{"id":44457,"date":"2018-03-23T06:00:25","date_gmt":"2018-03-23T10:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?p=44457"},"modified":"2018-03-22T14:59:17","modified_gmt":"2018-03-22T18:59:17","slug":"the-x-files-season-11-finale-my-struggle-iv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2018\/03\/the-x-files-season-11-finale-my-struggle-iv.html","title":{"rendered":"The X-Files Season 11 Finale: My Struggle IV"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

The last episode of The X-Files may well be the\u00a0last<\/em> episode not just of season 11 but of The X-Files as a whole (although series creator Chris Carter<\/a> still thinks there is more in its future).<\/p>\n

Those who have read my book\u00a0Theology and Science Fiction<\/em> will know that I follow Doug Cowan in emphasizing the importance of offering deeper analysis than merely noticing Christ figures. But in the case of this episode, we are clearly supposed to notice a Christ figure, namely William. The episode replaces the standard phrase \u201cThe Truth Is Out There\u201d at the end of the opening credits with the words \u201cSalvator Mundi\u201d<\/a> \u2013 \u201cthe savior of the world,\u201d which is normally a reference to Jesus.<\/p>\n

A significant part of the episode deserves comparison to the Infancy Gospel of Thomas<\/a>, in which young Jesus turns out to be something of a prankster as he discovers and tries out<\/a> his \u201csuperpowers\u201d while not yet having the maturity to use them wisely.<\/p>\n

William, we learned this season, was conceived through different means that sexual intercourse \u2013 which hints at an analogy to miraculous conception. The episode not only highlighted this, but took it further, both when Scully emphasized that she had merely been a vessel for William whose origins lay elsewhere (in an experiment in a lab rather than in heaven), but also when she revealed to Mulder that she was pregnant with a child that would in fact be their own. When Mulder says it\u2019s impossible, Scully says it\u2019s \u201cmore than impossible,\u201d which presumably means \u201cmiraculous.\u201d He spends his childhood on the run from authorities that are out to get him, like Jesus in Matthew\u2019s Gospel.\u00a0William is eventually killed and then undergoes a sort of resurrection<\/a> as we see him emerge from the water alive at the very end of the episode, despite having been shot in the head.<\/p>\n

Much of the episode is emotionally poignant \u2013 especially when William uses his ability to make himself appear to be someone else to appear to the Cigarette-Smoking Man (who earlier described himself as William\u2019s \u201ccreator\u201d) as though he were Fox Mulder, the smoking man\u2019s firstborn son. It turns out that he would in fact be willing to kill his own son to carry out his plan for the world, but in pulling the trigger, he actually kills a different \u201cson\u201d who has taken his place.<\/p>\n

The points of intersection with the story of Jesus as found in a wide variety of sources are thus multiple, multifaceted, and complex. They are not accidental. And so the one question about Christ figures that I find\u00a0is\u00a0<\/em>regularly worth asking is\u00a0why<\/em> \u2013 why would the writer have felt it worth making someone\u2019s story parallel that of Jesus? In this case, it seems as though this is the conclusion of something that has been a theme running through many of the show\u2019s seasons, namely that an older generation that holds the reigns of power has embraced an evil path, and someone young needs to arise to save humanity from itself at its worst. Ultimately, the direction this takes at last is fascinating, inasmuch as it offers a message that science and faith can come together to make their own miracle, and that it is something better than the conspiratorial tinkering of reigning powers can come up with. But there is also a message of hope in William\u2019s story itself, inasmuch as he refuses the path that his creator wants him to, preferring to aim for something higher and better. And so this really does make for an interesting crafting of a Christ figure for the present age.<\/p>\n

In relation to the theme this season of challenging traditional conspiracy theories of precisely the sort that The X-Files tended to foster, I would note as well that the talk show host who thinks he is unveiling a global conspiracy with inside sources in the government turns out not to be a trustworthy source of information for the public, even when he is drawing directly on information from Dana Scully! In religious terms, it seems that no one knows enough about what is really going on to even interpret history, much less control it.<\/p>\n

What did you think of this episode?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The last episode of The X-Files may well be the\u00a0last episode not just of season 11 but of The X-Files as a whole (although series creator Chris Carter still thinks there is more in its future). Those who have read my book\u00a0Theology and Science Fiction will know that I follow Doug Cowan in emphasizing the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":44535,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[14994,2408,3558,13929],"class_list":["post-44457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-x-files-science-fiction","tag-cigarette-smoking-man","tag-dana-scully","tag-fox-mulder","tag-x-files"],"yoast_head":"\nThe X-Files Season 11 Finale: My Struggle IV<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The last episode of The X-Files may well be the\u00a0last episode not just of season 11 but of The X-Files as a whole (although series creator Chris Carter\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2018\/03\/the-x-files-season-11-finale-my-struggle-iv.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The X-Files Season 11 Finale: My Struggle IV\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The last episode of The X-Files may well be the\u00a0last episode not just of season 11 but of The X-Files as a whole (although series creator Chris Carter\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2018\/03\/the-x-files-season-11-finale-my-struggle-iv.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. McGrath\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/religionprof\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-03-23T10:00:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-03-22T18:59:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/719\/2018\/03\/the-x-files.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"512\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"James F. McGrath\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ReligionProf\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"James F. McGrath\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2018\/03\/the-x-files-season-11-finale-my-struggle-iv.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2018\/03\/the-x-files-season-11-finale-my-struggle-iv.html\",\"name\":\"The X-Files Season 11 Finale: My Struggle IV\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2018-03-23T10:00:25+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-03-22T18:59:17+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/78342576667b872e3d259c153ce4c5bf\"},\"description\":\"The last episode of The X-Files may well be the\u00a0last episode not just of season 11 but of The X-Files as a whole (although series creator Chris Carter\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2018\/03\/the-x-files-season-11-finale-my-struggle-iv.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2018\/03\/the-x-files-season-11-finale-my-struggle-iv.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2018\/03\/the-x-files-season-11-finale-my-struggle-iv.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The X-Files Season 11 Finale: My Struggle IV\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/\",\"name\":\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. McGrath\",\"description\":\"The Blog of Dr. James F. McGrath, Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature at Butler University, Indianapolis\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/78342576667b872e3d259c153ce4c5bf\",\"name\":\"James F. McGrath\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/88ca096942acd474313f7ef4227a49da?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/88ca096942acd474313f7ef4227a49da?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"James F. McGrath\"},\"description\":\"Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature at Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. BD University of London, PhD Durham University. Author of John's Apologetic Christology, The Only True God, Theology and Science Fiction, and The Burial of Jesus, as well as (with Charles Haberl of Rutgers University) the two-volume Mandaean Book of John critical edition, translation, and commentary. Also author of numerous articles (and a few science fiction short stories) and the editor or co-editor of several volumes.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3Ge8ul5\",\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/religionprof\/\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/jamesfmcgrath\/\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/jfmcgrat\/\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ReligionProf\",\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/religionprof\",\"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/religionprof\",\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/James_F._McGrath\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/author\/james-f-mcgrath\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The X-Files Season 11 Finale: My Struggle IV","description":"The last episode of The X-Files may well be the\u00a0last episode not just of season 11 but of The X-Files as a whole (although series creator Chris Carter","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2018\/03\/the-x-files-season-11-finale-my-struggle-iv.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The X-Files Season 11 Finale: My Struggle IV","og_description":"The last episode of The X-Files may well be the\u00a0last episode not just of season 11 but of The X-Files as a whole (although series creator Chris Carter","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2018\/03\/the-x-files-season-11-finale-my-struggle-iv.html","og_site_name":"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. McGrath","article_author":"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/religionprof\/","article_published_time":"2018-03-23T10:00:25+00:00","article_modified_time":"2018-03-22T18:59:17+00:00","og_image":[{"width":768,"height":512,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/719\/2018\/03\/the-x-files.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"James F. McGrath","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@ReligionProf","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"James F. McGrath","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2018\/03\/the-x-files-season-11-finale-my-struggle-iv.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2018\/03\/the-x-files-season-11-finale-my-struggle-iv.html","name":"The X-Files Season 11 Finale: My Struggle IV","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#website"},"datePublished":"2018-03-23T10:00:25+00:00","dateModified":"2018-03-22T18:59:17+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/78342576667b872e3d259c153ce4c5bf"},"description":"The last episode of The X-Files may well be the\u00a0last episode not just of season 11 but of The X-Files as a whole (although series creator Chris Carter","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2018\/03\/the-x-files-season-11-finale-my-struggle-iv.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2018\/03\/the-x-files-season-11-finale-my-struggle-iv.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2018\/03\/the-x-files-season-11-finale-my-struggle-iv.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The X-Files Season 11 Finale: My Struggle IV"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/","name":"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. McGrath","description":"The Blog of Dr. James F. McGrath, Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature at Butler University, Indianapolis","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/78342576667b872e3d259c153ce4c5bf","name":"James F. McGrath","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/88ca096942acd474313f7ef4227a49da?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/88ca096942acd474313f7ef4227a49da?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"James F. McGrath"},"description":"Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature at Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. BD University of London, PhD Durham University. Author of John's Apologetic Christology, The Only True God, Theology and Science Fiction, and The Burial of Jesus, as well as (with Charles Haberl of Rutgers University) the two-volume Mandaean Book of John critical edition, translation, and commentary. Also author of numerous articles (and a few science fiction short stories) and the editor or co-editor of several volumes.","sameAs":["https:\/\/amzn.to\/3Ge8ul5","http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/religionprof\/","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/jamesfmcgrath\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/jfmcgrat\/","https:\/\/twitter.com\/ReligionProf","http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/religionprof","https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/religionprof","https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/James_F._McGrath"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/author\/james-f-mcgrath"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/136"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44457\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}