The fourth season of the American science fiction television series The X-Files commenced airing on the Fox network in the United States on October 4, 1996, concluding on the same channel on May 18, 1997, and contained 24 episodes. Following the filming and airing of the season, production began on The X-Files feature film, which was released in 1998 following the show's fifth season.
The fourth season of the series focuses heavily on FBI federal agents Fox Mulder's (David Duchovny) and his partner Dana Scully's (Gillian Anderson) investigation of an alien conspiracy, which is protected by the mysterious Syndicate. Midway through the season, Scully is diagnosed with terminal cancer, a result of her previous abduction, and Mulder begins to lose his faith in the idea of extraterrestrials.
Debuting with high viewing figures and ranking as the twentieth most watched television series during the 1996–97 television year in the United States, the season was a success, with figures averaging around 20 million viewers an episode. This made it, at the time, the highest rated season of The X-Files to air. The season's twelfth episode, "Leonard Betts", was chosen as the Fox lead-out program following Super Bowl XXXI, and was viewed by 29.1 million viewers, making it the highest-rated episode in the series' run. Critical reception from television critics was mostly positive.
Plot overview
<!-- Don't include any summary from the non-mytharc episodes since they are stand alone episodes. -->
The show centers on FBI special agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson), who work on cases linked to the paranormal called X-Files. When the Syndicate suspect that one of their members is passing information to Mulder and Scully, they organize a canary trap to find the leak, using information about the safety of Mulder's mother as bait. X's (Steven Williams) role as an informant is discovered, and he is shot dead, although he is able to pass along the name of another informant who can be of use to Mulder—Marita Covarrubias (Laurie Holden), the Special Representative to the Secretary-General of the United Nations. Covarrubias' aid is sought when Mulder attempts to reach Tunguska in Russia to investigate the source of a further black oil contamination. Whilst there, Mulder is held in a gulag and used as a successful test subject for a black oil vaccine. He escapes and is able to return to America, having found that Alex Krycek (Nicholas Lea) is working with the Russians.
Having been diagnosed with cancer, Scully is unsure of her future with the FBI. Mulder is convinced that her condition is a result of her earlier abduction ("Ascension"), and is prepared to make a deal with the Syndicate to find a cure. He is dissuaded by Walter Skinner (Mitch Pileggi), who secretly makes such a deal instead. While being pursued by an assassin responsible for a hoax alien corpse discovered on a mountaintop, Mulder fakes his own suicide, mutilating the assassin's face to provide a decoy body. He uses the distraction this offers to infiltrate The Pentagon to find a cure for Scully's cancer, while Scully is able to uncover and reveal a Syndicate connection within the FBI.
Production
Writing
thumb|right|170px|The writers for The X-Files decided to give [[Gillian Anderson's character cancer in season four.]]
The season saw drastic changes to the series' alien mythology. In the premiere episode, "Herrenvolk", Williams—the actor who played Mulder's informant X—was written out of the show. He said that, "Carter called me up personally [and said] 'Got good news, got bad news. The good news is we're gonna bring you up for another episode this week. The bad news is you're gonna take a bullet." "Herrenvolk" also introduced the killer bees, who would go on to play a larger part in the 1998 film.
The season is notable in that it introduced a story arc about Scully developing terminal cancer, which would not be resolved until the beginning of the fifth season. The show's producers decided to give Gillian Anderson's character Dana Scully cancer early in the season. Carter initially discussed giving Scully's mother cancer but decided to have Scully suffer from it instead. Carter felt the move would give the show an interesting platform on which to discuss things such as faith, science, health care and a certain element of the paranormal. Some of the writing staff felt that the decision was a poor one to make, citing it as "a cheap TV thing". However, Frank Spotnitz felt that, given the appearances of cancer-stricken abductees in previous episodes, it was an "obligatory" move to have Scully follow suit.
Following the cancellation of the Fox television series Space: Above and Beyond, Carter called the series' creators Glen Morgan and Wong—who had previously been writers for the first two seasons of The X-Files—and asked if they wanted to rejoin the series. Morgan told Carter that the two of them would rejoin, but only for four episodes, and only if they could use members from the cast of Space: Above and Beyond, so that "the world can finally see them".
Filming
The season finale, "Gethsemane", was notable in that an entire set created to emulate icy caverns was constructed inside a warehouse which had previously been used for cold storage; and required the use of truckloads of lumber and of Styrofoam. The set would become one of the most expensive and elaborate built during the series' history. The set required a constant temperature of in order to maintain the real snow and ice used to decorate it. This refrigeration allowed the actors' breath to visibly fog up, and allowed the cast to "have a place that feels real" to aid their acting.
Crew
Series creator Chris Carter also served as executive producer and showrunner and wrote eight episodes. Howard Gordon continued as executive producer and wrote five episodes for his final season on the series. Spotnitz was promoted to co-producer and wrote seven episodes. Vince Gilligan was promoted to co-producer and wrote five episodes. Former X-Files writers Glen Morgan and James Wong returned after a one-season absence from the series as consulting producers and wrote three episodes together, with Morgan writing an additional episode solo that Wong directed. John Shiban was promoted to story editor and wrote four episodes. David Greenwalt joined mid-season as co-executive producer and wrote one episode for his only season on the series. Writing team Valerie and Vivian Mayhew wrote one freelance episode. Executive producer and frequent series director R. W. Goodwin wrote his first and only episode for the series. Other producers included producer Joseph Patrick Finn, co-producer Paul Rabwin, and consulting producer Ken Horton, who joined the series with this season. |episodes=