“One Son” marks the culmination of the mythology arc which has been running through the series since the second season. To remind us of this, the opening teaser is a montage of flashbacks from various arc episodes with a narration by Mulder of the coming Armageddon. In case you did not realize the episode was a big deal, every major character involved in the arc makes at least a cameo, and often a forced one that does not add to the story at all. But truth be told, the arc ends in about as big a splash as one could ask for. It is difficult to complain about anything other than how mulder and scully were not a party top much of any of the resolution.The episode is also heavy on exposition, just like part one. Funnier still, the conspiracy is explained yet again by the Cigarette Smoking man in excruciating detail. This time around, it is not in a last minute narration addition so the audience will not get mired in the story, but an explanation of everything told to Mulder at gunpoint. The scene brings forth two points. One, I was reminded of the old Bugs Bunny cartoon in which Bugs is being held captive by Edward G. Robinson’s gang of crooks. He is goofing around with them, refusing to talk until Robinson pulls a gun on him, at which point bugs blabs a bunch of nonsense at a mile a minute. In ’One Son, Csm taunts Mulder that he did not have the nerve to shoot the last time the agent had him at gun point, but once Mulder cocks the hammer, CSM pulls a Bugs Bunny on him.
The second point is that it is the exact same story he told Fowley in the previous episode. When there is a week gap between the two episodes like when originally aired, that is not a big deal, so I cannot criticize it much. But when you watch the episodes back to back, it strikes one as unnecessary overkill. With that in mind, I will direct you to my review for ”Two Fathers” if you need a refreshed on the last five years of continuity. I spelled it all out in a couple paragraphs there.
There are some strange points to “One Son.” The first is, like yesterday, the near irrelevance of Mulder and Scully to the story. The cliffhanger of Mulder about to honor Cassandra spender’s request to kill her is broken up by the Center for Disease Control which takes them all into custody because they are allegedly exposed to a contagion carried by Cassandra. This leads to the famous shower scene, for which you will all be angry if I do not do this:
You are welcome, shippers and perverts alike.From there, Scully actually disappears for a solid thirty minutes because Mulder will not believe Fowley is part of the conspiracy, so she will not associate with him anymore. Mulder is reduced to a convenient sounding board for the CSM’s Bugs Bunny act because soliloquy is a passe method of exposition in today’s filmed drama. Otherwise, we have secondary characters at the forefront. Jeffrey takes up Mulder’s cause to save his mother. The lone Gunman research fowley’s activities on behalf of Scully, who presumably batted her eyelashes just right to convince them to do so behind Mulder’s back. (I blame them not. I would skinny dip in a lake infested with snapping turtles if scully batted her eyelashes at me.) Krycek shows up to discover Maria Cavarrubias is still being held by the Syndicate after they tested the black oil vaccine on her a year prior. Fowley kinda sorta convinces Mulder, who is thinking with his penis, that she is on the up and up. The funny thing is, in spite of no resolution between the two agents over Fowley’s status, they hook back up to attempt rescuing Cassandra, though they fail. Skinner shows up during the rescue attempt, has two lines, and promptly disappears. His cameo is laughable.
The real heroes among all this strange drama are the faceless rebels. When the syndicate gathers with their families to meet with the alien colonists now that Cassandra is a successful human/alien hybrid, they torch everyone as they have in every episode related to the rebel arc. A few things seem really convenient. For one, the CSM is not there even though he is in charge of the hybrid program. We need him as a villain for the future, so there. Two, I find it odd that Samantha Mulder, in whatever form, was left out of the family members going to meet up with the aliens. Maybe I am reading it wrong, but like the CSM’s absence from the massacre, they needed her for future storylines, so she was spared.
In the end, a guilt ridden Jeffrey Spender requests Mulder and Scully be placed back on the X-Files because he believes the two of them could have saved his mother even though they tried and failed to do so. (In his defense, I am not sure he knew of their efforts there at the last minute.) Exactly why kersh would reinstate two suspended agents and assign them to a special section based on the request of a young, relatively inexperienced agent is a mystery, but that is television for you. In the end, Jeffrey spender is shot and supposed killed by his father for not living up to his legacy like Mulder has.
I have been snaky, but ‘One Son” is as good as resolution to the original mythology arc as one could wish. Subsequent seasons rendered most every bit of the mythology irrelevant, but I cannot fault ‘One Son’ for that. There are some logical flaws, such as Scully’s change of heart for no reason after storming off, characters who need to appear later for no good reason not being a Part of the meeting with the aliens even though they should have been, and the appearance of various supporting characters for no good reason other than than a rousing chorus of “Hail, Hail, the Gang’s All Here,’ but I am still going to give this one four stars because it wraps up a five year arc without any serious gaps, all things considered.
Rating: **** (out of 5)
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