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The Best Episodes of The X-Files

Every episode of The X-Files ranked from best to worst. Let's dive into the Best Episodes of The X-Files!

The Best Episodes of The X-Files

The exploits of FBI Special Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully who investigate X-Files: marginalized, unsolved cases involving paranormal phenomena. Mulder believes in the existence...
  1. Background image for Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose
    9.2/10(8.1k votes)

    #1 - Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose

    S3:E4

    In the midst of a psychic sideshow while on a murder case, Mulder and Scully enlist the help of a man who may have a true psychic ability to foresee how people will die to help the agents catch a man killing fortune tellers.

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    Director:David Nutter
  2. Background image for Bad Blood
    9.2/10(7.3k votes)

    #2 - Bad Blood

    S5:E12

    After Mulder chases down and kills a young man who he believes to be a vampire, the agents return to DC aware of the mistake they just made. Faced with a lawsuit from the family of the man, they recount each of their sides to the story leading up to the event. In the extremely humorous stories that follow we see how Scully and Mulder both perceive each other.

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    Director:Cliff Bole
  3. Background image for Anasazi (1)
    9.1/10(6.0k votes)

    #3 - Anasazi (1)

    S2:E25

    Mulder receives an encrypted computer disk containing the defense department's top secret files on extraterrestrial life and becomes a target. Scully takes him to a Navajo family that unearthed a buried secret to decipher the disk.

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  4. Background image for Paper Clip (3)
    9.0/10(5.7k votes)

    #4 - Paper Clip (3)

    S3:E2

    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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    Director:Rob Bowman
  5. Background image for Redux II (3)
    9.0/10(4.7k votes)

    #5 - Redux II (3)

    S5:E2

    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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    Director:Kim Manners
  6. Background image for Jose Chung's "From Outer Space"
    8.8/10(7.1k votes)

    #6 - Jose Chung's "From Outer Space"

    S3:E20

    A alien abduction of two teenagers with endless versions of the same story prompts a science-fiction novelist to to write a book about the incident; however, nobody involved with the investigation can tell him the full story with any accuracy.

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    Director:Rob Bowman
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  8. Background image for The End
    8.8/10(4.2k votes)

    #7 - The End

    S5:E20

    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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  9. Background image for The Erlenmeyer Flask
    8.7/10(58 votes)

    #8 - The Erlenmeyer Flask

    S1:E24

    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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  10. Background image for Colony (1)
    8.7/10(5.6k votes)

    #9 - Colony (1)

    S2:E16

    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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  11. Background image for End Game (2)
    8.7/10(5.5k votes)

    #10 - End Game (2)

    S2:E17

    The alien bounty hunter kidnaps Scully and wants to trade her for Mulder's sister, who is revealed to be a clone herself. After the trade goes badly and Mulder discovers the truth about Samantha, he tracks the bounty hunter to his ship buried in the arctic ice and demands the whereabouts of his real sister.

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    Director:Rob Bowman
  12. Background image for 731 (2)
    8.7/10(5.1k votes)

    #11 - 731 (2)

    S3:E10

    Mulder is trapped inside a train car which contains a suspected alien-human hybrid and also a bomb, while Scully pursues the truth about her abduction and the mystery behind the implant in her neck.

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    Director:Rob Bowman
  13. Background image for Duane Barry (1)
    8.6/10(6.2k votes)

    #12 - Duane Barry (1)

    S2:E5

    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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    Director:Chris Carter
  14. Background image for Ascension (2)
    8.6/10(5.9k votes)

    #13 - Ascension (2)

    S2:E6

    When Mulder finds out that Scully was kidnapped by Duane Barry, he risks the wrath of his superiors and the annoyance of Agent Krycek in order to do whatever it takes to find her. Meanwhile, Krycek is found to be reporting Mulder's activities to the Cigarette-Smoking Man.

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    Director:Michael Lange
    Writer:Paul Brown
  15. Background image for The Blessing Way (2)
    8.6/10(5.4k votes)

    #14 - The Blessing Way (2)

    S3:E1

    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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  16. Background image for War of the Coprophages
    8.6/10(6.2k votes)

    #15 - War of the Coprophages

    S3:E12

    Widespread panic is caused in a small community after numerous deaths are linked to killer cockroaches, and a government agricultural agency is discovered to have set up a secret experiment involving insects.

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    Director:Kim Manners
  17. Background image for Apocrypha (2)
    8.6/10(4.8k votes)

    #16 - Apocrypha (2)

    S3:E16

    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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  18. Background image for Redux (2)
    8.6/10(4.4k votes)

    #17 - Redux (2)

    S5:E1

    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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    Director:Kim Manners
  19. Background image for Humbug
    8.5/10(6.5k votes)

    #18 - Humbug

    S2:E20

    Mulder and Scully travel to Gibsonton, Florida, a town built and populated by circus and sideshow performers to investigate the death of Jerald Glazebrook, The Alligator Man. While searching for leads on the killer, the agents come across many bizarre characters including the local sheriff who was once known as Jim Jim, the Dog-Faced Boy.

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    Director:Kim Manners
  20. Background image for Nisei (1)
    8.5/10(4.9k votes)

    #19 - Nisei (1)

    S3:E9

    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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  21. Background image for Talitha Cumi (1)
    8.5/10(4.5k votes)

    #20 - Talitha Cumi (1)

    S3:E24

    After his mother suffers a stroke under strange circumstances, Mulder searches for a strange, benevolent alien man that possesses miraculous healing powers. With the help from Mr. X, he learns about the involvement of the Cigarette-Smoking Man and uncovers some secrets kept by his parents.

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  22. Background image for The Post-Modern Prometheus
    8.5/10(6.2k votes)

    #21 - The Post-Modern Prometheus

    S5:E5

    Filmed in glorious black and white with a comic book feel to it, this is a modern retelling of Frankenstein as Mulder and Scully get caught up in a town where the residents live on Jerry Springer episodes and fear a two-faced monster who has been impregnating the women.

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    Director:Chris Carter
  23. Background image for Folie à Deux
    8.5/10(4.5k votes)

    #22 - Folie à Deux

    S5:E19

    Mulder is held hostage inside an office where a man claims his boss is a monster and has clouded all their minds while he turns them into zombies one by one, which is disbelieved until Mulder opens his mind and allows himself to see it too.

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    Director:Rob Bowman
  24. Background image for Requiem
    8.5/10(3.6k votes)

    #23 - Requiem

    S7:E22

    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", while Scully's health appears to be taking a turn.

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    Director:Kim Manners
  25. Background image for Ice
    8.4/10(79 votes)

    #24 - Ice

    S1:E8

    In the claustrophobic isolation of a remote outpost in Alaska, Mulder and Scully investigate the horrifying deaths of scientists.

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  26. Background image for Piper Maru (1)
    8.4/10(4.8k votes)

    #25 - Piper Maru (1)

    S3:E15

    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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Best Episodes Summary

"Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose" is the best rated episode of "The X-Files". It scored 9.2/10 based on 8083 votes. Directed by David Nutter and written by Darin Morgan, it aired on 10/13/1995. This episode scored 0.0 points higher than the second highest rated, "Bad Blood".