Question
In the Season 4 episode "Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man", we see CSM personally kill both JFK and MLK. However, when he and Deep Throat are confronted with killing an E.T. in the modern day, he claims that he has "never killed another person or thing" and talks about how he wants Deep Throat to do it so he can live his whole life without having actually taken a life. I want to know why he seems so intent about this - when he killed MLK, he volunteered to do it himself. And he even said he had a great deal of respect for King, which makes it strange that he would be so troubled about killing an alien he knew nothing about.
Anyone have another further pieces to this puzzle, as to why he would make such a big deal about this?
Answer
Because we don't really know for sure that he did the killing. The flashback may or may not have been accurate. As the episode centers around Frohike telling Mulder about CSM (Cigarette Smoking Man) from a magazine article he read. The details are murky and my be inaccurate. Frohike even states as much and at the end leaves to go get clarification. There are also some contradictions/inconsistencies with CSM's background in regards to earlier episodes. The story Frohike had may have only been parts of the novel CSM wrote, published in the magazine. The novel may have been based in part on CSM, and embellished. Also, CSM is a liar. He very well could have killed even if it wasn't JFK or MLK.
Answered By - user25738
