EPISODE REVIEWS SEASON 1





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Episode 1x01: Pilot
Category: UFO  ·  Rating 3 of 5

Contents Synopsis: Special Agent Dana Scully, a medical doctor who chose to work with the FBI, is introduced to Special Agent Fox Mulder, who will be her partner for the time being. Mulder is working in the basement of the FBI headquarters, running the X-files compartment. The X-files consist of unsolved cases, especially those involving paranormal and UFO phenomena. Agent Scully is told to have an eye on him, to examine the scientific value of his work. Since the beginning they are observed by the Cigarette Smoking Man (CSM). They work on a UFO/alien abduction case, but all evidence is being destroyed when their motel room is burnt down - all evidence but one: A small metallic implant that Scully removed from a dead body that was possibly involved in an alien abduction case. At the end of the episode, CSM enters a Pentagon archive and puts the piece of evidence into a box with implants like that.

Review: A good start, but a bit shaky and not yet over the top; it still feels a bit like television. The best scene is the last one, showing CSM in the Pentagon.


July 7th, 1998 / September 24th, 1999









Episode 1x02: Deep Throat
Category: UFO  ·  Rating 4 of 5

Contents Synopsis: While pursuing a case involving the disappearance of a military pilot, Mulder is being warned by a man who seems to know something. This new informant of Mulder, called Deep Throat, also says that "they [extraterrestrials] have been here for a long, long time". Mulder sees on the airbase, but this knowledge is being erased by the military. Deep Throat tells him that it was a military UFO. The pilot returns, but he and his wife refuse to talk to the agents again.

Review: The pilot introduced three of the main characters, this episode introduced the threat and Mulder's first informant in the series, Deep Throat. The atmosphere still needs some work to achieve the future high standard of the show, but for the second episode of a series this is a great episode.


July 7th, 1998 / September 24th, 1999









Episode 1x03: Squeeze
Category: single case  ·  Rating 5 of 5









Episode 1x04: Conduit
Category: UFO/Samantha  ·  Rating 2 of 5

Contents Synopsis: The agents are involved in an alien abduction case which reminds Mulder of the abduction of his sister Samantha when he was still a child. That abduction and the wish to find her and to understand the events seem to be the primal motivation for his work on the X-files.

Review: Samantha is introduced, but the episode itself is rather weak.


July 7th, 1998 / September 24th, 1999









Episode 1x05: Jersey Devil
Category: single case  ·  Rating 2 of 5

Episode 1x06: Shadows
Category: single case  ·  Rating 3 of 5

Episode 1x07: Ghost in the Machine
Category: single case  ·  Rating 2 of 5

Episode 1x08: Ice
Category: single case  ·  Rating 5 of 5

Episode 1x09: Space
Category: single case  ·  Rating 4 of 5









Episode 1x10: Fallen Angel
Category: UFO  ·  Rating 5 of 5

Contents Synopsis: A UFO crashsite is investigated by Mulder and an even crazier guy named Max Fenig from the UFO organization NICAM, who claims to be a multiple abductee. He has triangular marks behind his ears (that look a lot like the symbols from Twin Peaks). By the time they arrive, a military clean-up operation is already in progress, claiming to deal with some contamination case. The personel that is being attacked by the alien suffers severe burns. The alien from the crashed vessel is cloaked and can escape, but when they track it down, Fenig is being obducted.

Review: Here we get a taste of things to come, with Max Fenig Mulder meets somebody who will further influence his direction.


July 7th, 1998 / September 24th, 1999









Episode 1x11: Eve
Category: single case  ·  Rating 4 of 5

Episode 1x12: Fire
Category: single case  ·  Rating 3 of 5

Episode 1x13: Beyond the Sea
Category: single case  ·  Rating 5 of 5









Episode 1x14: Genderbender
Category: Aliens  ·  Rating 3 of 5

Contents Synopsis: Following a murder case, Mulder and Scully meet people who can change their gender and revive dead colleagues while switching their gender again. After the agents have discovered their secrets, the strangers disappear, leaving circles in the corn fields.

Review: This one is rather strange, even for The X-Files, and it doesn't really seem to fit into the story arc.


July 7th, 1998 / September 24th, 1999









Episode 1x15: Lazarus
Category: single case  ·  Rating 3 of 5

Episode 1x16: Young at Heart
Category: single case  ·  Rating 2 of 5









Episode 1x17: E.B.E.
Category: UFO  ·  Rating 5 of 5

Contents Synopsis: An alien vessel is shot down over Turkey, and the alien is brought to the USA. Mulder and Scully follow the truck the alien is being held hostage in, but first they discover that they have been tapped all the time. Deep Throat lies to Mulder, providing fake evidence. However, after they have found the truck during a staged fake alien rescue operation, they gain access to the airbase the alien is held captive in, but when Mulder arrives, it is gone and Deep Throat tells him that he had to kill it, that this was an agenda which had been established some decades ago: Every extraterrestrial biological entity on Earth should be eliminated. - In this episode the 'Lone Gunmen' (Frohike, Langly and Byers) make their first appearance. They're a group of people dedicated to the UFO phenomenon and any kind of conspiracies.

Review: This one really sticks out of the crowd, one of the year's best in every aspect.


July 7th, 1998 / September 24th, 1999









Episode 1x18: Miracle Man
Category: single case  ·  Rating 3 of 5

Episode 1x19: Shapes
Category: single case  ·  Rating 5 of 5

Episode 1x20: Darkness Falls
Category: single case  ·  Rating 5 of 5

Episode 1x21: Tooms
Category: single case  ·  Rating 4 of 5

Episode 1x22: Born Again
Category: single case  ·  Rating 2 of 5

Episode 1x23: Roland
Category: single case  ·  Rating 5 of 5









Episode 1x24: The Erlenmeyer Flask
Category: Purity Control  ·  Rating 5 of 5

Contents Synopsis: A man is hunted by the police. They shoot him, and he bleeds green blood and jumps into the harbor water, staying there for hours to prevent detection. He's the friend of a scientist who is involved in a project called 'Purity Control' and who is killed by an assassin. Mulder inspects the house of the fugitive and finds evidence that leads him to a storage facility where a cloning operation seems to be carried out. When he returns with Scully, both the containers and the bodies are gone and Deep Throat arrives, explaining to them that he could not have informed them earlier, but now there was not much evidence left. Mulder tries to guard the fugitive but is kidnapped by the assassin. To make an exchange, Deep Throat tells Scully to enter a medical facility and to get something from the cryogenic compartment - it's a strange looking embryo, and the code to enter the compartment was 'Purity Control'. During the exchange Deep Throat is killed by the assassin. The X-Files are being shut down, Mulder and Scully are being assigned to different fields. In the final scene, CSM enters the Pentagon archive (like in the pilot) and adds the embryo to similar samples.

Review: The climax of season one can easily compete with the highlights of future seasons; it is a jump forwards into the mythology and has quite a shocking end. Deep Throat's last words, "trust no one", will be the motto of future consipiracy episodes, his end a taste of things to come.


July 7th, 1998 / September 24th, 1999