The X-Files 11×09 Review: Nothing Lasts Forever

The idea of faith has always been part of the story (if not the plot) in The X-Files, and maybe it’s fitting that “Nothing Lasts Forever” restored my faith in this season.

Yes, this episode was gory. No, I still don’t quite understand the science (or lack of it?) behind the creepy cult that was at the center of “Nothing Lasts Forever”. But the good outweighed the gory, and I was left with a bittersweet feeling about the fact that The X-Files as we love them – that being, with Mulder and Scully at the helm – will be ending next week.

Anyway, the theme of “Nothing Lasts Forever” was, well, aging. And as much as Mulder’s insistence on calling his glasses ‘progressive lenses’ and clearly not loving Scully’s references to eyesight dimming with age seemed a bit sad at first, it was nothing compared to Barbara Beaumont and her partner in crime Dr. Luvenis. I mean, they were so anti-aging that they were murdering people and eating their organs…and even worse (yes, shockingly, there’s something worse), Dr. Luvenis was having young women attached to him, spine to spine, and essentially “feeding” off them that way.

While it was never proven one way or the other that Juliet (the girl who was trying to rescue her sister from this cult) needed to use spikes from her church’s fence to kill these people, clearly Scully wasn’t right about the case as a whole not being X-File worthy. At the very least they were exploring a very experimental branch of, err, science…but there also might have been more to it. After all, Barbara was supposedly 85 years old and looked like she was in her 30s – it’s hard to believe there wasn’t anything supernatural going on there! But then I’m no doctor, and with the way Dr. Luvenis talked, he really seemed to believe that the only reason more people didn’t use his anti-aging tactics is because of government rules and regulations, which doesn’t exactly make sense if this was some sort of vampire-like situation.

I know I’m kind of talking in circles here, but isn’t that one of the best things that good X-Files episodes give us – that need to question what happened, to wonder what they aren’t telling us?

Other than the general plot of “Nothing Lasts Forever” being pretty darn good, we also got a lot of great Mulder/Scully interaction. Their aforementioned conversation about aging was certainly one of those, but as I’ve mentioned several times before, I’m also just a sucker (yes, even after all these years and even though I absolutely still think Scully is too good for Mulder) for anything sweet that happens between these two. It felt like both David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson phoned in their performances in season 10, but I really haven’t felt that at all this season, which is amazing. Their little heart-to-heart at the very end of this episode was yet another perfect example of how great they can be together, both as actors and as characters.

“Reason and faith in harmony – isn’t that why we’re so good together?” Mulder asked. To which Scully replied, “Are we together?” Which led to me practically SCREAMING at my TV “ANSWER THE QUESTION, MULDER!” But of course this is The X-Files, so he didn’t give her a straight answer; rather, he replied, “I am standing right here, I am listening…that’s my choice.” And then Scully leaned in for a kiss…hahaha, just kidding! Again, this is The X-Files – she just leaned in and whispered something in his ear, and whatever she told him, she wants to ‘do it together’.

“Nothing Lasts Forever” ended with Mulder saying, “I always wondered how this was going to end,” and lighting a prayer candle, which is a very clear lead-in into next week’s season finale being a mythology episode (as if we didn’t already know it would be). Not that I’m complaining – as I already said, this whole thing is bittersweet. I’m said to see the show as I know and love it end. but I’m looking forward to a better conclusion than we got way back in 2002.

Author: Tara Lynne

Tara Lynne is an author, fandom and geek culture expert, and public speaker. She founded Ice & Fire Con, the first ever Game of Thrones convention in the US, and now runs its parent company Saga Event Planning.

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