The fifth season of The X-Files is the second shortest of the series at only twenty episodes, so we have reached it quite quickly. “The End” has a double meaning. The first and most important I will get to in a moment. The second is this is the final episode to be filmed in Vancouver. Officially, the move was because FOX was willing to spruce up the production values of its cash cow series. Unofficially, it was a move to keep David Duchovny happy because he wanted to be closer to his family.
Vancouver gets a huge send off as the opening sequence not only takes place there, but local citizens were invited to play the audience at a chess tournament in which an assassination attempt is made. The assassin is attempting to kill Gibson Praise, a young chess prodigy. Gibson, who can read minds, though we do not know that yet, senses a sniper targeting him and ducks. The bullet hits his Russian opponent instead.
The case is handed over to Special Agent Jeffrey Spender even though the FBI would have no jurisdiction in the matter, even though the assassin is a former National Security Agent. The Canadians would most certainly take charge of a murder investigation like this themselves. No use dwelling on that, however. Spender assembles his team, which includes Scully, but specifically requests mulder go chase flying saucers as far west as he can without hitting water. Skinner, who does not think Spender is ready for such responsibility, unofficially urges Mulder to crash the party.
He does, and is the only one to surmise Gibson knew a split second ahead of time he was the target of the bullet, not the Russian player. While it is a mystery why anyone would want to assassinate a kid, the video of the incident nevertheless seem to bear out mulder’s theory. He and scully wind up heading off to interview Gibson along with Mulder’s old chickadee from his academy days, Special Agent Diane Fowley. (Mi mi Rogers, who has played a lot of weird MILF in the last decade or so.)
Spender spits fire over the matter, but the characterization I find most irritating--saying a lot, because I really dislike Spender--is Scully. She is so catty and jealous about Fowley throughout the entire episode. She even interrogates the Lone Gunmen about her like some spurned junior high school girl. The worst part is the combination of her nearly asking Gibson what is on Fowley’s mind and the subsequent scene in which she is in mulder’s apartment just chillin’ with him while he is sprawled out on the couch. I got the impression she is hanging around trying to win him over after he and Fowley, subdued thought they may be, give off a vibe they click better. I am sure the shippers dig it, but I think it degrades the characters. Scully is a professional woman in her mid-thirties. She ought to be acting far more maturely, particularly since she has never showed romantic interest in Mulder before.
Mulder’s personal meeting with gibson confirms for him the kid can read minds. He sends scully off to confirm it through medical means, if possible, while he takes a few more jabs at Spender over his continued pursuit of the Russian chess player as the assassin‘s target. This, I like. Scully’s irritation at Fowley constantly trotting along behind Mulder, not so much.
As it turns out, Gibson’s has a heightened brain function in some hoodah area known as the God Lobe, which could be the center of all paranormal understanding. (A google search implies there is a pseudoscience based on the concept of finding spiritual awareness through the lobe, same as if one can find the name of God in pi.) Nevertheless, the idea prompts the Syndicate to call the Cigarette Smoking Man back into action to kidnap Gibson. He does, after popping a cap in Fowley’s left lung.
Janet Reno is not happy. She has not killed any kids since Waco, and she will not get to deport Elian Gonzalez back to sunny, Cuba at gunpoint for another two years, so she orders the X-Files shut down and mulder and Scully split up for good measure. The Csm enters the X-Files office one night, takes Samantha Mulder’s file, then sets the place on fire. For good measure, he answers the, “Who’s your daddy?” question for spender on the way out.
We end with Mulder’s professional life in shambles. At least he has Scully wrapped around him. That is something, no? “The End” leads right into X-Files: Fight the Future, which you can read right now at apocalypse cinema by following the link.
I remembered a lot about this episode from the first time around back in 1998 in spite of the fact I was studying for the LSAT at that point, but I had completely forgotten Fowley was introduced in it. Maybe that is because of how disappointed I was at Scully’s behavior, or because how she unceremoniously drops off the map until taking a big role towards the end of the next season. Nicolas lea shows up again as Krycek, but is little more than a delivery boy a and driver for the Well manicured Man. I guess what I really find strange is how the movie plops right in the middle of everything, has nothing to do with it other than reopening the X-Files as fast as they were closed, then picking up with the season premiere as though only certain bits of the movie actually happened. That will sound more reasonable tomorrow.
“The End” is not bad, but there is a certain filling the episode order to get to the movie vibe to it. It is only really disappointing if you were not anticipating a good time at the theater, so you were not really paying attention to the season finale anyway. I was looking forward to the movie and sweating the LSAT, so I did not dwell on my expectations being met at the time, either. Thirteen years later, I think ’the End’ is good, but nothing special. Certainly not like the great season finales of the past.
Rating: *** (out of 5)
The fifth season of The X-Files is the second shortest of the series at only twenty episodes, so we have reached it quite quickly. “The End” has a double meaning. The first and most important I will get to in a moment. The second is this is the final episode to be filmed in Vancouver. Officially, the move was because FOX was willing to spruce up the production values of its cash cow series. Unofficially, it was a move to keep David Duchovny happy because he wanted to be closer to his family. 
