The Truth (The X-Files)

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"The Truth"
The X-Files episodes
Episode nos.Season 9
Episodes 19 & 20
Directed byKim Manners
Written byChris Carter
Production codes9ABX19[1]
9ABX20[1]
Original air dateMay 19, 2002 (2002-05-19)
Running time87 minutes[2]
Guest appearances
Episode chronology
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"My Struggle"
The X-Files season 9
List of episodes

"The Truth" is the finale of the ninth season of the American science fiction television series The X-Files. "The Truth", the 19th and 20th episodes of the season and the 201st and 202nd episodes overall, originally served as the finale for the entire series, until the return of the series in January 2016. First aired together on the Fox network on May 19, 2002, the episodes were written by series creator Chris Carter and directed by Kim Manners. "The Truth" was the most-watched episode of the ninth season and was seen by 13.25 million viewers upon its initial broadcast. The finale received mixed reviews, with many commentators criticizing the episode's lack of closure. Others were pleased with the full return of actor David Duchovny to the series, as well as the episode's conclusion.

The show centers on

The Smoking Man (William B. Davis
).

The episode featured the return of Duchovny—following his departure after the

film franchise. Shooting took place at various California locales, including a hydroelectric power plant east of Fresno and Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. Carter would return to The X-Files universe with a feature film, The X-Files: I Want to Believe
(2008), and has publicly discussed the possibility of a third film, which would focus on the impending extraterrestrial invasion revealed in "The Truth".

Plot

At the

Super Soldier
", approach the computer system. Rohrer immediately realizes the system has been accessed. Mulder attempts to attack Rohrer, but Rohrer overpowers him. Mulder frantically flees, but Rohrer outflanks him. In a violent altercation, Mulder flips Rohrer off a catwalk onto high-voltage wiring, and Rohrer apparently dies by electrocution. Mulder attempts to escape, but is quickly arrested by several soldiers.

News of Mulder's arrest spreads to the FBI. Upon hearing that he has resurfaced, and in such a dire manner, Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) and Walter Skinner (Mitch Pileggi) visit him in military custody. During his time in captivity, Mulder receives mysterious visits from two phantoms of his past: Alex Krycek (Nicholas Lea) and X (Steven Williams). Meanwhile, Scully and Skinner go to great lengths to get him released, but are unsuccessful. Mulder's fate is ultimately made the subject of a military tribunal with Deputy Director Alvin Kersh (James Pickens Jr.) in charge. At the outset, it appears Mulder will become the hopeless victim of a show trial stacked against him.

Skinner takes Mulder's defense, while Scully, Doggett,

Gibson Praise (Jeff Gulka) and Jeffrey Spender (Chris Owens) testify on Mulder's behalf. The prosecution presents Rohrer's body as evidence against Mulder. Aware that Rohrer is a seemingly-invincible "Super Soldier", Scully performs a medical examination and proves that the body is not that of Rohrer. Despite this, the evidence is rejected, given that the autopsy was not authorized, and the defense is overruled. Mulder is sentenced to death for the murder of a military officer. Later, Doggett, Skinner, Reyes, and Scully help Mulder escape, with the unexpected help of Kersh who decided he should have let Mulder go in the first place. Despite being advised to immediately leave the continent via Canada, Mulder instead takes Scully to New Mexico. On their way, Mulder receives a visit by three additional ghosts: The Lone Gunmen
, who advise him to flee for his life rather than continue his pursuit of the truth. Mulder politely declines. Meanwhile, Doggett and Reyes find their office emptied, suggesting that the X-Files have been closed down for the third time.

Mulder and Scully arrive at

Black helicopters
destroy the cliff dwellings—and The Smoking Man within—thinking that Mulder is still inside before flying away. Doggett and Reyes are last seen speeding away.

In a motel room in Roswell, New Mexico, Mulder and Scully prepare for bed and talk. Mulder explains his belief "that the dead are not lost to us. That they speak to us as part of something greater than us—greater than any alien force. And if you and I are powerless now, I want to believe that if we listen to what's speaking, it can give us the power to save ourselves." Despite their slim chance for success, Mulder declares, "Maybe there's hope", as they lie back, content in each other's arms, in a loving embrace.[4][5]

Production

A man with white hair is looking and smiling at the camera.
Chris Carter wrote the episode and noted that "it was strange to be writing these things knowing it was the last time".[6]

Writing

The episode was written by series creator Chris Carter. He noted, "It's the end—you don't get another chance. So you'd better put everything you've ever wanted to put in into the episode. There were things to distract us from what was really going on. The band was breaking up."[7] He expounded on the idea, and he decided "it was probably time to go [...] it was strange to be writing these things knowing it was the last time we'd see Scully doing certain things or hear Mulder saying certain things."[6] Spotnitz explained that Carter made the announcement in January so that "we had time to wrap our minds around the end and plan for it and give all of the characters their due."[6] Gish later said, "I have a great respect for the elegant way in which they're closing the curtain".[8] Actor Bruce Harwood, who played John Fitzgerald Byers on the show, called the finale the "passing of a generation".[8]

Several of the episode's scenes feature elements that refer to the earlier installments. The final scene in which Mulder and Scully speak in a hotel room is reminiscent of the series' pilot episode.[9][10] Furthermore, in "The Truth," it is revealed to Mulder by The Smoking Man that the aliens plan to colonize the earth on December 22, 2012, an event that, according to the show, the Mayans predicted.[11][12][13] This is a throw-back to the second season episode "Red Museum," which featured members of a new religious movement who believed that the year 2012 would bring about the dawning of the New Age.[11][14]

Before the release of the 2008 film The X-Files: I Want to Believe, Carter expressed an intent to make a third X-Files feature film that would focus on the impending alien invasion revealed in this episode, depending on the success of The X-Files: I Want to Believe.[15] Following the release of The X-Files: I Want to Believe, Carter, Spotnitz, Duchovny, and Anderson all expressed their interest in making one.[16][17][18] However, on January 17, 2015, Fox Television Group chairman and CEO Gary Newman revealed that there was network interest in reviving The X-Files, not as a movie franchise, but as a limited run television event.[19]

Casting

A man with dark brown hair is smirking and looking near the camera.
"The Truth" marked David Duchovny's return as Fox Mulder.

With this episode, Duchovny rejoined the main cast of The X-Files after his departure following the

Gibson Praise, who was last seen in the eighth-season episode "Without";[27] The Lone Gunmen, who were killed off in the ninth-season episode "Jump the Shark";[28] Jeffrey Spender, who originally was killed off in the sixth season episode "One Son" but reappeared in the ninth-season episode "William";[29][30] and Marita Covarrubias, who last appeared in the seventh season finale "Requiem".[26]

Originally, this episode was to feature the recurring character

Josiah Bartlet, instead of Bush, noting that the cameo would have been "a nice, sort of wink" to the television audience.[33] Despite being cut from the final episode, the shot was featured as a deleted scene on the season nine video release.[33]

Filming

The shot is of a barren desert environment. There are several canyons, and it is framed against a blue sky.
The Anasazi ruins were filmed at Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.

The majority of the episode—like the rest of seasons six, seven, eight and nine—was filmed in Los Angeles.[34] The first scene, featuring Mulder breaking into a military base, was shot inside a hydroelectric power plant in the Sierras east of Fresno, California. The rooms that were featured in the episode were the main rooms for the power plant, which The X-Files design team redecorated; the crew later called the set the "war room". Most of the decoration and interior scene was done by the visual effects crew; the only visible part seen in real life was a large sump pump. Bill Roe, the cinematographer for the episode, spent "four or five days lighting [the] set" for filming. Kim Manners called his work "a great job".[31]

The scenes that take place in the main computer terminal room were shot on a

San Pedro, California, that was decommissioned in 1974,[31][location 1] including The Marine Mammal Care Center located at Fort MacArthur.[35][location 2] Filming the court room was one of the "most challenging sequences" Manners had ever done.[31] Carter wanted the courtroom to have no spectators and no jury. This meant that Manners had to shoot each scene with a limited number of actors and make them look "fresh".[31] Manners was terrified to film the 40-page long courtroom scene, pointing out that the show was basically re-telling a nine-year history of The X-Files. Corey Kaplan designed the set.[31]

The faux Anasazi ruins were constructed inside Anza-Borrego Desert State Park in southern California.[location 3] Location manager Mac Gordon later noted that, due to the presence of a rare "spiny black horned toad" in the area, he and his crew were required to hire several biologists to locate any lizards in the area and move them elsewhere. In addition, Gordon had a difficult time persuading the park rangers to allow them to build and then blow up faux-ruins. He explained, "we were on a state park property that was an off road park, with motorcycles and [All-terrain vehicles] flying all over the place, but they still blanched when I said we have to build Indian ruins and then blow it up."[35]

The cameo of The Smoking Man, however, was filmed on the

20th Century Fox sound stage. Manners noted that Davis had "a hell of a time" trying to smoke his cigarettes through a hole in his neck, because the hole was "phony".[31] The scene featuring The Smoking Man being burnt up by the fire from a missile was done via computer animation. The missiles were created via CGI technology by animator Mat Beck. The helicopter, however, included real smoke bombs. A shot of William B. Davis was overlapped with fire, and eventually a skull to give the effect that The Smoking Man's flesh was burnt away. Paul Rabwin later called the scene a "great sequence".[36]

The last scene of the episode shot was between Anderson and Duchovny and was called "extremely tough" by Manners, due to it being "very emotional".

This is Not Happening".[35]

Analysis

I want to believe that... the dead are not lost to us. That they speak to us... as part of something greater than us—greater than any alien force. And if you and I are powerless now, I want to believe that if we listen to what's speaking, it can give us the power to save ourselves.

—Fox Mulder. The line received philosophical attention due to its perceived religious undertones.[37]

The final scene, featuring a conversation between Mulder and Scully, has been examined by author V. Alan White due to its perceived religious undertones. In the book The Philosophy of The X-Files, he notes that the final scene "undermines Mulder's seemingly persistent scorn of traditional" religion and his subtle acceptance of

Catholicism—Mulder shows a lack of approval when it came to the concept of organized religion, often pointing out that "theologians can be just as dogmatic as scientists" when it comes to unexplained phenomena.[37] White proposes that this needling may be intentional on Mulder's part, as a form of "ironic reversal of [Scully's] skepticism about the paranormal".[37] However, the final lines of "The Truth" see Mulder talking about a belief in "something greater than us, greater than any alien force".[37] White also points out the fact that during this scene Mulder grabs Scully's gold cross, an icon that symbolizes her belief through much of the series.[37]

Several of the episode's scenes and motifs have been compared to popular myths and legends. Michelle Bush, in her book Myth-X, equated Mulder's overall quest to that of the search for the

alien-human hybrid experiments—are similar to the contents of the box. She notes that, in both cases, "man's curiosity is his downfall".[40] In the end, however, both Pandora's box and the world of The X-Files contain hope, which, in the legend, was the only thing in the box that Pandora did not let go of.[40]

Reception

Ratings

"The Truth" was originally aired on the

Sky1 on September 26, 2002 and received 1.03 million viewers, placing The X-Files second in the top ten broadcasts for Sky1 for that week, behind The Simpsons.[44] The episode was included on The X-Files Mythology, Volume 4 – Super Soldiers, a DVD collection that contains installments involved with the alien "Super Soldiers" arc.[45]

Reviews

The entry received mixed reviews by critics; the main reason for criticism was that, instead of creating a conclusion, the episode raised new questions for the audience.

UGO named the episode the fourteenth "Worst Series Finale" and wrote that the episode—and the show's eighth and ninth seasons by extension—were negatively affected by the series' lack of a defining plot line. The article noted that, while the episode claimed to wrap up the story arcs for the series, "the trial of Mulder ultimately resulted in very little satisfying payoff to the series' overarching mysteries".[46] Joyce Millman, writing for The New York Times, after the premiere of "The Truth", said of the show: "The most imaginative show on television has finally reached the limits of its imagination."[47] M.A. Crang, in his book Denying the Truth: Revisiting The X-Files after 9/11, was critical of the episode's trial sequences. While he stated that these scenes "do a good job of bringing together the many disparate threads of this arc", he felt that they were "interminably dull".[48]

Not all reviews were critical. Tom Kessenich, in his book Examinations, wrote a rather positive review of the episode.[49] He noted that, while the episode "told us nothing of significance" regarding the "big picture" mythology story arc, the chance to see Mulder and Scully together one last time resulted in "an exquisite Mulder-Scully moment".[49] He was particularly pleased with the final scene, noting that it was an appropriate conclusion; he called it "fitting", as well as "wonderful".[49] Kessenich maintained that, were it not for the return of Duchovny, "nobody would have given a damn about the end of this series."[49] Julie Salamon of The New York Times gave the episode a positive review. Salamon noted that "Until the end, the series maintained its mesmerizing visual gloominess, cleverly punctuated with suggestive plays of color and light".[50] She claimed the show "also retained its conspiracy-theory heart that has appealed so greatly to viewers".[50] John C. Snider of SciFiDimensions praised the episode, stating "The Truth is a satisfying conclusion to the series, with plenty of twists and turns, a few surprise guest appearances, and an explosive finale complete with requisite black helicopters. The romantics among us will also be pleased with the culmination of the Mulder/Scully relationship".[51]

In 2011, the finale was ranked number twenty-two on the

TV Guide Network special, TV's Most Unforgettable Finales.[52]

Footnotes

  1. ^ a b c Manners, Kim; et al. The X-Files: The Complete Ninth Season (booklet). Fox.
  2. Apple Inc
    . Retrieved 6 September 2012.
  3. 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
    . 2002.
  4. ^ "The Truth". BBC Cult. BBC. Retrieved 9 May 2012.
  5. ^ "The Truth, Part Two". BBC Cult. BBC. Retrieved 9 May 2012.
  6. ^
    20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
    .
  7. ^ Hurwitz and Knowles (2008), pp. 209–216
  8. ^
    20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
    .
  9. ^ Kessenich (2002), p. 211
  10. Time Warner
    . Retrieved 17 April 2014.
  11. ^ a b Bush (2008), p. 58
  12. ^ a b c Kim Manners (director); Chris Carter (writer). "The Truth". The X-Files. Season 9. Episode 19 & 20. Fox.
  13. ^ a b c d Shearman and Pearson (2009), pp. 278–280
  14. ^ Win Phelps (director); Chris Carter (writer). "Red Museum". The X-Files. Season 3. Episode 10. Fox.
  15. ^ Collis, Clark (18 March 2008). "'X-Files' Creator Chris Carter Wants to Believe in a Third Movie featuring Mulder and Scully". Entertainment Weekly. Time Inc. Retrieved 16 July 2009.
  16. ^ Gallman, Brett (August 2, 2012). "Frank Spotnitz Still Wants to Do a Third 'X-Files' Film". Yahoo! Movies. Yahoo!. Archived from the original on December 14, 2013. Retrieved September 7, 2012.
  17. The Huffington Post. AOL
    . 12 August 2012. Retrieved 4 September 2012.
  18. The Huffington Post. AOL
    . Retrieved 4 September 2012.
  19. Tribune Digital Ventures. Archived from the original
    on 30 June 2015. Retrieved 24 March 2015.
  20. ^ Robert Mandel (director); Chris Carter (writer). "Pilot". The X-Files. Season 1. Episode 1. Fox.
  21. ^ Hurwitz and Knowles (2008), p. 201
  22. ^ "Jump the Shark". Television Without Pity. NBCUniversal. Archived from the original on 4 February 2013. Retrieved 7 October 2012.
  23. ^ Kessenich (2002), p. 204
  24. ^ R. W. Goodwin (director); Chris Carter (writer). "Herrenvolk". The X-Files. Season 4. Episode 1. Fox.
  25. ^ Kim Manners (director); Chris Carter (writer). "Existence". The X-Files. Season 8. Episode 21. Fox.
  26. ^ a b Kim Manners (director); Chris Carter (writer). "Requiem". The X-Files. Season 7. Episode 22. Fox.
  27. ^ Kim Manners (director); Chris Carter (writer). "Without". The X-Files. Season 8. Episode 2. Fox.
  28. ^ Cliff Bole (director); Vince Gilligan, John Shiban, & Frank Spotnitz (writers). "Jump the Shark". The X-Files. Season 9. Episode 15. Fox.
  29. Rob Bowman (director); Chris Carter & Frank Spotnitz (writers). "One Son". The X-Files. Season 6. Episode 12. Fox
    .
  30. ^ David Duchovny (director); Chris Carter, Frank Spotnitz & Duchovny (writers). "William". The X-Files. Season 9. Episode 16. Fox.
  31. ^
    20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
    .
  32. ^ Fraga (2010), p. 222
  33. ^
    20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
    .
  34. ^ Fraga (2010), passim
  35. ^ a b c Fraga (2010), p. 237–238
  36. ^ Rabwin, Paul (2002). "Special Effects by Mat Beck with Commentary by Paul Rabwin – "CSM Incinerates"". The X-Files: The Complete Ninth Season (DVD). Fox Home Entertainment.
  37. ^ a b c d e f White (2007), p. 53
  38. ^ White (2007), p. 44
  39. ^ Bush (2008), p. 19
  40. ^ a b Bush (2008), p. 47
  41. ^ Associated Press (May 2002). "Prime-Time Nielsen ratings". Associated Press Archive.
  42. ^ Kissell, Rick (21 May 2002). "Peacock struts its stuff". Variety.
  43. ^
    San Jose Mercury News
    : 8F.
  44. Sky1
  45. 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
    .
  46. ^ Fitzpatrick, Kevin (16 March 2011). "TV's Worst Series Finales". UGO Networks. UGO Entertainment. Archived from the original on 11 April 2012. Retrieved 6 June 2012.
  47. ^ "The Nearly Ex Files". The New York Times. 10 October 2002. Retrieved 17 August 2009.
  48. ISBN 978-1517009038
    .
  49. ^ a b c d Kessenich (2002), pp. 195–200
  50. ^ a b Salamon, Julie (21 May 2002). "Scully and Mulder Reunited for the Truth, and a Kiss". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 11 April 2009. Retrieved 8 November 2013.
  51. ^ Snider, John C. (May 2002). "Television Review: The X-Files Series Finale "The Truth"". SciFiDimensions. Archived from the original on 29 April 2003.
  52. TV Guide Network
    . 22 May 2011.

Filming locations

Map all coordinates using OpenStreetMap

Download coordinates as:

  1. ^ Fort MacArthur: 33°42′43″N 118°17′46″W / 33.7120°N 118.2962°W / 33.7120; -118.2962 (Fort MacArthur)
  2. ^ The Marine Mammal Care Center: 33°43′01″N 118°17′47″W / 33.7169°N 118.2965°W / 33.7169; -118.2965 (The Marine Mammal Care Center)
  3. ^ Anza-Borrego Desert State Park: 33°15′23″N 116°23′57″W / 33.2565°N 116.3991°W / 33.2565; -116.3991 (Anza-Borrego Desert State Park)

Bibliography

External links

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