The duo of Mulder and Scully has become nearly as immortal and iconic as The X-Files itself. Their dynamic created one of TV’s most influential procedurals, leading to a debate between faith and science that has been continued by the likes of Lost and The Leftovers.

Even more than Scully, David Duchovny’s Mulder anchored the show as his relentless pursuit of the “truth” led to the creation of the X-Files and kept the department alive despite the skepticism of the entire FBI. By the end of season 7, he had become seemingly inseparable from The X-Files​​​​​.

Yet beginning with season 8, Duchovny began taking space from The X-Files, leaving the hit show to go on without him. Amazingly, The X-Files didn’t join the ranks of shows that failed to go on without their main character. Instead, Gillian Anderson’s Scully thrived on her own while the show introduced two brand-new characters who further proved that The X-Files could go on without Mulder.

That’s not to say that the later seasons of The X-Files didn’t get into trouble. However, that trouble came from the fact that Duchovny and Mulder didn’t make a clean break from the show. Though his appearances became increasingly few and far between as the show went into season 9, Mulder’s presence loomed heavily over the story, robbing the new cast of the opportunity to truly settle into their roles.

The X-Files Was In Good Hands With Doggett And Reyes

As the conspiracy around Mulder and Scully grew increasingly convoluted and dangerous, an important element of their relationship was their ability to trust one another implicitly. Establishing that foundation with someone new was the biggest challenge facing John Doggett, Scully’s new partner in the wake of Mulder’s abduction at the end of season 7.

Yet Doggett not only proved himself as a trustworthy partner, but he brought out a new and compelling side of Scully. Though he trusted Scully implicitly and largely followed her instincts, he was often incapable of wrapping his head around the paranormal elements of their cases. This pushed Scully into the “Mulder” role of insisting on the less rational explanations of their investigations.

By inverting Scully’s position, The X-Files kept its balance of skepticism and belief without simply inserting a Mulder replacement character. By the time Mulder and Doggett met, Scully could accurately say that “Agent Doggett is beyond reproach.”

Even when Scully’s role inexplicably evolved into something of an X-Files consultant to Doggett and his new partner, Monica Reyes, the show proved that it could completely reinvent The X-Files duo without losing the heart of the show.

Doggett and Reyes had a similar bond of implicit trust, but they had an even deeper history than Mulder and Scully, making their survival just as important as The X-Files’ original partnership. Additionally, Reyes offered yet another perspective on the paranormal that kept the show fresh ahead of the original run’s final season.

Reyes wasn’t black and white in her interpretation of their investigations. She took each case as it came, following the clues and her intuition, which sometimes led her to a paranormal explanation and other times not. Her open mind forced Doggett to open his as well, and their work on the X-Files was an endeavor devoid of ego, quests, or anything to prove.

Interpersonally, Scully folded naturally into their dynamic, forming something of a trio that worked surprisingly well. This iteration of The X-Files could have gone on for many more seasons, had Mulder’s sporadic appearances not disrupted their rhythm and forced a hasty conclusion to the show’s overarching “mytharc.“

Mulder Wasn’t Always An Asset To The X-Files

The partnership of Scully and Doggett instantly highlighted the less-than-professional aspects of Scully and Mulder’s dynamic. For starters, Scully went without a desk for seven years, with Mulder hardly noticing even when Scully brought it to his attention. It only took Doggett a few episodes to ask Scully where she sat.

By forcing Scully to take Mulder’s place as the team’s resident believer, the show also depicted how both Mulder and Scully brought out the more combative sides of each other in their respective roles. Scully and Doggett felt like true partners, and though Doggett often deferred to Scully, that felt like his own choice rather than something that was forced upon Scully when Mulder constantly went rogue.

In “Roadrunners,” an early season 8 episode, Scully impulsively followed a lead on her own, leaving Doggett in the dark, only to shortly need him to find her and save her life. This was exactly the type of behavior Mulder exhibited over and over again in The X-Files’ first seven seasons, but after doing it just once, Scully apologized to Doggett and ensured it wouldn’t happen again.

The respect and professionalism between Scully and Doggett proved to be much better for their work than the intense intimacy that formed between Mulder and Scully.

When it came to the strength of the show itself, Mulder’s sporadic appearances in seasons 8 and 9 essentially put Doggett and Reyes’ stories on hold as The X-Files tried to cram several episodes’ worth of plot into Mulder’s limited screen time. This was especially notable in the revival seasons, which essentially ignored the impressive work the show had done in establishing its solid newcomers.

Doggett didn’t appear at all in The X-Files seasons 10 and 11, while Reyes’ small role involved her having become a forced crony of the Cigarette Smoking Man, a trajectory that did a disservice to the character’s strength and integrity. Instead, the show marveled at having David Duchovny back full-time, though after so much time apart, his presence wasn’t as crucial to The X-Files as it once was.

Release Date

1993 – 2018-00-00

Network

FOX

Showrunner

Chris Carter

Directors

Rob Bowman, David Nutter, R. W. Goodwin, Michael W. Watkins, Tony Wharmby, Daniel Sackheim, Michael Lange, Cliff Bole, David Duchovny, Jim Charleston, James Wong, Peter Markle, Rod Hardy, Thomas J. Wright, William A. Graham, Jerrold Freedman, Joe Napolitano, Kevin Hooks, Larry Shaw, Richard Compton, Tucker Gates, Allen Coulter, Barry K. Thomas, Brett Dowler

Writers

jeffrey bell, Frank Spotnitz, Howard Gordon, David Amann, Darin Morgan, Steven Maeda, Greg Walker, Chris Ruppenthal, Kim Newton, Paul Brown, Sara B. Cooper, Thomas Schnauz, Tim Minear, William Gibson, Jeff Vlaming, Charles Grant Craig, Chip Johannessen, Chris Brancato, Daniel Arkin, Gillian Anderson, Jessica Scott, Jim Guttridge, Kenneth Biller, Larry Barber