In gearing up for today’s 30th anniversary of “The X-Files” premiere, which debuted back on September 10, 1993, I recently re-watched the series finale, titled “The Truth.” Yes, I know Fox‘s sci-fi show later spawned two revival seasons in 2016 and 2018, but I’m still calling this episode, which aired on May 19, 2002, the official series finale. When “The Truth” originally aired, fans and critics alike were decidedly mixed on the two-part ender written and directed by series creator Chris Carter. But 21 years later, I can safely say that it’s better than you remember.
Scroll through the videos and photos below revisiting the nine best moments from “The X-Files” series finale, which featured the return of Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) as he went on trial for murdering an alien super soldier, while Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) and Walter Skinner (Mitch Pileggi) tried to secure his release. Did I miss any of YOUR favorite moments from “The Truth”? Let me know down in the comments section.
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Heeere’s Mulder!
Duchovny left the show as a full-time cast member at the end of Season 7 and only returned for about half of Season 8. The actor was MIA for the entire Season 9 until he stepped foot into frame in the very first moment of “The Truth.” In a scene right out of an action movie, Mulder runs through a military base to try to find knowledge of an impending alien colonization threat. That’s when he first learns the date of December 22, 2012, the same date the Mayan calendar ends. (Sadly, the show never picked up on this story thread in any of its future incarnations.)
Ghost with the most.
While roaming around the military base, Mulder gets his first glimpse of a ghost: it’s Alex Krycek (Nicholas Lea)! Krycek, a foil of Mulder and Scully’s ever since Season 2, was someone who had no qualms about working with the good guys or the bad guys as long as it meant advancing in his own personal interests. The one-armed villain met his fate in Season 8, but he returned in “The Truth” to help Mulder escape from super soldier Knowle Rohrer (Adam Baldwin). “Go. There’s others,” Krycek mysteriously tells him, a hint at more ghosts to come.
Helping hand.
As Mulder sits in a holding cell awaiting his trial, he’s visited by the ghost of X (Steven Williams), his former government informant who died in Season 4. X tells Mulder that his plans of putting the truth on trial are “futile,” but when Mulder remains adamant, X helps him by handing him a note that reads “Marita Covarrubias.” This is a sly callback to X’s death scene five years earlier, when he writes down Marita’s location in his own blood on the floor of Mulder’s apartment building.
Hello, Clarice.
Mulder’s sly sense of humor is front and center in “The Truth,” most notably when he tells Scully, “I smelled you coming, Clarice,” a reference to Jodie Foster‘s red-headed FBI agent in “The Silence of the Lambs.” He then shares a passionate kiss with her, indicating he’s not brainwashed despite pretending to be earlier. In the same scene, Mulder also addresses Skinner, his former boss and current defense attorney, by saying, “Come here, you big, bald, beautiful man.”
Flashbacks ‘R’ Us.
Throughout Mulder’s many courtroom scenes, the show incorporates dozens of silence flashbacks as characters give testimony. It’s a visual treasure trove for X-Philes and serves to make sense of the show’s often-complicated alien mythology. People who take the stand to speak on Mulder’s behalf include regular cast members Anderson as Scully, Robert Patrick as John Doggett and Annabeth Gish as Monica Reyes, plus former guest stars Laurie Holden as Marita Covarrubias, Jeff Gulka as Gibson Praise and Chris Owens as Jeffrey Spender.
The speech to end all speeches.
As the trial nears its end, judge Alvin Kersh (James Pickens Jr.) asks Mulder if he has anything he’d like to say in his own defense. Mulder stands up and gives the speech of his life. “If I am a guilty man, my crime is in daring to believe that the truth will out and that no one lie can live forever,” he passionately declares. “You may believe yourselves rid of your headache now and maybe you are … but you’re only done it by cutting off your own heads.” Wow! Remind me again how Duchovny never won an Emmy Award for this role?
The Dead Gunmen.
A countless numbers of characters died during the show’s original nine-year run, but no deaths affected the fandom more than the Lone Gunmen. Tom Braidwood as Melvin Frohike, Dean Haglund as Richard Langly and Bruce Harwood as John Fitzgerald Byers were so popular in these nerdy (but relatable) roles, they actually scored a short-lived 2001 spin-off aptly titled “The Lone Gunmen.” They appear as a trio of ghosts in the final episode in which they scold Mulder for urinating near them, and then plead with him to stop chasing the truth so he doesn’t get himself killed.
Thank you for smoking.
The episode saves its biggest villain for last, as the Cigarette-Smoking Man (William B. Davis) appears in the climax of the finale as a frail, white-haired man smoking out of a hole in his neck. “I hoped and prayed you were dead, you chain-smoking son of a bitch,” Scully hisses. What the CSM lacks in physicality he more than makes up for in vocal venom, as he tells Mulder, “I protected you all these years, waiting for this moment, to see you broken, afraid. Now you can die.” But it’s the Smoking Man who dies (temporarily), as he’s hit with a rocket and burns up like a shriveled cigarette butt.
Bring the tissues.
The final scene of the two-hour epic features Mulder and Scully talking about the future in a Roswell hotel room. It’s a mirror image of a scene they shared together in the pilot episode nine years earlier, only this time, it ends with Mulder getting up off the floor and lying beside her in bed, where they snuggle safely in each other’s arms. “Maybe there’s hope,” Mulder coos in the last line of the show. Composer Mark Snow‘s beautiful “X-Files” theme is heard in the background as we fade to black.
All episodes of “The X-Files” are available to stream on Hulu.
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