The Cigarette Smoking Man has always been the most mysterious character on ‘The X-Files‘ and the Season 11 premiere not only added new reasons to hate and despise him, but it shared solid details on his history that we’ve never previously known! We won’t go into the big twist in this post that will stay with us the entire season but instead focus on a few of the smaller ones.
Obviously, this post is going to be full of spoilers.
So to start with, we have learned the actual name of The Cigarette Smoking Man! He’s gone by quite a few aliases throughout the years, but apparently, his real name is actually Carl Gerhardt Bush. As he is often seen manipulating events on a global scale one almost has to wonder if he has any relation to two of the United States’ past presidents as he has had no qualms in having presidents at his beck and call or even killing one if the circumstances warranted it.
It is unclear what the significance of knowing Carl’s real name is though I’m hoping that it will somehow play out in the season to come.
However, the second reveal could be just as important. That is that he has two sons. The first of which is Jeffrey Spender who was in charge of ‘The X-Files’ while Mulder and Scully were off of them briefly and while we knew that one already, he confirmed the on and off again subplot that he is actually Mulder’s father. This has been theorized and denied over the years, but it seems unlikely that he would admit to it in these circumstances.
All of us who for years thought that this was actually true can finally feel vindicated for it.
Are you surprised at either of these two revelations about The Cigarette Smoking Man’s past? Do you feel that his last name was meant to reflect a relation to two of our past presidents? Share your thoughts below!
