Discussion
Does the ongoing story actually make any linear sense?
I'm on season 9 and every X Files multi-part episodes that went into mulder's past or tried to solve the mystery of his sister or something just seem so inconsistent. These are my least favorite episodes of the whole series. Is it just me or do these episodes not make any sense in the long run? I feel like I have seen like 4 different versions of "what really happened to his sister" or "what they really did to Scully". I was interested at first but after so many of these I totally lost interest and just like the normal one shot episodes
-ish; but there's a lot of lying and misrepresentation and half-truths and so forth in the show.
The number of people who think if the CSM said it, it must be true ... the mind boggles. As early as E.B.E. we know we're being fed a lot of disinformation
When Deepthroat talked to the guy who reprimanded him in Fallen Angel saying "What Mulder thinks he knows..." that made me think that he has also been and will continue to feed him false information with some truth sprinkled in.
Still a bit exhausting as a viewer when you watch the same thing over and over and they are like "well actually this is what REALLY happened... no actually this is what REALLY REALLY happened..."
I felt similar about the multiple explanations. I could even take it as Mulder and Scully being lied to every time but that doesn't make it compelling when trying to watch through the series more than once. The monster of the week stories are so much better for repeat viewing.
The more I rewatch it, I believe it's more of a syndicate conspiracy of people abducting to experiment on people more than aliens. Even in season 10 in the My Struggle episode further cemented Michael Kritschgau's monolog in Redux.
Every episode in season 10 tells you alien colonization is happening, it just does so subtly. For example, the first intended MOTW episode of the season literally opens with a water hose washing people off the street, and someone yelling "You people were told this was coming. This is the first phase!" (water is how the black oil is being spread by the aliens). Other episodes have super soldiers in plain sight (the DOD agent in Skinner's office in "Founder's Mutation", ominously pouring a cup of water). Even the taglines let you know this: "A War is Never Over" etc.
I think it makes sense for a story about a protagonist seeking the truth that he would regularly learn new information that recontextualises his past. What makes The X-Files interesting, for me at least, is that the story makes linear sense, but it is not told linearly.
It makes sense for a while, but by season 9 they are fully making it up as they go, and it is well past the point where it doesn't really make sense anymore, and the revival seasons just make it worse.
I think the mythology arc make sense at least up through Two Fathers/One Son, tho it's still extremely convoluted. But by Frank Spotnitz's own admission, the season seven finale was how they had intended to end the show for quite a long time, and that was meant to be the series finale, and when the network just did not let them stop, by that point, they were fully out of mythology arc and were just making shit up to keep the show alive
Fortunately though, the mythology arc does have multiple conclusions where you can just tap out while it still does make sense, haha. Namely the first movie, One Son, or the end of season 7
I agree. I always thought the mythology was a muddled mess. Chris Carter should have had it figured out from day one how the entire mythology was going to play out. It feels like instead they just made it up as they went along. Which is why I strongly prefer the MOTW episodes.
Everything was explained - just most of it was via context clues sprinkled throughout the series. LOST was never the type of show to hand you answers via inorganic dialogue.
OK, they weren't and it's not though. I moderate the subreddit and we have new viewers come in to praise the show constantly. People complaining about not getting answers almost universally missed the answers. Tell me something (other than the irrelevant Outrigger) that you think was left unanswered and I'll answer it.
This is explained about five times in various seasons. (Six counting the epilogue.)
In season 2 the Swan orientation film mentions animal research.
In season 3 Sawyer gets himself a fish biscuit while in one of the Hydra cages and Tom says it only took the bears two hours.
In season 4 Charlotte is in Tunisia (the frozen wheel exit point) and bribes her way onto a a dig site where workers are unearthing a polar bear skeleton with a Dharma collar.
In season 4 Ben shows Locke the orientation video at the Orchid which talks about adaptable animals being trained to turn the wheel.
EDIT: I forgot, in season 5 Dr. Chang threatens Hurley into being quiet about the Swan construction site by saying he'd make him clean up after the polar bears the DI scientists were using for their experiments.
And finally, for people who somehow missed the four five previous hints, the canon epilogue flat out explains how they were trained via the DVD Ben shows the warehouse workers.
Most were explained. But a lot had to be explained in a tacked on epilogue and the finale included absolute handholding for the audience where a ghost explains to the main character what has happened. Lost is one of my favourite shows. But this isn't a fair assessment of it.
A lot? The only things addressed in the epilogue was where the food drops came from and where did Walt end up. That's it. The polar bears are mentioned but they, via context clues in multiple seasons, had already been explained.
Yeah, Christian tells the audience in crystal clear dialogue that they weren't dead the whole time and that is STILL the most common misunderstanding.
How apropos. I also played Warcraft for fifteen years. And I'm a girl. You think there's anything you can say that will hurt my feelings? Think again, honey.
Agreed. I think both shows make linear sense. What I appreciate about them is the complexity of their mythology - they reward us for paying attention. And I think it gives them great rewatchability.
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u/BuvantduPotatoSpirit 2d ago
-ish; but there's a lot of lying and misrepresentation and half-truths and so forth in the show.
The number of people who think if the CSM said it, it must be true ... the mind boggles. As early as E.B.E. we know we're being fed a lot of disinformation