What is the title of The X-Files season 1 finale?

What is the title of The X-Files season 1 finale? The answer is “The Erlenmeyer Flask.” It is the concluding episode of the show’s 24-episode first season.

Written by series creator Chris Carter and directed by R. W. Goodwin, “The Erlenmeyer Flask” first aired on May 13, 1994. The episode expands the show’s mythology through secret government experimentation, alien-human biology, and the cover-up surrounding evidence discovered by Mulder and Scully.

The finale is especially significant because it kills Deep Throat, Mulder’s mysterious informant, and ends with the X-Files being shut down. Those developments gave the season a dramatic cliffhanger and shaped the conspiracy storyline that continued into season 2.

Viewers sometimes confuse this title with later mythology episodes such as “One Breath,” “Paper Clip,” or “The Blessing Way.” Those are from subsequent seasons or later points in the mythology arc. “The Erlenmeyer Flask” is both the first-season finale and the first season’s most consequential mythology episode.