The BEST episodes written by Chris Carter

Cincinnati
star
8.80
35 votes

#1 - Cincinnati

Harsh Realm - Season 1 - Episode 8

An insurgent American Indian Movement seeks to defeat and capture Santiago in Cincinnati. Santiago hunts their leader in retaliation, while Inga continues to manipulate Waters and Santiago. Hobbs, Pinocchio and Florence are also hunting Santiago and get caught in the middle of the two factions.

Anasazi (1)
star
8.19
1776 votes

#2 - Anasazi (1)

The X-Files - Season 2 - Episode 25

When Mulder obtains what could be the original and uncut MJ documents containing information about the government's knowledge of extraterrestrial life; his shadowy enemies step up their harassment of him, eventually leading to his apparent murder.

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Existence (2)
star
8.16
1036 votes

#3 - Existence (2)

The X-Files - Season 8 - Episode 21

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.

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The Erlenmeyer Flask
star
8.15
1928 votes

#4 - The Erlenmeyer Flask

The X-Files - Season 1 - Episode 24

When Deep Throat points out a news story about a fugitive who apparently drowned, Mulder and Scully cannot see what makes the case special but follow it up anyway. With Deep Throat's insistence, they discover evidence of a secret government project code-named Purity Control, which uses human test subjects and infects them with extraterrestrial DNA. However, the evidence and everyone who has seen it is quickly being eliminated.

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Redux II (3)
star
8.05
1281 votes

#5 - Redux II (3)

The X-Files - Season 5 - Episode 2

The Cigarette-Smoking Man helps Mulder to obtain Scully's cure and also lets him see his real sister who doesn't turn out to be as happy to see Mulder as he would've liked. In return for this, the Cigarette-Smoking Man asks that Mulder quit the FBI and work for him in the Syndicate where he could have power and respect which Mulder turns down, deciding to stay on the side of justice. While Scully's cure appears to have worked, the Cigarette-Smoking Man faces his own enemies and disappears, presumed dead.

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One Son (2)
star
8.03
1134 votes

#6 - One Son (2)

The X-Files - Season 6 - Episode 12

The Cigarette-Smoking Man reveals all the government secrets from the past 50 years in order for his son, Jeffery Spender, to join him in his work. Mulder learns that the final stage of the conspiracy will soon begin with the hybridization of the Syndicate members, and he must stop it from happening. Agent Spender deceives his father and arranges for Mulder and Scully to be reassigned to the X-Files, which doesn't sit too well with the Cigarette-Smoking Man.

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Redux (2)
star
8.02
1398 votes

#7 - Redux (2)

The X-Files - Season 5 - Episode 1

Scully helps Mulder fake his own death in order for him to go undetected through the Department of Defence and find out the answers to his new questions about the government hoax concerning the existence of extraterrestrial life. Meanwhile, at a joint FBI/DOD inquiry, Scully's attempt to drive out the Conspiracy's informant is halted as her cancer takes a bad turn.

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Gethsemane (1)
star
7.99
1180 votes

#8 - Gethsemane (1)

The X-Files - Season 4 - Episode 24

While investigating the discovery of a preserved alien body found in the mountains of Canada, Mulder is contacted by Michael Kritschgau. He tells Mulder about a government conspiracy to make people believe in aliens without question, and Mulder has been the prime target.

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Herrenvolk (2)
star
7.96
1569 votes

#9 - Herrenvolk (2)

The X-Files - Season 4 - Episode 1

Jeremiah Smith and Mulder are on the run from the alien bounty hunter, and Smith takes Mulder to a small farm tended to by identical sets of children, and all the girls are clones of his sister when she was still a child. Mulder prepares to take Jeremiah and one of the clones to see his mother in the hospital, but the bounty hunter catches up with them. Meanwhile, the Syndicate suspects that they have a traitor in their midst and plan a trap which results in X being executed by the Cigarette-Smoking Man.

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The Red and the Black (2)
star
7.96
1043 votes

#10 - The Red and the Black (2)

The X-Files - Season 5 - Episode 14

After the gathering at the abduction site where everyone is killed by the rebel bounty hunters, Cassandra Spender disappears and Mulder is blamed by her son, Jeffrey, who is an up-and-coming FBI agent. Meanwhile, the Syndicate is continuing their tests to create a vaccine for the Black Cancer and Marita Covarrubias becomes an unwilling test subject.

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The End
star
7.95
1208 votes

#11 - The End

The X-Files - Season 5 - Episode 20

The Cigarette-Smoking Man returns as Mulder investigates the attempted assassination of a young boy with psychic powers who may be the proof that he has looked for all his life.

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Colony (1)
star
7.93
1743 votes

#12 - Colony (1)

The X-Files - Season 2 - Episode 16

After the obituaries of four identical men are e-mailed to Mulder, the agents are contacted by a shadowy CIA agent who tells them about a bounty hunter sent to wipe out the beginning of a colony of clones. Meanwhile Mulder is distracted by the sudden reappearance of his sister Samantha.

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Paper Clip (3)
star
7.93
1875 votes

#13 - Paper Clip (3)

The X-Files - Season 3 - Episode 2

A.D. Skinner and Scully are at a standoff when Mulder bursts in and discovers that Skinner has the digital tape. Reunited, Mulder and Scully travel to a secret vault inside a mine and find an elaborate filing system of medical records which reveals that Mulder's sister may not have been the first choice for abduction. Meanwhile, Skinner deals with the Cigarette-Smoking Man for their safety.

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Without (2)
star
7.91
1069 votes

#14 - Without (2)

The X-Files - Season 8 - Episode 2

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.

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Talitha Cumi (1)
star
7.91
1489 votes

#15 - Talitha Cumi (1)

The X-Files - Season 3 - Episode 24

Mulder and Scully search for a mysterious man with the power to heal. His actions risk exposing the existence of aliens on Earth, while a confrontation between Mrs. Mulder and the Cigarette-Smoking Man leads Mulder to the discovery of the only weapon which can kill the aliens.

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Tempus Fugit (1)
star
7.91
1346 votes

#16 - Tempus Fugit (1)

The X-Files - Season 4 - Episode 17

While celebrating Scully's 33rd birthday, a strange woman informs Mulder that NICAP member Max Fenig (see Fallen Angel) has recently died in a plane crash. After a visit to the crash site and finding Max's body with radiation burns on it, Mulder suggests that the plane was intercepted by a UFO and is rapidly being covered up by the military.

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The Blessing Way (2)
star
7.88
1909 votes

#17 - The Blessing Way (2)

The X-Files - Season 3 - Episode 1

Scully finds her career with the FBI in jeopardy as Mulder is still missing and the Cigarette-Smoking Man is pursuing the stolen files. The Navajo elders find Mulder's body in a cave and perform an ancient ceremony to call the spirit back to the empty vessel.

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Lamentation (1)
star
7.88
159 votes

#18 - Lamentation (1)

Millennium - Season 1 - Episode 18

Frank investigates the disappearance of a former nemesis, Dr. Ephraim Fabricant, and learns that his family may be the target of a murderer.

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Seven and One
star
7.88
104 votes

#19 - Seven and One

Millennium - Season 3 - Episode 19

Frank receives a series of Polaroid photographs showing the face of a drowning victim. The face is his own.

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Tunguska (1)
star
7.88
1594 votes

#20 - Tunguska (1)

The X-Files - Season 4 - Episode 8

A rock sample taken from Mars is intercepted at an airport and infects a security officer with the Black Cancer, while Mulder is given a tip about potentially dangerous paramilitary operations but is doubtful when the informant turns out to be Alex Krycek. Reluctantly, Mulder accepts Krycek's help and tracks the rock to Russia where he discovers an elaborate test being performed by Russian scientists.

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Two Fathers (1)
star
7.87
1163 votes

#21 - Two Fathers (1)

The X-Files - Season 6 - Episode 11

While the Cigarette-Smoking Man recites to an unseen listener everything about the work of the Syndicate involving a global conspiracy in cooperation with an alien species, Cassandra Spender reappears and is pursued by the scientists who would rather kill her than keep her alive. Cassandra runs to Mulder's apartment and demands that he shoot her because she is the culmination of 50 years work - a living alien/human hybrid - and colonization will begin if the aliens find out about her.

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Pilot
star
7.86
4723 votes

#22 - Pilot

The X-Files - Season 1 - Episode 1

Special Agent Dana Scully is partnered with Special Agent Fox Mulder to validate his work on a special project called the X-Files. While he is a believer in the paranormal fueled by a lost memory of his sister's abduction, she is a scientist and prefers to look for rational, logical explanations. Their first case takes them to Oregon to investigate the unsolved murders of several High School classmates who "Spooky" Mulder believes have been experimented on by aliens.

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The Truth (2)
star
7.85
513 votes

#23 - The Truth (2)

The X-Files - Season 9 - Episode 20

When an unexpected person comes to Mulder's rescue, Mulder refuses to slip north over the border to safety. Instead, he heads southwest to the Anasazi ruins of New Mexico seeking a mysterious wise man who the Indians call "The Keeper of the Truth".

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This is Not Happening (1)
star
7.85
965 votes

#24 - This is Not Happening (1)

The X-Files - Season 8 - Episode 14

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.

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Requiem
star
7.84
1157 votes

#25 - Requiem

The X-Files - Season 7 - Episode 22

Mulder and Scully return to the town of their first X-Files investigation where a UFO has crashed in the forest. The Cigarette-Smoking Man arranges for Krycek to be released from prison in order for him to make contact with the aliens and begin rebuilding 'The Project'. Scully's health appears to be taking a turn.

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Apocrypha (2)
star
7.83
1614 votes

#26 - Apocrypha (2)

The X-Files - Season 3 - Episode 16

Mulder pursues Krycek (unaware of the alien that has taken over his body) to get back the DAT tape containing the MJ documents. Meanwhile, the shooting of A.D. Skinner uncovers evidence that could lead Scully to her sister's murderer.

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Essence (1)
star
7.83
989 votes

#27 - Essence (1)

The X-Files - Season 8 - Episode 20

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.

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Triangle
star
7.81
1142 votes

#28 - Triangle

The X-Files - Season 6 - Episode 3

Mulder goes to the Bermuda Triangle when he learns that the Queen Anne, a British luxury liner which disappeared during WWII, has reappeared in the middle of the Sargasso Sea. Mulder's boat is wrecked and after floating in the water, he is hauled aboard the ship which has just been hijacked by the Nazis searching for the man who will build the atom bomb. Mulder tries to convince the crew that they have traveled into the future, but evidence further suggests that it is he who is back in the past.

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Pilot
star
7.81
561 votes

#29 - Pilot

Millennium - Season 1 - Episode 1

After ten years as an FBI profiler, Frank Black relocates from Washington to his hometown Seattle with his wife, Catherine, and their daughter, Jordan. However, a series of sexual homicides coaxes him from retirement. He offers his support to Lt. Bob Bletcher, a former colleague with Seattle's Homicide Unit, and is in turn offered the resources of the mysterious Millennium Group, a corps of former law enforcement officers. Blessed - or afflicted - with an uncanny ability enabling him to see the world through the killer's eyes, Frank must pursue the murderer through Seattle's underground scene and stop his killing spree.

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Duane Barry (1)
star
7.81
1945 votes

#30 - Duane Barry (1)

The X-Files - Season 2 - Episode 5

Mulder is called to a hostage situation involving Duane Barry, a former FBI Agent who claims to be an alien abductee and wants to get back to the abduction site with someone who will be taken instead of him. Unfortunately, the someone he eventually chooses is Scully.

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My Struggle
star
7.81
4980 votes

#31 - My Struggle

The X-Files - Season 10 - Episode 1

Fox Mulder and Dana Scully have been contacted by Tad O’Malley, a popular conspiracy theorist web-TV show host who believes he has uncovered a significant government conspiracy. With the assistance of FBI Asst. Dir. Walter Skinner, O’Malley seeks to enlist the help of former X-Files agents Mulder and Scully, who have since severed ties with the FBI. Through O’Malley they are introduced to Sveta, a possible alien abductee who shares shocking information with them that will challenge everything that Mulder has ever believed about the existence of aliens and the government’s role in covering them up.

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Memento Mori
star
7.79
1405 votes

#32 - Memento Mori

The X-Files - Season 4 - Episode 14

Scully's recent failing health is revealed to be inoperable brain cancer, which is common among abductees. She meets with other abductees with the same condition and forms a special bond with a dying woman, while Mulder tries to save her from a doctor who may be connected with the abductions.

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The Sixth Extinction (2)
star
7.78
1003 votes

#33 - The Sixth Extinction (2)

The X-Files - Season 7 - Episode 1

While Scully travels to Africa to piece together the meaning of the symbols on the spaceship beached on the Ivory Coast, Mulder is imprisoned by his own frenetic brain activity. He manages to get a message to Skinner who finds Kritschgau, and together they try to understand what is happening to Mulder before it is too late.

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Terma (2)
star
7.75
1472 votes

#34 - Terma (2)

The X-Files - Season 4 - Episode 9

While imprisoned in Russia and infected with the Black Cancer, Mulder learns that Krycek is working with the men responsible and everything has been a setup from the start, while Scully and Skinner are called to a suspicious Senate hearing where the only question is the whereabouts of Agent Mulder.

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Darkness Falls
star
7.74
2019 votes

#35 - Darkness Falls

The X-Files - Season 1 - Episode 20

When a group of loggers in the Washington State National Forest disappear in the same way that another group disappeared 50 years ago, Mulder and Scully go along to investigate and find themselves trapped in a cabin surrounded by flesh eating insects that only attack at night.

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Patient X (1)
star
7.72
1115 votes

#36 - Patient X (1)

The X-Files - Season 5 - Episode 13

Mulder and Scully meet Cassandra Spender, a woman who claims to be a multiple abductee and wants to deliver a positive message about the aliens. Mulder's new found disbelief in extraterrestrial activity is enhanced while Scully forms a special bond with the woman. A series of group attacks against abductees take place and the shadowy Syndicate believes that a rebel alien resistance is attempting to destroy all their work.

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Biogenesis (1)
star
7.72
1001 votes

#37 - Biogenesis (1)

The X-Files - Season 6 - Episode 22

Two scientists confer about each of their metal objects that were found in Africa and they theorize that the objects are pieces of a puzzle which could be undeniable proof that human, plant, and animal life did not originate on this planet. When one of the scientists is killed and the objects are stolen, the agents investigate and Mulder begins to experience severe neurological pain caused by the objects.

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Deadalive (2)
star
7.72
995 votes

#38 - Deadalive (2)

The X-Files - Season 8 - Episode 15

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.

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The Host
star
7.70
2004 votes

#39 - The Host

The X-Files - Season 2 - Episode 2

A.D. Skinner sends Mulder to investigate a body which washed into the New Jersey sewer from the ocean. Mulder believes that the basic blue-collar assignment is punishment, but by Skinner's own admission, what he discovers is a true X-File.

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Within (1)
star
7.70
1153 votes

#40 - Within (1)

The X-Files - Season 8 - Episode 1

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.

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The Beginning
star
7.70
1263 votes

#41 - The Beginning

The X-Files - Season 6 - Episode 1

Mulder is less than thrilled when an Office of Professional Conduct board refuses to reassign him and Scully to The X-Files and even more so when he learns that Agent Spender and Agent Fowley have become their successors. When Gibson Praise reappears and comes to them for help, Mulder and Scully attempt to continue their quest undercover despite having fewer friends and less access and protection than ever before.

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Max (2)
star
7.69
1240 votes

#42 - Max (2)

The X-Files - Season 4 - Episode 18

Mulder is arrested for investigating the plane crash and interfering with a military operation, while Scully is caught in an attempted assassination of Corporal Frish which claims the life of Agent Pendrell. Scully bails Mulder out of prison, and they go to Max Fenig's trailer to find out why he was on the plane. Mulder finds evidence of alien technology and boards a plane with it, but the plane is intercepted mid-flight and it disappears. Mulder is again left with nothing.

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Antipas
star
7.68
110 votes

#43 - Antipas

Millennium - Season 3 - Episode 13

Lucy Butler returns to torment Frank. This times she is a nanny for a powerful Wisconsin politician.

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Piper Maru (1)
star
7.67
1639 votes

#44 - Piper Maru (1)

The X-Files - Season 3 - Episode 15

A French salvage ship searching for a lost WWII fighter plane unknowingly surfaces an alien which appears in the form of black oil and has the ability to jump hosts. Mulder heads to Hong Kong to investigate the salvage broker who sold the information to the French and he encounters Krycek, who has been selling information from the MJ documents. As Mulder prepares to take Krycek back to the US, the alien makes its way to Hong Kong and takes control of Krycek.

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Nisei (1)
star
7.67
1646 votes

#45 - Nisei (1)

The X-Files - Season 3 - Episode 9

An investigation into a video of an alien autopsy puts Mulder and Scully in the middle of a conspiracy involving WWII Japanese scientists brought to America to continue their experiments which may shed light on Scully's abduction.

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How The Ghosts Stole Christmas
star
7.65
1124 votes

#46 - How The Ghosts Stole Christmas

The X-Files - Season 6 - Episode 6

Mulder talks Scully into investigating a haunted house on Christmas Eve where several couples have met their fate on that very night. While there, they encounter endless tricks and traps set by a ghostly couple who originally made a lovers suicide pact in the house. The ghosts try to convince Mulder and Scully to kill each other.

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Providence (2)
star
7.64
884 votes

#47 - Providence (2)

The X-Files - Season 9 - Episode 10

Scully is anxious to recover William from his kidnappers and takes matters into her own hands when the FBI's attempts to assist in the investigation are less than helpful. With the help of the Lone Gunmen, Scully discovers terrifying information about her child's captors, and is once again forced to confront the mystery regarding the sinister interest in her son.

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Gehenna
star
7.63
344 votes

#48 - Gehenna

Millennium - Season 1 - Episode 2

When human ashes are found in a local park, Frank Black joins an investigation that leads to a cult that kills it's unwilling members. When Frank gets closer to the cult leader he sees the force that may be influencing the killers he seeks.

Three Words
star
7.63
967 votes

#49 - Three Words

The X-Files - Season 8 - Episode 16

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.

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The Truth (1)
star
7.63
921 votes

#50 - The Truth (1)

The X-Files - Season 9 - Episode 19

After not knowing Fox Mulder's whereabouts for the last year, A.D. Skinner and Agent Scully learn he's being held for the murder of a military man he couldn't possibly have killed: Knowle Rohrer, one of the government's secret super-soldiers. With Skinner acting as Mulder's defense, people who Mulder has dealt with during his last nine years as an FBI agent testify on his behalf. But the military tribunal isn't interested in the truth.

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