The truth about Agents Mulder and Scully’s top creepy cases and encounters throughout their iconic run.

The 25 greatest episodes of *The X-Files *that still enthrall us decades later

The truth about Agents Mulder and Scully’s top creepy cases and encounters throughout their iconic run.

March 29, 2026 10:00 a.m. ET

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Gillian Anderson as Dana Scully and David Duchovny as Fox Mulder on 'The X-Files'. Credit:

Michael Lavine/FOX

*The X-Files* is among the most popular sci-fi series ever to air on television. Centering on FBI Special Agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson), who investigate paranormal cases beyond logical reasoning, the Fox drama was heralded for its inventive monster-of-the-week episodes and the sparkling chemistry between Duchovny and Anderson.

Airing for nine seasons from 1993 to 2002, the series spawned two feature films and a revival series from 2016 to 2018, along with countless imitators who couldn't quite match the unique alchemy created by Chris Carter.

Now, Oscar winner Ryan Coogler is developing a reboot of *The X-Files* starring Danielle Deadwyler, with Carter attached as an executive producer. As we anticipate this Hulu series, we're looking back on the 25 best episodes of the original *X-Files* — the ones that kept us up at night and still linger in the back of our minds all these years later.**

“Pilot” (season 1, episode 1)

Gillian Anderson as Dana Scully and David Duchovny as Fox Mulder on 'The X-Files'. FOX

In its pilot episode, *The X-Files* provided us with the not-so-secret origin of how Scully was initially assigned to the oft-dismissed, occasionally ridiculed department of the FBI known as the X-Files. Not only did we learn that she was tasked to serve as a "debunker" of sorts for Mulder's wild theories about the strange cases that land in his lap, but viewers were actually allowed to witness the first meeting between Scully and Mulder in the latter's basement office, a sad spot he described as being designated for "the FBI's Most Unwanted."

Immediately thereafter, they were off to Oregon to investigate a series of unexplained deaths that Mulder believed may have been somehow linked to alien abductions. It was a great way to set up the "he wants to believe/she doesn't" dynamic between the partners while also providing some moments that revealed Scully's willingness to admit her inability to explain certain events. Not every soon-to-be regular element of *The X-Files *was in place from the get-go, but there's enough here that the series was able to capture viewers' attention straight out of the gate.

“Squeeze”/“Tooms” (season 1, episodes 3 & 21)

Gillian Anderson as Dana Scully on 'The X-Files'. FOX

Although these two tales were told at different points during the first season, the fact that they found Mulder and Scully going after the same "monster of the week" makes it more than reasonable to tackle both of them in the same entry. The "monster" in question was actually a man by the name of Eugene Tooms, but he definitely possessed some monstrous qualities, in particular a taste for human livers and an ability to stretch and squeeze his body into narrow spaces.

Doug Hutchison played Tooms in both episodes, and it's hard to imagine that anyone else could've made the character come across quite as creepy, and not just because of the effects-enhanced eyes, either. Hutchison really gave his all in the performance, but arguably never more so than in "Tooms," when he burst forth from his nest completely in the nude. There were two other notable occurrences in "Tooms," and we'd be remiss if we didn't mention them: Not only did we get to hear the Cigarette Smoking Man (William B. Davis) speak for the first time, but the episode provided viewers with the introduction of FBI Assistant Director Walter Skinner (Mitch Pileggi), who we'd soon be seeing with considerable regularity.

“Ice” (season 1, episode 8)

David Duchovny as Fox Mulder and Gillian Anderson as Dana Scully on 'The X-Files'. FOX

An episode that takes place at an arctic outpost after a mass murder-suicide, the only survivor of which is a dog, and a plot that causes Mulder, Scully, and some fellow scientists to succumb to paranoia that someone might be under the influence of an alien creature? Okay, yes, the similarities to John Carpenter's *The Thing* — itself an adaptation of John W. Campbell's 1938 novella *Who Goes There?* — are undeniable. Not only were they fully acknowledged by Chris Carter (although Glen Morgan actually began writing the episode after reading a *Science News* article about a 250,000-year-old item discovered encased in ice in Greenland), but production designer Graeme Murray actually worked on Carpenter's film.

A classic example of the TV trope known as the "bottle episode," where the majority of the proceedings take place in a single location, "Ice" had what may be the single best guest cast of any episode: It featured Felicity Huffman, Xander Berkeley, and Steve Hytner as the scientists who accompanied Mulder and Scully to the Arctic compound and Jeff Kober as their pilot, Bear. When they arrived at the compound, they were attacked by the dog, with Bear being bitten and promptly infected by something alien that — in a very disconcerting moment — was soon *seen *moving under the pilot's skin. Even though the premise was familiar, the episode nonetheless managed to ramp up the tension in a big way.

“Beyond the Sea” (season 1, episode 13)

Brad Dourif as Luther Lee Boggs on 'The X-Files'. Everett Collection

With "Beyond the Sea," viewers got an introduction to the importance of family in Scully's life, specifically her father, Capt. William Scully (Don Davis). Admittedly, Captain Scully's time on the series was rather short-lived, but his presence was felt well beyond the episode, setting up Dana's need for a substitute father figure from this point on.

After enjoying an evening with her parents, Scully fell asleep on the couch, waking up to see her father sitting in the chair across from her, his lips moving but no sound emerging. When the phone suddenly rang, she answered it to find her mother on the other end, revealing that her father had died of a heart attack. Looking back at the chair, she found it now empty, but this wasn't the last vision she had of Captain Scully. Fast-forwarding a bit, she and Mulder visited imprisoned serial killer Luther Lee Boggs (Brad Dourif), who claimed to have information about a recent kidnapping, but while she was there, Scully saw her father again, singing the song played at his funeral: "Beyond the Sea." Later, Boggs claimed to be able to contact the late Captain Scully, putting the typically skeptical Dana in an awkward position where *she* was the one who wanted to believe. This wasn't the episode that won Gillian Anderson an Emmy, but it certainly could've been.

“The Host” (season 2, episode 2)

Darin Morgan as Flukeman on 'The X-Files'. FOX

Enter...*the Flukeman!* Yes, it was one of the series' more disconcerting monsters of the week, but, as always seemed to be the case with these situations, it was a monster that made for one of the *X-Files*' best episodes. "The Host" was written by series creator Chris Carter, who cited three sources of inspiration: reading about Chernobyl, the extinction of several species during the 1990s...and his dog having worms.

The episode opened on a Russian freighter off the New Jersey coast, where a crewman repairing the ship's toilets was suddenly snatched by an unseen force and pulled down into the septic system. When initially assigned to the case, Mulder first viewed it as little more than glorified busywork. That began to change when Scully found a flukeworm inside the crewman's liver, and it continued when a city worker was pulled underwater while working in the Newark sewer. In this case, the city worker survived, but after he coughed up a flukeworm in the shower... Well, it wasn't long after that when the aforementioned Flukeman — played by Darin Morgan, who also wrote the episode and whose name will come up again very shortly — formally made his appearance, after which things started to get a little gross. "The Host" is definitely one of those *X-Files* episodes that'll give you the chills, but it also has the potential to make you a little queasy at times, too, making for enjoyably unsettling viewing.

“Humbug” (season 2, episode 20)

The Enigma as the Conundrum on 'The X-Files'. FOX

Directed by Kim Manners and written by Darin Morgan, "Humbug" took place in Gibsonton, Fla., home to a community of former circus sideshow performers, including Dr. Blockhead and the Conundrum (played by Jim Rose and the Engima from the Jim Rose Sideshow Circus), Mr. Nutt (Michael J. Anderson), and Lanny (Vincent Schiavelli) — who had a conjoined twin named Leonard.

Mulder and Scully made their way to Gibsonton after the latest in a series of attacks that had occurred sporadically over the course of the past 28 years. "Humbug" was decidedly the most comedic episode of *The X-Files* up to that point, and the tonal difference made a tremendous impact. Duchovny once said of writer Morgan's work on the series, "What I loved about his scripts was that he seemed to be trying to destroy the show," but what he did was invigorate it on a regular basis.

“Anasazi” (season 2, episode 25)

David Duchovny as Fox Mulder on 'The X-Files'. FOX Image Collection via Getty Images

You know things are going to be bad when an episode begins with a bad-news phone tree that ends with the Cigarette Smoking Man saying, "That was the phone call I never wanted to get."

"Anasazi" was an action-packed installment, starting out with an associate of the Lone Gunmen — a guy known as the Thinker (Bernie Coulson) — hacking the defense department computer system and handing Mulder an encrypted file that ostensibly contained all of the U.S. government's files on alien encounters. Although Mulder was initially frustrated by the encryption, it was Scully who recognized that the key to cracking it involved finding someone who spoke Navajo, which she finally did, but before that happened...oh, man, what *didn't *happen? The Cigarette Smoking Man surprised Mulder's dad by paying him a house call, after which the despicable Agent Krycek (Nicholas Lea) did the same. Realizing he was in danger, Scully took Mulder to her place, but they didn't end up staying there long because soon it was off to New Mexico, where Mulder found a buried boxcar filled with alien corpses, and the whole thing ended with Mulder seemingly on the verge of burning to death. Now *that's* a cliffhanger!

“Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose” (season 3, episode 4)

David Duchovny as Fox Mulder and Peter Boyle as Clyde Bruckman on 'The X-Files'. Everett Collection

Every one of the episodes Darin Morgan wrote for *The X-Files* is memorable, but this is the only one that just might bring a tear to your eye. That's due to the writing, of course, but it also has a lot to do with the Emmy-winning performance by Peter Boyle as the titularly referenced Clyde Bruckman, a middle-aged man who, during the course of the episode, reminded viewers that being able to tell the future isn't always a blessing and, indeed, can truly be a curse.

Mulder and Scully found themselves working on a case involving the murder of a doll-collecting tea leaf reader, but the only parts of the woman at the scene of the crime were her eyes and her entrails, which made for a pretty grotesque visual. It was Mr. Bruckman who stumbled upon the poor woman's body in the dumpster outside his apartment, and when he was questioned by Mulder and Scully and casually offered up details about the crime, Mulder began to suspect that Bruckman was psychic. Speaking of psychics, there was another one briefly in the mix — the Stupendous Yappi, played to egotistical perfection by Jaap Broeker — and it was entertaining to watch him view Mulder with the purest disdain, accusing him of all people of skepticism. But it was the interactions between Mulder, Scully, and Bruckman that were the heart of the episode, and it was the relationship he forged with Scully that led to the episode's emotional conclusion.

“War of the Coprophages” (season 3, episode 12)

Bobbie Phillips as Dr. Bambi Berenbaum and David Duchovny as Fox Mulder on 'The X-Files'. FOX

Who loves cockroaches? Oh, right: nobody, which is why this Darin Morgan-penned episode managed to be filled with a lot of nervous laughter derived from seeing other people having to deal with an invasion of these creepy-crawly critters. When the episode began, Mulder was enjoying a bit of downtime, doing exactly what you'd expect him to be doing to relax — investigating some recent UFO sightings — when an accidental encounter with a local sheriff led him to get involved in a spate of what seemed to be roach attacks. Indeed, a few more occurred while Mulder is in town, which inspired a running gag throughout the first half of the episode about Mulder calling Scully for help, inspiring her to offer to join him in the town, only for him to decide she didn't need to do so.

Of course, eventually, Scully *did* join Mulder, but, before their reunion, Mulder had a close encounter with Dr. Bambi Berenbaum (Bobbie Phillips), a cockroach researcher who helped him look into the town's problem. And when she believed that some of the roaches may be mechanical, it led him to Dr. Ivanov (Ken Kramer), a scientist who works with insect-inspired robots. In the end, the whole thing circled back to Dr. Eckerle (Raye Birk), the first local to experience a roach attack, and there was a big ol' dung explosion to wrap things up. Last but not least, be sure you're watching the screen very, very closely at around the 31:30 mark. (If you know, you know.)

“Pusher” (season 3, episode 17)

Robert Wisden as Robert Patrick Modell on 'The X-Files'. FOX

His name was Robert Patrick Modell (Robert Wisden), but the FBI — specifically, Agent Frank Burst (Vic Polizos) — called him "Pusher," and he had been responsible for a number of contract killings over the past couple of years. They'd never been able to tie him to any of the deaths, however, because they've all been labeled as suicides. Why? Because Modell had the psychic ability to "push" people to do his bidding, even if that bidding resulted in bodily harm or — as in these instances — death.

Written by Vince Gilligan with the intent of creating a tense cat-and-mouse game between Modell and Mulder, it's fair to say that he succeeded, particularly in the scene toward the end of the proceedings where Modell forced Mulder to play Russian roulette. It was later determined that Modell was just barely staving off death (he had a brain tumor), but he did manage to survive long enough to return in the not-nearly-as-good season 5 episode "Kitsunegari." Also worth a mention: In addition to the Flukeman popping up on the cover of a tabloid in a grocery store, the episode included a cameo by Dave Grohl, who, in addition to being obsessed with the show, was also in awe of Anderson. In a BBC Radio 1 interview, he said, "[Gillian] was the one person who I was, like, 'We're gonna get married. One of these days, she and I will finally meet and this will finally happen.'" Spoiler: they did eventually meet, but the love connection failed to materialize.

“Jose Chung’s From Outer Space” (season 3, episode 20)

Jesse Ventura as Man in Black No. 1 and Alex Trebek as Man in Black No. 2 on 'The X-Files'. Everett Collection

By the time this Darin Morgan episode made its debut, the younger *X-Files* fans probably had no frame of reference to the actor playing Jose Chung, but rest assured that fans of '60s and '70s TV were well familiar with Charles Nelson Reilly, who gave a deliciously droll performance in an episode already filled to the brim with laughs. Trying to explain the goings-on within "Jose Chung's *From Outer Space*" gets a little difficult, and that's not just a cop-out — it's the God's honest truth. The episode started with two teenagers captured by two aliens that were, in turn, confronted by a third alien, one seemingly of a different species. From there, author Jose Chung interviewed Scully about this encounter, after which he got perspectives from a variety of other individuals.

To say that the "unreliable narrator" trope was in effect is an understatement, but that doesn't make it any less entertaining. And Jesse Ventura and Alex Trebek cast as the men in black? It's the stuff of genius, plain and simple. "Darin is a truly original comic mind," Chris Carter said in Ted Edwards' book, *X-Files Confidential*. "I don't know anybody in the world working in film, and that's what we work in here even though it appears on television, who has the voice Darin has. He is one in many million." In closing, fans of Jose Chung's work may wish to seek out his book *Doomsday Defense*...or, you know, at least try to hunt down and watch the Morgan-penned *Millennium* episode that revolves around it.

“Home” (season 4, episode 2)

Adrian G. Griffiths as Sherman Peacock, Chris Nelson Norris as Edmund Peacock, and John Trottier as George Peacock on 'The X-Files'. Everett Collection

Some episodes of television take up residence in your brain from the moment you see them and establish enough of a beachhead that you never need to see them again to remember just how traumatizing they were. Such is the case with "Home," which, just in case you're wondering, is as disturbing now as it was when it originally aired, making it all the more understandable why it was the only episode during the series' run that Fox never reran.

If you've somehow managed to go this long without seeing "Home," we don't really want to spoil the experience for you, especially since it holds the honor of being named by *Vulture* as one of the most terrifying television episodes to watch on Halloween. Suffice it to say that Mulder and Scully traveled to the small town of Home, Pa., and met with Sheriff Andy Taylor (Tucker Smallwood) about the discovery of the body of a baby born with severe birth defects, which led them to the Peacocks, a family with a long history of...uh, well, let's just say they had a close family relationship. *Very* close. Directed by Kim Manners and co-written by Glen Morgan and James Wong, "Home" might be disturbing to some — actually, make that to *most* — but it hasn't stopped it from regularly landing atop best-of lists. If you've never seen it, you should, but if you never, ever want to go "Home" again, rest assured, you won't be alone.

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“Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man” (season 4, episode 7)

An extraterrestrial alien on 'The X-Files'.

Ken Staniforth/Fox Network/Courtesy Everett

William B. Davis had literally been part of *The X-Files* since the pilot, with the Cigarette Smoking Man, a.k.a. Cancer Man, hovering in the background of the meeting where Scully first found herself teamed with Mulder, but viewers knew very little about his backstory until this episode. Well, frankly, they *still* didn't know much about it, since everything that unfolded between the bookending scenes ostensibly only took place within a story that Frohike (of the Lone Gunmen) read in a magazine that he believed may reveal the real background of the Cigarette Smoking Man, henceforth to be referred to simply as CSM. Mind you, those bookending scenes involved CSM setting up a rifle in a sniper's nest with an apparent goal of assassinating Frohike, so it certainly *seemed* like he had stumbled onto something compromising.

No matter what the veracity of the episode's many flashbacks may be, "Musings" provided an entertaining look at a history that *might *belong to CSM, who was ostensibly part of the Bay of Pigs Invasion, the assassinations of JFK and Martin Luther King Jr., and everything from the Anita Hill hearings and the Rodney King verdict to the "Miracle on Ice" at the 1980 Winter Olympics. Obviously, we didn't get much Mulder and Scully in the episode, but we did get to see Jerry Hardin reprising his role as Deep Throat, which is never a bad thing, and CSM offered his twist on a certain *Forrest Gump* monologue.

“Paper Hearts” (season 4, episode 10)

Gillian Anderson as Dana Scully on 'The X-Files'. Everett Collection

One of the key moments in Fox Mulder's history that drove him throughout the series was trying to unravel the mystery behind the disappearance of his sister, Samantha, when they were kids. (He was watching the short-lived Bill Bixby series *The Magician* at the time. But you probably already knew that.) While the presumption throughout the majority of *The X-Files* was that she was the victim of alien abduction, this episode took a beat to contemplate a different possibility: What if she was actually the prey of a child-molesting serial killer? Okay, so it's not the most upbeat episode of the series, but it's damned sure a gripping one, and you can chalk that up to the efforts of two individuals: Vince Gilligan, who wrote the script, and Tom Noonan — utilizing the same disconcerting creepiness he did in Michael Mann's *Manhunter* — who starred as the aforementioned killer, John Lee Roche.

It turns out that in those dark days before being assigned to the X-Files, Mulder worked Roche's case and helped capture him, but now the special agent was suddenly finding himself dreaming about being shown the sites of the killer's previously unknown victims, only to wake up and *actually* find their remains. In turn, Scully's autopsy of the first newly discovered victim revealed that Roche started his murders earlier than previously believed, which took Mulder down a path that led him to suspect that Samantha might've been one of those early victims. Was she? Does it really matter? Ultimately, the episode was more about Mulder than Samantha.

“Memento Mori” (season 4, episode 14)

Sheila Larken as Margaret Scully on 'The X-Files'. Everett Collection

There aren't many of *The X-Files*' so-called "mythology" episodes in this list, but it's damned near impossible to build a best-episodes list without including this one, which, despite feeling almost overstuffed at times, was one of the more moving installments of the series. You don't have to have been following the show from the start to sympathize — or perhaps even empathize — with Scully after she received a cancer diagnosis.

Directed by Rob Bowman and co-written by Chris Carter, Vince Gilligan, John Shiban, and Frank Spotnitz, "Memento Mori" gave Gillian Anderson a real workout as a narrator, with Scully delivering a voice-over throughout as she penned a lengthy missive to Mulder in the event of her inability to speak to him later. The end result: an Emmy award for Best Lead Actress in a Drama Series. In addition, there were a few moments of genuinely terrifying visual imagery, a scene where Skinner made a deal with the devil, a.k.a. the Cigarette Smoking Man, more Kurt Crawfords than you can shake a stick at, and the Lone Gunmen, too. At this point, it's not much of a spoiler to reveal that the two-part season 5 opener, "Redux," opened with the revelation that Scully's cancer had gone into remission, but it doesn't change the impact of this episode or the way it revealed the depth of the Mulder/Scully relationship as well as what the duo meant to Skinner.

“Small Potatoes” (season 4, episode 20)

Gillian Anderson as Dana Scully and David Duchovny as Fox Mulder, and Lee de Broux as Eddie Van Blundht Sr. on 'The X-Files'. Everett Collection

"Good lord... Not another one." So said the obstetrician who delivered the baby at the beginning of this episode, and while the reason for the first two words was perfectly understandable — he was holding up a baby girl who was sporting a vestigial tail — it was the addition of the subsequent three words that made all the difference. Then again, the mother *did* casually acknowledge in the moments before her baby's birth that the father was from outer space.

Written by Vince Gilligan, it's a rare episode where it was evident almost from the get-go that the person claiming to have had an alien encounter sounded unabashedly ludicrous — she claimed that her baby's father was Luke Skywalker (and not, it must be clarified, Mark Hamill) — but as a result of another event that happened after Mulder and Scully got to town, Mulder offered the theory that they were dealing with someone who could change their physical appearance to look like anyone they might want to emulate. That "someone" was Eddie, played by none other than *X-Files* writer Darin Morgan, who promptly took on Mulder's appearance, after which he got the jump on the *real* Mulder, stowed him in the basement of the local hospital, and, taking on Mulder's appearance, told Scully that he was ready to return to Washington. As one of the lighter-toned *X-Files *episodes, "Small Potatoes" gave Duchovny a number of great comedic moments, a side he'd get to show in similar fashion a few seasons later during the "Dreamland" two-parter.

“The Post-Modern Prometheus” (season 5, episode 5)

David Duchovny as Fox Mulder and Gillian Anderson as Dana Scully on 'The X-Files'.

Written and directed by Chris Carter, this episode stands out for several reasons, first and foremost because it was in black and white, but it's also the first episode of the series to really feature individuals of note playing themselves. We refer, of course, to Jerry Springer, but we're technically referring to Cher as well, since, even though she didn't actually appear in the episode herself, the performance of Marc Cohn's "Walking in Memphis" was ostensibly *supposed* to be being performed by Cher. But we're getting ahead of ourselves.

In this unabashed homage to James Whale's *Frankenstein *(1931), Carter took Mulder and Scully to meet up with Shaineh Berkowitz (Pattie Tierce), a single mother who became familiar with Mulder's paranormal expertise via *The Jerry Springer Show* and wanted him to look into her mysterious impregnations: One occurred 18 years earlier, the other took place recently, and both happened after unexplained attacks. They also met Shaineh's son, Izzy (Stewart Gale), who had drawn a comic book featuring a character, the Great Mutato, who resembled the creature she thought attacked her. As it happens, the town also harbored a geneticist (John O'Hurley) whose work seemingly could have inspired such a creature. What are the odds? Last but not least, and feel free to argue about this amongst yourselves after the conclusion of this paragraph, but to our way of thinking, there is no greater episodic ending in the entirety of *The X-Files —* it's not even close.

“Bad Blood” (season 5, episode 12)

Luke Wilson as Sheriff Hartwell on 'The X-Files'. Everett Collection

Of all the shows you'd expect to serve as influences for *The X-Files*, one that probably wouldn't come up in most discussions is *The Dick Van Dyke Show*...unless, of course, you're thinking of the walnuts episode, in which case it makes perfect sense. In this instance, however, writer Vince Gilligan was inspired by "The Night the Roof Fell In," an episode where Rob and Laura Petrie each had different recollections of a fight they'd had, with the viewers seeing just how different their respective perceptions were.

In this case, of course, it's Mulder and Scully who found each other remembering a *case* differently, with the "monster of the week" being a boy who Mulder believed to be a vampire. Indeed, he believed this so strongly that he actually pounded a stake into the kid's chest immediately before the opening credits rolled, which, you have to admit, is one hell of a setup. From there, however, the episode jumped forward to Mulder and Scully trying to get their story straight before delivering their report to Skinner, and the differences between their versions made for an extremely entertaining episode. Also aiding the enjoyment: A young up-and-comer named Luke Wilson played the local sheriff in the town where the purported vampire resides; the boy was played by Patrick Renna, best known for his role as "Ham" Porter in *The Sandlot*; and the town coroner was played by Brent Butt, still half a dozen years away from the Canadian superstardom he would eventually earn with *Corner Gas*.

“Drive” (season 6, episode 2)

Bryan Cranston as Patrick Crump and David Duchovny as Fox Mulder on 'The X-Files'. FOX

Although it's definitely a strong episode in its own right, there's little question that the biggest reason "Drive" found its path into the public consciousness in a big way is because it's the episode that first brought together two gentlemen who would eventually reteam for one of the greatest series in television history. At this point, however, *Breaking Bad* was still a decade down the road for writer Vince Gilligan and guest star Bryan Cranston.

The episode began with a live news report of a car chase, one which ended with driver Patrick Crump (Cranston) on the ground in handcuffs and his wife in the back of a police car, but things took a bizarre turn when the news copter captured footage of the woman, alone in the vehicle, as she banged her head against the window and then suddenly exploded. Even though Mulder and Scully weren't actually assigned to the case, Mulder suspected it might be something right up their alley, and it wasn't long before Mulder found himself forced by Crump at gunpoint to serve as a getaway driver. Meanwhile, Scully was trying to determine what happened to Crump's wife and whether or not a contagion might have been responsible. Although there were some great moments of awkward comedy between Cranston and Duchovny, there was far more tension, and the way the episode ended can be seen as early proof that Gilligan doesn't always give his stories happy endings.

“Triangle” (season 6, episode 3)

David Duchovny as Fox Mulder, William B. Davis as Smoking Man, and Gillian Anderson as Dana Scully on 'The X-Files'.

Written and directed by Chris Carter, "Triangle" finally took *The X-Files *to an area you would've thought they'd have gone well before the show's sixth season: the Bermuda Triangle. Granted, it's not Area 51, but any location that warranted its own episode of *In* *Search Of...* is certainly somewhere that Mulder and/or Scully should end up visiting eventually. So, the fact that the show finally took the twosome there was certainly a momentous occasion.

The episode began with Mulder floating unconscious in the ocean, not long after which he was taken aboard a passenger ship, the *Queen Anne*, which — as we would soon learn — disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle in 1939 but had just reappeared in the present. In short order, however, Mulder realized that the ship hasn't moved forward, he'd gone back in time. Meanwhile, back in the present, the Lone Gunmen informed Scully of Mulder's mysterious disappearance, forcing her to try and get assistance within the FBI to help find him, a task which was easier said than done. Carter took his directorial inspiration for the episode from Alfred Hitchcock's *Rope*, resulting in a number of extremely fun-to-watch sequences, but make no mistake about it: There's a fair amount on loan from *The Wizard of Oz* (1939) as well, with Mulder running into several individuals during his travels who shared their faces with his friends and foes from within the FBI. In the end, though, it seems pretty evident that the whole thing was just a dream…*or was it?!*

“Dreamland” (season 6, episodes 4 & 5)

Michael McKean as Morris Fletcher on 'The X-Files'.

There weren't that many two-parters within the run of *The X-Files*, and of the ones that exist, the majority were part of the series' long-running alien story arc, so as a so-called "monster of the week" two-parter, "Dreamland" stands out in the crowd. More than that, however, it also served as a tremendous showcase for guest star Michael McKean. While heading to Area 51, Mulder and Scully were stopped by a team of soldiers led by Morris Fletcher (McKean), and while they were in the midst of trying to sort things out, an unidentified craft flew overhead, shining a light on them that caused the minds of Mulder and Fletcher to be switched into each other's bodies. Only the two men were aware of the switch, and, in the post-event commotion, Fletcher/Mulder was driven back to Area 51 by two of his fellow Men in Black, while Scully and Mulder/Fletcher headed back to FBI HQ, after which we were treated to hilarious moments of each man trying to adapt to the other's life.

Understandably, it took Fletcher/Mulder a fair while to convince Scully that he was the real Mulder, and even after he did, there was still the not-insubstantial problem of how to get the men's right minds back in their respective bodies. As it happens, the part of Morris Fletcher was originally intended for Garry Shandling, but scheduling didn't pan out. (Thankfully, he was still able to make his way into the series, playing himself in season 7's "Hollywood A.D.")

“How the Ghosts Stole Christmas” (season 6, episode 6)

Edward Asner as Maurice and Lily Tomlin as Lydia on 'The X-Files'. Everett Collection

Unto every series, there must come a holiday episode, and while *The X-Files* would not necessarily seem to be a perfect candidate for such a traditional installment, rest assured that this episode, penned and helmed by series creator Chris Carter, was a delightful blend of holiday sentimentality and haunted-house shenanigans. On Christmas Eve, Mulder called Scully to meet him outside a haunted house in Maryland, one where, in 1917, a couple made good on a deadly lovers' pact, with one killing the other and the remaining one dying by suicide, leaving the twosome to haunt the house every Dec. 24. Although Mulder weaved a wonderfully dark tale, it wasn't enough to sell Scully, who refused to follow Mulder into the house...until she realized that he'd swiped her keys, forcing her to trail after him despite her desire to depart.

Once inside, they jointly experienced strange paranormal activity, but they soon ended up separated, at which point they met the ghostly residents of the house: Maurice and Lyda, played by Ed Asner and Lily Tomlin. The pair got the opportunity to shine both independently and together, with the plot allowing each of them to play against Duchovny and Anderson for a bit. Although there was a surprising amount of bloodshed for a Christmas episode, everything got wrapped up nicely by the time the credits rolled, leaving Scully questioning whether they actually experienced the events within the house while still providing a happy holiday ending for the longtime partners.

“Arcadia” (season 6, episode 15)

David Duchovny as Fox Mulder and Gillian Anderson as Dana Scully on 'The X-Files'. Everett Collection

Written by Daniel Arkin, a first-year staff writer for the series, this episode found Mulder and Scully going undercover as a married couple in order to investigate a series of unexplained disappearances among residents of a planned community called the Falls of Arcadia, located in San Diego County, Calif. The moment viewers saw a smirking Mulder stepping out of a minivan with his sweater tied around his shoulders, it was evident how much fun he was having with the assignment, and it was underlined when he introduced himself and his "wife" as Rob and Laura Petrie. "It's pronounced 'petri,' like the dish," clarified Scully/Laura, inwardly groaning at the obviousness of the *Dick Van Dyke Show* reference, thereby underlining that she had clearly been dreading the assignment at least as much as Mulder is relishing it. Mind you, this made for some truly delightful moments throughout the episode.

As the episode unfolded, it quickly became evident to Mulder and Scully that their neighbors were disconcertingly concerned about making sure not to do anything that might go against the standards established by the president of the community's homeowners association, and Mulder soon realized that those who had disappeared were the ones who went against those standards. That's because the aforementioned president was utilizing a Tulpa creature from Tibet in order to enforce the rules he'd established. When all's said and done, all you'll really remember is that this was the episode where Mulder and Scully pretended to be married.

“X-Cops” (season 7, episode 12)

Gillian Anderson as Dana Scully and Anthony Heald as Herald Piller on 'The X-Files'. Everett Collection

If the title doesn't ring a bell, this is the episode where Mulder and Scully found themselves on an investigation that ended up being filmed for an episode of *Cops*. Given that both *The X-Files* and *Cops* were on Fox, that means the former was able to open up this installment with the latter's ubiquitous theme song (Inner Circle's "Bad Boys"), and, to make it *really* feel like a *Cops *episode, the whole thing was shot on videotape.

Vince Gilligan, a *Cops* fan, wrote the episode and actually pitched it back in season 4, but both Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz thought the idea was too goofy for the series, and Spotnitz in particular didn't love the idea of emulating *Cops*' videotape format for the filming. By the time season 7 rolled around, however, Carter decided it was an experiment worth conducting, and Gilligan's episode moved forward, helmed by director Michael Watkins. "X-Cops" revolved around one of the series' more esoteric monsters of the week, namely an entity that revealed itself to its victims as their greatest fear, resulting in people being attacked variously by a werewolf, a wasp man, Freddy Krueger, and the Hantavirus. In the long run, though, the monster matters less than the enjoyment of seeing Mulder and Scully dealing with being on camera and in an episode of *Cops*, a situation that led to several extremely funny and memorable moments.

“Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster” (season 10, episode 3)

Gillian Anderson as Dana Scully and David Duchovny as Fox Mulder on 'The X-Files'. Everett Collection

While the 2016 revival of *The X-Files* may have been hit or miss in terms of recapturing the magic of the original series, critics and fans were united in their love of this installment. Mulder was in a bit of a funk from examining old files, realizing just how many past cases involved him steadfastly believing they revolved around "monsters," only for them to be complete hoaxes. It couldn't be worse timing for him, then, when a body was found in Oregon with its throat ripped open and witnesses were placing blame on some sort of strange creature.

After arriving on the scene, Mulder and Scully promptly met up with local animal control officer Pasha — played by longtime *X-Files *superfan Kumail Nanjiani — and, in short order, they crossed paths with Guy Mann (Rhys Darby), a cell phone salesman who dressed suspiciously like Carl Kolchak and had a surprising secret that helped restore Mulder's faith in his more monster-centric investigations. Morgan adapted the script for "Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster" from one he'd written for Frank Spotnitz's 2005 Kolchak reboot, *Night Stalker*, since that series' quick cancellation kept him from ever utilizing it. It's worth mentioning that Morgan also wrote one episode for *The X-Files*' 11th season, titled "The Lost Art of Forehead Sweat," which, in another less-than-surprising turn of events, was hailed as the best episode of *that* season.

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Source: “EW Sci-Fi”