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The Best Episodes Written By Chris Carter

Every TV Episode Written by Chris Carter Ranked from Best to Worst by Thousands of Voters

Episode Rankings

  1. #1 Fan Favorite
    undefined Season 1 Episode 24 - The Erlenmeyer Flask
    8.7/10(71 votes)

    #1 - 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:N/A
    Writer:Chris Carter

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  2. undefined Season 2 Episode 25 - Anasazi (1)
    8.5/10(56 votes)

    #2 - 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.

    Director:N/A
    Writer:Chris Carter

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  3. undefined Season 1 Episode 18 - Lamentation (1)
    8.3/10(10 votes)

    #3 - Lamentation (1)

    S1:E18

    Frank and Bob Bletcher hike across a remote snow-covered mountaintop in the spectacular North Cascades region of Washington State. Their trip is cut short when Frank receives an important page from the FBI.

    Director:N/A
    Writer:Chris Carter

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  4. undefined Season 3 Episode 2 - Paper Clip (3)
    8.3/10(53 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.

    Director:N/A
    Writer:Chris Carter

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  5. undefined Season 5 Episode 20 - The End
    8.3/10(51 votes)

    #5 - 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.

    Director:N/A
    Writer:Chris Carter

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  6. undefined Season 2 Episode 16 - Colony (1)
    8.2/10(59 votes)

    #6 - 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.

    Director:N/A
    Writer:Chris Carter

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  7. undefined Season 6 Episode 12 - One Son (2)
    8.2/10(45 votes)

    #7 - One Son (2)

    S6:E12

    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.

    Director:N/A
    Writer:Chris Carter

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  8. undefined Season 4 Episode 24 - Gethsemane (1)
    8.2/10(55 votes)

    #8 - Gethsemane (1)

    S4:E24

    Mulder fights to prove that a discovery frozen in the mountains of Canada is an irrefutable evidence of alien life, but his quest for the truth only leads to more lies and an unthinkable conclusion.

    Director:N/A
    Writer:Chris Carter

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  9. undefined Season 3 Episode 9 - Nisei (1)
    8.1/10(58 votes)

    #9 - 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.

    Director:N/A
    Writer:Chris Carter

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  10. undefined Season 3 Episode 24 - Talitha Cumi (1)
    8.1/10(48 votes)

    #10 - 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.

    Director:N/A
    Writer:Chris Carter

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  11. undefined Season 3 Episode 15 - Piper Maru (1)
    8.1/10(50 votes)

    #11 - 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.

    Director:N/A
    Writer:Chris Carter

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  12. undefined Season 2 Episode 5 - Duane Barry (1)
    8.1/10(65 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.

    Director:N/A
    Writer:Chris Carter

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  13. undefined Season 4 Episode 8 - Tunguska (1)
    8.0/10(50 votes)

    #13 - Tunguska (1)

    S4:E8

    Mulder is given a tip about potentially dangerous paramilitary operations on the U.S. soil but during the sting operation is surprised to find out the identity of his mysterious informant - it turns out to be Alex Krycek. Suspicious about his true motives, Mulder reluctantly follows the information provided by Krycek. However, soon he discovers a much bigger conspiracy which takes him to a gulag in Tunguska, Russia where prisoners are being used for experiments involving a substance of alien origin.

    Director:N/A
    Writer:Chris Carter

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  14. undefined Season 5 Episode 2 - Redux II (3)
    8.0/10(52 votes)

    #14 - 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.

    Director:N/A
    Writer:Chris Carter

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  15. undefined Season 3 Episode 1 - The Blessing Way (2)
    8.0/10(54 votes)

    #15 - 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.

    Director:N/A
    Writer:Chris Carter

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  16. undefined Season 4 Episode 17 - Tempus Fugit (1)
    8.0/10(51 votes)

    #16 - Tempus Fugit (1)

    S4:E17

    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.

    Director:N/A
    Writer:Chris Carter

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  17. undefined Season 3 Episode 16 - Apocrypha (2)
    8.0/10(51 votes)

    #17 - 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.

    Director:N/A
    Writer:Chris Carter

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  18. undefined Season 6 Episode 11 - Two Fathers (1)
    8.0/10(47 votes)

    #18 - Two Fathers (1)

    S6:E11

    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.

    Director:N/A
    Writer:Chris Carter

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  19. undefined Season 7 Episode 22 - Requiem
    8.0/10(38 votes)

    #19 - 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.

    Director:N/A
    Writer:Chris Carter

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  20. undefined Season 4 Episode 1 - Herrenvolk (2)
    7.9/10(57 votes)

    #20 - Herrenvolk (2)

    S4:E1

    With his mother on a deathbed and the alien bounty hunter in pursuit, Mulder decides to put Jeremiah Smith, the alien healer, in mortal danger for a chance to finally uncover the whole truth behind the alien conspiracy. Meanwhile, the Syndicate suspects that they have a traitor in their midst and set up a trap.

    Director:N/A
    Writer:Chris Carter

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  21. undefined Season 1 Episode 20 - Darkness Falls
    7.9/10(78 votes)

    #21 - 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:N/A
    Writer:Chris Carter

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  22. undefined Season 1 Episode 1 - Pilot
    7.9/10(126 votes)

    #22 - 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:N/A
    Writer:Chris Carter

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  23. undefined Season 6 Episode 3 - Triangle
    7.9/10(56 votes)

    #23 - Triangle

    S6:E3

    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.

    Director:N/A
    Writer:Chris Carter

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  24. undefined Season 2 Episode 2 - The Host
    7.9/10(68 votes)

    #24 - The Host

    S2:E2

    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.

    Director:N/A
    Writer:Chris Carter

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  25. undefined Season 5 Episode 14 - The Red and the Black (2)
    7.9/10(50 votes)

    #25 - The Red and the Black (2)

    S5:E14

    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.

    Director:N/A
    Writer:Chris Carter

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Chris Carter Ratings Summary

"The Erlenmeyer Flask" is the best rated episode written by Chris Carter. It scored 8.669/10 based on 71 votes. It was directed by N/A. It aired on 5/13/1994 and is rated 0.1 points higher than their second-best episode, "Anasazi (1)".