"The End"

"I was sent to bring you back."
Originally Aired 5/17/98

After I watched this episode yesterday for the first time, I sent a text to a friend that said, "In The End...'Gibson Praise reads minds, Smoking Man returns to f*ck sh*t up.' Not really as cool as it sounds." Perhaps that summary was a bit hasty since I always seem to come around after the third watch. There are some very neat sequences and a new direction that is teased for the next season.

This is the most bittersweet episode I have ever watched of The X-Files. As I have stated before, I am watching the series from start to finish over nine years as way to stretch out episodes I haven't seen before and "savor the flavor." I am nearly at the point where what's been new to me and things I have discovered for these past five years, even things I have grown to love, have met what I previously knew about the alien conspiracy. Before watching this episode in full for the first time, I did have the accidental experience of witnessing the closing moments on the SciFi Channel when I remembered reruns were on in the afternoon; sometimes I remembered, sometimes I forgot. The rest was all new to me so I have counted this among the "unseen episodes"; a number that is fastly dwindling. 26 left to be exact.

The best sequences of this episode, no doubt, are the moments when the Cigarette Smoking Man is onscreen. In an earlier episode it was shown that the Smoking Man is nursing his wounds in a cabin and I want to believe he is passing the time by writing his third Jack Colquit story. However, he doesn't get to finish it when two men parachute down outside of his cabin, in a sequence that resembles an opening to a James Bond movie. The Smoking Man is retrieved by Alex Krycek, and when he reunites with the Syndicate, its like a triumphant hero returning. He's loving every minute of the fact that he's in demand, while the Well-Manicured Man is no doubt pissed about that fact. I really wish more had come of the splintering of the Syndicate, but I guess that's just implied with Smoking Man manipulating his son now. That's also a great scene when father meets son, and it reminded me a lot of the early years with Mulder meeting X in dark parking garages.

The Smoking Man isn't the only character in this episode, though. Mulder and Scully meet a chess prodigy who is more than meets the eye, while Agent Spender returns, and another new character is introduced. I liked Agent Spender a lot in the previous arc and he's just as good here as a foil for Mulder. I have no idea what Smoking Man's endgame is for bringing his son into the fold, and though it likely won't be realized, it is a cunning move on his part. Another principal character who's introduced is Diana Fowley, a former flame of Mulder who is instantly more convincing (and less annoying) than Season One's Phoebe Green. I mentioned before that this episode teased a new direction and it's through the use of Diana Fowley. I read for years that this was a wrong move on Chris Carter's part to bring in a female who could be a possible love interest for Mulder, however I didn't get that impression at all. It seems to me like she is just a plot device to bring Mulder and Scully together in a way that the series hasn't done yet. Previously Mulder and Scully have been close because they both have grieved over loss of family and Mulder blamed himself for eveything that happened to Scully, but none of it was ever in a romantic way. Now it seems like both, or at least Scully, are actually reflecting on those feelings for one another; in fact Gibson Praise just seems like a means to that end, too.

While Agent Spender, Gibson Praise, and Diana Fowley are new characters that are positives to this episode, it appears that longtime guest player Alex Krycek is getting lost in the shuffle. He's always been fun to watch but its more apparent than ever that there is no meat to the character, no motivation for anything. At least Spender was clearly defined as dismissing anything alien because of his mother, yet Krycek changes sides each season as he went from Syndicate henchman, to rogue operative, and finally a chauffeur for the Well-Manicured Man.

I would also kick myself later if I didn't mention Martin Ferrero as the assassin. He's likely more famous as "the blood-sucking lawyer" from Jurassic Park and I will always remember laughing hysterically the first time I watched him get chomped off the toliet by the T-Rex. Martin Ferrero is less famous to some as Izzy Moreno on Miami Vice; man, I need to get back to that show in my downtime before I start the sixth season of The X-Files. I digress. The FOX cartoon clips throughout this episode are a fun time capsule, especially since I didn't even know a Silver Surfer cartoon existed.

The bitter part of all of this is that I have finally reached the end of the Vancouver era and out of four seasons remaining, I have only the amount of a full season left of new episodes to go. This is even the last season finale that I haven't seen before, since I've seen 6, 7, and 8, and caught parts of the series finale during reruns (and dvd menu screen spoilers.) Yet, I enjoyed "The End" more than the past two season finales. The sweet part is that when I was becoming a fan back in 2007, I only wanted monsters and creeps and dismissed the sixth season as light, corny, and The X-Files gone soft. Six years later, I'm actually ready to embrace a lighter X-Files. Bring on Season Six! But not too soon, since I'm not ready for this ride to end.

With another season wrapped up, here are my "Fave Five" of the year.

1. The Post-Modern Prometheus
2. The Pine Bluff Variant
3. Patient X/The Red and The Black
4. Folie A Deux
5. Bad Blood

Honorable Mention: Unusual Suspects