My Struggle II
Written by Dr. Anne Simon (Story), Dr. Margaret Fearon (Story) & Chris Carter (Story & teleplay)
Directed by Chris Carter
Directed by Chris Carter
"You are witnessing what may be the advent of a global contagion."
— Dana Scully
The conspiracy enacts its endgame while Scully makes a desperate attempt to stop it.
Tropes:
- Artistic License – Medicine: A vaccine is mostly useless against a virus already in the system — what they would need is actually an antiviral drug.note Likewise, there is absolutely no way Agent Einstein received a smallpox vaccine, unless she's much older than she looks; the U.S. stopped vaccinating for smallpox in 1972. This is far from the first time the show has made this mistake.
- Back for the Finale: Cigarette-Smoking Man, Monica Reyes, and The Lone Gunmen (whom Mulder sees during a hallucination) all return.
- Big Damn Heroes: Agent Miller rescues a critically ill Mulder from CSM.
- Body Horror: We see flashbacks to shortly after the last attempt on CSM's life, and how horribly burned he was by it. Later, we see that he never fully recovered, as he's now wearing a prosthetic nose over the hole where his used to be.
- Book Ends: "My Struggle" (the season premiere) and this episode begins with identically-styled monologues detailing their work with the X-Files. The first was done by Mulder, and now, it's Scully's turn to tell her story.
- The Bus Came Back: Monica Reyes returns to help Scully out.
- Call-Back:
- This episode's plot indirectly references the third season's "Paper Clip", where Mulder and Scully find the Conspiracy hoarding records of Smallpox vaccinations and related medical experiments.
- The opening of the episode mirrors the opening of the first episode of the season, just with Scully narrating her experiences instead of Mulder.
- Chairman of the Brawl: Used by Mulder against the assailant in his apartment.
- Cliffhanger: The episode abruptly ends on an alien ship hovering over Mulder's car, with Scully and Miller there with him. Notably, this is the middle of a crowded highway. So much for secrecy.
- The Cuckoolander Was Right: Unfortunately, Tad O'Malley was very right.
- Deal with the Devil: Reyes sold out to CSM in exchange for protection for herself, Scully, and Mulder from the Spartan virus.
- Depopulation Bomb: The Spartan virus shuts down the immune system except for those with alien DNA, which makes every normally harmless virus lethal to most of the population.
- Drives Like Crazy: Scully, when she's on her way to find Mulder. Bonus points for making use of the sidewalk to get around gridlock.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: During the moment the alien craft hovers further down to Mulder, Miller and Scully on the freeway, one can notice that all the cars on that road have their lights suddenly die out one after the other. This is consistent with past episodes showing how these kind of spaceships screw with motor vehicles' functions.
- Internal Reveal: Miller and Einstein learn about the conspiracy, and the former learns about William.
- Left Hanging: An alien craft appears overhead of Agents Miller, Mulder & Scully, just as Scully realizes that the dying Mulder will need a stemcell transplant from their estranged son William to survive, as he and the world's population are dying from an engineered pandemic. Cut to end credits.
- No Ending: The final episode of the tenth season ends on a massive cliffhanger, which was resolved by the next episode. But considering what happened in the past when The X-Files stopped without resolution (repeatedly), combined with the two-year gap between seasons 10 & 11, fans of the show were worried this was going to be all she wrote. See the YMMV section for more details.
- The Plague: The Spartan virus, hidden inside vaccinations, shuts down the immune system of anyone not having had alien DNA inserted into theirs.
- Skeptic No Longer: It doesn't take Agent Einstein long to realize Scully's not just paranoid.
- Tears of Blood: Not actual tears, but a nurse has what looks like a wicked case of subconjunctival hemorrhage.
- We Can Rule Together: The Cigarette Smoking Man offers the vaccine and seat at the conspiracy to Mulder. Naturally, Mulder refuses.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: CSM presents the conspiracy as this, stating that the human race would have wiped out itself and the rest of the planet sooner or later, so it's better to wipe out most of them now and then start over. Mulder calls bullshit on this.
- Wham Episode: People around the world start falling ill and dying from complete immune system failures, an event orchestrated by the Cigarette-Smoking Man. It turns out that Monica Reyes cared for CSM after his presumed death. Mulder falls ill while confronting CSM and turns down an offer to be given the alien DNA that will make him immune - the same DNA Scully has, which is the only viable cure for the disease. Scully finally finds Mulder one the crowded 14th Street Bridge, but realizes that he's so near death that the DNA will not be enough to help him; the only cure has something to do with William. And just as this comes to light, the same UFO that blew up an alien abductee's car in "My Struggle" appears right above the bridge, preparing to strike.
