“The End” – Season 5 Ep. 20

Diana: I sense you could have used an ally, though – someone who thinks like you, with some background.

Mulder: Oh, you mean Scully?

Diana: She’s not what I would call an open mind on the subject.

Mulder: She’s a, uh… she’s a scientist. She just makes me work for everything.

Written by: Chris Carter

Directed by: R.W. Goodwin

Original Air Date: May 17th, 1998

Principal Setting: Vancouver, British Columbia

Episode Summary:

Agent Jeffrey Spender is put in charge of a case of an international chess master who was felled by an assassin’s bullet during a tournament. Mulder believes that the target was actually the man’s opponent, a 12 year-old chess prodigy by the name of Gibson Andrew Praise. Mulder soon realizes that the boy’s skill isn’t so much at chess as it is to read the thoughts of others. The boy is under protective custody but the conspirators have brought in someone whose sole task is to get his hands on the boy: the Cigarette Smoking Man. Testing shows that Gibson uses part of his brain that doctors know little about. For Scully, it may be the link they need to firmly establish the alien conspiracy theory. Mulder’s pursuit of the case comes at a very high cost however.

Personal Commentary:

This episode was meant to be the series finale. Chris Carter and the rest of the creators were planning this to be the end of the show, which it certainly feels that way at the conclusion after we see what CSM has done to Mulder and Scully’s office. I like seeing the motherly insticts of Scully again and the competition between her and the new Agent Diana Fowley (which instantly has a “I don’t like you” persona to her character). Overall fantastic episode that will make you want to watch the Season 6 premiere immediately afterwards.

Episode Grade: A-

Favorite Scene:

Great behind the scenes look at how they filled the entire stadium in the chess scene with actual people.

Fun Facts:

• The show is titled “The End” because the fifth season was supposed to be the last.
• This was the last episode filmed in Vancouver until the second movie, The X-Files I Want to Believe.

Faces You May Recognize:

• Martin Ferrero is famous for playing in Jurassic Park, Heat, Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, and Get Shorty.