The X-Files Episode Is A Dark Parody Of Forrest Gump And It’s Excellent
During the course of its original run, The X-Files dared an unsuspecting public to believe in aliens, government conspiracies, and other monsters that go bump in the night. Lurking behind it all, though, was the mysterious Cigarette Smoking Man, who went from the background of Season 1 to the show’s main villain. According to the Season 4 episode, “Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man,” he’s also a twisted Forrest Gump, influencing world events not through naive optimism but his own ideas on keeping the world safe.
The Secret History Of The Cigarette Smoking Man
“Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man” gave fans their best look at the mysterious history of the shadowy mastermind, played expertly by William B. Davis, with Chris Owens appearing in the episode as a younger version of the key man behind the conspiracy. While meeting with Mulder and Scully, Melvin Frohike of The Lone Gunman reveals he’s discovered the real history of the Cigarette Smoking Man, who, incidentally, is listening in on the meeting from behind a sniper rifle. In a long series of flashbacks, we see the real history play out, or at least, the show makes us think it’s the real history.
In 1962, we learn that the Cigarette Smoking Man is friends with Mulder’s father, Bill and that he’s been tasked by the U.S. Army to assassin President John F. Kennedy. “Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man” gives us the origin of his smoking habit, taking a drag from the gift he received from Lee Harvey Oswald after framing him for the murder. That’s just the first instance of The X-Files history being shaped by his influence, and his worst acts were yet to come.
From planning the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. to orchestrating the 1980 “Miracle on Ice,” and worst of all, keeping the Bills from winning a Super Bowl, “Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man” has fun in re-imagining world history. Yet it also makes one of the most callous, obviously evil characters in sci-fi history out to be oddly sympathetic.
A Frustrated Novelist
Between shaping world events, “Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man” shows him working on a novel, Take a Chance: A Jack Colquitt Adventure, and in the present time of 1996, he’s ready to give up his job and smoking to celebrate the release of his novel in a sci-fi. Until he finds that the editor double-crossed him, and while sitting on a park bench, he gives his own speech about how “life is like a box of chocolates” before resuming his life of villainy. It’s a rare moment in The X-Files original run that humanizes him, but it might not even be true.
In the closing moments of “Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man,” Frohike admits that he made it all up, but yet the Cigarette Smoking Man closes out the episode by quoting the last line of his novel, “I can kill you whenever I please, but not today.” This has led fans to question exactly how much of the episode is fictional and how much was the real secret history of The X-File’s most mysterious character.
One Of The X-Files Best Episodes
At the time that the episode aired, the lack of a clear resolution divided critics and fans, but as time went on, “Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man” started to become a fan favorite. Written by Glen Morgan and directed by James Wong, the exemplary pair behind most of the show’s best episodes and also the underrated sci-fi series Space: Above and Beyond, in fact, this was one of the first episodes they wrote after their other show was canceled. Though they never intended to say that this was the definitive history of the Cigarette Smoking Man, a lot of fans thought it was, overlooking the fun that the episode was having, re-imagining world events.
“Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man” may not answer any questions, including the most pressing question, namely, when did he go shopping for the adorable log cabin from “The Red and the Black?” The argument over the best episode of The X-Files may be never-ending, and controversial decisions made in the revival series have ruined some of the original run, but the secret history of the Cigarette Smoking Man has only become better with time.
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