As the seasons have progressed, the titles of the episodes have become more and more obscure. In season one we had simple, one-word titles such as "Fire" and "Ice", only to be followed in later seasons by titles in other languages ("Die Hand Die Verletzt", "Talitha Cumi") and long phrases ("Jose Chung's From Outer Space", "Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man"). It has become a game, the episode titles a mystery for the X-Files fans to solve. What follows is a list of each episode title, along with an explanation of that title. As always, suggestions, corrections, and wild guesses are welcome!
| Number | Title | Translation |
|---|---|---|
| Pilot | Pilot | No explanation necessary -- this is the pilot episode of the X-Files |
| 1x01 | Deep Throat | Code name of Mulder's informant -- although the words "Deep Throat" are never mentioned in this episode, the first "Deep Throat" was the infamous Watergate informant |
| 1x02 | Squeeze | Description of Tooms' special ability |
| 1x03 | Conduit | A conduit is "a means of transmitting or distributing" -- the boy was a conduit through which aliens were attempting to communicate? |
| 1x04 | The Jersey Devil | The name is lifted from the myth of the "Jersey Devil" that has haunted New Jersey for centuries |
| 1x05 | Shadows | The title is descriptive of the ghost-like qualities of one of the main characters |
| 1x06 | Ghost in the Machine | A phrase coined by Descartes as a way to explain consciousness. The ghost is our soul, the machine our bodies |
| 1x07 | Ice | Well, they are in the Arctic |
| 1x08 | Space | Named for where some of this episode took place |
| 1x09 | Fallen Angel | The title is the code words for a crashed UFO |
| 1x10 | Eve | Named for the monsterettes-of-the-week, who were named for the Biblical first woman |
| 1x11 | Fire | No futher explanation necessary |
| 1x12 | Beyond the Sea | Named for the song that played during Scully's parents' wedding, and the song that played at her father's funeral |
| 1x13 | Genderbender | Descriptive of what the monsters-of-the-week can do |
| 1x14 | Lazarus | Named for the biblical character Lazarus, who was resurrected by Jesus Christ (an act which was paralleled by the "resurrection" of Willis on the operating table) |
| 1x15 | Young at Heart | The title of a song -- having to do with the newly youthful nature of the Monster-of-the-Week in this episode |
| 1x16 | E.B.E. | acronym for "Extra-Terrestrial Biological Entity" |
| 1x17 | Miracle Man | Description of the main-guest character |
| 1x18 | Shapes | Another pretty basic title |
| 1x19 | Darkness Falls | The phrase "Darkness Falls" has been used in poetry for hundreds of years -- does anyone have an origination of this phrase? It is a very appropriate title for this episode |
| 1x20 | Tooms | Named for the "Monster of the Week" |
| 1x21 | Born Again | Usually used to describe someone who has found religion, this episode title relates to the reincarnation of the main guest-character |
| 1x22 | Roland | Named for the main guest-character |
| 1x23 | The Erlenmeyer Flask | A common laboratory container -- in this episode Scully was afraid it contained "monkey pee" |
| 2x01 | Little Green Men | Commonly used slang term for an alien from outer space |
| 2x02 | The Host | Descriptive of what the monster-of-the-week was looking for |
| 2x03 | Blood | Another very basic title |
| 2x04 | Sleepless | Descriptive of the main character |
| 2x05 | Duane Barry | Named for the main guest-character |
| 2x06 | Ascension | Named for Scully's "Ascending to the Stars" |
| 2x07 | 3 | Named for the vampire characters, representing the father, the son, and the holy spirit. They needed 3 members to be strong |
| 2x08 | One Breath | Named for a phrase used when Scully's father is speaking to her |
| 2x09 | Firewalker | Named for the robot used to film inside the volcano |
| 2x10 | Red Museum | Name of the cult in this episode |
| 2x11 | Excelsius Dei | Spelled Excelsis Dei in the episode -- Latin for "Glory of God", it is also the name of the retirement home |
| 2x12 | Aubrey | Location where this episode took place |
| 2x13 | Irresistible | I know that there are deep and meaningful interpretations of this title -- but basically the monster-of-the-week found some women irresistible |
| 2x14 | Die Hand Die Verletzt | German for "The Hand that Wounds" -- a phrase uttered during the "prayer" in the teaser |
| 2x15 | Fresh Bones | I'm open to suggestions. I know that bones were used in the voodoo rituals performed, but does anyone know a "behind-the-scenes" reason for the title? Anyone? |
| 2x16 | Colony | Descriptive of what the aliens are starting to form on this planet |
| 2x17 | End Game | Okay, I know that this is the title of a Samuel Beckett book, and that it is a chess term, but does anyone have a more appropriate definition? Perhaps it was used because Samantha is like a pawn to both the consortium and the aliens? It is also worth noting that much like the chess game with multiple pawns, there are multiple Samanthas. Also, the pawns are usually sacrificed to protect the other, more valuable pieces. |
| 2x18 | Fearful Symmetry | Named for a phrase from William Blake's poem "The Tyger" ("What immortal hand or eye could frame thy fearful symmetry?") |
| 2x19 | Død Kälm | Norwegian-ized version of "Dead Calm" (not an exact translation) |
| 2x20 | Humbug | A humbug is a deception, a hoax, or one who attempts to trick or deceive. P.T. Barnum, expressly mentioned in the episode, was known as the "Prince of Humbug" |
| 2x21 | The Calusari | Named for the Romanian priests in this episode |
| 2x22 | F. Emasculata | Genus/Species name for the bug that caused the problems in this episode. Mulder & Scully would be H. Sapiens. |
| 2x23 | Soft Light | The type of light that Dr. Banton needed, so that he wouldn't cast a shadow |
| 2x24 | Our Town | Named for Thornton Wilder's play of the same name, although the towns in question certainly are different |
| 2x25 | Anasazi | Named for an Indian tribe that disappeared "without a trace". |
| 3x01 | The Blessing Way | Named for the Indian healing ritual performed on Agent Mulder |
| 3x02 | Paper Clip | As explained in the episode, "Paper Clip" was the code name for the project to bring Axis power scientists to America after World War II |
| 3x03 | D.P.O. | Named for the antagonist, Darren Peter Oswald, whose initials on the video game led Mulder & Scully to him |
| 3x04 | Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose | No explanation necessary |
| 3x05 | The List | The main focus of this episode |
| 3x06 | 2Shy | Internet name of the "bad guy" |
| 3x07 | The Walk | Named for one thing that the antagonist couldn't normally do |
| 3x08 | Oubliette | "medieval dungeon having a trap door in the ceiling as its only means of entry or exit." It is derived from the French word "oublier", to forget. |
| 3x09 | Nisei | "Nisei" is the Japanese word for a person born in America or Canada to Japanese parents (who were born in Japan). Translated literally, it means "second generation". |
| 3x10 | 731 | Camp 731 was a germ warfare research station in Manchuko (Japanese occupied Manchuria) by General Shiro Ishii (the Japanese Mengele). Hideous experiments were performed there on P.O.W.'s, including Americans. After the war, Ishii and his crew were recruited into the American bio-war research establishment. |
| 3x11 | Revelations | This one is probably best left to each individual's interpretation |
| 3x12 | War of the Coprophages | This episode paid homage to Orson Welles' famous 1939 radio drama "War of the Worlds", which was adapted from the novel of the same name by H. G. Wells. |
| 3x13 | Syzygy | As explained in the episode, a configuration of planets in a straight line |
| 3x14 | Grotesque | The title is pretty descriptive of the actions taking place and of the drawings in this episode -- also, gargoyles that do not serve as drains are known as "grotesques". |
| 3x15 | Piper Maru | Named for the first and middle names of Gillian Anderson's daughter, Piper Maru. Her middle name, Maru, was particularly fitting for this episode, since it means "ship" in Japanese (and it means "flower" in Polynesian -- no, Gillian didn't name her daughter after a boat). |
| 3x16 | Apocrypha | "Writings of dubious authenticity". "Apocrypha" are also books of the bible excluded from the Jewish and Protestant canons of the Old Testament. |
| 3x17 | Pusher | The episode was named for the title character, or more specifically, what the title character preferred to be called |
| 3x18 | Teso Dos Bichos | "Teso" is Portuguese for "burial ground". "Bichos" means "small animals" |
| 3x19 | Hell Money | As described in the episode, Hell money is used to pay off ghosts in the Chinese Festival of the Hungry Ghosts |
| 3x20 | Jose Chung's From Outer Space | This title represents the book written by the interviewer, Jose Chung, in this episode. |
| 3x21 | Avatar | An "avatar" is the human incarnation of a deity. The word has also been popularized more recently as a computer term for a person's on-line graphical representation (first used in Neal Stephenson's book -- and one of my personal favorites, "Snow Crash"). |
| 3x22 | Quagmire | A quagmire is land with a soft, yielding surface, or a difficult or irksome situation |
| 3x23 | Wetwired | It has been suggested that the term "Wetwired" comes from the short story "Johnny Mnemonic" by William Gibson (who has written two X-Files episodes, "Kill Switch" and "First Person Shooter"). In the story, Johnny's brain is "wetwired" to a computer hard drive. The term is being popularized as referring to a brain consisting of living and mechanical parts. |
| 3x24 | Talitha Cumi | Aramaic for "little girl arise". The phrase is used in the Bible (Mark 5:41), spoken by Jesus when he raises the young daughter of a Jewish leader from the dead. |
| 4x1 | Herrenvolk | Nazi/German word for "master race", which was Hitler's plan for creating a race of perfect, blue-eyed blonde people |
| 4x2 | Unruhe | As explained in the episode, "Unruhe" is German for unrest |
| 4x3 | Home | There could be multiple meanings for this title. This is writing team Morgan & Wong's first episode after returning to the show (which would make it their "home-coming" episode). Then again, maybe it is just a reference to the home of the people at the center of this story (which is actually Home, PA). |
| 4x4 | Teliko | Did we ever decide about the background-meanings of this one, the ones not mentioned on the show itself? According to the show, "Teliko" were ghostly spirits in Africa, but I know we had unearthed other meanings! "Teliko" is also Greek for "end". |
| 4x5 | The Field Where I Died | Petty self-explanatory -- the title is spoken from Mulder's point-of-view |
| 4x6 | Sanguinarium | "Sanguinary" means carnage, bloodthirsty, consisting of blood. "Sanguinaria" means bloodroot. Sanguinarium is Latin for "place of blood". |
| 4x7 | Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man | The title is a straightforward analysis of what happens in this episode |
| 4x8 | Paper Hearts | What the killer kept (although his hearts weren't paper). Perhaps this title also refers to the figurative frailty of the human heart. |
| 4x9 | Tunguska | Tunguska is the location in Siberia where an object (asteroid? UFO?) struck the earth in 1908. The blast leveled over a half million acres and was hundreds of times stronger than the blast of an atomic bomb. |
| 4x10 | Terma | "Tyurma" (pronounced Terma) is Russian for prison or jail, also a Latin conjunction of "death". It has also been suggested that the title refers to the Tibetan Buddhist term "Terma", meaning hidden or buried truth. Of course, in the episode, it was the name of a location in North Dakota. |
| 4x11 | El Mundo Gira | "The World Rotates" in Spanish -- possibly a play on the soap opera title "As the World Turns", since Scully described this episode as a "Mexican soap opera" |
| 4x12 | Kaddish | A Kaddish is a prayer recited by mourners after the death of a close relative |
| 4x13 | Never Again | Rumored to be titled for the likelihood that the writing team of Glen Morgan and James Wong will ever come back to the X-Files again (this was their final episode as they were leaving to create a new show titled "The Notorious"), the phrase was also uttered by "Betty" the tattoo. |
| 4x14 | Leonard Betts | Name of this episode's antagonist |
| 4x15 | Memento Mori | Latin for "A reminder of death" |
| 4x16 | Unrequited | Means "not avenged" |
| 4x17 | Tempus Fugit | "Time flies" in Latin -- probably refers to the 9 minutes that keep getting lost in various ways on this show |
| 4x18 | Max | Obvious title - named for the character Max Fenig, who first appeared in season one's "Fallen Angel" |
| 4x19 | Synchrony | A synchronous occurrence -- probably refers to the elder and younger Jason running into each other a few times |
| 4x20 | Small Potatoes | A phrase meaning "not a big deal, not overly important" -- it is how Eddie thought of himself (and possibly how his father described him) |
| 4x21 | Zero Sum | "Zero Sum" describes a game where someone wins by someone else's loss (for example, we start with 10 dollars each, every time you win I have to give you one of my dollars, and you win the game when I lose all 10 of my dollars). |
| 4x22 | Elegy (formerly Tulpa, then Revenant) | "Tulpa" -- in Tibetan mystic practice, a ghostly manifestation of a "thought-form" produced by the mind. "Revenant" is one that comes back following an absence or one who returns after death. An elegy is a poem expressing grief for someone who is dead. |
| 4x23 | Demons | A secondary definition for "Demon" is "a persistently tormenting passion" -- Mulder said that he wanted to exorcise his demons |
| 4x24 | Gethsemane | "Gethsemane" is the place where Jesus was betrayed by Judas -- probably a reference to Scully's (apparent) betrayal of Mulder |
| 5x01 | Unusual Suspects | A play on the phrase "Usual Suspects", which is also the title of a movie containing unreliable narratives (The Usual Suspects) |
| 5x02 | Redux | "Redux" means brought back, as following retirement, illness, or long inactivity; resurgent. Fitting for a "Mulder back from the dead" episode, don't you think? |
| 5x03 | Redux II | Same as the definition of episode 5x02 (of course) -- although in this case the "back from the dead" part references Scully rather than Mulder. |
| 5x04 | Detour | A detour is a road used temporarily instead of the main route, or a deviation from the direct course of action |
| 5x06 | Post-Modern Prometheus | The title is a homage to Mary Shelley's famous book "Frankenstein" -- which is actually titled "Frankenstein: Or the Modern Prometheus". Prometheus was a demi-god who made men out of clay, and is probably best remembered as being the one who stole fire from Olympus and taught men how to use it -- an act that got him punished by Zeus. His punishment was to be chained to a rock and to have an eagle eat his liver every day. |
| 5x05 | Christmas Carol | Named for the popular Dickens classic "A Christmas Carol" |
| 5x07 | Emily | Emily is the name of Scully's daughter |
| 5x08 | Kitsunegari | "Kitsune-gari" is Japanese for "Fox hunt" (with "Kitsune" meaning "fox", and "Gari" meaning "hunting"). |
| 5x09 | Schizogeny | "Schizogony" (spelled slightly differently than the title) means reproduction by multiple asexual fission |
| 5x10 | Chinga (Bunghoney?) | "Chinga" is reportedly equivalent to "the f-word" in Mexico (apparently it means different things or nothing depending upon which type of Spanish you speak). "Chinga" is also the name of a meteorite found in Siberia in 1913. Reportedly (although it was never mentioned in the episode) "Chinga" was the name of the little girl's doll. Reportedly, Fox made Chris Carter change the name of this episode after they discovered the "bad" nature of the word. Too late to change it as it aired in USA and Canada, overseas the name was changed to "Bunghoney". Supposedly Carter did not want to change the name, so he changed it to this perhaps-equally distasteful but non-sensical word. |
| 5x11 | Kill Switch | a "kill switch" is usually a button or switch that shuts something down completely, and may or may not be the normal method of turning something off (it is sometimes meant to be used only in emergency situations) |
| 5x12 | Bad Blood | Dealing with vampires, the title "Bad Blood" might be a clever reference to the animosity between Mulder & Scully, or between Ronnie and the other, new style of vampire (the good neighbor, tax-paying kind) |
| 5x13 | Patient X (formerly Bloodlines) | "Patient X" is a term used to describe a patient who will remain anonymous (in this case, that patient was Cassandra Spender). |
| 5x14 | The Red and the Black | There has been a huge amount of speculation over this title. Suggestions on what "Red & Black" could refer to include things such as a checker board, a roulette wheel, Russians & Oilens, red dwarfs & black holes, red blood vs. oilen blood, and perhaps a reference to the American Civil War's "the Blue & the Grey". Probably the best suggestion to the origin of the title is from a film made by the American government in the 1950's, during the height of McCarthyism. Used as both entertainment and anti-communism propaganda, the film is filled with truly astonishing stereotypes of "Commie Bastards". The film also depicts the cold war as a clear-cut battle between good and evil, with Americans as the patriotic freedom-fighters and the Russians as a threat to all that the Americans hold dear. The title of this film is "The Red and the Black". One of the more interesting suggestions is that the title is a reference to Stendhal's Le Rouge et Le Noire (French for The Red and the Black). The main character in the book (Julien Sorel) is an angry, self-made man who hates the rich people who don't accept him because he was born poor. The book follows his life as he manipulates and connives to advance his career and his status in life. The title of the book relates to two life-choices that were available to the Sorel, the army or the priesthood. Eventually, the character's past comes back to haunt him, and he loses everything (this could be the story of Krycek, Cancerman, or Agent Spender -- only time will tell). Another interesting possibility comes from a song from Les Miserables (theme song of the Rebels!): "Red- the blood of angry men/Black- the dark of ages past/Red- the color of desire/Black- the color of despair/Red! A world about to dawn/Black! the night that ends at last" |
| 5x15 | Travelers | "Fellow Travelers" were Americans who were sympathetic to the Communist cause during the McCarthy era |
| 5x16 | Mind's Eye | This title refers to how the blind girl (Marty) was able to see |
| 5x17 | All Souls | "All Souls Day" is a holiday with its roots in the ancient "Pagan Festival of the Dead", which celebrated the Pagan belief that the souls of the dead would return for a meal with the family. Candles would be placed in the windows to help the dead find their way home, and an extra place would be set at the table for them. The act of "Trick or Treat"ing on Halloween can be traced back to the early celebration of "All Souls Day" in Britain. On this day, the poor would go begging and the housewives would give them special treats, called "soulcakes" in exchange for a promise to say a prayer for the dead. In the episode, father Gregory described "good" as losing the struggle for "all souls". |
| 5x18 | The Pine Bluff Variant | Title - Pine Bluff is a city in Arkansas. Perhaps the "variant" part of the title refers to a disease or viral strain -- much like Ebola Reston is a variant of the Ebola virus named for the place it was discovered, Reston, Virginia. |
| 5x19 | Folie A Deux | My dictionary (Webster's II) reports a "Folie a Deux" as "A condition in which the same delusional ideas or beliefs are shared by two people having a close relationship". It is French for "maddness has two". |
| 5x20 | The End | At the time the title was announced, there had been many rumors concerning exactly what this episode would be "the end" of (including the end of the X-Files and the end of the Mulder/Scully partnership), but one real "end" is the fact that this episode is the last episode of the X-Files to be filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia, thus bringing an end to the 5 year relationship with the excellent Vancouver crew. |
| 6x01 | The Beginning | A fitting follow-up to the previous episode (titled "The End"), this episode brought many new beginnings to the X-Files show we know and love. |
| 6x02 | Drive | Reportedly, this episode is about people dying in their cars in an unexplained manner (something to do with their heads exploding) |
| 6x03 | Triangle | Reportedly, this episode deals with a ship lost in the Bermuda Triangle -- a ship stuck in the time 1939 |
| 6x04 | Dreamland | Title - the name "Dreamland" is a nickname for the infamous Area 51 in Nevada. "Dreamland" actually stands for "Data Repository Establishment and Management Land". |
| 6x05 | Dreamland II | Title - the name "Dreamland" is a nickname for the infamous Area 51 in Nevada. "Dreamland" actually stands for "Data Repository Establishment and Management Land". |
| 6x06 | Terms of Endearment | |
| 6x07 | Rain King | This episode deals with a person who can control the weather |
| 6x08 | How the Ghosts Stole Christmas | A play on the popular Christmas tale "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" |
| 6x09 | Tithonus | Tithonus is a character from Greek mythology. A mortal man, Tithonus fell in love with the goddess of Dawn, Eos, who begged Zeus to grant Tithonus immortality. Zeus consented, but neglected to give him eternal youth. Tithonus continued to shrivel and grow feeble as he aged. Eventually Eos turned him into a grasshopper.
It is also worth mentioning that a "tithonograph" is defined as "a photograph produced by the action of 'tithonic' rays on a sensitized surface" -- and "tithonic rays" are "analogous to rays of dark heat". (Special thanks to OpheM for the research). |
6x10 | SR 819 | Title - this title may have been named for a "real" Senate Resolution (S 819) from 1993 regarding a hazardous, toxic, and potentially deadly chemical, Trifluoromethylaniline. The bill extended the temporary suspension of duty on the chemical. |
| 6x11 | Two Fathers | I assume that the 2 fathers being referred to in the title are CancerMan (father of Jeffery Spender) and William Mulder (father of Fox Mulder). |
| 6x12 | One Son | As the follow-up to "Two Fathers", I guess the "One Son" in the title is Mulder, the only son left standing after CancerMan decides his son isn't worth keeping around any more. |
| 6x13 | Arcadia | from my trusty Webster's dictionary, "Arcadia" is "A region in ancient Greece held to be an ideal of rural simplicity and peacefulness", or "A region offering rural simplicity and tranquillity". This episode is rumored to be about an idealic residential community where the price of breaking the rules is death. |
| 6x14 | Agua Mala | Title - Spanish for "Bad Water", the term "Agua Mala" also is a slang name for a particularly nasty type of jellyfish (the Portuguese Man of War) in the Caribbean. This jellyfish has tentacles that can spread out over a large area of water, the clear *arms* unseen until it has wrapped itself around a person's limb or limbs, leaving welts that look very much like acid burns. |
| 6x15 | Monday (previously titled Mobius) | Mobius (or a Mobius strip) is a one-sided surface that can be formed from a rectangular strip by twisting one end 180 degrees and fastening it to the other end. It is sort-of like a 3D infinity symbol. This is the Groundhog Day/Run Lola Run-like episode where the day keeps repeating until they get it right. |
| 6x16 | Alpha | The title refers to the canine alpha-male, or leader of the pack. |
| 6x17 | Trevor | The title refers to the son of Pinker Rawls, the "monster of the week" in this episode |
| 6x18 | Milagro | "Milagro" is Spanish for "miracle". |
| 6x19 | Three of a Kind | This is the follow-up to Season 5's "The Unusual Suspects", so the "Three of a Kind" here are the Lone Gunmen. Considering that much of this episode takes place in Las Vegas, the title is also a reference to the "three of a kind" poker hand. |
| 6x20 | The Unnatural | The title of this episode, written and directed by David Duchovny, is a play on the common phrase used to describe someone born to do what they do, a "natural", or an homage to the Bernard Malamud book "The Natural", as well as Robert Redford's classic baseball film of the same name. |
| 6x21 | Field Trip | According to rumor, the field "trip" referenced in the title may have something to do with Mulder and Scully being exposed to an interesting drug. |
| 6x22 | Biogenesis | According to my trusty Websters, "Biogenesis" is "the doctrine that living organisms develop only from other living organisms and not from nonliving matter. It is also Latin for "creation of life" |
| 7x01 | Hungry | Apparently, this episode is about cannibalism! |
| 7x02 | The Goldberg Variation | Title - this title appears to be a play on 2 different Goldbergs. The first Goldberg was a brilliant harpsichordist in the 1700's who played special compositions written by J.S. Bach. These compositions, although written by Bach, were called "The Goldberg Variations" ("The Goldberg Variations"). The other Goldberg is Rueben (Rube) Lucius Goldberg (1888-1970), a Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist, sculptor, and author. A trained engineer and accomplished artist, Rube Goldberg's "inventions" were known for making simple tasks amazingly complex by utilizing dozens of arms, wheels, gears, handles, live animals, etc to accomplish something as simple as squeezing orange juice or closing a window (anyone remember the game "Mousetrap"?). His name, Rube Goldberg, has become associated with any convoluted solution to perform a simple task (to see what I mean, check out the "Gallery" page at The Rube Goldberg Site). The X-Files connection? This episode's description involves Mulder & Scully being "caught up in an elaborate real-life Rube Goldberg device" involving luck, coincidence, and chance.
Extra special thanks to Dennis Wittig for his investigative prowess! |
| 7x03 | 6th Extinction | The title is a reference to the point of Scully's monologue at the beginning of 6th season finale, "Biogenesis". Scully told us, "440 million years ago, a great mass extinction would kill off nearly every species on the planet leaving the vast oceans decimated and empty. Slowly, plants began to evolve, then insects, only to be wiped out in the second great mass extinction upon the Earth. The cycle repeated again and again. Reptiles emerging, independent of the sea only to be killed off. Then dinosaurs, struggling to life along with the first birds, fish, and flowering plants - their decimations Earth's fourth and fifth great extinctions." ... "Will we pass, as those before us, into oblivion, into the sixth extinction that scientists warn is already in progress?" |
| 7x04 | The Sixth Extinction II: Amor Fati | Title - Amor Fati means "Love of Fate". It can be a religious term, having to do with our lives being divinely willed (thus we are supposed to love our lives). A relatively famous phrase, it was written about by Nietzsche ("Amor Fati: let that be my love henceforth"). |
| 7x05 | Millennium | This is the much rumored X-Files/Millennium crossover episode |
| 7x06 | Rush | |
| 7x07 | Orison | The definition of "Orison" is "a prayer" |
| 7x08 | The Amazing Maleeni | |
| 7x09 | Signs & Wonders | A fairly common biblical phrase used to describe the acts used to convince followers of the nature of Christ and his apostles, for example:
Second Corinthians 12:12: "The signs of a true apostle were performed among you with all perseverance, by signs and wonders and miracles." |
| 7x10 | Sein Und Zeit | "Sein Und Zeit" means "Being and Time" and is the title of a rather famous 1927 philosophy book by world renowned philosopher Martin Heidegger. It deals with our existence -- being. If you would like to know more about Heidegger's Master Work, follow this link: Lectures on Heidegger's Being and Time |
| 7x11 | Closure (formerly "Sein Und Zeit: Aliatope") |
This title describes what Mulder finally has now that he knows what happened to his sister |
| 7x12 | X-Cops | So-titled because this episode is filmed with a "Cops"-like perspective. "Cops" is/was a popular show wherein camera crews rode along with real-life policemen and filmed them doing their jobs. |
| 7x13 | First Person Shooter | "First Person Shooter" is a phrase used to describe games like Quake and Doom -- games where you see the action through your game-character's eyes (first-person perspective), and your main goal is to shoot your weapon and take out your opponents, bad-guys, etc. |
| 7x14 | Theef | The word "Theef" (a misspelling of the word "thief") appears throughout this episode. |
| 7x15 | En Ami | "En Ami" is French for "as a friend", yet phonetically it sounds like "enemy". |
| 7x16 | Chimera | Greek for "goat", my trusty Websters defines "Chimera" as "1) from Greek mythology, a fire-breathing she-monster usually depicted as a composite of a lion, a goat, and a serpent. 2) A foolish fancy. 3) An organism, especially a plant, with tissues from at least two genetically distinct parents." |
| 7x17 | all things | According to Gillian herself, the title "speaks to that which is innate in everything, and the unity of life energy and all of us and of all things" |
| 7x18 | Hollywood A.D. | The title refers to A.D. (Assistant Director) Skinner, who has pitched an X-Files story to a Hollywood filmmaker. Since much of the story also references religion and Christ, the A.D. probably also refers to "Anno Domini" -- Latin for "the year of our Lord" and our designation for the time after Christ (A.D.) (as opposed to B.C. -- the time before Christ). |
| 7x19 | Brand X | Tthe "Brand X" is in reference to a brand of cigarettes (Morley). |
| 7x20 | Fight Club | Possibly a reference to the 1999 Brad Pitt, Edward Norton film of the same name (or the original novel by Chuck Palanhiuk)? |
| 7x21 | Je Souhaite | "Je Souhaite" is French for "I wish" |
| 7x22 | Requiem | A "requiem" is a mass for a deceased person, or a musical composition for such a mass. It is a hymn, composition, or service for commemorating the dead. |
| 8x01 | Within | Possibly a reference to Scully's pregnancy? |
| 8x02 | Without | Possibly a reference to Mulder, and Scully's inability to find him. |
| 8x03 | Redrum | "Redrum" is "murder" spelled backwards, and is probably best known in pop-culture as a phrase from Stephen King's book "The Shining" (or the subsequent movie starring Jack Nicholson). Interestingly enough this stand-alone episode is about a man accused of his wife's murder who is suddenly living his life backwards one day at a time. |
| 8x04 | Patience | The title describes the monster-of-the-week's ability to wait to exact his revenge |
| 8x05 | Roadrunners | I couldn't find a particularly special meaning to the title. It is the name of the bus-line in the episode. |
| 8x06 | Invocation | According to my trusty Webster's, "Invocation" means "The act or process of invoking, esp. an appeal to a higher power for assistance", and "an act of conjuring up a spirit by incantation" |
| 8x07 | Via Negativa | According to the Official Site, the title is a Latin phrase that refers to the darkest path taken en route to enlightenment. For more information on the title (as a psychoanalysis study), check out this page -- where via negativa is described as "negative path wherein salvation or enlightenment is achieved less by direct discovery and affirmation of the truth than by seeing through the veil of Maya, the pseudo-truths that we mistake for it; less through knowledge (gnosis) of the one true faith than by transcending the counterfeit creeds that stand in the way of any genuine salvation by faith and by grace; and less by direct discovery of the true self than by fighting free of the false selves that are its masquerades." |
| 8x08 | Per Manum | Literally, the title is Latin for "by hand" |
| 8x09 | Surekill | The name of the extermination company in the episode. |
| 8x10 | Salvage | The episode's monster-of-the-week worked for a salvage company |
| 8x11 | The Gift | |
| 8x12 | Badlaa | The title is Urdu (a language spoken in India) for "exchange/retaliation/revenge". |
| 8x13 | Medusa | Medusa is a character from Greek Mythology, one of the three "Gorgons". The most well-known of the Medusa myths describes her with hair of snakes and a face so ugly that looking upon it turns a person to stone. The name "Medusa" means "sovereign female wisdom". For more information on Medusa check out this webpage. |
| 8x14 | This Is Not Happening | The title is possibly a reference to Darin Morgan's excellent episode "Jose Chung's From Outer Space", wherein a man disguised as an alien is abducted by real aliens -- where sits in his cage muttering the phrase "This is not happening" over and over again. |
| 8x15 | DeadAlive | This title describes the condition of one of our long-lost leading characters. |
| 8x16 | Vienen | "Vienen" is Spanish for "They Come". |
| 8x17 | Empedocles | "Empedocles" is the name of a Greek scientist-philosopher-poet circa 450 BC. He was known for his belief in the "four-element" theory -- that all things are composed of four "primal" elements: earth, air, fire, and water. He believed that opposing forces (love and hate) acted upon these elements to combine and separate them into their varied forms (hate separates them, love combines them). He also formulated a primitive theory of evolution in which he claimed that humans and animals evolved from antecedent forms. |
| 8x18 | Three Words | While everyone was getting their hopes up that the "Three Words" referenced in the title might be an "I love you" between Mulder and Scully, but in typical 1013 fashion the title is actually in reference to the words "Fight the Future". |
| 8x19 | Alone (formerly "A Dream Whose Sleep") | While not actually "alone" in the episode, the title refers to Doggett managing the X-Files by himself while Scully goes on maternity leave (although he did seem pretty much "alone" at the end of the episode).
The former title, "A Dream Whose Sleep", is a line from an e.e.cummings poem titled "the great advantage of being alive", which can be read in its entirety here |
| 8x20 | Essence | |
| 8x21 | Existence | |
| 9x01 | Nothing Important Happened Today | On July 4th, 1776, King George III wrote in his diary "Nothing Important Happened Today." Little did he know that, on that same day the United States of America declared independence from the British Crown. |
| 9x02 | Nothing Important Happened Today II | See 9x01 |
| 9x03 | Daemonicus | "Daemonicus" is Latin for "Satan" |
| 9x04 | Hellbound | |
| 9x05 | 4D | 4D would be the abbreviation for the fourth dimension (similar to 3D for 3-dimensional). "Time" is generally accepted as the fourth dimension. |
| 9x06 | Lord of the Flies | The title of this episode shares its name with a classic book by William Golding, however it probably gets this name because the episode contains a large number of flies |
| 9x07 | John Doe | "John Doe" is the common name given to a male when his real name cannot be determined |
| 9x08 | TrustNo1 | The title comes from Mulder's computer password (as seen in the season 2 episode "Little Green Men"). |
| 9x09 | Provenance | The definition of "provenance" is a place of origin, the source |
| 9x10 | Providence | The definition of "providence" is forsight, or care or preparation beforehand. |
| 9x11 | Underneath | |
| 9x12 | Scary Monsters | |
| 9x13 | Audrey Pauley | |
| 9x14 | Improbable | This episode deals with numerology and probability. |
| 9x15 | Jump the Shark | the pop-culture phrase "Jump the Shark", as popularized by the web site www.jumptheshark.com, refers to the moment at which a popular television show reaches its peak and then starts to go downhill. The phrase itself refers to an episode of "Happy Days" when Fonzie jumped over a shark on water skis. |
| 9x16 | Release | |
| 9x17 | William | This episode has to do with Mulder & Scully's son, William |
| 9x18 | Sunshine Days | This episode was named for the song "Sunshine Days", which was sung by the Brady Bunch themselves. |
| 9x18 & 9x19 | The Truth |
** Starred titles have not been officially announced. All as-yet un-aired episodes are subject to change (and even aired ones, if they name it a "bad-word"...).
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