18 X-Files Character Biographies: Fox Mulder
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This article is from the uk.media.tv.sf.x-files FAQ, by Paul Tang paul@asfafa.demon.co.uk with numerous contributions by others.
18 X-Files Character Biographies: Fox Mulder
Agent Fox William Mulder, an Oxford-trained psychologist with a
photographic memory, is one of the FBI Violent Crimes division's best
agents, although he is in disfavor with not only his superiors but also
his colleagues because of his interest in the Bureau's X files. He
stumbled upon these files, dealing with unexplained phenomena, during
his first three years with the Bureau, as a crack analyst in the
Bureau's behavioral sciences department. [Chris Carter, _Starlog #201_,
April 1994]
His fascination with the paranormal stems from a childhood incident
-- his sister Samantha disappeared from their home in Chilmark,
Mass.(pop. 650) when he was 12 and she was 8. Mulder claims she was
abducted by aliens; during regressions he recalled hearing his sister's
cries for help, and a bright light which kept him paralyzed and told him
that his sister would be all right. [Conduit] This memory differs from a
dream Mulder experienced one night [Little Green Men]. Mulder has come
in contact with an alien hybrid who claimed to be Samantha and an alien
bounty hunter who told him that his sister was alive. He has vowed to
continue his search for her [Colony/End Game].
Mulder's early meteoric rise at the Bureau enabled him to make
high-placed friends in Congress -- one of them being SETI proponent and
influential senator Richard Matheson [Little Green Men]. These contacts
had kept him from retribution from higher-ups, although they assigned
him a partner, with the tacit idea of discrediting what he does so that
he can be dismissed. However, Mulder picked up a somewhat vacillating
ally in a mysterious covert individual known as Deep Throat. [Deep
Throat, Fallen Angel, Eve, Young at Heart, E.B.E., Erlenmeyer Flask].
Deep Throat was killed by an equally mysterious covert opponent
(Crew Cut Man) during an attempt to rescue Mulder. Mulder confirmed his
burial at Arlington "through eight-power binoculars from a thousand
yards away." [Little Green Men]. But he has acquired a second "deep
information" associate, someone who is referred to as X. [Sleepless]
This mysterious man has been less helpful to Mulder than his dead
colleague. Mulder has also been told by an unknown individual that he
has "a friend in the FBI" [The Host]. This friend has now been
identified to be Assistant Director Skinner [Paper Clip].
At the end of Season 1, the X Files division was shut down and
Mulder was reassigned to wiretap surveillance [Little Green Men, The
Host]. He also reluctantly acquired a new partner, Special Agent Alex
Krycek [Sleepless, Duane Barry, Ascension], a younger agent who
purported to be a believer, not only in Mulder's ideas but in Mulder
himself. Mulder's days in this mind-numbing duty were numbered, however.
Assistant Director Skinner obliquely acknowledged that the X Files
department served a valuable purpose in dealing successfully with the
Bureau's oddball cases [The Host] and was bringing to light information
that other covert parties would prefer to keep buried [Ascension].
Following the disappearance of Mulder's former partner Dana Scully,
Skinner officially reopened the X Files [Ascension].
At the end of Season 2, Mulder came into possession of a Defense
Department classified, Navajo-coded electronic document that purported
to be the records of events surrounding a covert government operation
from 50 years ago. Opponents tried to discredit him by adulterating his
drinking water with a substance making him progressively violent. His
father, who was somehow connected to the operation, was murdered, with
Mulder as the prime suspect. Going into hiding with Scully, Mulder ended
up in New Mexico investigating evidence that proved the validity of the
secret document. He was found out by Cigarette Smoking Man, who
attempted to kill him. [Anasazi] (The disk of information is now in
CSM's hands [Apocrypha].)
Mulder recovered through the intervention of the Navajo and
returned to the East Coast to peruse his dead father's effects, finding
a mysterious 1970s photo of an interesting group of men. [The Blessing
Way] Returning to D.C. he met up with Scully and received help from the
Lone Gunmen and one of the photographed men to discover the secret
location of the files concerning the covert operation: medical records
and tissue samples from children vaccinated in the 50s and 60s,
including Scully's.On the run from their opponents, they received help
from Skinner, who negotiated a truce with Cigarette Smoking Man for the
agents' reinstatement and relative safety. [Paper Clip]
At the end of season 3, in the search for another group of alien
clones, Mulder recovered a weapon said to be the only device able to
kill the clones, and faces again a morphing alien who supposedly
destroyed clones of his sister who were living on earth.
Mulder is known around the Bureau by the nickname of "Spooky"
[Pilot, Young at Heart] both because of his uncanny ability to process
information and leap ahead to logical conclusions, and because of his
interest in paranormal phenomena. "He is considered a loose cannon, a
person who is maybe wasting time and money, and also his expertise, on
an area the Bureau thinks has very little value." [Carter, Starlog] Due
to an incident on one of his first Bureau assignments (a fellow agent
was killed) [Young at Heart], he eschews following investigations "by
the book," opting instead for his own instincts and methods. He keeps
notes for his field reports in a handwritten journal [Born Again]. His
favorite alias is George Hale [Little Green Men; Sleepless}.
We believe Mulder doesn't "have a life," as we have seen little of
his off-duty activities. However, some of this may stem from a
relationship he had at Oxford ten years ago with a woman who is now with
Scotland Yard (Phoebe Green [Fire]). He apparently was in love with her
but she not with him. With the dissolution of the X Files division,
however, Mulder may have been trying to revive his social life; an
answering machine message berated him for missing a lunch date [Little
Green Men].
Mulder's birthdate is Oct. 13, 1961 [Paper Clip]. His parents
appear to have been separated. His father, Bill, worked in an unknown
capacity for the State Department, and was murdered by Krycek before
telling Mulder about secrets in his past. [Anasazi] Mulder's mother
confirmed that Samantha had been kidnapped to insure her father's
silence about his covert activities. [Paper Clip]
He has a fear of fire [Fire], which may have been conquered during
his rescue of the children of British MP Sir Malcolm Marsden (who also
happened to be Phoebe's latest fling). He is also a fan of the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). [Space] He has a habit of
eating shelled sunflower seeds (a habit he shares with his father
[Aubrey]), and making droll comments which X-Philes have come to note as
"Mulderisms."
Mulder is red-and-green colorblind [Wetwired], enjoys wearing
moderately wild ties to work, and seems to be a New York Knicks fan
[Beyond the Sea, Little Green Men] as well as a Washington Redskins fan
[Irresistible]. He appears to have a fondness for classic rock [minor
references, Beyond the Sea, Gender Bender] and classic science fiction
movies [Tooms, Erlenmeyer Flask], and iced tea seems to be his
nonalcoholic beverage of choice [Tooms]. He also keeps himself
physically fit by running [Pilot, Deep Throat, Humbug] and swimming
[Duane Barry].
There are suggestions that Mulder has an interest in pornography --
in "Jersey Devil," we see Mulder looking at the centerfold of some
"men's magazine" talking about how the woman claims she was abducted by
aliens; in another episode Scully remarks that she hadn't seen Mulder
that excited since she caught him going through the Adult Video News; a
third episode mentions a subscription to Celebrity Skin, he appears to
be viewing a porno video in a fourth [3], and he makes comments about a
video he purchased (not a porno video) in a fifth [Nisei]. As a
psychologist, he favors using hypnotic regression as a psychological
healing tool, and hates the unnecessary use of medication [Born Again].
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