Each episode of The X-Files begins with a promise: “The truth is out there.” It’s been almost 25 years since FBI Agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) started investigating global conspiracies, extraterrestrial life, and unknown beasts lurking in the shadows. But many truths remain undiscovered, twinkling in the distance like dying stars thousands of light-years away.
Maybe that’s why it seemed appropriate to bring back The X-Files with a six-episode miniseries in 2016—when the show fizzled out after nine seasons (and two lackluster films), plenty of mysteries were left unsolved. The Season 10 revival was an obvious cash-grab that spent too much time on the show’s confusing mythology, but it’s hard to give up on characters whose mission reflects the very relatable desire to find order within a chaotic universe.
Season 11 premieres this week, and it picks up where the miniseries’ final episode left off: Mulder is on the verge of succumbing to an alien virus, which Scully realizes he’ll only survive if they can get a stem cell transplant from their son William, who she put up for adoption 14 years prior. It’s soapy and incoherent, two trademarks of episodes helmed by X-Files creator Chris Carter (somebody needs to throw his laptop in a lake and then fill the lake with cement).