← The X-Files The X-Files: Mythology and the classics The mythology route plus 23 further standalone television episodes: 93 TV episodes and Fight the Future, or 94 entries. A broader sampling of the show, still not the complete series.
For a first-time viewer who wants the show, not just the plot.
Open episode checklist ↓ Mythology episodes · 71 Mythology and the classics · 94 Path details & story map Before you choose a route The mythology reader contains 70 TV episodes and the 1998 film Fight the Future. The film belongs between season five and season six, and is included in the displayed 71 entries and runtime. The broader path adds 23 TV episodes; neither is the whole show.
S05E06 and S05E07 are a two-part story: keep both. S05E05 remains as an explicitly marked standalone extra from the earlier selection, rather than being described as mythology.
The second film, I Want to Believe (2008), belongs between seasons nine and ten if you want that additional standalone case. It is not in this catalogue, either checklist or their runtime totals.
Research sources — linked pages may contain spoilers 94
of 219 catalogue entries
Episode lengths vary. Plan viewing days at your own pace →
Updated September 29, 2026
Where the story lives numbers below are seasons · hover any mark for the episode
The path Tick episodes off to track where you are. Future titles, stills and notes stay hidden until you reach them, unless you choose to reveal them.
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Hide what’s ahead of me Titles, stills and notes unlock as you tick episodes off Season 1 11 in the path
🔒 S01E01 Pilot Reveal S01E01 details Where the partnership starts and the ground rules get set.
🔒 S01E02 Deep Throat Reveal S01E02 details The first contact with a source inside the government, and the first hint the work is being watched.
🔒 S01E03 Squeeze Reveal S01E03 details A standalone case. No bearing on the conspiracy - it is here because it is one of the best hours the show made.
4 skipped
🔒 S01E08 Ice Reveal S01E08 details A standalone case. No bearing on the conspiracy - it is here because it is one of the best hours the show made.
1 skipped
🔒 S01E10 Fallen Angel Reveal S01E10 details A crash-site cover-up run in real time, and the clearest look yet at how far the cover-up reaches.
2 skipped
🔒 S01E13 Beyond the Sea Reveal S01E13 details A standalone case. No bearing on the conspiracy - it is here because it is one of the best hours the show made.
3 skipped
🔒 S01E17 E.B.E. Reveal S01E17 details A trail that crosses borders and comes back pointing at the people who assigned the case.
1 skipped
🔒 S01E19 Shapes Reveal S01E19 details A standalone case. No bearing on the conspiracy - it is here because it is one of the best hours the show made.
🔒 S01E20 Darkness Falls Reveal S01E20 details A standalone case. No bearing on the conspiracy - it is here because it is one of the best hours the show made.
🔒 S01E21 Tooms Reveal S01E21 details A standalone case. No bearing on the conspiracy - it is here because it is one of the best hours the show made.
2 skipped
🔒 S01E24 The Erlenmeyer Flask Reveal S01E24 details The season's answer arrives with a cost attached, and the office does not survive it.
Season 2 10 in the path
🔒 S02E01 Little Green Men Reveal S02E01 details Picking the thread back up from outside the building, with no institutional cover.
🔒 S02E02 The Host Reveal S02E02 details A standalone case. No bearing on the conspiracy - it is here because it is one of the best hours the show made.
2 skipped
🔒 S02E05 Duane Barry Reveal S02E05 details A hostage situation that turns into testimony about the abduction programme.
🔒 S02E06 Ascension Reveal S02E06 details The direct sequel, and the point the conspiracy stops being abstract.
1 skipped
🔒 S02E08 One Breath Reveal S02E08 details The aftermath, and the first time the cost lands on someone other than Mulder.
1 skipped
🔒 S02E10 Red Museum Reveal S02E10 details A seemingly unrelated town case that turns out to run on the same programme.
5 skipped
🔒 S02E16 Colony Reveal S02E16 details The first of a two-parter that introduces the hybrid programme properly.
🔒 S02E17 End Game Reveal S02E17 details The second half, and the first real casualty among the people running it.
2 skipped
🔒 S02E20 Humbug Reveal S02E20 details A standalone case. No bearing on the conspiracy - it is here because it is one of the best hours the show made.
4 skipped
🔒 S02E25 Anasazi Reveal S02E25 details The season ends on documentary evidence and a reckoning with Mulder's father.
Season 3 12 in the path
🔒 S03E01 The Blessing Way Reveal S03E01 details Picking up from the cliffhanger, with the evidence in other hands.
🔒 S03E02 Paper Clip Reveal S03E02 details The paperwork behind the programme, and who kept it.
1 skipped
🔒 S03E04 Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose Reveal S03E04 details A standalone case. No bearing on the conspiracy - it is here because it is one of the best hours the show made.
4 skipped
🔒 S03E09 Nisei (1) Reveal S03E09 details A tape, a train, and the first sight of the experiments as an industry.
🔒 S03E10 731 (2) Reveal S03E10 details The second half. What the trains were carrying, and who authorised it.
1 skipped
🔒 S03E12 War of the Coprophages Reveal S03E12 details A standalone case. No bearing on the conspiracy - it is here because it is one of the best hours the show made.
2 skipped
🔒 S03E15 Piper Maru Reveal S03E15 details A salvage operation that surfaces something older than the programme.
🔒 S03E16 Apocrypha Reveal S03E16 details The direct sequel, and the substance at the centre of the mythology.
🔒 S03E17 Pusher Reveal S03E17 details A standalone case. No bearing on the conspiracy - it is here because it is one of the best hours the show made.
2 skipped
🔒 S03E20 Jose Chung's 'From Outer Space' Reveal S03E20 details A standalone case. No bearing on the conspiracy - it is here because it is one of the best hours the show made.
1 skipped
🔒 S03E22 Quagmire Reveal S03E22 details A standalone case. No bearing on the conspiracy - it is here because it is one of the best hours the show made.
1 skipped
🔒 S03E24 Talitha Cumi Reveal S03E24 details A season finale that puts the Cigarette Smoking Man's history on the table.
Season 4 12 in the path
🔒 S04E01 Herrenvolk Reveal S04E01 details Resolving the cliffhanger and widening the programme's scale.
🔒 S04E02 Home Reveal S04E02 details A standalone case. No bearing on the conspiracy - it is here because it is one of the best hours the show made.
4 skipped
🔒 S04E07 Musings of a Cigarette-Smoking Man Reveal S04E07 details A biography of the man behind the conspiracy, told sideways.
🔒 S04E08 Tunguska Reveal S04E08 details A two-parter that takes the investigation outside American jurisdiction.
🔒 S04E09 Terma Reveal S04E09 details The second half, and the cost of bringing evidence home.
4 skipped
🔒 S04E14 Memento Mori Reveal S04E14 details Scully's diagnosis, and its connection back to the abduction programme.
2 skipped
🔒 S04E17 Tempus Fugit Reveal S04E17 details A crash investigation that will not stay an accident.
🔒 S04E18 Max Reveal S04E18 details The second half, and what the wreckage was carrying.
1 skipped
🔒 S04E20 Small Potatoes Reveal S04E20 details A standalone case. No bearing on the conspiracy - it is here because it is one of the best hours the show made.
🔒 S04E21 Zero Sum Reveal S04E21 details Skinner acting alone, and the price of the arrangement he has made.
1 skipped
🔒 S04E23 Demons Reveal S04E23 details Mulder pursuing his own memory as evidence, with predictable results.
🔒 S04E24 Gethsemane Reveal S04E24 details A finale that puts the entire investigation's premise in doubt.
Season 5 9 in the path
🔒 S05E01 Redux (1) Reveal S05E01 details The answer to the finale, and a decision about what to do with it.
🔒 S05E02 Redux (2) Reveal S05E02 details The second half. Consequences arrive for everyone who signed off.
2 skipped
🔒 S05E05 The Post-Modern Prometheus Reveal S05E05 details A standalone extra retained from the earlier selection; it is not the first half of the S05E06–07 mythology story.
🔒 S05E06 Christmas Carol Reveal S05E06 details The opening half of a two-part story. Keep it immediately before S05E07.
🔒 S05E07 Emily Reveal S05E07 details The direct sequel, and the hardest version of that answer.
4 skipped
🔒 S05E12 Bad Blood Reveal S05E12 details A standalone case. No bearing on the conspiracy - it is here because it is one of the best hours the show made.
🔒 S05E13 Patient X Reveal S05E13 details A gathering that reveals a second faction with its own plan.
🔒 S05E14 The Red and the Black Reveal S05E14 details The second half, and the first sight of resistance from inside.
5 skipped
🔒 S05E20 The End Reveal S05E20 details A season finale that closes the office and opens the film.
Film / special 1 in the path
Film The X-Files: Fight the Future
Reveal Film details The feature film. It follows straight on from the fifth-season finale, and the sixth season opens from it.
Season 6 8 in the path
🔒 S06E01 The Beginning Reveal S06E01 details Picking up immediately after the film, with the assignment changed.
1 skipped
🔒 S06E03 Triangle Reveal S06E03 details A standalone case. No bearing on the conspiracy - it is here because it is one of the best hours the show made.
5 skipped
🔒 S06E09 S.R. 819 Reveal S06E09 details Skinner's turn, and a countdown that ties back to the programme.
1 skipped
🔒 S06E11 Two Fathers Reveal S06E11 details The Syndicate's own story, told by the men who built it.
🔒 S06E12 One Son Reveal S06E12 details The second half, and the endgame they had been working toward.
5 skipped
🔒 S06E18 Milagro Reveal S06E18 details A standalone case. No bearing on the conspiracy - it is here because it is one of the best hours the show made.
2 skipped
🔒 S06E21 Field Trip Reveal S06E21 details A standalone case. No bearing on the conspiracy - it is here because it is one of the best hours the show made.
🔒 S06E22 Biogenesis Reveal S06E22 details A finale that moves the mythology from conspiracy to something far older.
Season 7 8 in the path
🔒 S07E01 The Sixth Extinction Reveal S07E01 details The direct continuation, with the artefact's effect spreading.
🔒 S07E02 The Sixth Extinction: Amor Fati Reveal S07E02 details The second half, and a choice made on Mulder's behalf.
7 skipped
🔒 S07E10 Sein und Zeit Reveal S07E10 details The oldest question in the series, finally being asked properly.
🔒 S07E11 Closure Reveal S07E11 details The second half, and an answer that closes the file.
🔒 S07E12 X-Cops Reveal S07E12 details A standalone case. No bearing on the conspiracy - it is here because it is one of the best hours the show made.
2 skipped
🔒 S07E15 En Ami Reveal S07E15 details Scully alone with the conspiracy's architect, and the offer he makes.
5 skipped
🔒 S07E21 Je Souhaite Reveal S07E21 details A standalone case. No bearing on the conspiracy - it is here because it is one of the best hours the show made.
🔒 S07E22 Requiem Reveal S07E22 details A finale that returns to where the first season started, and takes someone with it.
Season 8 10 in the path
🔒 S08E01 Within Reveal S08E01 details A new partner, an old case, and a search run by people who do not believe it.
🔒 S08E02 Without Reveal S08E02 details The second half, and the search moving from procedure to pursuit.
1 skipped
🔒 S08E04 Roadrunners Reveal S08E04 details A standalone case. No bearing on the conspiracy - it is here because it is one of the best hours the show made.
8 skipped
🔒 S08E13 Per Manum Reveal S08E13 details The programme's fertility work, and what it means for Scully now.
🔒 S08E14 This is Not Happening Reveal S08E14 details A field of evidence that changes the search entirely.
🔒 S08E15 DeadAlive Reveal S08E15 details The direct sequel. What was found, and what it costs to keep.
🔒 S08E16 Three Words Reveal S08E16 details The first clear sight of the replacement programme.
1 skipped
🔒 S08E18 Vienen Reveal S08E18 details An offshore case that confirms how far the replacements have spread.
1 skipped
🔒 S08E20 Essence Reveal S08E20 details A finale two-parter, with the pregnancy at the centre of it.
🔒 S08E21 Existence Reveal S08E21 details The second half, and the birth the whole season has been building toward.
Season 9 7 in the path
🔒 S09E01 Nothing Important Happened Today (1) Reveal S09E01 details The new season's premise, and who is running the programme now.
🔒 S09E02 Nothing Important Happened Today (2) Reveal S09E02 details The second half, and the shape of the opposition.
6 skipped
🔒 S09E09 Provenance Reveal S09E09 details An artefact case that reconnects to the sixth-season finale.
🔒 S09E10 Providence Reveal S09E10 details The second half, and what the rubbings were always pointing at.
5 skipped
🔒 S09E16 William Reveal S09E16 details The child at the centre of it, and a decision about his safety.
2 skipped
🔒 S09E19 The Truth (1) Reveal S09E19 details The series finale, part one: everything on the record at last.
🔒 S09E20 The Truth (2) Reveal S09E20 details Part two, and the verdict.
Season 10 3 in the path
🔒 S10E01 My Struggle Reveal S10E01 details The revival's reframing of the entire conspiracy.
1 skipped
🔒 S10E03 Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster Reveal S10E03 details A standalone case. No bearing on the conspiracy - it is here because it is one of the best hours the show made.
2 skipped
🔒 S10E06 My Struggle II Reveal S10E06 details The consequence of that reframing, played out at scale.
Season 11 3 in the path
🔒 S11E01 My Struggle III Reveal S11E01 details Answering the cliffhanger and correcting the record.
3 skipped
🔒 S11E05 Ghouli Reveal S11E05 details The William thread picked back up, years on.
4 skipped
🔒 S11E10 My Struggle IV Reveal S11E10 details The last episode, and the closing of the family story.
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