Fox Mulder/Career

Overview

Bio

Career

Abduction

Relationships

Miscellaneous

Credits

Gallery

Education and Early FBI Career

Oxford

After the disappearance of his sister and the divorce of his parents, Mulder attended Oxford University — (Pilot). His tenure there was from 1983 until 1986. — ()

The ten years between his sister's abduction and his enrollment at Oxford University are largely unaccounted for. Mulder's credentials are also unspecific about precisely which program he participated in while at Oxford.

During his time at Oxford University, Mulder watched a documentary about an insane asylum. In one section of the program, a patient named Creighton Jones claimed to have been abducted by "fire demons." The documentary gave Mulder nightmares. — ()

Mulder was probably affected by the "fire demon" documentary due to his fear of fire and because he imagined what might have happened to Samantha if she had been abducted the same way as Creighton Jones claimed to have been.

On August 10, 1985, Mulder submitted a criminal profile of killer Luther Lee Boggs to the FBI. Later, the document helped send Boggs to the North Carolina gas chamber but he received an executive stay. — ()

The script of "Beyond the Sea" characterizes Mulder's profile on Boggs as having been written for the Violent Crimes Bureau.

In "Pilot", Mulder is described as having written a monograph on serial killers and the occult that helped catch a murderer in 1988. Although there is insufficient evidence to establish exactly when Mulder wrote this monograph (prior to 1988), it is likely he wrote it while studying at Oxford, as there is no evidence to suggest he participated in such an intense academic period before the murderer's capture and, in the episode, Mulder's time at Oxford is mentioned directly before and in the same sentence as the description of him having written the monograph. Similarly, Mulder mentions, in "Little Green Men", that he took music appreciation with Professor Ganz, where he learned that the famous composer Johann Sebastian Bach had a genius for polyphony. Like the writing of his monograph, there is not adequate evidence to determine whether Mulder studied music appreciation at college.

Mulder's Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Oxford.

Despite his negative reaction to the fire demons video, Mulder graduated from Oxford University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology. — ()

FBI Training and Early Career

After graduating from university at the top of his class, Mulder studied at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia in 1986 — (Kill Switch). On his first day at the Academy, he learned that every fingerprint is unique — (). Later that year, Mulder graduated with honors. — ()

In 1988, the FBI successfully captured murderer Monty Props with help from a monograph on serial killers and the occult that Mulder had previously written. — (Pilot)

In the same year, Mulder was studying at the Investigative Support Unit, based in Quantico and run by William Patterson, the leading authority on behavioural science, when Mulder quit the unit. As Patterson's student, Mulder had learned that to know an artist, you must first look at his art - a lesson he interpreted as meaning that if you want to catch a monster, you have to become one yourself. — ()

It is unclear when Mulder began his assignment to the ISU, but it may explain the missing two years between his next assignment and his graduation from the FBI Academy that are otherwise unaccounted for.

Also in 1988, Mulder was assigned to the FBI's Violent Crimes Section — (). There, he saw "the worst of humanity" and wondered how the violent suspects and killers he encountered had become evil. Although Mulder realized that there were psychological explanations, that the men were victims of their parents or their environments, the scientific explanations never truly satisfied him and he began to think of evil as a contagious disease that could spread "from man to man or age to age" — (). During this period, Mulder was also witnessed to several graves that had been unearthed — (). His partner was Jerry Lamana, and his supervisor was ASAC Reggie Purdue. — (Young at Heart)

First FBI Case

Mulder in 1989.

Mulder's first case at the FBI as a field agent was in 1989. He investigated a series of armed robberies in Washington, D.C. in which the thief, a criminal named John Barnett, had killed seven people. While working on the case, Mulder was a member of a large task force. He had an unlikely suspicion that Barnett had an inside connection to an employee at the armored car company, who was providing the criminal with information about large shipments of cash. Barnett started sending taunting notes to Mulder as he continued working on the case.

Eventually, the task force had a customs warehouse at an airport staked-out in the hope of capturing Barnett's informer. However, Barnett was actually inside the vehicle himself when it arrived. Sensing that something was wrong, Barnett took the driver of the vehicle - his own accomplice - hostage. The FBI task force surrounded the criminal, ordering him to surrender his hostage and his weapon. Mulder took up a position directly behind Barnett with a clear shot at the criminal, but obeyed FBI regulations that prohibit agents from unnecessarily endangering the life of a hostage. Mulder suspected that Barnett would surrender as he had no means of escape, but the killer shot his hostage at point-blank range and then fired his gun at Agent Steve Wallenberg's face. Although Mulder shot Barnett twice, in the shoulder and hand, he was convinced that he could have saved Agent Wallenberg's life and never forgave himself for the deaths.

Mulder later attended Barnett's trial and presented a testimony in court. He recalled the events of the shoot-out and angrily insulted Barnett while the judge ordered him to step down from the witness stand. After Mulder eventually complied with the instruction, Barnett threatened him, "I'll get you." — ()

The Gunmen Incident

Mulder being exposed to ergotamine-histomine gas in 1989.

In May 1989, Mulder was assigned to conduct a search for Susanne Modeski, who was suspected of murdering four employees at the Army Advanced Weapons Facility at Whitestone, New Mexico. When Mulder found Modeski in a warehouse at 204 Fells Point Road, she was being helped by a group of three unarmed men. Mulder consequently attempted to arrest all four individuals, but was prevented from doing so by two armed men who told Modeski to accompany them, refused to identify themselves to Mulder and eventually opened fire on him. Mulder attempted to hide behind a stack of boxes, but was unaware they contained an ergotamine-histamine gas that could cause anxiety and paranoia in small doses.

The shots from his attackers' weapons released the gas into the air and Mulder was consequently affected, coughing and groaning as his body writhed around on the ground. As his attackers were about to kill him, Susanne Modeski shot the men with a gun of her own before fleeing the scene in Mulder's car. The warehouse was soon sanitized by a group of men led by an individual who, years later, Mulder came to know as X. In his drugged state, Mulder thought the group were actually aliens, having seen, earlier in his search for Modeski, a product display where a recorded voice had repeatedly announced, "They're here. Alien invaders are among us. Detect their presence with high-tech modern products."

Mulder with the Lone Gunmen in 1989.

Nearly immediately after the sanitizing group left the warehouse, a SWAT team found Mulder under a large piece of cardboard that was leaning against a crate. He was nonresponsive to questions and continually repeated the words, "They're here." Mulder had recovered by the next morning but discovered that, although Susanne Modeski was still missing, she was no longer wanted by the FBI and the case had suddenly closed — (). Left with lingering ideas that he characterized as "weird" and able to remember only a little of the night before, Mulder began to consult Modeski's three former accomplices, who he ultimately came to know as The Lone Gunmen". — (First Person Shooter)

Although the Lone Gunmen first appear in Season 1's "E.B.E.", Mulder doesn't mention their collective name until the Season 7 episode "First Person Shooter".

The BSU and "Paper Hearts"

According to Mulder, he worked at the FBI's Behavioral Sciences Unit for three years, profiling serial killers. — ()

The exact dates of Mulder's assignment to the BSU are unknown, although "Travelers" establishes that he was assigned to the unit in November 1990. The "three years" that he mentions in "Tooms" may have been a rough estimate, but he did mention that duration in a court of law.

By 1990, the bodies of ten young girls had been found scattered across the eastern seaboard, the earliest discovered in 1979. The killer had abducted each of his victims from their homes and had a routine of taking cloth heart trophies from each victim, behavior that influenced ViCAP to name the case "paper hearts." Mulder's ASAC, Reggie Purdue, brought him onto the case, believing that Mulder would be able to get inside the killer's head. He concluded that the murderer was probably a salesman, most likely someone who seemed ordinary, could gain people's confidence and traveled around a lot.

The case proved difficult and the killer was extremely hard to catch. Ultimately, however, Mulder's profile was instrumental in the capture of the killer, a vacuum cleaner salesman named John Lee Roche. By the time he was caught, a total of thirteen victims had been found, ranging from eight to ten years of age. Roche admitted he had killed precisely thirteen girls and a polygraph test established that he was telling the truth. However, the cloth hearts that Roche had taken from his victims were never found, a fact that irritated Mulder for the next six years. He always wanted to find the hearts and count them to see if they really added up to thirteen. — ()

Mulder's apartment.

By November 1990, Mulder had moved address to Apartment 42 of 2630 Hegal Place, Alexandria, Virginia .— (Travelers,  )

Mulder's address - Apartment 42, 2630 Hegal Place, Alexandria, Virginia - was first given in "Small Potatoes" and appeared again near the start of "Dreamland II", in an X-file labeled X-71009. "Travelers" establishes that he was living there in 1990. Apartment 42 is a reference to "the Answer to Life, the Universe and Everything," from the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy novels by Douglas Adams.

Work on the X-Files

Finding the X-Files

Mulder in 1990.

Mulder's success at applying behavioural models to criminal cases allowed him a certain freedom to pursue his own interests and he found the X-Files in 1990. — (Pilot, Travelers)

The script of "Conduit" states that the X-file initiated by Mulder that was concerned with his sister's abduction was opened on January 14, 1989. The CD-ROM The X-Files: Unrestricted Access reveals that paperwork showing this date was created for the filming of the episode, but the date cannot be seen clearly in the final version of the episode.

Initially, the files seemed to him like "a garbage dump for UFO sightings, alien abduction reports, the kind of stuff that most people laugh at as being ridiculous." Mulder, however, was fascinated by the files and read hundreds of them, including all the cases he was allowed access to. He read everything he could about paranormal phenomena and the occult. — (Pilot)

He found many X-Files that recorded accounts of alien abductees who had suffered intense radiation burns — (). He also discovered file X-649176 and the first X-file, initiated by J. Edgar Hoover in 1946. Both files contained reports of men who had been able to physically transform into wild animals — (). Another file Mulder saw dated back to 1952 and concerned something that had killed livestock and terrorized people living in Point Pleasant, West Virginia for over a year. After witnesses had described seeing primitive-looking men with red piercing eyes, the culprits had become known as "moth men". — ()

Although the X-Files constituted a project outside the Bureau mainstream, Mulder pursued the files because witnessing his sister's abduction continued to haunt him — (Pilot, The Truth). He was assigned to the cases in 1990. — ()

One of the first X-Files Mulder investigated himself involved a killer named Edward Skur. In November 1990, Mulder met Arthur Dales, a former Special Agent with the FBI who, in 1952, had opened an X-file on Skur labeled X-525652. Dales revealed William Mulder's involvement in experiments that had been conducted involving xenotransplantation. — ()

After joining the FBI in 1991, Diana Fowley, an FBI agent with a background in para-science and Mulder's girlfriend since his graduation from the FBI Academy, helped him investigate a few of the X-Files. While working on the cases, Mulder and Fowley spent some time in psychiatric hospitals where they suspected that some patients serving criminal sentences had been misdiagnosed. Additionally, a few patients showed impressively accurate clairvoyant and telepathic abilities. Mulder learned that Fowley had run brain scans and psych evaluations. After the Berlin Wall was dismantled, Fowley accepted a counter-terrorism legate assignment in Berlin, Europe, simultaneously ending her tenure on the X-Files and her relationship with Mulder. — ()

It is unclear how many and which psychiatric patients Mulder and Fowley felt had been misdiagnosed, whether those patients also showed telepathic abilities and, if so, how many. It is uncertain whether Mulder witnessed the patients exhibit telepathic abilities, only that Diana Fowley did so. It is also unclear if Mulder, having graduated from the FBI Academy before Fowley, showed her how to run brain scans and psych evaluations or if she learned how to conduct those procedures herself; logically, she may have either learned how to perform such tasks prior to investigating the relevant case, which might or might not have involved the psychiatric patients, or during the case. Historically, the dismantling of the Berlin Wall ended in November 1991 but this date has never been established in The X-Files'lore, only that "the Wall came down."

Office and Initial Stint with Scully

Mulder's basement office in the J. Edgar Hoover FBI Building.

By March 1992, Mulder's office was in the basement of the FBI's J. Edgar Hoover FBI Building in Washington, D.C., where the X-Files were also stored — (Pilot). The office had only dusty skylight windows and Mulder had decorated the walls with artifacts related to the paranormal, including a UFO poster proclaiming "I Want to Believe" that he had obtained from a head shop on M Street shortly before March 6. — (Pilot, Chinga)

The origins of the "I Want to Believe" poster are revealed in "Chinga", in which Mulder reveals that he got it "about five years ago." The episode is set in early 1998 but the poster is seen as early as "Pilot", set in early 1992, meaning that he must have obtained the poster six years before. This does not clash with the "about five years ago" statement Mulder makes in "Chinga" because the date he provides is only approximate.

Division Chief Scott Blevins, Mulder's superior, believed he had developed a consuming devotion to the X-Files — (Pilot). As a result, Blevins assigned Special Agent Dana Scully, a medical doctor with a background in hard science, to assist Mulder on the X-files and provide an analytical perspective on the cases, including field reports and observations on the validity of their work — (Pilot, Gethsemane). When Mulder first met Scully, he told her that his memories of the abduction of his sister had marked him so deeply that nothing else mattered. — (Pilot, The Red and the Black)

On their first assignment together, Mulder and his new FBI partner investigated mysterious deaths of high school students in Oregon. Mulder was thrilled to experience several phenomena commonly associated with alien abductions, such as time loss and witnessing an extremely bright light gradually engulf an area he was in — (Pilot). Mulder continued to have many strange experiences during his tenure on the X-files. (The X-Files)

In 1994, Mulder somehow realized that the FBI intended to shut down the X-Files and had a hunch that something was about to change for himself and Scully — (). Shortly thereafter, he was called into FBI Headquarters and was told by Assistant Director Walter Skinner, who had replaced Section Chief Blevins as the agents' superior, that he and Scully would no longer be investigating the X-Files and would instead be assigned to other sections of the FBI. Mulder relayed the news to Scully and vowed that he wouldn't give up. — ()

After the X-Files Closed

Mulder conducting wiretap surveillance as part of his general assignment duties in 1994.

Mulder was tasked with routine general assignment duties following the X-Files' closure, but had several random encounters with the paranormal, including an experience of a possible alien visitation and the discovery of a being that he initially believed to be a "giant bloodsucking worm" — (The Host). Mulder considered leaving the FBI at this point but, soon after, he was temporarily reassigned to the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit, where he returned to his previous assignment as a behavioral profiler — (Blood). Shortly following this reassignment, Mulder was partnered with Special Agent Alex Krycek and worked on two cases with him. — (Ascension)

Continuation of the X-Files

After discovering evidence that Krycek had been complicit in the recent abduction of Agent Scully, the X-Files were reopened and Mulder alone was reassigned to investigate the cases — (Ascension). Mulder later recalled that he had "worked [his] ass off to get the files reopened" — (). Krycek did not return to working for the FBI but Mulder later had many encounters with him — (), et al.) As Scully was found shortly after Mulder investigated a single case alone, he subsequently continued to investigate the X-Files with her. — (3,  )

Mulder remained on the X-Files with Scully for the next four years but fears over the continuation of the files were voiced in 1998 by two of their associates in the FBI, after Mulder suggested that a shooter, whose target had been Gibson Praise, be given immunity from prosecution in exchange for information about Praise. Mulder nevertheless interviewed the shooter, who was killed soon after.

Mulder surveying burn damage to the X-Files office in 1998.

Mulder was soon informed of talks that were being held on the issue of reassignment for himself and Scully that included instructions from the Department of Justice to close down the X-Files. Although Mulder believed that the situation he and Scully now found themselves in had all been planned without his knowledge, Scully told him that it might no longer matter what he believed as the forces against them seemed to have won.

Later, Mulder received news of a fire within his basement office. He and Scully returned to the FBI's Headquarters, where they saw that the office containing the X-Files had been severely incinerated in the fire. All information pertaining to the cases had apparently been destroyed and lost forever. — ()

Aftermath

Mulder attempting to restore an incinerated X-file.

Ironically, Mulder continued to learn more about the aliens and plans for their upcoming colonization of the Earth after the destruction of the X-Files. With Scully, he was initially assigned to investigate a bomb threat under the supervision of SAC Darius Michaud but Mulder and his FBI partner found that the bomb was linked to plans for the colonization after he discovered the bomb and it exploded, killing Michaud. (The X-Files Movie) The X-Files were re-opened shortly thereafter, but with two of Mulder's associates within the FBI assigned to investigate the files, rather than himself and Scully. — (The Beginning). Mulder simultaneously made an attempt to technologically restore the incinerated remains of burnt X-Files, an effort he momentarily continued after he and Scully were placed under the supervision of stern Assistant Director Alex Krycek. — ()

Together with Scully, Mulder was subsequently assigned to investigate possible cases of domestic terrorism. Mulder found these routine checks extremely boring and suspected that their superiors meant to humiliate Scully and himself by assigning them such tedious work — (). He therefore chose to involve himself in several cases outside those he had been assigned to, including a high-speed police chase that had made news headlines and his search for the SS Queen Anne - a ship that had reportedly gone missing in the Bermuda Triangle in 1939. — (Triangle)

In early 1999, Mulder remotely provided information on a case that Scully investigated while she was temporarily partnered with Agent Peyton Ritter. Shortly before this case, Mulder had revealed to Scully that he was not ready to quit the FBI as doing so would "make way too many people way too happy" — (). Soon after, he found that Assistant Director Skinner had been assaulted so, with Scully's assistance, he tried to determine the attacker's identity but the agents were inhibited from continuing their investigation by Skinner himself, who reminded them that they were to perform their duties "as directed by AD Kersh and only AD Kersh". — ()

Subsequently, Mulder again learned more about the aliens and their human conspirators, known as the Syndicate. Both he and Scully were indefinitely suspended by the FBI, though, when Agent Template:Preview/js, one of the agents assigned to the X-Files who was unwittingly working for the Syndicate, found that Mulder and Scully had been using the X-Files office to aid in their inquiries. — ()

Return to the X-Files

After virtually all members of the Syndicate were killed by a rebel group of aliens, Mulder was reassigned to the X-Files with Scully due to a strong recommendation to AD Kersh by Agent Spender, who had realized he had been mistaken in his allegiance. — ()

Mulder was once again assigned to operate under Assistant Director Skinner's guidance, as was Scully — (). The agents returned to the X-Files office and, even though Mulder's "I Want to Believe" poster had burned in the fire, he managed to obtain a new one from one of his on-line correspondents, Karin Berquist, after she died while involved in a case he was investigating. — ().

It was later but during the same stint on the X-Files that Mulder finally learned the truth of his sister's fate. — (Closure)

2016 Re-opening of the X-Files

Mulder and Scully visit the mutations.

In 2016 the X-Files were re-opened when Walter Skinner was contacted by Tad O'Malley with compelling new evidence about an abduction conspiracy. Mulder returned to work for the FBI with agent Scully on the request of Skinner. — ()

Dana reveals her mother's living will--as she understood it--allowed life support to be applied if Maggie's life could be extended by its use. This provision was added after Dana's experience in a coma, but Maggie revoked it and replaced it with a DNR a year before Maggie's coma. Dana wasn't aware of this change. After Maggie was extubated, Dana and Fox sat by her bedside. Charlie called, and when Maggie heard his voice she opened her eyes. Whether this was in response to Charlie is unclear, because Maggie's last words were to Mulder; "My son is named William, too". She then died, and her body was taken away for organ donation harvest. — ()

Mulder's FBI badge

• 1983-1986 Oxford University student
• 1986- FBI Academy student
• 1988-? Violent Crimes Section, partner Special Agent Jerry Lamana, supervisor ASAC Reggie Purdue
• Unspecified 3 years, including 1990- Behavioral Sciences Unit, no partner
• 1990- FBI Special Agent, X-Files unit
• 1991- FBI Special Agent, X-Files unit, partner Agent Diana Fowley
• 1992-1994 FBI Special Agent, X-Files unit, partner Special Agent Dana Scully, supervisor Division Chief Scott Blevins
• 1994- FBI Special Agent, X-Files unit, partner Special Agent Dana Scully, supervisor Assistant Director Walter Skinner
• 1994- FBI General Assignment Agent, supervisor Assistant Director Walter Skinner
• 1994- Behavioral Science Unit, partner Special Agent Dana Scully, supervisor Assistant Director Walter Skinner
• 1994-1998 FBI Special Agent, X-Files unit, partner Special Agent Dana Scully, supervisor Assistant Director Walter Skinner
• 1998- FBI Special Agent, partner Special Agent Dana Scully, supervisor Special Agent-in-Charge Darius Michaud
• 1998-1999- FBI Special Agent, partner Special Agent Dana Scully, supervisor Assistant Director Alex Krycek
• 1999-2000- FBI Special Agent, X-Files unit, partner Special Agent Dana Scully, supervisor Assistant Director Walter Skinner]
• 2001- FBI General Assignment Agent
• 2002- Civilian; leaves FBI
• 2008- FBI consultant on one case
• 2016 to present - FBI Agent, X-Files unit, partner Special Agent Dana Scully