#jewish mulder

[singeart]

Happy Hannukah!! ✡️✨🕎

detail shots under the cut:

[fmluder24]

The Birthday of the Trees

Summary:

Mulder wanders an orchard in New Mexico in search of evidence of a colony of jackalope.

This is Part 2 of my "Cathedrals in Time" series where I do a Mulder/MSR fic for each Jewish holiday in 2025. This is the Tu B'Shvat fic (The Birthday of Trees). It's a stand-alone so you do not need to have read the Chanukah fic to follow. Text below the cut.

Chag Sameach.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/63000220

Mulder can spy the sky through the thin branches of the pecan trees that surrounded him. It is a cloudy day, and the sky is almost white with clouds, rather than grey.

The air is dry and cool. This far south in New Mexico doesn’t really get cold, not like it does up north anyway, even in winter, and now that the tease of spring is on the horizon, Mulder has his coat open.

He walks along between the trees in the orchard, examining the ground for little paw prints. The ground is dry this time of year and he has to examine closely to see if the dust has been disturbed.

There it is, thin and three-toed, a series of four and half stamps on the cold hard earth. He walks softly now, fumbling for the camera. He harbors no illusions that he will be able to capture the famed jackalope, but at least a photograph will offer him a little satisfaction. Perhaps even the opportunity to convince the ever skeptical Dana Scully.

He has been at this for a few hours now, wandering the small orchard whose owner has insisted he has seen a small colony of jackalope. Of course, the man might have been pulling Mulder’s leg. No doubt that is the interpretation Scully would have. But Mulder has always had a faith in his fellow man, despite frequent evidence to the contrary. Scully may have her faith in God in spite of the what is obvious to Mulder— that they live at the whim of a power, or perhaps powers, that are far from benign, but Mulder has faith in other people in spite of what is obvious to Scully— that there are people out there who take advantage of one another.

Mulder can’t think of a single reason why this man would have emailed him faking evidence of a jackalope warren in his backyard. He hasn’t asked Mulder for any money. The only possible motivation he might have to fake such a thing is attention, but who doesn’t want a little attention now and then?

Mulder sighs and decides to rest his aching legs, sitting beneath one of the trees and closing his eyes. He relishes the pressure of the tree beneath his back, thinking of summers in Martha’s Vineyard with Samantha. They would play outside for hours and hours, only begrudgingly coming in when dusk settled in in earnest. It’s easy to forget when he lives in the city, when his life is a constant stream of plane rides and car rentals in search of the answer to a question he has begun to forget, but he loves trees. Not really hiking, or even the outdoors, but just trees. Perhaps it’s precisely from those memories with Samantha, but there’s something so soothing about this time of year, perched on the edge of spring, where the rebirth of trees is just around the corner.

He opens his eyes, wondering if it’s time to make his way back to the man’s house where he has parked his car. A few paw prints are nothing to write home about. Maybe jackalope hibernate this time of year, for all he knows. But as he gets to his feet he sees some movement out of the corner of his eye. A small furry something has darted across the path and beneath the trunk of a dead tree. He slowly picks up his camera and tries to move as quietly as he can towards the small hole.

He waits. And waits. Finger on the trigger of the camera. His legs protest at the position in which he is crouching, but he ignores them.

Dusk is starting to settle when the jackalope emerges. Hazel Ra, crowned with antlers.

His nose and ears twitch, inspecting the surroundings for food and for predators.

Mulder holds his breath, surprised that the little creature is so close to him. He reaches in his pocket for the handful of grapes he has been carrying all day, placing them gently on the ground in front of him. The little jackalope inches forward, sniffing cautiously. It can’t weigh more than three pounds, although its head of antlers is formidable for its size. Jackalope must have well developed neck muscles. He wonders if this is a male jackalope, or if the unorthodox perspective that female jackalopes are the ones with the antlers is correct after all. He’s pretty sure he won’t be lucky enough to get the chance to check.

Mulder wonders at why the animal is getting so close. Perhaps jackalope aren’t at the bottom of the food chain, as most cryptozoologists presume. Perhaps they live securely in their communities, protecting each other via their antlers, knowing little of the violence the world visits on most small creatures. Or, perhaps he has run into an overly trusting jackalope.

The jackalope begins to gnaw at the grape, and Mulder nervously fumbles with his camera, aiming it as steadily as he can. When he has the jackalope in his sights, he presses down on the little button. The jackalope’s ears twitch forward at the sound and he freezes.

Mulder curses under his breath and the jackalope darts for the safety of the warren. Mulder’s knees creak as he stands, putting the small camera back in his coat pocket.

Night has properly fallen by the time he reaches his car. As he is driving down the small winding roads, keeping an eye out for the large wild boars called javelinas that apparently are driving hazards in this part of the country, his cell phone rings.

It’s her and he knows that it’s her on the first ring. He loves the sound of her voice. Despite the fact that she’s telling him that he was wrong again. In fact, maybe it’s made even better by the fact that she’s telling him that he was wrong again. He wouldn’t know what to do with a Scully that agreed with him.

He will show her the picture and she will puzzle over it, even if it is as clear as he hopes it will be. She will examine it, take it to her lab, ask him if he was drunk or high or just how dark it was. Doubt that he in fact took the photo, despite what he says. Lecture him on the Shope papilloma virus, and the growths that disease causes on rabbits, despite the fact that these are clearly antlers and not viral growths. She will expound on this being a freak aberration of a rabbit, not at all indicative of the existence of a previously unconfirmed species. She will suck her teeth and roll her eyes and call him crazy. But for just a split second, when he first shows her the photo, her eyebrows will rise, and she will believe.

[leiascully]

Fic: who shall rest and who shall wander

980 words; post-revival; g for gentle; soft and Jewish

Mulder doesn't remember the last time he celebrated Rosh Hashanah.  He doesn't go to the synagogue, but he sits Gracie on the counter as he peels and cuts apples.  She kicks her little feet against the cabinets and he passes her apple slices.  Enough will make it into the cake.  He likes feeding his child.  She grows and thrives, all auburn curls and inquisitive green eyes, and it soothes just a little of the ache Emily left.  He never had the chance to nourish his other children.  If William - Jackson - survived or thrived, it wasn't on his account. But Grace's cheeks are round and her limbs are strong and he is so grateful he doesn't know what to do with all that he feels.

He could go to the synagogue.  He's sure there are any number of them in the greater DC area, maybe even a congregation that would take in a lapsed atheist whose memories of services flicker like a havdalah candle.  No doubt his therapist would tease out some thread woven deep into his consciousness: an image of his mother with her hand cupped over her eyes, the rich smell of challah and the taste of wine.  A moment of peace, a moment of fear; letters on a page he traced but could not read.  Maybe that's the root of his love for the mysterious and the unknowable.  

Gracie asks to get down.  When he complies, she scampers off with a basket of books to tuck herself into her favorite Gracie-sized chair, her own little rocker on the front porch.  It's a pretty day.  He watches her through the window as she flips through her books and chatters to herself.  It is a perfect moment, wholly beautiful.  Holy.  Beautiful.

He pulls out his phone and brings up a recording of the only prayer he can remember.  Avinu Malkeinu plays, tinny and thin, his phone's speakers not doing justice to the timbre of the singer's voice.  It is mournful, soaring.  The tune sounds familiar, as if it's been in his dreams or his bones all these years, half-remembered.  Something about sin, something about forgiveness: the same song he's sung all his life, transcribing himself into a minor key.  Mulder chops the apples small, tips them into a bowl with lemon and honey and cinnamon, leaves them to sit.  Let them soak in the sweetness.  He has been allowing himself the same luxury, these past few years.

For the first time, he opens a recipe for challah.  The dough is soft and sticky.  He calls Grace back in, gives her a blob of it, teaches her to knead as if he didn't learn it from a YouTube video five minutes ago.  Under her hands, it transforms into a mess that covers the counter, her face, and her hands.  But the dough in the mixer bowl becomes round and taut, a thing all its own.  He believes that it will grow and transform in the bright warmth of a sunbeam.  He believes that he has made something good and nourishing.  He believes that he can, now.  It took years.

They leave the dough to rise and he takes Gracie down to the creek.  They gather pebbles on the way.  He cups his hands to receive Gracie's selections, and she fills them.  There are enough pebbles for her to fling four little fistfuls, with a few left over for him.  They patter on the water.  Tiny fish flicker away.  He doesn't know what to say or how to explain it to Gracie, but he feels lighter, after.  L'dor v'dor: a small gift from the grandmother Grace will never meet.  He is free to rewrite his parents' legacy for her, to give her only the wheat and let the chaff blow away.  She will inherit a stranger world, but she has her mother's good sense.  He consoles himself with the notion that they did all they could to make sure there was any world for her at all.  When she gets tired, he hoists her onto his shoulders.  The tall grass in the field has gone from green to golden when he wasn't looking.  It shifts in the wind with a hissing like the sea, and Grace watches the horizon, beyond and beyond.  

When they get back to the house, he listens to Leonard Cohen.  They have been through fire and water, through high ordeal and common trial.  Gracie colors at the table.  Apple cake, in its nascent state, holds no interest for her since she isn't allowed to eat the batter, but she likes plunging her fist into the quivering mass of the challah dough.  It consumes her arm almost to the elbow; she laughs and makes a face and both things remind him so much of Scully that his heart squeezes.  The mixer whirs, whirling the cake batter together.  Mulder braids the challah the way he used to braid Samatha's hair and coils it into a round loaf.  He leaves it to rise again under its tea towel.  Good things take time.

The house smells amazing by the time Scully gets home.  The brisket emerges from the slow cooker in shreds, dripping jus.  Mulder serves it to his beautiful girls alongside a tangled wedge of potato kugel.  There's a kale salad for the adults, accented with more apples and some pickled beets, and peas for Grace, which she picks up one by one with her little plastic fork.   

"What did we learn today?" Mulder asks.

"Shana tova!" Grace declares through a mouthful of challah.  They didn't say the right words over it, but Mulder feels like he prayed.  The flames of the candles on the table are as steady as Scully's gaze, as steady as the warmth that blooms inside him.

"We're going to have a sweet year," Mulder promises, and that's a prayer too.  

Scully tilts her head.  She sips at her wine.  "I believe you," she says, and takes his hand.  

[waxworkdaughter]

i keep thinking about the lines from Vince Gilligan's Drive script, the antisemitic conspiracy theorist with the pressurized head demands to know if Mulder is Jewish and if Mulder is a Jewish name, and Mulder says, "Yes, I am, and no it's not," plus there's the fact that he was buried unembalmed, which made his resurrection possible in DeadAlive, plus DD's statement that he'd decided Mulder was Jewish and to play him that way unless told to do otherwise, so despite the messy parts of the Kaddish script and other culturally 'Christian Athist' Mulder moments in the writing (most likely because of how little cultural awareness there is about the difference in Christian vs Jewish theism that it bleeds through everywhere), I do think there was a conscious positioning of the Mulder character as Jewish Adjacent via his mother + complicated by his WASPy father's domination of the family...

But they wrote that without any specific research or much accommodation for the implications of keeping him tied up with alien conspiracy plots and eugenics plot. Yet! Mulder was always on the 'fighting it' side, and the power hoarding conspiracists were all signalled to be rich WASPy conservative men, all but one of whom were White.

Also early the 90s independent internet fringe conspiracy theorists, i.e. the Lone Gunmen, Max and others shown to be allied with Mulder, weren't the radical right wing fasch of the last 10-15 years, and in the context of the show don't carry the same strange implication of 'an ethnically Jewish person surrounding himself with conspiracy theorists' would in the present day. I do get the sense that they were radical left instead -- that doesn't necessarily leave out the antisemitism part, of course so it's not un-complicated, of course. (And though I suppose i should feel grateful that CC made Mulder's son a fish mutant and not a lizard mutant that's also not a particularly reassuring implication... but then again the Revival is a pretty different animal with different, less collaborative creative direction.)

Yes parts of this subtext do bother me a lot. The fact that they got 3/4rs of the way there in the writing but never once had Jewish Adjacent Mulder talk about the mental toll of sorting the wheat from the chaff, finding genuine abduction survivor and alien leads in amongst the mountains of antisemetic conspiracy bullshit on message boards or how he doesn't really ever know which contacts are going to meet him and decide he's the enemy because he 'looks Jewish'... it's both a missed opportunity and speaks to a lot of ignorance. It makes me pretty crazy. There are a lot of half gestures towards Mulder's Jewish background and then a lot of ugly coincidences and unfortunate implications because no one really thought about what that would mean in the context of The X-File's genre content and recurring themes. But also some of that uncomfortable feeling comes from the fact that there have been a lot of cultural shifts since the original run was on the air.

Like, i don't think he's culturally exactly anything, caught in the middle and mostly without. It's a story familiar to me and my mother because my grandmother was also a young Jewish woman who made a hasty love match (i.e. she got pregnant) with a WASPy goy from a rich industrialist family, and said family held the purse strings, so keeping his mother happy was everything -- which was true even after my grandparents divorced, because of complicated inheritance reasons. She assimilated and let my mother and her siblings be raised as Christmas and Passover celebrating 'nothing in particular' kids, who went to shul when visiting her parents and went to shabbos dinner regularly with the neighbors, but still broadly surrounded in cultural Christianity and outside the community, because it was the 50s and 60s and she was a divorced mother in an upper middle class white area who had to be careful to keep social doors open to all of them. I figure Teena and Mulder had a pretty similar situation in the 60s and 70s, with the added complication of accidentally marrying into an actual WASPy conspiracy hub who could have you 'disposed of' for speaking out of turn.

I just... Jewish Mulder is deeply important to me as a character, it's the on screen execution in practice that I find extremely frustrating. it's the half way there implications (mostly through experienced bigotry), partly intentional, partly accidental because it's apparent that no one educated themselves on the history some of the bigger themes beyond the surface familiar Scifi-Horror tropes. Actually getting there all the way and digging into it, or trying even 25% more to avoid the pitfalls around Mulder and Teena would have added a lot to the show. And would maybe even have insulated CC against (some of) the plot bungles in the Revival. Very frustrating all around. But at the same time, it is a scifi show, and the aliens and rich White conspirators are very literal in fact on the screen.

And what's more, Mulder's particular blend of faith and hope and contention and interrogation, his willingness to Keep Doing The Work no matter what, because it's worth it and it needs to be done in the hope for a better world... that is very Jewish to me at more than a surface level. For me that makes all the awkward implications worth it.

[cobalt-knave]

Jewish Subtext in The X-Files

Preface: I am part-way through season 6 of The X-Files. I would prefer not be spoiled (at least for major plot elements) for later seasons, and I cannot promise this will hold true for the whole 11 seasons of the show.

So. That Fox Mulder. He's pretty Jewy.

Preface the Second: I am Jewish. I like Jewish characters a LOT, and I love Fox Mulder.

Section 1: Assuming Mulder Is Jewish and Jewish Conspiracy Theories

It's fairly unusual for a character who is not Jewish to be assumed to be Jewish. It's far more frequent for Jewish actors to play nonjewish roles and have that be that. Why would anyone assume they're Jewish? It's not even a Christmas episode! Why assume anyone is not the standard blank slate of American characters ([culturally] christian, white, straight, cis, allo, etc)? Take for example, Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Many of the actors are Jewish (Buffy, Dawn, Oz, Tara), but only one of the main cast is Jewish (Willow), which even then rarely comes up, usually in relation to Christmas and crosses.

But in The X-Files, people look at Mulder and make an assumption.

First in s4e15 "Kaddish", written by Howard Gordon:

"MULDER: Are you familiar with this? (He shows Bjunes the pamphlet.) We think those kids are familiar with it, enough to incite them to the murder of Isaac Luria. (Bjunes' smile fades. He glares at Mulder.) BJUNES: You work for them too, don't you? MULDER: Who? BJUNES: You know who, you look like you might be one yourself. (Mulder chuckles.) SCULLY: We work for the FBI, Sir. BJUNES: Who does the FBI work for?

[...] SCULLY: [You haven't heard the rumor] that Luria is back from the dead? That he's risen from his grave? BJUNES: What kind of Jew trick is this? MULDER: A Jew pulled it off 2000 years ago. (Bjunes looks at Mulder. Mulder nods.) SCULLY: We're just relaying the evidence, sir. You can draw your own conclusions. But I'm sure you wouldn't want to be endangering these young men's lives. MULDER: Bless you."

And then again in s6e2 "Drive", written by Vince Gilligan:

"CRUMP: You know, what kind of name is Mulder, anyway? What is that, like... like, Jewish? MULDER: Excuse me? CRUMP: Jewish... It is, right? MULDER: (mad) It's Mr. Mulder to you, you peanut-picking bastard

[...] MULDER: I'm sorry about your wife. CRUMP: Sure, you are... You and the rest of your Jew FBI. MULDER: Crump... CRUMP: Oh, yeah. You think I don't know, huh? You think I'm just some ignorant pudknocker, don't you? But I get it, man! I see what this is! I am not sick and I do not have the flu. Vicky and me were just some kind of... Government guinea pigs. MULDER: You think the government did this to you? CRUMP: Hell, yeah. Who else? You see it all the time on the TV: they're dropping Agent Orange, they're putting radiation in little retarded kids' gonads... Oh, yeah. You sons of bitches sneaking around my woods at night-- I seen you. You think I don't know? MULDER: Well, on behalf of the international Jewish conspiracy I just need to inform you that we're... almost out of gas."

So, let's look at these two moments. They're both moments of antisemitism directed at Mulder. They also tie conspiracy to the Jews. Let's start by looking at that first part.

Mulder is assumed to be Jewish (bad, evil, untrustworthy) by someone who is hostile. He could easily have said "actually, you're barking up the wrong tree; I'm not Jewish, go direct your hate to someone who deserves it." But he never does that. It would make things easier. It would even be true, but he doesn't do it. He never denies it when assumed to be Jewish. In fact, he leans in. He strongly implies to both characters that he is, in fact Jewish. And if they have a problem with that, they can take it up with him to his face. Jewish is not an insult to Fox Mulder.

Later on in "Drive", Crump apologies for being antisemitic. Or tries to anyway.

"CRUMP: Hey, uh... The Jew stuff? No offense. I mean, uh... A man can't help who he's born to. MULDER: (sarcastic) That was an apology, right? Gee, I don't know if I can see to drive my eyes are tearing up so bad. CRUMP: Whatever, man. Why are you doing this? MULDER: Why am I doing what? CRUMP: This."

Once again, Mulder does not correct him. Jewish is not an insult to him, but the antisemitism is.

Now, we can start to look at subtext, which I will get to more as this meta goes on. The context for "Drive" is that Mulder is initially taken at gunpoint to drive Crump west. Crump has a condition that means he will die if he stops moving fast in a particular direction. But at the time of that question, "Why are you doing this?", he's no longer held at gunpoint. In fact, he has stolen another car to keep Crump moving when they ran out of gas.

Why is he doing this? To save his life. He's one man. An antisemitism and a bit of an asshole, but he's alive and dammit, Mulder wants to keep him that way.

In Judaism, the biggest thing, the one thing that trumps every other law, that goes above and beyond everything else, is the requirement to preserve life. Stay alive. Keep someone else alive. This is called pikuach nefesh.

While obviously the idea that preserving life is good is not unique to Judaism, it cannot be understated how fundamental of an element it is. Judaism does not subscribe to martyrdom, and the laws of capital punishment are structured in such away that it should be nearly impossible to actually order the death of someone legally.

It is so fitting that in this scene, Crump is confused as to why this Jew (untrustworthy) is saving him with no reason, but the reason is to save him, which is itself a Jewish principle.

Onto point 2: The Jews Are Behind It.

Both Crump in "Drive" and Bjunes in "Kaddish" assume Mulder is Jewish, and that the FBI is run by Jews.

Now, I have to note that many, many, even most conspiracy theories in real life boil down to "The Jews Are Behind It". The shadow government? Jews. Space lasers (as said by a real CURRENT member of the U.S. government)? Jews. Who's behind the media? The Jews! Who's in control of all of the banks? The Jews of course!

So, it makes sense as a Jew to be dubious when starting a show that is built on a premise of conspiracy theory. But The X-Files does not make the conspiracies antisemitic. I'm sure there are people who would argue that the nature of having a show inspired by real-lfe conspiracy theory is inherently antisemitic, but those are also the people who don't think there can ever be Jewish characters in vampire stories. I personally feel that the core of it comes down to how you treat it, how considerate you are with it, and whether you're aware of it.

The X-Files knows that conspiracies are often antisemitic. So, they acknowledge antisemitism. They acknowledge that conspiracy theories place the Jews as the shadow government, and they knock. That. Down. Because Mulder is the hero (co-hero) of this story. He is the one trying to take down the shadow government and reveal the truth. And he's tied to Jewishness. He may not be canonically Jewish, but he's connected. When antisemites assume he is Jewish, he leans in! And he doesn't brush off antisemitism. This is such a simple and beautiful way of avoiding the antisemitic tropes. Not by ignoring them but by denying them.

And the clapbacks are great lines that sound like the sort of thing I would say. "On behalf of the international Jewish conspiracy I just need to inform you that we're... almost out of gas."

Section 2: Jewish Mulder Canon????

Listen, Fox Mulder may not be Jewish, but he was a Jew in his past life, and this is SO IMPORTANT TO ME.

In s4e5 "The Field Where I Died", written by Glen Morgan and James Wong, we learn about Mulder's past life as a Jewish woman in Poland. Warning for Holocaust discussions in this excerpt.

"MULDER: Ghetto streets… shattered glass… bodies of the dead… I'm a woman… a Jewish woman… Poland. My son is with me. He is Samantha. THERAPIST: Samantha? I thought Samantha was your sister. MULDER: In this life, she is my son. I see my father. He's dead in the street. He is Scully… (Scully's eyes widen slightly.) But now… he's gone on now… waiting for us. The souls… come back together… different… but always together… again and again… to learn. I can't go to my father. (He shakes his head, almost crying.) Gestapo is standing next to him. An officer… he's Cancer Man… evil returns as evil… (He lifts his head now, holding his eyes closed for a few seconds. He then opens them, and they are more hopeful.) But love… love… souls mate eternal… my… husband… is taken away from me. To the camps. He is Melissa. We're always taken away."

I think about Mulder's past life as a Jewish woman in Poland all the time. All of the time. I am rarely not thinking about Mulder's past life as a Jewish woman in Poland.

This is what we saw in those past clips dialed up even more. This isn't just Mulder being assumed to be Jewish, he is Jewish. And the villain, Cancer Man aka The Smoking Man who is one of the heads of the Shadow Government, is tied not to the Jews but to the antisemites. Evil returns as evil.

Also the performance here is sublime. While I normally have a dislike of Holocaust stuff being included as a gotcha in scifi (ex. The Nazis Won AU in in the CW's DC superhero crossover), this felt so considerate. It helped that the main character in that scene, past!Mulder is Jewish. Too many shows try and include Holocaust elements and don't want to mention the Jews. The X-Files does not do that.

Section 3: The Atheist Jew and the Believing Catholic

Time to get into the subtext! Mulder and Scully are so fun and well balanced in part because they are the believer and the skeptic, but who's who?

Mulder "wants to believe" in aliens, conspiracies, the paranormal. He doubts religion and those claiming to represent miraculous happenings through religion. He believes in Scully, but pushes her. He questions the world around him always. He challenges his own beliefs and the beliefs of those around him.

Scully is skeptical of aliens and the paranormal. She believes in science, both what is known now and what will come to be understood. She is Catholic and believes in God, in prophecy, visions, and saints. She is firm in her beliefs and is hard to budge as she requires evidence in order to be challenged.

In an interview, Jewish actor Andrew Garfield said,

"GARFIELD: Certainty about anything is the most terrifying thing to me. COLBERT: What do you mean certainty is terrifying? […] If you knew there was an afterlife, would that be comforting or terrifying? GARFIELD: How would I ever know? COLBERT: A visitation from an angel, how about that? GARFIELD: Well sure, but I'll always question it. I think it's healthy. Faith is not a life of certainty. A life of faith is a life of doubt, and I think it's so healthy to doubt."

(link to a tumblr gifset of this interview that included a bit about how everyone was reminded by those comments that he is Jewish.)

It is another fundamental element of Jewish life and culture to question everything. Believing in god is not a law. In fact, Jewish atheists and agnostics are very common. I am among their number. The funny line from my Christian grandmother in her torah study group is that she's the only goy and the only one there who believes in god.

Mulder doubts. Mulder questions. Mulder will throw himself into anything, but will he ever be sure?

One would think this means he would need evidence, but it is his role to doubt the evidence and even the need for it. He doubts.

@peggycatrerr very astutely wrote that belief ""doesn’t naturally come to [Mulder]. he is actually filled with doubt but he desperately clings to these ideas of the unexplained and the paranormal in hope that it’ll end up being real. and belief does come naturally to scully but it terrifies her" (link)

I think reading Mulder as Jewish adds yet another layer to their ever-changing believer-skeptic balance. He is the atheist/agnostic Jew to her believing Catholic.

Also Jews and Catholics can be really interesting to compare. Look at questioning, hierarchical structures, martyrdom, etc and you have even more opposite set ups.

I think reading Mulder as a subtextual Jew adds another layer to the story and fits really well.

Section 4: Jewish Creators

This is not a full section, but I wanted to touch on this because while goys can and should write Jewish characters and storylines, Jewish creators will impact Jewish storylines. David Duchovny, who plays Mulder, and Howard Gordon, who wrote "Kaddish", are Jewish.

Section 5: Is Mulder Jewish in Canon?

No, I don't think so. But I don't think that takes away the importance of having a Jewish actor playing a character who gets read as Jewish and doesn't deny it. I don't think it eliminates the possibility of getting some good analysis out of a Jewy reading.

Now, on the other hand, what is the Jewish legal ruling on Jewishness if you were a Jewish woman in a past life? That is something I am actively writing fanfiction about.

[therealsaintscully]

[randomfoggytiger]

(Credit to @i-still-want--to-believe -- her edits here.)

I just noticed a parallel between Anne Frank's diary and Samantha Mulder's recovered journal.

Was it intentional? Because, if so... yeah, that's dark.

[mostunwantedfbi]

@handgiven liked for a sentence starter!

"So about the book of Revelations thing: how much of it is actually going to come to pass? Do you know?"

[cicadaboybat]

fox spooky transsexual mulder is my favorite reason to be autistic and watch all of xfiles from the beginning over again to comfort myself

[mezzo-morte]

So I created Mulder and Scully in the sims made them have a son because fuck chris carter

Fast forward and I had the daughter of my sim (she died, rip) romance William since they had "amazing compatibility" and "opposites attract".

This is crazy she just went to the hospital and had triplets😭

[gingerteaonthetardis]

can i say something. i am so bored of the writers going it's a scully episode guys what do we do and then answering themselves with talk about her catholicism again of course. like it is the part of her character that interests me least and every time it comes up i wish i was learning something else about her instead of rehashing her religious guilt again

[singeart]

Happy fourth night of Hannukah!! Don't worry, Mulder's in the kitchen grabbing latkes ❤️🔥

last year's art :D

Details and first draft (because I like it) under the read more!

[fmluder24]

I try to enjoy trans Mulder headcanons and I know there’s jokes about their periods syncing up all the time. But when I get into a pensive mood I think about how Jewish men have been historically thought to be not “real” men to the point that antisemites believed they menstruated as a result of circumcision. And then I just kind of stew in the unaddressed implications of how TXF exists in an antisemitic culture and how that shapes how Mulder in particular was written.

Absolutely NO HATE if you headcanon Mulder that way. Knock yourself out and do what makes you happy. I get it and it’s a vibe I just overanalyze things. 😕

[sleepyscully]

When do you think Mulder and Scully first started dating?

this ask has been sitting in my ask box for over a year because when i got it simply couldn't answer it because i'm shit at remembering timelines. but now that i am getting along in my rewatch i think i have an answer

the short answer is: i think mulder and scully started dating in season 6

but this is the internet so you're gonna get the long answer as well

I think that during the season 4 cancer arc they both realize that they have feelings for each other

throughout season 5 they become aware that the other has feelings for each other but they don't address it. i think that explains a lot of the flirting and a lot of the awkwardness.

Then we have fight the future and i mean... their feelings for each other are basically an open secret now, one that they not necessarily talk about (yet) but they almost kissed for gods sake (or actually kissed if you believe the alternate version ;)

I've been trying to pinpoint the exact moment/episode where they started dating but it's haaard! (on that note i wanna add that i'm not sure they actually went out on dates, it doesn't seem like them. when i say they started dating i mean that some things developed that were more than friendship and that they maybe also talked about their feelings and everything)

however, i think i narrowed it down to a time between Triangle and Dreamland. Mulder's love confession at the end of triangle wasn't really successful but maybe mayyyybe it changed something in them. Also the kiss in triangle makes me believe that he wanted to kiss her AT LEAST ONCE in his life. On the other hand, that kiss could be interpreted as "i kissed you before and it was so good that i need to do it one last time before we might never see each other again"

Dreamland then we have the moment where Scully says "I'd kiss you if you weren't so damn ugly" and it gives me definite vibe of them being more than friends. I think that maybe they are not exclusive yet, or haven't talked about it but it was implied. I base that on Scully's reaction when he sees Fletcher flirting and hooking up with the assistant. Idk the whole ep, especially the evening in Mulder's apartment makes me believe that something happened between them.

Once we get to Rain King i am 100% sure they are dating even though they deny it to the others. They might not be sleeping with each other yet, because they seem to be very adamant about that but their relationship has definitely changed and i think they are exclusive by now.

anyways, that's my theory about their dating timeline!

thanks for asking :)

[waxworkdaughter]

with some of the historical things i've been reading about lately from both sides of the ancestry, i just think Jewish Mulder would not want his kids christened, and would guiltily but firmly put his foot down about it. I think he'd want them to be able to make an informed decision about what parts of what faith to follow as they grew up, and genuinely make peace with whatever they chose. But the amount that "oh they were christened/baptized, they're de-jew'd/de-indian'd they're ours now" is a theme with missionary/colonial xtianity and xtian offshoots means that I have a bit of a flinch response to the concept of a mixed baby of two parents of unorthodox (from both directions) theology blithely being christened, especially the times it's come up in the fics where Mulder is ethnically Jewish and doesn't even feel a mental twinge.

then again that's a guy with very few hard boundaries that he's willing to enforce. but his alienation from cultural christianity is usually one of them. And I don't even think Scully is all that traditionally observant, her faith is strong but it's also personal and elliptical and whatever the opposite of gnostic is, that is, not literal but profoundly rooted in the matter and reactions of the physical world. So I don't even think she'd want to appease her mother That Much if it would also make Mulder unhappy.

[freckleslikestars]

unfurl

"It was the right time. The right place. Peace had fallen." All Things ficlet

302 words, read here on AO3

Rain taps on the pane of his window, the occasional rumble of thunder or rush of a car churning through the wet street below. Across the bed, light scatters through the leaves of the tree blustering about outside, casting dancing shadows across her hand as it traces patterns up and down the bare shoulder beneath.

As the clock on his nightstand flicks over to five, she unfurls herself from his coiled embrace, slips from the musky warmth of his bedding into the cool air of his apartment. She finds her sweater and skirt with relative ease, but her bra and panties are more of a challenge to find, and she gives up on the search for her hose altogether.

His faucet leaks, a regular drip that syncopates with her heartbeat, a meditative rhythm that reminds her of him in a way: a constant. She thinks she should be panicking, that the raw ache between her legs should have her chest clenching with anxiety as she worries over the impending future and the potential that it will all blow up in their faces, but she’s eerily calm, settled, as if she knows, deep down, that they were waiting for the right time, and now they’re there, and everything’s going to be okay.

She leaves a note, short and sweet, loopy cursive telling him she’s gone home to shower, that she’ll get coffee and breakfast for them and see him in the office. She signs it with an S, and before she can second guess herself, she scrawls a little heart in the corner. She leaves it on her pillow, and presses a kiss to his temple, runs her fingers through hair that’s finally starting to grow out after his ordeal months ago.

It was the right time. The right place. Peace had fallen.

Tagging @today-in-fic

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