An ex-marine with a stern sence of duth, the Bureau's asststant Director Walter Skinner has little patience with fox mulder's unorthodox methods of investigatation. More than once he has warned Mulder and Scully that their inquiries were crossing into dangerous territory, and once he shut down the X-Files entirely. But when Dana scully was kidnapped , he reopened them, telling mulder, "thats what they fear the most" -- without clarifying who "they" are. It's never clear whose side Skinner is on, or whose orders her takes, but his efforts on behalf of mulder and scully "through unofficial channels" have made it plain that he is deeply concerned about his independent-minded agents and their work.
