The Essential X-Files (Episode List)

I wrote this awhile back when the revival was first announced. Thought I should share it here:

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**The Essential X-Files**

These are not the best episodes, but the ones most important for catching up with the X-Files mythology.

With The X-Files coming back to TV in the not-too-distant future, I figure people are going to start watching the series to catch up. It’s a long series with a complicated plot, and only some of the episodes are about that plot. So for those wanting to rewatch the show but not sift through the entire series, these are the essential episodes of The X-Files.

Ones with a * are not essential mythology episodes, but connect to the mythology. Ones with ** are the best episodes of the series, but not part of the mythology. The first movie takes place between seasons five and six is and important. The second movie takes place after season 9, and addresses the ending of the original finale, and has some small connections to season 10.

Regarding Episode numbers – The episodes have a production number (1×01, etc), but they did not all air in order, so I also list the order they appear on the Blu-Ray release.


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**Season One**

Pilot (1×79, Episode 1)

Deep Throat (1×01, Episode 2)

*Squeeze (1×02, Episode 3)

*Conduit (1×03, Episode 4)

*Fallen Angel (1×09, Episode 10)

*Eve (1×10, Episode 11)

**Beyond The Sea (1×12, Episode 13)

E.B.E. (1×16, Episode 17)

*Tooms (1×20, Episode 21)

The Erlenmeyer Flask (1×23, Episode 24)

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**Season Two**

Little Green Men (2×01, Episode 1)

The Host (2×02, Episode 2)

Sleepless (2×04, Episode 4)

Duane Berry (2×05, Episode 5)

Ascension (2×06, Episode 6)

One Breath (2×08, Episode 8)

*Red Museum (2×10, Episode 10)

**Irresistible (2×13, Episode 13)

**Die Hand Die Verletzt (2×14, Episode 14)

Colony (2×16, Episode 16)

End Game (2×17, Episode 17)

**Humbug (2×20, episode 20)

Anasazi (2×25, Episode 25)

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**Season Three**

The Blessing Way

Paper Clip

**D.P.O.

**Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose

Nisei

731

**War of the Coprophages

**Syzygy

Piper Maru

Apocrypha

**Pusher

**Jose Chung’s From Outer Space

Talitha Cumi

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**Season Four**

Herrenvolk

**Home

Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man

Tunguska

Terma

**Never Again

*Leonard Betts

Momento Mori

*Tempus Fugit

*Max

*Demons

Zero Sum

Gethsemane

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**Season Five**

Redux

Redux II

*Unusual Suspects

**Post-Modern Prometheus

Christmas Carol

Emily

**Chinga (Stephen King’s episode)

**Bad Blood

Patient X

The Red and the Black

*Travelers (The origins of The X-Files)

The End

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**Movie: Fight The Future**

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**Season Six**

The Beginning

**Triangle

**Dreamland

**Dreamland II

S.R. 819

Two Fathers

One Son

**Arcadia

**Milagro (Not a favorite but a lot of people love it)

**The Unnatural

*Three of a Kind

Biogenesis

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**Season Seven**

The Sixth Extinction

Amor Fati

**Orison

Sein und Zeit

Closure

**X-Cops

*En Ami

Requiem

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**Season Eight**

Within

Without

Per Manum

This is Not Happening

Dead Alive

Three Words

Vienen

Essence

Existence

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**Season Nine**

Nothing Important Happened Today

Nothing Important Happened Today II

Trust No 1

Provenance

Providence

*Jump The Shark

William

Release

The Truth

The Truth II

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**Movie 2: I Want To Believe**

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**Season Ten**

My Struggle I

*Founder’s Mutation

**Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster

My Struggle II

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**Season 11**

My Struggle III

**The Lost Art of Forehead Sweat

Ghouli

My Struggle IV

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Update 4/29/15

Added Leonard Betts (surprised I missed that one).

9/19/15

Added Bad Blood (how could I have missed that?)

3/11/16

Added Home. I was wrong to have omitted it.

Added Season ten and it gives me chills to know I can say I’m adding a tenth season to this list.

2/3/18

Added part of Season 11.

Added Red Museum.

11/8/22 (yes I’m still updating this almost a decade later)

Added Demons to the list.

Added MS4 to the list (though I warn you that it is one of the worst episodes of the series)

Rewrote the stuff about the second movie, because that had been written before the Revival.

4/20/23

Added episode numbers to Seasons 1 and 2. I will work on the remaining seasons soon.

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As a disclaimer, I was not contacted or had any discussions with Overmental (nor even heard of them until this) over reprinting this list and my commentary. A copy of this list, including my comments on certain episodes and the formatting, was posted as an article on that site suggesting that its author asked the reddit community for episode suggestions. I was not paid for this, and only became aware because of a username mention here on Reddit. Aside from actually writing it, I had nothing to do with it.