10 Things We Learned From The X-Files Revival Premiere My Struggle

4. Sveta Was Far More Likable Than Expected

Of the characters introduced in My Struggle, one works much better than the rest. There are really only three: Mulder's nameless informant/ex-military doctor, conspiracy show host Tad O'Malley, and Sveta, a supposed alien abductee. It's Sveta who works best, and it's a tad surprising really. Coming into the episode, on paper, she seemed the weakest, just another poor soul on the wrong end of an alien encounter. However, the character, played by Annet Mahendru of The Americans, worked far better than it should have. Claiming to have been impregnated by aliens only to have her offspring taken by men from the government, Sveta especially shines during her exchanges with Dana Scully, when she demonstrates some low-level psychic ability, being able to uncover that her and Mulder have had a romantic history, among other little factoids. It gets even better, however, when she misses a key fact - that Scully herself has been an abductee. Her reactions are spot on perfect, and Mahendru holds her own against the talented Gillian Anderson. Later in the episode, she claims to have been paid by Tad O'Malley to make alien abduction claims, but it's clear that itself is a lie, and of course, Scully uncovers the truth: that Sveta does in fact have alien DNA. Yet while we learned that, we also learned that she may be the best alien abductee guest star since Scott Bellis' Max Fenig.