The X-Files backdrop
Mystery•Sci-Fi & Fantasy•Crime

The Best Episodes of The X-Files Season 1

Every episode of The X-Files Season 1 ranked from best to worst. Discover the Best Episodes of The X-Files Season 1!

Binge this in 18h 18m•Peaking at 8.9/10

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 of aliens and the paranormal while Scully, a skeptic, is

Airs on
FOX
BestEpisodes
WorstEpisodes
BestSeasons
AllEpisodes

Seasons11

All1234567891011

Episode Rankings

  1. #1 Fan Favorite
    The X-Files Season 1 Episode 1 - Pilot
    8.2/10(14264 votes)

    #1 - Pilot

    S1:E1

    Agent Dana Scully is assigned to work with Agent Fox Mulder on the X-Files in an attempt to debunk his work on the paranormal. Their first case takes them to Oregon to investigate the unsolved murders of several high-school classmates.

    Director:Robert Mandel
    Writer:Chris Carter

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  2. The X-Files Season 1 Episode 2 - Deep Throat
    8.0/10(9283 votes)

    #2 - Deep Throat

    S1:E2

    Mulder and Scully investigate the mysterious case of a military test pilot who disappeared after experiencing strange psychotic behavior. While on the case, Mulder meets a mysterious man who claims to have classified information about investigations into the paranormal.

    Director:Daniel Sackheim
    Writer:Chris Carter

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  3. The X-Files Season 1 Episode 3 - Squeeze
    8.5/10(9832 votes)

    #3 - Squeeze

    S1:E3

    Mulder and Scully search for a killer whose savage murder spree reoccurs every thirty years, where there appears to be no tangible method for the murderer's entrance and escape.

    Director:Harry Longstreet
    Writers:James Wong, Glen Morgan

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  4. The X-Files Season 1 Episode 4 - Conduit
    7.5/10(8047 votes)

    #4 - Conduit

    S1:E4

    As Section Chief Blevins expresses his concern with the direction of the X-Files, Mulder becomes obsessed with solving a case that closely parallels an encounter he experienced as a child: the abduction of his kid sister, Samantha.

    Director:Daniel Sackheim
    Writers:Howard Gordon, Alex Gansa

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  5. The X-Files Season 1 Episode 5 - The Jersey Devil
    6.9/10(8052 votes)

    #5 - The Jersey Devil

    S1:E5

    Mulder and Scully track a legendary creature that has roamed the New Jersey countryside for over forty years..

    Director:Joe Napolitano
    Writer:Chris Carter

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  6. The X-Files Season 1 Episode 6 - Shadows
    7.2/10(7528 votes)

    #6 - Shadows

    S1:E6

    Mulder and Scully investigate the deaths of two men believed to have been killed by a powerful psychokinetic force.

    Director:Michael Katleman
    Writers:James Wong, Glen Morgan

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

    7. Trending NowTRENDING NOW

    The 20 BEST Episodes of The X-Files

    READ
  7. The X-Files Season 1 Episode 7 - Ghost in the Machine
    6.7/10(7475 votes)

    #7 - Ghost in the Machine

    S1:E7

    It's Halloween, and Mulder and Scully are investigating the strange death of a corporate executive in a sophisticated high-tech building.

    Director:Jerrold Freedman
    Writers:Howard Gordon, Alex Gansa

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  8. The X-Files Season 1 Episode 8 - Ice
    8.7/10(9510 votes)

    #8 - Ice

    S1:E8

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

    Director:David Nutter
    Writers:James Wong, Glen Morgan

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  9. The X-Files Season 1 Episode 9 - Space
    6.2/10(7340 votes)

    #9 - Space

    S1:E9

    Mulder and Scully are contacted by a communications specialist from NASA who shows them evidence of sabotage in the space programme.

    Director:William A. Graham
    Writer:Chris Carter

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  10. The X-Files Season 1 Episode 10 - Fallen Angel
    7.7/10(7246 votes)

    #10 - Fallen Angel

    S1:E10

    Mulder puts the future of the X-Files in jeopardy when he heads to a UFO crash site being rapidly covered up by the military. He is arrested, and while in jail he meets Max Fenig, a UFO nut whose NICAP group has followed Mulder's work on the X-Files. When Mulder is released, Scully urges him to return to Washington to face his superiors and try to save his job, but Mulder finds out that Max is more than meets the eye and ignores Scully to try and save him instead.

    Director:Larry Shaw
    Writers:Howard Gordon, Alex Gansa

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  11. The X-Files Season 1 Episode 11 - Eve
    8.0/10(7647 votes)

    #11 - Eve

    S1:E11

    When two fathers on opposite sides of the country are inexplicably murdered at the exact same time in the exact same way, Mulder and Scully are called in to investigate. When they discover that the two fathers' eight-year-old daughters are identical twins, they realize that something even stranger is going on.

    Director:Fred Gerber
    Writers:Chris Brancato, Kenneth Biller

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  12. The X-Files Season 1 Episode 12 - Fire
    7.2/10(7111 votes)

    #12 - Fire

    S1:E12

    An old Oxford girlfriend of Mulder's asks for his help on an international case concerning the unexplainable execution of several British dignitaries, and they encounter an assassin who can produce fire from his bare hands.

    Director:Larry Shaw
    Writer:Chris Carter

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  13. The X-Files Season 1 Episode 13 - Beyond the Sea
    8.6/10(8321 votes)

    #13 - Beyond the Sea

    S1:E13

    When death row inmate Luther Lee Boggs claims to be psychic and can lead Mulder to a serial killer in return for a lesser sentence of life in prison, Scully becomes an unwilling believer when Boggs tells her that she can communicate through him with her recently deceased father.

    Director:David Nutter
    Writers:James Wong, Glen Morgan

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  14. The X-Files Season 1 Episode 14 - Gender Bender
    7.3/10(6862 votes)

    #14 - Gender Bender

    S1:E14

    A series of sexually-oriented murders, which are identical except that the killer appears to be both male and female, draws Scully and Mulder to an Amish-type community of people called the Kindred.

    Director:Rob Bowman
    Writers:Larry Barber, Paul Barber

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  15. The X-Files Season 1 Episode 15 - Lazarus
    7.0/10(6259 votes)

    #15 - Lazarus

    S1:E15

    When FBI Agent Jack Willis and bank robber Warren Dupre are both shot at the same time during a robbery attempt, Dupre dies when Willis is brought back to life. When Willis rushes out of the hospital and begins acting strangely, Mulder concludes that Dupre has come back to life in Willis' body.

    Director:David Nutter
    Writers:Howard Gordon, Alex Gansa

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  16. The X-Files Season 1 Episode 16 - Young at Heart
    7.2/10(6160 votes)

    #16 - Young at Heart

    S1:E16

    Mulder becomes the target of someone from his past named John Barnett. He was a jewelry store robber with an itchy trigger finger that Mulder sent to prison when he first joined the Bureau. The only problem is that Barnett died four years ago.

    Director:Michael Lange
    Writers:Scott Kaufer, Chris Carter

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  17. The X-Files Season 1 Episode 17 - E.B.E.
    8.4/10(6825 votes)

    #17 - E.B.E.

    S1:E17

    Mulder and Scully receive information from Deep Throat about a UFO that was shot down over Iraq and has been secretly transported to the US. However, Deep Throat then intentionally misleads the agents to prevent them from discovering the truth.

    Director:William A. Graham
    Writers:James Wong, Glen Morgan

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  18. The X-Files Season 1 Episode 18 - Miracle Man
    7.1/10(6112 votes)

    #18 - Miracle Man

    S1:E18

    A young man who has the power to heal people with his touch begins to question his gift when people start dying after he has supposedly healed them.

    Director:Michael Lange
    Writers:Howard Gordon, Chris Carter

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  19. The X-Files Season 1 Episode 19 - Shapes
    7.0/10(6225 votes)

    #19 - Shapes

    S1:E19

    Mulder and Scully travel to a Native American reservation to investigate the death of a man who was mistaken for a wild animal and may have been the legendary Manitou, a man who can shape-shift into a beast.

    Director:David Nutter
    Writer:Marilyn Osborn

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  20. The X-Files Season 1 Episode 20 - Darkness Falls
    8.4/10(7325 votes)

    #20 - Darkness Falls

    S1:E20

    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.

    Director:Joe Napolitano
    Writer:Chris Carter

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  21. The X-Files Season 1 Episode 21 - Tooms
    8.3/10(6897 votes)

    #21 - Tooms

    S1:E21

    Eugene Tooms is released from the sanitarium, and Mulder becomes personally involved to ensure that he is caught in the act of getting the last human liver he needs to go into hibernation for another 30 years.

    Director:David Nutter
    Writers:James Wong, Glen Morgan

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  22. The X-Files Season 1 Episode 22 - Born Again
    7.1/10(5859 votes)

    #22 - Born Again

    S1:E22

    After a detective and his former partner die in unexplained circumstances, the accidents are linked to a little girl who witnessed both deaths. Mulder believes that she may be the reincarnation of a policeman murdered by his colleagues.

    Director:Jerrold Freedman
    Writers:Howard Gordon, Alex Gansa

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  23. The X-Files Season 1 Episode 23 - Roland
    7.2/10(5882 votes)

    #23 - Roland

    S1:E23

    Mulder and Scully investigate the death of a scientist working on advanced propulsion technology. The mentally challenged janitor Roland, who has secretly been completing the scientist's work, is the prime suspect.

    Director:David Nutter
    Writer:Chris Ruppenthal

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  24. The X-Files Season 1 Episode 24 - The Erlenmeyer Flask
    8.9/10(7017 votes)

    #24 - 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.

    Director:R. W. Goodwin
    Writer:Chris Carter

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

Season 1 Ratings Summary

"Pilot" is the best rated episode of "The X-Files" season 1. It scored 8.2/10 based on 14264 votes. Directed by Robert Mandel and written by Chris Carter, it aired on 9/10/1993. This episode is rated 0.2 points higher than the second-best, "Deep Throat".