The best episodes of The X-Files
Ranked by viewer rating, highs first. Vote on a placement to back it or contest it.
- 01
After Mulder chases down and kills a young man whom he believes to be a vampire, Scully realizes that his fangs are fake. The agents then return to DC, aware of the mistake they just made. Faced with a lawsuit from the family of the man, they recount each of their sides to the story leading up to the event.
- 02
Mulder obtains what could be the original and uncut MJ documents containing information about the government's knowledge of extraterrestrial life, which could lead him closer to the truth than ever before. But Mulder's enemies make sure he learns that there's a heavy price to pay for his much sought after truth.
- 03
Cigarette Smoking Man helps Mulder to obtain Scully's cure and also lets him see his real sister who doesn't turn out to be as happy to see Mulder as he would've liked. In return for this, CSM asks that Mulder quit the FBI and work for him in the Syndicate where he could have power and respect which Mulder turns down, deciding to stay on the side of justice. While Scully's cure appears to have worked, CSM faces his own enemies and disappears, presumed dead.
- 04
In the midst of a psychic sideshow while on a murder case, Mulder and Scully enlist the help of a man who may have a true psychic ability to foresee how people will die to help the agents catch a man killing fortune tellers.
- 05
A woman is forced to relive the same day over and over as she tries to prevent Mulder and Scully from being killed by her boyfriend during a bank robbery attempt; and as the events restart again and again, Mulder's sense of deja-vu grows stronger.
- 06
When Deep Throat points out a news story about a fugitive who apparently drowned, Mulder and Scully cannot see what makes the case special but they follow it up anyway. With Deep Throat's insistence, they discover evidence of secret government project code-named Purity Control, which uses human test subjects and infects them with extraterrestrial DNA. However, the evidence and everyone who has seen it is quickly being eliminated.
- 07
Mulder is called to a hostage situation involving Duane Barry, a former FBI Agent who claims to be an alien abductee and wants to get back to the abduction site with someone who will be taken instead of him. Unfortunately, the someone he eventually chooses is Scully.
- 08
Scully helps Mulder fake his own death in order for him to go undetected through the Department of Defence and find out the answers to his new questions about the government hoax concerning the existence of extraterrestrial life. Meanwhile, at a joint FBI/DOD inquiry, Scully's attempt to drive out the Conspiracy's informant is halted as her cancer takes a bad turn.
- 09
While being detained near the famed "Dreamland" Area 51, a strange craft flies overhead and Mulder swaps bodies with an Area 51 'Man-in-Black'. While the other agent has fun in Mulder's body, Mulder himself finds it difficult to fit into someone else's life, especially a shadowy one. Mulder contacts Scully about the body-swap and tries to get her the Flight Data Recorder from the UFO test flight but his alter ego uses Mulder's FBI persona to have him arrested.
- 10
Mulder and Scully return to the town of their first X-Files investigation where a UFO has crashed in the forest. CSM arranges for Krycek to be released from prison in order for him to make contact with the aliens and begin rebuilding the 'Project', while Scully's health appears to be taking a turn.
- 11
When an Arctic research team mysteriously kills each other and themselves only days after drilling deeper into the ice than ever before, Mulder and Scully accompany a team of doctors and scientists to investigate. They discover an organism which infects living creatures and amplifies the host's feeling of anger and paranoia, and the new team starts to deteriorate as they wonder who among them are killers.
- 12
When Mulder finds out that Scully was kidnapped by Duane Barry, he risks the wrath of his superiors and the annoyance of Agent Krycek in order to do whatever it takes to find her. Meanwhile, Krycek is found to be reporting Mulder's activities to the CSM.
- 13
After the obituaries of three identical men are e-mailed to Mulder, the agents are contacted by a CIA agent who tells them about a Russian Spy Killer sent to eliminate evidence of Cold War era Russian clones who had infiltrated the American medical establishment.
- 14
The alien bounty hunter kidnaps Scully and wants to trade her for Mulder's sister, who is revealed to be a clone herself. After the trade goes badly and Mulder discovers the truth about Samantha, he tracks the bounty hunter to his ship buried in the arctic ice and demands the whereabouts of his real sister.
- 15
Assistant Director Skinner and Scully are at a standoff when Mulder bursts in and discovers that Skinner has the digital tape. Reunited, Mulder and Scully travel to a secret vault inside a mine and find an elaborate filing system of medical records which reveals that Mulder's sister may not have been the first choice for abduction. Meanwhile, Skinner deals with the Cigarette Smoking Man for their safety.
- 16
Mulder's dreams help him in finding the body of a little girl which re-opens one of his old cases in the Violent Crimes Unit and leads him to believe the killer he captured had more victims and may have taken his sister many years before.
- 17
Mulder is thrown in jail at the Area 51 compound but is released when it is discovered that the flight data recorder he stole was a fake. Scully comes to her senses and realises that the Mulder she sees isn't who he really is and heads back to Nevada to help the real Mulder. Meanwhile, the mechanism that caused the body swap is rapidly snapping back, undoing everything in it's wake and Mulder and his alter ego must race to put themselves back where they belong.
- 18
With otherworldly factions in pursuit, Mulder and the agents race to safeguard the birth of Scully's child. Scully and Reyes take refuge in an abandoned town where Doggett grew up. Meanwhile Doggett and Skinner have the final showdown with Alex Krycek and continue to fight off the replicants but how successful will they be?
- 19
Mulder and Scully are asked to help in a case involving Robert Patrick Modell, a murderer possessing a psychic ability to force his will onto people. Due to a brain tumor that is slowly killing him, he is searching for a "worthy adversary" and he forces Mulder into a battle of mind over matter.
- 20
Jose Chung's 'From Outer Space'
An alien abduction of two teenagers with different versions of the same facts prompts a science-fiction novelist to write a book about the incident. However no one involved with the investigation can tell him the full story with any accuracy.
- 21
Set in 1989, the story of the founding of The Lone Gunmen is finally told as we see how a straight-laced federal employee, a sex mad AV expert and a nerdy computer hacker meet Susanne Modeski, a strange woman with evidence of a government conspiracy. When their plan to expose the conspiracy fails and Susanne is captured by a group of men-in-black, led by none other than X, they soon become a paranoid group of government watchdogs.
- 22
Mulder goes to the Bermuda Triangle when he learns that the Queen Anne, a British luxury liner which disappeared during WWII, has re-appeared in the middle of the Sargasso Sea. Mulder's boat is wrecked and after floating in the water, he is hauled aboard the ship which has just been hijacked by the Nazis searching for the man who will build the atom bomb. Mulder tries to convince the crew that they have traveled into the future but evidence further suggests that it is he, who is back in the past.
- 23
CSM reveals all the government secrets from the past 50 years in order for his son, Jeffery Spender, to join him in his work. Mulder learns that the final stage of the conspiracy will soon begin with the hybridization of the Syndicate members and he must stop it from happening. Agent Spender deceives his father and arranges for Mulder and Scully to be reassigned to the X-Files, which doesn't sit too well with CSM.
- 24
When the bodies of a couple who have been missing for less than a week are discovered to have been reduced to bone, Mulder suggests that recent paranormal phenomena in the area may have caused the accelerated decomposition.
- 25
Five babies in the same town are all born with tails and the local OB-GYN is blamed for tampering with fertilised eggs. However, Mulder discovers the culprit to be a simple man with a genetic deformity who may have the ability to alter his appearance.
Shows like The X-Files
The closest matches on shared genres, ranked by match strength and popularity.
- 01Drama·Crime·Science-FictionThe best episodes of Sugar2024–present
John Sugar is an American private investigator on the heels of the mysterious disappearance of Olivia Siegel, the beloved granddaughter of legendary Hollywood producer Jonathan Siegel. - 02Drama·Crime·Science-FictionThe best episodes of Continuum2012–2015·Showcase
Continuum centers on the conflict between a group of rebels from the year 2077 who time-travel to Vancouver, BC, in 2012, and a police officer who accidentally accompanies them. - 03Drama·Crime·Science-FictionThe best episodes of Altered Carbon2018–2020
Altered Carbon is set in the 25th century when the human mind has been digitized and the soul itself is transferable from one body to the next. - 04Drama·Crime·Science-FictionThe best episodes of Almost Human2013–2014Same network — FOXAlmost Human is an action-packed police drama set 35 years in the future, when police officers are partnered with highly evolved human-like androids.
- 05Drama·Crime·Science-FictionThe best episodes of Marvel's Iron Fist2017–2018·Netflix
After his family meets a tragic fate while on expedition in China, a young Rand is adopted by the people of the mystical lost city of K'un-Lun, where he's taught a magical fighting style. - 06Drama·Crime·Science-FictionThe best episodes of Batwoman2019–2022·The CW
Kate Kane, armed with a passion for social justice and a flair for speaking her mind, soars onto the streets of Gotham as Batwoman, an out lesbian and highly trained street fighter primed to snuff out the failing city's…
