‘X-Files' 2016 Episodes: If You're Only Going To Watch One, Here's The One To Watch

New episodes of The X-Files premiere this Sunday, but reviews of the first episode in the 2016 X-Files miniseries have been sadly mixed. But there’s at least one episode in the new X-Files lineup that you absolutely must watch.

Episode 3 of The X-Files 2016 miniseries, “Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster,” is the one episode you can’t miss and it’s not just because early reviews are positive:

The real reason “Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster” is the must-see episode from The X-Files 2016 miniseries is because it was written by Darin Morgan.

Darin Morgan is younger brother to Glen Morgan, a producer who was with The X-Files from the beginning. Glen wrote over a dozen episodes of The X-Files, including classics like “Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man,” “Home,” “Die Hand Die Verletzt” and “Ice.”

But it was after casting his brother Darin as the disgusting Flukeman of Season 2 episode “The Host” that The X-Files changed forever.

Darin would go on to write just four episodes of The X-Files, but each one is absolutely essential. “Humbug,” his first episode, expanded how The X-Files conceived of itself, its Florida circus freaks murder mystery pioneering the comedic and self-aware X-Files that so many fans remember.

Darin’s writing style—meticulous and brainy, but lighthearted—would become an X-Files signature and influenced The X-Files other best writer, Vince Gilligan (who would later bring the same blend of humor and relentless plotting to Breaking Bad). Vince Gilligan even cast Darin in his best episode, Season 4’s “Small Potatoes,” as a shapeshifting sleaze who macks on Scully.

Darin would go on to write “Jose Chung’s ‘From Outer Space’,” “War of the Coprophages,” and “Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose,” which won The X-Files it’s only Emmy for Outstanding Writing in a drama series.

But not only should you watch “Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster” because it’s likely to be amazing, but also because a new script from Darin Morgan is so rare. Since The X-Files Darin has written a handful of episodes for Intruders, Those Who Kill, Tower Prep, and Millennium, but it’s not like his ear for dialogue is something we get to experience all that often.

With episodes by Glen Morgan and James Wong, all of the new X-Files miniseries will probably be worth a watch. But if you’re just going to watch one episode of the 2016 X-Files, make sure it’s the one written by X-Files royalty, Darin Morgan. Make sure it’s “Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster.”

“Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster” premieres on Feb. 1.