Week of Review - X-Files S1/S2 Episode Guide

I’m not sure how much of a preamble this article requires.  The X-Files is coming back to screens and so we’re all involved going back to rewatch the old show and fondly enjoy our ‘90s nostalgia.  As such, now is the perfect time for a retrospective, but rather than try to encapsulate each season in a review I’m doing this in the form of an episode guide.  The basic rules are that these are the one-off episodes I recommend from each season.  

They’re the “monster of the week” type adventures you can just jump right into without needing to know anything about X-Files continuity or canon other than Fox Mulder believes and Dana Scully doubts.  I’ll talk about each episode and try not to give anything major away but if you really want to be 100% spoiler free, going in totally cold, just read the list names and go from there.  I’m only going through season 1-7 because those are the ones I watched and I’m starting with season 1 & 2 because there weren’t a ton to recommend.  We’ll be doing that same trick with a few other seasons later on too, for now this is the X-Files Episode Guide for season 1 and season 2.

S1E3                        Squeeze

Squeeze is the first episode of the show that actually got into weird paranormal/sci-fi stuff that wasn’t directly linked to aliens and government conspiracies.  The story is essentially a very clever twist on a locked room mystery, in that a serial killer has discovered a way to kill victims who were safe behind layers and layers of security.  The crimes are all suitably gruesome but what really sells this one is the performance of Dough Hutchison as the villain.  He really embodies this creepy inhumanity that’s deeply unnerving thanks to how plausible it feels.  This is also the episode where we really get a sense of how ostracized Mulder is by the rest of the FBI, with Scully’s colleagues involved in the case actively working against him out of a disdain for his spooky theories.  Overall, it’s a solid episode and a good introduction to the show’s creepier side. 

S1E12                        Fire

Another episode emphasizing sci-fi mutations over mysticism, Fire revolves around an English pyrokinetic who’s been targeting the aristocracy.  This is another episode marked with a  great villain performance by Mark Sheppard who completely makes this episode worth while.  Unlike Hutchison, Sheppard’s real skill is making himself normal and likable, coming off as charismatic while just fake and off enough to be threatening under the smiles and kindness.  This is also the episode where we find out Mulder is terrified of fire, something that’s never brought up again, and that he had a fling in college that involved bumping uglies on Arthur Conan Doyle’s grave.  I admit, that might be a turn off for some but for me it’s possibly my favorite slice of X-Files insane mythology. 

S1E15                        Lazarus

This one gives Scully’s trashy past the episode’s focus.  A lot of these early episodes focused on fleshing out character history with points that will never be brought up later but are incredibly fun in how lurid they really are.  In this case, we learn Scully had a tawdry affair with one of her teachers at the academy.  Now, teacher guy has come back into her life tracking down a pair of romantically involved bank robbers.  However, when Scully’s old flame is wounded in the robbery he dies briefly on the operating table before miraculously coming back a changed man.  It’s a fun episode, mainly thanks to how gung-ho the cast is for the crazy performances at hand. 

S1E16                        Young At Heart

This is one of the few X-Files early episodes where the fleshed out history actually works and manages to stick, probably because it’s not about either character’s sex life.  The story is that an old enemy of Mulder’s that everyone thought died in prison has somehow returned and discovered the secret to make himself younger.  There are plenty of good episodes in the series overall involving an vengeful crook miraculously gaining powers but this stands as one of the best mainly for the villain’s impact on Mulder’s own history.  When their connection is revealed it suddenly colors all of Mulder’s life decisions a lot more vividly and you begin to see how his distrust for FBI politics and strict procedure went all the way back to his time as a rookie.  Additionally, the ending shot of this episode is absolutely killer with one of the series better monologues. 

S1E21                        Tooms

This episode is actually a sequel to Squeeze because it was really that popular at the time.  Tooms honestly plays like a joke idea come to life, revolving on what would actually happen if you tried to prosecute a genetic mutant with difficult to prove super powers.  Hutchison is back for this episode and still great, especially in how slyly he manages to use the rule of law against Mulder and Scully.  He takes a lot more of center stage this episode and reveals in the spotlight, now taking on a much more scheming and malevolent version of his previous persona though still projecting an outward creepiness that’s deeply chilling.  X-Files has a number of these sequel type episodes but Tooms is easily the best, mainly because it’s the only one that didn’t really feel contrived but was a logical extension of where the first one left off.

S2E2                        The Host

Something to note about X-Files season 2 is that briefly, at the start, Mulder and Scully were split up.  Even though they weren’t partners the two still managed to work together in episodes like this one, which features some of if not the best monster design of the show.  Host is a weird and creepy episode revolving around an extrapolation of a classic urban legend that there are monsters living in the sewers.  In this case, the monster is grounded in the kind of cold war mythology that would inform a lot of Chris Carter’s later work but it still holds up very well and the creature design is down right terrifying.  That essentially makes this episode a 45 minute monster movie but it’s a damn good monster movie that does a good job finding the right balance of classic monster tropes (lurking creature, radiation paranoia etc.) and blends them with modern sensibilities.  

S2E3                        Blood

Okay this is one of the quasi-mythos episodes of the series, in that the villains are linked to the larger government conspiracy.  However, the actual scheme at hand doesn’t have anything to do with grays, men in black, or the syndicate so you’re fine to just watch this as one-off.  ‘Blood,’ is a fun little episode about mind control, pesticides, and brutal murder in rural America that echoed a lot of future X-Files plots.  Like a lot of episodes it was more topical in its time but its particular twist on mind control is still very unique and engaging and well worth checking out.  It also features a prominent role by Will Sanderson, the actor who played J.F. Sebastian in Blade Runner.  He does a stand out job here as one of the key targets of the mind control stuff with a dynamite final sequence that I won’t spoil.  Even though this episode plays a lot like a first draft for future episode it’s still a thoroughly enjoyable watch. 

S2E4                        Sleepless

Unofficial X-Files rule: anything they do with veterans is always great.  Seriously, whenever the show broaches this topic it brings out some of their most imaginative ideas as well as a real sense of empathy and anger that turns everything up a notch.  Sleepless is a great episode revolving around secret government experiments to produce more efficient soldiers.  Now, the last of those soldiers has returned home and is looking for revenge.  There’s a good chunk of the episode that revolves around setting up mythos stuff like Mulder’s new informant X and the introduction of Alex Krycek but that’s all stuff around the main plot.  The main emphasis on the super soldier program and its bloody aftermath is completely stand-alone and works like gangbusters.  Unlike a lot of botched super soldier plots the X-Files really seems to get how creepy and dehumanizing the very idea is and brings that to the forefront of the story. 

S2E11                        Excelsis Dei

‘Excelsis Dei’ is a strong episode but it’s also really harsh and brutal and deals with some of the darkest stuff the X-Files ever really touched on.  Consider this your trigger warning for the episode, specifically for sexual assault because this episode can be really hard to watch in that case.  I do still recommend it because it’s a well told story revolving around this terrible nursing home and violent undead spirits but just know what you’re getting into before you decide to throw it on.  It’s definitely not an episode to just watch on a whim or fun like a lot of the others.  Still, it handles the aspects of sexual assault well and the idea of the authorities being so skeptical over the report that the culprit might as well be a ghost works well in giving the show a touch of subtext that was often missing in these early episodes.  Check it out but don’t say I didn’t warn you. 

S2E23                        Soft Light

This is the weird nonsense we’re here for.  Tony Shalhoub of Monk fame stars as a scientist who accidentally turns his shadow into a black hole.  This is about as crazy an ideas as X-Files ever allowed themselves to indulge and bless them for it because that’s just lovably insane.  Shalhoub, bless his heart, actually plays the role completely straight as a kind of tragic figure whose life has been ruined by tampering where man was not meant to tread and it just makes the whole episode so much more fun.  The X-Files has plenty of great tongue-in-cheek episodes but something this out there, doing it straight just adds to the hilariousness of it all. 

S2E24                        Our Town

Another first draft type episode but still a pretty great one.  The plot revolves around a favorite X-Files trope of evil lurking secretly in small town/rural America only this evil is a little more ludicrous than other episodes.  In particular, the episode is about a small town chicken magnate whose discovered the secret to eternal life/immortality: cannibalism.  The actual reasoning behind that claim ends up a little on the questionable side but nothing too terrible and it serves as a nice additional slathering of ridiculousness to the episode.  I do really love that within a season two different X-Files episodes revolved around eternal youth through both magic and science.  This is another fun little episode to throw on if you’re in the mood from some quick and quirky X-Files weirdness being executed with a delightfully straight face. 


if you liked this article please like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter