The X-Files: Season 5

1997 · 20 episodes · ★ 7.6

What Season 5 of The X-Files

The cases take a back seat. After her abduction, Scully is diagnosed with a nearly terminal cancer, and Mulder's only goal is to find a cure to save her. To get close to the Department of Defense, Mulder creates a false identity and takes on any risk. His search forces him to uncover more about the relationship between the FBI and the Syndicate. Meanwhile, Scully tries to unmask the conspiracy's informant, and her illness worsens. Mulder keeps his faith in the paranormal, a belief that will be tested once again.

20episodes

Nov 2, 1997Aired

May 17, 1998latest episode

15.3 hrtotal runtime

Season 5 Episodes

5x01 Redux (2)
Nov 2, 1997 · 45 min · ★ 7.8
Scully helps Mulder fake his own death in order for him to go undetected through the Department of Defence and find out the answers to his new questions about the government hoax concerning the existence of extraterrestrial life. Meanwhile, at a joint FBI/DOD inquiry, Scully's attempt to drive out the Conspiracy's informant is halted as her cancer takes a bad turn.
Directing: Kim Manners · Writing: Chris Carter · Starring: William B. Davis, Mitch Pileggi, John Finn, Steve Makaj
5x02 Redux II (3)
Nov 9, 1997 · 47 min · ★ 8.1
The Cigarette-Smoking Man helps Mulder to obtain Scully's cure and also lets him see his real sister who doesn't turn out to be as happy to see Mulder as he would've liked. In return for this, the Cigarette-Smoking Man asks that Mulder quit the FBI and work for him in the Syndicate where he could have power and respect which Mulder turns down, deciding to stay on the side of justice. While Scully's cure appears to have worked, the Cigarette-Smoking Man faces his own enemies and disappears, presumed dead.
Directing: Kim Manners · Writing: Chris Carter · Starring: William B. Davis, Mitch Pileggi, John Finn, Megan Leitch
5x03 Unusual Suspects
Nov 16, 1997 · 45 min · ★ 7.9
Set in 1989, the story of the founding of The Lone Gunmen is finally told as we see how a straight-laced federal employee, a sex mad AV expert, and a nerdy computer hacker meet Susanne Modeski, a strange woman with evidence of a government conspiracy. When their plan to expose the conspiracy fails and Susanne is captured by a group of men-in-black, led by none other than X, they soon become a paranoid group of government watchdogs.
Directing: Kim Manners · Writing: Vince Gilligan · Starring: Richard Belzer, Signy Coleman, Eric Knight, Kenneth H. Hawryliw
5x04 Detour
Nov 23, 1997 · 45 min · ★ 7.6
While on their way to an FBI group communication seminar, Mulder and Scully manage to escape when they come across a situation in the Florida forest area where three men have recently disappeared.
Directing: Brett Dowler · Writing: Frank Spotnitz · Starring: Anthony Rapp, Colleen Flynn, Scott Burkholder, Simon Longmore
5x05 The Post-Modern Prometheus
Nov 30, 1997 · 47 min · ★ 7.3
Filmed in glorious black and white with a comic book feel to it, this is a modern retelling of Frankenstein as Mulder and Scully get caught up in a town where the residents live on Jerry Springer episodes and fear a two-faced monster who has been impregnating the women.
Directing: Chris Carter · Writing: Chris Carter · Starring: John O'Hurley, Chris Owens, C. Ernst Harth, Pattie Tierce
5x06 Christmas Carol (1)
Dec 7, 1997 · 46 min · ★ 7.1
On her Christmas vacation with her brother's family, Scully receives a mysterious phone call from a familiar voice who says, "She needs your help. Go to her." The phone call leads Scully to a murder case where the victim's 3-year-old adopted daughter bears an uncanny likeness to her sister, Melissa, at that age. The emotional roller coaster that follows has Scully believing that her sister had a baby during a period when she traveled the country and she tries to adopt the child, knowing that caring for the little girl would change her life.
Directing: Peter Markle · Writing: John Shiban, Frank Spotnitz, Vince Gilligan · Starring: John Pyper-Ferguson, Stephen Mendel, Pat Skipper, Lauren Diewold
5x07 Emily (2)
Dec 14, 1997 · 46 min · ★ 7.2
DNA testing on Emily reveals that she is actually Scully's daughter and Mulder comes to assist her. While Mulder is looking for any information about where and how the girl was born, Scully searches for a cure to Emily's strange illness.
Directing: Kim Manners · Writing: John Shiban, Frank Spotnitz, Vince Gilligan · Starring: John Pyper-Ferguson, Stephen Mendel, Pat Skipper, Gerard Plunkett
5x08 Kitsunegari
Jan 4, 1998 · 46 min · ★ 7.5
Pusher returns as Robert Patrick Modell escapes from the mental hospital and the FBI promptly organizes a manhunt, assuming that he will continue where he left off. But is he really trying to get revenge on Mulder, or does he want to warn him of another evil?
Directing: Daniel Sackheim · Writing: Vince Gilligan, Tim Minear · Starring: Mitch Pileggi, Diana Scarwid, Colleen Winton, Scott Oughterson
5x09 Schizogeny
Jan 11, 1998 · 46 min · ★ 7.0
A therapist working with children from abusive families is found to be implanting them with the memories of her own abuse suffered at the hands of her late father, when one of her patients tries to kill his stepfather.
Directing: Ralph Hemecker · Writing: Mike Wollaeger, Jessica Scott · Starring: Myles Ferguson, Katharine Isabelle, George Josef, Chad Lindberg
5x10 Chinga
Feb 8, 1998 · 45 min · ★ 7.1
Master of Horror Stephen King's first effort at an X-File sees Scully's well deserved vacation going terribly wrong and landing her in a small Maine town where one of the residents is believed to be a witch, and her autistic daughter's doll has frighteningly evil powers.
Directing: Kim Manners · Writing: Chris Carter, Stephen King · Starring: Carolyn Tweedle, Henry Beckman, Susannah Hoffmann, Dean Wray
5x11 Kill Switch
Feb 15, 1998 · 46 min · ★ 7.5
A super-intelligent virus program is let loose on the internet and begins to grow and expand by itself, eventually killing its creator when he tries to eradicate it.
Directing: Rob Bowman · Writing: Tom Maddox, William Gibson · Starring: Kristin Lehman, Ted Cole, Peter Williams, Rob Daprocida
5x12 Bad Blood
Feb 22, 1998 · 46 min · ★ 8.5
After Mulder chases down and kills a young man who he believes to be a vampire, the agents return to DC aware of the mistake they just made. Faced with a lawsuit from the family of the man, they recount each of their sides to the story leading up to the event. In the extremely humorous stories that follow we see how Scully and Mulder both perceive each other.
Directing: Cliff Bole · Writing: Vince Gilligan · Starring: Mitch Pileggi, Luke Wilson, Brent Butt, Patrick Renna
5x13 Patient X (1)
Mar 1, 1998 · 46 min · ★ 7.6
Mulder and Scully meet Cassandra Spender, a woman who claims to be a multiple abductee and wants to deliver a positive message about the aliens. Mulder's new found disbelief in extraterrestrial activity is enhanced while Scully forms a special bond with the woman. A series of group attacks against abductees take place and the shadowy Syndicate believes that a rebel alien resistance is attempting to destroy all their work.
Directing: Kim Manners · Writing: Chris Carter, Frank Spotnitz · Starring: Veronica Cartwright, Brian Thompson, Laurie Holden, Alex Shostak, Jr.
5x14 The Red and the Black (2)
Mar 8, 1998 · 46 min · ★ 7.9
After the gathering at the abduction site where everyone is killed by the rebel bounty hunters, Cassandra Spender disappears and Mulder is blamed by her son, Jeffrey, who is an up-and-coming FBI agent. Meanwhile, the Syndicate is continuing their tests to create a vaccine for the Black Cancer and Marita Covarrubias becomes an unwilling test subject.
Directing: Chris Carter · Writing: Chris Carter, Frank Spotnitz · Starring: William B. Davis, Mitch Pileggi, Veronica Cartwright, Brian Thompson
5x15 Travelers
Mar 29, 1998 · 46 min · ★ 7.4
In 1990 Agent Fox Mulder visits an aging FBI Agent named Arthur Dales. He listens to a story of the agents assigned to a would-be X-File in the Cold War era of the 1950's and how Mulder's father was connected to a series of strange deaths.
Directing: William A. Graham · Writing: John Shiban, Frank Spotnitz · Starring: Darren McGavin, Brian Leckner, Garret Dillahunt, Fredric Lehne
5x16 Mind’s Eye
Apr 19, 1998 · 46 min · ★ 7.5
Mulder and Scully try to get answers out of a stubborn blind woman found at a murder scene who may have the ability to look through the killer's eyes in her mind.
Directing: Kim Manners · Writing: Tim Minear · Starring: Ralph Alderman, Lili Taylor, Blu Mankuma, Richard Fitzpatrick
5x17 All Souls
Apr 26, 1998 · 46 min · ★ 6.7
Scully faces her Catholic faith and the loss of her daughter Emily when she is asked to help a family whose adopted daughter was found dead in a position that looked like she was struck down by God himself.
Directing: Rob Bowman, Allen Coulter · Writing: John Shiban, Frank Spotnitz · Starring: Eric Keenleyside, Patti Allan, Jody Racicot, Emily Perkins
5x18 The Pine Bluff Variant
May 3, 1998 · 46 min · ★ 7.6
Scully fears that Mulder has gone to the other side when she sees him assisting a federal suspect escape custody. In truth he has infiltrated a terrorist group testing a deadly biological weapon that can eat through a person's flesh.
Directing: Rob Bowman · Writing: John Shiban, Frank Spotnitz · Starring: Mitch Pileggi, Michael MacRae, Daniel von Bargen, Sam Anderson
5x19 Folie à Deux
May 10, 1998 · 46 min · ★ 7.9
Mulder is held hostage inside an office where a man claims his boss is a monster and has clouded all their minds while he turns them into zombies one by one, which is disbelieved until Mulder opens his mind and allows himself to see it too.
Directing: Rob Bowman · Writing: Vince Gilligan · Starring: Mitch Pileggi, Cynthia Preston, John Apicella, Grant Gladish
5x20 The End Season Finale
May 17, 1998 · 47 min · ★ 8.3
The Cigarette-Smoking Man returns as Mulder investigates the attempted assassination of a young boy with psychic powers who may be the proof that he has looked for all his life.
Directing: R. W. Goodwin · Writing: Chris Carter · Starring: William B. Davis, Mitch Pileggi, Mimi Rogers, George Murdock