AIR DATE:  May 17, 1998
Written by Chris Carter
Directed by R.W. Goodwin

	"The End" is more like the beginning for the X-Files in a sense
everything seems to have gone back to zero for our dynamite duo.  We have
Mulder suddenly going back to believing there is some kind of alien
involvement in Gibson Praise's development which will validate everything
he has been trying to prove with the X-Files for the past 5 years.  I
suppose he was going through a phase in "Patient X/The Red and the Black"
when he dismissed outright any alien involvement and called everyone a
fool for even believing it.  Cigarette Smoking Man is back being his usual
devious self doing his best to ruin Mulder's plans to expose them.  The
Consortium is trying to clean everything up and Scully is trying to keep
everything in perspective.  How does this make for a season finale that is
supposed to lead into the big budget summer blockbuster movie?  Well, if I
wasn't a fan I don't think I would be too excited about seeing the movie
in order to see how it all turns out.  It wasn't that the episode wasn't
good ,it was, but there wasn't anything too compelling about it since it
had the feel of a set-up for the movie.  The X-Files are threatened to be
shut down and Mulder's office is destroyed in a fire by the end of the
episode.  What are Mulder and Scully going to do now? 

	During this episode we have a formerly very close colleague of
Mulder's come back into his life.  The idea of a former love interest
coming back in Mulder's life was tried back in the first season episode
"Fire"  when Mulder's college school fling came back to put him through
emotional hell.  With "The End" we have a former F.B.I. love interest who
shares his same interest which is where the attraction probably started
and we can gather by what was said in the episode that they ended their
affair over the X-Files.  It does not appear Fowley has a high opinion of
the X-Files even if she is willing to believe in paranormal things.  She
says in the meeting with Skinner on approaching the Attorney General about
giving the Shooter immunity that they are allowed to investigate the
X-Files for their own self indulgence.  Other than this the relationship
wasn't as fully explored as it should have been in the episode.  What's
the point of introducing a former love interest if we aren't going to get
beyond innuendoes of what was once between them.  There was an
undercurrent of tension between Scully and Agent Diane Fowley and for
Scully to question her feelings towards Mulder, but the lack of more
background on Fowley and Mulder's relationship hamper it. 

	At first I thought the shooter was working for the Consortium to
kill the boy, but then I figure not even they would be so stupid to do it
in such a public setting which would bring unwanted attention to them.  It
most likely had to be CSM who never stops at a chance to embarrass his old
pals and to prove how valuable he is to them.  Sure the Consortium has
hired incompetent assassins before as we saw in their attempt to kill CSM,
but they wouldn't hire someone who would let themselves be caught.  It's
no wonder he didn't kill Saddam Hussein when he had the chance. He was bad
at his job.  Now CSM has the Consortium where he wants them in whatever
his grand plan is for everything that has happened.  It appears Gibson
Praise is supposed to be genetically enhanced with alien genes which gives
him the power to read minds.  Of course, by proving this Mulder and Scully
would expose everything that has been going on with abductions and green
blooded human/aliens and whatever else that has been thrown at us for the
past five years. Well, actually proving Gibson wasn't quite human would
only be a small part of proving it, but it would be the first step towards
getting people to start taking them seriously. 

	Now some miscellaneous comments on "The End":

- I never knew watching a chess match would attract so many people that it
would fill a stadium.  You learn something new every day. 

- Where's the fun of bringing back Krycek if you aren't going to let him
do anything expect be a chauffeur.  At least they could have had Mulder
beat him up a little bit for fun.

- When did Agent Spender rewind the tape during his speech for Mulder to
come right in and figure out the boy knew the shot was for him.  Though
anyone with half a brain would have figured out something was up with the
boy since he looked up at where the shots came from only seconds before it
happened. 

- Somehow I don't think one has to be a mind reader to know Mulder has a
dirty mind. 

- Why would Spender have the keys to the shooter's jail cell?  Wouldn't
the guard in the prison cell have control over the keys for security.

- If Frohike is so paranoid that he wears a bulletproof vest when he goes
to bed why doesn't he lock a single one of the many locks he has on the
door after he lets Scully in. 

- Scully goes to the Lone Gunmen for them to examine Gibson's medical
files though one can't help thinking the real reason she went was to get
information out of them about Fowley.  What I liked about the episode was
how Scully handled the situation.  She doesn't flat out ask Mulder what
the deal was between him and Fowley because she doesn't want to appear
jealous to Mulder even though she is much to her surprise.  Her reaction
after seeing them in the psychiatric hospital observation room holding
hands was outstanding because we get to see the conflict in her when she
decides to call Mulder from her cellular phone.  She is clearly upset by
it since she sits in her car for a minute or so before calling Mulder
trying to control her trembling voice. 

- CSM must be afraid his son, Agent Spender, could start taking up someone
else's cause or crusade, i.e. Mulder's crusade to exposing the truth. 
He's basically telling Spender to look at his own self interest if he
wants to get ahead.  I do wish Chris Owen who plays Agent Spender would
play him as someone who doesn't have such a chip on his shoulder. 
Sometimes it makes one feel like slapping him across the face to bring him
to his senses.  Mulder is correct in his assessment of him being arrogant
since we have never seen him act any other way.

- I do find it hard to believe the government wasn't working with the
shooter to make a deal with him in the first place to help them expose who
he was working for. Wouldn't they have been working toward that instead of
bringing up this whole putting the X-Files on line to have the shooter
tell everything he knows about the boy and why he was supposed to kill
him.  They acted as if making a deal with him was never even considered
until Mulder and Scully brought it up.  Considering some of the deals the
F.B.I. and other law agencies have made over the years with criminals to
get them to turn in their colleagues this was the hardest thing to
swallow.  Plus, isn't the Attorney General too busy right now appointing
Special Prosecutors for every little thing Slick Willy and his pals might
has done in the past 6 years to care about the X-Files.  Saying all this I
will give this one to them just for the sake of giving them a reason to
threaten to shut down the X-Files again, and we know how successful they
were the last time they did it.

- I do find it interesting that the Shooter was sitting in a U.S. Federal
jail since the assassination happened in Canada.  Where would the Attorney
General get permission to even consider immunity without first getting
Canadian authorities permission.  Why would the Canadians even let him out
of the country?  I could see the F.B.I. investigating it since the Shooter
was a former N.S.A., but not to the extent they were shown here. 

- Shouldn't Skinner have talked to both Mulder and SCULLY when he
discussed with him that by trying to make a deal with the shooter he is
bringing unwanted attention to the X-Files.  This decision affects both of
them, not just Mulder, and this bothered me because it is saying that in
the end the X-Files are only Mulder's and Scully has no true investment in
them like Mulder does, which isn't the case.  If anything it should have
been Scully Skinner was asking the question of what she wanted out of life
and her career by continuing to work in the X-Files.  Mulder's reasons are
easy to figure out, but Scully's have always been harder to figure out as
to why she stays and works on the X-Files.

- Agent Fowley obviously needed to brush up on how not to get yourself
shot when she decides to look through the motel window with the lights on
and opens up the curtain enough to announce to anyone out there that she
was looking out.  Well, she had two things going against her she was close
to Mulder at one time and she called him Fox.  Two sure signs you are
going to end up hurt. 

- What was this X-Files episode, an open promo for all of FOX's most
popular cartoons from the Simpsons to King of the Hill? 

- I thought Jeff Gulka as Gibson was quite good as a kid who takes it
matter of fact that he can read people's minds.  As if this is normal for
all kids.  It was hard not to like the kid and wonder what the Consortium
is going to do to him. 

- One thing I found annoying was the fact that Gibson's parents were
nowhere to be found.  Hey, my kid just witnessed a man being murdered in
front of him and now it is suspected he was the real target I think I'll
just stay here in the Philippines for a few more days while I let the
government do whatever they want with my kid.  Who were that couple that
ran up to him after the Russian was shot?  There is no way the parents
would not be there and no way Scully and Mulder would be able to do those
tests without their permission which I doubt they would give permission
for considering it would expose to everyone that their kid could read
minds.  There is no way they couldn't have known he could do this, and you
would think they would have coached the kid to keep his mouth shut for his
own protection. But they would have just gotten in the way, so no parents.

- Why was this kid in a psychiatric hospital in the first place?  Yes, he
did witness a murder, but is that enough to put him in a psych hospital?

- I loved Mulder's new way of driving with his arm outside the car window
with his F.B.I. ID in his hand.  The ironic thing is he didn't even need
it.

- The way Gibson said "Hello" to Well Manicured Man I kept expecting him
to add "Newman" at the end of it.

-  Only Krycek would think what a nice straight shot they had at hitting
CSM with their car as CSM walked away.

- I think Mulder gives the Consortium too much credit by saying this whole
thing was planned to discredit him and have the X-Files closed.  From the
episode it appears this was the furthest from their minds since I don't
believe it was them who wanted the boy shot.  Maybe CSM, once he realized
Mulder's involvement, but I think that is giving him too much credit since
so many things would have to fall into place for it to work.

- The last thing I ever expected was to see them burn up Mulder's office. 
This was the biggest surprise in the whole episode.  Next time Mulder make
sure you have a sprinkler system installed.  I suppose they wanted to burn
it up so they can built a spiffy new office down in L.A..  Hey, maybe they
can work out of Scully's non-existence office. 

	"The End" was a decent season finale though it didn't have the
impact of "The Erlenmeyer Flask" or "Anasazi" which I don't think will
ever be achieved again.  The episode did bring into question why Mulder is
doing what he is doing (though Scully would have been a better choice) and
it definitely looks like we will get a new look for the sixth season.  At
the end of the episode we have Scully and Mulder in his burned up office
with Scully comforting Mulder while he looks dumbfounded.  Showing how
interlocked they are with each other and the X-Files.  Of course, this
only proves their case that someone is trying to stop them since we hear
from one of the firemen that it was arson so this could delay any action
in shutting them down.  Now it is onto the movie where we might be lucky
and something from this episode might be mentioned other than his office
being set on fire. 


Claudia
E-Mail:  Claudia.Cauchon@unh.edu

5/18/98

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