Episode/Production #/Title

Plot Synopsis

Adaptations

Continuity Notes

Dates

Code

Season 5: Episode 1

5x02 Redux

After faking his own suicide to shake off Syndicate and FBI surveillance, Mulder secretly searches for the cause and cure for Scully's terminal cancer.  First appearance of Kritschgau.  Sector Chief Blevins returns.

Tapped phone records indicate date. This episode and the next confirm a four-year period from the start of Scully's work on the X-Files.

10/21/97 – 10/22/97

X

Season 5: Episode 2

5x03 Redux II

While Scully, dying from cancer undergoes the desperate treatment her partner has stolen for her, Mulder penetrates the inner circle of the Syndicate-FBI conspiracy.  He finds many of the truths that have long eluded him—as well as disillusionment, despair, and danger.

(See above)

10/23/97 – 10/27/97

X

Season 5: Episode 4

5x04 Detour

A primeval forest is threatened by encroaching civilization.  Its secret inhabitants—fierce predators with growing red eyes—fight back.

No internal dates provided. Estimated dates my own.

10/29/97 – 10/31/97

M/L

Season 2: Episode 6

#207: The Curse of Frank Black

Frank Black faces an eerie night full of unsettling coincidences when he takes Jordan to the streets of Seattle for some Halloween Trick-or-Treating. Are these coincidences the result of simple chance, or is someone -- or something -- trying to give Frank a powerful message?

Internal dates provided (Halloween and 790 days remaining)

Comic: X-Files #35: N.D.E. (pt. 1) (Topps)

Hardcover: The X-Files Classics: Volume 4 (IDW)

Excluding flashback.  Internal dates provided.

11/3/97 – 11/4/97

?

Comic: X-Files #36: N.D.E. (pt. 2) (Topps)

Hardcover: The X-Files Classics: Volume 4 (IDW)

Internal dates provided.

11/6/97

?

Season 2: Episode 7

#206: 19:19

Frank Black, Peter Watts, and Lara Means race against time to locate a busload of kidnapped children who’ve been buried alive in a nearby quarry by a prophecy dictating madman who believes that World War III has begun and he is the one destined to carry out the Book of Revelation’s instructions.

No internal dates; dates based on surrounding episodes

Season 2: Episode 8

#208: The Hand of Saint Sebastian

Why would Peter Watts risk his life, credibility, friends, family, and career searching for a religious artifact worth little past its mythical value? More importantly, who are the Millennium Group dissidents willing to kill to stop him? Frank Black finds himself troubled by these questions as he and Peter travel to the peat bogs of Germany to find the answers.

Internal dates provided (779 days remaining)

Comic: X-Files #37: The Face of Extinction (Topps)

Hardcover: The X-Files Classics: Volume 4 (IDW)

Internal date provided.  Title mistakenly left off issue (obtained from #36).

11/19/97

L

From the book: The X-Files: Trust No One (IDW)

Season 2: Episode 9

#209: Jose Chung's "Doomsday Defense"

Controversial writer Jose Chung comes to Frank Black and the Millennium Group for help when a bizarre religious group called Selfosophy, which he’s recently written a very unflattering short story about, places a price on his head. With each murdered body, issue of Playpen magazine, and Selfosophy key to happiness that the investigators come across, they find the case becoming more convoluted and utterly absurd. The question becomes, as Frank puts it, "What the hell is going on here?"

Internal dates hinted at via purchase of latest magazine issue, dated November, and by the surrounding episodes

Season 5: Episode 5

5x06 The Post-Modern Prometheus

Deep in the American heartland, Mulder and Scully encounter, then attempt to unravel, the twisted schemes of a modern-day Victor Frankenstein. 

No internal dates provided. Estimated dates my own.

12/9/98 – 12/11/98

F/L

Season 5: Episode 6

5x05 Christmas Carol

While spending the Christmas holiday with her family, Scully receives a mysterious phone call.  She is summoned to help a desperately ill child whose tragic history is inexplicably linked to her own.  First appearance of Emily.

Internal dates provided.

12/21/97 – 12/25/97

D

Season 2: Episode 10

#211: Midnight of the Century

Christmas Eve and the anniversary of his mother’s death bring Frank Black into confrontations with Catherine, his estranged father, and even an angel. All the painful memories and arguments serve a purpose, however, in helping to steer Frank in the right direction for dealing with some important decisions regarding Jordan and the gifts she’s inherited.

Internal dates provided

From the book: The X-Files: Trust No One (IDW)

Season 5: Episode 7

5x07 Emily

Scully's biological daughter is dying.  Mulder uncovers the little girl's role in the alien conspiracy while Scully fights to save her only child.

Occurs days after the episode above.

1/5/97 – 1/9/98

D/X

Season 2: Episode 11

#210: Goodbye Charlie

Frank Black and Lara Means, teamed as partners, are pulled into the case of an emotional man who assists unhappy folks carry out well-planned suicides. The two investigators, wondering whether the evidence speaks more of murder than of compassion, become entangled within the ethics of the case while pressured with the job of preventing further death

Season 5: Episode 8

5x08 Kitsunegari

The serial killer known as "The Pusher"—a man with the inexplicable ability to impose his own will on others—escapes from a maximum security prison.  He immediately pursues the man who captured him: Mulder.  Return of Robert Modell.

No internal dates provided. Estimated dates my own.

1/13/98

K

Season 5: Episode 9

5x09 Schizogeny

In a blight-stricken farm town, a series of murders is attributed to child abuse.  The real cause, however, lies deeper.

No internal dates provided. Estimated dates my own.

1/15/98 – 1/16/98

?

Season 2: Episode 12

#212: Luminary

When a meeting between Frank Black and Millennium Group superiors leads to an angry exchange of verbal blows, Frank decides that he’s going to pursue the investigation of a teenager who’s gone missing in the Alaskan wilderness despite their explicit objections.

Season 5: Episode 10

5x10 Chinga (aka. Bunghoney)

With the help of an eerie playmate—a nasty doll with a mind of its own—an autistic child is able to express her innermost feelings and terrorize an entire New England village.

No internal dates provided. Estimated dates my own.  Sat-Mon.

1/24/98 – 1/26/98

O

Season 5: Episode 11

5x11 Kill Switch

A dying computer genius creates a murderous cybernetic life form.  Mulder and Scully—aided only by the dead man's disciple—must somehow purge this predator from the Internet.

Begins on a Saturday. No internal dates provided. Estimated date my own.

2/7/98

AI

Season 5: Episode 12

5x12 Bad Blood

Mulder sticks his neck out to capture a small-town serial killer.  Upon return, he and Scully spin rather different accounts of their misadventures in the vampire-infested town.

Internal dates provided. Ronnie Strickland later appears in the non-canon story: The X-Files: Conspiracy miniseries (see Season 10).

2/10/98 – 2/12/98

H/W

Season 2: Episode 13

#213: The Mikado

Frank Black and Peter Watts call in Millennium Group computer expert Brian Roedecker for assistance on a very serious case when they find a serial killer who broadcasts his gruesome crimes over the internet to a bevy of sick spectators. Is this the work of Avatar, a sadistic killer Frank’s tracked before, utilizing a brand new technological medium for his crimes?

Season 5: Episode 13

5x13 Patient X

As a disillusioned Mulder denies all evidence of extraterrestrial visitors, Scully, along with thousands of other abductees, is drawn toward a final confrontation.  First appearance of Cassandra Spender and Jeffrey Spender.

No internal dates provided except year.  Jeffrey Spender appears. CSM returns.

2/18/98 – 2/22/98

X

Season 5: Episode 14

5x14 The Red and the Black

The world turned upside down: Recovering from a near-death experience, Scully is convinced that her memories of alien encounters are true.  For his part, Mulder clings to skepticism and science and uncovers new, even more dangerous conspiracies.

Year provided on letter (which may also indicate possible date).

2/23/98 – 2/27/98

X

Season 2: Episode 14

#215: The Pest House

When Frank Black and Peter Watts notice a series of killings which seem performed to fit urban legends and campfire stories, they look to the nearby East County Forensic Psychiatric Hospital for responsibility. Even though the criminally insane inmates being treated there are difficult to deal with, and a certain doctor remains quite stubborn, Frank discovers a man so willing to rid the patients of evil that he may have become it himself.

Internal dates provided in six month review of September 97 file

Season 2: Episode 15

#214: Owls

The discovery of an extremely valuable religious artifact -- a portion of the very cross of Christ’s crucifixion -- and its subsequent theft, force the Millennium Group’s two disagreeing factions, the Owls and the Roosters, into battle. Frank Black and Lara Means, both valuable individuals to either side, find themselves caught in the middle of a conflict that could very well decide the fate of the human race.

Internal dates provided ("665 days remaining")

Season 2: Episode 16

#216: Roosters

It is discovered that Millennium Group dissidents are not those responsible for taking the cross of Christ’s crucifixion. In actuality, a sinister third party, a group of Nazis known as Odessa, are the ones to blame for killing Group members, taking the cross, and trying to pull the Black family into their midst. Only the Group’s leading Old Man and the two recently expelled candidates, Frank and Lara, can bring this evidence into the open and pull things back together in time... before there is no more Millennium 

Internal dates provided ("664 days remaining")

Season 5: Episode 16

5x16 Mind's Eye

A sadistic murderer is on the loose.  The only witness to his crimes: a totally blind young woman, who somehow "sees" through the killer's eyes.

Internal dates provided (mug shot).

3/7/98 – 3/10/98

P

Season 2: Episode 17

#217: Sirens

When Jordan tries to get Catherine involved in helping a mysterious and beautiful woman rescued from the sea, Frank decides he should have a talk with the stranger. The exchange they have does a number on Frank’s mental state as he lapses into a confusing realization of what his life would be like without the Millennium Group. Is this enlightenment a good thing, seeing as four other men have died as a result of this woman and her strange spell?

Internal dates provided ("652 days remaining," as told by Tamara to Frank)

Comic: X-Files #38: Cam Ranh Bay (Topps)

Hardcover: The X-Files Classics: Volume 4 (IDW)

Internal dates provided.

3/24/98 – 3/25/98

G/E

Season 2: Episode 18

#218: In Arcadia Ego

Frank Black and Peter Watts begin the hunt for two escapees from a women’s prison who used brutal force to gain their freedom. Certain evidence leads the two Millennium Group investigators to believe that one of the women has somehow gotten herself pregnant and that she is running under the belief that this is an immaculate conception. It’s up to Frank to find them before the thoughtless and blunt state police do, and to prevent what could be a disastrous child birth.

Internal dates suggested (Sonny escaped "four months" before his parole on July 27, 1998)

Season 2: Episode 19

#219: Anamnesis

Catherine Black is called to a Seattle area high school to help understand why a local girl is claiming to have magnificent religious visions of Mary Magdalene. When she arrives, however, she finds her cool psychological findings to be in direct conflict with those thought patterns of another investigator: Lara Means, representing the Millennium Group. The struggle for answers may bring Catherine to a deeper understanding of her husband’s work and driving essence.

No internal dates provided. Assumed to be early April and prior to the following episode.

Season 5: Episode 17

5x17 All Souls

After a handicapped young woman is killed in the act of prayer, Scully is pulled into the case and forced to search her own soul for answers.  But a renegade priest and an apocryphal text may hold the key to the answers... or deception.

Internal dates provided.

4/12/98 – 4/18/98

C/S

Season 2: Episode 20

#220: A Room With No View

When one gifted high school student dies of fear and his underachieving best friend disappears from the scene, Frank Black investigates and gets the intense feeling that his old nemesis, Lucy Butler, is behind the crimes. The investigation uncovers Lucy’s new home, a prison of sorts where she uses conflicting stimuli of harsh violence and pure love to break down the wills of abducted youngsters.

Internal dates provided at outset.

Season 5: Episode 18

5x18 The Pine Bluff Variant

Playing a dangerous double game, Mulder infiltrates a gang of domestic terrorists.

Must be some time after April 7th (as seen on mug shot) and shortly before 5x19.  Dates are my own.

4/29/98 – 5/2/98

G

Season 2: Episode 21

#221: Somehow, Satan Got Behind Me

Four vile demons, servants of evil who pose as elderly men, gather for their nightly meeting in a downtown donut shop and discuss over coffee and crullers their own personal methods of leading humanity down the path to hell. During the discussion they come to the realization that they’ve all encountered a gifted man who may have seen them for the demons they truly are: Frank Black.

Internal dates provided at outset.

Season 2: Episode 22

#222: The Fourth Horseman

As Lara Means disappears under strange circumstances, Frank Black and Peter Watts come to investigate a horrible death that looks so gruesome they assume it was a foul murder. Medical science states otherwise, tossing the two into a strict quarantine procedure to investigate their exposure to a horrific doomsday virus. Frank demands answers from Peter regarding the Millennium Group’s knowledge of these events and considers joining an opposing group, The Trust, to get to the truth of the matter.

Internal dates provided ("602 days remaining")

Season 5: Episode 19

5x19 Folie a Deux

A giant, buglike creature is sucking the life out of humans.  Or so says one gun-toting, apparently mentally ill man who holds a group of his coworkers, plus Mulder, hostage.  But Mulder begins to wonder if there's more here than meets the eye.

Internal dates provided (by Mulder).

5/10/98 – 5/14/98

M/W

Season 2: Episode 23

#223: The Time is Now

As Trust representative Richard Gilbert dies under tragic circumstances, Frank Black is given a lecture by Millennium Group superiors that only intensifies his fears regarding the now apparent cult-like organization. Peter Watts fights back against the Group he followed so loyally for so many years. Lara Means, confronted with the knowledge and sights of the coming doomsday, finds herself spiraling into insanity. As the bloody plague spreads far and wide, killing many, Frank, Jordan, and Catherine retreat into the woods of Washington to escape a grim end to the world as they know it.

Internal dates provided ("595 days remaining")

Comic: The X-Files #0 (Sept 08; Wildstorm)

Trade pb: The X-Files: Chapter 1 (Wildstorm)

Written by the show's regular writer Frank Spotnitz. The internal date puts the story at 2008, though this contrasts Spotnitz' statement that the series takes place between seasons 2 and 5. This is supported by the fact that Scully and Mulder are no longer FBI agents in 2008. Month and day listed are my own.

(Assuming the 1991 date is actually 1981):

5/17/98 – 5/19/98

K

Comic: The X-Files #1-2 (Jan-Feb 09; Wildstorm)

Trade pb: The X-Files: Chapter 1 (Wildstorm)

Written by the show's regular writer Frank Spotnitz. No internal date indicators, though Spotnitz indicates it's set, "during their prime years at the FBI" between seasons 2 and 5. Month/day/year are my own.

5/23/98 – 5/25/98

G/A

Comic: The X-Files #5: Dante's Muse: Part 1: Nasty Ones (May 09; Wildstorm)

Trade pb: The X-Files: Chapter 4 (Wildstorm)

No internal dates provided. Set "during [Mulder and Scully's] prime years at the FBI. Month, day and year are my own based on series writer Spotnitz's indication that it is not past season 5.

5/29/98

L

Comic: The X-Files #6: Dante's Muse: Part 2: Netherworld (June 09; Wildstorm)

Trade pb: The X-Files: Chapter 4 (Wildstorm)

No internal dates provided. Set "during [Mulder and Scully's] prime years at the FBI." Year and month are my own based on series writer Spotnitz's indication that it is not past season 5.

5/30/98

M

Novel: Skin (Harper, 1999)

When moonlighting medical students harvesting skin from a corpse for temporary use accidentally take it from the wrong donor, the results are catastrophic: a New York City hospital ward is destroyed in a bloodbath, and an elderly professor, admitted for a routine skin graft, is suddenly the city's most wanted fugitive.

Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully are the only ones to suspect something more ominous than a medical procedure gone awry. While the police hunt the fleeing professor, Mulder and Scully track the skin that was grafted onto him, a trail that leads from the morgue to the headquarters of a cutting-edge biotech company to the jungles of Thailand. Together they begin to uncover an unholy and undeniable alliance between a battle-trained plastic surgeon, international politicians, and a legendary Thai monster known as the Skin Eater.

Two weeks of a mundane case occur prior to start of the book.  Must be mid-July. Exact dates are my own. Takes place little over one year after  episode 4x13.  Recovery time required afterward.

(6/22/98 – 7/6/98)

7/6/98 – 7/10/98

F/E

Season 7: Episode 19

7x18 Hollywood A.D. (flashback only)

Flashback portion only.

Start date confirmed by date on toe-tag.  Ending date is speculative.

7/14/98 – 7/18/98

Season 5: Episode 20

5x20 The End

A child chess prodigy has the ability to read minds.  If Mulder and Scully can protect him, he could be the answer to the mysteries they've long been exploring.  If the rulers of the Syndicate capture him, however, he could be the key to the world hegemony and the final destruction of the X-Files.  First appearance of Diana Fowley.  The X-Files are shut down.

No internal dates provided. Estimated dates my own based on prior episode.  Diana Fowley introduced. 

7/27/98 – 7/31/98

X

Movie: Fight the Future

Mulder and Scully's search for answers takes them from FBI headquarters to a hidden laboratory on the Texas border and finally to a frozen wilderness where their worst suspicions about a global conspiracy are confirmed.  And when Scully is kidnapped and infected with an extraterrestrial virus, Mulder has only hours to find the antidote for his partner before it's too late – for all of us!

Novel: X-Files: Fight the Future (Harper, 1998)

No internal dates provided except the epilogue which shows a dated letter re: reopening of the X-Files. Estimated dates are my own based on a 10 day period.

8/24/98 – 9/2/98

Epilogue: 9/7/98

X

Episode Theme Codes

A: Artificial Intelligence, technology and machines gone bad

B: Bugs, creepy-crawlers and parasitic pests

C: Cults, tribal practices and bizarre religious rites

D: Drama

E: Evil experiments and other scientific blunders

F: Fantasy, Philosophic theory, and Time paradoxes

G: Government conspiracies (unrelated to the mythology)

H: Humor

K: Killers (serial & spree), psychopaths; the human monster

L: Local legends: Bigfoot, lake monsters, ghosts & goblins

M: Monsters, mutants and malformed menaces

N: Nightmares, Dreams and Visions

O: Occultism, devil worship, demons and dark forces.

P: Psychic manifestations (telepathy, telekinesis, etc.,)

R: Reincarnation, transmigration and other pagan beliefs

S: Spirits, ghosts and apparitions

U: UFO's (unrelated to the mythology)

V: Viruses, bacteria and other nasty microbial matter

W: Werewolves, vampires and zombies

X: The Alien/Conspiracy main plot thread of the mythology

?: Unknown