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.

Case 09, File 21: I Want To Believe

AKA: Jesus Is That The Plot We're Going With?

It's impossible to really gauge how much Twin Peaks DNA is in The X-Files (it's a lot, but how much exactly is up for debate) but there are some eerie similarities between the initial end of Twin Peaks and the initial end of the The X-Files. Both shows ended on cliffhangers, and both, when presented with the opportunity to resolve that cliffhanger in a movie, elected instead to make a side story refocused on the characters. Unfortunately, someone should have reminded Chris Carter that while Fire Walk With Me eventually got to be known as one of the best movies of David Lynch's career, it began life as a critically disdained box office dud.

Case 09, Files 19 and 20: The Truth

AKA: We Can Definitely Handle The Truth

In the end, I don't think there was ever going to be a good ending to The X-Files, at least not going into the finale off Sunshine Days. By that point, the deck was too stacked against it, the plot too out of control and the lore too much to cobble together at the last minute to actually have a finale that holds together or ties up the series properly. The best they can really do is try to do something that the fans will like. To use a somewhat overly dramatic metaphor, the landing gear is busted, so the plane is coming down hard, the best thing you can do is try to protect the passengers.

Case 09, File 18: Sunshine Days

AKA: The Navidson Bunch

As The X-Files faces down what was, at the time, its ultimate ending, it kind of went through its own stages of grief. Improbable feels like denials, Jump the Shark could be viewed as depression, Scary Monsters as bargaining, even Hellbound as anger although I'm really pushing the metaphor well past its breaking point at that point. But here, in the penultimate episode of Season 9, the last Monster of the Week of the original run, we have acceptance.

Case 09, File 17: Release

AKA: I Really Don't Like That Title, Can't Explain Why

I don't know to what degree Doggett's dead son was intended as a direct attempt to recreate the mystery of Samantha's abduction, but it's what it felt like, and so that's the metric it has to be judged by. The problem is, it never really committed to it the way the series committed to the Samantha mystery. Samantha was central to Mulder's motivation and a major element of the main story. Doggett's son was a detail of his backstory. But with the series wrapping in a little bit, it did manage to remember that this was an element of his backstory that needed resolution.

Case 09, File 16: William

AKA: The Conquerer?

Despite his conception being a huge massive plot point, the show has struggled to figure out what on earth it was doing with William. William's existence is a huge shift in the show's normal, and the show wasn't always on board with those changes, and they clearly had no idea where they were going with the idea that he has psychic powers. But with the finale barreling down on them like a proverbial train, the time had come to come to a decision point with his story, to as the saying goes, shit or get off the pot.

Case 09, File 15: Jump The Shark

AKA: You Said It, Not Me

Between Millennium's finale, The Lone Gunmen's finale and its own two separate finales, The X-Files might be the only show with 4 separate series' finales in its own run. Thing is, series finales are actually quite hard, having to tie up all of its loose plot threads (or as many as it can gather) while still delivering a thematically coherent and satisfying ending. And when the series you're ending is a spin-off show, with a very different tone and style to the main show, some gears are going to end up grinding in a way that causes problems.