The ambiguity inherent in the character of the Cigarette Smoking Man (William B. Davis) was never more apparent than in this episode. Even the title is a clever play on words, as 'En Ami' translated from the French means to confide in someone 'as a friend'. But as you pronounce the phrase it sounds like 'enemy', and in this story, CSM passes himself off as both friend and enemy, even though the latter distinction is not made transparent for Scully.
I was intrigued by a couple other reviewers on this board who felt that CSM was ultimately a conflicted guy who meant to do good, particularly with his offer to reveal the knowledge of how to cure all human diseases in hand. Offering the opposite opinion was C.B.G. Spender himself, stating to Scully that he was a 'destroyer' all his life. I'll take CSM's interpretation to be the correct one; even here he took out his own hit man after the assassin put away the federal fugitive calling himself Cobra, and working in the shadows of the Defense Department. CSM stating that he wanted to die with a noble deed as his legacy was just one more bit of misdirection that he used to get Scully to make contact with Cobra, so he could get his hands on the disc with the lifesaving information.
In a way though, CSM did manage to do a noble thing when he discarded the disc in the lake, realizing that a statement he made to Scully earlier (see my summary line) would carry it's own consequences. What made this episode doubly interesting for me was the destination CSM brought Scully to, a lakeside cabin in Milford, Pennsylvania, a mere stone's throw of about twenty five miles from where I live. If I knew the exact location of that house, I'd take a ride out there.
I was intrigued by a couple other reviewers on this board who felt that CSM was ultimately a conflicted guy who meant to do good, particularly with his offer to reveal the knowledge of how to cure all human diseases in hand. Offering the opposite opinion was C.B.G. Spender himself, stating to Scully that he was a 'destroyer' all his life. I'll take CSM's interpretation to be the correct one; even here he took out his own hit man after the assassin put away the federal fugitive calling himself Cobra, and working in the shadows of the Defense Department. CSM stating that he wanted to die with a noble deed as his legacy was just one more bit of misdirection that he used to get Scully to make contact with Cobra, so he could get his hands on the disc with the lifesaving information.
In a way though, CSM did manage to do a noble thing when he discarded the disc in the lake, realizing that a statement he made to Scully earlier (see my summary line) would carry it's own consequences. What made this episode doubly interesting for me was the destination CSM brought Scully to, a lakeside cabin in Milford, Pennsylvania, a mere stone's throw of about twenty five miles from where I live. If I knew the exact location of that house, I'd take a ride out there.