Doors are closed and others are opened as "Redux II" brings a three part story line to an end. Though the entire episode is compelling and filled with enough intrigue for a whole season, what bothered me was the unprecedented gamble Mulder took when he named Section Chief Blevins (Charles Cioffi) as the mole within the FBI playing Mulder and Scully for suckers during their four year stint on the X-Files. Mulder even admitted as much, thereby reducing his prior investigative work to an inspired guess. That seemed to me a cop out by the writers, and doesn't really close the issue for this viewer. Blevins may be dead, but do we really know if he was the one undermining Mulder's anti-American conspiracy thesis?
What's very clever about the overall writing for the series however, has to do with the way they keep the viewer on the hook for the existence of UFO's and extraterrestrials. Even when we have a definitive denial as detailed by Department of Defense employee Michael Kritschgau (John Finn), subsequent events emerge to challenge those assertions. It makes you wonder how Mulder can continue on with the constant interference and obfuscation that intrude on his theories.
But one thing is certain about Mulder. His faith and love for his partner is never more evident than in this episode. With Scully facing impending death due to the cancer created by the syndicate to remove her from the picture, Mulder never gives up hope and believes in the Smoking Man's assessment that the cure is within his grasp. Even so, the episode leaves it up to the discretion of the viewer as to how Scully's life was spared. Was it the re-implantation of the microchip, her faith in God, or some unknown factor that brought her back from the brink? Each of those ideas is given enough plausibility to keep the viewer off balance and searching for answers as well.
The kicker for this episode of course was the well telegraphed demise of the sinister and mysterious Smoking Man (William B. Davis). In all of his smug self assuredness during the course of the series, it makes me wonder why he never gave it a second thought that he might have become a target by the First Elder (Don S. Williams) and the rest of the Syndicate. He certainly failed a number of times to deliver on the Syndicate's agenda, most notably with the Krycek business, and definitely in his protection of Mulder and Scully in this story. But as we've seen so many times in the past when it comes to the X-Files, everything may not be as it seems, even to the discerning eye. The Smoking Man himself expressed it best - "To live with the lie, you have to believe it".
What's very clever about the overall writing for the series however, has to do with the way they keep the viewer on the hook for the existence of UFO's and extraterrestrials. Even when we have a definitive denial as detailed by Department of Defense employee Michael Kritschgau (John Finn), subsequent events emerge to challenge those assertions. It makes you wonder how Mulder can continue on with the constant interference and obfuscation that intrude on his theories.
But one thing is certain about Mulder. His faith and love for his partner is never more evident than in this episode. With Scully facing impending death due to the cancer created by the syndicate to remove her from the picture, Mulder never gives up hope and believes in the Smoking Man's assessment that the cure is within his grasp. Even so, the episode leaves it up to the discretion of the viewer as to how Scully's life was spared. Was it the re-implantation of the microchip, her faith in God, or some unknown factor that brought her back from the brink? Each of those ideas is given enough plausibility to keep the viewer off balance and searching for answers as well.
The kicker for this episode of course was the well telegraphed demise of the sinister and mysterious Smoking Man (William B. Davis). In all of his smug self assuredness during the course of the series, it makes me wonder why he never gave it a second thought that he might have become a target by the First Elder (Don S. Williams) and the rest of the Syndicate. He certainly failed a number of times to deliver on the Syndicate's agenda, most notably with the Krycek business, and definitely in his protection of Mulder and Scully in this story. But as we've seen so many times in the past when it comes to the X-Files, everything may not be as it seems, even to the discerning eye. The Smoking Man himself expressed it best - "To live with the lie, you have to believe it".