Darin Morgan is the only writer who could make Fox Mulder look like a complete idiot and have the fans love him even more for it. Honestly, it’s a miracle he was ever hired. In the mid-90s, The X-Files was this brooding, self-serious juggernaut about government conspiracies and alien abductions. Then Darin shows up. He wasn't even a "writer" by trade at first; he was an actor who spent twenty hours a day sweating inside a rubber suit as the Flukeman in the episode "The Host."
That experience—being trapped in a literal sewer monster costume—might explain why his writing is so beautifully, darkly cynical. He didn't just write scripts. He deconstructed the entire premise of the show while he was still inside it.
Most fans point to him as the guy who "brought comedy" to the series. That’s sort of true, but it’s a bit of a disservice. Darin Morgan didn't just write jokes. He wrote about the crushing weight of existence, the futility of seeking the "Truth," and the fact that most monsters are just lonely losers.
The Darin Morgan X-Files Revolution: Why It Still Matters
If you look at the credits, he only wrote four episodes during the original run. Four. That's it. Yet, those four episodes—"Humbug," "Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose," "War of the Coprophages," and "Jose Chung’s From Outer Space"—consistently top every "Best of" list ever made.
👉 See also: Why The Bourne Supremacy Changed Action Movies Forever
Why? Because he realized something the other writers didn't: Mulder is kind of a weirdo.
Before Darin, Mulder was a tragic hero. After Darin, we saw Mulder through the eyes of the rest of the world. To a normal person, a guy who chases "Sasquatch" or "Were-Monsters" isn't a hero; he's a guy who needs a real hobby. In "Humbug," Darin set the story in a community of circus performers. Suddenly, the "freaks" were the normal ones, and Mulder, in his suit and tie, was the true outsider.
The Master of the Melancholic Laugh
"Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose" is arguably the greatest hour of television in the 90s. Period. It won Darin an Emmy for Outstanding Writing, and it won Peter Boyle an Emmy for playing a guy who can see how everyone dies.
It’s hilarious. It’s also devastating.
Bruckman is a man cursed with the ultimate spoiler: he knows exactly how the movie ends for everyone he meets. Usually, it's something mundane like "asphyxiation from an improperly prepared piece of meat." Mulder, desperate for cosmic significance, asks how he dies. Bruckman’s answer? "You don't."
Fans spent years debating if that meant Mulder was immortal. Years! But Darin wasn't interested in lore or "The Myth-arc." He was interested in the idea that knowing the truth is actually a nightmare. While Chris Carter was building a complex web of black oil and alien colonists, Darin was over in the corner writing about a psychic who sells insurance and wants to die because he's bored of the future.
Deconstructing the Myth-arc
"Jose Chung’s From Outer Space" is where he basically broke the show. It’s a Rashomon-style story where nobody can agree on what happened. Was it aliens? Was it the military? Was it just two teenagers in a car?
By the end of the episode, the "Truth" isn't just out there—it's completely irrelevant. Darin showed us that people believe what they want to believe because the alternative is admitting we’re just tiny, insignificant specks in a cold universe.
He didn't care about the Syndicate or the Cigarette Smoking Man. He cared about the guy in the "Lord Kinbote" suit.
The Revival and the Mandela Effect
When The X-Files came back for its revival seasons, everyone was worried. Could a show from the 90s still work in a world of smartphones and fake news?
Darin Morgan's response was "The Lost Art of Forehead Sweat."
He leaned into the Mandela Effect—the phenomenon where groups of people remember things differently than they actually happened. He introduced Reggie Something, a character who claimed he was the "third member" of the X-Files team from the very beginning.
It was a meta-commentary on the show's own legacy. 10. He used Brian Huskey to play this frantic, sweating conspiracy theorist who remembers a "lost" episode called "The Lost Martian." It was his way of saying that the "Truth" doesn't matter anymore because we can’t even agree on what we saw ten minutes ago.
- Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster: A lizard that turns into a man (played by Kumail Nanjiani) and finds that being a human is way more horrifying than being a monster.
- The Humor of Hopelessness: Darin’s characters are usually depressed, yet they’re the funniest people on screen.
- The Legacy: He paved the way for writers like Vince Gilligan (who wrote "Bad Blood" as a clear homage to Darin's style) to play with the format.
How to Watch Like an Expert
If you're diving back into the Darin Morgan X-Files catalog, don't look for the overarching plot. You won't find it. In fact, if you try to fit his episodes into the "official" timeline, your head will probably explode.
Instead, watch for the small details. Watch the way Scully reacts to Mulder’s nonsense. In "War of the Coprophages," Scully is home alone, eating ice cream and washing her dog (Queequeg, whom she "inherited" after its owner died in the Clyde Bruckman episode), while Mulder is calling her every five minutes because he thinks he’s found robotic alien cockroaches.
It’s the most human the characters ever felt.
Actionable Insights for Fans:
- Check the "Story By" credits: Darin contributed to episodes like "Blood" and "Quagmire" (specifically the famous "Conversation on the Lake" scene) even when he didn't write the full script.
- Look for the names: He often names characters after real people from film history or his own life (Clyde Bruckman was a real silent film director who died by suicide).
- Watch Millennium: If you've run out of his X-Files work, find his two episodes for Millennium—"Jose Chung's Doomsday Defense" and "Somehow, Satan Got Behind Me." They are just as weird and essential.
Ultimately, Darin Morgan taught us that the world is a strange, funny, and deeply lonely place. And that's okay. Sometimes the truth isn't a government conspiracy; sometimes it's just a man in a lizard suit wondering why he has to pay a mortgage.