X-Files -- Favorite stand alone episodes

Clyde Bruckman's Final repose with Peter Boyle

Jose Chung's From Outer Space with Charles Nelson Reilly

Also the arc about Susan Modesky and the Lone Gunmen.

Home

Home was the creepiest episode and the use of Johnny Mathis's music was brilliant!

John O'Hurley as Dr. Polidori in The Post-Modern Prometheus (S5 E5). Very funny.

The Groundhog Day episode. I forgot what made Mulder realize. It’s actually how a fan of the show back in the sixth grade.

This one

Home. Mostly for the hysterical Babe reference.

"The Host," with the Fluke Man, easily the most disgusting of all the monsters

"Beyond the Sea," which showed us Scully's family for the first time, and had a memorable performance by Brad Dourif as a serial killer on death row who says he can see the dead--including Scully's father

"Eve," with the little girls who look exactly alike yet have never met each other--and who are both present in different states when their fathers are killed. It features a firat rate supporting performance by Harriet Sansom Harris.

"Blood," one of the scariest of all the episodes, where LED displays keep urging people in a small city to go on mass killing sprees

"Darkness Falls," another exceptionally tense episode, with Mulder and Scully trapped in a Washington state enormous forest infested by mysterious prehistoric insects that swarm and kill humans at night

The one about a guy who tries to shoot his boss because he's a giant bug who's turning people into zombies. Everyone thinks the shooter is crazy until Mulder catches a glimpse of his boss's true form.

The guy who played Eddie in Small Potatoes wrote some of the best episodes. He also played The Fluke Man.

Bad Blood. Funny episode.

Drugged Mulder singing the Shaft song was a highlight.

So was Luke Wilson as the hot sheriff.

The Calusari Is an episode that has stuck with me since I saw it in 94 or 95. It’s the one where the little boy is killed by a train at an amusement park and it turns out it’s the dead twin of his brother who led him onto the tracks with a balloon.

The kid’s dad gets hanged in the garage, his grandma killed by reincarnated chickens, there’s some creepy religious guys performing a ritual… overall an unsettling episode.

Die Hand Die Verletzt

Susan Blommaert was perfection as the devil.

Bad Blood, Home, Terms of Endearment, Detour, Kill Switch, post Modern Prometheus. Home and Detour are my favorites though. I really like Terms of Endearment too, Bruce Campbell was funny in it, and I liked the story a lot.

Darkness Falls also works for me for the sexual fantasy of being with Titus Welliver and Jason Beghe in a cabin in the middle of nowhere.

X Files walked, so Stranger Things could run.

"Mind's Eye" S05E16, Mulder believes a blind woman can "see" and she killed the killer. What's so good about this episode was the guest star for the blind woman, Lili Taylor. I had no idea who she was when I watched this episode in rerun years later, but her acting was so good and it really stood out. I had to find out more about her, and to my surprise, I learned Taylor was nominated for Emmy for that guest role, well deserved!

"Audrey Pauley" S09EP11, Mulder (Duchovny) was absent for two seasons, they have introduced a pair of new agents (Doggett and Reyes) and the story was mostly centered around Sully and her baby etc. The show was in serious decline and most episodes were forgettable, but "Audrey Pauley" was a very memorable X-Files episode post Mulder. Agent Reyes was in a coma, the nurse Audrey set up a shrine in the basement, she somehow was able to communicate with dying patients through that shrine... This episode has that old magic of X-Files standalone episodes, mysterious and emotionally engaging!