This is a summary page for the characters from The X-Files.
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F.B.I.
Agent Fox Mulder
Formerly a renowned profiler, he became something of a joke at the Bureau when he started to pursue an obscure side project known only as the "X files", but he soon drew attention from more sinister quarters...
Ambiguously Jewish: On more than one occasion, antisemites accuse him of looking Jewish; Mulder always refuses to answer. (What we know about his family background makes it somewhat unlikely that he actually is.)
Anyone Can Die: For, like, two episodes in season 8. Oh, and at the end of season 2. There's probably one or two more examples over the show's run. Mulder dies kind of a lot, actually.
Gut Feeling: His success as an investigator often comes from bizarre leaps of intuition that usually turn out to be correct. Frequently verges on Bat Deduction.
Put on a Bus: Well, a spaceship for a while, and afterward he was on the run.
Saw Star Wars 27 Times: Confesses to having sat through Plan 9 from Outer Space 42 times. He claims that the sheer badness of the film numbs his brain, allowing him to make intuitive leaps and solve problems that have him stumped.
What the Hell, Hero?: He got this several times in the first four seasons ("Paper Hearts" is perhaps the best example), mostly from Scully and sometimes Skinner. After that he managed to get a better grip on his issues.
Agent Dana Scully
A forensic pathologist with a background in physics, she was assigned to work with Mulder ostensibly in order to use her scientific knowledge debunk his work; however, she was less predictable than the conspiracy had hoped.
Adrenaline Makeover: At the beginning of the show she's painfully serious and strait-laced, and seems to have terrible fashion sense. By the end she's still reserved, but has loosened up quite a bit and is dressing a lot better as well.
All Girls Want Bad Boys: Has an amazing talent for picking guys who turn out to be messed up in the head and often outright psycho. Mulder is probably the most stable person she's ever been with, and that's saying a lot.
Bad Liar: It's not that the lies she comes up with are ridiculous, she's just so naturally honest that her discomfort is very obvious whenever she tries to lie.
Chew Toy: Scully has a tendency to get beaten up quite a bit.
The Chosen One: It's implied throughout many of the religious-themed episodes that God had some sort of special destiny in mind for her, and that this is why she survived so many things that should have killed her and even gained immortality in Tithonus. However she appears to have botched it in Orison when she gave in to her desire for revenge against Donnie Pfaster.
Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: Mulder isn't quite a Cloudcuckoolander in the usual sense (though he comes across that way to lots of people in-universe), but Scully has the traditional role of stopping him from doing stupid reckless things, putting together the actual evidence to support his weird leaps of intuition, explaining and defending his crazy ideas to other people, etc.
Combat Stilettos: She wears heels nearly all the time, no matter how much running and shooting she expects to need to do. Of course, when you're a five foot two FBI agent every inch probably helps.
Fiery Redhead: Nearly inverted. It's true you don't want to get her really mad, but most of the time she hardly shows emotion at all; she rarely so much as smiles, especially in the early seasons.
Immortality: There are a few odd references to the idea that Scully will never die scattered across multiple episodes, most notably "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose" and "Tithonus".
Medical Rape and Impregnate: It's eventually implied that something along these lines (but involving alien tech and probably extraterrestrial DNA) happened to Scully during her abduction early in season 2.
Military Brat: Her father was in the Navy, as is her elder brother.
Ms. Fanservice: Averted. FOX was reluctant to cast Gillian Anderson as a lead, saying they wanted someone who'd look better in a swimsuit. Chris Carter informed them that Scully would not be wearing any swimsuits.
Assigned to work with Mulder when the X-Files were closed in Season 2. He was eventually revealed as a double agent and reappeared throughout the series in various shades of villainy.
Hazy Feel Turn: It's always pretty clear that he's not a good guy, but he constantly switches between different bad guy factions, and his interests occasionally even coincide with those of Mulder and Scully, resulting in brief Enemy Mine situations.
Hellbent For Leather: Usually wears a leather jacket, though thanks to the beatings he often takes, it's rarely the same one from episode to episode.
The Mole: When he's introduced, although it doesn't last long before his cover's blown.
Obfuscating Incompetence: Pay attention to his episodes and you'll realize he actually gets away with a lot more than he appears to. A perfect example would be "Tunguska", where he was the one who hired the Russian assassin who (temporarily) royally screwed up the Syndicate's plans.
Russian Guy Suffers Most: His parents were Cold War immigrants. (If he was being honest for once when he said that. He is fluent in Russian, though.)
Mulder's ex-lover and former partner. With Agent Jeffery Spender, replaces Mulder and Scully on the X-Files when they get reassigned in season 6.
Birds of a Feather: She suggests to Mulder that maybe instead of Scully he'd prefer a partner who was more open-minded toward the paranormal...like herself. He wouldn't.
Heel Face Turn: At the end of the sixth season, she betrays the Cigarette-Smoking Man, giving Scully a book that can save Mulder.
The Mole: Scully suspects she's working for the conspiracy pretty early on; Mulder still considers her a friend and believes in her. They're both right.
Psycho Ex-Girlfriend: The psycho part is not obvious until "The Sixth Extinction," where she visits Mulder, who's confined in a psychiatric hospital and being Mind Raped by psychic influence from an alien artifact, and makes a speech that can be summed up as "I've always loved you, Fox, and now that you're in five-point restraints we can finally be together."
Romantic False Lead: Seemed to exist mainly for the purpose of teasing the fans and making Scully jealous. (Mulder gave little sign of still having anything but platonic feelings toward her, however, although she was clearly carrying a torch for him.)
Agent Jeffrey Spender
Assigned to the X-Files as Agent Fowley's partner when they replace Mulder and Scully on the X-Files at the beginning of season 6. Mulder's half-brother, fathered by the Cigarette Smoking Man.
Always Second Best: Their own father informed him he's just not as cool as Mulder.
Genki Girl: By the standards of this show, anyway. She's by far the most cheerful of the major characters.
Happily Adopted: One of the reasons she speaks fluent Spanish, which comes in handy from time to time.
If Jesus Then Aliens: One of the points that distinguishes her belief in the paranormal from Mulder's is that she believes in the spiritual, New Agey stuff as well as the aliens and pseudoscience.
UST: Hinted to be with Doggett in the later episodes of season 9.
Others
The Lone Gunmen
An unlikely trio of conspiracy theorists who publish an underground newsletter called The Magic Bullet. Old friends of Mulder's, they occasionally show up to help out Mulder and Scully, usually by doing research (as well as providing comic relief).Late in the show's run, the Gunmen received their own short-lived spinoff series.
Your Cheating Heart: Teena was having an affair with the Cigarette Smoking Man.
The Conspiracy
The Syndicate
A mysterious and sinister group who essentially rule the world from behind the scenes. They're determined to conceal the existence of extraterrestrial life from humanity by any means necessary, but their motivation and ultimate goals remain unclear for much of the series.Despite the name, not actually an example of The Syndicate. The term is actually rarely used on the show, so you'll often see fans referring to them as "the Consortium" or just "the Conspiracy."
The Adjectival Man: Members are listed in the show's credits as "Black-Haired Man," "First Elder," and the like.
The closest thing the show has to a main villain, a constantly chain-smoking older man who skulks around being ominous. He's clearly associated with the grand government conspiracy Mulder and Scully are trying to uncover, but little is known about what he's really up to for quite a while.
The Atoner: He claims to be one in "En Ami." Ultimately it's implied that while he might have some desire for redemption, it's only in the self-indulgent way where he doesn't want it enough to actually change.
Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: He's responsible for the assassination of at least one democratically elected world leader, the abduction, medical rape and torture of hundreds or thousands of individuals, and making sure the Buffalo Bills never win a Superbowl. Supposedly.
Ascended Extra: Was originally intended to be just a mysterious figure holding a cigarette. Fortunately the actor was able to rise to the occasion when his role expanded.
Fan Nickname: Cancer Man. (Mulder and Scully each called him that exactly once, but the fans picked it up and ran with it.)
Faux Affably Evil: He tries to pass himself off as Affably Evil, telling both Mulder and Scully that he likes them on more than one occasion. They never buy it.
A British gentleman who's one of the less overtly malevolent members of the conspiracy. His Code Name is never actually used in the show, but appears in the end credits (as with several other Syndicate members).
Mulder's third informant. Her day job is Special Representative to the Secretary General of the United Nations, but she also has ties to the Syndicate.
Fate Worse than Death: Used by the Syndicate for human experimentation as a punishment, after they figure out she was working against them.
A murderer on death row who claimed to be a psychic and claimed that he could help Mulder and Scully in catching a serial killer. Appeared in "Beyond the Sea".
Formerly a renowned profiler, he became something of a joke at the Bureau when he started to pursue an obscure side project known only as the "X files", but he soon drew attention from more sinister quarters...
A forensic pathologist with a background in physics, she was assigned to work with Mulder ostensibly in order to use her scientific knowledge debunk his work; however, she was less predictable than the conspiracy had hoped.
An unlikely trio of conspiracy theorists who publish an underground newsletter called The Magic Bullet. Old friends of Mulder's, they occasionally show up to help out Mulder and Scully, usually by doing research (as well as providing comic relief).Late in the show's run, the Gunmen received their own short-lived spinoff series.
The closest thing the show has to a main villain, a constantly chain-smoking older man who skulks around being ominous. He's clearly associated with the grand government conspiracy Mulder and Scully are trying to uncover, but little is known about what he's really up to for quite a while.