X (The X-Files) - Character Arc

Character Arc

X was introduced on the series via a phone call made to Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) in the second season episode "The Host", telling Mulder that he had "a friend in the FBI". However, the character did not appear on-screen until "Sleepless", two episodes later, aiding Mulder in an investigation by leaking information on a secret military project from the Vietnam War. While X's loyalties and his own agenda were often unclear, he proved more than once that he at least does not want Mulder dead. In the episode "End Game", he is approached by Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson), who pleads that she needs to know where Mulder is, believing his life to be in danger. Initially X refuses, and is subsequently confronted by Walter Skinner (Mitch Pileggi), who seemed to recognize X. He relinquishes Mulder's location, though not until after a brief but intense scuffle with Skinner. In the episode "731", X's loyalty to Mulder is further confirmed. Trapped on a train car equipped with a time bomb, Mulder, about to escape, is attacked brutally by the Red Haired Man, a Men in Black assassin. X fatally shoots the Red Haired Man as he is about to step off the car, then boards the car with only enough time left to save either Mulder or the alien-human hybrid the car was transporting. He opts to save Mulder, and carries him off to safety just as the car explodes.

In the season 4 opener "Herrenvolk", X's position as an informant is discovered by the Syndicate. When suspicion arises after the finding of photographs that were taken of The Smoking Man (William B. Davis) by X, false information is planted at the First Elder's behest, in order to root out the leak. Attempting to relay the information to Mulder, X goes to his apartment and is surprised by fellow Men in Black operative, the Gray Haired Man, who fatally shoots him. With his last strength, X crawls to Mulder's doorstep and writes in his own blood "SRSG", meaning "Special Representative to the Secretary General" of the United Nations, and thus, this clue leads Mulder to Marita Covarrubias (Laurie Holden). After his death, X appears two more times—in The Lone Gunmen origin story "Unusual Suspects," set before his death, and as a ghost in the series finale, "The Truth".