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The X Files

The X-Files

The X Files – Season 4

20th Century Fox (1996)
DVD
15
5039036018272
TV Series | Drama | Horror | Science Fiction | Thriller
USA | English | Color | 17:45

In Season 4 of The X-Files, Scully is a bit upset by her on-off terminal cancer and Mulder is supposed to shoot himself in the season finale (did anyone believe that?), but in episode after episode the characters still plod dutifully around atrocity sites tossing off wry witticisms in that bland investigative demeanour out of fashion among TV cops since Dragnet. Perhaps the best achievement of this season is "Home", the most unpleasant horror story ever presented on prime-time US TV. It's not a comfortable show--confronted with this ghastly parade of incest, inbreeding, infanticide and mutilation, you'd think M & S would drop the jokes for once--but shows a willingness to expand the envelope. By contrast, ventures into golem, reincarnation, witchcraft and Invisible Man territory throw up run-of-the-mill body counts, spotlighting another recurrent problem. For heroes, M & S rarely do anything positive: they work out what is happening after all the killer's intended victims have been snuffed ("Kaddish"), let the monster get away ("Sanguinarium") and cause tragedies ("The Field Where I Died"). No wonder they're stuck in the FBI basement where they can do the least damage.

The series has settled enough to play variations on earlier hits: following the liver vampire, we have a melanin vampire ("Teliko") and a cancer vampire ("Leonard Betts"), and return engagements for the oily contact lens aliens and the weasely ex-Agent Krycek ("Tunguska"/"Terma"). Occasional detours into send-up or post-modernism are indulged, yielding both the season's best episode ("Small Potatoes") and its most disappointing ("Musings of a Cigarette-Smoking Man"). "Small Potatoes", with the mimic mutant who tries out Mulder's life and realises what a loser he is (how many other pin-up series heroes get answerphone messages from their favourite phone-sex lines?), works as a genuine sci-fi mystery--for once featuring a mutant who doesn't have to kill people to live--and as character insight. --Kim Newman


Episodes View details

1 Herrenvolk 44 min | Oct 04, 1996

With his mother on deathbed and the alien bounty hunter in pursuit, Mulder decides to put the alien healer in mortal danger for a chance to finally uncover the whole truth behind the alien conspiracy. Meanwhile, Mr. X's cover is blown.

2 Home 44 min | Oct 11, 1996

The remains of a murdered deformed infant lead the agents to a family of murderous, inbred, animal-like brothers living on a secluded farm in a remote section of Pennsylvania.

3 Teliko 44 min | Oct 18, 1996

Mulder believes a creature from an African folktale may be responsible for the disappearance of several black men in the Philadelphia area.

4 Unruhe 45 min | Oct 27, 1996

Photos of a hellish sight from the mind of a psychopath who abducts women makes Mulder think that the man has the ability of psychic photography.

5 The Field Where I Died 45 min | Nov 03, 1996

Agents Mulder and Scully investigate a doomsday religious cult, which inadvertently draws Mulder into recalling a past life and how Scully and others were there with him in the field where he died during the American Civil War.

6 Sanguinarium 44 min | Nov 10, 1996

Patients undergoing cosmetic surgery die horrible deaths at the hands of doctors possessed by witchcraft.

7 Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man 45 min | Nov 17, 1996

The Lone Gunmen reveal the (possibly fake) secret history of the Smoking Man to Mulder with focus on three episodes from his life - the assassination of JFK, his attempts at becoming a novelist and one of his UFO cover ups.

8 Tunguska 45 min | Nov 24, 1996

A tip from Krycek takes Mulder to a gulag in Tunguska, Russia where prisoners are being used for experiments with the black oil alien virus. Meanwhile, Scully's colleague is infected with the same virus which lay dormant in a meteorite.

9 Terma 45 min | Dec 01, 1996

Mulder tries to stop a Russian supersoldier from destroying the site in North America where the black oil virus can be excavated. Scully is jailed after she refuses to reveal Mulder's whereabouts at a Senate subcommittee hearing.

10 Paper Hearts 45 min | Dec 15, 1996

An incarcerated serial killer claims Mulder's sister was one of his many victims.

11 El Mundo Gira 44 min | Jan 12, 1997

A desperate illegal immigrant who can't speak any English becomes patient zero for a mysterious illness and goes on the run from INS, the FBI and his own brother who blames him for the death of his girlfriend.

12 Leonard Betts 44 min | Jan 26, 1997

A headless corpse of a paramedic walks out of the hospital morgue triggering a manhunt for a man with unimaginable regenerative powers, that come at a terrible cost. The case makes Scully realize in shock that she may not be well.

13 Never Again 44 min | Feb 02, 1997

Mulder takes a vacation to visit Graceland while sending disaffected Scully to Philadelphia to look into Russians with ties to UFOs. She becomes attracted to a secretly unstable young divorcee whose tattoo is telling him to kill women.

14 Memento Mori 44 min | Feb 09, 1997

Scully attempts to come to terms with her inoperable cancer. Meanwhile Mulder and the Lone Gunmen break into a high-security research lab to find the cure that could save her life.

15 Kaddish 44 min | Feb 16, 1997

After a Jewish man is murdered in a Jewish community, his killers are murdered, too. Mulder and Scully have to determine whether someone is exacting vengeance or larger forces are at work.

16 Unrequited 42 min | Feb 23, 1997

An embittered Vietnam War veteran who can apparently somehow make himself invisible to everyone around him is murdering military officials. In order to attempt to stop him, Mulder and Scully must first uncover his motives.

17 Tempus Fugit 44 min | Mar 16, 1997

While investigating the unexplained crash of a commercial airliner the agents' search for answers leads to the bottom of a desolate lake and a startling discovery involving Mulder's alien abductee friend Max Fenig.

18 Max 44 min | Mar 23, 1997

Mulder and Scully continue their investigation into what really caused the airliner to crash, as the military insidiously begins to cover up the truth and even tries to murder the agents. Someone close to Scully is killed in the process.

19 Synchrony 44 min | Apr 13, 1997

A mysterious old man is killing scientists working on the development of a cryobiologic compound. He freezes them to death with this same compound that doesn't even exist yet.

20 Small Potatoes 45 min | Apr 20, 1997

Five unrelated women in a small town give birth to babies with small tails. The prime suspect is a man who can shape shift into whomever he wants.

21 Zero Sum 45 min | Apr 27, 1997

A swarm of bees mysteriously kill a postal worker in an enclosed restroom. Assistant Director Skinner covers up the evidence. Mulder investigates Skinner's apparent involvement with the crime.

22 Elegy 45 min | May 04, 1997

Apparitions of women killed by a serial killer start appearing to people. Mulder figures they may be harbingers of death for those who see them. Scully is skeptical until she sees one. Their only lead is an autistic psychiatric patient.

23 Demons 45 min | May 11, 1997

Covered in blood and suffering from amnesia, Mulder pieces together the events of the last few days, but the trail leads to a double murder that appears to have been committed with Mulder's weapon.

24 Gethsemane 45 min | May 18, 1997

Mulder fights to prove that a discovery frozen in the mountains of Canada is irrefutable evidence of alien life, but his quest for the truth only leads to more lies and an unthinkable conclusion.

Cast View all

David Duchovny Fox Mulder
Gillian Anderson Dana Scully
Mitch Pileggi Walter Skinner
William B. Davis Smoking Man
Laurie Holden Marita Covarrubias
Brendan Beiser Agent Pendrell
Vanessa Morley Young Samantha Mulder
Rebecca Toolan Teena Mulder
Tom Braidwood Melvin Frohike
Morris Panych Gray Haired Man
Mike Kopsa Rick Culver
Joe Spano Mike Millar
Chris Owens Young Smoking Man
Malcolm Stewart Dr. Sacks
John Neville Well-Manicured Man
Nicholas Lea Alex Krycek
Rubén Blades Conrad Lozano
Lee De Broux Eddie Van Blundht Sr.
Vitaly Kravchenko Russian Truck Driver
Brent Stait Timothy Mayhew
Bruce Harwood John Fitzgerald Byers
Dean Haglund Richard 'Ringo' Langly
Campbell Lane Senator Romine
Fritz Weaver Senator Albert Sorenson
Raoul Ganeev Russian Guard

Trailer

Edition details

Edition The Complete Fourth Season
Packaging Custom Case
Nr Discs 7
Screen Ratios Widescreen (16:9)
Audio Tracks Dolby Digital 5.1 [English]
Subtitles Dutch
Distributor 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Layers Single side, Dual layer
Edition Release Date 2001
Regions Region 2