Monica Reyes
From X-Files Wiki
- Reyes redirects here. For other uses of the name Reyes, see Reyes (disambiguation).
| Monica Reyes | |
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| Monica Reyes (2001) | |
| Gender: | Female |
| Occupation: | FBI Special Agent |
| Actress: | Annabeth Gish |
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| Monica Reyes (2002) | |
Monica Reyes was an FBI Special Agent who, in 2001, was assigned to the X-files alongside Agents John Doggett and Dana Scully. (TXF: "Empedocles", "Existence") She was previously assigned to the New York and New Orleans FBI field offices. (TXF: "This is Not Happening", "Nothing Important Happened Today")
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[edit] Childhood
Monica Reyes was born and raised in Mexico. She consequently learned to speak fluent Spanish. (TXF: "John Doe")
- It is implied that she was born after 1960, given her belief, in TXF: "Hellbound", that she was the reincarnated soul of someone who died that year.
Monica was interested in numerology as a child and asked several people numerological questions about themselves when she was young. Her interest in numerology would stay with her through her teenage and adult years. In 2002, she admitted that she would still ask people their birthdate when she met them at a party and that the question was "kind of an icebreaker". (TXF: "Improbable")
[edit] Education and Early Career
In university, Reyes earned a Master of Arts degree in Religious Studies. (TXF: "This is Not Happening")
She joined the FBI in 1990 and eventually became a Special Agent. (TXF: "The Truth", "Empedocles") During her early career, she was stationed in New York, where she would occasionally buy take-out from a restaurant on 11th Street called Carlo's. (TXF: "Empedocles", "Release")
- Reyes is first established as being a Special Agent in the episode "Empedocles" and must have earned that rank prior to the events depicted in that episode, most of which are set in 2001, though no other information establishing a more specific time is ever provided.
In 1993, Reyes was assigned as the lead investigator in the search for John Doggett's missing son, Luke. (TXF: "Release", "Empedocles") After three days of searching, the child's body was found lying face down in a remote park area. (TXF: "This is Not Happening", "Empedocles") Reyes was present when the body was found and had a vision as if the corpse had momentarily changed into ashes. She was unable to explain the vision, although she considered the possibility that it may have been a psychic experience. Although it was determined that Luke Doggett had been strangled to death, neither Reyes nor any of the other law enforcement officers involved in the case managed to catch the killer. In 2001, Reyes commented that searching for the child was the hardest case she had ever had, "as in stealing-into-the-bathroom-to-cry-my-eyes-out kind of hard". (TXF: "Empedocles")
- Though the "date of last contact" with Luke Doggett is given in "Empedocles" as 8/12/97 (or August 12, 1997), it is well established that his father, John Doggett, was still working in the New York Police Department when Luke's body was discovered. "Within" gives 1995 as the year that John Doggett left the police force, providing evidence that the "date of last contact" given in "Empedocles" is probably incorrect. Another date for Luke's death was later provided in "Release" - August 13, 1993 - and this seems more likely than the date given in "Empedocles".
She also met Brad Follmer while in New York. (TXF: "Nothing Important Happened Today") The two worked together in the New York Bureau office and ultimately became romantically involved. (TXF: "Release", "Nothing Important Happened Today") Reyes ended her relationship with Follmer at the same time as she left New York. (TXF: "Release")
Reyes was later assigned to the New Orleans field office, where she specialized in ritualistic crime. (TXF: "This is Not Happening") She investigated hundreds of claims of satanic ritualistic abuse but never found anything to support evidence of genuine satanic activity and never prosecuted any satanic cases. (TXF: "Daemonicus", "The Truth") Nevertheless, she remained open to the theory that the corruption existed. She believed that there were spiritual energies in the universe and that she was sensitive to them, but other agents stationed in New Orleans did not share her ideas. (TXF: "This is Not Happening")
Reyes once worked a case in New Orleans with Special Agent Robert Comer. She perceived him to be a "company man, straight as a ruler". (TXF: "Provenance")
In 2001, Reyes was contacted by John Doggett, who had also become an FBI agent since 1993 and needed her help on a case he was working on involving the disappearances of several believers in the alien abduction phenomenon. Reyes suspected the believers had formed a like-minded group, uniting in their belief in UFOs to make an attempt at transporting aboard a gigantic mother ship, much like the Heaven's Gate UFO religion had done, but she also considered the possibility that members of the group had actually been abducted by extraterrestrials.
One night in Helena, Montana, Reyes was amazed to see a bright light traveling across the sky and recovered the deceased body of Gary Cory, one of the missing believers. She was later instrumental in leading the investigation to a nearby farm compound, where formerly missing believers Theresa Hoese and Special Agent Fox Mulder were discovered, although the latter was found dead. During this investigation, Reyes met and worked with Assistant Director Walter Skinner and Special Agent Dana Scully. (TXF: "This is Not Happening")
Once Reyes returned to working on cases in New Orleans, Detective Frank Potter requested her help on investigating two killings that he believed had been satanic ritual murders. Reyes initially suspected that being fired by his employers had motivated the killer, Jeb Dukes, to shoot them and that the murders had not involved satanic activity. However, after seeing a vision of one of the victims' bodies turn to ash, Reyes became convinced that the case was somehow related to the search for Luke Doggett and the vision she had experienced at the end of that search, possibly leading her to the capture of Luke Doggett's killer. She tried to determine the connection between the two cases with help from Agent Mulder, who had been revived since the discovery of his deceased body, and a cynical Doggett.
When Jeb Dukes took his young cousin, Mia, hostage, Reyes managed to shoot Dukes without wounding Mia. Reyes suspected that the only reason she had seen the latest of her two visions may have been to save Mia. She was present when Jeb Dukes died shortly thereafter in Washington Memorial Hospital and was attacked in the same room by his angered sister, Katha, although she was saved by Doggett, who also subdued her attacker. Reyes returned to the belief that there was a thread of evil at work that she now thought would be ever-present and had passed to Katha Dukes. (TXF: "Empedocles")
Reyes was later called upon to help a pregnant Scully escape Billy Miles, an alien super-soldier who was a threat to both Agent Scully and her unborn child. (TXF: "Essence") After flying to Washington, D.C., Reyes drove Scully from the FBI's headquarters to Democrat Hot Springs, Georgia, a secluded location where it was believed Scully could deliver her baby safely. (TXF: "Essence", "Existence") Reyes used her instincts to select a building she and Scully would use and saw another bright light in the sky shining above the location. Although she prepared the building for the baby's delivery, Reyes soon discovered that she and Scully were not alone. Reyes was attacked and had to defend herself against Billy Miles, who was shot at point-blank range and should have died, but didn't. She was unable to prevent a large group of other supersoldiers like Billy Miles from joining him and watching Scully give birth to her son. Once the child was born, the aliens left as Mulder arrived in search of Scully. Directed by Reyes, Mulder found Scully and took her to a hospital. (TXF: "Existence")
[edit] Assignment to the X-Files
Following her role in the delivery of Scully's son, William, Monica Reyes was assigned to the X-files by Agent Doggett, who assumed that right as he was investigating his superior in the FBI, Deputy Director Alvin Kersh, for his dealings with the alien super-soldiers. (TXF: "Existence") Reyes was highly excited to be appointed an office in Washington, D.C. and to begin investigating the X-files - her dream assignment. (TXF: "Nothing Important Happened Today") She consequently planned to do her best work on the cases. (TXF: "The Truth") Prior to her new assignment, she had previously visited Gdansk, Poland, and had learned some Latin. (TXF: "4-D", "Dæmonicus") She had also watched episodes of The Brady Bunch, and had previously visited a split-level house in Studio City that had been used for exterior shots in the filming of that series, photographing the house upon her visit. (TXF: "Sunshine Days")
- It is unclear when Monica visited Gdansk, learned Latin, watched The Brady Bunch or visited the house used to shoot that television show. It is also not specified whether she learned more Latin words than just "daemonicus" and "medicus" - words that, in the episode "Dæmonicus", she translates as "Satan" or "demon possession", and "physician".
Two days after being assigned to the X-files, Monica visited an office in the FBI's headquarters that belonged to Brad Follmer, who she hadn't seen since 1999 and who was now an Assistant Director. AD Follmer provided her with proof that all evidence of Doggett's claim of a chase, crash and fire that had reportedly occurred in the parking garage of the FBI's headquarters had apparently been removed during the weekend, the previous two days in which Reyes and Doggett had not been at work. Reyes later discovered that Mulder, who had also witnessed the chase, crash and fire, was missing without explanation.
When AD Skinner warned that he would not continue to support Doggett if he did not drop his investigation of Deputy Director Kersh, Reyes feared that, if Doggett complied with Skinner's wishes, the FBI might close the X-files and that she could be reassigned to the New Orleans Bureau office. Additionally, she later first met the Lone Gunmen.(TXF: "Nothing Important Happened Today")
While investigating the death of Carl Wormus, Reyes and her colleagues encountered a super-soldier named Shannon McMahon, who had killed Carl Wormus and revealed information about a conspiracy within the US government to hide and develop a secret programme. Apparently, the programme would prime America's population to breed a generation of super-soldiers by adding a chemical called chloramine to the nation's water supply. Reyes alone was suspicious of Shannon McMahon and discovered that she herself was part of the conspiracy. Reyes and her colleagues also discovered a Navy ship called the Valor Victor, where the ova of female abductees had been secretly being manipulated for transplantation. Ultimately, however, Shannon McMahon was apparently killed by super-soldier Knowle Rohrer and the Valor Victor was destroyed by a bomb on board the craft that exploded moments after the agents managed to escape. (TXF: "Nothing Important Happened Today II")
Monica's fear that the X-files might be closed and that she might be reassigned to the FBI's New Orleans field office was put to rest exactly two days after the destruction of the Valor Victor, when Doggett handed in a report that mentioned the ship, super-soldiers and Shannon McMahon but did not include any reference to Kersh. (TXF: "Nothing Important Happened Today", "Nothing Important Happened Today II")
Reyes subsequently used her expertise regarding claims of demon possession during a murder case she investigated with Doggett and Scully. Shortly after they became involved in the case, Reyes reportedly experienced a strong sense of evil that she couldn't explain and had never felt before. At a mental hospital where the murderer had been employed, Reyes and the other two agents encountered a patient who seemed to know about the murders. Reyes suspected that the patient was in telepathic contact with the killer and she attempted to prove her suspicion. However, the murderer later shot himself to death before Reyes and her colleagues could intervene and the mental patient, who was actually a master manipulator, managed to escape by tricking the agents into believing he had been shot and killed. (TXF: "Dæmonicus")
Reyes soon moved into an apartment in a quiet neighborhood of uptown Washington, D.C..
While Doggett was visiting her, Reyes received confusing news that he had been found unconscious after having been shot in an alley fourteen miles away. After discovering that Doggett was no longer in her apartment and that he had indeed been shot, Reyes became extremely puzzled by the incident but was suspected by AD Follmer of having shot Doggett herself. She alone came to the unlikely conclusion that Doggett had been replaced by a nearly identical Doggett, who had been shot and consequently paralyzed moments after having come from a parallel universe. She discovered that the man who had shot Doggett, Irwin Timothy Lukesh, was capable of traveling between universes and had killed her double in the parallel universe. Although she was attacked by Lukesh, who threatened to murder her again, Reyes was saved by AD Follmer, who shot and killed Lukesh. After she turned off Doggett's life-support machine, believing that act would allow the Doggett of her universe to return, Reyes found herself back in her apartment at the time Doggett had been visiting her there. Only Reyes was aware of the events that had since transpired. (TXF: "4-D")
During her next investigation, Reyes became panicked when she and Doggett were surrounded by a swarm of flies. Later, she temporarily became trapped in a large webbed sac after unsuccessfully attempting to arrest a boy who represented a biological anomaly as he was neither human nor insect but something between those two. (TXF: "Lord of the Flies")
In early 2002, Reyes and Doggett were contacted by a source claiming to have classified military files on the supersoldiers, including the names of each one, but the source was only willing to exclusively provide the information to Mulder, who had been forced into hiding to escape the threat of the supersoldiers. Reyes and both her colleagues came to learn that the National Security Agency had been conducting intense video and audio surveillance on them without their knowledge. Reyes also learned that an NSA agent's baby and Scully's young son, William, had both exhibited seemingly telekinetic abilities. Reyes looked after William while Scully continued to investigate the anonymous source, who was actually a supersoldier acting as the NSA agent's superior. However, when Scully's life was later endangered by the supersoldier, Reyes rescued Scully from being shot. (TXF: "Trust No 1")
After Doggett went missing in Mexico while investigating the disappearance of Texan banker Hollis Rice, Reyes and a large task force searched for him. Reyes attempted to track Doggett down from the FBI's field office in San Antonio, Texas but, on the twelfth day of Doggett's disappearance, the search was limited by Kersh, who disbanded the task force and confined Reyes to the San Antonio field office. She alone was tasked with locating her FBI partner, though she was later helped by Scully and Skinner without authorization. Reyes' familiarity with the Spanish language proved useful in both San Antonio and after she unofficially ventured into Mexico, where she eventually found Doggett on the thirteenth day of his disappearance. As all memory of his identity had been taken from him, Reyes helped him remember who he was, including the painful recollection of his son's murder. She, along with Doggett, managed to escape from police officers who shot at the agents as they were under the supervision of a cartel that had been responsible for the disappearances of Doggett and Hollis Rice. (TXF: "John Doe")
After she and Doggett returned to the FBI's headquarters, Reyes took a special interest in a series of murders in which each victim had been skinned alive in Novi, Virginia. While she investigated the murders with Doggett and Scully, Reyes provided an unparalleled insight into the case. She was captured by the murderer, a local detective named Van Allen, but was soon released and ultimately discovered that her interest and insightful intuition regarding the case was apparently due to her investigation of similar, unsolved murders in several past lives. Each time, the murderer, who was now Van Allen, had killed four victims. However, Reyes managed to stop Allen from killing his fourth victim, a Doctor Lisa Holland, and finally shot the murderer, who later died in hospital. (TXF: "Hellbound")
- The end of "Hellbound" suggests that the murderer was reborn, without Reyes' knowledge. For more information about Monica's discovery of her past lives, see the Other Lives section below.
Also in 2002, Reyes learned that Robert Comer, who she had worked with in her early career, had been undercover in Canada as a member of a religious UFO cult but had recently crashed his motorcycle while attempting to cross the North Dakota border from Canada. (TXF: "Provenance", "Providence")
- Robert Comer is seen crashing his motorcycle in "Provenance", but Reyes only discovers that he did so in the following episode, "Providence".
Reyes also determined that the cult Robert Comer had been investigating had found a spacecraft that was similar to a craft Scully had seen in Africa two years before, and that the surface structure of both spacecraft were designed with symbols that Scully had interpreted as being from various religious scriptures as well as from science. Reyes was shocked by the possibility that the text might be the word of God.
After Robert Comer tried to kill Scully's son, Reyes ensured that no harm would come to the baby or to Scully's mother, Margaret. However, Reyes was soon able to return baby William to his mother. With Scully, Reyes later witnessed a metal piece of the spacecraft in Canada, an artifact that Robert Comer had been carrying, fly out of a drawer and across a room until finally coming to a stop just above William, hovering over the child's face. The incident influenced Reyes to suspect there was some connection between William and the spacecraft in Canada - a belief shared by the UFO cult there. (TXF: "Provenance") After a female member of the cult kidnapped William and injured Doggett, Reyes assisted in attempting to track her down and prayed for Doggett in a chapel, an activity that AD Follmer remarked seemed somewhat "traditional" for her. (TXF: "Provenance", "Providence")
- Monica's act of praying for Doggett in a church setting is not only an indication of the nature of their relationship but is also notable as it relates to her religious beliefs. Similarly, AD Follmer's comment that praying seems "a little traditional" for Reyes establishes that such worship is probably uncommon for her, but also relates to her relationship with Follmer.
Reyes soon discovered that the metal spacecraft component that Robert Comer had been carrying had helped him survive his motorcycle crash because it had some form of healing ability. Without FBI instruction, Reyes and Scully questioned Robert Comer, who explained that the cult he had been investigating believed that William was a miracle child, coveted by forces of good and evil, who would stop Earth from being taken over by a colonizing alien race, unless his father, Mulder, was killed. Robert Comer, however, believed that Mulder was already dead and that, unless William was killed, all of mankind would perish from Earth. After Robert Comer died, Reyes started to uncover the truth that he had been murdered by the "Toothpick Man", who had also stolen the metal spacecraft component.
Reyes later helped locate the cult and, as she arrived at their compound with Scully, the agents witnessed the spacecraft leave the ground. Moments later, they found William, who had been abandoned as the craft had ascended. (TXF: "Providence")
After Doggett recovered, both he and Reyes returned to the FBI. (TXF: "Providence", "Audrey Pauley") Reyes considered getting a pet, as she had heard news that people with pets were inclined to live longer. Moments later, however, a car crashed into her own car while she was driving home. Although she was wearing a seat belt and was protected by an air bag in her car, Reyes sustained severe injuries as a result of the violent collision. She remained conscious while an ambulance transported her to a hospital but later lost consciousness and was pronounced brain-dead, a prognosis that essentially equated to death. At the time of the accident, she had a living will and an organ donor card signed in her name. Though the medical staff at the hospital decided to turn off her life-support and to transplant her organs, she ultimately regained consciousness.
While she had been unconscious, she had experienced another reality created by a worker at the hospital, Audrey Pauley. The reality she visited was in a replica of the hospital, empty of people except for two other critically injured patients, Stephen Murdoch and Val Barreiro. Audrey Pauley, who was exclusively able to travel between the real hospital and the building's replica, would also occasionally visit the virtually empty hospital. The hospital replica building was completely alone in a void of greenish clouds. Although the other patients disappeared as they died, Reyes escaped from the hospital by intentionally falling into the void, returning her to reality. She ultimately made a full recovery and had left the real hospital by three days after regaining consciousness. (TXF: "Audrey Pauley")
Reyes subsequently helped Doggett and Scully on a case that was not an X-file, searching for evidence to determine whether Bob Fassl was guilty or innocent of murder. Reyes was instrumental in leading the investigation to the conclusion that Fassl, a devout Catholic, was innocent and that a bearded man was the real killer. She later changed her theory to believe that the bearded man was a sinful manifestation of Fassl, who was forced to physically adopt another personality because he was so afraid of his own sinful side that he was incapable of admitting it to others or even to himself. While working with Doggett to track Fassl in his bearded manifestation through a sewer, Reyes was knocked to the ground by the killer but was uninjured. She later fell several feet into sewage water after an unstable walkway section collapsed under her. After Fassl took Doggett hostage, Reyes tried to reason with the killer but eventually shot Fassl, whose body resumed its unbearded appearance after death, proving her theory. (TXF: "Underneath")
Soon after, Reyes connected and tried to solve several unsolved, seemingly unrelated murder cases using numerology, even consulting a professional numerologist. Her impressive work connecting the murders was commended by other FBI agents, but, when it was learned that she was using numerology, her methods were criticized. After Reyes became trapped with Scully in a locked basement garage at midnight, she and her partner met a man who was fond of music and insisted on playing checkers with the agents. Reyes later came to the conclusion that the killer was also in the garage but, while searching for the murderer with Scully, she was suddenly attacked by the killer and struggled to defend herself. The killer was about to shoot her when he was shot himself by Doggett, who had been led to the garage by a pattern that Reyes had originally determined as the killer's. However, the man that Reyes and Scully had met earlier was nowhere to be found. (TXF: "Improbable")
The next X-file that Reyes helped investigate was brought to the agents by Leyla Harrison, an FBI accountant who had discovered that a woman had stabbed herself sixteen times and that the victim's eight year-old son had claimed his mother had been killed by a monster. While investigating the boy's claims with Doggett and Leyla Harrison, Reyes and Doggett were momentarily splattered in blood and all three became stranded at the boy's house in snowy Fairhope, Pennsylvania, unable to even contact the outside world. The agents saw giant insectoids, one of which grew into two separate creatures after being shot, and were visited by a sheriff who apparently had no internal organs.
Reyes became seriously alarmed while alone with the boy, as he showed her a disturbing picture he had drawn of her wearing black, with one of the insects inside her belly. She soon experienced extreme pain after an insect apparently entered her, but she and the other agents eventually realized that the insects, which had seemingly killed the boy's mother, and the sheriff who had visited them earlier, were really only manifestations of the boy's imagination. Ultimately, Reyes was able to escape the boy's house with Doggett and Leyla Harrison, helped by Scully and the real sheriff, and the boy was placed in a psychiatric center. (TXF: "Scary Monsters")
Reyes and Doggett were subsequently contacted by Morris Fletcher, who claimed that Yves Adele Harlowe was a super-soldier. The agents worked with the Lone Gunmen, who were familiar with Yves, and discovered that she was not a super-soldier but was killing terrorists financed by her billionaire father, an international arms dealer who had also employed Morris Fletcher. After learning that the terrorists internally carried a safely contained virus, Reyes pursued the last surviving terrorist with Doggett, but the agents captured the wrong man. The Lone Gunmen later sacrificed their own lives to stop the terrorist. (TXF: "Jump the Shark")
With Doggett, Reyes investigated the identity of a man with a deformed face who claimed to have met Mulder. After Reyes determined that the man had injected William, she called a local hospital, where she and Scully took the baby. Eventually, she and her fellow agents, as well as Skinner, discovered that the unidentified man was actually Jeffrey Spender, Mulder's half-brother and the "Cigarette-Smoking Man"'s son, who had lied about having seen Mulder and whose face had been deformed after having been shot by his father. Spender admitted to having injected William with a form of magnetite in an attempt to stop the aliens from colonizing the planet, as the baby had been the one thing they needed, but he suggested that the aliens would always know William had once been part alien and that they would never accept what he had since become. Reyes discussed William's future with Scully, who ultimately chose to adopt her baby to an anonymous family in an attempt to protect him. (TXF: "William")
Reyes and her colleagues later met Rudolph Hayes, an impressively skilled FBI cadet who helped solve a serial murder case he claimed was related to the unexplained murder of Doggett's son. At one point, Reyes and her fellow agents suspected Hayes, actually a schizophrenic mental patient named Stuart Mimms who had assumed the alias Rudolph Hayes, of having killed Doggett's son. However, information that the cadet had provided Doggett led him to determine the real killer's identity and finally solve his son's murder. (TXF: "Release")
With Doggett and Scully, Reyes subsequently investigated the death of a man whose body had seemingly been thrown through the roof of a house before landing on his friend's car. Reyes' familiarity with The Brady Bunch came in handy when the victim's friend incorrectly insisted that the house had been used in the filming of that television show. However, the victim's friend later also died and, while Reyes and Doggett investigated the second death, the agents were filmed on a televised news report concerning the incident. They were neither asked to appear nor informed that they were being filmed, except by Scully. It was Reyes who later discovered that the man who lived in the house, Oliver Martin, was a fan of The Brady Bunch. She later saw him exhibit powers such as causing others to levitate and dramatically altering his surroundings with his mind. But, because he had little control over his powers and due to the fact that using them was having a debilitating effect on him, Oliver Martin's childhood parapsychologist, John Reits, made him vow never to use his powers again. (TXF: "Sunshine Days")
After Mulder was imprisoned for killing supersoldier Knowle Rohrer, Reyes reminded her colleagues that the allegation was obviously untrue as supersoldiers could not be killed. Nevertheless, she subsequently investigated the claim with Doggett, as Mulder went on trial for his supposed crime. The agents were contacted by Gibson Praise, who they presented at the trial. Reyes later acted as a witness herself, giving an account of her discoveries while working on the X-files, but she became extremely angered at both Deputy Director Kersh and the prosecutor at the trial, Agent Kallenbrunner.
After she and Doggett obtained the incinerated corpse of a man who was reportedly Knowle Rohrer, Reyes succeeded in the difficult task of acquiring the man's medical records from the military in order to identify the badly burned corpse. She discovered that the body was that of a man who had died of a broken neck before being burned postmortem, but the evidence that Reyes had retrieved was excused at the trial.
After Mulder was sentenced to death for his supposed guilt in Knowle Rohrer's murder, Reyes helped him escape from the US Marine Corps Base Brig in Quantico, Virginia. Mulder was also aided in his escape by Doggett, Scully, Skinner and, somewhat surprisingly, Kersh. After Kersh instructed Mulder and Scully to head to Canada, Reyes wished the agents "good luck".
Upon returning to the FBI's headquarters, she and Doggett discovered that the X-files had been removed from their office as punishment for taking Mulder's side or for helping him escape. Reyes and Doggett also discovered that Mulder and Scully had not traveled to the Canadian border and that the "Toothpick Man" knew where they were going. The agents followed Mulder and Scully to New Mexico, where Reyes was alarmed to see Knowle Rohrer and to witness his body turn metallic before being sucked into the magnetite rocks of the surrounding area. When Mulder and Scully emerged from a rock pueblo, Reyes warned them that the conspirators knew where they were before she and Doggett drove away, watching Mulder and Scully as they made a lucky escape. (TXF: "The Truth")
[edit] Career History
- ? (before 1990)- University student
- 1990- Joins FBI
- 1992 1 - 1999 2 New York Bureau Office, superior Assistant Director 3 Brad Follmer
- 1999 4 - 2001 FBI Special Agent, New Orleans Bureau Office, one case with Robert Comer
- 2001 - 2002 FBI Special Agent, X-Files Section, partners Special Agents John Doggett and Dana Scully, superiors Assistant Director Walter Skinner, Assistant Director Brad Follmer and Deputy Director Alvin Kersh
1 It is not exactly clear when Reyes was assigned to the New York Bureau Office, between her joining the FBI in 1990 and her assistance in the search for Luke Doggett. It is established that the FBI Academy is a two-year training course, though, therefore giving the year of 1992 as her leaving date.
2 It is not exactly clear when Reyes left the New York Bureau Office, but her date of last contact with Brad Follmer prior to his first appearance within The X-Files in the episode "Nothing Important Happened Today" is given as 1999. It is likely that this was also when Reyes left the New York Bureau Office, and the date does not clash with any others in the series' chronology.
3 It is not exactly clear what the specifics of Reyes' official relationship with Brad Follmer was while both were assigned to the New York Bureau Office. In "Nothing Important Happened Today", Follmer recounts, "You used to ask me to close the door at work back in New York." This statement gives the impression that Follmer was Reyes' superior. Furthermore, Reyes is not surprised to find that Follmer is an Assistant Director in that episode, implying that he was not promoted between the last time they saw each other and their meeting in "Nothing Important Happened Today".
4 It is not exactly clear when Reyes was assigned to the New Orleans Bureau Office, although it is likely that she was transferred there not long after she left New York.
[edit] Relationships
[edit] Family
Monica's mother gave birth to her in Mexico. (TXF: "John Doe") Her parents still lived in Mexico City in 2002. When Reyes was believed to have died in that year, her parents began to journey from their hometown to the hospital where she was staying in order to bid her farewell. (TXF: "Audrey Pauley")
- It is unclear whether or not Reyes' parents ceased their journey when they learned that she had been revived or if they still visited her.
- Monica's parents are the only established members of her family and it is unknown if there are any other members. If so, it is unclear what relation they are to Monica. When asked at what time she discovered numerology in the episode "Improbable", Reyes replies, "We used to do it as kids". It is unclear if she is referring to her childhood friend(s) or possibly even her sibling(s).
[edit] Romantic Interests
[edit] Brad Follmer
Main article: Brad Follmer
While working in New York during her early FBI career, Reyes became romantically involved with Brad Follmer. She would often visit his office and ask him to close the door while they kissed. (TXF: "Nothing Important Happened Today")
One night in 1999, Reyes was waiting for her order at Carlo's when she wandered toward the kitchen and saw Brad Follmer talking to a man and taking a stack of money from him. Reyes believed the man was part of the Mafia. Instead of asking Follmer about the incident or even reporting him to the FBI, Reyes ended her relationship with him and left New York. (TXF: "Release")
They would not see each other again until two years later, when Follmer, by now an Assistant Director, called Reyes while she was staying at a Washington, D.C. hotel, two days after she had been assigned to the X-files. Reyes lied to him by claiming that his phone call had not woken her but, when he invited her to visit his office at the FBI's headquarters, she hesitantly accepted the invitation.
Although Reyes was initially determined to keep their relationship strictly professional, pulling away when he tried to kiss her and ignoring him when he commented that she looked "hot", she later asked him out after he presented her with a video tape that could potentially end her assignment to the X-files and, during their date, she appealed to him for help. (TXF: "Nothing Important Happened Today")
After Follmer discovered she had been helping to conduct an unauthorized autopsy, Reyes clashed with the Assistant Director and refused to be persuaded by his advice that she distance herself from Doggett, who had recently initiated his investigation of Deputy Director Kersh. (TXF: "Nothing Important Happened Today", "Nothing Important Happened Today II")
This proved to be a temporary conflict, however, as, shortly thereafter, Reyes again appealed to Follmer for help - specifically, for files pertaining to Shannon McMahon - and tried to convince him that she and Doggett were not at fault but were being set up. Even though Follmer indicated that he would not be able to acquire the files, Reyes managed to obtain a peek at the documents and her relationship with Follmer became less strained but remained professional. (TXF: "Nothing Important Happened Today II")
[edit] Colleagues and Mentors
[edit] John Doggett
Main article: John Doggett
In 1993, Monica Reyes worked with John Doggett, at that time a detective in the New York Police Department, in an attempt to find his missing son. (TXF: "Release", "Empedocles", "This is Not Happening") They searched together for three days, during which Reyes sensed that Doggett was afraid his son was dead, a fear that was tragically justified when they found his son's deceased body. (TXF: "This is Not Happening") After Reyes had a vision of the body as if it had transformed into ashes, Doggett told her that he had seen the same thing. In 2001, however, Reyes claimed that Doggett had spent the last few years trying to forget what he had seen and also admitted that she couldn't begin to imagine what the extremely hard case had been like for him. (TXF: "Empedocles")
Following their work in 1993, Reyes was reunited with Doggett, who had since followed her example by becoming an FBI agent, in 2001 after she responded to his request for assistance on a case he was working on. During a meeting in which Doggett introduced her to fellow FBI investigators Scully and Skinner, Reyes acted nervously playful towards Doggett but merely offered theories provided seriously to the others. Some of her theories regarding the case differed from Doggett's but they nevertheless presented a generally synchronised evaluation of the case to Scully and Skinner.
While alone with Doggett, Reyes alluded to their search for his son to remind him that he could relate to Scully's feelings concerning Mulder's disappearance. When he doubted her account of having seen a UFO, Reyes assured Doggett that she would not lie to him. (TXF: "This is Not Happening")
Reyes nevertheless intentionally kept some things secret from Doggett; after she saw another vision of a victim's body transform into ashes, similar to her earlier vision of Doggett's deceased son, Reyes opted not to contact Doggett. She believed the incident might lead to finding his son's killer but didn't want to return him to the grief of investigating his son's murder until she was certain that her most recent vision had any significance. After Doggett discovered that she had been researching his son's murder, Reyes did not heed his advice to stop looking for a connection where he believed there was none as she strongly believed that the recent case was somehow important.
Following her discovery of a second victim shot by the same killer as the first, Reyes became curious whether Doggett could see the same thing she had been seeing. Even though he claimed to be unable to see a connection between the most recent murder and his own son's death, Reyes doubted his honesty and believed he was too afraid to accept the connections, preferring to blind himself to them instead. She later succeeded in persuading him to admit that his fear was caused by the chance that he may have failed to do everything humanly possible to save his son, as there were other possibilities that she, Mulder and Scully spoke of that might or might not exist.
After working with Doggett to prevent the killer - Jeb Dukes - from harming his own young cousin, Reyes suggested to Doggett that he return home as the murderer had been hospitalized and she believed there was nothing more he could do to help. Her life was later saved by Doggett, however, after Katha Dukes, the angered mother of Jeb's cousin assaulted her. (TXF: "Empedocles")
Responding to Doggett's second request for assistance, Reyes helped Scully to escape from supersoldier Billy Miles by taking her to Doggett's birthplace of Democrat Hot Springs, Georgia, after having learned from him that the location had been frequented by people who had come for the waters there, until the springs in the area had dried up. (TXF: "Essence", "Existence")
Reyes was assigned to the X-files by Agent Doggett after she returned to Washington, D.C. and continued to develop a professional relationship with him. (TXF: "Existence") A romantic relationship was often hinted at between the two, but it never came to fruition.
[edit] Dana Scully
Main article: Dana Scully
[edit] Fox Mulder
Main article: Fox Mulder
Reyes first learned about Agent Mulder in 2001, following his abduction from Oregon in the previous year. (TXF: "This is Not Happening", "Requiem") Reyes was told that Mulder was a true believer in alien abductions, completely convinced in the phenomenon, and was called upon to help search for for him, as well as several other like-minded individuals who had also gone missing. (TXF: "This is Not Happening")
Reyes met Mulder for the first time after he recovered from his abduction experience having been called in by Doggett to assist with the case. Reyes was familiar with Mulder's eccentric behavior, unorthodox approach, and predilection for belief in the supernatural and extraterrestrial. Reyes immediately identified with Mulder as a believer, unlike Doggett or Scully and Skinner early on. Perhaps unnerved with her quick acceptance of him, Mulder shied away from Reyes, and basically allowed himself to be coerced by her into helping her with the Jeb Dukes case that would otherwise be too emotionally jarring for Doggett. (TXF: "Empedocles") Mulder came to respect Reyes and two were very much involved in the safe delivery of Scully's baby when the time came. (TXF: "Existence") Reyes would not see Mulder again for nearly a year, at which time she defended him at his trial and helped him escape an injust death sentence. (TXF: "The Truth")
[edit] Walter Skinner
Main article: Walter Skinner
As with her earliest encounter with Scully, Reyes first met Assistant Director Skinner in 2001 when they were introduced to each other in a field in Helena, Montana. Her theories on the case that he was investigating with Agents Doggett and Scully were met with objection on several occasions by the Assistant Director, though he was less vocal in his arguments against her beliefs regarding the case than Scully was. When Doggett followed Scully away from the meeting, Reyes was left standing alone with Skinner and smiled at him.
Together, the two later witnessed Doggett and Scully question a suspect who called himself Absalom and agreed that he was hiding some information. Reyes alone accompanied Skinner when he was tasked with informing Scully that Mulder's body had been found. (TXF: "This is Not Happening")
[edit] Alvin Kersh
Main article: Alvin Kersh
In 2001, Reyes' actions were criticized by Deputy Director Kersh after she and Doggett submitted an X-file to him that included her account of Scully's recent birth. The fact that Reyes had signed the X-file was noted by Kersh, who was angered that she had been assigned to investigate the files by Agent Doggett. (TXF: "Existence")
[edit] Smoking
Monica Reyes had a habit of smoking Morley brand cigarettes. In 2001, after extinguishing a cigarette she had been smoking, Reyes commented that smoking wasn't "very FBI" of her and claimed that she was trying to quit. That night, she was about to smoke another cigarette but, before she could light it, she was interrupted by the shock of seeing a UFO. ("This is Not Happening")
Reyes later attempted to quit smoking with the help of nicotine gum, but she struggled with unwrapping at least one piece. Before investigating a crime scene, she removed gum that she had been chewing and dropped it into a wastebasket. She later tried another piece of gum as she headed away from the crime scene. ("Empedocles")
Before helping with the birth of Scully's son in Democrat Hot Springs, Reyes went outside at night to smoke another cigarette that she extinguished while viewing another UFO in the darkened sky. ("Existence")
- Obviously, the gum didn't help her quit between the events of "Empedocles" and those seen in "Existence". The cigarette she smokes in "Existence" would be her last in the series.
[edit] Other Lives
In 2001 of a parallel universe, Agent Monica Reyes volunteered to be involved in a stakeout with her partner, Agent Doggett. The operation was intended to determine whether a suspect was actually murderer Irwin Timothy Lukesh, who commonly killed women victims and was known for his impossible escapes. In an apartment building, Reyes pretended to work on repairing an upturned bicycle while Doggett and Brad Follmer monitored her progress from a hidden location. However, after the suspect, who was indeed Lukesh, entered the building, he recognized that he was under surveillance and left the room where Reyes was stationed. Although Agent Doggett advised her not to, Reyes followed the suspect with encouragement from their superior, Brad Follmer. Moments after Reyes reported that she had lost sight of the suspect, Lukesh ambushed her, cutting her throat and obtaining her gun. Doggett and Follmer rushed to help her but Lukesh had gone by the time they arrived. Follmer stayed with Agent Reyes while Doggett ran after Lukesh. Although Follmer sent for medical assistance, Reyes died moments later. Follmer cradled her lifeless head in his bare hands. (TXF: "4-D")
- The closeness implied by Follmer holding Reyes' head might indicate that their relationship is more than professional, as it was in the reality most commonly seen on The X-Files.
Later in 2001, "our" universe's Reyes came to believe that her soul had been reincarnated several times and that, each time, she had unsuccessfully attempted to stop a series of murders in which each of four victims had been skinned alive. The murders had individually occurred in 1868, 1909 and 1960. (TXF: "Hellbound")
[edit] Background Information
[edit] Character Creation
Due to their decision to continue The X-Files television series and try to appeal to a new generation of viewers, the production personnel knew, from the beginning of Season 8, that they were going to introduce another female character who would be a believer, as Mulder had been a believer. However, the writers wanted a different kind of believer character to work off of the skeptical nature of Doggett, who had already been established. The writers were required to create a character who was unlike any of the preconcieved main characters that were a part of the series.
Ultimately, the writers imagined a character who seemed open to beliefs and had a big heart. This female character was initially named Karen Miller and then Jane Jones before the name "Monica Reyes" was decided upon. She was considered by some to be like Mulder in her optimism, faith and enjoyment of being open to beliefs but considered by others as being quite different from Mulder as she was more spiritual and subscribed to a more New Age-like view than he did. Reyes was seen as different from both Mulder and the other main characters as she was somewhat more neurotic, scattered, and quirky. She smiled and laughed more than the other characters, having a nature that could be considered lighter, sunnier, brighter, warmer and more overtly sexy. Some also considered her to be more paranormally attuned than the average person.
[edit] Official Biography
Once the character was created and started appearing in episodes, the following biographical description of Monica Reyes was added to the The X-Files' official website:
"Although born in Austin, Texas, Monica Reyes was adopted by Mexican parents and raised in Mexico. She has never identified her birth parents.
"She majored in folklore and mythology at Brown University, earning her bachelors and masters degrees in four years. After considering an academic career, she instead enrolled at Quantico in 1990. Reyes’ first FBI assignment was to serve on a special task force investigating claims of Satanic ritual abuse. None of the charges was ever substantiated, and a report was issued in 1992.
"Reyes then served in the New York City field office, where among her cases was the kidnapping of 8 year-old Luke Doggett, son of New York City police officer John Doggett. The boy was eventually found dead, but no suspect was ever apprehended. In 1999, she transferred to the New Orleans field office. She remained there until the former cop-turned FBI Agent Doggett convinced her to accept a post on the X-files unit in Washington, DC."
Notably, much of the information in this official biography was never established in episodes and some facts were even changed, but the description provides an insight into how the writers originally perceived the character of Monica Reyes.
[edit] Character Facets
Production personnel working on The X-Files imagined that Reyes had been brought up in Guadalajara, Mexico, and her Spanish dialect in the episode "John Doe" consequently matches that region, thanks to dialect coach Allyn Partin. [1]
According to creator and writer Chris Carter, the inspiration for Reyes imitating whale song in the episode "Existence" came from a Paul Winter album he had been given when he was a boy. The album had whale sounds incorporated into the music, which Chris Carter often thought was interesting and, although perhaps kooky, he believed it was much like the character of Reyes to appreciate similar whale sounds.
The character of Brad Follmer was created in Season 9 to provide a love interest for Reyes, as the writers believed the audience needed to know more about her. However, Follmer's unresolved relationship with Reyes also served to heighten the conflict between Doggett and Follmer, as both men had feelings for her.
Actress Annabeth Gish was pleased that the relationship between her character and Scully was similar to that of two sisters, rather than Reyes serving as an antagonist to Scully.
In her four individual appearances within Season 8, Reyes smoked Morley cigarettes, the same brand that the Cigarette Smoking Man enjoyed in earlier episodes of the series. Actress Annabeth Gish was informed of this fact during the series' run.
The Season 9 episode "Hellbound", in which Reyes discovers that she was apparently reincarnated, began as an effort to give Reyes or Doggett a drive, as they were seen, by at least some writers, as the successors to Mulder and Scully. According to the writer of the episode, David Amann, executive producer Frank Spotnitz was interested in giving Reyes some darkness to play and her past life was consequently written with extremely sombre and terrible overtunes.
[edit] Casting Monica Reyes
According to Frank Spotnitz, a lot of actresses wanted to play the role of Monica Reyes. Annabeth Gish had no doubts about taking the opportunity to play the new female agent character on The X-Files and fought for the role until she was chosen. The actress played Monica Reyes in all of the character's appearances on The X-Files.
The first scene in which she appeared was filmed early in the morning and outside. She was not yet familiar with anyone working with her and was slightly nervous. One of the first things she was tasked with doing was to run down a steep hill, shouting, "Stop there! I'm a federal agent." Gish later remarked that filming the scene had been very memorable, as it did not take place during the day, and had also been quite exciting.
Because Gish became a member of the series' main cast in Season 9 of The X-Files, she was also added to the opening credits for that season.
[edit] Advertising First Appearances
The X-Files used promotional footage, called a "promo", to advertise each episode. Two different versions of the promo for each episode was created and televised - a ten second version, and a twenty second version.
Although Monica Reyes first appeared in the episode "This is Not Happening", she did not appear in either of the promos for that episode. In fact, the character would not be seen in any of the promos until those used to advertise her next appearance, "Empedocles", both of which included a clip of Reyes exclaiming, "There's something here." As with the promo for "This is Not Happening", Reyes was again not featured in the promo for her next appearance, "Essence". In the twenty second version of the promo for "Existence", the final episode of Season 8, Reyes appeared several times and could be heard saying, "There's someone out there," off-screen. In contrast, she only appeared once in the ten second promo for "Existence" and none of her dialogue from that episode was used.
As Reyes became a regular character in Season 9, her appearances in the promos became much more frequent.
[edit] Deleted Scenes & Concepts
A scene filmed but later edited out of "4-D" references Reyes several times. In the scene, Assistant Director Skinner asks AD Follmer to consider that Lukesh is guilty of having shot Doggett. However, Follmer recalls that Doggett claimed they were on stake-out with Reyes looking for Lukesh. Believing that claim to be untrue, Follmer later states that neither Skinner, Doggett or Reyes is telling him a story that makes any sense. In the scene's last line of dialogue, Skinner rhetorically asks Follmer if he really wants Reyes tried for attempted murder.
In a scene removed from "Jump the Shark", Reyes and Doggett inspect a room where Yves Adele Harlowe killed one of her victims. The scene takes place before the agents discover that the "victim" was a terrorist. After seeing a tall drop from a window in the room, Reyes asks, "The kind of a jump only a supersoldier could survive?" but Doggett replies negatively. After leaving the window, Reyes wonders if the victim, who was working as a scientist, was killed because of his research. She also admits that she is considering working with Scully on the case, commenting, "She may have an insight on the science and we both know she has a big stake in the outcome". However, Doggett disagrees with that course of action and Reyes ultimately decides not to contact Scully, either.
In script sources used to film "The Truth", the series' final episode, Monica's middle name is given as "Julietta". However, this fact is never established in the actual episode itself, nor in any other episode of the series.
A scene filmed for "The Truth" but deleted from the episode is set immediately after Reyes takes the witness stand in Mulder's trial and she can be heard slamming a door shut behind her as she leaves the court room.
[edit] Trivia
On The X-Files Season 8 DVD, "Monica Reyes" is also the title of the specific chapter in "This is Not Happening" in which the character first appears.
The X-Files Mythology, Volume 4 - Super Soldiers is the only DVD in The X-Files Mythology series that includes any episodes featuring Monica Reyes.
[edit] Appearances
See here for a list of appearances or here for all absences listed.
| Agents Assigned to the X-Files | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Arthur Dales | Fox Mulder | Dana Scully | Jeffrey Spender |
| Diana Fowley | John Doggett | Leyla Harrison | Monica Reyes |
