The X-Files Is Better When The Unexplained Isn’t The Point

When I talk about episodes in which proving or figuring out the unexplained isn’t the point, I’m pretty much exclusively talking about The X-Files monster-of-the-week episodes, as opposed to the UFO mythology episodes.

The mythology Chris Carter tries to build with The X-Files simply doesn’t hold up. While there wonderful standalone and two-part mythology episodes, the larger picture suffers from contradictions and unanswered questions.

Watching The X-Files mythology episodes now is kind of like if you were to watch all the movies in the MCU and they kept hinting at different heroes appearing in each others’ films, and the crossovers simply never materialized. Carter’s mythology is a long-winded, broken promise.

For an example of the kind of The X-Files episode I’m talking about, check out Season 4’s “Unruhe.” During an investigation of women being kidnapped and lobotomized, Mulder discovers the man they’re looking for leaves behind psychic photographs—without knowing it, he somehow alters film to create images reflecting his dark fantasies.

It isn’t until later in the episode that the assailant, Gerry Schnauz played wonderfully by Pruitt Taylor Vince, even discovers he has this ability. It’s a good thing he does because one of the bizarre photos he leaves behind helps Mulder find him after Schnauz kidnaps Scully.

Is the unexplained phenomena important to this The X-Files episode? Sure. But it isn’t what the episode revolves around. With a few tweaks, you could eliminate the supernatural from this episode altogether and still have a great story.

No professional photographers are around to debate Mulder about the existence of psychic photos. There are no righteous rants about how society will never be whole until we accept the existence of photography created only with our creepy minds. The crazy photos are just a tool Mulder uses to stop a sick man from hurting people.

Almost three decades after it aired, “Home” remains arguably the most disturbing and yet well-received episode of The X-Files. Feeling often like a spiritual successor to 1974’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, “Home” is just about the closest the series ever gets to a slasher flick.

The corpse of a mutated infant leads the FBI agents to a family in rural Pennsylvania. Generations worth of mutations and inbreeding have resulted in the young men of the Peacock family to show limited, animal-like intelligence coupled with outright superhuman strength and durability.

While The X-Files‘ heroes’ understanding of the Peacocks’ mutations help them eventually stop their violence, once again, there’s no crusade to expose the existence of mutations that turn people into super strong cavemen. The agents simply want to stop the family from killing innocent civilians.

It would go too far to say the supernatural element of The X-Files episode “Paper Hearts” is inconsequential, but it wasn’t consequential enough for the writers provide a particularly good explanation.

In “Paper Hearts,” Mulder experiences a number of seemingly prophetic dreams leading him to a previously undiscovered body from a serial killer case he worked on before becoming obsessed with the X-Files. The dreams lead him to suspect it was the imprisoned killer John Lee Roche (Tom Noonan)—not aliens—who abducted his sister Samantha.

We eventually learn the whole thing is a ruse perpetrated by Roche, who somehow found a way to enter Mulder’s dreams and reshape them. How does he do this? Mulder speculates his profiling of Roche led to a psychic “nexus” forming between them, but it’s just about the flimsiest explanation we ever hear on the series.

Even though this rates as the closest The X-Files comes to a “Somehow, Palpatine returned” moment, fans don’t seem to mind. “Paper Hearts” remains one of the highest rated episodes on sites like IMDb.