Image via Complex Original
The ‘90s got away with coupling a lot of interesting female leads with some run-of-the-mill, wet blanket, unextraordinary men who deserved neither their time nor affections. Elaine Benes and Jerry Seinfeld, for example. Or Angela and the illiterate burnout Jordan Catalano on My So-Called Life. But of all the pairings of these intriguing women of pop culture and their subpar fuckboys, none hold a candle to the injustice of the relationship between Fox Mulder and Dana Scully.
Mulder and Scully’s long-unsubstantiated love affair began, as we learned in “Trust No 1” of season nine of the original X-Files, after Scully “invited Mulder into [her] bed on one lonely night.” This took place after eight seasons of longing stares, unrequited professions of adoration, and a few alien abductions. But I’d argue that circumstance forced these two together mostly out of a necessity to compartmentalize all the weird supernatural shit that left them with a fair amount of post-traumatic stress disorder and, ultimately, running from the government.
That’s all fine and well—and may true love conquer all or whatever—but Dana Scully still deserves everything and Fox Mulder deserves nothing.
After nine seasons and two feature films, X-Files returns with its six-episode FOX miniseries and begins right where it left off. Mulder is still brooding and hiding from the FBI at a modest gated cabin littered with shady newspaper clippings, and Scully is off saving the world as a surgeon for children with a rare mutation that leaves them without ears. Even after years apart, it’s not difficult to see the two still have a fraught and unresolved longing for each other that’ll definitely play well with the Mulder-Scully stans. But with that in mind, now may be as good a time as any to reflect on those times that Mulder was kind of trash—before we all fall over ourselves for the fully realized forlorn love that this (hopefully) last installment of the cult classic is sure to deliver.
“Nothing Important Happened Today," Season 9, Ep. 1
Time Mulder Was Trash: When Dude Left Scully a Single Mother
For those whose memories are a little fuzzy, this actually happened. Dana and Mulder had a child named William (a possible clone hybrid but that’s a discussion for another time) toward the end of the original series. With the FBI on Mulder's trail during seasons eight and nine, Scully ensured that his safety took priority. While he was in hiding, Scully was left to care for a months-old child all by herself—even while maintaining her commitment to the X-Files. I'm not saying that this was a decision made solely on the part of Mulder (it wasn't), but seriously dude?
This was especially shitty because Mulder abandoned Scully both literally and figuratively. Duchovny left the show for its last two seasons to pursue his moderately successful film career while Anderson held down the franchise. Ergo, this is a meta-betrayal that makes Mulder twice the trash man.
“Pilot," Season 1, Ep. 0
Time Mulder Was Trash: Mansplaining Supernatural Phenomena to a Woman Who Rewrote Einstein
One of the reasons Scully became such a heralded fixture of women in pop culture was her wit and brilliance. A pragmatic woman of science, Scully wrote an undergraduate thesis titled "Einstein's Twin Paradox: A New Interpretation," an exploration time travel, quantum physics, and the multiverse. Upon meeting her for the first time, Mulder was quick to dismiss her impressive undertaking (while admitting he’d read it) and promptly patronized the laws of physics as irrelevant to the nature of the X-Files. He then proceeded to mansplain a bunch of garbage about aliens. While Mulder was always beloved for his position as a believer, Scully would go on to disprove a significant number of his theories over the course of nine seasons because science.
The X-Files: I Want to Believe
Time Mulder Was Trash: When He Dragged Scully to a Cabin in the Middle of Bumfuck Nowhere for…What Exactly?
Remember that time that Mulder dragged Scully to a cabin in the middle of fucking nowhere to brood in solitude while eluding the FBI? All the while Scully continued to practice medicine and returned nightly to a wack job who clipped newspaper columns from sus headlines and pinned them to the walls of a dimly lit office he seldom left. He was a dick throughout and leading up to their eventual departure at the end of the film, which is where we left off and where the new series begins, and Scully did then and will always deserve a better partner in life and crime.
“Terma,” Season 4, Ep. 9
Time Mulder Was Trash: When Scully Had to Lie in a Senate Hearing on His Behalf
With Mulder on the run (again), Scully was forced to lie under oath for his protection, jeopardizing her her career, credibility, and freedom (she was forced to sit in jail for that for a while, too). Mulder had his redeeming moments, sure. But provided the number of sacrifices made on Scully's part to ensure his safety and in the broader scope of the show, the scales were always tipped too heavily in his favor.
"Squeeze," Season 1, Ep. 2
Time Mulder Was Trash: When He Made a Mockery of Her Subsequent Career
While we’re on the topic, Scully faced ridicule and professional dismissal following her continued involvement with the X-Files and with Mulder in particular. In one episode from the first season that set the tone for the rest of the series, a former colleague from the academy warned her of Mulder’s reputation within the bureau and offered her a way out in exchange for her help on a case. This was the first time that we got the feeling that something was off about Mulder, and it was also one of the first times that Scully displayed an interest in sticking by his side in spite of all of it.
I don't mean to strip Scully of her own decision making here. What began as an assignment turned into a long-term commitment that was fueled partly by her curiosity and partly by her loyalty to Mulder. Ultimately she was still working as a forensic pathologist, but did Mulder really deserve her devotion? And to what extend was Mulder simply exploiting Scully's skill while he chased down his own demons?
Most Episodes, Seasons 1-9
Time Mulder Was Trash: When He Coerced Her to Join His Aimless Extraterrestrial Missions Despite Her Protestations and Obvious Trauma
Scully got really fucking tired of chasing ghosts, aliens, and God pretty early on in the series—and yet it continued for nine seasons. That’s nine seasons of unimaginable horror that can neither be explained nor resolved in most cases. So how does one cope? If you’re Scully, you persistently ask for a reprieval of your responsibilities of chasing the unexplainable. But if you’re Mulder, your own selfish intentions cloud your ability to realize it’s maybe not so great for the health and well-being of your part-time love interest. What the early X-Files really needed was for someone to remind Mulder to take a seat and crack his own hokey ass unsolved mysteries.
“Ascension,” Season 2, Ep. 6
Time Mulder Was Trash: When He Got Her Abducted by Aliens
Being abducted by aliens sounds bunk af (at least in the X-Files universe), and Scully suffered the full scope of degradation and torture, undergoing experiments and tests that left her with significant trauma. If not for her involvement with Mulder’s ongoing wild goose chase, would Scully have ever been subject to an abduction by Duane Barry and subsequently extraterrestrials? The likelihood is slim.
"Requiem,” Season 7, Ep. 22
Time Mulder Was Trash: When He Got Himself Abducted by Aliens
The cool thing about Mulder being abducted for most of the eighth season was that Scully really had an opportunity to shine. However when he returned, it was ultimately Scully who had to pick up the pieces and nurse him back to health.
“Quagmire,” Season 3, Ep. 22
Time Mulder Was Trash: When He Inadvertently Killed Her Dog
Mulder convinced Scully to join him on an investigation in Georgia where there had been reports of a creature referred to by locals as “Big Blue,” thought to be a monster not unlike that of Loch Ness. Because Scully was unable to hire a dog sitter for her pup Queequeg in time for their departure, she was forced to bring him along. As Scully took him for a walk by the shore one evening, the dog began acting strangely and got loose from Scully's hold. Scully heard yelps and ran to his aid only to find the dog dead (possibly murdered by the beast, but more realistically killed by an alligator). Mulder did Dogate.
All Episodes, Seasons 1-9
*Bonus* Time Mulder Was Trash: All of Them—He Was Generally Insufferable
Are we really even convinced that Mulder loved Scully and that her tolerating his manic behavior was justified? His coercion of Scully for companionship—whether professional or romantic—and his persistence in jeopardizing her safety and career made him a garbage person of the highest degree. He was crotchety, unstable, emotionally unavailable, and kind of a dick.
As we near the premiere of the new series, keep in mind that Mulder is still definitely trash and Scully is forever light years out of his league.