A Blog

mulder as a prophet, scully as an apostle/mother mary

first is the obvious: mulder is a prophet-like figure trying to find and spread the truth sacrificing his career, reputation and personal life while fighting against shadowy, corrupt forces. his whole life is defined by an absolute, unwavering faith in the unseen ("i want to believe"), sparked by a foundational trauma/revelation (samantha's disappearance) that functions like a divine calling

meanwhile, scully often fills the role of his disciple/apostle as she consistently stands by him and defends him through public scrutiny and persecution by the fbi, the syndicate, etc. when mulder goes missing, she is the one teaching agent doggett and passing down mulder's "gospel", showing him how to navigate the x files, and basically acting as the apostle training a new disciple to keep the work alive

scully is also explicitly catholic and always wears her cross as a physical symbol of her faith. most obviously, she heavily mirrors the virgin mary through her 3 "miraculous conceptions" (emily, william and her yet unborn child)

aliens and religion

also very interesting how in the sixth extinction (in s7) they find alien ships inscribed with the writings of every major world religion, suggesting that (within the show's mythology) aliens may be the origin of humanity's religious traditions. if aliens are the root of all religion, then mulder's search for extraterrestrial life is elevated and can actually be seen as an analogy for understanding divine truth itself; he's chasing the literal origin of humanity's idea of god and spirituality

mulder's resurrections

there are also repeated death-and-resurrection motifs surrounding mulder. he effectively "dies" 3 times throughout the series (in one sense or another) and is "resurrected":

the first and most heavy-handed christ parallel happens in anasazi/the blessing way (in s2/s3) when after being in a boxcar that is firebombed mulder is in an in-between state of life and death and is brought back by a navajo ritual led by albert hosteen. he is canonically 33 years old (the exact age jesus was at his crucifixion) and his symbolic resurrection takes place over 3 days (again exactly like jesus). albert hosteen also says that the exact moment when mulder was granted his miracle of coming back to life a white buffalo was born on the northern plains which is a powerful omen amongst several native american nations signifying great changes coming to the world

the second time comes in deadalive (s8) where mulder is returned from his abduction in a state so close to death that he is thought to actually be dead and is consequently buried. after 3 months he's brought back to life and is canonically 39 years old when this happens. very similar to the first resurrection, with the recurring symbolism of the number 3 (9 = 3 × 3) and the christ analogy continues with the death, entombment and rebirth

the third death is not actually mulder's per se but has heavy symbolism relating to him: in my struggle iv (s11) william takes on mulder's appearance to trick csm into shooting him in the head before the reveal that he has actually survived. so although not actually mulder, in a symbolic sense william "dies" in his image while inheriting mulder's christ imagery through the death and resurrection

amor fati and temptation

honorable mention to amor fati (s7) where the jesus symbolism isn't even subtle anymore. mulder is literally strapped to a cross-shaped operating table with a metal headpiece mimicking a crown of thorns while csm harvests his brain tissue and genetic material to steal his immunity. this is like a screwed up, inverted eucharist where the devil (csm) literally consumes the body of the messiah to gain immortality

the entire episode is actually a direct homage to the last temptation of christ, with csm playing satan, tempting mulder with a hallucinated vision of a normal, quiet life where he gets to age (with diana fowley of all people) and die peacefully while the world burns outside. the title amor fati ("love of fate") directly echoes jesus in the garden of gethsemane accepting his "cup of suffering" before his crucifixion: mulder has to actively reject the comfortable illusion and choose his destiny to save humanity. to top it off, scully is the one (guided by the spirit of albert hosteen) to reach mulder telepathically like a prayer and pull him out of the temptation

william as christ/antichrist

william actually also has a lot of very heavy jesus symbolism, beginning obviously with his miraculous conception. the whole series is vague about this but it is clear that he was somehow scientifically engineered with alien dna and did not have a normal/natural conception. his birth also notably has really strong parallels with jesus' birth: when scully goes into labour she gives birth in an isolated, rustic location that strongly echoes the stable in bethlehem where mary gave birth. alien super soldiers become the first witnesses to his birth, which feels reminiscent of the shepherds in the fields arriving to witness the birth of christ. meanwhile, mulder says he tracked scully and a newborn william by following a mysterious, brilliant light that appears in the sky which mimics the star of bethlehem that guided travellers to the birthplace of jesus. lastly, byers, langly and frohike visit a newborn william together, acting as the 3 wise men, bearing witness and bringing gifts to the "miraculous child"

also throughout s9, multiple factions compete for custody of william because they believe his existence carries prophetic significance. this again directly mirrors the nativity story, where christ's birth immediately attracts both devoted worshippers and people like king herod desperate to kill him

interesting though that while mulder is originally thought to be william's father (paralleling him to god), we get the reveal that csm (arguably paralleling the devil) is his actual father, or at the very least the one who scientifically engineered william's conception. this maybe hints that william is not supposed to be seen as a true saviour but instead maybe an antichrist figure disguising himself as a christ figure (e.g. believed to be mulder's child, taking on mulder's appearance during his supposed resurrection, etc), especially considering how manipulative and morally ambiguous he becomes as a teenager

the new pregnancy

finally at the end of s11 (in my struggle iv), scully reveals she's once again pregnant with yet another miraculous conception and mulder is the implied father. if william ultimately isn't the promised saviour he was originally thought to be, then perhaps the series is trying to transfer that symbolism onto this new child. with the baby implied to genuinely be mulder and scully's and therefore the child of the god/christ figure and the mary figure respectively, this baby could actually be the true messiah

that also makes the title card salvator mundi ("saviour of the world") at the beginning of the episode really interesting because it could arguably refer to 3 different people at once: it could refer to mulder himself (whose future actions might still save humanity), or it could refer to william seeing as he literally saves mulder's life (thereby saving the saviour), or it could refer to the unborn child as the new messianic figure