A Game-Changing Case Reopens 'The X-Files'

It's finally official — everyone's favorite fictional FBI unit has been reopened in The X-Files revival premiere, "My Struggle." I never thought I'd see the day and Scully definitely felt the same way. When the episode kicks off, she seems content enough to be working as a doctor at Our Lady of Sorrows Hospital. (I mean, as content as Scully can be considering she and her soulmate are broken up for now.) But, a phone call from Assistant Director Skinner leads Mulder and Scully to Tad O'Malley, a right-wing news anchor who is (dare I say it?) even more paranoid than Mulder himself. O'Malley introduces the pair to Sveta, an alien abductee on The X-Files, and the agents' desire to protect her is what ultimately leads them to reopen the unit.

When they meet at her home in Virginia, Sveta tells Mulder, Scully, and O'Malley that she's been abducted more times than she can count, and she became pregnant multiple times as a result — but the fetuses were taken from her body every single time. She also declares that she has alien DNA, so Scully takes her to the hospital to conduct tests. The two have a somewhat tense chat, during which Sveta tells Scully she can read minds and tries to prove it by telling her that Mulder's depression killed their relationship and the agents have a child together. Sveta's comment about William clearly hits a nerve with Scully, reminding us just how haunted she is by the loss of their child.

Mulder returns to Sveta's and gets more information out of her when it's just the two of them. The biggest bombshell is that she knows aliens aren't the ones who took her babies — humans stole them and she saw their faces. It leads Mulder to the revelation that Sveta is the "key to everything" and we've "never been in more danger." There's no alien conspiracy — it's a conspiracy of men who are using alien technology to take over the world. Scully warns him that he's on dangerous ground and this could be his undoing, but he naturally doesn't listen.

Meanwhile, the government has gotten to Sveta and she publicly recants her entire story and states that Tad O'Malley paid her to lie about alien abductions. Mulder and Scully meet up again and she tells him that, although her initial tests on Sveta failed to show alien DNA, she went back and sequenced the young woman's entire genome. Scully, who also sequenced her own genome due to her history as an abductee, tells Mulder that, "[Sveta's] not the only one" and they need to take immediate action — both to protect Sveta and to stop the men who have victimized them.

Mulder and Scully get an urgent text about a "critical situation" from Assistant Director Skinner and it's official — The X-Files unit is back in business, with all three main players on board. Unfortunately, it looks like it's already too late for them to save Sveta — she's shown fleeing in her car, but it abruptly stops and then explodes. However, as Scully indicated earlier, there are countless other victims out there — and she and Mulder have no choice but to end this government conspiracy once and for all.