Most people remember The X-Files as a venue for exploring an especially 1990s brand of paranoia and fascination with American weirdness. The series explored everything from government-run alien conspiracy to Satanic cults, but the delivery system for the monsters through those years was almost always one man: Special Agent Fox Mulder.

Mulder, played by David Duchovny, is introduced in the pilot episode, 20 years ago this September, as bespectacled and hunched over a desk, surrounded by images of skulls, countless folders, and stacks of papers, a creature that simply wants to be left in his own habitat to pursue his “weird science.” As the FBI’s resident supernatural expert and conspiracy theorist, Mulder is already steeped in the paranormal far more than an average television viewer who hadn’t spent years sniffing out demons. Though Mulder was the hero of the show, Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson), Mulder’s partner and the audience identification character, was if anything more important as someone who could ease us into Mulder’s insanity. Though Scully was originally our interpreter, we were immersed in Mulder’s brain over the course of nine seasons to the point where Scully, though still necessary to the show, didn’t have to play the skeptic.

The rest of the paranormal happenings in The X-Files wound up secondary when compared with the real heart of the show: the relationship between Mulder and Scully. Somehow, The X-Files managed to transcend some aspects the “will they/won’t they” problem that has plagued many other shows by depicting an emotional connection founded primarily on mutual respect and professional admiration. Though many fans longed for them to get together, it’s easy to watch The X-Files without being invested in Mulder and Scully’s romantic pairing. In some sense, it’s impossible to understand or define Mulder absent his relationship with Scully.

Though his partnership with Scully has been picked apart repeatedly, Mulder’s Jewish qualities are one of the less examined, but still critical, aspects of his character. His Judaism is only hinted at in a few places, most notably Season 6’s “Drive.” Violent anti-Semite Patrick Crump (played by TV’s Bryan Cranston, in the role that convinced Vince Gilligan he could play Walter White) accuses Mulder of being Jewish based on his last name and rails against supposed Jewish control of the FBI. Mulder takes offense at Crump’s anti-Semitism and sarcastically apologizes for the “international Jewish conspiracy.” Though “Drive” doesn’t confirm Mulder’s Judaism, the hints are in line with The X-Files relatively subtle early approach to doling out information, like the early appearance of crucial alien “black oil” in the first-season classic “Ice.”

Even the X-Files episode that treats Judaism most thoroughly, Season 4’s “Kaddish,” like the similar Homicide episode, never mentions the possibility of Mulder being Jewish. The episode’s treatment of the Jewish community is a little silly, to be honest, complete with Yiddish accents. But “Kaddish” does explore Mulder’s relationship to Judaism. Though Mulder claims not to know Hebrew or understand a Talmudic text, he is again confronted with anti-Semitism. Curt Brunjes, an anti-Semite Mulder and Scully interrogate, tells Mulder “you look like you might be one yourself,” provoking a reaction similar to Mulder’s ire at Crump in “Drive.”

It’s worth noting that most of the moments that make Mulder’s Judaism (partial or not) explicit are adversarial in nature, emerging from other characters defining Mulder by attacking him. Considering that Mulder’s entire character is based on his antagonistic relationships with the government and those attempting to dissuade him from his quest for the truth, there’s something that connects Mulder even more to Judaism than whatever religious rituals he happens to participate in.

That antagonism is crucial to understanding Mulder’s often hidden innate Judaism. Mulder may have been raised Protestant—in an episode where Mulder appears to die, a Protestant minister presides over his funeral, though it may not have been in keeping with his wishes—but more important than whether or not he attends services, Mulder is essentially a Jewish action hero. Considering long-standing stereotypes about Jews that were still in wide use in pop culture through the early 1990s (something “Kaddish” did nothing to help with), Mulder’s portrayal as someone who happens to be Jewish, but is not defined by that Judaism, bucks stereotypes. Fox Mulder endured body switching, abductions, and alien super soldiers, and kept it Semitic in the process.

Previously on Network Jews:

Michael Ginsberg, the Smartass Ad Man on Mad Men

Dr. James Wilson on Fox’s Dark Medical Procedural House

Ari Gold, the Jewish Hollywood Agent on HBO’s Entourage

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When asked about his faith, Detective John Munch (Richard Belzer) says, “The only thing Judaism and I have in common is we both don’t like to work on Saturdays.” Quipping aside, Munch—a cynical, sarcastic, four-times-divorced conspiracy nut—actually has a rich and nuanced, though largely secular, relationship to Judaism.

The character of John Munch is the longest-running one on television to be played by the same actor. He began as a lead on Homicide: Life On The Street as a detective in the Baltimore Police Department and then moved to New York as a Sex Crimes cop on Law And Order: SVU (which occupies the same universe), racking up a current total of 19 seasons of television. Belzer has also appeared as Munch on more series than any other television character, including the original Law And Order and its spinoff Trial By Jury, short-lived UPN cop drama The Beat, The Wire, and The X-Files, comedies 30 Rock and Arrested Development (where Munch helps the FBI run the “scrapbooking sting” on Tobias), and Sesame Street.

But for a character with such longevity, Munch’s complicated relationship to his religion has been sparingly explored. Like Jerry Seinfeld, his Judaism is cultural—he’s oversensitive to perceived anti-Semitism but completely fine with joking about Judaism himself. His sensitivity to personal slights, whether against his religion or not, reaches its logical conclusion in paranoia and an obsession with conspiracy theories. This aspect of the character became less prominent as he moved from Homicide to SVU, but a forensic psychologist in the first season of SVU still pegs Munch as able to “smell a conspiracy theory at a five-year-old’s lemonade stand.”

One of his many crossover appearances suggests Munch might not be so off the mark with his theories. The framing device of “Unusual Suspects,” a Season 5 episode of The X-Files, sees Munch interrogating John Fitzgerald Byers (Bruce Harwood), the leader of the Lone Gunmen—a group of conspiracy nuts more paranoid than Fox Mulder (David Duchovney), another Jew. Within The X-Files, “Unusual Suspects” provides the origins of both the Lone Gunmen and Mulder’s overwhelming fear of the government, but it also helps situate Munch’s persecution complex and surprisingly well-justified distrust of authority.

Still, as much as his attitude reflects a Jewish upbringing, Munch isn’t particularly religious. Homicide’s episode “Kaddish,” the most in-depth exploration of Munch’s faith, makes it clear that although he knows the details of Jewish burial laws, some Yiddish, and a substantial amount of prayer, he wants nothing to do with Judaism. During the episode, Munch refuses to participate in a minyan, a group of 10 Jewish adults required for certain prayers, at a shiva for Helen Rosenthal, a victim whose murder he is investigating who also happens to be his high school crush. At the minyan, Munch claims (while obviously lying) that he doesn’t remember the Mourner’s Kaddish, the hymn of praise to God said by those grieving for a loved one.

Throughout “Kaddish,” we trace young Johnny Munch’s infatuation with Helen. That relationship is important by itself to understanding the adult Munch, but it also lets us peek at his nerdy childhood in the heavily Jewish Baltimore suburb of Pikesville, where he ran a paper route and dreamt of being a detective, “like Johnny Staccato.” Growing up in the suburbs in front of a television, afraid of bullies, it’s easy to trace a line between Johnny Munch and the cynical Sex Crimes cop.

As someone connected to Judaism more through a sort of worldview than through faith, or even rituals, Munch seems to be a kindred spirit of Homeland’s Saul Berenson, another Jewish law-enforcement official who may not be exceedingly religious but takes Judaism as crucial and constitutive of his personality.

Both Munch and Saul experience similar moments confirming their inherent Judaism. Saul says kaddish over Asfal Hamid, a terrorist who has committed suicide, as a way of expressing the compassion that makes him such an effective CIA operative. Likewise, at the end of “Kaddish,” Munch returns to Helen’s shiva, dons a yarmulke, and joins the minyan, the sound of the Mourner’s Kaddish providing the grace note of the episode.

Before he heads back to the shiva, Munch asks his partner why people forget the simple pleasure of holding another person’s hand, clearly pining for the pure love he felt for Helen. The contradiction at the heart of John Munch—the cynical, paranoiac bastard with four ex wives who still believes deeply in true love—is less a signal of the hard-bitten cop’s rejection of Judaism and more a representation of the reluctant Jewish hero, a tradition as old as Moses.

Previously on Network Jews

Dr. John Zoidberg, the Klutzy Jewish Crustacean on Futurama

Jean-Ralphio, the status-obsessed sidekick on Parks and Recreation.

Shoshanna, the scene-stealing afterthought on Girls.

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Leo (July 21 – August 20): Az a leyb shloft, loz im shlofn: When a lion is sleeping, let him sleep.

Like your ruling planet, the sun, you believe everything revolves around you. Self-righteous and entitled, you won’t rest until everyone feels the fiery blaze of your tempestuous, regal influence. You may define the fire sign, but come on: have you ever heard the king of the jungle kvetching? For you, bliss lies in instinct and reaction, not cold scheming.

Leo rules the heart. You are among the most loyal, generous, openhearted, and warm signs of the Zodiac, so you make for a great friend. However, the energy you put into friendships can also cause you heartache when you don’t get as much back in return.

It’s like Ru Paul says: “Big hair, big heart,” and you lions have no shortage of either. Although your brutality reaches its peak when you become impatient with others, it is important to maintain perspective: The sun will set without your help, so stop torturing everyone—including yourself!

Famous Leo Jews: David Duchovny, Dustin Hoffman, Roman Polanski, Stanley Kubrick, Richard Belzer, Monica Lewinsky, Samuel Goldwyn, William Goldman, Sydney Omarr, Jonathan Silverman, Sean Penn (half-Jewish), David Steinberg.

Virgo (Aug. 21 – Sept. 20): Don’t worry bubbelahs, it’s not as bleak as it looks. Big changes for the better are on the horizon, and the whirlwind of the past several months is finally settling down. Look around: if there is anything you can live without, let it go.

Libra (Sept. 21 – Oct. 20): Your natural charm has made it easy for you to avoid the tough realities, but sooner or later you’ll have to face the truth. The longer you put it off, the bigger the eventual explosion will be. Looking into the past for clues may be helpful.

Scorpio (Oct. 21 – Nov. 20): Uranus squares your ruling planet, Pluto, several times in the next few years—something that hasn’t happened since the 1930s. Take this cosmic renaissance to heart, it doesn’t help anyone if you suppress the change boiling inside. Accept the inevitability of this breakthrough and make it work for you.

Sagittarius (Nov. 21 – Dec. 20): While you are level-headed when it comes to your career, socially you can be a bit of a creeper. You are channeling your energies in the wrong directions. Owning up to it is the first step: you can’t take the high road without knowing where you’re going.

Capricorn (Dec. 21 – Jan 20): Lighten up! You may be stuck in a rut, but you should know by now that you’re a star. There will always be obstacles, but don’t forget that we make our own realities. Dearest Capricorn, your future’s so bright you gotta wear shades!

Aquarius (Jan 21 – Feb. 20): Everything that’s been happening around you has left you fermisht. Take a moment to breathe. With your ruling planet Uranus in retrograde for the remainder of the year, you have an opportunity to see what’s working for you—and what’s not.

Pisces (Feb. 21 – March 20): It’s all too easy for you to go along with what others want for you. You have so much to offer—and there’s only so much of yourself that you can spare. Seek and you will find, super freak.

Aries (March 21 – April 20): Following your heart and instincts is admirable, but without a little planning and soul-searching, you may find yourself stuck in old patterns. You have all the tools you need to make things work for you. Otherwise, just fake it ‘till you make it.

Taurus (April 21 – May 20): It’s like bubbe always told you: a watched pot never boils. Maybe your romantic prospects have been less than fantastic. But once you learn to love yourself, others will follow. They should be so lucky!

Gemini (May 21 – June 20): It’s better for you Geminis to let loose with both of your twins—the good and the bad, the buttoned up and the reckless. But if you can reconcile the two sides of yourself, you’ll find it much easier to relate to others.

Cancer (June 21 – July 20): You’re finally feeling like you’re ready to open your heart to love, but you crabs often come on too strong romantically. The important lesson is to balance your energies, so that you can be passionate but not overwhelming.

What’s Your Sign?

Introducing Jewcy Horoscopes: Cancer (June 21-July 20)

(Art by Margarita Korol)

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