Dear Chris Carter: Having Scully Be “Impregnated By Science” Is Equivalent To Her Being Raped

Throughout the ’90s and early aughts, The X-Files‘ Dana Scully was undoubtedly one of the strongest, smartest, and most badass women on TV. A trained medical doctor and scientist turned FBI agent, Scully was assigned to work alongside the FBI’s most unwanted, Fox Mulder, to uncover some (definitely alien) mysteries. Scully was unrelenting in her pursuit of knowledge and truth and undeterred by the men around her, both professional colleagues and criminal psychos, who either had a complete disregard for her well-being or sought to destroy it. Peril was a constant in Scully’s world, her life and the lives of those she loved constantly at stake, and it seems little has changed since the series’ original run, if the premiere of The X-Files‘ eleventh and (thankfully) final season revealed.

After using one of the oldest and laziest writing tropes in the book by basically reducing the entirety of Season 10 to a weird, William-induced dream/vision extravaganza, Scully checked herself out of hospital post-seizure… only to promptly cause a car crash and end up right back where she started. While Mulder and the other male characters—Skinner and the inexplicably and annoyingly still alive CSM—were out chasing, fighting, and making shady deals regarding the fate of the human race, Scully was wondering where her long-lost son William is and how on earth she was going to save Mulder’s skin yet again. Insert groan-inducing eye roll here. There were myriad things wrong with this episode from a writing and storytelling standpoint, but the most egregious sins were, as usual, committed against Scully. Often bearing the emotional and physical brunt of men’s greed, insanity, and/or general nefariousness, Scully’s no stranger to being abducted, beaten, and violated without her consent, but one would have hoped we’d left that back in the original series. Spoiler alert: we haven’t. Beyond the health complications, Scully got into a car accident and was nearly choked to death (again) by some nameless government nutjob who wanted her dead because who doesn’t want everyone else on this show dead?

Turns out, that wasn’t even the worst of what was to come. That rotten taste left in the mouths of viewers everywhere was a result of a pointless plot twist in which it was revealed that the Cigarette Smoking Man (CSM for short) was not only alive (despite having had a missile shot right into his face and his skull gone up in flames back at the end of Season 9) but that he’s also a rapist who “impregnated [Scully] with science” and is therefore the real father of her son, William—not Mulder.

If that all seems like a lot to unpack, that’s likely what showrunner and “My Struggle III” episode writer Chris Carter was hoping for. Known for his constant aren’t-I-clever-isms and his distaste for the ‘shippers among us, writing CSM as the father of Scully’s child gave him a chance to do all the things he seems to love at once: pretend an eleventh hour decision was planned all along by citing continuity, this time with Season 7 episode “En Ami”; destroy the hopes of those still rooting for Mulder and Scully’s relationship; degrade Scully yet again making her the victim of more powerful while still painting her as a saint to be worshipped and admired merely for surviving everything she’s been put through.

It’s disheartening to realize we haven’t evolved in our ability to allow our strong female characters to exist without having to falsely validate that existence by repeatedly subjecting them to abject horrors in a misguided attempt to prove their mettle by seeing how well they survive. It’s also insulting and downright infuriating to realize how many male writers still believe in this nonsense. Adversity has the ability to make all of us tougher and more resilient, but strength isn’t dependent on how many tragedies you can crumble at the feet of and still get back up from.

Having Scully be “impregnated by science” is code for saying Scully was raped, end of story. She did not and would not have consented to having some alien/CSM sperm hybrid implanted in her uterus, regardless of his creepy fixation on and “soft spot” for her (which, come on, is pretty gross on its own, but par for the course on this show). The messed up thing is, this isn’t even the first time Scully has been violated in such a way. Lest we forget, she was already impregnated way back in Season 2 with alien DNA, an abduction experience which produced a now-dead child named Emily and left her barren—all without her consent. This is in addition to the nasopharyngeal tumor she discovered (again a product of her previous abduction) growing on her brain back in Season 4, the cure for which was to replace the alien chip in her neck that she’d had removed in the first place.

We’re leaving out numerous transgressions at the hands of men here, of course—Padgett, Tooms, Jerse, Barry, the list of crappy things Scully is put through unnecessarily goes on and on. Still, the point remains: Scully isn’t resilient, smart, and capable because she passed the tests put to her by men, regardless of whether or not that’s how they see it (and that’s certainly how Chris Carter seems to). Writing off rape or other violations of consent for cheap plot twists that have little bearing to the overall plot and which don’t serve to enrich the victim’s story in any meaningful way is cheap and frankly pretty disgusting. Torturing your protagonist and encouraging audiences to marvel at her ability to survive basically anything isn’t what gives her strength and determination, after all—that exists independent and often in spite of those who try to quash it. If only Chris Carter and men like him could see that.

Jennifer Still is a writer and editor from New York who cares too way much about fictional characters and spends her time writing about them.

Watch The X-Files episode "My Struggle III" on Hulu