William May Be Key To 'The X-Files' Finale

Five weeks ago, Mulder and Scully finally graced our small screens for the first time in nearly 14 years — but, sadly, it's already time to emotionally prepare ourselves for The X-Files finale "My Struggle II." This episode looks like a doozy — trailers, teaser clips, and FOX's official description tell us that "widespread panic begins as people all over the country suddenly start falling gravely ill" and Scully will desperately search for a cure as Mulder tracks down the Cigarette Smoking Man. Then, there's this intriguing tidbit from the summary: "[A]nother figure from Mulder and Scully’s past may prove to be the key to their salvation." Of course, there are many figures from the agents' past — but could this finally mean that Mulder and Scully's son will appear on The X-Files?

Since the revival kicked off, there's only been one episode that hasn't placed a strong focus on William, motherhood, or both. Mulder and Scully were shown fantasizing about what it would have been like to raise their son in "Founder's Mutation" and, after Margaret Scully's death in "Home Again," Scully appeared to be grieving for William just as much as her mother. At this point, it's going to be a huge letdown if the action-packed finale fails to provide answers and resolution to the William plotline.

An intriguing teaser clip released by FOX has caused me to re-think my entire theory about William and his potential role in the finale. We've known for awhile that Agent Reyes would return for the revival, but the below interaction between she and Scully is totally unexpected:

Mulder, Scully, and viewers have been under the impression for years that the Cigarette Smoking Man is dead (since, you know, he got shot with a missile during the series finale and his face basically melted off). In the final scene of the revival's premiere, he was revealed to be alive — and, although we weren't shown who he was speaking to, he told someone: "We have a small problem. They've reopened the X-Files." It now seems likely that he was speaking with Reyes — as the above clip indicates, she's known for years that the CSM is alive. He summoned her to the hospital in order to make her "an offer."

Could this offer have been related to William? Something tells me the answer is yes. The entire reason Scully gave William up for adoption was because he was targeted by so many individuals (both human and extra-terrestrial) who wanted to take him for a variety of reasons. We know that the CSM is basically behind every sinister occurrence on this show and Agent Reyes is one of the few people who knows the details of William's adoption. Between the two of them, they could have tracked down William fairly easily.

In the clip, Reyes tells Scully: "I made certain choices. You may not approve or understand, but they made sense to me at the time." She may have made a deal with the CSM because he already knew William's whereabouts and she thought an alliance would be the most effective way to protect the child — because I really want to believe that Scully's closest female friend wouldn't betray her by going to the dark side. However, it seems like things didn't go as planned — Reyes states that her decisions made sense "at the time," which indicates she lost control of the situation and now regrets accepting the CSM's offer. What could the CSM have done to William over the past 15 years? Unfortunately, the possibilities are both endless and frightening — especially after we saw the way children with alien DNA were treated in "Founder's Mutation."

We know from the finale's trailer that Mulder will come face-to-face with his arch-nemesis — who also happens to be his biological father and therefore William's grandfather. And, it's clear that the CSM still wields tremendous power and is the one who set the aforementioned global panic in motion. It seems likely that he'll force Mulder and Scully to choose between saving their child or saving the thousands of individuals who have been affected by the deadly epidemic. Will they be able to outsmart him once and for all? I really hope so, but we may not find out on Feb. 22 — Chris Carter has already indicated that the finale will be a cliffhanger.

Still, I'm going to take the advice Mulder gave Scully in Season 8 and not give up on a miracle just yet — after all the pain they've been through, Mulder and Scully deserve some sort of closure when it comes to this aspect of their lives.