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Chris Carter promised a cliffhanger for THE X-FILES’ season 10 finale. Understatement of the decade, Mr. Carter. In a final episode that felt more like one of those disaster-themed summer blockbusters than a television show, Dana Scully finally found at least one of the answers she’d so often sought: Her abduction had given her the key to her own survival and maybe even saving the world. Armed with science, logic, and a ton of alien DNA, Scully’s kind of like Buffy at this point, assuming THE X-FILES gets an eleventh season.

She saved the world. A lot.

And so it begins. Much like its Mulder-centric counterpart in the season premiere, “My Struggle II” opened with one of those voiceovers THE X-FILES has always done so well. This time, the focus was on one Dana Katherine Scully. Her version of the events in the original run of THE X-FILES was shared with an audience, setting up enough history and emotional kickback to that history to make it very clear that this finale was not going to be an easy one to watch.

Scully wanted clear answers about her abduction. She wanted the truth…And it was about time she got both.

With the voiceover complete and the stage set, the story began with Scully entering the X-files office — where she apparently still isn’t worthy of either her name on the door or a desk, even after all of these years of seeking the truth alongside Spooky Mulder — only to find that her partner was nowhere to be found. It seemed that Mulder had been watching Tad O’Malley’s newly-returned conspiracy talk show before simply vanishing.

Scully was, in fact, so “fine” upon watching said talk show on Mulder’s computer that she was startled by Mulder’s ringing phone. The caller? O’Malley, who invited “Dana” (it’s Agent Scully, you jerk) out to the Unremarkable House, where he was supposed to have had a meeting with Mulder, only to show up and find that the house had been destroyed.

Sorry, Fox William Mulder’s not home.

After the ever-skeptical Dana Scully argued with Tad O’Malley about the existence of alien DNA in every human, she called the police to report Mulder missing and made her way back to the X-files office, where she met with Agents Skinner and Einstein. All Einstein wanted to do was argue with her fellow scientist about the “pure science fiction” of Scully’s alien DNA story.

Ok, Einsten. Two pieces of advice: One, the “science fiction” line is Scully’s; two, you should probably talk less when Scully and Skinner are trying to find Mulder. They’ve been there, done this, at least a thousand times. Let the adults work, little girl.

(If only John Doggett had been here to talk about how determined he was to “find Moldah…”)

When asked why Mulder would have gone off on his own without her and refused to answer her calls, Scully said he was afraid of her judgment on his mental state. Or, you know, it could have just been that that’s how Fox Mulder has always operated; and you simply can’t teach an old dog new tricks?

Putting the science in science fiction. Two skeptical medical-doctors-slash-FBI-agents walk into Our Lady of Sorrows…I feel like the end of that should be a joke, but unfortunately, it’s not.

As Scully and Einstein made their way to the hospital for Scully to scientifically prove to Einstein that the alien DNA truly existed, they were met by a very sick man. As Scully later deduced, the cause of this man’s illness was anthrax, to which he had been willingly exposed via vaccine. Live vaccination has been used by the military to prevent soldiers in case of biological warfare, but with weakened immune systems, actual infection occurs.

Scully’s initial guess, although Einstein wasn’t having any of it, was that the alien DNA was responsible for killing immune systems. Einstein, due to what I can only assume was a death wish, outright told Scully she was wrong; but as it turned out, Scully had made a little bit of a mistake. As she found by testing Einstein’s DNA and seeing that nothing alien was present, there was something more going on here. By putting their collective scientific minds together and finally admitting the reality that “…the science we were taught takes us but a distance toward the truth,” Scully and Einstein realized that our lady and savior’s alien DNA was actually what was keeping her healthy.

The Spartan Virus was responsible for breaking the infected people’s immune systems through ripping away the ADA gene, but those with the alien DNA were, somehow, protected. So, for some unknown reason, the abduction and testing that led to Scully’s cancer and was supposedly done, at least in part, to punish Mulder for getting too close to the truth…saved Scully from becoming ill over twenty years later. She would be one of the chosen few that would survive this massive outbreak and destruction, all because she’d been used as a pawn in a game once.

The important takeaway from this is that Dana Scully is The Chosen One. Again, she’s a lot like Buffy on that front.

Whatever the failed logic is in that explanation, Dana Katherine Scully became the potential savior of all humankind. (All humankind except one Fox Mulder, but we’ll get to that later.) As the situation became like something out of a Robin Cook novel, yet blamed on the aliens instead of the monkeys this time, Scully amped up her own magical life force to create a vaccine and save us all. With Mulder gone, Scully needed Einstein’s help with building theory, especially when the alien sequence initially didn’t show on a test, but Scully is our lady and savior.

Glory, amen.

About that betrayal. Monica Reyes also played a major role in helping Scully find the answers she needed to, assuming THE X-FILES returns and ends on something other than an apocalyptic note, save the world. But the way she came by the crucial information she provided was neither pleasant to hear nor the most in-character story that’s ever been written.

In the midst of explaining to an increasingly and irritatingly in denial Einstein that she’d tested her own DNA six weeks ago (ok, so it’s only been six weeks? Sure, we’ll go with that…) because of her own mysterious history, Scully received a phone call from an unknown number. I guess she didn’t recognize Reyes’ voice, even after all the quality time they spent together while Mulder was first abducted, then on the run (or out buying ice cream, if you’d prefer)?

Scully had to be told the caller was someone who had been there for her when she’d needed help in the past before realizing the woman who was with her, talking about singing whale songs when she gave birth to William, was on the other end of the line.

And yes, Reyes was there for Scully back in the dark, Mulderless days. They were close friends — or so I’d thought — by the time THE X-FILES ended its run with its ninth season. Reyes was the one Scully repeatedly called for help keeping her son safe and was one of a handful of people she’d ever let hold him without threatening to shoot. She was there when Scully made the painful decision to give William away; Reyes was also instrumental in helping Mulder and Scully go on the run in the original series finale.

What has Reyes been up to since 2002? Apparently, she was summoned by none other than the Cigarette Smoking Man himself and offered a deal to save her life if she became, like, his neck cigarette holder? And she accepted. The loyal, caring Reyes, who’d always been able to read people for their positive or negative “vibes,” was suddenly in league with a C.G.B. Spender who was so nastily burned, he’d needed his face reconstructed and his neck turned into an emphysema stick sucking hole.

Reyes. Seriously? Our lady and savior, Dana Katherine Scully, wasn’t impressed with her former bestie. Scully even went so far as to ask why Reyes had even bothered to contact her, other than to admit what a coward she was.

Reyes redeemed herself as quickly as anyone could, given the situation, by providing Scully with the key information — that only those selected and given the technology shared by the aliens back in the 1950s were safe — proving herself to be a major, major player in this finale. But was it worth it to drag a once-beloved character so far by turning her into such a traitor? I’m not sure.

Scully, in her infinite kindness, did actually refer to Reyes as a “friend” when sharing her findings with Einstein later, so at least there’s that. Maybe they’ll make up and sing some whale songs together when this is all over — if it’s ever all over, that is.

We’re gonna find Mulder. While Scully and Einstein put their science brains together to stop the massive outbreaks, Mulder was doing the Mulder thing, taking off on his own. At one point, Scully tried calling him — probably for at least the thousandth time — and broke hearts, alien and human alike, with practically begging him to pick up.

He didn’t pick up. If anyone’s surprised, I suggest that they watch THE X-FILES again from the beginning and count the number of times this has happened, always with bad results.

It was pretty evident from the first time we saw him that Mulder wasn’t in the best of health, and it looked like he’d been in some sort of physical altercation, too. As we learned from Reyes, Mulder had been summoned by Cancer Man; but as we saw via flashback, Mulder had destroyed his own home when the person his father sent to fetch him came to the door.

…and then off Mulder drove, in increasingly terrible shape, to find Evil Daddy in South Carolina. Because Scully was otherwise occupied, Skinner called Agent Miller to hunt Mulder down. Apparently, Scully wasn’t smart enough to find Mulder’s phone tracker application on his laptop, but Miller found it instantly.

Sure. Fine. Whatever.

Despite being sick, Mulder’s physical attacks, on both whichever henchman The Cigarette Smoking Man sent to find him and our loathed villain himself, were the stuff of action hero legends. And his refusal to join the conspiracy was the embodiment of every good thing Fox Mulder has ever been. Being such a loving father, Spender dangled Scully in front of Mulder as some sort of blackmail, only causing Mulder to threaten him if he hurt her in any way. Again, classic Mulder. And classic Emphysema Man with not caring enough to save Mulder’s life when he refused to turn, choosing to gloat over his failing state instead.

Eventually, Miller found Mulder and took him away from devil’s lair…but it might have been too late.

Hell hath no fury… Finally in possession of her self-created cure, Scully received a call from Miller with his and Mulder’s whereabouts. After leaving plenty of vaccine with Einstein to save the doctors at Our Lady of Sorrows, Scully did what Scully always does when Mulder’s in trouble: She dropped everything to go save him.

Driving against traffic, then rushing on foot to find Mulder and Miller, Scully arrived with the vaccine…and basically ignored Miller’s presence once she laid eyes on Mulder. It was no “Mulder, it’s me,” but her “Mulder, I’m here” was a powerful moment in and of itself. Scully’s here/there for Mulder. That’s a big deal, even after all of these years.

Bittersweet smile planted firmly on her face (oh, welcome back to The Pain Files, everybody), Scully listened as Mulder told her that “Old Smokey” had saved her and he guessed he should thank the man, all while Scully made the horrible realization that Mulder might be too far gone for her vaccine to help him.

Pause.

If Scully’s abduction gave her the life-and-world-saving alien DNA, how did Mulder’s abduction and subsequent near transformation into a super soldier not worthy of alien DNA? Are we to believe that Scully’s use anti-virals to save his life over a decade ago were what damned him now? Or was he just never deemed worthy in the first place?

Un-pause.

And then the big kicker…What would save Mulder? Stem cells. Whose stem cells? Remember when I said William was hanging over everything, and I hope he played a big part in the finale? Someone at THE X-FILES was listening. William’s stem cells should have Scully’s magical protection from the virus, so if she can find him before Mulder dies…

…but then it ended? Yes, THE X-FILES season 10 ended on a huge, huge cliffhanger. Mulder on the brink of death, Scully realizing she’d have to hunt down William and use him to save his father’s life — so much for giving the kid up to avoid having him used in this game — and…bright, white light coming from the sky. Add a zoom in on one of Gillian Anderson’s lovely eyes, and there you have it.

THE X-FILES is over. Hopefully, it’s not forever. I want to believe it will return.

Additional thoughts:

• I don’t know whether Chris Carter is a madman, a genius, or some sadistic combination of the two. With the leads’ schedules what they are and no guarantee that this thing was going to be successful, ending on the traditional cliffhanger was gutsy. Add the type of cliffhanger to the mix, and I’m simultaneously disappointed and impressed.
• I’m still hurt about Reyes. It’s going to take a while to get over that one, but I loved having Annabeth Gish back. At least there’s that.
• Mulder and Scully were separated for 99% of this finale. Given that it could have been the last episode of THE X-FILES, ever, I don’t know if that was the smartest choice. The draw of the series has always been the dynamic of their partnership — regardless of whether or not one wants to believe it was platonic — so having the two spend so much time apart is somewhat disappointing.
• “We go out with a frightful, deafening silence.” Um, basically.
• Dana Scully may be the world’s lady savior in Chris Carter’s fictional world, but David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson are television’s gods and saviors in their own right. I think I’ll end this final recap of THE X-FILES (again, hopefully just for now) with that.

THE X-FILES finally made its return to television after over a decade, and the first installment of its six-episode revival turned all the old truths inside out. With David Duchovny’s Fox Mulder and Gillian Anderson’s Dana Scully separated both personally and professionally and Mulder himself a man who had all but given up on searching for the truth, perhaps the most difficult obstacle for this return to attack was finding a way to bring both of its main characters back to their former world. With the help of new additions like Joel McHale as paranoid conservative conspiracy theorist Tad O’Malley and Annet Mahendru as Sveta (like Madonna, apparently, she’s lacking in a last name), “My Struggle” did just that. There’s a new conspiracy afoot and relationships to explore, both old and new…So the question is, are we ready to believe?

Getting caught up to speed. When “My Struggle” opened with a voiceover from Fox Mulder, introducing himself and giving an exceptionally brief retelling of the original series’ story, there was already evidence of Mulder’s disillusionment. There was something present in Duchovny’s voice, something in the way those photos were just tossed on the table in the retelling that screamed, “something’s wrong here!” Perhaps the final and most telling proof of our former believer’s struggle was the moment when the entire collection of photos went up in flames, with a photo of Mulder and Scully together the first to be sacrificed to the embers.

Pain, anyone? This is only the beginning.

Getting the gang back together. Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny, Dana Scully and Fox Mulder. Welcome back to THE X-FILES. Welcome back, too, to Mitch Pileggi as Walter Skinner, especially since it’s his phone call to Scully that set everything in motion. When Mulder was unreachable, Skinner called Scully, who we found still working at Our Lady of Sorrows. Mulder, on the other hand, was living some sort of isolationist, weirdo life as far as I could tell. Maybe that’s what happens when your life’s work gets you nowhere, and your touchstone has moved on to other things.

After a tense phone call, in which it was revealed that Scully was supposed to be done with UFOs because of the “stranglehold they put on [her] very existence,” and Mulder thought his entire life had been turned into a punchline, the two were finally reunited face-to-face. It’s not like these two  ever had an easy relationship, though, so let’s not be surprised that there was a fair amount of disagreement and that certain push and pull between the two partners right from the very start.

Another return to form? When Mulder entered his old office and had a chat with Skinner for the first time, that same old underlying mistrust, despite everything Skinner had done to work on his side, was back. So, too, was Mulder’s “I want to believe” poster — right back on the floor after the last image of it in the original series saw Doggett rolling it up for safe-keeping — which he actually kicked and ripped. The pencils were still in the ceiling; the only thing missing was Mulder’s collection of X-files, which was what started the argument with Skinner.

At this point, Mulder had everything he needed, save for his own beliefs, to get back to business. Scully? Check. Skinner? Check. Basement office? A lot worse for wear (not like that’s never happened before), but check.

That just left a story to chase, and Tad O’Malley delivered. Big time.

A new conspiracy for a new era. Tad O’Malley brought with him the promise of a new, improved government conspiracy for Mulder and Scully to investigate. He claimed he was going to blow it wide open with their help.

But Mulder wasn’t biting. Neither was Scully, still the ultimate skeptic. Nothing like a paranoid “news” host to make Fox Mulder look sane, at least for a few minutes.

Cue Sveta, who claimed to have been interviewed by Mulder years ago, after her first of many abductions. Mulder didn’t remember her, but he and Scully stuck around to hear her story. It was one they (and we) had heard before: multiple abductions, alien experiments, impregnation only for the babies to be taken away, and lost memories from the time of the abductions, though certain parts returned. It was all there, and even though O’Malley supposedly knew who Mulder and Scully were, he actually thought he needed to explain to Scully about the memory wiping. Scully, who had basically no memory of her own abduction and suffered so much.

Sveta also claimed to have alien DNA, which Doctor Scully was tasked with testing. During that time, Sveta revealed she had certain abilities, like reading minds (Gibson Praise, anyone?). Scully believed exactly zero of Sveta’s claims. That is, until Sveta read her like a book. While it probably didn’t require mind-reading skills to notice that Mulder and Scully were once an item, Sveta also knew why Scully ended the relationship, as well as the existence of her son.

Cue the first time I needed to write “Gillian’s face. Scully’s in pain, and so am I because of it” in my notes.

While Scully was busy with the scientific side of things, Mulder was off with Tad, digging up the paranoia. Little Fox Mulder, who saw his sister abducted by aliens and had been obsessed with them ever since, finally got to see his first UFO — when not being abducted by one, that is. In that moment, his childish delight showed us a glimpse of who Mulder might have been, had he never been involved with the X-files. More important to the narrative, however, was his discovery that the government was using technology gained from this craft but not to prevent an alien invasion as we had previously been told.

At this point, Mulder went back to see Sveta on his own. After asking her why she’d glanced at O’Malley before answering the questions about her alien babies, she said it was because she was afraid of what would happen to her if she told the truth: She didn’t believe she’d been abducted by aliens; she believed everything that was done to her was done to her by men.

So, here’s the big twist: The entire alien invasion story that Mulder was fed in the original series was a lie; it was only ever a conspiracy of men. A dark, dirty conspiracy of selfish, power-hungry men. Interestingly enough, when Mulder had nearly given up somewhere around late season four or early season five (think “Gethsemane” and/or “Redux,”) he had had this exact idea. So, actually, this new conspiracy isn’t quite as new as one might believe, except for the parts where current events were effortlessly folded into it.

After calling Scully in the middle of an apparent date with O’Malley (ew) and raving about his new truth, Mulder did what Mulder always did best: He hung up on her to continue investigating on his own. Because that always worked out so well.

The next day, when Scully still hadn’t heard back from Mulder, she hunted him down, had a classic “Mulder, you’re on dangerous ground” argument with him that could fit into nearly any episode of the original incarnation of THE X-FILES, and stormed off to her car in the middle of obvious emotional distress.

But then O’Malley showed up. Again. This guy. I’m with Scully on this one: He’s “full of charming b.s.”

As it turned out, Mulder invited O’Malley and Sveta both — but didn’t invite Scully because he figured she wouldn’t believe him, not that she’d stuck by him for all those years — to discuss the new alien conspiracy. Aliens exist, but they neither have nor have had any relation to the government. Some key points on that:

• It goes back to the last century, with the conditions of the Cold War era the perfect time for “actual execution” due to the political and economic climate.
• After World War II, the H-bombs drew alien life forms to Earth, “concerned for mankind and the threat of our self-destruction.”
• Alien technology was studied in secret, as ordered and sanctioned by world leaders. (Hidden government experiments are historical fact. Mulder brought up both the Tuskegee Airmen and Henrietta Lacks as examples. There’s good reading on Lacks out there, if anyone wants a recommendations…)
• Abductions were all staged, using the alien technology recovered from crash sites like Roswell.
• The goal: the takeover of America “and then the world itself, by any means necessary, however violent, or cruel or efficient.” Cue O’Malley rambling on about droughts, 9/11 as a hoax to enslave Americans through constant warfare, NSA spying…and here we had every strangely believable and therefore scary connection to the current era of distrust and turmoil in the world.

Scully, still the true skeptic, wasn’t having any of it. On top of sitting through both Mulder and O’Malley’s rants with a permanent, trademarked skepti-brow and barely-held-back eye-roll, Scully left the meeting after labeling their ideas with: fear-mongering, bogus, paranoia, and other colorful terms. The ultimate nail in the coffin? Scully said Sveta, who was “the key to all of this,” according to Foxy, didn’t even have any alien DNA.

…except that, later, we found out Scully had retested the DNA and found Sveta did have alien junk in her genome. By this point, it was far too late for Sveta, who apologized for her “lies” via the media, only to have her car stopped by either alien or human forces (you choose) and…kaboom! Evidence destroyed.

This new take on THE X-FILES is timely, but it does little, if anything, to explain the goals of the rebel aliens from the original mythology. It also makes the sacrifice of the Syndicate’s children, including Samantha Mulder and Jeffrey Spender, to be even more despicable. It’ll be interesting to see where this goes.

The elephant in the room. I’ve done little, if any discussion of the state of Mulder and Scully’s personal relationship so far, but since MSR and Philes basically defined shipping, it has to be addressed. If Sveta’s mind-reading skills are believed, Scully left Mulder after diagnosing him with depression. That is simultaneously the only sort of ending to their relationship that would make sense and something that makes no sense whatsoever.

After everything Mulder and Scully went through together, through the original episodes and films, it seemed unlikely that anything could ever permanently tear them apart. Even Mulder’s death couldn’t do it — Scully just used her medical training and working knowledge of the alien virus to bring him back.

On the other hand, between the aforementioned “stranglehold” that this work put on Scully’s life, her admission to Mulder that she worried about him out in the house all alone, and even her comment about being afraid of the effects of isolation on him back in the second film, it would be perfectly logical to believe she simply couldn’t watch Mulder destroy himself any longer. And with lines like “I’m always happy to see you” from Scully, followed by “and I’m always happy to find a reason” from Mulder, even after Mulder got his jab in about how getting out of the house had been good for her, the emotional attachment doesn’t appear to have gone anywhere at all.

The relationship is, in some sense, what it always was — the back-and-forth, with a side of underlying angst — and, at least in this episode, it appeared as if the separation was as painful for Mulder and Scully as it was difficult to watch for viewers who’d rooted for them to be together for so many years. It’s the contradiction that makes this just another classic element to THE X-FILES: In the original series, their relationship was always there and not there, more a collection of loaded moments open to interpretation than anything clearly defined — until the whole “Millennium” kiss and the creation of William, of course…

With the chemistry between Anderson and Duchovny as magical as ever, it will certainly be interesting to see how, and if, these two make their way back to one another. I don’t personally buy the idea that a happy couple can’t be compelling to watch; but if the current trajectory of this relationship serves a purpose in the end without destroying either of the two leads in the process, I’m willing to give it a shot.

And one more thing. CGB Spender made his unexplained return at the close of the episode, delivering a classically vague and ominous line: “We have a small problem. They’ve reopened the X-files.”

Uh, oh. Are you ready for this, Philes? I don’t know if there’s a choice…With THE X-FILES’ return and a new conspiracy for Mulder to obsess over, there’s nothing left for Scully and the rest of us to do but follow him and hope that, this time around, we uncover the actual truth.

Don’t miss the next new episode of THE X-FILES on its regular night and time on January 25 at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT on Fox.