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The genesis of life, specifically human, on the planet Earth as told by the X-Files. The ideas and story elements blended together from earlier episodes and in this season finale were absolutely mind-blowing. As Season 7 looms so far in the distance, more questions as usual were raised than answered. Oh, how I will miss this show when it finally ends...
Compared to Season 5's finale, this episode seemed rather slow in many places. In fact, the pacing was forcibly slow as though Carter and Spotnitz were trying to spread it out. But they brought enough story elements that perpetuated many recent mytharc episodes from Skinner's involuntary spying for Krycek to Diana Fowley's ever-present annoyance. Also, it was like homecoming week with the return of Albert Hosteen from "Anasazi"/"Blessing Way"/"Paper Clip" trilogy and Chuck from "The Calusari" and "Leonard Betts." The melding of all these ideas and characters were fairly logical and introduced quite well into the main story. But the questions kept coming.
First and foremost, who is Dr.Barnes, and why does he need the artifact? What is the secret behind the writing? What is Krycek doing? For that matter, what are Diana and Smoking Man planning? What in the world is happening to Mulder? Why does Scully seem more skeptical and close-minded than ever? How will this all end?
Did I miss any? It took me two viewings to fully understand where Carter and Spotnitz were even going, but it all goes back to "The Beginning" and Scully's discovery of genes with extraterrestrial origins in Gibson Praise and, in essence, every human being. Ironic that Scully refuses to believe the E.T. angle in this episode after she already confirmed it with Gibson. But the basic question of the episode: Where did we come from? or more like How did humans originate?
Of course, that is a huge canvas to have to paint, so we need to follow the investigation of Mulder and Scully to try to make sense of it. The murder of Dr. Merkmallen while visiting Dr. Sandoz, a foremost expert in life originating from Mars, prompts our duo to become involved with Skinner's blessing. The most irritating thing about that section of the episode was how Scully instantly puts up her blinders as soon as aliens are mentioned. She conveniently forgets her own scientific evidence of Gibson Praise, who was noticably missing.
Then, Mulder started feeling as though someone was pounding a sledgehammer on his head. It's interesting to note that Scully was very concerned about him. She showed a very worrisome "wifely" anxiety towards Mulder's health and did not remotely refute his claims that Skinner was lying or that the etching of the alien artifact was what caused his "headaches." She may not believe everything that they see, but her unflinching trust in Mulder is still intact.
Yet, Mulder is in obvious distress over these newfound psychic "powers" that he has displayed. Does it have something to do with the "God Module" that Scully mentioned in "The End?" Can Mulder be turning into an adult Gibson Praise? Did the original Consortium become aware of Mulder's latent abilities so as not to have killed him all these years? Whoa! I guess there *were* more questions.
The return of Krycek was a long time coming. We already knew that he was blackmailing Skinner, but we didn't know why. Krycek's obvious interest in this particular alien artifact is undoubtedly how Mulder and Scully were called into the case. He doesn't appear to be hanging out with Smoking Man on this one, and his motives are yet to be determined.
As for Smoking Man, his brief little cameo glimpsed what appears to be another Consortium group. Maybe a "Plan B" is in operation, and CSM is the only one left from the old guard to remotely have any idea what's next.
Then, there's Diana Fowley. What exactly was her reason for returning on this one? It's already established of her connection with CSM. A part of her is obviously loyal to him, but there is also a concern for Mulder, which has yet to be fully fleshed out. And after what happened in "One Son," why does Mulder believe that he can even *trust* her? Diana definitely seems to have a knack for ensuring that Scully is very aware of her "attachment" to Mulder, and her little innocent act is so sickingly fake. I have a feeling Scully will be opening up one big "can of whoopass" on Diana next season.
The last 10 minutes was absolute sensory overload! The anguish that Scully displayed upon seeing Mulder in a psychotic mess was heartwrenching. Though his behavior was definitely off the deep end, she firmly believed that he would never cause her harm. She also finally opened her eyes to Skinner's betrayal. But the need to follow the case through was stronger than her concern for Mulder. At least, that was what was shown. It seemed that there was some scene edited out in this part as if there was not enough time to show another Mulder/Scully moment.
Of course, the clincher was the very last scene (above) with the alien spacecraft. Scully sees it, but I don't believe for one minute that she will all of a sudden embrace aliens next season. The little skeptic in her would rather say that it came from the Titanic or something before that would happen. But the sheer scope of this very tangible evidence right in front of her eyes was totally mind-blowing. Carter and Spotnitz have definitely filled up their plates with the explanation of life on Earth *and* convincing Scully that there really are aliens *and* this little psychic connection Mulder has made. Did I mention that Season 7 seems SO far away?
Overall, a very good episode that could have been paced better, but definitely has stayed true to compelling finales in the last four years. The only big complaint I had was how Mulder and Scully had very little screen time together, and their patented interaction was few and far between. But I'm still going to watch it another 5 times before next season. :)
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