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The X-Files
1993 11 seasons Drama · Detective · Thriller
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The X-Files — Season 4

About this season

The prophetic words of the alien Bounty Hunter resonate throughout the fourth season, beginning with the near death of Mulder's mother and the murder of the mysterious X. Even the return of Alex Krycek and the alien black oil are overshadowed by Scully's cancer. Then the tragic reappearance of Max Fenig leads to the death of a fellow FBI agent. Yet even as these events strengthen Mulder's belief in a growing conspiracy, a startling truth revealed to Scully plunges him into a crisis of faith which could prove his ultimate undoing.

Season premiere
October 4, 1996
Episodes in the season
24
Whole season
17 h 56 min
October 4, 1996 Season fully aired May 18, 1997

Episodes

24 episodes · 17 h 56 min

  1. 4 Oct 1996 The X-Files, season 4, episode 1 — a still from the episode E01

    Herrenvolk (2)

    45 min

    With his mother on a deathbed and the alien bounty hunter in pursuit, Mulder decides to put Jeremiah Smith, the alien healer, in mortal danger for a chance to finally uncover the whole truth behind the alien conspiracy. Meanwhile, the Syndicate suspects that they have a traitor in their midst and set up a trap.

  2. 11 Oct 1996 The X-Files, season 4, episode 2 — a still from the episode E02

    Home

    45 min

    A baby is found buried alive in shallow ground and appears to have birth defects resulting from generations of inbreeding, leading Mulder and Scully to a reclusive family who have a history of inbred children.

  3. 18 Oct 1996 The X-Files, season 4, episode 3 — a still from the episode E03

    Teliko

    44 min

    After several African-American men are killed and the color is drained from their skin, Mulder learns about the Teliko, an African folktale about a creature who must suck the pigmentation from a persons body in order to survive.

  4. 27 Oct 1996 The X-Files, season 4, episode 4 — a still from the episode E04

    Unruhe

    45 min

    Several kidnappings of young women linked by distorted photographs lead Mulder and Scully to a man who can imprint his darkest fantasies onto undeveloped film and is trying to save the women from the "howlers".

  5. 3 Nov 1996 The X-Files, season 4, episode 5 — a still from the episode E05

    The Field Where I Died

    45 min

    After an FBI raid on a doomsday cult called the "Temple of the Seven Stars", Mulder meets Melissa, a cultist who claims to have known him in a previous life during the American Civil War. Scully believes the woman is a delusional schizophrenic, but Mulder allows himself to be drawn into her fantasies.

  6. 10 Nov 1996 The X-Files, season 4, episode 6 — a still from the episode E06

    Sanguinarium

    45 min

    After a doctor loses control and kills a patient on the operating table, Scully hypothesizes that it's linked to work-related stress, while Mulder is convinced of a more sinister reason. After he finds a link between the victim and the four witches Sabbaths, he suspects that a nurse may be practicing witchcraft.

  7. 17 Nov 1996 The X-Files, season 4, episode 7 — a still from the episode E07

    Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man

    45 min

    The Lone Gunmen reveal the (possibly fake) secret history of the Cigarette Smoking Man to Mulder and Scully; from a young captain in the U.S. Army recruited to assassinate President Kennedy, to becoming the mysterious man in the shadows at the height of a global conspiracy.

  8. 24 Nov 1996 The X-Files, season 4, episode 8 — a still from the episode E08

    Tunguska (1)

    45 min

    Mulder is given a tip about potentially dangerous paramilitary operations on the U.S. soil but during the sting operation is surprised to find out the identity of his mysterious informant - it turns out to be Alex Krycek. Suspicious about his true motives, Mulder reluctantly follows the information provided by Krycek. However, soon he discovers a much bigger conspiracy which takes him to a gulag in Tunguska, Russia where prisoners are being used for experiments involving a substance of alien origin.

  9. 1 Dec 1996 The X-Files, season 4, episode 9 — a still from the episode E09

    Terma (2)

    45 min

    While imprisoned in Russia and infected with the Black Cancer, Mulder learns that Krycek is working with the men responsible and everything has been a setup from the start, while Scully and Skinner are called to a suspicious Senate hearing where the only question is the whereabouts of Agent Mulder.

  10. 15 Dec 1996 The X-Files, season 4, episode 10 — a still from the episode E10

    Paper Hearts

    45 min

    Mulder's dreams help him in finding the body of a little girl which reopens one of his old cases in the Violent Crimes Unit. This leads him to believe that the killer he captured had more victims and that Mulder's sister Samantha may have been one of them.

  11. 12 Jan 1997 The X-Files, season 4, episode 11 — a still from the episode E11

    El Mundo Gira

    45 min

    After a strange yellow rain kills a migrant girl, her family believes that a mythical creature el chupacabra was the cause and that it has manifested itself inside her fiancé's brother, who has since disappeared.

  12. 26 Jan 1997 The X-Files, season 4, episode 12 — a still from the episode E12

    Leonard Betts

    45 min

    After the body of a decapitated EMT disappears from the morgue and an identical man starts work at the same hospital, Mulder believes that the man has the ability to regrow parts of his body, including his head. The agents soon discover that Betts' body is riddled with cancer and he is able to live in that condition but needs to feed on cancerous tumors to keep up his strength.

  13. 2 Feb 1997 The X-Files, season 4, episode 13 — a still from the episode E13

    Never Again

    45 min

    While Mulder is forced to take a vacation he leaves Scully with an assignment to keep her busy until he returns. However, she decides to start living and goes on a date with a man who believes that his tattoo talks to him and is telling him to stay away from other women.

  14. 9 Feb 1997 The X-Files, season 4, episode 14 — a still from the episode E14

    Memento Mori

    45 min

    Scully's recent failing health is revealed to be an inoperable cancer in her skull, which appears to be common among abductees and she attempts to come to terms with her condition. Meanwhile, Mulder and the Lone Gunmen break into a high-security research lab to find the cure that could save her life.

  15. 16 Feb 1997 The X-Files, season 4, episode 15 — a still from the episode E15

    Kaddish

    45 min

    After a Jewish man is murdered in a Jewish community, his killers are murdered, too. Mulder and Scully have to determine whether someone is exacting vengeance or larger forces are at work.

  16. 23 Feb 1997 The X-Files, season 4, episode 16 — a still from the episode E16

    Unrequited

    43 min

    When a U.S. military general is inexplicably murdered in the back of his limousine, a paramilitary group is suspected. They believe it was a soldier who they liberated from a Vietnam POW camp and is plotting to kill certain corrupt military figures.

  17. 16 Mar 1997 The X-Files, season 4, episode 17 — a still from the episode E17

    Tempus Fugit (1)

    45 min

    While celebrating Scully's 33rd birthday, a strange woman informs Mulder that NICAP member Max Fenig (see Fallen Angel) has recently died in a plane crash. After a visit to the crash site and finding Max's body with radiation burns on it, Mulder suggests that the plane was intercepted by a UFO and is rapidly being covered up by the military.

  18. 23 Mar 1997 The X-Files, season 4, episode 18 — a still from the episode E18

    Max (2)

    45 min

    Mulder is arrested for investigating the plane crash and interfering with a military operation, while Scully is caught in the attempted assassination of Corporal Frish.

  19. 13 Apr 1997 The X-Files, season 4, episode 19 — a still from the episode E19

    Synchrony

    44 min

    A case involving a strange old man warning two scientists of events in the immediate future which come to pass (and the use of their experimental flash-freezing compound that does not exist yet) has Mulder believing that one of the scientists has come from the future to stop his own scientific breakthrough from becoming reality.

  20. 20 Apr 1997 The X-Files, season 4, episode 20 — a still from the episode E20

    Small Potatoes

    45 min

    Five babies in the same town are all born with tails and the local OB-GYN is blamed for tampering with fertilized eggs. However, Mulder discovers the culprit to be a simple man with a genetic deformity who may have the ability to alter his appearance.

  21. 27 Apr 1997 The X-Files, season 4, episode 21 — a still from the episode E21

    Zero Sum

    45 min

    After a swarm of bees mysteriously kill a postal worker in an enclosed restroom, Assistant Director Skinner covers it up by destroying the evidence. In order to complete the task he poses as Agent Mulder, however his deception backfires. When Mulder finds out and confronts him, Skinner reveals that he is working for the Cigarette-Smoking Man in order to obtain a possible cure for Scully's cancer.

  22. 4 May 1997 The X-Files, season 4, episode 22 — a still from the episode E22

    Elegy

    45 min

    After a man sees a woman trapped inside a bowling alley pin setter, he goes for help and finds police standing next to a body of the same woman. Mulder and Scully join the investigation and follow up this lead which the police won't bother with, and they are led to a mentally challenged man who works at the bowling alley.

  23. 11 May 1997 The X-Files, season 4, episode 23 — a still from the episode E23

    Demons

    45 min

    Covered in blood and suffering from amnesia, Mulder pieces together the events of the last few days, but the trail leads to a double murder that appears to have been committed with Mulder's weapon.

  24. 18 May 1997 The X-Files, season 4, episode 24 — a still from the episode E24

    Gethsemane (1)

    45 min

    Mulder fights to prove that a discovery frozen in the mountains of Canada is an irrefutable evidence of alien life, but his quest for the truth only leads to more lies and an unthinkable conclusion.