Supernatural Rewatch 2026 - 1.07 | Hook Man | Written by: John Shiban | Story editors: Sera Gamble & Raelle Tucker | Directed by: David Jackson | Original air date: 25th October 2005 (USA)
“Hey, check this out. 1862, a preacher named Jacob Carnes was arrested for murder. It was like, he was so angry over the red-light district in town that one night he killed thirteen prostitutes. Uh, right here..”
"some of the deceased were found in their beds, sheets soaked with blood, others suspended upside-down from the limbs of trees as a warning against sins of the flesh."
First of all—I love the meta work you do on here. It's such a unique way to provide content to the fandom, and it's high-quality and well-researched. I eat it up, and I'm grateful you put the time into doing it. 💙
(Also—apologies if you've already answered this somewhere; I did a little searchy-search and didn't quite find it.)
My question is: what is your headcanon on Baby William's paternity, and why?
And, is it possible that Actual Canon™ viably supports the conclusion that CSM was just full of shit, and Mulder is actually Baby William's father? Or must we conclude that she was impregnated by CSM during En Ami?
Oh, William was 100% Mulder's son!
The posts you are looking for are:
1. Requiem, Existence, and The Truth: Cliffhanger, Conclusion, and Cutoff and
2. The X-Files (In-Depth): Scully's Pregnancy, Mulder's Abduction, and the Truth Behind Requiem and Season 8
(3. and their addition William's Adoption: the "Who"s, the "What"s, and the "Why"s.)
But I shall summarize~
FROM THE WRITER(S') MOUTH
The X-Files crew thought Season 7 would be the last (they were all expecting another movie instead, DD and GA included.) With that in mind, Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz tried to think of a conclusion-slash-jumping-off-point for the finale episode. It was Spotnitz's idea for Scully to become pregnant (an arc they had been considering since Season 5.) They built off of the UFO ship in Africa to heal her infertility (post here), planted a "family planning" book in the basement for fans to spot later (post here), and let the props department tease an on-going relationship post-Millennium as early as Orison (posts here and here.) Combined with the "season of secret sex" banter (a full breakdown of here; and MSR's version of intimacy here), their intentions weren't exactly subtle. Then in all things, Frank and CC asked Gillian if they could slip in a scene implying Scully and Mulder had had sex. She agreed wholeheartedly (quote here, thank you @lilydalexf.)
After Season 8's conclusion, Spotnitz (who one could argue was the real creator of the William arc, post here) asserted that, yes, Mulder was always meant to be the father--
July 12, 2001:
Spotnitz said one thing fans of the series will not have to be concerned about is the paternity of Scully’s baby being revised in the ninth season. Much of the eighth season was spent examining how the baby came to be since it had been previously established that Scully was unable to conceive....
“The final scene was meant to say that Mulder and Scully had consummated their relationship and this child was a result of that,” Spotnitz said.
(Not to mention this legendary quote he signed--
[Q:] Did you decide-at the moment the writers impregnated Scully-that it was going to be Mulder's child, or was that decided later on?
[Spotnitz:] No, we knew it was going to be Mulder's kid. We planted a moment-excuse the wording-in the episode that Gillian Anderson wrote and directed ["all things"], which people could look back on and realize that was the night that they conceived. We planned for it, anticipated it.)
Others at Ten Thirteen also knew William was Mulder's son--
Existence DVD Commentary:
-- On the DVD commentary, Kim Manners said, "Interestingly, we established Jerry as William MULDER in this scene, but when we came back for Season 9, Jerry was a monster so we couldn't use him anymore. We had to cast babies that looked like Jerry. They say that all babies look alike, but let me tell you, all babies do not look alike."
-- "We all knew [the kiss] had to happen," said John Shiban. "This was going to be it. This was the culmination of their relationship. We'd been playing all year. Is Mulder the father of the baby or is he not the father? And this was our way, without actually saying it. The love that we always hoped was there is there."
--not to mention Gillian Anderson, who was told before Season 8's filming began (though she put little stock in long-term plans):
December 2000:
[GA:] I do know who the father is and Scully sure knows, but who
knows - it could change by the time we shoot it!
The only person who remained confused, ironically, was David Duchovny (and no wonder, since every time he appeared back on the show the explanation had changed slightly.) Regardless, he considered William Mulder's son (below Revival quote/gif set here)--
William is the child that Scully had while we were together. It could be mine, it could be an alien, but I don't know. It's my child, I think. Mulder would live his life as if that was his child.
Lastly, Chris Carter confirmed the truth after the original series came to an end--
May 2002:
Q: Do you know who the father of Scully’s baby is?
CC: I think everyone kind of knows now who the father is because we’ve sort of said it’s Mulder.... I think that it’s pretty clear now that there was some hanky panky.
The "William is CSM's son" narrative only really kicked up between Season 10 and Season 11, cementing itself in My Struggle III (which no one really believed-- it contradicted all prior knowledge-- until My Struggle IV... happened.)
One last note: in 2024, Carter walked back some of his recent revisions. He now claims that CSM and Mulder are both William's father (via mitochondrial DNA... which isn't scientific.) So.
THE TRUTH IS THERE
Canonically, it was heavily implied (then outright stated in Existence) that Mulder and Scully knew the paternity (post here) but were afraid to trust an explanation so miraculously simple. (Relevant sidenote: I created a frame-by-frame, twenty-five part meta series to explain this thoroughly, posts here.)
Further, it would be impossible for Scully to be impregnanted by CSM if she was 14 weeks along in Per Manum (posts here and here.) Even if William were born in February and not May (per the writers' timeline, post here), fitting a conception date around En Ami still wouldn't work.
Lastly, canon goes out of its way to confirm William is Mulder's son, with such classic lines as "I think what we feared were the possibilities. The truth we both know"/"Which is what?" (insert kiss), followed by "our son" and "my son" reiterated by Mulder (and Scully) during Season 9, I Want to Believe, and the Revival.
WHAT I BELIEVE
My theory on the healing UFO ship
Put simply:
Scully was healed in Africa (without her knowledge); Mulder resolved to love life as it is; the two of them took the next step in Millennium. Season of Secret sex begins (with her twirling his tie in Rush, him having an extra toothbrush in his bathroom in Orison, etc.) She becomes pregnant in all things.
William was normal (although Spotnitz planned otherwise.) Mulder knew the kid was his but had trauma up to the eyeballs and couldn't reciprocate at first. Scully knew (of course), but feared otherwise. Their son was born in February (although the weather wouldn't match for Mulder's funeral-- good news! @nachosncheezies came up with the best explanation here.) He's the truth they both know.
Mulder doesn't leave.
(Also, squeeze in the IVF arc between The Unnatural and Biogenesis,
link below~)
BONUS
Other posts you might find interesting:
"My Touchstone": the Turning Point (an analysis of MSR, FTF-S7.)
The X-Files: What We Know About the Season of Secret Sex
Season of Secret Sex Clues: Mulder’s Apartment
"Life on This Planet" Before the IVF Arc
All IVF Roads Lead Away from The Unnatural and to Millennium
William Mulder-Scully: Magical, Miraculous, or Manifestly Human
Why Scully might not have gotten pregnant after Season 9
Shoulda Woulda Coulda: Create a Cohesive Canon by Eliminating the Mulder-Scully Baby
MSR: the Chris Carter Formula
CONCLUSION
Sorry for the delay; and thank you so much for your sweet words!
Your comments on my recent meta(s) have made my day. :DDDD
So the amazing writer, producer and director John Shiban is asked about how he got involved with Supernatural.
Some of the earliest J2 shenanigans ensue 🥰 I'd seen this multiple times. But what I missed til now is Jensen's smug smile and eyebrow waggle after Jared's attempted kiss 😏😄
which is your favorite spn episode written by john shiban?
1x06 skin
1x07 hook man
1x11 scarecrow (with patrick sean smith)
1x15 the benders
1x20 dead man's blood (with cathryn humphris)
2x02 everybody loves a clown
2x09 croatoan
2x15 tall tales
2x19 folsom prison blues
Voting ended onApr 14, 2025
inspired by having recently streamed them all with @sammysodatime
and yes this is every episode he wrote. he stayed on as a consulting producer in season 3 before leaving supernatural entirely. I think his early departure was a massive loss
Robert Patrick Modell (Robert Wisden) AKA Pusher made his first appearance on the X-Files episode Pusher that first aired on February 23, 1996. Modell was one of only three "Monsters of the Week" that was granted a return episode (the other two being Donnie Pfaster and Eugene Victor Tooms). Dying from a brain tumor, Modell, who had the power to manipulate people's minds with his power of persuasion through words, decided to play a game of cat and mouse with Agent Fox Mulder (David Duchovny). He finally lured Mulder into playing a game of Russian Roulette (something American TV shows had been reluctant to show due to a tragic incident after a showing of the Deer Hunter). However Agent Scully (Gillian Anderson) broke through and Mulder shot Modell instead. As an in-joke, they had previous monster of the week Fluke man on the cover of a tabloid newspaper. Dave Grohl or Nirvana/Foo Fighters appeared as a random extra in the lobby scene. Modell would return in the 1998 episode Kitsunegari. ("Pusher", The X-Files, TV Event)
The work everyone did on "The Pilot" was phenomenal, so it's no surprise Supernatural got picked up for a series. At that point, according to Kripke, the studio said he needed to partner with an executive producer with production experience. They paired him with Robert Singer, which Kripke describes as being "like an arranged marriage, because you're going to be working more closely with that person than anyone else. It's worked out beyond both of our expectations." Robert Singer concurs. "We're very much of the same mind, Eric and I, and I think that he fills in certain gaps I have and I fill in certain gaps he has. Kripke feels Singer doesn't get nearly the credit he deserves for the complexity he brings to the show when filling in those gaps. "He is the one who really demands the characters have depth."
The studio also wanted Kripke to bring in someone to help build the mythology, to build stories, to work with the writers, so "David [Nutter] told Eric, 'Get Shiban in here,' remembers co-executive producer John Shiban. "So we met and immediately clicked." Shiban brought years of The X-Files experience to the table, and with regards to mythology, he posed the question, "Can you build a boat that will still float, but without all its pieces? Because . . . there are discoveries that are going to be made along the way, there'll be characters that you stumble on." The idea of Meg, who turned out to be very central to the mythology as an undercover demon, was a perfect example of that.
They started hiring staff writers as soon as the series was picked up, and Kripke hit the ground running, ready to dive into the lore he adores. "I showed up the first day of work with eighty urban legends that were my favorites." For the first batch of episodes, the legends tended to come first. "I had a pile that I really wanted to do," Kripke explains. "The storylines of the boys came later. But once we realized how good they were and the depth of storytelling we could tell about them, we really began to focus more on what their issues were, and what interesting story we wanted to tell about them.
With their focus flipped, they started to only use urban legends that fit with the boys' story. And Kripke thinks the second half of season one was better than the first half because of that.
Excerpted from: Knight, Nicholas. Supernatural: The Official Companion Season One. Titan Books, 2007: 12-13.
