En Ami

"En Ami" is the fifteenth episode of the seventh season of the science fiction television series The X-Files. It premiered on the Fox network in the United States on March 19, 2000. The episode helped to explore the series' overarching mythology. "En Ami" earned a Nielsen household rating of 7.5, being watched by 11.99 million people in its initial broadcast. The episode received mostly positive reviews from critics, althoug elements of the script, as well as The Smoking Man's (William B. Davis) motives, were criticized..

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, Scully is intrigued after a young boy with cancer, whose parents don’t believe in medical treatment because it is against God’s will, recovers miraculously. What she soon discovers is that his cure is not miraculous, but scientific. Eager, if wary, to learn of the truth behind his secrets, Scully agrees to travel with the The Smoking Man to get the cure to all mankind’s diseases.

The script was Davis' first—and only—writing contribution to the series. Davis, inspired by the Shakespeare play Richard III, wanted to write a story wherein The Smoking Man was able to lure Scully in by enticing her with medical knowledge. In addition, "En Ami" was the last episode of The X-Files to be directed by Rob Bowman. The episode's title means "as a friend" in French and also functions as a pun, reading phonetically as "enemy" in English.