X-Files Episode Elimination Game

[joelene]

Agree so, so much. Season 3 is almost making me feel ill now.

Season 2:

The Host

Anasazi

Season 3:

Syzygy (ugh)

Pusher (ugh)

[Bastet]

Tomorrow when it's time to vote for our favorite of whichever three episodes remain, my head might explode.

[joelene]

I'm glad I've got my favourite from each season pretty much set in stone. However, if they don't survive this round, I'll pull my hair out.

[queequeg]

Tomorrow when it's time to vote for our favorite of whichever three episodes remain, my head might explode.

[mauve]

Season 2:

The Host

Die Hand Die Verletzt

Season 3:

Syzygy

Wetwired

[janestclair]

I am sad WotC is out already.

 

S2:

One Breath

Irresistible

 

S3:

Syzygy

Jose Chung

[queequeg]

I am sad WotC is out already.

Me too, me too.

[Taryn74]

Season 2:
Die Hand

The Host

 

Season 3:

Jose Chung's
Wetwired

[joelene]

I am sad WotC is out already.

It was really close before the last vote came in. If not for that WotC would have persevered and Syzygy would've been out, despite the equal four votes between them and Quagmire.

[AntiBeeSpray]

S2:

 

Irresistable

The Host

 

S3:

 

Wetwired

Syzygy

[joelene]

I'll start with the simplest. Casualties for season 3 are Syzygy and Wetwired with 6 votes each. Way behind is Jose Chung's with 2 votes.

With season 2 we agree far less. The Host goes with 6 votes, but Irresistible, Die Hand Die Verletzt and One Breath all share 3 votes. With the weighting system Irresistible and Die Hand each get 5 points and One Breath wins with 4 points. The only episode left almost wholly unscathed is Anasazi with only 1 vote. Seems like a slam dunk. But! Since it's so close with the others I'm gonna let all four of them battle it out in the final round.

Season 2:

One Breath

Irresistible

Die Hand Die Verletzt

Anasazi

Season 3:

Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose

Pusher

Jose Chung's 'From Outer Space'

Vote for your favourite!

[Bastet]

S2:

 

Irresistible.  No, DHDV.  No, Anasazi.  But, wait - One Breath.  Arggh.  Okay, One Breath is spectacular, but Scully is mute for most of it.  DHDV I watch the most often, but is it really the tops of the season?  Anasazi spent a summer nearly killing me, but a mytharc episode as number one?  Irresistible is fantastically creepy, but Scully doesn't save herself without help, which is fine in one episode but really tiring as a theme ...

 

One Breath

 

S3:

 

This is a two-way tie (JCFOS and CBFR), with the third an infinitesimal step behind.  How can I choose?!

 

Jose Chung's From Outer Space

[NumberCruncher]

S1:  One Breath

 

S2:  Jose Chung's 'From Outer Space' (I adore this episode so much it hurts)

[Taryn74]

One Breath, or Irresistible?  Hey Taryn, which of your kids do you like better?  Argh.

 

One Breath.  But only barely.  And it hurts.  It burrrrrns us, Precious.

 

Season 3 is easier - Pusher.  Probably one of my most often rewatched eps.  It hits on ALL the levels.

[mauve]

Season 2:

Anasazi

 

Season 3:

Jose Chung's From Outer Space

[joelene]

S2:

Irresistible. No, DHDV. No, Anasazi. But, wait - One Breath. Arggh. Okay, One Breath is spectacular, but Scully is mute for most of it. DHDV I watch the most often, but is it really the tops of the season? Anasazi spent a summer nearly killing me, but a mytharc episode as number one? Irresistible is fantastically creepy, but Scully doesn't save herself without help, which is fine in one episode but really tiring as a theme ...

LOL, nailed it! They are all so different and superb in their own right.

However, I must go with Die Hand Die Verletzt.

Such creepy fun. It's grown so strong with me over the years and it's the one I watch the most and it just makes me giddy. Donnie Phaster and Irresistible is a close second, but man, Mrs. Paddock is just so terrificly fun in her own devilish way.

Season 3:

Really close this one as well, but Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose wins my vote. If DHDV is creepy fun then this is fun!creepy, if that makes sense? I guess I gravitate toward that mix the most. JCFOS is a close second. With this Pusher is third by default, but really, Syzygy, Wetwired and Pusher are all so good they would share third place.

Edited September 4, 2014 by joelene

[Bastet]

They are all so different and superb in their own right.

 

Today I voted One Breath as my favorite.  Yesterday, I put it as my choice for the second elimination.  They're all so good, it just depends on what type of episode I'm in the mood for at the time I'm voting (here we are an hour later, and if I was voting now I'd go with Irresistible).

 

With this Pusher is third by default, but really, Syzygy, Wetwired and Pusher are all so good they would share third place.

 

Add WOTC and you'd have my tie for third place.

[Taryn74]

I wish ya'll could make me love Die Hand as much as you do, LOL.  I just can't get past the utter ridiculousness of so much of it.

[AntiBeeSpray]

S2:

 

Irresistible
 

 

S3:

 

Pusher

[joelene]

S2:

Irresistible

I'm surprised! You've been trying to vote this out since the first round. You haven't voted for least favourite again by mistake? :-)

[AntiBeeSpray]

I'm surprised! You've been trying to vote this out since the first round. You haven't voted for least favourite again by mistake? :-)

No not really. It's a good ep, so it's on both lists for me. Least favorite since the bad guy is such a bastard and favorite for having a really creepy vibe to it.

[queequeg]

Season 2:

Die Hand Die Verletzt

 

Season 3: 

Jose Chung's From Outer Space

[smrou]

Irresistible.  No, DHDV.  No, Anasazi.  But, wait - One Breath.  Arggh.  Okay, One Breath is spectacular, but Scully is mute for most of it.  DHDV I watch the most often, but is it really the tops of the season?  Anasazi spent a summer nearly killing me, but a mytharc episode as number one?  Irresistible is fantastically creepy, but Scully doesn't save herself without help, which is fine in one episode but really tiring as a theme ...

What Bastet said.  Seriously, this is exactly my thinking.  And while there's a sense in which it feels just wrong not to go with One Breath here, I'm gonna vote...

 

Season 2:

Anasazi

 

Season 3:

Pusher  [Favorite episode of the series.  This one's a no-brainer for me even though the other choices are phenomenal.]

[janestclair]

Well, damn. How am I supposed to pick from these?  I could go for One Breath, but the whole thing with Scully lying there in the hospital bed with her ginormous post-pregnancy boobs and no blanket kind of pulls me out of it every time.  All I keep thinking is that someone needs to get the poor woman a blanket.  I could go for Anasazi because that hiatus almost killed me even though you knew Mulder couldn't really be dead.  Donnie Pfaster is pretty damn creepy, but I don't think it's my favorite.  So, I'm going to have to go with Die Hand, because Mrs. Paddock is awesome. 

 

Season 3 is a tough one  I'm not as enamored of Jose Chung's as many people are so that's out.  Eeenie meenie...Clyde Bruckman I think. No...Pusher.  Damn.  I'm going to go with Pusher.  Just because of the Russian roulette scene. 

[joelene]

Okay, so all us usual suspects have voted and both seasons are even! Eep! And we must crown a winner. For season two it's between One Breath and Die Hand Die Verletzt with 3 votes each. For season 3 it's between Pusher and Jose Chung's with 4 votes each.

My suggestion is that those that didn't vote for either one of these vote again for one of them. That's mauve, AntiBeeSpray and smrou for season 2 and just lil ol' me for season 3. Does that seem fair or does anyone have a better suggestion?

If someone who hasn't voted at all swoops in then that vote will be the decisive one.

[smrou]

I think that makes sense, joelene. [Modell]Pusher is your favorite.  You will vote for Pusher.[/Modell]

 

In that case I vote for One Breath.

[joelene]

I'm sorry, you almost willed it there, but my vote between the two goes to Jose Chung's(!). But, oh, does it, though...? Yeah. No? Yes. It does.

Season summary and new rounds will be up soon. If nothing more is voted I'll go by what's indicated in past rounds, and it does look like we have two winners.

[joelene]

Results are in! Between the top two Die Hand Die Verletzt had more negative past votes than One Breath, thus I declare thee winner! Congratulations, One Breath!

Also narrowly Jose Chung's 'From Outer Space' beat Pusher. Woo (or nooo for you, Pusher voters)!

And we have full season rankings!

Season 2

25. 3

24. Fearful Symmetry

23. Blood

22. Fresh Bones

21. The Calusari

20. Sleepless

19. Aubrey

18. F. Emasculata

17. Red Museum

16. Excelsis Dei

15. Soft Light

14. Firewalker

13. Død Kalm

12. Humbug

11. Colony

10. Little Green Men

09. End Game

08. Our Town

07. Duane Barry

06. Ascension

05. The Host

04. Irresistible

03. Anasazi

02. Die Hand Die Verletzt

01. One Breath

Season 3 (season of ties)

24. Hell Money

23. Teso Dos Bichos

22. The Walk

21. Avatar

19. 2Shy (tied)

19. Grotesque (tied)

18. The List

17. Oubliette

16. D.P.O.

14. Revelations (tied)

14. Talitha Cumi (tied)

13. Nisei

11. The Blessing Way (tied)

11. Apocrypha (tied)

10. Piper Maru

09. 731

08. Paper Clip

07. War of the Coprophages

06. Quagmire

04. Syzygy (tied)

04. Wetwired (tied)

03. Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose

02. Pusher

01. Jose Chung's 'From Outer Space'

What'd ya think about this? Humbug is a surprise, for sure. I'm very happy Die Hand came so close to winning, I wasn't expecting that. A bit sad for The Calusari, mostly for nostalgic reasons. Unsurprisingly the Anasazi - Paper Clip arc is our favourite mytharc mini-arc. Personally I'm a bit sad for 2Shy, Oubliette and Revelations not ranking higher.

New season are go!

Season 4:

Herrenvolk

Home

Teliko

Unruhe

The Field Where I Died

Sanguinarium

Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man

Tunguska

Terma

Paper Hearts

El Mundo Gira

Leonard Betts

Never Again

Memento Mori

Kaddish

Unrequited

Tempus Fugit

Max

Synchrony

Small Potatoes

Zero Sum

Elegy

Demons

Gethsemane

Season 5:

Redux

Redux II

Unusual Suspects

Detour

The Post-Modern Prometheus

Christmas Carol

Emily

Kitsenugari

Schizogeny

Chinga

Kill Switch

Bad Blood

Patient X

The Red and the Black

Travelers

Mind's Eye

All Souls

The Pine Bluff Variant

Folie a Deux

The End

We shan't dillydally and since the episodes for these season are so uneven we will start with voting for four season 4 episodes and three season 5 episodes to go. Vote in the order you want them gone.

Edited September 5, 2014 by joelene

[AntiBeeSpray]

S4:

 

The Field Where I Died 

Sanguinarium

El Mundo Gira
Leonard Betts

 

 

S5:

 

Chinga

Kitsenugari
Schizogeny

[Bastet]

12. Humbug

 

That is so wrong.

 

Thanks for taking charge of this and keeping it moving, joelene.

 

Season 4:

 

The Field Where I Died

El Mundo Gira

Teliko

Zero Sum

 

Season 5:

 

Post-Modern Prometheus

Travelers

Redux

[smrou]

I'm sorry, you almost willed it there, but my vote between the two goes to Jose Chung's(!). But, oh, does it, though...? Yeah. No? Yes. It does.

Well, Jose Chung's is genius, so even though "Pusher" is my all-time favorite I can accept this with grace.

 

What'd ya think about this? Humbug is a surprise, for sure.

Humbug's placement is super surprising and kind of bizarre to me.  But hey, we can't all love the same things!  

 

My votes:

 

Season 4:

The Field Where I Died

Teliko

El Mundo Gira

Zero Sum

 

Season 5:

Christmas Carol

Emily

Travelers

[joelene]

Thanks for taking charge of this and keeping it moving, joelene

My pleasure. I'm having a lot of fun with it!

Season 4:

The Field Where I Died (16 years since I saw it live and I've never looked back)

El Mundo Gira

Zero Sum (always fall asleep when I try to give it a chance)

Unrequited (For the life of me I just can't remember this one)

Season 5:

Travelers

The Pine Bluff Variant (kinda know what it's about but I never feel like rewatching it)

The Post-Modern Prometheus

Edited September 5, 2014 by joelene

[janestclair]

Season 4:

Unrequited (I don't remember what this was, either.)

The Field Where I Died

Teliko

Sanguinarium

 

Season 5:
Travelers (I think I've seen this once, if that)

Schizogeny (I'm a biologist - only botanists find trees interesting.  Yawn.)

Chinga (ugh, Stephen King)

[Bastet]

Unrequited is about an invisible assassin or something like that.  It's boring as hell, and will definitely make an appearance in my voting next round if it survives this one. 

[mauve]

Season 4:

El Mundo Gira

Teliko

Zero Sum

Unrequited

Season 5:

Schizogeny

Post-Modern Prometheus

Travelers

[AntiBeeSpray]

I'm curious, what's with the dislike for Post-Modern Promethius? Thought it was one of Chris's better efforts.

[joelene]

For me it's just a case of it didn't leave a lasting impression (which might be an UO, seems like most people either love or hate it). I haven't watched it in forever so I really don't remember all of it, but I know I've seen it a few times and it just never stayed with me. It was always a bit of a shrug, I guess. Compare it to, say, Schizogeny which isn't what I'd call a good episode but it's one that never bored me. It's very possibly it would hit a different note were I to watch it today.

Edited September 5, 2014 by joelene

[Bastet]

I'm curious, what's with the dislike for Post-Modern Promethius? Thought it was one of Chris's better efforts.

 

I find it profoundly offensive.  It takes the attitude that it's hunky dory those women were raped because they got babies out of it.  Unlike Small Potatoes, it never calls out what is happening.

 

I also think it, like all of CC's gimmick episodes, is all hat and no horse.

 

The dancing is adorable, but I can't abide the episode.

Edited September 5, 2014 by Bastet

[AntiBeeSpray]

I find it profoundly offensive.  It takes the attitude that it's hunky dory those women were raped because they got babies out of it.  Unlike Small Potatoes, it never calls out what is happening.

 

I also think it, like all of CC's gimmick episodes, is all hat and no horse.

 

The dancing is adorable, but I can't abide the episode.

Fair point. I disagree about all of his eps though. Improbable had a definite ending to it, It showed that all humans have free will for good or ill.

[smrou]

Unrequited (For the life of me I just can't remember this one)

That's me with "Teliko".  "Unrequited" is uninteresting, but I remember it and can picture certain scenes.  I genuinely have no idea what "Teliko" was about.  I've looked up summaries several times to remind myself, but then the next time I see the title I have again forgotten.  It's weird how thoroughly that episode has been wiped from my memory.

[SpencerHawk]

Season 4 --

Home

The Field Where I Died

Elegy
Demons

 

Season 5 --

Chinga

Mind's Eye

The Pine Bluff Variant

[queequeg]

Season 4:

El Mundo Gira

Teliko

Unrequited

Sanguinarium

 

Season 5:

Schizogeny

Kill Switch

Christmas Carol

[queequeg]

I'm sad so many people disliked Chinga.  I could not care less about the stupid doll story, but the phone interactions between Mulder and Scully are <3 and oh the pencils in the ceiling.  :)

 

I also find there are quite a few episodes in Season 5 that I've already forgotten about.  It was tough deciding between episodes I genuinely disliked (the whole Emily Christmas mess, Kill Switch) and episodes I can barely remember (Schizogeny, Travelers, All Souls, Pine Bluff Variant).

[AntiBeeSpray]

I'm sad so many people disliked Chinga.  I could not care less about the stupid doll story, but the phone interactions between Mulder and Scully are <3 and oh the pencils in the ceiling.  :)

 

I also find there are quite a few episodes in Season 5 that I've already forgotten about.  It was tough deciding between episodes I genuinely disliked (the whole Emily Christmas mess, Kill Switch) and episodes I can barely remember (Schizogeny, Travelers, All Souls, Pine Bluff Variant).

I liked it somewhat, it's just not one of my all time favorites. Seeing Scully in that convertible bickering with Mulder via cell phone was priceless :P.

[janestclair]

The Mulder/Scully moments in Chinga were good, but not enough to save the episode as a whole.  I did enjoy the pencils in the ceiling gag as well.  But then...there's that stupid doll.  The whole thing was just very disjointed. Probably because Stephen King wrote the stupid doll part and Carter wrote the Mulder/Scully parts.

[Taryn74]

Season 4:

Teliko - Meh.

The Field Where I Died - Mulder, please never cry in public.  CC, please never try to convince us that Mulder has an eternal soulmate that we've never met nor will ever see or hear from again.  K?  Thx.

 

Sanguinarium - Gross.

Synchrony - Honestly have no clue what this one was about.  Not ringing a bell.
 

 

Season 5:

The Post-Modern Prometheus - I'm not as offended by it as Bastet is, but I still don't like it.  Plus, it's just stupid.

Kitsenugari - So much potential, so much No.

Travelers - Spider. Things. In. People's. Mouths.  How about NO.
 

Edited September 6, 2014 by Taryn74

[joelene]

Taryn, Synchrony is the one with the time travelling scientist!

Surprising no one, The Field Where I Died "won" with 7 votes, followed by Teliko and El Mundo Gira with 6 each. Zero Sum, Sanguinarium and Unrequited each got 4 votes but the latter lost that battle (PHA-YEW, I fucking love Sanguinarium).

Also the loser was Travelers (6 votes), Post-Modern Prometheus and Schizogeny (4 each). Runner up was Chinga with 3 votes.

Season 4:

Herrenvolk

Home

Unruhe

Sanguinarium

Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man

Tunguska

Terma

Paper Hearts

Leonard Betts

Never Again

Memento Mori

Kaddish

Tempus Fugit

Max

Synchrony

Small Potatoes

Zero Sum

Elegy

Demons

Gethsemane

Season 5:

Redux

Redux II

Unusual Suspects

Detour

Christmas Carol

Emily

Kitsenugari

Chinga

Kill Switch

Bad Blood

Patient X

The Red and the Black

Mind's Eye

All Souls

The Pine Bluff Variant

Folie a Deux

The End

Same as before, four season 4 episodes and 3 season 5 episodes in elimination order.

Edited September 6, 2014 by joelene

[Bastet]

Season five is when I stopped being excited about the show every week, and there are a lot of episodes I just don't remember.  And I have absolutely no clue what happened in that season's mytharc episodes other than Redux and CC/Emily.  So I'm afraid my voting is skewed -- I'm voting off episodes I remember disliking, when the ones I can't even bring to mind should probably go first.

 

Season four is easier - thus far - because I remember everything and, while it has episodes I freakin' LOVE, there are also a lot I either dislike or don't care about. 

 

Chinga has its faults - Namely, that doll.  And the kid.  And her mother - but there's so much in it I enjoy, that with all the crappy or so-so episodes this season it's pretty far down my personal elimination list.

 

S4:

 

Zero Sum

Musings of a Cigarette-Smoking Man

Herrenvolk

Kaddish

 

S5:

 

Redux

All Souls

Mind's Eye

Edited September 6, 2014 by Bastet

[AntiBeeSpray]

S4:

 

Sanguinarium

Unruhe

Leonard Betts

Tempus Fugit

 

S5:

 

Chinga

The Pine Bluff Variant
Folie a Deux

[Bastet]

Taryn, Synchrony is the one with the time travelling scientist!

 

And a woman who looks like Nancy Kerrigan.