Here’s a puzzle even Mulder and Scully would be hard-pressed to solve: How do you wrap up nearly a decade’s worth of convoluted – and some might say downright undecipherable – mythology in just two hours? That’s the challenge currently facing producers of Fox’s “The X-Files,” which ends its nine-year run on May 19.

The show started out dealing with actual cases from the FBI. When those ran dry, the plot thickened and twisted as agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) chased the truth behind the government’s involvement in alien cover-ups.

The show has gone through many changes over its nine years and even had an ill-fated spin-off, “The Lone Gunmen.” With the final episode, Mulder returns and many of the unanswered questions will be answered, but there will be some loose ends left dangling.

The show became a part of pop culture in the mid-’90s. Fans calling themselves “X-philes” gave the show some of TV’s top ratings. However, recently the show has seen its numbers dwindle down to less than eight million viewers, while ABC’s “Alias” owns the time slot with more than 10 million viewers.

The finale will mark the return of Duchovny, who left after last season. Until his departure, he was an integral part of the show with some writing and directing duties.

“I haven’t watched it in a while,” said junior economics major Jenny Brady. “But I am kind of interested in seeing how it ends.”

However, it seems that most NIU students have lost interest.

“I lost interest after a while,” said freshman undecided major Mark Christiansen. “The stories just got too weird for me.”

Sophomore English major Erica Churchill agreed.

“I haven’t watched it in years,” she said.

Will the finale spell the end of “The X-Files?”

Hardly. Creator Chris Carter has said that another movie is in the works. He added that he’d like to see “The X Files” become a “Star Trek”-like movie franchise.

So rest assured X-philes, while this is the end of the Fox era of the show, it will live on – at least for one more movie.