Wifegate

Fan Theory
Fan Theory:	Wifegate
Synonyms:	Related to Wiggate and Ringgate
Origin:	Season 10
Fandom(s):	The X Files
Dates:
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Wifegate is a X-Files Fandom term that originated on tumblr around October 2015 before the broadcast of the tenth X-Files season.

It's the name of a fan theory, a head canon, and based on a speculation regarding a a blurry screen grab pulled from an official trailer that showed Scully and her wearing something like a necklace with what looked like a ring, which resulted in another theory: Ringgate. .

X-Philes, and especially Mulder/Scully shippers started to speculate whether Mulder and Scully were married. It also inspired a handful of fanworks, mainly fan art and fan fiction. .

Fans also cited some interviews with David Duchovny in which he repeatedly called Scully Mulder's wife, something that fueled these speculations even more .

Comments from an "Official" Source

In August 2017, Glen Morgan, co-writer of the episode, even engaged with fans on Twitter about Mulder's "wife" before closing down his twitter account.

Anonymous asked:

What is the wife gate?

myassbrokethefall answered:

AHHHHH, WIFEGATE. *looks happily into the distance*

Picture it, anon. Sicily The X-Files fandom, fall of 2015. New X-Files episodes were being made for the first time in eight long years. We were all excited, but we had received extremely disappointing spoilers earlier in the summer – that Mulder and Scully were no longer a couple. We had been through the stages of grief – denial (the spoilers are fake!/they’re not really broken up, it’s a trick to find the truth!), anger (SO WHAT YOU’RE SAYING IS YOU THINK IF THE ONLY ENJOYABLE PARTS – THE MSR PARTS – OF IWTB HAD BEEN REMOVED, IWTB WOULD HAVE DONE GREAT? YES EVERYONE WAS DEFINITELY HERE FOR THE HOMOPHOBIA AND THE INCOHERENT BILLY CONNELLY PLOT AND AMANDA PEET AND THE NATATORIUM), bargaining (SURELY the season won’t END with them still broken up/SURELY they wouldn’t get everyone together and make a whole season of X-Files and not get as much Mulder and Scully goodness out of David and Gillian as possible, this CAN’T last the whole season), and we were pretty much smack in the middle of the depression stage.

David is at New York Comic Con with XF, and he starts talking about his “wife,” Scully. He was diagnosed with depression by his wife. Mulder and Scully and their marriage. At first everyone is like, oh David, you sentimental confused goober. But then. BUT THEN. What if. WHAT IF – DAVID KNOWS SOMETHING? David is ON XF. Of course he knows things we don’t. What if David is slipping up, because he KNOWS that – MULDER AND SCULLY ARE ACTUALLY MARRIED?? Sure, they’re “broken up,” but they GOT MARRIED after IWTB – a movie in which Scully delivers the line “He’s not my husband” in a kind of pissed-off-sounding voice, as if she wished for that to be rectified – and now they’re SEPARATED. After all, CC said that Mulder and Scully’s relationship had “matured and evolved” since IWTB, and plain old breaking up doesn’t fit that, but BEING MARRIED SURE DOES! They put out those breakup spoilers to throw us off the trail but that was only PART of the story and they’re going to give us a HAPPY SURPRISE! Oh, it’s so like that rascal CC to have them be already married and not show us the wedding! That’s fine, we’ll IMAGINE the wedding!

David doesn’t even realize this is a spoiler so he’s blithely referring to Scully as Mulder’s wife and has no idea he’s giving something away. BLESS YOU, DAVID DUCHOVNY! Or, OR, maybe David knows very well that it’s supposed to be a spoiler and he doesn’t CARE. He thinks the secrecy is dumb. David loves Mulder and Scully and he knows people are upset about the breakup and he’s winking at us just a little when he calls Scully Mulder’s wife. BLESS YOU, DAVID DUCHOVNY!

This whole situation was known as Wifegate. Wifegate was a wonderful, wonderful time where, after months of feeling depressed about the spoilers of the M/S breakup, for a little while, our spirits lifted and we got excited about the season again. Wifegate allowed me to believe (well, hope) for a while that Mulder and Scully’s relationship was safe, which in turn allowed me to give half a shit about anything else that might be happening on the show, haha. Wifegate is a wonderful friend that I will always cherish that came along at the exact right time, even though it turned out to be wrong: Mulder and Scully weren’t married after all, just plain old broken up. David was just wrong, because he sort of has it in his head that Mulder and Scully are/were married because, well, I think they just *feel* married to him. So he says “wife” because he forgets. Bless you, David Duchovny, you sentimental confused goober you.

tl;dr: Wifegate refers to a fan theory, originating after David referred to Scully as Mulder’s wife several times at NYCC, that Mulder and Scully were actually married in (the then-upcoming) Season 10. This was very exciting and much better news than Mulder and Scully being broken up. We wanted to believe. It was not true. But it was fun to hope for a while.

What is Wife gate? (August 4, 2017)

Fanworks

FanFiction

• works tagged "X-Files Wifegate" at Archive of Our Own

Memes

• I BELIEVE poster meme
• Wifegate version of the Distracted Boyfriend meme

Links

• Evidence supporting Mulder and Scully as Marrieds
• posts tagged as wifegate on tumblr