James Wong’s latest episode of THE X-FILES was proof that well-written and beautifully-acted television can be equal parts “best ever” and “most unsatisfying.” What started off as an unassuming “monster-of-the-week” episode quickly transformed into yet another heartbreaking chapter in the series’ angsty mythology. “Ghouli” was excellent in the ways that THE X-FILES always was; but if this is where we leave the story of Scully and Mulder’s broken family after all of these years, then what’s the point?
The Ghouli that wasn’t. Two girls on an abandoned ferry, a hideous monster with tons of arms and a nasty screech, flashlights in the dark, a bloodbath. This was where “Ghouli” opened and where Mulder’s X-File originated. But it wasn’t what made Scully interested in the case. The former skeptic had had a dream — one that was far too real and included the added bonus of sleep paralysis — which happened to feature the same ferry from a photo in the case file.
After initially trying to play dream interpreter/psychologist and only successfully playing Scully’s rock — a role he brilliantly inhabited throughout the episode — Mulder took a different tack when the two agents were on the road. “Dreams are today’s answers to tomorrow’s questions. That’s a quote from Edgar Cayce,” Mulder informed his partner, and then the two spent just a moment too long making googly-eyes at each other while, apparently, no one was watching the road. By the time Mulder actually was paying attention, he noticed that the car was being followed.
So, Spooky was back at peak paranoia. Technically, Mulder wasn’t wrong to be on the alert. But at such an early point in the case, only that inner paranoia, gained from years of being chased down and undermined at every turn, could have brought him to such a conclusion.
A quick visit to the scene of the crime made two things very obvious: One, the usually unshakeable Dana Katherine Scully was somehow affected by this case; and two, Agents “Bob” Mulder and Dana Scully were in need of some coffee and a quick perusal of fanfiction so they could find out exactly what this “Ghouli” was that the girls claimed to have been attacked by.
And this is where it gets painful, folks. After a conversation with both of the victims/attackers, Mulder and Scully discovered that one person was at the heart of all of this: Jackson Van De Kamp. Once upon a time, THE X-FILES’ viewers knew him as William, the sweet baby that Dana Scully gave up because…Well, the logic was never quite there; but whatever we were supposed to believe about strangers being more capable of keeping William safe than his trained-FBI-agent parents, we went with it.
Unfortunately, William didn’t just change his first name: Gone was the sweet baby. In his place was a 17-year-old player. If Dana Katherine Scully had raised that boy, he would’ve known how to treat women. Count on it.
Since the only thing linking the two victims (besides, you know, all that blood loss) was Player McPlayerson, Mr. and Mrs. Spooky went in search of his home — only to find the entire Van De Kamp family dead.
While Mulder was busy dealing with the local police, Scully wandered off to Jackson’s room, where she pored over photos of his youth. It was clear that something about this boy meant something to Scully, as well as the fact that it bothered her that she felt that way. Scully was still convinced that the supposed stranger had brought her to this place, so as she and Mulder unwittingly (they totally both knew, let’s stop kidding ourselves here) learned about their son’s life and shared their thoughts on his Malcolm X poster, one big mystery remained: If Jackson Van De Kamp had actually killed himself and his parents, as the crime scene suggested, why had he bothered to reach out to Scully? Why lure her there, just to see him die?
No, really. Why did THE X-FILES have to pull this? Why did we bring Scully so close to her son, just to have her first meeting with him after all of these years actually be a viewing of his corpse? Well, because this is THE X-FILES; and we love hurting Scully here! Mystery solved.
Scully went to the morgue get some answers, at which point Gillian Anderson murdered absolutely every X-FILES viewer with a soul in one of the series’ best, most emotional scenes to date. No, I’m serious here: If you didn’t feel something when Dana Scully apologized to her believed-dead son for failing him — teary confessions, broken voice, and all — then you have no soul. That’s the end of that. It really is.
Mulder, who has always been repressed when it’s come to outward displays of emotion with regards to his son — probably because he didn’t feel he deserved to hurt, when he’d left Scully by herself with the baby — managed to show up and look like a lost puppy at just the right time. More importantly, he said and did exactly the right things. He held Scully (he’s her rock!) and promised her that she had nothing to apologize for.
Dreams become reality again. Scully faced another bout of sleep paralysis, complete with more chasing of a dark figure, only to wake up and find out that her son’s body was missing. She knew right away that William was actually still alive, but Mulder regretfully played the part of the skeptic: “Hope is not fact. And I’m always the first to jump to extreme possibilities, but this is not as simple as that.”
Oh, Mulder, honey. It hurts you to hurt her. Just don’t do it next time, ok?
Scully was right; but it took quite a bit of digging to prove it. Before that, she had a chance encounter with a strange man outside of the hospital. Mystery Dude caused her to drop and break her snow globe (which she may or may not have stolen from her son’s bedroom), and he gave her an important message: “Don’t give up on the bigger picture.”
Ok, Fox Junior.
Back in Jackson William’s room, Mom and Dad went through his computer in search of evidence. Dad was shocked to find that his own, 17-year-old son didn’t have any porn on his computer; but we can all be assured that, once Mom found his hidden stash of conspiracy data, Dad was more proud of Junior than he ever would’ve been had he passed on his porn fetish. (Besides, Mama Scully rightfully pointed out that her son probably just knew how to delete his history.) Just as shadowy conspiracy-type DOD men showed up, Mulder found William’s information on Project Crossroads; and, in typical Aloof Smartass fashion, he “accidentally” destroyed it by spilling a beverage on the computer in question.
Insert Skinner calling to chastise Mulder for destroying evidence and causing trouble with higher-ups, then coming down to Norfolk to tell him what he already knew, here.
And back to the case we go.
Wrapping it all up in a totally tangled, not-at-all neat bow. While Mulder was with Skinner, making him feel like trash for being too late to save someone from the Mulder line for the second time — hey! Remember when “Walter” was too late to keep Mulder from being abducted? — Scully was talking to her son’s therapist. Dr. Schultz didn’t know that Scully was her patient’s real mother, though, so she wasn’t very forthcoming about the visions that the troubled teen claimed to have had. That was, of course, until Scully herself described those glimpses of the dystopian future in perfect detail.
The Spookies met back at the coffee shop, where “Bob” (he doesn’t want to explain Fox, ok?) was greeted by the barista as one of the regulars. Somehow, even after losing her son, Dana Scully was able to smile (and flirt a little a lot) because her rock was there: “It’s an alternate reality. Fox doesn’t exist in coffee shops.” Spooky communication being what it was, “Bob” was able to use that shameless come-on as a way to put the pieces together: It was actually a false reality, just like what their son had been projecting all along.
Back at the hospital, Mr. “I wasn’t raised by an actual angel named Dana, so I don’t know how to treat women” was busy confessing everything to one of his girlfriends: The Ghouli wasn’t real, just something he used his powers to project against his two girls as a practical joke — one that he couldn’t control before they’d nearly killed one another. Oh, and when he was in pain, he could project images to “this woman. She’s…maybe my birth mother.”
“Maybe my birth mother.” You’ve got to be kidding me. William Scully-Mulder, did you not listen to a word your mother said when she was emptying her soul for you? Unreal.
Local law enforcement had caught on to the reality that “Jackson” was still alive because his (petty) other girlfriend, Sarah, noticed that he was kissing her rival. After an intense chase scene, complete with (thankfully fake) Scully getting shot and constant wondering whether or not William’s parents would actually get to meet him, everyone survived.
Between Scully managing to come out of the whole thing physically unscathed and William’s ability to protect himself, the case ended on a positive note…except for the part where William ran off disguised as a nurse when his parents told him it was safe. They just wanted to know if he was ok and talk to him; but, you know, THE X-FILES won’t give Dana Katherine Scully a second of real time with her son.
At least there was more Rock!Mulder outside of the hospital when both agents realized that William had disappeared?
On the drive home, Scully noticed a windmill just like the one in her (stolen) snow globe and asked to stop for gas. Mystery Dude made his second appearance, this time with more cryptic messages and just the tiniest bit of hope: “You seem like a nice person. I wish I could know you better.” After that exchange, with how close that line was to one of the ones in Scully’s (amazing, heartbreaking, beautiful, everything) apology to her son, as well as the man’s attire, it might have been easy to conclude he was another one of William’s masks. Scully, given her emotionally drained state, needed a little help with seeing reality, though. Mulder picked up on yet another Malcolm X line and made the connection to their son’s poster.
Inside the gas station, the agents’ FBI status finally became useful as they were able to demand access to the surveillance video and prove that, yes, William was actually that guy. As THE X-FILES’ fifth episode of its eleventh season ended, Dana Scully finally got to see her son…in a grainy video image, at a crappy service station, in the middle of nowhere. And as Fox “Rock” Mulder squeezed her shoulder from behind, anyone could see that he and Scully were filled with hope for the future with just that tiny breadcrumb.
Because that’s THE X-FILES for you: It’s the story of two people who have been destroyed so much and so often, that they will take literally anything they can get. In the strangest of ways, “Ghouli” ended perfectly. It set up the possibility of more, all while making it clear that the road to William would never, ever be easy. But at the same time, it just wasn’t enough. Maybe if Scully hadn’t already been through so much before now, or if she hadn’t had to spend hours believing that her son died before she got to meet him, “Ghouli” could have felt like it ended happily. And maybe, if we’re lucky, it was the beginning of something…But, for now, we’re going to have to quote Mulder here: Hope is not fact.
Without the real reunion with their son that these two should-have-been parents so greatly deserve, THE X-FILES remains a series known for creating nothing more than a constant feeling of emptiness. After so much hurt, that’s not really a good thing anymore. Yes, good television makes viewers feel something — and it’s not always rainbows and unicorns — but lumping pain on top of pain for the sake of pain doesn’t make a good story. It makes…pain. That’s it.
It’s one thing to love angst — and this series has produced some of the greatest angst ever — but at some point, there needs to be a pay-off to all of that suffering. Thus far, the fans of Agents Mulder and Scully are so starved for it that viewers consider the slightest squeeze of a shoulder to be an act of deep affection (in this universe, it is); and the characters themselves are so desperate for a glimpse of their son that they’ll find promise in low-quality video at a Crappy Mart, all without bothering to wonder why he wouldn’t just reveal himself for the briefest of moments. For all of the masterful storytelling — and even better acting — that creates these moments, it just seems like we all deserve something more.
Other thoughts.
- We love an Emo Science!Scully voiceover.
- “YOU SEE WHAT I WANT YOU TO SEE.” We get it, Chris: You’re playing with taglines this season. However: You want us to see platonic, and we don’t. So there.
- “Dark figures are usually meant to be avoided.” He’s so smart, that Oxford-educated psychologist. But the real question is where Mulder was while Scully was having her dream. I guess we’re still playing the “not living together” game, even after “This.” Ok.
- “It seems like once they started, they were finished.” Scully on the lack of blood trails from the girls’ struggle on the nasty, old boat? Or everyone on the concept of Mulder and Scully actually being happy?
- Mulder and Scully’s son played baseball, had stars and planets on his walls, was tough and resourceful in high-suspense situations, and was melodramatic beyond all melodrama. Too fitting. Did you really have to rise from the dead, William? Did you know what your mother went through when she was pregnant with you? Maybe look up your father’s history of “fake” death and learn some respect. You’re so grounded if you ever allow yourself to be caught, kid.
- Also: William is even more emo than his two parents combined. That is some powerful DNA.
- An entire William episode with zero hysteric “my baby!” screeching from Scully. It’s almost as if James Wong knows how to write women…unlike some folks.
- Dana Scully, clutching her son’s snow globe and knowing — just knowing — that it would mean something. It hurts. It really, really hurts.
- Grounding, X-FILES style! “You had two girlfriends at once and made your mother think you’d died before she had the chance to meet you? Well! I’ll just explode your personal stash of X-Files! So there! Go to your room!”
- “Ohhh! Never a good idea to keep an open beverage near electronics.” Even in old age, Mulder has zero respect for authority and zero F’s to give.
- Dana Scully steals dogs, snow globes, and (most importantly) hearts. Everyone loves a rebel.
- Gillian Anderson deserves an Emmy for that morgue scene. The way that she portrayed every single ounce of Scully’s pain, and even her constant need to hold on to her composure, was absolutely, without a doubt, some of her best work. If THE X-FILES were to end right here, we could all walk away from it knowing that Anderson gave it her all (as if there ever could have been any doubt).
- And then, on the other side, we have one David Duchovny. Fox Mulder, trying to work through his feelings for William, while keeping himself together for Scully’s benefit? Easily some of his best work, too.
- Throw all of those pretty awards at them both. They deserve it. Or else.
- “You’re wrong. This is the end of the road.” Shut up, Walter.
- A mythology episode that made sense. It’s been a long time.
- “This is torture, Mulder.” Same, Scully. Same. “And maybe, maybe I should’ve had the courage to stand by you, but I thought I was being strong because it was the hardest thing I’ve ever done — to let go and to know that I was going to miss your whole life. But it turns out that this is the hardest thing: To see the outcome and how I’ve failed you.” Funny: This is the hardest thing I’ve ever had to watch. Also, someone please, for the love of all that is holy, stop beating up on Scully. It’s really possible to have a “strong female character” that doesn’t have to constantly prove her strength by being kicked when she’s already down. Promise. THE X-FILES has just put this character through far too much.
- Scully was being strong when she gave William away, given the (ridiculous) circumstances. She never had a problem with courage; and she is, without a doubt, one of the bravest characters of all time. Everything that this woman has faced proves that she is one of the strongest, most resilient, and most deserving of some happiness to end her story characters some of us may ever have the pleasure of watching.
The next all-new episode of THE X-FILES airs on Wednesday, February 7, at 8/7c on FOX