The X Files - an Overview and History
The Beginning
A long journey toward finding the truth began back in 1993 when Agent Dana Scully was assigned to work with Agent Fox Mulder at the FBI. Mulder had been relegated to a basement office due to his unflinching pursuit of cases that were dismissed by others as unsolvable. These cases were filed under X as there were already too many cases under U and X had plenty of room to spare. Mulder had lost his sister to what he believed was alien abduction when he was just twelve years old. The mystery of his sister's disappearance haunted him and drove him to investigate The X Files in the hopes of finding an answer as to where she was or had been taken to. The FBI decided that Mulder's work needed to be validated and so assigned Scully to, they hoped, debunk Mulder's work. This of course backfired as Scully and Mulder became loyal friends and most of the time Mulder's more unorthodox theories proved to be true.
The Opposition - Enemies of Mulder and Scully
In pursuing the mysteries of The X Files, Mulder and Scully often came close to uncovering conspiracies and secret alliances who were in contact with extra-terrestrials. As such they became targets for those people who wished to remain hidden and for the truth to stay buried. Cigarette Smoking Man or Cancer Man was the main background bad guy thwarting Mulder and Scully along the way. He was there when Scully was being assigned to The X Files and he was there at the end when the truth was finally revealed, in fact he himself revealed it. Mulder and Scully later learned his real name, which was C.S.G. Spender. He had a large role to play in the deal the Syndicate made with the alien colonists. He gave his wife Cassandra Spender to the doctors to create an alien-human hybrid. Many people had tried to kill Cancer Man but it finally took a rocket launched from a helicopter to finally kill him, or did it...you never know with Cancer Man...
After Scully was abducted at Skyland Mountain, Mulder was assigned a new partner named Alex Krycek. He proved to be an annoying and persistent enemy of Mulder and Scully. At first he was in league with Cancer Man and tried to stop Mulder finding Scully anyway he could. He was there when Louis Cardinal killed Scully's sister Melissa, thinking it was Scully. Cancer Man later tried to have Krycek assassinated but he copped it before the car bomb exploded and escaped. Krycek then decided to go into business for himself, selling US state secrets to the highest bidder. Krycek's parents were Russian and he went to Russia under the guise of helping them develop the vaccine against the black oil. Mulder had gone to Tunguska and he and Krycek were captured and imprisoned before Krycek could get the vaccine. After Krycek escaped he was found by a group of locals hiding in the woods near the prison where they were developing the black oil. These people had cut their left arms off to prevent being tested on, as the testers were using the small pox scare as part of the experimental methods. They "helped" Krycek by cutting his arm off too. Krycek was killed by Assistant Director Skinner. He shot Krycek as he was threatening Scully's baby and more satisfyingly because Krycek was the one who infected Skinner with nanites in an attempt to compromise his loyalty to Mulder. Nanites are tiny tiny robots that can be used to rebuild tissue or in this case to damage tissue and kill Skinner. By threatening to make the nanites kill him, Krycek was trying to make Skinner betray Mulder and Scully. Before he died Krycek had told Scully and Mulder that their baby was very special and that the bad guys wanted to kill the baby. Krycek said the baby was not part alien but was superhuman and a miracle.
Mulder and Scully had faced many enemies, both human and non-human over the years. Thankfully they managed to defeat or out smart them and escaped them all in the end to end up on the run.
The Allies - Friends of Mulder and Scully
The agents had many people to help and support them along the way. Some sacrificed their lives in order to help them.
The Lone Gunmen came together at a conference in 1989, Langly and Frohike were both hackers and Byers was an employee of the government but left and teamed up with the other two when he realised just what the government was capable of. They wrote and published a magazine called The Lone Gunman. This was a paper covering conspiracy theories and paranormal issues. They helped Mulder with background information, covert operations and even looked after William for a while when Scully was afraid for his safety. These brave men gave up their lives to prevent the release of a biological weapon that would have killed hundreds of thousands of people.
When they were first assigned to work under ADA Walter Skinner, Mulder and Scully were unsure if they could trust them. The case for Skinner wasn't helped by the presence of Cancer Man at several of Skinners meeting with one or both of the agents. However, over time they came to rely on and trust Skinner and he became a powerful ally and friend. Even when he had been compromised by Krycek he still did his best to help them, removing himself from cases where he felt his compromised position would hurt them.
As with all conspiracies and those who seek to expose them, Mulder was helped by inside men. The first of these was Deep Throat, he gave Mulder essential information on many cases and Mulder believed him trustworthy, even when Scully doubted him. Deep Throat was killed because he had become compromised and he died with Scully by his side, his dying words to her were "trust no one". After Deep Throat died a second informant made himself known to Mulder, he was known as Mr. X or simply X, possibly due to the fact that Mulder would put an X on his window with masking tape when he wanted to contact him. He wasn't as willing to put himself in danger as Deep Throat and in fact refused to help Mulder on a number of occasions. He was killed in a trap to flush out the leak the Syndicate had become aware of. They gave false information to see who would go to Mulder with it and X was shot at Mulder's apartment, he left the letters SRSG in his own blood at Mulder's door. Using this clue Mulder was lead to the Special Reprsentative to the Secretary General at the UN. Here he was met by Marita Covarubius. Like her predecessors she aided Mulder with information. She survived being used by the Syndicate in their experiments to develop a vaccine for the black oil.
Cancer Man's son Jeffrey Spender was an FBI agent. He and Mulder's ex-girlfriend Diana Fowley ended up in charge of The X Files after Mulder and Scully were re-assigned. Jeffrey didn't believe at all in paranormal phenomenon. He wasn't aware that Cancer Man was his father until after he was on The X Files. Cancer Man tried to groom him to be like him but he ultimately failed because Jeffrey just wasn't evil like him. So he shot him in the face and it appeared that Jeffrey was dead. Cancer Man had also implied that he was Mulder's father and Jeffrey was his brother. While Mulder was in hiding and Scully had William a man with a mutilated face turned up and he gave baby William an injection of an unknown substance, which made him fully human. At first Scully thought this man was Mulder but when she ran a DNA test if turned out to be Jeffrey Spender, he had survived the gunshot to his face. Mulder and Diana Fowley were seeing each other when Mulder opened The X Files, she helped Mulder investigate cases of ESP, she then left to work in Europe but returned and worked with Jeffrey Spender on The X Files. Diana was working with Cancer Man in what seemed like a misguided attempt to gain inside knowledge, she was murdered after she helped Mulder escape from Cancer Man.
Mulder disappeared after he went to Oregon to investigate reports of alien abductees being taken again after seven years. This was the same place Mulder and Scully investigated their first case together. While there Mulder was also abducted. Skinner was in the woods with him at the time and was distraught to have to tell Scully the news. In order to find Mulder, the FBI set up a task force to conduct a search for him. Special Agent John Doggett was the head of that investigation. Scully and Skinner were very suspicious of Doggett for a long time until he proved he could be trusted. Doggett became Scully's rock while she dealt with being without Mulder and being pursued because of her miracle pregnancy. She was suffering and Doggett's strength helped her. After a few months Mulder was returned but he died shortly afterwards, or so it seemed. However, when other abductees had been returned apparently dead but later came back to life, Mulder was exhumed and came back to life himself. Agent Monica Reyes joined The X Files toward the end of Scully's pregnancy. She had known Doggett a few years before when she investigate the disappearance of Doggett's son Luke. Luke was later found murdered, he was only eight years old when he died. Reyes had studied subjects in the area of the paranormal and relied a lot upon her instincts and intuition. She was a good friend to Scully at the end of her pregnancy and was with Scully when she gave birth. After William was born Agents Reyes and Doggett were assigned to The X Files while Scully left to lecture at the FBI academy at Quantico. Mulder went into hiding at this time as many enemies were pursuing him.
The Alien Virus - Aliens Among Us
The black oil was developed as a means to infect people with the alien virus. The virus was also transmitted through pollen and then to bees. When the bees stung people they became infected and an alien started to grow inside them. It used up all the body's resources, killing the person they had taken over. The alien then burst out of the shell that was left of the body they had incubated in. This alien came out looking rather nasty, all slimy and with big claws. It then developed into the better known grey aliens. It does this by finding a warm place to hide and then shedding its skin, finally developing into the grey aliens.
The End
At the end of The X Files we see Mulder and Scully go on the run together. Scully had given William up for adoption by this time. She did this as she believed it was the safest thing for her baby. At the end of season 9 we see Mulder go on trial for the murder of Knowle Rohr. However, he can't be dead as he is an alien replicant, a carbon copy of a person that is indestructible. During the trial the whole truth of the last nine years is revealed and the date for the planned alien colonisation of earth is known. The aliens will begin the colonisation of Earth in 2012. Mulder and Scully go on the run because Mulder had been found guilty and sentenced to die. She, Skinner and Doggett broke Mulder out of gaol with help from A.D. Kersch. A.D. Kersch had taken over from A.D. Skinner after Mulder's disappearance after Skinner had been reassigned from his position of being in charge of The X Files. In the final ever episode of The X Files in the last scene we see the hotel room scene of the Pilot episode mirrored. Scully is lying on the bed while Mulder sits on the floor beside it as they talk. However at the very end they lie in each others arms on the bed and so ends their nine years together on the show.
The Next Chapter
Six years after Mulder and Scully were last seen, they are once again back to investigate an X file. Muler and Scully had built a home together since we last saw them, with Mulder living in isolation at this home, once again spending his time gathering newspaper clippings of strange phenomenon stories. Scully has returned to her original training as a doctor and is working in a Catholic hospital, Our Lady of Sorrows.
Scully is contacted by the FBI at her job in the hospital. At first she plays dumb as to where Mulder is. The FBI want her to bring Mulder in on the case of an FBI agent and several other women who has gone missing and a priest who claims he is having visions of what happened to her. They offer Mulder full pardon of the murder charges still against him. Naturally Mulder is sceptical and believes it is a trap but he agrees after Scully persuades him.
They are brought to question this priest, named Father Joseph Fitzgerald Crissman. Mulder and the FBI agents are willing to hear him out but Scully is disgusted by the fact that he is a convicted paedophile. She has no time for him and his visions. Fr. Joe believes God is sending him the visions. They all travelled to the house of the missing FBI Agent, Monica Banan. While at her house Fr Joe recounts flashes of her attack as he sees it in his visions. While having his visions Fr Joe collapses in the snow with blood streaming from his eyes.