Whatever mindset you’re in, there’s an episode of The X-Files for you. Over the course of 25 years, Fox’s legendary sci-fi drama produced 218 episodes and two films, playing with subject and form in ways that tested the limits of what a TV serial could be doing. The X-Files might be a black-and-white fairy tale, a political satire, or a time-travel adventure; it could be ludicrous, humorous, romantic, or terrifying by writer Drains Morgan.
FBI Agents Fox Mulder and Scully. Mulder (David Duchovny) & Scully (Gillian Anderson) investigated a far-reaching federal conspiracy one week and sought small-town monsters the next. The series helped popularize the procedural equilibrium between broad mythology and solo episodes. The mythological thread provided emotional weight to The X-Files in the earlier episodes, but as the show progressed, the werewolf episodes gained over as the series’ creative focus. Those are, for even the most part, the episodes that have stood up the best, serving as representations of the show’s diverse variety.
1. “Beyond the Sea” (Season 1, Episode 13)
- Writer: David Duchovny, Chris Carter, Vince Gilligan
- Director: John Bartley, Bill Roe
- Cast: David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Robert Patrick, Annabeth Gish, Mitch Pileggi
- IMDb Rating: 8.6/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 74%
- Streaming Platform: Hulu
Scully’s father dies before the end of the series, so it’s hard not to believe Scully visited her. Scully and Mulder are battling the ghost of the death of their father when the two are hired to assist a former prison killer claiming psychic abilities.
It’s not uncommon for a show to suffer from emotionally draining episodes so early, but The X-Files did. From the start, the public was genuinely interested in the character, so Scully felt pain all around the show. Gillian Anderson felt. Shippers warning: The first season has Mulder calling Dana.
Against Mulders’advice she wants to believe him, which leads to intense Silence of the Lamb dancing between the young agent and the murderous killer. In fact, this was the only episode to show what Gillian Anderson could achieve with her performances.
2. “Ice” (Season 1, Episode 8)
- Writer: David Duchovny, Chris Carter, Vince Gilligan
- Director: John Bartley, Bill Roe
- Cast: David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Robert Patrick, Annabeth Gish, Mitch Pileggi
- IMDb Rating: 8.6/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 74%
- Streaming Platform: Hulu
The Ice is essentially an homage to John Carpenter’s “The Thing.” When the emergency call is received from the Arctic expedition, Mulder, Scully, and a trio of researchers arrive. Interestingly, their team has found an alien-like parasite that contaminates people and causes extreme aggression.
It is really a bottled show (most actions are taken within a single setting), bringing tensions in. Immediately the boiling becomes so hot that there is no way of knowing whether or not someone has become infected or is just having cabin flu. Shippers Alert: This part where Mulder is checking Scully for infection is amongst the sexiest moments.
3. “The Lost Art of Forehead Sweat” (Season 11, Episode 4)
- Writer: David Duchovny, Chris Carter, Vince Gilligan
- Director: John Bartley, Bill Roe
- Cast: David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Robert Patrick, Annabeth Gish, Mitch Pileggi
- IMDb Rating: 8.6/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 74%
- Streaming Platform: Hulu
Darin Morgan’s other episode centers on the Mandela Effect, which happens when he tries to believe that something happened in the same way, even if the evidence is different. He allegedly works at “Foxy” and “Scully.”
He recalls a lot of craziness that he had. Despite its political importance, many Trump supporters criticized the episode as being highly hostile toward him. Most notably, the episode ended with UFOs launching into the air, aliens descending down an elevated ramp, and utterly disabling Trump’s remarks that Mexicans were ‘rapists.’
4. “Mulder & Scully Meet the Were-Monster” (Season 10, Episode 3)
- Writer: David Duchovny, Chris Carter, Vince Gilligan
- Director: John Bartley, Bill Roe
- Cast: David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Robert Patrick, Annabeth Gish, Mitch Pileggi
- IMDb Rating: 8.6/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 74%
- Streaming Platform: Hulu
Another Darin Morgan show is packed with in-game jokes and Easter eggs, which nearly impede x-files. A police investigation reveals animal attacks a human being could have caused.
When Mulder identifies himself as an animal monster that a lizard has bitten and now becomes man-shaped, he realizes that the lizard is really a huge monster whose body is bitten. Were-Monster “is a very well-written episode of an otherwise unfavorable Season 10. Guy Mann adopts Scully’s dog Queequeg.
5. Pilot (Season 1, Episode 1)
- Writer: David Duchovny, Chris Carter, Vince Gilligan
- Director: John Bartley, Bill Roe
- Cast: David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Robert Patrick, Annabeth Gish, Mitch Pileggi
- IMDb Rating: 8.6/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 74%
- Streaming Platform: Hulu
Almost all of the shows are awful. During the production, the actor’s character was stiff, and he had to work with an elaborate plot to squeeze the most details into the episode. No. X-Film. The series takes its time, introduces us to agents Mulder and Scully, and tells us what weird things the series aims to cover.
The information will be given according to need throughout the episodes. David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson also possess incredibly electric chemistry. The pilot episode investigates a series of killings in Oregon that aliens perpetrated by Mulder suspects.
6. “Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose” (Season 3, Episode 4)
- Writer: David Duchovny, Chris Carter, Vince Gilligan
- Director: John Bartley, Bill Roe
- Cast: David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Robert Patrick, Annabeth Gish, Mitch Pileggi
- IMDb Rating: 8.6/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 74%
- Streaming Platform: Hulu
When Scully is investigating a murder case in the town of Scully, Mulder meets a young insurance agent who’s been able to observe the way people die. It’s no skill that the man is proud of or anything that makes him feel bad about it.
Peter Boyle plays Bruckman, who dismisses a person’s talents and thinks it’s an inconvenience. Bonuses from Stupendous Yappi – a Kreskin-style psychic who reads Mulder as Skeptic & Scully as believing. Fun fact: Bruckman says Scully will never die, implying that her life is eternal.
7. “Duane Barry” / “Ascension” (Season 2, Episodes 5 and 6)
- Writer: David Duchovny, Chris Carter, Vince Gilligan
- Director: John Bartley, Bill Roe
- Cast: David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Robert Patrick, Annabeth Gish, Mitch Pileggi
- IMDb Rating: 8.6/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 74%
- Streaming Platform: Hulu
Scully’s abduction altered X-File’s story by reinventing mythology and permanently increasing the stakes for Mulder and Scully. When several abducted Duany Barry escapes a mental hospital with Steve Railsback and takes hostages, Mulder finds himself drawn into an intense negotiation. Despite his enviable curiosity, Duane Barry offers only traumas.
It hits home when Barry carries Scully on an emotional cliffhanger and leads Mulder to a desperate hunt in the mountains. Ascension was an eye-opening episode in the upcoming season and was a gripping episode from “Duane.”
8. “Pusher” (Season 3, Episode 17)
- Writer: David Duchovny, Chris Carter, Vince Gilligan
- Director: John Bartley, Bill Roe
- Cast: David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Robert Patrick, Annabeth Gish, Mitch Pileggi
- IMDb Rating: 8.6/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 74%
- Streaming Platform: Hulu
20th Century Studios push “Pusher” a little in the direction of the spooky comics. It tells about an entrepreneur named Robert Patrick Modell (Robert Wisden).
A sociopath has attempted to force a police officer to spray gasoline and burn himself with a gun. He is captured only by using his power to release him. It’s arguably the most enjoyable episode that shows us that Russian roulette can become even more terrifying.
Robert Patrick Modell (Robert Wisden) is the average man in question whose brain tumor has given him the capacity to coerce people to do whatever he wants. Model’s remarkable gift, which he’s leveraged so well that he can give a person a cardiac arrest over the phone, inspires writer Vince Gilligan. But it’s the standards and procedures Russian gambling scene in which Modell urges Mulder to turn a pistol on himself and then again on Scully that makes “Pusher” unforgettable. Aside from being among the most suspenseful scenes in the entire series,
9. “How the Ghosts Stole Christmas” (Season 6, Episode 6)
- Writer: David Duchovny, Chris Carter, Vince Gilligan
- Director: John Bartley, Bill Roe
- Cast: David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Robert Patrick, Annabeth Gish, Mitch Pileggi
- IMDb Rating: 8.6/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 74%
- Streaming Platform: Hulu
Mulder lures the boy into an abandoned house and tells stories of star-crossed lovers meeting their deaths within the house. Against her own judgment, she goes into the house and is stuck with Maurice and Lyda. The ghosts of this house appear.
It showcases Ed Asner’s excellent comedy timing, and Lily Tomlin’s plays Maurice and Lyda. The event wouldn’t be notable without it. Shipper Alert: Upon arrival, Scully is at their apartment of Mulder at 3:00 a.m. They exchange Christmas presents.
10. “Jose Chung’s From Outer Space” (Season 3, Episode 20)
- Writer: David Duchovny, Chris Carter, Vince Gilligan
- Director: John Bartley, Bill Roe
- Cast: David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Robert Patrick, Annabeth Gish, Mitch Pileggi
- IMDb Rating: 8.6/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 74%
- Streaming Platform: Hulu
The Joe Chung episode is as meta as they come: the story combines narratives, and the film is never revealed. Maybe alien abduction has been proven to be true.
Maybe they’ll be faked. Through the eyes of famous novelist Jose Chung (the great Charles Nelson Reilly), who interviews Scully as a researcher, Morgan satirizes Mulder’s relentless curiosity (the scene in which he eats a whole sweet potato pie in a row).
11. “Detour” (Season 5, Episode 4)
- Writer: David Duchovny, Chris Carter, Vince Gilligan
- Director: John Bartley, Bill Roe
- Cast: David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Robert Patrick, Annabeth Gish, Mitch Pileggi
- IMDb Rating: 8.6/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 74%
- Streaming Platform: Hulu
A meeting with X-files is interrupted if Mulder misses an FBI training seminar. An invisible forest monster attacked a rural village near Florida Mulder later theorized could have evolved into an evolution of the Conquistadors.
Mulder makes dry, Mulderish jokes, and even Scully appears calmer and less annoyed at his joke than in other episodes. It contains a notorious flirty encounter between a team of police officers lost overnight in a forest. Mulder has suffered injuries, but Scully keeps his body warm in case of shock.
12. “Je Souhaite” (Season 7, Episode 21)
- Writer: David Duchovny, Chris Carter, Vince Gilligan
- Director: John Bartley, Bill Roe
- Cast: David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Robert Patrick, Annabeth Gish, Mitch Pileggi
- IMDb Rating: 8.6/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 74%
- Streaming Platform: Hulu
Mulder and Scully get a third wish during this enchanting Vince Gilligan episode. It presents agents with a genie that sees humanity as bad and forces them to debate how it could be better. Je souhaite walks the line between cynicism and sentimentality. Gillian also gives a comical X-Files performance when Scully finds the invisible man.
This one is an often under-appreciated episode, which centers around a genie giving mystical and literal requests. An obscene man finds an unidentified paraplegic, and they have a series of laughter. Neither brother died, so Mulder is what finds it next.
The genie has existed for 500 years, and its utter boredom and frustration at human ignorance are extreme. She said most people make mistakes, and he wants peace. Mulder utilizes his second wish to void his initial wishes before completing his second wish.
13. “Bad Blood” (Season 5, Episode 12)
- Writer: David Duchovny, Chris Carter, Vince Gilligan
- Director: John Bartley, Bill Roe
- Cast: David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Robert Patrick, Annabeth Gish, Mitch Pileggi
- IMDb Rating: 8.6/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 74%
- Streaming Platform: Hulu
A fan’s favorite show, “Bad Blood,” presents the same stories twice: once from Scully’s point of view and once from Mulder’s. The story follows agents as they investigate a vampire hunter for the town of Austin.
The episode starts when Mulder hits a wooden stick in the chest of the suspect vampire who has fake teeth. The team is given the responsibility to explain their actions to Assistant Director Skinner, who will explain what happens when the other parties visit the manager first. The facts are identical to those found in the other version.
14. “X-Cops”
- Writer: David Duchovny, Chris Carter, Vince Gilligan
- Director: John Bartley, Bill Roe
- Cast: David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Robert Patrick, Annabeth Gish, Mitch Pileggi
- IMDb Rating: 8.6/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 74%
- Streaming Platform: Hulu
“X – Cop” was made in the handheld video. Mulder is on the run for the investigation and is attempting to locate a wax wolf-infected wolf in LA City. When they go home, it turns out there was a Cop episode that shot the same thing. Skinner says that the FBI will follow suit because they do not have any secrets. Mulder has an enjoyable view of the camera, playing with them, and Scully seems upset. They find everything in their pursuit is merely a virus that moves from person to person because they fear something. This is Freddy Kruger. Hantavirus. A moosh.
15. “Memento Mori” (Season 4, Episode 14)
- Writer: David Duchovny, Chris Carter, Vince Gilligan
- Director: John Bartley, Bill Roe
- Cast: David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Robert Patrick, Annabeth Gish, Mitch Pileggi
- IMDb Rating: 8.6/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 74%
- Streaming Platform: Hulu
Memento Mori was an Emmy Award-winning show that kicked off Scully’s story about cancer with devastating consequences. She would probably move.
The best feature of Memento Mori is that there are some messy human moments, such as her mother (Sheila Larken) ranting in traffic on the road or in the car when Scully tries to walk away from the room. An X-Files episode is rarely halfway emotionally charged — the movie represses the emotion before allowing the emotion to explode — but the movie is constantly jumping between different levels.
16. “Triangle” (Season 6, Episode 3)
- Writer: David Duchovny, Chris Carter, Vince Gilligan
- Director: John Bartley, Bill Roe
- Cast: David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Robert Patrick, Annabeth Gish, Mitch Pileggi
- IMDb Rating: 8.6/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 74%
- Streaming Platform: Hulu
It’s an extremely enjoyable X-Filmes adventure sending Mulder to the 1939 period after searching for a ship in the Bermuda Triangle. Recurring and regular actors portray all characters on the vessel and wink at fans with reference to their regular roles.
Chris Carter and her homage to Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope also film each scene with an appearance of a single shot to give the film a dreamy feel. What happens if Mulder has no brain? What is important?
17. “The Post-Modern Prometheus” (Season 5, Episode 5)
- Writer: David Duchovny, Chris Carter, Vince Gilligan
- Director: John Bartley, Bill Roe
- Cast: David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Robert Patrick, Annabeth Gish, Mitch Pileggi
- IMDb Rating: 8.6/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 74%
- Streaming Platform: Hulu
20th Century Studios – After an appearance on The Jerry Springer Show, Mulder’s supernatural abilities are requested by one of her parents, who are seeking help in finding an unusual case where she allegedly was conceived by a mysterious person 18 years ago. The mother is pregnant again.
Mulder reveals he is pursuing a mysterious scientist he claims is a scientist. The Post-Modern Prometheus is a fun retelling of the classic Frankenstein story.
18. “Field Trip” (Season 6, Episode 21)
- Writer: David Duchovny, Chris Carter, Vince Gilligan
- Director: John Bartley, Bill Roe
- Cast: David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Robert Patrick, Annabeth Gish, Mitch Pileggi
- IMDb Rating: 8.6/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 74%
- Streaming Platform: Hulu
The X-Files gets trippy when Mulder and Scully experience hallucinogenic mushroom spores in the mountains famous as ‘aliens.’
When their nightmare experiences eventually combine, and they try to save each other, the two create a separate nightmare scenario. This is the more serious take on classic Bad Blood and is a study of Mulder and Scully’s passion for challenging one another. The show is also odd in the way some of my favorite X-Files movies are.
19. “Drive” (Season 6, Episode 2)
- Writer: David Duchovny, Chris Carter, Vince Gilligan
- Director: John Bartley, Bill Roe
- Cast: David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Robert Patrick, Annabeth Gish, Mitch Pileggi
- IMDb Rating: 8.6/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 74%
- Streaming Platform: Hulu
Tell me the episode “Driving,” authored and written by Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan and starring Bryan Cranston as the Deathly Man of Hate. 20th Century Studios Before he had his funny appearance as Hal in “Malcolm in the Middle,” Bryan Cranston played Patrick Crump in this amazing episode of Season 6.
When the driver gets into his vehicle and starts smashing her head against its glass window, he tries to get out, and it explodes. Events lead to Mulder traveling with Crump, who is suffering a rare and abnormal complication causing pressure on his head.
It will only be possible to relieve the pressure by traveling at high speed to the west. Breaking Bad author, Vince Gilligan wrote the episode and probably paved the way for
20. “Paper Hearts” (Season 4, Episode 10)
- Writer: David Duchovny, Chris Carter, Vince Gilligan
- Director: John Bartley, Bill Roe
- Cast: David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Robert Patrick, Annabeth Gish, Mitch Pileggi
- IMDb Rating: 8.6/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 74%
- Streaming Platform: Hulu
The paper heart offers an alternative view of Samantha’s disappearance. While Mulder believed that her mother was taken captive by aliens for the rest of her childhood, he still had dreams of finding out the remains of an ill girl.
She soon discovered she was a victim of John Lee Roche, who was sentenced to 13 females murder. Roche cut hearts from clothes and left them in books that investigators didn’t find. Roche has a lot of victims and started sooner than he thought. This new period would mean that Samantha could have been the victim.
21. One breath” (Season 2, Episode 8)
- Writer: David Duchovny, Chris Carter, Vince Gilligan
- Director: John Bartley, Bill Roe
- Cast: David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Robert Patrick, Annabeth Gish, Mitch Pileggi
- IMDb Rating: 8.6/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 74%
- Streaming Platform: Hulu
It is because of the sensitivity of the breathing that has worked for Scully. Scully’s comatose is discovered at a hospital in Mulder’s struggle for help in the process. It will be his decision if he has to choose between figuring out what caused her health issues or sitting vigil over her bedside.
It doesn’t even do much for Mulder: it does not do much for Mulder in the hope that his actions could be a revenge attack against him or save his own life. Instead, they insist that everything we can control in our despair is what our neighbors are showing us.
22. Unusual suspects (Season 5, Episode 3)
- Writer: David Duchovny, Chris Carter, Vince Gilligan
- Director: John Bartley, Bill Roe
- Cast: David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Robert Patrick, Annabeth Gish, Mitch Pileggi
- IMDb Rating: 8.6/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 74%
- Streaming Platform: Hulu
20th Century Studios A major piece in The X-Files Canon Unusual Suspect explains the origin story of the Lone Gunmen. The trio is caught in government spying as they help an anonymous woman smuggle into the government computer network.
They seek to uncover the truth, and that raises questions. It seems the episodes were conceptualized as necessary as the creators only had a restricted audience for its stars during the production of X-Files movies, so they needed another episode to fill that gap. The result is among the most enjoyable backstories of the series.
23. Tooms (Season 1, Episode 21)
- Writer: David Duchovny, Chris Carter, Vince Gilligan
- Director: John Bartley, Bill Roe
- Cast: David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Robert Patrick, Annabeth Gish, Mitch Pileggi
- IMDb Rating: 8.6/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 74%
- Streaming Platform: Hulu
TOOMS is the sequel to the earlier broadcast episode squeezed. The film stars Doug Hutchison as a human whose body resides in winter for thirty – to thirty years until it eats human livers.
He possesses the ability to distort the body and squeeze through very tiny spaces. It is filled with everything we love from the X-Files: monsters, camaraderie, and the sinister presence of the cigar smoker. Hutchison has also set an outstanding career record by portraying Eugene Tooms as his eerie essence.
24. “Wetwired”
- Writer: David Duchovny, Chris Carter, Vince Gilligan
- Director: John Bartley, Bill Roe
- Cast: David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Robert Patrick, Annabeth Gish, Mitch Pileggi
- IMDb Rating: 8.6/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 74%
- Streaming Platform: Hulu
Cable boxes transmit unknown signals. Sometimes it can cause violent, paranoid delusions, which often end up resulting in murders. I like the episode because I’m a bit shocked that Scully is being affected by the situation.
She is paranoid. Mulder thinks Mulder was trying to get the cigar smokers and even shot the guy. Scully is paranoid. Mulder says he has red-green blindness. This clearly explains the lack of any effect on Mulder’s signal and is never discussed – any hint.
25. “Tithonus” (Season 6, Episode 10)
- Writer: David Duchovny, Chris Carter, Vince Gilligan
- Director: John Bartley, Bill Roe
- Cast: David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Robert Patrick, Annabeth Gish, Mitch Pileggi
- IMDb Rating: 8.6/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 74%
- Streaming Platform: Hulu
Titanic gets less attention than most other episodes on the list but is considered among The X-File’s best episodes. The show’s anchor is Geoffrey Lewis’ unsettling performance as Alfred Fellig.
Like real-life painter Arthur Fellig or George Lewis, Fellig was a photographer who had an odd knack for first arriving on the scene. He has tried to photograph the specter since the late 20th century, when it is attributed to a fever epidemic in which yellow fever is a major epidemic.
FAQs
What is considered the best The X-Files episode?
Top 10 most infamous episodes of the X-Files. The second episode of Session 22. Prometheus is modernist mythology—Millennium” (semi-seventh, 4th episode). “Mulder & Scully Meet the Were-Monster” (season 10, e.g., Foreheaded Sweat: A Lost Art (Episode 1)…
What The X-Files episode is the scariest?
Fifteen scary episodes from X-Files rated squeezing. Two episodes in Season Two. Irresistible. 3 – Chinga – Episodes 5 – 10 of… Five departures. 7 Unrukhtu 4 episode 4! Seven Homes (session four, episode 1) 8 weeks (Season 1, Episode 10).
What was the most-watched The X-Files episode?
The X-Files episode in season 4 had the greatest audience in the entire series. The X-Files season four episode 12 has reached a record-high audience for its series. April 25, 2019.
Which The X-Files season is the best?
Five seasons. Season Five is in a close second spot due to some fans’ favorite monsters. A very high-rating episode of the whole series is “Bad Blood,” which is a humorous episode showing that “The X-Files” does as good as “Scream.” April 8, 2022.
