"The X Files" Closure (2000)

Director:

Kim Manners

Writers:

Chris Carter (creator)
Chris Carter (written by) ...

TV Series:

"The X Files" (1993)

Original Air Date:

13 February 2000 (Season 7, Episode 11)

Genre:

Drama | Horror | Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Plot:

Mulder enlists the help of Harold Piller, a police psychic, to search for the missing girl, Amber Lynn LaPierre...

Plot Keywords:

Title Spoken By Character | FBI | FBI Agent | Alien | X Files

Cast

David Duchovny	...	Fox Mulder
Gillian Anderson	...	Dana Scully
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Stanley Anderson	...	Agent Schoniger
Fort Atkinson	...	Detective #1
Ed Beechner	...	Deputy
Randall Bosley	...	Ed Truelove (scenes deleted)
Patience Cleveland	...	Arbutus Ray
Megan Corletto	...	Amber-Lynn LaPierre
William B. Davis	...	Cigarette Smoking Man / CGB Spender
Anthony Heald	...	Harold Pillar
Mimi Paley	...	Samantha Mulder
Mitch Pileggi	...	Assistant Director Walter S. Skinner (credit only)
Norman Smith	...	Detective #3
Nicolas Stratton	...	Harold Piller's son - Appearing Boy (as Nicholas Stratton)
Rebecca Toolan	...	Mrs. Teena Mulder
Christopher Wynne	...	Base Cop
Jeff Xander	...	Detective #2

Runtime:

Argentina:60 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Certification:

USA:TV-14 | Argentina:13

Company:

20th Century Fox Television

Quotes:

Mulder: It's okay. He's okay.
Harold Piller: My son? You saw my son?
Mulder: He's dead. They're all dead, Harold. Your son, Amber Lynn, and my sister.
Harold Piller: No.
Mulder: Harold, you see so much, but you refuse to see him. You refuse to let him go. But you have to let him go now, Harold. He's protected. He's in a better place. They're all in a better place. We both have to let go, Harold.

Movie Connections:

References Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)

Soundtrack:

My Weakness

Cleaning Out Old Plot Devices

Part two of two. In the previous episode FBI agents Mulder and Scully tracked down a serial killer and in the process discovered possible leads to the disappearance of Mulder's sister Samantha, which was originally thought to be an alien abduction. We also were told of beings that lived in the starlight, pre-kidnapping children to preserve them from greater harm. In this episode Mulder is approached by Harold Pillar, a man who became psychic when his son disappeared. Pillar - or is it his lost boy? - leads Mulder to a place where his questions can finally be left unanswered.

It seems like Chris Carter painted himself into a corner back in season 5 (or with the movie?) and in season 6 the alien-invasion "mthology" was essentially flushed. In severing the loose strings it was revealed that Samantha's "alien abduction" was a cover-up in which Mulder's father allowed her to become part of the alien-human hybridization plot. In an effort to finally flush Samantha, this episode gives us a new twist on the issue, and as usual it doesn't really jive with previous info.

I thought the mysticism was murky and the sentimentality of the ending HOPELESSLY inappropriate. I guess we needed a whole episode to say our goodbyes to Samantha, who was once such an important plot device. However I can't help but see this episode as doing little more than burying a piece of the soul of the X-Files - perhaps one that died a season earlier.