The X's on the windows are practical as well as legally required.
What with the bright lights of the cameras and the commotion of
the cast and crew, Duchovny and Anderson have both walked through
windows in their day. Since Canadian labour law regulates workplace
hazards tightly, a Vancouver judge ruled that the presence of
unmarked glass violated the "reasonable provision" clause of the
Canadian Occupational Safety Act of 1982. The tape complies with
the law by reminding the actors where the windows are.

Chris Carter put up with this for 5 years while the case was being
appealed. But a Superior Court of the Province of British Columbia
upheld the Vancouver Court's decision in May of 1997, and we just
got news that the Canadian Supreme Court declined without comment
to review the case, thus establishing by default the original
ruling.

The result is that Chris Carter and the cast are packing up and
moving to Los Angeles where the labor laws have made more
accommodations to the film industry. Expect to see (or really,
not to see) clear windows in the movie (which was shot in the US)
and in next season's episodes. Also expect to see some continuity
errors in the form of poorly concealed lacerations on Mulder's
and Scully's faces. Pain is the price we pay for art.

Hope this helps.

Bill Baldwin <revbill@gte.net>


P.S. Really, though, this is just the "official" explanation to
draw your attention away from the truth. I suspect that some people
on this newsgroup know the actual truth and are afraid that others
will find out. You can tell who they are because they get really
upset whenever someone asks this question. My advice to you is pay
attention to who gets upset with you and email them with your
question relentlessly. Maybe they'll crack under the pressure.

The real reason for the "X" is obvious for anyone with half a brain. David
Duchovny was merely helping to "block" the shot for the director. This was
supposed to be for a scene where he stands horizontally on the window. The
"X" was merely his mark. The scene was left on the cutting room floor..and
the stupid editor forgot to remove the shot of him putting the tape on the
window. As for who Melissa is, she's my 3 year old niece, leave her out of
these discussions please.

DonChep

Because mulder isn't very good with hand puppets, and this is the
only way he knows to make them on the wall.

Octofrye11 <Octofrye11@aol.com>

Mulder puts the X on the window to signal the adult video store
across the street and let them know that it is time for another
delivery. Scully wanted the same thing when she went to Mulder's
apartment. (I guess she had seen all of the ones in his video
cabinet.)

Jen

When Mulder first moved into his apartment, a young and poor FBI
agent, the only thing he could afford with which to decorate was
tape. He couldn't afford to buy blinds for the window, either.
Being a resourceful and educated young man, Mulder taped the
alphabet to his window.  It solved two problems... the privacy
issue and the need for interior decoration.  Time went on, the
seasons changed, and most of the letters fell off.  Except the X,
of course.  It stayed.  One day a strange man arrived at Mulder's
apartment, thinking the X was a call for help and information;
this man gave Mulder a tip to solve an X File.  Mulder, ever the
resourceful and perceptive one, realized it was the X in his
window that brought the assistance he needed. Although the
original tape X fell off the window, Mulder taped up a new one
each time he came to an impasse in a case.

And that is the way it is.
Jen

As was revealed in "More Secrets of the X-Files", both Mulder and
Scully have become caught up in the latest craze to hit Washington,
D.C., "FBI Tic-Tac-Toe". They are competing against a group of agents
who work on the not-so-classified "O-Files". The rules are pretty
straightforward: three symbols in a row, either vertically, horizontally,
or diagonally wins. The eventual winner gets one of J. Edgar Hoover's
chiffon dresses.

rutk0002@maroon.tc.umn.edu

        Although some people claim that Mulder puts the X on his
window because he is trying to get Mr. X to contact him-- an inference
they seem to make simply because Mr. X does usually appear soon
afterwards--I believe the reason is more personal and complex.

        I believe that Mulder wishes that he were in better touch with
his femininity so that he could express his feelings more easily
instead of clamming up (e.g. "Yes but it's (m)--") or looking like
a caricature of Stan Laurel when he cries. 

        As a result, he pockets Scully's ova in an unconscious wish
that they were his.  And he puts the X on the window -- hoping to
contact a disaffected genetics researcher who might bring him the
appropriate chromosome. 

        I hope this clears this up.

Mortisha

smallet@apollo.sfsu.edu (SUSAN LYNNE MALLET)

It's just Mulder who tapes that X on the window..
it's a signal to his government to go and visit him.

Dorine

Dorine Verhoef <dorine@euronet.nl>

*** TOP TEN THINGS THE X ON MULDER'S WINDOW STANDS FOR ***

10. He's telling the world that he has an X chromosome he'd like to
share with someone

9. The greys are playing cosmic tic-tac-toe, and he's the center square

8. Mulder's illiterate, and he's practicing his autograph on the window
for the day when he breaks the alien story to the world and is hailed as
a hero and celebrity

7. He's confusing the dumb aliens who are looking for the "X that marks
the spot" in their galactic treasure hunt

6. He's posting one of the letters for the day on Sesame Street

5. He's only slightly Catholic, and he's putting up a slanted cross

4. He's trying to make a picture of the nativity, but he always seems to
run out of tape after the first two strips

3. In a fit of self-pity, he's making up a new X-File that he can easily
solve and show to the world

2. Samantha is to X's what iron fillings are to magnets (or so he hopes)

1. He's just toying with the newbies' minds

Jason Tamez, Registered MSTie #71569

jason.tamez@lunatic.com (Jason Tamez)

It's part of a large game of tic-tac-toe being played at Mulder's
apartment complex. This reoccuring theme helped them to get Charles Nelson
Reilly on the show as he always liked being the center square.

Actually, Mulder & Scully have used the X on the window for eons to
contact Mulder's informant X.

autumnt@aol.com (Autumn T)

You're kidding, right?
Right?
Oh...

Well, you see, in an ep of the second year of the XF, called "3",  Mulder
grieving and totally desperate because he had lost Scully, had sex with a
vampire.  Or at least, a vampire's girlfriend.  The vampire guy and his 
blood-sucking friends were not too happy about that,  and tried to get 
rid of Mulder.  Mulder barely escaped,  and since then, has always felt 
the need to surround himself with crosses and sometimes, especially after
eating some italian tofu, garlic.  This is also why Scully is always
wearing a gold cross pendant.  (She eventually came back....and I guess 
the vampires don't like her either.)

Now some people will be rude and say that Mulder has a problem with
moskitoes entering his appartment,  but don't believe them.  They are
just trying to mislead you and poke fun at you.  I find that terribly
 sad.

Danielle
***again,  always willing to help.

Danielle <danielle.leblanc@videotron.ca>

Actually Al, I think you are mistaken. Tape on the windows actually
dates back to the early seventeenth century. What some artists did
is to take tape and affix it to windows for ceremonies as decoration.
Of course, they didn't have any tape, so they used burlap bags and
spit. Chris Carter did try it this way originally, but David Duchovny
couldn't do the shot after 15 takes because he ran out of spit and
they couldn't find his spit double. So they went with the masking tape.

<<<<<<KL>>>>>> 
My head is filled with useless facts. Go ahead. Just ask.

KL Lietz (KLLietz@aol.com)

NO NO! You fool! You're misleading him! Mulder tapes the multiplication
sign on his window because he's really a closet mathematician

chief.crazy.shoes@wolf359.kiwi.gen.nz (Andrew Schischka)

Because it's too difficult for Mulder to tape an "S" (for Scully) onto
his window.

Joanne  (aka Sister Joanne, Rogue OBSSE) <JMSchari@prodigy.net>

He tapes an "X" in the window when he wants the video store to deliver a
new X-rated movie.  The Cigarette Smoking Man runs the video store, and is
really upset because Mulder never rewinds.

CyberToad (Todd Hensley) <hensley@bright.net>

Mulder wants to show his solidarity but the FBI won't let him wear a
"Malcolm X" cap while he's on duty.

JID <owls@best.com>

To show those people returning from the
X-Files convention nearby that he's also
a fan of the show.

Sickleweed <sweedy@ix.netcom.com>

he is desperate to contact his drug dealer to sell him some x-tacy (sp?)

that is from naiome.

Poppyhead@aol.com

Mulder is often seen applying an X of masking tape to the window of his
apartment, and this obviously devious and mind-boggling action has only
one plausable explanation...
         Mulder uses the X to signal a character we have been previously
introduced to in the first season.  His eX-girlfriend Phoebe Greene.  As
you may have already observed, the trials of Mulder's occupation leave
him little time for any decent social outings.  But chasing aliens all
day can make one quite randy, and as you probably deduced from viewing
the episode Fire, Phoebe is what one would call *easy*  The X is an
invitation for her to pay a visit to Mulder's apartment for a good romp
around the living room...and upon the kitchen counter...and the bathroom
floor.  <But not the bed, he's saving the bed for someone special.>  ;)

Best Regards, Carrie Matherly <Jemather@concentric.net>

It means you are about to meet Al.....

Ericka <godsgift@u.washington.edu>

It means they know you're not watching very carefully and they put the X on
the window just to get your attention because you shouldn't've been in the
bathroom for the whole second scene.

Grispy <ggx@europa.com>

         It signals the bad guys to "shoot here"...ya know, like in 
  "X" marks the spot...and if this was the "Y-Files", it would probably
be a Y, because the writers like to use "inside" references.

      XXXXXXXXgizzieXXXXXXXX  (I know that's a lot of X'S, but please
don't shoot...this is just the beginning...)

XXXXXXXXgizzieXXXXXXXX gizzie@ix.netcom.com (Coleen Sullivan-Baier)

Xplanation #4:  Someone told Mulder that when he needed help, he
should tap on the window, and he misunderstood them.

                    XXXXXXXXgizzieXXXXXXXX
               (I AM keeping track of these)

XXXXXXXXgizzieXXXXXXXX gizzie@ix.netcom.com (Coleen Sullivan-Baier)

      #5....Mulder plays Basketball in the house, and he broke the
window...the tape X is just a temporary patch, 'till Glass Man gets
there.

            XXXXXXXXgizzieXXXXXXXX

XXXXXXXXgizzieXXXXXXXX gizzie@ix.netcom.com (Coleen Sullivan-Baier)

     'cause it's impossible to make an "o" with masking tape ;D

                        XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXgizzieXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

XXXXXXXXgizzieXXXXXXXX gizzie@ix.netcom.com (Coleen Sullivan-Baier)

            A hurricane is coming, and it is to reinforce his window.
  The light is so the rescue workers know where to find him.

                          XXXXXXXXgizzieXXXXXXXX

XXXXXXXXgizzieXXXXXXXX gizzie@ix.netcom.com (Coleen Sullivan-Baier)

That's for pirates to know where to dig for the treasure.

Me

So he remembers to open the window before going through it.

Me

The X on Mulder's window is to contact Mr. X. Sorry to burst
your bubble, but it's not a good luck charm. He puts it on
the window to ask X for help. And I'd like to know who got
the idea he put it up there as a good luck charm.....

Erin