Who is Dana Scully?

Well strictly speaking, she's a character created by Chris Carter for his television show, The X-Files. She's an FBI agent paired up with a fellow agent in order to investigate the Governments so called X-Files, which are unsolved cases mostly dealing with the paranormal.

But over the years this woman, who is brought to life by the brilliant actress Gillian Anderson, has trespassed the boundaries of fantasy to become a strong role model many people look up to. We invite her into our homes every Sunday night and we live with her fractions of her life. Investigate with her, breath with her, think with her,cry with her. We've come to know her as much as we'd know a close friend.

Still, who Dana Scully is, is subject to the interpretation of each of us who watch her every week. The true essence of her is reserved to the mind of Carter, her creator and Anderson, the woman that embodies her. Still, the writer's genius and the actress' keen perception manage to communicate a very clear view of this fascinating woman. My interpretation of this view, the way I've come to know her is what I'm going to share with you all in this character profile I will attempt to make, always remaining as true to Scully as I possibly can be.

Her Family

Dana Katherine Scully was born in on a Sunday, February the 2nd 1964 to her loving parents Captain William Scully and his wife Margaret Scully. She was the 3rd child to bless the Scully household, her older siblings being William Jr. and Melissa. Later the family welcomed yet another member, Charles Scully.

Since Dana's father was a naval officer, they moved around quite a lot, promoting a closeness among the family. Her mother is a devout catholic and as such raised her children in the religious faith. Dana's relationship to her father was a particular and a close one. She used to call him Ahab and he in return called her Starbuck after the famed novel Moby Dick's Captain Ahab and his First Mate Starbuck. Dana looked up profoundly to her father and sought always to please him. We have no accurate data on the subject, but judging by who she is now, it's a safe assumption to make that she was always top of her class and she must have always excelled in her schoolwork, partially to please her father and earn his praise. Captain Scully's opinion was pivotal to Dana, and she held him in a pedestal. The enormous respect she held for him was probably only surpassed by her love of him. It's safe to say that Cpt. Scully was not a particularly effective father, in the way that he fawned over his children all the time, but I'm surehe held a special connection to each of them. In his own way, he let themknow how much he loved them. Scully must have gotten her strength and her determination from him, if not by example, for the sheer desire to do good in her father's eyes. When she is at death's door in 'One Breath' it's her father she encounters and who ushers her back to life, with help from her sister Melissa.

Her relationship with her mother, on the other hand, was more tender. Her mother is a quiet housewife, with a big heart and a keen sixth sense. She steered her children in the right direction through gentle advise. She is a woman who speaks her mind, yet argues with no one. No matter what happens, her children know that she will be there for them and support them. This is evident when Dana decided to join the FBI, much to her father's and the rest of her family's disagreement with it. Maggie Scully was probably shaken to the bones at the idea of having her daughter perform such a dangerous job, and she probably voiced her opinion but it is unlikely she did so in a disapproving way.

The closeness and connection Dana feels to her family has only been strengthen by her somewhat separation from them all. Her family has always been at the top of her list: When her father died she managed the delicate balance of being Dana and being Scully. The only way she managed to survive that loss was by the realization that she had in herself a part of her father, that he'd live for ever in her mind and that everything he'd taught her had made her the woman she was today.

It would appear though, that tragedy always seems to gloom over the Scully family. Soon after Dana's father passed away, her sister Melissa was gunned down by Krycek when he mistook her for Dana. Again, this was a loss Mrs. Scully and her sons and daughter could only bear through the comfort of each other.

Her Religion

Dana Scully was raised a Roman Catholic, and as the only proof of that today she wears a small gold cross around her neck which her mother gave to her as a present on her 15th birthday. She has never taken it off since.

It is a rather paradoxical topic: Scully is known to us as the voice of reason and science, a vision that accepts nothing that has no science to hang itself upon. Yet she embraces her catholic faith, which is in a sense belief without physical proof. In therealm of God, she takes everything at face value, yet when it comes to more worldly ordeals she demands and hunts down proof.

Once her faith did falter: when she was pain stricken with cancer she beganto question her beliefs, shutting herself to the spiritual aid of Father McCue. She thought herself strong but forgot where a great part of her strength came from. When she finally was cured, it was in part due to science, even a strange science at that (that microchip Mulder found). But it is this writer's belief that a Higher Power intervened.

Her Teens and College

All in all, Dana was raised in San Diego, California, in a very normal environment. She enjoyed playing with her siblings, being referred to as a tomboy on one occasion or other. Dana was also no stranger to her stray moments of rebellion,which manifested themselves in her taking her mother's cigarettes and smoking them at night while no one was watching. Even today, on ver few occasions has she taken a drag of a cigarette in moments of frustration.

She went to High School, and dated like any normal girl would. When it came time to go to college she enrolled in the University of California, at its Berkley campus and did her first year of undergraduate there (Pre-med perhaps?). She then transferred to the University of Maryland to complete her Medical Degree, as well as a Bachelor in Sciences in Physics. Once a certified M.D. she proceeded to her residency as a forensic pathologist.

The FBI

It's at this time that she caught the attention of the FBI. She became a special agent and then she was asked to join Quantico at a teaching position she remained at for two years. During that time she became involved with fellow Agent Jack Willis. It's important to point out the fact that the FBI usually does not accept people into their Special Agent training unless they've had 2 to 3 years experience in their field. It's been pointed out that she couldn't have been recruited right after medical school, but after thinking this through it does make sense: She had just finished her residency, which is roughly two years or more, and that counts as professional experience.Also, it's a well known fact that the University of Maryland has ties with the US Government and it's not far fetched that her outstanding grades and records caught the attention of the FBI. Highly skilled forensic pathologists are pivotal to murder investigations, and in many other cases.

The Basement

Dana's life took a 180º turn when she was summoned by a section chief to be the partner of a Fox William Mulder in with the implicit task to debunk his investigations into the paranormal. This is the moment we get to know Dana Scully. I will not waste time listing all the adventures and mishaps the two agents have lived through together, we all know them well enough. What I will do is make a blueprint of her as a person, a professional, a doctor and a woman.

Professional! Scully

She's a committed person with high moral values and even higher professional ethics.

Her professionalism is shown in the way she approaches her cases in contrast to Mulder's maverick attitude. She's a driven person, who sometimes seems incredibly fearless. But that is yet another aspect of her character: she's strong, not because she never feels fear or pain, but because she faces them head on and will not give up. This strength of character has seen her through life threatening diseases and personal tragedies. Yet she has managed to move on and live through them.

But most important and admirable in this day and age is her ethical and moral code:even though she was supposed to make Mulder crash and burn and watch from afar, she valiantly took on the assignment she was given and jumped right into the investigations providing her considerable medical and scientific expertise to aid Mulder and sometimes rein him in to prevent him from getting carried away by his own theories, that on many cases defy logic and common sense.

Doctor! Scully

The doctor and scientist in her has always been what she grabs hold of when the world seems to be falling apart at the seams. The sheer amount of knowledge she is able to summon at a moment's notice is quite a feat in itself: we know she does not posses Mulder's photographic memory, but she does posses perseverance and discipline. Her goal in life when she got out of High School was to become a doctor and even though she rarely visits a hospital with the intention of making rounds, she has kept herself occupied and active in the medical world, subscribing to various medical journals and even writing papers for them on various medical cases, most of which she's encountered in her unusual line of work.

No one will dare say that had fate dealt her a different hand, she would be a brilliant doctor, probably conducting ground-breaking research in the vast field of forensic pathology. Yet Fate has the irritating ability of arranging the blocks sothat no matter what she would have chosen she'd eventually would have wound up involved with Fox Mulder. One way or another.

Dana! Scully

Like any of us, Dana Scully is made of flesh and bones and blood courses through her veins. She is a woman with all a woman's thoughts and desires and needs. Yet she is such a consummate professional that we hardly ever see Dana peek from behind Scully. Her line of work demands 24/7 commitment, she is permanently on call for either the latest federal crime or the latest alien chase her partner wishes to drag her into.

Yet she manages to find the time to be a daughter and a sister. Even a babysitter. She is a caring daughter and a loving sister: yet there is on one account she's willing to stand up to both her brothers and her mother: her partner Fox Mulder.

Over the 7 years of working together, Mulder and Scully have forged the most tight and strong of relationships I've ever seen, on and -off- the TV screen. From day one they understood the unspoken dynamics of their relationship, they trusted each other with their lives, and it didn't take long for them to trust each other with their souls. Mulder found in her a partner who equaled him in determination, strength of character, intelligence and integrity. Even if their focuses in life were as apart from each other as day is from night.

Even when Scully is second guessing him left and right, it's not out of the sheer joy of flaunting her knowledge, it's actually to pursue their common goal at the time, whichis to find the truth. They make the perfect team because they compliment each other, Mulder takes the road less traveled and Scully takes the scientific route. They take off in opposite directions only to arrive at the same point.

Yet when they've trusted each other with just about everything, there is something they are still weary of sharing: their hearts. It's no real surprise none of them has had a real relationship while they've been together- And they are by no means incapable of having them (Scully:Willis; Mulder:Green). Their relationship is so fulfilling on so many levels, that they've overlooked the obvious. That which actually matters, that which makes relationships last, they already have it down to an art form trust, respect, admiration for one another, caring, communication... and in their unspoken way they deeply love each other. As friends. As more than friends. As the person they are virtually lost without. The next step is obviously whether to voice their emotions or not. Maybe they are not thoroughly aware of it themselves. They haven't thought of each other that way maybe out of fear of what it would do to the harmony they have achieved. Maybe they are afraid it's not reciprocal and the other person might flee in terror. Yet they both feel it.

It's really just a matter of time: maybe when Mulder finds Samantha and his heart is finally at peace... maybe when the Truth is really known... Maybe when one of them finally realizes they are soulmates.

Very funny Marce. We ALL know that YOU are Dana Scully.