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Scripted by series creator Chris Carter (who is interviewed on this video), "Herrenvolk" is packed with crucial events that link it to previous and subsequent episodes concerning the conspiracy of alien colonization that runs throughout the series. (Because of this, the following synopsis will only make sense to the show's loyal fans.) While Mulder attempts to protect the mysterious Jeremiah Smith (Roy Thinnes) from an alien bounty hunter, he witnesses a secret farm community where clones--including a replica of Mulder's missing sister--carry out some unknown task. Meanwhile, Scully learns the astonishing truth about Smith, and Agent X is gunned down as a traitor, staying alive just long enough to leave Mulder a vital clue to the ongoing investigation. Dealing another trump card in the unfolding conspiracy, Cigarette Smoking Man orders the miraculous healing of Mulder's dying mother, on the logic that "the fiercest enemy is the man who has nothing left to lose."

While "Herrenvolk" is a first-rate chapter with intricate connections to The X-Files mythology, "Home" is a stand-alone episode that surely qualifies as one of the most outrageously bizarre hours of drama in the history of prime-time television. It begins when Mulder and Scully investigate a horrible case of infanticide in the seemingly peaceful town of Home, Pennsylvania. The tiny, malformed corpse leads the agents to investigate the mysterious Peacock family, a trio of hideously deformed brothers who maintain a legacy of inbreeding with their equally disfigured mother, a quadruple amputee who is kept hidden on a rolling platform in the Peacock home. Brilliantly scripted by Glen Morgan and James Wong, "Home" posed a horrifically clever challenge to network censors, and managed to get away with murder in terms of what is implied and actually revealed. The Peacocks are both repugnant and oddly compelling (the writers may have been inspired by the documentary Brother's Keeper), and their loving mother (arguably the most freakish human ever depicted on mainstream TV) will go to any length to continue her family's mutated bloodline. What's most amazing is that "Home" covers this terrible territory with outrageous humor and the appropriate touch of tragedy--not only can Scully ponder the horrors of the Peacock legacy, she can crack wise by quoting the movie Babe while maneuvering through the Peacock's pigpen! And if you think the surviving Peacock brother is just keeping mommy comfortable in the trunk of his Cadillac, well... you haven't been paying attention. --Jeff Shannon

From deeply disturbing plots to the brand of offbeat levity that gives the show its unique appeal, these six episodes reveal the series at peak maturity, willing and able to push the limits of terror as never before seen on television. Certainly not for every taste (since they're sure to prove unsettling for the uninitiated viewer), but for die-hard X-philes, this is arguably the finest boxed set available. --Jeff Shannon

In one of the series' finest and funniest episodes, Mulder and Scully investigate reports of a UFO abduction in a small town and become the subjects of a book by author Jose Chung, played by perennial center square Charles Nelson Reilly. Filled with self referential humor, laugh out loud satire and conflicting points-of-view, the story goes from the strange to the bizarre to the unbelievable as the work of the agents is seen through the eyes of an outsider. Some highpoints: Mulder's squeal of excitement, the Men in Black, and "a bleapin' dead alien".

In Anasazi, the first of a trilogy of episodes, Mulder comes into possession of a tape filled with stolen secrets of the Defense Department's involvement with extraterrestrial life. As he attempts to decipher what may very well be the proof he has been seeking, his behavior grows more and more erratic, his life in greater danger, and the more everything he has even believed is thrown into question. Continued in The Blessing Way.

Two identical murders witnessed by two identical young girls at exactly the same time pull Mulder and Scully into a case of human genetics gone awry in Eve. The first of many clones, another set of perfectly cast spooky children, and evidence (of course) of a government cover-up are the highlights of this creepy episode.

By contrast, the series' first regular episode, Deep Throat contains all of the factors that fans expect of The X-Files. While investigating the case of a missing Air Force test pilot, who may or may not have been flying a craft built from Alien technology, Mulder is contacted by a shadowy "Deep Throat" figure who warns him to drop the case. This one has it all--government cover-ups, paranoia, alien spacecraft, and then some.

Sporting the funniest opening sequence in the show's history, Die Hand Die Verletzt tells the story of a small town with very singular religious practices. When teenagers begin to be murdered, Mulder and Scully investigate the locals' claims of witchcraft, but find instead a number of unexplained occurrences that defy the laws of nature and evidence of possible misconduct by the local school's officials. This lighthearted yet disturbing episode exposes the true nature of substitute teachers and demonstrates the repercussions of becoming lax in certain faiths.

The X-Files does a turn on the horror classic The Thing in the episode Ice. In one of the finest (and scariest) episodes of the series, Mulder and Scully journey into the Antarctic to investigate the bizarre suicides of two scientists. What they find is a trail of gruesome murders and the possible evidence of extraterrestrial life Mulder has been seeking--but no one may survive long enough to examine it.

In E.B.E., Deep Throat resurfaces to inform Mulder about a U.F.O shot down while flying over Iraqi airspace. The agents' faith in their informant is put to the test when he deceives them, hampering in their investigation. This episode also introduces Frohike, Langly, and Byers--collectively known as the Lone Gunmen--three paranoid hackers whose conspiracy theories fuel Mulder's own search for "The Truth.".

In the final episode of the show's first season, The Erlenmeyer Flask, a police chase ends mysteriously as a fugitive completely disappears after being shot. Deep Throat approaches Mulder about the incident, pressing him to look deeper into the case. The investigation uncovers evidence of strange experiments, green-blooded individuals of unknown origin, and the beginnings of the conspiracy further uncovered in subsequent seasons.

In Talitha Cumi, a mysterious healer may hold the key to many mysteries, including a possible connection between Mulder's mother and the Cigarette Smoking Man. The first part of a two-episode story, this one's got it all: aliens, clones, and covert government operations.

In Duane Barry, Mulder and Krychek are called in to help resolve a hostage situation involving a former FBI agent who claims to be a victim of multiple UFO abductions. Mulder succeeds in trading himself for one of the hostages, using his own belief in UFOs to breakthrough to Barry. Scully soon learns of Mulder's involvement and discovers that Barry may not be at all what he claims to be. Continued in Ascension.

The formula of the episode and the character of Tooms were so effective that both were brought back at the end of the first season in Tooms. At least as chilling as it's precursor, this episode once again finds Mulder trying in vain to convince the skeptics that Tooms is more than he appears to be. In both episodes, Doug Huthchison is perfectly creepy as Tooms, affectionately known to fans of the show as "Liver Boy".