Spoiler Warning: Start of a myth two-parter (the last one!). Expect spoilers.
So, this episode ties in to the events of The Sixth Extinction from the beginning of the seventh season, and I'm starting to feel like this stupid William story line is trying to stick its fingers in everyone's pie, spoiling them all. It also makes it harder to cherry pick episodes to watch, which kind of annoys me, because the William story line is not good enough to warrant sitting through the whole thing. And yet it's the core of the show's last two seasons of mythology, so you can't avoid it without cutting the mythology out completely - which would be perfectly okay, except that you'd miss some critical character sendoffs. And this is the highest point the mythology has reached all season (not that that's saying much), undoubtedly raised by the inclusion of plot points from the Sixth Extinction arc, instead of relying so heavily on this Super Soldier rigmarole. Except that one wonders how any of this stuff is relevant, since in Essence/Existence, the miracle baby plot detoured into "the aliens are afraid of God" territory, which is incompatible with "the aliens are God". This show's mythology has always been inscrutable, but never has it been so damnably inconsistent.
On the plus side, putting William in clear and present danger has a positive effect on Scully's character for once, since instead of just being weepy, she goes into total badass mode, like some of her best moments from the past. Pity it doesn't last too long, though. The baby is apparently now the target of a Canadian UFO cult (who, in a shameless bid to weasel him into the plot somehow, claims that Mulder is already dead - puh-leeze), who have uncovered another spacecraft like the one Scully found in Biogenesis. (Lookit, everything's going to hell now that the government isn't around to cover these things up anymore - the Smoking Man must be rolling in his grave). Reyes, meanwhile, struggles to come to terms with the conclusion Scully grappled with previously - that all of mankind's religions come from aliens. They get a hold of another of those fragments and - lo and behold - it responds to William in a profound way. Scully thinks she might find answers to William's nature in those runes.
But in the meantime, the baby's life is in danger, so Scully hands him off to The Lone Gunmen (there's an idea for a spinoff - just kidding), and I'm kind of relieved, thinking that maybe William will go AWOL like Mulder for a while. Except that in the cliffhanger, a pursuer gets to them before they can disappear into the woodwork. (But not before hitting Doggett with a car). Honestly, it's very reminiscent of the chase in Existence, except that now William has been born. But if they want him so bad, why didn't they take him before? Or is it even the same people? There's no solid evidence that these pursuers are Super Soldiers, so one wonders what their game is. Guess I'll have to wait until next week to find out (or not, depending on Chris Carter's whim). I'll say that the mythology has definitely improved a bit with this episode, but I'm still struggling to feel very invested in how it's all going to turn out. Except that I hope William goes bye-bye by the end of it.
To be continued...
Memorable quotes:
A.D. Brad: You once worked on the X-Files.
Scully: Well, if this is an X-File, then why don't you ask somebody who's working on the X-Files?
A.D. Brad: 'Cause we're asking you.
Doggett: We're talkin' about...pieces of paper with marks on it.
Scully: They're not just marks, Agent Doggett. It's writing. Words.
(Noticing a pattern here? Like, inane dialogue? Yeah, me too).
Doggett: Dead man up and disappearing - happens every day, right? At least it does on the X-Files.
(I think this episode may have the record for most times the phrase "The X-Files" is uttered).
Mrs. Scully: Dana, God has given you a miracle. A child that wasn't supposed to be. Maybe it's not to question - just to be taken as a matter of faith.
Scully: Mom, I can't take this on faith. I need to know. I need to know if it's really God I have to thank.
(I'm with you on this one, Scully. Glad to see you're still a skeptic at heart).
Scully: I'll kill you! I'll kill you if you touch my baby!
(And don't you doubt it for a second).
Doggett: This man have any kind of a weapon?
Scully: A pillow...
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