The BEST episodes of The X-Files season 8

Every episode of The X-Files season 8, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of The X-Files season 8!

`The truth is out there,' and FBI agents Scully and Mulder seek it in this sci-fi phenomenon about their quest to explain the seemingly unexplainable. Their strange cases include UFO sightings, alien abductions and just about anything else paranormal.

Last Updated: 8/16/2024Network: FOXStatus: Ended
Existence (2)
star
8.15
1056 votes

#1 - Existence (2)

Season 8 - Episode 21 - Aired 5/20/2001

Mulder, Doggett and Skinner attempt to fight off the alien replicants, and they find a connection to the conspiracy that leads into the FBI. Reyes and Scully head to a remote farm to safeguard the birth of Scully's child.

Directors: Kim Manners
Writer: Chris Carter
Watch Now:Amazon
Without (2)
star
7.89
1092 votes

#2 - Without (2)

Season 8 - Episode 2 - Aired 11/12/2000

As the search for Mulder intensifies in the Arizona desert, Gibson Praise leads Scully to believe that she is truly closer to her target. Kersh informs Doggett that he has been assigned as Mulder's successor on the X-Files.

Directors: Kim Manners
Writer: Chris Carter
Watch Now:Amazon
This is Not Happening (1)
star
7.84
987 votes

#3 - This is Not Happening (1)

Season 8 - Episode 14 - Aired 2/25/2001

When Teresa Hoese (who Scully and Mulder met just before Mulder's abduction) is found in a desert after enduring alien testing, Doggett alerts Scully that this could have something to do with Mulder and his whereabouts. Skinner joins them and they travel to the hospital where Teresa is clinging to life by a thread—and Scully soon realizes this is exactly what's going on with Mulder.

Directors: Kim Manners
Watch Now:Amazon
Essence (1)
star
7.82
1014 votes

#4 - Essence (1)

Season 8 - Episode 20 - Aired 5/13/2001

Mulder and Doggett join forces to investigate the arson attack on a genetics lab where one of the doctors suspected of experimenting with alien impregnation is killed.

Directors: Kim Manners
Writer: Chris Carter
Watch Now:Amazon
Deadalive (2)
star
7.71
1019 votes

#5 - Deadalive (2)

Season 8 - Episode 15 - Aired 4/1/2001

Shortly after Mulder is buried, Billy Miles is found very dead, but somehow comes back to life. Skinner and Scully put all their hopes into digging up Mulder.

Directors: Tony Wharmby
Watch Now:Amazon
Within (1)
star
7.69
1176 votes

#6 - Within (1)

Season 8 - Episode 1 - Aired 11/5/2000

Newly appointed Deputy Director Kersh organizes a manhunt for Mulder and assigns Agent John Doggett to head the team. Scully and Skinner go along with the investigation but are warned by Kersh that they will be fired if anything is said about aliens.

Directors: Kim Manners
Writer: Chris Carter
Watch Now:Amazon
Three Words
star
7.62
990 votes

#7 - Three Words

Season 8 - Episode 16 - Aired 4/8/2001

Mulder's request for reassignment to the X-Files is denied by Kersh, who hopes that he will simply quit the FBI. When a census worker is killed on the White House lawn trying to get information to the President, Mulder gets in over his head trying to discover what the man knew.

Directors: Tony Wharmby
Watch Now:Amazon
Alone
star
7.45
933 votes

#8 - Alone

Season 8 - Episode 19 - Aired 5/6/2001

While Scully takes maternity leave, Doggett is partnered with a young agent who is fascinated with the X-Files and has followed Mulder and Scully's careers. She and Doggett investigate the death of an old man and the disappearance of his son.

Directors: Frank Spotnitz
The Gift
star
7.40
921 votes

#9 - The Gift

Season 8 - Episode 11 - Aired 2/4/2001

Doggett comes upon an old case that Mulder kept secret from Scully and he follows up the investigation, hoping to find a possible connection to Mulder's disappearance.

Directors: Kim Manners
Per Manum
star
7.36
1006 votes

#10 - Per Manum

Season 8 - Episode 13 - Aired 2/18/2001

When Scully and Doggett are contacted by a man who claims his wife was murdered shortly after giving birth to an alien baby, Scully digs deeper into reports of alien fertilization on humans—and begins to question her own pregnancy and its conception.

Directors: Kim Manners
Redrum
star
7.36
1053 votes

#11 - Redrum

Season 8 - Episode 6 - Aired 12/10/2000

A prominent lawyer wakes to find himself in jail and about to be prosecuted for the murder of his wife. However, he has no memory of the event and, when the days begin to regress towards the murder, he realizes he has been given a second chance.

Directors: Peter Markle
Writer: Steven Maeda
Roadrunners
star
7.35
1048 votes

#12 - Roadrunners

Season 8 - Episode 4 - Aired 11/26/2000

Scully evades Doggett's help in investigating a vicious murder in a remote area of Utah, and she is trapped in the small town by a religious cult that believe a slug-like creature is the second coming of God who needs a human host to survive.

Directors: Rod Hardy
Patience
star
7.35
1003 votes

#13 - Patience

Season 8 - Episode 3 - Aired 11/19/2000

While tackling his first X-File case about a series of gruesome murders surrounding a bat-like creature, Doggett quickly learns that his investigative techniques are somewhat dissimilar to Scully's.

Directors: Chris Carter
Writer: Chris Carter
Medusa
star
7.31
1018 votes

#14 - Medusa

Season 8 - Episode 12 - Aired 2/11/2001

Scully and Doggett must race against the clock to investigate and fight off a contagion lurking in the subway tunnels of Boston.

Directors: Richard Compton
Vienen
star
7.30
988 votes

#15 - Vienen

Season 8 - Episode 18 - Aired 4/22/2001

Mulder and Doggett are reluctantly thrown together to investigate several deaths aboard an oil rig, and Mulder becomes convinced that the rig is really carrying the black oil alien.

Directors: Rod Hardy
Writer: Steven Maeda
Invocation
star
7.30
1015 votes

#16 - Invocation

Season 8 - Episode 5 - Aired 12/3/2000

In 1990 a young boy inexplicably disappeared from his crowded school playground and was never seen again until now—ten years later—and he hasn't aged a day.

Directors: Richard Compton
Writer: David Amann
Via Negativa
star
7.21
1011 votes

#17 - Via Negativa

Season 8 - Episode 7 - Aired 12/17/2000

Working without Scully's input, Doggett and Skinner try to stop the mysterious murder spree of a drug-induced religious cult leader, and it becomes clear that the man can enter the dreams of the people he knows and can kill them in their sleep.

Directors: Tony Wharmby
Salvage
star
7.18
967 votes

#18 - Salvage

Season 8 - Episode 9 - Aired 1/14/2001

A man whose blood is rapidly changing into metal alloy enacts revenge on those who caused his condition.

Directors: Rod Hardy
Writer: Jeffrey Bell
Badlaa
star
7.11
902 votes

#19 - Badlaa

Season 8 - Episode 10 - Aired 1/21/2001

An Indian mystic whose son died in a chemical plant accident smuggles himself into the United States and takes his revenge on two families in suburban Washington, D.C.

Directors: Tony Wharmby
Writer: John Shiban
Empedocles
star
7.06
874 votes

#20 - Empedocles

Season 8 - Episode 17 - Aired 4/15/2001

Special Agent Reyes enlists Mulder's help in investigating a supernatural killer's connection to the unsolved murder of Doggett's son.

Directors: Barry K. Thomas
Writer: Greg Walker
Surekill
star
7.03
990 votes

#21 - Surekill

Season 8 - Episode 8 - Aired 1/7/2001

When a real estate agent is shot inside a prison cell by someone who apparently fired from the roof, Scully and Doggett track him to two exterminators, one of whom has x-ray vision.

Directors: Terrence O'Hara
Writer: Greg Walker