The X-Files/Characters

This is a summary page for the characters from The X-Files. -

Agent Fox Mulder


Formerly a renowned profiler, he became something of a joke at the Bureau when he started to pursue an obscure side project known only as the "X files", but he soon drew attention from more sinister quarters... - "Scully: They could drop you in the middle of a desert and tell you the truth is out there, and you'd ask them for a shovel."
 * Abducted Little Sister
 * Agent Mulder: Trope Namer
 * Ambiguously Jewish: On more than one occasion, antisemites accuse him of looking Jewish; Mulder always refuses to answer. (What we know about his family background makes it somewhat unlikely that he actually is.)
 * Never, however.
 * Badass Bookworm
 * Bunny Ears Lawyer: The FBI tolerates his obsession with the paranormal because he's a very, very, very good forensic psychologist.
 * The Cassandra
 * Conspiracy Theorist
 * Deadpan Snarker
 * Determinator
 * Determinator

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 * Dude in Distress
 * Embarrassing First Name: See Last-Name Basis.
 * Fair Cop
 * Fingertip Drug Analysis: His favorite investigative technique.
 * Guilt Complex
 * Gut Feeling: His success as an investigator often comes from bizarre leaps of intuition that usually turn out to be correct. Frequently verges on Bat Deduction.
 * In-Series Nickname: "Spooky."
 * Knight in Sour Armor
 * Last-Name Basis: "I even made my parents call me Mulder," although that seems to be just something he tells Scully.
 * Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: Emotional, intuitive, and not especially good in a fistfight or a shootout.
 * Men Don't Cry: Averted on a pretty regular basis.
 * Mr. Fanservice: Unusually for an American show not particularly aimed at a female audience, he spends more time not fully clothed than Scully does.
 * Nerds Are Sexy
 * Occult Detective
 * Photographic Memory: Mentioned only once, but it does generally seem like he has a very good and very visually-oriented memory.
 * Porn Stash
 * The Profiler
 * Put on a Bus: Well, a spaceship for a while, and afterward he was on the run.
 * Saw Star Wars 27 Times: Confesses to having sat through Plan 9 from Outer Space 42 times. He claims that the sheer badness of the film numbs his brain, allowing him to make intuitive leaps and solve problems that have him stumped.
 * Seeker Archetype
 * Single-Issue Psychology: The childhood trauma of his sister's abduction has defined much of his adult life.
 * Survivor Guilt: David Duchovny invoked this word-for-word to describe Mulder's reaction to said abduction.
 * Tall, Dark and Snarky
 * Trademark Favorite Food: Sunflower seeds, although it's largely forgotten after the first season or two.
 * Troubled but Cute
 * What the Hell, Hero?: He got this several times in the first four seasons ("Paper Hearts" is perhaps the best example), mostly from Scully and sometimes Skinner. After that he managed to get a better grip on his issues.

Agent Dana Scully


A forensic pathologist with a background in physics, she was assigned to work with Mulder ostensibly in order to use her scientific knowledge debunk his work; however, she was less predictable than the conspiracy had hoped. - -
 * Action Girl
 * Adrenaline Makeover: At the beginning of the show she's painfully serious and strait-laced, and seems to have terrible fashion sense. By the end she's still reserved, but has loosened up quite a bit and is dressing a lot better as well.
 * Agent Scully: Trope Namer
 * All Girls Want Bad Boys: Has an amazing talent for picking guys who turn out to be messed up in the head and often outright psycho. is probably the most stable person she's ever been with, and that's saying a lot.
 * Arbitrary Skepticism
 * Badass Bookworm
 * Badass Labcoat
 * Bad Liar: It's not that the lies she comes up with are ridiculous, she's just so naturally honest that her discomfort is very obvious whenever she tries to lie.
 * Bokukko: In the Japanese dub.
 * Chew Toy: Scully has a tendency to get beaten up quite a bit.
 * The Chosen One: It's implied in many of the religiously-themed episodes that God has some sort of special task in mind for her, although exactly what she's called to do is never made clear.
 * Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: Mulder isn't quite a Cloudcuckoolander in the usual sense (though he comes across that way to lots of people in-universe), but Scully has the traditional role of stopping him from doing stupid reckless things, putting together the actual evidence to support his weird leaps of intuition, explaining and defending his crazy ideas to other people, etc.
 * Combat Stilettos: She wears heels nearly all the time, no matter how much running and shooting she expects to need to do. Of course, when you're a five foot two FBI agent every inch probably helps.
 * Deadpan Snarker: So deadpan it's easy to miss entirely.
 * Damsel in Distress: Unusually, though, she and Mulder trade off the Distress Ball about equally.
 * Don't You Dare Pity Me!: The more upset she is, the more emphatically she insists that she's fine.
 * Electra Complex: Self-diagnosed in "Never Again."
 * Fair Cop
 * Fascinating Eyebrow
 * Fiery Redhead: Nearly inverted. It's true you don't want to get her really mad, but most of the time she hardly shows emotion at all; she rarely so much as smiles, especially in the early seasons.
 * Hot Chick in a Badass Suit
 * Hot Scientist
 * Immortality: There are a few odd references to the idea that Scully will never die scattered across multiple episodes, most notably "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose" and "Tithonus".
 * Improbable Aiming Skills
 * Informed Self Diagnosis: Being a doctor, she tends to do this when she's sick or injured, most obviously in the first movie.
 * Last-Name Basis
 * Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: Logical, reserved, unemotional, and a much better shot than Mulder.
 * Military Brat: Her father was in the Navy, as is her elder brother.
 * Ms. Fanservice: Averted. FOX was reluctant to cast Gillian Anderson as a lead, saying they wanted someone who'd look better in a swimsuit. Chris Carter informed them that Scully would not be wearing any swimsuits.
 * Nerds Are Sexy
 * Occult Detective
 * Omnidisciplinary Scientist
 * Raised Catholic: Her Catholicism becomes less nominal in later seasons as she comes to terms with her faith.
 * Scully Syndrome: Trope Namer
 * The Stoic
 * With several Not So Stoic moments, especially as the series goes on and she becomes more comfortable expressing her emotions around Mulder.
 * Sugar and Ice Girl: A combination Type 1/Type 2. Few people besides Mulder ever get to see the "sugar" side.
 * Surgeons Can Do Autopsies If They Want: Ironically it's autopsies that are her main specialty, but that doesn't stop her from being fully versed in any other field of medicine that's necessary for the plot.
 * Violently Protective Girlfriend
 * "Well Done, Daughter" Girl
 * Violently Protective Girlfriend
 * "Well Done, Daughter" Girl

Assistant Director Walter Skinner
Mulder and Scully's direct superior for most of the series, his motives were initially doubtful but he later became a staunch, if irritable, ally.

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 * Bait and Switch Tyrant
 * Bald of Awesome
 * Benevolent Boss
 * Da Chief
 * Deadpan Snarker
 * Last-Name Basis
 * Minored in Asskicking
 * Reasonable Authority Figure
 * Shell-Shocked Veteran: It's implied that his experiences in Vietnam seriously damaged him.

Agent Alex Krycek
Assigned to work with Mulder when the X-Files were closed in Season 2. He was eventually revealed as a double agent and reappeared throughout the series in various shades of villainy. - -
 * Chew Toy: For a triple-crossing assassin, he sure does get beat up a lot. Mostly by Mulder.
 * Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Trying to figure out whose side he's on at any given time is a good way to give yourself a headache.
 * Consummate Liar: It's best to not trust a word the man says. Krycek might not even be his real name.
 * Double Agent
 * Fan Nickname: Ratboy, in affectionate tribute to his habit of trying to betray everyone at once.
 * Gratuitous Russian: He mostly uses it to swear at people.
 * Hazy Feel Turn: It's always pretty clear that he's not a good guy, but he constantly switches between different bad guy factions, and his interests occasionally even coincide with those of Mulder and Scully, resulting in brief Enemy Mine situations.
 * Hell-Bent for Leather: Usually wears a leather jacket, though thanks to the beatings he often takes, it's rarely the same one from episode to episode.
 * The Mole: When he's introduced, although it doesn't last long before his cover's blown.
 * Obfuscating Incompetence: Pay attention to his episodes and you'll realize he actually gets away with a lot more than he appears to. A perfect example would be "Tunguska", where
 * Russian Guy Suffers Most: His parents were Cold War immigrants. (If he was being honest for once when he said that. He is fluent in Russian, though.)
 * The Starscream
 * Turncoat
 * Wild Card
 * The Starscream
 * Turncoat
 * Wild Card

Agent Diana Fowley
Mulder's ex-lover and former partner. With Agent Jeffery Spender, replaces Mulder and Scully on the X-Files when they get reassigned in season 6. - -
 * Birds of a Feather: She suggests to Mulder that maybe instead of Scully he'd prefer a partner who was more open-minded toward the paranormal...like herself.
 * Foil: For Scully.
 * : Scully suspects she's working for the conspiracy pretty early on; Mulder still considers her a friend and believes in her.
 * New Old Flame: for Mulder.
 * Psycho Ex-Girlfriend: The psycho part is not obvious until "The Sixth Extinction," where she visits Mulder, who's confined in a psychiatric hospital and being Mind Raped by psychic influence from an alien artifact, and makes a speech that can be summed up as "I've always loved you, Fox, and now that you're in five-point restraints we can finally be together."
 * Romantic False Lead: Seemed to exist mainly for the purpose of teasing the fans and making Scully jealous. (Mulder gave little sign of still having anything but platonic feelings toward her, however, although she was clearly carrying a torch for him.)
 * Psycho Ex-Girlfriend: The psycho part is not obvious until "The Sixth Extinction," where she visits Mulder, who's confined in a psychiatric hospital and being Mind Raped by psychic influence from an alien artifact, and makes a speech that can be summed up as "I've always loved you, Fox, and now that you're in five-point restraints we can finally be together."
 * Romantic False Lead: Seemed to exist mainly for the purpose of teasing the fans and making Scully jealous. (Mulder gave little sign of still having anything but platonic feelings toward her, however, although she was clearly carrying a torch for him.)
 * Romantic False Lead: Seemed to exist mainly for the purpose of teasing the fans and making Scully jealous. (Mulder gave little sign of still having anything but platonic feelings toward her, however, although she was clearly carrying a torch for him.)

Agent Jeffrey Spender
Assigned to the X-Files as Agent Fowley's partner when they replace Mulder and Scully on the X-Files at the beginning of season 6. . - "Spender: I'll be my own great man!"
 * Always Second Best: informed him he's just not as cool as Mulder.
 * Foil: For Mulder.
 * I Just Want to Be Badass
 * Foil: For Mulder.
 * I Just Want to Be Badass

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 * Jerkass:
 * "Well Done, Son" Guy
 * "Well Done, Son" Guy
 * "Well Done, Son" Guy
 * "Well Done, Son" Guy
 * "Well Done, Son" Guy

Agent John Doggett
Assigned to the X-Files as Scully's new partner following Mulder's disappearance at the beginning of season 8. - -
 * Arbitrary Skepticism: Worse than Scully.
 * By-The-Book Cop
 * Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Not mentioned at all in the second movie, even when Scully's looking for someone at the FBI who can help her.
 * Dark and Troubled Past: His dead son.
 * Hey, It's That Guy!: T-1000.
 * Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: His thick Brooklyn accent comes and goes. (Robert Patrick's from Georgia.)
 * Playing Against Type: His actor is usually cast as a villain.
 * Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: The Manly Man as compared to Mulder's Sensitive Guy. This was one of the ways the writers tried to make sure he didn't come across as a Suspiciously Similar Substitute.
 * UST: Hinted to be with Reyes in the later episodes of season 9.

Agent Monica Reyes
Appears in a few episodes of season 8, then joins the X-Files as Doggett's new partner at the beginning of season 9. - -
 * Brainy Brunette
 * Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Not mentioned at all in the second movie, even when Scully's looking for someone at the FBI who can help her.
 * Cloudcuckoolander: She's, um...quirky is putting it charitably.
 * Genki Girl: By the standards of this show, anyway. She's by far the most cheerful of the major characters.
 * Happily Adopted: One of the reasons she speaks fluent Spanish, which comes in handy from time to time.
 * If Jesus, Then Aliens: One of the points that distinguishes her belief in the paranormal from Mulder's is that she believes in the spiritual, New Agey stuff as well as the aliens and pseudoscience.
 * Lighter and Softer: See Genki Girl.
 * Smoking Is Cool
 * UST: Hinted to be with Doggett in the later episodes of season 9.

The Lone Gunmen


An unlikely trio of conspiracy theorists who publish an underground newsletter called The Magic Bullet. Old friends of Mulder's, they occasionally show up to help out Mulder and Scully, usually by doing research (as well as providing comic relief).

Late in the show's run, the Gunmen received their own short-lived spinoff series. - -
 * Chivalrous Pervert: Frohike.
 * Conspiracy Theorists
 * Dirty Old Man: Frohike again, though he's a very likeable and sympathetic example of the trope.
 * Ditzy Genius: All of them, to some extent.
 * Geeks
 * Hacker Cave: Their headquarters/home.
 * Heterosexual Life Partners: All three of them.
 * Hollywood Hacking
 * Information Wants to Be Free: Their basic motivation for going into underground journalism.
 * Nerds: All three, but especially Langly.
 * Ragtag Bunch of Misfits
 * Sharp-Dressed Man: Byers never wears anything less than a suit and tie, although he has no real need to look respectable.
 * The Smart Guy: All of them.
 * Wide-Eyed Idealist: Byers, especially in their Whole-Episode Flashback.

Scully Family
Pop up once in a while to fret over and get caught up in her increasingly peculiar job. - -
 * Big Brother Instinct: Bill Jr. Not quite a Knight Templar Big Brother, but he is kind of a dick to Mulder in the name of protecting his sister.
 * The Captain: William Scully, Sr.
 * Cool Big Sis: Melissa.
 * Disappeared Dad: Not permanently or anything, but he was away at sea a lot, being in the Navy.
 * The Dutiful Son: Bill Jr.
 * Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: The family seems to have seen the girls this way. Dana was the responsible one.
 * Granola Girl: Melissa.
 * He Who Must Not Be Seen: Younger brother Charlie is referred to, but only ever seen in flashback.
 * Military Brat: All the Scully kids.
 * Team Mom: Maggie Scully seems to like Mulder too, though this is massively over-egged in fanfic.
 * Tomboy and Girly Girl: Dana and Melissa, respectively.

Mulder Family
Troubled and fraught, with mysterious connections to the conspiracy. - -
 * Abusive Parents: Mulder's dad is implied to have become somewhat emotionally abusive after Samantha's abduction tore the family apart.
 * Abducted Little Sister
 * Chekhov MIA: Samantha Mulder.
 * Dysfunctional Family: To say the least.
 * Hollywood New England: They're from Martha's Vineyard.
 * Mysterious Parent: Mulder knew nothing about his father's work until after he died.
 * Mysterious Parent: Mulder knew nothing about his father's work until after he died.

The Syndicate
A mysterious and sinister group who essentially rule the world from behind the scenes. They're determined to conceal the existence of extraterrestrial life from humanity by any means necessary, but their motivation and ultimate goals remain unclear for much of the series.

Despite the name, not actually an example of The Syndicate. The term is actually rarely used on the show, so you'll often see fans referring to them as "the Consortium" or just "the Conspiracy." - -
 * The Adjectival Man: Members are listed in the show's credits as "Black-Haired Man," "Crew Cut Man," and the like.
 * Big Bad
 * Bond Villain Stupidity: Suggestions to assassinate Mulder are constantly overruled by various members who are manipulating him for their own purposes.
 * Cosmopolitan Council: Averted. Practically inverted. If you're not an older, upper-class English-speaking white male, you need not apply.
 * Cryptic Conversation
 * Government Conspiracy
 * Hidden Agenda Villains
 * The Man: as well as...
 * The Man Behind the Man
 * The Men in Black: They're the ones who employ them.
 * NGO Superpower: They're considerably more powerful than any mere government.
 * No Name Given: Only a few members' names are ever mentioned, and those names may not be real.
 * Ominous Mundanity: Most of their titles, as well as the names they give their projects ("Area 51," "Purity Control," etc.)
 * Omniscient Council of Vagueness
 * Politically Incorrect Villains: See the entry for Cosmopolitan Council above. And while they take Mulder somewhat seriously as a threat to their plans, they seem incapable of taking notice of Scully as anything other than Mulder's Berserk Button.
 * Powers That Be
 * Surveillance as the Plot Demands: Just assume they're spying on everything all the time.
 * Powers That Be
 * Surveillance as the Plot Demands: Just assume they're spying on everything all the time.

Cigarette-Smoking Man


The closest thing the show has to a main villain, a constantly chain-smoking older man who likes to skulk around being ominous. He's clearly associated with the grand government conspiracy Mulder and Scully are trying to uncover, but little is known about what he's really up to for quite a while. - "CSM: Men can never be free, because they are weak, corrupt, worthless and restless."
 * The Adjectival Man
 * Anti-Villain: Sometimes. Sort of.
 * The Atoner: He claims to be one in "En Ami." Ultimately it's implied that
 * Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: He's responsible for the assassination of at least one democratically elected world leader, the abduction, medical rape and torture of hundreds or thousands of individuals, and making sure the Buffalo Bills never win a Superbowl. Supposedly.
 * Ascended Extra: Was originally intended to be just a mysterious figure holding a cigarette. Fortunately the actor was able to rise to the occasion when his role expanded.
 * Big Bad:
 * The Chessmaster
 * Fan Nickname: Cancer Man. (Mulder and Scully each called him that exactly once, but the fans picked it up and ran with it.)
 * Faux Affably Evil: He tries to pass himself off as Affably Evil, telling both Mulder and Scully that he likes them on more than one occasion. They never buy it.
 * For the Evulz: Frequently shields Mulder from assassination by his colleagues. In the last episode, he admits he spared Mulder just so he could see him crushed totally.
 * It's up for debate, however, whether this was actually his intent from the start or a case of Motive Decay due to Seasonal Rot.
 * Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: Evil, obviously.
 * He Who Must Not Be Heard: Appeared in the very first episode, but had no dialogue for much of the first season.
 * Hidden Agenda Villain
 * Hidden Depths: He'd probably give it all up to be a writer, if he could get published.
 * Joker Immunity:.
 * Knight Templar
 * Misanthrope Supreme
 * Misanthrope Supreme
 * Misanthrope Supreme

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 * Vader Breath
 * Who Shot JFK?: He did, apparently. Martin Luther King, Jr. as well.
 * Who Shot JFK?: He did, apparently. Martin Luther King, Jr. as well.

Well-Manicured Man
A British gentleman who's one of the less overtly malevolent members of the conspiracy. His Code Name is never actually used in the show, but appears in the end credits (as with several other Syndicate members). - -
 * The Adjectival Man
 * Aristocrats Are Evil: His accent and the glimpse of what seems to be his family home in the first movie vaguely suggest an aristocratic background.
 * British Accents
 * Affably Evil
 * Hey, It's That Guy!: Baron Munchausen!

Deep Throat
Mulder's first informant. - -
 * : He's the first of many.
 * The Atoner
 * Code Name
 * Cool Old Guy
 * The Mole
 * Mysterious Informant
 * The Watcher
 * The Watcher

X
Mulder's second informant, colder and less friendly than Deep Throat. - -
 * Badass
 * Bat Signal: Mulder summons him by making an X out of masking tape on his window and shining a light through it (hence the Code Name).
 * Couldn't Find a Pen
 * Mysterious Informant
 * Scary Black Man
 * Took a Level in Jerkass: In certain later episodes, he's much meaner to Mulder and Scully than he was at first. He's still on their side, he just occasionally acts like a dick.

Marita Covarrubias
Mulder's third informant. Her day job is Special Representative to the Secretary General of the United Nations, but she also has ties to the Syndicate. -
 * Femme Fatale
 * Mysterious Informant
 * Mysterious Informant
 * Mysterious Informant

Luther Lee Boggs
A murderer on death row who claimed to be a psychic and claimed that he could help Mulder and Scully in catching a serial killer. Appeared in "Beyond the Sea". - -
 * Gunman with Three Names
 * Large Ham
 * Phony Psychic: Surprisingly, that's how Mulder saw him.
 * Serial Killer
 * The Sociopath

Donald Pfaster
A necrophiliac fetishist who devolved into serial killing. Appeared in "Irresistible" and "Orison". - -
 * Creepy Monotone
 * Fetish
 * He's Back: In season 7.
 * I Have You Now, My Pretty
 * I Love the Dead
 * Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane
 * Serial Killer
 * The Sociopath
 * That One Case: For Scully.
 * They Look Just Like Everyone Else
 * They Look Just Like Everyone Else

Clyde Bruckman
An insurance salesman who possessed the ability to tell when a person would die. Appeared in "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose". - "Scully: All right. So how do I die? Bruckman:"
 * Blessed with Suck
 * Deadpan Snarker
 * Death Seeker
 * Wham! Line
 * Wham! Line

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Robert Patrick Modell
A serial killer who would drive his victims to suicide by manipulating their minds. Appeared in "Pusher" and "Kitsunegari". - -
 * Compelling Voice
 * Even Evil Has Loved Ones: In "Kitsunegari" it is revealed that
 * Gratuitous Japanese: He defined his feud with Mulder kitsunegari, which means "fox hunt".
 * Gunman with Three Names
 * Manipulative Bastard
 * Ronin: He considers himself as one, making various references to Japanese culture.

Alfred Fellig
An immortal photographer who pursued people who were going to die so he could be finally taken by Death. Appeared in "Tithonus". -
 * The Ageless: Unlike the legendary Tithonus, he stopped aging when he looked in his sixties.
 * Be Careful What You Wish For: He believes that people who wish to live forever are fools.
 * Blessed with Suck
 * Camera Fiend
 * Complete Immortality: The only way he can die is to watch into Death's eyes.
 * Creepy Monotone
 * Creepy Old Man
 * Death Seeker
 * Driven to Suicide: He tried in various ways (gas, pills, jumping from bridges), but it never worked.
 * Healing Factor: He gets stabbed but his wounds regenerate quickly.
 * Immortality: He managed to escape Death during an epidemy of yellow fever. At the end of the episode, he probably passed this condition to
 * Older Than They Look
 * Who Wants to Live Forever?