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.
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