William B. Davis, who plays the Cigarette Smoking Man(CSM) in the X-Files, writes his first and only episode in En Ami. He does an excellent job of it too. En Ami is a nice suspense thriller that centers around CSM offering Scully a cure for all diseases on the condition of her not telling Mulder about it. The suspense stays at a high level as you don't know exactly what CSM's intentions are for Scully as they take a long trip together. Suspecting that something isn't right, Mulder employs the Lone Gunmen to help him find out what is going with Scully and CSM. I always love seeing Mulder's reckless concern for Scully, even yelling at his superior Skinner to try and get answers. Mark Snow's score is exceptional in maintaining the suspense and playing a sort of cheesy "bad guy" motif when CSM enters the scene. Just like in 'Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man' it is cool to see another side of CSM. He expresses to Scully the slight fascination he's had with her and what a lonely old man he is. CSM does an elaborate cover-up to trick Scully into thinking he's being honest and sincere. And it works. Scully drives a boat for the second and final time in this series; just an interesting piece of trivia. We see both sides of CSM simultaneously when he saves Scully's life by killing her would-be assassin. He does a slight-of-hand and doesn't give Scully the correct disc. But, instead of using it for his own ends, he selflessly tosses it in the lake. Kudos to William B. Davis and Rob Bowman, the director of this episode, for En Ami, a great suspense thriller and one of the best episodes of season seven.
6 Reviews
Had old school vibes, great episode.
Sleepin_Dragon23 September 2022
Scully receives an unwelcome visitor, Smoking Man, he asks her to accompany him on a trip, to find out an important scientists development.
I have to admit, I am a little confused, did this just return us to the events and vibe of series 5 and 6? This felt very different to recent story arcs, not sure how to explain why.
It's an elaborate plot, it's a well crafted and well structured episode.
My only frustration, is associated with Scully, after all that's happened, I'm finding it a little tough to accept that Scully would put her faith in Smoking Man.
I loved the touches of humour, once again The Lone Gunmen impress, their disguises were hilarious.
William B Davies once again impresses hugely as the elusive smoking Man, he does have such a presence on screen.
I thought this was really well paced, excellent, 9/10.
I have to admit, I am a little confused, did this just return us to the events and vibe of series 5 and 6? This felt very different to recent story arcs, not sure how to explain why.
It's an elaborate plot, it's a well crafted and well structured episode.
My only frustration, is associated with Scully, after all that's happened, I'm finding it a little tough to accept that Scully would put her faith in Smoking Man.
I loved the touches of humour, once again The Lone Gunmen impress, their disguises were hilarious.
William B Davies once again impresses hugely as the elusive smoking Man, he does have such a presence on screen.
I thought this was really well paced, excellent, 9/10.
Mass of a Mass Murderer
andyetris26 October 2006
Dana Scully, FBI agent, physician, cancer survivor, and practicing Catholic, is drawn to the case of a Christian Science child who has had a miraculous remission from cancer. Upon investigation she discovers two things: an 'alien' implant in the back of the boy's neck and C.G.B. Spender, super assassin for the government's secret inner circle. When Spender, "the cigarette-smoking man" tells Scully that he means to share the secret cure for cancer with her she suspects him of blowing smoke, but accompanies him to a mysterious assignation at a lakeside hotel. Meanwhile her FBI partner, Fox Mulder, has discovered that someone has hacked into Scully's computer and impersonated Scully in an exchange of emails with someone at the Department of Defense's research facility. While Spender tries to convince Scully of his benign intentions, Mulder fears that she is merely a disposable bit of bait in a plan to draw a federal fugitive into the secret assassin's deadly sights.
This is another season 7 old-plot-device-elimination episode, and as this often meant the elimination of characters we have good reason to fear for Scully's survival! Unfortunately the ending of the episode really doesn't make much sense.
William B. Davis, who plays "the cigarette-smoking man," once suggested in an interview that his character was the real star of the show! Ironically this and certain other episodes show that in a way, Chris Carter has become the cigarette-smoking man, terminating stray characters and plot lines - with extreme prejudice!
This is another season 7 old-plot-device-elimination episode, and as this often meant the elimination of characters we have good reason to fear for Scully's survival! Unfortunately the ending of the episode really doesn't make much sense.
William B. Davis, who plays "the cigarette-smoking man," once suggested in an interview that his character was the real star of the show! Ironically this and certain other episodes show that in a way, Chris Carter has become the cigarette-smoking man, terminating stray characters and plot lines - with extreme prejudice!
Scully in a hot dress!
Sanpaco1329 June 2009
Warning: Spoilers
I chose this episode for one reason. Scully's spaghetti strap dress. Mmmm hmmm. 10 out of 10. As for the rest of the episode, also very good. I like the story of the cure for all human disease. I like the dynamic between Scully and CSM. I always like it when we get insights into CSM's character. The more I watch the show the more I truly believe that he really wanted to do good but just went about it all wrong. Even the murder of JFK. And MLK. (Although his actual involvement in those assassinations are debatable) Mulder is understandable mistrusting of his enemies but it is interesting how that mistrust blinds him from seeing them as people. This is shown nicely in this episode as he tells Scully in a voice over that CSM used her to get the tape so he could use it on himself and keep it from helping mankind and the video shows CSM alone in his cabin as he disposes of the disc so that no one can have it. His true motives are as always ambiguous, but I believe he really is trying to do something good by destroying the tape. He's learned from hard experience that when you try to play God you end up in deep crap. The episode gets a 10 out of 10 as well from me.
"That which makes miracles, can also make great evil."
classicsoncall8 August 2017
Warning: Spoilers
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.
As A Strange Person...
SusieSalmonLikeTheFish3 December 2014
Warning: Spoilers
This episode is one of my favorites, but I just don't understand it much. The plot strays from the norm of the X - Files, as Agent Scully lies to Mulder and goes on a road trip with the Cigarette Smoking Man, who is dying (and miraculously looks the same as he always does!). He offers her a cure for cancer but he starts acting strangely nice to her and she starts wondering if he's really as corrupt as she always believed him to be.
En Ami is one of the weirder episodes, going from sort of funny (and at times extremely creepy, such as scenes where Scully wakes up to find that the Smoking Man has changed her clothes while she was asleep, what the hell? And he buys her a strapless dress, this man needs to get a hobby or something!). Then towards the end it just goes downright depressing. Ol' Smokey breaks the news to Scully that the "cancer cure" is actually a scientific formula on a disc, a cure for every human disease. She points out that he could cure himself with this cure but he says he doesn't want to be cured, that it's evil to have that kind of power. He tells her, theoretically he can be cured, but that he's a lonely man (I don't get what he means by that, is he saying he wants her to love him or something?) Well, Scully starts feeling sorry for him and the next morning he tells her to be careful as he sends her out in a boat to get the cure. The man with the cure is assassinated and then the Cigarette Smoking Man saves Scully by shooting the assassin (how did he get there so fast when she took a boat and he walked?) Scully leaves without so much as a few words and brings the disc with the cure back, but it turns out to be empty and she realizes that her new best friend has played her for a fool, keeping the real disc for himself.
Scully tells Mulder that she knows the Smoking Man was telling the truth about wanting to do something good, and although he doesn't return the disc he gives up his own life by tossing the disc, which could cure his own disease, into a lake. And as usual he lights a Morley cigarette as the end credits come up.
This episode could be interpreted in many ways, either that the Smoking Man will stop at nothing to keep his own life going or that he is seriously lonely and wants to do good in the world. He is the series' main antagonist, yet he never really comes across that way. Instead, he comes across as a rather tragic figure, who is actually quite easy to sympathize with. I never really saw him as evil, more depressing than anything else, and the whole idea that someone would give up everything for their duty seems more sad than corrupt. We might not agree with his actions, but he sees them as right and necessary to protect the world. Since the series ended his motives and moral code will probably remain up to the writers and directors.
The acting in this episode was great, as usual David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson were amazing in their roles. William B. Davis was an excellent actor in the X - Files and it's really cool that he came up with this episode. Also the word play with the title is very interesting, En Ami means "As A Friend" yet in English En Ami sounds like "enemy". It's one of the more sad episodes of the X - Files and is my favorite one, aside from Arcadia, Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man and the two Redux episodes.
My only complaint is that the scenes where Scully wakes up to find that she's been dressed by someone and also when the Smoking Man buys her a strapless dress, both those scenes are kind of creepy and seem like a strange fan fiction love story between Scully and the Smoking Man. I don't really understand why those scenes were there, was it meant to be funny?
En Ami is one of the weirder episodes, going from sort of funny (and at times extremely creepy, such as scenes where Scully wakes up to find that the Smoking Man has changed her clothes while she was asleep, what the hell? And he buys her a strapless dress, this man needs to get a hobby or something!). Then towards the end it just goes downright depressing. Ol' Smokey breaks the news to Scully that the "cancer cure" is actually a scientific formula on a disc, a cure for every human disease. She points out that he could cure himself with this cure but he says he doesn't want to be cured, that it's evil to have that kind of power. He tells her, theoretically he can be cured, but that he's a lonely man (I don't get what he means by that, is he saying he wants her to love him or something?) Well, Scully starts feeling sorry for him and the next morning he tells her to be careful as he sends her out in a boat to get the cure. The man with the cure is assassinated and then the Cigarette Smoking Man saves Scully by shooting the assassin (how did he get there so fast when she took a boat and he walked?) Scully leaves without so much as a few words and brings the disc with the cure back, but it turns out to be empty and she realizes that her new best friend has played her for a fool, keeping the real disc for himself.
Scully tells Mulder that she knows the Smoking Man was telling the truth about wanting to do something good, and although he doesn't return the disc he gives up his own life by tossing the disc, which could cure his own disease, into a lake. And as usual he lights a Morley cigarette as the end credits come up.
This episode could be interpreted in many ways, either that the Smoking Man will stop at nothing to keep his own life going or that he is seriously lonely and wants to do good in the world. He is the series' main antagonist, yet he never really comes across that way. Instead, he comes across as a rather tragic figure, who is actually quite easy to sympathize with. I never really saw him as evil, more depressing than anything else, and the whole idea that someone would give up everything for their duty seems more sad than corrupt. We might not agree with his actions, but he sees them as right and necessary to protect the world. Since the series ended his motives and moral code will probably remain up to the writers and directors.
The acting in this episode was great, as usual David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson were amazing in their roles. William B. Davis was an excellent actor in the X - Files and it's really cool that he came up with this episode. Also the word play with the title is very interesting, En Ami means "As A Friend" yet in English En Ami sounds like "enemy". It's one of the more sad episodes of the X - Files and is my favorite one, aside from Arcadia, Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man and the two Redux episodes.
My only complaint is that the scenes where Scully wakes up to find that she's been dressed by someone and also when the Smoking Man buys her a strapless dress, both those scenes are kind of creepy and seem like a strange fan fiction love story between Scully and the Smoking Man. I don't really understand why those scenes were there, was it meant to be funny?
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