Deep Throat (The X-Files)
Deep Throat is a fictional character on the American science fiction television series The X-Files. He serves as an informant, leaking information to FBI Special Agent Fox Mulder to aid Mulder's investigation of paranormal cases, dubbed X-Files. Introduced in the series' second episode, also named "Deep Throat", the character was killed off during the first season finale "The Erlenmeyer Flask"; however, he later made several appearances in flashbacks and visions. In the season 11 episode "This", his real name is ostensibly revealed to be Ronald Pakula.
The character of Deep Throat was portrayed by Jerry Hardin in all his appearances. After the character was killed, Steven Williams was introduced in the second season episode "The Host" to portray his successor, X. The creation of Deep Throat was inspired by the historical Deep Throat, Mark Felt, who leaked information on the Watergate scandal, and by Donald Sutherland's character X in the film JFK.
Conceptual history
Series creator Chris Carter has stated that the character of Deep Throat was "of course" inspired by the historical Deep Throat. The real Deep Throat was an informant leaking information on the FBI's investigation of the Watergate scandal to journalists Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward. After the conclusion of The X-Files, this Deep Throat was later revealed to be FBI Associate Director Mark Felt. Also cited as an influence on the fictional Deep Throat was X, the character portrayed by Donald Sutherland in the 1991 Oliver Stone film JFK. In the film, Sutherland's X reveals information about the possibility that the assassination of John F. Kennedy was orchestrated by elements within the American government. Carter felt he needed to create a character who would bridge the gap between FBI agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully and the shadowy conspirators who were working against them; he conceived of a character "who works in some level of government that we have no idea exists".Carter was drawn to actor Jerry Hardin after seeing him in 1993's The Firm. Hardin believed his initial appearance would be a one-time role, although he soon found himself regularly commuting to the series' Vancouver filming location on short notice. Producer Howard Gordon has spoken of the elusiveness of the character's allegiances, stating that during production, it was often left ambiguous whether he was "ally or foe". After filming the character's death in the first season finale, "The Erlenmeyer Flask", Hardin was toasted with champagne, and told by Carter that "no one ever really dies on X-Files". As such, Hardin made several more appearances as Deep Throat after this—seen in visions in the third season's "The Blessing Way" and the seventh season's "The Sixth Extinction II: Amor Fati", in flashbacks in the fourth season's "Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man", and as one of the guises assumed by a shapeshifting alien in the third season's finale, "Talitha Cumi".
Character arc
During the first season of The X-Files, Deep Throat provided Mulder and Scully with information they would have been otherwise unable to obtain. As a member of the then-unseen Syndicate, he was in a position to know a great deal of information. Deep Throat felt that the truth the Syndicate kept secret from the public needed to be known, and believed Mulder to be the one person capable of exposing this knowledge. However, in "E.B.E." Deep Throat provided Mulder with false information in order to divert him, later explaining that he believed the public was just not ready to know some truths.During the Vietnam War, Deep Throat worked for the Central Intelligence Agency. When a UFO was shot down over Hanoi by US Marines, the surviving extraterrestrial was brought to Deep Throat, who executed it. He later claimed that assisting Mulder was his way of atoning for his actions. He also stated that he was "a participant in some of the most insidious lies and witness to deeds that no crazed man could imagine".
In the first season finale of The X-Files, "The Erlenmeyer Flask", Mulder was taken hostage by a group of Men in Black operatives, following his investigation into an alien-human hybrid program. Fearing for Mulder's life, Deep Throat helped Scully gain access to a high containment facility, where she managed to secretly remove a cryogenically-preserved alien fetus for use as collateral in saving Mulder. In the subsequent meeting between the operatives and Deep Throat, he was gunned down by an assassin, the Crew Cut Man. Deep Throat was buried at the Arlington National Cemetery. The character later appeared in dreams and visions experienced by Mulder during his recuperation on a Navajo reservation, and again years later while being experimented on by The Smoking Man.