11. ALEX KRYCEK

The man we love to hate. Between killing Mulder's father (sure he denied it, but so what), Scully's sister, busting his knuckles on Skinner's jaw and running off with the MJ documents, selling the French the location of a sunken UFO that had already been salvaged, betraying his right-wing militia compadres to the FBI and being a KGB double agent, Krycek really knows how to keep on peoples' good side.

The episodes TUNGUSKA and TERMA adds a whole new aspect to the character of Krycek and may help to explain some of the events in past episodes. We know know Krycek is a KGB double agent assigned to infiltrate either the FBI, the Majestic Consortium, or perhaps both. He appears to have been a second generation "sleeper" agent. That is an agent that spends years, or decades inactive, working his way into secure positions and organizations until he has obtained a desired position and is "awoken" or activated. I say "second generation sleeper" because in TUNGUSKA Krycek mentions that his parents were "cold-war emigres" from Russia. I would suggest that Krycek's parents were KGB spies as well who came to America with a plan to create the perfect double agent: Alex Krycek. A man groomed to be the perfect recruit for the FBI, CIA or other intelligence agency.

And yes, I realize that after the collapse of the Soviet Union the Russian Republic split the KGB into a foreign component, the SVR, and a domestic component, the MSB. For simplicity's sake, I'll refer to Krycek's Russian spymasters as the "KGB."

Krycek probably began as an FBI agent and was working for the FBI when he was suborned by the Cigarette Smoking Man. Krycek was probably promised a share of the CSM's power and access in exchange for his betrayal of the FBI. Of course at the time of this betrayl, he was already betraying the FBI to the KGB.

In SLEEPLESS we saw Krycek as a confident and arrogant agent, obviously flushed with feelings of superiority over the people he's betraying. In DUANE BARRY Krycek keeps his cool as the Cigarette Smoking Man's eyes and ears. But he acts like he isn't comfortable with the murders of the Sky-Mountain tram operator and of Duane Barry and pretends to be even less comfortable not knowing what happened to Dana Scully. He tries to get CSM to provide him with answers he claims he has a right to. But CSM rebukes him, telling Krycek he has "no rights. Only orders." It seems that while landing a job with the Majestic Consortium isn't too difficult, the most secret of black projects, employment doesn't equate to access to secrets.

When Krycek reappears in ANASAZI, he looks like a common street thug, veritably boiling with anger toward Fox Mulder (and any member of the Mulder family); as if Krycek holds Mulder responsible for all Krycek had lost in his fall from FBI agent to "need-to-know" thug.

I don't think the Cigarette Smoking Man intended Krycek to kill Mulder when he sent Krycek to Mulder's Georgetown apartment. I think it much more likley that CSM intended Mulder (who was dangerously paranoid and aggressive due to the effects of CSM's "soft water") to kill Krycek, preferably using the weapon Krycek used to shoot Bill Mulder, thus linking Fox Mulder to both Murders. CSM has always maintained that Majestic doesn't want to kill Mulder, at least not until he's been thoroughly discredited. Punching your boss and being accused of shooting your father and your ex-partner goes along way toward discrediting a person.

In PAPERCLIP, Krycek pulls the trigger on Melissa Scully (at least on slow forward advance the shooter looks more like Krycek than his partner "The Hispanic Man," Louis Cardinal, but it's Cardinal who drops the gun at the scene). Krycek doesn't seem particularly remorseful about shooting an innocent woman, only upset because he's flubbed the mission. Later he ambushed Skinner to recover the MJ document's data tape. While Skinner is being restrained by two trained assassins, Krycek pounds away with sadistic satisfaction, as if he's venting his anger on Skinner, who had never done anything to him prior to that point. But there is something in Krycek's expression as he sits stewing in the passenger seat of the car that's about to blow up. Maybe its a look of disgust or contempt for his situation and his cohorts. That introspective look of self-loathing is cut short as Krycek narrowly escapes being flash-welded to the roof of the car. Perhaps Krycek is disgusted that his life-long plan to infiltrate the U.S. Intelligence community has ended with himself being reduced to a disposable, deniable asset with little access to the secrets he was hoping to steal.

I had always been bothered by CSM's "unprovoked" attempt on Alex Krycek's life in PAPERCLIP. It always seem unnecesessary to kill Krycek. What was the purpose? Because he'd been identified because of his earlier infiltration of the X-Files? Because he failed to kill Mulder or Scully? Failure doesn't expalin the attempt on Krycek's life, otherwise Louis Cardinal would have been sitting in the car right next to Krycek when it blew up. But what if Krycek's KGB connection had been discovered by CSM? What if CSM knew he was a communist double-agent? Well, like CSM said, "Payback's a bitch, Ivan." Now, in retrospect, CSM's attempt on Krycek's life makes sense. If CSM knew, or suspected that Krycek was a mole, he wouldn't hesitate to kill him.

Krycek had the MJ documents data tape and used it to keep the CSM's assassins at bay for a time, but later went into business selling the secrets on the tape to foreign powers. But why would Krycek, a KGB agent, go into business for himself? The answer is that he didn't go into business for himself. Krycek's days of selling MJ files' secrets around the globe was a KGB operation. The tape was encrypted after all, and it would have taken the assistance of the KGB's code-breakers to decrypt. Mulder suggested that Krycek had assistance in decrypting the tape when they clashed in Hong Kong. The operation is classic KGB material: the KGB makes money off the French (and any other western powers) by selling useless and out-of-date Majestic secrets. The KGB makes money to support its operations (extremely important with the former Soviet Union being nearly broke) and spreads disinformation among its enemies. No doubt the KGB kept the pertinent information for themselves.

Selling the french the location of a crashed UFO that the Majestic Consortium had already salvaged using the salvage ship Talapus (in the episode NESEI) made Krycek less than popular with the French intelligence service. The French come looking with blood in their eyes. By the time Mulder catches up with Krycek in Hong Kong, Krycek had degenerated to the point of being little more than a hunted animal, bearing more than a little resemblence to his internet handle "Ratboy."

Just when things couldn't get any worse for Krycek he gets possessed by a viscous alien entity who trades Krycek and the MJ Documents data tape to the Cigarette Smoking Man in exchange for access to it's spacecraft. After violantly purging the slimy alien from every orifice on his head, Krycek is left to slowly starve and die from dehyration, sealed in an abondoned missle silo with an alien spacecraft he cannot gain access to. No doubt Krycek spent several days of drinking his own urine, agonizing pain and maddening delusions brought on by dehydration before he escaped the silo.

In TUNGUSKA, Krycek told Mulder that he was saved by the Militia group while they were looking for miltary surplus salvage at the abandoned missile silo that he was sealed in. However, when questioned by Mulder, Terry Mayhew, the Militia group's leader denies it. He claims Krycek approached him using the name "Arntzen." I'm not sure how Krycek got out of that silo, but I doubt the KGB or the Militia had anything to do with it. Perhaps he was inadvertantly freed when the "Oilian" escaped the silo, or was rescued by other extra-terrestrials.

"Arntzen" is also the name the KGB messenger used to summon Vassily Peskow, the semi-retired KGB assassin, back into service. This indicates that Krycek has reaped some "status" from being a mole. His message to Peskow brings the old "cold-war horse" out of retirement. Krycek's mission in TUNGUSKA and TERMA seems two-fold. One: he laid the groundwork to give Vassily Peskow the ability to destroy the Majestic Consortium's Black Cancer innoculation project. Kycek's work with the Militia provided Peskow with the truck bomb Peskow used to destroy the meteorite. Krycek may have scouted Peskow's targets as well, like the WMM's Virginia horse farm and the Boca Raton retirement home. Two: Put Mulder and Scully on the trail of Majestic's Black Cancer program. Why? Just to cause Majestic some consternation and distract them from the real threat, the KGB. And Three: Personal revenge. Kyrcek wanted an opportunity to get revenge on Mulder. I believe he intended to lure him to Siberia and get Mulder imprisoned at the Tunguska Gulag where Mulder would die horribly as a test subject.

Of course no plan is perfect and Krycek pays for his lies and decite with his left arm. Whether the one-armed fugatives in the woods were punishing a man they believed was associated with their former tormenters, or if they thought they could save him from being a test subject by taking his arm is unknown. Suffice to say Krycek won't be tying his shoes anytime soon.

When last we left "Comrade Krycek," he was making tea in St. Petersberg with Peskow, both of them basking in the glow of their success. But success does have it's price. No doubt we will see Krycek again soon.

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