Dana Scully

Dana Scully
Gillian Anderson as Dana Scully
First appearance	"Pilot"
Last appearance	I Want to Believe
Portrayed by	Gillian Anderson
Information
Occupation	FBI Special Agent
Family	Bill Scully Sr. (father, deceased) Margaret Scully (mother) Bill Scully Jr. (brother) Melissa Scully (sister, deceased) Charles Scully (brother)
Significant other(s)	Fox Mulder (partner/lover)
Children	Emily Sim (daughter, deceased) William Scully (son)
Religion	Roman Catholic
Born	Dana Katherine Scully
Date of birth	February 23, 1964 Annapolis, Maryland, U.S.
Affiliated with	The Lone Gunmen The X-Files Fox Mulder

Dana Scully is a fictional character in the Fox science fiction-supernatural television series The X-Files, played by Gillian Anderson. Scully is an FBI agent, partnered with fellow Special Agent Fox Mulder for the first seven seasons, and in the eighth and ninth seasons partnered with John Doggett. In the television series, they work out of a cramped basement office at FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C. to investigate unsolved cases labeled "X-Files"; as of the second film, Scully had left government employment and worked as a surgeon in a private Catholic hospital. In contrast to Mulder's credulous "believer" character, Scully is the skeptic for the first seven seasons, choosing to base her beliefs on what science can prove. She later on becomes a "believer" after Mulder's abduction at the end of season seven.

She has appeared in all but four episodes of The X-Files, and additionally appears in the 20th Century Fox films The X-Files, released in 1998 (sometimes subtitled Fight the Future), and The X-Files: I Want to Believe, released 10 years later. The episodes she does not appear in are "3," "Zero Sum," "Unusual Suspects," and "Travelers." She appears only briefly in "The Gift," in a flashback which reuses footage from a previous episode.

Character arc

Dana Katherine Scully was born on February 23, 1964, to William and Margaret Scully, into a close-knit Catholic family.^[1][2] She has an older brother, Bill Jr., an older sister, Melissa, and a younger brother, Charles, who is never seen on the show except in flashbacks.^[3] Scully's father was a U.S. Navy Captain, who died of a heart attack in early January 1994.^[4] Dana Scully grew up in Annapolis, Maryland and later in San Diego, California. As a young girl, Scully's favorite book was Moby-Dick and she came to nickname her father "Ahab" from the book, and in return, he called her "Starbuck." Due to this she named her dog Queequeg.^[5]

Scully attended The University of Maryland, and in 1986 received a B.S. degree in physics. Her undergraduate thesis was titled Einstein's Twin Paradox: A New Interpretation.^[6] While in medical school at Stanford University she was recruited by the FBI; she accepted the agency's offer of employment because she felt she could distinguish herself there. After two years in the bureau, Division Chief Scott Blevins assigned her to work with agent Fox Mulder. Upon being partnered with Mulder, Scully maintained her medical skills by acting as a forensic pathologist, often performing or consulting on autopsies of victims on X-Files cases.^[7]

In the second season, Scully is kidnapped by an ex-FBI mental patient named Duane Barry,^[8] and is then taken from Barry by a military covert operation that were working with the alien conspirators,^[9] but is later returned.^[2] In the third season she finds out that a super hi-tech microchip was implanted in the back of her neck. After having it removed, she developed cancer in the fourth season.^[10]

She is hospitalized after her cancer becomes terminal. She is saved when Mulder breaks into the Department of Defense to retrieve another chip to be implanted back into her neck. It should be mentioned that, at the time, Scully was also undergoing experimental medical treatments and was having a dramatic renewal of her faith.^[11]

After being pronounced infertile in the fifth season, Scully mysteriously became pregnant in the show's seventh season finale, "Requiem".^[12] The child, named William, after her own father, as well as Mulder's father, was born at the end of the eighth season.^[13] The cause of her pregnancy is never formally revealed; however the most probable of theories is that Mulder fathered the child, as growing intimacy in the later portion of the series implies a sexual relationship between the two (season 7 episode "all things" is seen as proof due to its opening scene, though the remainder of the episode takes place prior to the opening scene, and the closing scene can also be interpreted as proof against this). Also, in the film, X-Files: I Want to Believe, Mulder calls William "our son." Beyond this, the pair had unsuccessfully tried for a child through in vitro fertilization. It was around this time that Mulder was fired from the FBI by Deputy Director Alvin Kersh,^[14] and Scully left the field to teach forensics at Quantico.^[15] William was given up for adoption during the end of the ninth season after Scully felt she could no longer provide the safety that William needed.^[16] William was a "miracle child", of some importance to the alien Conspiracy. He demonstrated extraordinary powers, including telekinesis.^[17]

In The X-Files: I Want to Believe she is shown working as a medical doctor at the Our Lady of Sorrows Hospital in Virginia. Early on in the film Scully is contacted by the FBI who are looking for Fox Mulder in the hope that he will assist them with the investigation of a missing FBI agent. In exchange for his help the charges against him will be dropped. Unlike Mulder, Scully was apparently not considered a fugitive by the FBI. However, she did continue to maintain her romantic relationship with Mulder throughout the six years that he was on the run from the American government. In the movie, they are shown to be living together in a secluded house.^[18]

Characterization

Throughout the series, her Catholic faith served as a cornerstone, although at times a contradiction to her otherwise rigid skepticism of the paranormal.^[19] Due to her career in science and medicine, she drifted from her Catholic Christian upbringing but remained somewhat entrenched in her religious beliefs. Scully almost always wears a gold cross necklace, given to her by her mother as a Christmas present when she was fifteen. When she was abducted by Duane Barry, a self-proclaimed alien abductee,^[9] it was the only item left behind in Barry's getaway car. Mulder wore it as a talisman of her until Scully miraculously reappeared in a Washington, D.C. hospital.^[20] After she recovered from the trauma of her abduction, he returned the cross to her.^[2]

The abduction visibly tested the limits of her faith — Mulder believes that Scully was taken aboard an alien spaceship and was subjected to tests. However, because of Scully's skepticism, she believes she was kidnapped by men and subjected to tests, not aliens. She believes she could have been brought there by Barry, and she began to exhibit symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder on a case involving a murdering fetishist named Donnie Pfaster.^[21] This psychological re-victimization continued after Pfaster escaped from prison five years later and again attempted to kill her in her home, ending only after she fatally shot him. She struggled with what motivated her actions to kill Pfaster, and questioned whether it was God compelling her to kill him, or "something else."^[22]

Sometime after her recovery from cancer, Scully began to regularly attend Mass again. At the request of Father McCue, Scully got involved in a case concerning a paraplegic girl who was found dead in a kneeling position with her palms outstretched and eye sockets charred. After Scully discovered the girl was part of a set of quadruplets and two more were murdered, Father McCue shared with her the story of the seraphim and the nephilim, which Scully interpreted as a possible explanation for the deformations and deaths of the girls. Scully continued to have visions of Emily, and when the last girl died, Scully believed she was returning the girl to God. Upon her return to Washington D.C., she went to confession to gain peace of mind and acceptance for Emily's death.^[23] In confession she regretted her decision of letting the girl go. This suggests Scully had doubts about her faith.

In Milagro, the eighteenth episode of the sixth season, Agent Scully’s vulnerability is exposed. In this episode, the murderer takes the victim’s heart out. The suspect, a writer named Phillip Padgett, has a particular interest in Scully and is fascinated by her beauty and personality. When she goes to a church to observe a painting, the writer is there and talks to her about the Sacred Heart of Jesus. During the conversation he says she visits the church because she likes art, but not as place of worship. Scully doesn’t say otherwise and later she says to Agent Mulder the writer told her her life story. All this suggests that Scully isn’t a devout Roman Catholic, although she attempted to approach again the Catholic community and the Catholic faith to which she was devout in her youth, after handling the strange case presented in Revelations and also after dealing with life-threatening cancer during the fourth season.

Relationships

While in medical school, she carried on an affair with her married instructor, Dr. Daniel Waterston who may have been the "college boyfriend" mentioned in "Trust No 1." It is never indicated in the show whether or not the relationship became sexual. According to Anderson in the episode's audio commentary, Scully came very close to having an affair with the married Waterston but left before she could break up his marriage. The end of her relationship with Waterston came about following her decision to go into the FBI.^[24] After her entrance to the FBI's Academy at Quantico, Scully began a year-long relationship with her Academy instructor, Jack Willis, with whom she shared a birthday.^[3]

Towards the end of the series, her previously platonic friendship with partner Fox Mulder developed into a romantic relationship. When Mulder was injured in a boat crash, he awakened in a hospital and told Scully that he loved her.^[25] In the season six episode "How the Ghosts Stole Christmas", a ghost that seems to know the inner workings of Scully's mind suggests that her source of intimacy for Mulder comes from her desire to always prove him wrong.^[26] By the end of the sixth season, Mulder and Scully were increasingly shown enjoying more light-hearted activities together, such as practicing baseball,^[27] using FBI funds for a "night out" during a movie premiere,^[28] and watching a movie at Mulder's apartment.^[29] In the season seven episode all things, Scully is shown getting dressed in Mulder's bathroom, while Mulder sleeps, apparently naked, in the bedroom.^[24] In another episode, a man reveals to Scully that he works for a "new" Syndicate like-organization, and his job requires him and a few other colleagues to spy on her around the clock. Due to this he knows intimate details of Scully's personal life, right down to her "natural hair color". It is suggested by this man that Scully ultimately initiated a sexual relationship with Mulder, as he remarked that he was very surprised when she invited Mulder "into her bed".^[30] The last scene of the series finale featured Mulder and Scully holding each other on a bed, facing an uncertain future together in love ^[31]

In the film, The X-Files: I Want to Believe, which takes place six years later, Mulder and Scully are still in a relationship. Scully was concerned that Mulder's continuing pursuit of the unknown was taking its toll on their relationship and they could not be together if he couldn't "escape the darkness." However, the film ends with the couple sharing a passionate kiss, and in the "secret ending" after the majority of the credits, a happily smiling Scully is seen in a small rowboat with Mulder, both clad in swimwear, in a tropical sea, having taken him up on his offer to run away together.^[18]

Conceptual history

Chris Carter named Scully after his favorite sportscaster, Vin Scully of the Los Angeles Dodgers. John Doggett was likewise named after Vin Scully's longtime broadcasting partner, Jerry Doggett.^[32] Scully's character was also inspired by Jodie Foster's portrayal of Clarice Starling in the film The Silence of the Lambs.^[33] Scully was a known name in UFO lore. In 1950 the less than credible Behind the Flying Saucers was published, written by Variety columnist Frank Scully. The name Scully was also used in 1976 film All the President's Men, an obvious inspiration for the show, in a list of names who work for the Committee for the Re-Election of the President.

The casting for Scully caused a conflict between Carter and the Fox network. Carter had chosen 24-year-old Gillian Anderson, who Carter felt was perfect for the role.^[34] Of her audition, Carter said, "she came in and read the part with a seriousness and intensity that I knew the Scully character had to have and I knew [...] she was the right person for the part".^[35] However, Fox executives had wanted a more glamorous "bombshell" for the part, hoping that this would lead to the series involving a romantic element. This led Carter to insist that he did not want the roles of Mulder and Scully to become romantically involved.^[34] Carter decided Scully would be the skeptic to play against established stereotypes; typically on television the quality was attributed to a male.^[35] Because Duchovny was much taller than Anderson, during scenes where Mulder and Scully stand or walk next to each other Anderson stood on "the Gilly-Board", an apple box named after her.^[36]

Scully appears in every episode of the nine-season series with the exceptions of "3", "Zero Sum", "Unusual Suspects" and "Travelers". She has appeared outside The X-Files on numerous occasions, the most notable being in the Millennium (also created by Chris Carter) episode "Lamentation," in which the main character, Frank Black, visits the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia, and Mulder and Scully are briefly seen descending a stairway. In fact, they are Duchovny and Anderson's stand-ins.^[37] An animated version of Scully, which featured the voice acting of Anderson, would appear on season 8 of The Simpsons, in the episode "The Springfield Files", as well as Canadian animated series Eek! The Cat, on the episode "Eek Space 9". The animated television series ReBoot featured characters Fax Modem and Data Nully, obvious spoofs of Mulder and Scully, in the episode "Trust No One". Anderson provided her voice work for the episode, but co-star Duchovny declined.

Reception

"I love it when women come up to me and tell me I'm a positive influence on their lives and the lives of their young daughters. That's a great feeling."

— Gillian Anderson talking about the reaction to Dana Scully from female fans.[38]

Anderson won many awards for her portrayal of Special Agent Scully during the nine-season-long run of The X-Files, including an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series in 1997,^[39] a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Television Drama Series in 1997,^[40] and two SAG Awards for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series in 1996 and 1997.^[41][42]

Film critic Scott Mendelson, writing in The Huffington Post, cited Scully as an example of strong female characters on television, calling her "one of the most iconic characters in the science-fiction genre".^[43] Radio Times‍‍ '​‍s Laura Pledger also named her as a strong TV woman, placing her at #1.^[44] Rebecca Traister of Salon.com opined that Scully had a better character arc than Mulder. She wrote, "The very fact that her character was such a hard sell made her repeated brushes with the supernatural all the more powerful. Mulder's desire to believe was so expansive, his credulity so flexible, that it's not as though he was ever going to have either shaken from him. But Scully's surety was solid, stable, rigid; every time she saw something she thought she'd never see, we saw it crack, sparks fly from it. She was forced to question herself, grow, change".^[45] She praised her for being more "rational, resilient, [and] mature" than her partner and for their mature relationship.^[45] In a review of "Irresistible", Todd VanDerWerff of The A.V. Club wrote that it was a cliché to put Scully in danger, as "Scully is [the show's] heart, and any time she's in danger, it feels like the show itself is about to be stabbed through the heart".^[46]

The character of Scully has become something of a sci-fi heroine due to her intelligence and resilience, frequently appearing on lists of important female science fiction characters, such as Total Sci-Fi Online‍ '​s list of The 25 Women Who Shook Sci-Fi, where she came in fourth.^[47] TV Squad named her the thirteenth greatest woman on television,^[48] while the site also listed her among the most memorable female science fiction television characters.^[49] She is also often cited as being an unlikely sex symbol, frequently being included in lists of sexy TV characters.^[50] She was listed in AfterEllen.com's Top 50 Favorite Female TV Characters.^[51] The pairing Mulder/Scully was ranked number 15 on Sleuth Channel's poll of America's Top Sleuths.^[52]

Notes

References

• Lowry, Brian; Stegall, Sarah (1995). The Truth Is Out There: The Official Guide to the X-Files. HarperPrism. ISBN 0-06-105330-9. 

External links

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