The X-Files/Characters

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


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


F.B.I.

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.

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.

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.

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.

  • An Arm and a Leg: Gets his left arm sawed off.
  • 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.
  • Handicapped Badass: After he loses an arm.
  • 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.
  • Not Quite Dead: On several occasions.
  • 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 he was the one who hired the Russian assassin who (temporarily) royally screwed up the Syndicate's plans.
  • 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

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. He wouldn't.
  • Death of the Hypotenuse: Her ultimate fate.
  • Foil: For Scully.
  • Heel Face Turn: At the end of the sixth season, she betrays the Cigarette-Smoking Man, giving Scully a book that can save Mulder.
  • The Mole: Scully suspects she's working for the conspiracy pretty early on; Mulder still considers her a friend and believes in her. They're both right.
  • 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."
  • Redemption Equals Death
  • 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. Mulder's half-brother, fathered by the Cigarette Smoking Man.

Spender: I'll be my own great man!

Agent John Doggett

Assigned to the X-Files as Scully's new partner following Mulder's disappearance at the beginning of season 8.

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.


Others

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.

Scully Family

Pop up once in a while to fret over and get caught up in her increasingly peculiar job.

Mulder Family

Troubled and fraught, with mysterious connections to the conspiracy.


The Conspiracy

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."

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.

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).

Deep Throat

Mulder's first informant.

X

Mulder's second informant, colder and less friendly than Deep Throat.

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.


Notable cases

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".

Donald Pfaster

A necrophiliac fetishist who devolved into serial killing. Appeared in "Irresistible" and "Orison".

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: You don't.

Robert Patrick Modell

A serial killer who would drive his victims to suicide by manipulating their minds. Appeared in "Pusher" and "Kitsunegari".

Alfred Fellig

An immortal photographer who pursued people who were going to die so he could be finally taken by Death. Appeared in "Tithonus".

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