The Essential X-Files (Episode List)

I wrote this awhile back when the revival was first announced. Thought I should share it here:

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The Essential X-Files

These are not the best episodes, but the ones most important for catching up with the X-Files mythology.

With The X-Files coming back to TV in the not-too-distant future, I figure people are going to start watching the series to catch up. It's a long series with a complicated plot, and only some of the episodes are about that plot. So for those wanting to rewatch the show but not sift through the entire series, these are the essential episodes of The X-Files.

Ones with a * are not essential mythology episodes, but connect to the mythology. Ones with ** are the best episodes of the series, but not part of the mythology. The first movie takes place between seasons five and six is and important. The second movie takes place after the series (and may or may not be important to the new series).

Season One

Pilot

Deep Throat

*Squeeze

*Conduit

*Fallen Angel

*Eve

**Beyond The Sea

E.B.E.

*Tooms

The Erlenmeyer Flask

Season Two

Little Green Men

The Host

Sleepless

Duane Berry

Ascension

One Breath

**Irresistible

**Die Hand Die Verletzt

Colony

End Game

**Humbug

Anasazi

Season Three

The Blessing Way

Paper Clip

**D.P.O.

**Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose

Nisei

731

**War of the Coprophages

**Syzygy

Piper Maru

Apocrypha

**Pusher

**Jose Chung's From Outer Space

Talitha Cumi

Season Four

Herrenvolk

Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man

Tunguska

Terma

**Never Again

*Leonard Betts

Momento Mori

*Tempus Fugit

*Max

Zero Sum

Gethsemane

Season Five

Redux

Redux II

*Unusual Suspects

**Post-Modern Prometheus

Christmas Carol

Emily

**Chinga (Stephen King's episode)

Patient X

The Red and the Black

*Travelers (The origins of The X-Files)

The End

Movie: Fight The Future

Season Six

The Beginning

**Triangle

**Dreamland

**Dreamland II

S.R. 819

Two Fathers

One Son

**Arcadia

**Milagro (Not a favorite but a lot of people love it)

**The Unnatural

*Three of a Kind

Biogenesis

Season Seven

The Sixth Extinction

Amor Fati

**Orison

Sein und Zeit

Closure

**X-Cops

*En Ami

Requiem

Season Eight

Within

Without

Per Manum

This is Not Happening

Dead Alive

Three Words

Vienen

Essence

Existence

Season Nine

Nothing Important Happened Today

Nothing Important Happened Today II

Trust No 1

Provenance

Providence

*Jump The Shark

William

Release

The Truth

The Truth II

Movie 2: I Want To Believe

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Update 4/29/15

Added Leonard Betts (surprised I missed that one).