‘The X-Files’ Season 11 Premiere Recap: Creator Chris Carter Defends Shocking Twist

The eleventh season of the rebooted classic The X-Files premiered Wednesday and was met with confusion as a major plot twist was introduced.

THE X-FILES PREMIERE TWIST

The original series ended after nine seasons in 2002, but started up again in Jan. 2016. Season 11 (actually called the Second Chapter of The X-Files Even Series) introduces a new storyline about series villain the Cigarette Smoking Man.

First, though, a scan of Scully’s brain reveals that it is lighting up in Morse Code and flashing the message, “FIND HIM.” At first they assume the “him” refers to their missing teenage son William, but really it is about the CSM. Mulder goes on a mission to find CSM but runs into some new characters instead – Mr. Y & Erika Price.

The biggest twist of the episode, however, is the revelation that the CSM is the actual father of Scully’s child. He claims he impregnated her using “science – alien science.” He claims it was to create “the first superhuman child.” Many fans online were upset about the reveal, saying “I don’t want to believe,” and hoping that the CSM was lying.

Creator Chris Carter, however, fully supports the decision and defended it in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. “You know, it’s playing with the story, the characters and the history of the characters I hope in an interesting way that will be satisfying — not necessarily in the immediate future but it will make sense once we get to this season’s finale,” he explained. At this point, only the audience knows, and Scully and Mulder are ignorant to the news. “This fact is hovering over them and everything they do and say to each other is kind of loaded as they’re walking in the dark. It makes for interesting storytelling to put the audience in a privileged point of view that could ultimately explode in the end.”

When asked if the CSM is literally William’s father, however, Carter says no: “He’s the figurative father if he’s not the actual father. He didn’t rape Scully. He impregnated her with science.”

In addition to the premiere, Carter also commented on the season as a whole, since Gillian Anderson has said this could be her last season with the show. “I always end it as if it were the last one,” he shared. “It’s become a thing you come to anticipate with this show with ‘The Erlenmeyer Flask’ in season 1 — we closed The X-Files and killed off a beloved character [Deep Throat played by Jerry Hardin]. Things are often sacrificed in the finale. That’s the interesting thing for me. There’s a vertical corner in the final that I think will get people’s attention.”