The Truth Revealed

usermilk writes "Now that the X-Files has finally ended, I recommend you all check out The X-Files Timeline. It has a list of all the episodes, chronologically, and what happened when. A very good utility in figuring out what the heck happened, and when." If it hasn't shown in your timezone yet, obviously, don't click through.

The series finale was pretty good.

[Navius Eurisko]

Considering how stale the last two season had become, I was worried that the finale would have been half assed just to finish off what was once one of the greatest dramas airing of TV.

The first hour of the finale IMO was the weakest part. I was worried when Skinner was pulling past characters as witnesses for Mulder's trial that Carter did a lame character reunion finale. Thankfully, the show picked up in the latter half.

I did have some problems with the finale, however:

1. The reason behind Kurst's sudden aid was never explained. His sudden character reversal was unsettling to me.

2. I think they overdid the Smoking Man's demise. Sure, Carter probably had that shot of his face peeling away to the skull to appease all the fanboys who would claim he escaped death again. But the fanboys would say that anyway if Mulder shot him several times in the face then relieved himself on his dead body.

The ending seem to fit the feel of the show. The protagionists now know the truth, but a little bit more of the picture remains out there. I can definately see a movie revolving around the alien invasion comming from this finale.

good episode, bad ending

[MathJMendl]

I guess I might be against the river flow on this one, but I thought that that was a very good episode. I mean, it had the classic X-Files struggle between the conspirators and the truth, along with the normal dosage of action and science fiction. The only major weaknesses I found were that the deputy director (the guy Skinner reports to) switched, since I would deem that highly unlikely after all he went through, the smoking man returning (he was a good character but I think if anything his coming back raised more questions than answers). Also, the end scene with Mulder and Scully was cheesy, and a couple of explanations were not very good.

It was still a good episode though. As a series finale it could have improved, but since they have already stated that a movie is coming out, this definitely is NOT the last chapter.

SPOILERS Re:Just finished watching

[Anonymous Coward]

What did it really sum up though? After watching it I'm just as confused as when the episode started. Is the lame ending leaving open more movies with Scully and Mulder or was it just supposed to be an ominous doomsday ending saying that there's no point in even trying to go on? The way CSM described 12-22-2012 it would be the end of human civilization. Can it be changed? Is Mulder going to try or is he content that he failed to convince people because the deck was stacked against him?

Re:Please remember - no spoilers 'till it's played

[MathJMendl]

Lol, after last time, do you really think anyone on the West coast is going to be checking Slashdot until after the ending? I mean, it was rather obvious that Slashdot was going to write an article about this. They have learned their lesson about this by now though. The only thing that surprised me was that article about The Lone Gunmen being possibly alive, based on a picture of them in the movie. Given the number of flashbacks in these episodes I doubted that they would be alive to begin with. Plus, how would they have survived that? It was very clear how they died, as opposed to other characters who died in more mysterious fashions, thus leaving it possible to bring them back.

Re:like the comic book guy said...

[MathJMendl]

I agree that it was the worst X-Files finale ever. Of course, it was the only X-Files finale, so it couldn't be the best. And it definitely wasn't the worst episode ever, given all those cheesy ones a couple years ago with zombies and genetic weirdos. Still, it wasn't really a finale, given that they will bring the show back in the theatres. Plus, given all that has happened with the X-Files, what good way was there to finish it? The only comparable thing I can imagine was that time they had all the cars and people meeting together when they were attempting to get away from the aliens, and the aliens killed them. That episode could have been the finale if something different happened. Also, that episode where Mulder found someone who knew his father was quite good.

Re:good episode, bad ending

[_xeno_]

The only major weaknesses I found were that the deputy director (the guy Skinner reports to) switched.

I'm not sure he really switched - I think that the conspirators wanted Mulder to be killed while trying to escape from jail and not via a military trial, as that would be a much cleaner way to kill him when people go looking for him. ("Oh sure, the trial may have been unfair, but Mulder tried to run and was killed while escaping, so it really doesn't matter - stop looking into it.") After all, "they" knew where Mulder was anyway and it's not so much of a stretch to imagine that he would have been placed to try and get Mulder killed.

The other option is that he wanted Mulder out of the way, but not killed, and got cold feet after Mulder was sentenced to lethal injection.

But I dunno, I wasn't really paying too much attention to the episode, and may have missed some things (and may be completely off the wall since I never really watched the X-Files anyway).

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[account_deleted]

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lame

[coaxial]

The episode sucked. There was no truth. It was just a clip show. Fine the black oil is an alien virus that causes aliens to grow inside you and then bust out. But WAIT! That was only for a few episodes, then we go back to the black oil just taking over your body.

The black oil came to earth on a meteorite. Fine, but how does that explain Roswell? The aliens crashed because of the magnetite? So the grays are the same as the super soldiers? That doesn't make sense. So we'll just ignore that...

So everyone in the galaxy except for humans and the renegades are infected with the black oil? Assuming that's true, how could selfdisfigurement keep the renegades from being infected, when they're made of the same green foam as the same as the alien bounty hunters?

And so what was The Big Truth? The Cigarette
Smoking Man teased us with revealing it, but
never did. Unless it was the invasion occurs
Dec 22, 2012. How is the Big Secret?

Last week's was far better.

It sucked.

[yzquxnet]

Sure, it was better than the last half dozen. It still wasn't the X-files I remember. They didn't even leave you hanging. The writers should have kept smoking whatever it was when the series started, cause it was working. Oh well, time to see what else is on. There is a new program that I found interesting called CSI, I will have to see how that one turns out.

Dear Mr. Tolkien

[DiveX]

Apologies to JMS.

Dear Mr. Tolkien:
I just wanted to say that I think the way you ended THE LORD OF THE RINGS was crap. You didn't provide any closure. Instead of spending time with the hobbits clearing out the shire (come on, urban renwal in LoTR? give me a break) and lots of goodbyes, you SHOULD have shown me what happened to Tom Bombadil, he was an important part of the story, and you just left his story thread there unresolved.

You made a big deal out of the elves going to the west, but we never SAW it! We never found out what was there, or what Bilbo found when he got there, or what happened to the dwarves, or what happened to Merry and Pippin....

You betrayed your audience by not resolving every single plot thread you introduced in your book, and as a result, it is never going to be of value to anyone, ever, and will never go past its first printing.

Re:The series finale was pretty good.

[jayed_99]

A lot of things in the last two seasons have been reversals. Mulder -- male who believes; Scully -- female who does not beleive. Dogget -- male who does not believe; Reyes -- female who does believe. Skinner -- boss who helps them out most of the time while being obstructive once in a while; Kerst -- boss who is obstuctive most of the time but helps them out once in a while. (This even goes back to the beginning two seasons ago -- Scully (the female) is the proponent of the X-files, Dogget (the male) is the doubting one...just a bit of a reversal from the first year).

This finale is just all of the different characters focusing on one point. The male and female characters (Mulder/Dogget - Scully/Reyes) and the bosses (Skinner/Kerst) all coming together at the same point -- breaking Mulder out of prison.

There is no "explanation" for it. It's just an directorial attempt to bring all of the opposites from pre-Duchovny/post-Duchovny onto the same track so they can make some movies that start with all of the main characters on the same track.

(And, actually, I'm not an X-files fanboy. My wife is obsessed though, so I've had them shoved down my throat for years).

Re:lame

[Groucho]

Here's the thing, see: the old episodes worked because they made no sense except for a kind of dream logic. Trying to figure out what was going on with the greys and the clones and the black oil and the government plots would drive you dizzy. It was also more subtle--rather than hit you over the head with the words "alien" and "extraterrestrial" in every sentence, you'd wait through a whole episode just to hear the word hybrid or colonization.

Then the writing became horribly literal and hamfistedly explicit, but there was no way to make daylight sense out of the dream logic, and the whole thing turned into a big pile of ca-ca.

For me, the best X files episodes were the ones that made the least sense and reveled in it, like Clive Bruckman, Jose Chung, and Hollywood AD (the nutty nutty nutty one with the Lazarus bowl and Gary Shandling and the dancing undead).

G

Re:i-95

[ocelotbob]

Besides that slight innacuracy,can anybody explain how Mulder is suddenly able to communcate with dead people now?

He wasn't really communicating with them, IMO. It was more like they were a physical manifestation of his doubts etc, telling him that the path he was on was no good. So basically, the Lone Gunmen were all in his head.

Re:The ending, in a headline

[Anonymous Coward]

You doofus. It's a plot device used to explain things the audience would know if they stopped watching TV 24/7.

Re:good episode, bad ending

[WEFUNK]

I'm not sure he really switched - I think that the conspirators wanted Mulder to be killed while trying to escape from jail and not via a military trial, as that would be a much cleaner way to kill him when people go looking for him. ("Oh sure, the trial may have been unfair, but Mulder tried to run and was killed while escaping, so it really doesn't matter - stop looking into it.") After all, "they" knew where Mulder was anyway and it's not so much of a stretch to imagine that he would have been placed to try and get Mulder killed.

At first I thought this too, but I would have thought that Gibson - the boy who can read minds, would have read the Deputy Director's mind we he said "head north etc.". If he was lying or had a bad motivation for his advice, he would have been found out right then (actually I assumed they would'nt take his advice to head to Canada and when they actually turned south I thought for a moment that maybe Gibson had said or signalled something to Mulder - but that wasn't the case).