The X-Files: 10 Best Mythology Episodes

8. Nisei

Talitha Cumi - X-Files
Fox

The increase in budget for the show's third season was very apparent in numerous episodes - some of which we'll get to later - but 'Nisei', as well as its follow-up episode '731' are testaments to the producer's abilities to push television into the realms of Hollywood style spectacle.

Immediately grabbing the viewers by the throat with the one-two punch of an alien autopsy and a massacre by a government-appointed task force, this episode wastes no time in getting to the good stuff. Upon seeing a videotape of the aforementioned massacre, Mulder quickly falls down a rabbit hole of conspiratory information that leads him to the scene of the crime, whilst Scully comes face to face with a group of women who have had identical abduction experiences to her.

What makes this episode really stand apart from the rest though is how it balances the two stories simultaneously with Mulder's suspenseful and action-heavy thriller story being the perfect counterpoint to the more human drama that Scully is faced with. Neither story feels at odds with the other, and both elements succeed in thickening up what is already a very dense plot by this point.

It's taught, emotional and above all else, extremely entertaining.

 
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UK based screenwriter, actor and one-half of the always-irreverent Kino Inferno podcast. Purveyor of cult cinema, survival horror games and low-rent slasher films.