X-Files Magazine: How does it feel to begin work on the much rumored final season?

Spotnitz: Every story feels like it’s got a lot of weight attached to it because they may be the last 22. We’re being careful about what stories we choose to tell. One of the very first things we did was sit down and talk about all of our major characters and where they’re going to go and how they’re going to end. Where’s Skinner going to end up? Where’s Krycek going to end up? What’s the last image you’ll see of CSM? It’s a little sad actually to be thinking about those things, but it’s kind of exciting too.

X-Files Magazine: What can you reveal about the initial episodes?

Spotnitz: We’re going to begin with kind of a two-parter. The season finale from last year will not be resolved right away. There’ll be two episodes. There’ll be a major new character introduced there. We’re going to do some storylines that David Duchovny actually suggested in those first two. Then we go in to stand-alones. Vince Gilligan’s working on a story that’s told from the point of view of the monster, which is going to be a lot of fun. Jeff Bell has a story about luck and what it means to have good luck or bad luck. David Amann is doing a story about troubled teenagers and a secret they all share in this one town. That’s our starting line-up.

X-Files Magazine: Will the upcoming season include as much comedy as we saw in Season Six?

Spotnitz: It’s kind of odd because you don’t really know if you’re going to go into a run of comedic episodes or not until you do it. It wasn’t that premeditated. Last year, we just felt like it because we’d done the movie and it was a relief to all of us to have more junny ones. I don’t expect there’ll be as many comedic ones this year.

X-Files Magazine: Is Chris Carter planning another blockbuster episode along the lines of “Triangle” or “Post-Modern Prometheus”?

Spotnitz: I would be amazed if he has the time to direct anything this year. I think we will try to make as many of these episodes as we can this year spectacular and precedent-breaking, but between “Harsh Realm” and “The X-Files” I expect we’ll be too busy writing to have him get behind the camera.

X-Files Magazine: You mentioned last year that Mulder and Scully are moving toward a new plateau in their relationship. What changes are in store this year?

Spotnitz: Big changes! In the movie, they didn’t kiss but clearly the desire was there. Then we really, I thought, teased the audience in episodes like “Triangle” and “The Rain King.” I think you will see that attraction addressed again more squarely at some point during the yearnd then certainly in the finale I would expect a direct conclusion to seven years of unrequited sexual tension.