Case 10, File 01: My Struggle

 AKA: Oh, It's All Of Our Struggle

Reviving a series that has been dormant, by and large, for over a decade, is a risky proposition. Yes, every so often you get something like Twin Peaks: The Return (and yes, maybe I will marry David Lynch, thank you for asking) that completely reshapes your existing knowledge of the show and brings the story to a close. Most of the time, you're aiming for something more along the lines of Fuller House, just more of the show that was already popular (and I don't get either Full House or Fuller House, so don't ask me).

Sometimes though. Sometimes you get something else.

Our episode begins, after a brief recap of the uh...series, and also of UFOs throughout human history, with a quick flashback to what turns out to be the 50s, where a UFO crash lands and a doctor is brought in to look at it. Technically the fact that it's the 50s is a reveal, but whatever, we're just going for it. Anyway, after that we check in with Scully at the hospital, who gets a call from a guy named O'Malley who wants to meet Mulder. But she and Mulder have broken up in the years since I Want To Believe (fuckkkkkkkkk youuuuuuuuuu) and so she has to contact him.

O'Malley, it turns out, is a broadcaster type who...you know what, I could spend a lot of time dancing around this, but fuck it, he's an Alex Jones type, Jesus Christ, and Mulder thinks he's full of shit, so he'll only agree to meet the jackass if Scully comes too. O'Malley meets them in a limo he claims is soundproof and seems to be sincere in his knowledge of UFOs if nothing else. He wants Mulder and Scully to come meet a woman named Sveta who says she was abducted by aliens. But not really.

After a quick check in with the flashback in which an alien gets shot and the doctor wants to care for it, Mulder and Scully meet Sveta, who is psychic, and who claims she wasn't abducted by aliens but by men pretending to be aliens to run experiments on her (if this seems familiar it's because it is). Scully agrees to run some tests on her, while Mulder gets taken by O'Malley to go visit some scientists who are building an alien ship in a faraday cage. The faraday cage isn't super relevant, I just think they're neat.

Anyway, at this point Mulder is in lock, stock and barrel for O'Malley, but Scully is still skeptical. After some wrangling, some talking to Skinner (where it's revealed that the X-Files office has been ransacked, again), some more back and forth between Mulder and Scully, and also Mulder and Sveta, and finally Mulder meeting up with an old man who turns out to be the doctor from the flashbacks, Mulder has what he thinks is his unified theory of What's Going On.

"Hey everyone, I'm here now. I don't really matter, but I'm here."

The government has UFOs, but is using them to make weapon's tech and new planes. The government is using false stories of UFOs to distract the public and kidnap and experiment on people, prepping them by making them docile and complacent and controlling them using the PATRIOT Act and also stuff like FEMA camps (sigh) to wipe out a big chunk of the population using the alien virus and control the rest. The conspiracy was never aliens it was just shitty people. Scully thinks this is all nonsense, since Sveta doesn't have alien DNA, but Mulder, O'Malley and Sveta think it's aces, and Mulder and O'Malley prepare to go public.

But it all goes to shit, Sveta recants what she said (and then gets exploded), the cool UFO in the faraday cage gets raided (and then gets exploded) and O'Malley's show and website get taken offline (though presumably not exploded). Oh and it turns out Sveta does have alien DNA. And so does Scully. Mulder and Scully feel completely helpless before all this stuff happening that fast (me too frankly) but they do get one little win, with the final scene of the episode showing the Cigarette Smoking Man getting news that Skinner reopened the X-Files.

I'm gonna be totally honest with you, guys, gals and nonbinary pals; I do not like this episode. It starts the revival seasons off on an incredible sour note. More than just a bad episode, it's a bad episode that exposes one of the key failings of the revival seasons, that lays bare the various millstones the series has around its neck that would, eventually, drag it back under the water. It's one that nearly singlehandedly killed my original interest in the revival and so I'll be watching (most) of these episodes for the first time.

"Hi everyone, just go ahead and punch me in the face, it's how everyone reacts to me."

Let's just rip the band-aid off the biggest wound the revival series has in it; Mulder and Scully have split up in the intervening years. I'm not gonna lie to you readers, one of my absolute least favorite sequel plot cliches is that a romantic couple that got together in the previous installment break up so they can get back together again. At the best of times, it's incredibly lazy writing, showcasing an inability to adjust the character's writing to make them be a couple, and it really stings here given they spent 8 fucking seasons getting these two together, and that them being together was one of the strongest elements of I Want to Believe. Opening this way kills a lot of the goodwill fans of the series might otherwise have.

And it needs all the goodwill it can get, believe you me, because the other biggest millstone is the new character, Tad O'Malley, a clear takeoff on Alex Jones and Glenn Beck. And honestly, I fucking hate the guy. Maybe that's the intent, but I don't hate him in a villain sense, I just want him fucking off my screen. Engaging with him as a character might be easier for someone from another part of the country (I'm from Connecticut, and a Sandy Hook memories a little ways from where a friend of mine lived got vandalized by Jones fans so often they needed to install security) but I can't imagine wanting anything to do with this character.

This flaw however exposes another issue, one which the next two seasons will have to navigate carefully, namely how conspiracy theorists have shifted in the time The X-Files was dormant. Okay so there was usually a core of antisemitism at the center of all but the most fanciful conspiracy theories, but they used to be more...I dunno how to even frame it, fun? The culture of conspiracy theories revolved around UFOs and Roswell, sometimes intersecting with supernatural investigators or cryptozoologists, things which aren't always harmless, but which are at least less directly harmful than most political movements.

In the 15 years The X-Files was gone, that changed, as conspiracy theories became darker and more destructive, first shifting to 9/11 Trutherism and FEMA conspiracies, then to Obama Birthers, before blooming into full on hate movements in QAnon come the Trump Presidency. a transformation that was in its end stages when this episode aired. The popular image of conspiracy theorists had shifted from dorky young men in glasses staring up at the sky looking for UFOs to a bearded middle aged man in mirrored sunglasses, who might pull a gun on you if you argue with them. Navigating that well would take a masterful screenwriter, which Chris Carter definitely is not.

"Wait, why are you killing me? I recanted! I RECANTED!"

And so, instead of avoiding the issue and sticking to their UFOs and bigfoots (bigfeet?), The X-Files decided to lean into it and falls flat on its face. By the time Mulder starts giving rundown of the plan the Conspiracy supposedly has, which wouldn't sound the slightest bit out of place on Glenn Beck's show, I was squirming in my seat. I don't WANT The X-Files to address real world conspiracies, it's not something its well equipped to do and it, predictably, fumbles it about as hard as it can.

As for the rest of the plot...what do you want me to say? We're 10 Seasons in at this point, and the Uno Reverse of it not being aliens but actually men who are 100% behind the Conspiracy is a move the series first pulled in the 5th season, and then took back half a season later. It feels tired, like the series is grasping at plot elements to shock the audience, but it's such a half assed attempt that I'd prefer they didn't try at all. And if that didn't fall flat, the reveal that the Cigarette Smoking Man is still alive falls even flatter. Literally anyone else (Krycek, Doggett, Reyes, Kersh, Marita, hell even Gibson Praise) would have been more of a surprise, not that I really wanted a surprise at that point. I don't need you to shock me, just be The X-Files, that's all we need.

I said the plot element above felt tired, and that's how this whole episode feels, kind of tired. For the series premier of the revival of a classic show, it's a weirdly low key affair. Mulder and Scully don't really do anything, just hang around throwing the Expository Monologue Ball back and forth between them and the supporting cast, while the supporting cast dramatically fails to do anything (and then gets exploded). It's a bad start to a season, with the primary selling point being that it can only go up from here.

Case Notes:

• Mulder doing voice over to catch us up on the base premise of The X-Files is A, deeply unnecessary for me and B, really drives home how long the show was dormant.
• The history of UFO sightings is more interesting, although I am amused by the fact that the President they need to cite is Ford. Ford sucks.
• Using the classic opening credits instead of the Season 9 ones...at least until Mitch Pileggi gets a brief appearance, but still, it's nice to see the original.
• Scully is still working in the hospital, which is good, she seemed to like that.
• Jimmy Kimmel cameo. Keep it.
• I'm not gonna harp on this too too much, but the plot point where two people in a movie or show get together at the end and then have broken up come the next installment is one of my least favorite in all of media. It especially stings here cause they seemed to be in a better place at the end of I Want to Believe.
• Even Mulder thinks our Alex Jones-Alike is full of shit. Which he is, fuck Alex Jones all the way to fucking hell.
• Mulder hitchhiking instead of taking Uber makes enough sense that Scully buys it for a second.
• I desperately want to punch O'Malley in the face and I like that Mulder and Scully seem to agree, especially on the aspect where O'Malley is clearly financially profiting from it.
• O'Malley knowing obscure UFO incidents is...interesting.
• Bringing back people they would have talked to 20 or so years ago is the main reason to want to do further seasons, but I don't know if Sveta is a previous episode character.
• I'm sure that the effect of having O'Malley douchily explain stuff to Mulder and Scully is intentional annoyance, but intentionally annoying is still annoying.
• The scene where the military shoots the alien doesn't really work (it goes too fast), but it is amusing to get to see Alien Ass.
• Sveta just casually reading Scully's mind is pretty effective, and the shift from her diagnosing Mulder and Scully's relationship issues to realizing Scully was also abducted works pretty well too.
• Douchebag taking Mulder to see the UFO they built is weird, but I am always a sucker for Faraday Cages.
• I feel like the episode is throwing way too much info at us too fast, it's impossible to believe that it won't be revealed to be bullshit.
• I find the scenes at the crash sight kinda dull, and I forget where it's going.
• Scully's absolute disdain for O'Malley is one of the best thing in the episode.
• Sveta and Mulder's scenes is one of the better ones in the episode, Sveta puts some real effort into the performance and Duchovny shows that he still can do Mulder perfectly.
• Skinner doesn't get big arrival fanfare, and I like that better. He's still just doing his job.
• Mulder and Skinner commiserating about how weird the country has gotten since 9/11 is uh...well they ain't wrong.
• I really wanna punch O'Malley in the face.
• I like the reveal that Mulder has been in contact with the doctor from the crash scenes, but the biggest issue with this episode, hell with the revival seasons as a whole, is that they have flipped back and forth between it being aliens and not aliens too many times. I've heard that Roswell was and was not a smokescreen like 20 times, it just doesn't land anyone. Although I do still like the comment about the military industrial complex.
• I really really don't like the element where Mulder winds up on O'Malley's side, he should know better, although Scully pushing back helps a little bit.
• I'm trying hard to follow Mulder's ramble, but this is like the 4th time we've gotten a big lecture that's supposed to tie everything together.
• Mulder bringing up the Tuskegee experiments and Henrietta Lacks is pretty solid, not gonna lie.
• There are parts of the rant that O'Malley and Mulder go off on that I like (don't trust the militarized police kids) and parts that I don't (Jesus, shut up about FEMA) but overall the weirdo conspiracy shit hits VERY different in 2022 than it did in 1997 or even in 2016.
• Scully kinda hits the nail on the head, although Alex Jones in real life has been saying shit just as deeply unhinged and dangerous for years.
• The finale of this episode happens so fast and basically undoes everything that happened in it, which is part of the reason why it's so hard to take it seriously, they are setting up something to happen but it can't cause the show isn't ready to deal with it.
• I'm sorry X-Files, you can't expect to be sad that an Alex Jones-alike got pulled off the internet in 2022. I mean, I couldn't do it in 2016 either (I'm from Connecticut, we all fucking hate Alex Jones) but really not given the last few years.
• Sveta getting killed doesn't make sense in context (she folded, why kill her?), but whatever, I guess they needed a dramatic scene.FOf course Cigarette Smoking Man is alive, why wouldn't he be? They only blew him up with a missile at the end of Season 9.
• I guess I like them reopening the X-Files?
• As always, these reviews are supported by my Patreon. Check it out so I have the will to make it through these next two seasons.

Current Celebrity Watch:

The big one is, of course, Joel McHale, who at this point was famous for both the host of The Soup and Community. I do really like Community, but I also firmly believe he was chosen because he has the most punchable face in the world.

Less well known is Annet Mahendru, who plays Sveta, and was at this point known for a recurring role on The Americans and who recently wrapped up a main character role on The Walking Dead: World Beyond, a title that caused me to ask: Wait, how many fucking spinoffs has The Walking Dead had?

Future Celebrity Watch:

Aliza Vellani, who plays a nurse in Scully's hospital, was already pretty well known for her recurring role on the Canadian sitcom Little Mosque on the Prairie (which is an A+ title) and now has pretty steady work voicing Miss Marvel in Marvel Super Hero Adventures and a main role on something called Sweet Tooth