[sleight]

I think that if tidy endings that resolve everything are what you seek you should try disney movies or perhaps a sitcom.

I think the reasons for not resolving all of it completely were twofold. As mentioned above, Chris Carter had gone off in so many different directions that it would have been impossible to tie a bow on it and call it done. Second, I don't think he ever intended to resolve it all. It seemed to be that the message he was trying to convey all along was that all the conspiracies, alliances, double-dealings and whatnot were so deeply ingrained in the U.S. government as well as the rest of the world (and in space, apparently) that they could never fully be brought to light, especially since those in the know and working against these things were limited to around, say, 6 people. This theme was repeated many times; they find something, get in some sticky situation, get out of it, but by the time they return to expose it the government had already cleaned up the area.

You guys are right in that the last few seasons trailed off into silly rehashing of old plots w/ Dogget and whatever-the-hell-her-name-was, but that didn’t change the overall story arc. Obviously Mulder and Scully were the show, and when they pulled the ol’ switcheroo where the male became the scientist/realist and the female the intuitive believer, and Scully got pregnant and went to the Mulder side of things it got a little weak.

I need to go back and watch the series finale, because they brought a lot of things up again, but I don’t recall how much of a conclusion it really was. I heard a little while ago that they were talking about making another movie, but a check of imdb doesn’t show anything.

I think the only thing that really got resolved was Mulder and Scully's mutual desire to swap fluids.