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The Internet Monk
"Read.Think.React.Write.Live."
A Webjournal edited by Michael Spencer
It Ended In Roswell
The X-Files' Classy Exit
by Michael Spencer
X-Files
creator Chris Carter always showed remarkable respect for both his
characters and those of us who loved his strange, wonderful creation, and
never more so than in the excellent final episode that aired last night
on Fox. It quietly ended in Rowell- where else could it end?- with
Mulder and Scully falling asleep in each other's arms as the world fell
into further darkness.
I stumbled across the X-Files in season two and rarely missed an episode after that. Sure, it had it faults, and even its intentional and unintentional comic excesses (did any group of people use flashlights more often?), but X-Files was wonderful television. The sustained intellectual, romantic and sexual tension between Mulder and Scully carried us along right to the very end. It is a shame that both its principal actors have such a negative attitude towards their creations, because they have done what is extraordinarily rare in the world of fantasy/science fiction. In the midst of endless repeating plots about aliens, ghosts, mutants and conspiracies, they always made us care the most about the characters. To sustain such a relationship for nine seasons- none of them featuring much in the way of traditional romance- is nothing short of marvelous.
The finale was an in-house affair, with a script that was really understandable only to those who had studiously followed the "arc" plot that ran through and over the individual episodes about actual X-file cases. Everyone from the show's past made a cameo of some sort, including several from beyond the grave. Those of us who wanted Cancer Man to get something more explosive than a nasty fall got a satisfying send off to one of the most despicable characters ever created. The dead were especially prominent, for reasons that soon became clear. What appeared to be a brief rip-off of the Sixth Sense turned out to be a wonderful resolution to one of the great tensions between Mulder and Scully.
In the process, we walked down memory lane into the labyrinthine twists of the never-quite-explained government conspiracy to cover up the existence and nefarious plans of alien invaders. Was anyone surprised to discover that the conspiracy is more vast and more dangerous than even Mulder ever suspected? Was anyone surprised that the announced date of the final alien conquest leaves a full decade for a couple more movie sequels? Was anyone surprised that we finally know less when we ended than when we started, even though we knew so much more along the way? There were no real surprises if you have learned to understand that the truth will always be out there in the ever expanding universe of lies and deceptions.
At key points in the show's history, especially in the last two seasons, it was apparent that X-Files had more to interest the viewer than endless freaks, frights and flights from black ops. The characters were also looking for peace within themselves, and for connection with other human persons. It was not just a quest for the truth about extraterrestrials. It was a search for a truth that would allow Mulder and friends to connect, love, be certain, and even die. In this regard, X-Files was a very different show than CSI, where the occasional intrusion of the personal lives of the characters into the plot infuriates or bores the audience. With the exception of the nerdiest of the X-nerds, we were all cheering for Mulder, Scully, Doggett and Raies to find the love that had eluded them along the way.
In that quest, X-files satisfied us, not only with the birth of William the wonder child, but with the resolution of the murder of Doggett's son, the connection of Raies and Doggett and the expected reunion of Mulder and Scully. While the series provided no real closure to its highly touted mysteries, we were left knowing the characters had all found something that will leave us happy in the memories and fantasies where they will live for years to come.
But the finale brought one final, and I thought, very significant resolution. Throughout the nine years of the show, Mulder and Scully have occupied opposite poles on the questions of the paranormal and religious faith. While Mulder could believe in every kind of alien, mutant and conspiracy, he could not believe in God, and regularly snarled at Scully's professions of faith. On the other hand, Scully was the skeptic over things alien, but tenaciously held on to a lapsed Catholic version of Christian belief.
As they lay together in a motel room in Roswell, Scully asked Mulder what it was he really was looking for in all his quests. In an answer that was the great surprise of the program, Mulder said he wanted to know "that the dead are not lost to us. That we'll see them again. That there's something greater than us. Greater than the aliens." Taking Scully's cross in his hand, he said "maybe there is hope after all," he crawled up next to her in bed and went to sleep. It was, in my opinion, a moment of grace and evidence of the miracle of conversion.
For a Christian watching the X-Files, this moment was more than just a parting nod towards spirituality. It was an acknowledgement that the Christian worldview is the one worldview that allows a world of wonder and evil beyond the senses, bounds and definitions. It has always been my suspicion that in the Biblical assertion that we live in a vast and spiritual universe- fallen and ruined, but wondrous- we can find more mysteries than anyone could ever dream of; certainly enough to occupy the quests of many a Mulder, Harry Potter or Ransom. Fundamentalists tend to believe in Biblical miracles, but to be Mulder-ish in rejecting any other manifestation of the supernatural as demonic or illusory. Without being foolish, we could acknowledge that there is more out there than anyone knows. The truth- God's truth- is wild and wonderful; something Mulder and Scully discovered along the way to that motel in Roswell.
In the end, the X-Files affirmed that we are not created to know, but to be loved. No matter how much we have seen or experienced, life finally is the simple longing of the heart to be safely held, and the longing to be somehow certain that our loves and lives are not simply atoms crashing together. In the end, the mysteries overwhelm us, and God alone gives us a place to stand, and we stand in his shadow together, holding on to those we love.
Thanks Chris, Frank, David, Gillian and company. You done good. Now go make a movie.