So what’s the other 70% of your lack of enthusiasm with the William storyline?
Ooh boy, anon. Don’t get me started.
Basically, my issue is threefold: (1) Mulder and Scully having a baby is fundamentally incompatible with their chosen quest and the show’s basic format; (2) the writers, Chris Carter especially, were frustratingly noncommittal about the entire storyline in general; and (3) William is not a baby, he’s a plot device. Let’s break it down, shall we?
(1) Mulder and Scully having a baby is fundamentally incompatible with their chosen quest and the show’s basic format
This one’s pretty straightforward. You cannot have Mulder and Scully running around chasing monsters and aliens if there are diapers to change. Yes, I know some people argue it should have ended with them having a baby, but the idea of our beloved FBI weirdos spending the rest of their lives in domestic bliss, Mulder especially, is ludicrous. I mean, the whole Season 7 premiere posed this exact question to Mulder, it showed him what a so-called “normal,” peaceful life would be like and he rejects it. And as much as Scully claims to want a “normal life,” she will never give Mulder up for such a thing. She chooses Mulder over William multiple times.
(2) The writers, Chris Carter especially, were frustratingly noncommittal about the entire storyline in general
The William storyline is the epitome of trying to have your cake and eat it too. It’s like, we want Scully to have a baby, but also we kind of don’t want Scully to have a baby because we also need her to do autopsies and chase monsters and shit. We want Mulder to be the father but also we don’t want Mulder to be the father because that would make those stupid shipper fans happy, so apparently Scully is the Virgin Mary and immaculate conception is also an option. Except haha you idiot it wasn’t immaculate conception either because fucking medical rape is also a possibility (what the fuck?!). And we want the baby to be a special baby with alien powers for some reason, but whoops! never mind he isn’t a special alien baby, turns out he’s a miracle child sent from God or whatever…except he still kind of is a special alien baby because he has mind powers and can shapeshift. Except none of this matters because he’s getting in the way of the story so let’s get rid of him until we need him again for the revival. And that leads us to the third point:
(3) William is not a baby, he’s a plot device
Scully might as well have given birth to a pile of scripts. It comes across as the writers lacking confidence in the audience’s investment in the show, particularly after Duchovny’s departure. Which is understandable, but was a pregnancy plot really the answer? Is this a soap opera?William is only there to yank the audience’s chain or make Scully sad, and in the end it all adds up to a whole lot of nothing because CC and co. were more interested in shock value than exploring what having and giving up a child you longed for but never thought you’d have would do to that child’s parents. There is some attempt to rectify this in the revival with “Founder’s Mutation,” “Home Again” and “Ghouli” but to be honest those attempts fell flat for me, primarily because James Wong and Glen Morgan were painfully unfamiliar with what happened in the show after they departed in the original run. (I mean, Scully calling Mulder “Fox” after 20+ years of exclusively calling him Mulder? Scully worrying that Mulder of all people would see her as an “incubator?” Come on, guys.) And I shouldn’t even have to mention the “My Struggles,” which somehow made an already sexist and violating storyline even worse.
As a personal note, I do not care for Virgin Mary/immaculate conception stories, besides the one in the Bible, I guess. It’s tired. Star Wars tried to do it too. It’s a lazy way to say your character is special without actually giving the character any personality traits that make them special. Prequel Anakin is good at flippy flips and driving space cars and making things fly. William can move things with his mind and shapeshift, apparently. So fucking what. I don’t care. Give me something to chew on, something with actual meaning. What we got was just disappointing.
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