The X-Files: Season 4

1996 · 24 episodes · ★ 7.5

What Season 4 of The X-Files

Season 4 opens with Mulder and Scully back in the X-Files unit, determined to chase down whatever comes from beyond Earth. The Syndicate guards these cases more closely than ever, and that pressure leads Mulder, for the first time in his life, to start doubting his search for the hidden truth. Scully has had direct contact with the paranormal and suffers a side effect she didn't expect. Meanwhile, the pair keep working cases the FBI would rather forget, from cults and mysterious clinics to families with very dark secrets.

24episodes

Oct 4, 1996aired

May 18, 1997latest episode

17.9 hrtotal runtime

Season 4 Episodes

4x01 Herrenvolk (2)
Oct 4, 1996 · 45 min · ★ 8.0
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.
Directing: R. W. Goodwin · Writing: Chris Carter · Starring: William B. Davis, Mitch Pileggi, Roy Thinnes, Brian Thompson
4x02 Home
Oct 11, 1996 · 45 min · ★ 8.1
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.
Directed by: Kim Manners · Written by: James Wong, Glen Morgan · Starring: Tucker Smallwood, Neil Denis, Douglas Smith, Judith Maxie
4x03 Teliko
Oct 18, 1996 · 44 min · ★ 6.6
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.
Directing: Jim Charleston · Writing: Howard Gordon · Starring: Mitch Pileggi, Carl Lumbly, Zakes Mokae, Don Stewart
4x04 Unruhe
Oct 27, 1996 · 45 min · ★ 7.8
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".
Directing: Rob Bowman · Writing: Vince Gilligan · Starring: Pruitt Taylor Vince, Michael Cram, Sharon Alexander, Scott Heindl
4x05 The Field Where I Died
Nov 3, 1996 · 45 min · ★ 6.3
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.
Directed by: Rob Bowman · Written by: James Wong, Glen Morgan · Starring: Mitch Pileggi, Kristen Cloke, Donna White, Les Gallagher
4x06 Sanguinarium
Nov 10, 1996 · 45 min · ★ 7.0
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.
Directing: Kim Manners · Writing: Valerie Mayhew, Vivian Mayhew · Starring: Richard Beymer, O-Lan Jones, John Juliani, Nancy J. Lilley
4x07 Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man
Nov 17, 1996 · 45 min · ★ 8.4
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.
Directing: James Wong, Glen Morgan · Writing: James Wong, Glen Morgan · Starring: William B. Davis, Morgan Weisser, Laurie Murdoch, Colin Lawrence
4x08 Tunguska (1)
Nov 24, 1996 · 45 min · ★ 8.0
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.
Directed by: Kim Manners, Rob Bowman · Written by: Chris Carter, Frank Spotnitz · Starring: William B. Davis, Mitch Pileggi, Fritz Weaver, Jan Rubeš
4x09 Terma (2)
Dec 1, 1996 · 45 min · ★ 7.6
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.
Directing: Rob Bowman · Writing: Chris Carter, Frank Spotnitz · Starring: William B. Davis, Mitch Pileggi, Fritz Weaver, Stefan Arngrim
4x10 Paper Hearts
Dec 15, 1996 · 45 min · ★ 8.0
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.
Directing: Rob Bowman · Writing: Vince Gilligan · Starring: Mitch Pileggi, Jenny-Lynn Hutcheson, Carly McKillip, Byrne Piven
4x11 El Mundo Gira
Jan 12, 1997 · 45 min · ★ 6.6
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.
Directed by: Tucker Gates · Written by: John Shiban · Starring: Mitch Pileggi, Raymond Cruz, Rubén Blades, Michael Kopsa
4x12 Leonard Betts
Jan 26, 1997 · 45 min · ★ 7.9
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.
Directed by: Kim Manners · Written by: John Shiban, Frank Spotnitz, Vince Gilligan · Starring: Paul McCrane, Jennifer Clement, Lucia Walters, Brad Loree
4x13 Never Again
Feb 2, 1997 · 45 min · ★ 7.1
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.
Directing: Rob Bowman · Writing: James Wong, Glen Morgan · Starring: Jodie Foster, Rodney Rowland, Carla Stewart, Barry 'Bear' Horton
4x14 Memento Mori
Feb 9, 1997 · 45 min · ★ 7.8
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.
Directed by: Rob Bowman · Written by: Chris Carter, John Shiban, Frank Spotnitz · Starring: William B. Davis, Mitch Pileggi, David Lovgren, Julie Bond
4x15 Kaddish
Feb 16, 1997 · 45 min · ★ 6.7
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.
Directing: Kim Manners, Michael Lange · Writing: Chris Carter, Howard Gordon · Starring: Channon Roe, David Groh, Justine Miceli, Jabin Litwiniec
4x16 Unrequited
Feb 23, 1997 · 43 min · ★ 7.2
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.
Directing: Michael Lange · Writing: Chris Carter, Howard Gordon · Starring: Mitch Pileggi, Scott Hylands, Mark Holden, Laurie Holden
4x17 Tempus Fugit (1)
Mar 16, 1997 · 45 min · ★ 8.0
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.
Directing: Rob Bowman · Writing: Chris Carter, Frank Spotnitz · Starring: Joe Spano, Jon Ratt, Tom O'Brien, Scott Bellis
4x18 Max (2)
Mar 23, 1997 · 45 min · ★ 7.9
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.
Directed by: Kim Manners · Written by: Chris Carter, Frank Spotnitz · Starring: Mitch Pileggi, Joe Spano, Tom O'Brien, Scott Bellis
4x19 Synchrony
Apr 13, 1997 · 44 min · ★ 7.4
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.
Directed by: Jim Charleston · Written by: Howard Gordon, David Greenwalt · Starring: Jed Rees, Joseph Fuqua, Michael Fairman, Jonathan Walker
4x20 Small Potatoes
Apr 20, 1997 · 45 min · ★ 8.1
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.
Directed by: Cliff Bole · Written by: Vince Gilligan · Starring: Mitch Pileggi, Paul McGillion, Christine Cavanaugh, Constance Barnes
4x21 Zero Sum
Apr 27, 1997 · 45 min · ★ 7.9
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.
Directed by: Kim Manners · Written by: Howard Gordon, Frank Spotnitz · Starring: William B. Davis, Mitch Pileggi, Laurie Holden, Nicolle Nattrass
4x22 Elegy
May 4, 1997 · 45 min · ★ 7.5
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.
Directing: Jim Charleston · Writing: John Shiban · Starring: Sydney Lassick, Steven M. Porter, Lorena Gale, Nancy Fish
4x23 Demons
May 11, 1997 · 45 min · ★ 7.3
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.
Directing: Kim Manners · Writing: R. W. Goodwin · Starring: Jay Acovone, Mike Nussbaum, Rebecca Harker, Shelley Adam
4x24 Gethsemane (1) Season Finale
May 18, 1997 · 45 min · ★ 8.2
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.
Directed by: R. W. Goodwin · Written by: Chris Carter · Starring: John Finn, James Sutorius, Pat Skipper, Matthew Walker