X -Files: For 31 years, this major character has been hiding in the first episode and no one has never noticed it

On June 12, 1994, the French public discovered a series that would become a real social phenomenon: X-Files! In the first episode, entitled We are not alone, the special agent Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) met Fox Mulder (David Duchovny), Vilain of Petit Duck from the FBI.

Nicknamed the Martian by his colleagues, he takes care of unconvertising business and has the chic to stuff his nose in the government's shady files. This is why the management of the Federal Investigation Bureau sends him Dana Scully, a pragmatic woman and earth on the ground, to monitor him, calm her ardor and make relationships to the hierarchy.

A mutic and mysterious character

At the start of the episode, she therefore went to the offices of her superiors to evoke her new mission. In a corner of the room, a mysterious character smokes a cigarette, does not say a word and scrutinizes Scully from a long time. At the time, it is not even noted, thinking that it is a simple figurative embodying a figure of authority within the FBI.

However, Chris Carter, the creator of the series, was already advancing his pawns and knew that this character was going to become very important afterwards. Embodied by the Canadian William B. Davis, it is CGB (Carl Gerhard Bush) Spender, nicknamed “The man with cigarettes” (Cancer Man or Smoking Man Cigarette in VO).

Fox

Involved in all the government's shady affairs, such as the assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, he plots in the shadows in many secret files, including the extraterrestrial conspiracy, a fight led by Fox Mulder. It therefore appears from the 3rd minute of the pilot episode, as if nothing had happened. At the time, fans did not know the important thing that man was going to take in cigarettes.

31 years later, even the most fervent aficionados in the cult series had surely forgot that he was present from the first episode. Subsequently, he will become the main antagonist of X-Files, appearing in 43 episodes between 1993 and 2018, but also in the film to fight the future in 1998.

Fox

A figure of evil

The cigarette man marked the minds of spectators because he alone embodies the conspiratorial aspect of the series. The character represents the dark forces that manipulate events in the shadows: secret government, extraterrestrial concealment, inhuman experiences … It is the very image of the “deep state” (deep state), silent, omnipresent, and elusive.

Furthermore, unlike a classic villain, it is not always explicitly hostile or completely understandable. It sometimes acts for reasons that seem patriotic or logical, but its methods are inhuman. This makes it a complex, even tragic antagonist.

The fact that he says almost nothing in the first episodes reinforces his mystery. In addition, his look is immediately recognizable: sober costume, cold expression, cigarette always lit. This cigarette becomes a powerful visual symbol, a signature of the character. It does not often appear at the beginning, but when it does, it is always in key moments. This rarity accentuates its importance and its threatening aura.

If you want to (re) see the cult series, it is available on Prime Video and Disney+.