The Smoking Man
Near the beginning of the episode, Praise plays a Russian grandmaster at chess. "The Complete X-Files" notes that a "chess motif" is weaved throughout the episode, perhaps most symbolically in the way The Smoking Man "plays Mulder to a checkmate, using Jeffrey as a pawn." Because of this, and his past actions, many fans finally came to believe that The Smoking Man was the true villain of the story. William B. Davis, who played The Smoking Man, however, felt that the character was the hero. He noted, "I used to go to conventions and try to convince everyone that I was the hero of the series and Mulder was the bad guy. […] I got a lot of laughs, but it's certainly true of how one plays the character. Nobody thinks they're evil."