The X-Files season 11 finale review: The final showdown over William
It was pretty clear early on in The X-Files season 11 finale on Sunday night what the main focus of the episode was going to be: Trying to figure out precisely where William was. Beyond that, the next order of business was then figuring out if there was a way in which the character could be saved at all costs.
We’ve come to know a number of different things about William via his time on the show: He’s got alien DNA and with that, powers. Because of all of that, he doesn’t really want to be found. He wants to escape and he doesn’t feel as though anything or anyone will be able to help him. You had pretty much everyone under the sun looking for William within this episode and while Mulder did find him, that doesn’t mean that he was willing to stay put. Things got even crazier when the Cigarette Smoking Man showed up, ready to put a stop to things in his own way.
We’ll give some credit to the series’ cinematography team for coming up with some brilliant chase scenes in the final ten minutes as Mulder and Scully put themselves through hell in order to try to find William once and for all.
Eventually, we did see a stand-off, but it was not between William and his parents (even if Mulder wasn’t his real father). Instead, it was between Mulder and the Cigarette Smoking Man, who was ready to put a stop to everything. CMG shot Mulder and knocked his body into the water … but was it really Mulder at all? Instead, it was William who the Smoking Man seemed to kill, and then the real Mulder (or at least who we think is the real Mulder) turned up and shot the Cigarette Smoking Man in turn.
In the closing minutes Mulder and Scully were left to wrestle the grief of some of what happened, and that was not an easy thing for either party to deal with. It was at that moment that Scully started to share some of what she really knew about the boy, including that she was never really a mother and that this had all just come about via a science experiment that she effectively had zero control over at all.
Thus, the tragic tale of William is over … or was it? There was a moment of happiness in Scully revealing to Mulder in the closing minutes that she was pregnant and the two would have a second chance at something they seemed to have left behind. With this, the story ends with hope more so than a dramatic cliffhanger. If this is the end, we are saying goodbye in a worthy way.
Now, we should note the final twist: William is still in the water … and he’s alive.
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