Samantha Mulder
Encyclopedia
Samantha Ann Mulder is a fictional character
in the television series The X-Files
. She is the sister of FBI
Special Agent Fox Mulder
and the daughter of Teena and Bill Mulder. As a child, Samantha was abducted, ostensibly by aliens
, and was never recovered. It is this experience that drives her older brother Fox Mulder to join the FBI, and later take the reins of the X-File
s section.
from the Mulder family home on Martha's Vineyard
, when she was 8 years old. Fox Mulder
, who was 12 years old at the time, began his obsession with extraterrestrials as a result of this incident. Much of the show focused on Mulder's efforts to discover what happened to his sister. When she first appeared as an adult, she claims that she lost her memory after her abduction and was adopted by a new family, but she has been regaining her memory gradually during the last year before finally meeting her own family and Mulder. However, this person was later revealed to be one of several adult Samantha clones, all of whom were probably killed by the Alien Bounty Hunter.
Jeremiah Smith takes Mulder to a covert bee
husbandry facility in remote Alberta. There, he finds a group of Samantha clones, all no older than the day the real Samantha disappeared, working on the alien colonists' and Syndicate
's joint project of spreading the Black Oil. The facility was soon after destroyed, and the clones were presumably killed by the Alien Bounty Hunter.
Later in the fourth season
, Mulder becomes convinced that Samantha was kidnapped and murdered by John L. Roche
. Roche is a serial killer whom Mulder previously profiled, and helped lock up for the murder of thirteen young girls. His signature was the removal of a heart-shaped piece of cloth from each girl's clothing. Through a dream, Mulder finds another girl, and the discovery of the missing "paper hearts" reveals that two are still missing, for a total of sixteen. Roche gives the location of one, but since Mulder kills Roche during a standoff at the end of the episode, the other is never found. Roche manipulates Mulder into believing that Samantha is one of his victims, and Mulder takes him to a house and gets him to go over the events of the evening Samantha disappeared. Mulder catches him in the lie, revealing that they're in the wrong house.
At the beginning of the fifth season
, The Smoking Man introduced Mulder to a woman who he claims is, and who herself believes to be, Samantha. She tells Mulder that she has children of her own, thought that her mother had died some time ago, and believed Cigarette Smoking Man to be her father. She leaves abruptly during the meeting, and is never seen again. According to Cassandra Spender, she was another clone.
Samantha's storyline is presumably resolved in the seventh season
. In that episode, Dana Scully
watches a 1989 tape in which Mulder undergoes hypnotic
regression therapy, which another agent describes as "garden-variety compensatory abduction fantasy" which feeds Mulder's "unconscious hope that his sister is still alive". Later, with the help of a medium
, Mulder discovers Samantha's diary, which states that in 1979 at age 14, while living in California
with Jeffrey Spender
, she was the subject of numerous tests at the hands of the Cigarette Smoking Man. Unable to bear the testing any longer, Samantha ran away and was eventually admitted to a hospital. Arbutus Ray, the admitting nurse from the hospital, tells Mulder about the young girl. Ray adds that a group of men (one of whom seems to be the Cigarette Smoking Man) came to the hospital to claim the girl, only to find that she had disappeared from her locked hospital room. Ray also describes how she had a vision that was eerily similar to others', who had also lost children in a similar fashion. It is revealed that Samantha was taken by "spiritual intervention" beings called "Walk-in
s", which save souls from painful fates. While in the nearby woods later, Mulder has a dreamlike vision and is briefly reunited with Samantha's spirit. After Mulder returns, Scully asks if he is alright. Mulder replies "I'm fine. I'm free," suggesting that he, like several of the other parents whose children have disappeared, accepts that Samantha's soul is in "a better place".
Samantha is mentioned once again in The X-Files: I Want to Believe
, being the inspiration that drives Mulder to try to save a likely-dead agent. Mulder is seen to admit she is dead, but keeps her picture on the wall with newspaper clippings of his own exploits with the FBI and alien evidence.
, and as an adult by Megan Leitch
. Several other actors played the part for individual episodes—Brianne Benitz in the first season's "Miracle Man", Ashlynn Rose in the sixth season's "Dreamland II", and Mimi Paley
in the seventh season episode "Closure".
episode "End Game
", the Alien Bounty Hunter tells Mulder that Samantha is alive. During the third season
opening episode "The Blessing Way
", Mulder underwent a Navajo
ritual called the Blessing Way, in order to revive him from severe injuries. During this time he saw an apparition
of his recently-deceased father. who told Fox that, wherever he was, he could not find Samantha there. During the following episode, "Paper Clip
", Mulder and Scully discover an abandoned mining facility that housed millions of medical files in locked vaults. Mulder finds Samantha's file which contained a recent tissue sample. In the fifth season
episode "Redux
", Cassandra Spender tells Mulder that Samantha is still alive. The seventh season
episode "Closure" shows that she died, taken by Walk-in
s, in 1979. In the original May 19, 2002 broadcast of the series finale "The Truth
", Jeffrey Spender
testified at Mulder's trial that Samantha died in 1987. However, this is probably not a plot inconsistency, but a production error; the line of dialogue is corrected and edited in syndicated reruns as "1979". However, on the DVD release of the episode, the line remains as "1987."
There are two known inconsistencies about the date of her birth, and even her middle name. In the first season, "Conduit" Blevins shows Scully the X-file originated by Mulder with Samantha T. Mulder's birthdate listed as January 22, 1964. In the 1995 "Paper Clip" episode Mulder and Scully find the MIB files in the Strughold Mining Facility. Mulder locates the file of Samantha, listing her as "Samantha Ann Mulder" with a birthdate of November 21, 1965.
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Season 5
Season 6
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Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
in the television series The X-Files
The X-Files
The X-Files is an American science fiction television series and a part of The X-Files franchise, created by screenwriter Chris Carter. The program originally aired from to . The show was a hit for the Fox network, and its characters and slogans became popular culture touchstones in the 1990s...
. She is the sister of FBI
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
Special Agent Fox Mulder
Fox Mulder
FBI Special Agent Fox William Mulder is a fictional character and protagonist in the American Fox television shows The X-Files and The Lone Gunmen, two science fiction shows about a government conspiracy to hide or deny the truth of Alien existence. Mulder's peers consider his theories on...
and the daughter of Teena and Bill Mulder. As a child, Samantha was abducted, ostensibly by aliens
Colonist (The X-Files)
The Colonists are an extraterrestrial species in the science fiction television show, The X-Files, as well as the first X-Files feature film. The mystery revolving around their identity and purpose is revealed across the course of the series...
, and was never recovered. It is this experience that drives her older brother Fox Mulder to join the FBI, and later take the reins of the X-File
X-file
On the television series The X-Files, an X-File is a fictional case that has been deemed unsolvable by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The files constitute an unassigned project outside the Bureau mainstream that is more or less concerned with unexplained phenomena. -First X-Files:The very...
s section.
Character arc
On 27 November 1973, Samantha was abducted by aliensColonist (The X-Files)
The Colonists are an extraterrestrial species in the science fiction television show, The X-Files, as well as the first X-Files feature film. The mystery revolving around their identity and purpose is revealed across the course of the series...
from the Mulder family home on Martha's Vineyard
Martha's Vineyard
Martha's Vineyard is an island located south of Cape Cod in Massachusetts, known for being an affluent summer colony....
, when she was 8 years old. Fox Mulder
Fox Mulder
FBI Special Agent Fox William Mulder is a fictional character and protagonist in the American Fox television shows The X-Files and The Lone Gunmen, two science fiction shows about a government conspiracy to hide or deny the truth of Alien existence. Mulder's peers consider his theories on...
, who was 12 years old at the time, began his obsession with extraterrestrials as a result of this incident. Much of the show focused on Mulder's efforts to discover what happened to his sister. When she first appeared as an adult, she claims that she lost her memory after her abduction and was adopted by a new family, but she has been regaining her memory gradually during the last year before finally meeting her own family and Mulder. However, this person was later revealed to be one of several adult Samantha clones, all of whom were probably killed by the Alien Bounty Hunter.
Jeremiah Smith takes Mulder to a covert bee
Bee
Bees are flying insects closely related to wasps and ants, and are known for their role in pollination and for producing honey and beeswax. Bees are a monophyletic lineage within the superfamily Apoidea, presently classified by the unranked taxon name Anthophila...
husbandry facility in remote Alberta. There, he finds a group of Samantha clones, all no older than the day the real Samantha disappeared, working on the alien colonists' and Syndicate
Syndicate (The X-Files)
The Syndicate is a fictional "shadow government" group featured in The X-Files television show and feature film created by Chris Carter. They were also known as The Elders, The Consortium, and The Group...
's joint project of spreading the Black Oil. The facility was soon after destroyed, and the clones were presumably killed by the Alien Bounty Hunter.
Later in the fourth season
The X-Files (season 4)
-Episodes:Episodes marked with an asterisk are broadly part of the series' mytharc. Episodes with a double asterisk are primary episodes in the series' Alien Mythology arc....
, Mulder becomes convinced that Samantha was kidnapped and murdered by John L. Roche
Paper Hearts
"Paper Hearts" is the tenth episode of the fourth season of the American science fiction television series The X-Files. It premiered on the Fox network on December 15, 1996. It was written by Vince Gilligan, directed by Rob Bowman, and featured guest appearances by Tom Noonan, Rebecca...
. Roche is a serial killer whom Mulder previously profiled, and helped lock up for the murder of thirteen young girls. His signature was the removal of a heart-shaped piece of cloth from each girl's clothing. Through a dream, Mulder finds another girl, and the discovery of the missing "paper hearts" reveals that two are still missing, for a total of sixteen. Roche gives the location of one, but since Mulder kills Roche during a standoff at the end of the episode, the other is never found. Roche manipulates Mulder into believing that Samantha is one of his victims, and Mulder takes him to a house and gets him to go over the events of the evening Samantha disappeared. Mulder catches him in the lie, revealing that they're in the wrong house.
At the beginning of the fifth season
The X-Files (season 5)
-Episodes:Episodes marked with an asterisk are part of the series' mytharc. Episodes with a double asterisk are part of the series' Alien Mythology....
, The Smoking Man introduced Mulder to a woman who he claims is, and who herself believes to be, Samantha. She tells Mulder that she has children of her own, thought that her mother had died some time ago, and believed Cigarette Smoking Man to be her father. She leaves abruptly during the meeting, and is never seen again. According to Cassandra Spender, she was another clone.
Samantha's storyline is presumably resolved in the seventh season
The X-Files (season 7)
The seventh season of The X-Files commenced airing in the United States on November 7, 1999, concluded on May 21, 2000, and consists of twenty-two episodes. The X-Files is an American serial science fiction-horror-thriller television series. Season seven took place after the destruction of the...
. In that episode, Dana Scully
Dana Scully
FBI Special Agent Dana Katherine Scully, M.D. is a fictional character and protagonist on the Fox television series The X-Files , played by Gillian Anderson. She also appeared in two theatrical films based on the series...
watches a 1989 tape in which Mulder undergoes hypnotic
Hypnosis
Hypnosis is "a trance state characterized by extreme suggestibility, relaxation and heightened imagination."It is a mental state or imaginative role-enactment . It is usually induced by a procedure known as a hypnotic induction, which is commonly composed of a long series of preliminary...
regression therapy, which another agent describes as "garden-variety compensatory abduction fantasy" which feeds Mulder's "unconscious hope that his sister is still alive". Later, with the help of a medium
Mediumship
Mediumship is described as a form of communication with spirits. It is a practice in religious beliefs such as Spiritualism, Spiritism, Espiritismo, Candomblé, Voodoo and Umbanda.- Concept :...
, Mulder discovers Samantha's diary, which states that in 1979 at age 14, while living in California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
with Jeffrey Spender
Jeffrey Spender
FBI Special agent Jeffrey Frank Spender is a fictional character in the American Fox television series The X-Files, a science fiction show about a government conspiracy to hide or deny the truth of alien existence. Spender was in control of the X-Files office after Fox Mulder's and Dana Scully's...
, she was the subject of numerous tests at the hands of the Cigarette Smoking Man. Unable to bear the testing any longer, Samantha ran away and was eventually admitted to a hospital. Arbutus Ray, the admitting nurse from the hospital, tells Mulder about the young girl. Ray adds that a group of men (one of whom seems to be the Cigarette Smoking Man) came to the hospital to claim the girl, only to find that she had disappeared from her locked hospital room. Ray also describes how she had a vision that was eerily similar to others', who had also lost children in a similar fashion. It is revealed that Samantha was taken by "spiritual intervention" beings called "Walk-in
Walk-in
A walk-in is a new age concept of a person whose original soul has departed his or her body and has been replaced with a new soul, either temporarily or permanently.-Origin:...
s", which save souls from painful fates. While in the nearby woods later, Mulder has a dreamlike vision and is briefly reunited with Samantha's spirit. After Mulder returns, Scully asks if he is alright. Mulder replies "I'm fine. I'm free," suggesting that he, like several of the other parents whose children have disappeared, accepts that Samantha's soul is in "a better place".
Samantha is mentioned once again in The X-Files: I Want to Believe
The X-Files: I Want to Believe
The X-Files: I Want to Believe is a 2008 science fiction-thriller directed by Chris Carter and written by both Carter and Frank Spotnitz. It is the second feature film based on The X-Files franchise created by Carter, following the 1998 film...
, being the inspiration that drives Mulder to try to save a likely-dead agent. Mulder is seen to admit she is dead, but keeps her picture on the wall with newspaper clippings of his own exploits with the FBI and alien evidence.
Conceptual history
Samantha Mulder was played as a child by Vanessa MorleyVanessa Morley
Vanessa Morley is a Canadian actress and is the younger sister of another actress, Natasha Morley.-TV and movie roles:* The X-Files: I Want To Believe as random FBI Agent * The Engagement Ring as Young Alicia...
, and as an adult by Megan Leitch
Megan Leitch
Megan Leitch is a Canadian actress probably best known for playing Samantha Mulder on The X-Files.- Roles :*Samantha Mulder in The X-Files*Brenda Cosgrove in The Highwayman episode of Dead Man's Gun*Librarian in It...
. Several other actors played the part for individual episodes—Brianne Benitz in the first season's "Miracle Man", Ashlynn Rose in the sixth season's "Dreamland II", and Mimi Paley
Mimi Paley
Mimi Paley is an American television actress perhaps best known for being on Kidsongs and her guest roles on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The X Files, Touched By An Angel, Disney's Alley Cats Strike, Malcolm in the Middle and Entourage.-External links:...
in the seventh season episode "Closure".
Inconsistencies
There exist a few inconsistencies about when exactly Samantha died, or if she is even dead. In the second seasonThe X-Files (season 2)
The second season of the science fiction television series The X-Files commenced airing on Fox in the United States on September 16, 1994, concluded on the same channel on May 19, 1995, and contained 25 episodes.- Production :...
episode "End Game
End Game (The X-Files)
"End Game" is the seventeenth episode of the second season of the science fiction television series The X-Files. "End Game" continues from the previous episode "Colony", and includes Mulder's pursuit and confrontation with the Alien Bounty Hunter who has captured Scully.- Plot :USS Allegiance, a...
", the Alien Bounty Hunter tells Mulder that Samantha is alive. During the third season
The X-Files (season 3)
Season three of the television show The X-Files ran from 1995–1996.Chris Carter, the series creator, was still the lead writer - writing eight episodes - and the sole executive producer. Glen Morgan and James Wong continued their roles as co-executive producers, though they began to write...
opening episode "The Blessing Way
The Blessing Way (The X-Files)
"The Blessing Way" is a 1995 episode of The X-Files television series. It was the first episode broadcast in the show's third season. The Blessing Way continues from the previous season's finale and surrounds Mulder's apparent death and the conspiracy's pursuit of a digital cassette containing the...
", Mulder underwent a Navajo
Navajo people
The Navajo of the Southwestern United States are the largest single federally recognized tribe of the United States of America. The Navajo Nation has 300,048 enrolled tribal members. The Navajo Nation constitutes an independent governmental body which manages the Navajo Indian reservation in the...
ritual called the Blessing Way, in order to revive him from severe injuries. During this time he saw an apparition
Ghost
In traditional belief and fiction, a ghost is the soul or spirit of a deceased person or animal that can appear, in visible form or other manifestation, to the living. Descriptions of the apparition of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to...
of his recently-deceased father. who told Fox that, wherever he was, he could not find Samantha there. During the following episode, "Paper Clip
Paper Clip
"Paper Clip" is a 1995 episode of The X-Files television series. It was the second episode broadcast in the show's third season. Paper Clip concludes the story regarding the agents' possession of a digital tape containing government secrets on extraterrestrials.- Plot :Continuing from the previous...
", Mulder and Scully discover an abandoned mining facility that housed millions of medical files in locked vaults. Mulder finds Samantha's file which contained a recent tissue sample. In the fifth season
The X-Files (season 5)
-Episodes:Episodes marked with an asterisk are part of the series' mytharc. Episodes with a double asterisk are part of the series' Alien Mythology....
episode "Redux
Redux (The X-Files)
"Redux" is the collective name for the 98th and 99th episodes of the science fiction television series The X-Files. Part 1 first aired on November 2 and Part 2 aired on November 9, 1997 on Fox in the United States and Canada. Both episodes subsequently aired in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The...
", Cassandra Spender tells Mulder that Samantha is still alive. The seventh season
The X-Files (season 7)
The seventh season of The X-Files commenced airing in the United States on November 7, 1999, concluded on May 21, 2000, and consists of twenty-two episodes. The X-Files is an American serial science fiction-horror-thriller television series. Season seven took place after the destruction of the...
episode "Closure" shows that she died, taken by Walk-in
Walk-in
A walk-in is a new age concept of a person whose original soul has departed his or her body and has been replaced with a new soul, either temporarily or permanently.-Origin:...
s, in 1979. In the original May 19, 2002 broadcast of the series finale "The Truth
The Truth (The X-Files)
"The Truth" is the collective name for the 201st and 202nd, and final, episodes of the science fiction television series The X-Files. They first aired in the United States on May 19, 2002 on Fox in the United States and Canada. "The Truth" subsequently aired in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It...
", Jeffrey Spender
Jeffrey Spender
FBI Special agent Jeffrey Frank Spender is a fictional character in the American Fox television series The X-Files, a science fiction show about a government conspiracy to hide or deny the truth of alien existence. Spender was in control of the X-Files office after Fox Mulder's and Dana Scully's...
testified at Mulder's trial that Samantha died in 1987. However, this is probably not a plot inconsistency, but a production error; the line of dialogue is corrected and edited in syndicated reruns as "1979". However, on the DVD release of the episode, the line remains as "1987."
There are two known inconsistencies about the date of her birth, and even her middle name. In the first season, "Conduit" Blevins shows Scully the X-file originated by Mulder with Samantha T. Mulder's birthdate listed as January 22, 1964. In the 1995 "Paper Clip" episode Mulder and Scully find the MIB files in the Strughold Mining Facility. Mulder locates the file of Samantha, listing her as "Samantha Ann Mulder" with a birthdate of November 21, 1965.
Appearances
Samantha Mulder appears in the following episodes:|style="vertical-align:top"|
Season 5
- "Redux IIRedux (The X-Files)"Redux" is the collective name for the 98th and 99th episodes of the science fiction television series The X-Files. Part 1 first aired on November 2 and Part 2 aired on November 9, 1997 on Fox in the United States and Canada. Both episodes subsequently aired in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The...
"
Season 6
- "Dreamland II"
Season 7
- "The Sixth Extinction II: Amor FatiThe Sixth Extinction II: Amor Fati"The Sixth Extinction II: Amor Fati" is the second episode of the seventh season of the science fiction television series The X-Files. "The Sixth Extinction II: Amor Fati" concludes a trilogy of episodes featuring Mulder's severe reaction to the appearance of an alien artifact...
" - "Sein Und Zeit"
- "ClosureClosure (The X-Files)"Closure" is the 150th episode and the eleventh episode of the seventh season of the science fiction television series The X-Files. The episode first aired in the United States and Canada on February 3, 2000 on the Fox Network, and subsequently aired in the United Kingdom. It was written by...
"
Season 9
- "The TruthThe Truth (The X-Files)"The Truth" is the collective name for the 201st and 202nd, and final, episodes of the science fiction television series The X-Files. They first aired in the United States on May 19, 2002 on Fox in the United States and Canada. "The Truth" subsequently aired in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It...
" (flashback)
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