The 8 Best X-Files Episodes Written By Vince Gilligan

Vince Gilligan became a household name after the success of Breaking Bad and the sequel series Better Call Saul. Now, with his series Pluribus quickly becoming one of the best sci-fi series of the past 15 years, it may be easy to believe that Gilligan has switched genres. However, this is not entirely true, as it is more accurate to say that he has returned to his roots. Gilligan’s career break came when he began writing for The X-Files, and his episodes have been some of the best in the timeless 1990s TV series.

On the surface, the premises for some of the show’s episodes sound ridiculous, but while The X-Files is often hilarious, with a sense of humor that allows the show to poke fun at itself, others are surprisingly deep, and sometimes tragic. Many episodes of The X-Files that turned the show into a cult classic were written by Vince Gilligan. As the series still holds up today, it is sometimes easy to see elements that have influenced his more recent projects when rewatching it.

Jump The Shark

Season 9, Episode 15

The X-Files episode “Jump the Shark” is one of the sillier-sounding ones, which then takes a tragic turn involving some of the show’s fan-favorite characters. The episode centers on the creation of a bioweapon using grafted shark organs, and a race against time to stop the host from unleashing it. When The Lone Gunmen realize that they have run out of time, they seal the area and trap themselves in the room with it, resulting in their heroic but heartbreaking deaths.

The decision to abruptly kill The X-Files‘ Lone Gunmen was controversial and a direct result of their spinoff show flopping. However, this did not mean that the writers were enthusiastic about writing them out of the show, with Gilligan in particular expressing regret for the fact that it was done. Still, they live on in The X-Files comic, which is set in an alternate universe in which they faked their own deaths, assisted by the FBI.

Leonard Betts

Season 4, Episode 12

The X-Files has aged exceptionally well, and the show’s regular use of practical effects produce some gruesome moments of body horror. The episode “Leonard Betts” is one of these, featuring a scene in which the antagonist emerges from his own mouth. The titular character is a cancer-eating mutant who can regrow body parts, and the episode is one of the show’s best “monster of the week” episodes.

Vince Gilligan excels at using bizarre situations to reveal a heartbreaking or disturbing twist in the wider story, as in Breaking Bad‘s toilet scene, in which Hank discovers Heisenberg’s true identity while sitting on the toilet. “Leonard Betts” is one of the best examples of this, though the script was written by John Shiban and Frank Spotnitz as well as Gilligan. When Betts locks Scully in an ambulance with him, he tells her “you have something I need,” appearing to reveal that she has cancer.

Bad Blood

Season 5, Episode 12

“Bad Blood” is one of Gillian Anderson’s favorite episodes of The X-Files, and also one of its funniest. When Mulder kills a man he believed to be a vampire, he and Scully attempt to get their stories straight before reporting to Skinner. However, the two experienced what happened very differently, and the episode reveals what the two think of each other by presenting them as hilarious caricatures.

Gilligan was inspired by an episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show, in which the two main characters tell two different versions of a fight they had. The scenarios were filmed back-to-back, using the same camera angles to give a sense of continuity, while the only difference was in the person telling the story. In order to avoid the episode being too complex, Gilligan wrote a very simple vampire horror, that turned into a comedy through the storytelling.

Small Potatoes

Season 4, Episode 20

“Small Potatoes” begins with a series of babies being born with tails. It is not only one of the series’ fan favorite episodes, but it also includes some of Agent Mulder’s best quotes. When the usually-skeptical Scully starts to believe that the episode’s antagonist is a shapeshifter, Mulder is delighted, asking her if the two should start picking out china patterns.

The X-Files was hitting its stride by the fourth season, which has a rare 100% positive critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes. After working on some of the darkest episodes of the show, including Scully’s cancer storyline, Gilligan wanted to prove that he could also write more lighthearted episodes. The villain is a truly pathetic man who shapeshifts in order to seduce and impregnate women, and while this plotline might have been treated slightly differently now, it also gave us some of the show’s most ridiculous scenes.

Paper Hearts

Season 4, Episode 10

“Paper Hearts” is technically a “monster of the week” episode, but it also fits into the series’ wider mythology concerning the disappearance of Mulder’s sister, who he believes was abducted by aliens. “Paper Hearts” questions Mulder’s theory, exploring the more tragic idea that she could have been murdered by a notorious child-killer who cuts a heart out of each of his victims’ clothes.

Years later, the X-Files episode still bothers Vince Gilligan, as he had to make a major change for the episode to comply with broadcasting standards of the time. Mulder shoots the killer in the head, but while the window behind him is smashed, the killer appears unharmed, with no bullet hole. Broadcast Standards and Practices would not allow such a wound to be shown, but this leads to an odd-looking scene. That said, a missing bullet wound is hardly the oddest scene in the show, and “Paper Hearts” remains one of Gilligan’s best X-Files episodes.

Pusher

Season 3, Episode 17

The X-Files episode “Pusher” broke boundaries for TV by showing a game of Russian Roulette, which had never before been shown onscreen in a TV show. When Fox officials allowed the episode’s pivotal scene to stay in, Gilligan reportedly said that he couldn’t believe that they got away with it, feeling that the episode was his best work. The story centers on a man with the ability to influence others with his mind, and works as a contract killer.

The majority of the episode is a game of cat-and-mouse between the antagonist, Robert Patrick Modell, and Mulder, which culminates in the Russian Roulette scene. Gilligan’s ability to write unbearably tense scenes is on full display here, and he would go on to improve on this in Breaking Bad with Gus Fring’s infamous “box cutter” scene and Walt’s desperate plea on Hank’s behalf. Gilligan also excels at revealing details about the characters without distracting from the tension, with Mulder fighting harder when Modell tries to get him to turn the gun on Scully than when his own life is threatened.

Drive

Season 6, Episode 2

Breaking Bad would not have been made without this X-Files episode, as this is when Vince Gilligan met Bryan Cranston. The episode is about a deeply unpleasant racist who is affected by a bizarre and painful illness that is only eased by traveling at speed. New York Magazine covered the casting in an article about Cranston, with Gilligan reportedly saying, “We needed a guy who could be scary and kind of loathsome but at the same time had a deep, resounding humanity.”

It was this performance that would first convince Gilligan that Cranston was the right actor to play Walter White, sending AMC executives footage of his performance in The X-Files, which, according to Gilligan, “was all it took.” The episode is partly a tribute to the Keanu Reeves action movie, Speed, but it is also based on real-life US Navy experimentations involving long wavelengths.

X-Cops

Season 7, Episode 12

While “Drive” is likely the best-known of Vince Gilligan’s X-Files episodes due to Bryan Cranston’s cameo, “X-Cops” is one of the most iconic in the show’s 11-season run. The crossover with the TV show Cops made such an impression that a star in the X-Files revival has pitched the episode’s return. In a drastic change from the show’s usual format, “X-Cops” was filmed like an episode of Cops, using several members of its crew.

The episode features a monster that can turn into your greatest fear, leading to Mulder assuming he is hunting a werewolf, a disturbingly timely reference to hantavirus, and a cameo from Freddy Krueger. Gilligan had pitched the crossover idea a few seasons previously, with a pitched Unsolved Mysteries crossover that turned into the episode “Bad Blood.” However, with the show looking for fresh ideas, the series’ creator Chris Carter eventually allowed the Cops crossover, and one of The X-Files best and funniest episodes was made.

Source: New York Magazine

Release Date

1993 – 2018-00-00

Network

FOX

Showrunner

Chris Carter