The X Files: Mulder and Skinner - I want to believe

Hi, hm, this is the first thread I’ve started so far, so I hope I’m not making any mistakes.

Anyway, I recently bought the Collectors Edition of The X Files (all nine seasons and the movie) and started reliving childhood memories. I watched and watched and slowly I started to think, wow, Mulder and Skinner really have a lot of chemistry. They look good together, I wonder whether other people think so too and if there are any stories about them on the net.

I forgot about it again until I finally went and looked for slash fiction. And yes, there it was a whole archive dedicated not only to Mulder and Skinner but to all X Files characters (it’s The Basement). Anyway, at first I was just curious. I read a few stories and watched episodes looking for subtext and I found a lot.

(This really is going to be a long post, so if you want to skip it, here’s what I want you to know in short: Mulder and Skinner make a wonderful couple and the subtext and evidence is there!)

The more episodes I watched and the more I saw the two of them interact with each other the more interested (and obsessed) I became in the pairing. I looked for forums but couldn’t find any, I mean the show ended a couple of years ago when I didn’t even know what slash was. (Thanks to CSI and Nick and Greg I’m a firm believer now!) So, no forums and only me to make up my own mind … So I started to look for post eps and found some really good stories on my search for the truth. Really good stuff and now I’m kinda obsessed with that pairing (Nick and Greg are still my OTP though).

I just finished S8 today, I plan on starting S9 (never saw it on TV since I stopped watching after S6 – don’t really know why anymore) some time this week. Now, I know there won’t be much of Mulder in S9 at least that’s what the DVD booklet says, but I’m looking forward to some kind of reaction from Skinner.

Since I’m not sure how much reaction this thread will get I just let all of you, who were brave enough to read through my ramblings, know why I think the two of them are an item or why they should be an item.


Well, I don’t really remember the episode where I first thought they’d be great together but I remember thinking that the way Mulder acted around Skinner was really “odd”. I mean the man is his boss, he’s the Assistant Director, and even if Mulder has a problem with authorities, he just acted really casual (sorry for the lack of right words, I’m not a native speaker) around him. He told him off, he screamed at him, he accused him, he hit him, need I go on? And all the while Skinner was never really as pissed off with him as he should have been. I mean we’re talking about a subordinate here who regularly disobeys him. No, Skinner seems to find excuses for him – especially in later episodes when Mulder and Scully know that they can trust him.

Probably the first episode I knew there was something more going on between the two of them was Avatar (S3: Skinner was accused of murdering a woman he spend the night with). No one really believed that he did it but only Mulder knew for sure he didn’t kill her, he never even entertained the possibility that he could have done it. Then Skinner opened up to him, told him about his death experience in Vietnam. From Skinner’s wife we know for sure that he never opened up to her, that he never trusted her that much, as he trusted Mulder in this episode.
The next big step in their relationship (be it love or friendship) was Zero-Sum (S4: Again Skinner is being framed with murder). The events in this episode were vital to their relationship. Mulder finally trusted Skinner for good. He was so angry with him, he thought he’d betrayed him (which he did) and yet, he still found the strength to believe in him regardless of the facts. Plus, Skinner sacrificed himself to get a cure for Scully so Mulder wouldn’t have to do it. Can you say love?

In Redux II Skinner went to the hospital to see Scully and found Mulder waiting around her room. Just the interaction between them there and then …

There are many more episode that I don’t recall right now but as I said before their interaction is full of subtext at least to me.

Another episode I need to mention though is Triangle (S6: Bermuda Triangle). Skinner as a nazi who saved Mulder’s life by saying he might be important to them? Why would Mulder imagine Skinner as someone who’d save him? OK, yes, I know he trusts him and all but still. I was so happy when I saw that! And later on after they came back safely from their trip, and Mulder was in the hospital (you know is there an article before hospital, I never can remember), Skinner brought him FLOWERS! Wow, I still am all excited about that one. Flowers? For a male subordinate? Sure he might only be friendly here but really?

In Biogenesis and The Sixth Extinction Skinner was so concerned about Mulder that he disobeyed orders. And Brand X? Wow I loved that episode (S7 sucked in my opinion and had only a handful of good episodes), don’t really recall why but it was the way the two of them interacted again. I should have really made some notes …

Which brings me right to S8 and the reason I finally decided I had to share my findings with the world. First of all Skinner cried at Scully’s bed because and I quote “I lost him”. That was so moving. This strong man who never showed any emotions not even when his life’s in danger cried because he lost one of his agents. And when he learned that Scully was pregnant, I swear he thought something like “OMG is it Mulder’s?” And the desperation with which he searched for Mulder in S8?

When they found Mulder dead and later on discovered that Billy Miles returned from the dead it was Skinner who ordered Mulder’s exhumation hoping against hope that he would return too. Also when Krycek tried to make him sacrifice Scully’s child for Mulder’s life he did what he thought Mulder would want him to do, he ended Mulder’s misery, saved him from becoming an alien (at least that’s what he thought he did when in reality what he did saved Mulder’s life). Again he risked his life (Krycek still had the palm pilot!) to save Mulder and the people he cared about.

In Alone he looked for the answer to the question he had since the beginning of the season, who’s the father of Scully’s child. He kinda looked relieved when he learned it wasn’t Mulder. In Existence Mulder was at Skinner’s bedside after Billy Miles had injured him.

So, that was a short account of their onscreen relationship (well, more or less onscreen). Now, if there are still people who know The X Files, tell me what you think about the pairing. Is it just my wild imagination, wishful thinking or do you think the way I do?

 

Well we already have a The X Files thread here. So I'm going to lock this one. However feel free to copy and paste what you wrote here into the other thread because it sounds like a good conversation starter which that thread needs.

*locked*