View source for Syndicate (The X-Files)

{{Short description|Shadow government group in The X-Files}}
{{DISPLAYTITLE:Syndicate (''The X-Files'')}}
{{Multiple issues|
{{All plot|date=April 2024}}
{{In-universe|date=April 2024}}
{{third party|date=June 2025}}
{{overlink|date=June 2025}}
{{overly detailed|date=June 2025}}
}}
In the [[fictional universe]] of the science fiction–thriller [[media franchise]] ''[[The X-Files (franchise)|The X-Files]]'', '''The Syndicate''' is a nefarious group of covertly allied influential government officials and businessmen. Also referred to as '''The Elders''', '''The Consortium''', and '''The Group''', it is the primary antagonistic force opposing [[Dana Scully]], [[Fox Mulder]], [[John Doggett]], and [[Monica Reyes]] during the series.

==Overview==
An embodiment of the concept of the [[shadow government (conspiracy)|shadow government]] in [[UFO conspiracy theory]] lore, the Syndicate is depicted as operating at the highest levels of power, concealing from the world a program by an unidentified extraterrestrial species to colonize and repopulate the planet, as well as their own plans and stake in that future, which they hold to be inevitable.

To carry out murder, cover-ups, sabotage and other [[black operations|wetworks]] projects, the Syndicate uses an unknown number of [[henchmen]] commonly referred to as the [[Men in Black (The X-Files)|Men in Black]]. Many work ostensibly for the [[United States Department of Defense|U.S. Defense Department]], [[Central Intelligence Agency]], [[National Security Agency]], along with various other government agencies. Prominent Men in Black agents include [[Mr. X (The X-Files)|X]], [[Alex Krycek]], the [[The Cleaner (The X-Files)|Crew Cut Man]], and [[Quiet Willy]].

The leader of the Syndicate is a former German industrialist named Conrad Strughold, who had fled his home country and relocated to [[Tunisia]].<ref>''The X-Files'' soundtrack hidden commentary track</ref> However, most of the Syndicate's meetings are held at a nondescript building located on West 46th Street (with parallels to the [[Century Association]] and [[Ivy League]] alumni clubs) in New York City, and do not involve Strughold, due to the fact that his entry into the United States would potentially draw too much attention because of his ties to [[Nazi Germany]]. Meetings with Strughold are instead held in London.<ref name="1998movie"/> A possible front for the group, evidenced in the episode "[[Redux (The X-Files)|Redux II]]", is a [[biotechnology]] firm called Roush. Reportedly, series creator [[Chris Carter (screenwriter)|Chris Carter]] named the company after ''[[USA Today]]'' TV critic Matt Roush, who was an influential early champion of ''The X-Files''.<ref name="MattRoush">{{cite news|url=http://alumni.indiana.edu/magazine/issues/200105/roush.shtml |title=The Nation's TV Guide: Proud Hoosier Matt Roush tells America what's worth watching |publisher=Indiana Alumni Magazine |date=May 2001 |access-date=January 21, 2011 |first=Elizabeth |last=Hunt |url-status=unfit |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110310084637/http://alumni.indiana.edu/magazine/issues/200105/roush.shtml |archive-date=March 10, 2011 }}</ref> Roush's facilities are used in some experiments involving the virus, shown in the [[The X-Files (season 6)|sixth season]] premiere "[[The Beginning (The X-Files)|The Beginning]]".<ref name="Beginning">{{cite episode| title=The Beginning |title-link=The Beginning (The X-Files) | series=[[The X-Files]] |credits = [[Kim Manners]] (director), [[Chris Carter (screenwriter)|Chris Carter]] (writer) | network = Fox Broadcasting Company | season = 6 | number = 1 }}</ref> Also, according to [[Alvin Kurtzweil]], when the alien takeover was set to commence in December 2012, the Syndicate would have seized control of the United States via the [[Federal Emergency Management Agency]] (FEMA), which had the power to suspend constitutional government upon declaration of a national emergency.<ref name="1998movie">{{cite video| people = [[Rob Bowman (filmmaker)|Rob Bowman]] (director), [[Chris Carter (screenwriter)|Chris Carter]] & [[Frank Spotnitz]] (writers)| title = [[The X-Files: Fight the Future]] | medium = DVD| publisher = [[Fox Broadcasting Company]] | date = 1998 }}</ref>

== Appearances ==
=== Early years ===
The Syndicate was formed at the end of [[World War II]], after the [[Roswell UFO incident|Roswell incident]] 1947, when German scientists were [[Operation Paperclip|brought to the United States]] to work on developing an [[alien-human hybrid]]. [[Alvin Kurtzweil]] recounted that when he and [[List of minor The X-Files characters#Bill Mulder|Bill Mulder]] were young men in the military, they were recruited for a project that they were told was concerned with [[biological warfare]].<ref name="1998movie"/> [[Deep Throat (The X-Files)|Deep Throat]] claimed that it began after Roswell, when an ultrasecret conference of power brokers in the [[United States]], the [[Soviet Union]], [[United Kingdom]], [[China]], [[France]], [[West Germany]], and [[East Germany]], signed a treaty that if an [[Colonist (The X-Files)|alien spacecraft]] crashed on [[Earth]] and the [[Extraterrestrial life in popular culture|extraterrestrial]]s survived, the country that held them would be responsible for their immediate extermination.<ref name="EBE">{{cite episode| episode-link=E.B.E. (The X-Files) | title=E.B.E. | series=The X-Files | series-link=The X-Files |credits =[[William A. Graham (director)|William Graham]] (director), [[Glen Morgan]] & [[James Wong (producer)|James Wong]] (writers) | network = [[Fox Broadcasting Company|FOX]] | season = 1 | number = 17}}</ref>

The group that would become the Syndicate existed as early as 1952 as a secret group within the [[Department of State]]. Their activities included experimenting with [[xenotransplantation]],<ref name="Travelers">{{cite episode| episode-link=Travelers (The X-Files) | title=Travelers | series=The X-Files | series-link=The X-Files |credits = [[William A. Graham (director)|William Graham]] (director), John Shiban & [[Frank Spotnitz]] (writers) | network = [[Fox Broadcasting Company|FOX]] | season = 5 | number = 15 }}</ref> relocating ex-Nazi scientists to the United States after World War II,<ref name="Paper_Clip">{{cite episode| episode-link=Paper Clip | title=Paper Clip | series=The X-Files | series-link=The X-Files |credits =[[Rob Bowman (filmmaker)|Rob Bowman]] (director), [[Chris Carter (screenwriter)|Chris Carter]] (writers) | network = [[Fox Broadcasting Company|FOX]] | season = 3 | number = 2}}</ref> and covering up the [[black oil (The X-Files)|black oil]] discovered in the ''Piper Maru'' in 1953.<ref name="Apocrypha">{{cite episode| episode-link=Apocrypha (The X-Files) | title=Apocrypha | series=The X-Files | series-link=The X-Files |credits = [[Kim Manners]] (director), [[Chris Carter (screenwriter)|Chris Carter]] & [[Frank Spotnitz]] (writers) | network = [[Fox Broadcasting Company|FOX]] | season = 3 | number = 16 }}</ref>
[[File:Colonists TXF.jpg|thumb|right|250px|The [[Colonist (The X-Files)|colonists]] in 1973 when they forged their alliance with the Syndicate]]
The members of the Syndicate within the State Department officially broke off ties with the [[United States government]] in 1973. However, some of the members continued to work within the State Department. On October 13, the Syndicate formally forged their alliance with the [[Colonist (The X-Files)|alien colonists]] at El Rico Air Force Base. The [[Cigarette Smoking Man]] personally presented a folded [[United States flag|American flag]] to the aliens, symbolizing their surrender to a superior intergalactic force. The Syndicate was also commencing their work on the Project, which would see an immense effort in creating an alien/human [[hybrid (biology)|hybrid]] to serve the aliens as a slave race after [[colonization]]. To allow the Syndicate to develop the hybrid, they were provided an alien [[fetus]] from which to extract [[DNA]] and begin research. However, the aliens demanded in exchange samples of human DNA. Members of the Syndicate turned over their loved ones to the aliens as part of the exchange. The Cigarette Smoking Man handed over his wife, [[List of minor The X-Files characters#Cassandra Spender|Cassandra Spender]], and [[List of minor The X-Files characters#Bill Mulder|William Mulder]] reluctantly surrendered his daughter, [[Samantha Mulder|Samantha]].<ref name="One_Son">{{cite episode| episode-link=One Son | title=One Son | series=The X-Files | series-link=The X-Files |credits =[[Rob Bowman (filmmaker)|Rob Bowman]] (director), [[Chris Carter (screenwriter)|Chris Carter]] & [[Frank Spotnitz]] (writers) | network = [[Fox Broadcasting Company|FOX]] | season = 6 | number = 12}}</ref>

By March 22, 1993, the Syndicate had use of a vast warehouse in [[The Pentagon]] where artifacts constituting evidence of alien existence were stored. The Cigarette Smoking Man added an [[alien implants|implant]], recovered by Mulder and Scully on their first case together, to the items kept in this storage facility. As Mulder and Scully learned, other efforts to erase their findings were apparently made, including the disappearance of paperwork, such as a case file on [[Billy Miles (The X-Files)|Billy Miles]], that the agents had filed with the [[District Attorney]]'s office in Raymon County, Oregon.<ref name="Pilot">{{cite episode| episode-link=The X-Files (pilot episode) | title=Pilot | series=The X-Files | series-link=The X-Files |credits =[[Robert Mandel]] (director), [[Chris Carter (screenwriter)|Chris Carter]] (writer) | network = [[Fox Broadcasting Company|FOX]] | season = 1 | number = 1}}</ref>

=== Destruction ===
In 1998, the Syndicate learned of [[Colonist (The X-Files)#Alien rebels|a rebel faction]] among the aliens that was fighting against their brethren and the [[Colonist (The X-Files)|colonization of Earth]]. The first incident of rebel violence on Earth occurred in [[Kazakhstan]], where dozens of impending abductees were found incinerated. [[Marita Covarrubias]] investigated the incident and quickly had it covered up. Shortly thereafter, many more abductees were summoned to Skyland Mountain via their metallic tags. Again, the group was attacked and incinerated by the alien rebels. It was at this time that the rebels were more clearly identified as being faceless—with their facial orifices sewn shut to prevent black oil infection—a telltale characteristic that set them apart as the rebel force.<ref name="Patient_X">{{cite episode| episode-link=Patient X (The X-Files) | title=Patient X | series=The X-Files | series-link=The X-Files |credits =[[Kim Manners]] (director), [[Chris Carter (screenwriter)|Chris Carter]] & [[Frank Spotnitz]] (writers) | network = [[Fox Broadcasting Company|FOX]] | season = 5 | number = 13}}</ref> The following year, the rebels made their most daring—and most destructive—move. Outside of Washington, D.C., they attacked a train car, wherein a group of Syndicate doctors led by Eugene Openshaw were experimenting on [[Cassandra Spender]]—the first successful alien-human [[hybrid (biology)|hybrid]]. The rebels incinerated the doctors, but left Cassandra alive so that the Project would be revealed and subsequently destroyed. Indeed, one of the rebels killed the [[Second Elder]] and assumed his position at meetings of the Syndicate; however, [[The Smoking Man]] realized this and had the group cease meeting together.<ref name="Two_Fathers">{{cite episode| episode-link=Two Fathers (The X-Files) | title=Two Fathers | series=The X-Files | series-link=The X-Files |credits =[[Kim Manners]] (director), [[Chris Carter (screenwriter)|Chris Carter]] & [[Frank Spotnitz]] (writers) | network = [[Fox Broadcasting Company|FOX]] | season = 6 | number = 11}}</ref>

The Smoking Man contacted his son, [[Jeffrey Spender]], and charged him with killing the rebel posing as the Second Elder. However, Spender failed, and [[Alex Krycek]] successfully completed the assassination. Spender then realized the scope of the conspiracy being carried out by his father, and he pledged his support to [[Fox Mulder]]. Having their hand forced by the rebels, the Syndicate retrieved Cassandra Spender and prepared to present her to the aliens so that [[colonization]] could begin. However, the rebels instead appeared and incinerated the entire group of high-ranking Syndicate members, meaning the destruction of the Syndicate.<ref name="One_Son"/>

===Legacy===
Later in 1999, Scully asked Mulder what more he could possibly hope to do or to find, after having done and uncovered so much, such as exposing the secrets of a conspiracy of men who had been doing human experiments but were all now dead. Mulder's reply was that he still hoped to find his sister.<ref name="Biogenesis">{{cite episode| episode-link= Biogenesis (The X-Files) | title= Biogenesis | series=The X-Files | series-link=The X-Files |credits =[[Rob Bowman (filmmaker)|Rob Bowman]] (director), [[Chris Carter (screenwriter)|Chris Carter]] & [[Frank Spotnitz]] (writers) | network = [[Fox Broadcasting Company|FOX]] | season = 6 | number = 22}}</ref> Later on, Mulder dreamt of the Syndicate, in which an illusory version of the [[Cigarette Smoking Man]] claimed that his group had "made entire cultures disappear".<ref name="Amor_Fati">{{cite episode| episode-link= The Sixth Extinction II: Amor Fati | title= The Sixth Extinction II: Amor Fati | series=The X-Files | series-link=The X-Files |credits =[[Michael W. Watkins]] (director), [[David Duchovny]] & [[Chris Carter (screenwriter)|Chris Carter]] (writers) | network = [[Fox Broadcasting Company|FOX]] | season = 7 | number = 2}}</ref>

In reality, the Cigarette Smoking Man continued working on the Project with a group of men who held a conference to discuss colonization in 1999.<ref name="Biogenesis"/> The Cigarette Smoking Man also continued working with his doctors, who were aware of the Syndicate's work to create a [[Colonist (The X-Files)|human-alien hybrid]] and attempted to continue this work.<ref name="Amor_Fati"/>  The Cigarette Smoking Man is also seen, in "[[Biogenesis (The X-Files)|Biogenesis]]", meeting with a group of men, some in military uniforms, who are speaking about some sort of disaster and "containment" of it.<ref name="Biogenesis"/>  Presumably they are speaking about colonization, and this assembly of men may be part of the Cigarette Smoking Man's intentions, revealed in "[[Requiem (The X-Files)|Requiem]]", to try to rebuild the conspiracy.<ref name="Requiem">{{cite episode| episode-link=Requiem (The X-Files) | title=Requiem | series=The X-Files | series-link=The X-Files |credits =[[Kim Manners]] (director), [[Chris Carter (screenwriter)|Chris Carter]] (writer) | network = [[Fox Broadcasting Company|FOX]] | season = 7 | number = 22}}</ref>

In [[The X-Files (season 8)|season eight]], Doctor [[Essence (The X-Files)|Lizzy Gill]] admitted to Mulder, Assistant Director [[Walter Skinner]] and Special agent [[John Doggett]] that, for the past ten years, she and her colleagues had been working to create a human-alien hybrid. According to her, the work had originally been financed by a group of government men but had continued after their deaths. Gill's colleagues, by this time, included Doctors Parenti, Lev and Duffy Haskell, but they all had been killed recently by [[Colonist (The X-Files)|super soldier]] [[Billy Miles (The X-Files)|Billy Miles]].<ref name="Essence">{{cite episode| episode-link=Essence (The X-Files) | title=Essence | series=The X-Files | series-link=The X-Files |credits =[[Kim Manners]] (director), [[Chris Carter (screenwriter)|Chris Carter]] (writer) | network = [[Fox Broadcasting Company|FOX]] | season = 8 | number = 20}}</ref>

With the Syndicate eliminated, the [[power vacuum]] was eventually filled in [[The X-Files (season 9)|season nine]] by a new government-like organization. This organization included members such as the [[Toothpick Man]],<ref name="Providence">{{cite episode| episode-link=Providence (The X-Files) | title=Providence | series=The X-Files | series-link=The X-Files |credits = [[Chris Carter (screenwriter)|Chris Carter]] (director), [[Chris Carter (screenwriter)|Chris Carter]] & [[Frank Spotnitz]] (writers) | network = [[Fox Broadcasting Company|FOX]] | season = 9 | number = 10 }}</ref> Gene Crane, and [[Knowle Rohrer]], among others. All known members revealed to viewers in the series were [[Colonist (The X-Files)|super soldiers]], men with superhuman abilities - with the exception of [[Alex Krycek]], who was killed in "[[Existence (The X-Files)|Existence]]".<ref name="Existence">{{cite episode| episode-link=Existence (The X-Files) | title=Existence | series=The X-Files | series-link=The X-Files |credits = [[Kim Manners]] (director), [[Chris Carter (screenwriter)|Chris Carter]] (writer) | network = [[Fox Broadcasting Company|FOX]] | season = 8 | number = 21}}</ref> During the [[season finale]], "[[The Truth (The X-Files)|The Truth]]" this unnamed organization shuts down [[X-File|the X-Files office]] at the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]]. Mulder was left on the run<ref name="The_Truth">{{cite episode| episode-link=The Truth (The X-Files) | title=The Truth | series=The X-Files | series-link=The X-Files |credits =[[Kim Manners]] (director), [[Chris Carter (screenwriter)|Chris Carter]] (writer) | network = [[Fox Broadcasting Company|FOX]] | season = 9  | number = 19 & 20}}</ref> until all his criminal charges qlare lifted in ''[[The X-Files: I Want to Believe]]''.<ref name="I_Want_to_Believe">{{cite AV media|title=[[The X-Files: I Want to Believe]] |people=[[Chris Carter (screenwriter)|Chris Carter]] (director), Chris Carter & [[Frank Spotnitz]] (writers) |type=Motion picture |publisher = [[20th Century Fox]]}}</ref> In the [[The X-Files (season 11)|eleventh season]] premiere "[[My Struggle III]]", Mulder encountered Mr. Y and his accomplice Erika Price, who claimed to be former members of the Syndicate with their own agenda involving the colonization of space and simulated reality.

== Men in Black ==
{{Main|Men in Black (The X-Files)}}
The [[Men in Black (The X-Files)|Men in Black]] is the unofficial name of a group of enforcers employed by the Syndicate to take care of the dirty work of the conspiracy. Most of them were ex-military, highly trained and loyal hitmen, who worked as a front in government agencies such as the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]], [[United States Department of Defense|Department of Defense]], and the [[National Security Agency]].

The Men in Black are analogous to the [[Alien Bounty Hunters]] employed by the [[Colonist (The X-Files)|Colonists]]. The Men in Black were, however, not as reliable as the bounty hunters and though sometimes they were used initially it took the more capable Alien Bounty Hunters to complete difficult tasks. The Syndicate would use the bounty hunters only when absolutely necessary because of an increased risk of exposure.

== References ==
{{Reflist|2}}

==External links==
{{wikiquote|The X-Files}}

{{X-Files}}

[[Category:The X-Files (franchise)]]
[[Category:Fictional secret societies]]