# X-Files: Was it ever determined that CSM was Mulder's father? (Spoiler, I guess)
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/x-files-was-it-ever-determined-that-csm-was-mulders-father-spoiler-i-guess/139532
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [November 29, 2002, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/x-files-was-it-ever-determined-that-csm-was-mulders-father-spoiler-i-guess/139532 "2002-11-29T19:34:18Z")
**Posts on this page:** 12
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)
#### Post date: [November 29, 2002, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/x-files-was-it-ever-determined-that-csm-was-mulders-father-spoiler-i-guess/139532/1 "2002-11-29T19:34:18Z")
I’m watching the X-Files movie FX, and I can’t remember if it was ever determined if the Cig. Smoking Man was indeed Mulder’s biological father. Was this question ever resolved?
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### Author:  [@Kn\_ckers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kn_ckers)
#### Post date: [November 29, 2002, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/x-files-was-it-ever-determined-that-csm-was-mulders-father-spoiler-i-guess/139532/2 "2002-11-29T19:39:30Z")
I don’t know if it was ever resolved, though if it was, I’m pretty sure he wasn’t Mulder’s dad.
Come on, would _you_ sleep with him?
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### Author:  [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)
#### Post date: [November 29, 2002, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/x-files-was-it-ever-determined-that-csm-was-mulders-father-spoiler-i-guess/139532/3 "2002-11-29T19:51:12Z")
Look back at CSM’s origin episode: By the time he was in full conspiracy mode (i.e. by the time he’d been recruited to assassinate JFK), he had just met Mulder’s father, and baby Mulder was already old enough to have said his first word. It just makes more narrative sense that he was screwing with Mulder’s mind decades later by throwing out that possibility, neither for the first nor the last time.
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### Author:  [@Badge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Badge)
#### Post date: [November 29, 2002, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/x-files-was-it-ever-determined-that-csm-was-mulders-father-spoiler-i-guess/139532/4 "2002-11-29T23:07:55Z")
And yet, didn’t Agent Spender, who was acknowledged as CSM’s son, share DNA with Mulder? I remember a late episode in which Spender claimed to be Mulder (with disfiguring acid burns) and Scully believed him because his DNA matched Mulder’s to some extent.
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### Author:  [@Regina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Regina)
#### Post date: [November 30, 2002, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/x-files-was-it-ever-determined-that-csm-was-mulders-father-spoiler-i-guess/139532/5 "2002-11-30T00:01:26Z")
There was an episode where CSM went to Quacamacogatogagog (the Mulders’ vacation home) and confronted Mulder’s mom and intimated that they had slept together at one time. Something like, they were saying he was better than Mulder’s dad at doing something and then CSM says, “That’s not the only thing I was better at, if you remember,” heh, heh, nudge nudge. Then she has a stroke.
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### Author:  [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)
#### Post date: [November 30, 2002, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/x-files-was-it-ever-determined-that-csm-was-mulders-father-spoiler-i-guess/139532/6 "2002-11-30T00:11:47Z")
It’s like **Badge** said, they resolved it once and for all through a DNA test in “William” which was one of the last season nine episodes.
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### Author:  [@The\_Asbestos\_Mango](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Asbestos_Mango)
#### Post date: [November 30, 2002, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/x-files-was-it-ever-determined-that-csm-was-mulders-father-spoiler-i-guess/139532/7 "2002-11-30T02:25:11Z")
Actually, I kind of thought Bill Davis was a rather attractive man, in an old guy kind of way. I imagine he was quite the hottie when he was at the age he would have been when Fox Mulder was conceived. I wish they would have found an actor who looked more like a young William Davis to play the young CSM in “Confessions of a Cigarette Smoking Man”.
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### Author:  [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)
#### Post date: [November 30, 2002, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/x-files-was-it-ever-determined-that-csm-was-mulders-father-spoiler-i-guess/139532/8 "2002-11-30T03:12:03Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Krokodil \*
> \*\*Look back at CSM’s origin episode: By the time he was in full conspiracy mode (i.e. by the time he’d been recruited to assassinate JFK), he had just met Mulder’s father, and baby Mulder was already old enough to have said his first word. It just makes more narrative sense that he was screwing with Mulder’s mind decades later by throwing out that possibility, neither for the first nor the last time. \*\*
What makes you think they just met in that scene? If you read the transcript you’ll notice that they seem on familiar terms, even if you discount the transcriptist’s interjection that they are “friends”. [http://xftse.philedom2k.com/scripts/407musings.txt](http://xftse.philedom2k.com/scripts/407musings.txt)
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### Author:  [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)
#### Post date: [November 30, 2002, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/x-files-was-it-ever-determined-that-csm-was-mulders-father-spoiler-i-guess/139532/9 "2002-11-30T03:17:24Z")
I think they imply that Spender and Fox are like half bros, that way the shared DNA and the CSM meeting old Mulder time frame both fit.
The series finale was supposed to clean up some of those loose threads, but it made more confusion, IMHO.
The first 3 seasons were magic, tho, weren’t they?
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### Author:  [@Honey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Honey)
#### Post date: [November 30, 2002, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/x-files-was-it-ever-determined-that-csm-was-mulders-father-spoiler-i-guess/139532/10 "2002-11-30T04:21:26Z")
I always thought that Fox _and_ Samantha were CSM’s children.
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### Author:  [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)
#### Post date: [November 30, 2002, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/x-files-was-it-ever-determined-that-csm-was-mulders-father-spoiler-i-guess/139532/11 "2002-11-30T04:28:42Z")
I don’t think they ever _clearly_ said any of what was asked in the OP.
But i could be wrong. After season four, it was real hit or miss for me watching, and I’m just now catching up on the reruns.
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### Author:  [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)
#### Post date: [November 30, 2002, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/x-files-was-it-ever-determined-that-csm-was-mulders-father-spoiler-i-guess/139532/12 "2002-11-30T18:51:15Z")
The late episode with Spender sharing Mulder’s DNA seemed to conclusively asnwer what I asked, I think.