Here’s a Look at Its Most Iconic Episodes

One month after celebrating the 30th anniversary of The X-Files premiere, Odometer is taking a look at some of the sci-fi series’ most iconic episodes. 

The X-Files first premiered in September 1993 and had an original 9-season run. The series followed FBI agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) as they investigate strange and unexplained incidents. The show returned in 2016 for a 10-episode tenth season and in 2018 with an eleventh season. 

The 1998 film The X-Files was also part of the franchise. The X-Files: I Want to Believe film surfaced in 2008, six years after the original series came to an end. 

Here is our list of the top 3 most iconic episodes of The X-Files.

1. The X-Files Season 6, Episode 6: ‘How the Ghosts Stole Christmas’ 

The X-Files kicked off the 1998 Christmas season in the spookiest way. In this episode, Mulder and Scully investigate a haunted house located in Maryland. Mulder tells Scully that on Christmas Day in 1917, the young couple living in the house at the time made a “lover’s pact” or a murder-suicide pact. They agreed that one of them would kill the other and the other would commit suicide. The man and woman made this pact after they both admitted to not being able to live without the other. Mulder shared that after their deaths, the couple began haunting the house. 

Scully, who is always skeptical when it comes to Mulder, follows her partner into the house. As she was grabbing her car keys, the front door slammed shut. The duo continued their search through the house and they both encountered the spirits separately. Eventually, the spirits start convincing Scully and Mulder to kill each other. As Scully reunites with Mulder, Mulder shoots her. Mulder finds Scully bleeding and Scully shoots him as well. Come to find out the woman, Lyda, was doing the acts. 

As the agents stumble down the stairs, they each accuse the other of shooting them. Mulder eventually figures out that it’s an illusion that both Lyda and her husband, Maurice, made up. Mulder and Scully leave the house while Lyda and Maurice hold hands by the fireplace. 

2. Season Four, Episode 12: ‘Small Potatoes’ 

During the fourth season of The X-Files, Mulder and Scully went to investigate a rather strange situation. Five babies in Martinsburg, West Virginia were born with tails. After looking into each baby’s chromosomes, the agents discover that the babies all have the same father. The parents of the babies go on to blame the local fertility doctor, who helped each other couples get pregnant, with the exception of one woman who thinks Luke Skywalker got her pregnant. 

However, Mulder eventually discovers a janitor who looks like he formerly had a tail. After a chase, Mulder finds out that the janitor, Eddie Van Blundht, is the father of all five children. Unfortunately, Eddie is able to escape from the agents by somehow transforming into the booking police office and knocking him out. 

As Mulder and Scully continue to look into Eddie and how he’s able to change his appearance, the janitor gives them the run-around by transforming into his father as well of the husband of one of the women he impregnated. Finally having enough, Mulder and Scully leave the town and return to Washington. Eddie somehow follows them and tries to seduce Scully by transforming into Mulder. Thankfully, the real Mulder stops him and Eddie ends up in prison.