X-Files Recaps

Cigarette-Smoking Man takes Mulder out of the hospital and puts him into a coma and feels him an "ideal world" to live out.

CSM confirms he is Mulder's father. Also does Teena help him get Mulder out of the hospital??

The Jesus stuff in this episode is so weird... they put Mulder in like a crucifix shape

Mulder lives out a long life in the fantasy world - he sees Deep Throat and Samantha again

Diana, girl what the fuck. Do you have a thing with both Mulder AND his biological father??

Albert Hosteen's ghost appears in Scully's apartment and prays with her

Scully comes to Mulder in his dream, she's able to shake him out of this false world

"You were my constant... my touchstone" oh WOW 😭imagine being Mulder's neighbors lmao

Diana was murdered (off-screen)?? But in the end, she gave Scully the key to save Mulder - RIP girlie

Score: 10/10 ❤️

Watch it? Yes, I love the conclusion to this whole Mulder-has-alien-powers mess. I find the "dream world" kinda dumb, though, I don't think Mulder would fall for it?? But whatever, he's able to snap out of it in the end because of Scully and we get one the best scenes ever. Arguably this is the moment where they no longer decide to hide their feelings.

Scully encounters some bizarre events while working in Ivory Coast, meanwhile Skinner visits Mulder in the psych ward and tries to communicate with him.

Scully's opening monologue to Mulder, "your beautiful mind" omg

Scully sees a vision of man, her tent gets infested with bugs, then the ocean water boils a guy; a lot of bad omens happening

Mulder attacks Skinner in a psychotic state, but then he slips him a piece of fabric that says "help me"

Skinner brings Kritschgau to Mulder, they inject Mulder and he's able to speak again and test his new mind-reading powers

Diana goes to see Mulder, she knows now that he knows the truth about her

I love Amina and Scully, the girlies researching together, they escape a deranged Barnes

"What's causing it may be extraterrestrial in origin" yeaaaah Scully!!

Score: 10/10 ❤️

Watch it? Yes! I love Scully's adventure in Ivory Coast. Oh my god she looks so hot with her hair up and a machete in her hand!! Everything else that goes down there is also really wild (I wish we got to see Amina again someday). But also, this is a huge moment going forward because she searches for the truth and she actually accepts the extreme answer.

Mulder and Scully investigate a murder connected to a mysterious etched stone found by a professor in Ivory Coast.

The stone flies out of the professor's hand and SLICES a bible in half

The etchings on paper cause Mulder to have intense headaches, then he hears mind-reading voices in his head?!

Scully goes to Albert Hosteen about translating the etchings, but he has cancer now :(

Fucking Krycek of all people finds Mulder collapsed in a stairwell

Suddenly Diana is at Mulder's place. Why are you taking your clothes off when he's ill, you psycho!!!

Scully is calling her bullshit "He called me." "You're a liar." lmao

Mulder gets put into a psych ward, Scully goes to Ivory Coast to investigate the artifact and figure out how to save him

Score: 8/10

Watch it? Yes, this is the last bits of the "original" mythology falling into place. I have mixed feelings about some of this three-parter, but it does pay off in the end. It's still wild to think that Mulder had mind-reading powers for like 2-3 episodes. Anyway, I enjoy seeing Scully going feral and sussing out Diana in this one.

A couple gone missing during a hiking trip is found only a few days later as skeletons, leading Mulder and Scully to investigate the area.

M&S dynamic is in a funk, Mulder is over the skepticism and wants to be given "the benefit of the doubt"

Both agents go into deep hallucinations after accidentally setting off mushroom spores

Mulder sees a world where he has the perfect evidence, he shows Scully an alien he found, but then he can't believe it

"It's a gray" lmaoo why is this alien like their baby

Scully sees a world where her "logical explanation" is proven correct, but she can't accept it with Mulder gone

They share a hallucination of a "fake" escape, Mulder shoots Skinner to prove it still isn't real

M&S are pulled out of the ground, their hands reach for each other in the ambulance 🥹

Score: 9/10 ❤️

Watch it? Yes, this is such a great episode. Season 6 has this escalating tension of the agents' ideas clashing (among other things), and this episode hits a peak of that. It shows us, and them, how they fill each other's gaps so perfectly. One doesn't work without the other. It's weird, trippy, and beautiful.

Ten years after the events of Unusual Suspects, the Lone Gunmen see Susanne Modeski at a government convention they fail to infiltrate.

The boys deepfake Mulder's voice to trick Scully into to coming to Vegas to help them out

Byers believes Susanne is possibly being brainwashed or controlled, she's engaged to some defense guy

Her research is being used to make a drug that makes the user susceptible to influence, Jimmy is killed with it

This episode solidifies Frohike as my favorite Lone Gunman, he's the most supportive of his friends and helps Scully

Scully is injected with the drug mid-autopsy, "Beeeeeep *claps*" oh my god I love her

"Why would the government wanna turn Scully into a bimbo?"

Scully helps the Lone Gunmen fake Susanne's death, she escapes and gives Byers a final kiss

Score: 8/10

Watch it? Yes, this is my favorite Lone Gunmen episode, despite there being no Mulder. Obviously I'm biased, because I feel feral about inebriated "bimbo" Scully in this episode. Gillian's acting in this is genuinely so much fun, I'm glad she got to go all in on the comedy this time.

Mulder visits Arthur Dales (his brother, also named Arthur??) who recounts a story about a great baseball player in 1947 who was actually an alien.

Mulder and Scully are goofing and Mulder wrestles her for her tofutti ice cream

This "Arthur" was a cop, and he was assigned to protect baseball player Exley from racist attackers

The Bounty Hunter comes hunting for Exley but he's dressed as the KKK?! We also see him in alien form

We get a really cool, well-written black protagonist, but... he's actually an alien who's kinda appropriating black culture 😭

There's a scene playing on the TV that's just the Bounty Hunter in Colony??

In the end, Exley bleeds like a human - did he become one??

The ending: ohhhhh I love baseball now, actually 🥰

Score: 8/10 ❤️

Watch it? Yes, for sure. Is it for the plot? No, not really, if I'm being honest the baseball of it all bores me a bit, though I do like Exley and Dales' relationship. If it wasn't for the Mulder and Scully scenes in this, this would probably be like 2-3 points lower. David Duchovny loves his baseball, but he clearly wanted to give us some MSR, too.

The agents investigate a series of murders where the victim's heart has been removed, while Scully has some strange interactions with Mulder's new neighbor.

Author guy "created" a psychic surgery killer just to meet Scully? He's been stalking her!!

According to him, Scully spends more time at Mulder's apartment than her own? 👀

Mulder looked like he was about to punch him (I would have too tbh), until Scully holds him back

"I'm very uncomfortable with this" yet she's still in his empty ass icky apartment 😭 until Mulder bursts in

"Agent Scully is already in love" aaaAAAAAA

Motherfucker wrote a sex scene with Scully! Mulder is not amused

Scully is attacked by the "stranger" from the book, he's destroyed when the book is burned

Score: 7/10 ❤️

Watch it? Yes, but oh boy, I'm so torn on this episode. On one hand, I hate this little creep SO MUCH and his author ability to make Scully do certain things arguably against her will makes me cringe. On the other hand, wow, this is one of the most MSR episodes thus far. Despite the author's intentions, she's already in love.

The agents search for an escaped convict who somehow escaped and killed the prison warden during the middle of a tornado.

Escaped convict Pinker gains an ability during the storm to pass through solid objects, like walls and people

The warden was cut in half, and Pinker's old friend is found with his face burned off

"Dear diary, today my heart leapt when Agent Scully suggested spontaneous human combustion" lol

Bullets do nothing to him, but it turns out he can't go through glass or rubber

He has to be naked everywhere for his ability to work, so Scully gets chased and attacked by a naked man

Pinker is hunting down his ex-girlfriend, writing "I want what's mine" - turns out he's referring to a child, not money

This lady's new husband ditches her immediately. This woman bought you a nice PC dude, damn!!

Score: 5/10

Watch it? I'd say skip. It's an interesting monster for sure but I don't really care for the people involved in the story too much, considering the ex-girlfriend leads him right to her son... Also this man creeps me out so much, especially when he's running around naked everywhere.

Mulder and Scully investigate a series of killings attributed to a rare species of dog that shipped from abroad.

Mulder makes soo many dog jokes, then Scully says "he doesn't listen and chews on the furniture" in reference to him lmao

This evil dog is killing people (and dogs) with not to hunt, but just because

We meet Mulder's online friend Karin, a very reclusive dog expert who likes dogs and not people

"She's enamored with you" Scully is very suspicious of Karin's intentions with Mulder in this case

Detweiler, the researcher, thinks he captured the rare dog but actually became the dog as a werewolf thing

Apparently the werewolf-dog can also shapeshift into other dogs??

A new "I Want To Believe" poster is added to the office, from Karin

Score: 6/10

Watch it? It's skippable, but I like it okay. Someday I will present my "Mulder doesn't like dogs, Mulder is a dog" thesis and point to this episode as evidence (jk, kinda). As someone who was dog-obsessed as a kid, I find Karin to be an interesting character. Her crush on Mulder, perhaps because it affects the case, makes Scully more protective than she might normally be.

Mulder and Scully go undercover as a married couple to infiltrate a secretive planned community where residents have gone missing.

"That's right, poopyhead" Mulder is having too much fun roleplaying being married, Scully is not about this lol

Apparently if your lightbulb goes out you have approximately 3 seconds to fix it before you die

The whole neighborhood is always on watch to make sure no one breaks the HOA rules, before "someone" notices

The women "leave the table" for the men to talk about things... this is some old-timey bullshit

Mulder tells the other couple that Scully is into "crystals and mood rings" lmaoo

Little dog named Scruffy goes in a culvert and Scully finds missing guy's necklace

A "tulpa" was willed into existence in order to enforce the rules of the neighborhood, but now nobody can control it

Score: 9/10 ❤️

Watch it? Yes, this is a great MotW. Mulder is such a menace in this and the "perfect neighborhood" monster situation is a really silly but interesting commentary. Obviously a trope-y "fake relationship" is bound to have a lot of juicy moments.

Mulder and Scully are stuck in an infinitely looping Monday where they encounter a bank heist that always ends with a bomb going off.

Pam, the bomber's girlfriend, is the only one who remembers every instance and has tried everything to stop it

Mulder's life is being ruined by his waterbed, it burst and leaked to the apartment below lol

There's also a mirror on his ceiling!! Morris did insane things to his apartment and Mulder just accepted it

Every time, Mulder misses a work meeting that seems incredibly boring

No matter what, one of them always ends up at that same bank somehow

Mulder begins to recognize Pam, whispers "he has a bomb" so he can carry that memory

The only way they end the loop is with Pam dying :(

Score: 7/10

Watch it? Yes, this episode is pretty memorable and worthwhile. I do think the tragedy of Mulder and Scully dying together over and over is interesting, but I think I would've felt more invested in Pam and Bernard if I knew more about them. Obviously this episode has a lot of repetition by nature, but it makes it not as fun to rewatch, for me.

Arthur Dales calls Mulder to Florida during a hurricane, as he believes a local family was attacked by a tentacle monster in the water.

Scully meets Dales for the first time, he's initially not happy that Mulder brought her along

"Don't all the nuts roll down to Florida" they really make fun of Florida a lot in this episode lmao

A cast of wacky characters: doomer guy, looter guy, Ernie from George Lopez and his angry pregnant wife

Mulder is attacked by the tentacle, the others force him outside for fear of contamination, against Scully's wishes

Scully delivers a whole ass baby while the gun guy gets attacked by the monster!!

Mulder sees a cat out in the rain realizes that it's freshwater is safe from the tentacle monster

Dales praises Scully's savviness, says he "might not have retired" if he'd had someone like her 🥹

Score: 8/10

Watch it? It's not essential but yes, as silly as this Florida-special episode is, I enjoy it quite a bit. The characters are fun and we actually get some Latine representation. We also actually get to know Dales a bit better. I found the tentacle creature to be a pretty scary monster, especially since we never see the "whole thing".

Mulder's apartment is stormed by a CDC quarantine squad led by Diana Fowler, and they take Cassandra, Scully, and Mulder away under the pretense of a "contagious organism".

I can't with these goofy looking little aliens (especially knowing these were played by little girls lol)

Shower scene!!! Mulder peeks over!!! This part saves an otherwise infuriating episode

Marita is alive, barely, they have been testing the vaccine on her

"You're making this personal" oh my GOD I'm so mad. I do like how the Lone Gunmen are caught in the middle of this argument

Scully is the voice of reason right now, as Mulder is apparently completely delulu, believing CSM's lies and kissing Diana. ksdjfksdfjk

The rebels trick the Syndicate, they kill everyone and their family (except Diana and CSM, who escape)

Spender demands Scully and Mulder get put back on X-Files... and then his own father SHOOTS HIM IN THE HEAD

Score: 6/10

Watch it? Unfortunately yes, it's a must-watch for mytharc reasons. But I kind of hate this episode. It feels like Mulder is completely out of character. He believes CSM, is ready to just drop it all to go with Diana, and willing to leave everyone else behind? That's so incredibly unlike him. I just don't buy it and it pisses me off so much, but the one good thing is how much Scully is a devoted hater through and through.

The faceless alien rebels return, burning everyone in a train car laboratory except for the experimented-on patient, Cassandra Spender.

Cassandra is now the "perfect hybrid", if the aliens find out then colonization is imminent

Spender has purposely made no progress on the X-Files (what does he do all day??)

Lmaooo both of Spender's parents prefer Mulder over him

Cassandra is healed, but she's now aware she's a tool for colonization and believes she needs to die for humanity to live

"CGB Spender" they figure out about the plans for the project 25 years ago and CSM's name

Cassandra tells Mulder that Samantha is "out there, with the aliens" and that is... not true lol

Krycek is the Snape to Spender's Draco (he had to step in when he couldn't kill that guy lol)

Score: 8/10

Watch it? Yes, this is an important two-parter and leads to what I would call the climax of the mytharc. I have some issues with it how it all goes down (next episode mostly), but this one ends in a good cliffhanger - Cassandra asking to be killed, Mulder pointing his gun at her, Scully telling him to stop.

Scully is assigned to an unusual case with a new partner, they investigate a crime scene photographer who seems to capture the exact moment of death.

Mulder has big FOMO about this X-File, he looks up the case and keeps poking around

I wonder why Kersh didn't give this case to Fowler and Spender?

The photographer, Alfred Fellig, is immortal - he's had multiple names dating back 149 years

Scully gets to know Fellig and his story, his only goal is to figure out how to die

Scully's assigned partner, Ritter, is really corrupt and doesn't actually care about solving the case

Ritter runs into the room and shoots Scully!! He's a fucking idiot!!

Scully almost dies, but Fellig "takes her death" as someone did for him over a hundred years ago

Score: 8/10

Watch it? Yes, I find it really interesting. It's a good "trial" of Scully using her instincts, considering the extreme, without Mulder. The ending can be seen as incredibly consequential as it's implied that Scully is now immortal.

Skinner goes into cardiac arrest from a biologically engineered disease; we go back 24 hours to when Mulder and Scully try to save him.

Krycek is in disguise in nastiest wig and beard, he has a controller for the nanobots inside Skinner

He also keeps robocalling Skinner, it’s supposed to be creepy but it’s kinda funny

Skinner apparently boxes in his spare time, but his doctor tells him he’s getting too old for that lol

Mulder immediately calls Scully to check on Skinner when he sees him in rough shape, they're both worried

Senator Mathis is back but he’s being real shady about SR 819, a health funding bill

Skinner wishes “he could’ve done more” for Mulder and Scully – but when he survives, that’s all out the window??

They really can’t tell it’s Krycek in those photos??

Score: 7/10

Watch it? Yeah, maybe - if you like Skinner episodes. This one's decently important because of Krycek's involvement, as he will continue to have this remote and the ability control Skinner. I like to see M&S getting all worried about their "dad", but at the end they feel sort of betrayed as he switches up on them without them knowing why.

Mulder and Scully travel to Kroner, Kansas at request of the mayor; he claims that the "Rain King" is purposely causing a drought in order to boost his business.

Everyone in this town is convinced that Scully and Mulder are a couple

A tornado causes a cow to fall through Mulder's hotel room?! And they move his stuff into Scully's room lmao

Holman, the weatherman, is actually the one affecting the weather with his emotions

Holman is in love with Sheila, but Sheila suddenly develops a crush on Mulder (and kisses him unwarranted!!)

M&S attend the high school reunion and try to get Holman and Sheila together, to stop the storm (they sway together)

Darryl, the "Rain King", is so pathetic and tries to fight Mulder lol

"I do not gaze at Scully" sir...

"And the person who was just a friend is… suddenly the only person you can ever imagine yourself with." aaaaaaah

Score: 9/10

Watch it? Yesss this is a very fun and silly episode. It starts out a little slow in my opinion but it picks up and gets really good. It continues the S6 trend of forcing M&S to confront their feelings and them going "I pretend I do not see it". Side note, Scully's hair in this episode is one of my all-time faves.