My Struggle II

"My Struggle II" is the sixth and final episode of the of . It premiered on the Fox network on February 22, 2016. This episode was written by  & Dr. Margaret Fearon & Dr. Anne Simon
‘My Struggle II’ is the second installment of a four-part Mythology arc story. This installment focuses on Dana Scully’s personal struggle and concluding with the final two episodes My Struggle III and My Struggle IV.
==Synopsis==
The investigations that Mulder and Scully previously began with conspiracy theorist and web-TV show host Tad O’Malley (guest star Joel McHale) seem to have awakened powerful enemies. A widespread panic begins as people all over the country suddenly start falling gravely ill, and Scully must look within to try and find a cure. Meanwhile, Mulder confronts the man whom he believes to be behind it all, but another figure from Mulder and Scully’s past shows up.
==Summary==
===Teaser===
My name is Dana Katherine Scully. I am a special agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, a career I chose after medical school, which promised a chance to further my aim as a scientist and as a seeker of justice in a science-based world. Soon after joining the FBI, I was asked to review the work of a fellow agent, Fox Mulder, and to debunk the X-Files, cases involving what my superiors regarded as science fiction and a waste of resources.
I quickly came to understand Mulder's work on the paranormal wasn't such as I'd been led to believe, that the X-Files were worthy of Mulder's investigations and of mine, that a world existed on the far fringes of accepted science, a world where a scientist would have her strongly held beliefs tested and retested. I would also come to fear that the institution I'd joined and invested with my trust was subject to the influence of dark forces outside the Bureau and sometimes within, forces threatened by Mulder's work and increasingly by mine. Shortly after sensing these threats, I was abducted from my home by unknown assailants and returned without a clear understanding why. But intervening incidents have led me to believe that during my short disappearance, I was subjected to tests, tests resulting in a life-threatening disease, its cure as mysterious as the illness itself, tests which I now suspect are part of a larger conspiracy, a conspiracy of men hiding science for almost 60 years...
....secrets kept from the American people by a self-interested cabal intent on the consolidation of power both at home and on a perilously global scale. But questions remain unanswered about their motives and their final objectives, when and where these men might play out their dark plans, and the significance of a recent test result of my personal genetic makeup turning up DNA anomalies that I can only classify... as alien.
- opening voice-over.
===Act One===
Six weeks after the events of "My Struggle" Scully arrives at FBI headquarters to find that Mulder has disappeared after watching an excerpt from Tad O'Malley's online news broadcast (which had been revived after being shut down prior). As Scully informs Skinner and Einstein of Mulder's absence, Mulder attempts to leave Washington—visibly unwell, and badly bruised.
Back in Washington, D.C., Scully receives a phone-call from O'Malley, who has arrived at Mulder's house for a pre-arranged meeting to discover that there are signs of a struggle. O'Malley explains that he suspects alien DNA has been injected into every American citizen in order to facilitate the widespread outbreak of a contagion, the Spartan Virus. Designed to strip humans of their immune systems, this contagion quickly begins to manifest itself nationwide, with Scully and Einstein noting a sharp increase in patients admitted to hospitals and triage centers.
Miller, finding a phone-tracking app on Mulder's computer, notes his position at Spartanburg, South Carolina, and leaves Washington in order to track him down, while Einstein questions Scully's medical theories. Scully, accepting that Einstein's doubts may be correct, receives a phone-call from former X-Files agent Monica Reyes (Annabeth Gish), who asks to meet, claiming to know how to develop a vaccine.
===Act Two===
During their meeting, Reyes reveals that, shortly after the closure of the X-Files, she was contacted by the badly injured Cigarette Smoking Man, who had survived the confrontation in New Mexico. Cigarette Smoking Man offers to secure Reyes a place among the designated survivors of end-times, in exchange for Reyes' assistance in the colonization effort. Reyes departs the FBI shortly thereafter and is absent when Scully "looks her up" in 2016. Reyes also reveals that she has spent the last twelve years assisting Cigarette Smoking Man and that Scully will survive the coming apocalypse due to her alien DNA that was given to her through her abductions and the experiments performed on her, one of the "chosen elite".
===Act Three===
Scully and Einstein attempt to develop a vaccine using Scully's DNA, as Scully realizes that it the alien genomes that remained after she was abducted and tested on that are protecting her from the contagion. It is the absence of alien DNA that is making everybody else susceptible. Mulder, meanwhile, approaches Cigarette Smoking Man, who offers him a chance to survive the outbreak. He declines, and is found by Miller, who returns him to Washington with the hope of finding a cure.
O'Malley tells the nation that his friend, a doctor, has informed him of the existence of a vaccine.
===Act Four===
Scully, administering a vaccine to Einstein, travels to Mulder and Miller's location. After finding them at the 14th Street Bridge, she discovers that Mulder is too badly ill to survive without a stem cell transplant. Miller inquires as to how this will be possible, Scully states that it is William, their son, who will have to donate. As Scully and Miller discuss Mulder's prognosis, Mulder begins to succumb to the virus he has contracted. Suddenly, a beam of light shines down onto Miller, Scully, and Mulder, and a triangle-shaped UFO slowly descends and hovers above them.
The episode ends with Scully looking at the lights of the spacecraft, shining down directly onto her and her partners.
==Background information==
*This episode marks the first appearance of Annabeth Gish as since "The Truth," and the first episode in which she appeared without as .
**This episode reveals she was the unseen person who helped the smoke at the end of "My Struggle" and was also informed that the X Files had been reopened.
*Since declined to return, the writers chose not to mention his character in the episode. Chris Carter explained "We couldn’t use Robert, so we didn’t want to hearken to a character [who was not there]…we wanted to be mindful of all viewers. Her story actually diverged from his, many years ago, so it wasn’t [needed]." http://www.tvinsider.com/article/71993/the-x-files-season-finale-race-to-save-mulder/
*The character Dr. Oscar Griffith was named after Gillian Anderson's eldest son Oscar Griffith.
*Adenosine deaminase (ADA), the gene product inhibited by the Spartan virus is an actual enzyme.
*Mulder and Scully only share one scene in the entire episode.
*At the beginning of this episode, around the 5:08 mark, Scully is watching Tad O'Malley's show on Mulder's laptop and the camera zooms in for a close-up on her face and she looks like she is in a daze just before she receives a phone call from Tad O'Malley. That is when her vision begins.
*Scully confirms that she has alien DNA. Mulder however does not have alien DNA even though the alien black oil virus that was once in him had threatened to turn him into an alien super soldier in "DeadAlive". This seems to be because Scully had used a combination of antiviral drugs to kill the alien virus in him.
===Continuity Errors===
*The flashback showing Monica visiting the Smoking Man seems to retcon and downplay the seriousness of his burns he sustained in the original series finale (Season 9 finale) "The Truth". Whereas this episode shows him with mere burns over his body which is sorted with the help of surgery, "The Truth" episode showed the Smoking Man being burned right down to his skeleton after being directly struck with a missile, with no way of him being able to survive such an attack.
*Scully refutes Tad O'Malley's claim about everyone having alien DNA and she turns out to be right, but in the Season 6 premiere "The Beginning", she states that everyone has a genetic remnant or junk DNA that matches the DNA of the alien claw and the alien black oil virus.
===Goofs===
*The Cigarette Smoking Man has a tracheostomy. He should not be able to speak unless a special device were attached to the tracheostomy which not apparent in this episode. Generally, a tracheostomy has to be covered to allow someone to speak.
*Scully is at Mulder's desk whilst he is away. She turns on his laptop by just pressing a key. In an organization like the FBI, computers would have timeouts that lock the machine after say 30secs of inactivity.
==Cast==
Starring
* as 
* as 
* as  
Guest Starring
*Joel McHale as Tad O'Malley
*Lauren Ambrose as Agent Einstein
*Robbie Amell as Agent Miller
*Julian D. Christopher as Dr. Oscar Griffiths
*Annabeth Gish as 
* as 
Co-Starring
*Aliza Vellani as Nurse Sandeep
*Sandy Da Costa as Morphing Alien
*Mik Byskov as Accosting Man
*Darren Dolynski as Man in Suit
== References and Footnotes==
== External Links ==
*
*
=Episode Navigation=
Category:The X-Files episodes
06
Category:Mythology episodes
Category:Season Finale