The X-Files (TV Series) William (2002) User Reviews

William was a bullfrog...

[Muldernscully · 8/10 · 1 December 2007]

William completes the story arc of William being the potential savior of all mankind. Which is fine for me, since I never really cared for this storyline.

Of significance here in the teaser is that a white buffalo is shown on the Wyoming state flag. Also, the adoptive father is carving a white buffalo for William's mobile. This is a nod to season three's 'Paper Clip', where a white buffalo born was a special omen that meant that changes were coming. What a nice, subtle hint of what is to come in this episode.

It is cute to see Scully singing "Joy To The World" to William at the beginning of the episode, inserting William in place of Jeremiah. This is the same song that Scully sings to Mulder in season five's 'Detour'.

David Duchovny directs this episode and does a fine job of it. I especially like his shot of the reflection of Mulder being in Scully's eye when she is talking to the Breather.

Knowing that the Breather is Jeffrey Spender, as revealed at the end of the episode, one thing doesn't seem right. When Spender hits Doggett from behind in the x-files office and then kicks him a couple of times, that is not very Spender-like. During his short stay in the series, Spender was pretty spineless. He doesn't seem capable of such violence. Maybe being experimented upon gave him a little more fight.

Spender tells Scully towards the end that he had no contact with Mulder at all, yet he seems to know some things that I would think he would have to get from Mulder.

The make-up for Spender is very well done. He just looks nasty. Chris Owens plays the part of the Breather/Jeffrey Spender well.

One thing that bugs me about the episode is that Agents Doggett, Reyes, and Scully leave Spender, who at that point they don't know who he is, not once but twice. The first time to run away to get his needle kit, and the second time, in Scully's room alone so he can sneak out and inject William. You would think they would have learned their lesson the first time. That was very irresponsible of them.

At the end of the episode, we see the completed white buffalo mobile made by the adoptive father. William is now a normal child, unable to move the mobile. I like how the white buffalo theme bookends the episode.

William is a touching episode, with Scully realizing that she is unable to completely protect William, thus giving him up for adoption. Having children of my own now, I feel her pain a little more closely. Nevertheless, I think Scully did the right thing for William, giving him a chance at a normal life. Even though I never really cared for the William storyline, I feel that this episode gives the arc a fitting end.

"What is true and what we want to be true aren't always the same."

[classicsoncall · 8/10 · 30 August 2017]

I hadn't mentioned it in any of my prior reviews, but have you noticed that the pair of twins (James and Travis Riker) that are used in the series to portray Baby William, they always seem to make the right move or have just the right expression for whatever scene they're in? Those kids are great actors and don't even know it.

With the suggestion that Baby William was put up for adoption by Scully in the teaser was a bit of a puzzler for this viewer, making me think ahead to wonder what motivation there might have been for her to make the decision. I thought the writing for this episode and David Duchovny's direction made the story seem plausible, but I can't help thinking how it was so out of character for Scully after everything she'd been through. Seriously, if the aliens or any mere Earthling wanted to track down the adopted William, based on everything we've come to learn in the X-Files, they could and would obviously get to him, no matter how remote his new home might be.

But at least the story line was consistent with what we saw with the death of Super Soldier Shadow Man in 'Trust No 1'. The elevated iron found in the blood of Baby William after he'd been injected by Miller/Spender (Chris Owens) paid tribute to the iron compound in the quarry where Shadow Man met his doom. As to how Jeffrey Spender survived his death at the hands of his father, The Cigarette Smoking Man', well, let's just chalk it up to one of the things the X-Files is noted for.

Well I didn't think the show could possibly jump the shark any more than it did in 'Jump the Shark', but they did it here with Scully giving up Baby William. I was all ready to see the buffalo mobile spin around when the story closed despite what the story revealed, but that was not to be. Just as well, with just three shows left in Season Nine, we didn't need to see a tiny tyke super soldier story line.

The baby

[james-79702 · 8/10 · 7 December 2018]

I've noticed a few episodes back that they always refer to William as "The Baby".like seriously why did the writers do that? Almost made me feel as if William should of been named " Baby" Lol! For a moment, The scene where Scully is examining Splendor, She gets VERY close to his face. It was a moment that she really thought it was Mulder, Like a split second. Anyhoo, Why would they leave this unknown stranger in areas of the apartment like that🤔 Like with all they've been through in SEVERAL episodes!! He should of been handcuffed to the bed or in a corner some where. I particularly noticed that Reyes and Doggett always catered to Scully situations, Which is great for being good partners but they're FBI agents for Christ sakes, Did they not have other cases to do? -Doggett, For several episodes have scenes where he's always running. I wonder if this is because of his famous running scene on Terminator. -Clearance, How do these unknown civilians get clearance inside the FBI building like that. Regardless if Splender got in by a card or something, Why wasn't he screened? So it's that easy to roam the halls of this government building? -Purpose, What was Splender actual reason of his appearance in this episode? Just to inject baby William? Wasn't he looking for "The Truth" On what happened to himself? Did he ever find "The Truth"? What happened to him after they found out he wasn't Mulder? I give this episode a 8 out of 10 because it was a serious episode and not something goofy writing plot.

Underrated Season 9 Mythology Episode

[alex-ross77 · 27 February 2006]

Despite Fox Mulder's absence, Chris Carter managed to make the last two seasons of the X-Files, highly enjoyable (with a few exceptions.) What I liked about 'William' for instance was that it was a good episode that revolved around Scully, not Doggett or Reyes. Directed by David Duchovny, the story goes on about a stranger, who states that some kind of conspiracy did tests on him that have scarred his body. Scully can't identify the man, but when the man offers her information about Mulder and starts having a strange interest in her son, William, Scully is forced to make a hard decision, which in a way wraps up some of the complex mythology that has been going on for the last three years. However,with that said people will agree/disagree with me. This episode is often criticised of being slow-paced and trying to end the on-going story of The X Files too ambitiously with a sense of emptiness. I myself, like this episode but I believe it could probably have done a lot more to appeal to a wider range of people.

end of an arc

[RuthAkien · 6/10 · 6 April 2010]

the good:

• William story line concluded.

• episode warned us where it was going so I wasn't too upset when William was given away.

• clear overall thread. - poor Doggett: he's always ending up on the floor (and there's always other people making use of his office). - nice to see the Lone Gunmen and their situation.

the not so good:

• would have preferred Scully to keep William (I guess this is subjective but I didn't see why she couldn't, and, for characters I like, i don't want things to always get continually worst).

• the 'maybe it's Mulder' thing. When looking at that guy (especially considering what he'd done so far) 'maybe he's Mulder' is the absolute last theory I'd come up with. They don't have the same bone structure, walk, talk, knowledge etc.

• Maybe we don't have the make-up tech to convincingly make one person look like another and it would been more convincing if we did?

• agree with earlier review about 'trusting no one' but leaving an already violent mystery man unguarded.

• DNA reasoning. Surely, the lab looks at *all* your markers and makes a decision, they don't look at half then go 'sure, that's probably the guy'. This is what seemed to *convince* Skinner etc, and at various points they seemed too convinced.

Nice to see Scully centre stage, even if the story is a particularly dark one.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 6/10 · 30 November 2022]

A badly disfigured man attempts to get hold of an X File, a man who could possibly be Mulder.

This is a real mixed bag I thought, some elements were pretty good, some were pretty poor.

First off, it was good to see Scully centre stage, she's been the outsider throughout this series, it feels like quite some time since they explored her troubled motherhood.

On the downside, I'm not sure I was totally sold on the idea of him potentially being Mulder, mannerisms, accent, I know physically there were similarities, but surely highly trained and Killed FBI agents would know.

Worst of all, the story itself, it was just so bleak, almost every aspect of it was sad, from the central character, to the final outcome.

William is not an episode I'd want to return to in a hurry, 6/10.

Incredulous storytelling.....again

[M-edney · 5/10 · 22 July 2021]

Yet another episode displaying how the series declined towards the end. Poorly written with incredulous decisions once again by Scully to let complete strangers stay in her house with easy access to her baby. Says a lot about a series where we are willing to believe in UFOs and aliens, but they throw it all the way in writing in bizarre character decisions that don't fit in with what we know about them. Also, the desperation of Chris Carter and the other producers trying to cling on to the over-stretched conspiracy arc (that should have finished 2 seasons ago) is embarrassing. The original concept of the X-Files was about FBI agents investigating un-explainable cases. The sky's the limit from that point, the writers can imagine whatever they like and have produced some excellent episodes over the years. Instead, they've ran out of ideas and seem to have given up the game by this point. Last episode was called jump the shark, might as well call 'can't be bothered to jump the shark'.

Kill Bill

[Sanpaco13 · 4/10 · 21 May 2010]

After all that grief and pain of not caring about the William arc, it ends very lack luster with the episode bearing his name. A man shows up in the XF office and kicks the crap out of Doggett's head. In spite of this, Doggett is still able to apprehend him. We find out he is badly deformed and his true identity is up in the air. There is a lot of speculation that he might be Mulder, but Scully is reluctant to believe it. It turns out to be Jeffrey Spender and his whole purpose was to make William unspecial by injecting him with iron to kill the alien DNA in him or something or other and Scully gets mad at him. I really don't find this episode very interesting.

Lazy story

[CommanderCobra · 4/10 · 31 March 2024]

I'm in a rewatch and season 9 is the worst season, while season 8 gets a bad rap too I actually really enjoyed it.

This particular episode was just lazy and poor storytelling. The disfigured man is revolting and you get the feeling they did that to spice things up but it's not done well.

Scully is center stage for once this season but it's a shame it's wasted on a crap story. Oh and yes, she's crying again, that's really getting old. I really need to speed up and close out season 9 so I can get to the reboot seasons with mulder and scully. The last episode jump the shark was really excellent, so there are some bright spots in season 9 but this episode can absolutely be skipped, 4/10.