 Frank Spotnitz said of the episode 's origins , " We 've destroyed all the stuff about Mulder 's father , the project , and the Syndicate . All the things that had sustained us for six years were suddenly gone . We had no crutches . From that point on , every time we sat down to write a mythology show , we knew it was going to be a completely different challenge . " Chris Carter saw the episode as a transitional episode , stating " I felt that , with " The Sixth Extinction " , I was just playing a supporting role and that the episode , essentially the middle episode of a three @-@ episode arc , was just a transitional episode to get us to ' Amor Fati ' , which was really less about the mythology and more about Mulder 's choices in life . " 
