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randomfoggytiger · 1 month ago

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Requiem, Existence, and The Truth: Cliffhanger, Conclusion, and Cutoff

Season 7, Season 8, and Season 9 are each a fascinating little window into the falling away of (a portion of) the show's original fans.

What intrigued me most, in my meandering deep-dive, was the intent behind each finale: what was planned, and what came to be because of internal and external forces-- all in service of the second movie 1013 Productions was working its fingers to the bone for, in vain.

THE FAILED REQUIEM-TO-MOVIE PIPELINE

During Season 7's filming, no one knew if The X-Files would have another go.

David Duchovny was locked in a legal battle with FOX over financial rights; and the resulting fallout stalled communication from the studio to the show writers and producers. Tension was fraught between Duchovny and show creator Chris Carter, as-- according to some reports-- the former was not convinced the latter's hands were entirely clean. (By the end of the season, these suspicions were laid to rest between the two, with mentions of their mending relationship bolstered by co-creator Frank Spotnitz's full support of the lawsuit and staunch insistence that his and Carter's hands were clean.)

November 25, 1999:

He also says Fox has approached him about another season of “The X-Files,” but Carter says some “hurdles . . . I’ll quote them,” have to be cleared up. Probably the largest hurdle–in addition to Herzog getting a clue about the show–is his and Duchovny’s contracts are up at the end of this season.

(Carter adds he is enjoying a healthy working relationship with Duchovny, the tired-of-the-show actor who is suing Fox for selling repeats of the show to its FX cable network rather than putting the show on the block to the highest bidder.)

Also a consideration is Anderson, whose contract runs for another season. She, too, is “tired” of working on the show, Carter says, and has said this will be her last season as well.

October 2000:

If keeping some things within the production family was Carter’s automatic response to the tragedy, it was no surprise that he’d respond to questions about Duchovny’s litigious revolt with similar caution: “I’m not going to talk about the lawsuit, because I’ve been asked not to. But along with the creative aspect of the job, there’s a business aspect of the job. This was about business, and the business is often-competing interests.”

Was it easy, though, to set aside those interests when Carter had to face his recalcitrant star on the soundstage? “We have not had words, if that’s what you mean.”

November 3, 2000:

Spotnitz also wants fans to know that the behind-the-scenes talent are still firmly entrenched in delivering a show that won’t disappoint in Duchovny’s absence.

“I think the fans should know we love the show as much as they do,” notes Spotnitz. “We love the character of Agent Mulder as much as they do. This wasn’t our choice to do the show this way. This is something between David and the studio. The only thing Ten Thirteen had to say about it is that ‘we will not go forward unless you make David Duchovny happen. Give him what he wants.’ Our audience hopefully understands we’re telling the best stories we know how and keeping the X-FILES as good as we know how. We’re on the same side as they are.”

March 06, 2001:

Charlie: Now, why is David not here?

Chris: You know, I think he decided —

Charlie: Busy with other things?

Chris: Yeah. To pursue other things. He’s a smart person, he’s a talented person. I don’t blame him for wanting to get on with his life. A TV series is very, very hard work and when you have a two-character show like this it tends to — it becomes your life, and I think that he wants a change of pace.

Charlie: Was it disappointing for you?

Chris: It was different. When he first —

Charlie: Were you hurt?

Chris: Uh … it’s funny, when a television show goes on for this many years and you’re close to the actors, you become a kind of family. And every family has its problems and its — and it becomes — the dysfunctional aspects come out and that’s not to say that they did, but what happens with a television show, the dysfunction is really — the business and the personal cross over and I think that’s what happened, certainly last year, is that those things got very confused.

May 17, 2002:

Carter admits that the series hit a rough patch around the time of Duchovny’s departure. “There was the business problems with David during the seventh year of the show,” he says. “It didn’t help the creative energy.” He’s referring to Duchovny’s lawsuit against Fox, accusing the network of devaluing the series’ worth by giving rerun rights to its own cable and local stations, and as a result lowering Duchovny’s share of profits.

At the same time, co-star Gillian Anderson announced in an interview that “The X-Files” would not return for an eighth season. Oops.

There was also nervous anxiety amongst the crew: without confirmation for another season, they and the writers were tied (and in Gillian Anderson's case, contracted) to a project that might never come to fruition.

Marc Shapiro's The Official Guide to "The X-Files": all things:

The rumor had begun toward the end of Season 6. Season 7 would be the last season for “The X-Files.” Or would it?

“We always anticipated that, most likely, we were going into the final season,” recalls producer Paul Rabwin. “We knew David's contract was up and we felt that, maybe, the show had run its course.” And so Season 7 started out in a decided state of flux. Many crew members felt they had to protect themselves and their families by investigating potential jobs for the year following the current season, while others insisted that they would wait for a final answer. Needless to say, Chris Carter was on the horns of a dilemma, one that he was agonizing over.

“I just remember that I felt bad because I had no clear and firm answers to give everyone about whether we were coming back,” he admits. “It was all about David. I kept saying that I would not do it without David. Fox was asking me to commit to doing another season with or without him.”

But Paul Rabwin remembers that things began to change as Season 7 got under way. “As the season progressed, we found ourselves starting to get energized again. Word started getting around that maybe this would bot be the end. The network certainly wanted us back and Gillian was still under contract for another year. As we got toward the end of the season, everyone was kind of hopeful.”

November 4, 2000

Kevin or Bean: ...First of all, how close were we to not having a season 8 of the X-Files? Was it ever a serious consideration?

Chris Carter: Oh. Yeah. I didn’t think it was going to happen, actually.

Kevin or Bean: Really? You were convinced it was gone?

Chris Carter: I thought we were going down. I thought it would be the last episode but uh, we found a way to do it and actually, there are really good things this year on the show.

Amidst this madness, Frank Spotnitz and Carter knew the future of the show rested on a hook; and, thus, planned Scully's pregnancy reveal and Mulder's abduction as early as The Sixth Extinction (planting clues alluding to the former in Amor Fati, posts here and here.) Their hope was that Requiem would simultaneously be a tantalizing close to the show and an opener to the movie features they, the other writers, and the leads advocated for since Fight the Future's success.

November 6, 2000:

Elizabeth Grieve, Alamogordo, USA Chris, what prompted you to finish the last season with Mulder’s abduction? Was this based on David Duchovny’s schedule?

Chris Carter: We didn’t know if David Duchovny would come back for Season 8 or would be leaving the show. We didn’t know if “The X-Files” would come back, for that matter. The episode needed to be satisfying in any event and also set up a movie. I believe that it worked in almost every way and for any eventuality, but here we are!

January 4, 2001:

The decision to embark on the pregnancy arc stemmed from the desire to surprise audiences, as well as the need to resurrect long-buried plot points from early in the show’s history. Having a child, notes Spotnitz, “is something that people do after a number of years. And this is the eighth season [on the X-Files] for Agent Scully. It felt right. We saw how it made sense, and how there was beautiful symmetry to it.”

Artistic symmetry is the ideal, but Spotnitz also realizes that it would be all too easy for the resolution of this arc to fall into a sandtrap of clichés. Accordingly, the production is proceeding “very carefully,” he says with a nervous laugh. “As you approach an event like this that everyone knows is coming, you explore all of the possibilities of what this might be before you settle on the one true path of what it is. I think it is important to do that, because it’s doing justice to the magnitude of what this means to Scully, and what it means to the series. There are an awful lot of possibilities as to what this baby is. We know the answer,” he adds playfully, “but we don’t intend on letting anyone else know until the end.”

It wasn't until after the finale filming wrapped-- and after Duchovny's legal case concluded (i.e. he was given increased pay but contractually obligated to appear for another eleven episodes)-- that FOX granted the show another season.

January 4, 2001:

Given Duchovny’s self-imposed absence for more than half the season, coming up with season 8’s story arc, and somehow working Mulder into the equation, has been nothing short of a creative and logistical nightmare for the show’s producers. “People at home have no idea of the incredibly complicated jigsaw puzzle that we’ve had here, in terms of the storytelling and actor availabilities,” Spotnitz reveals. “You’re left with a situation where you’ve got to untangle this [already-established story] web, and make use of an actor that you have according to some very bizarre legal formula for a certain number of days here and there. We really had to work around the business realities, and try and make our show feel as organic as possible within those arrangements.”

Concurrent with reinventing the series, Spotnitz and series creator Chris Carter also had to figure out a way to carry on without diluting the significance of the sizzling dynamic between Mulder and Scully. “The importance of Mulder and Scully to The X-Files can’t be overstated. All of us are aware of how crucial the character of Mulder has been to this series, and how much he and Scully and their relationship have been central to everything that has made the show successful,” Spotnitz says. In removing Mulder from the equation, he adds, “you can’t take a bigger gamble in television.” ...

As for Scully’s tendency to be more impulsive this season, Spotnitz chalks that up less to Scully trying to be Mulder than to the fact that it’s Scully’s turn to take charge. “She’s in the lead now, she’s the head to the [X-Files] unit,” he says.

Keeping Scully true to who she is, while at the same time allowing her to assume Mulder’s role as believer, “has been very challenging to do in a believable way,” he continues. “We honestly have had to feel our way forward episode to episode, because it’s not natural for her. We had to inch her along, and have her be reluctant too. It’s been interesting for us [to write], and I think it’s been interesting for Gillian, because it’s something very different for her to play.”

March 06, 2001:

Charlie: At the end of last season, what did you — what were you expectation about what you would do this season?

Chris: I didn’t know we’d be back this season. It looked very iffy. David Duchovny, one of the stars, did not want to come back, and he was in a lawsuit. It looked like the series may end. Seven years, that’s a nice long run. And I was asked if we could do the series without him. I said, no, I don’t want to do the series without him. He relented, he agreed to do eleven episodes and I had to figure out a way to do eleven episodes —

Charlie: Was that because of you? I mean …

Chris: Uh, it was because of — I mean, I could have said no and the series may have ended, but once again, I call myself a majority stockholder in this show. Fox could have done anything they wanted to do. Luckily we all, you know, were on — of one mind, ultimately, and we’re in our eighth year and looking forward to possibly a ninth.

Gillian, meanwhile, was locked down to an additional year if she wanted the same pay as her costar.

November 2000:

The push came from Fo[x], which shoved the actress to where she felt she had no choice but to abide by the pressures imposed on her. "It's a complicated issue, because Chris and the writers wanted to produce the best show possible. Now there's a formula in making that work, particularly this season with losing David for most of the shows and bringing in a new character.

"So to suddenly have Scully absent also was a tall order," she continues. "Consequently, it was a necessity for me to continue." And that's where the real push came in her contract negotiations, which hinged on her belief that her pay versus Duchovny's was too unfair. "At the end of the fifth year, it became just ridiculous and unacceptable that there was the disparity," she says. "So we took steps to remedy that and we were successful. Then there was the issue whereby I was already signed on for the eighth season and David was not, which put him in a better position. "He was in a better leveraging position," she says candidly.

"Therefore, in order to get what he felt was fair, he agreed to do the eighth season. Conversely, I had to do what I felt was fair. Fox was asking for a ninth season and I said no. "And they said, 'well if you're not going to do a ninth season then we're not going to pay you what you want.' So in order to negotiate fairly, I had to agree to do the ninth year." ...

"There's no two ways about it. I was over a barrel, a very big barrel. And it was uncomfortable, you know, to be in that position. Here's a company that I had worked so hard for for so long and I put a lot of time and energy into doing the best work that I could.

"For them to come to me and say, 'Well, you know, forget about that. This is what we need right now and we don't care what your needs are. This is what we need in order for you to be compensated,' it was unfair," she says without hesitation. "We worked it out in the end but it was incredibly uncomfortable and unfortunate."

Soon after Requiem's wrap party, FOX gave the green light.

SEASON EIGHT: A HIT-AND-MISS CONCLUSION

The exhaustion that plagued the cast and crew and writers was burning away by the latter half of Season 7. When Within and Without dawned, their anticipatory anxiety lit a match that eventually reignited even Gillian Anderson's interest.

November 2000:

"I think everybody has really kind of pulled themselves up by their bootstraps and marched ourselves forward in a very positive light and in an energetic and enthusiastic way.

"So this season feels good, it feels fresh," she [Anderson] says. Robert's come in and he's glad to be here. He's done, like, 55 films and I can imagine that it's nice to have the security of the show for at least as long as it may run.

"So he's got a very enthusiastic energy and that enthusiasm and the opportunity of creating a new character for the writers I think has given the show new energy. And it gives the actors something new to work with, and that's also true for the writers.

"So there's a kind of a feeling of starting over in a sense." she suggests. "Ut's like a new beginning. Keeping in mind where we're come from, who we've come with and everything, it feels good."

And not without hope for new, juicy material: Gillian praised Requiem's pregnancy reveal, eager to tackle it alongside Scully's new role as lead of the files.

Marc Shapiro, The Official Guide to "The X-Files": all things (post here):

Carter arrived at the Big Bear Hospital shortly before the [final "Requiem"] scene was to be shot. He approached Kim Manners, Gillian Anderson, and Mitch Pileggi and calmly handed them the final paragraph. Carter remembers their reaction. “Gillian said she knew it. She thought it was a great idea and it just blew everyone else away.”

November 03, 2000:

The quality of the writing continues to remain high, Anderson also notes.

“It’s going really well,” she says. “I think they’ve written some amazing episodes. Everybody is really enthusiastic the way things are going. The new character of Doggett is interesting and Robert is great to work with. I think there won’t be as much lightness and back more to the old flavor of X-FILES. You’ll like them – they’re good.”

The resolution of Mulder's abduction and the baby arc, however, did not progress as she and the returning David Duchovny would wish. Both actors were reportedly disappointed that their characters' relationship becoming a secondhand consideration to Doggett's integration--

November 16, 2000:

Whether the stand-alone episodes work or not wasn’t an issue with Anderson. She had tired of the job and just didn’t want to be back (she was not only contracted for an eighth year, but she also is going to be around for a ninth if Fox wants one).

Now, she feels renewed.

“I felt that I was losing sight of what I had left to give,” she says. “Much to my chagrin, and also [because of] some conversation with Chris about the potential for the new season and the introduction of the new character, I started to get more interested and more excited about the potential of the new year.”

...Anderson says rediscovering Scully is the reason she has been able to shoulder the load.

“What I’ve found since Scully has had more to do, and Mulder has kind of temporarily fallen into the background, [is] it almost feels as if Scully has found her voice again,” she says. “It’s almost as if when there was two of us [Scully and Mulder], part of me kind of stepped down or stepped backwards in a way. And now that half of that equation is no longer here, it’s kind of allowed me to open up a bit more.”

January - February 2001:

Anderson: And there's also a difference now that Mulder is temporarily gone. She seems more well rounded somehow. With Mulder around, there was always a piece of Scully that was...

Interviewer: Suppressed?

Anderson: Yeah, in a way. When you're in a relationship with someone, no matter how much you fight to maintain a sense of self, when that relationship is over, there's always a piece that comes back to you. And I feel that's kind of what's happened.

The energy began to dwindle again halfway through the year, becoming more public with David Duchovny's return.

July 12, 2001:

Duchovny also lamented how the series had shifted away from Mulder and the Mulder-Scully dynamic after his full-time return for the final six episodes.

“When I came back, I felt somewhat peripheral,” Duchovny said. “Mulder’s story was one of three or four stories and it didn’t feel like the same show to me.”

Spotnitz responds to such complaints by saying 1013’s hands were tied creatively due to Duchovny’s contract, which called for him to be a part-time participant.

In Tom Kessenich's book EXaminations, he alleges that both actors were frustrated to greater degrees than the 1013 elite let on:

According to sources familiar with the show, Anderson wasn't thrilled with the amount of attention the writers were lavishing on Doggett. Insiders said she believed with Duchovny gone this would be her chance to step into the show's spotlight. Instead, the light shined on Doggett....

Sources also said Anderson was unhappy the paternity of Scully's unborn child was turned into a season-long tease after being told the paternity would be resolved by Christmas.

Duchovny felts some frustration as well once he returned full-time for the final six episodes. In interviews after the season, he lamented the lack of resolution to Mulder's abduction and that Mulder was rendered into being a "peripheral" character.

"(Duchovny) was not at all happy with the Mulder return storyline," said one source. "Not just the fact of his under utilization, which definitely came through in his interviews, but he was unhappy with the Mulder being resurrected storyline and the introduction of the SuperSoldiers."

Not only that, but David offered to write and direct an episode that would have built off the scenes of Mulder being tortured in the season's opening two episodes. Carter nixed the idea because it was not about Doggett.

Moreover, the paternity "secret" the writers maintained--

July 12, 2001:

Spotnitz said one thing fans of the series will not have to be concerned about is the paternity of Scully’s baby being revised in the ninth season. Much of the eighth season was spent examining how the baby came to be since it had been previously established that Scully was unable to conceive.

Numerous red herrings were trotted out, including the idea of alien tampering. But in the end, the naming of the baby after Mulder’s father and their tender kiss provided confirmation that the baby was Mulder’s and the product of a sexual relationship between he and Scully that had only been hinted at in the past.

“The final scene was meant to say that Mulder and Scully had consummated their relationship and this child was a result of that,” Spotnitz said.

--prevented Duchovny and Anderson from fully exploring Mulder and Scully's new relationship dynamic, the one aspect they were keenest to tap into.

Tom Kessnich, EXaminations:

Sources close to the show said Duchovny also did not care for the paternity tease since it prevented him and Anderson from establishing any proper dramatic foreshadowing. The two stars were also reportedly unhappy the relationship between Mulder and Scully was not explored more fully since Duchovny planned to leave the series at the end of the season.

Spotnitz and Carter meanwhile, unwaveringly claimed they weren't trying to sideline the characters--

“When I came back, I felt somewhat peripheral,” Duchovny said. “Mulder’s story was one of three or four stories and it didn’t feel like the same show to me.”

Spotnitz responds to such complaints by saying 1013’s hands were tied creatively due to Duchovny’s contract, which called for him to be a part-time participant.

--and, in fairness, it made sense to flesh out Doggett's characterization: the continuation of the series' format rested on his and Reyes's shoulders. But in doing so, they bungled their main leads' revelations, sliding their culmination into obscurity.

Despite Essence and Existence's astoundingly poor quality, Gillian and David didn't have a stinging remark for the two-parter (other than one comment by Anderson about the exhausting nature of repetition, post here: "Also, you know, there are times when you just get tired. Just tired of doing the same thing over and over again.") They were, over all, proud of its outcome; and treated it, along with the on-set crew (and off-set writers), as the definitive goodbye not only to the Mulder and Scully era but also to David Duchovny.

July 12, 2001:

That final scene would have been significantly different had Duchovny and director Kim Manners not intervened after both were unsatisfied with series creator Chris Carter’s original ending which featured a mundane kiss on the forehead.

“We all sat down with Kim Manners and Chris Carter and said, ‘We’ve been teasing and doing that bull for so long, let’s have a real kiss at this point,'” Duchovny said during his press junket to promote his latest film “Evolution.” “I said, ‘I’m pretty sure I’m not coming back at this point so let’s have a romantic kiss.'”

@tpativak's interview compilation:

Duchovny: "The second-to-last-day, when I shot my last scene with Gillian, was very emotional and very sad. I really hadn’t pondered the weight of eight years coming to a close until I was in the middle of the scene and realized that this would be the last time I was going to do Mulder and Scully on the show. It was sad and very heavy, but not depressing. It was an acknowledgement of a lot of time, effort and love. I think it was written that Scully gives Mulder a kiss on the forehead. Kim Manners was there [directing], and I was so confused at that point that I didn’t trust my feelings about it because I had so many personal feelings. It was eight years of my life. I didn’t know what would be an appropriate ending. I didn’t know. And when Kim and I read it as we were about to shoot it, he said, ‘We’ve done that 100 times, the whole hand holding and the kiss on the forehead. Let’s do a real kiss.’ I was like, 'Yeah, that feels right.’”

Anderson: "That last day was surreal. I think a part of my brain was trying to ignore the fact that it was approaching.... I blocked it out until the last moment where all of a sudden it hit me, that this person that I was standing in front of as I know him and have known him for such a long time, that this aspect of our relationship was coming to a close. We embraced and I just burst into tears. We held our embrace for a really long time and I think it was just flooding over us, the importance of this agreement that we’ve had to be in each other’s lives in a very powerful way.”

Manners: "We wrapped and David and Gillian stood in that room together alone and held each other for a good five minutes. They didn’t talk. They didn’t move. They just held each other, tears running down their faces."

With Season 8 coming to an end, Frank Spotnitz wasn't shy about addressing the year-long fan speculation, rumors, and intent for the next season; and did his best to reassure old fans that this season was the "official" ending.

January 2001:

Whatever happens-whether Mulder appears next season or not-something is coming to an end at the end of this season. There’s the Mulder abduction storyline, which gets resolved, and there’s also the Scully pregnancy story line that gets resolved. And I think a big chapter is going to close in those final two episodes. And the series will be different, whoever comes back for it-if there is another year. We’re still working out what that final story is, but there are a couple of elements that we know are going to be in there. And those two elements close the chapter.”

March 1, 2001:

“Plotting the ending this year was much less difficult than it was last year, because no matter what happens, whether this is the end of the series or whether the series goes on with some character and not others or there’s a movie franchise after this – this will be the end of eight years of the TV show and we’re writing it as such,” explains Spotnitz. “Something is definitely coming to an end. We have a clear idea what to do. Last year, writing it not knowing whether we were coming back or going to movies was a difficult thing and we had to write and shoot that episode still not knowing the answers to any of those questions.”

March 31, 2001:

Oliver, fan: Frank – you said in an interview that The X-Files’ mythology will be wrapped up by the end of the season. Can you confirm that? Where does that leave you creatively – and us as fans – in the event of a Season 9?

Frank: What was I thinking? Whatever I said, what I mean to say is that 8 years of the series will come to a close this May, regardless of whether there is an X-Files next season. I actually believe most of the important questions about the mythology have already been answered, believe it or not, and you will see some new ones asked in upcoming shows.

It was hoped, still, that The X-Files and Mulder and Scully would transition away from television to the big screen-- hopes that were, again, reiterated by the lead writers and actors. And hopes there were, yet again, disappointed.

In short, while Requiem was crafted to be a jumping off cliffhanger, Existence was created to be a final conclusion: the "original" run ended there for Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz; and everything thereafter would be-- in a sense-- divorced from the original.

Which leads us straight into Season 9.

CHRIS CARTER WAS DONE WITH TELEVISION

For the first time in the show's history, it was Frank Spotnitz who mainly crafted the new direction of the show.

July 12, 2001:

Planning for the ninth season began in June with Carter absent for the first time since he created the series in 1993. He has yet to reach a deal with Fox to return for the ninth season and there is speculation he will not return or serve only as a “consultant,” with Spotnitz assuming the lead role for the show’s creative decisions along with co-executive producers Vince Gilligan and John Shiban.

Carter declined to be interviewed for this story, but Spotnitz said it has been odd going to work without the show’s creative driving force around.

“Obviously, we hope he comes back because it’s his show, it’s his vision that we’ve all been serving for all these years and he’s an enormously talented writer and producer,” said Spotnitz, who has been in charge of the series with Carter gone. “If he doesn’t, it’s not like we don’t know where all the files are.” ...

For the first time in series history, the writers at 1013 do not have the luxury of relying on the strength of the Mulder-Scully relationship to push the show forward. They no longer have the luxury of knowing that when things are in doubt, Duchovny and Anderson’s amazing chemistry can lift the show to greatness.

October 2001:

Whereas last year, the subtext of the show focused on “the search for Mulder,” this year the major subplot will be “what’s up with Scully’s baby,” explains Shiban.

November 21, 2001:

The X-Files writer-producer Frank Spotnitz told us that he’s not sure if there will be a 10th season of the SF series, but he added that this year’s episodes are being crafted with an eye towards the possibility. “One of the first things this season, before we even knew if [series creator] Chris [Carter] was coming back, was figuring out how the show would work for season nine, and then how it could work for seasons 10 and 11 and beyond if the audience were there,” Spotnitz said in an interview. Spotnitz added, “We didn’t want to write ourselves into a corner, so we really planned for the future.

We took into consideration the fans and the actors who are putting so much into making the show a success. Robert [Patrick] and Annabeth [Gish] are really killing themselves, working incredibly long hours, being very disciplined and dedicated, and trying to make everything as good as it can be, because they have to prove themselves. We wanted to honor that and find a way for the show to go forward.”

A 10th year could prove problematic, however, even assuming the lackluster ratings for this year’s batch of shows perk up. Gillian Anderson is in the last year of her contract. Carter only signed a one-year deal for this season. And even Spotnitz has yet to ink a deal. “Will I come back?” he asked. “I don’t know. I really don’t know. Will Chris come back? Given how long it took him to sign this year, I think there’s a very good chance he won’t. And the same questions apply to the rest of the people who’ve made the show what it is all these years. I would like to think the show, because it’s such a good idea, because of all the great people, could go on even if we didn’t come back, but there are other issues, too. [There are issues of] economics and political support, internally and at the studio. There are battles fought that people don’t know about, that they don’t need to know about, but that all factor into the final decision.”

While Carter often stalled in the past to wage warfare against FOX, there were other signs that he (and others) had grown weary of a grueling 70-80 hour workweek.

November 4, 2000:

Kevin or Bean: Does it get easier to write an episode of the X-Files?

Chris Carter: No, It’s actually.. I don’t know how, but it gets harder and harder.

Kevin or Bean: Does it?

Chris Carter: Yeah, because the stories are harder to come up with. But I still think the harder they are to come up with the better they are.

October 15, 2001:

Rebuilding the show around new central characters could give the long-running series a new lease on life, Spotnitz said. “Strictly creatively, we all feel like (the show) has new life and could go on indefinitely,” he said.

But Carter is not that certain about his future on the show.

“This has already been a decade of my life because it took a year to take (‘X-Files’) off the ground,” Carter said. “You have to think about how you want to spend your creative energy.”

Dr. Anne Simon, February 2016:

"I heard Chris say, many times, how he would 'Never do it again.' Because nine years of a show where they're putting so much craftsmanship into a show is extremely draining."

Still, Carter did join, claiming different reasons at sundry times--

May 16, 2002:

Interviewer: Did you find that as time went on you had trouble maintaining the quality of the show?

Carter: Looking at it from the outside it may look like that, but the truth is, I wasn’t contractually obligated to come back this year, but I came back because I was excited about telling stories with new characters, and I wanted to see if we could make that work. The audience did not come back to the show in the numbers we needed to see if it worked or not. I guess for everybody who didn’t come back, I’m sorry you missed what I think was a very good year of television.

May 19, 2002:

Interviewer: Were you ready to quit?

Carter: I was going to leave at the end of last year. I figured I had done everything I had set out to do when I had come around to a nice moment of completion with Mulder and Scully. Fox picked up the show, anyway – it was still their top-rated show. They convinced me – and I didn’t need much convincing, to be honest – that we could do a next generation of “The X-Files” with the addition of these new characters (played by Robert Patrick and Annabeth Gish). I believed it, and I still believe it. But for whatever reason, the ratings diminished this year, whether it was the prevailing attitude and mood in the country after 9/11 or that we premiered so late, and viewing habits had already changed. Less people came back this year, so my feeling was that people sensed something had been completed.

May 19, 2002:

But with Anderson contracted for another year, Carter stuck it out, despite seriously considering leaving the show at the end of last year, he says.

“I made a promise to the actors that I wouldn’t bail out on ’em and I didn’t, so I at least feel like I’ve honored something I feel very strongly about,” Carter says. “Now it’s time to find new ways to tell a good story.”

--that all boils down to an intense, creative drive held at gunpoint by a 22-episode grind and eight-to-nine years of convoluted mytharc.

However, the show had to go on. With little left to explore other than Doggett and Reyes's partnership, Spotnitz and (belatedly) Carter (and the writing team) focused the next season's mystery on William's existence (again)-- poking around in the "how"s and "why"s of Scully's pregnancy, with Mulder as the undisputed father.

July 12, 2001:

Despite the creators excusing away falling ratings on any factor other than the writing, it wasn't long before Chris Carter decided to face the music: he pulled the plug on his show (and proved, once and for all, that he did have power over whether The X-Files continued or not; and had, for years.)

January 18, 2002:

Executive producer Chris Carter told Fox programmers on Wednesday that he wants to end the show this season. ...

“All of the things that I come to work for every day are in place, minus David Duchovny,” Carter said. “And those things might not be here next year. So I decided to take these people to wrap this up in style. … It’s better to go out strong.” ...

“It’s been a very strange season,” Carter said. “We lost our audience on the first episode. It’s like the audience had gone away, and I didn’t know how to find them. I didn’t want to work to get them back because I believed what we are doing deserved to have them back.”

“The X-Files,” which spawned one feature film (there may be others, Carter said), has had times in the past when the end looked near. “I had ideas (on how to end), but because the show remained strong and popular — we never got to them.”

But this time it’s for real, so look for the truth to finally be revealed.

“I’ve got plenty of ideas,” Carter said. “In this business, you’ve got to swing for the fences. I’ve been doing that for nine years.”

January 22, 2002:

“My feeling was we were doing great work and it was less appreciated than it might be,” Carter says. “I wanted to refocus the energy, and show people what great work we’re doing by wrapping it up this season.”

Carter “had been thinking provisionally about ending the show for a couple of years” because of several “business” reasons, including [D]uchovny’s desire to leave, and Carter’s own contract expiring (he signed a new one for this season).

“This is actually a creative choice,” he adds. “I think it’s really he best one for the fans, as well as the people I work with.”

A month later, with the series' end coming to fruition, Carter and Spotnitz brought to bear the weakest storyline of the original show: William's adoption (February 22, 2002.) As could be predicted, no one liked it.

AN ADOPTION OF CONVENIENCE

The genesis of this plot twist is surprisingly-- or not-- convoluted.

According to Spotnitz, it was Carter and Duchovny's idea-- one he did not like, at first.

May 1, 2002:

Interviewer: Leading up to the finale, we had the episode “William,” a very pivotal episode for Scully – and one whose ending begs the question of why have Scully go through the pregnancy arc to begin with.

Spotnitz: Yep. I had a lot of reservations about that storyline and about her giving up the baby, and was not at all sure that it was the right thing to do. But in the end, I think it was the right thing to do, because it becomes unsavory. And I think everybody – David and Chris, especially – felt that this was going to be an obstacle to us in the movies. And I think the solution we came up with was kind of Solomonic in its wisdom in the end, which is, it’s true to Scully’s character and the pattern of behavior that she’s had for the past nine years: that she sacrifices her own happiness for a greater cause. It’s true to the tragic series of losses she’s endured over the course of the series, and I thought it was very moving in the end. It kind of helped us go forward with Mulder and Scully – and whether there are movies or not, it serviced them – and us, as storytellers – in a good way.

May 19, 2002:

“She [Scully] doesn’t get him [William] back in the finale,” acknowledges Spotnitz, who adds the decision to have her give up the baby was a difficult one. “But I think the decision to have Scully give up the baby was something that, in no small way, makes it easier to do another movie, and really sort of frees you in what that movie can be, in a way that you would not be free if the baby storyline had to be serviced. You’d just have to have another threat to the baby in the movie, and that dictates the entire story of the movie.”

Then again, he adds, “I can’t predict, because I don’t know how many movies there are going to be. I’m sure if there are enough movies, William will become important. Maybe William will be in the next movie. I don’t know, because Chris and I haven’t even started talking about what the next movie might be.”

Yet, Tom Kessenich claims that Duchovny sided with the resistance (Gillian Anderson and John Shiban) against Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz:

...It was announced that Duchovny would return for the series finale and also direct and co-write a pivotal mytharc episode, "William." That episode would feature the return of Jeffrey Spender from the dead (which was the genesis of Duchovny's idea for the episode) as well as one of the most controversial moments in the series history: Scully's decision to give her and Mulder's son up for adoption.

Sources close to the show said the decision wasn't wildly embraced within 1013 either.... According to producer John Shiban, the idea to give William up for adoption originated with Carter and Spotnitz.

Duchovny, Anderson and Shiban (all parents) reportedly were not thrilled with the idea. They grudgingly consented only after Carter revealed his plan to end the series with Mulder and Scully on the run, hardly in the best position to raise a child.

There is further proof that Kessenich's sources were telling the truth: a followup John Shiban interview corresponded exactly with Tom's version of events--

January 2, 2002:

Shiban gives away very little about the finale but does answer some questions about baby William, who we last saw being given up for adoption in the episode William. “We all discussed it and knew we wanted to bring some closure to that story as we were trying to do with everything on the series. There was some debate about what to do and what the best thing to do was. That idea (giving William up for adoption) was from Chris and Frank. It’s a safe place for the baby. I don’t think anybody wanted to continue playing jeopardy for the baby any longer. It started to become for all of us painful. The great thing about this solution is that it was a way to cure the baby in a very satisfying manner because it was a part of this revenge plot of Spender’s. It leaves Mulder and Scully with a huge emotional burden. You see in the finale that they do carry that with them. It’s not just ignored by any means. This is a family issue that must be dealt with. It’s a very, very emotional scene, a touching scene. I think you’ll be happy with the result.”

Kessenich also notes David Duchovny's original plan for William wasn't even invented for Season 9:

The episode was based on Duchovny's Season 8 idea about a mysterious, disfigured person with connections to Mulder who enters Scully's life.

And to top off these surmisings, David doesn't remember William in hindsight-- clip here- other than Chris Owens's return and funky prosthetics (which he orchestrated, according to Matt Hurwitz and Chris Knowles's The Complete X-Files.) It's doubtful that the same man behind the co-creation of the Mulder family, Mulder's emotional growth, and the weighty conclusions of Amor Fati, Closure, and Existence (let alone the one who harbored worries about Mulder's sudden absence in Season 9)--

October 2001:

If the series ended on that note, it would have been a fitting conclusion to one of the TV’s most challenging and interesting genre television shows. Yet, FOX wanted another season. They got their wish, but not without a price – sans Duchovny. Now, the show is going to have to find a suitable way of resolving that kiss without making Mulder’s absence seem like he’s a deadbeat sperm-donating dad.

“I care how they resolve Mulder kissing and running [away],” Duchovny admitted to Cinescape, while promoting his summer feature "Evolution."

--would cosign the permanent abandonment of his character's son's plotline with a carefree conscience.

What, then, is the truth? I think all of it-- though I'm most inclined to believe Kessenich-via-Shiban's events. The group were, as Spotnitz revealed, planning the plotline with a possible movie directly in mind; and if Carter advanced the adoption-- couching it as one in William's best interest-- it wouldn't matter if Frank or David relented first. Ultimately, the decision was in 1013's hands; and it was one they never dealt with properly.

THE UNNECESSARY END

The praise Gillian lauded Season 8's endeavor was well and truly gone by Season 9's close. And not hers alone: fans and Kim Manners, too, would recall the end as an inevitability.

May 1, 2002:

GA: “It’s an important time for all of us to kind of sit and take in the full aspect of what we’ve just participated in. It’s definitely had its time in history and its time for it to conclude and be put to rest.”

May 16, 2002:

She’ll take some time off after “The X-Files” ends its season, as she’s done for the past nine years. Then, as TV production starts up again toward the end of the summer, “my body will want to start seeing this other person again. It’s like an old friend.” ...

“It really is an example of a mixed blessing,” Anderson said as she walked down the alien-green (not red) carpet at the series wrap party a few weeks ago. “I’m really looking forward to the future, and I’m excited about getting out into the world again. On the other hand, I don’t think I really get for one second that it’s over.” ...

“It’s good to go out while we’re still smelling good,” says Kim Manners, a co-executive producer who also directed more than 50 of the show’s 200 episodes. “I’m very proud to have been a part of it.”

Of the many interviews wherein Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz (and many other speculators) tried to pinpoint the lack of public interest in Season 9-- mostly landing on the changed post-9/11 landscape-- Carter reveals he did, at least in part, seem to understand why most audiences drifted away.

May 19, 2002:

Carter also disagrees with critics who said the series had faded, especially after Duchovny left last year and despite the valiant efforts of cast additions Robert Patrick and Annabeth Gish (as agents John Doggett and Monica Reyes) to fill the void.

“I think the numbers make people say that,” said Carter, referring to its 85th-place ranking for the season to date and a weekly audience that’s dwindled to less than 9 million.

A viewership decline is inevitable for most aging series, and Carter admits to pondering the shift: “Your audience over that time changes, the whole demographic changes. People’s lives change. I don’t know what happened to that audience, but only a portion of them came back this year.

“My sense is they felt something had been completed.”

Season 9 concluded with The Truth, which the writers and actors (specifically Annabeth Gish and John Fitzgerald Byers) were originally satisfied with. Years later, Frank Spotnitz was able, in hindsight, to reflect on the whole-- the decline in ratings, the plotline fumbles, and the fans' dissatisfaction-- and come to a more honest answer:

November 20, 2015:

One of the lessons I’ve learned from “X-Files” and from [watching] “Lost” to some extent is that you can have your plot answers, and they can be great. But the audience is going to have their plot answers too, and if that’s all you’re giving them at the end, it’s not enough. This is about a character on a journey....

It's an interesting reflection: Spotnitz and Carter were neck-deep in the show so long that they began to lose perspective. And while Chris remained in that space, perpetually creating more and more for the franchise (to middling or degenerating success), Frank eventually separated and walked another path-- one that enabled him to reflect with perspective. (One that, perhaps, Chris Carter and his old crew of collaborators didn't have when crafting the Revival. But that's another post for another time.)

CONCLUSION

In retrospect, this deep-dive clarified a few points for me.

When I first watched Existence, I was struck with its conclusionary stamp: the mytharc barrel-rolled onward, but none of that mattered in Scully's bedroom with a child nestled between both former agents. The intent of that scene left a mark, one I did not feel in Requiem's, The Truth's, I Want to Believe's, or My Struggle II's and My Struggle IV's final moments. It was not a surprise-- more an affirmation-- then, that past and present interviews illuminated the closing of a chapter, one normally at odds with other finales' inconclusivity.

And, perhaps, that is why I treasure Season 8 compared to Season 7 or Season 9's possible endings: in Je Souhaite or Requiem or The Truth, The X-Files stretches on and on into perpetuity. Mulder and Scully, forever searching, forever restless. Maybe that ending isn't clean enough for my tastes. Existence gives Mulder and Scully what they've always wanted, on their own terms-- the Truth in their partnership, a life they saved, a second chance-- and the ability, too, to hunt down impossible realities if or when they choose. And by that logic: Season 8 still left a lot of unanswered or unexplored territory in its wake (e.g. Mulder's abduction trauma, the super soldiers, Scully's new path, the evolution of their relationship from partners to parents, etc.) that could theoretically be inferred forward, ala the aforementioned on and on into perpetuity.

Regardless, diving into the past was eye-opening. There are no perfect villains or victims; there are no Greek tragedies or unmended fences. The series ended as it began-- a passion project for the writers; a job that grew on the actors-- and would have remained, in a sense, unspoiled for audiences if future endeavors had panned out more successfully (or if future egos had been tempered, not inflated, by a fifteen-to-twenty years' difference.)

Thanks for reading~

Enjoy!

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