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CONSPIRACY
Throughout the X-Files the US Government is shown to be involved in conspiracy and cover-ups. The X-Files has made mainstream the
undercurrent of mistrust, suspicion and even paranoia present in the US.
In this respect the programme is one of the most subversive on TV.
Patrick Harrington proffers an episodic analysis...
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In the pilot, the final shot is of Cigarette Smoking Man (later dubbed "Cancer Man" by Mulder) depositing evidence of alien contact into a vault already filled with similar boxes. This image is reinforced in the last episode of the first season ( The Erlenmeyer Flask) when he deposits a flask containing an embryo in the same room within the Pentagon.
Cancer Man is a mysterious individual who appears to be a high-ranking government official. Mulder confronted him directly holding a gun to his head gaining the revelation from him that he was "in the game because I believe in it" ( One Breath).
In Sleepless Special Agent Alex Krycek moves into the role of Mulder's partner. As time goes on he is revealed as a double agent for Cancer Man. His role is to keep an eye on Mulder and keep him from finding out information revealing covert operations: one is a project to create the perfect soldier by eliminating the need for sleep, and another is knowledge of alien abduction. Krycek is a 'stone killer'. In Ascension he kills the operator of an aerial tram. He asks Cancer Man why they don't simply kill Mulder, but is told that if they did they would "risk turning one man's religion into a crusade". He disappears for a while, but has reappeared to murder Mulder's father and attempt to kill Mulder himself ( Anasazi) and, in a case of mistaken identity, fatally wound Scully's sister Melissa ( The Blessing Way and Paper Clip). After attempts by other lackeys of Cancer Man to eliminate him he flees the country with a digital computer tape showing government involvement with aliens.
Not all government officials are portrayed as entirely hostile to Mulder. In Deep Throat we are introduced to an inside source of that name. He passes information to Mulder and warns of danger. Yet Deep Throat is not as friendly as he first appears . In Fallen Angel he arranges for the X-Files to remain open, but his explanation is that it will thereby be easier to control Mulder.
Again in E.B.E. he is instrumental in thwarting Scully and Mulder from recovering an alien from a crashed UFO. In this episode DT also tells Mulder that here is an international agreement that aliens arriving on Earth must be captured and executed. He claims to have been one of only three men in the world to have killed an alien. In the Erlenmeyer Flask, however, Deep Throat saves Mulder at the expense of his own life. His last words are "trust no one".
Season Two's replacement for Deep Throat is 'X'. If anything he is even more mysterious than his predecessor. X's information is even more reluctantly shared. X seems to be involved with a different covert group to that of Cancer Man. He has shown himself to be capable of murder, as in One Breath.
The conspiracy deepens in Anasazi, The Blessing Way, and Paper Clip. A computer hacker in Dover, Delaware is shown reading "50 Greatest Conspiracies of all Time". This hacker (nicknamed 'The Thinker') has broken into sensitive government files. The Thinker hands these files to Mulder. During the search for the files Cancer Man visits Mulder's father Bill. Here we learn that Mulder has been protected not only to avoid making him a martyr, but also because of his Father's involvement in the conspiracy.
Cancer Man is later shown meeting with a shadowy group. One of the group, the Well-Manicured Man, later warns Scully of a murder attempt. He says he represents "a kind of consortium representing certain global interests". However the "consortium" and their methods are ruthless. The Thinker is killed "execution style" and attempts are made on the lives of both Fox and Mulder.
The use of code-names like "Deep Throat" fuel audience paranoia. The motives of the most powerful characters remain obscure. A feeling of unease, of secrets just out of reach and a fear that the good guys are being manipulated, is created. Themes present in US mass-consciousness have been brought to the fore by the X-Files: a basic distrust of government and Big Business; a belief that powerful interests have been secretly involved in historical events (particularly the assassinations of JFK, Malcolm X, Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King); a belief in the existence of a military/industrial complex where there is little real difference between government and business interests, and where neither operate for the good of the population.
What is new is the effect on our own country (the UK). What do we make of all this? At present there is not the same awareness here of what has been termed "Para Politics". Only the work of Lobster* magazine and journalist Larry O'Hara is notable for investigations in this field. The "Arms to Iraq" scandal did lead a few more people to question government's motives and methods, but in general our X-Files are as yet unopened.
*Lobster magazine is available from : Robin Ramsay 214 Westbourne Avenue Hull HU5 3JB UK. Lobster subscriptions : UK £5, US / Canada / Australasia £8, Europe £7.
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