The truth is out there: Celebrate 30 years of The X-Files with our 30 favorite episodes

[Karlston]

From alien abductions to monsters of the week, this sci-fi series had something for everyone.

FBI agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) were the heart and soul of The X-Files.

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In September 1993, fictional FBI Special Agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) made their broadcast TV debut on The X-Files and went on to investigate alien abductions and all manner of strange phenomena for nine full seasons and two feature films, followed by two additional limited-run seasons in 2016 and 2018. This hugely popular and influential series celebrates its 30th anniversary this month, giving us a prime opportunity to pay homage to our favorite episodes and characters.

 

(Spoilers for The X-Files below.)

 

The X-Files was created by Chris Carter, who was a fan of the 1970s horror series Kolchak: The Night Stalker, featuring a wire service reporter (Darren McGavin) investigating mysterious crimes with a supernatural or science fiction element. Other cited influences included The Twilight Zone, Night Gallery, Twin Peaks (in which Duchovny played a transgender DEA agent), and Jonathan Demme's 1988 Oscar-winning film The Silence of the Lambs.

 

Carter liked the idea of a TV series featuring FBI agents investigating the paranormal. He deliberately made Mulder (nicknamed "Spooky") the true believer and Scully the science-based skeptic—a gender swap to counter broad cultural stereotypes. Carter described the pair as a dichotomy, representing his desire to believe in something versus an inability to believe—the age-old tension between skepticism and faith.

 

As the characters developed over subsequent seasons, we saw them internalize that tension, with Mulder sometimes getting discouraged and questioning his longing to believe and Scully being forced to confront how her science sometimes conflicted with her devout Catholic faith. They each had deep personal journeys as well; both lost family members, for instance, and Mulder's obsession with alien abductions was fueled by the disappearance of his sister Samantha when he was a kid. And while Carter was adamant early on that this would be a purely platonic relationship—à la Emma Peel and John Steed in The Avengers British TV series—that changed as the friendship between Mulder and Scully deepened, with increasingly romantic overtones. But the series never openly acknowledged the two having sex until season 11's "Plus One."

 

The Lone Gunmen were introduced in the S1 episode "E.B.E." and soon became fan favorites.

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The X-Files quickly blossomed from a cult series into a bona fide pop culture phenomenon throughout its first seven seasons, racking up a lot of Emmy and Golden Globe awards. Scully is often credited with encouraging young women to pursue careers in medicine, science, or the FBI, a phenomenon dubbed the "Scully effect."

 

While it started out dealing with UFOs and alien abduction, Carter and his writing team realized early on that it would be difficult to sustain that momentum over multiple seasons. So there were essentially two kinds of episodes: those advancing the over-arching "mytharc" of the series canon—often featuring appearances by William B. Davis as the iconic Cigarette Smoking Man (CSM)—and standalone "Monster of the Week" (MOW) episodes unrelated to the series mythology. From horror to humor, shadowy conspiracies to arcane folklore, the series offered something for everyone, a key factor in its broad popular appeal.

“The Seasons That Shall Not Be Named”

For the first five seasons, The X-Files filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia, but it moved to Los Angeles starting with the sixth season so that Duchovny could be closer to his then-wife Tea Leoni. When Duchovny's contract expired after the seventh season, he effectively quit the series, though he returned occasionally as Mulder during S8 and S9—or, as I like to call them, "The Seasons That Shall Not Be Named."

 

This was unquestionably the low point of the series, especially with Anderson also winding down her involvement. Carter apparently convinced himself that he could simply find new leads—in this case, Robert Patrick as John Doggett and Annabeth Gish as Monica Reyes—and the show would run indefinitely. But there is simply no X-Files without Mulder and Scully. Add in the deaths of fan favorites the Lone Gunmen in "Jump the Shark" (S9), and no wonder ratings steeply declined.

 

The series introduced Monica Reyes (Annabeth Gish) and John Doggett (Robert Patrick) as new

leads for the eighth and ninth seasons. But there is no X-Files without Mulder and Scully, and ratings sharply declined.

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The show's original run ended with that ninth season. But The X-Files lived on via DVD and (more recently) streaming platforms, and its hardcore fan base remained fiercely loyal. The 2008 film The X-Files: I Want to Believe (with a standalone MOW plot) received mixed reviews and didn't exactly light up the box office, but it grossed $68 million against its $30 million budget. That was enough to spark rumors of a possible third film; both Duchovny and Anderson expressed a willingness to co-star.

 

By 2015, the project had morphed into bringing The X-Files back as a limited-run TV series, with the six-episode S10 debuting in 2016. Mulder and Scully were reunited 14 years after the events of S9 as the FBI reopened the X-Files under Assistant Director Walter Skinner (Mitch Pileggi), a major recurring character in the series since his introduction in the S1 episode "Tooms." Reviews were mixed, especially regarding the weak mytharc episodes, but there were enough good episodes to warrant a follow-up ten-episode season in 2018, focusing on Mulder and Scully's search for their missing son, William.

 

This was a much stronger season, with some very good episodes, but neither S10 or S11 managed to fully recapture the old magic, and Anderson announced she wouldn't be returning to The X-Files shortly thereafter. As recently as 2020, Carter was on record expressing hopes of continuing the franchise without Mulder and Scully, but again—those characters are the heart and soul of The X-Files. Without them, it's just another spooky series.

Hard choices

It was no easy task to narrow this list down to just 30 episodes. X-Files fans can be roughly divided into two camps: those who love the standalone MOW episodes and those who jones for the alien conspiracy mytharc episodes. I belong to the former category, and this list inevitably reflects my subjective taste; I also tend to favor episodes where the writers took creative risks.

 

The S11 episode "Plus One" was the first time Mulder and Scully were openly shown to be intimate.

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There have been very good mythological episodes, of course, but they often spanned more than one episode in terms of narrative arc, and not all the episodes in a given arc were equally good. Even those who love them would admit that the mythology eventually spiraled out of control: black oil, shapeshifting alien bounty hunters, alien-human hybrids, smallpox vaccines, a shadowy Syndicate, something to do with bees... I'd pinpoint the downward slide into incoherence as beginning after S3's "Paper Clip," a mostly excellent episode that concluded a three-episode arc beginning with the S2 cliffhanger finale "Anasazi." "Paper Clip" also contains Skinner's most popular line, when he tells the CSM to "pucker up and kiss my ass."

 

Other notable mythological episodes deserve honorable mention. In S1, "E.B.E." introduced us to the Lone Gunmen, while the season finale, "The Erlenmeyer Flask," shocked viewers with the death of Mulder's sketchy informant, Deep Throat. "Sleepless" (S2) gave us recurring villain Alex Krycek (Nicholas Lea), while the one-two punch of S3's "Piper Maru" and "Apocrypha" introduced the mysterious black oil. Scully's abduction in the critically acclaimed three-parter "Duane Barry," "Ascension," and "One Breath" (S2) was a clever way for the writers to work around Anderson's real-life pregnancy and set up some intriguing later developments in the series.

 

While technically standalone episodes, "Conduit" (S1) and "Oubliette" (S3) delved deeper into Mulder's emotional scars from losing his sister Samantha, that storyline concluded—unsatisfactorily, in my opinion—with S7's "Sein und Zeit" and "Closure." I also enjoyed S5's two-parter "A Christmas Carol" and "Emily," in which Scully discovered that she gave birth to a daughter during her abduction. And the telepathic chess child prodigy Gibson Praise (Jeff Gulka) made for a compelling two-episode arc in "The End" (S5) and "The Beginning" (S6).

 

"Scully's in the zone!" Battling a killer avatar in "First Person Shooter" (S7).

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Likewise, there are several MOW episodes that are worthy of honorable mention. Who could forget Zelijko Ivanek's incredible performance as a mentally disabled janitor for a science lab in "Roland" (S1)? Tony Shalhoub was equally terrific as a physicist haunted by his own shadow in "Soft Light" (S2), despite the nonsensical physics. "All Souls" (S5) showcased Scully struggling with grief over the loss of her daughter, while "Elegy" (S4) and "Tithonus" (S6) continued Scully's emotional arc concerning her faith and human mortality.

 

It's equally tough to forget the disturbing "Home" (S4), which featured a squicky incest-centric plot that warranted the show's first TV-MA rating. The concept of a meteorologist whose repressed emotions affect the weather made "The Rain King" (S6) stand out, while the heist caper of S7's "The Amazing Maleeni," featuring real-world magician Ricky Jay, was a refreshing change of pace from the show's usual fare. The S7 satirical episode "Hollywood A.D." (penned by Duchovny) also provided a playful respite, though it was marred by a rather silly subplot. And who could forget the William Gibson-penned "First Person Shooter" (S7), in which Mulder and Scully suit up to battle a renegade killer avatar in a VR game?

 

In the end, though, we could only pick 30 episodes, listed below in order of air date.

“Pilot” (S1)

Billy Miles (Zachary Ansley) unwittingly assists his alien abductors in a hypnotic state.

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This is the one that started it all, establishing not only the two central characters, Mulder and Scully, but also deftly laying the groundwork for the series mytharc. It opens with the mysterious death of a teenage girl in Bellefleur, Oregon, and Scully's assignment to the X-Files. The CSM lurks silently in the background as she receives her marching orders from FBI Division Chief Blevins (Charles Cioffi). There are alien abductees with strange marks on their backs—including Billy Miles (Zachary Ansley), a character who reappeared in the S7 finale, "Requiem"—unexplained lost time, a desiccated body with a metallic implant up its nose, and a government conspiracy intent on covering up what little evidence of alien activity our dynamic duo manage to dig up (quite literally at one point).

 

Carter wrote the pilot episode with the explicit aim of "scaring peoples' pants off," achieving a tone that falls somewhere between Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Silence of the Lambs. What stands out in this episode is the obvious chemistry between Duchovny and Anderson (who was not the network's first casting choice for Scully), providing the glue that holds all the disparate plot threads together.

“Squeeze” (S1)

Mutant serial killer Eugene Victor Tooms (Doug Hutchison) was the show's first monster of the week.

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"Squeeze" was the very first MOW episode and introduced the memorable serial killer Eugene Victor Tooms (Doug Hutchison), a genetic mutant who must feed on five fresh livers every 30 years and who can elongate his body to squeeze through tight spaces—air ducts, chimneys, mail slots, and the like. This ability gives him easy access to his victims, many of whom are found dead behind locked doors. Oh, and he collects trophies from his victims and constructs his "nest" for hibernation out of strips of newspaper moistened with yellow bile (actually a yellow piping gel). This episode also pits Scully against an ambitious FBI agent (Donal Logue) who ridicules her work with Mulder, forcing her to make a crucial choice about her future career prospects.

 

Hutchison deserves major kudos for his ultra-menacing portrayal of Tooms, whose eyes turn yellow when the bloodlust is upon him. Once he zeroes in on a victim, the surroundings fade to gray with only the victim remaining in full color—a nice visual touch to give us a peek into the monster's perspective. A contortionist was hired for the infamous scene in which Tooms slides his body through a chimney; the only special effects were the sounds of snapping and cracking bones added in post-production.

 

Neil Gaiman has called Tooms one of his favorite fictional monsters, and a monster who is driven to kill by powerful, innate physical drives became a recurring theme in the series. James Wong and Glen Morgan even wrote a follow-up episode, "Tooms," in which the killer is paroled and sets out to frame Mulder for assault while he stalks his fifth and final victim. Mulder and Scully eventually track Tooms to a Baltimore shopping mall, where the murderous mutant finally meets his demise, crushed to death beneath a moving escalator.

“Ice” (S1)

"We are not who we are": Paranoia and a parasitic worm turn arctic researchers against each other.

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This tense, suspense-filled tale of ancient extraterrestrial parasitic worms that wreak havoc at an isolated Alaskan research facility is considered by many (including members of the production crew) to be the best episode of the first season. Co-writer Glen Morgan was inspired by an article he read in Science News about the discovery in Greenland of a 250,000 object encased in the ice, as well as the 1951 film The Thing From Another World and John Carpenter's The Thing (1982), both adaptations of a 1938 novella by John W Campbell. This "bottle episode" was shot almost entirely in an old Molson brewery to create a sense of claustrophobia.

 

With a storm raging, Mulder and Scully must race against time to solve the mystery of a mass murder/suicide among scientists. The victims all succumbed to a strange illness after taking an ice bore sample that contained a dormant worm that attaches itself to its hosts, and the members of the team sent to investigate could be next. What makes this episode so compelling is how the tension and distrust slowly builds up between the ensemble cast before exploding into violence. Who is infected, and can they find a cure in time? It's also an integral moment in Mulder and Scully's relationship, as they must decide to trust each other in a truly harrowing scenario.

“Beyond the Sea” (S1)

Brad Dourif gave a chilling performance as condemned serial killer Luther Lee Boggs.

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"Beyond the Sea" revealed the emotionally vulnerable side of Scully, opening with a family Christmas gathering and the subsequent death of her father. Scully has a vision of him sitting across from her trying to speak, moments before her phone rings with the tragic news. While Scully processes the loss, she and Mulder take on the case of a young kidnapped couple. They seek the help of an incarcerated serial killer on Death Row named Luther Lee Boggs (Brad Dourif), who offers his psychic insight in exchange for having his imminent execution postponed. (The character was inspired by real-life serial killer Henry Lee Lucas.) In a role reversal, Mulder is the skeptic, with Scully wondering if Boggs' psychic insights might be genuine.

 

Carter had to fight to cast Dourif despite tight budget constraints, and it was worth the extra cost: Dourif's sinister portrayal of the manipulative Boggs was central to the emotional core of the story. Some of Boggs' "predictions" are readily debunked, while others might be explained by the power of suggestion. The question of whether Boggs really did have a "message" from Scully's late father—and whether she "saw" her father briefly in Boggs' stead—is deliberately left ambiguous. In the end, Scully skips Boggs' execution to visit a wounded Mulder in the hospital. Mulder asks if she did so because she's afraid to believe, but Scully counters that she already knew, deep down, what her father would have said.

“Irresistible” (S2)

Nick Chinlund as death fetishist Donnie Pfaster showed that not all terror comes from the paranormal.

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This MOW episode gave us the chilling figure of death fetishist/serial killer Donnie Pfaster (Nick Chinlund). He was originally meant to be a necrophiliac, but that proved to be a bridge too far for Fox's broadcast standards. So Carter toned down the sexual obsession accordingly, making the character obsessed with shampooing his victims' hair and doing their makeup. That actually made Pfaster more terrifying; he's soft-spoken and polite right up until he goes in for the kill.

 

"Irresistible" lacks the usual paranormal elements, apart from those moments when a kidnapped Scully seems to hallucinate a shapeshifting Pfaster, in which he assumes the likeness of other (presumable) murderers and a demon-like figure. It's a bit hokey, but in keeping with the concept of Pfaster as a symbol of evil incarnate, and that element was inspired by actual accounts of Jeffrey Dahmer's surviving hostages, who claimed he seemed to shapeshift. The character would reappear in S7's "Orison," in which he was revealed to be an actual demon. I found "Orison" to be a much less satisfying and effective episode because of that over-literalism.

“Die Hand Die Verletz” (S2)

"His is the hand that wounds": Devilish forces are unleashed in a New Hampshire town.

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The title comes from a satanic prayer spoken during the episode's cold open and translates as "the hand that wounds." Faculty members of the fictional Crowley High School in New Hampshire belong to a satanic cult, but their religious adherence has lapsed of late—an amusing twist on mainstream "fair-weather" Christians. In this case, their oversight brings down the devil's wrath, with a seemingly innocuous substitute teacher, Mrs. Paddock (Susan Blommaert), mercilessly dispensing punishment.

 

The episode has its humorous moments, including Mulder and Scully's bemusement as frogs suddenly rain down from the sky, as well as Mrs. Paddock's final cheery message to them on a classroom blackboard ("Goodbye. It's been nice working with you"). But the darker tones soon dominate as the cost of the faculty's lack of devotion mounts. The highlight of the episode is the spectacular death of faculty member Jim Ausbury (Dan Butler), who is suffocated and consumed by a giant python while handcuffed in his own basement. Butler was genuinely terrified of the snake, and the way the camera captured the animal slithering down the basement steps invokes dread and terror in the viewer as well.

“Humbug” (S2)

"Humbug" featured real sideshow performers, including The Enigma as The Conundrum.

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"Humbug" marks the first time The X-Files indulged in outright comedy as Mulder and Scully investigate the death of a sideshow performer known as the "Alligator Man" (John Payne) because of his rare skin condition (ichthyosis). Could the culprit be the famous "Fiji mermaid" that P.T. Barnum exhibited in the 19th century? Mulder's suggestion is naturally dismissed by Scully, who argues that the original was a hoax, or "humbug"—it was actually the head and torso of a monkey sewn onto the tail end of a fish.

 

It's the stellar supporting cast that really makes this episode stand out: Michael J. Anderson as Mr. Nutt, who manages a trailer park that is home to many circus folk; and Vincent Schiavelli as Lanny, an alcoholic dying from liver disease who has a conjoined twin named Leonard capable of detaching and slithering around in search of a new host. It's just that every time Leonard tries to attach himself to a new host, he ends up killing them instead. Real-life sideshow performer Jim Rose appears as Dr. Blockhead, who hammers railroad spikes into his chest. Rose's colleague The Enigma portrays a "geek" called The Conundrum, known for eating anything—maybe even including Leonard (who really does resemble the Fiji mermaid in some respects).

“Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose” (S3)

Peter Boyle guest-starred as an insurance salesman who can foresee how people will die.

 

Especially in its earlier seasons, The X-Files pointedly opted for lesser-known actors over bigger names when casting roles. One notable exception was Peter Boyle, who guest-starred as a pessimistic insurance salesman with the ability to foresee how people will die in "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose." But that's the extent of the man's prognostication, and he bemoans the fact that he can't, say, predict winning lottery numbers. Naturally, Bruckman becomes entangled with Mulder and Scully's investigation involving a serial killer who targets fortune tellers.

 

Boyle brings sly humor and a weary fatalism to Bruckman, and his cryptic insights into the agents' final confrontation with the killer raise questions about free will and determinism. His one-on-one scenes with the skeptical Scully are downright touching, particularly the final one. As for the future demises of our favorite FBI agents, Bruckman makes a sly reference to autoerotic asphyxiation with regard to Mulder (the character's fondness for pornography was a running joke throughout the series). But when Scully finally asks how she will die, he responds, "You don't." This sparked a popular fan theory that Scully is immortal, further fueled by the events of "Tithonus." Bonus: Jaap Broeker's humorous cameo as a psychic, named the Stupendous Yappi, with very dramatic eyebrows.

“Pusher” (S3)

Robert Patrick Modell (Robert Wisden), aka "Pusher," forces Mulder to play Russian roulette.

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Psychokinetic abilities are a popular theme on The X-Files, and this episode gave us one of the more intriguing villains in that category: sociopathic assassin-for-hire Robert Patrick Modell (Robert Wisden), aka "Pusher." The nickname refers to his uncanny ability to compel people to commit horrendous acts against their will, even driving a SWAT lieutenant to douse himself in gasoline and light himself on fire. Mulder and Scully embark on a cat-and-mouse game to catch Modell—but how do you bring a criminal to justice if he can compel the presiding judge at arraignment to release him?

 

In the final confrontation, Mulder—whom Modell has decided is a "worthy adversary"—is forced to play a game of Russian roulette. Modell has a brain tumor—the source of his new ability—and hence has nothing to lose. After Modell is captured, we learn that his tumor was operable but he had refused treatment, even though it was killing him because, as Scully says, he was a "little man" who longed "to be big," and his psychic ability finally made him special. The character reappeared in S5's "Kitsunegari" ("fox hunt" in Japanese), in which Modell awakens from his coma and escapes from prison, reuniting with his twin sister—who also has a brain tumor and psychokinetic abilities.

“Jose Chung’s From Outer Space” (S3)

Mulder and Scully have a close encounter with a science fiction author interested in an alien abduction case.

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This is one of those episodes that pops up regularly on "best of The X-Files" lists, and deservedly so. The story unfolds via a series of interviews by the fictional science fiction author Jose Chung with various witnesses to what may or may not have been an alien abduction. So there are multiple and sometimes conflicting accounts of the same incidents. The witnesses include an electric company lineman who swears he met an alien named Lord Kinbote and visited the center of the Earth and a foul-mouthed detective whose dialogue is replaced with "bleep" and "blank" to hilarious effect.

 

"Jose Chung's From Outer Space" is notable for its unusual narrative framework and quirky humor, and the convoluted plot includes lots of references and in-jokes to UFO culture. For instance, there's a nod to the infamous Alien Autopsy: Fact or Fiction video that Fox aired back in 1995 and a scene where a witness in a diner pushes his mashed potatoes into the shape of a mountain (cf. 1977's Close Encounters of the Third Kind). Jessie Ventura and Alex Trebek make cameos as mysterious men in black insisting that any UFO sightings are merely the planet Venus. The episode was destined to become an instant classic.

“Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man” (S4)

William B. Davis' Cigarette Smoking Man finally got a standalone episode exploring his history.

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This episode employs the classic unreliable narrator technique to delve into the background of William B. Davis' mysterious Cigarette Smoking Man, who by now had become a frequent figure in the mythology-centric episodes. That narrator is Lone Gunman Melvin Frohike (Tom Braidwood), who claims to have read about the CSM's history in some "crummy magazine" and proceeds to relate the story in flashbacks—unaware that the CSM is outside their headquarters with surveillance equipment and a sniper rifle. ("I can kill you whenever I please, but not today.") Chris Owens, who later played the CSM's son, Jeffrey Spender, was cast as the younger version of the CSM.

 

Davis was delighted that his character—who didn't even have a line until "Tooms"—was getting his own episode with a backstory that included assassinating both JFK and Martin Luther King, Jr. We also learned that while the CSM is a dangerous man, he's also kind of petty, since he kept the Buffalo Bills from winning the Super Bowl in 1991. The fact that he's a failed writer of espionage thrillers puts the final flourish on the character. People are complicated, after all. "Even if your mission in life is as a destroyer... you still have some hope in the back of your mind that you can be a creator," Carter later recalled.

“Leonard Betts” (S4)

Paul McCrane played an EMT who must consume cancerous tumors to survive in "Leonard Betts."

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This tale of an EMT named Leonard Betts (Paul McCrane) who must consume cancerous tumors to survive (and, when necessary, regenerate) launched a multi-episode arc with the revelation that Scully had cancer. Betts is decapitated in an ambulance crash. But then his headless body disappears from the morgue, and he reappears with a regrown head under a new name, still working as an EMT. He's a morally ambiguous monster. Betts helps people as an EMT, but it serves his ends, too, giving him access to cancer-riddled tissue. And he's quite willing to kill to get what he needs to survive.

 

Among the highlights is the scene where Scully tries to perform an autopsy on Betts' head, only to be startled when the eyes and mouth open. McCrane had to stick his head through a hole in the set's dissection table for the entire scene. He also had to stay underwater for several minutes at a time for the scene where he emerges slowly from a bathtub. The sequence where Betts sprouts a new head, bursting out of his old mouth, rightfully snagged an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Makeup.

“Kaddish” (S4)

A heartbroken young Jewish woman creates a golem to avenge the brutal murder of her fiancée in "Kaddish."

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The X-Files often drew on ancient folklore and legends from cultures across the globe for episodes, and "Kaddish" is one of the best examples. It draws on the Jewish myth of the golem, a being created from clay or mud and animated by mystical incantations. The plot centers on the murder of a Jewish store owner by young neo-Nazis days before his wedding, leaving behind his heartbroken fiancee Ariel (Justine Miceli) to mourn the injustice of his loss. When a mysterious figure begins killing those responsible, Mulder and Scully must solve the mystery of how a dead man could commit murder.

 

It's the combination of the timeless star-crossed lovers trope and Jewish mysticism that make this episode so powerful. Ariel creates the golem as a surrogate for her dead husband so that they can finally exchange their wedding vows. Then she tearfully erases the marks that keep the golem animated, and it collapses back into a pile of mud. The episode title is a reference to the hymn recited as a mourning ritual at funerals, and thematically, this is mostly about Ariel figuring out how to say goodbye—with some well-deserved vengeance thrown in for good measure.

“Unrequited” (S4)

An invisible assassin targets US Army generals in "Unrequited."

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In "Unrequited," Mulder and Scully must find the killer who is taking out high-ranking generals in the US Army, leaving behind a playing card—a common practice of soldiers in Vietnam to mark their kills. The suspect is a sergeant named Nathanial Teager (Peter LaCroix), who had been captured as a POW during Vietnam and was effectively abandoned by the government he served. But officially, Teager is dead, having been "identified" via a few teeth. The targeted generals were involved with the cover-up, and Teager is out for revenge, using his ability to appear invisible when in someone's direct line of sight.

 

Co-writer Howard Gordon was inspired by stories of CIA agents being left behind during the Vietnam War. The episode also provided an opportunity to flesh out Skinner's own backstory as a Vietnam vet. Not everyone is a fan of this episode, and some critics found its message a bit heavy-handed. But that final scene, with a dying Teager stubbornly repeating his name and military ID over and over to prevent once again being erased from history, gets me every time.

“Small Potatoes” (S4)

The mysterious birth of several babies with vestigial tails raises suspicion in "Small Potatoes."

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Darin Morgan, who penned some of the series' most humorous episodes, got the chance to show off his acting chops as Eddie van Blundht ("the h is silent"), a West Virginia janitor with the unique ability to transform himself into other people. There have been several local births in town of babies with vestigial tails, most to parents associated with the same fertility clinic, where Eddie works. The sole exception is an unmarried young woman (and huge Star Wars fan) named Amanda (Christine Cavanaugh), who tells Mulder and Scully that the father of her baby is Luke Skywalker. Amanda actually dated Eddie in high school but dismissed him as a "loser." Appearing to her as "Luke Skywalker" was the only way he could win her over.

 

Eddie eventually shapeshifts into Mulder to escape, even putting the moves on Scully, who is understandably shocked when the real Mulder bursts in on them. Written by Vince Gilligan, "Small Potatoes" was meant to have a playful tone to lighten the mood of the rather dark fourth season, and it mostly succeeded on that score. Granted, the entire premise is a bit rapey—Eddie literally tricks women into having sex with him by pretending to be their husbands—but he is a monster, and he is punished for his crimes in the end.

“The Post-Modern Prometheus” (S5)

Mulder and Scully find a comic book clue in "The Postmodern Prometheus."

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This episode feels like a very "meta" fairy tale, augmented with catchy Cher tunes and a cameo by Jerry Springer. Carter was keen to have a Frankenstein-inspired episode for the fifth season. (The title is a reference to Mary Shelley's original subtitle.) And he decided to blur the boundary a bit between the usual X-Files "reality" and the events of this story about "a love-lorn monster." It was shot entirely in black-and-white, in a style that evoked director James Whale's classic horror films of the 1930s, and the plot was partly inspired by an Indiana University scientist who genetically manipulated flies so that legs grew from their eyes.

 

Mulder and Scully head to the town of Albion, Indiana, to investigate the mysterious pregnancy of a single mother named Shaineh Berkowitz (Pattie Tierce), who claims she conceived while unconscious. The creature she says attacked her bears a striking resemblance to The Great Mutato (Chris Owens), a character in a comic book created by her teenage son, Izzy—who insists The Great Mutato is real. And so he is, the monstrous result of unethical experiments by local geneticist Francis Pollidori (John O'Hurley), except Pollidori never created a mate for Mutato. Eventually, the townspeople conclude that Mutato is not such a monster after all, and the episode ends with a possibly imagined scene where Mulder and Scully take Mutato to a Cher concert.

 

"The Post-Modern Prometheus" is a personal favorite despite the fact that Mutato drugged both Shaineh and Pollidori's wife with a chemical agricultural agent and impregnated them—one assumes the old-fashioned way, although the episode is coy on that point. If so, that's rape—and no, it's not an "over-simplification" because the two women really wanted children, as one critic actually tried to argue. One can appreciate the creative artistry of the episode (nominated for seven Emmy awards) and even feel compassion for Mutato's unusual plight without making excuses for the inexcusable.

“Kill Switch” (S5)

William Gibson penned this episode about a sentient AI run amok on the Internet.

20th Century Fox

 

If you want to make an X-Files episode about AI, you can't go wrong by hiring cyberpunk novelist William Gibson to write it (along with his longtime friend and fellow cyberpunk author Tom Maddox). Mulder and Scully investigate how a reclusive AI expert named Donald Gelman ended up among a bunch of dead drug dealers in a diner shootout. The culprit: a sentient AI Gelman created that went rogue on the World Wide Web. They team up with a hacker called Invisigoth, aka Esther Nairn (Kristin Lehman), to figure out a way to upload Gelman's "kill switch," a virus that would destroy the AI. But Esther and her partner, David, had other plans to upload their consciousnesses into the AI.

 

S1's "Ghost in the Machine" also dealt with a sentient AI gone bad, but "Kill Switch" has the better writing and execution. I mean, you've got Mulder held prisoner in a virtual hospital surrounded by scantily clad nurses—except the sexy fantasy quickly turns into body horror when the AI convinces Mulder his arms have been amputated. Anderson particularly relished the scene where a virtual version of Scully kicks and karate chops all the nurses to "rescue" Mulder. Virtual Scully is then revealed to be the AI trying to get information via a twisted interrogation ploy.

“Bad Blood” (S5)

Mulder and Scully disagree on whether the local sheriff (Luke Wilson) has buck teeth.

20th Century Fox

 

This episode boasts one of the series' best cold opens. A young man runs through the woods calling for help as he is pursued by a mysterious figure. The figure turns out to be Mulder, who catches up with Ronnie (Patrick Renna) and stakes him through the heart, convinced Ronnie is a vampire. Then Scully arrives and removes the man's obviously fake fangs. Oops! Apparently, Ronnie had just seen one too many Bela Lugosi movies. Cut to Mulder and Scully each telling their version of what happened—in what was supposed to be an investigation of dead cattle (and the occasional human) drained of blood with bite marks on their necks—before meeting with Skinner for a possible reprimand.

 

"Bad Blood" was a highlight of a very strong season. Mulder and Scully's differing interpretation of events is wryly amusing and gives us insight into how they perceive themselves and each other (by this point in the series, the romantic overtones were becoming more overt). For instance, she admires the handsome local Sheriff Hartwell (Luke Wilson), while in Mulder's recollection, Hartwell is a slow-witted drawling hick with big buck teeth. And the obscure vampire lore adds color, like the vampiric OCD. For instance, these vampires will compulsively untie all the human victims' shoelaces. And when Ronnie, who really is a vampire, comes for Mulder, the agent scatters sunflower seeds to buy time, knowing Ronnie will be compelled to pick them all up.

“Mind’s Eye” (S5)

"I hate the way you see me": Lili Taylor played a blind woman with remote viewing abilities.

20th Century Fox

 

When a blind woman with a bad attitude (Lili Taylor) is suspected of murder, Mulder and Scully investigate—and find there is more than meets the eye to the case. Marty was found at the murder scene, covered in the dead man's blood, but the police can't figure out how a blind woman could have committed the crime. Mulder figures out that Marty is experiencing visions in her "mind's eye," seeing through the eyes of the real killer. She keeps showing up at murder scenes because she's trying to intervene.

 

The episode was written by Tim Minear, who was fascinated by the notion of "remote viewing," in which extrasensory perception enables a person to "see" events and people that are distant. As an added twist, he decided to make his remote viewer blind, as well as a not particularly nice person because "disability doesn't necessary ennoble a person." Taylor nails her performance as Marty—she received one of several Emmy nominations for this episode—and the revelation of the origin of her ability, as well as how she chooses to resolve matters, is what makes this episode so memorable.

“Drive” (S6)

Bryan Cranston's stellar turn as a desperate man forced to drive west to relieve a strange pressure

building in his head led to him being cast as Walter White in Breaking Bad.

20th Century Fox

 

What if a secret government experiment involving sound waves fatally infected an entire rural community? "Drive" frames this very X-Files premise in a novel way: racing against time on a high-speed road trip heading due west. It opens with a live news report of police chasing a speeding car across the Nevada desert. When they finally catch the driver, Patrick Crump (Bryan Cranston), his wife's head literally explodes. Soon Crump develops the same painful pressure building in his head, steals a car, and forces Mulder at gunpoint to drive him due west as fast as possible. As Mulder tries to cope with the paranoid (and anti-semitic) Crump, Scully must figure out what the mysterious infection is and what caused it and find a way to save Crump in time.

 

Writer Vince Gilligan was inspired by reading about such government-sponsored experiments as Project HAARP (the High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program, a favorite target among conspiracy theorists) and Project ELF. What makes this episode work so well is the fragile bond that gradually develops between Mulder and Crump, as well as Cranston's phenomenal performance. At the time, Cranston was best known as the hapless dad on the sitcom Malcolm in the Middle, but Gilligan thought he was the perfect choice to strike a balance between Crump being kind of scary and "loathsome" yet deeply human—because viewers needed "to feel bad for him when he died."

“Triangle” (S6)

Mulder is transported back to 1939 in the Bermuda Triangle... or is it all a dream?

20th Century Fox

 

"Triangle" is both a terrific story—Mulder disappears in the Bermuda Triangle and finds himself transported back to 1939 on board a luxury passenger liner captured by Nazis—and a tour de force of TV cinematography. Carter designed the episode as an homage to Alfred Hitchcock's Rope (1948), famous for taking place in real time and consisting of four long continuous takes stitched together. So "Triangle" is mostly four 11-minute takes—an approach the cast and crew found both exhilarating and exhausting since each take needed to be perfect. One particular highlight: the use of a split-screen to depict events in the same setting but two different time periods, playing out side by side—especially the moment when Mulder and "Scully" in 1939 run around the same ship's corner at the same time as the present-day Scully hunting for her missing partner.

 

This is the episode in which Mulder and Scully finally kiss, albeit in 1939, so she's not exactly Scully—and she punches him in response. But did any of it really happen? Given the obvious nods to The Wizard of Oz—the presence of the CMS and Jeffrey Spender as Nazis, plus AD Alvin Kersh (James Pickens Jr.) and Skinner as a sailor and double agent, respectively—a compelling argument can be made that the 1939 events largely took place in Mulder's head as he floated unconscious in the Bermuda Triangle. Or not—his cheek is still sore from 1939 Scully's punch. The ambiguity is kind of the point. Bonus: The opening credit sequence has a German tagline: "Die Wahrheit ist irgendwo da draußen" ("The Truth is out there").

“Dreamland I and II” (S6)

David Duchovny and Michael McKean used an old Marx Brothers trick for this comical mirror scene.

20th Century Fox

 

By the sixth season, humor had become a common feature in standalone MOW episodes of the The X-Files, and not everyone was a fan of that element. With its Freaky Friday body-swapping conceit, the overtly comic "Dreamland" is perhaps one of the most polarizing episodes of the series for that reason: people seem to either love it or hate it. I'm in the former camp. It has great performances and snappy dialogue, it enthusiastically leans into its fantastical plot, and it doesn't take itself too seriously. It provides a nice contrast to the S6 mytharc, which had gotten quite convoluted and would in fact be relaunched later in the season with "Two Fathers" and "One Son."

 

Mulder and Scully follow an anonymous tip to Area 51, where they are confronted by "men in black" led by Morris Fletcher (Michael McKean). A mysterious aircraft suddenly appears in the sky before crashing, and after the shock wave passes over them, Mulder and Fletcher find they have swapped bodies—but they are the only ones who realize what has happened. Wacky hijinks ensue. Mulder must navigate Fletcher's dull desk job and dismal home life, and Fletcher indulges his midlife crisis back at the FBI, seducing a secretary and attempting to brown-nose his way back into AD Kersh's good graces (although he's more interested in playing computer golf than actually working cases).

 

This is the only two-part standalone episode of the series, and while Carter could have edited it all down to fit into one, we would have lost so many wonderful moments if he'd done so—Fletcher's wife, Joanne (Nora Dunn) catching Mulder watching pornography and her jealousy over his time spent with "Special Agent Tramp Dana Scully"; the toughened pilot swapped into the body of an old Hopi woman ("Grandma Top Gun"); Fletcher redecorating Mulder's apartment; Scully handcuffing Fletcher to the water bed when he tries to seduce her; Fletcher meeting the Lone Gunmen; and Mulder testing his reflection (as Fletcher) in the mirror with a silly dance in his underwear. The latter is a nod to the Marx Brothers Duck Soup (1933); Duchovny and McKean rehearsed the sequence and used a metronome during filming to keep time.

“How the Ghosts Stole Christmas” (S6)

Ed Asner and Lily Tomlin played mischievous ghosts in a spooky old haunted house on Christmas Eve.

20th Century Fox

 

Special holiday episodes are a tradition for broadcast TV, and "How the Ghosts Stole Christmas" is a very X-Files twist on that tradition. Mulder convinces Scully to stake out a rumored haunted house on Christmas Eve, where young star-crossed lovers made a suicide pact back in 1917 so they could spend eternity together. A reluctant Scully follows her partner into the house, and the door slams shut, locking them in. Things get weirder from there, with the house turning into a bit of a maze; the discovery of two decaying corpses under the library floor that look a lot like Mulder and Scully; and apparitions to trick the agents into turning on each other.

 

It's all the work of the ghosts of Maurice (Ed Asner) and Lyda (Lily Tomlin), the doomed lovers who like to toy with couples who dare to venture into the house to relieve the tedium of eternity. Everything was filmed on a single set, with just the four characters. The strong rapport between Asner and Tomlin is what makes this episode a classic, along with excellent art direction and clever special effects. For instance, the bloodless bullet holes that Lyda displays in her nightgown were created by attaching fluorescent cloth in those areas and illuminating them with UV light—an approach borrowed from the 1992 film Death Becomes Her.

“Monday” (S6)

Let's do the time loop again: The whole world is stuck in an endless Monday that always ends in tragedy.

20th Century Fox

 

Ah, the classic time loop trope! Where would science fiction be without it? Mulder and Scully are unwittingly reliving the same tragic day over and over while trying to foil a bank robber named Bernard (Darren E. Burrows) with a bomb strapped to his chest. The only person who remembers the loop is Bernard's tormented girlfriend Pam (Carrie Hamilton), who repeatedly tries to intervene in hopes of changing the outcome. Small details may differ in each loop, but the basic sequence is always the same: Bernard gets to the bank, as do Mulder and Scully, law enforcement rushes in, Bernard panics, and the bank goes kaboom. In the poignant finale, Pam finally breaks the loop and saves everyone else by dying herself, murmuring with surprised satisfaction, "This never happened before."

 

Everyone assumes "Monday" was inspired by the classic 1993 Bill Murray comedy Groundhog Day, but according to co-writers Gilligan and John Shiban, they were actually ripping off The Twilight Zone: specifically a 1961 episode called "Shadow Play." A man condemned to the electric chair claims in court that everyone is caught in the same shared repeating dream, culminating in his execution—and then the entire sequence begins again. "Monday" is a noteworthy addition to the time loop genre for its deft balance of humor and pathos, plus its attention to series continuity: The day always begins with Mulder's water bed springing a link—a holdover from the events of "Dreamland."

“Arcadia” (S6)

Mulder and Scully go undercover as a married couple to investigate strange happenings in a gated community.

20th Century Fox

 

This episode features an unusual force for evil: the uptight residents of an affluent gated community who take their covenants, conditions, and restrictions (CC&R) way too seriously. After the disappearance of a married couple, Mulder and Scully move in to investigate, posing as Rob and Laura Petrie. Mulder wastes no time breaking the community rules, much to the displeasure of HOA president Gene Gogolak (Peter White). The other residents react with thinly veiled terror because breaking the rules will bring on an attack by a Tibetan thought form made of loose landfill soil and garbage, known as a "tulpa." Gogolak conjured the creature to enforce the rules and ends up destroyed by his own creation, because karma.

 

"Arcadia" was written by a first-year staff writer Daniel Akin, who had run afoul of his community HOA's 300-page CC&R requirements years before. The actual monster (nicknamed "Gumby on Steroids" and "Fecal Fred" by the crew) was designed by makeup supervisor John Vulich using a foam rubber suit submerged in "gunk" until it was completely covered. Some critics dismissed "Arcadia" as mere fan service, but it's a perennial fan favorite just because it's fun to watch Mulder (sporting snazzy Izod alligator shirts) and Scully gamely attempt to pass as stereotypical yuppie spouses.

“The Unnatural” (S6)

Jesse L. Martin played Josh Exley, an alien who falls in love with baseball in Roswell, New Mexico.

20th Century Fox

 

This was the first of three X-Files episodes written and directed by Duchovny, a baseball fan who had been following the 1998 race between Mark McGwire and Samy Sosa to break the single-season home run record set in 1961 by Roger Maris. Duchovny came across a newspaper article about an obscure player named Joe Bauman, who hit a record 72 home runs in 1954 yet never played in Major League Baseball. Since Bauman had played for the Roswell Rockets, Duchovny's thoughts naturally turned to aliens, and he cleverly worked in elements of the X-Files mytharc, notably green acid blood and the Alien Bounty Hunter (Brian Thompson). Jackie Robinson, the first black player in MLB in the 1940s, also served as inspiration for this episode that explores themes of racism and segregation through the lens of the ultimate Other: a bona fide alien.

 

Mulder visits Arthur Dales (M. Emmet Walsh, replacing Darren McGavin after the latter suffered a stroke), who tells him a story in flashbacks about a black baseball player in Roswell, New Mexico, in the 1940s named Josh Exley (Jesse L. Martin). Exley strikes up an unlikely friendship with a young Arthur Dales (Fredric Lehne), who is assigned to protect him. Exley turns out to be an alien who has defied his species because of his love of the game, deliberately avoiding MLB to avoid attention. When the Bounty Hunter finally catches up with Exley, he commands him to show his "true face" before execution. Exley refuses, and as he's dying, he discovers he now bleeds red human blood. The episode ends with a charming scene in which Mulder teaches Scully to play baseball as a birthday present, celebrating the pure love of the game.

“The Goldberg Variations” (S7)

Mulder and Scully encounter the world's luckiest man: a handyman named Henry Weems (Willy Garson).

20th Century Fox

 

Mulder and Scully investigate the strange case of Henry Weems (Willy Garson, who also appeared in S3's "The Walk"), a seemingly ordinary handyman in Chicago who miraculously survives being tossed off the roof of a 29-story building. His crime: winning a large pot in a poker game against mobster Jimmy Cutrona (Ramy Zada), who keeps sending more henchmen to take out Weems, with disastrous (for them) results. Weems just might be the luckiest man alive, but his good luck comes at a cost: other people must suffer to a comparable extent. He just wants to raise money for a crucial medical treatment for a young boy in his apartment building, Richie (a young Shia LaBeouf), who desperately needs a kidney transplant but has a very rare blood type, making it unlikely that a donor will be found in time.

 

The episode's title refers both to Bach's Goldberg Variations and so-called "Rube Goldberg machines," complicated contraptions that perform a simple task via a series of chain reactions. Weems builds them for fun, given his fascination with cause and effect, and the art department deserves all the kudos for coming up with creative contraptions for the episode. Writer Jeffrey Bell deliberately crafted his whimsical plot to function as a kind of narrative Rube Goldberg device: a seemingly unrelated series of events that trigger a chain reaction leading to the desired outcome: a new kidney for Richie. Anchored by Garson's spot-on performance, this episode was a favorite with The X-Files cast and crew.

“X-Cops” (S7)

A mysterious entity takes on different forms of what people most fear in X-Cops.

20th Century Fox

 

Fear is contagious as Mulder and Scully investigate reports of a monster terrorizing the residents of Los Angeles during a full moon—all while being reluctantly filmed for an episode of Cops. But all the witnesses seem to see something different: a werewolf, Freddy Krueger, a wasp man, a violent pimp, even the Hantavirus. And all the victims experienced "mortal fear" just before their deaths at the hands of whatever it was that they were most afraid of—visible to them but nobody else.

 

Gilligan had long wanted to write a crossover episode with Cops, and by S7, Carter figured the series had likely run its course, so why not take some creative chances? Like Triangle, the episode takes place in real time—although it didn't use the same long. uninterrupted takes—and is shot in the documentary series' trademark cinéma vérité style. For the actors, it felt like doing live theater. Some critics dismissed "X-Cops" as a gimmicky indulgence, but the parody and faux-documentary style absolutely work. It's also genuinely scary as well as funny, particularly since Carter insisted (rightly) that the "monster" should only be hinted at and never fully shown.

“Je Souhaite” (S7)

A positively giddy Scully finds an ingenious method for making an invisible dead body visible.

20th Century Fox

 

The phrase "be careful what you wish for" gets The X-Files treatment in "Je Souhaite," as Mulder and Scully encounter a jinniyah (female genie) who grants wishes that ultimately don't turn out the way the wisher intends. Tonally, it's a cross between I Dream of Jeannie and the classic horror story "The Monkey's Paw." Paula Sorge is delightful as Jenn, whose 500 years of granting stupid wishes has not improved her opinion of the human race. For instance, when Anson (Kevin Weisman) wishes for a boat, Jenn neglects to place said boat in water. ("You didn't specify water.") When he wishes to turn invisible at will, it backfires: he gets pancaked by a truck running a red light. And spare a kind thought for the poor guy who unrolled Jenn before Anson, who perished from extreme priapism. (Three guesses as to what he wished for.)

 

It's a delightful episode, with Scully becoming positively giddy upon encountering an invisible corpse, which she covers in yellow powder in order to perform some semblance of an autopsy. As for Mulder, he ends up getting three wishes; predictably, his wish for "peace on Earth" results in everyone but him vanishing, and he uses his second wish to bring them back. Mulder eventually solves the dilemma by using his third wish to set Jenn free, so she can realize her own wish to just sit quietly with a cup of good coffee, watching the world go by. After all, she used to be human herself until a chance encounter with an efreet: she wished for great power and long life, and he turned her into a jinniyah. ("I should have been more specific.")

“Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster” (S10)

Rhys Davis steals every scene in "Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster."

20th Century Fox

 

This is the one episode from the final semi-seasons of The X-Files that truly captured the essence of the series at its best. Mulder and Scully investigate numerous dead bodies found in the woods with their throats ripped out. Eyewitnesses—including an animal control officer named Pasha (Kumail Nanjiani)—describe seeing a weird lizard man at the scene. Said lizard man turns out to be a shapeshifter whose human form is Guy Mann (Rhys Darby), but there's twist: instead of a man turning into a lizard after being bitten, Guy is a lizard who was bitten by a human, transforming into a man with an uncontrollable urge to... get a job. He is not enjoying full sentience. But is he responsible for the killings?

 

Darby's irrepressible energy and finely tuned comic timing account for a huge part of this episode's appeal, along with multiple Easter eggs and in-jokes sprinkled throughout. But it's the familiar banter between Mulder and Scully—an earned connection forged over their decades of partnership—that really raises the episode to stellar levels. At one point, Mulder has a rapid-fire running commentary as he works through various possibilities, anticipating Scully's every objection while she fails to get a word in edge-wise. When he pauses for breath, she smiles and says, "This is how I like my Mulder." That's how we like our Mulder, too.

 

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