Seen any little green men recently? The show that popularised the terms shipping (relationship), mythology (as it relates to episodic television), and MOTW (Monster of the Week) has had an undeniable impact on all the genre television series that followed it - enough so that a series like Fringe outright included a reference to The X-Files within the canon of their show. Enough so that Fox is now in talks to bring The X-Files back to the small screen after more than a decade off the air. Yet somewhere along the way during the show's original run, its own mythology, a running tale of conspiracy and alien invasion, became so hard to follow that many fans simply threw up their hands and gave up on it, focusing instead on the relatively simple to follow Monster of the Week episodes. For a show with such an undeniable impact on television history, it's frankly shocking to see a core element become so overlooked. It's a shame, because when you look back at it, the mythology outings of The X-Files were some of the best of the series, featuring many superb acting performances, well-crafted scripts, and nail-biting endings. Woven into the series as it was, it's the mythology that really held the show together. It drove character arcs, kept viewers guessing, and spurred the series to reach new heights to the point that many episodes had movie quality stunts and special effects (at least for the time). These are the episodes that are both creepy and intriguing, the ones that made you believe the government might really be in on a massive conspiracy against its people - something all the more believable today in the age of NSA snooping and cablegate. Episodes like Deep Throat, which introduced Mulder's original, shadowy informant, the Pilot, E.B.E., and others set the stage, then later episodes expanded on the concept, creating a tale of a vast, overreaching conspiracy with the central idea that aliens were plotting to colonise earth. With nine seasons and roughly a half dozen mythology episodes each year (not to mention two movies), The X-Files had a lot of conspiracy to deal with. Let's look at fifteen of the best mythology episodes, all of which were integral to the success of this iconic franchise.
Primarily covering the sport of MMA from Ontario, Canada, Jay Anderson has been writing for various publications covering sports, technology, and pop culture since 2001. Jay holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the University of Guelph, and a Certificate in Leadership Skills from Humber College.
