The Truth (The X-Files)

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“The Truth”

The X-Files episode

The Truth

Episode no.

Season 9
Episode 19 & 20

Written by

Chris Carter

Directed by

Kim Manners

Guest stars

Alan Dale as Toothpick Man
William Devane as General Frank Suveg

Production no.

9ABX19/9ABX20

Original airdate

May 19, 2002 (Fox)

Episode chronology
← Previous	Next →
"Sunshine Days"	–

List of The X-Files episodes

"The Truth", parts I and II, comprise the final two episodes of the television series The X-Files. Both parts originally aired on May 19, 2002.

[edit] Plot

Fox Mulder finds himself incarcerated by the US Marines under controversial circumstances. He has been arrested for breaking into a military bunker. Upon hearing that he has resurfaced, and in such a dire manner, Scully and Skinner immediately travel to Virginia to see him. They find out that he had in fact made the incursion, but he wants his reason for doing so to be heard. He had been seeking information on alien technology, and had allegedly killed Knowle Rohrer. (We find out that Rohrer was a former Marine Corps friend of Doggett's, but had been irrevocably turned into an enemy Super Soldier.) While Mulder languishes in military captivity, he receives mysterious visits from phantoms of his past. Meanwhile, Scully and Skinner go to great lengths to get him released, but are unsuccessful. However, we do see Mulder and Scully share a passionate kiss when they are reunited, while an uncomfortable Agent Skinner looks on.

Mulder's fate is ultimately made the subject of a military tribunal. At the outset, it appears he will be the hopeless victim of a show trial not in his favor.

Skinner takes Mulder's defense, while Scully, Reyes, Doggett, Marita Covarrubias, Gibson Praise and Jeffrey Spender take the stand. Although they ultimately prove his case — when Scully discovers that the body is not that of Rohrer — their testimony is overruled and Mulder is sentenced to death.

With the unexpected help of Deputy Director Kersh, the group breaks Mulder out, and he and Scully drive off. Despite being told to get out of the country (northward, and then off the continent), Mulder instead drives south to New Mexico. Doggett and Reyes return to find their office emptied, suggesting that the X-Files have been closed down for a third time. Skinner finds himself being called in for a meeting with Kersh and the Toothpick Man, and we see him for the last time as the door closes behind him. Gibson warns Doggett and Reyes that Mulder is in danger.

In New Mexico, Scully and Mulder arrive at a pueblo where a dying Cigarette Smoking Man is hiding out to survive the colonization — an event that will happen on December 22, 2012 (first alluded to in Red Museum / episode 2X10). This corresponds to a significant date in the Mayan Calendar — perhaps the end of the world. Outside, Reyes and Doggett face off against Rohrer, who has been sent to kill Mulder and the Smoking Man. The pueblo is filled with magnetite, which kills Rohrer as he advances on Doggett and Reyes. Switching cars with Mulder and Scully, the agents drive off. Black helicopters destroy the pueblo — and the Smoking Man, within — before giving chase to the wrong car and we last see Doggett and Reyes driving off with them in pursuit.

In a hotel room in Roswell, New Mexico, Mulder and Scully prepare for bed and talk. This is the first time they've ever shared a hotel room. Their final words:

SCULLY: You've always said that you want to believe. But believe in what, Mulder? If this is the truth that you've been looking for, then what is left to believe in?

MULDER: I want to believe that the dead are not lost to us. That they speak to us as part of something greater than us — greater than any alien force. And if you and I are powerless now, I want to believe that if we listen to what's speaking, it can give us the power to save ourselves.

SCULLY: Then we believe the same thing.

MULDER: Maybe there's hope.

[edit] Notes

The last scene mirrors a scene in the pilot where Mulder first opens up to Scully.
During his testimony, Gibson Praise reveals that The Toothpick Man (Alan Dale) is "not human."
The military tribunal setting is evocative of the tribunal setting in "Breaker Morant."
In the opening credits, "Exar Kun", the name of a Sith Lord from the Star Wars universe appears on a piece of paper marked "Confidential".