5. THE CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN (A.K.A. "Cancerman")

Who is The Cigarette Smoking Man's (CSM)? In THE X-FILES (pilot) and THE ERLENMEYER FLASK we see CSM deposit first an alien mind- control-tracking device and later an alien fetus in a huge warehouse-vault at the Pentagon. Not at CIA HQ in Langley VA. In THE MUSINGS OF A CIGARRETTE SMOKING MAN, we see him being recruited out of the U.S. Army Special Forces, where he had been working as a CIA asset for covert operations. Later he is seen weilding authority over U.S. Military forces. So CSM works for a military intelligence agency like the Defense Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, Army, Navy or Air Force Intelligence or an agency so secret we mere mortals haven't heard of it yet. Or perhaps we have?

The Lone Gunmen tossed out the name "GARNET" during the episode ANASAZI, and claimed that GARNET was a "multi-national black-ops unit" staffed by "School of the Americas alumni . . . trained killers." GARNET was after the Thinker, the cyber-anarchist who hacked the MJ documents out of the DoD computer. According to UFO-Conspiracy literature (it is often contradictory) GARNET is the name of MJ-12's counter-intelligence and information security section. They go out and steal and destroy evidence of UFO encounters, intimidate witnesses to prevent them from talking about what they'veseen, spread disinformation about the UFO abduction phenomena, and run covert operations to discredit and discourage civilian UFO investigators. Since the Cigarette Smoking Man is obviously running the operation to retrieve the MJ documents and cover up the government's alien-studies projects, I'd have to guess that CSM is the head of GARNET and serves the Majestic Project as its chief of counter-intelligence and information security.

CSM's most apparent goals are to keep Mulder away from Majestic's alien-studies projects. However, CSM has shown an interest in covering up other government black projects, for example: In SLEEPLESS, CSM's agent Alex Krychek stole the files from Mulder relating to the military's "Sleepless Soldier" experiment. In YOUNG AT HEART, CSM can be seen at the end interrogating mortally wounded sociopath John Barnet for the location of Dr. Ridley's immortality formula. In WETWIRED he was cleaning up after a mind control project not unlike the one in BLOOD (makes you wonder who sent the message "ALL DONE BYE BYE" to Mulder's cell phone). In F. EMASCULATA, CSM assists Pink Pharmacueticals in covering up their experiments on the prisoners, but I don't think his goals were that simple. I mean, why would CSM deliberately involve Mulder (Mr. "The Truth Will Out") when he's trying to cover something up?

I see one intriegingly byzantine motive for such action. CSM may have intended to show Mulder that sometimes the truth has to be covered up in order to serve a "greater good." In this case, the panic would have spread faster than the disease and cost even more lives. Showing Mulder that the truth sometimes has to be cover-up may have been a first step toward ideologically converting Mulder, perhaps even a first step toward bringing Mulder into the Majestic conspiracy. After all, if you can't beat 'em, recruit 'em. CSM may someday offer to share the truth with Mulder, but only if Mulder will help cover it up. This may be significant later.

Since season one, The Cigarette Smoking Man has grown from a rather bland "Man in Black" conspirator to a complex and frighteningly sympathetic pratictioner of Realpolitik.

Best exchange: With Mulder in ONE BREATH

Mulder: "You should be the one to die."

CSM: "Why? Look at me. No wife. No family. Some power. I'm in the game because I believe what I'm doing is right."

Mulder: "Right? Who are you to decide what's right?"

CSM: "Who are you?"

Who indeed, Agent Mulder? Who indeed?

I believe CSM once believed he was acting for a greater good and that not mearly promoting his own personal success and profit, but later episodes seem to indicate that he no longer believes in his own cause. William B. Davis, who plays CSM, has often said in interviews that he plays CSM as a man who's "on a crusade to save the world." I'd say that CSM probably was once a true believer. Tired, exhausted, and burnt out with no family or personal life, but still a fanatic who'll do whatever is necessary for the mission he's charged with. Of course, the one thing the Cigarette Smoking Man has forgot is that the ends can never justify the means. In fact, the means usually dictate the end. In fact, I would argue that the means CSM has used over the years have been so morally questionable that now he doubts the rightness of the causes he once championed.

THE BLESSING WAY and PAPERCLIP gave us a look at CSM at his worst: desperate, panicky and covering up his mistakes. We now know that he does the cold-blooded and ruthless things he does because he's protecting more than just the world's most dangerous secrets. He's protecting his life. The Majestic Project does not tolerate failure. If CSM can't do his job, then he'll be replaced, and somehow I doubt he'll be allowed to quietly retire like Bill Mulder. With no family or friends to threaten, the only way CSM can be kept quiet would be to kill him. Or worse. Purity Control is always looking for new test subjects.

That's why Skinner's bluff about the Navajos memorizing the tape worked against CSM. CSM wasn't worried about the public believing Albert Hosteen and his friends if they blabbed about the contents of the tape. He was worried his comrades on the Majestic council of Elders would hear about the Navajos and kill him for having lied to them about the breach in security.

Of course CSM was back to his smooth, cool self by the time he reappeared in 731 to pick up the pieces. CSM was equally smooth in the way he handled the problem of the lost MJ Document data tape, his errant agent Krychek and the alien that wanted its ship back. He didn't even flinch when confronting the alien he'd been tracking since the Zues Faber incident. CSM's deal with the alien entity that was possessing Krychek was to trade the data tape and Kyrchek for allowing the alien access to its ship. If the alien's intention was to leave the Earth, I think CSM seriously disappointed it. I don't think the alien was anticpating gaining access to its ship only to find itself sealed in a disused missle silo. A very slick move on CSM's part. Didn't even have to break his word either.

There is something very interesting about CSM's behavior in the episode APOCRYPHA that draws an interesting parallel to Mulder. In APOCRYPHA we see CSM's colleagues in the Majestic Board of Elders questioning his unauthorized unilateral actions. He does what he wants without authorization and justifies defying procedure because he gets results. Perhaps in the context of the Majestic Project, CSM is as much of a "procedure be damned" lone wolf as Mulder is with the FBI. They both share a fanatical and idealistic side. Mulder in his quest to prove the existance of aliens, and CSM in his quest to protect America from all threats foreign and domestic. Mulder's quest is wearing him down emotionally and morally. CSM's quest has burned out his idealism and morality. Mulder is on his way to becoming CSM, a parellel that should not be overlooked.

In TALITHA CUMI the connection between CSM and the Mulder familty was deepened. Not only were Bill Mulder and CSM colleages, but Mrs. Mulder and CSM seem to have been more than just friends. Their exchange at the Mulder's summer home was ladden with sexual and emotional tensions that indicate a former physical relationship of some kind. But despite their hostile posturing, I believe that CSM still has feeling for Mrs. Mulder. Otherwise why would he have had the alien Bounty-Hunter heal Mrs. Mulder's stroke at the end of the episode HERRENVOLK. He told the Bounty-Hunter Mrs. Mulder had to be healed in order to prevent losing the option of controling Fox Mulder using his mother for leverage. But there's a expression on CSM's face when Mrs. Mulder opens her eyes that looks like relief and gratitude at her recovery.

In DEMONS we were given another clue as to CSM ultimate relationship to the Mulders. Samantha isn't Mulder's sister, she's his half-sister. The specualtion that CSM is Fox Mulder's father isn't supported by any evidence. But the memories ressurected in DEMONS, and Mrs. Mulder's assertion in PAPERCLIP that it was Bill Mulder's choice which child would be taken, indicate that Bill Mulder may have had a reason to draw a distinction between Samantha and Fox. Samantha may not have been his child. Add to the way CSM obviously covets Bill Mulder's "normal" family life and the conclusion is inescapable. CSM is Samantha's father.

The confrontation between CSM and the alien Jerimiah Smith in TALITHA CUMI and MUSINGS OF A CIGARRETTE SMOKING MAN give more insight into CSM's motives for participating in the Majestic Consortium's "Project." In MCSM, CSM is portrayed as a young idealistic "warrior poet," who is willing to do anything to "save" America. He even murdered Martin Luther King, a man he respected and admired, because his "higher purpose" demanded it. The loathsome things he has convinced himself were necessary to "save the world" no longer seem justifiable. I believe CSM has lost faith in his crusade. Given the opportunity, he would have given up his endless black-ops crusade to do the one thing that makes him happy: Writing. So why does he continue to do a job he doesn't believe in? Like Jerimiah Smith said: CSM is afraid. CSM "want to be one of the commandants, when the process begins." He seem the Majestic Consortium's "Project" rolling forward and he knows that if he's not part of the conspiracy, he'll be a victim of it. I believe CSM is holding on for dear life. He truly has a tiger by the tail: He can't quit, he can't fail and he doesn't believe in the cause he serves.

CSM surrounds himself with talented (albeit often untrustworthy) assisstants. First there was Alex Krycek, a KGB infiltrator whose betrayl was discovered, but escaped execution by carbomb. Then there was Mr. X, whose treachery cost him his life at the hands of one of CSM newest right hand: The GREY HAIRED MAN. There's also Marita Covarubias, the Assisstant to the Special Representative to the Secretary General (SRSG). She's plugged in with CSM and seems to do his bidding. But that raises a question. If Marita is a CSM lackey, then why would Mr. X send Mulder to her (or rather her boss)? Was she put next to the SRSG in order to keep Mulder away from him? CSM's last order to Marita was "Tell him what he wants to hear."

That may have a connection to the last episode of the forth season GETHSEMENE, where Scully believes that CSM and his cohorts in the Majestic Consortium are using Mulder to perpetuate disinformation and support their "Big Lie:" namely that aliens are responsible for crimes commited by rouge elements of the Intelligence Community. Then Mulder allegedly turns up dead. Well, if the frozen alien is a fake, good enough to fool an anthropologist, then perhaps Mulder's corpse is a similar fake produced by CSM's GARNET goon-squad. But why? Why would CSM fake Mulder's death. This takes us back to CSM's motive for asigning Mulder to the case in F. EMASCULATA: ideologically converting Mulder. His death faked, his father dead, his sister gone, Scully has betrayed him (by forcing him to question his convictions) and his Mother has betrayed him (by not being a perfect "madonna-like" icon of purity): wouldn't this be the perfect moment to dangle the "TRUTH" before Mulder in exchange for Mulder joining the Majestic Consortium?

Next season I expect CSM to try to directly recruit Mulder into the Majestic Consortium. If CSM can't beat Mulder, he'll recruit him.

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