This episode presents an attempt to bring closure to the Lone Gunmen sub-thread of the X-Files after that spin-off series bombed. Well, they did.
What drove the X-Files? The search for the "truth", in a dramatic sense; the tension between proper method and the unknown. What ended the X-Files? The truth was lost from view; the creators lost sight of the plot; with the goal disappeared, the tools are no longer necessary. For a long time, Mulder was the carrier of much of the knowledge. His departure deprived the series from much of its justification, especially since that knowledge ultimately did not lead to any clear dramatic resolution. This heightened the importance of the side characters that might, however distorted, carry on some of that knowledge.
I actually came back to the series after a long hiatus, wanting to see how they brought it to an end. The closest analogy I can find to seeing episodes likes this in the late X-Files seasons is the tortuous course of Millennium as Carter tried to wrangle that ship back on a different course, ultimately leaving confusion in the wake. Episodes like this, major shifts in cast and feel of the show without resolving any major questions, are the things that are spilled overboard as the vessel careens from crashing into one rock to the next. The episode's title, "Jumping the Shark", while possibly intended as a tongue-in-cheek joke, ends up perfectly summarizing the impact of the episode on the series.
* SPOILER *
If you run a series for almost a decade on the basis of the search for truth, and at the end even the comic sidekicks get killed off, what does that represent? Abject failure, of the writers' ability to keep abreast of their creation. (The eponymous "Lost" being the prime example, to be sure.)
What drove the X-Files? The search for the "truth", in a dramatic sense; the tension between proper method and the unknown. What ended the X-Files? The truth was lost from view; the creators lost sight of the plot; with the goal disappeared, the tools are no longer necessary. For a long time, Mulder was the carrier of much of the knowledge. His departure deprived the series from much of its justification, especially since that knowledge ultimately did not lead to any clear dramatic resolution. This heightened the importance of the side characters that might, however distorted, carry on some of that knowledge.
I actually came back to the series after a long hiatus, wanting to see how they brought it to an end. The closest analogy I can find to seeing episodes likes this in the late X-Files seasons is the tortuous course of Millennium as Carter tried to wrangle that ship back on a different course, ultimately leaving confusion in the wake. Episodes like this, major shifts in cast and feel of the show without resolving any major questions, are the things that are spilled overboard as the vessel careens from crashing into one rock to the next. The episode's title, "Jumping the Shark", while possibly intended as a tongue-in-cheek joke, ends up perfectly summarizing the impact of the episode on the series.
* SPOILER *
If you run a series for almost a decade on the basis of the search for truth, and at the end even the comic sidekicks get killed off, what does that represent? Abject failure, of the writers' ability to keep abreast of their creation. (The eponymous "Lost" being the prime example, to be sure.)