5 Most Underrated Episodes Of The X-Files, Ranked

Chris Carter's "The X-Files" is as important a sci-fi show as they come. It combines procedural drama and a slow-burn romance with a great mix of monster-of-the-week episodes and a grander narrative about alien-adjacent conspiracies. These ingredients make a tasty genre dish that's perfect for even the most casual viewer to enjoy.

Over the course of its 11 seasons, the show gave us some truly great stories. The best episodes of "The X-Files" are absolute nail-biters that use horror and science fiction tropes to tell the kinds of stories few other shows in its heyday could even dream of tackling. Several of these best-known episodes are now part of the pop culture tapestry; "Drive" impacted the future of "Breaking Bad," thanks to guest star Bryan Cranston's thrilling performance that got him on Vince Gilligan's map and eventually helped him secure the role of Walter White. Elsewhere, the amazing "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose" won the show two of its 16 Primetime Emmys.

However, the sheer number of "The X-Files" episodes out there means that some of the show's finest hours haven't really had the love that they deserve. Let's take a look at five of these surprisingly underrated episodes of the show.

The stellar monster-of-the-week moments on "The X-Files" are numerous and iconic. "Oubliette" stands side by side with the best of them, despite not getting nearly the same attention as some of the better-known hours of the series. The title refers to the dark basement dungeon where abductor Carl Wade (Michael Chieffo) keeps his victims. Mulder and Scully become involved with the case and learn that one of Wade's previous victims, Lucy Householder (Tracey Ellis), spent several years in the dungeon over two decades ago. Now, she's somehow developing the same injuries that Wade is inflicting on his new victim, Amy (Jewel Staite), and seems to share a strange connection with her.

"Oubliette" depicts a truly grim case about cruelty and trauma, and its ending is among the most heartbreaking ones in the series. While the episode is largely a standalone, it has one notable tie to the show's larger mythology; the events of "Oubliette" intertwine with Mulder's own difficulty dealing with his sister's abduction when they were young.

This episode is an under-the-radar standout in arguably the best season of "The X-Files." In "The Rain King," the show takes an effects-heavy, comedic tone by exploring the concept of a person whose emotions can influence the weather. Heart-shaped hail and other freak weather phenomena punctuate the plot, as Mulder and Scully slowly find out that the real mystery of the episode isn't whether a human being can control weather; the true dilemma is finding out precisely which character in the episode wields that power.

"The Rain King" has plenty of stakes, due to the destructive powers at its center. However, by turning the whole thing into a fun whodunit with a heavy romantic tint, the episode becomes more than a run-of-the-mill mystery of the week. Fun guest star turns by Victoria Jackson, Clayton Rohner, and David Manis further elevate "The Rain King." Be ready for the flying cow scene, too, to witness one of the more absurd surprises the show has quite literally thrown at Mulder.

"Theef" is another underappreciated standalone "X-Files" story. It's a genuinely nasty witchcraft-themed tale that centers around the unnerving (though admittedly very stereotypical) Appalachian villain, Orell Peattie (Billy Drago). Using voodoo-style dolls and other magical means, Peattie embarks on a campaign of death and torment against "theefs" — namely, Dr. Robert Wieder (James Morrison) and various members of his family.

Peattie's magic is able to cause fatal outbreaks of disease and other dangerous conditions, and his incredible hostility toward his targets goes completely unexplained for a long time. "Theef" uses the mysterious air surrounding its dangerous central villain to great effect, and takes its sweet time before revealing the motives behind the mayhem. The main characters aren't exempt from the magical effects, either. In a clever play on the show's usual "logic vs. paranormal" juxtaposition, the show's resident skeptic Scully gets to experience Peattie's magically induced medical effects firsthand. 

Yes, one from the Doggett era also makes it to the mix. Future "Breaking Bad" creator Vince Gilligan co-wrote "Theef," but on "Sunshine Days," he handled both writing and directing duties by himself. As a bonus, the episode features none other than "Lost" and "Evil" star Michael Emerson as a lonely paranormal weirdo.

Here, special agents John Doggett (Robert Patrick) and Monica Reyes (Annabeth Gish) stumble upon the supernatural in the shape of a house that sometimes seems to be the exact replica of the one on "The Brady Bunch," where a peculiar man called Oliver Martin (Emerson) lives. Strange visions and violent deaths raise the stakes, as Scully connects the dots and figures out that Oliver may be a powerful psychokinetic whose powers supposedly disappeared ages ago.

The episode's left-field take on the paranormal house trope is entertaining, and "The Brady Bunch" themes and Oliver's true nature are both big, bold Vince Gilligan sci-fi swings of the type that the creator would later explore on "Pluribus." It also gives Scully a chance to shine, as she gets to open her mind to the supernatural while still retaining her focus on humanity. Violent, mysterious, and ultimately deeply touching, "Sunshine Days" is a beautiful episode of "The X-Files" that has been understandably but unfairly outshone by both Gilligan's later work and the show's more famous hours.

"Familiar" is the best — and definitely creepiest — episode in the oft-overlooked revival era of "The X-Files." Here, Mulder and Scully investigate something many TV paranormal investigators have encountered over the course of the years: a violent death in an ominous forest. Only, this time, the culprit is something far stranger than any cryptid you could name. The violence seems to be related to a children's show mascot called Mr. Chuckleteeth, as well as other eerie figures like a dark hellhound and an ominous Teletubby-esque character.

Granted, the name of the episode fully gives away the twist. We're dealing with a supernatural entity, of course, but that's not really the point of the plot. Instead, "Familiar" focuses on just whose familiar the creature haunting the forest is, why it's doing what it's doing, and what terrifying forms it likes to take. Mr. Chuckleteeth alone is an iconic antagonist who might easily be able to carry a horror franchise in his own right, and the fact that he's used as just one aspect of a monster of the week is proof that even this late in the game, "The X-Files" aspires to fire on all cylinders.