Reopening The X-Files: “Musings of a Cigarette-Smoking Man”
Season 4, Episode 7: “Musings of a Cigarette-Smoking Man”Original Air Date: November 17, 1996So what’s it going to take for you to not take the Cigarette-Smoking Man seriously? Because this guy, he is serious. He’s been serious since day one, l...
Reopening The X-Files: “Home”
Season 4, Episode 2: “Home”Original Airdate: October 11, 1996“Home” is a bit of a legend, or at least, that’s how I remember it. It aired with a Viewer Discretion warning, the first of only two that The X-Files would receive, and it rarely ap...
Reopening The X-Files: “Talitha Cumi”/“Herrenvolk”
Season 3, Episode 24: “Talitha Cumi”/Season 4, Episode 1: “Herrenvolk”Original Airdates: May 17 and October 4, 1996So let’s say your show about aliens and monsters has gone and got big. Cover of Rolling Stone big, one of your leads is hosting...
Reopening The X-Files: “Talitha Cumi”/“Herrenvolk”
Season 3, Episode 24: “Talitha Cumi”/Season 4, Episode 1: “Herrenvolk”Original Airdates: May 17 and October 4, 1996So let’s say your show about aliens and monsters has gone and got big. Cover of Rolling Stone big, one of your leads is hosting...
Reopening The X-Files: “Quagmire”
Season 3, Episode 22: “Quagmire”Original Airdate: May 3, 1996There are all sorts of monsters on The X-Files. There are the ones that humanity has created, like the Flukeman. There are the ones that have evolved, like Tooms. And then there are the a...
Reopening The X-Files: “Jose Chung’s From Outer Space”
Season 3, Episode 20: “Jose Chung’s From Outer Space”Original Airdate: April 12, 1996This is an episode about the truth, which I know all of the episodes are meant to be about, but. “Jose Chung’s From Outer Space” is not about seeking the t...
Reopening The X-Files: “Pusher”
Season 3, Episode 17: “Pusher”Original Airdate: February 23, 1996Before Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan was Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan, he was Vince Gilligan, the X-Files writer who seemed to understand exactly how in love Mulder and S...
Reopening The X-Files: “Piper Maru”/“Apocrypha”
Season 3, Episodes 15 and 16: “Piper Maru”/“Apocrypha”Original Airdates: February 9 and February 16, 1996Sssh, don’t be afraid. I know. They’re mytharc episodes, I know, and we’re afraid of mytharc right now. Afraid it will be all questio...
Reopening The X-Files: “War of the Coprophages”
Season 3, Episode 12: “War of the Coprophages”Original Airdate: January 5, 1996A Darin Morgan episode — of which “War of the Coprophages” is one, following “Humbug” and “Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose” — occupies a strange space. I...
Reopening The X-Files: “Nisei”/“731”
Season 3, Episodes 9 and 10: “Nisei”/“731”Original Airdates: November 24 and December 1, 1995A common criticism of The X-Files is that at some point, the mythology outgrew us all. Motives became convoluted, conspiracies too complicated to track...
Reopening The X-Files: “Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose”
Season 3, Episode 4: “Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose”Original Airdate: October 13, 1995A man named Clyde Bruckman buys a bottle of Scotch, a lottery ticket, and a tabloid paper. He’s not a particularly unusual man. He lives in St. Louis. He sell...
Reopening The X-Files: “The Blessing Way”/“Paper Clip”
Season 3, Episodes 1 and 2, “The Blessing Way”/“Paper Clip”Original Airdates: September 22 and September 29, 1995There is an ancient Indian saying that characters only die as long as the summer hiatus. My people have come to trust season premie...
