The X-Files season 1

This article contains episode information and plot summaries from the television show The X-Files.

Season one ran from 1993-1994.

Main and recurring cast can be found on the main X-Files page.

Pilot

Pilot (episode 1x79) was the first episode of The X-Files. It originally aired on September 10th, 1993.

The episode is written by Chris Carter and directed by Robert Mandel. Guest stars include Charles Cioffi as Section Chief Blevins and Zachary Ansley as Billy Miles.

Summary

The episode starts with introducing FBI Agent Dana Scully, who is being assigned to work with another Agent, Fox Mulder. Scully is asked by the Section Chief Blevins to work with Mulder and provide scientific insight on his work, which focuses on research of paranormal phenomena, such as alien abductions, telepathy and similar things. During the conversation between Blevins and Scully, the Cigarette Smoking Man can be observed in the room. On first meeting Scully, Mulder immediately concludes that she has essentially been sent to spy on him.

Mulder and Scully go to Oregon, where a high-school student has died under mysterious circumstances, with two red marks on her back, same as of several other victims. Investigation reveals that other students from the same year have been killed, too. Mulder and Scully also come across the "lost time" phenomena, where nine minutes seemed to pass in a few seconds. Agent Mulder becomes convinced that several high-school students have been abducted by aliens for tests, an explanation that the skeptical Agent Scully can not accept. Mulder insists that Billy Miles, a student paralysed after a car accident, actually is performing the killings because of alien influence.

The episode ends with most of evidence for Mulder's theory being destroyed, except for a small metallic object found in one of the possible alien abductees. After Agent Scully presents it as the last remaining piece of evidence, the object is later seen placed into a large warehouse under the Pentagon by the Cigarette Smoking Man.

Quotes

Mulder: "No one down here, but the FBI's most unwanted."

Scully: "Time can't just disappear, it's a universal invariant!"
Mulder: "Not in this zip code."

Deep Throat

Deep Throat (episode 1x01) originally aired on September 17th, 1993.

The episode is written by Chris Carter and directed by Daniel Sackheim. Guest stars include Charles Cioffi as Section Chief Blevins, Jerry Hardin as Deep Throat, Gabrielle Rose as Anita Budahas and Andrew Johnson as Colonel Robert Budahas.

Summary

Agent Mulder and Agent Scully invesitage the disappearance of a US Air Force colonel Robert Budahas. Mulder thinks that it's related to disapperanaces of six other pilots from an air base after flying experimental aircraft. Specifically, Mulder believes that these aircraft were built using extraterrestrial technology procured from UFOs.

A mysterious man known in the series as Deep Throat contacts Mulder and recommends him to stop investigation. Mulder ignores that, and with Scully visits Anita Budahas, wife of Colonel Budahas. She describes her husband's somewhat erratic behaviour as well as unwillingness to discuss any questions related to his work.

Mulder tells Scully of Aurora, a mysterious aircraft supposedly created by the Pentagon with UFO technology. During the night, they witness two objects flying in the sky. The agents find two teenagers who sneaked into an airforce base. They tell agents that they have seen all sorts of strange flying objects above the air base, and Mulder believes them.

Unexpectedly, Anita Budahas reports that her husband has returned. The agents visit the Budahas residence, but the colonel can't remember any interesting details, simply insisting he has been in a hospital for some time. He appears, however, absolutely sane. Mulder theorizes that colonel's memory might have been changed to prevent him from remembering his test flights.

Mulder and Scully are stopped, while driving, by a group of men in black who destroy the pictures of strange objects the agents earlier took and order them to leave the city. Mulder, however, decides to sneak into the air base the same way as two teenagers did. He is eventually discovered by the base security and doctors can be seen performing some procedures on him.

Scully is able to exchange Mulder for a military man who, as she discovered, was spying on the agents, but Mulder is unable to remember anything. Back in Washington, Deep Throat meets Mulder again. Deep Throat mentions that Mulder has chosen a dangerous path and both he and agent Scully are now in danger.

Quotes

Mulder: "They're here, aren't they?" Deep Throat: "Mr. Mulder, they've been here for a long, long time..."

Man in Black: "Please, step out of the car."
Mulder: "You think if maybe we ignore him, he'll go away?"
Man in Black: "Please, step out of the car now."
Mulder: "I guess not."

Squeeze

Squeeze (episode 1x02) originally aired on September 24th, 1993.

The episode is written by Glen Morgan and James Wong, and directed by Harry Longstreet. Guest stars include Doug Hutchison as Eugene Tooms and Donal Logue as Agent Tom Colton.

Summary

The episode focuses on a series of murders in Baltimore, Maryland. As described in a briefing at the start of the episode, there have been numerous murders performed, where each victim's liver was removed. Also, every victim was found in a closed room.

Agent Mulder gets involved with the investigation and travels to a highly secure office buildings where the latest victim was found and discovers fingerprints there. On checking records of similar events, Mulder finds out that similar murders have been taking place in the United States every thirty years, since at least 1903. In each case, there were five victims with their livers removed.

Mulder believes the murderer has found some unusual way to circumvent the security systems and notices someone crawling in a ventilation pipe. The man to emerge from the pipe is Eugene Tooms, who gets arrested and has to undergo a test on the lie detector. He only fails the question concerning his age and is released.

On comparing Tooms's fingerprints with the ones he found in the office building, Mulder finds out they're the same. They also match the fingerprints from a 1933 file. Following yet another murder, Mulder and Scully find out that Tooms has apparently never lived in his appartment. Scully contacts a sheriff who was investigating the murders in 1933, and he's convinced that Tooms is indeed the murderer, although he couldn't prove that at the time.

Agents enter an empty building that is related to Tooms in some way, and find items from victims throughout the century. Mulder develops a theory that Tooms is a genetic mutant, and he has to eat human liver which gives him strength, but he also hibernates for 30 years. A strange, hive-like formation can be seen in the building - that is where, according to Mulder, Tooms hibernates. As the agents leave, Tooms can be seen taking Scully's neck-chain. Tooms is well hidden and remained unseen.

Agent Colton considers Mulder's theory to be complete nonsense and is furious at him and Scully for watching the apparently empty building. Scully goes home, and leaves a message that survelliance of the building has been stopped on Mulder's answering machine. Mulder arrives at the building to find no one there. He does, though, find Scully's neck chain among items from other victims and arrives at Scully's appartment, where she has been assaulted by Tooms. Mulder manages to subdue Tooms, who is sent to jail, where he starts building himself a new hive.

Quotes

Agent Colton: "When we first had lunch, I really looked forward to working with you, you were a good agent, but now after Mulder, I couldn't have you far enough away. Don't bother going down there, I had the stakeout called off."

Mulder: "All these people putting bars on their windows, spending good money on hi-tech security systems, trying to feel safe. I look at this guy and I think, it ain't enough."

Conduit

Conduit (episode 1x03) originally aired on October 1st, 1993.

The episode is written by Alex Gansa and Howard Gordon, and directed by Daniel Sackheim. Guest stars include Charles Cioffi as Section Chief Blevins and Carrie Snodgress as Darlene Morris.

Summary

The episode starts with an alien abduction of Ruby Morris, which is then reported in a local newspaper. Agent Mulder insists that the FBI investigates this case. Section Chief Blevins calls in Agent Scully and is rather concerned about the similarities between this case and the claimed abudction of Samantha Mulder, agent Mulder's sister.

Mulder tells Scully that the abduction of Ruby Morris took place at Lake Okobogee, which is a known hot-spot for UFO activity. He also shows an old newspaper article about a UFO sighting by a local girl scout group, among which is Darlene Morris, mother of Ruby. The agents travel to Iowa to meet with Darlene Morris, who insists that her daughter has been abducted. However, she is only believed by agent Mulder, as the local authorities are convinced the girl is simply having fun somewhere with her boyfriend.

Mulder talks to Ruby's young brother Kevin, who was present at the time of abduction, but is unable to remember any details. Mulder notices Kevin writing down strings of ones and zeroes that the boy claim he picks up from television. Mulder sends these for analysis to Washington, and the sequence is shown to be a part of a top-secret satellite transmission.

Mulder develops the idea that Kevin Morris is some sort of a conduit for alien messages. Returning to the abduction site, agents find Ruby Morris's biker boyfriend buried in a small grave. Through a note in his wallet, agents find another girl, who admits to shooting the biker after finding out about his relation to Ruby, but she doesn't know where Ruby is.

After finding the Morris residence empty, except for Ruby's portrait composed of zeroes and ones, agents go to the Okobogee lake to see Kevin walking towards a light. The source of the light shows to be a group of bikers. As Mulder talks to Kevin, Scully finds Ruby Morris unconscious in the woods. Later in hospital, she tries to tell of her experiences, but is prevented from doing so by Darlene Morris, who doesn't want her daughter to be ridiculed as she herself once was. Darlene Morris insists that Ruby was with bikers all this time and asks Mulder not to talk with her.

Later that night, Scully is seen viewing a hypnosis session of Mulder many years ago, where he reflects on his sister's abudction and expresses belief that she will once return.

Quotes

Mulder: "You know when I was a kid, I had this ritual. I closed my eyes before I walked into my room, 'cause I thought that one day when I opened them my sister would be there. Just lying in bed, like nothing ever happened. You know I'm still walking into that room, everyday of my life."

Mulder (during hypnosis session): "The voice in my head."
Dr. Weber: "What's it telling you?"
Mulder: "Not to be afraid. It's telling me no harm will come to her, and that one day she'll return."
Dr. Werber: "Do you believe the voice?"
Mulder: "I want to believe."

The Jersey Devil

The Jersey Devil (episode 1x04) originally aired on October 8th, 1993.

The episode is written by Chris Carter and directed by Joe Napolitano. Guest stars include Wayne Tippit as Detective Thompson and Michael Macrae as Peter Brullet.

Summary

A homeless man is found in New Jersey woods, his body partially eaten. Agent Mulder tries to link this death to an old X-File in 1947 when a motorist was attacked, his arm partially eaten, and the police was able to shoot a half-man, half-beast creature tracked back to a cave. Mulder believes that it's the infamous Jersey Devil, a creature said to inhabit the area, and begins investigation.

Mulder meets up with Detective Thompson in the local morgue who is officially assigned to the investigation. Detective is reluctant to believe a story about the Jersey Devil. Mulder meets Peter Brullet, who found the body, as well as another homeless man who knew the victim. Both tell Mulder they believe that the Jersey Devil is behind the murders.

Agent Mulder spends a night in the street and notices what he believes might be the Jersey Devil. Mulder fails to catch the creature, but instead gets arrested by the police as a suspicious person. In jail, Mulder accusses Detective Thompson of unwillingness to investigate the case as it might disrupt the tourism industry.

Dana Scully arrives at the location to get Mulder out of jail. Agents arrive at the University of Maryland, where doctor Diamond confirms Mulder's idea that a human could return to primitive instincs of a neandertal. Mulder theorizes there might have been two such creatures, and the one he saw was female, forced into the city searching for food.

The agents, with help of the local police, attempt to track down the creature. It attacks Mulder and flees to the wood, but the police are able to kill it, despite Mulder's insistence that it should be left alive. Autopsy reveals that the female gave birth to a child recently. The child can be seen hiding in the woods as the episode ends.

Quotes

Mulder: "Don't you have a life, Scully?"
Scully: "Keep that up, Mulder, and I'll hurt you like that beast-woman."

Scully: "Mulder, we've put men into space, we've built computers that work faster than the human mind."
Mulder: "While we over-populate the world and create new technologies to kill each other with. Maybe we're just beasts with big brains."

Shadows

Shadows (episode 1x05) originally aired on October 22nd, 1993. The episode is written by Glen Morgan and James Wong, and directed by Michael Katleman. Guest stars include Barry Primus as Robert Dorland and Lisa Waltz as Lauren Kyte.

Summary

Agents from some covert group within the government contact agents Mulder and Scully and show them two male bodies. The bodies are, however, still warm and show electromagnetical activity. The agents are told that throats of men have been crushed from the inside and ask for their input. Agent Mulder says that he can provide no assistance.

After leaving, Mulder tells Scully that he has actually seen similar reports on X-Files cases concerning psychokinesis. He managed to secretly take fingerprints of the bodies, which show that the men were part of a terrorist group related to murders in Philadelphia. The agents find an ATM machine where the bodies were discovered and are able to get video footage from the machine's security camera. The footage reveals the two men attacking a young woman, Lauren Kyte.

The agents interrogate Lauren Kyte, a secretary for HTG Industries, whose boss Howard Graves committed suicide recently, to find out that Lauren was indeed attacked, but didn't want to report the event as she escaped without any harm. The agents enter their car, which suddenly goes uncontrollable at a very high speed, crashing into another car, but doing Mulder and Scully no harm. Mulder suspects that Lauren is somehow directly related to that, while Scully believes her accomplice sabotaged the car.

Taking pictures of Lauren's house, Mulder notices the face of her supposedly dead boss, Howard Graves, in the background. Scully thinks that his death has been faked, while Mulder believes that the man is indeed dead, but still protecting Lauren Kyte. Mulder also doesn't believe that Lauren could overpower the two men near ATM machine, and suggests she was helped by Howard there, too.

A hitman is seen breaking into Lauren's house, aiming to kill her. However, before he can harm Lauren, a strange invisible power kills the assasin. Mulder and Scully arrive and interrogate Lauren again, who tells the whole story this time. She says that her boss Howard Graves was killed by Robert Dorland, another employee of the company, after Graves threatened to sever ties with the Iranian terrorist group, denying them access to weapons. Lauren insists that Howard's spirit is protecting her.

Based on the information provided by Lauren, Mulder and Scully, accompanied by a number of FBI agents conduct a search of HTG Industries, trying to find papers related to illegal arms sales. As they are unable to find any evidence, an invisible power tears the wallpaper in Dorland's office, revealing a floppy disk hidden there. The information on that disk allowed Dorland to be brought to the court.

Quotes

Scully: "You lied. You have seen this before, I can tell. You lied to them."
Mulder: "I would never lie. I willfully participated in a campaign of misinformation."

Mulder: "You don't see too many bosses graves without people dancing on it."

Scully: "I think Howard Graves faked his own death."
Mulder: "Do you know how difficult it is to fake your own death? Only one man has pulled it off, Elvis."

Ghost in the Machine

Ghost in the Machine (episode 1x06) originally aired on October 29th, 1993. The episode is written by Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa, and directed by Jerrold Freedman. Guest stars include Jerry Hardin as Deep Throat and Wayne Duvall as Special Agent Jerry Lamana.

Summary

Special Agent Jerry Lamana is assigned a case on the mysterious death of Benjamin Drake, CEO of Eurisko company. Drake was electrocuted in his office washroom, apparently through using the Eurisko central operating system, a system that controls everything in the office building. It is suspected that someone with access to the system used it to carry out the murder.

Agent Lamana feels that this case is very important for his career in the FBI, so he requests the help of Agent Mulder and Agent Scully. Agents find out that Drake apparently answered an incoming phone call before his death. Talking to the Eurisko engineer Peterson, they find out that one Brad Wilczek has access to controls of the central operating system. Wilczek is one of the very few to have that access, is a founder of Eurisko and a skilled programmer, who had a row with Drake over the Central Operating System.

Agent Scully uses voice analysis and concludes that Wilczek used a computer to alter his own voice and phoned Drake before his death. Agent Lamana goes to Eurisko to arrest Wilczek. Lamana steps into the elevator, which goes up to the 29th floor, and then falls down the shaft with great speed, killing Lamana.

Mulder meets Deep Throat and is told that Brad Wilczek worked on creation of the AI. Wilczek gets arrested for murder of Benjamin Drake and Jerry Lamana. He confesses to the murders, but Agent Mulder believes that Wilczek is innocent. Wilczek tells Mulder that Drake wanted to shut down the Central Operating System project because of the great expenses, and so it killed Drake to protect itself.

Mulder gives Wilczek a computer and convinced him to write a computer virus that would destroy the Central Operating System. Having the virus, Mulder and Scully go to Eurisko. With help of Peterson, Mulder is able to locate the control room as Scully is crawing through the ventilation ducts, despite the Central Operating System trying to stop them all by any means. As Mulder prepares to insert the floppy disk with the virus, Peterson points a gun at him. He confesses to being an agent of the Defense Department, which wants to have that technology. Scully emerges out of the ventilation shafts and shoots Peterson. Mulder launches the virus, which kills the AI. As it dies, it asks why.

Quotes

Mulder: "They can't just take a man like Brad Wilczek without an explanation."
Deep Throat: "They can do anything they want"

Deep Throat: "It's a learning machine. A computer that actually thinks. And it's, ah, become something of a holy grail for some of our more acquisitive colleagues in the Department of Defense."

Ice

Ice (episode 1x07) originally aired on November 5th, 1993.

The episode is written by Glen Morgan and James Wong, and directed by David Nutter. Guest stars include Xander Berkeley as Dr. Hodge, Felicity Huffman as Dr. Da Silva and Steve Hynter as Dr. Murphy.

Summary

The Arctic Ice Core project is a research station funded by the United States government. The station was supposed to procure samples of Arctic ice that could be in existence for millenia. A desperate transmission from a geophysicst comes, stating, "We are not who we are", after which all contact with the research station is lost. An investigation team is dispatched to clarify matters.

The investigation team consists of Fox Mulder, Dana Scully, Dr. Murphy, a geologist, Dr. Hodge, a physician and Dr. Da Silva, toxicologist and their pilot, nicknamed Bear. They all travel to Icy Cape, Alaska. Upon arriving on the research base, they see dead bodies everywhere. Apparently, all personnel either killed themselves or each other. It is, however, impossible to immediately determine why the scientists died.

Suddenly, a dog jumps out of somewhere and attacks Mulder. Bear assists Mulder and gets a bite from the dog. Together, Mulder and Bear manage to subdue the dog and put it to sleep. Scully performs autopsies on the scientists and concludes that they killed each other.

In the meanwhile, it becomes evident that some ice samples were acquired recently. It seems that there was some organism frozen in one of those and that it got free on the base. As the scientists made contact with the organism, something happened that resulted in them killing each other.

Scully demands that everyone has a test to ensure that the parasite is not in one of them. Bear gets very angry and refuses, and shortly a fight starts. In the struggle, Dr. Hodge notices a worm-like creature that uses Bear. The organism is removed, but Bear dies nonetheless. The team theorizes that this organism has something to do with hormone that causes aggressive behaviour, and is the reason why scientists on the base slaughtered each other.

Everyone becomes progressively more nervous and paranoid, as a storm starts outside that disrupts all communication between the research base and anywhere else. During the night, Mulder roams the base and finds Dr. Murphy in the refrigerator, his throat slit. Dr. Hodge and Dr. Da Silva suspect Mulder of murder and have him locked up in a room.

Later, Dr. Hodge is studying the parasites and mixes two blood samples by accident. Surprisingly, he notices that two parasites kill each other. They apply the parasite again to the dog that bit Bear, and the dog soon becomes normal. It becomes evident that infection can be cured by inducing another parasite.

Scully goes to the room where Mulder is kept separated. Mulder persuades Scully that he is not infected and must be let out. As Scully and Mulder leave the room, Da Silva and Hodge attack them, now locking Scully up and attempt to insert the last living parasite into Mulder's ear. As Mulder struggles madly, Hodge notices that Da Silva is actually infected. She is restrained and the parasite is inserted into her, thus saving her.

As the weather becomes normal, the survivors are able to call for evacuation. They all are taken away to safety. Mulder thinks that the parasite creature was probably of extraterrestrial origin, because the location of the ice samples that contained the parasite is close to a meteor crash site a long time ago, where it's buried under the ice. Mulder announces that he wants to go back to the base, but Dr. Hodge tells him that the military burned it to the ground.

Quotes

Bear: "Then I'm the one flying you. My name's Bear. The plane's across the way, provisions are loaded. Grab your gear."
Dr. Hodge: "Oh, could we see some credentials?"
Bear: "Credentials. The only credentials that I have is that I'm the only pilot willing to fly you up there. You don't like those credentials... walk."

Dr. Da Silva: "Come on, nothing can survive in sub-zero temperatures for a quarter of a million years."
Mulder: "Unless that's how it lives"

Space

After a space shuttle launch is aborted and evidence of some bizarre sabotage is found, a NASA worker asks Mulder and Scully to take a look around. It isn't long before they discover that a former astronaut has returned from his spacewalk... with company.

Fallen Angel

• Guest Starring Scott Bellis as Max Fenig

Mulder is tipped off by Deep Throat about a government cover-up of a UFO crash site. He is not the only one interested, as he discovers a fellow UFO enthusiast whose appearance seems rather coincidental. While the military tries to keep Mulder away, Scully finds for the first time, just how hard it is going to be with her newly divided loyalties.

Eve

• Guest Starring Harriet Sansom Harris as Dr. Sally Kendrick/Eve

Mulder and Scully check out the curious murder of a man in Connecticut. When they discover that another man in California was killed simultaneously in the same manner, the uncanny resemblance of the two men's daughters seems more than coincidental. So, when the first child disappears, the two decide to keep an eye on the remaining child. What they find isn't alien, but rather something much more familiar.

Fire

An old flame of Mulder's tries to enlist his aid to protect a visiting Parliament member and lights a small spark of jealousy in Scully. Mulder must overcome his fear of fire to take on the pyrokinetic serial killer.

Beyond the Sea

• Guest Starring Brad Dourif as Luther Lee Boggs

After Scully's father passes away, her scepticism is tested by a prisoner on death row who claims that by using recently gained psychic powers, he can help catch a kidnapper. And without Mulder's guidance, she must decide for herself whether or not the man's visions are truth or a by-product of her grief.

Gender Bender

A series of sexually related killings confound the two agents who aren't certain if the murderer is male or female. The clues lead them to a small Amish-like community called the Kindred who are stranger than the killer themself.

Lazarus

During a trap set for a bank robber, a fellow agent and friend of Scully's is shot by the criminal, whom Scully shoots in turn. While the agent is brought back from apparent death, she fears that his trauma is causing him to act irrationally. Mulder suspects it may be something much more than that.

Young at Heart

A criminal captured by a younger, fresh-from-the-academy Fox Mulder seems to be making good on his promise of vengeance against the agent. Now an older, wiser Mulder must attempt to find this elusive stalker who may not be any wiser... or older.

E.B.E.

After a downed UFO crashes near Iraqi airspace, an unmarked truck carrying its occupant is assailed in Tennessee, causing multiple UFO sightings. Drawn by the event, Mulder and Scully find themselves tracking the trailer, with the help and hindrance of Deep Throat.

Miracle Man

The agents investigate a Southern ministry led by a man whose son has the power to kill or heal with the touch of a hand.

Shapes

• Guest Starring Michael Horse as Sheriff Charley Tskany

The shooting of a Native American draws Mulder's attention as the murderer believed he had shot an animal of some sort. But an Indian myth and some strange evidence seem to indicate the possibility of lycanthropy, the very phenomenon which opened the first X-File.

Darkness Falls

Mulder pulls some strings to be assigned to a case involving the disappearance of 30 loggers in Washington state. Scully joins him on a trip into the woods where they discover that the loggers, in illegally cutting down a tree, faced a punishment far worse than what the judicial system would have done. And the same fate is eerily approaching them.

Tooms

Eugene Tooms, a mutant killer brought in by Mulder and Scully, is released based on psychiatric re-evaluation and lack of evidence. Mulder sets out to prevent Tooms from killing for the fifth and final liver he needs, while Scully attempts to locate more definitive evidence.

Born Again

• Guest Starring Maggie Wheeler as Detective Sharon Lazard

An eight year old girl is tied to the deaths of two Buffalo policemen, but the possibility that she is the murderer is ludicrous. When the agents discover links to police corruption and a nine-year-old murder case, the plot thickens.

Roland

• Guest Starring Zeljko Ivanek as Roland Fuller

A mentally handicapped janitor seems to be the only suspect in the murders of two members of a propulsion research team. Yet the evidence of advanced theoretical work seems to eliminate the possibility, until Mulder and Scully uncover his relationship to a scientist whose brain has been cryogenically preserved.

The Erlenmeyer Flask

When Deep Throat points out a news story about a fugitive who apparently drowned, Mulder and Scully cannot see what makes it special. But with his insistence, they discover evidence of secret government experimentation with extraterrestrial DNA. However, the evidence and everyone who has seen it is quickly being eliminated.

• Synopses courtesy of Krycek's