The sixth season of The X-Files feels different. On a surface level, it looks different. David Duchovny would only agree to a two-year contract extension if production moved from the verdant atmosphere of Vancouver to the bright bland plains of California, making this season, and the next three, much less visually interesting and unique. But it’s more than that. The show’s viewership peaked in the fifth season, the show ramping up to the potentially climatic movie that ultimately disappointed. Suddenly the purpose and momentum of the show disappears. The X-Files returns to television for a season dominated by the question “what now?” and the answer never comes.
The season does take bold action in its midseason mythology two-parter, which I’ll discuss later, but for the most part the show feels like it has nowhere left to go. The production is beginning to feel tired and the series has become acutely aware of itself. This is a season of The X-Files where the cast, crew, and viewer are all almost too aware of what the show is as an entity, making it harder to produce and enjoy without it feeling knowing. The potentiality of a romance between Mulder and Scully is endlessly teased, the show catching up with the fandom. And while there are moments of greatness, some good and wild ideas sprinkled throughout, it’s the weakest season since the first.
Season 6 is the show’s comedy season. In trying to work out what the show should do now, the writers take inspiration from past successes, maybe putting too much emphasis on humorous episode Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose winning the show’s only writing Emmy. Ignoring the fact that episode was dark and philosophical as well as funny, the sixth season has an almost sickeningly light tone. There’s the occasional bold idea like in season 5 but not the same mix of tone or style. It’s very samey, with the jokey atmosphere diluting everything and making the show feel more unserious than ever before. There are less serial killers and monsters and more just goofy hijinks. I was begging for a really dark and brooding episode. Even episodes I like were hurt by the episodes around them feeling too similar. The best way to watch the sixth season is by rewatching an episode or two between episodes of past seasons rather than attempting to sit through the whole thing.
Best Character: Mulder
Neither Mulder or Scully get a substantial character arc or plot in season 6. After the past few seasons it feels like an intentional break. Scully’s cancer and Mulder’s crisis of faith dominated proceedings and now the writers go in the opposite direction, doing very little new with the characters. It’s a back to basics approach and I wonder if it was to attract new fans to the series after the movie’s release. If anything, the characters feel simpler now than ever before. Scully gets the short end of the stick in this regard. Her refusal to believe in the supernatural is now frustrating, making her seem like an idiot in Dreamland, and it’s irritating to see her go straight back to denying that aliens exist in the premiere after what she experienced in the film.
The first half of the season sees Mulder and Scully taken off the x-files. This is a scenario much more conducive to good Mulder stories than Scully. The setup forces him to seek out cases and secretly investigate them, now back to being obsessive about the unknown after losing his enthusiasm last season. But this means most episodes just see Scully be begrudgingly dragged along by Mulder, kicking and eye-rolling. The writers also think up more of these types of stories than they need to, with them also dominating the season’s second half when they are back on the x-files. There are very few traditionally structured cases, leaving Scully somewhat adrift.
If the season is about anything then it’s the loneliness of both Mulder and Scully. They are isolated and alienated after six years working these cases, with the season making the case that they belong together, professionally and romantically. It’s a theme that’s tackled decently but loneliness is also a story that best suits Mulder. He’s the one we see alone the most. His little apartment is a key set of the show, appearing in so many episodes of the season. Scully’s apartment? I have no idea what it looks like. We spend much less time with Scully’s personal life than Mulder’s.
Biggest Missed Opportunity: Not Doing a Spender & Fowley Episode
While Mulder and Scully are off the x-files, stuck doing boring admin and seeing if manure is being used for bombs, Jeffrey Spender and Diana Fowley are assigned to the cases instead. At least, we’re told they are. Annoyingly, we barely see them. In one brief moment we see Spender shred a file that Mulder sticks back together but that’s it. Spender and Fowley are the bizarro Mulder and Scully, shills for the Syndicate, and while I know they have been placed in the position to not investigate cases, it feels like such wasted opportunity not to have them do so at least once.
An episode featuring them could flip the usual gender roles, with Fowley believing and wanting to investigate but in conflict with the idea of also serving her new overlords, while Spender is the sceptic. Like Mulder with his sister, Spender wants to find out what happened to his mother, which could force him to ignore his father’s wishes and investigate UFO sightings. The episode wouldn’t have to be just them, Mulder and Scully could also appear. The two pairs could be rivals investigating the same crime, one to expose and the other to obfuscate. Having Spender and Fowley take over for the show’s heroes is such an interesting break in the status quo of the series but it isn’t taken advantage of.
Best Guest Star: Jesse L. Martin in The Unnatural (S6E19)
For the season’s best guest star I was expecting a Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul standoff between Bryan Cranston and Michael McKean. But, the thing that made moving the show to LA worth it was getting Bruce Campbell to guest star, especially given his fun role as a demon considering his Evil Dead character. Yet the season’s true best guest star comes late in the run and is undoubtedly Jesse L. Martin as Josh Exley.
The Unnatural is a strange, beautiful little episode, the show’s equivalent of Deep Space Nine’s Far Beyond the Stars, and it’s Martin who is the key to making it work. He plays an alien disguised as a black baseball player who has betrayed his people because he’s fallen in love with the Earth game. It’s silly and plays into the season’s comedy vibes and a lesser actor would stop there, making Exley goofy and obviously alien. Martin instead plays it with real heart. He’s funny and joyous, defiant in the face of two forms of racism. He also completely sells the heartbreaking ending when Exley dies bleeding human blood, magically becoming Exley for real. It’s deeply sad but with some bittersweet happiness; Martin delivers a fittingly human performance. It’s probably the most emotional moment of the whole series and it’s from a guest performance in a single episode rather than a series regular.
Unpopular Opinion: Mulder and Scully Should be Platonic
While not the season where they begin a relationship or even kiss, season 6 is when Mulder and Scully becoming a couple becomes inevitable. Almost every episode sees them flirt and characters comment on their clear love for one another. The writers, after previously refusing, find themselves post-movie with no direction but to kowtow to fan demands. And I don’t like it. I know it’s very controversial but I’m not a shipper. Unlike many, I never want Mulder and Scully to be together in that way.
I agree there is great chemistry between them. There is tension. But it’s the tension that’s good! I like Mulder and Scully’s relationship in previous seasons but now it’s too direct, too winky at the audience. Once they do actually get together, it’s ruined. The drama is gone. The ‘will they, won’t they’ gives some life to the show, once its answered the show is moribund. The conflict between them, the believer and sceptic, colleagues or friends or romantic interests, is all linked. It all combines to make those characters what they are and keeps the engine of the show grinding along. Mess with it and it goes kaput. Mulder and Scully do ultimately get together and there’s nothing to do with them as a couple. The relationship goes nowhere and pleases no one. I believe Carter should have stuck by his guns and never pushed their relationship towards romance, except for maybe the very end when it’s consequence free and we don’t have to see them as a couple.
Best Fan Theory: Scully’s Immortality Causes the Time Loop in Monday (S6E14)
The idea of Scully being immortal is silly. An offhand joke in Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose, clearly not meant to be taken literally, became a fan theory that then Tithonus this season seemed to confirm, with Scully meeting an immortal who passed the blessing/curse to her. It’s a good episode, and a welcome dark script in an otherwise frothy season, but Scully’s immortality is an idea that kinda ruins the show if taken seriously, causing any threat to evaporate. But! I admit that it’s a fun theory when related to another episode this season.
Monday is a classic time loop story; a bank heist Groundhog Day-style that keeps ending in an explosion that results in Mulder and Scully’s deaths. No explanation is given for the cause of the time loop and it’s best not to give one: you just need to go along with it. But the idea that time itself keeps resetting because the universe won’t allow Scully to die, thanks to her newfound immortality, is a fun theory I saw on Reddit and couldn’t stop thinking about while watching.
Underrated Episode: Milagro (S6E18)
Milagro doesn’t completely work but I love what it’s attempting. It’s a uniquely paced and structured episode, and an ambiguous story. I’m still not entirely certain on all details and that’s rare for this show. Although, if anything, I wish it was a little weirder. A writer moves into the apartment next to Mulder whose fiction seems to be becoming true, or is at least predicting the future. It’s an episode that never quite lays out what is reality, what is fiction, or what is fiction becoming reality. It’s fascinating and one of the better Scully episodes of the season, with her falling in love with the writer and questioning how much he’s influencing her decision making.
Milagro is also incredibly indulgent and pretentious. A very writerly episode about writers that I can see why people dislike it but I enjoy the meta aspects. Writer Chris Carter’s own love for Scully is shown through this creepy surrogate author character, and he has a point to make, however unsubtle, that writers have to tear out their heart to put on the page, literally in this case. Milagro is also the closest to an Alan Wake TV show we currently have. It’s a very similar concept and the opening shot shows us what is essentially the writer’s room from Alan Wake 2, with the typewriter desk and notecards on the wall.
Best Final Scene: How the Ghosts Stole Christmas (S6E6)
I should love How the Ghosts Stole Christmas. It has everything an Inside No. 9 fan could possibly want: a locked room mystery bottle episode with four actors, continuing the classic tradition of a ghost story for Christmas. But it just doesn’t quite work for me. The script isn’t strong enough to keep me engaged throughout. It’s not as clear and precise and deliberate as this type of episode needs to be. But what really works is the ending.
The setup might meander but the payoff is executed very well. This is a season of Mulder and Scully being lonely lovelorn people and this episode helps them recognise this fact, so they decide to spend Christmas together. The final scene doesn’t even need dialogue: just the shot of them from outside Mulder’s window, swapping presents with snow falling and Christmas music playing. It’s a sweet scene and the one moment where it feels like a Christmas episode. It showcases the strong relationship between them and that they are there for each other, romantically or otherwise. It’s a little saccharine but the show has earned moments like this.
The ‘What the Hell Did I Just Watch?’ Award: Triangle (S6E3)
Triangle is the ultimate gimmick episode. I think it’s overrated as anything other than a technical exercise. I’m sure at the time it was much more impressive but watching it in 2024 I’m tired of one-shot sequences, and combining them with Mulder time travelling to a Nazi-infested ship makes for a bizarre but disposable episode. Each act gets less interesting as the gimmick wears off. The first long shot is fun, the second of Scully in the FBI building is well done but never feels justified and barely has any plot. It’s 10 minutes of Scully doing very little, simply walking from one room to another, when the action I want to get back to is Mulder on the boat. But when we do return to Mulder, the third act is a repeat of the first, and the fourth does away with the one shot technique and instead overlays the two time periods with split screen that, again, mostly shows people walking around. It’s a perfectly entertaining episode, I commend it for trying something different, but I was constantly asking “why?” and there’s no answer other than “why not?”
Best Monster: The Tulpa from Arcadia (S6E15)
Arcadia is the season’s best comedy episode but somehow has the best monster, too. The episode is a satire about suburban living which sees Mulder and Scully go undercover as a married couple, and can be seen to either mock or support the relationship idea depending on the viewer’s preference. The comedy works because it comes naturally from the story and situation, but thankfully the monstrous tulpa is treated seriously. It’s presented as an unstoppable threat, representing the dark underbelly of this seemingly utopic world. A big hulking monster made of soil and trash enforcing strict suburban laws – the landfill just under the surface breaking out. It’s a nice little metaphor and the monster is silly but scary and very X-Files. It’s also a different kind of monster because the human who created it gets all the motive, allowing the monster just to stalk the episode as the huge inhuman killer.
Best Mythology Episode: One Son (S6E12)
The first words of this two-parter, spoken by the Cigarette-Smoking Man, are “This is the end.” Shockingly, he’s kind of right. At this point in the series, the mythology has once again stalled. This time not because they don’t want to reveal any answers but rather because all the answers have been revealed and there’s nowhere left to go. The conspirators’ plan is explained and the final mysteries detailed, the broad strokes of which line up (I’m being generous) but there are numerous little details that make no sense. I commend the writers for what they do next. After years of revealing the conspiracy, they blow it up. The alien rebels appear, kill all the Syndicate members apart from the Cigarette-Smoking Man, and the government conspiracy is over. It’s a finale to the mythology, halfway through season 6 of an 11-season story. It will damage what comes later because there’s now no real plot but it makes for the most entertaining two-parter in some time.
Mulder and Scully play little part in the Syndicate’s destruction. Part of the inherent problem of the mythology is that they search for the truth but there’s nothing they can do if they get it. The truth always has to be out there because once they discover it the show’s over. Here, Mulder learns almost everything there is to know and then sits back while alien rebels disrupt everything. The outcome barely changes from their input. But I like the personal stakes of Jeffrey Spender. He’s the star of the episode, given good conflicted character drama as he’s caught between his mother and father, the FBI and Syndicate. It’s shocking that the movie barely progresses the mythology while this two-parter feels more like what the movie should be: a culmination. In retrospect, I bet the writers regret their actions here. It left the serialised story adrift and it’s only going to get more convoluted, if that is even possible, but them destroying the mythology, both in story and in a meta way, is at least fun to watch.
Worst Mythology Episode: Biogenesis (S6E22)
…speaking of the mythology being destroyed, the next episode in the storyline is the season finale, Biogenesis. Early on, Scully even mentions the fact that the conspiracy is over and asks “what else could you possibly hope to do or find?” The show now begins to look at grand ideas of creation and extinction but, unlike the government mythos, there’s no connection to the characters, no personal stakes or journey, so it’s hard to care about any of the confusing questions being posed. Because the plot is aloof, the show has to fall back on hospitalising characters for stakes, with Mulder suffering from alien insanity radiation poisoning.
Most of the supporting characters are in the same place, performing the same actions as they usually do in these stories despite them having no reason to anymore. Why is Krycek still murdering people? No idea. The Smoking Man is doing nefarious things for some undefined reason. Skinner betrays Mulder and Scully in a beat that feels far too repetitive. And Fowley finally sleeps with Mulder but for no dramatic reason because he’s lost his mind after looking at an alien artifact. The big shake-up of the mythology needed to dramatically alter how these stories are told but the writers are so locked into the formula that they continue following it even when it no longer makes any sense.
Carter’s religious sensibilities come to the fore and the episode feels like a mix of one of those cheap faith-based movies, a soap opera, and a show dabbling in magic rather than sci-fi. The alien ship with the bible inscribed on its hull, bringing life to Earth, is full Ancient Aliens craziness. The idea that everyone has alien DNA had already been introduced so it’s not much of a twist. The writers reveal this same information every season or so as if it’s new knowledge. And the hint that the weirdness inherent to all x-files cases can be traced back to extraterrestrial DNA is an unnecessary and disappointing reveal. Ruin the mythology storyline, that’s fine by me, but keep the superior monster-of-the-week episodes out of this.
Worst Standalone Episode: Alpha (S6E16)
Teso dos Bichos was the infamously awful killer cats episode of the show and now three seasons later we get the almost as bad killer dog story. Alpha is the first typical X-Files episode of the season, both structurally and plot wise with Mulder and Scully back officially investigating cases, and yet despite that it’s a complete mess. It’s kind of a werewolf story but with none of the atmosphere of season 1’s Shapes, which compared to this is a masterwork. Alpha is also the second episode written by Jeffrey Bell after The Rain King, which is also a poor effort. The story makes very little sense; there’s no logic to anything that happens.
Andrew Robinson guest stars as Detweiler, a man who turns into a killer wen-shang dhole dog at night, leading to a repetitive and boring murder scene at the end of each act break. What a waste of a brilliant actor, known for portraying perhaps the best Star Trek character, Deep Space Nine’s Garak. Melinda Culea also appears as Karin Berquist, a strange character who is a contact of Mulder’s. Scully’s jealously is amped up to ridiculous levels this episode, coming across as unprofessional and mean to Berquist just because she likes Mulder, long before she is revealed to be nefarious. There’s no real chemistry between Mulder and Karin anyway. Culea plays her so bizarrely at first I thought she was blind, then autistic, then she’s just awkward and revealed to have lupus as if that’s an explanation for everything that happens. Her motivation, and those of the killer she’s aiding for unfathomable reasons, make little sense. Aptly, Alpha is complete dogshit.
Best Standalone Episode: Drive (S6E2)
The season’s second episode, Drive, is its best because, fittingly, it has real drive and momentum. It’s a brilliantly paced thriller that isn’t the most inventive episode of the show but is tight, lean and very well produced. Drive has the same director as the movie, Rob Bowman, but shows how much better The X-Files is on the small screen, having all the propulsion and energy the film failed to capture. Vince Gilligan delivers another wonderful script with nary a second wasted. It’s worthy of the peak of the series, could easily fit in seasons 3 through 5, yet is an episode that actually uses the new shooting location of LA to its advantage. Mulder is trapped in a car with a man whose head will explode if he doesn’t drive west and in California there’s only so far west you can go before hitting the ocean.
Drive is a perfectly structured episode. Scully is investigating, first in the morgue and then out on location, to discover the cause of the head-exploding-ing, and the reveals are peppered with fun details. Mulder meanwhile is in danger, taken hostage by Patrick Crumb whose wife’s head has just gone pop and now he’s feeling the symptoms, too. Those scenes in a car are a great two-hander, perfectly written and performed. Bryan Cranston plays Crump, and this is famously the role that gets him the Breaking Bad gig when writer Vince Gilligan creates that show a decade later. It’s a performance that finds the perfect balance between repulsive and sympathetic, with Cranston making you grow to care about this antisemitic guy just as Mulder does, who wants to help him because he’s been wronged by the government. The ending is fantastic, both of the Crump story and the final scene with Kersh, showing how he’s a different boss to Skinner. One of my favourite and most rewatchable episodes.
Five Worst Episodes:
5. The Rain King (S6E8)
4. S.R. 819 (S6E9)
3. Agua Mala (S6E13)
2. Biogenesis (S6E22)
1. Alpha (S6E16)
Five Best Episodes:
5. Milagro (S6E18)
4. Arcadia (S6E15)
3. Tithonus (S6E10)
2. The Unnatural (S6E19)
1. Drive (S6E2)
I was glad to reach the end of the sixth season; it’s a very sapping season of the show, despite the handful of strong episodes. Less glad to see that the story of Biogenesis continues into the first two episodes of the seventh season, however. I remember season seven being a further step down for the series but, as the final with Mulder in a regular role, at least the attempted wrapping up of much of his character’s story with give it some purpose, the like of which season six was sorely lacking as it limped along, unsure of what the show wanted to now be.
