The cool thing about rewatching DVDs of classic shows years later is having my perceptions changed. In my head, I thought Season 6 of “The X-Files” (1998-99, Fox) was an experimental year that marked the start of the series’ downfall. After watching these 22 episodes, I believe it’s the show’s best season up to this point.
Trial and success
Although almost every episode is an outside-the-box, indirect descendant of Darin Morgan’s three Season 3 episodes, “experimental” isn’t the right word. That implies trial-and-error, but Season 6 is almost entirely trial-and-success. Sure, the move to Los Angeles meant the visuals wouldn’t be as coolly murky as in Vancouver, but it’s a fair trade-off when the trip down the coast reinvigorates the writers and lead actors.
The neatest thing I noticed when rewatching Season 6 is that Chris Carter handled Mulder and Scully’s unrequited, understated love exactly right. Sure, it was a slow-burning relationship compared to the real world, where such things rarely take this long to develop. But once you accept that their “courtship” did unfold over seven years, you couldn’t ask for a much more beautiful, subtle romance (at least up to this point).
“The X-Files” Season 6 (1998-99)
Fox, 22 episodes
Showrunner: Chris Carter
Starring: David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Mitch Pileggi
Cute M&S moments
We get cute moments in several episodes: A novelist observes that Scully can’t be a romantic lead because she is already in love (“Milagro”) and a small-town Kansan observes the same about Mulder (“The Rain King”). Mulder teaches Scully how to hit a baseball (“The Unnatural”), the FBI partners go undercover as husband and wife (“Arcadia”), and comically, when “Mulder” tries to seduce Scully, her suspicions that he has been body-switched are confirmed (“Dreamland II”).
Also, five years and one movie worth of mythology finally reach a crescendo when the Syndicate members (except the Cigarette-Smoking Man, natch) are killed by the rebel aliens in “Two Fathers” and “One Son.” Later, “Biogenesis” starts the “Are we all descended from aliens?” mythology that will carry into later seasons.
Whether that paid off or not is a question for my posts on Seasons 7 through 9. For now, let’s revel in the genius that is Season 6, with my rankings of the 22 episodes.
1. “Tithonus” (episode 9, written by Vince Gilligan)
Of all the sci-fi themes that are literally impossible, eternal life might be the most fascinating, perhaps because it stands 180 degrees removed from the certainty of death, another popular theme. The quiet horror of living forever has never been portrayed with more beautiful sadness than here, in an episode I don’t know how to pronounce, thanks to the soft-spoken, hauntingly tired turn by Geoffrey Lewis as Alfred Fellig, who photographs people on the verge of dying in hopes that Death will finally claim him.
2. “Milagro” (18, John Shiban, Frank Spotnitz and Chris Carter)
Again, a guest performer steals the show: This time it’s John Hawkes as Phillip Padgett, Mulder’s neighbor whose typewritten novel creates reality. As such, Gillian Anderson takes Scully into new territory as she gives in to Padgett’s advances against her better judgment.
3. “The Unnatural” (20, David Duchovny)
Writer-director David Duchovny delivers a gorgeous love letter to both the “X-Files” mythology and baseball, and Jessie L. Martin gives a performance as alien Negro Leagues slugger Josh Exley that stuck with me throughout Martin’s comparatively bland years on “Law & Order.” And if Exley playing for the Roswell Greys doesn’t put a smile on your face, “The X-Files” isn’t your type of show.
4. “Arcadia” (13, Daniel Arkin)
Not only does this episode put Mulder and Scully undercover as a married couple (leading to domestic scenes such as Mulder reacting in horror to Scully’s green beauty mask), but it also shows that X-Files can take place in gated suburban communities just as they can in steamy urban slums. In many ways, suburbia is creepier.
5. “S.R. 819” (10, Shiban)
As with the previous two Skinner-centric episodes, this one is a winner as Krycek (as we find out in the final scene) infects the assistant director with nanobots that can kill him — or stay benign if Skinner does his bidding. It’s a strong mythology ep that sets the stage for future Krycek manipulations.
6. “Field Trip” (21, Spotnitz, Shiban and Gilligan)
This was the Season 6 ep I most looked forward to rewatching, because I remembered liking it but not understanding what happened. It has something to do an underground plant that gives our heroes distracting hallucinations as it slowly digests them Sarlacc-pit-style. The Philip K. Dick vibe, where some things are real and some aren’t, makes it a classic.
7. “The Rain King” (7, Jeffrey Bell)
Like many of this season’s episodes, “The Rain King” uses an unexplained phenomenon as a jumping point for a decidedly non-spooky story (which is why this ep and the season as a whole have some detractors). This quirky, small-town love story put a smile on my face for the entire 44 minutes.
8. “Three of a Kind” (19, Gilligan and Shiban)
This sequel is the equal to Season 5’s “Unusual Suspects,” as the Lone Gunmen once again prove they deserve their own series (I love Langly’s reaction to Scully’s autopsy) and Anderson again gets to stretch her acting chops when Scully is dosed with a drug that takes away her inhibitions (she calls Langly “cutey”).
9/10. “Two Fathers” (11, Spotnitz and Carter) and “One Son” (12, Carter and Spotnitz)
Anyone with complaints that the mythology was unclear had to appreciate this conclusive two-parter, which features a scene of Cassandra outlining the different types of aliens and their goals to Mulder behind a bank of medical equipment.
11/12. “Dreamland” (4, Gilligan, Shiban and Spotnitz) and “Dreamland II” (5, Gilligan, Shiban and Spotntiz)
On my first viewing of this body-switch two-parter, I thought it was odd that we as viewers could see who the characters actually are (Duchovny as Mulder, Michael McKean as Morris Fletcher), thus precluding the opportunity for Duchovny to play someone else, as he did in Season 4’s “Small Potatoes.” While I’m still not sure it was the right choice, I still like the episodes, especially how Scully has to embrace the paranormal truth (a big theme of this season) in order to set things right.
13. “Alpha” (16, Bell)
It’s similar to Season 1’s “Shapes,” but it’s superior because the shapeshifter is darn creepy in its form as a Chinese dog with glowing red eyes. And I’m a sucker for any story (see “The Relic”) that begins with an empty crate on a ship and a creature loose in the city.
14. “The Beginning” (1, Carter)
The season opener answers one of the nagging questions from the movie as we see the chest-bursting alien (sorry, but the “Alien” parallel is hard to deny) morph into a grey alien. With a story set in sunny, hot Phoenix, Season 6 definitively says, “Yes, we’re shooting in L.A. now.” It’s not necessarily better than Vancouver, but this is still very much “The X-Files,” so many worried fans probably breathed a sigh of relief after this episode aired.
15. “Biogenesis” (22, Carter and Spotnitz)
The season finale is a pilot episode of sorts for the final three years as Mulder gets headaches when he’s exposed to an artifact that has Native American writing, was discovered in Africa, and probably came from aliens. It ends with Scully finding a buried flying saucer, thus putting a period on her days as a nonbeliever.
16. “Monday” (15, Gilligan and Shiban)
The plot, where Mulder repeats the same day and gradually absorbs information that will allow him to foil a bomber, is a more dramatic riff on “Groundhog Day.” Adding humor are the scenes of Mulder waking up in his leaky waterbed, which Morris bought in “Dreamland,” and Mulder figures was an anonymous gift.
17. “Agua Mala” (14, David Amann)
The wettest episode of the series finds M&S investigating a sea creature in a Florida hurricane. It’s the first episode after Kersh reinstates the duo to the X-Files (which didn’t stop them from investigating X-Files in the first 13 episodes, but still …). It’s nice to get back to basics (although the episode’s tone is slightly whimsical) and it’s nice to see Darren McGavin’s Arthur Dales (from Season 5’s “Travelers”) again.
18. “Triangle” (3, Carter)
The most technically ambitious episode of the series features long tracking shots as a time-traveling Mulder traverses a World War II ship being overtaken by Nazis and Scully pounds through the FBI building looking for someone with information. It’s unclear how much of this episode was real and how much was in Mulder’s head (obviously, the Nazi leader wouldn’t look exactly like the CSM). Ultimately, the hospital bed scene of Mulder telling Scully he loves her makes this a winner for ‘shippers like me.
19. “Trevor” (17, Jim Guttridge and Ken Hawryliw)
Showing that they haven’t exhausted all paranormal possibilities yet, the writers invent a guy who can walk through walls. As an escaped convict who just wants to meet his son, John Diehl plays one of the series scariest humans.
20. “Terms of Endearment” (6, Amann)
After five outside-the-box episodes, it seemed like “The X-Files” was getting back to basics with a story about a demon named Wayne (Bruce Campbell) claiming human babies. And yet, there are twists and oddities (Mulder racing Wayne in a sports car) that show this isn’t a traditional monster-of-the-week outing.
21. “Drive” (2, Gilligan)
The conversations between Mulder and Crump (Bryan Cranston) make this a decent character piece, as Mulder meets someone even more paranoid about the government than he is. Riffing on “Speed,” Mulder has to drive fast to keep Crump’s head from exploding.
22. “How the Ghosts Stole Christmas” (8, Carter)
In a haunted house, Ed Asner and Lily Tomlin play ghosts, but the real horror for our heroes is how the ghosts expose their flaws and deepest secrets. It also has that cute final scene where M&S exchange presents even though they promised they wouldn’t. Even though I rank it last on this list, this is a worthy entry for annual Christmas viewing.
What were your favorite episodes of Season 6? Where does it rank in comparison to other seasons? Share your thoughts below.