Saturday, January 16, 2016

Mulder's Many Fathers

In anticipation of the upcoming revival of The X-Files starting soon, an article I wrote years ago will be reprinted here. During the height of the show, when the Internet was still mostly a work in progress, I participated on an early message board,   One of my lengthy comments garnered some interest from an amateur fan magazine. They asked if they could publish my thoughts and I gave them permission. The only pay was receiving a copy of the magazine, where I was happy to just see my words in print. The Canadian  fan magazine Jigsaw stopped publishing many years ago. Here is the first of two articles of mine they published. A few clarifying  and updated changes have been made.

From the beginning, Fox Mulder has had an informant helping him. Deep Throat was first introduced in the second episode (which is named after him). The role of informant has been filled by someone ever since.  All of them have one thing in common; They seem to represent a commanding force that shapes who Mulder becomes as an investigator. Other informants are shades of what Deep Throat started out as.  At least one of these characters actually transforms into Fox's real father. It is because of this role of influence that I consider them fathers to Mulder.

Deep Throat was a reasonably friendly gentleman to Mulder who directed him to follow on information quests. He was a favorite informant among many X-Files fans. His approach to Mulder was not rushed like most of the other informants. When he was rushed, it was only to keep the truth from disappearing, and not for his own safety. His clues to Mulder -- and the viewer --  became an incentive for him to continue on his investigations. When Mulder was on the  brink of giving up on a case, Deep Throat showed up to usher him to continue.