Assistant Director Walter S. Skinner is Fox Mulder and Dana Scully's supervisor. He is an ex-Marine: stern and demanding. His strict insistence on by-the-book investigative techniques often puts him at odds with Mulder, whose unorthdox methods grate on the senior man. Skinner once shut down the X-Files section on "orders from above," he later reopened them on his open authority, and they have since stayed open.
Skinner's relationship with Mulder is equivocal: while the younger agent's methods and irreverent manner exasperate him, he has found many ways to support Mulder even against the Bureau's hierarchy. In "One Breath," he refused to accept Mulder's resignation, and told him of an out-of-body experience he had during his service days in Vietnam. "I am afraid to look beyond that experience, Agent Mulder. You...you are not. Your resignation is unacceptable."
