Please send comments to Scott Glancy CONSPIRACY 101: INTRODUCTION, ver. 2.5 1. WHAT IS THE GOVERNMENT'S ALIEN STUDIES PROJECT CALLED? Recently, or at least since the episode PAPER CLIP when The Well Manicured Man referred to the conspiracy as "a consortium representing certain global interests," fans have referred to the government or quasi-government group which runs the alien studies project as "The Consortium." However, my guess is that the government's alien studies project is called: THE MAJESTIC PROJECT. Why? Well, the name "Majestic Project" can be seen on some documents in the episode E.B.E.. In that episode Deep Throat gives Mulder a top secret transcript of an intercepted transmission between an Iraqi fighter pilot (who shoots down a UFO) and his ground control officer. The transcript is labeled: To: Commanding Officer, Majestic Project Considering that the transcript came from Deep Throat and was concerned with an alien encounter, I'd say it's a safe bet that the Majestic Project is the government's alien studies project. Later, in ANASAZI, we hear about the "MJ Documents" and something called "MJ-12." The Thinker, a cyber-anarchist who hacks into the Department of Defense's computer and steals the MJ Documents, described them as "the original Department of Defense UFO Intelligence files. Containing "Everything. Roswell, MJ-12 and beyond. According to UFO-Conspiracy literature (like Stanton Friedman's "Crash at Corona" and Howard Blum's "Out There") MJ-12 is shorthand for "Majestic 12." Majestic 12 was the name of the alleged "special studies project" set up by President Truman to study the wreckage and dead aliens recovered from the 1947 UFO crash near Roswell New Mexico. It was called Majestic-12 because its board of directors originally had twelve members. So "The Consortium," MJ-12 and the Majestic Project may be one and the same thing. Throughout these essays I refer to the X-Files central conspiracy as THE MAJESTIC CONSORTIUM. 2. THE MAJESTIC CONSORTIUM Since THE BLESSING WAY, we have learned that even The Cigarette Smoking Man (or CSM) has someone to answer to. This is the council of "Elders" who meet at the old "gentlemen's club" on 46th Street in New York City. There might even be twelve of them if Chris Carter holds faithful to the Majestic-12 myth (although after repeated viewings of those scenes I can only isolate nine "Elders" and their "Factotum" or Major Domo . In the script, the members of this council are simply titled First (Heavy set with a gravelly voice), Second (Bald and smoking a cigar) and Third Elders (Thin and cadaverous). There is an Asian Elder, two bearded Elders and another balding Elder. The Cigarette Smoking Man and The Well Manicured Man also appear to be members of the Majestic council. That's nine by my count. Perhaps Deep Throat and Bill Mulder (Fox Mulder's father) were also members. There have been hints that the Majestic Consortium has international connections. In THE BLESSING WAY, the Well Manicured Man referred to Majestic as "a kind of consortium . . . we represent certain global interests." There is an Asian Elder in the club on 46th Street and at the beginning of ANASAZI Italian, Japanese and German officials were fretting over the theft of the MJ documents. Deep Throat, in E.B.E., referred to a secret international treaty between both East and West that required any nation capturing an alien to exterminate it. In THE MUSINGS OF A CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN, Deep Throat called this treaty "U.N. Resolution 1013." So the Majestic Consortium may have at least some input and contact with foreign militaries, intelligence services or the United Nations. However, we have also seen foreign intelligence services (the Japanese in NISEI and 731, the French in PIPER MARU, and the Soviet KGB in TUNGUSKA and TERMA) spying on Majestic, trying to steal the secrets of alien technology and DNA. In THE MUSINGS OF A CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN Deep Throat grumbles that the KGB, Chinese, Germans and the British would all be sending teams of agents to spy on the U.S. UFO salvage operation. This suggests that Majestic, while possessing international contacts and an obligation to act under U.N. Resolution 1013, vouches safe for the United States the information and technology Majestic develops through its studies. Alternatively, the U.S. military and intelligence communities may think that Majestic is short changing its foreign allies in their favor, but who knows? The Majestic Consortium may be short-changing the U.S. government and be pursuing goals unrelated to its original mission. This could explain the seeming conflict between the Majestic Consortium's apparent hostility to and cooperation with various extra-terrestrials. According to UFO-Conspiracy theories, Majestic 12 is organized into various subprojects. We may have encountered as many as four of these subprojects on The X-Files. UFO-TECHNOLOGY REVERSE-ENGINEERING: This project, based at Ellens AFB in Idaho, (from the episode DEEP THROAT) is run almost exclusively by the United States Air Force. The main thrust of this project seems to be adapting UFO propulsion and energy systems to terrestrial aircraft. UFO-Conspiracy literature refers to this Subproject as SUBPROJECT REDLIGHT and alleges it to be based at the Nellis Air Force Test Range (Nellis . . .Ellens?) at a restricted section known as Area 51, or S-4. In APOCRYPHA the Cigarette Smoking Man referred to a base in Nevada (probably the infamous Area-51) where recovered UFOs are stored. In MAX, it was hinted at that some of these reverse engineering projects may be handled by defense contractors. It was hypothesized that Sharon Graffia, Max Fenig's partner in UFO-ology, stole the alleged alien power source from a aerospace defense contractor she had been working for. The end-product of the REDLIGHT project may have been encountered in the episode JOSE CHUNG'S FROM OUTER SPACE. USAF Lt. Jack Schaeffer tells an interesting tale to Mulder concerning how the UFO-style aircraft are part of a psychological-warfare intelligence gathering operation. "The enemy sees an American recon plane, they start shooting. They see a flying saucer from another galaxy? They hesitate." THE UFO RECOVERY TEAM: Another USAF operation. In FALLEN ANGEL, this subproject was called "Operation Falcon." Col. Calvin Henderson, the commander of Operation Falcon was often on the phone reporting to someone he called "Sir." That indicates he was dealing with a superior and that Col. Henderson is not a member of the Majestic Project board of Elders. In LITTLE GREEN MEN, the UFO recovery team is referred to as the "Blue Beret recovery team" and wore USAF insignia. In NISEI, the UFO recovery team used the salvage ship Talapus to raise a UFO from the ocean floor. And in TEMPUS FUGIT and MAX the UFO recovery team salvaged the wreckage of a shot-down UFO and the corpses of its occupants from the depths of Lake Sacandaga in upstate New York. The UFO recovery team procures the wrecked alien craft and examples of non-terrestrial biology (read: corpses) for reverse engineering at Ellens AFB, Area 51 and Purity Control. The UFO recovery team is probably responsible for exterminating any aliens that fall into their hands. According to UFO-Conspiracy literature, the UFO Recovery Team is sometimes called THE BLUE TEAM. According to Pentagon documents from the 1960s, there was a USAF project designed to recover Soviet space hardware (spy satellites or space vehicles) which had lost orbit and fallen to earth. This project, which at least existed as a project proposal, was called Project Moon Dust, and the unit that was proposed to transport Moon Dust recovery teams around the world on a moment's notice was called Operation Blue Fly. PURITY CONTROL: The most evil aspect of the Majestic conspiracy, Purity Control has appeared in THE ERLENMEYER FLASK, ASCENSION, ONE BREATH, RED MUSEUM, ANASAZI, THE BLESSING WAY, PAPER CLIP, NISEI, 731 and MEMENTO MORI. The phrase "Purity Control" first appeared as the project password for the alien-human hybrid project in THE ERLENMEYER FLASK. This project is trying to splice human and alien genes together in order to "improve" humanity. These experiments date back to the"merchandise" that was buried in the New Mexico desert in the late 1940s. They continue to this day and have necessitated the compilation of a massive data-base of genetic information culled from nearly every U.S. citizen born since 1950 which is stored in an abandoned mine in West Virginia. Purity Control's experiments are performed both covertly and clandestinely. Covert experiments are performed in the open by "Independent contractors" like Dr. Berube (from THE ERLENMEYER FLASK) and Dr. Larson (from RED MUSEUM) who operate under the cover of legitimate work. Clandestine experiments are performed out of the public eye at secret facilities like the Hansen's Disease Research Facility and the Genetic Data Repository in West Virginia, or the secret system of railcar laboratories. Purity Control doesn't seem particularly concerned about ethics of experimenting on unsuspecting human test subjects. Or of disposing of their test subjects afterwards. Purity Control is also the most controversial project among the members of the Majestic Project. Bill Mulder threatened to expose Majestic when he found out about the hybridization experiments. Deep Throat, as is explained later, seemed to have a particular interest in aiming Mulder at Purity Control with the intent of exposing and shutting the project down. Perhaps others have been inspired to betray the secrets of the Majestic Project because of opposition to Purity Control. Purity Control also has caused some friction between Majestic (which seems to be American dominated) and some of Majestic's foreign allies. In NISEI and 731, we saw how Dr. Ishimaru/Zama, a WWII vintage war criminal who had worked for the Majestic Consortium since the beginning, tries to smuggle the hybridization technology he developed for Majestic back to his homeland. If Majestic was truly sharing the technology and information it was developing from its studies of alien technology and biology evenly with its erstwhile allies, then there would have been no need for Dr. Ishimaru/Zama to betray Majestic and try and leak the Alien-human hybridization technology to Japan. BLACK CANCER INOCULATION PROJECT: This is the most recent aspect of the Majestic Consortium to be revealed. We first encountered it in the episodes TUNGUSKA and TERMA. It would appear that this project was headed by noted Virologist (now deceased) Dr. Bonita Charne-Sayer. Samples of an extra-terrestrial bio-hazardous material excavated from the area around a meteor (or perhaps spacecraft) impact in Siberia were stolen by the Majestic Consortium from a Soviet project. The Soviets apparently turned the bio-hazardous material into a bio-weapon which was used by the Iraqis in the Gulf War. In concentrated form the Black Cancer produces a kind of paralysis. However, despite having this weapon (which seeks out its targets by slithering around like slugs) the Soviets didn't have an inoculation to protect their troops from the Black Cancer. So the Soviets continued to excavate the "Black Cancer" and experiment with the inhabitants of their secret gulag trying to perfect an inoculation for the Black Cancer. Considering that Mulder was exposed to the Black Cancer and has suffered no ill effects, it would appear that the Soviet project is near completion. The Majestic Consortium's Black Cancer Inoculation Project was one of its most closely guarded secrets. "Only six of us knew," said the Well Manicured Man. That number included Dr. Charne-Sayer, the Cigarette Smoking Man and three others. The project used the residents of a retirement home in Boca Raton Florida as test subjects and may have been well on the way to creating an inoculation for the Black Cancer, certainly the residents infested with the Black Cancer were not paralyzed. The BC Inoculation project may be defunct since it's project head, test subjects and access to the Soviets' supply of the Black Cancer have been eliminated. GARNET: This project provides security for all the other projects, be it the Reverse Engineering Projects, the Recovery Team, and Purity Control. That's why guys like the Crewcut Man, Alex Krycek and the Red Haired Man clean up the messes left behind by Purity Control and chase down stolen components from alien power sources. This is where the "Men in Black" come from: Those steely eyed covert ops thugs who steal or destroy evidence and silence or discredit witnesses. In all likelihood the Cigarette Smoking Man is the Sub-Project Director for GARNET. According to the Lone Gunmen, GARNET sends its men to the School of the Americas for training. The School of the Americas was originally set up in the Panama Canal Security Zone, but has since been moved to Ft. Benning GA. It's where thousands of Latin American officers received training in counter-insurgency warfare from the U.S. Army. GARNET probably recruits its membership out of the military, particularly the U.S. Special Forces (Green Berets, SEALs, Marine Recon, etc.). Certainly they execute their mission with military precision. According to UFO-Conspiracy literature GARNET is the name of Majestic-12's "information security" division. It has also been referred to as NRO (National Recon Organization) Section Delta by other writers. According to UFO-Conspiracy theory literature, other MJ-12 Subprojects include: SIGMA: An NSA based project whose goal is to establish communications with the aliens. Some UFO literature suggests that this project succeeded in the mid 1960s. PLATO: This project is designed to establish diplomatic relations with the aliens. Some UFO-Conspiracy literature suggests that this project led to a secret treaty between the aliens and the government wherein the U.S. Government allows and aids the aliens in their abduction of humans in exchange for access to alien technology. Some UFO-Conspiracies suggest that this deal has fallen apart. AQUARIUS: Sometimes this is the name given to the over-all alien studies project, other times Aquarius is the name of a project which examines the contact aliens have had with humanity in the past. Aquarius is supposed to determine how much cultural, religious and evolutionary influence the aliens have had on mankind as a whole. (Some writers call this project GARNET. UFO-Conspiracy literature is very contradictory and often changes radically from one writer to the next.) 3. PURITY CONTROL: Personnel and Goals We've seen a number of scientists involved with the Purity Control experiments. The first generation of scientists included Dr. Ishimaru/Zama and Dr. Victor Klemper. The latest generation of scientists is represented by men like Dr, Berube and Dr. Larson, although Dr. Larson was more of a mercenary, who carried out the tests, rather than an innovator who developed the hybridization technology. We never saw the results of Dr. Klemper's experiments, although the hybrids we saw gassed in the rail road car in THE BLESSING WAY may have been the products of Klemper's experiments. They had huge, misshapen heads, large black eyes, long fingers and leathery wrinkled skin. They may have retained the toxic biology of the aliens since they were killed by a hydrogen-cyanide gas grenade rather than by bullets, which would have exposed the trigger men to toxic alien blood. Dr. Ishimaru/Zama's hybrids were slightly more human appearing. They still had the large heads, but they were more rounded and less elongated. They still had elongated fingers, but their eyes appeared more human and their skin was not leathery. Their biology appears to be less toxic than the other hybrids since the soldiers that executed them wore no gasmasks and suffered no ill effects from their blood. Dr. Berube's hybrids, while they may have later developed alien physiological traits, appeared completely human on the surface. Their blood, nonetheless remained highly toxic. How are these hybrids being created? Dr. Berube's hybrids were created using gene therapy, that is by injecting alien DNA suspended in bacteria directly into the test subject's cells. This way the subjects began as humans and ended up as alien-human hybrids. Dr. Ishimaru/Zama's hybrids may have been created differently. There was some suggestion that they could have been humans drafted from the ranks of the homeless, the institutionalized and the insane, but they could have been human-alien hybrids from the moment of their birth. We know that Dr. Ishimaru/Zama's experiments in NISEI and 731 are the same experiments Scully was abducted for in ASCENSION and returned from in ONE BREATH. Scully had a distended belly (at least she remembered having one) and her system was full of "branched DNA." Langly, of the Lone Gunmen, suggested that Branched DNA could have been used to graft something human onto something inhuman. Was Scully (and the other female UFO abductees) used to gestate an alien-human hybrid? Was the hybrid later removed and incubated artificially? The "Kurt" clone in MEMENTO MORI suggested that Scully's ova were harvested and he and his fellow hybrids were gestated in artificial womb-tanks. The big question remains: "Why create a alien-human hybrid?" No absolute answer to this question has been forthcoming from Chris Carter and Co, but there are a couple of theories that have been suggested by past episodes. The Hybrids created by Dr. Berube's experiments in THE ERLENMEYER FLASK were immune to cancer, and perhaps a whole range of other human ailments. So perhaps the goal of the hybridization experiments using gene therapy was to create some kind of universal panacea. Of course, there were other side benefits such as the ability to extract oxygen from water, superhuman strength, and the ability to survive massive physical trauma and shock. All big pluses if the goal of the experiments is to improve the quality of your soldiers. The experiments Dr. Larson was performing in RED MUSEUM involved treating humans and cattle with growth hormones derived from extra-terrestrials. The results were kids that quickly matured, grew extra-large and were extra-aggressive. Perfect combination if you're looking to improve your military recruits. Dr. Klemper's experiments during WWII (from the episode PAPER CLIP) involved exposing test subjects to extreme low pressures. His experiments were designed to help pilots survive at higher altitudes (and eventually in space). Perhaps, because the alien visitors are space travellers, Klemper's hybridization experiments with aliens were meant to adapt humans to the environment of space. The Leper (from the episode 731) said that Dr. Ishimaru/Zama's experiments on hybrids involved exposing them to things that resulted in "terrible burns." Perhaps Dr. Ishimaru/Zama was testing the hybrids' resistance to various terrestrial and perhaps extra-terrestrial weaponry. The Red Haired Man (from the episodes NISEI and 731) hinted (mostly by playing on Mulder's paranoia) that the alien-human hybrids were a weapon "more valuable than `Star Wars' or nuclear weapons." The hybrids were the prototypes for a standing army immune to radiation, chemical and biological warfare agents. Most of the clues presented so far point towards Purity Control's hybridization experiments being part of a "super-soldier" program. But an army of super-soldiers to be used against whom? The Leper in 731 said that the hybrid test subjects were exposed to things that gave them terrible burns. Terrible burns? Like those that resulted from the aliens' radiation weapons as seen in FALLEN ANGEL and APOCRYPHA. Is this army of radiation-resistant soldiers to be used against the aliens? There may be another, more obscure answer and it's connected to the relationship between The Majestic Consortium, the aliens and the aliens designs on the earth. If there is a faction of aliens intent on colonizing the earth (and events from COLONY, END GAME, TALITHA CUMI, HERRENVOLK, and MEMENTO MORI seem to point to such a "project'), then there may be a section of the Majestic Consortium that believe that the aliens will be successful, no matter what humanity tries to do. Perhaps the reason hybrids are being created is that the Majestic Consortium expects mankind to be supplanted by the alien invaders and figures the only way mankind will have a place in the invaders world is if humanity can adapt, evolve . . . hybridize. What did The Well Manicured Man say? "We predict the future, and the best way to predict the future is to invent it." Is the future, the future of mankind? And does the Majestic Consortium plan to "re-invent" humanity is order to preserve some fraction of it in the "brave new world" of the alien invaders? 4. THE MEN IN BLACK (or, The Boys From Garnet) The term "Men in Black" was first coined by UFO-logist Albert K. Bender who claimed he shut down his UFO investigation organization (the International Flying Saucer Bureau) in 1953 after he was threatened by three mysterious visitors who dressed in black suits and wore black fedora hats and sunglasses. Since that time the term "Men in Black" (or MiB for short) has been used as a catch-phrase to describe any "agent" of any conspiracy you care to name. On The X-Files the term MiB has been used to describe those covert-ops goons who cover up for the Majestic Project and do the Cigarette Smoking Man's dirty work. The most MiB-like of these goons (who the Lone Gunmen claim work for an international black-ops unit called GARNET) were the "National Security" heavies who roughed up Mulder and Scully near Ellens Air Force Base in the episode DEEP THROAT. They had the black suits, sunglasses and nasty dispositions. Some, like them team that searched the Thinker's apartment in ANASAZI, the men who chased Mulder off the salvage ship Talapus and Mulder and Scully out of the missile silo in APOCRYPHA had a very SWAT-like appearance. Others, like the "Intelligence Community" thugs who threatened Skinner in PIPER MARU and the agents who ran Mulder and the alien-possessed Krycek off the road in APOCRYPHA, have sported that "spook" assassin look. Most have been little more than dark shapes with guns, A few others we've gotten to know fairly well. PAUL MOSSINGER: Probably not his real name, although it is the name on his Air Base Security badge. Mossinger was the local reporter in DEEP THROAT who later turns out to be a security officer from Ellens Air Force Base. He certainly takes the cake for the most menacing transformation: From kindly, harmless reporter to steely nerved spy. He hardly flinched when Scully shoved a gun in his face. He also wins the award for best self-righteous indignation: "Everything you've seen here is equal to the protection we give it. It's you who've acted inappropriately." He delivers the line with such conviction you could almost believe he might be right. THE CREWCUT MAN: Much reviled as the man who killed Deep Throat. The Crewcut Man appeared in THE ERLENMEYER FLASK as the head of the "Clean-up" operation assigned to collect or destroy evidence and eliminate the witnesses of Human-Alien DNA experiments being performed by a group whose project password is "Purity Control." Because the cryo-frozen alien fetus was passed from Deep Throat to the Crewcut Man to the Cigarette Smoking Man, I believe that the Crewcut Man works for CSM. That would make the Crewcut Man one of GARNET's "School of the America's alumni . . . trained killer" foot-soldiers. The Crewcut Man was the most de-humanized appearing of the GARNET agents we've encountered. He demeanor was cold, detached and, in some ways, awkward. It was as if he could not relate to people as anything other than potential targets. He didn't appear particularly intelligent, but was extremely lethal and possessed a certain animal cunning. While a sociopathic personality is a career requirement for a professional assassin, the Crewcut Man seemed to also be a sadistic bully. In THE ERLENMEYER FLASK the Crewcut Man terrifies Dr. Berube before killing him and taunts Mulder as he lies helpless from the effects of exposure to toxic alien-hybrid blood. And in RED MUSEUM there's that evil, amused smirk on his face as he's about to ignite the gasoline soaked meat-packing plant and incinerate Agent Mulder. The Crewcut Man, a lethal professional, is ignominiously killed by a the grieving father of one of his victims; an amateur. He died too quickly to be embarrassed, and his death delivered no satisfaction for avenging the death of Deep Throat. LUIS CARDINAL (A.K.A. THE HISPANIC MAN): We first saw Louis Cardinal in THE BLESSING WAY where he, as Alex Krycek's partner, assisted in the botched assassination attempt against Dana Scully which resulted in the death of Melissa Scully. It's hard to tell which man, Cardinal or Krycek, pulled the trigger on Melissa. On slow-motion advance, the shooter (momentarily illuminated by the guns muzzle-flash) appears to by Krycek, but Cardinal drops the gun at the scene. Cardinal, Krycek, and an unnamed partner return in PAPER CLIP to ambush Skinner and steal the MJ Document data tape. Cardinal and the unnamed covert-ops thug later try to kill Krycek and destroy the data tape with a car-bomb, but fail. Cardinal returns again in PIPER MARU to gut-shoot Skinner after Skinner refuses to back-off the investigation of who killed Melissa Scully. If Cardinal had wanted Skinner dead, it would have been simple to finish him off following the first shot. Since Cardinal didn't finish Skinner off, I believe his orders were to wound Skinner, thus delivering a severe warning to Skinner that anyone can be gotten to; everyone is vulnerable. The Cigarette Smoking Man denies his involvement in the shooting to his fellow members of the board of the Majestic Project, but I see no evidence to suggest his denials are anything but lies. After all, Cardinal was at CSM's side during CSM's confrontation with the alien-possessed Alex Krycek, so we know CSM gives Cardinal his marching orders. CSM wanted to send Skinner a message, and he used Cardinal to deliver it. In APOCRYPHA we learn that Cardinal is Nicaraguan, a graduate of the U.S. Army's School of the Americas (a school for counter-insurgency training) and an international mercenary. That probably means he was a member of Nicaraguan dictator Anastacio Somoza's National Guard prior to that country's communist revolution, and a member of the CIA supported CONTRA force afterwards. Cardinal apparently tries to finish Skinner off by arranging to have Skinner transferred to another hospital and ambushing the ambulance en route. This ambush may have been arranged in order to prevent Skinner from making a positive I.D. The Well Manicured Man warns the Cigarette Smoking Man that there would be dire consequences if Skinner identified the man who shot him. However, it would seem to be simpler to eliminate Cardinal than kill Skinner, so I'm a bit confused why CSM would send Cardinal on another run at Skinner. Unless, of course CSM figured either Cardinal would get Skinner, or Scully, burning with rage over her sister's death, would kill Cardinal. Either way, it would have solved CSM's problem. If Cardinal just turned up dead, it would look like he was silenced by a larger conspiracy. Having Cardinal killed trying to eliminate the witness to his "random shooting" lends credibility to the idea that he was a "lone nut" and not the errand-boy of a larger group. If Skinner was killed, that still solves the problem. However, Scully showed great restraint and strength of character and refrained from killing Cardinal. This forced CSM to arrange for Cardinal's jail-house "suicide," proving once-again that anyone can be gotten to; everyone is vulnerable. Cardinal begs pathetically for mercy, giving up the alien-possessed Krycek's ultimate destination in exchange for Scully sparing his life (something I imagine she planned to do anyway). A classic bully, Cardinal cowers instantly when confronted with someone with power over him. THE RED HAIRED MAN: Often referred to on the Internet as "the NSA assassin," The Red Haired Man is our most recent cold-blooded killer from GARNET, and he is arguably the most dangerous, In NISEI he rather neatly disposed of two Japanese "diplomats" (read: spies) and in 731 he beat the holy crap out of Mulder. While the Crewcut Man racked up the highest body count, his victims were scientists, over the hill spooks and high school kids. He never went mano-a-mano with another trained killer. The Red Haired Man's opponents were a lot more dangerous. Stepping out of the railcar and into a bullet can be excused as nearly failing to plan for the unthinkable. After all, the only people on Earth that could have found that railcar so quickly were the same group that had dispatched the Red Haired Man on his mission: The Majestic Project. The Red Haired Man had no reason to suspect that the man sent to back him up, Mr. X, would turn out to have his own agenda. Unlike the Crewcut Man, the Red Haired Man was eloquent and smooth, more than up to the task of verbally sparing with Mulder. While he did partially give in to Mulder's threat to shoot his testicles off (I think I would have talked at that point too) the Red Haired Man never whimpered sweated or lost his cool, and his answers were cryptic enough to be little help. The Red Haired Man performed his murders with a grim determination that showed no signs of joy or smug satisfaction. This is not to say he wasn't an amoral sociopath (practically a requirement for a professional assassin), but the Red Haired Man didn't seem to be the kind of sadistic bully the Crewcut Man was. The Red Haired Man was, however, vain, as demonstrated by his straightening his tie and primping his hair following his "wet work." But like the Crewcut Man, the Red Haired Man too was ultimately undone by the actions of an amateur: the Train Conductor. If not for the actions of the Train Conductor, the Red Haired Man would have garrotted Mulder, slipped away with the hybrid and set off the bomb covering his tracks and destroying the evidence. THE GREY HAIRED MAN: One of the most recent and destructive recurring MIBs to date is The Grey Haired Man. He first appeared in the episode F. EMASCULATA, as one of the two CDC doctors decontaminating Cumberland prison. In that episode he was called Dr. Simon Auerbach, and his CDC credentials turned out to be bogus. Dozens of prisoners died and were stuffed into the prisons incinerator while "Dr. Auerbach" supervised. Of course, this may not be the same character, just the same actor playing two different roles. Nicholas Lea had this same problem when he showed up first season to play the near-victim of a sex-crazed alien in GENDERBENDER, before moving on the role we've grown to hate him in: Alex Krycek. Later The Grey Haired Man returned in PIPER MARU as one of the two men "from the intelligence community," who delivered a none-too-subtle threat to Asst. Director Walter Skinner to back off the investigation of Melissa Scully's murder. Then, in AVATAR, The Grey Haired Man is CSM's chief field operative in the plan to frame Asst. Director Skinner for murder. During that operation a prostitute and her madame were killed as part of the frame up and cover up. However, The Grey Haired Man's most reviled act, as far as most fans are concerned, has to be his assassination of Mr. X on the orders of CSM and the First Elder in the episode HERRENVOLK. The Grey Haired Man's latest appearance was in the episode MEMENTO MORI. There we find him executing one of the renegade alien clones (who went by the name Kurt Crawford) with one of the Alien Ice-picks as seen in COLONY, END GAME, TALITHA CUMI and HERRENVOLK. He also very nearly blows Mulder away as Mulder is trying to escape from the alien controlled fertility clinic. So far we haven't seen too much of The Grey Haired Man's personality. He has performed as a stone-faced, unflinching servant of the Cigarette Smoking Man and the Consortium he serves. For the moment he appears to be CSM's right hand man, perhaps having inherited the title from Mr. X. He carries out his assignments efficiently and coolly, showing neither pleasure nor displeasure at any of the bloody, ruthless acts he commits. One interesting note: unlike The Crew-cut Man, The Red Haired Man and some of the other villains, the Grey Hair Man is quite short. Check yer tapes folks. I suspect a rematch with Mulder sometime soon. NTSB INVESTIGATOR SCOTT GARRETT: Obviously not his real name. This MIB appeared in the episodes TEMPUS FUGIT and MAX as the mustached NTSB Investigator who turns out to be part of the cover-up the crash of Flight 549 and the UFO crash retrieval operation. Garrett may be one of the most reviled MIBs in X-Files history since he accidentally shoots and kills Agent Pendrell (a supporting character of long standing who has acted as a kind of avatar for those of us with crushes on Gillian Anderson) during a shootout with Scully. Garrett is a true believer, or at least he portrayed himself as one. When Mulder tells Garrett that Garrett will die too if there's any gunplay on the airplane they're both on, Garrett replies "A man, if he's any man at all, knows he must be ready to sacrifice himself to that which is greater than he. . . .Look out your window Agent Mulder. D'you see the lights? Now imagine if one of those lights flickered off. You'd hardly notice, would you? A dozen? Two dozen lights extinguished? Is it worth sacrificing the future, the lives of millions, to keep a few lights on?" With the future on the line, Garrett could morally justify any action, so long "the future, the lives of millions" was protected. So he accidentally shot the wrong target? So the USAF accidentally took out the airliner along with the alien invaders? Hey, collateral damage is to be expected. But Garrett didn't show any remorse or empathy for his fellow agent when he recovered the plastic gun and erased the fingerprints and face of the assassin who died on Flight 549. He hardly blinked when one of the UFO recovery team's divers was (perhaps fatally) irradiated by the UFO's damaged power source. He killed Airman Armando Gonzales without compunction, and would have done the same to Airman Louis Frisch except for Scully's intervention. But he put himself on the line every time something really dangerous was called for: Making a hit on a protected target in a crowded bar; or boarding a plane with the intention of stealing an item from an armed target and making a HALO jump ala "D.B. Cooper" in order to make his escape. While he didn't hesitate to sacrifice others, he also didn't shirk from situations where he too could be sacrificed. The E.B.E.s take Garrett and the missing power source component in a mid-flight abduction. His fate remains unknown. However, my guess is that Garrett is due for some extensive anal probing by the E.B.E.s. And who says there's no justice? VASSILY PESKOW: Vassily Peskow appears in the episode TERMA. While not a servant of Majestic Consortium, he does represent the Soviet's own "Consortium," and he does deserve mention. Particularly because of the way this fossilized cold-war relic ran circles around both the Majestic Consortium AND Mulder and Scully. Peskow is a retired KGB agent and trained assassin. But nobody ever really retires from the KGB. The messenger who brings Peskow back for "one last mission" invokes the imagery that "the cold war is not over." The messenger does not threaten Peskow, but appeals to his patriotism. And it works. Peskow goes on the mission, alone and with almost no support. One of the things I loved about Peskow was the image of this ultra-deadly (if a bit arthritic) KGB killer taking the bus to his first target, Dr. Bonita Sayer. It was the perfect metaphor for the KGB, broke, wearing thread-bare cloths, old and weary, but still ruthless, competent and deadly. Peskow single-handedly (with perhaps some scouting and preparation for the mission performed by Krycek) murders the Majestic Consortium's expert on the Black Cancer (Dr. Sayers). He steals the Black Cancer infested meteorite from the secure NASA-Goddard Lab, kills all of the Majestic Consortium's test subjects at the Boca Raton nursing home and destroys the meteorite (and perhaps the Majestic Consortium's other Black Cancer samples). Peskow succeeds in setting the Majestic Consortium's Black Cancer immunization project back years. Peskow has worked with Krycek before, and knew him by both the name Krycek and Arntzen, the name Krycek used to infiltrate the right wing militia group. What is curious is that Krycek seemed to outrank Peskow despite Peskow's "seniority" to Krycek. Peskow may return in later episodes if The Cigarette Smoking Man decides to trade Peskow's head to the Well Manicured Man in exchange for room to maneuver inside the Consortium. The WMM desperately want to see Peskow dead for the murder of WMM's mistress, the very same Dr. Sayer who headed the Majestic Consortium's Black Cancer immunization project. THE "REAL" MEN IN BLACK: The episode JOSE CHUNG'S FROM OUTER SPACE provided the first look at traditional Men In Black as they are portrayed by the majority of UFO-conspiracy literature. Jesse "the Body" Ventura and Alex Trebek make appearances as unearthly Men In Black, exhibiting knowledge about the people they are intimidating that no-one could possibly know, and engaging in overly complex and nonsensical, albeit threatening, conversation. The only complaint I have is that traditional MIBs (at least those that appear to be aliens in human guise) wear shockingly white shirts (to show off their black ties) and are pale, bald, have no facial hair, (I'm not kidding here) appear to wear lipstick and always wear sunglasses. The best visual representation of a traditional MIB on The X-Files was Leonard Vance, the horribly burned assistant to Rev. Hartley in the episode MIRACLE MAN. 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 CIGARETTE 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 wielding 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've seen, 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 Krycek 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 intriguingly 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 merely 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 PAPER CLIP 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 Krycek and the alien that wanted its ship back. He didn't even flinch when confronting the alien he'd been tracking since the Zeus Faber incident. CSM's deal with the alien entity that was possessing Krycek was to trade the data tape and Krycek 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 anticipating gaining access to its ship only to find itself sealed in a disused missile 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 existence 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 parallel that should not be overlooked. In TALITHA CUMI the connection between CSM and the Mulder family was deepened. Not only were Bill Mulder and CSM colleagues, but Mrs. Mulder and CSM seem to have been more than just friends. Their exchange at the Mulder's summer home was laden 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 controlling 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 speculation that CSM is Fox Mulder's father isn't supported by any evidence. But the memories resurrected in DEMONS, and Mrs. Mulder's assertion in PAPER CLIP 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 Jeremiah Smith in TALITHA CUMI and MUSINGS OF A CIGARETTE 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 Jeremiah 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) assistants. First there was Alex Krycek, a KGB infiltrator whose betrayal 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 Covarrubias, the Assistant 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 GETHSEMANE, 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 committed 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 assigning 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. 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 Krycek and the hit team could take her out? My initial instinct is that WMM was not trying to help Scully. In PAPER CLIP 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 beginning of PAPER CLIP 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 would 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 scorching 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 unlikely 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 Krycek 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 acquired 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 Cigarette Smoking Man's services. He begins by "killing the messenger": Hurling insults at CSM because some breach of The Project's security has occurred, namely that a diplomatic pouch containing a hunk of Martian rock containing the bio-hazardous material colloquially 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) WMM 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 WMM 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. 7. DEEP THROAT My impression of Deep Throat is that he was a highly placed member of Majestic, perhaps even on the project's steering committee or board of directors. I get that impression because he had access to a wide variety of information on Department of Defense projects both inside and outside MAJESTIC. Furthermore, he was able to alter Purity Control's records to allow Dana Scully access to their cryo-containment facility at the Ft. Marlene High Containment Facility. That kind of access indicates he was very highly placed. Perhaps even at the very top of MJ-12. His Majestic related info has included tips on the UFO-technology aircraft in DEEP THROAT, the UFO recovery operations in FALLEN ANGEL and E.B.E., and the Alien-DNA experiments of "Purity Control" in THE ERLENMEYER FLASK. His non-Majestic info has included the DoD's quest for Artificial Intelligence in GHOST IN THE MACHINE, the Litchfield cloning-eugenics experiments in EVE, and the attempt by the U.S. Government to barter for Dr. Ridley's "fountain of youth in YOUNG AT HEART. I believe these project's are non-Majestic because they don't involve alien technology of DNA. What is more telling about Deep Throat is the "Where" and "When" of Deep Throat's tips. Deep Throat approached Mulder on several occasions with unsolicited information. That indicates that it was important to Deep Throat that Mulder receive and act on that information. Deep Throat tipped Mulder and guided him toward the Litchfield eugenics experiments and the Alien-Human hybridization project of "Purity Control." Deep Throat tried to guide Mulder away from the UFO-Technology aircraft project in DEEP THROAT and the UFO recovery operation in E.B.E. He tipped Mulder to the UFO recovery operation in FALLEN ANGEL, but could have been setting Mulder up to fail. However, the general pattern is that Deep Throat steered Mulder towards the "Biological Science" (like Litchfield and Purity Control) projects and away from the "UFO Technology" projects. This patter indicates to me that Deep Throat was very interested in shutting down or exposing the projects involving human experimentation, but wanted to protect the projects that involved recovering and reverse-engineering UFO technology. Deep Throat may even have approved of the Government's shoot-to-kill policy on aliens. Certainly he didn't try and help save the life of the alien that was being transported across country in E.B.E., in fact he did everything in his power to keep Mulder from saving the alien. There is one extra clue about Deep Throat's relation to Purity Control. In THE BLESSING WAY and PAPER CLIP, Deep Throat appears in a photograph taken outside the secret medical-records repository in West Virginia with Bill Mulder (Mulder's father), the Cigarette Smoking Man, Nazi war criminal Victor Klemper, and The Well Manicured Man (another member of the council of Elders which runs the Majestic Project). This indicates that all four were close colleagues and that all four were intimately involved with the collection of the medical and DNA data. What can we conclude from this? Maybe only that Deep Throat wanted Purity Control shut down enough to put his life on the line. Perhaps he was morally offended by the use of human test subjects, but didn't feel he had enough influence on the Majestic Project board of directors to shut the project down. Perhaps speaking out openly against the project would have called his loyalty to Majestic into question and endangered his life. So he goes to Mulder, figuring that if Mulder's on the trail of Purity Control either Mulder will expose the project or the Cigarette Smoking Man's goons from GARNET (the Crew-Cut Man, for example) would swing into action and shut the project down before its exposed. There's just no way to tell if Deep Throat's views represented the views of a faction within Majestic, or if he was acting alone. But with the appearance of Mr. X and his reference to Deep Throat as "my predecessor" I would suspect that Deep Throat had already contacted others within the Majestic Consortium who shared his views. The episode THE MUSINGS OF A CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN provides an additional peek into the inner workings of Deep Throat's mind. In that episode we seen The Cigarette Smoking Man and Deep Throat as colleagues of long standing, maybe even friends. Its the twilight of the Cold War and these two veteran shadow warriors are examining the materials recovered from a crashed UFO, including the occupant. Having lost a coin-toss with CSM, Deep Throat reluctantly carries out U.N. Resolution 1013 and executes the injured alien. In the episode E.B.E., Deep Throat relayed this incident to Mulder, but in typical Deep Throat fashion, he changed the details. In CSM's version of the event, the UFO went down in 1991. The cause of the crash wasn't specified, but while discussing the properties of the crashed UFO, Deep Throat mentions that the 1991 UFO is nearly identical to the one over Vietnam in 1969 that the Marines couldn't shoot down. When Deep Throat used the incident of his having to execute the E.B.E. as his justification for leaking Majestic related materials he sandwiched his truth between lies. In the version Deep Throat related to Mulder, Deep Throat carried out the execution of an E.B.E. per the U.N. resolution, but the year was 1969 and the Marine fighters did shoot down the UFO over Vietnam. Were Deep Throat's lies to Mulder deliberate? Or perhaps after a career of lies, deception and disinformation, lying was simply more natural to Deep Throat than simply telling the truth? We may never know. All we can be sure of is that once again Deep Throat concealed a lie between two truths. 8. BILL MULDER I'm less certain about the role Bill Mulder played in Majestic and Purity Control. What is certain is that Bill Mulder's career in the State Department was a cover for his membership in Majestic, and that he was a close associate (I'm not willing to say friend) of the Cigarette Smoking Man, the Well Manicured Man, Dr. Victor Klemper and Deep Throat. He also had something to do with the "merchandise" in ANASAZI. The "merchandise" experiments also seem to be the precursors to the Purity Control experiments. According to the Well Manicured Man, Bill Mulder was duped into helping collect the DNA data by being told the records were to be used for identifying the dead in the event of a Nuclear war. That's not in line with what we learned in ANASAZI. Whatever Bill Mulder had to do with the "merchandise" it appears that he felt extremely guilty about his involvement. If he was duped into participating in the project, why would he feel so guilty and responsible? Perhaps he was duped at first, and upon learning the truth was in a position to shut the "merchandise" operation down, but was convinced to continue for some "greater good." Perhaps he regretted that decision to the day he died. Furthermore in APOCRYPHA we saw a flashback to 1953 where we saw a young Bill Mulder and Cigarette Smoking Man interviewing a dying sailor from the submarine Zeus Faber which was infiltrated by a radioactive alien entity. Bill Mulder, during his interview referred to the "thing" possessing the submarine's captain as an "entity." I got the impression he knew the sailor was not mad and was telling the truth. I got the impression the young Bill Mulder knew the Zeus Faber had been invaded by an alien "entity." And in THE MUSINGS OF A CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN, CSM counsels against killing a wounded Extraterrestrial Biological Entity by saying "A live E.B.E. would advance Bill Mulder's project by years." This indicates that CSM was telling the truth when he told Mulder in ANASAZI that Bill Mulder approved the project and was fully cognizant of its implications. Undoubtedly Samantha, Mulder's sister was taken as leverage to ensure Bill Mulder kept his mouth shut. The fact that Bill Mulder chose Samantha as the hostage (and the now-obvious relationship between Mrs. Mulder and CSM) casts doubts on Samantha's parentage. Did Bill Mulder pick her to be sacrificed because Samantha was CSM's daughter, not his? Was Bill Mulder killed on the Cigarette Smoking Man's orders? Most likely, yes. Bill Mulder was about to spill the beans to his son Fox about the merchandise." That's reason enough to have Bill Mulder killed. After all, what possible reason do we have for believing CSM when he told Mulder "We had nothing to do with it." In TALITHA CUMI, Jeremiah Smith, the renegade alien, taunts CSM by changing his shape to resemble two men, Bill Mulder and Deep Throat, both of whom were close associates of CSM. CSM reacted with discomfort to see the faces of his dead comrades accusing him from beyond the grave. CSM's reaction convinces me that he gave the order for Bill Mulder's execution. In PIPER MARU Alex Krycek too denied being the triggerman, but what else would you expect Krycek to say with an extremely angry Fox Mulder shoving a gun in his guts. "Oh sure Fox, I popped your dad right in the head. You should have seen the Jackson Pollack his brains made on the bathroom tile." All current evidence points to Krycek having killed Bill Mulder on CSM's orders. 9. MR. X Mr. X worked for the Majestic Consortium, specifically as one of the Cigarette Smoking Man's henchmen, perhaps even his right hand. All speculation on this point was removed at the end of the episode WETWIRED when we saw Mr. X and CSM meeting in secret. But before that meeting, there was plenty of other evidence to suggest Mr. X's associations. There's no other way he could know about Scully's abduction in ASCENSION and ONE BREATH, the attempt to intercept the Alien Assassin's UFO in END GAME, or be on the scene to save Mulder's life in ONE BREATH and 731. In ONE BREATH, when asked about Scully's abduction, Mr. X tells Mulder "I can't tell you why she was taken. It's too close to me." This indicates to me that Mr. X won't give Mulder the information because if anyone from Majestic found out what information had been leaked to Mulder, the list of possible sources for the leak would be topped by Mr. X. It also indicates that Mr. X may have had a hand in Scully's abduction. How else would he know the men who abducted Scully? Other strong hints that Mr. X worked for Majestic include his presence in the parking garage in ONE BREATH. How else could he have been there and why did he try to discourage Mulder from chasing the thief who had stolen a sample of Scully's blood (the thief is listed in the script as Overcoat Man) unless Mr. X was the Overcoat Man's backup for the blood sample heist. But why would Mr. X kill the Overcoat Man if he was working with him? I would suggest that Mr. X and the Overcoat Man were assigned by the Cigarette Smoking Man to get a sample of Scully's blood to determine why the experiments that were performed on her were not fatal. The Overcoat Man grabbed the blood while Mr. X ran interference. Mr. X tried to buy the Overcoat Man enough time to get away by doing his "This high capacity compact Sig-Sauer .40 caliber weapon is pointed at your head to stress my insistence that your search for who put your partner under that respirator desist immediately!" routine. When that failed to discourage Mulder, Mr. X had a choice. Mr. X could let Mulder capture the Overcoat Man and get the blood back (not a good idea), he could let the Overcoat Man kill Mulder (a valuable tool that Mr. X was not through using yet) or he could choose option C: Kill the overcoat man and return Scully's blood to CSM for analysis. That way he stays in the good graces of both Mulder and CSM. When Mr. X returns with the blood sample, he simply reports that Mulder killed the Overcoat Man. Certainly that's what CSM thought had happened when he later confronted Skinner. Altogether, option "C" is the best deal for Mr. X. The events in NISEI and 731 also pointed to Mr. X as an agent of the Majestic Consortium. First, he knew about the train from which the Red Haired Man and the other agents of Majestic were trying to retrieve the human-alien hybrid. Second, Mr. X was right there to shoot the Red Haired Man and rescue Mulder when the railcar door is opened. In my opinion, Mr. X was sent by CSM to retrieve the Alien-human hybrid. Knowing Mulder was on the train, Mr. X knew he'd have to kill whoever was with Mulder to preserve his anonymity, maybe even kill Mulder if Mulder tried to stop him from removing the Hybrid. CSM didn't have the door-code, otherwise the Red Haired Man wouldn't have needed to get it from Dr. Zama/Ishimaru. So Mr. X just waited to see if anyone came out before the rail car blew up. When the door code was broken, Mr. X shot the Red Haired Man, checked Mulder, the bomb's timer and the lock on the Alien-human hybrid's cell. He knew he couldn't get the Alien-human hybrid out in 59 seconds, so he figured, as long as he was there, he might as well (once again) preserve Mulder, his "tool," for another day. Mr. X had no compunction about using Mulder. In ONE BREATH he tells Mulder "You're my tool, d'you understand? I come to you when I need you." Later Mr. X uses Mulder to apprehend Dr. Chester Banton, the quantum physicist with the "dark matter" shadow, and confines Dr. Barton to a lab where he will live out the rest of his life as a human lab-rat. Mr. X was probably not above disposing of Mulder if he thought it was in his best interests to do so. I have advanced the theory that (in the episode ANASAZI) when Scully is shot at through the window in Mulder's apartment, the shooter thought she was Mulder. I also think the shooter may have been Mr. X. Why? Mulder was messing around the MJ Documents and then tried to get in touch Mr. X, thus putting Mr. X in grave danger. Mr. X may have tried to kill Mulder so Mulder couldn't lead the goons from GARNET back to him. It just doesn't seem likely that CSM and company would try for such a clumsy assassination attempt on Mulder when they were already dumping behavior altering drugs in his water to destroy his credibility and career and setting him up for the murder of his father. The information Mr. X provided wasn't exactly been the crown jewels of secret intelligence. Frankly I think it was mostly chicken feed. In THE HOST, Mr. X may be the one who sends the newspaper to Scully (although it could also have been Skinner), but beyond that, his role in that episode was just to act as a cheerleader from the sidelines, reminding Mulder "You have a friend in the FBI." Regardless, there's no information that affects the Majestic Consortium. In SLEEPLESS, Mr. X sends a 911 tape to Mulder and later gives him a file on the Vietnam-era experiments in removing the part of the human brain which regulates sleep. A nasty government experiment, but one which didn't really affect the Majestic Consortium. In ASCENSION, Mr. X warns Mulder that Senator Matheson cannot help Mulder find out who abducted Scully because the Senator is compromised in some way. Here Mr. X actually steers Mulder away from answers about the Majestic Consortium. In ONE BREATH, Mr. X discourages Mulder from continuing his investigation to find out who abducted Scully, saves Mulder's life, then returns to "give" the men responsible to Mulder so that Mulder can murder them. This does nothing to advance Mulder's cause, and in fact, if Mulder had killed Scully's abductors, there would have been no way for him to get any answers out of them. In FRESH BONES, Mr. X appears to tell Mulder next to nothing about the intentions of Col. Warton towards the Haitian refugees, except to imply that the Military thinks Col. Warton is getting revenge for the men he lost in Haiti to Voodoo Magic. This later turns out to be false, but perhaps even Mr. X was unaware that Col. Warton was a Voodoo shaman. In END GAME, Mr. X finally coughs up some decent information: the location of the disabled nuclear sub that the alien assassin (known as "the Pilot" or "the Bounty Hunter") is heading towards. He also passes the same information on the Assistant Director Skinner after Skinner "reasons" with him. In SOFT LIGHT, Mr X flim-flams Mulder and uses the information he gets from Mulder to kidnap Dr. Chester Banton for use in experiments in how to harness the dark matter that permeates Dr. Banton's atomic structure. In NISEI, Mr. X warns Scully to keep Mulder off the train transporting the Alien-human hybrid. Once again trying to keep Mulder away from the affairs of the Majestic Consortium. In 731, Mr. X tells Scully that the chip from her neck is the key to unraveling the mystery of her abduction. Mr. X later pulls Mulder out of the rail car before it explodes. In WETWIRED, Mr. X indirectly assists Mulder in uncovering a mind control project which appears to be very similar to the mind control program in BLOOD. Mr. X was also assigned by CSM to "sanitize" the project and it's personnel in order to remove all evidence. Mr. X sends Mulder a "cutout" or go-between known as The Plain Clothes Man (PCM) who provides Mulder with his first leads. Later Mr. X, after successfully eliminating all the witnesses and evidence, reports to CSM that "informant" who contacted Mulder had been eliminated. Once again Mr. X's extreme ruthlessness is demonstrated. He sent the PCM to Mulder and then murdered the PCM to cover his own ass. In TALITHA CUMI, Mr. X starts the ball rolling by showing Mulder the pictures of CSM and Mrs. Mulder. He sets Mulder to looking for an item his father, Bill Mulder, may have been holding onto. That item turns out to be one of the alien "ice-pick" weapons last seen in COLONY and ENDGAME. Once again, Mr. X is not there to give Mulder any answers, he just wants the weapon. Why he wants it, and for whom, it never explained but he very nearly kills Mulder to get it. In HERRENVOLK, Mr. X meets his untimely demise. He comes to Scully with information (false information planted by the First Elder to smoke out the traitor) that Mrs. Mulder is in danger from the Majestic Consortium. Then he is lured back to Mulder's apartment with a false "X" in the window and gunned down by The Gray Haired Man. But, even in death Mr. X has one last piece of information to impart: "SRSG" scrawled in his own blood. This last scrap of information may be the most valuable information Mr. X ever imparted since it leads Mulder to a new informant. Marita Covarrubias, the Assistant to the Special Representative to the Secretary General of the United Nations. Taken together, Mr. X delivered less useful information to Mulder than Deep Throat. He never intervened to save Mulder and Scully from official sanctions, but has twice saved Mulder's life. This could indicate that Mr. X is lower in the Majestic chain of command than Deep Throat, but it could also mean that Mr. has an agenda different than Deep Throat's. Despite what Mr. X said about having "loyalty to my predecessor" (i.e. Deep Throat), I don't think Mr. X had loyalty to anyone but himself and his purpose, whatever that is. Part of that purpose seems to be using Mulder to undermine the Majestic Consortium and other secret government projects. But apparently Mr. X was not interested in undermining them enough to allow the truth to come out. Mr. X also seems to want to get his hands on information and resources that will increase his power and influence in Majestic (the kidnapping of Dr. Chester Banton, acquiring the alien "ice-pick" weapon that Bill Mulder had secreted away). So perhaps, what Mr. X really wanted was The Cigarette Smoking Man's job. Perhaps what we saw was not a civil war between two different groups in the government, but instead a "palace coup" within Majestic Consortium. It's a pet theory of mine that Mr. X was using Mulder to unseat CSM and purge him from Majestic. But that doesn't explain Mr. X sending Mulder to Marita Covarrubias. If he interest was solely personal advancement, why was it so important to Mr. X to connect Mulder with someone who would assist him in his quest? Was Mr. X part of a counter-conspiracy? A double agent working within the Majestic Consortium to bring them down? It seems possible, but then again, anything is possible. 10. SENATOR RICHARD MATHESON Sen. Matheson is one of Mulder's "connections in Congress" he mentioned to Scully back during the first X-Files episode. Perhaps the Senator is Mulder's only Congressional connection. Matheson seems to have been fighting the same struggle Mulder has, but for even longer. However, the Senator is an elected public official and is vulnerable. In ASCENSION, Mr. X indicated that Majestic had something on Matheson which, if revealed, would end the Senator's career. Unable to act directly, Matheson resorts to using Mulder to act on the information that he himself cannot. To his credit, Senator Matheson's information to Mulder has always been straight and accurate. He tipped Mulder to the alien signal being received by the Arecibo Radio Telescope in the episode LITTLE GREEN MEN. In NISEI, he gets Mulder the names of the four murdered colleagues of Dr. Ishimaru/Zama. He also provided Mulder with a fax of a satellite photograph of the rail car Dr. Ishimaru/Zama was using for his unauthorized experiments and to smuggle to Alien-human hybrid out of the country. To his discredit, Senator Matheson has a tendency to make himself "unavailable" when the situations get really sticky. What's confusing is that the Senator has access to Majestic Project information AND seems to have influence over the conduct of their operations. He knows that a signal was beamed to the Arecibo Radio Telescope and tells Mulder "I'll try to hold off the Blue Beret recovery team as long as possible." Almost every clue I've seen in one the X-Files indicates that MJ-12 operates with no Congressional oversight, and little or no accountability to the President. What is a U.S. Senator doing pulling strings inside Majestic? The only explanation (outside inconsistent writing) is that Senator Matheson has other "Mulders" scattered throughout the government who feed him information and do him favors. Perhaps the Senator has a contact within Majestic, someone who can get him information and run interference for him. 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 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 betrayal, 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 likely 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 PAPER CLIP, 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 PAPER CLIP. It always seem unnecessary 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 explain 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 de-encrypt. Mulder suggested that Krycek had assistance in de-encrypting 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 NISEI) 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 resemblance 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 violently purging the slimy alien from every orifice on his head, Krycek is left to slowly starve and die from dehydration, sealed in an abandoned missile 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 military 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 inadvertently freed when the "Oilien" 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 inoculation project. Krycek'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. Krycek 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 deceit with his left arm. Whether the one-armed fugitives 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. Petersburg with Peskow, both of them basking in the glow of their success. But success does have its price. No doubt we will see Krycek again soon. 12. FBI ASSISTANT DIRECTOR WALTER SKINNER SKINNER AND THE MAJESTIC CONSORTIUM: There does not seem to be any evidence to suggest that Skinner is an active or former member of the Majestic consortium. He is career FBI front, back and center. But he has picked up on more than his fair share of off-the-books information. While he may be aware of some aspects of the Majestic Consortium, I think he has picked up his information through "unofficial channels." Skinner knows there are rogue elements of the intelligence community working on immoral and illegal projects, and he does what he can to combat them when he can. SKINNER AND THE X-FILES: Skinner supports Mulder and Scully's work with the X-Files because he believes in the paranormal. He experienced it first hand in Vietnam when he had his out-of-body experience, witnessing Robert Model's mind control powers first hand in PUSHER, the mind-clouding abilities of Nathaniel Teager, the assassin in UNREQUITED, and in AVATAR where he is warned of CSM's plot against him by what appears to be an Angel (although Mulder believes it to be a kind of demon known as a Succubus). He also saw how dangerous the paranormal can be with the Tooms case and the Newark Flukeman. Skinner supports the X-Files because he knows that the FBI has to have a way to deal with paranormal cases or the FBI won't be able to protect the public. Skinner values procedure and following the rules, but the paranormal doesn't. As long as Skinner has the X-Files, he has a "procedure" for dealing with the "unorthodox." However, Skinner knows there are limits to what he can get away with, as well as what he can help Mulder and Scully get away with. He's more cautious than Mulder (he wouldn't have gotten to be an FBI assistant director if he wasn't circumspect) and is willing to give up fighting a battle today if he can keep fighting the war tomorrow. Some fans consider Skinner two-faced and vacillating. I prefer to think of him as a man who knows his limitations. It just doesn't pay to push Majestic too far. SKINNER AND MULDER AND SCULLY: Mulder and Scully mean more to Skinner than merely tools with which he can counter the threats of the paranormal. He has shown real concern for Mulder on several occasions (his refusal to accept Mulder's resignation in ONE BREATH and his questions to Scully about Mulder's state of mind in GROTESQUE), and Scully as well (his coming to Scully's aid with the MJ Document data tape in THE BLESSING WAY and his refusal to halt the investigation of Melissa Scully's murder that led to his wounding in PIPER MARU). I think it would be a mistake to underestimate the compassion and respect Skinner has for his two subordinates. In MEMENTO MORI, Skinner even goes so far as to compromise himself with the CSM in exchange for a promise to help Scully with her cancer. As much as Skinner despises CSM this was an enormous sacrifice. One he did not make lightly. I doubt CSM would have sold out to CSM to help himself, but he did so to save Scully's life and prevent Mulder from selling out to CSM himself. SKINNER AND THE CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN: Skinner began following CSM's direction because Skinner originally believed Mulder's investigations were frivolous wastes of manpower and resources. Skinner respects authority and the CSM represents a great deal of authority, anonymous though it may be. So if CSM told Skinner that Mulder's investigations were endangering "National Security" by exposing top secret projects, I think Skinner would have taken him at his word. Skinner seemed to yield to CSM's authority for a while, but by the end of TOOMS he knew the X-Files were not a waste of manpower. And by the end of LITTLE GREEN MEN Skinner Knew CSM was not his kind of people. Skinner strikes me as a man with a strong sense of right and wrong. A man who equates following the rules as the best way to ensure that "justice" will be done. Short cuts are hard for him to accept. Skinner is a man who values the law above everything. By the end of LITTLE GREEN MEN, Skinner recognized that the Cigarette Smoking Man was willing to fuck the law in the name of protecting "National Security," a nebulous term that the Cigarette Smoking Man feels free to define as it suits his needs. Skinner could never stomach that kind of "moral expediency." Hence, his relationship with CSM has continued to deteriorate. The CSM still had enough real or apparent authority to sit in on FBI meetings and get information on Mulder's on-going investigations. He even sent Mulder an assignment when it suited him (episode F. EMASCULATA). Skinner resents CSM's presence but appears to be under political (or other) pressure to continue to cooperate with this man he clearly loathes. In THE BLESSING WAY and PAPER CLIP the relationship between CSM and Skinner hit rock bottom as the two of them exchanged threats and insults. They let each other know exactly what they thought of each other. CSM even panicked in front of Skinner ("Where's the DAMN tape!" he screamed). After Skinner told CSM to "pucker up and kiss my ass!" I seriously doubt CSM will be sitting in on any more Bureau meetings. But at the same time, in NISEI, Skinner indicated that he too had been shaken by his confrontation with CSM was not willing to push his bluff about Albert Hosteen and the 20 other Navajos having memorized the MJ documents too far. In TUNGUSKA, CSM and Skinner have their first face to face encounter in 31 episodes. CSM was hanging around the edges of the episode AVATAR, but never confronted Skinner in his moment of weakness, preferring to gloat from behind a two-way mirror. CSM returned to hound Skinner for the missing diplomatic pouch containing the Martian meteorite fragment, which tells you how important the pouch was to CSM.. Skinner tells him to piss off. While Skinner actually knew nothing about the pouch, its my impression he wouldn't have told CSM anything anyway. The next time we see these two antagonists together is in the episode MEMENTO MORI. Skinner comes to CSM to "sell his soul." After repeatedly pissing in CSM's eye, Skinner finds himself in the unenviable position of asking CSM for his assistance in curing Scully's terminal cancer. CSM no doubt has the ability to help Scully, his own cancer and Mrs. Mulder's stroke having been cured by the intervention of Jeremiah Smith and the alien Bounty Hunter. The question is not "can" CSM save Scully, but rather "will he?" The episode ZERO SUM seems to have answered that question in the negative. Skinner finds himself morally and ethically compromised by CSM, not to mention set up for a murder charge. All together, the encounter between CSM and Skinner was a draw. Skinner slips the noose with Mulder's help, but is still made to look the fool. On the other hand, he gets his first introduction to Marita Covarrubias, who may or may not be a potential ally (despite he connection to CSM) and Skinner genuinely shocked the "black-lunged son of a bitch" when he nearly blew his head off. For half a second CSM thought Skinner had killed him. It helps to remind the bastard that he may push too far, one time too many. What is most important here however is that Skinner talked Mulder out of selling out to CSM and instead sold out himself. It seems that Skinner wants to preserve Mulder's "purity of purpose" and sees himself as already tainted from his years of walking the line. It seems as if Skinner values Mulder more than he values himself. SKINNER & MR. X: This relationship is subtle, but less complex than many people have made it out to be. I believe there is nothing to connect the two men as being previously acquainted. And here's why: In THE HOST, Mr. demonstrates that he knows Skinner is sympathetic to Mulder's work on the X-Files. How does Mr. X know Mulder has "a friend at the FBI?" One possible answer is that if Mr. X works for Majestic, as does CSM, then perhaps Mr. X is aware of Skinner's resentment of Majestic's influence. If he has access to Majestic's files on Skinner, then Mr. X would know that Skinner is not considered 100% reliable by Majestic and may be considered Mulder's ally. In SLEEPLESS, Skinner asks Mulder who sent him the 911 tape and the obituary of the Doctor who was killed by the illusionary fire. Mulder responds that the only source he ever trusted was dead, implying he has no idea who sent the tape. This scene could indicate that Skinner is aware that a new source (Mr. X) is seeking Mulder out. In END GAME Skinner gets to meet Mulder's source "face to face." How did Skinner know where to be to intercept Mr. X and knock the information out of him? I don't buy the idea that Skinner knew Mr. X would be there because Skinner sent Mr. X to Mulder's apartment. It's far more likely the scenario unfolded like this: Mulder is missing and Scully can't find him. The last time Mulder disappeared, in LITTLE GREEN MEN, the spooks from Majestic followed Scully around hoping she'd lead them to Mulder. I think Skinner sort of did something similar. In past episodes we'd seen Skinner go further and further out on a limb to help Mulder. He saved Mulder from official sanction; steered X-Filesish cases to Mulder despite the X-Files having been disbanded; he lets Mulder pursue other X-Filesish cases; reinstates the X-Files to counter Scully's abduction; delivers The Smoking Man's whereabouts to Mulder; talks Mulder out of resigning; and backs up Mulder with FBI snipers at the "hostage exchange" with the alien assassin, despite the fact that Mulder refuses to explain what's going on. In END GAME, Skinner goes above and beyond the call of duty to help Mulder. He follows Scully, figuring that she would eventually find Mulder, and perhaps he intended to keep the goons from Majestic from interfering with her search. Watching her go to Mulder's apartment, Skinner would have seen her set up the "X" signal in Mulder's window. He also would have seen X arrive and see the lights come on in Mulder's apartment when Mr. X encountered Scully. Skinner may have had an idea that Mulder had a new informant after Mulder received the 911 tape in SLEEPLESS. He may have guessed that the "X" signal was a means of signaling Mulder's informant. It wouldn't have been hard for him to intercept Mr. X in the elevator on the way out if he'd been watching Scully's back. There just isn't any flash of recognition between Mr. X and Skinner when the elevator door opens. Mr. X just tries to step out and when Skinner blocks him Mr. X just says "Excuse me." He only realizes something is wrong when Skinner replies "Did you tell her what she needed to know?" Mr. X's brow furrows for a split second as his mind goes through the "What th'fuck?" stage. His eyes widen and he goes for his gun when his mind arrives at the conclusion "Oh shit!" Someone on this Usenet group suggested that Skinner was fishing when he asked Mr. X if he'd told Scully what she needed to know and that Mr. X's expression confirmed to Skinner that he had the right guy. I agree. The way the scene was written and played (although slightly ambiguous) argues against the idea that Skinner and Mr. X were familiar with each other prior to the elevator punch up. (And, by the way, despite how much I like Skinner, I still think he lost the fight with Mr. X. If you end a fight with your opponent's gun to your head, you lost.) SKINNER & THE WOMAN WHO DOESN'T SMOKE MORLEYS: Now here's something no-one has talked about. Who was the woman at the cigarette machine in ONE BREATH who delivered the Cigarette Smoking Man's whereabouts to Mulder? Skinner seemed to confirm to Mulder that he was responsible for having her contact Mulder, but the question remains: Who was she? Is she FBI? Did she merely relay the information from Skinner to Mulder? Or is she with Majestic? Did Skinner contact her and get her to pass the location of CSM's safe-house to Mulder, by-passing Skinner completely? If she is Majestic, how does Skinner know her? Will we see her again? I don't have a clue about any of that, but fear we will not see her again as she was probably a one-shot plot device. SKINNER AND SENATOR MATHESON: There's just no evidence to connect Skinner and Senator Matheson. Both men assist Mulder in his investigations, but for completely independent reasons. 13. THE ALIENS Here are the Aliens seen on the X-Files, categorized as much as possible: THE GREYS: The term "Grey" is taken from slang developed in the UFO-ology community for the small, grey skinned aliens with large craniums, large almond shaped eyes, small mouths and noses and long nimble fingers. These aliens were first made popular as "pop-culture" icons with the movie "Close Encounters of the Third Kind." Those little grey aliens, however are far more benign than the critters we often encounter creeping around the X Files. THE X-FILES: PILOT: Although we never saw any aliens in this episode, there was an episode of missing time normally associated with alien activity and the whirlwinds of light and leaves at the beginning and end of the episode didn't appear to be the kind of thing that the Majestic Consortium or "Purity Control" could have been responsible for. The reason I believe the Greys were involved in this episode is that the desiccated corpse of Ray Soames, the boy whose body was exhumed, was shrunken, with a misshapen, enlarged head. Short, with an enlarged head; sort of sounds like what the little "Grey" aliens look like. CONDUIT: Once again, we never get a look at the aliens in this episode either, but the seared camper roof, burnt trees tops, beach sand at Lake Okobogee fused to glass, Kevin Morris's strange psychic connection to space-born data transmissions and Ruby Morris suffering from the symptoms of prolonged weightless all point to the presence of extra-terrestrials and not to the involvement of the Majestic Consortium. The reason I believe the Greys are connected to this episode is simply behavioral. Abduction + experiments + safe return = Greys. FEARFUL SYMMETRY: What are the aliens up to now? Artificially impregnating zoo animals and stealing their fetus? Is it a Alien administered conservation project? It sure seems different from the aliens other projects on Earth (human-alien hybridization/ establishing colonies etc.). But again, it seems to be the kind of activity performed by the Greys: abduction and experimentation. E.B.E.: While no aliens are seen in this episode, we do get to see them interact with humans. The alien spacecraft that was shot down by the Iraqi fighter acted as if it was either observing or playing cat and mouse with the fighter. After it was shot-down, the aliens continued to tail the truck transporting the crash survivor across the country. At one point they interfere with the truck, causing it to stall out, but they don't take the opportunity to rescue their captured companion. The reason I believe the unseen alien is a Grey is because later, in the episode THE MUSINGS OF A CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN we see Deep Throat executing a wounded Grey. In E.B.E., Deep Throat implied that he had encountered aliens such as the one shot down over Turkey before and participated in its execution. In retrospect, its a safe bet the E.B.E. was a Grey. In LITTLE GREEN MEN we see a blurry image of the alien, and it vaguely appears to be a Grey. Plus the image drawn by the Puerto Rican appeared to be the stylized face of a Grey, with the large black, almond-shaped eyes. In DUANE BARRY we see (from Duane Barry's perspective) his abduction and torturous experimentation by alien Greys. But since we have since discovered that the experiments performed on Duane Barry were connected to Dr. Ishimaru/Zama and were part of the Majestic Consortium's Purity Control project. So it may be that the Greys seen by Duane Berry were implanted false memories put there to cover Barry's real memory of capture and experimentation by humans. The same situation is true is JOSE CHUNG'S FROM OUTER SPACE. Here the Greys seen in this episode are definitely costumes or the result of false memories created by USAF psy-ops personnel to cover their real activities. In PAPER CLIP the Greys make a quick appearance, scurrying past Scully in the dark tunnels of the West Virginia DNA data archive as she and Mulder hide from the hit team sent by the Majestic Consortium. Its unknown whether these aliens deliberately or accidentally show Mulder and Scully a back way out of the mine. In NISEI we see what may be a Grey being dissected by a team of Japanese surgeons. However, the corpse could have been a hybrid rather than a full-blooded Grey.: In TEMPUS FUGIT and MAX the Greys are seen again, trying to recover the energy source stolen from the Majestic Consortium connected Defense contractor (and perhaps it was even stolen from the Greys by Majestic first). Several Greys are killed when the Air Force shoots down their spacecraft. THE "INVISIBLE": This alien appeared in FALLEN ANGEL, although I believe it may have been a Grey using some kind of light bending camouflage. For one thing, the "Invisible" had an obviously small stature. Second of all, the "Invisible" abducted Max Fenig when its fellows came to rescue it. Later, in the episodes TEMPUS FUGIT and MAX, Max Fenig was abducted by aliens that appeared to be Greys. Unless more than one species of alien is intent on abducting the same UFO geek, I'd guess the "Invisible" was another Grey. A very well armed Grey. The radiation weapon it used to cook the Deputy Sheriff, the EMTs and later Operation Falcon's soldiers was devastatingly effective. And very similar to the weapon used by the Oilien in PIPER MARU and APOCRYPHA. The "Invisible's" only apparent goal was to get off the Earth and take Max Fenig with it. THE SHAPE SHIFTERS AND THE CLONES: These aliens first appeared in the episodes COLONY and ENDGAME. Here everything seemed simple. The "Gregors" and "Samanthas" are alien-human hybrid clones created by aliens who intend to inherit the Earth once man makes the planet uninhabitable for humans. Then a hulking shape-shifting alien assassin (originally called "The Pilot" but later referred to as "The Bounty Hunter") appears and begins slaying all the Gregors and Samanthas and destroying the abortion clinics they'd been using to harvest fetal tissue. Why? The Samantha clone claimed that she and the Gregors' project was seen as a diminution of the alien race, an abomination. Or perhaps, it was simply an unapproved project. The Clones and the Bounty Hunter are extra-strong and durable and seem only to be able to be killed by a precise piercing of the base of the skull by a long sharp object. The Bounty Hunter displays in COLONY and ENDGAME a toxic blood chemistry, fatal to humans upon exposure, and the ability to change shape and appearance in the blink of an eye. These abilities are identical to those of Jeremiah Smith in the episodes TALITHA CUMI and HERRENVOLK. Jeremiah Smith has the Bounty Hunter's abilities of shape shifting, and would appear to be identical incapabilities. Both Jeremiah Smith and the Bounty Hunter demonstrate an miraculous ability to heal the sick and injured. More Samantha clones appear, along with some Nazi-looking boy clones, but they don't appear to be anything more than mindless drones. Biological robots tending the crops which Jeremiah Smith hints may not be terrestrial in origin. Certainly the bees which have been making honey from "alien ginseng" have become lethally toxic. There is a colonization effort afoot in these episodes too which the Majestic Consortium seems to be aware of and collaborating with. Jeremiah Smith's job at the Social Security service seems to have been creating identities for hundreds of thousands of "non-persons:" Alien clones slipped into human society who need electronic backgrounds in order to blend in. The Bounty Hunter returns again to kill Jeremiah Smith, but not because this project was unapproved, but because Smith drew attention to himself by healing the people wounded in a random fast-food shooting. Whether this is the same Bounty Hunter that killed the Gregors and the Samanthas cannot be known for certain, but he did seem to understand Mulder's desire to protect the clone of his sister. The Bounty Hunter and Mulder had a similar clash on the submarine USS Allegiance in the episode END GAME. There Mulder begged for information about his sister from the Bounty Hunter, who, for reasons of his own, told Mulder his sister was still alive and the saved Mulder from his own toxic blood fumes after Mulder shoots him. In MEMENTO MORI we see a second example of these aliens working with the Majestic Consortium. Since NISEI and 731, it has been obvious that Scully's (and quite probably insane FBI agent Duane Barry's) abductions were the result of a secret government experiment run by Dr. Ishimaru/Zama. Many other alien abductions seem to be cover for "Purity Control" which seeks to hybridize human and alien DNA. In MEMENTO MORI we encounter "the Kurts:" Alien-human hybrid clones almost identical in the way they die and decompose into green ooze as the Gregors and Samanthas in the episodes COLONY and ENDGAME. But here we have the alien clones working side by side with the same government project which harvested Scully's ova. While loyal to the project which created them, the Kurts' goal is to try to prevent the deaths of their "birth mothers" who apparently are being allowed to die so as to reduce the Majestic Consortium's exposure. THE "GENDERBENDERS": These aliens appeared in the episode GENDERBENDER and masqueraded as a reclusive and austere religious sect called "The Kindred" living in near rural Steventon MA. They don't appear to have any advanced technology, buy at one point in the episode a group of Kindred "magically" appear to take the runaway sex-killer "Marty" back to his/her people to be dealt with. They disappear just as quickly. Interdimensional travel? Matter transport? Who knows. These aliens share much in common with the Shape Shifter and the Clones. First is their ability to change sex, sometimes at will and sometimes as part of the rejuvenation of their life cycle. But they don't seem to do any more than change back and forth between a male version of their genotype and a female version. Like the Clones and Shape Shifters they also have a body chemistry which is highly toxic to humans, as was repeatedly demonstrated by the fates that befell Marty's sexual partners. They may be related to the Shape Shifters in some way. The "Kindred" only goal seems to have been to retain their anonymity while waiting to be rescued from the earth, which is exactly what happens at the end of the episode. The only question I have is if aliens are visiting the Earth all the time and abducting people, why did the "Kindred" have to wait so long to get picked up? They apparently waited over a century! Are they a different species from the Abductor Aliens? Did it take that long for a rescue mission to reach Earth? THE HUMAN-ALIEN HYBRIDS: We've seen a number of human-alien hybrids over the last four seasons. These hybrids are the result of human experimentation and I include them to differentiate them from some hybrids which appear to be the result of alien experimentation. The human-produced hybrids appear in the episodes THE ERLENMEYER FLASK, ANASAZI, THE BLESSING WAY, NISEI, and 731. The Human produced hybrids are discussed at length in CONSPIRACY 101: PURITY CONTROL. THE "OILIENS": We've seen only one "Oilien," which appeared in the episodes PIPER MARU and APOCRYPHA. The Oilien came to earth in 1945, and was shot down by US Army Air Corps P-51 Mustang fighters, according to the Well Manicured Man. I find it far more likely there was a mid-air collision that brought down the fighter and the UFO. In 1945 the U.S. Submarine Zeus Faber tried to locate the downed UFO, but its mission was compromised by one of the UFOs occupants (who had somehow become separated from its craft). This Oilien took over the submarine's captain and tried to find its ship. The Oilien abandoned the Zeus Faber when the crew mutinied and turned on the captain. The UFO was salvaged by the Majestic Project in 1995 and a few months later a French salvage team from the ship Piper Maru came in contact with the Oilien which had taken up residence in the corpse of the P-51 pilot that had crashed with it's UFO. The Oilien was highly radio-active, apparently inadvertently leaking lethal amounts of radiation which killed the crew of the Zeus Faber and the French ship Piper Maru. The Oilien could also use radiation like a weapon, which it used to deep-fry six French agents, and five of Cigarette Smoking Man's GARNET agents. This weapon seems almost identical to the alien weapon used in FALLEN ANGEL to kill the Deputy Sheriff, EMTs and Operation Falcon's team members. It seems to have access to its hosts' memories since it found its way back the french crewman Gauthier's apartment while in that body, and found the hidden MJ file data tape and CSM while inhabiting Krycek. The Oilien's single apparent goal is to return to its ship. To do this, it cuts a deal with CSM and exchanges the stolen MJ file data tape for the location of the salvaged 1945 UFO. In the end, the Oilien and its host Krycek are sealed in a sealed missile silo in North Dakota by the double-crossing CSM. Whether the Oilien escaped its entombment with its ship at the same time Krycek did, remains unknown. THE BLACK CANCER: As seen in the episodes TUNGUSKA and TERMA, the toxic extra-terrestrial substance found in the impact site at Tunguska Siberia does seem to be related in some ways to the "Oilien" seen in PIPER MARU and APOCRYPHA. Like the Oilien, the Black Cancer is the same color, and texture, appearing much like crude petroleum. Both substances are organic and are capable of surviving for long periods of time under extreme conditions: the Oilien at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, the Black Cancer sealed in rock beneath the Siberian tundra. Both the Oilien and the Black Cancer seem to be able to pass through air-tight barriers. The Oilien penetrated the air-tight deep diving suit worn by the French salvage team, the Black Cancer penetrated the Level 4 Contamination Suit. Both substances cause the tell tale signs of black cloudiness in the eyes. Both substances cause the central nervous systems to shut down in a kind of paralysis. But with the Oilien, the creature is able to impose its will upon its host and direct it. The Black Cancer cannot. I believe that the Oilien and the Black Cancer are related. Perhaps the Tunguska blast of 1908 was caused by the crash of an alien space-craft crewed by the creatures known as "Oiliens." The crash blew the crew into millions of pieces, shattering their consciousness and minds, leaving nothing except the indestructible fragments of their bodies imbedded in the tundra. The Black Cancer is the fragmented bodies of the Oilien crew. The fragments still act instinctually to occupy hosts, but cannot impose it's consciousness because it doesn't have any. THE "WRAITH": In the episode SPACE we see some of the most sinister aliens at work sabotaging the U.S. Space Program. There can be no doubt that we are dealing with aliens in this episode. The "Wraith" bears a striking resemblance to the "Face on Mars." I doubt the intention of this episode was that the "Wraith" was the ghost of Gus Grissom or the other astronauts who died in the Apollo launch pad fire. The alien "Wraith" possesses Col. Marcus Aurelius Belt during his Gemini space walk and acts like a sleeper agent, waiting for critical moments to act and sabotage the Space Program: the Challenger Shuttle, the Hubble Space Telescope, and two recent Shuttle launches. These aliens seems to be connected to Cydonia, the name given to the region on Mars where the infamous "face on Mars" stares up from the surface of the red planet. The UFO-conspiracy theories about Cydonia and NASA's alleged cover up of the proof of life on Mars are too numerous to mention. There are also a number of pyramid-like rock formations in that region that have led to speculation by conspiracy theorist Richard Hoagland that the area is actually a dead alien city. Other connections to Mars was the mention that the most recent Mars Observer probe had recently (August 23, 1993) malfunctioned and became lost in space. The implication in this episode was that the loss of the Mars Observer was due to more "alien sabotage." These "Ghost-like" aliens seem dedicated to keeping mankind blind to what's going on among the stars. They don't want their activities in our solar system discovered by a bunch of nuclear armed monkey (that's us folks), but what activities they are particularly covering up remain unknown. Despite being immaterial, the "Ghost-like" aliens appear very anthropomorphic (two arms, two legs, one head). "LORD KINBOTE" In the episode JOSE CHUNG'S FROM OUTER SPACE, viewers got an look a cyclops-like "Harrihausen" alien which both Roky Crikenson and USAF Lt. Jack Schaeffer called Lord Kinbote. This alien appeared to abduct the terrestrial abductors (Lt. Schaeffer and Maj. Vallee) as well as their intended targets (Chrissy and Harold). The abduction appeared (at least to the abducted) to be a pointless exercise in sadism, Maj. Vallee does not survive the experience and his terrestrial manufacture UFO is taken by the "real" aliens. At the same time Roky, who witnessed the abduction is given a "New-Age" message of salvation by Lord Kinbote which involves some variation of the rather anachronistic "hollow-earth" theory. Of course, one of the main themes of JOSE CHUNG'S FROM OUTER SPACE is that perception is not necessarily reality. When someone, in this case the government, has the ability to affect your memory, what can you rely on? FINAL NOTE: Any alien species capable of crossing interstellar distances is capable of almost anything. It may be that the Oilien, the Wraith, the Genderbenders, the Clones and the Shape Shifters are all simply Greys who have altered their physical forms in order to complete their missions. 14. MARITA COVARRUBIAS Marita Covarrubias (often derogatorily referred to as the UNiBlonder) made her first appearance in the episode HERRENVOLK, where she is introduced as to replace (speaking as a plot device only) the assassinated Mr. X. She has since appeared in TELIKO, TUNGUSKA and UNREQUITED. Marita Covarrubias is the Assistant to one of the Special Representatives to the Secretary General of the United Nations. Apparently there are more than one Special Representative. This U.N. connection may be related to the Majestic Consortium. U.N. resolution 1013 provides the basis for majestic's "shoot-to-kill" policy on aliens. In ANASAZI the news that the MJ documents were stolen hits the Italian delegation at the U.N. first. So there's a possibility that her access may be considerable. However, her access to information seems more limited than Deep Throat or Mr. X. In HERRENVOLK, Mulder contacted her after Mr. X, dying from multiple gunshot wounds, scrawled the initials "SRSG" in his own blood. She tells Mulder that her boss, the Special Representative is unavailable, and that the farm in Alberta (which was apparently staffed by alien clones) was found abandoned, the mysterious crop the aliens were tending merely ginseng. However, she gives Mulder a photo of the clones working the fields, telling him "Not everything dies, Agent Mulder." I believe that she was letting him know that while she can't speak freely in her office, she has answers he is seeking. In TELIKO Mulder goes to her for information about the West African seed that kept turning up around the victims of the "Melanin Vampire." At first she rebuffs him, saying she can't help, but Mulder presses on saying "You made an overture to me. You left an opening." She responds by getting him the Port Authority and FAA reports on the passenger from Burkina Faso who died under similar circumstances on a trans-Atlantic flight. She also points Mulder towards the Burkina Faso Embassy and clears Mulder's way to Minister Diabira with a well-placed phone call. In TUNGUSKA, Mulder seeks Marita out to get information on the source of the diplomatic pouches being smuggled into the U.S. by the minions of the Majestic Consortium. Not only does she discover, after a phone call or two, that the source of the material is Tunguska Siberia. Marita even provides Mulder with a diplomatic passport to assist him in getting into the former Soviet Union. When Mulder asks her why she would help him she answers "Because there are those of us who believe in you . . . in your search for the truth." In UNREQUITED Mulder contacts Marita again to get information about the assassinations of high ranking Generals by the seemingly invisible assassin Nathaniel Teager. Marita doesn't provide the information Mulder was looking for, but after getting Mulder to pony-up what he knows, she the missing links between the murdered Generals and the next victim. This gives Mulder insight into Teager's motives and the motives of the men who may be manipulating Teager's quest for revenge to assist in a further cover-up. Interestingly, the information she provides isn't from some shadowy "black ops" agency. She tells Mulder she gleaned the link between the Generals from a recent newspaper story. As a plot device, Marita Covarrubias is a step forward and a step back. There had been plans to make Mr. X's character a female, but they were scrapped at the last minute by the creative team. On the other hand, she is the first "contact" Mulder has had that Mulder has sought out, not the other way around. Until ZERO SUM Marita was little more than a "deus ex machina" plot device for dropping clues on Mulder. However all that has changed. ZERO SUM has added a number of interesting possibilities. First there are her efforts to thwart the smallpox bio-warfare test and her attempts to help Skinner in his efforts to discover what he was tasked to cover-up for the Cigarette Smoking Man. Her efforts seem genuine but then there is Marita's own connection to The Cigarette Smoking man. At the end of the episode it is revealed that Marita takes her orders from CSM. Whether all her actions or only some are dictated by CSM's orders remains unknown. What is also unknown is who was standing in the background listening on Marita's other phone while she was speaking to CSM. Was it Mulder? Was it some other member of the Majestic Consortium? Perhaps an agent of the First Elder, who is growing obviously exasperated with CSM's empty reassurances that the "Mulder" situation is under control? Either way, Marita probably means trouble for both Mulder and CSM. 15. THE FIRST ELDER The man known in the credits as The First Elder has been called by a number of other names: "The Fat Man," "The Gravel-Voiced Man." By whatever name he is known he is definitely the most senior member of the Majestic Consortium, and apparently an official with the U.S. Government, outranking both the Cigarette Smoking Man and the Well Manicured Man. The First Elder made his first appearance in THE BLESSING WAY and PAPER CLIP. He has since returned in 731, APOCRYPHA, and HERRENVOLK. His appearance in THE BLESSING WAY was brief, but his authority over the Cigarette Smoking Man was instantly apparent. The First Elder directs the meeting and asks all the pertinent questions. The First Elder also has considerable influence with the Intelligence community and the Military. In PAPER CLIP, upon hearing that Mulder is alive, the First Elder declares "I think its time that we call our friends who will handle this matter more satisfactorily." The next thing that happens is car-loads of machine gun wielding assassins show up at the DNA data vaults in West Virginia and very nearly grease both Mulder and Scully. Later in 731, The First Elder returns in command of the Special Forces team that's sanitizing Dr. Ishimaru/Zama's secret laboratory at the Hansen's Disease Research Facility in West Virginia. This demonstrates that he has a position in the U.S. Government which gives him the authority to command American military forces. The First Elder reveals much while trying very hard to convince Scully that he and his team of soldiers are closing down an illegal project and euthanizing the test subjects out of mercy since they could not be helped. His performance convinces Scully that the government project existed (and was responsible for her abduction experience), and that UFO abduction is a cover for the Ishimaru-Zama radiation experiments, but doesn't convince her that it was an illegal operation. As Scully said "And what they can't cover, they apologize for. Apology has become policy." In HERRENVOLK, it is the First Elder who detects the "mole" inside CSM's organization. It is the First Elder who is the architect of Mr. X's demise. He devises the plan to smoke out Mr. X by planting false information that Mulder's mother was in danger and waiting for Mr. X to act on the information. The Grey Haired Man may have pulled the trigger, but the First Elder aimed him at the target. In ZERO SUM, the First Elder is overseeing a new aspect of the "Project." Bees (apparently genetically altered to breed and mature faster) are used to deliver Small Pox (also apparently altered to act quicker) to schoolchildren on a playground. The First Elder is getting more impatient with CSM's assurances that everything is under control. It appears the First Elder may begin taking a more active role in overseeing project security. One interesting question raised by this test: What was being tested? The Bees' ability to deliver the smallpox? If so, why did U.S. Military personnel show up at the hospital to assist in caring for the children? Were they there to observe the effects of the smallpox, or did the Military doctors show up to "field-test" an antidote? Was the Majestic Consortium testing a weapon, a counter-measure, or both? Any man who could climb to the top of an organization staffed by men like CSM, WMM, Mr. X and Deep Throat has to be a cold-blooded master of Machiavellian maneuvering. The First Elder should not be underestimated. I believe he could easily crush the CSM or the WMM should the need arise. COOPERATION or OPPOSITION? Here is perhaps the ultimate question, the ultimate secret of the X Files: "Does the Majestic Consortium aid or oppose the aliens who are attempting to colonize the earth?" I'll try to address that question here by addressing how that relationship has unfolded in various episodes dealing with aliens and alien technology. The Following are the episodes that seem to best illuminate the relationship between the Majestic Consortium and the aliens: THE X-FILES PILOT, FALLEN ANGEL, E.B.E., LITTLE GREEN MEN, DUANE BARRY/ ASCENSION, COLONY, END GAME, PAPER CLIP, PIPER MARU, APOCRYPHA, JOSE CHUNG'S FROM OUTER SPACE, TALITHA CUMI, HERRENVOLK, MUSINGS OF A CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN, MEMENTO MORI, TEMPUS FUGIT, MAX and ZERO SUM. THE X-FILES, PILOT: Although we never saw any aliens in this episode, there was an instance of missing time normally associated with alien activity and the whirlwinds of light and leaves at the beginning and end of the episode didn't appear to be the kind of thing that the Majestic Consortium or "Purity Control" could have been responsible for. What we do see though is evidence of the Majestic Consortium covering up the evidence of the aliens' activities, by burning Mulder and Scully's hotel to the ground, stealing the bodies of Billy Soames and the other abductees, as well as taking all the material from the regional FBI office in Oregon and, ultimately taking the alien implant right out of Chief Blevins' office. While the Majestic Consortium does cover up after the aliens there is no direct evidence of cooperation or opposition. FALLEN ANGEL: This episode shows that the Majestic Consortium, or at least the U.S. Military, has a shoot-to-kill policy when it comes to extra-terrestrials. Later episodes (E.B.E. and THE MUSINGS OF A CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN) provide more information on this policy, apparently United Nations Resolution #1013 created just after the 1947 Roswell Incident. The radiation weapon it used to cook the Deputy Sheriff, the EMTs and later Operation Falcon's soldiers was devastatingly effective. And very similar to the weapon used by the Oilien in PIPER MARU and APOCRYPHA. I also note that the alien used the weapon without provocation on the Deputy and the EMTs, not just to protect itself from the Operation Falcon troops. This alien's only apparent goal was to get off the Earth and take Max Fenig with it. The relationship between the aliens and Majestic is one of open hostility in this episode. E.B.E.: While no aliens are seen in this episode, we do get to see them interact with humans. The alien spacecraft that was shot down by the Iraqi fighter acted as if it was either observing or playing cat and mouse with the fighter. After it was shot-down, the aliens continued to tail the truck transporting the crash survivor across the country. At one point they interfere with the truck, causing it to stall out. There seemed to be an indication the Aliens were looking for an opportunity to rescue their companion, similar to the way they steal their technology back in TEMPUS FUGIT and MAX. We also get the first introduction to the world-treaty relating to exterminating any aliens found on the Earth. Here the relationship between Majestic and the Aliens is thoroughly hostile. LITTLE GREEN MEN: In this episode, we see another example of the Majestic Consortium (through the U.S. Military) covering up evidence of alien attempts to take contact with Humanity. Considering the other examples of Human-alien interaction (either open hostility or at least a desire to remain concealed) it seems strange that the aliens would try to make contact through the Arecibo Radio Telescope Array. Of course, it may be that the contact was made accidentally, or by a faction of aliens not representing the entire race. It also seems odd that Jorge Concepcion died after having contact with the aliens. Was it from fright? Or some other-worldly weaponry? The aliens here are portrayed as dangerous and unfathomable, but little is learned of their relationship to Majestic, except that Majestic will not hesitate to kill to protect the secret that aliens exist. DUANE BARRY/ ASCENSION: In DUANE BARRY we see (from Duane Barry's perspective) his abduction and torturous experimentation by alien Greys. But since we have since discovered that the experiments performed on Duane Barry were connected to Dr. Ishimaru/Zama and were part of the Majestic Consortium's Purity Control project. So it may be that the Greys seen by Duane Berry were implanted false memories put there to cover Barry's real memory of capture and experimentation by humans. Similar techniques were used to blur the borders of reality and perception in the episode JOSE CHUNG'S FROM OUTER SPACE. Duane Barry claimed that the government not only knew about the aliens, but also worked with them sometimes. It's possible this perception was created by a malfunctioning memory implant. If sometimes Duane Barry remembered the humans experimenting on him as Greys and sometimes as humans, it might cause him to think that the government and aliens were cooperating. COLONY/ENDGAME: These aliens first appeared in the episodes COLONY and ENDGAME. Here everything seemed simple. The "Gregors" and "Samanthas" are alien-human hybrid clones created by aliens who intend to inherit the Earth once man makes the planet uninhabitable for humans. Then a hulking shape-shifting alien assassin (originally called "The Pilot" but later referred to as "The Bounty Hunter") appears and begins slaying all the Gregors and Samanthas and destroying the abortion clinics they'd been using to harvest fetal tissue. Why? The Samantha clone claimed that she and the Gregors' project was seen as a diminution of the alien race, an abomination. Or perhaps, it was simply an unapproved project. In END GAME we saw the U.S. Military's shoot-to-kill policy regarding aliens in action again. As soon as the USS Allegiance reports the characteristics of the "sonar contact" it detected beneath the Arctic ice cap, the submarine's captain is ordered to attack and destroy the alien spacecraft. The alien's disable (but don't destroy) the nuclear sub. Later Mr. X tells Mulder that a U.S. attack-fleet is on an intercept course to the alien ship's last known location with orders to destroy the craft and prevent the Bounty Hunter from leaving the Earth. I think the sub's crew was either dead when the Bounty Hunter arrived at the sub or the crew died when they shot him and were killed by the toxic fumes from his blood. It doesn't seem likely that he could have killed the entire crew without more signs of a struggle. Most crew-members were slumped over at their posts. Bottom line, the U.S. government is hostile to the Bounty Hunter in this episode, but there is no evidence of their relationship to the Gregor and Samantha clones. In PAPER CLIP the Greys make a quick appearance, scurrying past Scully in the dark tunnels of the West Virginia DNA data archive as she and Mulder hide from the hit team sent by the Majestic Consortium. Its unknown whether these aliens deliberately or accidentally show Mulder and Scully a back way out of the mine. But what is even more interesting is that the aliens have access to the Majestic Consortium's massive DNA data-base in the abandoned mine. While there is probably little the Majestic Consortium could do if the aliens wanted to get in there anyway, their presence does raise the possibility that the aliens have the Majestic Consortium's permission to use the archive to further their own experiments and their ultimate program of colonization. One other item of note. When the Well Manicured Man announces to the other Elders that "Mulder's alive," the First Elder announces "I think its time that we call our friends who will handle this matter more satisfactorily." Then when Mulder and Scully are at the DNA data-base, the aliens appear on the scene, scurrying through the dark and thundering over-head in one of their ships and an CIA-style hit team arrives with machine guns. Which "friends" were the First Elder referring to? The CIA hit-team or the aliens? Do the Elders consort with aliens? In PIPER MARU/ APOCRYPHA: We encountered the "Oilien," which came to earth in 1945, and was shot down by US Army Air Corps P-51 Mustang fighters (according to the Well Manicured Man). I find it far more likely there was a mid-air collision that brought down the fighter and the UFO. I just can't see an extra-terrestrial spacecraft being shot down by .50 caliber machine guns. Regardless, we again see the U.S. Military's shoot-to-kill policy in action again. Although, U.N. Resolution 1013 was allegedly put into effect after the 1947 Roswell incident, so the 1945 shoot-down was probably not linked to a world-wide policy. The Oilien's single apparent goal is to return to its ship. To do this, it cuts a deal with CSM and exchanges the stolen MJ file data tape for the location of the salvaged 1945 UFO. This deal was arranged without the knowledge of the board of Elders of the Majestic Consortium. Does the Consortium deal with aliens? CSM does. He doesn't even look surprised when the Oilien shows up in Krycek's body. Dealing with aliens is nothing new to him. But it still doesn't prove Alien-Consortium alliance. Why would the Consortium need to salvage alien spacecraft if they had a deal with the Aliens? All told, it seems that perhaps ONLY CSM has contact with the aliens. In the episode JOSE CHUNG'S FROM OUTER SPACE, viewers got an look a cyclops-like "Harrihausen" alien which both Roky Crikenson and USAF Lt. Jack Schaeffer called Lord Kinbote. This alien appeared to abduct the terrestrial abductors (Lt. Schaeffer and Maj. Vallee) as well as their intended targets (Chrissy and Harold). The abduction appeared (at least to the abducted) to be a pointless exercise in sadism, Maj. Vallee does not survive the experience. Between the testimony of Harold and Chrissy and Lt. Schaeffer, it would seem that the aliens took the USAF's "terrestrial" flying saucer, leaving the USAF bewildered. This implies that while there are "terrestrial" USAF UFOs, just like ones in DEEP THROAT, the people working on those projects are not aware of the source of the technology they're using, namely salvaged alien technology. Is the theft of the USAF UFO another example of the aliens taking back examples of their stolen technology, like in TEMPUS FUGIT and MAX, or just sabotage of terrestrial technology like in SPACE? Regardless, the aliens appear hostile to humans in general and Majestic in particular. TALITHA CUMI/ HERRENVOLK: In the episodes TALITHA CUMI and HERRENVOLK the relationship gets complicated. we meet the alien Jeremiah Smith and his fellow clones. Jeremiah Smith has the Bounty Hunter's abilities of shape shifting, and both demonstrate an miraculous ability to heal the sick and injured. More Samantha clones appear, along with some Nazi-looking boy clones, but they don't appear to be anything more than mindless drones. Biological robots tending the crops which Jeremiah Smith hints may not be terrestrial in origin. Certainly the bees which have been making honey from "alien ginseng" have become lethally toxic. There is a colonization effort afoot in these episodes too which the Majestic Consortium seems to be aware of and collaborating with. Jeremiah Smith's job at the Social Security service seems to have been creating identities for hundreds of thousands of "non-persons:" Alien clones slipped into human society who need electronic backgrounds in order to blend in. The Bounty Hunter returns again to kill Jeremiah Smith, but not because this project was unapproved, but because Smith drew attention to himself by healing the people wounded in a random fast-food shooting. Whether this is the same Bounty Hunter that killed the Gregors and the Samanthas cannot be known for certain, but he did seem to understand Mulder's desire to protect the clone of his sister. In MUSINGS OF A CIGARETTE SMOKING MAN we get a quick glimpse at the Alien/Majestic relationship. Deep Throat and the Cigarette Smoking Man discuss the fate of an "E.B.E." (extra-terrestrial biological entity) which survived (barely) a UFO crash. CSM reminds Deep Throat that "a living E.B.E. could advance Bill Mulder's project by decades." To which Deep Throat responds "Security Council resolution 1013 states `any country capturing such an entity is responsible for its immediate extermination.'" Looking at the dying alien Deep Throat says "Tonight we have a new enemy." By "Bill Mulder's Project" I assume CSM is referring to the "Merchandise" and the Hybridization project directed by Purity Control. A project he obviously wants protected. Deep Throat sticks to the official party line that the extermination of the E.B.E. is the paramount concern, referring to the E.B.E.s as the "new enemy." This indicates to me that the Majestic Consortium's Purity Control project is separate from the alien's colonization project. Or at least it was in 1991. The Majestic Consortium wouldn't need a live E.B.E. if they were working hand in hand with the aliens. They'd have all the access they needed to alien DNA. Since CSM suggested keeping it alive, I believe that the relationship is not one of cooperation. In MEMENTO MORI we see a possible example of aliens working with the Majestic Consortium. Since NISEI and 731, it has been obvious that Scully's (and quite probably insane FBI agent Duane Barry's) abductions were the result of a secret government experiment run by Dr. Ishimaru/Zama. Many other alien abductions seem to be cover for "Purity Control" which seeks to hybridize human and alien DNA. In MEMENTO MORI we encounter "the Kurts:" Alien-human hybrid clones almost identical in the way they die and decompose into green ooze as the Gregors and Samanthas in the episodes COLONY and ENDGAME. But here we have the alien clones working side by side with the same government project which harvested Scully's ova. So it would seem that the Majestic Consortium is either cooperating with the alien colonizers or their own hybridization project has advanced to the point where their hybrids are indistinguishable from the aliens' hybrids. In TEMPUS FUGIT and MAX the Greys are seen trying to recover the energy source stolen from the Majestic Consortium-connected Defense contractor (and apparently it was first stolen from the Greys by Majestic during a salvage operation). Several Greys are killed when the Air Force shoots down their spacecraft. In fact, the military was so intent on shooting down the Greys that they were willing to take the chance it would kill the passengers on flight 549. On their part, the Greys abduct Max Fenig, Sharon Graffia and Scott Garrett in order to recover the three components of their working energy source. Here the relationship between the Majestic Consortium and the aliens is thoroughly hostile. In ZERO SUM we see the Majestic Consortium conducting a new aspect of the "Project." Bees (apparently genetically altered to breed and mature faster) are used to deliver Small Pox (also apparently altered to act quicker) to schoolchildren on a playground. Two interesting questions are raised by this test: (1) What was being tested? The Bees' ability to deliver the smallpox? If so, why did U.S. Military personnel show up at the hospital to assist in caring for the children? Were they there to observe the effects of the smallpox, or did the Military doctors show up to "field-test" an antidote? Was the Majestic Consortium testing a weapon, a counter-measure, or both? (2) Are the Bees related to the ones in HERRENVOLK? In that episode a colony of alien clones in Canada were using Bee husbandry to pollinate what appeared to be alien plants. The Bees also killed a telephone line repairman with a toxin that caused severe decomposition. But the Bees in HERRENVOLK are very different than the ones in ZERO SUM. It only took one sting to kill the repairman, where the school children suffered multiple stings without dying. Plus the bees in ZERO SUM seem more aggressive than the HERRENVOLK bees. Of the 19 episodes on the Majestic-Alien relationship, they break down as follows: There are eight episodes where Majestic hostile to Aliens. Four episodes where Majestic is cooperating With Aliens, and seven where the relationship is ambiguous. By a majority of 2 to 1, that would seem to indicate that basically Majestic is hostile to the aliens. But there are still important an irrefutable examples of cooperation between Majestic and the Aliens. But why does there need to be a U.N. Resolution 1013 and the shoot-to-kill policy? Well, considering the usual results of contact between primitive and technologically advanced cultures, a shoot-to-kill policy makes sense. Given what they know now, I have no doubt the American Indians would have killed every European they set eyes on. Nothing personal, I'm sure Christopher Columbus had good intentions, but the end result would still be the obliteration of the native culture. Either because the newcomers would impose their culture, or because many of the natives would adopt the newcomers' culture, assuming their own culture to be inferior simply because the newcomers are more technologically proficient. The same thing would happen to our own world if the aliens ever arrived openly. Most religious faiths would be called into question, and religious faith and teachings (like it or not folks) is the basis for most conceptions of morality, ethics and law. Alien arrival equals social chaos. What I envision is a U.S. military commitment (directed by the Majestic Consortium) to kill any alien they come in contact with in order to preserve the status quo of human civilization. The military also salvages and cannibalizes the alien hardware and technology in order to preserve the U.S. position as the global superpower and even develop anti-alien weaponry. Then, at a higher level, concealed within compartmentalized projects, the Majestic Consortium works to create the hybrids. Most of the clues presented so far point towards the Majestic Consortium's Purity Control hybridization experiments being part of a "super-soldier" program. But an army of super-soldiers to be used against whom? The Leper in 731 said that the hybrid test subjects were exposed to things that gave them terrible burns. Terrible burns? Like those that resulted from the aliens' radiation weapons as seen in FALLEN ANGEL and APOCRYPHA. Is this army of radiation-resistant soldiers to be used against the aliens? This could make sense as part of U.N. Resolution 1013. No live aliens are used, so the resolution is upheld, but the Majestic Consortium continues to produce hybrids which can compete with the aliens. However, there may be another, more obscure answer and it's connected to the relationship between the Majestic Consortium, the aliens and the aliens designs on the earth. Let's say that some of the Natives (namely a faction of the Majestic Consortium) figure that while U.N. Resolution 1013 would preserve the status quo, cooperation with the invaders might put the collaborators at the top of the terrestrial food-chain. If there is a faction of aliens intent on colonizing the earth (and events from COLONY, END GAME, TALITHA CUMI, HERRENVOLK, and MEMENTO MORI seem to point to such a "project'), then there may be a section of the Majestic Consortium that believe that the aliens will be successful, no matter what humanity tries to do. Perhaps the reason hybrids are being created is that the Majestic Consortium expects mankind to be supplanted by the alien invaders and figures the only way mankind will have a place in the invaders world is if humanity can adapt, evolve . . . hybridize. What did The Well Manicured Man say? "We predict the future, and the best way to predict the future is to invent it." Is that "future" the future of mankind? And does the Majestic Consortium plan to "re-invent" humanity is order to preserve some fraction of it in the "brave new world" of the alien invaders? Or perhaps this faction of the Majestic Consortium cooperates with the invasion plan in order to preserve their place in the new order to emerge after the invasion is complete. Is that what Jeremiah Smith meant when he asked CSM "How many people have to die to preserve your place in the project?" Does this indicate that CSM is betraying the Consortium to the aliens? Or that the Consortium as a whole is betraying Humanity while pretending to protect it through the shoot-to-kill policy. At this point, nothing can be ruled out. ============== Comments to Scott Glancy