Line #56 Recap/TheXFilesS04E07MusingsOfACigaretteSmokingMan


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3	'''Season 4, Episode 07:'''
4	!Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man
5	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/thexfilesmusingsofacigarettesmokingman.png]]
6	[[caption-width-right:350:''"For nothing can seem foul to those that win."''\
7	-- '''Theatre/HenryIV''' Part 1, Act V scene i]]
8	->Written by Glen Morgan\
9	Directed by James Wong
10
11	->'''Frohike:''' If you find the right starting point and follow it, not even secrets of the darkest of men are safe.\
12	'''Mulder:''' Cancer Man? What did you find?\
13	'''Frohike:''' Possibly everything. Maybe his background.
14
15	The Lone Gunmen discover some (possible) information about the early life of Mulder's nemesis.
16	----
17	!!Tropes:
18	* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: As well as master-minding a conspiracy to suppress knowledge about aliens and generally control the United States government, Cancer Man also set up the "Miracle on Ice" (by doping the Soviet goalie) and ensures that the Buffalo Bills never win the UsefulNotes/SuperBowl.
19	* ArtisticLicenseHistory:
20	** During the meeting on December 24th 1991, Cigarette-Smoking Man is informed that Mikhail Gorbachev, the president of the Soviet Union, has just resigned. Gorbachev actually resigned the following day, in the evening of December 25th. Even accounting for time zone differences, the earliest time the news would reach the United States would be in the morning of December 25th. Though given his connections, CSM likely knew beforehand.
21	** Also on December 24th 1991, Deep Throat expresses concerns that the KGB have found out about the UFO crash. The KGB had already been dissolved 21 days earlier on December 3rd.
22	* AuthorAvatar: In-universe example: the protagonist of the Cigarette-Smoking Man's rejected manuscripts, Jack Colquitt.
23	* BeenThereShapedHistory: Cigarette Smoking Man and Deep Throat, which given the episode's references to ''Forrest Gump'' is fitting.
24	* BenevolentBoss: CSM tries to act like this to his underlings, but doesn't succeed that well.
25	* BlatantLies
26	** The CSM hates movies, but tells Lee Oswald otherwise when arranging a rendezvous in the movie theatre where he is to be arrested.
27	** When arguing over which of them will terminate the alien, CSM tells Deep Throat that he's never killed anyone, much to the latter's incredulity.
28	* CallBack: To "E.B.E.", and Deep Throat's claim to have carried out the execution of an alien in Vietnam. According to ''this'' story, though, the UFO there was not shot down, and his execution of an alien occurred much later.
29	* ADayInTheLimelight: For the Cigarette Smoking Man. It shows him as a somewhat lonely man, [[MarriedToTheJob married to his job]] but [[HiddenDepths willing to give it up to be a writer]].
30	* DeathSeeker: The CSM doesn't smoke because his mother died of lung cancer. After assassinating the President of the United States and framing Oswald for it, he lights up his first cigarette.
31	* DespairSpeech: [[BlackComedy Played for laughs]], though.
32	* DisappearedDad: CSM's father was an ardent Communist put to death for spying on behalf of the Soviet Union. This happened before he was even born.
33	* EvenEvilHasStandards: While he might be a sinister shadow government official pulling the strings of the twentieth century for his and his organisation's sinister ends, he respects Martin Luther King Jr. Though this doesn't stop him from (reluctantly) killing the man.
34	* EvilIsPetty: He couldn't care less about rigging the Oscars, but the Buffalo Bills winning the Super Bowl is something he just can't allow.
35	* ExecutiveMeddling: {{Invoked}} in the episode when the Smoking Man finds out his short story's ending was changed without his consent.
36	* {{Flashback}}: The whole story, really, but there's a specific flashback to the first episode, where we see Scully first meet with Section Chief Blevins while the CSM observes.
37	* FormulaBreakingEpisode: The episode [[ADayInTheLimelight focuses entirely]] on the titular Smoking Man and [[WholeEpisodeFlashback his younger days]].
38	* FreudianExcuse: CSM's original strong anti-Communism is {{implied}} to stem from hating his father (a devout Communist) for spying on behalf of the Soviet Union and being put to death for it, leaving him before he was born and alone in the world once his mother died as well. His refusal to smoke at first may also be because his mother did, and died from it (when we first view him, in 1962, the link between smoking and cancer had just been established).
39	* FromNobodyToNightmare: CSM goes from anonymous Army officer circa 1962 to one of the heads of America's shadow government by 1968, and only gets more powerful afterwards.
40	* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Lee Harvey Oswald, James Earl Ray and J. Edgar Hoover all appear.
41	* HistoricalInJoke: But of an UnreliableNarrator variety. CSM takes credit for both the 1980 "Miracle on Ice" and the Bills' run of Super Bowl failures. During a meeting, he's told that Saddam Hussein is on the phone; he says he'll call him back later.
42	* LamarckWasRight: The CSM is selected for the conspiracy to kill Kennedy not only because of his fervent anti-communism, but because his superiors believe he has the same dedication to change the world as his Communist father.
43	* LaserGuidedKarma: A teeny-tiny laser, but after years manipulating the trajectory of American culture for arrogant and selfish reasons without any input from the American people, CSM's personal goal of getting a story published is ruined by the editor changing his story's ending without his input.
44	* MeaningfulName: The magazine CSM's story was published in, "Roman à Clef," sounds like it might be some kind of pretentious porn or something. But it's actually a term for a true story disguised as fiction, which is exactly what his story is.
45	* MissingMom: CSM's mother died of lung cancer when he was a boy, which left him a ward of the state.
46	* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: This episode's account of CSM's backstory is loosely modeled on E. Howard Hunt, the notorious CIA operative who was a key figure in the Watergate scandal. Hunt has been tied by RealLife conspiracy theorists to the Kennedy Assassination, and CSM calls himself "Mr. Hunt" when meeting Oswald. Hunt also wrote pulp novels under an alias although, unlike CSM, he was quite successful at it.
47	* OriginsEpisode: If the UnreliableNarrator CSM is to be believed.
48	* PetTheDog: The last couple of scenes show a surprisingly sympathetic side of CSM we've never seen before, an eager amateur writer who gets depressed when the crap magazine that published his story changed the ending. Also serves as a bit of a meta joke, since the ending of the episode that aired was different from the one in the script.
49	* ProperlyParanoid: Frohike is certain he is under surveillance and could be killed at any moment, which Mulder finds ridiculous. Frohike is absolutely right.
50	* {{Shout Out}}:
51	** To ''Film/ForrestGump''. Given the fact that CSM is essentially a [[DarkerAndEdgier dark Forrest]], it verges on {{Take That}}.
52	--->'''Cigarette Smoking Man:''' Life... is like a box of chocolates. A cheap, thoughtless, perfunctory gift that nobody ever asks for. Unreturnable, because all you get back is another box of chocolates. So you're stuck with this undefinable whipped-mint crap that you mindlessly wolf down when there's nothing else left to eat. Sure, once in a while, there's a peanut butter cup, or an English toffee. But they're gone too fast, the taste is fleeting. So you end up with nothing but broken bits, filled with hardened jelly and teeth-shattering nuts, and if you're desperate enough to eat those, all you've got left is a... is an empty box... filled with useless, brown paper wrappers.
53	** CSM's initial briefing by the military officers is one to ''Film/ApocalypseNow'', with almost identical dialogue to Willard's being assigned to kill Kurtz.
54	** When discussing his story with the publisher, CSM says he wants the artwork to have a Tom Clancy-ish look.
55	* TemptingFate: The Lone Gunmen insist on activating their anti-snooping device before talking to Mulder. The CSM just turns on a gadget attached to his rifle microphone to cut through the interference, then gives a smug smile as he hears the Lone Gunmen bragging about how their anti-snooper can block any form of electronic eavesdropping.
56	* SympathyForTheDevil: CSM is already a major villain, and Frohike's revelations give him a further upgrade on the villainy scale. Nevertheless, he is also portrayed as a lonely, unfulfilled and bitter character, which humanizes him a bit.
57	* TakeThat: "Payback's a bitch, Ivan." Cancer Man's involvement in helping the 1980 USA Olympic hockey team win can be taken as either a take that against the hockey team and/or the infamous 1972 basketball finals where the Soviets essentially cheated to win.
58	* UnreliableNarrator: Frohike notes that there is no real way to confirm the information he has found. CSM's position on cigarettes and movies changes between scenes too, but this may just be him lying. There are also quite a bit of stuff that doesn't really line up under scrutiny, like Mulder already having been born when CSM supposedly met his father, William, for the first time, as CSM is later revealed to be Mulder's biological father. It's also implied that Frohike got most of his information from the story the CSM wrote. If so, then how much truth was included in the CSM's work of fiction (and from there, how much was changed by InUniverse ExecutiveMeddling before Frohike even saw it) is up for debate.
59	* VillainEpisode
60	* WhoShotJFK: CSM did it, and Oswald was made the FallGuy. He killed Martin Luther King too. At least in this story...
61	* WhyWereBummedCommunismFell: CSM starts off as a hardened anti-Communist who gets sucked into the Conspiracy fighting the Cold War. When the Soviet Union falls, he questions what else he could do with his meaningless life, until Deep Throat calls him about a crashed [=UFO=], and he realizes there's another secret war left to fight... Somewhat {{retcon}}ned later, or possibly just an unreliable narrator, as later episodes reveal he was aware of and fighting this war for many decades previously.
62	* WorthyOpponent: CSM claims he has respect for Martin Luther King. Which still doesn't stop him from killing the man. He's mostly urged on by King speaking against the Vietnam War, and fears this will turn black people against it so the US loses, saying if this were just a civil rights issue, he'd support him for President.
63	----

Context Recap / TheXFilesS04E07MusingsOfACigaretteSmokingMan