Shows Like The X-Files

Frequently asked about The X-Files

Common questions people search for, with answers written by us at MoviesPack.

• What is the Syndicate's deal with the alien colonists, and why did they ultimately betray it?▾

  The Syndicate — a shadow group embedded within world governments — struck a secret agreement with an alien colonist faction: in exchange for helping develop an alien-human hybrid (which would survive colonization), the group's families would be spared when full-scale colonization began. Over decades they surrendered family members as alien test subjects to demonstrate good faith. They were wiped out by the Rebel aliens in the season 6 episode 'One Son' before they could determine whether the deal would ever have been honored, leaving the bargain permanently unresolved.

• Why does the Cigarette Smoking Man keep Mulder alive despite having countless opportunities to eliminate him?▾

  The show strongly implies that CSM (later revealed as Mulder's biological father, C.G.B. Spender) keeps Fox alive out of a combination of paternal attachment and a calculated belief that a controlled opposition — someone chasing the truth without actually reaching it — serves the conspiracy better than martyrdom would. CSM also harbors a romantic obsession with Mulder's mother Teena, which deepens his reluctance to kill her son. Later seasons confirm the biological connection, reframing much of CSM's protective interference as parental instinct operating beneath cold pragmatism.

• What exactly happened to Scully's ova, and how did she conceive William?▾

  During Scully's abduction in season 2, her ova were harvested and used in alien-human hybrid experiments; when she later discovered she was barren, she was told those stored ova were all non-viable. William's conception in season 8 is left deliberately ambiguous — Mulder was absent and the show implies alien or supersoldier intervention rather than natural conception, supported by William's early telekinetic abilities. The child was ultimately placed for adoption in season 9 because Scully feared he would be targeted by supersoldiers who regarded him as a threat to colonization.

• What are the black oil (Purity) and the alien bounty hunters, and how do they relate to the colonization plan?▾

  The black oil, referred to as 'Purity' or 'the black cancer,' is an ancient alien organism that can possess human hosts and is central to the colonists' plan — it acts as a gestating medium for alien embryos, turning infected humans into incubators. Alien bounty hunters are a separate alien race (or caste) who serve the colonists and are sent to Earth primarily to eliminate alien-human hybrids and expose leaks in the conspiracy. Their green toxic blood is a defense mechanism lethal to humans who puncture them, which is why Mulder and Scully repeatedly struggle to subdue or kill them.

• What did the season 9 finale and the 2008 film 'I Want to Believe' reveal about the colonization timeline?▾

  The season 9 finale 'The Truth' ends with CSM revealing that alien colonization is set to begin on December 22, 2012, and shows Mulder and Scully as fugitives after Mulder's military tribunal. The 2008 film 'I Want to Believe' largely sidesteps the mythology, functioning as a standalone thriller, which frustrated fans expecting colonization answers after the 2012 date loomed so large. The 2016 revival (season 10) effectively rebooted the mythology, with CSM revealing the alien plan had been co-opted — he was now engineering a human-engineered pandemic rather than waiting for extraterrestrial colonists, leaving much of the original conspiracy arc contradicted or recontextualized.