Dana Scully
Early life and education
Scully was born on
February 23,
1964, to Margaret and William Scully, into a close-knit
Catholic family. She has an older brother, William Jr., an older sister, Melissa, and a younger brother, Charles, who is never seen on the show (except in flashbacks). Her father was an officer in the
Navy, and she grew up in
Annapolis and later in
San Diego. A tomboy growing up, she would also rebel against her parents in high school. She attended
University of Maryland, and earned a
B.S. in
Physics. Her undergraduate thesis was entitled "
Einstein's
Twin Paradox: A New Interpretation." While finishing medical school, she was recruited by the
FBI, which she accepted, mostly because she felt she could establish herself there. Upon being partnered with
Fox Mulder, she retained her medical skills by acting as a
forensic pathologist, often performing or consulting on autopsies of victims on X-Files cases.
Scully initially worked as a teacher at the
FBI Academy in
Quantico. The
Syndicate knew of Mulder's drive to reveal the truth about the existence of
extraterrestrial life. However, because Mulder had become too high profile, they could not simply kill him. A strategy was devised to invalidate his work, and in the spring of 1992, Scully was assigned by the FBI to debunk his investigations into the
paranormal by disproving them with science. Instead, she observed the evidence objectively and honestly. The Syndicate soon dropped this endeavor, and Scully remained part of the X-Files office, providing an intelligent, down to earth, empirical opposite to Mulder's more maverick character. Over the years of working as a team, a deep bond of respect and affection developed between the two. They exhibited a comfortable working relationship, each bringing important parts to their intriguing, and usually dangerous, investigations.
In
1994, after 2 years of working together, the Syndicate decided that Mulder and Scully were getting too close to the truth, and the X-Files investigations were closed. Mulder and Scully were sent to work in different sections.
In
Ascension (2x06) Scully was kidnapped by a mental patient named
Duane Barry, an ex-FBI agent and multiple alien abductee. To prevent his own abduction, he traded her to a military covert operation. Scully was missing for several weeks before mysteriously turning up in a D.C. area hospital,
comatose (
One Breath (2x08)).
Walter Skinner ordered the X-Files reopened to investigate her disappearance. When Scully awakened, she voluntarily returned to her position almost immediately. Her abduction experience would later come to serve in an important capacity to the X-Files mythology.
In
1995, The Syndicate, seeing that Scully had become as much of a threat to their conspiracy as Mulder, attempted to have Scully murdered, but
their assassins inadvertedly killed her sister, Melissa. Scully pursued her sister's murder investigation after the FBI dropped it (from influence by the Syndicate), and managed to track down the killer. However, the hitman was soon himself murdered (by conspiracy operatives), leaving Scully without any justice for her sister, but strengthening her continuing search for the truth. Also that year, Scully discovered a tiny
microchip implanted in the back of her neck during her abduction. (
The Blessing Way (3x01)) She had it removed, and subsequently developed an inoperable,
cancerous, nasopharengeal
tumor. Scully's cancer miraculously went into remission several months later when Mulder broke into
The Pentagon to retrieve another chip to be implanted back into her neck. Besides her cancer, Scully also learned that her abduction resulted in her inability to conceive children, as her ova had apparently been harvested.
Scully's convictions were proven while visiting her brother in California during the Christmas holidays of
1997. She received a phone call from a voice that sounded identical to Melissa's (
Christmas Carol (5x05)) which led her to arrive at a house in the middle of an investigation concerning the hours-old suicide of the homeowner's wife, Roberta Sim. There, Scully met the deceased's three-year-old adopted daughter, Emily, who looked exactly like a childhood picture of Melissa. Convinced that she was Melissa's biological daughter, she ordered a series of DNA comparison tests. However, Scully was shocked to discover that not Melissa, but that
she was actually Emily's mother. (
Emily (5x06)) When the adoptive father was killed by
Alien Bounty Hunters, Scully immediately petitioned the courts for custody. Unfortunately, Emily was terminally ill with a rare form of
anemia, and died shortly after Scully discovered her existence. In actuality, Emily was one of several alien/human hybrids created using alien DNA and harvested ova from other abductees.
Despite her previous diagnosis, Scully was unwilling to accept the fact that she would never have children, and decided to have a child on her own via
in-vitro fertilization. She asked Mulder to be the donor, but initial results were negative. However, just as Mulder was
abducted, Scully discovered she was pregnant in the Spring of
2000.
Special Agent
John Doggett was then brought in by the FBI to find Mulder. The search soon proved fruitless, and Doggett was assigned to work with Scully on the X-Files. After eight years of investigating unexplained phenomena, Scully had slowly become more open to believing in the paranormal, and Doggett took her traditional place as "the skeptic". Scully worked late into her pregnancy, only taking maternity leave on her doctor's insistence. However, even after Mulder's return, she remained anxious and fearful of her unborn child's origins and fate. Hunted down by agents of the conspiracy, she fled with the help of Doggett and
Monica Reyes, shortly before giving birth in a remote area of
Georgia. She named the boy William after his grandfathers. (
Fox Mulder is presumably the child's father; see his and William's entries for more information).
After William's birth, Mulder voluntarily went into hiding, believing that his living with Scully and William put them at risk. Scully also left fieldwork to teach
Forensics at
Quantico, with the X-Files division now being run by Doggett and Reyes. Shortly after, she learned that she and William were being surveilled by the
New Syndicate. In
2002, after William was kidnapped but eventually found safe, Scully felt she could no longer provide the safety that William needed, and gave him up for adoption. (
See his entry for more information.)
In the series finale, Scully helped Mulder escape a bogus imprisonment and death sentence, and the two ran away as fugitives to
New Mexico, and had a final confrontation with
Cigarette Smoking Man. Scully and Mulder are currently on the run from the New Syndicate, to protect themselves and expose the truth about the government conspiracy to cover up the threat of alien colonization.
Faith
Throughout the series, her Catholic faith served as a cornerstone in her life, although at times a contradiction to her otherwise rigid skepticism. Upon her career in science and medicine, she drifted from her Catholic upbringing but remained somewhat entrenched in her faith.
Scully almost always wears a golden
crucifix necklace, given to her by her mother as either a Christmas or birthday present. Upon her abduction ((
Ascension (2x06)) it was the only item left behind in Duane Barry's getaway car. Mulder wore it ((
3 (2x07)) in her absence until she miraculously reappeared in a DC hospital. (
One Breath (2x08)) After she recovered, he returned the cross to her.
The abduction visibly tested the limits of her faith, when she began to exhibit symptoms of
posttraumatic stress disorder on a case involving a murdering
fetishist named
Donnie Pfaster (
Irresistable (2x13)). This psychological revictimization continues after Pfaster escaped from prison five years later and again attempted to kill her (
Orison (7x07)), ending only after she fatally shot him in self-defense. She struggled with what motivated her actions to kill Pfaster, and questioned whether it was God compelling her to kill Pfaster, or "something else."
About a year after the first Donnie Pfaster incident, Scully was further conflicted when protecting a young
stigmatic by the name of Kevin Kryder, whose life was threatened by a psychotic, apparently suffering from
Jerusalem syndrome (
Revelations, 3x11). Skeptical of the boy's claims but unable to deny what she has seen, Scully was unable to respond when the boy prophetically asked, "Are you the one who was sent to protect me?", implying Scully's intervention was the direct work of God. As a result of their experiences on the Kryder case, the philosophy of faith and religion caused a disagreement between Mulder and Scully that continued through out the duration of their work together.
Some time later, the cancer diagnosis forced Scully to begin contemplating her own mortality. However, she resisted the gentle prodding from her family priest, Father McCue, to rejoin the Church to obtain more strength. When the severity of her illness increases, and pushes her to the brink of death, Scully finally requested ministry from Father McCue, and chooses to accept her remission as a miracle. (
Redux (5x03))
Upon the sudden discovery of Emily Sims, Scully gave the little girl her cross to wear while she petitioned to adopt her. Before her funeral, Scully retrieved the cross from Emily's casket.
Sometime after her recovery, 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. (
All Souls (5x17)) 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 D.C., she went to confession to gain peace of mind and acceptance for Emily's death.
Mulder and Scully frequently disagreed on matters of religion. Scully is more inclined to believe that God has a hand in people's actions, while Mulder seems to believe that people are responsible for their own behavior.
Immortality
There are hints given throughout the series that Scully may actually be
immortal. The earliest known reference to this occurs in Season 3, during the episode
Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose (3x04). Mulder and Scully investigate a man (
Clyde Bruckman) who can predict how people are going to die. When Scully asks Bruckman how she is going to die, he smiles and replies, "You don't."
In the episode
Never Again (4x13) Scully got a tattoo of an
Ouroboros. The Ouroboros is an ancient symbol often tied to continuation and immortality.
The immortality thread was again mentioned in
Tithonus (6x10). Scully investigated Alfred Fellig, a crime scene photographer who claimed to have the ability to predict death. His ability, however, was very different from Bruckman's; Bruckman could predict how people die, Fellig could predict when. Fellig told Scully that he himself is immortal. He saw Death come for him once but missed; it took someone else instead. At the end of the episode, Scully is accidentally shot by her new temporary partner. Before she died, Fellig asked her to look away. Scully recovered fully, but Fellig died instead. Mulder suggested that Fellig took her place in death, which if true, suggests she is now immortal, as Fellig was. Fellig lived to be over 140 years old.
Family
â€
"Captain William "Bill" Scully - Scully's relationship with her father was close, but suffered when she decided not to pursue a career in medicine, and joined the FBI. By 1994, the two seemed to have reconciled before her father suddenly died of a
coronary. Only after he was gone did Scully realize that, despite their differences, her father was indeed proud of her. (
Beyond the Sea (1x12)) She sees an appiration of Captain Scully while comatose, following her abduction. Clad in his official Navy whites, he delivers to her a message full of love as he encourages her to live (
One Breath (2x08)).
â€
"Margaret "Maggie" Scully - Scully's mother provides support for her daughter's frequent health crises, but sometimes expresses quiet disapproval in Scully's choices. Margaret Scully is frequently seen meddling into Scully's life. She vigorously encourages Scully to rekindle her Catholic faith, often expresses her disapproval in Scully's dangerous job, and insists on hiring a baby nurse for Scully towards the end of her pregnancy. After William's birth, Margaret is extremely protective of Scully and William. In her final appearance, (
Provenance (9x10)), she is also seen as also seen as reluctant to find the truth because of the danger involved.
-
Melissa "Missy" Scully - Scully was extremely close to her older sister, who was first introduced when Scully lay dying in Georgetown Memorial Hospital following her abduction. Unlike her skeptical younger sister, Melissa was a free spirit who encouraged Scully to look beyond the realms of science and fact, and trust intuition and nature. Scully was deeply affected by her death, and championed hard to keep her murder investigation active (
Piper Maru (3x16)).
-
William "Bill" Scully Jr. - Scully's relationship with her older brother, also a Naval officer, seemingly mirrors the disapproval she felt from her father (
Gethesmane (4x20)). Further complicating their relationship is his own steadfast refusal to validate her work, and beligerence towards Mulder. Bill's wife is named Tara, and they have one son, Matthew.
Scully has two children, Emily and
William.
Romantic Relationships
Scully was given a reporter boyfriend named Ethan in the original edit of the Pilot episode, but he was subsequently edited out and removed from the storyline.
While in medical school, she carried on an affair with her married instructor, Dr. Daniel Waterston (
all things (7x17)). The end of her relationship with Waterston came about following her decision to go into the FBI. After her entrance to the FBI's Academy at Quantico, Scully began a year-long affair with her older instructor, Jack Willis, with whom she shared a birthday (
Lazarus (1x14)).
Scully was set up by a friend, and went out on a date with a handsome but boring divorcé in
The Jersey Devil (1x04). Several years later, she encountered Ed Jerse while on a case, who showed her a strange tattoo he'd gotten to commemorate his recent divorce. Frustrated over the path her life has taken, she impulsively had drinks with Jerse, and, inspired by his, also got a tattoo of a serpent eating its own tail. She spent the night with Jerse, but ergot dyes in the tattoo ink drove Jerse crazy and compelled him to attempt to murder Scully (
Never Again (4x13)).
In
Milagro (6x18), Scully unwittingly became the object of desire for Phillip Padgett, a reclusive writer. He revealed his obsession with Scully to her in the course of an investigation, providing strangely detailed insight into her life, to the extent that he moved into Mulder's building to be near her. He wrote a book in which the two had a passionate love scene, but then burned it before Scully could read it. However, his affections were unrequited; Scully was intrigued but unnerved by his attention.
Towards the end of the series, her relationship with Mulder clearly crossed over into the romantic sphere. When Mulder was injured in a boat crash, he awakened in a hospital and told Scully that he loved her (
Triangle (6x03)). By the end of Season 6, Mulder and Scully were increasingly shown doing more light-hearted activities together, such as practicing baseball (
The Unnatural 6x20)), using FBI funds for a "night out" during a movie premiere (
Hollywood, A.D. (7x18)), and enjoying a movie at Mulder's apartment (
Je Souhaite (7x21)).
After Mulder's abduction, coinciding with Scully's announcement of her pregnancy (
Requiem (7x22)) there was little doubt that
Scully's child was conceived with Mulder. During her pregnancy, Mulder pulled out all the stops to protect her and uncover the plot against her baby (
Essence (8x20)). When
Jeffrey Spender resurfaced as a disfigured man claiming to be Mulder, Scully was quick to dismiss him, stating, "If that were Mulder, I wouldn't care." (
William (9x17)) When Mulder actually returned, they shared a passionate kiss, and grieved together over the loss of their son. She made the decision to follow Mulder as a fugitive.
The last scene of the series finale featured Mulder and Scully facing an uncertain future together.
*She is 5'3" (160 cm), has blue/blue-green eyes, and is of at least partial
Irish heritage. Her surname is the
Anglicized form of
O'Scolaidhe, meaning "son of the scholar".
*In the episode
Humbug (2x20), Scully accepts a cricket from
Dr. Blockhead and seemingly eats it. After she and Mulder leave, she shows Mulder that she had used a sleight of hand and hands the cricket to Mulder intact. In the scene, Anderson actually did put the cricket in her mouth and chewed it, but did not actually swallow it. A different cricket was used for the later scene.
*One of Scully's favorite movies is
The Exorcist (
Miracle Man). Parts of that movie were filmed in Georgetown, where she lives. She also later reluctantly reveals that her guilty pleasure is
The Brady Bunch (
Sunshine Days).
*Her favorite book is
Moby Dick. Her father used to read to her from the book when she was young, and she came to nickname her father "
Ahab" from the book, and in return, he called her "
Starbuck". She later named
her dog "
Queequeg", also after a character from the book. She also enjoys books by
Jose Chung.
*Scully speaks
German (
Unruhe, 4x04), which she learned in college, and has a passing understanding of
Greek. (
Hollywood A.D., 7x18).
*Opposite of their character portrayals in
The X-Files, it is reported that Anderson believes passionately in the existence of the paranormal, including alien life, while David Duchovny is much more tempered than Fox Mulder, and "open to possibilities."
*Scully also made an appearance with Mulder in the "
The Springfield Files" episode of
The Simpsons, and both Anderson and
David Duchovny provided their voices for the episode. In an episode of the
ReBoot series, Mulder and Scully were parodied as agents "Fax Modem" and "Data Nully". Anderson provided her voice work for the episode, but David declined.
*Inside the
X-Files fan community, Scully has developed her own
cult following, named "OBSSE", The Order of the Blessed Saint Scully, The Enigmatic ("The Enigmatic" part most likely comes from a nickname given to her by Max Fenig in the episode,
Fallen Angel).
*Scully's phone number in the
X-Files film is different from the one on the show â€" 555-0113.
*
Chris Carter has stated that he named Scully after his favorite sportscaster,
Vin Scully.
Agent John Doggett was named after Scully's longtime broadcasting partner,
Jerry Doggett.
*Scully was portrayed by
Tea Leoni, who played as herself, in the movie within the episode
Hollywood A.D. (7x19). Leoni is in actuality married to David Duchovny.
*She appeared in every episode of the series except for
3 (2x07),
Zero Sum (4x21),
Unusual Suspects (5x01), and
Travelers (5x15).
*Chris Carter has said that he considers Scully to be the main character of the series.
* "What I find fantastic is the notion that there are answers beyond the realm of science. The answers are there, you just have to know where to look." â€"
Pilot, 1x79
* Mulder: "
Unidentified flying objects. I think that fits the description pretty well. Tell me I'm crazy."
Scully: "Mulder, you're crazy." â€"
Deep Throat, 1x01
* Mulder: "Don't you believe in the next life?"
Scully: "I'd settle for a life in this one." â€"
Shadows, 1x05
* Mulder: "Whatever tape you found in that VCR, it isn't mine."
Scully: "Good, because I put it back in that drawer with all those other videos that aren't yours." â€"
Excelsius Dei, 2x11
* "I've heard the truth, Mulder. Now what I want are the answers." â€"
Paperclip, 3x02
* "Don't you see, Mulder? You're doing their work for them. You're chasing aliens that aren't there, helping them to create the story that covers the shameful truth. And what they can't cover, they apologize for. Apology has become policy." â€"
731, 3x10
* Mulder: "
Modell psyched the guy out. He put the whammy on him."
Scully: "Please explain to me the scientific nature of 'the whammy.'" â€"
Pusher, 3x17
* "Nothing happens in contradiction to nature, just in contradiction to what we know of it." â€"
Herrenvolk, 4x01
* Mulder: "Dana, if um... early in the four years we've been working together... an event occurred that suggested or somebody told you that... we'd been friends together in other lifetimes... always... wouldn't it have changed some of the ways we looked at one another?"
Scully: "Even if I knew for certain, I wouldn't change a day. Well, maybe that
Flukeman thing." â€"
The Field Where I Died, 4x05
* Priest: "Has it occurred to you that maybe this, too, is part of what you were meant to understand?"
Scully: "You mean, accepting my loss?"
Priest: "Can you accept it?"
Scully: "Maybe that's what faith is." â€"
All Souls, 5x17
* "The truest truths are what hold us together, and keep us painfully, desperately apart." â€"
Trust No 1, 9x08
