# The X-Files season 7
The seventh season of *The X-Files* is the 22-episode run of the American science-fiction television series that aired on the Fox network in the United States from November 7, 1999 to May 21, 2000.[1](https://x-files.fandom.com/wiki/The_X-Files_%28season_7%29) Created by Chris Carter and starring [David Duchovny](https://www.edgepedia.org/david-duchovny) as [Fox Mulder](https://www.edgepedia.org/fox-mulder) and [Gillian Anderson](https://www.edgepedia.org/gillian-anderson) as Dana Scully, the season was produced under the expectation that it would be the show's last, and it closes the original run of Mulder-led seasons: Duchovny departed at its end.[2](https://www.eatthecorn.com/media/Cinefantastique/Cinefantastique%20v31n08%20%28Oct%201999%29.pdf) • [3](https://www.worldradiohistory.com/BOOKSHELF-ARH/Encyclopedias/Archive-Encyclopedia-of-Television/Encyclopedia-of-Television-Vol-4.pdf)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Broadcast | Fox, November 7, 1999 to May 21, 2000[1](https://x-files.fandom.com/wiki/The_X-Files_%28season_7%29) |
| Episodes | 22, opening with "The Sixth Extinction" and closing with "Requiem"[4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/the_x_files/s07) |
| Lead cast | David Duchovny (Mulder), Gillian Anderson (Scully), Mitch Pileggi (Walter Skinner), William B. Davis (the Smoking Man)[4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/the_x_files/s07) |
| Critical scores | 78% Tomatometer (9 reviews), 85% Popcornmeter; ranked #6 of the series' 11 seasons[4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/the_x_files/s07) • [5](https://editorial.rottentomatoes.com/guide/the-x-files-seasons-ranked-by-tomatometer/) |
| Audience score | 7.8/10 on Metacritic from 69 user ratings[6](https://www.metacritic.com/tv/the-x-files/season-7/) |
| Production move | Production shifted from Vancouver, British Columbia, to Los Angeles in season seven[3](https://www.worldradiohistory.com/BOOKSHELF-ARH/Encyclopedias/Archive-Encyclopedia-of-Television/Encyclopedia-of-Television-Vol-4.pdf) |
| End of an era | Duchovny left the series after this season, amid a lawsuit against Fox over syndication profits that was settled out of court[3](https://www.worldradiohistory.com/BOOKSHELF-ARH/Encyclopedias/Archive-Encyclopedia-of-Television/Encyclopedia-of-Television-Vol-4.pdf) |
## Production context
The season entered pre-production in Los Angeles in the summer of 1999 with its future unsettled. In an October 1999 *Cinefantastique* feature titled "Preparing for Season Seven," Carter said, "Right now, everyone is prepped for the seventh year to be the end of THE X-FILES, so we're looking at that," and explained that as a storyteller he wanted to know his parameters so he could choose when to reveal what, particularly for the mythology.[2](https://www.eatthecorn.com/media/Cinefantastique/Cinefantastique%20v31n08%20%28Oct%201999%29.pdf) A contemporary *TV and Satellite Week* interview likewise reported that the show's future as a weekly series would probably not be certain until season seven ended production in April.[7](https://www.eatthecorn.com/itw/2000/03/01/tv-and-satellite-week/)
The uncertainty had a contractual root. *The Encyclopedia of Television* notes that season seven's production relocated from Vancouver to Los Angeles, and that when that year ended, Duchovny departed to chase other work while a dispute, later resolved without a trial, played out: he accused Fox of diminishing the profits he was owed under contract through uncompetitive sales of the show's syndication rights to stations Fox itself owned.[3](https://www.worldradiohistory.com/BOOKSHELF-ARH/Encyclopedias/Archive-Encyclopedia-of-Television/Encyclopedia-of-Television-Vol-4.pdf)
## Episodes and structure
The season's 22 episodes ran weekly from November 1999 to May 2000. The two-part premiere, "The Sixth Extinction" and "The Sixth Extinction II: Amor Fati," continued the cliffhanger of the sixth-season finale, with Mulder's health deteriorating in a mental institution while Scully investigates a spacecraft beached off the African coast.[4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/the_x_files/s07) The finale, "Requiem," aired May 21, 2000 and revisited the case that first brought Mulder and Scully together seven years earlier, jeopardizing their partnership.[4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/the_x_files/s07)
Most of the season consists of standalone "monster-of-the-week" cases, and several are formal experiments or crossovers. "Millennium" brings back former FBI agent Frank Black in a race to stop the apocalypse as the millennium closes; "X-Cops" follows Mulder and Scully with a camera crew from the reality show *[Cops](https://www.edgepedia.org/cops-tv-program)*; "Hollywood A.D." follows a producer making a film of one of their cases, starring [Téa Leoni](https://www.edgepedia.org/tea-leoni) and [Garry Shandling](https://www.edgepedia.org/garry-shandling); and "Je Souhaite" is a fairy tale about the dangerous ramifications of wish fulfillment.[4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/the_x_files/s07) "Hungry" tells its story from the monster's point of view.[8](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/the_x_files/s07/reviews?type=top_critics)
One reviewer identifies a fourth episode type debuting this season, after monster-of-the-week, mythology, and Darin Morgan-style comedy: the character piece, exemplified by Scully-centered entries such as "all things."[9](https://reviewsfrommycouch.com/2011/03/television/rewatching-and-reviewing-the-classics-x-files-season-7/)
## Mythology and closure
Season 7 carries little of the alien-conspiracy arc compared with earlier years, and its mythology episodes instead resolve long-running personal threads. "Sein Und Zeit" and "Closure," a two-part pair aired in February 2000, tie a child's disappearance to the abduction of Mulder's sister Samantha 25 years earlier and bring Mulder's search for her ultimate fate to an end.[4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/the_x_files/s07) The season synopsis frames this period as "a time of closure and a time of new beginnings": for Mulder, the death of his mother and of Diana Fowley and the end of his search for Samantha; for Scully, facing her own personal demons, including the return of death fetishist Donnie Pfaster; and then, as the ultimate new beginning, the abduction of Mulder in the finale.[10](https://www.justwatch.com/us/tv-show/the-x-files/season-7) "Orison" returns Scully's former kidnapper Donnie Pfaster, and "En Ami" has the Cigarette-Smoking Man offer Scully an intriguing gift while seeking to atone for his crimes.[4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/the_x_files/s07)
Because the show's renewal was uncertain while the finale was made, one retrospective audience review notes that "Requiem" was written to work as a series finale, with a cliffhanger that could have carried the story into films had Fox not renewed the show.[8](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/the_x_files/s07/reviews?type=top_critics)
## Duchovny's departure
Duchovny's exit at the end of the season shaped what followed. Critics reviewing the season noticed his disengagement: a *SciFiNow* review praised Anderson because "the quality of her work never dips, even when [David] Duchovny visibly wanted out of the show during the rickety seventh season."[8](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/the_x_files/s07/reviews?type=top_critics) A retrospective summary describes Duchovny departing at the end of season 7, leaving Scully to team with new agents John Doggett ([Robert Patrick](https://www.edgepedia.org/robert-patrick)) and Monica Reyes ([Annabeth Gish](https://www.edgepedia.org/annabeth-gish)) for seasons 8 and 9.[11](https://www.gamesradar.com/entertainment/horror-shows/after-218-episodes-and-2-movies-i-thought-i-was-finally-done-with-the-x-files-but-the-news-of-ryan-cooglers-revival-has-dragged-me-right-back-in/)
## Reception
On Rotten Tomatoes the season holds a 78% Tomatometer from 9 critics and an 85% Popcornmeter from more than 100 audience ratings, placing it sixth of the series' 11 seasons; the editorial guide notes that most seasons' scores rest on fewer than 10 reviews, so the ranking should be read with that sample size in mind.[4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/the_x_files/s07) • [5](https://editorial.rottentomatoes.com/guide/the-x-files-seasons-ranked-by-tomatometer/) Metacritic users score it 7.8, "generally favorable," from 69 ratings.[6](https://www.metacritic.com/tv/the-x-files/season-7/)
Contemporary critics were mixed on the season's balance. David Bianculli of the *New York Daily News* wrote partway through the run that "one thing seems clear... It does better these days when telling stories other than its own," while his colleague Eric Mink gave it 4/5, comparing the season's mix of conspiracy and standalone episodes to a veteran pitcher keeping batters off-balance.[8](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/the_x_files/s07/reviews?type=top_critics) A retrospective review at the m0vie blog argues that the mythology feels like "a spent force" whose corpse still shapes the show, and that the season sometimes builds on "foggy half-remembered and reinterpreted history" of its own continuity.[12](https://them0vieblog.com/2015/10/15/the-x-files-season-7-review/) An aggregate of episode ratings places season 7 seventh of 11 seasons with an average episode rating of 7.5, below seasons 2 through 6.[13](https://tvrankd.com/show/the-x-files/)
## References
1. [The X-Files (Season 7), X-Files Wiki](https://x-files.fandom.com/wiki/The_X-Files_%28season_7%29)
2. ["Preparing for Season Seven," Cinefantastique v31n08 (October 1999)](https://www.eatthecorn.com/media/Cinefantastique/Cinefantastique%20v31n08%20%28Oct%201999%29.pdf)
3. ["X-Files, The," The Encyclopedia of Television, Vol. 4](https://www.worldradiohistory.com/BOOKSHELF-ARH/Encyclopedias/Archive-Encyclopedia-of-Television/Encyclopedia-of-Television-Vol-4.pdf)
4. [The X-Files: Season 7, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/the_x_files/s07)
5. [The X-Files Seasons Ranked by Tomatometer, Rotten Tomatoes Editorial (September 8, 2023)](https://editorial.rottentomatoes.com/guide/the-x-files-seasons-ranked-by-tomatometer/)
6. [The X-Files season 7 Reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/tv/the-x-files/season-7/)
7. [TV and Satellite Week: "Great Expectations," EatTheCorn (March 2000)](https://www.eatthecorn.com/itw/2000/03/01/tv-and-satellite-week/)
8. [The X-Files: Season 7 Reviews, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/the_x_files/s07/reviews?type=top_critics)
9. [All 22 episodes of 'The X-Files' Season 7 (1999-2000), ranked, Reviews from My Couch](https://reviewsfrommycouch.com/2011/03/television/rewatching-and-reviewing-the-classics-x-files-season-7/)
10. [The X-Files Season 7 streaming, JustWatch](https://www.justwatch.com/us/tv-show/the-x-files/season-7)
11. [After 218 episodes and 2 movies..., GamesRadar (February 2026)](https://www.gamesradar.com/entertainment/horror-shows/after-218-episodes-and-2-movies-i-thought-i-was-finally-done-with-the-x-files-but-the-news-of-ryan-cooglers-revival-has-dragged-me-right-back-in/)
12. [The X-Files – Season 7 (Review), the m0vie blog](https://them0vieblog.com/2015/10/15/the-x-files-season-7-review/)
13. [The X-Files episode ratings, TVRANKD](https://tvrankd.com/show/the-x-files/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Seasons, episodes, and installments › Screen seasons › Science fiction, fantasy, and horror series seasons*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license