The X-Files Review: My Struggle III (Season 11 Episode 1)
Let’s get one thing clear: more women are needed in writers’ rooms, and this episode of The X-Files is precisely why.
The X-Files Season 11 Episode 1, “My Struggle III,” picks up where last season’s mediocre finale left off. We learn right off the bat that the world-ending virus shoved into existence in the space of The X-Files Season 10 Episode 6, “My Struggle II,” actually hasn’t spread yet — all of that happened in Scully’s head. Or in the future. Either one.
The inherent problem with “My Struggle III” isn’t that it’s bad (it is), or that it doesn’t make sense (it doesn’t). It’s that it demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of how modern storytelling works.
An episode of a long-running show should not have two different characters narrating baffling sets of montages with stock footage of our current world spliced in. It shouldn’t confuse its audience by throwing them knee-deep into its shaky mythology and failing to explain the back story that accompanies it.
It also shouldn’t sideline its main female character with not one, but two hospitalizations that take her completely out of play.
The year is 2018, and a cultural shift is steamrolling its way through society. We expect the best from pop culture, because it is there that positive (or negative) messages disseminate fastest. So what is the excuse for not hiring a single female writer for this season?
What is the excuse for taking all of Dana Scully’s agency away?
What is the excuse for taking one of the most iconic female characters of all time and making her a victim of medically induced rape?
A lot goes on in this episode, from Scully’s psychic link with William to Mulder’s road trip (and let’s not forget Reyes’ continuingly muddy betrayal arc), but the moment that sticks out the most is the Cigarette Smoking Man’s revelation that he, not Mulder, is the father of Scully’s child. That he impregnated Scully against her will.
Whether this was really thought through or not, the reality is that is that this is a form of rape. A woman being impregnated while unconscious by a man who she did not give her consent to is at the very least a form of assault.
However, to many women (including myself), this feels like rape.
And that’s not to say that the presence of a woman in The X-Files’ writer’s room could have prevented this plotline from unfolding, but it does highlight how little the male writers consider the impact of their “visions.”
The Cigarette Smoking Man being William’s father is a cheap soap-opera twist at best, and one that presumably was made to shock the audience. Its implications, however, are horrific.
Dana Scully is a beacon of feminism and a hero to women across the world. She suffers no fools and uses science to save the day. She is the gun-toting, logic-wielding, petite badass in sensible work heels. She’s a struggling mom, a devoted partner, and a hard-working FBI agent.
Now, she’s also a rape victim. And she was not allowed the agency of this revelation — this information is given to her male boss, who proceeds to argue with Mulder in order to presumably protect that secret.
Scully doesn’t know. Scully spends the entire episode bleeding out of her nose, delirious, or being choked to death by a man her male partner has to save her from. And in the end, she concludes that the man sent to kill her can’t be from the Cigarette Smoking Man, because he wouldn’t harm her.
So, on top of all of that, Scully is a sick fixation of the Smoking Man’s. In a romantic sense. Because he is (presumably) the father of the child he forcibly impregnated her with.
I’d say this isn’t The X-Files of old, but it is. Episodes like “The Post Modern Prometheus” neatly side-stepped any use of the word “rape,” even though it was the entire plot. However, that was 18 years ago.
Writing has evolved since then, and so has society. Sexual violence, assault, harassment, or any violation of a woman’s consent should not be used for shock value. Ever.
There is a right way to explore one of the most traumatizing things that can ever happen to a woman, but this isn’t it.
Making the hero to girls everywhere a victim in order to push a convoluted plot along isn’t good writing. It isn’t even average writing. It’s flat-out bad.
And even if it turns out to all be a lie, the damage is done. The audience now knows The X-Files is the kind of show that will still use women as victims to push a plot forward.
The X-Files needs more women. And women deserve better than this episode of The X-Files.
What did you think of this episode of The X-Files? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!
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The X-Files airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on Fox.
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Brittany Rae
Brittany is a writer and avid TV blogger hailing the infamous year of 1989. She trained at Vancouver Film School in screenwriting for television and film, and has gone on to become a graphic designer and blogger in her free time. When she’s not watching the Food Network, she’s trying to consume every bit of sci-fi television she can get her hands on (current favorites include The 100, Person of Interest, and Doctor Who). She’s always up for female-led dramas and, of course, a literal interpretation of the phrase “Netflix and chill."