Abductions * Aliens * Bees * Black Cancer * Clones * Consortium * Hybrids * Implants * Flying Saucers * Master Plan * Secret Experiments



CONSORTIUM
During the first and second season, it was hinted at the myth eps that some kind of shadowy and misterious group (a secret government within the government) was orchestrating a big conspiracy to keep secret the existence of alien life, and their relations and pacts with that alien race. But during these first seasons, the Cigarette-Smoking-Man was the only face visible of this group. The Consortium as a real and visible group appeared for the first time in the three parter Anasazi (episode 2#24), The Blessing Way (episode 3#01), Operation Paperclip (episode 3#02). The steal of the famous DAT tape with the Defense Department ovni files sets the Consortium in motion in the second seson finale. First discovering: the Consortium it's a highly international group, including members from Germany, Italia and Japan, among others. This detail seems to confirm that the group had it's origin at the end of Second World War, which coincided with the Roswell incident and with the begining of the infamous plan that carried war criminal scientifics of the Edge to the States to get profit of their aknowledge and experiments, as explained by Well Manicured Man to the agents in the third ep of the triad, Operation Paperclip (episode 3#02).

Second discovering: the Cigarette Smoking Man, who is (of course!) part of the group, in fact is not the leader. The idea is he takes care of the security of the Consortium operations, and he has to answer to its members. Particularly atractive is the personal fight he has with the Well Manicured Man, who apparently doesn't trust him, and will be, from this point on, the discording voice inside the group. Even if he is, usually, the voice of the group, he uses to go his way; warns Scully her life is in danger in The Blessing Way (episode 3#01); tells the agents the dark origin of the Operation Paperclip (episode 3#02), in the ep of same name; goes agains the mainstream opinion of the group in Patient X (episode 5#14) and The Red and the Black (episode 5#15).

Third discovering: the conspiracy they carry on not only includes ocultation of the existence of alien life and supposed pacts with at least one alien race to set the Master Plan in motion, but probably too, secret experiments with humans. In Operation Paperclip (episode 3#02), Victor Klemper, one of the nazi doctors part of the operation, reveals to Mulder and Scully the setting of a massive archive sistem containing samples and genetic information of the population. While Mulder believes the main proposit of Klemper was to create an human-alien hybrid, Scully believes that his real proposit was going on with his experiments on inocent humans. Everything is possible, as the Well Manicured Man tells Mulder: "There is more than you can imagine"

The Consortium will be a constant presence since this point, even when they only appear implicitly. When Mulder stumbles upon some puzzle pieces of the Master Plan they're supporting, the group will have to defend itself. They will do anything to keep the Master Plan safe. Their presence is implicit in Nisei (episode 3#09) and (episode 3#10), but they take the center of the stage in Piper Maru (episode 3#15) and, above all, in Apocrypha (episode 3#16), as they try to hide the evidence of an ufo crash in a North Dakota missile silo. In this point, we also discover that probably there are no french members on this "club" so we can suspect that it's formed by americans and citizens of the countries that formed the Edge.

Another turn of the screw is given in Herrenvolk (episode 4#01) where the First Elder takes the stage. After his discovering that they have a filtration (a thing that, btw, the Cigarette Smoking Man already knew) they manage to undercover X and eliminate him. The episode also reveals the vaste size of the plan, which makes dificult for them to have all the parts under control.

The struggle for power continues in Tunguska (episode 4#14)and its second parter Terma (episode 4#15). After the failed attempts of the group to get a sample of the rock of Tunguska, which contains the Black Cancer, important details are revealed. The most important, the struggle between the Consortium and its russian counterparts to get a working vaccine against the alien pathogen. A working vaccine means power when it comes to negociate with the aliens. Another one: Alex Krycek, former Mulder partner, former Consortium agent, and for now and always liar and trahitor, seems to work now for the Russians, attempting to recover the piece of the rock using Mulder and Scully for it. In the ep are also revealed the high conections the Consortium has, a web that includes the Senate.

One of the leaders of the infamous group, the First Elder, will make his move on the three parter Gethsemane (episode 4#24) Redux (episode 5#02) and Redux II (episode 5#03), as he tries to eliminate the Cigarette-Smoking Man, whom he considers is protecting Mulder for personal reasons he hides to the group, and tries at the same time to protect the identity of the mole the Consortium has on the FBI. Unfortunately for him, none of this maneouvres is going to work.

On the half of the season mythological episodes, Patient X (episode 5#13) and The Red and the Black (episode 5#14), Alex Cricek takes advantage again to the Consortium, triying to sell them the secret hidden under the mysterious abductees mass burning in Kazajistan. The Well Manicured Man will end up winning this game, only to see how his hopes of using the russian vaccine against the colonisation plan are rejected by the group. The begining of the end?

Not quite the end, actually. In the fifth season cliffhanger, The End (episode 5#20), the Cigarette-Smoking-Man is back, thanks to the ubiquitous Alex Kricek, who seems now to be working for the Well-Manicured-Man. The gropu orders him to track down a boy with a tremendous psychic ability, who could undercover the secrets lying under the X Files. The last word of the Consortium by now it's on Up