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The Worst Episodes of The X-Files

Every episode of The X-Files ranked from worst to best. Explore the Worst 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 of aliens and the paranormal while Scully, a skeptic, is assigned to make scientific analyses of Mulder's discoveries that debunk Mulder's work and thus return him to mainstream cases.

Genres:CrimeDramaMysterySci-Fi & Fantasy
Network:FOX

Lowest Rated Episodes Summary

The worst episode of "The X-Files" is "Teso Dos Bichos", rated 5.9/10 from 4151 user votes. It was directed by Kim Manners and written by John Shiban. "Teso Dos Bichos" aired on 3/8/1996 and is rated 0.0 point(s) lower than the second lowest rated, "Fight Club".

  • Teso Dos Bichos
    5.9/10 4,151 votes

    #1 - Teso Dos Bichos

    Season 3 Episode 18 - Aired 3/8/1996

    The unearthing of an ancient Ecuadorian Amaru urn and its removal to America despite protests leads to a series of deaths linked to a shaman spirit released by the urn.

    Director: Kim Manners

    Writer: John Shiban

  • Fight Club
    5.9/10 3,349 votes

    #2 - Fight Club

    Season 7 Episode 20 - Aired 5/7/2000

    Mulder and Scully cross paths with two women who are identical and have followed each other across 17 states in the last three years, causing chaos and mayhem wherever they are.

    Director: Paul Shapiro

    Writer: Chris Carter

  • The Truth (2)
    6.0/10 6 votes

    #3 - The Truth (2)

    Season 9 Episode 20 - Aired 5/19/2002

    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".

    Director: Kim Manners

    Writer: Chris Carter

  • First Person Shooter
    6.1/10 3,896 votes

    #4 - First Person Shooter

    Season 7 Episode 13 - Aired 2/27/2000

    The Lone Gunmen call Mulder and Scully to a virtual reality development lab where they learn that one of the program testers was killed inside the computer generated game environment by the digital image of a woman. Needing to get his yah-yah's, Mulder enters the game to fight the woman, but Scully must step in to save him.

    Director: Chris Carter

    Writer: Tom Maddox, William Gibson

  • Space
    6.2/10 6,590 votes

    #5 - Space

    Season 1 Episode 9 - Aired 11/12/1993

    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

  • 3
    6.3/10 5,339 votes

    #6 - 3

    Season 2 Episode 7 - Aired 11/4/1994

    Mulder, back on the X-Files but alone for the first time, investigates a series of vampire-like murders in Los Angeles and finds himself falling for the one woman that may be the prime suspect.

    Director: David Nutter

    Writer: James Wong, Glen Morgan, Chris Ruppenthal

  • Alpha
    6.4/10 3,341 votes

    #7 - Alpha

    Season 6 Episode 16 - Aired 3/28/1999

    A mysterious dog thought to be the last of a rare Asian breed is responsible for several murders which Mulder and Scully are investigating. Now the agents have to find a way to stop the dog before it kills again.

    Director: Peter Markle

    Writer: Jeffrey Bell

  • Babylon
    6.4/10 5,694 votes

    #8 - Babylon

    Season 10 Episode 5 - Aired 2/15/2016

    Scully and Mulder investigate when an art gallery displaying offensive artwork is bombed, and need to discover a way to communicate with the comatose perpetrator to try and prevent a future attack.

    Director: Chris Carter

    Writer: Chris Carter

  • My Struggle III
    6.4/10 4,212 votes

    #9 - My Struggle III

    Season 11 Episode 1 - Aired 1/3/2018

    Mulder and Scully learn that they aren't the only ones desperately searching for their long-lost son, William. The very fate of the world may depend on it.

    Director: Chris Carter

    Writer: Chris Carter

  • Fearful Symmetry
    6.5/10 4,664 votes

    #10 - Fearful Symmetry

    Season 2 Episode 18 - Aired 2/24/1995

    In a small town in Idaho, a man is killed by what seems to be an invisible elephant. Mulder's investigation into the local zoo, its owners and a local animal rights group uncovers evidence of insidious alien experiments.

    Director: James Whitmore Jr.

    Writer: Steve De Jarnatt

  • Teliko
    6.6/10 4,039 votes

    #11 - Teliko

    Season 4 Episode 3 - Aired 10/18/1996

    After several African-American men are killed and the color is drained from their skin, Mulder learns about the Teliko, an African folktale about a creature who must suck the pigmentation from a persons body in order to survive.

    Director: Jim Charleston

    Writer: Howard Gordon

  • The Field Where I Died
    6.6/10 4,690 votes

    #12 - The Field Where I Died

    Season 4 Episode 5 - Aired 11/3/1996

    After an FBI raid on a doomsday cult called the "Temple of the Seven Stars", Mulder meets Melissa, a cultist who claims to have known him in a previous life during the American Civil War. Scully believes the woman is a delusional schizophrenic, but Mulder allows himself to be drawn into her fantasies.

    Director: Rob Bowman

    Writer: James Wong, Glen Morgan

  • Signs and Wonders
    6.6/10 3,128 votes

    #13 - Signs and Wonders

    Season 7 Episode 9 - Aired 1/23/2000

    Snakes are killing the unrighteous, but Mulder and Scully doubt that this is a case of divine intervention.

    Director: Kim Manners

    Writer: Jeffrey Bell

  • Nothing Lasts Forever
    6.6/10 2,619 votes

    #14 - Nothing Lasts Forever

    Season 11 Episode 9 - Aired 3/14/2018

    While investigating human organ theft, Mulder and Scully uncover a mysterious cult consumed with macabre rituals.

    Director: James Wong

    Writer: Karen Nielsen

  • Ghost in the Machine
    6.7/10 6,678 votes

    #15 - Ghost in the Machine

    Season 1 Episode 7 - Aired 10/29/1993

    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

    Writer: Howard Gordon, Alex Gansa

  • El Mundo Gira
    6.7/10 3,972 votes

    #16 - El Mundo Gira

    Season 4 Episode 11 - Aired 1/12/1997

    After a strange yellow rain kills a migrant girl, her family believes that a mythical creature el chupacabra was the cause and that it has manifested itself inside her fiancé's brother, who has since disappeared.

    Director: Tucker Gates

    Writer: John Shiban

  • Salvage
    6.7/10 2,728 votes

    #17 - 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.

    Director: Rod Hardy

    Writer: Jeffrey Bell

  • Surekill
    6.8/10 2,712 votes

    #18 - 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.

    Director: Terrence O'Hara

    Writer: Greg Walker

  • Badlaa
    6.8/10 2,989 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.

    Director: Tony Wharmby

    Writer: John Shiban

  • The Jersey Devil
    6.9/10 7,218 votes

    #20 - The Jersey Devil

    Season 1 Episode 5 - Aired 10/8/1993

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

    Director: Joe Napolitano

    Writer: Chris Carter

  • Excelsis Dei
    6.9/10 4,907 votes

    #21 - Excelsis Dei

    Season 2 Episode 11 - Aired 12/16/1994

    Mulder and Scully uncover strange occurrences in an elderly care home when one of the nurses is attacked by an unseen force she claims to be one of the 90 year old residents.

    Director: Stephen Surjik

    Writer: Paul Brown

  • Kaddish
    6.9/10 3,979 votes

    #22 - Kaddish

    Season 4 Episode 15 - Aired 2/16/1997

    After a Jewish man is murdered in a Jewish community, his killers are murdered, too. Mulder and Scully have to determine whether someone is exacting vengeance or larger forces are at work.

    Director: Michael Lange, Kim Manners

    Writer: Chris Carter, Howard Gordon

  • Lord of the Flies
    6.9/10 2,696 votes

    #23 - Lord of the Flies

    Season 9 Episode 5 - Aired 12/16/2001

    When a stunt on a local cable reality show goes horribly wrong resulting in a man's death, Doggett and Reyes investigate. But when flies pour out of the victims eye sockets, they find themselves relying on Scully's expertise and ask her to join the investigation.

    Director: Kim Manners

    Writer: Thomas Schnauz

  • Underneath
    6.9/10 2,435 votes

    #24 - Underneath

    Season 9 Episode 12 - Aired 3/31/2002

    Scully, Doggett and Reyes investigate an old case that Doggett worked on as a cop in Brooklyn, dubbed "The Screwdriver Killer". They try to determine whether the man who was convicted and has just been released from prison was actually the man responsible for the murders.

    Director: John Shiban

    Writer: John Shiban

  • Lazarus
    7.0/10 5,631 votes

    #25 - Lazarus

    Season 1 Episode 15 - Aired 2/4/1994

    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

    Writer: Howard Gordon, Alex Gansa