This week’s issue of The X-Files: Season 10 sees the return of the Flukeman, a classic monster from the show’s second season. The issue got me thinking about other episodes which didn’t wrap up their plots entirely or were left open-ended making them available for a future return to the show via comics. Here are nine monsters, baddies, and other dangling plot bunnies I’d like to see make a return appearance.
Antagonist: Jersey Devil Girl
From the episode: Jersey Devil
How the episode ended: A local detective killed the adult female Jersey Devil but the final shot shows a young girl peeking out from under some rocks — the next generation.
What about now? Jersey Devil aired twenty years ago so that little girl should now be in her mid-20s. Has she found a mate and produced children of her own or is she the last of her kind?
Antagonist: The AI/Brad Wilczek
From the episode: Ghost in the Machine
How the episode ended: Mulder used a computer virus to destroy the murderous AI and Brad Wilczek was kidnapped by a government who wanted to force him to make weapons. The final shot showed a single blinking light on the computer – was the AI still in there?
What about now? The tech bods and government agents had six hours to try to find something useful in the computer wreckage before the whole thing was shredded. Did they ever find anything? Is the AI back up and running? Were its murderous impulses tamed? What about Wilczek? Did he finally agree to work for the government and if so, what has he been creating over the last two decades?
Antagonist: The Worms
From the episode: Ice
How the episode ended: The military and CDC torched the research station but the worms were still there, buried deep in the ice sheet, 200,000 years down.
What about now? A parasite that can turn people violently aggressive would certainly seem to be of significant research interest to the sort of amoral military/government agenda we saw on the show. I find it hard to believe that they would be content to abide by Scully’s suggestion to “leave it there.”
Antagonist: The Eves
From the episode: Eve
How the episode ended: Eve had pretty much the perfect open ending. Cindy and Teena (now renamed Eve 9 and 10) were incarcerated at the Whiting Institute for the Criminally Insane along with Eve 6. Eve 8 arrived in disguise during the final scene, apparently to rescue them.
What about now? If the remaining Eves managed to avoid their tendency toward suicide, then Cindy and Teena would be approaching 30 today. A group of four women working together and all possessed of superhuman intelligence and homicidal psychoses would be enough to open a whole realm of possibilities, most not worth thinking about. Mulder and Scully might need back up if this lot ever re-appear.
Antagonist: The Secret of Youth
From the episode: Young at Heart
How the episode ended: John Barnett had stolen Dr Ridley’s seemingly successful research into reversing the aging process and was negotiating with the government to hand it over. After being shot by Mulder, Barnett refused to reveal the location of the research which viewers later learned was in locker number 935 at an unidentified train station.
What about now? The secret of eternal youth is one of the most incredible assets anyone could possibly hope to own and one of incalculable value. It seems plausible that the CIA dedicated significant manpower to uncovering the location in which Barnett had hidden the research. Even if they did not, after 20 years there is a good chance that locker would have been opened by someone. That leads to the question, if it’s not still in the locker, who has that information, and what are they doing with it?
Antagonist: Chester Ray Banton
From the episode: Soft Light
How the episode ended: Chester Ray Banton was apparently vaporized by a particle accelerator, but Mulder theorizes (correctly) that the victim was instead Banton’s colleague, Christopher Davey, and that Banton was actually kidnapped by the government. The final shot shows Banton hooked up to machines, being experimented upon.
What about now? After nearly twenty years the government may well have succeeded in extracting some very useful and very dangerous information from Banton regarding dark matter and how to use it as a weapon. Of course, once they had found out all they could, there seems very little reason to keep poor old Dr Banton alive…
Antagonist: Eddie van Blundht
From the episode: Small Potatoes
How the episode ended: Eddie was sent to the Cumberland Reformatory and made to take a muscle relaxant to prevent him “making faces.” Scully and everyone at “the lab” were still researching the body of Eddie’s father in excruciating minutiae.
What about now? How long Eddie could have been kept at the reformatory is debatable. After all, how does one prosecute a case like his? Once released, did he go back to his old tricks or did his self-esteem bolstering red cap work? Scully could have probably built a career based on her research on van Blundht senior’s unusual anatomy; it would be great to see something come of that.
Antagonist: The Great Mutato
From the episode: The Post-Modern Prometheus
How the episode ended: Weirdly! Dr Pollidori was arrested for the murder of his father, the townspeople realize that the Mutato is not a monster but simply a deformed man, and finally everyone goes to see Cher in concert.
What about now? We have absolutely no idea what actually happened to the Great Mutato, the other deformed babies, or the rest of the townsfolk after the concert. Technically the Mutato could be a rapist (we are unclear as to the exact means by how Ms. Berkowitz and Mrs. Pollidori are impregnated) and even if not, he is now fatherless and presumably the subject of national attention thanks to the Jerry Springer show. The events in the town in the years following the episode would make for a fascinating comic book issue, especially considering the comic book analogies present in the original.
Antagonist: The Vampires
From the episode: Bad Blood
How the episode ended: An entire town of vampires just “pulled up stakes” and disappeared while Mulder and Scully both slept off the effects of being drugged.
What about now? Where exactly does an entire town full of vampires just disappear too? Also, we know that the cow/human killer Ronnie was alone in not understanding the need for keeping a “low profile,” so what exactly was the rest of the town eating? I kind of want to see a spin off show called The Adventures of Sheriff Hartwell in which he leads his lowly band of vampires across America trying comically to fit in. OK I’ll stop now.
There were countless other episodes with unresolved or open endings, quick shout outs to Detour, Sanguinarium, Chinga, Folie a Deux, and Die Hand Die Verletz among others. Which episodes would you like to see revisited in the new comics series?
