I never watched The Brady Bunch. And while I can't appreciate 'Sunshine Days' on that level, there was still a lot to enjoy here as the series comes to a close.
Since the series finale is going to be a mythology episode, I feel like to some extent, 'Sunshine Days' was meant to be the finale of the non-mythology part of the series. It seems like a somewhat arbitrary story to do that with, but the non-mythology part of the series was never serialised in the first place, so why not?
With the comments about what people have discovered or learned or achieved in their time on the X-Files, Skinner's truly unfortunate line about no one shutting down the X-Files and the project being able to go on for ever, and Doggett and Reyes maybe hinting at a future relationship, it seems they've tied up a lot of the character loose ends here.
Also, Scully and Reyes are disturbing as Brady Bunch fangirls. Disturbing and hilarious. They know quite a lot about that show, don't they? At least the meta there was a lot more tolerable than the meta on The West Wing, which always seems to be making fun of the people who are into the show. (I suppose the character of Leyla Harrison in 'Alone' and 'Scary Monsters' was kind of meant to be an X-Phile, but that was also endearing rather than hostile.)
Ultimately, this episode was about loneliness and family. While the relationship between Scully and Skinner and Doggett and Reyes never really got that close, I think that's kind of what they were going for at the end. All these people are so absorbed in their work and just don't have time for outside relationships any more. The X-Files is all consuming. Really, like just about any core group on any television series. It's not like the characters on Fringe or Buffy really made many connections outside the group of people they interacted with the most.
After all, how do you explain your job to someone new when your job is killing vampires or solving crimes related to paranormal phenomena? The only people who will understand are the people you work with every day anyway.
And it's the same with Oliver/Anthony's story. No one can really truly appreciate his ability except for the person doing the experiments involving said ability. Others would think him a freak, so he invented - well, appropriated - a family that would accept him, or that he believed would accept him. So the ending was kind of sweet, if a little bit disturbing, but that's kind of par for the course on this show.
I think the biggest thing here is really that they finally allowed everyone, especially the doubters like Scully and Skinner and Doggett, to witness a paranormal phenomenon first hand. The look of wonder on Scully's face when Anthony turned his living room into a vast field by the sea was perfect. I suppose I should have known it was too good to be true as far as proving this to the world, but Scully knows. And Skinner knows. And so does Doggett. I think Reyes was pretty much already on board. She's just there in this episode to finally hint at getting together with Doggett and to squee over the Brady Bunch.
So I suppose that's where everything has ended up. 200 episodes, and finally Scully gets some proof of the paranormal that she really can't deny.
Otherwise, this was kind of a weird one to end on because really, it wasn't that paranormal and for the most part, Anthony wasn't a huge threat. I mean, had he just been left on his own, he'd never have been a threat to anyone at all in the first place. (Not to mention, how did he live in that house for so long and no one ever managed to spot his fictional interior before? That's been a common problem on The X-Files, that something's clearly been going on for a while and somehow only just makes the FBI's radar within the context of the series.)
Anyway, I don't think I really have a lot more to add about 'Sunshine Days'. On to the finale, which will surely give me THOUGHTS and FEELS.
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