Background

The X-Files was a 1990s basic cable television show that stars FBI agents Fox Mulder and
Dana Scully as they investigate the X-Files, strange incidents that traditional forensics and
investigation failed to adequately explain, such as dead bodies with no apparent cause of death,
paranormal incidents, etc. The overarching storyline features an impending large-scale alien
invasion and a series of conspiracies connected to it, such as the Syndicate, a group of human
collaborators who were helping the aliens in exchange for favorable treatment once the invasion
started. The show had 9 seasons and one feature-length film during its initial run, followed by
another movie in 2008 and a 6-episode TV-event that just recently aired. The primary
antagonist throughout the series is known as the Cigarette Smoking Man (hereafter CSM), a
mysterious figure with no definite name, occupation and about whom very little is known for the
majority of the series, and what little is known is tentative at best, the most important piece being
that he played a major role in the Syndicate.
Characters
Fox Spooky Mulder One of the two main characters, Fox Mulder is an FBI special agent
with exceptional skills in criminal profiling. He is very much a believer (as opposed to a
skeptic), and has at least passing if not thorough familiarity with every conspiracy theory, urban
legend and folk tale known to man. He is the driving force behind the X Files, which are all but
abandoned by the rest of the FBI. His primary motivation is the investigation into the
disappearance of his sister, which he believes was an alien abduction.
Dana Scully- The other of the two main characters, Dana Scully graduated from medical school,
but chose to pursue a career in the FBI rather than practice medicine. She was assigned to work
with Mulder to provide a scientific analysis of Mulders work, and its implied that those who
assigned her were hoping she would debunk the X Files so they could shut him down.
The Cigarette Smoking Man- The main antagonist, most of his identity and background and
name are a mystery. He always wears the same conservative suit, has a conservative hair-cut, so
the only remarkable feature to name him by is the fact that he is virtually always smoking. He is
implied to have been involved in the Kennedy assassination.
Observation 1
The observations are labeled according to their time in minutes and seconds into the episode,
based on being viewed via Netflix (so no commercials).
The X-Files
Season 1, Episode 1 Pilot
0:00 Inspired by Documented Accounts
The show opens to a classic scene of a frightened girl running through the woods from
something off-screen. She soon falls and is set upon by a shadowy figure, then the screen is filled
with a blinding white light.

1:43
We cut to a police investigation, focused on the dead body of the aforementioned girl. There is
no discernible cause of death or apparent trauma. One of the officers seems to know something,
but remains suspiciously silent.
2:25
We cut to an FBI office, where we are introduced to one of the main characters Agent Dana
Scully, a licensed MD who chose to pursue law enforcement rather than to practice medicine. At
her meeting she is assigned to work with the other main character Agent Fox Mulder, where her
stated job is to use her expertise to comment on the scientific validity of the cases Mulder works
on, referred to as the X-files, for which many consider him to be a conspiracy nut. During this
meeting we get the first glimpse of the CSM.
5:30
Scully meets Mulder in his office. His office is isolated from the others, and has a darker, more
dingy appearance. The room is filled with pictures and posters pertaining to things ranging from
flying saucers the occult to monsters and general conspiracy junk.
6:30
The dead girl from before is brought up as a potential X file, and during their conversation its
established that Mulder believes there is extraterrestrial intelligent life, while Scully does not,
establishing their relationship as the believer and the skeptic.
9:30
The girl is the latest of 4 dead people in the area. While driving to the area some form of
interference effects the car, and Mulder gets out and draws a chalk X on the ground, then gets
back in the car with no explanation.
11:53
Upon attempting to exhume the dead girl, the agents are accosted by the county medical
examiner (hereafter ME).
14:24
The casket contains a hideous deformed corpse which, while definitely humanoid, does not look
like a human corpse. Its taken to the local autopsy lab where its revealed to be mammalian, but
does not appear human. Scully posits some kind of monkey, Mulder posits alien. A strange metal
object is found in the nasal cavity.
17:25
The agents visit a local psych ward where a patient who claimed responsibility for 2 of the
deaths is being treated. He couldnt substantiate his claim of guilt, and is currently comatose, and

supposedly had been for 4 years (Billy). Mulder sees strange markings on a patient next to Billy
that are identical to some found on the dead girl.
19:39
Mulder believes the patient to be an abductee, Scully is highly skeptical. The agents investigate
the area where the dead girl was found, but are stopped at gunpoint by the officer mentioned
earlier, who demands that they leave. Scully obtained some ashes from the area, and suggests
possible cult activity being covered up by the officer.
24:20
While driving back theres a blinding white light. The car shit down completely, even the clock.
Mulder claims that they lost time (his watch jumped ahead 9 minutes). Mulder notices this
occurred less than 10 feet from where hed drawn the chalk X earlier, and cries out in triumph.
The car turns back on by itself.
26:00
Theres a power outage at the Hotel the agents are at. Scully finds similar marks on her back, but
Mulder claims theyre merely mosquito bites. Mulder then confides in Scully the story of his
sisters abduction, where she was taken by aliens when they were young and he had been
powerless, literally paralyzed to do anything, and it drove him to where he is today. A hooded
figure is shown outside. They receive a call claiming that the girl from the psych ward is dead.
30:00
They arrive at the scene where shed been hit by a semi-truck. Mulder then receives word that
the autopsy lab had been trashed, and they discover that their hotel had been set on fire,
destroying all their evidence. A girl approaches them from the crowd requesting their protection.
Shes revealed to be the MEs daughter, and she claims that there is a pattern to the deaths, that
the ME and the sheriffs department are involved, and that shes in danger. The ME shows up
and takes her away, and the officer is revealed to be the father of Billy. Scully suspects Billy as
the murderer.
35:00
The graves of the other victims are found empty, recently dug up.
37:00
The agents visit Billy, who is still comatose. Despite the coma, Scully finds ashes on his bare feet
identical to those she found in the woods. The agents return to the woods to collect an ash sample
to confirm, where Scully is attacked by Billys father, who holds Mulder at gunpoint. The camera
cuts to Billy and the MEs daughter in the woods, whore surrounded by a vortex of dust and
leaves. Another blinding light appears, then suddenly Billy and the girl are fine. The girl has
suddenly lost the marking that were on her back.
42:00

Billy is being questioned by the FBI while the CSM watches. Billy claims alien abduction, that
his actions were performed on their orders, and that he had been experimented on.
44:30
Scully submits her report to the men she met with in the beginning of the episode, whore
disappointed that she did not discredit Mulder, despite the fact that she lacked any hard evidence.
She then presents the metal object found in the corpse earlier, and states that their lab couldnt
identify the metal it was made from.
47:00
The CSM is shown taking the object and storing it in a box of similar objects, all of which are
then stored in a massive cache of evidence inside the Pentagon. The episode ends here.
Observation 2
X-files
Season 2, Episode 14 Die Hand die Verletzt
0:00
Open to meeting of teachers discussing boring crap. Teachers all seem stuck up and conservative,
debating whether Jesus Christ Superstar is appropriate for the children at their school. Teachers
begin to pray, but not to any mainstream deity: they are praying to a Prince of Darkness. Title
Sequence
3:00
Teenagers exploring in the woods. Clich suburbanites doing some satanic ritual trying to
impress their dates. Something is lurking in the background. Girl runs off, spontaneous fire in the
forest, some dude starts getting choked by an invisible force, cut to Scully reviewing his corpse,
his eyes and heart cut out. Local officer suspects the kid was a devil-worshipper. Scully
skeptical. Officer clearly incompetent. The officer suspects that heavy metal music had some
influence. Mulder concedes that the scene did look oddly ceremonial. Toads seem to fall from the
sky.
8:00
Cut to library, Scully claims that the animals were likely picked up by a strong storm. Cut to
classroom. The kids from the ceremony are there, they all look freaked out. When Mulder and
Scully appear, he tries to make a run for it. One of the satanic teachers was in the room. Mulder
and Scully question the kid. Kid claims that he had no idea the ritual would work, had no
intention for the other guy (Jerry Stevens) to die. Elsewhere, the satanic teachers are discussing
that the kid was offered to Azazel according to a ritual, and that one of them must have done it.
Scully and Mulder make no arrest due to lack of evidence. The teachers accuse the kids of being
occult worshippers. Scully refutes this with the results of FBI studies from the 80s which found
no existence of satanic cults in America.

12:36
Devil-teacher pulls the girls from the ceremony aside, tries to convince them to confide in her.
The camera shows the dead kids heart and eyes in her desk drawer, suggesting that she is
responsible. Mulder talks to the school counselor. Scully finds Nazi paper from 1934 describing
similar dead body, accusing the Jew of such behavior.
15:30
Students beginning pig dissection. Girl hallucinates that her pig is still alive, despite vivisection,
proceeds to freak out. Runs away from counselor and agents. While talking to the agents, she
tells them that her mom was a teacher at the school, and that her real dad ran away. Her mom
remarried one of the devil-teachers. She claim that when she was 4, the devil-teacher molested
her. She describes the teachers performing occult rituals while her mom was away, that they
would impregnate her and her sister, then kill the babies, and that they murdered her sister. She
claims she had 3 babies all of which are buried in her basement.
21:30
Agents go to the girls house. Father claims that someone influenced the girl to say those things,
that theyre not true. Mother claims marital problems, that the girl might be making stuff up for
attention, that Shannon had never been pregnant. She did have another child who is now dead,
but died long before the girl described as an infant. Mulder questions devil-dad, devil-dad denies,
gets outraged, accuses agents of planting those thoughts, and kicks them out of the house.
24:30
Devil-teacher who killed Jerry is questioning the girl, then lets her reattempt the dissection. She
performs some weird ritual, causing the girl to slit her wrists.
25:30
Agents investigating the lab where the girl died, devil-teacher feigns ignorance. Mulder finds the
locket belonging to the girl that the teacher used in her ritual. The devil-teachers convene, devildad asks if anyone was responsible for the death of his daughter. They suspect the girl killed
Jerry and herself out of jealousy. (Note: The devil-teacher responsible is not part of this group
and was not present at their meeting in the beginning or any other, suggesting they dont know
about her, hereafter she is murder-teacher, or MT)
28:00
Agents question MT, she continues to feign ignorance. Scully smells incense. Scully finds it odd
that she is subbing for a guy who has been sick only twice in 15 years, yet the morning of Jerrys
murder developed necrotizing fasciitis. Both agree she is suspicious.
29:00
Mulder investigates a basement at night. Its the house of the girl. Devil-dad catches him in the
act. Devil-dad confides in Mulder that he is not Christian, believing Christianity to be a

hypocrisy. He continues to ramble, hints at the fact that he is a satanic cult member, but is
speaking out because his group had the audacity to accuse his daughter. MT is performing a
ritual. Devil-dad admits the girl (Shannon) was involved in the rituals, but nothing sexual and no
physical harm, and that their memories had been hypnotically repressed. MT ritual continues, she
dials Mulder, imitating Scully perfectly, claiming she is in trouble at the school. Mulder cuffs
devil dad to a pipe and drives off after Scully. The basement door opens on its own, and a huge
snake slithers down the stairs. The python chokes devil-dad to death, then swallows him whole.
37:00
Mulder reaches the school, Scully is clearly okay. Agents return to the house of devil-dad, only
handcuffs and a bloody torso skeleton remain where devil-dad was. Mulder finds python skin,
Scully recalls that there was a python in MTs lab. Devil-teachers reconvene, and are obviously
afraid. Agents arrive at the school during the meeting. Agents find MT collapsed on the floor, she
attempts to frame the other devil-teachers for everything.
41:45
Scully finds human eye in a jar. Devil-teachers ambush agents, subdue them and tie them up in
the gym. Devil-teachers begin a ritual sacrifice. MT is performing another ritual. One of the
devil-teachers shoots the other two off-screen, then himself. Agents recover, return to where MT
was collapsed. Shes gone, and on the chalkboard was written Goodbye. Its been nice working
with you. The lights turn on. Camera pans out, cut to credits.
Artifacts
Mulders Office: From its isolated location to the personal items that litter the inside (such as
UFO posters, conspiracy rags, and cryptid and Alien photos) it all is a direct reflection of Mulder
and informs the viewer a great deal about his character before he ever opens his mouth.
The CSMs cigarette(s): One of the primary antagonists of the show, the CSMs nicotine
addiction is virtually the only unique and consistent external characteristic of this character for
roughly the first 6 of the 9 seasons (and even after, the only one that isnt up for speculation). No
name, no clear occupation or job title, just his non-descript suit, his cigarettes, and his
conservative grey hair. Plus, despite what decades of anti-smoking rhetoric and propaganda may
want to tell us: it makes him look really, really cool.
Interview answers
1) Favorite episode?
A: The one with the mutant hillbillies (Season 4, Episode 2 Home)
2) Most important character?
A: Mulder. You could get rid of any other character and the show would still work. Plus
hes hot.
3) Opinion of the ending? (of season 9)
A: (paraphrasing here, lots of rambling) It was weird. Mulder got a court-martial despite
not being in any branch of the military, and it was a show-trial for no audience (the end of
season 9 had Mulder captured by alien co-conspirators after hed infiltrated a military

facility, where he learned the full scale alien invasion would commence in December
2012. He was given a court martial staffed by his FBI superiors, military personnel, and
known alien co-conspirators and government officials who had basically been bodysnatched. Mulder presents all his evidence and accusations of the invasion and the
conspiracy, summarizing the entire series to the court-martial, and ends on a cliff-hangar).
I feel like they had outpaced themselves in terms on long-term plot, and were going
through the motions by this point (by season 9 David Duchovny had almost no
involvement in the show due to contract disputes, and the shows writing and ratings
suffered for it.)
4) Favorite Monster of the Week?
A: The stretchy guy who ate livers (Eugene Victor Tooms, appears in S1E3 Squeeze
and S1E21 Tooms)
5) Are you watching the current season/mini-series/revival?
A: No, I dont have cable and its not on Netflix

Observation 3
X-Files Season 1 Episode 3 Tooms
0:00 Accountant is being watched by guy from gutter. Guy works late in secure room. Small vent
opens from inside. Accountant killed off-screen, and the vent is resealed from inside the duct.
4:00 The FBI are baffled, so an old friend of Scully from Quantico (FBI academy) asks for her
help with the case. The case involves three murders with no discernable pattern except for the
lack of a point of entry and the victims livers were harvested by hand. If he does well at this case,
its suggested it will greatly advance his career, but he acts very territorial at the suggestion of
Mulders involvement.
8:00 Mulder finds finger a warped finger print. Mulder matches the MO to ten murders
committed from the 1930s and the 1960s, and predicts that there will be two more murders that
year, and if they dont find him the one responsible will escape for a few more decades before
striking again. Mulder believes the same individual is responsible for all the murders. Scully is
skeptical due to the fact that this would make the culprit ridiculously old, incapable of physically
overpowering a victim.
12:50 Scully completes a serial killer profile, believes that the man suffers from OCD which
causes him to want to rip out livers. She believes that should he find difficulty finding new
victims, he will return to older murder sites, and that they should begin staking out said sites.
15:00 Agents find Tooms crawling in a ventilation duct and capture him. Hes working as a
janitor.
18:00 Tooms undergoes polygraph test, where he fails a question asking if he was alive around
time of the older murders. Mulder and Scully are unable to convince the others of his
involvement, believing him to be a public servant simply doing his job. Scullys friend gets
pissed, and Tooms is released.

20:00 Mulder matches Tooms prints to prints from the older murders.
23:00 Tooms kills again by stretching himself (a la Mr Fantastic from Fantastic 4) through a
narrow chimney.
24:00 Agents arrive at new scene, Scullys friend gets pissed and tries to block Mulder, but
Scully gives a thinly veiled threat to file a report against him for obstructing an authorized agent
from investigating.
27:00 Mulder finds guy who investigated the old murders, gets the evidence he collected.
31:00 Agents find Tooms lair in an old apartment complex. Tooms is spying on the agents from
above, and pickpockets a necklace from Scully.
38:00 Tooms stalks Scully and attacks her in her home from an air vent. Mulder and Scully
restrain him by cuffing him to a pipe.
41:00 Tooms is locked up, but a shot of him focused on him staring at the slot his food comes in
implies he might escape (spoiler: he totally does).

Analysis
The X-Files can be thought of as a Paranormal Procedural. It incorporates many of the rules
and dynamics of the police procedural, such as the partner dynamic, the partner banter, etc.
Episodes fall into two categories: the myth-arc, which cover the impending alien invasion and
conspiracy across all 9 seasons as well as the first movie, and Monster of the Week (hereafter
MOTW). MOTW episodes can never have lasting impact on the whole series and must be
resolved or abandoned within two episodes. Scully, Mulder and the CSM can be injured,
captured and maimed but never killed (see: plot armor). Mulder will always propose a ridiculous
conspiracy theory which is usually accurate, which Scully will always reject with skepticism
even in the face of overwhelming evidence (such as her own alien abduction). In non-arc
episodes the agents will never end up with hard evidence. Episodes will always occur, or at least
begin on US soil or US territory in order for the agents to have jurisdiction as members of the
FBI. Arc episodes are always serious and contribute to the overall suspense and mystery, but
MOTW episodes can be humorous to the point of farce, notably S3E20 Jose Chungs From
Outer Space. If hard evidence is ever obtained, it will be stolen or destroyed within 2 episodes,
if not the very same. Episodes will usually draw from urban legends and conspiracy theories, but
are not limited to the US. Mulder is familiar with absolutely every conspiracy theory ever,
always.
Interesting ideas:
The conspiracy theories that feed the episodes are very interesting, particularly the foreign ones.
Its even more interesting when they are tied into real life incidents. For example: Project
MKULTRA, the Kennedy Assassination (the show suggests that CSM was responsible), the
moon landings, etc. I dont buy into any of them (except MKULTRA, thats been declassified

and well documented as true. Dosing US troops with LSD without their knowledge or consent,
ESP research, fun stuff like that. See: Men Who Stare at Goats), but they are highly entertaining,
and can be a window into other cultures. I think it would be interesting to look into them further,
such as ones they havent covered, and ones that have developed in the shows absence.
Chart
Conspiracy Theories
American conspiracy theories
Paranormal conspiracy theories
Conspiracy theories and television
Search conspiracy theories and television
Source: Roswell and conspiracy theories (npr.org) access at
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1039200

Search American conspiracy theories

Source: Suspicious? In 'United States Of Paranoia,' It's Not Just You (npr.org) access at
http://www.npr.org/2013/09/07/219718597/suspicious-in-united-states-of-paranoia-its-not-justyou
Source: Conspiracy Theories Find A Home on the Internet (npr.org) access at
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5629332
Search paranormal conspiracy theories
Source: Mulder And Scully On Why The World Is Ready For An 'X-Files' Reboot (npr.org)
access at
http://www.npr.org/2016/01/23/463726029/mulder-and-scully-on-why-the-world-is-readyfor-an-x-files-reboot
Proposal
I propose to search in detail into the underlying myths and conspiracy theories that serve as the
source material for the show. I then wish to identify prominent examples that the show has not
covered, if there are any, and to cover any which have developed since the show went off the air
(the shows original run ended in May 2002, and had not adjusted to critical events such as 9/11,
the Patriot Act, etc. and predated the war in Iraq, Blackwater and other PMCs, the Arab Spring,
the formation of Anonymous, etc.). I then intend to develop a study to gain further information
on contemporary reactions to various conspiracies.