I’ve been renting X-Files seasons from Netflix, and am currently on disc 4 of season 5. I just watched the episode called “Travelers.” From Red Wolf’s X-Files Episode Guide:
Several times during this episode we see Mulder wearing a wedding ring, and once we see him exhaling cigarette smoke. I watched the whole series when it aired: I don’t remember anything about Mulder having been married, and I really don’t remember anything about him having been a smoker – which I’d think would have come up in discussions about the Cigarette Smoking Man.
Can anyone shed some light on Mulder’s marriage or smoking habits? Have I merely forgotten that these details are addressed earlier/later in the series? Should I just keep watching the discs? 
DH and I are also doing the X-Files through Netflix. We didn’t watch it very often when it was on TV, but he got hooked on reruns 2 or 3 years ago, so when we joined up, we wanted to see them all in order.
While I don’t remember about him smoking, I do remember the hoopla over him wearing a wedding ring. It is David Duchovney’s real wedding ring and, if I remember correctly, he just kept it on for the flashback scenes on his own. It was never explained in the series (though he does do it again in another episode). From what I remember, and keep in mind I didn’t watch X-Files at the time, just thought it was funny reading it in the news, was that DD thought it would give an interesting background to the character.
Well, you made me curious so I just looked it up on TV Tome. Travelers was the second episode DD wore a ring in. The first was earlier in Season 4, Unusual Supsects (the one about the Lone Gunmen). It says on this site:
“The script of this episode never called for Mulder to wear a wedding ring. This was David Duchovny’s idea who thought it would be cool to toy with the notion that Mulder could in the past have been married.”
And about Travelers:
“David can be seen wearing his actual wedding ring which is never explained in the series whether he was, as Mulder, ever married or not. See also Unusual Suspects where he also wears his ring. He seems to be making a point in both episodes to show his ring.”
Thanks! I don’t remember the ring from “Unusual Suspects,” but then I took a little break between seasons 4 and 5 and it’s been a while since I saw that episode.
Duchovny definitely “made a point” of the ring in “Travelers”: he even created a new habit for Mulder of using his left hand to sweep his hair off his face to the right. There are several moments where his face is hidden by his left hand, making the ring pretty obvious. I find it interesting that a show with so much mythology and attention to detail would allow Duchovny to introduce something like that, which would be so important to Mulder’s character, and then not explain it … but I also think it’s kinda cool.
I’m surprised that TV Tome doesn’t mention Mulder’s smoking in “Travelers.” I know that I saw him exhale cigarette smoke in that episode!