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Television Media

The Truth Revealed 494

Posted by michael from the black-helicopter dept.
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.
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The Truth Revealed More

The Truth Revealed

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  • The ending, in a headline (Score:5, Funny)

    by bskin ( 35954 ) <`moc.liamg' `ta' `bmotneb'> on Sunday May 19, 2002 @10:02PM (#3547714)
    Local FBI Agent Discovers Religion; Gets Laid

  • Wow Right on Time (Score:4, Funny)

    by shaunj ( 72350 ) on Sunday May 19, 2002 @10:03PM (#3547718) Journal
    I don't know what is more amazing.

    -Slashdot had an article about the end of the X-Files at EXACTLY 10:00PM

    or

    -I checked Slashdot for an article on the X-Files at EXACTLY 10:00PM :-)

  • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 )
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • Thanks to CIHF, a Global affiliate in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, I saw the finale 3 hours before most people did... :-)
      Amateur. ;-) With a commercial MPEG2 decoder and a C-Band dish, you could've seen the network feed yesterday morning...

      Cheers,

    • I'm from Halifax, too. It was also shown on the cable-equivilent Global station (what used to be MITV; channel 6) 3hrs early.
  • To be honest, I really liked the ending. It summed it up well for those of us who missed various large chunks. And make sure you set some time aside on December 22, 2012 to see the fireworks.
    • I very much didn't like the ending. The rest of the episode was good but the ending ranked high on The Cheese Factor (TM), and it didn't answer anything. The rest of the episode summed up things well, but it definitely didn't sum up the ending. I think they left things open ended in large part due to the movies that will come out. I bet there will be some kind of final movie with Mulder and Scully against the alien invasion. My expectations aren't too high for that though. The X-Files was a great series, but a lot of it feasted on leaving things open to the imagination. Once they answer everything, it just becomes something like the movie Independence Day.
    • I actually researched this conspircy theory long before the Xfiles knew about it. Its been around for THOUSANDS of years and it traces back to the mayan calender.

      Which claims, 2012 in MAYAN years but our calender it is 2003 June.

      We use the gregorian calender.

      A guy by the name of Zecharia Sitchen

      This theory for the first time was backed up by evidence, in 1982 when planet X was discovered.

      IF any of this WAS true, our government would never tell us anyhow.

      So for now its still a rumor, myth, etc, wait until June 2003 (December 2012 on Mayan Calender)
      • I think the reference to 12/22/2012 is meant to be on the Gregorian calendar.

        As you responded later on, you seem to be a bit familiar with the Timewave Zero concept conjectured by Terrance McKenna. His timewave reaches zero right around that date(gregorian time). The date does not equate to Mayan 2012, but rather the end and restart of the Mayan calendar (kind of like when your cars odometer resets to all zero's).

        Supposedly something extremely 'novel' will happen on this date, possibly the convergence of everything in the universe into an Omega Point (much like a reverse Big Bang).

        I don't dispute that 2012 in Mayan = 2003 June on our calendar...just that I think they were making reference to the end of the Mayan calendar. Aliens taking over the planet and genociding the human race could be considered quite a 'novel' event in our history.

        - A non-productive mind is with absolutely zero balance. -AC

  • ex-files? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 19, 2002 @10:05PM (#3547739)
    I always said "10-files". Damn you Steve Jobs and your MacOSX.

  • Mark Your Calendars (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Servo5678 ( 468237 ) on Sunday May 19, 2002 @10:07PM (#3547754)
    Spoilers ahead yadda yadda yadda...

    So, anyone got plans for December 22, 2012?

    Well, in all seriousness, now that it's all over - who's truth was out there? Did we learn anything new at all? Granted, I liked the extensive recap they gave us in the first hour. It refreshed my memory and got me caught up on a few things that I missed. The in the second hour we got a big chase and in the end nothing happened. What happened to Doggett and Reyes? Skinner? The rest of our players?

    I guess what I'm getting at is: WHAT WAS THE POINT?!?

    • Re:Mark Your Calendars (Score:4, Informative)

      by eyeball ( 17206 ) on Sunday May 19, 2002 @11:18PM (#3548053) Journal
      At the risk of sounding like someone who actually believes in this stuff, Dec 21 2012 is the end of the Mayan Great Cycle on their calendar. Read about it here [saxakali.com] or do a google [google.com] search.

      • Yeah - not only is it the end, but a bloody one at that.

        All of our tools [computers to chainsaws] and domesticated animals [from cows to cats] will attack us for the great wrongs we caused...

        ...no mention if we can reverse it, I'm almost certain the date is set in stone (literally and yes; we can't change it)

        Supposedly this has already happened and is noted on the Mayan calenders. But there is a reason that date has been selected, I guess [sfmoma.org].
      • June 2003 not december 2012.

        Unless you use the mayan calender instead of the gregorian and in that case the year is 2011

    • Dear Mr. Tolkien (Score:5, Insightful)

      by DiveX ( 322721 ) <slashdotnewcontact@oasisofficepark.com> on Sunday May 19, 2002 @11:37PM (#3548115) Homepage
      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.
    • You know, I bet you were one of the people to bug their coworkers on August 29, 1997 and excitedly ask them if they were all prepared for the Terminator/SkyNet apocalypse. I can't give you those long ago squandered minutes of your life back.

      Here's the scoop. The guys at Fox aren't dummies. They know what a salivating fan base the X-Files carries. The way to cash in here is to:

      a) Take the next few months off and start (or continue) development on an end-all, be-all second X-Files movie, which will no doubt include more scenes of Scully and Mulder necking around spaceships. This will neatly tie up some of the loose ends left open by the series finale and give everyone warm, fuzzy feelings deep in their cockles.

      b) Q3, 2011. Fox introduces a new series based on the X-Files' impending fictional doomsday featuring sexy, wise-cacking teens outwitting grodey, bug-eyed alien conspirators. But it'll have a story arc, so the geeks are forced to watch it all.

      Just my vision of the future.
    • >So, anyone got plans for December 22, 2012?

      I plan on running around town looking for Christmas presents.

  • Hope? (Score:3, Funny)

    by mcknation ( 217793 ) <nocarrier AT gmail DOT com> on Sunday May 19, 2002 @10:08PM (#3547761) Homepage


    That's what I'm left with? Hope? WTF?
    Yeah, hope that Chris Carter gets abducted himself.....and soon.

    McK

  • what an amazing ending! (Score:5, Funny)

    by jdbo ( 35629 ) on Sunday May 19, 2002 @10:10PM (#3547777)
    ...that was fantastic! Yoda totally kicked ass!

    oh, wait...

  • timeline (Score:3, Informative)

    by Frizzled ( 123910 ) on Sunday May 19, 2002 @10:11PM (#3547792) Homepage
    the actual timeline is under the conspiracy link, it has all the episodes and ties the movie in as well:

    http://www.themareks.com/xf/conspiracy.shtml [themareks.com]

    _f

  • The series finale was pretty good. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Navius Eurisko ( 322438 ) on Sunday May 19, 2002 @10:12PM (#3547794)
    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.

    • Re:The series finale was pretty good. (Score:4, Insightful)

      by jayed_99 ( 267003 ) on Monday May 20, 2002 @12:56AM (#3548314)
      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).

  • good episode, bad ending (Score:5, Insightful)

    by MathJMendl ( 144298 ) on Sunday May 19, 2002 @10:12PM (#3547801) Homepage
    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.

    • Re:good episode, bad ending (Score:5, Insightful)

      by _xeno_ ( 155264 ) on Sunday May 19, 2002 @10:24PM (#3547875) Homepage Journal
      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).

      • 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).

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 )
      Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Smoking man (Score:5, Informative)

      by Chazmati ( 214538 ) on Sunday May 19, 2002 @10:37PM (#3547917)
      I mostly agree, and especially about smoking man returing. Was I supposed to feel some long overdue sense of closure to see him die in a super inferno slow-motion death scene? I had already written him off.

      Besides, he was looking cooler than ever, Anasazi-style.

  • 2012 (Score:5, Funny)

    by rbolkey ( 74093 ) on Sunday May 19, 2002 @10:39PM (#3547923)
    CMOS technology stops improving. Alien invasions. I think it's beginning to look like a really good year to skip out on.
  • all that main characters are alive...the conspericy lives on....the good guys are still fighting to win.....that equates to at least 2 movies

    I can't wait
  • First of all, i-95 doesn't go to texas. It probably wouldn't have hurt the producers, writers, and anybody else involved, to pick up a map and take a quick look.

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

    Seriously, I'm not very impressed by this finale. It was poorly written, and the trial scene was simply a cheap way out for the writers to explain "the big picture" without putting much effort into it.

    Guess there are plenty of holes left for the next movie.
    • First of all, i-95 doesn't go to texas. It probably wouldn't have hurt the producers, writers, and anybody else involved, to pick up a map and take a quick look.
      Dude, you take 95 south to 40 west. Either 95 or 81 (avoid the cities), but who would think of that?
      (Actually, Mapquest says something about going west out of DC on 70. Who knew?)

    • Re:i-95 (Score:2, Insightful)

      by ocelotbob ( 173602 )
      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:i-95 (Score:2, Informative)

        by Sammy76 ( 45826 )
        Actually, at the beginning of the episode when he was talking to Krychek (sp?), I thought I knew how CC was going to end/explain the series. Perhaps it was all going to be in Mulder's head, a huge schizophrenic nightmare (much like A Beautiful Mind).

        But it couldn't have been manifestations of his doubts, because they provided new, unknown information (a witness's address, for instance). So what the hell was with the communication with the dead?

  • lame (Score:4, Insightful)

    by coaxial ( 28297 ) on Sunday May 19, 2002 @10:51PM (#3547964) Homepage
    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.
    • "Unless it was the invasion occurs
      Dec 22, 2012. How is the Big Secret?"

      Ummm, yes, that is The Big Secret(tm). That the date for the invasion was real, set, and had been sety for thousands of years and that presumably nothing could be done about it.

    • Re:lame (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Groucho ( 1038 )
      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

  • The Lone Gunmen LIVE!!! (Score:4, Funny)

    by night_flyer ( 453866 ) on Sunday May 19, 2002 @10:53PM (#3547970) Homepage
    oh wait, no they arent... sorry...

  • It sucked. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by yzquxnet ( 133355 ) on Sunday May 19, 2002 @10:56PM (#3547985) Homepage
    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.

    • Re:It sucked. (Score:2, Interesting)

      by the_2nd_coming ( 444906 )
      1) why would they leave you hanging in the last show ever to be made?

      2)there was plenty unresolved for many movies to come.
    • There is a new program that I found interesting called CSI, I will have to see how that one turns out.

      My guess is, the guy dies.

      --Dan

    • I thought that the whole thing was pretty hokey.

      One of the judges was an alien, but what of it?

      near the end, Skinner was called into his boss' office. So what?

      As others have mentioned, the trial was a waste of time.

      Muldur is left to continue seeking the truth. And they didn't even kiss!

      The only place where there was any real closure was with the CSM. I guess that he's really dead this time.

      But they left lot's of room for another movie. Hmm....

      /Don

  • I stopped watching the x-files two years ago but I did watch the last episode tonight, because I was a huge fan. Apparently I didn't miss anything the last two years. Cool.
  • I spent the last few hours watching Attack of the Clones instead. I had no idea X-Files was even around anymore. X-Files was great before the movie, but the after that, it was about as entertaining as a punctured colostomy bag.
  • Didn't Grant Morrison already use that date to better effect in his _The Invisibles_ comic?

    Although, come to think of it, his narrative fell apart at crunch time as well.
  • Terrance McKenna had developed a way to map out the flow of entropy and novelty as it ebb'ed it's way though history. Under his calculations.. he says novelty hits an infinate spike in 2012. He states his research was done with no knowledge of the Mayan Calandar that ends on the same date. (which kept track for 5000 years before that.). Some suspect that there is another planet out there on a 3,500 year orbit named "Niburu" which is set to return at that same time.
    w00t! -- 2012 could be very exciting..

  • 2012 / 2112 (Score:5, Funny)

    by Violet Null ( 452694 ) on Sunday May 19, 2002 @11:31PM (#3548095)
    So, 2012 may be the end of the Mayan calendar, but the real date to remember would be 2112, since that's when the Solar Federation is going to get overrun by the returning ships of the true human race.

  • Military Tribunals (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Catbeller ( 118204 ) on Sunday May 19, 2002 @11:36PM (#3548110) Homepage
    Anyone notice Carter's demonstration of the insanity of "miltary tribunals" in which the accusers are also the judges?

    Not a coincidence that it maps closely to the current "fry 'em in the dark" policy instituted by Bush and company. Detention in secret, no contact with relatives or lawyers, disposition a secret as well -- hell, Mulder got better treatment at his "trial" than someone held under the current "emergency".

    I think Chris Carter was trying to not so subtly draw attention to our new system of "alternative" justice.
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

      • Re:Military Tribunals (Score:4, Informative)

        by Jah-Wren Ryel ( 80510 ) on Monday May 20, 2002 @12:59AM (#3548319)
        Don't forget about the couple of mentions of "shadow goverment" - I don't recalling hearing that term on the X-files prior to this episode, but I it certainly has been in the real news recently and at least one of the uses in tonights episode matched the real-world meaning too (when they referred to the facility where Mulder got busted as being the location of the current shadow government - a big underground bunker where people are serving on a rotational basis in case there is a serious attack on our government infrastructure, they should be protected).
  • The whole thing was eerily familiar, and then I realized why:

    The plot was pretty much the same as the Seinfeld series finale, right on down dragging assorted past characters into a trial that the star(s) can't possibly win.

    I guess no Kramer was a clue.
    But seriously, how much difference was their between Doggitt and the Soup Nazi?

    Oh well, at least Mulder ended up better than Jerry: He gets to get personal with Scully, whereas the best Jerry could do was Elaine.
    Unless, of course, he wanted to consider George.
    Not that there's anything wrong with that.

  • Bad news, good news (Score:4, Funny)

    by Picass0 ( 147474 ) on Monday May 20, 2002 @12:28AM (#3548252) Homepage Journal
    Bad news - The aliens take over the world on Dec 21 2012.

    Good news - If you're running linux on a 32 bit system you don't need to worry about the year 2038.
  • If anyone owns the X-Files: Key of X soundtrack, the whole dang conspiracy is explained at the end of the CD's final track (around 10:13 or so). Some of us are already ahead of the game (and time zones I guess). :)

    Here's [eeggs.com] some more info on it.

  • I found it ironic that Mulder once again shunned Canada (when he ignores the advice of Kerst to go North) -- although it's probably a bit of an inside joke by Chris Carter. The show's downturn is widely held as simultaneous to when production moved from Vancouver to Los Angeles. Talk about the thing "going south". Apropos for the final episode to follow the same pattern to it's ultimate conclusion.

  • Coincidizing with the 35th Anniversary [imdb.com]....

    Five words: Star Wars Holiday Special Rebroadcast [imdb.com]
  • Thank God.
  • EFC ended Saturday night. I wonder if there was anyone still watching the show besides me?

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