The X-Files Mini Reunion Reveals The Truth at MegaCon Orlando 2018

For almost fourteen years, fans of The X-Files waited for the resurgence of Chris Carter's extraterrestrial series to come along. When the television show returned to Fox for two more seasons, devotees were all-to-eager to continue the investigation of aliens, demons, and everything in-between alongside FBI Agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson). Following the series' brief return for its eleventh and final (never say never) season earlier in 2018, the truth was still out there as the supporting cast touched down in MegaCon Orlando for a mini-reunion. Mitch Pileggi, who played FBI Assistant Director Walter Skinner, Annabeth Gish as former agent Monica Reyes, and William B Davis as Cigarette Smoking Man were on hand for a spooky question and answer session with fans to dish about the latest season and what it was like to work on one of the most mind-boggling series ever.

The following contains spoilers for the final season of The X-Files. Read at your own risk!

The X-Files (2018) Struggles To Keep Its Legacy Going

Photo Credit: Fox

After fourteen years of waiting for The X-Files to return, its initial reboot in 2016 wasn't the greatest. While it was great catching up with Mulder and Scully as they thwarted Cigarette Smoking Man's bit for world destruction, the highly anticipated tenth season was a bumpy start. A question weighed on the fandom's mind: could the series eclipse the disappointment with season eleven? Below includes spoilers of The X-Files series so far. You've been warned but hope you enjoy!

The X-Files Revival: Home Again Review

Coming off of the heartwarming monster-of-the-week episode Mulder and Scully Meet the Were Monster, the X-Files took a somber turn with its latest episode. Director and writer Glen Moran combined an unknown force known as the Trash Man, and a solid focus towards Scully with her mother and as a mother.

In Home Again, the agents are sent to Philadelphia to investigate a serial killer connected to the homeless. Stuck between the streets and the city laws, dozens of homeless men and women were being shuffled around the city like cattle - until the local officials are mysteriously killed by a mystery assailant who swoops in and out of a garbage truck.

Just as the case gets underway Scully is called back to Washington D.C. where her mother suffered a fatal heart attack. Left stricken at her beside, Scully tries to stay strong as her mother mysteriously calls out for her long-distant son Charlie - whom she hadn't had contact in many years. Trying to focus at the task of hand, Scully struggles with her own regrets as a mother.

For the revival, it's been an explored subject that Scully had to give her and Mulder's son up for adoption in the original series. Now that so much time has passed and they've returned to the X-Files, Scully's plagued with doubts if she made the right call. With her mom lying in a near-coma, she feels like there needs to be said between them. Scully struggles to understand her mother's outreach to her brother, who's been a distant relative to the family.

What I really liked about the fourth episode was the combination of the 'monster-of-the-week' as well as focusing on Scully. While last week's episode was definitely more light and heartwarming, this took a darker turn. The Trash-Man and his link of killings brought back the good ol' days of the XX-Files that took take something normal and twist it into something truly creepy. Tall, scarred and with a bandaged nose, he snuck into the night to twist his assailants into literal trash.

I wouldn't necessarily say this was a strong episode. Was it better than last week's or the first two episodes? I'm not quite sure. The revival itself hasn't really returned to the pace of the original series - which is not something the actors could be expected to repeat. The chemistry and emotional intelligence is still there as they return to their characters, but the episodes themselves feel a little slow-going - not bad, or terrible. But I wonder, if this one revival is the only revival we are going have, has the material been the absolute best? I can't give a definitive yes, yet. That's perhaps is the biggest quandary.

The nastiness of the Trash-Man's crimes were both scary and chilling, but it didn't necessarily mar Scully's side of the plot. Gillian Anderson hasn't had a lot to do with the revival so far since much of the episodes centered on Mulder. In regards with her dealing with her mothers' condition, she gave the sorrow and confusion we were reminded of throughout the original series. The biggest difference now is that she is deeply experiencing the turmoil and void of Williams' adoption. The void of his William's presence and Scully's struggles with her mother is what really created the emotional impact and made the episode memorable.

The X-Files Revival: S10X03 Mulder and Scully

We've hit the halfway mark with the X-Files revival! It's so hard to believe that we're nearly two episodes until the season ten finale already. The third episode really lays on the charm and kitsch with a brand new monster-of-the-week episode: Mulder and Scully Meet the Were Monster.

Hold up in his office, Mulder is questioning his middle-agedness. Nearly all of the cases he and Scully investigated, or runs that excited him the most about the possibilities of the world, have been solved - either through technology, a weather phenomenon, or hoaxes. It's safe to assume that the sails have been knocked out for him, and he immediately realizes the childish naivete he had all those years ago.

Until Scully springs a new case on them: it's got monsters in it. Well, a monster to be exact. Out in the middle of a small Oregon town (where everyone nearly seems to high off their rocker), a series of animal attacks on humans brings the agents out to investigate. Mulder begins leaning towards a lizard-man Guy Mann (played by Rhys Darby) as the culprit, while Scully sorta sits back and enjoys this new side of Mulder. A side of Mulder who now uses the internet for all of his google-searching on supernatural phenomena, and a new app he hopes will help him capture phenomena on his phone. What would the Lone Gunmen think about this?

Darin Morgan has written and directed a few fair favorites of the series so far - War of the Coprophages might be my all-time favorite. This story that he brought to Chris Carter for the mini series had been scrambling about in his brain until the original series, and you can totally tell - this episode goes far beyond just a throw-in homage to all of the tiny, minute details fans know about - the two paint-huffing stoners, how Mulder and Scully are supposed to die, Dagoo, and so much more! There's some hidden details even die-hard fans caught that I never believed could be caught. What Morgan brings back is the humor and horror that was so memorable about the monster-of-the-week style.

It's not hard to do when Darby as Mann is so charming. His monologue of being a human sized lizard, becoming a human and facing the confusing trials of what mankind puts itself through - getting dressed, getting a job, keeping a job he hates, worry about retirement and the future, is funny and touching.

As funny as the episode is, it's heartwarming too. Mulder starts out very much in a skeptic Scully sorta way; sulking in the corner of his office and struggling to believe what he wants to believe. And, this case comes along that takes them on a wild goose chase. Scully into the lair of who the serial killer is, and Mulder into understanding who and what Mann is - a human-sized lizard man.

The newer episode are also treading the fine line of handling the advancement of modern technology since the series finale. Staples of the original series was big honkin' computers hardly hooked up to the internet and landlines. If Scully and Mulder went on an adventure together, or separate, they had to be near a payphone or phone in general to stay in contact to the outside world. Now, the world is so much smaller with the internet. While the agents now are not completely obtuse to today's world, their work is not grounded in constantly being hooked to smartphones. Again, another nice touch accomplished between Mulder and Mann.

My only complaint for the mini-series so far is Scully - there just isn't enough of her (well, in this episode we see enough of her in the best ways but there just isn't enough of Gillian). While I would've liked to have seen more of Scully for the mini-series so far, this is another tall-tale of Mulder relinquishing to the truth. It's not necessarily about proving something deep about the truth being out there - you gotta believe it in your heart. He makes a genuine connection to Mann, and we certainly do too. By the ending credits, this episode brings on the feels and has us frolicking with rejuvenated hope. This is the way we like our Mulder and our X-Files.

The X-Files Revival: My Struggle & Founders Mutation

Mulder and Scully finally return for the highly-anticipated The X-Files revival. Finally we can say adios to the long wait for the tenth season! Below is a recap and my thoughts of the premiere episode as well as the follow-up. Hope you enjoy!

My Struggle, directed and written by show creator Chris Carter, had a lot to catch up on in the fourteen years since the show last aired, and nearly eight years since his second film opened to negative reviews.

In the series' finale Mulder escaped his indictment with the help of Scully and their fellow agents. The duo met with a wise man in the Grand Canyons who had knowledge of the alien's invasion at the end of the Mayan calendar in 2012. What the pairing discovered was the thought-to-be-dead Cancer Man, who was then blown to smithereens. Having survived yet another deadly encounter against their rival, the agents moved forward lying low from the FBI. For the second film I Want To Believe, the charges against Mulder were eventually dropped when he was called in to investigate a serial kidnapping, which left him and Scully's personal relationship strained.

One lingering question from the series' finale we wanted answered was the meaning of Cancer Man's revelation about the Mayan Calendar and the end of the world. Since the real world pushed onwards past 2012, the series made a turn to use that famous apocalyptic date as our own inflicted demise.