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1[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/thexfiles_4.jpg]]
2[[caption-width-right:350:''"I want to believe."'']]
3
4->''[[AC:The truth is out there.]]''
5
6''The X-Files'' is an American supernatural mystery drama series created by Creator/ChrisCarter, which originally aired for nine seasons (1993–2002) on Creator/{{Fox}}, crossed into two theatrical feature films (''[[Film/TheXFilesFightTheFuture Fight the Future]]'', which was TheMovie, in 1998, and ''[[Film/TheXFilesIWantToBelieve I Want to Believe]]'' in 2008), and saw a limited revival in the form of a six-episode 10th season in 2016 and ten-episode 11th season in 2018, both also on Fox.
7
8Dr. Dana Scully (Creator/GillianAnderson), a physician and [[FBIAgent special agent with the FBI]], is assigned the job of keeping tabs on fellow agent Fox Mulder (Creator/DavidDuchovny), an [[BunnyEarsLawyer odd but skilled detective]] whose [[OccultDetective deep obsession with the paranormal]] is of grave concern to his superiors. Working out of an office in the [[ReassignedToAntarctica Hoover Building's basement]], Mulder specializes in the Bureau's "X-Files": a collection of cold cases deemed unsolvable due to macabre or taboo elements. While Mulder is quick to attribute these to the supernatural and extraterrestrial, Scully is a skeptic who attempts to debunk his theories through scientific reasoning. Together, they investigate all manner of strange and unusual cases, which over time hint at a massive [[GovernmentConspiracy government conspiracy]] linked to [[RoswellThatEndsWell a series of alien abductions going as far back as the 1940s]].
9
10The show's writers, who included Carter and future ''Series/BreakingBad'' showrunner Creator/VinceGilligan, were celebrated for their innovative blend of cop-show conventions, ''{{Series/Moonlighting}}''-style romance, new age mysticism, urban legends, government conspiracies, action, wryly sardonic humor, and genuinely scary moments. The show's high production values and sharp writing helped it to reach beyond the niche ''Series/TwinPeaks'' crowd to make it one of the most popular and acclaimed shows on television and a bona fide international cultural phenomenon. It was also one of the earliest series to be released in box sets (albeit on VHS, with inflated price tags) containing behind-the-scenes goodies. These sets became a common sight in supermarkets and rental stores, which fueled viewership even more.
11
12Although it genuinely was good in its own right, the series arrived at the right time for that to happen; mainstream interest in ufology and related topics peaked around 1998. These days, however, E.T. doesn't get quite as much airtime as he used to [[Creator/TheHistoryChannel outside of fringe circles]], and as a result, ''The X-Files'' as a series is a lot less culturally relevant now than it was during production.
13
14Episodes alternate between standalone MonsterOfTheWeek episodes and a complex, unfolding MythArc confirming pretty much every terrifying "conspiracy" of the past forty years (and even [[IKnewIt predicting a few new ones]]): there was [[WhoShotJFK a second gunman]], the UsefulNotes/ColdWar was a sham, the government is in cahoots with various factions of extraterrestrial beings, and all of us are slaves to the machinations of sinister (and, worse, [[NotSoOmniscientCouncilOfBickering borderline incompetent]]) old men in smoke-filled back rooms. A quarter to a third of each season figures into Mulder's ever-growing investigation, though this was put on hold in 1997 to avoid conflicts with ''Fight the Future'' (then in post-production), resulting in the DenserAndWackier Season Five; several of the show's most acclaimed comedic episodes were aired during this period. The final season was supposed to be followed by a series of movies that would eventually resolve the ongoing plot, but [[Film/TheXFilesIWantToBelieve the first post-series movie]] didn't touch on the conspiracy plotline and met with only lukewarm success. The show also received a short-lived spinoff, ''Series/TheLoneGunmen''.
15
16The future of ''The X-Files'' and its Myth Arc remained uncertain for a long time while die-hard fans kept expecting a third film that would either close-up the mystery or revive the franchise. [[http://www.bleedingcool.com/2013/03/03/eccc-idw-panel-the-truth-is-still-out-there-x-files-chris-carter/ In March 2013, IDW announced that they would be continuing the series as a comic book]]. The comic book, marked as the tenth season, came out in July 2013 and picks up after the events of the second movie. And now it has a [[ComicBook/TheXFilesSeason10 trope page]]!
17
18[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_X-Files_(miniseries) A six-episode miniseries]], which functions as the 10th season, with the involvement of Carter, Duchovny and Anderson began airing January 25th, 2016, and feature a split of mythology and MonsterOfTheWeek episodes. Former writers/producers James Wong, Darin Morgan, and Glen Morgan contributed to the revival, and composer Mark Snow will also return. The first full-length trailer can be viewed [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1SmJUBT5q0 here]]. After this, an 11th season, consisting of ten episodes, started airing on January 3, 2018. Following this, though, Anderson expressed reluctance to do further seasons, and Carter declared the series on hold as a result, [[LeftHanging possibly permanently]].
19
20"Cold Cases", a series of AudioAdaptation episodes of the [[ComicBook/TheXFilesSeason10 season 10 comic books]] with revisits to past cases such as the Flukeman, was released on Audible on July 18, 2017, featuring the voice talents of Duchovny, Anderson, Mitch Pileggi, and more. It does not correspond to the season 10 TV miniseries continuity.
21
22As a long-running show with a passionate fanbase, the series has attracted many recap, review and parodies from the internet: [[https://www.avclub.com/c/tv-review/the-x-files The AV Club]] had one, primarily by Emily [=VanDerWerff=] and Zack Handlen, a former Mary Sue writer has been [[http://iwanttoreview.blogspot.com/ working]] on a ReviewBlog of the entire series for 5 years, there's a [[https://twitter.com/TheX_Cast podcast recapping the whole series]] and a webcomic [[Webcomic/MonsterOfTheWeek recapping all the episodes]] has been started by [[Webcomic/{{Narbonic}} Shaenon K. Garrity]]. If a recap podcast with a more twisted and deconstructive, yet still affectionate take on the show is what you're looking for, then there is ''Podcast/FoxMulderIsAManiac''.
23----
24!!''The X-Files'' and its MythArc provide examples of the following tropes:
25
26[[foldercontrol]]
27
28[[folder:A-G]]
29* AbortedArc:
30** During Season 6-7 the Syndicate was [[spoiler:destroyed at the hands of the Alien Rebels. At the time, the writers spoke of their plans for a new Syndicate, headed by Alex Krycek and Marita Covarrubias.]] This plotline was set up in "Requiem" but never resurfaced.
31** The beginning of Season 9 reveals that Reyes and Follmer are having an affair. It's never brought up again.
32* AdventureTowns: The Dynamic Duo chases aliens, alien-human hybrids, clones, genetic mutants, vampires, serial killers or conspirators and encounters weird phenomena all over the United States. Plus in Norway, Hong Kong, Russia, and Antarctica.
33* AffectionateGestureToTheHead: Mulder and Scully would touch each other's forehead, stroke each other's hair, hold each other's head or cup each other's face. {{UST}} at its best.
34* [[AgentMulder Agents Mulder]] [[AgentScully and Scully]]: The [[TropeNamer Trope Namers]] no less.
35* AlbinosAreFreaks: Samuel Aboah from the episode "Teliko". He was a Burkinabe immigrant who lacked a pituitary gland and harvested them from other African or African-American men to restore his skin tone. He is compared unfavourably to a vampire-like creature from West African folklore (the eponymous Teliko) by a Burkinabe ambassador. He is depicted as a merciless killer with a seemingly inhuman ability to squeeze into small spaces.
36* AlienAbduction: A common theme, although it's usually ambiguous whether extraterrestrials or human conspirators are responsible for it. [[spoiler:Both Scully and Mulder]] were victims of it, among many others.
37%%* AliensAreBastards:
38* AlienAutopsy: We see a doctor take away a murdered alien body from [[spoiler: the site of the Rosewell crash]] in the Season 10 revival. The tech obtained from his dissection of the alien, later on, has far-ranging consequences.
39* TheAllegedBoss: Walter Skinner is type 3. He eventually gets replaced due to his inability to make Mulder and Scully obey him. Alvin Kersh, the new boss, ''would'' be the same type, since it's not like Mulder, Scully and/or Dogget and Reyes listen to him any better, except for the fact that he plays dirty and has better connections within the Bureau than Skinner.
40%%* AllTheoriesAreTrue
41* AlternativeForeignThemeSong: The Japanese version has a few ending themes, including [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iugHbSJ6ZMk "Love Phantom"]] by Music/{{Bz}}, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJOE-fCf6gw "Unbalanced"]] by Maki Oguro, and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-3qSL19Yzs "True Navigation"]] by Two-Mix.
42* AlwaysSaveTheGirl: In the very first episode, Mulder says that nothing else matters to him except finding out the truth about the conspiracy and what happened to his sister. Early seasons of the show get a lot of mileage out of making him choose between pursuing his quest and saving Scully. Around the beginning of season 5, it largely ceases to be an issue, where he decides from then on that Scully is his biggest priority. (She saves his butt just as often, of course.)
43%%* AnchoredShip: For the first five seasons. %%(Not enough context in this example; it doesn't explain what the trope is about or how it applies.)%%
44* AlternateContinuity: The IDW comic to the 2016 miniseries, both of which are titled "Season 10", but each of them acts as its own follow-up to the previous seasons without referencing each other.
45* AntiVillain: The Cigarette Smoking Man, some of the time.
46* AnyoneCanDie: The show wasn't afraid to kill off characters [[OnceAnEpisode each season]], that were either well known and/or [[BreakoutCharacter much loved]] throughout its original run and later miniseries, starting with [[spoiler:[[Recap/TheXFilesS01E13BeyondtheSea William Scully]] and [[Recap/TheXFilesS01E24TheErlenmeyerFlask Deep Throat]] in season one]]
47** [[spoiler:Season Two saw [[Recap/TheXFilesS02E25Anasazi Bill Mulder]] die]]
48** [[spoiler:Season Three saw [[Recap/TheXFilesS03E02PaperClip Melissa Scully]] finally succumb to her injuries]]
49** [[spoiler:Season Four saw [[Recap/TheXFilesS04E01Herrenvolk X]], [[Recap/TheXFilesS04E17TempusFugit Max Fenig]], and [[Recap/TheXFilesS04E18Max Agent Pendrell]] all die]]
50** [[spoiler:Season Five saw [[Recap/TheXFilesS05E02ReduxII Section Chief Scott Belvins]] die]]
51** [[spoiler:The first feature-length movie saw the [[Film/TheXFilesFighttheFuture Well-Manicured Man]] die]]
52** [[spoiler:Season Six has the [[Recap/TheXFilesS06E12OneSon Syndicate Elders]] all die]]
53** [[spoiler:Season Seven saw the deaths of [[Recap/TheXFilesS07E02TheSixthExtinctionIIAmorFati Diana Fowley, Albert Hosteen, Michael Kritschgau]], and [[Recap/TheXFilesS07E10SeinundZeit Teena Mulder]]]]
54*** It was also during this season that Mulder [[spoiler:finally accepted [[Recap/TheXFilesS07E11Closure that his sister Samantha, was gone]]]].
55** [[spoiler:Season Eight saw [[Recap/TheXFilesS08E21Existence Alex Krycek]] die]]
56** [[spoiler:Season Nine has the [[Recap/TheXFilesS09E15JumptheShark Lone Gunmen]] and [[Recap/TheXFilesS09E20TheTruthII Knowle Rohrer]] die]]
57** [[spoiler:Season Ten saw [[Recap/TheXFilesMiniseriesE04HomeAgain Margaret Scully]] die]]
58** [[spoiler:Season Eleven saw the deaths of [[Recap/TheXFilesMiniseriesE16MyStruggleIV Mr. Y, Erika Price, Monica Reyes, A.D. Walter Skinner, and the Cigarette Smoking Man]]]]
59* AnywhereButTheirLips: In several scenes throughout the series between Mulder and Scully, forehead kisses, kisses on the cheek, and a couple [[IKissYourHand kisses on the hand]].
60* ArbitrarySkepticism:
61** Scully remains a hardcore skeptic long after she's seen shape-shifting aliens, watched Mulder be mind-controlled into [[NotHimself things he'd never do on his own]], etc. It's somewhat {{justified|Trope}}, though: later seasons tended to imply that Scully felt she had to take a more skeptical stance than she felt to keep Mulder's wacky ideas grounded. That is until [[spoiler:Mulder himself is abducted]], at which point Scully is promoted to a full-on believer. But as of season 10, she's back to something much closer to her original role, making this a ZigZaggingTrope.
62** Even Mulder refused to believe in anything close to miracles and religiously paranormal stuff (in these episodes it's Scully who's open-minded, due to her religious beliefs). In episode "3", Mulder ''doesn't'' believe in vampires, which of course turn out to exist.
63* ArcWords: "Trust no one", [[spoiler: Deep Throat's last words which come up various times throughout the series]].
64* AscendedExtra:
65** The Cigarette-Smoking Man had four brief, mostly wordless appearances in the first season, doing little beyond hover in the background smoking. His role gradually expanded, and by the middle of Season Two, he was firmly established as the show's BigBad.
66** Creator/NicholasLea, who had a brief guest spot in Season One's "Genderbender" as a random character, before going into a major role [[YouLookFamiliar as Alex Krycek in Season Two]]. The character of Krycek himself is an Ascended Extra as he was originally conceived as a temporary partner for Mulder when Scully was missing, and the producers were going to kill him off if Lea didn't do a good enough job portraying him. He instead went on to appear in every subsequent season.[[invoked]]
67%%* AssholeVictim: Warden Brodeur and Fournier in "The List". %%(Not enough context in the example.)%%
68* BadassBookworm: An Oxford-educated psychologist and a forensic pathologist with a physics degree fight aliens (and all sorts of other things).
69* BadassLongcoat: Worn by most characters who look rather intimidating. The FBI wear them, the conspirators wear them, the mysterious informants wear them, everybody wears them! They all wear long trench coats or lab coats, and they all look awesome in them.
70* BadBlackBarf: An alien virus called "Black Oil" caused black liquid to come out of the mouth, nose, and eyes of its victims.
71* TheBadGuyWins:
72** In "[[Recap/TheXFilesS03E05TheList The List]]", Neech Manley manages to reincarnate and kill all five men on his hit list, and accidentally gets a hated fellow inmate and his wife’s lover killed too.
73** As of the end of Season 9: [[spoiler:Sure, CSM and Rohrer are both dead and Mulder has escaped. However, many of the conspirators are still alive, our heroes have been forced into a life on the run, they have just discovered the date of a planned alien invasion and are no closer to stopping the alien takeover than they were at the beginning of the pilot.]]
74* BagOfHolding: Mulder's and Scully's pockets. Boy, do they have to be deep and spacious! They have there their FBI badges, mobile phones, wallet/purse, calling cards, coins, keys, pens, latex gloves, bags for collecting evidence, flashlights of various sizes, and Mulder occasionally pulls sunflower seeds out of there.
75* BatSignal: Mulder summons his informants by switching on a blue light lamp in his apartment (Deep Throat) and by putting the iconic X sign from masking tape on the window pane (Mr. X). Marita gave him his phone number, though.
76* BeeAfraid: The GovernmentConspiracy uses bees as a vector for spreading TheVirus.
77* BelieverFakesEvidence: [[Recap/TheXFilesS03E22Quagmire Quagmire]]": In Millikan, Georgia, missing people allegedly attacked and taken by Big Blue, a cryptid, in a swamp, bring Mulder and Scully to investigate. While there are more disappearances happening, a local bait and tackle shop owner walks through the swamp in boots, making fake dinosaur tracks in order to promote his business and the mythical Big Blue.
78* BigBadEnsemble:
79** TheSyndicate, a shadowy group of powerful individuals led by [[spoiler:Conrad Strughold and the First Elder]] with the Cigarette Smoking Man as TheDragon and the [[spoiler:alien colonists]] as the [[spoiler:GreaterScopeVillain]], with later seasons [[TheReveal revealing]] that its more of a [[TheBigBadShuffle big bad shuffle]] between its various myriad forces & factions; each with [[GambitPileup vastly differing goals and agendas]].
80** The [[spoiler:miniseries]] would end up [[spoiler:{{retcon}}ning much of the show's MythArc, and [[TheReveal reveal]] that the Colonists have now abandoned UsefulNotes/{{Earth}} due to its dwindling resources]], leaving [[spoiler:the Cigarette Smoking Man as the DragonAscendant and sole BigBad of the series]]; though [[spoiler:he's currently engaged in an EnemyCivilWar with a rival faction]].
81* TheBigBoard: The X-Files office has bulletin boards and walls covered with pictures, photos, and newspaper clippings concerning the paranormal and the cases Mulder and Scully were working on. Also, they often used slide shows to present cases. Considering Mulder's interest in the paranormal and the level of his obsession, some might consider his office to be a RoomFullOfCrazy.
82* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:At the end of the show, the GovernmentConspiracy has taken some hits but is still going strong, and alien colonization of Earth is supposedly inevitable and proceeding on schedule for 2012. Mulder and Scully are on the run from a death sentence... but they're both alive, and they're together, and that means maybe there's hope.]]
83* BlackEyesOfEvil: They mean you've been infected with the Black Oil, some kind of alien [[TheVirus virus]]... thing.
84* BlackHelicopter
85* BlackSpeech: Whenever you hear German, Japanese or Russian, the chances are they are spoken by evil conspirators, and dark post-world-war-two and post-cold-war undertones are implied.
86* BlandNameProduct: "Morley Cigarettes", the Cigarette Smoking Man's brand of choice -- although this isn't the first show on American TV to use Morleys.
87* TheBlank: The Alien Rebels have no faces, having sealed every orifice on their bodies to prevent infection by the Black Oil.
88* BlessedWithSuck:
89** Clyde Bruckman from "[[Recap/TheXFilesS03E04ClydeBruckmansFinalRepose Clyde Bruckman's Last Repose]]" has the power to see how people will die. It's vaguely useful for some tasks (especially since Bruckman works as an insurance salesman), but it makes him miserable. Not only is it often pretty disturbing, but he's never been able to ''prevent'' a death through his visions since nobody believes him. This leaves him with incredible guilt and depression. [[spoiler:In the end, it gets too much for him to bear and he commits suicide rather than continue seeing death everywhere he goes.]]
90** In "[[Recap/TheXFilesS06E10Tithonus Tythonus]]" this is how Fellig sees immortality, as he's been stuck an [[ElderlyImmortal old man now for over a century]] and has [[TheFogOfAges forgotten a large portion of his life]], along with living very isolated from other people (probably to cover all this up).
91** The Soul Eater from "[[Recap/TheXFilesS08E11TheGift The Gift]]" is a man with the power to heal people. However, he's also an EmpathicHealer, and he's used his healing powers so much, with so many different medical problems, that he's been left as a deformed, barely functioning monster who's in constant agony. [[spoiler:Similar to Bruckman, he's in so much pain that he ultimately chooses to use his power to revive Doggett after he's been fatally wounded and thus kill himself.]]
92* BloodyMurder: Alien-human hybrids with acidic blood.
93* BodyHorror: All the time, especially in the MythArc episodes.
94* BondVillainStupidity:
95** The Conspiracy has the opportunity to kill Mulder, but never does. Creator/HarlanEllison complained about this as early as the first season, leading to a scene where the Cigarette-Smoking Man explains that killing Mulder would "turn one man's religion into a crusade." (Which still comes across as sort of a HandWave, as they've killed plenty of dogged investigators before Mulder and TheConspiracy has remained intact.)
96** In CSM's last appearance, he claims [[spoiler:he protected Mulder from assassination [[EvilIsPetty so that he would learn The Truth that the alien invasion was coming, and there was nothing he could do to prevent it]].]]
97* BookSmart: Both Mulder and Scully are book smart and educated, though Mulder knows more about UFO lore while Scully is educated in the hard sciences.
98* BreatherEpisode: The comic relief episodes provided some of the more interesting and innovative {{filler}} and served to counterbalance some of the more ridiculous ''serious'' episodes as the series went on.
99* CandlelitBath: Scully likes them.
100* CaptainsLog: Early seasons had Scully (and sometimes Mulder) writing case reports at the end of many of the MonsterOfTheWeek episodes. In the final seasons, after David Duchovny left the show, Scully read her journal entries as letters to the missing Mulder.
101* ChekhovMIA: Mulder's sister. She did get used eventually.
102* ChemicallyInducedInsanity: In the second season finale, it is revealed that Mulder's erratic behavior of late was due to drugs in his water supply, presumably done by The Conspiracy to discredit him.
103%%* ChestBurster
104%%* ChildByRape
105** A woman in the episode "[[Recap/TheXFilesS02E12Aubrey Aubrey]]" was raped by a serial killer, bore his child, and put it up for adoption. Her grandchild ended up [[spoiler:continuing her grandfather's work, to the letter, apparently due to {{genetic memory}} essentially making her ''become'' him.]]
106** In "[[Recap/TheXFilesS05E05ThePostModernPrometheus The Post-Modern Prometheus]]", Mutato is revealed to gotten women pregnant by raping them after they're knocked senseless by gas. This is because he wanted a mate, but couldn't find one. While viewed sympathetically by Mulder and Scully, it was not only a crime they never arrest him for, but drastically undercuts his status as a "good" monster.
107** Scully's son William who was thought to be Mulder's son is revealed to be the product of MedicalRapeAndImpregnate by the Smoking Man.
108* ChillyReception: Mulder toward Scully initially; later, either of them towards anyone replacing the other (especially between Scully and Fowley).
109* ConspiracyTheorist: Loads of 'em, including Mulder and the Lone Gunmen.
110** At the beginning of the 2016 revival, Mulder & Scully meet Tad O'Malley, a conspiracy theorist in the vein of Alex Jones that helps drive the season's arc.
111* ContagiousCassandraTruth: Mulder usually had this problem after convincing Scully. Other characters they convinced also tended to suffer this trope (if they weren't blackmailed or bribed by the AncientConspiracy).
112* CoolOldGuy: Arthur Dales
113* CreepyChild: Approximately one per season and several were a part of the MythArc stories.
114* CrisisOfFaith: Scully started the show as a nonpracticing Catholic. Part of her CharacterArc involved her coming to terms with her faith and deciding she could pray and attend church regularly even if she didn't always agree with everything TheChurch said.
115* {{Crossover}}:
116** With ''Series/{{Cops}}'', [[NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer of all things]]. It starts with a normal episode for the latter, but it's interrupted by Scully and Mulder chasing an [=MoTW=].
117** With ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' in the latter's [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS8E10TheSpringfieldFiles "The Springfield Files"]], wherein Homer drunkenly stumbles out to the woods and believes that he's discovered an alien. Scully and Mulder are called out to investigate, but it turns out that the alien is actually just [[spoiler: a drugged-up and nuclear Mr. Burns.]]
118* CryptidEpisode: There are enough cryptid episodes to stuff the Berlin Zoo full with them.
119* DamselInDistress / DistressedDude: One of the first shows to have both male and female leads carry the DistressBall more or less equally.
120* DarkerAndEdgier: Seasons 4 and 8.
121* ADeadlyAffair: The episode "Familiar" has a woman discover her husband has been having an affair with another married woman. So, she turns to witchcraft to kill him. [[spoiler:It works, but not before their daughter and the son of the other woman are also killed by the dark forces. The ensuing chaos also leads to her husband killing the other woman's husband and the other woman dying in a car accident. Then, she spontaneously combusts for good measure.]]
122* DeadlyDoctor: Evil doctors collaborate with the conspiracy, having no scruples performing experiments on people.
123* DeadlyNosebleed: [[spoiler:She doesn't die of it, but]] this is the only visible symptom when [[spoiler:Scully]] has terminal cancer.
124* DeadStarWalking: Creator/RLeeErmey shows up in TheTeaser of "Revelations" as a con artist priest, and is set up as the MonsterOfTheWeek of the episode. Then he gets murdered by the ACTUAL MonsterOfTheWeek, and the episode switches gears.
125* DealWithTheDevil: We find that [[spoiler: Monica Reyes]] has made a deal with Smoking Man to save herself from the [[spoiler: triggered pandemic]] that occurs at the end of Season 10.
126* DeathByPragmatism: [[spoiler:The Conspiracy]], despite their best wishes.
127* DeathByMaterialism: In "Død Kalm" Captain Trondheim’s efforts to keep the uncontaminated water for himself lead to him drowning when the hull bursts.
128* DeclarationOfProtection: Mulder goes just a little nuts with the protection when Scully returns from being abducted in season two. He feels he failed to protect her from it, which is only compounded by the guilt he still feels over his sister's abduction years before. He ditches her when things get hairy, lies to her about where he's going so she won't follow him, and asks her to sit out cases for fear of her life. The only thing this does (besides piss Scully off--she's a trained FBI agent, after all) is show the bad guys that the only way to hurt him is to hurt her and it starts a vicious cycle of Scully being kidnapped, saved, and then Mulder being ''more'' protective.
129* DeusAngstMachina: The main characters get a disproportionate number of metaphorical {{Groin Attack}}s just within the few years in which the show takes place. [[spoiler:Mulder has both parents die and is constantly tormented by people who appear to be his sister but aren't, but Scully takes the cake having one parent and her sister die (the sister being at least partly her fault) and the entire abduction plotline.]]
130* DidTheyOrDidntThey: [[spoiler:Lots of teasing from late-season seven on. Eventually, it's confirmed that yes, they did.]]
131* DiedHappilyEverAfter: [[spoiler:The fate of Samantha Mulder.]]
132
133* DoNotAdjustYourSet
134* DownerEnding: "Soft Light"; [[spoiler:Doctor Banton is captured by shady forces and]] [[FateWorseThanDeath experimented on]], and a lot of innocent people are dead (or at the very least gone forever without a trace) at his hands, without so much as a body to bury.
135* ElectiveMute
136* ElvisLives: Mulder claims to believe this, but [[DeadpanSnarker knowing Mulder]] he could be making fun of himself.
137* EmergencyRefuelling: Mulder is held hostage by a man with a BrownNote in his head that will cause it to burst if he doesn't drive at a certain speed in the same direction. They run into a problem when Mulder has to stop the car for refueling.
138%%* EmergingFromTheShadows: A common occurrence.
139* TheEndOrIsIt: Leading to FridgeHorror galore. At the end of many episodes, the things Mulder and Scully investigate are still running rampant and could be doing who knows what.
140* EnemyMine
141* EveryoneCanSeeIt
142* ExposedExtraterrestrials: Applies to most "Gray" aliens, except in the episode "The Unnatural," where [[ItMakesSenseInContext the Gray is wearing a baseball uniform]]
143* EyelessFace: The alien rebels have their eyes, ears, and mouth sealed up so they can't be infested with the 'black oil'.
144* EyeScream: The alien rebels sewn up eyes count. Creepy as hell!
145* FacialDialogue: Mulder and Scully are ''very'' good at this. Most conversations have a layer of embedded subtext just from their facial expressions. It's also part of what makes the audience feel like they've walked in on something they shouldn't; it's very intimate.
146* FailureIsTheOnlyOption: Goal: to expose The Truth.
147* FaintInShock: Although Agent Scully is hardly the frail heroine, even she keels over when a ghost removes his hat to reveal a large shotgun hole through his head.
148* FingertipDrugAnalysis: Mulder, ''all... the... time''.
149* FirstNameBasis: Agent Doggett and Agent Reyes always call each other John and Monica, unless other agents are around. This likely comes from their time spent working together on the kidnapping and murder of Doggett's son years prior.
150* FlatEarthAtheist:
151** Scully was like this early on sometimes, due to her default skepticism, and Mulder often called her out on the fact. However, she did get better slowly.
152** Doggett. Doggett simply proclaims things impossible and refuses to discuss it further, in spite of all evidence.
153** It was eventually revealed that [[spoiler:the reason Scully and Doggett are such hardcore skeptics is that ''they're afraid'' of accepting the existence of the paranormal due to their own personal reasons.]]
154** Mulder qualifies on notable occasions. He is more than happy to believe in Yetis, Psychics, Vampires and Little Green Men, but any hint of God in the equation and he suddenly becomes more skeptical than Scully at her most ardent. Which makes quite a bit of sense if you consider that he does not need an omnipotent god to explain anything strange until such a being is necessarily part of the occurrence. Scully herself, a Catholic, reverses roles with him on any occasion when the phenomena is religious (nearly always Christian) in nature, immediately shedding any skepticism. It gets very bad in the eleventh season when Scully denies ghosts and the Devil exist-both were shown to be quite real in earlier seasons.
155* FreshClue: A couple of times, a still-burning [[BlandNameProduct Morley cigarette]] left on the ground or in an office ashtray indicates that the [[BigBad Cigarette-Smoking Man]] has been there recently. Since he's TheChessmaster who's far from careless, he most likely [[CallingCard deliberately left these there]].
156* FriendshipMoment: Many of these between Mulder and Scully. Pretty much any time either of them says "You're the only one I trust".
157* FriendToAllChildren: For someone who was portrayed as the typical BigBrotherBully and who only had rare occasions to interact with children during the series, Mulder is quite good with them.
158* FromCamouflageToCriminal: Several episodes featured disgruntled veterans from the Vietnam and Gulf wars who use their various abilities to seek revenge on military and political figures.
159* GeekyTurnOn
160-->'''Mulder:''' Looks like the fuselage of a plane.\
161'''Scully:''' It's a North-American P-51 Mustang.\
162'''Mulder:''' I just got very turned on.
163* {{God}}: He appears in "Improbable", played by Creator/BurtReynolds, trying to dissuade a SerialKiller from taking more victims and helping Doggett and Reyes catch him.
164* GovernmentAgencyOfFiction: Much to everyone's chagrin and no one's surprise, there is no X-Files division of the FBI.
165** Also the FBI in the show is part of the "Department of Investigation" which does not exist; the FBI in real life is part of the Department of Justice.
166%%* GovernmentConspiracy
167* TheGreys: Played a major role in the MythArc.
168* GriefInducedSplit:
169** Following the alien abduction of their daughter Samantha, Bill and Teena Mulder divorced. [[spoiler:As a member of the Syndicate, Bill let his daughter be abducted and taken into a cloning program, in hopes that she would survive the alien viral holocaust if she became a genetic hybrid. Teena was more aware of the circumstances surrounding her daughter's abduction and the Syndicate than she ever let on.]]
170** John Doggett and his wife Barbara divorced after the death of their son Luke, though they are AmicableExes. Barbara even points out to Scully that EveryoneCanSeeIt regarding John and Monica Reyes having feelings for each other.
171[[/folder]]
172
173[[folder:H-M]]
174* HackerCollective: The Lone Gunmen, who are probably the duo's most trustworthy allies. As odd as they can be, they're also scrupulous to a fault.
175* HalfHumanHybrid: Alien/Human hybrids.
176* HalfWittedHillbilly: The infamous episode "Home" featured a family of mutants that was the result of generations of incest. Like the Deliverance rapists, [[TheFamilyThatSlaysTogether this family was not meant to be funny]].
177* HeadbuttOfLove: Gently bumping their heads is Mulder and Scully's signature gesture of their mutual trust and support.
178* HealingHands: Aliens have this ability, as well as several [[MonsterOfTheWeek monsters of the week]].
179* HeldGaze: Mulder and Scully are big on doing this.
180* HollywoodSpelling: Constantly.
181* HowWeGotHere: Used several times for both MythArc and MonsterOfTheWeek episodes.
182** The monologues that bookend Season 10 recap nearly the entire series.
183* HumansAreTheRealMonsters: Necrophiliac SerialKiller Donnie Pfaster was one of the most horrifying villains to appear in the series, and was human, though there were a few hints he was some sort of HumanoidAbomination.
184* HybridizationPlot: A large part of the series revolves around the Syndicate working to produce successful hybrids of human and alien DNA (theoretically to produce a slave race to work under the aliens after they colonize Earth, but covertly to develop a vaccine against the aliens' ability to infect humans). Their methods include gene therapy, cloning, or conceiving via a hybridization process. The results vary in wild ways; some hybrids (like the Samantha Mulder clones) are indistinguishable from human, while others can develop both mental instability and preternatural abilities.
185* IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming: The MythArc episodes (often two-parters or trilogies) sometimes used complementary names as "The End"/"The Beginning", "Two Fathers"/"One Son", "Biogenesis"/"The Sixth Extinction I & II" or "Within"/"Without". The standalone episodes' titles were often extremely vague words or phrases brought up by a single line of dialogue or some other subtle or insignificant aspect of the episode, sometimes [[ForeignLanguageTitle in a foreign language]]. The show famously played a game with its fans who tried to find meaning in anything, no matter how obscure or insignificant it might appear, including the names of the episodes.
186* IfJesusThenAliens: Averted. Scully is Catholic and believes in miracles, but is a hardcore skeptic about all other paranormal phenomena; Mulder is agnostic and rather cynical about organized religion but believes in basically everything else. (It's implied at least once that God is deliberately hiding from Mulder's perception as a test of Scully's faith.)
187* ImAHumanitarian: Eugene Victor Tooms and Rob Roberts. The former only feeds on human livers, and enjoys his murders, while the latter is a remorseful and self-loathing HungryMenace who tries to sate his starvation by killing [[AssholeVictim Asshole Victims]] when his hunger becomes all-encompassing.
188* ImprobableAimingSkills: Mulder and Scully, although the former tended to drop his gun for RuleOfDrama in early seasons.
189* ImprobableInfantSurvival: Baby William, at every turn. The number of times that child should have died, before and after birth, are staggering. But not even a scratch.
190* IntentionalMessMaking: In the episode "[[Recap/TheXFilesS05E12BadBlood Bad Blood]]", Mulder diverts an attacking vampire by flinging a bag of sunflower seeds, scattering its contents all over the floor. [[BeatItByCompulsion This triggers the vampire's compulsion of picking small seeds up.]]
191* InverseLawOfFertility: Inverted -- [[spoiler:Scully doesn't seem particularly interested in having kids until she finds out her abduction left her infertile, at which point she decides she really wanted to become a mother...and then she inexplicably becomes pregnant.]]
192* {{Jerkass}}:
193** Agent Spender (though he had his sympathetic moments).
194** Assistant Director Brad Follmer.
195** Assistant Director Kersh is one [[spoiler:until the show's first GrandFinale, where he helps break Mulder out of prison]].
196** Prison guard Fornier from "The List" is a sexist jackass who is heavily implied to have abused Neech Manley out of personal dislike. He gets his comeuppance pretty quickly.
197* JerkassHasAPoint: One of the things that made Kersh a formidable antagonist towards Mulder and Scully was that he quite accurately pointed out that their actions often flouted FBI procedure and law.
198* JurisdictionFriction: Present in the very first episode.
199* LampshadeHanging: Whenever an episode recycled a plot previously seen in another show or movie, someone would typically point it out.
200** A particularly good one from the season six opener, when recapping what happened in ''[[Film/TheXFilesFightTheFuture Fight the Future]]'':
201-->"Are you sure this isn't something I saw in ''Men in Black''?"
202** Mulder's tendency to lose his gun was lampshaded when he eventually started carrying a backup pistol.
203** The observation that evidence of the paranormal has ''not'' proliferated in the 2010s and beyond even though everyone has a camera in their pocket gets a wave in "Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster", as a smartphone camera should be a boon for Mulder, but he continually struggles to do anything useful with it.
204* LastNameBasis
205** Mulder and Scully to each other. Mulder says he even made his parents call him Mulder, but it doesn't seem to have stuck. Mulder occasionally called Scully "Dana" [[YouCalledMeXItMustBeSerious at emotional moments]] in the first few seasons, then mostly gave it up, as if the last names had become more intimate by that point. Scully never even tried to call him Fox after the first time, though this is notably averted in the first film when they share a romantic moment.
206** The Lone Gunmen are also known only by their last names, likely because two of them have {{Embarrassing First Name}}s.
207** Most of the agents at the FBI go by last names; Skinner is always called by his last name even after becoming more of a friend than a superior to Mulder and Scully.
208** Averted by Reyes and Doggett, who refer to each other by first name regularly.
209* LetXBeTheUnknown: A core part of the series and the reason for the name, but subverted within the story. Back when the department was first formed, they needed a way to consolidate the supernatural case files in one place, and "X" was the letter in the filing cabinet that had the emptiest space.
210* LighterAndSofter: Season 6, and most of the comedic episodes in general.
211* LivingEmotionalCrutch: Both Mulder and Scully become this to each other, verging on HeroicBSOD whenever they're involuntarily separated. In the series proper, this is seen as basically a good thing, and it helps both of them get over some of their issues; however, it's ruthlessly deconstructed in the revival, when it's revealed that Scully left Mulder because he refused to seek treatment for his depression and she could no longer handle being this.
212* LockedRoomMystery
213* LondonEnglandSyndrome: All over the place.
214* LongingLook: Mulder and Scully had an astonishing talent for giving each other looks so singular, emotional and full of meaning they made anyone else in the room -- or on the other side of the television screen -- feel like they were intruding on some absurdly private moment.
215* LongRunnerCastTurnover: By the time the series ended, only AD Skinner remained a main character. Mulder, Scully, and the Cigarette-Smoking Man were all demoted to regulars or extras.
216* LoveCannotOvercome: Subverted. Scully sticks by Mulder throughout the series proper, although the quest for the Truth costs her dearly. In the revival, it's revealed that their DowntimeDowngrade was due to Mulder's refusal to deal with his severe depression. And that it wasn't something either of them wanted, but was necessary.
217* LovedINotHonorMore: Subverted. Several times the show puts Mulder in what looks like a FriendOrIdolDecision between saving Scully and his quest for the Truth -- but ultimately it's strongly implied that the only reason he's able to achieve any success in his quest is that he has Scully as his partner.
218* MacGuffinSuperPerson: Baby William. He is described as "more human than human", a normal human child with none of the human frailties. He is seen as the salvation of the human race from alien invasion; he is the epitome of what the Syndicate has been trying to do for years: create a human/alien hybrid. While they did it in a lab (with disastrous results), William was gestated naturally. If they can figure out to replicate that or make a vaccine against the alien virus, the human race has a chance of surviving. So, they're after him. And the Super Soldiers, who are bent on making sure alien invasion is swift and that resistance is futile, are after him to kill him. On top of that, he is kidnapped mid-season 9 by a UFO cult which is convinced he is connected to a UFO they found. He has supernatural powers, most notably telekinesis. He is seen making the mobile above his crib move on its own (scaring his mother to death in the process). He also has a Christ-like birth, with Scully giving birth in a shack in the middle of nowhere, a guiding star, and the Lone Gunmen acting as the Three Wise Men. Though it took place in mid-May, not December.
219** William factors heavily through the entire arc of the Season 10 revival.
220** By Season 11, a young adult William is shown to be able to induce hallucinations in others, and even telekinetically make people explode in a shower of gore.
221* TheManBehindTheMan
222* MayanDoomsday: December 21, 2012, was listed as the day the alien invasion was supposed to happen.
223** Reyes mentions 2012 as when the mechanizations began for [[spoiler: pandemic that begins at the end of Season 10.]]
224* MaybeEverAfter: [[spoiler:The television series ends on this note for Mulder and Scully.]]
225** The second film confirms [[spoiler: that they are in a relationship.]]
226** However, at the beginning of Season 10, [[spoiler: they are still friendly but are now estranged, and that Scully initiated it.]]
227* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: It’s left unclear if Donnie Pfaster was some sort of demon, or if these were just panicked hallucinations. “Irresistible” and “Orison” come down on opposite ends of this.
228* MeaningfulLook: Mulder and Scully have many of these.
229* MeaningfulName: It's eventually revealed that the main alien antagonists call themselves the Purities. This should tell you everything you need to know about [[{{Narcissist}} what they think of themselves]]... not to mention what they think about ''[[OmnicidalManiac everybody else]]''.
230* MedicalRapeAndImpregnate: It's strongly implied this happens to many victims of AlienAbduction. [[spoiler: Including Scully.]] Mulder calls the conspirators "medical rapists" at one point.
231** In Season 10, the agents meet Sveta, who says she has been abducted and impregnated several times, with [[spoiler: the fetuses taken from her before she is returned]].
232* MenDontCry: Averted. Mulder is much more prone to openly showing emotion than Scully is.
233* TheMenInBlack: Alex Trebek?
234* MenagerieOfMisery: The zoo from the episode "Fearful Symmetry" was explicitly stated to have been abysmal in the recent past before the episode, to the point where they actually hired new management along with a scientific adviser to reform the zoo. Also notable in that the (fictional) zoo in question had never once had a live birth of any animal in captivity, ever. [[spoiler: The animals are regularly abducted by aliens and made the subject of strange experiments, including the theft of their unborn children.]]
235* MissingTime: Comes up several times, most prominently happening to Mulder and Scully in the very first episode.
236* TheMole: A lot of these.
237** Krycek, for all of one episode before he's found out.
238** [[spoiler:Marita Covarrubias, X's replacement.]]
239** [[spoiler:Fowley]]
240** [[spoiler:Section Chief Blevins]].
241** [[spoiler:Deep Throat]] is a Mole in the Syndicate.
242** Mulder originally thought Scully was a mole (and says so outright when he first meets her).
243** [[spoiler:Reyes]] becomes a mole, reaching out to Scully when [[spoiler: a planned pandemic]] is set into motion.
244* MonsterMunch / MonsterOfTheWeek: The modern TropeCodifier for both.
245** Subverted on a few occasions where the "[[VillainOfTheWeek monsters]]" are [[{{Mundanger}} human]], and during episodes where the Monster ''helps'' the agents in their case (or is otherwise non-violent).
246** [[spoiler: On very rare occasions, the monster is tied to the MythArc or is a recurring character, including the Black Oil in ‘’Vienen’’, Virtual!Langley in ‘’This’’, and even William Scully, Fox and Dana’s child in ‘’Ghouli’’.]]
247* MotherNatureFatherScience:
248** Inverted. Mulder is the emotional, intuitive one who believes in mysticism and the paranormal, while Scully is a stoic, logical scientist. (The inversion of conventional gender roles was quite deliberate on the part of the writers.)
249** Played jarringly straight in the few episodes where the MonsterOfTheWeek is a religious icon that Scully believes and Mulder doubts.
250** Played straight in seasons 9 with Doggett and Reyes, as they were meant to replicate (but not duplicate) the believer/skeptic relationship of their predecessors.
251** In season 8, with Doggett being the non-emotional, straight-laced former cop and Scully being the believer, it's played straight. Even though she's not as skeptical as she was when she joined the X-Files, Scully is still Scully. She's still the logical scientist, and though she admits she's seen things she can't ignore, she's ''not'' the believer. However, to keep the office running (and to keep Doggett from dismissing the work outright), she is forced to take on Mulder's role in his absence. In some of the episodes, you can tell she's suggesting things she does not believe in but entertains them because the cases ''are'' X-Files. It's mentioned at least once that she finds it hard to "be Mulder," not only because she's never been the believer in the relationship, but because she is unable to make the insane leaps of logic Mulder was infamous for.
252* TheMountainsOfIllinois: What happens when you film in Vancouver (and later Los Angeles) but set your stories all over the US, even the flat bits.
253* TheMovie: Two of them. The first one is part of the show's MythArc, the second is a long MonsterOfTheWeek episode.
254* MyBiologicalClockIsTicking: Scully's abduction left her infertile (somewhat ironic, considering her abduction was written in to allow Gillian Anderson to go on ''maternity leave''). It's a source of {{angst}} for her. It's played ''much'' more subtly -- and with good reason; he'd never be enough of a {{jerkass}} to bring it up, considering Scully's infertility -- but Mulder is implied to be somewhat wistful about not being in a position to have kids too.
255* MultiPartEpisode: There are almost as many multi-part episodes of the show as there are stand-alone. Most of the mythology episodes ended up being multi-parters though they were rarely named as such.
256* MysticalPregnancy: At least two, despite the first one having supposedly rendered her infertile.
257* MysteriousInformant: Several. Deep Throat, X, and Marita are the three main recurring ones.
258** An unnamed doctor [[spoiler: present at the Rosewell crash site in 1947]] appears to have been in contact with Mulder since the X-Files were closed.
259[[/folder]]
260
261[[folder:N-T]]
262* NextSundayAD:
263** The episode "Millennium", which aired in November 1999 and is set in December 1999 and January 2000.
264** The episode "The Sixth Extinction II: Amor Fati", which aired in November 1999, features a flash-forward vision to the alien colonization of 2012.
265* NewYearsKiss: The episode "Millennium," taking place during the TurnOfTheMillennium, has [[spoiler:Mulder and Scully]] share their first kiss as the clock strikes midnight.
266* NoHuggingNoKissing: The show was famous for this early on, but even then it was oddly subverted in a few instances, and by around season 6 Mulder and Scully had become, uh, cuddly for platonic friends.
267* NoSenseOfPersonalSpace: Mulder in regards to Scully, as well as being quite affectionate. She is unnerved by it in the early seasons, but eventually gets used to it.
268* NoodleIncident: In season 2, it's revealed that Scully has a key to Mulder's apartment. How this came about is never discussed. It's not known whether Mulder has a key to her apartment.
269* NotLoveInterest: While it took them seven seasons to get around to making it official, for all intents and purposes Mulder and Scully were best friends/lovers/spouses since day one. It could even be argued that their bond transcended all three of those roles to become something more all-encompassing than most people ever experience. It certainly cannot be ''denied'' that they were the most important people in each others' lives almost since the first time Scully walked into Mulder's basement office.
270* NotOfThisEarth: The mysterious bacteria and virus, first appearing in "The Erlenmeyer Flask".
271-->'''Dr. Carpenter:''' A fifth and sixth DNA nucleotide. A new base pair. Agent Scully, what are you looking at... it exists nowhere in nature. It would have to be, by definition... extraterrestrial.
272* NotQuiteDead:
273** Mulder on more than one occasion.
274** Krycek, many times.
275** The Cigarette-Smoking Man in season 5 and again in season 7.
276*** And we find he survived [[spoiler: the airstike]] on his position at the end of Season 9.
277** Jeffrey Spender, presumed dead in season six but seen again in season nine.
278* ObstructiveBureaucrat: Practically everyone else in the FBI except for Skinner. In particular, Kersh and Follmer.
279* OccultDetective: Mulder and Scully investigate the paranormal.
280* OddCouple
281* OminousObsidianOoze: The Black Oil, a sapient parasitic mind-controlling goo used by the alien colonists to reproduce and take over the universe, it can often be found invading potential hosts through their eyes, mouth, nose or ears.
282* OmniscientCouncilOfVagueness: The mysterious and shady group called "Syndicate" effectively controls the world with various conspiracies.
283* OneSteveLimit: Averted -- there are at least four fairly important characters named William, three of whom go by the nickname Bill: Mulder's father, Scully's father, Scully's older brother, and [[spoiler:Baby William]]. ''And'' it's Mulder's middle name.
284* TheOnlyOneITrust: Mulder and Scully towards each other. No wonder they provide the page quote.
285* OrificeInvasion: Very common, most memorably in the form of the Black Oil.
286* OurCryptidsAreMoreMysterious: So many examples that the show may have ''started'' some cryptid legends.
287* OurHeroIsDead: Killing Mulder at the end of the season becomes almost traditional.
288* OurMonstersAreDifferent: Well, most of the time. The monster being investigated may be quite different from the traditional description, such as the Jersey Devil and the Tulpa.
289* ParanormalInvestigation
290* PlaguedByNightmares:
291** Mulder frequently has nightmares about his sister's abduction; it's probably the biggest reason he's an insomniac.
292** Both Mulder and Scully have nightmares about the other during their separate abductions. For Scully, they come so often and regularly that she panics when she ''stops'' having them, fearing that Mulder's death is the reason.
293* PlatonicLifePartners: Mulder and Scully [[spoiler:for the first five seasons]].
294* PoliceAreUseless: Zigzagged. Mulder and Scully are themselves police and extremely competent, hence an aversion. Other cops, be they local police or other FBI agents, can be all over the place: genuinely helpful, well-meaning but ineffectual, obstructive bureaucrats, or in cahoots with the Syndicate/Monster of the Week.
295* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: The Consortium as a whole. The upper levels seem to be composed entirely of older, upper-class white men. They also consistently failed to realize it was Mulder and Scully ''as partners'', not Mulder individually, who might pose a threat to their plans, thinking of Scully only as Mulder's BerserkButton when they could be bothered to notice her existence at all.
296* PornStash: It's a recurring joke that Mulder has one. Unusually for the trope, he makes no real attempt to keep it secret, and Scully doesn't seem to care beyond thinking it's kind of silly.
297-->'''Mulder:''' Whatever tape you found in that VCR? It isn't mine.\
298'''Scully:''' Don't worry, I put it in the drawer with all the other videos that aren't yours.
299* PowerOfTrust: "Trust no one" is a major recurring phrase in the show, but it's subtly ironic -- one of the show's main themes is the importance, in a world of lies and conspiracies, of having someone you can trust absolutely. Mulder and Scully spend so much time saying things like "You're the only one I trust," it became a common fandom joke that they were just using "trust" as a code word for "love".
300* PowersThatBe
301* PrisonersLastMeal: In "[[Recap/TheXFilesS01E13BeyondTheSea Beyond the Sea]]", SerialKiller Luther Lee Boggs sees the souls of his dead family, who he murdered, upon being delivered his last meal before being sent to the gas chamber.
302--> '''Boggs''': My family, who I killed after their last meal, was right there to watch me over mine. And their fear and their horror that I made them feel when I killed them was injected into me, and their collective fear alone was this ''long'' taste of Hell.
303* ProperlyParanoid: Practically the entire cast displays this behavior at some point. Yes, [[TheMenInBlack the Conspiracy]] is out to get them. So much so that everyone largely stops caring after a while. What Suzanne Modeski tells the Lone Gunmen could be the series' motto: "No matter how paranoid you are, you're not paranoid enough." This might, however, take paranoia to the point of kitsch.
304* PurelyAestheticGlasses: Both Mulder and Scully are seen wearing reading glasses occasionally in the early seasons.
305* RashomonStyle: Used to great comedic effect in [[Recap/TheXFilesS03E20JoseChungsFromOuterSpace season 3]] and later in [[Recap/TheXFilesS05E12BadBlood season 5]].
306* ReassignedToAntarctica: Mulder in season 2 after the X-Files were shut down, and both Mulder and Scully in season 6 when Fowley and Spender replaced them.
307* ReassignmentBackfire: Scully was pulled out of being a professor at Quantico to debunk Mulder's work on the X-Files. She is unable to do it and starts siding with him.
308%% RecycledScript is trivia and goes in the Trivia tab.
309* RedHerring: Red Herrings were used on the MythArc level as well in some standalone episodes. Several clues that appeared to be important to the mysteries the agents Mulder and Scully were supposed to unravel ultimately lead nowhere or were not simply addressed again.
310** The fate of Samantha Mulder was probably the biggest Red Herring of the series. Her abduction was a defining moment of Mulder's life as it triggered his belief in the paranormal and motivated his career at the FBI. Throughout the series, Mulder was tormented by her clones and reassurances that she's still alive. [[spoiler: However, it was revealed that she had been abducted by the conspiracy who had collaborated with the aliens. She was saved by some strange kind of fairies or angels which made her body disappear, meaning that her corpse will never be found, but Mulder did see her ghost.]]
311* RewindReplayRepeat: Happens frequently, usually when Mulder catches a glimpse of something in the footage that everyone else overlooked.
312* RoswellThatEndsWell
313* RubberMan: The series’ first MonsterOfTheWeek, Eugene Victor Tooms, is a rare variant played for horror. [[NightmareFuel It works.]]
314* SayMyName: The two leads do this an awful lot.
315* ScienceHero: Both of them, but more so Scully than Mulder.
316* ScoobyStack: Mulder and Scully do this in "The Post-Modern Prometheus" as a mother confronts her son about a tape recording.
317* SerialKiller: Several times. Most of them are horrifying. The most notable was Donnie Pfaster, who was a perfectly mundane SerialKiller who was really good at masking his evil.
318* ShadowGovernment: The Syndicate. They are the brains behind the GovernmentConspiracy that covers up alien activity, although the U.S, government proper has a vested interest in not alerting the public too. The Syndicate's goals however are far more sinister. They are in fact collaborators working ''with'' the aliens to help them colonize Earth in exchange for power. It is revealed that they started as a special task force to study alien sightings on Earth. But over a 20-year period, they came to believe that the aliens were unstoppable and that it was better to ally with them than fight them. Fox Mulder's father Bill was the lone member who dissented against this plan. At this point they broke off from the main federal government and used their connections and influence to keep all alien activity on Earth (and their evil plans) hidden. It was mentioned a couple of times (first in TheMovie (''Film/TheXFilesFightTheFuture'') and the second one during the first episode of Season 10/the Miniseries) that the Syndicate has various plans to take over the United States-one that which involves, among other things, an engineered crisis and FEMA using a part of its mandate for crisis management to supersede the government (after taking out the President and some others on the chain of succession).
319* ShapeShifting: The Alien Bounty Hunters and several monsters of the week.
320* SherlockScan: Mulder does this sometimes, being able to tell that the person he's interviewing happens to BE the monster of the week. It's often forgotten that Mulder acquired his reputation of "Spooky Mulder" from way before he got involved with the paranormal. Supposedly, his skill at quickly building detailed profiles was so good that people felt that it was "spooky", to the point that he had attracted the attention of senior FBI agents when he was still a cadet. However, after repeatedly getting dismissed for his outlandish theories he became less and less forthcoming with them unless it's to Scully, who feverishly does everything she can to debunk him.
321* ShipTease:
322** A lot for Scully and Mulder, although they were mostly relatively restrained about it until around season 6.
323** The writers were also very aware of other shippers in the fandom, including the [[SlashFic slash]] fans, and enjoyed throwing out occasional bones for the Scully×Skinner, Mulder×Skinner, and Mulder×Krycek crowds.
324* ShirtlessScene: Mulder was shirtless fairly often.
325* ShoutOut: Enough with [[ShoutOut/TheXFiles its own sub-page]]. And it's looong.
326%% please list Shout Outs at the sub-page.
327* SignatureItemClue: The ash from The Smoking Man's cigarettes have made it clear he's somehow involved a few times (one of the first being when it tipped Mulder off that he'd been in TheMole's car).
328* SinisterMinister: Common in the religiously-themed episodes.
329* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: Pretty far over on the cynical side... but not quite as far as it might appear at first. It's [[CrapsackWorld a world of dark conspiracies, betrayal, and lies, with monsters hiding in every shadow]], but there are two people in it who [[PowerOfTrust really can trust each other]], and that ''might'' [[EarnYourHappyEnding be enough]] to [[AWorldHalfFull make a difference]].
330* SpiritualSuccessor
331** To ''Series/KolchakTheNightStalker''. Several ''X-Files'' episodes are directly inspired by ''Kolchak'' episodes.
332** It also has much in common with ''The Omega Factor'', a 1979 [[Creator/TheBBC BBC Scotland]] drama about a psychic newspaperman and a physicist (''Series/DoctorWho'''s Creator/LouiseJameson) working for a government ParanormalInvestigation department. Said department is also infiltrated by a vast conspiracy organization with designs on world domination, through very different methods.
333** Has its own in ''Series/{{Fringe}}'', ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'', ''Series/{{Lost}}'', ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' and several other ParanormalInvestigation programs. ''Fringe'' in particular so closely resembled ''X-Files'' that it was criticized by fans as being a ripoff of the original.
334** It also influenced the mood and writing of less obviously related shows like ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' (which Joss Whedon described as ''Series/MySoCalledLife'' meets ''The X-Files''), ''Series/{{Alias}}'', ''Series/{{Bones}}'' and ''Series/EleventhHour''.
335* StartToCorpse: Varies, but episodes frequently opened with unfortunate victims dying in mysterious ways, so it was often pretty close to zero.
336* StatingTheSimpleSolution: The First Elder constantly suggests killing Mulder... only to be overruled by the other conspiracy members, who are either feeding him information or manipulating him for their purposes.
337* TheStormbringer: The "villain" of the week in "[[Recap/TheXFilesS06E08TheRainKing The Rain King]]" turns out to sit somewhere between conscious WeatherManipulation and this trope, in that he can control the weather quite well when he is calm and focused, but whenever he is emotionally distraught (such as due to unrequited love), the weather around him goes out of control (such as when he inadvertently summons a massive thunderstorm at the end of the episode, [[spoiler:which immediately dissipates when his crush agrees to go out with him]]).
338* StrappedToAnOperatingTable: Happens to both Mulder and Scully occasionally.
339* StrictlyProfessionalRelationship: Mulder and Scully slowly develop feelings for each other, but hold back on them for a while due to their professional partnership and close friendship.
340* SugarAndIcePersonality: Scully, as TheStoic, is very steely and distant with everyone, including her family. But with Mulder, she's a lot more relaxed and emotionally open.
341* SuperSoldier: A new MythArc element added in season 9.
342* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: Besides the general skepticism Mulder and Scully encounter, a few specific episodes show how difficult it would actually be to make criminal charges stick against villains with paranormal powers.
343** In "Tooms," we learn that the title character was jailed only for assaulting Scully at the end of "Squeeze," because there was no way to directly pin the murders he committed on him. Mulder tries to explain Tooms' methods and motives in his parole hearing and is practically laughed out of the courtroom, resulting in Tooms' release.
344** In "The Host," Skinner mentions that the Flukeman has been imprisoned and that a local district attorney wants to prosecute him for murder after performing a psychiatric evaluation. This time, ''Mulder'' points out that the Flukeman isn't actually human and it's ridiculous to treat him that way.
345** In "Pusher," the FBI arrests Modell after he becomes exhausted from overusing his psychic powers. The next scene shows Modell at a preliminary hearing, where his lawyer notes how absurd it is to prosecute him based on claims of psychic ability. The only reason it gets even ''that'' far is Modell's confession to Agent Burst, which he explains in court as a drunken prank. Even before Modell "puts the whammy" on the Judge, Mulder and the prosecutors are clearly not getting anywhere with their counterarguments.
346* SurveillanceAsThePlotDemands: Just assume the Conspiracy is always spying on everything.
347* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: Carefully and consistently averted.
348** X was very different from Deep Throat, replacing grandfatherly benevolence with deadly pragmatism.
349** Marita, X's replacement, was quite different from either of her predecessors and turned out to be a [[TheMole mole]] to boot.
350** Doggett and Reyes were very different from Mulder and Scully, replacing the Absolute Believer/Healthy Skeptic dichotomy with Absolute Skeptic/Open-Minded, and replacing Mulder and Scully's relationship with a more conventional gender dynamic. While they become close, they're never as [[LivingEmotionalCrutch emotionally dependent on each other]] as Mulder and Scully could be [[spoiler:even before they were romantically involved]], and they're on a FirstNameBasis right from the start.
351* SympatheticMurderer: Very common. You're usually supposed to feel at least some degree of sympathy for the monster/antagonist, even if Mulder and Scully end up having to kill it.
352** A very good example is Rob in the episode "Hungry." He's a NiceGuy who has the biological need to eat human brains (it seems to be the only thing he can eat) but he hates himself for it and tries to keep it at bay as long as possible through sheer willpower and appetite suppressant pills. When he does kill, it's only because he's literally starving and can't control his appetite anymore, and [[IAmAMonster he considers himself a monster as a result.]] It's the one time that you wish Mulder and Scully would just leave the guy alone, especially since once you see the two of them through someone else's eyes, it's clear that Mulder can be outlandishly dickish to whoever he suspects, almost to the point of sadism, and Scully just lets him say whatever he wants.
353* TakenDuringTheEnding: [[spoiler:Scully herself is taken in the final moments of Season 2's "Duane Berry", kidnapped by the titular person of interest; this sets off a several-episode-long story arc, as Scully is abducted by aliens and is missing for the next several episodes]].
354* ThereAreNoTherapists: Interestingly averted in the earlier seasons, at least for Scully. She sees a therapist a few times after her abduction in season two.
355* TheyLookJustLikeEveryoneElse: One of the most horrifying monsters in the series, Donnie Pfaster, is a handsome, charming young man who is actually a necrophiliac SerialKiller.
356* ToBeContinued: They had several two-parters and trilogies. Some mythology stories ended with this as well, and the next episode would be a standalone one.
357* ToiletHumour: Unfortunately. Mulder would often make not very tasteful jokes about hemorrhoids and similar things.
358* TheTopicOfCancer: Scully almost died of alien-induced cancer. Other abductees were not as lucky.
359* TrademarkFavoriteFood: Mulder loves munching on sunflower seeds.
360* TragicKeepsake: Scully always wears a small gold cross necklace. When she's [[AlienAbduction abducted]] near the beginning of season 2, it's torn off, and Mulder wears it himself for the three months she's missing. It shows up a few more times when they're separated as a symbol of their bond: Mulder finds it again when he's tracking down Scully in [[Film/TheXFilesFightTheFuture the first movie]], and [[TheLadysFavor she gave it to him to wear before he went off alone]] and got himself [[PutOnABus abducted]] at the end of season 7.
361** In Season 10, Scully begins to wear a necklace made from an old quarter that her [[spoiler: mother was wearing when she died]].
362* TrueLoveIsExceptional
363* {{Tuckerization}}: Many character names, some of them are listed in the Shout Out sub-page. For starters, Mulder is the maiden name of Carter's mom, and Scully and Doggett [[NamedAfterSomebodyFamous come from Dodgers broadcasters, Vin Scully and Jerry Doggett]].
364* TurnCoat: It's a show about conspiracies, so there are lots of these.
365[[/folder]]
366
367[[folder:U-Z]]
368* UhOhEyes: The monsters' eyes sometimes indicated the level of their evil.
369* {{Ultraterrestrials}}: A key part of the MythArc -- [[spoiler:the "aliens" are Earth's original native inhabitants, who've returned from a leave of absence]].
370* UndyingLoyalty: Mulder and Scully's loyalty to each other transcends time, space, and apparent death, among other things.
371* UnguidedLabTour: Comes up a couple of times, though they usually aren't so much secret ''labs'' as academic or government labs doing secret ''things''.
372* UnseenPenPal: One episode features a charming "fat-sucking vampire" who would lure lonely, [[HollywoodPudgy overweight-by-Hollywood-standards]] women out to secluded areas to feed upon their fat cells.
373* TheUnReveal
374* UnresolvedSexualTension: Guess who? (The term originated in online ''X-Files'' fandom.)
375* TheVirus: Exaggerated at the end of [[spoiler: Season 10]].
376* VirusAndCureNames: [[Recap/TheXFilesS01E24TheErlenmeyerFlask "The Erlenmeyer Flask"]] introduces the infectious, alien form Purity, also known as black oil. The same episode gives a putative name --Purity Control-- to the vaccine that wouldn't be developed until several episodes later.
377* VoluntaryShapeshifting: Various baddies, but the most prominent example is the Alien Bounty Hunter, a recurring antagonist. He's an extraterrestrial assassin and can look like anyone.
378* WaitHere: Any time Mulder drops one of these on Scully, you can rest assured that the MonsterOfTheWeek or other paranormal phenomenon is about to make an appearance and poor Mulder will have nobody around to verify his account. It doesn't always result in one of them being taken hostage but often does.
379* WardensAreEvil: Warden Brodeur from "The List" is a corrupt jerk who abuses his authority, has prisoners beaten daily to "maintain order", and has two prisoners beaten to death out of petty spite.
380* WellIntentionedExtremist: [[spoiler:The Syndicate.]]
381* WhamEpisode: The show was quite fond of these.
382* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Nobody knows the fate of agent Doggett after he helps Mulder and Scully escape at the end of season 9.
383* WhyDontYouJustShootHim: Even disregarding the rather questionable justification for the bad guys not simply offing Mulder as they've done with so many other people (that Mulder would become a martyr), they don't even seem to try to discredit him that much.
384* WhosYourDaddy: A major plot point in season 8.
385* WorldOfSnark: Everyone is a DeadpanSnarker, especially Mulder, Scully, and Skinner.
386* WrittenInAbsence: Scully's [[AlienAbduction abduction]] -- an event that would go on to shape the entire MythArc, as well as Mulder and Scully's relationship and CharacterDevelopment throughout the rest of the show -- was written in simply to get Gillian Anderson out of the way while she was heavily pregnant in RealLife.
387* XMakesAnythingCool
388** "The X-Files" sound way better than "the U-Files". They might have been called that for "unsolved" but weren't thanks to the filing system at the FBI in the '50s.
389-->'''Clerk Bahnsen:''' It's in an X-file.\
390'''Agent Dales:''' An "X-file"?\
391'''Clerk Bahnsen:''' Yes, unsolved cases. I file them under "X".\
392'''Agent Dales:''' Why don't you file them under "U" for "unsolved"?\
393'''Clerk Bahnsen:''' That's what I did until I ran out of room. Plenty of room in the "X"s.
394** Mr. X, Mulder's second MysteriousInformant.
395* YouAreAlreadyCheckedIn: In the episode "Synchrony", Mulder is helping a scientist whose much older future self has travelled back in time to prevent his past self from causing the terrible future he came from (though the scientist is understandably very sceptical about the whole story). When Mulder and the scientist go to investigate the laboratory the scientist works at, the scientist checks in at security via a hand-print scanner, and the guard tells him that he has already logged in some time ago. The scientist is of course confused by this, but Mulder quickly puts two and two together and realizes the man's future self is already in the building.
396[[/folder]]
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