The X-Files Ripped Off Its Best Episode One Season Later, And Fans Want to Forget It

One of the most popular and long-running science fiction series of all time, The X-Files premiered on September 10, 1993. Its original run ended in May 2002 after nine seasons, 202 episodes, and a movie that was released in 1998. A second film, The X-Files: I Want to Believe, was released in 2008. A director’s cut was released to Disney+ and Hulu in August 2026, which restored some of the horror elements that were removed from the original film. The series itself would return for its tenth and eleventh seasons in 2016 and 2018, respectively, bringing it to 218 episodes. A reboot is currently in the works with a new cast and creative team at Hulu.

The X-Files followed Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) special agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) as they investigated cases involving potentially paranormal phenomena known as x-files. Mulder was a skilled profiler and an expert in all things weird, while Scully was a medical doctor and ardent skeptic tasked with scientifically analyzing the cases. Along the way, the agents become wrapped in a grand conspiracy involving aliens and a shadowy cabal headed by the mysterious Cigarette Smoking Man (William B. Davis). Some of the most disturbing episodes were ones involving parasitic creatures and the impacts they have on their human hosts. One such episode premiered to great praise in the first season, but the pitchforks were raised in the second season when they ripped it off unsuccessfully.

“Ice” Was Nice

“Ice” was the seventh episode of the series’ first season. It aired on November 5, 1993. Agents Mulder and Scully were tasked with investigating a new x-file case in Alaska. A murder-suicide involving a team of geophysicists drew them to a research outpost along with a physician, a toxicologist, and their pilot. When they arrived, they found the bodies of the scientists along with a dog that attacked them, biting their pilot. An ice core sample was found in the lab from the site of a meteor impact dating back 250,000 years. Two parasitic worms had been frozen inside it, and their escape was what killed the crew and made the dog aggressive. Mulder believed that the worms were extraterrestrial in origin since they were from the impact crater of an interstellar object, and his suspicions were confirmed when the lab was later destroyed by the government, destroying all evidence of what happened there.

“Ice” was a big hit with viewers of The X-Files and a big milestone for the young series. The episode pulled in an estimated ten million viewers in a total of 6.2 million households.
The episode drew significant critical praise, particularly the stand-off between Multer and Scully. Much of that praise comes from how the episode portrayed the characters’ paranoia, particularly in how the episode used close quarters to its advantage in creating a feeling of claustrophobia to increase that intensity. Even the production crew has held the episode out as one of the best of season one, including series creator Chris Carter.

“Firewalker” Left Viewers a Little Hot

Season two would feature a similar episode titled “Firewalker,” but it was not well-received. Season two episode nine aired for the first time on November 19, 1994. A scientist in California intercepted images from Firewalker, a robot that was being used to investigate a volcano in Washington. The intercepted broadcast showed the chief seismologist of the project dead, and a shadow moving inside Mount Avalon, which should have been impossible since it was too hot. The scientist went to Mulder and Scully and convinced them to aid in investigating what may have happened. Locating the team, they discovered that there was a new silicon-based organism living within the rock of the volcano. It infected humans and grew, emerging quite disturbingly from their throats once fully grown. All but two members of the research team were infected and killed. The one who survived took the body of the last researcher to die and walked off into the volcano, with viewers left to assume he killed himself.

“Firewalker” was watched in approximately 8.6 million households in its initial broadcast, 2.4 million more than tuned in for the premiere of “Ice.” However, the episode failed to garner the same critical response. While praised for its special effects and direction, the story itself fell short. The story was almost the same beat for beat as “Ice,” and it simply didn’t work for fans. Coming off of Scully’s gripping abduction story in the preceding episodes, it was just seen as mediocre, failing to recapture what made the first episode so great.

Did you like “Firewalker” or were you left unfulfilled like the critics were? Let us know down in the comments.