggle IV” opens with a recap of the alien virus and William-related drama. That’s not exactly a great sign, especially when the narration goes on for an agonizing amount of time.

“My name is Jackson Van de Kamp. That’s what my parents called me when they adopted me 17 years ago,” says William. In flashbacks, we see William causing a bully to bleed from his nose and ears while other kids look on in dawning horror. We also see him sent away to “a school for bad kids,” where he manipulates a series of counselors. Eventually, the government tracks him down and causes his current troubles.

Then, we are rushed through an abrupt, disorientating cut to Mulder and the Cigarette Smoking Man. They are having a dramatic conversation about sons and fathers on a waterfront somewhere. The CSM aims a gun at Mulder. The screen cuts to black and we hear a gunshot. But does the CSM really shoot Mulder?

We’ll have to wait to see, as we return from commercial to see Mulder casing a hotel in search of William. So, either the CSM didn’t shoot him or it was a scene taken entirely out of the timeline.

Poor Walter Skinner

Then, it’s another quick jump, this time to Skinner getting chewed out by his boss, Deputy Director Alvin Kersh. He’s mad about Mulder being quoted on the Tad O’Malley conspiracy show (at least actor Joel McHale is easier to deal with than a bloviating, real-life Alex Jones).

“I’m closing the X-Files,” Kersh says. Oh no, that’s never happened before.

“What if it’s not just fake news?” asks Skinner, wondering if Mulder’s concerns about alien viruses are something to take seriously. Kersh isn’t having it, though, so Skinner stomps out. He only makes it to the hallway before he gets a call from the CSM, who tells Skinner to just find “the boy.”

Mulder and Scully get a call from former FBI Agent Monica Reyes, now in league with the CSM. She tells them that William is coming in on a plane, but Scully uses her magical mom mind powers and says that William isn’t there. She and Mulder argue. “Just come back alive,” she finally tells him.

Cut Mulder watching an airfield. William is nowhere to be seen. However, Mr. Y saunters off and into a hangar. Mulder is caught by the guards, who he quickly outwits before making his way to Y’s office. Mr. Y tells Mulder that “your son has what everyone wants.” Then, a guard appears and Mulder turns to shoot him. Y grabs a gun and gets a faceful of a bullet, courtesy of Mulder. So much for clarity from him, then.

What follows is a lot of driving and chasing, with Mulder and Scully constantly crossing paths with the fleeing William. A creepy man, later shown to be in league with conspiracist Erika Price, follows them for a while but meets a very bloody end when he gives William a ride. The gore isn’t quite as prevalent as it was last week in “Nothing Lasts Forever,” but it’s still plenty brutal.

Scully spills the beans

At one point, Scully reveals that she’s been the one calling Tad O’Malley this whole time. She picks up the phone while in the middle of her search for William. “You’re looking for a conspiracy, Mr. O’Malley? Here it is,” she tells him.

She informs him about the alien virus, though it’s not clear to what end. Will O’Malley’s viewers somehow prevent their deaths at the hands of a virus engineered to devastate humanity? Or does Scully just relish the idea of sowing fear and panic?

There follows more interminable chasing, which leads to an anticlimactic meeting between Mulder and William in a dingy hotel. “My name is Mulder. I’m your father,” he intones with all of the joy of a man who has found the source of that smell in his attic. Mulder hugs William, but it’s all strangely flat.

Like son, like mother — William can’t help but argue with Mulder. It’s no use helping him. “I’ve seen the future, all right?” William says. He understands about the virus, more or less, and that he’s at the center of it all. Before they can really dig in, though, Price and her goons arrive outside.

They try to apprehend William, but he quickly explodes all of them. Even Price meets this fate. She looks briefly surprised before her head is turned inside out, Dr. Manhattan style.

Mulder’s left stunned on the floor, covered in gore but unharmed. He’s not fast enough to catch William as the boy dashes out the door. Soon enough, however, Mulder tracks him down to a defunct sugar factory.

While he’s on his way, Scully and Skinner are conveniently driving in the opposite direction. Skinner is grumpy about his interaction with Kersh but still wants to help. Skinner’s way of “helping” includes telling Scully about William’s parentage. Scully looks concerned, but that’s about it for the emotional fireworks. They see Mulder and turn around to follow him.

The family that constantly runs together

There is even more running as Scully and Mulder dash through the dimly lit factory in search of William. At one point, William poses as Mulder so he can deliver dramatic dialogue to his biological mother. “I’m asking you to let him go. There’s nothing we can do,” he says as Mulder. “He knows that you love him.”

Meanwhile, Skinner finds Reyes and CSM in a waiting car. He takes out a gun and fires. Reyes tries to reverse and escape, but the CSM pushes the car into drive and accelerates forward. Skinner dives beneath another car. We see his legs sticking out from beneath the bumpers, but it’s not obvious that he’s dead.

The CSM casually picks up Skinner’s gun and goes to find William and the rest of his cardio-happy family. Reyes presumably stands there and checks her email while she waits.

Now we’re on the same waterfront from earlier. The CSM and Mulder meet and argue some more. Is there something about Mulder that makes people dig in their heels and disagree with everything he says?

“You’d shoot your own firstborn son?” asks Mulder. The CSM recalls trying that with his other son and not suffering much in the way of emotional discomfort. Then, without warning, he shoots Mulder in the forehead. Mulder falls backward into the water. Except Mulder appears at the other end of the walkway and promptly dispatches the CSM.

More than impossible

Scully runs up just in time to see two bodies floating away in the water. “He’s gone,” says Mulder, being very vague. We don’t see William’s face or hear that he’s dead.

Scully’s reaction is oddly subdued, given all of the strivings for her lost son. “William was an experiment, Mulder. He was an idea, born in a laboratory,” Scully says. “I carried him. I bore him. But I was never a mother to him.”

“What am I now if I’m not a father?” wails Mulder.

“You are a father,” Scully says. She brings Mulder’s hand to her belly.

“That’s impossible.”

“I know. It’s more than impossible.”

This is where I am forced to insert myself into the narrative. At this point, I lay down on the couch and started yelling and groaning at the television.

Sudden left turns and loose ends

What happened to the real Mulder and Scully, the strong, smart FBI agents who fought to meet William and bring justice to the world? Who are these strangers, with their muted emotions as two nearby corpses are practically right beneath them? Why are we suddenly transported to a lame soap opera with a sudden miracle pregnancy?

The entire season ends on these two embracing on a dock, a new, unwanted storyline before them and with a whole mess of loose ends to work through. What happened to Skinner? What’s going to happen to William? Predictably, he emerges from the water unharmed, but unseen. And what will become of this alien virus, with all of the main conspiracists dead? We have to assume that Tad O’Malley is frothing at the mouth over the specter of worldwide devastation. Are we really just going to leave that hanging in the air?

Next: The X-Files season 11: Grey Gardens with a taste for gore

It’s supremely disappointing. And with Gillian Anderson stepping away from the series, we may never get even a hint of a satisfying answer to these questions. Between the lame story, the clunky character beats and the completely unnecessary reveal of Scully’s pregnancy, it’s a colossally dumb way to end the season.

Feh. Just go back and watch “The Lost Art of Forehead Sweat” or something from season 3 to get the bad taste out of your mouth. If nothing else, can we all agree to pretend that season 11 ended an episode ago? For a story that promised to answer questions, “My Struggle IV” was more infuriating than satisfying.