"Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man" is the seventh episode of the fourth season of the science fiction television series The X-Files. It premiered on the Fox network in the United States on November 17, 1996. It was written by Glen Morgan, directed by James Wong, and featured the first guest appearance by Chris Owens, appearing as a younger Smoking Man. "Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man" earned a Nielsen household rating of 10.7, being watched by 17.09 million people in its initial broadcast. The episode received mostly positive reviews from television critics. The show centers on FBI special agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) who work on cases linked to the paranormal, called X-Files. Mulder is a believer in the paranormal, while the skeptical Scully has been assigned to debunk his work. In this episode, Lone Gunman Melvin Frohike (Tom Braidwood) finds a tell-tale magazine story supposedly revealing the history of The Smoking Man (William B. Davis). The episode illustrates his possible involvement in several historical events and assassinations, although the reliability of the source is unresolved at the end of the episode. Davis is credited as a starring cast member for the first time in this episode. Executive producer Frank Spotnitz later noted that the canonicity of events related in the episode is unclear. The production of the episode did not require extensive use of Duchovny and Anderson on screen. The former's voice is only heard and the latter appears only in archival footage. Davis was pleased with the episode, although confused with some apparent contradictions in the script. Although not directly furthering the series' overarching mythology, the episode involves several of its events and characters. Plot The Smoking Man, armed with a sniper rifle and surveillance equipment, spies on a meeting between Fox Mulder, Dana Scully, and the Lone Gunmen. Frohike claims to have discovered information about the Smoking Man's mysterious past, stating that his father was an executed communist spy and that his mother died of lung cancer, causing him to be raised in various Midwest orphanages. The narrative changes to 1962. The Smoking Man is an Army captain stationed at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. He talks to a friend and fellow soldier, Bill Mulder, who shows him a photo of his infant son, Fox. The Smoking Man is summoned to attend a meeting with a general and several strange men