Last month I watched the final episode of ‘The X Files’. I haven’t watched the show since the aggressively boring finale to season 7. And yet I still had fond memories of it, despite being convinced that Chris Carter had absolutely no idea what was really going on. And the last episode of the X-Files? Television history, surely?

Well, as a piece of television, ‘The Truth’ stands up remarkably poorly. It starts with what would have been the longest “Previously, on…” section I’d ever seen if I’d never watched ‘Buffy’. And then, after a bit of infiltration by Mulder, who is captured, we move straight into … a TRIAL! Heh. Now there’s something fresh. You don’t see many trials on TV these days, do you? What’s more, in this one, all the characters keep on whinging about how the court makes no sense and that the defence’s case is irrelevant and impossible to prove. Which undercuts any tension somewhat. I found the trial occurring on The Practice more involving, and I only saw that in the ad-breaks.

I was never sure whether I was supposed to be taking the Trial seriously. Mulder sure wasn’t. His Hannibal gag was cute. At one point, Gibson the Psychic Wonder comes in to give evidence. Say. Here’s someone who can give proof of the paranormal. Read someone’s mind, Gibson! But he doesn’t. No, in fact, he just tells the judges that one of them is an alien. Way to go. One imagines that if the judges knew, then Mulder never had a chance anyway, and if they didn’t, then he just doesn’t have a chance NOW. Scully also finds some nifty evidence, but is told she can’t tell them. Bother.

Well, after the trial, I was fooled into thinking something was going to happen. After all, the Mulder’s defence had really been just an even longer “Previously, on…” section. Perhaps they were reminding you of some salient facts so that the second half would be really thrilling? But no, the second half involves Mulder’s escape and subsequent visit to … the Cigarette Smoking Man! “We thought you were dead!” “Nope.” He turns out to be the man that sent Mulder into trouble at the start of the episode, and helped him find out the BIG SECRET that I’ll discuss later.

Meanwhile, any chance for excitement or drama is being killed mercilessly. Gibson’s been exposed, his life may be in danger! Well, no one tries anything. They know where Mulder and Scully have gone! They’re going to kill them! Oops, no. They just want the Cigarette Smoking Man. And since we only knew he was alive again five minutes ago, I don’t think anyone actually cares. Reyes and Doggett are being chased by a Super Soldier! Well, The CSM already told us that the rocks round here are lethal to them.

The episode finishes with Mulder and Scully in a motel room. They seem to have spent a lot of time in such rooms, which gives this some nice resonance, I suppose. There are some tender moments, and we find that now, Mulder wants to believe… in a God. Woah. In a better episode, this might have been cheesy. In a pile of vomit like this, it’s actually the best moment in the show, just because we didn’t see it coming ages ago.

Once upon a time this series was famous for scaring, thrilling and shocking people. This episode does none of these things, nor even tries. What a wonderful end to the series.

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This entry was posted by the illustrious Tom Charman on Thursday, February 20th, 2003. It concerns such pressing issues as . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.