Get ready everyone - after one last heinously long summer wait, the concluding chapter of the epic X-Filiad has commenced. Like the great journey of Odysseus, we have watched in awe as our protagonists sail from place to place on their way home, that unattainable city called Truth. The waters haven't always been smooth for them, with monsters and sirens luring them from the path, but our travelers are determined ones. And after seven years of this spiritual quest, of faith questioned, and confirmed, the shores of Greece are finally coming into view.

"I came in search of something I did not believe existed. I've stayed on now, in spite of myself. In spite of everything I've ever held to be true. I will continue here as long as I can... as long as you are beset by the haunting illness which I saw consume your beautiful mind."

Sixth Extinction and Amor Fati were two very different episodes. The former, an explanation of the newest aspect of the mythology, questioned our beliefs about the origins of humanity. The latter took a more personal slant on this theme, exploring the impact of these revelations on the lives of our two protagonists. Forgive me for combining two such distinct episodes into one review, but so closely related were they, it would be hard to make sense of one without the other. The story began where we left it in May, with Mulder incapacitated in the hospital, and Scully ardently looking for a cure in Africa. Paranoid, alone, and convinced that only the truth would save Mulder, Scully took it upon herself to excavate a craft her own beliefs dictated should not exist. And that's when things started getting weird. Apparently, The Human Genome Project has been solved for years, "...a most beautiful, intricate work of art" neatly explained on the hull of a spaceship, along with passages from the Bible and the Koran. The evidence Scully found in Africa could explain every question that has ever been asked about science, art, and religion. However, all Scully really cared about was helping Mulder, her driving cause throughout the trilogy. Unfortunately, this quest was hampered when she became the hostage of an insane American doctor/part-time murderer for the government. Not that this could completely stop her. Determined to use any distraction to secure her freedom, even one that might explain the miracles of the Bible, she seized her opportunity when a dead fish was brought back to life. Wham! Scully comes from behind with a chair. The mad scientist goes down, and she gets to go home. Mission accomplished.

"I'm here only to help my partner."

Back in North America, Mulder lies vegetable-like with no one to protect him. [Insert "Ahhh" and "Poor Mulder!" here] It soon becomes clear he's not the zombie all outward appearances indicate, however. Though his eyes stared blankly, his attack on Skinner was obviously a conscious one. He needed his help to bring Kritschgau to him. Luckily for Skinner, KRITSCHGAU is a slightly more understandable message than PALM, and this task was soon accomplished. Kritschgau, it turns out, is one of very few people who have seen a condition like Mulder's, and is able to calm his brain, which up until that point had been working harder than his body could handle. [Ahhh - poor Mulder!] I briefly wondered how Mulder knew about Kritschgau's involvement in the CIA brain study. Then I remembered - he could read minds! What a useful way to clear up plot discrepancies. More important to Mulder than this knowledge, however, was Kritschgau's beliefs. He doesn't believe in aliens, something Mulder was aware of...and something he needed. Kritschgau functioned as Mulder's pseudo-Scully for the episode, that second half of himself that is missing whenever Scully is gone. He's crippled without her, just as she is without him. This is one of the key themes of the mythology arc. Simply said, they complete each other.

"Mulder, help me. Please, Mulder."
"You...help...me."

That's "Sixth Extinction" in a nutshell. Though an interesting episode, I thought the real meat of the trilogy came in the subsequent episode, "Amor Fati." Meaning "love of faith," the title suited both the characters and the theme of the story. One of these central ideas was the testing of Scully's faith. Faced with evidence that did not jive with her stanch scientific beliefs - a spacecraft she had seen and examined herself - her convictions were (not surprisingly) shaken. She tried to push these doubts aside by focusing on her work and finding a cure for Mulder. She wrote to him as she did in "Memento Mori," trying to help him understand what he might not otherwise, since he was now incapacitated with this mysterious illness as she had been with cancer. But even in her journals it was obvious how she much had been taken in by the power of the ship. For the first time in seven years real emotion was evident in her voice. It took me quite by surprise to hear her speak so vehemently, especially about something that "may be extraterrestrial in origin." Her determined exterior hid a very vulnerable spirit. The vanishing man she saw was one of the more unsettling aspects of this three-parter, but with the roller coaster of emotions Scully had been on - wonder, anxiety, fear, fatigue, love - it's no wonder she was hallucinating. It might also explain how she managed to fall asleep in such strange places...at her desk...on a hardwood floor...you know, really comfortable places to take a nap. ;) And this wasn't her only vision. As in the Navajo Blessing Way, the spirit of a lost friend appeared to her - Albert Hosteen. What caused this transcendental visit is unknown. Was it a projection of Scully's need for faith, her realization of its power? Or was is Albert's doing, his last gift to the world before he departed it? I like to think it was a joint effort. Either way, it showed Scully how to find Mulder - through love, and belief in her faith. Amor fati.

"You're not Christ. You're not Prince Hamlet. You're not even Ralph Nader."

While Scully was coming to terms with her beliefs, Mulder was on a journey of his own, in a world more alien to him than any extraterrestrial planet - domesticity. The voyage began after an intense thought conversation between Mulder, whose desperate cries to his mother still echoed, and Cancerman, forever seductively beguiling. Giving him the asinine choice between life and death, and then dropping the "Luke...[heavy breathing]...I am your father" bomb (which I believe was just a ploy on Fantasy Cancerman's part to get Mulder to go along with him.), Mulder is lured into the devil's version of the Witness Protection Program. Frankly, I wouldn't have been surprised to see Mulder drive back to Scully and the X-Files. However, he has always been a curious man, and this Last Temptation proved too intriguing to turn down. To say Mulder was out of place in the setting of domestic bliss is an understatement, but at the same time, I understood why he was there. Family life is a part of human existence Mulder has never experienced, so naturally he was curious about it. Scully expressed similar desires for this so-called normality in "Dreamland." But he'll never have a life like this - it's not suited to him, or Scully, and they both know it. He put it best himself: "There's nothing wrong. It's all perfect. What the hell am I doing here?" This is the reason he couldn't include Scully in this portion of his dream. On some level of his subconscious he knew it wasn't real. He just needed Fantasy Scully to point it out to him.

This took me a while to figure out. I couldn't understand what was wrong with him, why he had chosen to spend his life with Diana instead of Scully. I figured he must not be in control of his fate, that someone was playing puppet master, pulling the strings of his guilt, fear, and lust, and telling him what he wanted to hear - that he could let go of his guilt, that he wasn't the center the universe. [gasp!] Had he been in control of his senses, this would have made it clear to him that he wasn't in Kansas anymore. He can never let go of the responsibility he's felt ever since his sister was abducted. Even in the stupor he was in, he realized this: "I have commitments - to the X-Files, to Scully, to my sister..." Yet everything still seemed kind of unreal, as if we were being drawn into Mulder's dream world, a feeling which remained throughout the sequence...that is, until Scully showed up. Then reality came flooding back with a few sharp words. She is his conscience, and was there to remind him of his mission, to point out the selfishness of giving up such a noble quest for "creature comforts." The dream was a big lie, and Scully its only truth. When he understood this, Mulder was able to grow. This was the image visualized in the final scene. The boy on the beach was Mulder's inner child, that part of him that still possesses an ardent sense of curiosity about the unknown, and Mulder, the father-figure, his responsibility to that truth.

"Scully, I was like you once - I didn't know who to trust. Then I chose another path.. another life, another fate, where I found my sister. The end of my world was unrecognizable and upside down. There was one thing that remained the same. You were my friend, and you told me the truth. Even when the world was falling apart, you were my constant...my touchstone."
"And you are mine."

Through most of the trilogy, Mulder and Scully were exhausted, both physically and spiritually. They couldn't handle the overload of ideas, information, and emotion continually being revealed to them. But their were determined not to give in to this pressure, and their perseverance finally paid off in the form of spiritual renewal. Still, there were many hardships to overcome before this could be achieved. Scully had to deal with the prospect of losing her partner - not something completely unknown to her, but painful nonetheless, especially when she was forced to admit that the cause of Mulder's illness may have been alien in nature. In the first and only scene they shared in "Sixth Extinction," this worry and psychological strife came flooding out of Scully in a deluge of emotions more intense then any she had shown in the previous six seasons combined. Mulder felt this too, for even through the hub-bub of thoughts in his mind, Scully's words came through loud and clear. Later, Mulder was apparently doomed to die unless he disappeared, leaving life, work, and Scully behind. That didn't happen - it couldn't happen - because Scully would always look for him, and fate, though cruel to them, has always led them to each other. Both vulnerable, both confused, neither knowing who to trust, they made some bad choices along the way. But eventually they found their way back to the steadying influence of a touchstone they both needed. Scully's admission that Mulder is her constant is one of the most important lines in the series, the closest the usually stoic Scully has come to verbalizing her love. The things that have happened in Mulder's hallway... If only I could be a fly on the wall. But I suppose that's an X-Files in itself. ;)

"Fox, I love you. I've loved you for so long. You know that, too. I won't let you die, to prove what you are, to prove what's inside you. There's no need to prove it. It's been known for so long. Now we can be together."

And another one bites the dust... I didn't think I'd ever say this, but I feel sorry for Diana. Though through most of "Sixth Extinction" she wasn't even trying to be civil, I have to admit I felt sympathy for her even before I knew her sad fate. When she first invaded the series in "The End," I didn't like her. I wasn't supposed to like her. No one was. She was there to throw a wrench in Mulder and Scully's happy relationship in the name of dramatic tension. Since we all wanted Mulder and Scully to be together, we resented her. Now, I understand her. Diana was only doing what Scully might to look out for Mulder. Of course the way she went about it - sealing him off and not letting anyone else see him - is not exactly the way Scully would go about it, but still, the same intent was there. When I saw the DOD key card slipped under Scully's door, the existence of Diana's conscience was confirmed to me. She does have a heart. That's when the realization hit me - she's going to die, just like Spender. Man, it's got to suck working for those darn government meanies. *sigh* Still, questions remain. I can't help but wonder what the extent of Mulder and Diana's relationship was. Will we ever know what happened between them in the earlier years of the X-Files? Probably not - and it's probably for the best. Some things are best left unknown.

After a few years of silly, confusing mythology, The X-Files has comes to its senses. Going back to the basics, "Sixth Extinction/Amor Fati" reminded me what first drew me to the series. Sure, none of it made much sense, everyone ended up dead, and no one but Cancerman was happy, but the mystery was back, and the characters the main focus. I don't know what Cancerman did to Mulder, or if our black-lunged friend is immune to the alien virus now. I don't care if he's Mulder's father, or if Mulder is the Christ-like savior sent to save the world (I suppose if Scully is the Virgin Mary, as implied in "Emily," then Mulder could be Christ. She's already enough of a mother to him.). I'm just glad I don't know. Questions like that give the show the aura of wonder somewhat lacking in recent years. Besides, the main plot, that of Mulder and Scully's quest for the other was very nicely wrapped up. As far as they go, there's no going back. Their connection is sealed.

"They can't change the things you love."