It’s been a long time since the X-Files were open. But now, they have been re-opened, and viewers get to “want to believe” again! Check out Josh’s recap of the first episode of the new The X-Files miniseries, titled My Struggle, followed by both Josh and Violet’s thoughts about the episode.
Don’t need the X-Files episode recap for My Struggle? Click here to jump directly to Violet’s thoughts on the episode!
To see Josh’s thoughts on this week’s X-Files episode, My Struggle, click here to get directly there!
Episode Recap of The X-Files, Season 10 Episode 1: My Struggle
The X-Files is back! Surprising after so many years! This episode begins with Mulder discussing his past–his sister’s abduction, belief in aliens, Scully being introduced, and the X-Files being eventually closed. Mulder explains he has continued to personally look into the unexplained himself though.
Then we get a history lesson in Roswell–with aliens crash landing. Then we see a bus transporting a doctor to the site of the landing. He is surprised to see this alien landing, but the “men in black” and military are already working on the site.
Back in the present, Scully is about to go into surgery, but she gets a phone call–Walter Skinner, a familiar name, wants to speak to her. Scully then gives Mulder a call. Scully tells Mulder about an internet “vlogger” Tad O’Malley, who apparently is big on conspiracies. This Tad O’Malley wants to meet with Mulder. Mulder decides to agree to the meeting, but Scully is also coming along.
Tad O’Malley meets Scully and Mulder outside the Capitol. Tad O’Malley is paranoid, asking Mulder and Scully to come for a ride in his limo to avoid low-flying surveillance drones. His limo is also bullet proof. O’Malley seems familiar with Mulder’s work. Mulder lays into O’Malley, but eventually O’Malley seems to prove himself to Mulder. After this, O’Malley says he is going to blow open the biggest conspiracy ever known, and wants the two agents’ help.
O’Malley takes Mulder and Scully to Lowmoor, Virginia to meet someone–a woman named Sveta–who claims to be experimented on by aliens. Turns out this girl was interviewed by Mulder when she was a child, during her first alien abduction. Sveta tells her story about being abducted, and how she can remember certain things, like how they take her pregnancies. Sveta also claims she has alien DNA in her, and Mulder asks Scully to test for it.
Back in the past, the military and this doctor see an alien trying to flee the crash site, wounded. The military and men open fire on it though, killing it, despite the doctor protesting.
Back in the present, Sveta is at the hospital with Scully, who is taking DNA samples. Meanwhile, Sveta says she can read minds and is telekinetic. Scully isn’t buying it, until Sveta makes some comments about Scully’s life, which makes her believe her–at least a little more.
Tad O’Malley, meanwhile, picks up Mulder and takes him to see something–an aircraft which is able to turn itself invisible. The aircraft seems to run on “zero energy”–electro-magnetic energy.
Back to the past, the doctor tries to help the alien, but it seems to be dead. The doctor is wondering why he has even been brought here.
O’Malley then visits Scully at the hospital, who seems to be drawing her own blood. O’Malley takes a look at one of Scully’s patients, who is missing his ears. O’Malley seems to believe this looks “alien”, which offends Scully. O’Malley reveals that the reason he is here is to make sure that Scully is okay testing for alien DNA in Sveta, and also says he wanted to see her again.
Mulder talks to Sveta again, and wants to get more information. Sveta explains that she thinks that she has been abducted not by aliens, but by men. Mulder then calls Scully, going on a rant that there is no alien conspiracy, and he has been lied to his entire life. Mulder tells Scully that Sveta is the key to everything, but tells her he will explain everything later.
Mulder revisits his old office with Walter Skinner, and Mulder asks for his old files. Things get heated, but Skinner tells Mulder that he is just looking out for him. But they end up on the same wave length.
Meanwhile, Tad O’Malley airs another episode of his show, and he commends Scully on her work at the hospital, helping children. Moving to Scully, she got her test results back, but asks a nurse to have the results retested.
Mulder then meets up with an old man from his past, and Mulder tells this man that he has seen new things, and that he has put things together. The old man isn’t really buying Mulder’s explanation. We then learn this old man is the doctor from Roswell we have seen flashbacks of. This old man tells Mulder he is close, but that Roswell is a smoke screen…
Scully then finds Mulder at Sveta’s house. Scully is irritated with Mulder, thinking Mulder is working on his “undoing”. Mulder tells Scully he believes in O’Malley while Scully says that O’Malley is a player. Mulder tells Scully that Sveta is the “key”.
Scully seems frustrated though, and leaves. But Tad O’Malley shows up again, and invites Scully back inside.
Inside Sveta’s house, Mulder explains the big conspiracy, which begins with the end of World War II coming all the way to the present, which leads to human-alien hybrids due to experimentation by doctors. The last piece that Mulder is looking for is why. Scully is still not buying it. Scully in fact is taken aback, calling it borderline treason. Then Scully drops the bomb–no evidence of alien DNA was found in Sveta.
The next day, Scully looks up Tad O’Malley’s site, but it looks like Sveta is recanting. Mulder things she has been “gotten to”. Then we see the air craft Mulder saw earlier blown up by a military group, along with the scientists working there.
Scully, meanwhile, got her test results back again. She takes a look at Tad O’Malley’s site again, but finds it is offline now.
Scully and Mulder reconvene, and Scully seems on board with Mulder now. The reason being that the tests came back positive for alien DNA. For both Sveta and herself. Scully wants to stop this group.
Both Mulder and Scully get a text, and it is from Skinner. Then we see Sveta trying to flee somewhere in her car, but it stalls. Above her, a ship beams down a green light. Sveta panics, trying to run from her vehicle, but she is blown up before she can get anywhere.
We get one final scene, which shows a familiar face– the cigarette smoking man–who is telling someone about a problem–the re-opening of the X-Files.
Josh’s Thoughts: The X-Files, Season 10 Episode 1: My Struggle
I was so excited when I heard The X-Files was coming back. It was one of my favorite TV shows of all time, and despite it going on forever, I still wanted more. I always had hope it might come back, and then it finally did! A lot of times when these things are revived, whether in a movie, or TV show, it doesn’t live up to the original, but I have to say, I am pleasantly surprised by The X-Files. I really enjoyed this episode, and it left me wanting more, to figure out this new thing that Mulder is also trying to figure out.
The two, Scully and Mulder, seemed to pick up where we left them when the series ended, only time has passed for them since we last saw them too. It will be interesting to see what we “missed” in the span of time since the series finale and now the new series premiere.
The weird thing I found about this episode though, was the change to, “it’s not aliens, but humans using alien DNA/technology” to experiment and abduct people. What is even a bit more odd is the readiness Mulder is to accept this, given Mulder only really got this information from a vlogger and a woman he only met once, when she was a child. I would have preferred a little more investigation on Mulder’s part, to make this more believable. For example, when alien DNA was actually found in Sveta, I could see Mulder believing more in this theory, but even then Mulder should be skeptical given he still doesn’t know how the DNA got into Sveta. I guess this harkens back to Mulder’s belief in “wanting to believe” though. I guess this means I am more like Scully. Actually, come to think of it, Violet is more like Mulder, and I am more like Scully. I think it is time we opened our own X-Files…
Anyway, back on point–I really look forward to this new mini-series. What I really hope for is we get more than just 6 episodes of X-Files, whether it is another season, or this season gets extended. I think with how the world has changed, there is a lot the show could do to make a compelling story for our two protagonists.
Violet’s Thoughts on Season 10 Episode 1 of The X-Files: My Struggle
I hadn’t given much thought about the opening credits beforehand, whether they would be the same or updated, but I must admit, that when I heard and saw that it was the same old familiar opening credits, I got chills. It was just like sitting down in the good ol’ days to watch an episode of The X-Files — except now it was several years later, and it’s new once again! Even though so much time has passed since the show ended, and even since there have been X-Files movies, it almost felt as if no time had passed, even though it obviously had, with the history that Scully and Mulder subtly alluded to when speaking to each other. It was like seeing an old friend again that you haven’t seen in awhile, and you’re able to pick up where you left off, as if no time has passed. That’s the way I felt about the return of the show.
But at the same time, it did feel a little odd that with this episode, it seemed like the show was trying to undo all of the alien lore that had been instilled in the show throughout its run. Now it seems like although they’re acknowledging that Roswell happened, that may be the end of actual alien involvement, as the show is implying that everything alien-related since then is as a result of Roswell, that the government has taken what they learned from that, and has been using it to its own purposes. I could be wrong, but that’s what I got from this episode, and I am not really a fan of that implication. Sure, there’s always been a huge element of government conspiracy in the show, but I always felt like they were also covering up the existence of aliens.
Overall, this was a great episode to start off the season (though it is a very short six-episode season). It really got me back into the X-Files spirit, so to speak. Yes, there were times when things felt a little over the top and unnecessary, such as when Mulder yelled, “The truth is out there,” of course being one of the catch phrases of the show. In any case, I am very much looking forward to seeing how everything unfolds, and hope that this short season is enough to sufficiently address at least a large portion of what was brought up in this episode!
Scenes from X-Files, Season 10 Episode 2: Founder’s Mutation
Here are scenes from the next X-Files episode, titled Founder’s Mutation:
