<P> In the season 11 finale "My Struggle IV", the Smoking Man and Reyes follow Mulder, Scully and Skinner to an abandoned factory where they are chasing down William . Skinner points a gun at them and shoots Reyes dead, and the Smoking Man runs Skinner over in his car . The Smoking Man confronts "Mulder" (who is actually William in disguise) by a waterfront, and during the standoff shoots him in the head and causes him to fall into the water . The real Mulder appears and shoots the Smoking Man, who realizes that he has killed William, and he falls off the edge and into the water, with his body then carried away by the currents . </P> <P> Prior to the tenth televised series of The X-Files in 2016, Chris Carter worked with IDW Publishing in 2013 to produce a comic - book continuation of the show . It hints that the Smoking Man is alive and indirectly feeding information to both Mulder and The Lone Gunmen . Carter later said that the story from these comics would be disregarded in future television productions . A variation of the comic - book continuation was made canonical with The X-Files: Cold Cases, an Audible adaptation of the series set between the events of the ninth and tenth seasons of The X-Files, in which the Smoking Man presented in the series is revealed to be a shape - shifting alien imitating him . </P> <P> Kim Manners, a director of several X-Files episodes, said that the Smoking Man was the show's version of Darth Vader . Some X-Files fans have categorized the Smoking Man as evil, making him out to be the villain . Series creator Chris Carter once called him "the devil", producing a mixed reaction among fans . Some fans, along with the portraying actor, see him as a hero, as he is forced to make choices others are not . </P> <P> The Smoking Man is involved in the Syndicate, a shadow organization which includes members of the United States government that exists to hide from the public the fact that aliens are planning to colonize Earth . The Smoking Man often ruthlessly protects the secrets of the conspiracy, and serves as the main antagonist to Mulder, who has an equally consuming devotion to reveal the truth in the first seven seasons . His stated justification is a desire to prevent the alien colonization for as long as possible; in the episode "One Breath", he tells Mulder that he is in the conspiracy (which he calls "the game") because he believes that the secrets he keeps could, if publicly revealed, threaten the social order that preserves society: "If people were to know of the things that I know...it would all fall apart". He is at times shown working towards that goal, particularly in connection with developing a vaccine to protect people from the "black oil", a parasitic agent which the alien Colonists use to propagate themselves . </P>

When does mulder find out the smoking man is his father