First appearance: “Sleepless”
Last appearance: “The Truth”
From the moment the unctuous Alex Krycek slips his way onto Mulder’s turf in “Sleepless,” we know something is up. For one thing, he’s too eager to please (claiming to have followed Mulder’s work back at the academy…a lone supporter of the rogue agent). For another, his hair is so perfectly coifed, it’s sinister.
Dubbed “Ratboy” by fans, the fresh-faced Mr. Krycek is a double agent, inserted onto the scene by Cigarette-Smoking Man to spy on Mulder and Scully, wreak havoc, and maybe knock off an agent or two (remember Mulder’s truncated tram ride in “Ascension?”). When Mulder takes his case against Krycek to Skinner after the murder of Duane Barry, the wide-eyed agent blows town, only to resurface in later episodes during which he offs members of Scully and Mulder’s own families before fleeing the country and becoming possessed by….an alien.
Name: We have no way of knowing if Alex Krycek is his proper name. He also goes under the name “Artzen” when dealing with the Russians. X-Philes often call him “Ratboy” but that isn’t in the show
Eye Color: Green. (This comes from Nicholas Lea himself, apparently)
Background: His parents were Russian emmigrants. He can speak Russian. However, he is American-raised (“The Red and the Black”), despite this.
Presumably he did join the FBI in the proper way and go through the Academy, or his cover would likely be blown pretty quickly when he started working with Mulder.
Sexuality: Yes, he kisses Mulder (on the cheek), after a long and lingering look, for a reason not yet really worked out. (Messing with Mulder’s head? A Judas kiss? Doing a European custom – though unlike any mere social kiss that I’ve ever seen? What? This one is weird. Even Nicholas Lea has given lots of different interpretations.)
But remember that, in the previous episode, he passionately kissed Marita – no mere kiss on the cheek for her.
As Cancerman’s tool: In “Paper Clip,” the Consortium call Krycek one of Cancerman’s men. In the second season he is working beneath Cancerman.
Winning Mulder’s trust: In “Sleepless,” Krycek starts working with a reluctant Mulder. He says he has always admired his work and believed in him, even when the others at the Academy laughed at him. It doesn’t go down very well yet, and Mulder ditches him. At least with Scully he cared enough to check up her background before they started working together. In “Sleepless” he simply has no intention of ever trusting Krycek or wanting to work with him.
However, by the start of “Ascension” Mulder has come to trust Mulder enough to tell him what he’s planning to do in the search for Scully. He calls him “Alex.” Cancerman tells Krycek that he seems to have won Mulder’s trust and the best thing to so it to keep it.
Spying: In the three episodes in which Mulder and Krycek are working together, Krycek makes reports to his superiors about his actions. It is his report at the end of “Sleepless” that tells Cancerman that Scully is still helping Mulder with his work, and his hasty phone call that allows “Them” to be at Skyland Mountain in time to take Scully from Duane Barry.
Assassin and thug: He probably poisons Duane Barry, and the tram operator disappears, having last been seen being bopped on the head by Krycek.
He probably killed Bill Mulder. Certainly he is there in the room, hiding in the shower, just before there is a gunshot. He later denies it, but the only way he didn’t do it is if Bill Mulder grabbed his gun and shot himself. Maybe Krycek’s denial means that, while he actually pulled the trigger, the true responsibility lies with the man who sent him.
He was one of the two assassins who were waiting in Scully’s apartment to kill her and who ended up killing Melissa. While it seems as if Luis Cardinal actually fired the shot, Krycek was there too.
With several other men he beat up Skinner and took the digital tape.
As a freelance
After Krycek and his fellow thugs beat Skinner to get the tape, the plan was that Krycek and the tape would both be destroyed in a car bomb. However, Krycek escaped and swore revenge on Cancerman.
In “Piper Maru” and “Apocrypha” we find out that Krycek has been selling the secrets on the tape to the highest bidder. (However, for most of this two-parter, the person who looks like Krycek is in fact an alien possessing his body.) He ended this episode locked in a missile silo deep underground, but some militia men rescued him (or so her says.)
In this role he is a possibly ally for Mulder and Scully, as he wants to get revenge on their enemies and possesses the information Mulder wants. “Tunguska” shows Mulder reluctantly striking up an alliance.
As a Russian agent:
This is an odd one, this. The KGB man who comes to America and destroys the black oily vaccine project is given his orders by one “Comrade Arzten,” who turns out to be Krycek.
So, given that the Consortium and the Russians are out and out rivals at this point, what does this imply? That Krycek has always been working as a Russian agent, even when he was ostensibly working for Cancerman? That he’s become a Russian agent after his break with Cancerman and has handed over the secrets of the tape to them?
In alliance with Well Manicured Man:
By the time of “Patient X” and “The Red and the Black,” he seems to have finished with the Russian thing. Despite being the one who ordered the Russian assassin to put a stop to the Consortium’s black cancer tests, this time he is the one who brings the vaccine to WMM and his friends. He does it for a price, of course. The vaccine is referred to as a “bargaining chip.”
By the end of that episode, he seems to be firmly on the side of WMM in the “we must resist the colonists” camp. He visits Mulder and persuades him to track down the rebel alien and stop him from being returned to the colonists.
Why? Does he really want to save the world? Or is this just the latest twist and turn in his never ending search for opportunities to get power and influence?
In “The End” he is little more than WMM’s chauffeur. Apparently knowing of WMM’s hatred of CSM, he offers to run him down with the car, but WMM tells him not to.
In S.R. 819: I can’t work out whose side he’s on in this episode, so had to put it in separately: In this episode, Krycek’s in disguise. He infects Skinner with a virus, caused by nanomachines in his blood – a virus which Krycek can control literally with the push of a button. While Krycek is seen to be driving a government agency car, and this perhaps is working for “them,” he choses to save Skinner at the end. Why? Did he have a secret agenda himself? Did he want to get a hold over Skinner? This does seem to be the result, anyway, since the episode ends with Skinner asking Krycek what he wants him to do, and Krycek saying “all in good time.” Is it a personal hold over Skinner, for his own ends, or is he obtaining him for the Project?
But then in “Two Fathers” he seems to be back in with the Consortium, happily doing a job for CSM. Sigh…
Or maybe he’s working for the rebels…
Or maybe just for himself…
His arm: At the end of “Terma” he loses his left arm. He is soon fitted with a wonderful prosthetic arm which he learns to use within days, apparently. It doesn’t stop him from parachuting into the wilds to get CSM back.