home > SF > TV > The X Files > season 4 episodes

(spoilers)

4.1. Herrenvolk (part 2) -- Everything Dies -- BBC1, Wednesday 10 September 1997

The conclusion of season 3's cliff-hanger.

Mulder tries to persuade Jeremiah Smith to cure his mother. But, pursued by the shape-changing bounty hunter, Smith takes Mulder to a remote Canadian farm, full of ginseng, bees, and clone worker-drone children, many of whom look like his sister Samantha as a young girl. Mister X gives Scully a final clue, and Cigarette Smoking Man has Mulder's mother cured for his own reasons.

Jeremiah Smith: Roy Thinnes --- Bounty hunter: Brian Thompson --- Grey haired man: Morris Paynch

4.2 Home -- BBC1, Wednesday 17 September 1997

While investigating the murder of a deformed newborn baby, Mulder and Scully encounter the Peacock family: three inbred, animal-like brothers living on a remote Pennsylvania farm. One of them is probably the father, but who is the baby's mother?

Sheriff Andy Taylor: Tucker Smallwood --- George Peacock: Chris Nelson Norris --- Sherman Peacock: Adrian Hughes --- Edmond Peacock: John Trottier --- Mrs Peacock: Karin Konoval --- Deputy Barney Pastor: Sebastian Spence.

4.3 Teliko -- Deceive, Inveigle, Obfuscate -- BBC1, Wednesday 24 September 1997

Several black men have disappeared in the Philadelphia area. Then a black man dies on an aeroplane flight from Burkina Faso, but his corpse is white. (Mulder comments "there's a Michael Jackson joke in here somewhere, but I can't quite find it.") The post mortem reveals his pituitary gland is missing. Mulder meets a West African ambassador who believes Teliko, a creature from an African folk tale, may be responsible. In the end, Scully has to rescue Mulder from the Teliko.

Marcus Duff: Carl Lumbly --- Samuel Aboah: Willie Amakye

4.4 Unruhe -- BBC1, Wednesday 1 October 1997

Not many people like their passport photograph, but Mary Lefante has good reason to hate hers. Although taken under normal circumstances, it inexplicably shows her screaming as bony fingers pull at her hair. She is later found wandering aimlessly, crudely lobotomised and muttering "unruhe" (German for "unrest"). The another woman is found, dead this time.

Mulder deciphers the photos, pictures of a "tall man"; Scully arrests a decorator on stilts. Case closed? No, for the killer escapes, and decides that Scully will be the next to benefit from his "cure"...

4.5 The Field Where I Died -- BBC1, Wednesday 8 October 1997

Melissa, a woman with multiple personalities, plays a key role in the FBI's efforts to disarm a religious cult leader suspected of child abuse and having stockpiled weapons. She believes she has met Mulder in a past life during the American Civil War, when she was Sarah Kavanaugh and he was Sullivan Biddle.

Melissa Reidal: Kristen Cloke --- Vernon Ephesian: ???

4.6 Sanguinarium -- BBC1, Wednesday 15 October 1997

Patients undergoing cosmetic surgery die horribly at the hands of doctors possessed by witchcraft. In one case, during a scalp-reduction operation, a Chicago doctor performs lethal liposuction, claiming demonic possession in his defence. Pentagrams pop up everywhere. There are echoes of events from ten years before, and a witchcraft-practising nurse has just rejoined the ward. Is she the cause?

??? --- Richard Beymer

4.7 Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man -- BBC1, Wednesday 22 October 1997

So you never believed that Lee Harvey Oswald killed JFK? And you always suspected that James Earl Ray was the fall guy when Martin Luther King was assassinated? You may be right to have your doubts, but does your conspiracy theory include the Cigarette Smoking Man?

In this episode, he eavesdrops as his possible history and influence on key events of the past is revealed by the Lone Gunman Frohike. And he gives a wicked parody of Forrest Gump's "Life is like a box of chocolates" speech when one of his novels is finally published. (Mulder and Scully appear only in flashback.)

Morgan Weisser -- Lee Harvey Oswald

4.8 Tunguska (part 1) -- BBC1, Wednesday 29 October 1997

A tip from Alex Krycek (last seen trapped in an abandoned missile silo, now able to speak Russian) leads Mulder to a Russian meteorite fragment containing an alien life form. However, before he can uncover any more information about the mysterious fragment, he is imprisoned in a Russian gulag, and experimented on with the living 'black cancer'. Meanwhile, a senate sub-committee questions Scully, who refuses to divulge Mulder's whereabouts.

Marita Covarrubias: Laurie Holden --- Agent Pendrall: Brendan Beiser --- Dr Sacks: Malcolm Stewart --- Senator Sorenson: Fritz Weaver

4.9 Terma (part 2) -- E pur si muove -- BBC1, Wednesday 5 November 1997

Scully is jailed for contempt of Congress, but at least she now has plenty of time to read up on the effects of viruses. Various people connected with the stolen rock sample, including a lot of elderly test subjects, turn up dead. Mulder escapes from the Russian Gulag, taking the treacherous Krycek with him, but they get separated, and Krycek loses an arm. Mulder manages to return to the resumed Congress hearing in time, so Scully does not have to go back to jail. Cigarette Smoking Man disposes of all the evidence that Scully has gathered.

4.10 Paper Hearts -- BBC1, Wednesday 12 November 1997

A recurring nightmare leads Mulder to the shallow grave of a young girl, a previously unknown victim of jailed child serial killer whom Mulder had previously profiled and helped capture. Mulder finds himself manipulated by the killer, who claims Mulder's sister Samantha was one of his many victims. Mulder catches him in a lie, but the killer escapes, and Mulder and Scully must race against time before he takes a new victim.

John Lee Roche: Tom Noonan --- Frank Sparks: Byrne Piven --- Day care operator: Jane Perry --- El Camino owner: Edward Diaz

4.11 El Mundo Gira -- BBC1, Wednesday 19 November 1997

A Californian community of migrant workers attributes several strange deaths to El Chupacabra -- a creature straight out of Mexican folklore. The mythical creature looks suspiciously like a Grey, but Scully thinks enzyme-induced fungal infection is a better explanation.

Lozano: Ruben Blades --- Eladio: Raymond Cruz --- Soledad: Jose Yenque --- Gabrielle: Simi --- Flakita: Lillian Hurst --- Dr Larry Steen: Robert Thurston

4.12 Leonard Betts -- BBC1, Wednesday 26 November 1997

Paramedic Betts is beheaded in a road accident. When his headless corpse walks out of a Philadelphia hospital morgue, it triggers the search for a highly-evolved humanoid life form that possesses unimaginable regenerative powers. Scully shows a slight squeamishness when she examines Betts' severed head and it blinks at her. Betts' cells regenerate like cancer, and it turns out he has a need to ingest cancer cells from others, and a way of recognising cancer sufferers. (So his line to Scully "I'm sorry, but you've got something I need" is portentous.)

Leonard Bets: Paul McCrane --- Elaine Tanner: Marjorie Lovett --- Michele Wilkes: Jennifer Clement --- Charles Burks: Bill Dow --- Local cop: Sean Campbell --- Pathologist: Dave Hurtubise --- Uniformed cop: Peter Bryant: Female EMT: Laara Sadiq --- Male EMT: J Douglas Stewart --- Security guard: Bard Loree

4.13 Never Again -- BBC1, Wednesday 3 December 1997

While Mulder is on holiday, Scully follows the trail of a spurious X-file to Philadelphia. There, lonely and questioning her life, she a becomes romantically involved with a handsome divorceé, Ed Jerse, but his Betty Page-like tattoo seems to be talking to him, and making him hostile. There's an ergot alkaloid in the ink, and when Scully also has a tattoo done, they both begin feeling weird.

tatoo's voice: Jodie Foster --- Ed Jerse: Rodney Roland --- Comrade Svo: Bill Croft --- Detective Gouveia: Jay Donahue --- Hannah: B. J. Harrison --- Kaye Schilling: Jillian Fargey.

Mulder: "All this because I wouldn't get you a desk, Scully?"

Mulder: "You now hold the record of being personally involved in two X-files."

4.14 Memento Mori -- BBC1, Wednesday 10 December 1997

Scully shows Mulder an X-ray of her skull, with an inoperable brain tumour growing behind her eye. Mulder thinks it is connected to her abduction when he discovers all the other women in her group have died of it. He enlists the help of the Lone Gunmen to hunt for research files, and discovers another group of clones, who are trying to protect all their mothers. Mulder escapes with a test tube, ostensibly containing Scully's ova, extracted during abduction. Meanwhile, Scully starts chemotherapy, and suffers flashbacks, but is her doctor friend or foe?

Kurt Crawford: David Lovgren

4.15 Kaddish -- BBC1, Wednesday 17 December 1997

Mulder and Scully investigate the death of a teenage Nazi thug involved in the brutal murder of a Jewish man. It appears the murdered man is the main suspect! But Mulder suspects that Golem, a man-made monster described in Jewish folklore, may be responsible.

Ariel: Justine Miceli --- Kenneth Ungar: David Wohl --- Derek Banks: Channon Roe --- Isaac Luria: Harrison Coe --- Curt Brunjes: Jonthan Whittaker --- Rabbi: David Freeman

4.16 Unrequited -- BBC1, Wednesday 7 January 1998

Yet another Vietnam war veteran's activities require the attention of Mulder and Scully. This time it is Teager, a former prisoner of war, who is now prone to vanishing, by manipulating the eye's blind spot, a trick he learned from the Viet Cong. And he is also prone to assassinating those military top brass who abandoned him in Vietnam...

Nathaniel Teager: Peter Lacroix --- General Benjamin Bloch: Scott Hylands --- Marita Covarrubias: Laurie Holden --- General Leitch: William Taylor --- Geneal Steffan: William Nunn

4.17 Tempus Fugit (part 1) -- BBC1, Wednesday 14 January 1998

The death of alien abductee and courier Max Fenig ( Fallen Angel ) in a suspicious plane crash leads his sister to Mulder and Scully for help. All the crash victims' wrist-watches are missing, possibly to cover up a missing nine minutes, and someone seems to be gunning for the military air traffic controllers involved. Then Fenig's sister is abducted, too.

Mike Millar: Joe Spano --- Corporal Frisch: Tom O'Brien --- Max Fenig: Scott Bellis --- Sharon Graffia: Chilton Crane --- Agent Pendrell: Brenden Beiser --- Scott Garrett: Greg Michaels --- Bruce Bearfield: Robert Moloney

4.18 Max (part 2) -- BBC1, Wednesday 21 January 1998

Mulder uncovers evidence of an alien craft that crashed along with the passenger plane that carried Max Fenig to his death, and Scully discovers a covert military plan to use an alien power source. This episode gives the phrase "caught a connecting flight" new meaning, as Mulder witnesses a UFO abduction, but, of course, has his memory wiped.

4.19 Synchrony -- BBC1, Wednesday 28 January 1998

Mulder and Scully search for answers when an elderly man foretells the death in a road accident of a researcher in Massachusetts, and uses technology of the future to commit murder, by freezing his victims.

Jason Nichols: Joseph Fuqua --- Lisa Ianelli: Susan Hoffman --- Elderly man: Michael Fairman --- Lucas Menand: Jed Rees

4.20 Small Potatoes -- BBC1, Wednesday 4 February 1998

A mother in West Virginia gives birth to a baby with a four-inch tail and claims the father is Luke Skywalker from Star Wars . Scully and Mulder find that four other tailed babies have been born in a city of less than 15,000 people. But could the father really be none other than Luke? The agents search for a man who possesses the ability to change form.

Eddie Van Blundht : Darin Morgan --- Amanda Nelligan : Christine Cavanaugh --- Dr Alton Pugh: Robert Rozen

4.21 Zero Sum -- BBC1, Wednesday 11 February 1998

Cigarette Smoking Man gets Skinner to cover up the death of a woman who was attacked by bees, as part of his price for curing Scully's cancer. (Scully does not appear in this episode.) When a security guard is killed, Skinner revolts, but is framed for the murder. Then he discovers the bees are an experimental vector for a new strain of smallpox.

4.22 Elegy -- BBC1, Wednesday 18 February 1998

A badly injured girl is discovered wedged inside the machinery at a local ten-pin bowling alley. The owner rushes to get help from the nearby car park, where a crowd is gathering around the dead body of the same girl. And three similar encounters, with three similar murders, and the cryptic message 'She is me', have been reported in the area in as many weeks. An autistic bowling alley employee with a connection to each of the victims falls under suspicion.

Mulder suspects encounters with the dead girls' spirit, attempting to communicate with the living, because all the encounters have been experienced by someone close to their own death. Then Scully too has an encounter, and so must face up to her own illness.

Harold Spuller: Stephen M Porter --- Angelo Pintero: Alex Bruhanski --- Chuck Forsch: Sydney Lassick

4.23 Demons -- BBC1, Wednesday 25 February 1998

Mulder wakes from a nightmare in a strange hotel room, covered in blood, with no recollection of how he got there. He experiences strange visions concerning his mother, and becomes prime suspect in a brutal double murder case.

Detective Joe Curtis: Jay Acovone --- Dr Charles Goldstein: Mike Nussbaum

4.24 Gethsemene (part 1) -- Believe the Lie -- BBC1, Wednesday 4 March 1998

The 4th season reaches its climax with Scully struggling to control her emotions at the scene of a police investigation, as she identifies Mulder's body. But she is rather more composed reporting to her superiors at the FBI: "My job was to provide an analytical perspective on special agent Fox Mulder's investigations into the paranormal. I come here today to report on the illegitimacy of agent Mulder's work. It is my scientific opinion that he became a victim of his own false hopes and his belief in the biggest of lies." She is still composed when she reports that her cancer has metastasised.

We learn in flashback that Mulder had been contacted by an anthropologist who believed he had discovered the frozen corpse of an EBE in Canada. Mulder was convinced it would finally provide the hard evidence he has been looking for. But Mulder's involvement in establishing proof of an alien presence in the snow-covered mountains of Canada fits a tantalising pattern. Has the whole X Files saga just been a giant scam? Has Scully stumbled over the greatest of conspiracies? Has Mulder's despair at learning of the hoax caused him to commit suicide?

Scott Kritschgau: John Finn --- Arlinsky: Matthew Walker --- Babcock: James Sutorius --- Bill Scully Jr: Pat Skipper