Timeline

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"Time just can't disappear. It's a universal invariant."

"Not in this zipcode."

Wherever possible, these dates have been taken from the original episodes, and the source quoted. Please mail Deep Background with any additions and corrections.

I have omitted things like "Eugene Tooms kills his second lot of victims" or "those nasty girls in Syzygy were born", which tend to appear in published timelines. Dates included are for the episodes, the conspiracy and the characters' backgrounds.

Warning: The X-Files is, rather notoriously, horribly lax about its use of dates. Some of the following dates are flatly contradictary, allowing us a certain amount of leeway with our interpretation.

Before the X-Files / First Season / Second Season / Third Season / Fourth Season / Fifth Season / Sixth Season

Before the X-Files

See "Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man" for a lot of the pre-X-Files stuff, though it is possibly apocryphal, depending as it does on an unreliable narrator.

1946 The first X-File is opened by J Edgar Hoover. It describes a possible werewolf case. ("Shapes")

1947 The Roswell Incident. According to Deep Throat, this was only the first of many UFO salvage operations, and not the most important. An international conference was held after the wreckage was found, attended by the USA, Britain, China, Germany and France, everyone agreed to exterminate any EBEs found in their country. ("EBE" and "The Erlenmeyer Flask") However, even Mulder is unsure how much of this story of believe. In "Musings..." Cancerman talks to Deep Throat about the "Roswell hoax" deisgned to put people off the scent. The infamous Roswell autopsy gets is mentioned by Scully in "Nisei", in no flattering terms, and gets a brief parody in "Jose Chung".

1952 June. "Travelers" is set, thus even further complicating the time-line of Bill Mulder. Bill Mulder is in the State Department, working on a conspiracy which involves Nazi scientist, and is closely tied up with the anti-Communist crusade.

1952 3rd June. Walter Skinner born, according to the profile in the computer game (which is written by CC, so is probably canon.)

1953 August 19. A young Bill Mulder, Deep Throat and Cigarette Smoking Man question a sailor with radiation burns about an encounter with a crashed UFO. ("Apocrypha") This date doesn't fit with "Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man."

1960 October 11. Original date given for Mulder's birth, but later superceded by "Paper Clip" (see below)

1961 October 13. Fox William Mulder is born. (Shown in his file in "Paper Clip", replacing the earlier date as given in "Conduit". The official line is that this is now the correct version.)

1962 October 30. A young Cancerman, a US Army Special Forces captain, sees a picture of his friend, Bill Mulder's, family. Bill Mulder tells him his one-year old child (Fox) has just spoken his first word: "JFK". Their ages and situations contradict the scene in "Apocrypha".

1964 January 22. Original date for Samantha's birth, given in Conduit, but later superceded (see below)

1964 February 23. Dana Katherine Scully is born. (Year from the grave stone in "One Breath." Date from "Lazarus") She has an older sister, Melissa, and two brothers, one older and one younger ("One Breath")

1965 November 21. Samantha Ann Mulder is born. (As with her brother, the date given in "Paper Clip" replaces the date in "Conduit.")

1973 October 13th - The Consortium meet with the colonists at El Rico Air Force base and agree to hand over a member of their families to the aliens.

1973 November 27. Samantha Mulder abducted by someone or something from the family home at Chilmark, Massachusetts. ("Conduit" and "Little Green Men") On the same day, all the various Consortium member's loved ones are taken from El Rico. This includes Cassandra Spender.

1983 - 1986 Mulder is at Oxford at this time, according to "Unusual Suspects", although there are lots of internal problems with this dating. The whole issue of what Mulder did before the X-Files is tricky. See the Mulder page for a more detailed discussion.

1986 Scully gains her physics degree from the Univeristy of Maryland ("Jersey Devil") and commences Medical School. The date of her senior thesis ("Einstein's Twin Paradox - a New Interpretation") is given as May 15, 1986 ("Musings...")

mid to late 1980s Mulder joins the FBI. This whole confusion is discussed in more detail 0n the Mulder page.)

1989 May. "Unusual Suspects" is set, which is Mulder's first exposure to conspiracy theory and leads to a nice hallucination of aliens. All of which probably leads to:

1989 June 16. Mulder undergoes hypnotic regression with Dr Heitz Werber, leading him to believe his sister was taken by aliens (Conduit).

1990 Scully graduates from Medical School and is recruited directly to the FBI. After training at the Academy, she commences work there as an instructor in forensic medicine. At about this time, she has a relationship with her instructor, Jack Willis. ("Pilot", "Lazarus.") She gave him a birthday present in February 1991 ("three years ago" in early 1994) although this contradicts the age inscribed on the watch.

1990 Mulder works on the case of John Roche ("Paper Hearts"). "Kill Switch" says that he started working on the X-Files in this year, but 1991 seems much more likely, from clues in several other episodes, such as:

1990 Travelers is set in November 1990, and Mulder first hears about the X-Files, and learns what they are. He does, however, seem to have no interest, as yet, in taking them on (He does, though, have a wedding ring on at this point, and smokes).

1991 Late in the year. Mulder begins to investigate the X- Files. Cancerman is told about Mulder's "recent" interest in the X-Files on December 24th 1991. ("Musings....")

1991/2 If Frohike's account of Cancerman is at all to be believed, Deep Throat executed another alien some time between December 24th 1991 and March 6th 1992. ("Musings...")

The First Season

Due to the weird dating of many of the episodes, it proved impossible to come up with a chronological list of the episodes. We generally assume that the air-date order is the same as the order in Mulder and Scully's lives, but, as there are times when this is definitely not so, I didn't want to make assumptions about the dating of the others. Instead, I have listed each episode in air-date order, and tried to pin down the date of each. For each episode, this information is also included on the episode summary.

To first season episode summaries.

The start of Mulder and Scully's partnership.

In the Pilot Scully is assigned to the X-Files division on March 6th 1992. (This date comes from the onscreen caption of "March 7th", seen as Mulder and Scully arrive at the town where the case is set. They mention things said in their first meeting "yesterday".) At the end of the episode, Billy Miles undergoes hypnotic regression on March 22nd 1992. This dating is confirmed in "Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man."

However, the next episodes we see are all set in the summer of 1993. Scully reacts to Mulder as if she's only recently started working with him. She laughs incredulously ay his theories, acting as if she's never heard him mention Roswell before ("Deep Throat") or heard him express a belief in things such as ghosts and genetic mutants.

In addition, we get nasty contradictions in later episodes. Scully is described as being two years out of the Academy both in the "Pilot" (March 1992) and "Squeeze" (July 1993). In "One Breath", Mrs Scully says Mulder and Scully have been friends for about a year. "One Breath" is set in November 1994, but Scully was abducted in August, so this probably refers to sometime in the summer of 1993 - not surprisingly, the time the series proper started filming. In "Anasazi", set in April 1995, Scully says she was assigned to work with Mulder "a year and a half ago," which, allowing for rounding up odd months here and there, could be any time in the latter half of 1993.

Clearly these dates don't fit. We can chose either to take the March 1992 date and ignore anything to the contrary, or to ignore the March 1992 date, as we have to ignore quite a bit in the early episodes (such as Mulder's changing birthday) and assume Mulder and Scully started working together in the summer of 1993.

Deep Throat No date given. Clothing suggests summer. Probably summer 1993, but you could choose to put it in summer 1992 if you want to accept the March 1992 start date.

Squeeze Tooms is arrested by the FBI about half way through the episode. When Skinner reads Tooms' file in the episode "Tooms," the date for this arrest is given as July 23rd 1993

Conduit On their first day in Iowa, Mulder sends a fax. It is dated August 26th 1993. They are there at least two more days after that.

Jersey Devil The case starts with a body being found on August 29th 1993. Mulder and Scully go up to investigate the next day, having returned amazingly promptly from Iowa. For real nit-pickers, this was a Sunday, so quite how the next day can be a Friday, as Scully clearly says it is, is rather odd. Ah well....

Shadows The teaser to this takes place on September 26 1993, which is the date shown on the bank security video. Mulder and Scully are called in six hours after this. Oddly, though, the date for Howard Graves' death, as written on his gravestone, is October 5th, even though he was supposed to have died two weeks before the show started. Weirdness.

Ghost in the Machine About half way through the case, Scully writes her report on her computer, dating it October 24 1993

Ice The transmission which starts it all is sent on November 5 1993 Mulder and Scully go up shortly afterwards, though it's not clear how many days later. It is a Wednesday when they travel up there. In November 1993, the nearest Wednesday after the 5th was the 10th.

Space, Fallen Angel No dates given for these. Should be November 1993, if episodes are in right order, though see the dating of "Eve" and "Ice" for the problem.

Eve The medical report that Scully looks at at the start is dated November 7th 1993, and Mulder and Scully start the case the day afterwards. Considering they were in the Arctic at this point, it is rather tricky.

Fire No date given. Should be December 1993, probably.

Beyond the Sea This episode starts shortly after Christmas 1993, as Scully's father asks her if she's intending to keep the Christmas tree up all year. This tends to suggest that it's some time since Christmas - long enough for him to think she should have taken the decorations down by now. There are no signs of Chistmas anywhere else in the episode. At the end of the episode, Scully is rather traumatised by the case of Luther Lee Boggs and Mulder is shot and, presumably, can't walk for a while after this, so it is to be assumed they both have a rest from cases for a while.

Genderbender No date given. Should be January 1994, if episode are in right order - although remember Mulder would need recovery time after "Beyond the Sea."

Lazarus No date given. When Mulder gives Scully a birthday card she sys it's two months early. As her birthday is February 23rd, this would place this story around Christmas time or so. However, "Beyond the Sea" took place just after Christmas, leaving Mulder in no condition to pursue cases for a while, and "Lazarus" is two episodes after that. Make of that what you will.

Young at Heart, EBE No dates given. Should be January or February 1994, if episodes are in right order.

Miracle Man Scully performs an autopsy towards the end of the case, which she dates as March 7th 1994

Shapes, Darkness Falls, Tooms No dates given for these, but if the air-date order tracks internal order, these all happened in March 1994, after "Miracle Man" (around March 7th 1994) and "Born Again" (starts March 27th). This is all rather odd, considering that Mulder and Scully were rather badly damaged by the events of "Darkness Falls."

Born Again The case starts on March 27th 1994 Mulder writes his final notes on April 19

Roland Case starts April 25th 1994

Erlenmeyer Flask This episode begins on May 8th 1994. A few weeks later, the X-Files are closed.

The Second Season

To second season episode summaries.

Little Green Men Mulder's adventure is triggered by a signal received by the Aricebo Observatory on July 5th 1994

The Host No date given, but must be July 1994

Blood The date on the autopsy report Scully sends Mulder is August 2nd 1994

Sleepless Must be a very tight fit to get this in between the end of "Blood" and the start of "Duane Barry," unless "Sleepless" comes before "Blood" in internal dating. However, the Krycek story arc suggests it doesn't.

Duane Barry and Ascension The hostage negotiation begins in daylight on August 7th 1994 and is over the same night. It isn't clear whether it's hours or days that have elapsed before Barry escapes from the hospital at the end, so it isn't clear when Scully was abducted. August 8th 1994, or a day or two later, presumably. The events of "Ascension" take a few days immediately after that, during which Skinner re-opens the X-Files.

3 As shown by Mulder's calendar in his office, this takes place in Novemeber. It must be really early in November, if the dating of the next few episodes is to make sense. What he's been doing between Skinner reopening the X-Files in August and now is never explained. Even though he's not been in his office, he has been working, as he talks in this episode of having tracked the vampire killers for the last few months.

One Breath Scully is returned on November 3 1994, three months after she was taken. (Date taken from a close look at her admission chart, glimpsed fleetingly. The previous episode,"3", starts in November, and "Firewalker" begins on November 11th. Implausibly tight dating, clearly. (Note, however, that in "Emily", Mulder says Scully was missing for one month only.) (Memento Mori shows that a sample of eggs was taken on October 29th 1994, and Emily was born in November1994)

Firewalker At the end of the case, Mulder writes his report, stating that the events took place between November 11th and November 13th 1994. Mighty fast recovery for Scully, and then there's the little question of the month-long quarantine. (see "Irresistible")

Red Museum, Excelsis Dei, Aubrey No dates given. By air- date, ought to be November or December 1994, but the month-long quarantine at the end of "Firewalker" messes this up. "Irresistible" suggests that the dating in this section of the second season should be taken with a pinch of salt. "Red Museum" is a osrt-of semi crossover with "Picket Fences," whose timeline places it somewhere in the first half of December.

Irresistible Scully performs an autopsy about half way through this case. She dates it as Monday November 14th (1994), thus clashing hideously with "Firewalker", in which Mulder and Scully started a month-long quarantine on this very same date. Oops.

Die Hand Die Verletzt One of the boys involved in the ritual at the start of the case borrowed a library book on January 16th 1995. The plot suggests the whole witchcraft thing was done on impulse, suggesting this date was probably the same day as the ritual, or, at least, not many days earlier. Thus Mulder and Scully arrive on this case either on Janury 17th or some time not long after that. This causes problems with the "Colony" dating.

Fresh Bones Should be January 1995, if internal order follows air-date order, but it could be any time. This whole section of the season is horribly messed up, as "Irresistible shows."

Colony and End Game Mulder goes to the submarine at the end of "End Game" on February 3rd 1995 - which is the time shown in that global positioning thingy. The story told in "Colony" begins two- weeks earlier, as we are shown on screen, placing it neatly as around January 20th or so - rather close after "Die Hand". There are a few nice nit-picky mistakes, though. At the start of "Colony" Mulder and Scully are investigating the recent death of Doctor Landon Prince of Scanton. Close inspection of Mulder's e-mail reveals that Prince was killed on December 28 1994. Unfortunately, it also reveals that another of the doctors, Harvey Buchanon, was killed on January 10 1995, despite the fact that Mulder calls Prince the "latest victim." Oops.

Fearful Symmetry: No date given but probably February 1995. It all depends on what date you acept for "Colony" and how long you think Mulder was in hospital at the end of "End Game."

Dod Kalm A date! A date! An unambiguous date! Near the end of their adventure, Mulder loses consciousness at 4.30 am, March 12th 1995. This is after at least three days on the ship, and Scully doesn't wake up until 36 hours after their rescue, with a lot of healing still to go for the both of them.

Humbug, The Calusari, F Emasculata No dates given. If internal dates follow air-date order, these should all be crammed into the latter half of March 1995, after Mulder and Scully are recovered from "Dod Kalm."

Soft Light This case begins on March 31st 1995, which is date of the death seen in the teaser. (This is taken from the scene on the railway station, when Mulder says Banton was there on the 17th and 31st and "last night" - the dates of the last three disappearances.)

Our Town No date given, but presumably squeezed in between April 3rd and April 11th.

Anasazi Dates, dates, dates.... The passage of time is marked every step of the way with onscreen captions, showing that this episode, as far as Mulder and Scully are concerned, takes place from April 11th to 16th 1995 . The earthquake is April 9th 1995, the hacker gets the information on the 10th and Mulder gets the tape on the 11th. Mulder attacks Skinner on the 12th and Scully is called before an enquiry on the 13th. Mulder's father is killed on the night of the 13th/14th. Mulder himself is shot on the evening on the 14th and wakes up in New Mexico in daylight on the 16th. He disappears on the afternoon of April 16th 1995.

The Third Season

To third season episode summaries.

The Blessing Way Starts on April 16th 1995, as "Anasazi" ends. Mulder is found the following day (17th) and remains unconscious for three days. Meanwhile, Scully is visited by Frohike on the 18th, certainly. After that it gets a little confused. I've carefully counted days and nights and come up with April 22nd as the most likely date for Bill Mulder's funeral, in the morning, and Melissa's shooting in the evening.

Paper Clip If the above deductions are right, this episode starts on the night of the April 22nd 1995, though this could be out by a day or so on either side. Albert arrives at Melissa's hospital room the following day, and later tells Skinner he's been there for two days. We then see one more night-time before the final scenes, suggesting Melissa dies four days after being shot. My guess is April 26th 1995, but anyone's guess is as good as mine.

DPO The teaser is set on September 12th 1995, as seen on the video game being played by Darin Oswald. Nevertheless, Scully refers to the events of the Anasazi trilogy, set in April 1995, as "what we've just been through." Also, 2Shy, some three episodes later on, is set in late August, before this case.

Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose The teaser is set September 16 1995. Mulder and Scully investigate from September 19-22 1995

The List No date given. Could be anything, given the mess of the dating at this time. Probably October 1995, though.

2Shy Scully autopsy at the start of this case is dated August 29th 1995. This is despite the fact that it comes after "DPO" and "Clyde Bruckman," both set in September.

The Walk, Oubliette No dates given. Presumably October 1995, is internal dating roughly follows airdate order, though "2Shy" rather messes up that hypothesis.

Nisei and 731 No dates given. If the order of the episodes roughly tracks the order of the events in Mulder and Scully's lives, this two-parter should be set around late November 1995 / early December 1995. Internally, all we know for certain is that this is set after Paper Clip but before Piper Maru. (But see the notes on Piper Maru for the problems with this dating.)

Revelations A medical record gives the date November 28th 1995

War of the Coprophages. No date given, but presumably December 1995.

Syzygy The teaser is dated January 9th 1996. Mulder and Scully are in Comity (though not in comity) until the grand denouement on January 12th 1996

Grotesque No date given. I peered very closely on freeze frame at the evidence bag, but there's a blank where the date should be.

Piper Maru and Apocrypha Another typical X-Files timeline mess. There is a lot in this episode about the events of "Paper Clip" being five months ago. While "Paper Clip" aired about five months befire "Piper Maru" it was actually set in April 1995, but which these episodes took place in September or October 1995. It is possible, I suppose, to place "Nisei" and "731" in the summer of 1995 and this two-parter in September 1995, which would mean that Scully was referring to these episodes when she talks about "what we've just been though" in "DPO" and not the "Anasazi" trilogy, which was nearly five months ago anyway. By this, we can just assume that for sweeps weeks purposes the big arc episodes are taken out of their internal order. More likely, though, that we are to assume that "Piper Maru" and "Apocrypha" took place in around February 1996, when they were aired, and that someone at 1013 made a mistake. Wouldn't be the first time.

Pusher, Teso Dos Bichos, Hell Money No dates given. February 1996? As that month looks rather crowded, at least one of them could perhaps be shifted to after "Avatar", as there's a six-week gap there with only one case.

Jose Chung's "From Outer Space" "How the Hell should I know?" The events of the case are clearly some time earlier than Scully's interview, and then the scenes in which Scully is reading the book much be several months after that. The episode immeidately afterwards, "Avatar", starts on March 7th 1996. Make of that what you will. (If we take the Game as canon, it looks as if the book itself was published in early 1996, since Mulder was reading a nice shiny new hardback of the novel, and therefore that the events of the case were some time earlier.)

Avatar This case starts on March 7th 1996, when Skinner retired to bed with a prostitute.

Quagmire No date given. March or April 1996, presumably. If the X-Files game is seen as canon, it took place from March 29th to April 6th, so Quagmire can't be then. Also, in the game, we see a mug with a picture of "Big Blue" on it, showing a crocodile, and before Quagmire the mugs would have shown Big Blue as a Loch Ness monster sort of creature.

See notes on the Game, below:

Wetwired The teaser takes place on April 27th 1996. Mulder and Scully arrive the next day.

Talitha Cumi No date given. Presumably May 1996.

The X-Files Game

Now, this may or may not be canon, but it is written by Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz, so... Well,I leave it up to you to decide whether it's real or not. Anyway, it's set between March 29th 1996 and August 7 1996. It is presumbly set after Quagmire, since we see a mug which advertises "Big Blue", the monster from Quagmire, but with a picture of a crocodile. It was only at the end of that episode that the monster was revealed to be a crocodile, suggesting that Quagmire happened before the events of the game... and that someone was very very quick with the merchandising

The Fourth Season

Thanks to Michelle Lellouche for help with fourth season dates.

To fourth season episode summaries.

Herrenvolk No date given. Starts where Talitha Cumi leaves off - May 1996?

Home No date given

Teliko Teaser is set May 17, 1996, which was the date the Teliko came over, then interior dialogue says that happened 3 months ago, which would be around August 1996

Unruhe Scully's journal entry is dated October 11th 1996 at end of episode

TFWID, Sanguinarium No dates given. Presumably October and November 1996, if the dates track.

Musings of a Cigarette-Smoking Man Cancer Man's resignation letter is dated November 12th 1997 Of course, most of the events of the episode are shown in flashback.

Tunguska and Terma Mulder looks at his watch when at Marita's apartment, showing the date to be November 25th 1996. Ten days elapse between the start of the episode and Scully's first appearance before the Senate Committee.

Paper Hearts An evidence bag in this episode is tagged November 29th 1996, thus clashing horribly with Tunguska and Terma.

El Mundo Gira, Leonard Betts, Never Again, Memento Mori, Kaddish No dates given

Unrequited A date shown as 12th November 1996 even though it aired in March 97

Tempus Fugit and Max Starts with Scully's birthday, thus placing it as 23rd February 1997Mulder's watch shows the end of the episode to be March 8th 1997

Synchrony, Small Potatoes No dates given.

Zero Sum Episode begins April 27 1997 (Note that this is after "Demons"). At this time, Scully was having treatment in the hospital.

Elegy No date given

Demons Episode begins April 12 1997

Gethsemene No date given. Aired in May, but Redux seems to be set in October.

Season 5

Redux and Redux II The phone records found in Ostelhoff's apartment are dated October 1997 - dates round about the 10th of the month. Presumably this is the few days before the whole story started - which, of course, places Gethsemene in October after all. (As always, we have the problem of what on earth they were doing over the summer.)

Unusual Suspects Set back in May 1989

Detour No date given, but is definitely set after Redux II. Aired in November 1997.

Post-Modern Prometheus No dates given, if, indeed, it even happened at all. The last scenes are made up, definitely (well, probably) so is the whole story? Anyway, internally, there are references to Redux II, putting it after that episode. It aired on November 30th 1997

Christmas Carol The Christmas references clearly place this as between 21st and 25th December 1997

Emily Takes place from 28th December 1997 until early January 1998 Note that this leaves a 3 day break between the two episodes, giving, perhaps, 3 days for Scully to bond with Emily off-camera. (Typically, there are problems: On a day when someone says "happy new year", we see a date on a hospital record: 31st October. Oops.)

Kitsunegari, Schizogeny, Chinga, Kill Switch No dates given for any of these, annoyingly, though presumably they're set at around the time they aired, ie January and February 1998

Bad Blood A date! The flashback events happen on February 10th 1998. Mulder and Scully recall these events on February 11th. They return to Texas on February 11th through 12th and tell their story to Skinner on the 13th.

Patient X and The Red and the Black No dates given, but aired March 1998.

Travelers Flashback episode, set November 1990, and flashing back to June 1952

Mind's Eye Marti's mug shot is taken on March 6, 1998 after the first murder. The case largely takes place in the 48 hours that follow. No date is given for the final scene. (Note that this episode aired a good 6 weeks after it was supposed to be set)

All Souls This episode is set a week after Easter, which puts it in the week after April 12th 1998

The Pine Bluff Variant No real date stamp in this episode. A file arrest photo of Jacob Haley is dated April 7, 1998, so this episode takes place sometime after that.

Folie a Deux The hostage situation at the start takes place on May 10th 1998 - the same date as the episode aired. The rest of the episode takes place the following day or two, and it is sufficiently close to Pine Bluff for Mulder's fingers still to be taped, although it is out of its splint.

The End No date given

The Movie

The telegram at the end is dated September 6th 1998 However, it's not clear how long this is after the events of the movie. Could be hours, days, or weeks.

Sixth Season

The Beginning: The episode starts very shortly after the X- Files are reopened. In the movie, the telegram announcing the reopening of the X-Files is dated September 6th 1998, thus placing this episode in (probably) the week just after this date.

Drive: Crump is arrested, at the start of the episode, on October 23 1998

Triangle: Mulder's floating in the water on November 16 1998 in "real time." The dream/time-slip bit takes place on September 3, 1939. The end of the episode, in the hospital, is either November 16th, or, at the latest, only the following day.

Dreamland I and II: No date given. Episodes aired on November 29th and December 6th 1998, though. About the only clue we get is that the Lone Gunmen's magazine is seen, and it's the November issue.

How the Ghosts Stole Christmas: This episode takes place on the night of December 24th 1998, and ends on Christmas morning.

Terms of Endearment: No date, but there are harvest wreaths on the doors, suggesting it's set in October or thereabouts, and takes place before the previuos few episodes.

Rain King: Teaser takes place on Feb. 14, and the events of the actual episode are said to happen six months later. However, it's not clear what year we're talking about - 1998 would be 5 months before the episode aired, and just before the movie in the internal timeline; 1999 would be 7 months in the future. 1999 is more liekly, though. At one point, in the High School Reunion, there is a desk with the word 79, suggesting that it's the 20th anniversary of the Class of 1979.

S.R. 819: No dates, but episode aired 17th January 1999.

Tithonus: Ritter says that it is January 4th (1999) when he is testing the microphone for Fellig's interview

Two Fathers / One Son: No dates given, but aired February 7th and 14th 1999

Agua Mala: Very odd dating, since the reference to a hurricane beginning with L suggests it's about September or October of a year, going from the timing of the hurricane season. There is no mention of whether Mulder and Scully are actually on the X-Files, which would rule out late 1998, or not. 1998? 1999? The only clue comes from "The Unnatural", when Mulder is surprised to hear that Dales has moved to Florida. In "Agua Mala", he already knows this fact, suggesting that "Agua Mala" takes place after "The Unnatural" - in (presumably) late 1999.

Monday: No dates given, but episode aired on February 28th 1999.

Arcadia: February 24, 1999 is indicated when Scully makes the videotape of the Kleins' house. The teaser happens seven months earlier. This is Mulder and Scully's first case back with the X-Files.

Alpha: No date given, but episode aired on March 28th 1999.

Trevor: No date given. Episode aired 11 April 1999

Milagro: No specific date given, but one of the letters Padgett received was postmarked February 8th, and there was a Valentine's Day wish in the paper, both suggesting mid-February. However, this conflicts with Arcadia, set in late February and supposedly Mulder and Scully's first case back with the X-Files. Episode aired 18th April 1999

The Unnatural: The action takes place on a Saturday, apparently at least several weeks or months after Scully's birthday and likely near the episode airdate of April 26, 1999. Flashbacks to 1947 take place between June 29 and July 2.

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