Title: The Vehemence of Mulder's reaction to Alex
Krycek Author: bardsmaid
Mulder may find himself
indignant in the face of injustice, angry at those who would hurt others,
frustrated by the lack of ability of those around him to believe in
extreme possibilities. But nothing elicits such a strong reaction from
Mulder as Alex Krycek. Why?
I've had a theory bubbling away for a while now, and the one-sentence
version is that Krycek, and Krycek's actions, hit Mulder in the most
sensitive and raw of all possible places. Let me explain.
Two important, recurring thematic areas of the X-Files (as they relates to
Mulder) are those of trust and family. Think, for a moment, about the
centrality of family within the X-Files universe. It's really quite
remarkable for a TV show. The main character's quest has evolved because
of the loss/abduction of his sister. We discover that his father was at
one time embroiled in the larger conspiracy that provides structure to the
show. His mother was at least somewhat aware of what was going
on--certainly enough to painfully protest 'Why are you doing this to me?"
whenever Mulder tries to get her to remember details about the past. We
also find out that that key conspiracy kingpin CSM is also family in a
sense because he had an affair with Mulder's mother, an affair that
produced Samantha and, if you choose to believe it, Mulder himself.
The upbringing that shapes Fox Mulder has as its boundaries two parents
whose relationship is finally severed because of the abduction of
Samantha--two cold, self-serving individuals who refuse to talk about the
absent sister Mulder had been so close to, and who maintain their own
shaky stability at the cost of their son's emotional well-being.
It seems to me that losing a sister and then having your parents
mysteriously clam up about the child's disappearance ("They never spoke
about it," Mulder said later) would have a disastrous effect on Mulder's
ability to trust. He must have felt betrayed by his parents at least
subconsciously after that point. We know little about Mulder's subsequent
formative years, though we do know that while at Oxford he was involved
with a woman (Phoebe Green from *Fire) who was likely to have used him as
she proceeded to do within that episode--not something to help strengthen
his shaky sense of trust.
At the FBI he eventually becomes 'Spooky' Mulder, and judging from the
reception he gets from a variety of people in the early episodes, he's not
likely to open up to people who try to step into his inner circle since
experience has taught him that the reception he's most likely to get is
scorn. Thus the initial wary reception he gives Scully: "Oh, isn't it nice
to be suddenly so highly regarded?" and "I was under the impression that you
were sent to spy on me." His MO is to initially push people away; after
all, most of them aren't seriously interested in him or his opinions/views
anyway. His initial debate with Scully, grilling her as to her opinion
about the slides he shows, can thus be seen as a test of her potential
loyalty to him, or lack thereof. The fact that, over time, Scully tenaciously sticks
by him regardless of her lack of belief in his theories starts to open a
crack in Mulder's inner defenses.
So when the X-files are closed, Scully is reassigned to Quantico and Alex
Krycek shows up to work a case with Mulder, he's already got the advantage
of the small crack Scully has opened in Mulder's armor. Granted, Mulder
gives Krycek the initial perfunctory brush-off, much as he did with
Scully. But when Krycek holds firm and even shows himself eager to work
the case and interested in the phenomena at play, Mulder's objections melt
away fairly quickly. He and Krycek seem to fall into a rhythm, and by
episode's end Mulder shows himself to be concerned/empathetic toward
Krycek after he's been fooled into shooting Augustus Cole.
The fact that Mulder will later react with such vehemence whenever Krycek
appears on the scene comes, I believe, from the fact that he did indeed
let Krycek past his inner mental defenses. Mulder offers Krycek the trust
he finds it so hard to come by, and Krycek betrays that trust. For Mulder
it's a devastating blow, both in and of itself and because later he sees
reason to believe that Krycek may have aided in the abduction of the one
person Mulder has found who he knows he can truly trust. So Krycek
becomes, for Mulder, the emblem of all betrayal.
Add to this the fact (or at least Mulder's solid conviction, since he
doesn't actually see Krycek at the scene as we viewers do) that Krycek
killed Bill Mulder just at the point where it seemed he was ready, after
so many years, to open up to his son--to open the family connection Mulder
has so long yearned for--and you've got a recipe for deep, abiding anger
and resentment. Krycek injures not just Mulder's family but Mulder's
concept of family (and Sarah Stegall makes a convincing case, in
one of her classic episode reviews, for the fact that what Mulder is
actually seeking isn't the physical Samantha so much as a sense of
family wholeness and harmony that he's never, in reality, experienced.)
In addition, by being a part of the Melissa Scully murder, Krycek also
injures the one person Mulder considers as close as family.
Viewed within this context, I think it's possible to understand the
vehemence of Mulder's reaction to Alex Krycek. The only other person
Mulder reacts to as strongly is Duane Barry, in the scene at the top of
Skyland Mountain, and this why? Because he's taken Scully, who has become
Mulder's soft place to fall--his symbol of trust and family.
