The 23 Best Mulder and Scully Moments

The X-Files, episode: “The Truth;” screengrab via Fox.

#1: The Truth (Finale)

Full disclosure, the first time I saw this episode, I wept so hard and with such rigor that I actually saw maybe 8 viable minutes of on-screen action. In any case, I’m certain it’s worthy of the list. Those 8 minutes I caught were KILLER.

Mulder is found in jail. He’s worse for wear, but at least he’s alive. Scully has to break it to him that she’s now baby-less, as a future in which William can be safe would be impossible if she were to continue to mother him. Mulder is on trial, with little hope that his fate will be favorable. It’s all kind of disastrous. But Mulder and Scully are back together.

And that’s kind of the best part of the episode. It’s packed to the brim with important mythology. Characters’ storylines are wrapped up, crucial plot points are revisited and resolved. But the very best of the finale, as is true for the entirety of the series, are the moments we get to share with Mulder and Scully.

We watched their partnership grow into friendship, which turned into romantic love, which then evolved into some magical, inexplicable, transcendent thing even greater than that. We watched them almost die literally a hundred times. We went on adventures with them. We were scared for them, we were excited with them, we trusted them (almost) as much as they trusted each other. And we ended the series just as we should have: with them, in a motel room, figuring out where to go next. Wanting to believe.

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And now, 23 years from the first time we were introduced to the FBI’s most unwanted, we know that even if the truth isn’t out there, Mulder and Scully are.