‘The X-Files’ Turns 25: The Very Best Episode From Each Of The Show’s Original 9 Seasons

Original Air Date: November 5, 1993
Directed By: David Nutter
Written By: Glen Morgan and James Wong

Arguably the first episode in which it becomes clear that Mulder and Scully totally want to do it, it’s also Scully’s first foray into a world that can’t be explained by straight science. Caught in the middle of a murder-suicide at a remote Alaskan cabin in a snowstorm, the FBI’s most unwanted found themselves removing alien worms from the necks of their geophysicist pals and trying to stay alive. Ah, a classic.

Watch The X-Files Season 1 Episode 8 ("Ice") on Hulu

Original Air Date: October 14, 1994
Directed By: Chris Carter
Written By: Chris Carter

It’s hard to call “Duane Barry” one of the best episodes, but it is the first in which Scully fell victim to some psycho who wanted to hurt her in some way. Duane Barry was abducted by aliens (allegedly!) (but yes, really!) and ended up in a mental institution. He eventually escaped, got violent, and at the end of it all, busted through Scully’s windows and kidnapped her, handing her over to the shady government folks who, unbeknownst to her, would grow a half-alien child in her womb before sending her back with a weird tracking chip in her neck. Ah, the good old days.

Watch The X-Files Season 2 Episode 5 ("Duane Berry") on Hulu

Original Air Date: February 23, 1996
Directed By: Rob Bowman
Written By: Vince Gilligan

“Pusher” represents The X-Files at its best, combining suspense and intensity with Mulder and Scully’s unwavering loyalty for one another—to the point that they’d literally be willing to get shot to save the other. Thankfully, that doesn’t happen, but it’s a pretty crazy 40 minutes of Robert Modell’s psychic ability to “push” his will onto others by simple suggestion. The Russian roulette scene is definitely one of the most iconic in the show’s history.

Watch The X-Files Season 3 Episode 17 ("Pusher") on Hulu

Original Air Date: November 5, 1993
Directed By: Rob Bowman
Written By: Vince Gilligan

Perhaps an unconventional choice, but in what’s an otherwise a really great season, “Unruhe” still manages to stand out as a brilliantly conceived and actualized episode. (It also happens to be the only episode of The X-Files to truly scare me.) Gerry Schnauz is a psycho who doses women with scopolamine before performing transorbital lobotomies on them because he believes it’s the only way to kill the “howlers” he sees in them whenever he takes their photos. Surprise! He tries to give Scully one too, but Mulder literally kicks down a door to save her.

Watch The X-Files Season 4 Episode 4 ("Unruhe") on Hulu

Original Air Date: November 23, 1997
Directed By: Brett Dowler
Written By: Frank Spotnitz

Another season full of great episodes which are hard to choose from, but “Detour” sticks out just because it’s so weirdly hilarious and fun. Picture this: Mulder and Scully are on their way to a mandatory team-building seminar (you can imagine how well that goes over with Mulder) but get waylaid by some mysterious creature that seems to be killing people in the Apalachicola National Forest in Florida (read: rainy, humid, beautiful Vancouver). Turns out, it’s only a whodunit until they discover that a race of ancient tree people are kinda sick of people being on their land and are entombing people in a pit (which Scully hilariously ends up in, shouting up to Mulder, “I fell down a hole!”) for goodness knows what purpose. It’s silly and flirty (and would’ve been even more so had it actually started raining sleeping bags) and Scully even sings, which makes this a winner all on its own.

Watch The X-Files Season 5 Episode 4 ("Detour") on Hulu

Original Air Date: February 28, 1999
Directed By: Kim Manners
Written By: Vince Gilligan and John Shiban

Another solid season with plenty of great episodes to choose from, but “Monday” wins because it’s so frustratingly brilliant. The episode opens with Scully trying to stop the bleeding from Mulder’s gunshot wound to the chest that happens during a bank robbery in which they happen to be hostages. The suspect then detonates a bomb strapped to his chest… only for Mulder to wake up in his (totally prohibited water) bed the next morning completely unharmed. The day repeat several times over, the universe giving Mulder and Scully multiple chances to get things right. It takes them a while, but when the ending finally changes, they get out of the loop unharmed.

Watch The X-Files Season 6 Episode 15 ("Monday") on Hulu

Original Air Date: February 20, 2000
Directed By: Michael Watkins
Written By: Vince Gilligan

It almost seems a sin to pick one of The X-Files’ more satirical episodes as one of its best, but “X-Cops” is a total classic. A crossover between the show and its Fox network-mate (and staple of my childhood TV viewing schedule, for some reason) Cops, it features Mulder and Scully taking part in an episode of the true life crime series as they chase an unknown creature that’s been attacking people around Los Angeles. Scully is none too pleased about potentially being portrayed as a bit of a fool, especially when Mulder insists that they’re searching for something not quite human or animal. This episode features some of the best one-liners in the show and is just generally a lot of fun. Remember, the FBI has nothing to hide.

Watch The X-Files Season 7 Episode 12 ("X-Cops") on Hulu

Original Air Date: November 26, 2000
Directed By: Rod Hardy
Written By: Vince Gilligan

You have to scrape the barrel a bit to find an episode in Season 8 that’s worth recommending. Make no mistake, “Roadrunners” is not great TV, but it is really weird. Once David Duchovny left the show, things got a bit bonkers in the writing room and this episode is like Chris Carter’s fever dream of insanity. I’d hate to “spoil” it by saying too much, but basically a bunch of small town crazies try to implant a gigantic banana slug in pregnant Scully’s back and it’s weird and freakish and I’m not quite sure why it exists. In other words, I’m picking this because it illustrates why this show should have ended after Season 7.

Watch The X-Files Season 8 Episode 4 ("Roadrunners") on Hulu

Original Air Date: April 28, 2002
Directed By: David Duchovny
Written By: David Duchovny, Chris Carter, and Frank Spotnitz

The final season of The X-Files was full of clunkers, but “William” gets a pass because it’s when Scully decided to give her and Mulder’s son, obviously called William, up for adoption because he has weird abilities and she’s told that he’s part alien and will always be hunted. There are some poignant mother/child moments there and David Duchovny wrote the story for this one, so that makes it a highlight, especially since nothing else even remotely of note happened in Season 9 otherwise, at least not until the finale.

Jennifer Still is a writer and editor from New York who cares too way much about fictional characters and spends her time writing about them.

Watch The X-Files Season 9 Episode 16 ("William") on Hulu