6. THE WELL MANICURED MAN

The character known as The Well Manicured Man (or WMM) first appeared in the episode THE BLESSING WAY. he is one of the members of the council of Elders that runs the Majestic Project and (judging from the photo Mulder found among his father's personal effects) he was also a long time associate of Deep Throat, Bill Mulder and The Cigarette Smoking Man. The WMM warns Scully about her impending assassination at Bill Mulder's funeral. He claims to be acting out of enlightened self-interest, because Scully's death will draw too much attention to the Majestic Project. But is that really the case? He tells Scully that she will be killed either by a close friend or by two assassins waiting for her in her home. His warning makes Scully so paranoid and distrustful she almost kills the one person she should be trusting: Skinner. Was WMM's warning meant to help her or to keep her off balance and isolated so that Krychek and the hit team could take her out? My initial instinct is that WMM was not trying to help Scully.

In PAPERCLIP we see the Well Manicured Man grill the Cigarette Smoking Man about his ham-fisted attempts to dispose of Scully as well as CSM's covering up of his having failed to eliminate Mulder or recover the MJ documents data tape. The hostility between CSM and WMM seems real, but it may be a hostility based on differences as to means, not ends. Both want to protect the Majestic Project, but the WMM is more subtle than CSM. WMM nearly got Scully, Mulder and Skinner to shoot each other just by whispering a couple of well phrased lies to Scully. Remember that "Tarentino-esque" moment at the begining of PAPERCLIP where Mulder, Scully and Skinner are all pointing guns at each other? Imagine how well that situation would have worked out for the Majestic Consortium if just one of them had started shooting. All three of Majestic's greatest enemies undone in a split second. Anyone who survived the shootout whould be finished as an FBI agent. Meanwhile, CSM rolled out the special forces teams, covert assassins and psychotropic water supply and all he succeeded in doing was getting Mulder's neighbors to shoot each other, burning a freight car, beating up some indians, getting Melissa Scully killed, and scortching Krycek's jacket..

The Well Manicured Man later tells Mulder and Scully that the government has been engaging in a genetic engineering project using alien DNA since the late 1940s. Not particularly useful information considering that Mulder had already convinced himself that this was indeed the case. WMM also tells Mulder that his father was duped into participating in the project (this is very unlikly when one considers that a young Bill Mulder, in the episode APOCRYPHA, seemed to be aware of the Project's interest in aliens as early as 1953) and that Samantha was taken in order to keep Bill Mulder from exposing the project. Of course, when asked by Mulder why he is telling Mulder all this, the WMM answers "It's what you want to know, isn't it?" Perhaps Scully is right; perhaps WMM is just telling Mulder what he wants to hear.

When the Well Manicured Man returns in APOCRYPHA, he manipulates Mulder into telling him more than he reveals to Mulder. WMM didn't know that Krychek was still alive or that the MJ Documents Data tape is the source to the leak of information to the French. Once again the information he gives Mulder is nothing Mulder didn't already know.

Again in APOCRYPHA we see the Well Manicured Man grilling the Cigarette Smoking Man about what he's doing, particularly CSM's unilateral actions (moving the salvaged UFO without permission, arranging to have Skinner gut-shot). He seems very concerned that CSM is acting with little or no accountability to the Majestic Board of Elders. I get the impression that the WMM and CSM see each other as rivals and WMM fears the power CSM has aquired by being the Majestic Project's "Mr. Fixit." By doing every dirty job that needs doing, CSM may have more access to military and intelligence assets than any single member of the Board of Elders, and perhaps this concerns WMM.

In TUNGUSKA and TERMA, The Well Manicured Man returns again. This time finding himself needed the Cigarrette Smoking Man's services. He begins by "killing the messenger": Hurling insults at CSM because some breach of The Project's security has occured, namely that a diplomatic pounch containing a hunk of martian rock containing the bio-hazardous material colloqially known as the "Black Cancer," has been intercepted by Fox Mulder and that Mulder has run off to Tunguska to look for answers. Later when the Russian agent Vassily Peskow murders Project specialist Dr. Bonita Sayer (who was moonlighting as WMM's mistress) WWM turns to CSM to discover her killer's identity and exact revenge against him. CSM delivers the killer's identity, but misses him before Peskow escapes to Russia. This leaves WWM seemingly in CSM's debt, and at a significant disadvantage since CSM discovers that WMM and the late Dr. Sayer were carrying on a sexual relationship. Apparently a serious no-no.

The Well Manicured Man's action, taken together, leave me doubting that he is really a potential ally for Mulder and Scully in their search for the truth. He claims to be acting out of loyalty to the Majestic project and his actions seem to back that statement up. He is loyal to Majestic, even if he is hostile to the Cigarette Smoking Man. His relationship to Mr. X and Senator Matheson remains unexplored, but an excellent subject for speculation.

• Next Chapter
• The Majestic Consortium
• HOME