The X-Files In 97 Episodes Worth Watching, #6: Fight The Future

Your fun bit of trivia for this season: It was supposed to be the last. The X-Files crew had planned on wrapping up the TV seasons and evolving into a film franchise. As you can probably tell from the fact that we're barely over halfway through the 97 episodes, things didn't go according to plan, and there were several more seasons of the TV franchise, as the movies did...okay...at the box office.

51. Patient X
(Mulder, Scully, Alex Krycek, First Elder, Marita Covarrubias, Well-Manicured Man, Cassandra Spender, Jeffrey Spender)

New season, new addition to the overarching conspiracy episodes! Meet The Spender family, they will now be intertwined by the whole alien/Syndicate plotline.


52. The Red & The Black
(Mulder, Scully, Skinner, Jeffrey Spender, Alex Krycek, Cassandra Spinner, Marita Covarrubias, Smoking Man, Well-Manicured Man, First Elder)

It's Scully's turn to wake up with a headache and missing time. But her experience is directly tied into the previous episode.


53.The Pine Bluff Variant
(Mulder, Scully, Skinner)

Mulder gets to go undercover when the FBI takes a break from the alien/Syndicate conspiracy to investigate an anti-government militia.


54. Folie A Deux
(Mulder, Scully, Skinner)

Creepy bugs are the center of this Monster Of The Week story. But, like, a really big bug who is also The Worst Boss Ever.


55. The X-Files Movie
(Mulder, Scully, Skinner, Smoking Man, Well-Manicured Man, The Lone Gunmen, First Elder)

The fifth season was supposed to be the final season of The X-Files, and they had a very messy episode that set up what was supposed to be film franchise. However, Fox (the network, not Mulder) wasn't willing to give up on this cash cow, so the series continued into season six and beyond. There is a lot of alien/Syndicate lore here, and once again the X-Files are closed and then reopened.


56. Drive
(Mulder, Scully, Kersh)

Part of Season 6 followed new X-Files agents, Jeffrey Spender and his partner, Diana Fowley. Rather than spend time with them, we're going to see Mulder and Scully be regular old FBI agents who happen to come across some X-Files. This is another episode written by Vince Gilligan and the antagonist is his Breaking Bad star, Bryan Cranston.


57. Triangle
(Mulder, Scully, Skinner, Smoking Man, Jeffrey Spender, The Lone Gunmen)

Sci-fi shows that involve time travel must always have an episode set in Nazi Germany, and the X-Files is not going to be an exception to that rule.  While Mulder ends up in the past, Scully and The Lone Gunmen try and bring him back to the present.


58 & 59. Dreamland
(Mulder, Scully, Kersh, The Lone Gunmen)

Ready for another trope episode? It's a body-switch! Mulder finds himself in the body of a different FBI agent, who finds himself in Mulder's body. Shenanigans ensue.

​
60.How The Ghosts Stole Christmas
 (Mulder, Scully)

We end the season on a delightful holiday episode where a couple who made a suicide pact haunt their old home very holiday season. Truly one of the most fun holiday episodes of any sci-fi show.