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]

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 beenseparated. 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 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].






Copyright James White 2004