R.I.P. The Lone Gunmen.
It had to be a trick, right? They weren't really trapped with a contagious and deadly virus? Oh, but it turns out they really were.
I feel like this episode was meant to be a giant "Fuck you" to FOX for cancelling The Lone Gunmen and later cancelling The X-Files and that Chris Carter decided he would kill off the trio and title the episode, 'Jump the Shark' to make sure it was rather permanent and couldn't be undone or retconned or otherwise fixed. Now that I know the show was cancelled rather than being voluntarily ended, I'm fully expecting lots and lots of death in the series finale.
It's often said in fiction that if you don't see a body, don't assume someone is dead. So I suppose it's technically possible for the show to bring back The Lone Gunmen - they have to be in the finale, right? That's going to be the salad bar episode - since all we saw were coffins and a sealed room implying they died. (Also, based on the way the carrier of the virus actually died, it seems like their deaths would have been extremely painful.)
So I didn't get a chance to see their spinoff show, and I don't even know why it didn't last. I guess The X-Files was already kind of waning in popularity at the time, so maybe the expectation that The Lone Gunmen would pick up the X-Files audience didn't really mean all that much any more.
My point is that I didn't recognise the characters they brought in from that show in their attempt to wrap up whatever story they had started telling. Based on how convoluted this episode was, I wonder if maybe people just had trouble following The Lone Gunmen.
Morris Fletcher will never not be a strange character. I still kind of wish they all had some way to remember what happened in 'Dreamland', because then maybe he might have asked how Mulder enjoyed his waterbed. Or some other such silliness. But there was still plenty of silliness in the episode, because I think at their core, that's kind of what the Lone Gunmen are. I know they began their life in season one as caricatures of fringe conspiracy theorists, but I liked how they developed into strong allies of Mulder and Scully, and later of Skinner and Doggett and Reyes, and really kind of matured, at least as much as they were able to.
I can see how maybe they also would have become a little grating in their own series with that much more screen time, though. They're good in small doses on The X-Files.
The plot itself is mostly formulaic, but obviously that's not why this episode exists. The story was never meant to span multiple episodes and was always going to be wrapped up here, so I pretty much expected it would fly by a little too quickly. I still didn't expect that ending. I even fought it when they pulled the fire alarm, because I totally didn't expect it would activate sealed doors. I assumed they were just trying to make sure everyone else got out of the building. Even when they panned down over Arlington, I had a hard time accepting that that had really just happened.
While the journey was mediocre at best, I do think the ending kind of made up for it, especially Scully, who was absent for the entire episode otherwise. In fact, the whole time, I was thinking, "Where the hell is Scully? She's always been skeptical of these guys, but she's worked with them! Mulder trusted them and she trusted Mulder. Why is she not involved?" and I think the fact that she wasn't involved perfectly set up her tearful monologue at the end.
"They meant so much to me. I'm not sure if they ever really knew."
It's no, "You've got something I need," but holy feels, Scully! You may only be in this episode for a minute and a half, but damn if you can't deliver in that time. She didn't get to say good-bye to them in life, and I think that made this scene that much more powerful. Yes, it's trite and cliche, but I don't care, because it still works.
Scully, you are the best for ever.
"The ones who never give up, they never die."
The world really is a better place for having had The Lone Gunmen in it.
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