Monster of the Week index

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Monster of the Week Index

Shaenon K. Garrity is a talented cartoonist, writer, and artist who, among her many projects, writes a weekly twelve-panel cartoon which summarizes, parodies, and comments on successive episodes of the X-Files. It's called Monster of the Week and is a lot of fun.

I couldn't find an existing index for 'Monster of the Week', so I decided to make my own. Below you'll find the episodes divided by season, with the original episode's title plus Shaenon's subtitle.

Bonus: Here's a 2012 list Shaenon and her 'Skin Horse' co-auther Jeffrey C. Wells made of the top five 'X-Files' episodes not written by Darin Morgan. It predates the first episode of Monster of the Week by a couple of years.

Season 1

Pilot; or, They Haven't Invented The Theme Song Yet
Deep Throat; or, Deep Throat Is Barely Even In This Episode
Squeeze; or, The First Monster Of The Week
Conduit; or, Sometimes Psychic Transmissions Aren't All That Useful
Jersey Devil; or, Homeless + Cave Woman ≠ Scary
Shadows; or, An Episode That Just Kinda Hangs There
Ghost in the Machine; or, The Best Part Was When They Said "Phone Phreaks"
Ice; or, The One Where They Do "The Thing"
Space; or, Challenger Reference? Too Soon, X-Files
Fallen Angel; or, Mulder's First Fanboy
Eve; or, It's Hayley Mills AND Hayley Mills In "The Parent Trap"!
Fire; or, Mulder Kisses A Girl
Beyond The Sea; or, Scully Has Daddy Issues
Gender Bender; or, Spring Of Drowned Amish
Lazarus; or, Worst "Quantum Leap" Ever
Young At Heart; or, Confidential To Mad Doctors: Quit Giving Convicts Superpowers
E.B.E.; or, Because They Can't Say "E.T."
Miracle Man; or, You've Got The Touch
Shapes; or, Dances With Werewolves
Darkness Falls; or, Mites!
Tooms; or, "Squeeze" 2: Nerds In Paradise
Born Again; or, More Like "Bored Again"
Roland; or, Brain Freeze
The Erlenmeyer Flask; or, Because There's A Flask In It, Is Why

Season 1 Recap

Season 2

Little Green Men; or, Getting The Band Back Together
The Host; or, Flukeman!!!
Blood; or, Ignore The Generic Title, This Is The One With The Evil LCD Displays
Sleepless; or, There Was A 1980s "Twilight Zone" Kinda Like This
Duane Barry; or, Abductee Intervention, Part I
Ascension; or, Abductee Intervention Part 2: Ski Lift Adventure
3; or, This Is The Terrible Vampire Episode
One Breath; or, Scully In A Mind Boat
Firewalker; or, Remember The Arctic Episode From Last Season? Like That, Only In A Volcano (featuring mycologist Paul Nagami - additional commentary from him here)
Red Museum; or, The Vegetarian Cult And The Hormone Shots And The Cows And The Guy In The Walls And There Was Going To Be A "Picket ... [continues off-panel]
Excelsis Dei; or, TW: Ghost Rape
Aubrey; or, Only One In Two Million People Has What We Call The "Evil" Gene
Irresistible; or, Hair And Fingernails. You Know The One
Die Hand Die Verletzt; or, It Means, "The Hand That Wounds"
Fresh Bones; or, The Voodoo Episode
Colony; or, Samantha Return #1
End Game; or, Samantha Return #1, Part 2
Fearful Symmetry; or, Invisible Zoo Animals On Wheels
Død Kalm; or, The Old Man And The Sea
I Want To Believe It -- Or Not!; or, Humbug
The Calusari; or, Romanian "Omen"
F. Emasculata; or, It Doesn't Really Make Your Penis Fall Off, That's Just A Name
Soft Light; or, Me & My Shadow
Our Town; or, A Failure Pile In A Cannibalism Bowl
Anasazi; or, Crap Goes Down, Part I: Dead Alien Boxcar

Season 2 Recap

Season 2 bonuses:

Season 3

The Blessing Way; or, Crap Goes Down Part II: Indians Are Magic
Paper Clip; or, Crap Goes Down, Part III: All The Files
D.P.O.; or, Lightning Boy's Time To Shine
Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose; or, W.H. Auden's Musée Des Beaux Arts
The List; or, The Five People You Kill In Heaven
2SHY; or, It's Pronounced "Tushy"
The Walk; or, Ruined Because I Couldn't Get The Title Out Of My Head & Hummed "Baby Elephant Walk" Over All The Key Scenes
Oubliette; or, Not Fun Like The One In Labyrinth
Nisei; or, Japanese For "Alien Autopsy Hoax"
731; or, Crazy Train
Revelations; or, Scully Gets Her Catholic On
War of the Coprophages; or, Cockroaches!
Syzygy; or, X-Files Goes "Heathers"
Grotesque; or, Gargoyles! But Not The Sexy Disney Kind
Piper Maru; or, It's Gillian Anderson's Daughter's Name, Is Why
Apocrypha; or, Not Gillian Anderson's Daughter's Name, Although It Would Be An Awesome Name For A Girl
Pusher; or, "Please Explain To Me The Scientific Nature Of The Whammy"
Teso Dos Bichos; or, Kitties!
Hell Money; or, Lo Pan Steals Your Liver
Jose Chung's "From Outer Space"; or, Thirteen Ways Of Looking At "Jose Chung's 'From Outer Space'"
Avatar; or The Ghost & Mr. Skinner
Quagmire; or, R.I.P. Scully's Dog
Wetwired; or, TV Rots Scully's Brain
Talitha Cumi; or, It Means, "Arise, Maiden," But Mostly It's About Shapeshifters And Stuff

Season 3 Recap

Season 4

Herrenvolk; or, Covered In Bees
Home; or, The Worst Ironic Counterpoint Music Ever
Teliko; or, Even Mulder Thinks This Case Is Kinda Racist
Unruhe; or Horrible Swirly Photos
The Field Where I Died; or, Cult Atlas
Sanguinarium; or, The Devil Gets Nose Jobs
Musings Of A Cigarette Smoking Man; or, Jack Colquitt Saves Goddamn Democracy: A Jack Colquitt Adventure
Tunguska; or, In Russia, Oil Lightly Seasons YOU
Terma; or, Krycek & Punishment
Paper Hearts; or, Technically They're Fabric Hearts
El Mundo Gira; or, It Means "General Hospital"
Leonard Betts; or, Headless Body In Topless Morge
Never Again; or, Clarice Starling's Revenge
Memento Mori; or, Scully Gets Cancer
Kaddish; or, Golem, Can You Hear Me?
Unrequited; or, This Show Has A Lot Of Invisible Soldiers
Tempus Fugit; or, I Dunno, Aliens And Crap
Max; or, I Dunno, Aliens & Crap Part II
Synchrony; or, Cold Shower Time Machine
Small Potatoes; or, This Is Where My Tax Money Goes?
Zero Sum; or, Skinner Needs To Stop Getting Framed For Murder
Elegy; or, Autism Is Magic
Demons; or, Dude, Where's My Mulder?
Gethsemane; or, The Truth Is Boring

Season 4 Recap

Season 4 Bonus Content

Lovely Art

Season 5

Redux; or, Xposition
Redux II; or, Redux Redux
Unusual Suspects; or, That Lone Gunman Episode
Detour; or, I Always Think This Is The One With The LSD Fungus, But That's "Field Trip"
The Post-Modern Prometheus; or, Another Lovable Rape Monster
Christmas Carol; or, Ghost Mom
Emily; or, Not Without My Mutant
Kitsunegari; or, Cerulean Blue 2: Cerulean Bluegaloo
Schizogeny; or, Killer Trees, Maybe?
Chinga; or, The One Stephen King Wrote
Kill Switch; or, The One William Gibson Wrote
Bad Blood; or, This Is The Awesome Vampire Episode
Patient X; or, Oil Be Back
The Red and the Black; or, Those Darn Aliens
Travelers; or, Over Hill, Arthur Dales
Mind's Eye; or, Cool, They Got Lili Taylor
All Souls; or, Gingers Have No Souls
The Pine Bluff Variant; or, Militia Impossible
Folie à Deux; or, It Means "Blurry Bug Monster"
The End; or, Not Actually The End

Season 5 Recap

Season 6

Shaenon's notes for Season 6, Episode 1, posted on Skin Horse

The Beginning; or, So Much To Recap
Drive; or, Holy Cow It's Bryan Cranston
Triangle; or, Ship Fic
Dreamland; or, All of Mulder
Dreamland II; or, 51 Again
How The Ghosts Stole Christmas; or, See, This Is The One With The Christmas Ghosts
Terms of Endearment; or, Bruuuuuuce
The Rain King; or, W.A.X.
S.R. 819; or, Skinnerspace
Tithonus; or, Weegee, Bored
Two Fathers; or, Double the Daddy Issues
One Son; or, Several Sons, Actually
Agua Mala; or, It's Spanish For "Florida Man"
Monday; or, Choose Your Own X-File
Arcadia; or, And There Was Only One Bed (omg there was only one bed)
Alpha; or, Dog Day Afternoon
Trevor; or, The Tornado And The Alchemy Powers And The Stolen Money And The Stolen Kid And The Bisected ... (continues off-panel)
Milagro; or, Tags: Self-Insert, Marty Stu, Ust, Angst
The Unnatural; or, Field of Ebes
Three of a Kind; or, Believing Las Vegas
Field Trip; or, And This Is The One With The LSD Fungus
Biogenesis; or, Oops, All O.O.P.S

Season 6 Recap

Season 7

The Sixth Extinction; or, I've Got Friends in Locust Places
The Sixth Extinction II: Amor Fati; or, They Saved Mulder's Brain
Hungry; or, The South Brain Diet
Millennium; or, You've Heard of Stealth Pilots? How about a Stealth Finale?
Rush; or, Teens on Speed
The Goldberg Variation; or, Hey, Rube
Orison; or, More Hair, More Fingernails
The Amazing Maleeni; or, Magicians Are Annoying
Signs and Wonders; or, Lair of the White Trash Worm
Sein und Zeit; or, It's German for "Samanthaaaa"
Closure; or, The Truth Hurts
X-Cops; or, Filmed on Location with the Men and Women of Law Enforcement
First Person Shooter; or, Actually, It's About Ethics in Whatever the Hell This Is
Theef; or, Hoodoo? You Do!
En Ami; or, Cancer Man Shoots His Shot
Chimera; or, Like "Arcadia" But They Don't Pretend To Be Married, So What Is Even The Point
all things; or, This Is the One Gillian Anderson Wrote and Directed
Brand X; or, Never Mind, The Real Title Is Already The Best Joke Title
Hollywood A.D.; or, This Is the One David Duchovny Wrote & Directed
Fight Club; or, Not The Movie, It Has Nothing To Do With The Movie, Actually It's Kathy Griffin Doppelgangers
Je Souhaite; or, It's French For 'This Is The One With A Literal Genie'
Requiem; or, Out: Fox

Season 7 Recap

Season X / the 2016 miniseries

My Struggle; or, Cuz It's As Slow As Those Norwegian Novels
Founder's Mutation; or, Mulder & Scully Remember They Have A Kid
Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster; or, Nice Hat
Home Again; or, Xit Through The Gift Shop
Babylon; or, Mulder Tripping Balls
My Struggle II; or, Because It's Twice As Slow As Those Norwegian Novels

Jeffrey C. Wells and Shaenon K. Garrity's Top 5 Non-Darin Morgan Episodes

As mentioned above, in 2010 (a couple of years before Monster of the Week started), Shaenon K. Garrity and her collaborator Jeffrey C. Wells put together a list of 'Jeff And Shaenon’s Top Five “X-Files” Not Written By Darin Morgan'. I thought it would be fun to link to the relevant Monster of the Week episodes.

Jeff's Top Five:

The Post-Modern Prometheus; or, Another Lovable Rape Monster
Bad Blood; or, This Is The Awesome Vampire Episode
Soft Light; or, Me & My Shadow
Beyond The Sea; or, Scully Has Daddy Issues
Drive; or, Holy Cow It's Bryan Cranston

Shaenon's Top Five:

The Unnatural; or, Field of Ebes
Triangle; or, Ship Fic
Monday; or, Choose Your Own X-File
Small Potatoes; or, This Is Where My Tax Money Goes?
D.P.O.; or, Lightning Boy's Time To Shine

And while I'm at it:

Episodes Written By Darin Morgan:

Blood; or, Ignore The Generic Title, This Is The One With The Evil LCD Displays
[Note: He did not write this episode by himself - Glen Morgan is credited as the writer -- but did work on it with Glen, and has a story credit on it.]
I Want To Believe It -- Or Not!; or, Humbug
Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose; or, W.H. Auden's Musée Des Beaux Arts
War of the Coprophages; or, Cockroaches!
Jose Chung's "From Outer Space"; or, Thirteen Ways Of Looking At "Jose Chung's 'From Outer Space'"
Quagmire; or, R.I.P. Scully's Dog
[Note: He contributed to a rewrite of this episode.]
Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster; or, Nice Hat
The Lost Art of Forehead Sweat