| My Struggle IV | Credits | Gallery | Transcript |
"My Struggle IV" is the tenth episode and season finale of the eleventh season of The X-Files. It was written and directed by Chris Carter.
‘My Struggle IV’ is the final installment of a four-part Mythology arc story. This installment focuses on William’s personal struggle.
Synopsis[]
Mulder and Scully rush to find an on-the-run William while the Cigarette Smoking Man pushes forward with his ultimate plan.
Summary[]
Following the events of "Ghouli ", William has become a fugitive from government agents as he is pivotal to the Cigarette Smoking Man 's plans. Reflecting on his difficult childhood, he resolves to find the Cigarette Smoking Man to learn the truth about his nature.
Mulder and Scully receive a call from Monica Reyes, warning them that William has been taken into custody and is being escorted to a government warehouse in Maryland. Scully, who has been struggling with illness and visions of the future by way of her psychic link with William, predicts that he will not be there. Mulder infiltrates the building but is forced to kill the agents and Mr. Y before he can question them. He finds no trace of William.
Scully identifies a cluster of lottery winners in north-eastern Tennessee, which she believes is a side-effect of William's presence. Mulder picks up the trail but is himself followed by a government agent. William hitches a ride with a truck driver, only to terrify him with his powers. Mulder quits in frustration and instead anticipates that William is heading for Norfolk. Meanwhile, William is picked up by the agent following Mulder.
With the help of Sarah Turner and Brianna Stapleton—the two girls at the center of the "Ghouli" episode—and her friend Maddy, Mulder finally locates William in a hotel in Norfolk. He convinces William to talk to him as a unit of soldiers, lead by Erika Price, locate the agent's car. The agent is dead, having been torn apart by William. Price's unit descends on William's hotel room and attempts to arrest him. William turns his powers on them, causing them to explode. He nearly loses control and kills Mulder, but regains his composure and flees the scene as the media descends on the hotel.
In a bid to buy Mulder more time, Scully contacts online webcaster Tad O'Malley and claims that the incident at the hotel was part of the project to release a man-made pathogen developed from an alien virus. Mulder is named as the source for the story, prompting Director Kersh to order Walter Skinner to shut down the X-Files once and for all and to dismiss Mulder and Scully from duty. Scully receives another vision, this time of Mulder's death and pleads with Skinner to help her save him.
Mulder follows William to an abandoned factory on the coast. Scully arrives shortly afterward and Mulder suggests that they give up trying to find William because he doesn't want to be found and because they cannot protect him. Scully refuses to back down, pressing Mulder for details when the real Mulder arrives; the Mulder Scully spoke to was William in disguise. As the two chase him through the factory, Skinner realizes that they have been followed by Reyes and the Cigarette Smoking Man. The Cigarette Smoking Man forces the car to run Skinner down. Skinner shoots and kills Reyes and attempts to outrun the car; Skinner is seemingly crushed between two cars.
The Cigarette Smoking Man confronts William (still under the disguise of Mulder) on the waterfront. William taunts him, challenging him to kill "Mulder". The Cigarette Smoking Man shoots him in the head and he falls into the water, mirroring Scully's vision of Mulder's death. The real Mulder appears, shooting the Cigarette Smoking Man, who realizes that he has killed William. He falls into the water and his body is carried away by the current.
In the aftermath, Mulder and Scully comfort one another. Scully accepts that she was never William's mother, describing him as an experiment that was implanted in her. Having finally learned the truth about William's parentage, Mulder struggles with the knowledge until Scully reveals that she is pregnant with his child, a seeming impossibility. As the two embrace, William resurfaces from the water elsewhere, conscious and alive.
Background Information[]
- This is the final episode of the series, assuming no future revivals are greenlighted. Gillian Anderson has confirmed this will be her final appearance as Dana Scully.
- Walter Skinner, Monica Reyes and the Cigarette Smoking Man appear to be killed in this episode - although, as Chris Carter has confirmed in an interview, their deaths are not positively confirmed on-screen, allowing for the possibility of revealing them to have survived in a hypothetical twelfth season.
- The tagline for this episode is ‘Salvator Mundi’, which is Latin for ‘Saviour of the World’. It is also a Christian motif of Jesus Christ holding an orb representing the Earth. In an interview with Den of Geek, Chris Carter explained the significance of this to the episode: “For me, there were three parts to that. We have William’s immortality and resurrection at the end of the show, that’s the final image. We have Mulder who could be considered to be someone who just saved the world by stalling the Cigarette Smoking Man’s plans. Then, we have the Cigarette Smoking Man who actually looks at himself as the savior of the world, sort of diabolically, he was going to start the planet anew. Like the devil, he believes that he is right.”
- The ending of this episode is reminiscent of the ending of the seventh season finale Requiem, with Scully revealing that, despite being infertile, she is pregnant. It is also reminiscent of the ending of the eighth season finale ‘Existence’, with Mulder and Scully embracing after marveling over their (in this case unborn) baby.
Cast and Characters[]
- Mark Acheson, who plays the trucker, previously appeared as Ted Bertram in the third season episode Quagmire.
- West Duchovny, who plays teenager Maddy, is David Duchovny’s daughter.
Cast[]
Starring
- David Duchovny as Special Agent Fox Mulder
- Gillian Anderson as Special Agent Dana Scully
- Mitch Pileggi as Assistant Director Walter Skinner
Guest Starring
- Barbara Hershey as Erika Price
- William B. Davis as Cigarette Smoking Man
- Annabeth Gish as Monica Reyes
- Joel McHale as Tad O'Malley
- James Pickens Jr. as Alvin Kersh
- Miles Robbins as Jackson Van De Kamp/William
- A.C Peterson as Mr. Y
- Madeleine Arthur as Sarah Turner
- Ben Cotton as Mr. Paulsen
Co-Starring
- Austin Dunn as William (14 years old)
- Bentley Hixson as William (5 years old)
- Rogan Christopher as BDU Team Leader
- Mark Acheson as Trucker
- West Duchovny as Maddy
- Henry Mah as Night Manager
- Sarah Jeffery as Brianna Stapleton
- Thomas Nicholson as Black-Fatigued Soldier
- Jodi Pongratz as Female Attendant
- Gerry Rousseau as Homeless Man
- Zak Santiago as Mr. Green
Multimedia[]
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References and Footnotes[]