The Lone Gunmen Are Dead

Mike Perry (And many,many others) writes: "In an astounding move after the cancellation of the show, Chris Carter killed off the Lone Gunmen in tonight's episode of the X-Files. After a short introduction that re-introduced the group as trying to save "a world that isn't too kind to idealists," the episode progressed until the Gunmen realized their destiny with Langley's quotes about Joey Ramone, and then Byer's quote "We never gave up, and we never will. In the end, if that's all they can say about us, it'll do." The episode then built to an ending where the Gunmen group gave their lives to thwart a bio-terrorist financed by a business tycoon.I don't know about you guys, but back in the prime of the X-Files, these guys were as close a role model as I could find on television as a kid. I was deeply disappointed with the cancellation of the show (sure the pilot sucked, but the next few episodes were good). I feel glad that these characters were allowed to retire with dignity before the end of the show." CD: Oops, sorry about the spoiler, when I scheduled the post I miscalculated the timing. I know, I'm evil. I promise I won't ruin the next 4 episodes or however many they have left.

Comments

Sneakers

[dasheiff]

Yeah not since Sneakers had we seen real hacking.

Hello, SPOILER warning?

[szcx]

Way to go, fuckmonkeys. Hey by the way, Darth Vader was Luke's father.

Re:Hello, SPOILER warning?

[rnturn]

``Hey by the way, Darth Vader was Luke's father.''

Hey thanks a lot! Just where was your spoiler warning?

I have all the released movies but I was waiting until all the remaining episodes were filmed before watching them. But why bother now.

Sheez. :-(

Re:Hello, SPOILER warning?

[BreakWindows]

I have all the released movies but I was waiting until all the remaining episodes were filmed before watching them. But why bother now.

They made sequels to that movie? Man, I imagine they must have gone downhill after that first one...probably filled with furry muppets or something.

And to all the people complaining: come on, it's only television. If you find yourself complaining that someone spoiled the ending to your favorite TV show, AND that show is the XFiles, AND the spoilage was that the geeky subversives with whom you identify were killed: You really need to (re)evaluate your life. Put down the game comtroller, move out of your parent's basement and cut the mullet. That *whoosh* you hear is life passing you by.

Re:Hello, SPOILER warning?

[BreakWindows]

get a clue you dumb fuck ... if you are gonna spend your time telling people that whatever they find interesting is wrong or makes them a loser

I didn't say anything was wrong, only that obsessing over it to the point of anger that it was "spoiled" is. It's not real life, it's a TV show. This is not real life, it's Slashdot. If you take some dumb fuck's worthless loser opinion so seriously you need to respond with angry remarks, you need to find a new anti-drug. I laughed when I read your post, because it isn't about me; it's about some handle's post to a website about a fictional character on television. I couldn't take it personally, so I found it humorous. You'll find life is a lot happier when you stop taking things that don't matter so seriously, which is the point of my original joke, and the point of this post.

Stop crying that the X-Files was spoiled for you...any normal person would shrug it off and watch anyway, content with watching their favorite show. The need for surprise and following along like you're really there is an extension of detached reality. Watch it and enjoy it as a television show, no one said anything was wrong with that, but if you get that angry when the pictures on the screen aren't around anymore, it's time to find a new *hobby*.

I felt a lump in my throat

[cOdEgUru]

Not because of the cheesy way they killed them off, but because I had taken it for granted that these three goofballs would always be there.

It was kinda nice in the part where they had to cover up for their lack of equipment, blaming it on upgrades and giving them all away to charity, when for real they had spent it all on finding Yves.

Jimmy also made a nice comeback from the Lone Gunmen era. Man, I really really wished Mulder was back for this episode. He had a real bond with these guys. And I believe with Lone Gunmen gone, and with the curtains coming down next month, one of the most hated/loved series is leaving us all.

Spoilers BELOW the intro text!

[Louis_Wu]

Spoiler warning!!

Oops, couldn't be bothered.

If I were watching these last episodes as they came out (instead of taping for viewing in a month or two) I would be TICKED OFF that one of the most popular sci-fi series had a major plot point published on Slashdot before it's seen by all of the continental US. (As it is, I'm only watching the rest of the series out of loyalty to the original 7 years I loved the show.)

Yup, that story was posted at 8:20 pm Pacific Daylight Time, 40 minutes before X-files starts.

Before I can see the episode in Seattle (major /. hangout, I believe), the death of some major characters is put on the front page.

Sheesh, it should have been in the [Read More] section with a spoiler warning. Publish it, but give me a chance to experience it first.

Spoiler City

[Black Art]

Actually this was mentioned weeks ago on aint-it-cool-news.com. The episode title is "Jump the Shark", a reference to jumptheshark.com.

But then again, I have been living 23 minutes into the future lately. (I watched the Star Trek episode of Futurama with full end credit this morning.)

Just so you don't do this again..

[garagekubrick]

I'm also going to join in and state that this was the stupidest thing /. has done in awhile. X Files isn't airing for another goddamn half an hour and you blow it right there in the headline.

And furthermore, tell Jon Katz that it's "spoiler warning" not "spoilage" and stop having him mention the evils of Time Warner AOL when he sold the rights to your story to New Line Films - owned by them.

In fact, slashdot's entire cultural coverge is pretty weak and needs an overhaul.

Re:Just so you don't do this again..

[Wintersmute]

slashdot's entire cultural coverge is pretty weak and needs an overhaul

Am I the only one who thinks that cultural coverage for nerds is like visual arts coverage for the blind?

UUUHHHH....SPOILER WARNING.....

[cybrpnk]

Hey, you guys on the West Coast, don't take this so hard, you've seen this scene already. It's a straight rip-off from the death-of-Spock scene. Separated by panes of glass...the friends struggle to open the door...but no, can't do that, they're already dead...so we have the mauldin goodbye...at least they didn't say anything about the needs of the many and needs of the few.

Oh, and in the last scene they get buried in Arlington.

Re:UUUHHHH....SPOILER WARNING.....

[daeley]

Spock DIED? When the fsck did that happen????!!!!!!

;)

Re:Gee, Thanks

[Kris_J]

Not to mention the Rest of the World. Down Under the new season of the X-files hasn't even started yet.

wow

[Lord Omlette]

I'm very very serious: I was so fucking shocked by what I saw, it didn't even occur to me to submit it to slashdot. I stopped watching X-Files last season, but I saw on an ad that the Lone Gunman were featured in this ep so I stayed to watch...

If you're upset about spoilers, don't be. Knowing what happens isn't going to blunt it when you see it happens :(

I hate Chris Carter. I hope the feds catch him typing "ALLAH BOMB PRESIDENT" to someone on Instant Messenger.

Oh, give me a break, chris

[TheRealFixer]

CD: Oops, sorry about the spoiler, when I scheduled the post I miscalculated the timing. I know, I'm evil. I promise I won't ruin the next 4 episodes or however many they have left.

The ENTIRE THREAD, including the TITLE was designed to be a SPOILER. And you happily posted it right on the front page. Don't EVEN cry about mis-timing the posting of this thread. You did something incredibly stupid by even POSTING a spoiler story like this, regardless of the timing. What were you thinking?!

Re:SPOILER WARNING!!!!!!

[Glytch]

The concept of the Lone Gunmen being buried in Arlington is just so completely wrong I don't know where to begin.

Re:good episode, bad ending - sci-fi in general

[glwtta]

The only bright spot is that Enterprise is getting better.

Wow, nothing could've brought home the fact that sci-fi on tv sucks now, like that one sentence.

How to Prevent chrisd from Spoiling Things Again

[Colz Grigor]

I know it's already been said... Chris was highly inconsiderate to half the population of the country and probably 2/3rds of Slashdot readers.

But there's a way to prevent him from doing it to us again!!!

Edit your homepage, scroll down to the "Exclude Stories from the Homepage" section. In the left-most (Authors) column, four down, you will find a checkbox next to the name "chrisd". Make certain there's a checkmark in it (or whatever the image is, since I'm sure you're all using different skins than I am). Then scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page and click the button marked "Save".

Once done, chrisd will never spoil another show, movie, or anything for you again.

Finally, a personal message to chrisd:
Thanks a lot! What a maroon.

::Colz Grigor

well, you ruined the x-files for me

[AnimeFreak]

So here will be tonights hockey score in the Detroit vs. Vancouver game.

Detroit - 2
Vancouver - 3

It was decided in overtime.

Oh, and yes, Peter Parker is also Spiderman.

I'm really very sorry.

[chrisd]

It honestly wasn't intentional. It wasn't a time zone thing, I just haven't watched x-files in such a long time (the whole alien tease thing they did was too annoying for me) so I didn't think about when the story would hit on the west coast. My bad.

Anyhow, it's 9pm on the west coast so no real point in changing titles (something we are loathe to do), and well, a big apology to everyone who cares, and a big overall apology to people further along the dateline who we probably regularly ruin shows for. (But it is just TV, after all)

chrisd

Re:I'm really very sorry.

[TheRealFixer]

> I just haven't watched x-files in such a long time (the whole alien tease thing they did was too annoying for me) so I didn't think about when the story would hit on the west coast.

So, basically what you're saying is that, because you don't care about the X-Files, you didn't care enough to NOT post a SPOILER thread on the night the episode was out?

> Anyhow, it's 9pm on the west coast so no real point in changing titles

Yeah, except for the people who are just starting to watch it, and the people in Alaska, and Hawaii, and everywhere else in the world that doesn't run on east coast time.

> and a big overall apology to people further along the dateline who we probably regularly ruin shows for. (But it is just TV, after all)

Yeah, and Slashdot is just a big, overrated and overgrown news site.

Re:I'm really very sorry.

[Anonymous Coward]

We know, Chris, and really, everyone's just complaining because we like to whine and complain. That's all. If we could think of something intelligent to post, we would. But we can't. There's regularly 4-500 posts to every /. article, with 80% of those being recycled junk or trolls. We want to be smart, and contribute, but we can't. We're stupid. But we wanna post anyway. This isn't the old Slashdot anymore. Look at the Philip K. Dick Question on the sidebar. Cowboy Neal's way ahead again, since nobody here reads that stuff. We don't read fiction at all anymore. We surf the net, download MP3's and pr0n, and watch tv. We don't care about Sci-Fi anymore. We don't care about government corruption, media manipulation, Microsoft bullying the little guys, whatever. Slashdot has been overrun by the unwashed masses. It's not geeks or nerds who read this site, at least geeks or nerds who actually CARE about tech (what percentage of readers are on Windows and IE coming here again?) but only argumentative goofs like me who like to be outraged at the government and Microsoft or whatever when you tell us to be, but are unable to understand it fully or do anything about it if we did. We don't *really* care. But we like to have loud angry opinions. So we rant. That's what this whole thing is. It's just that you're the target today. Usually it's Katz, since he actually tries to post important stuff. Don't do that. You can't make us intelligent. You can't make us care. We don't care about anything but ourselves. Don't worry about it, C. You screwed up, and the losers are jumping on you like rabid hyenas who smell blood. That's the human race for ya. Slashdot is now 0wn3d by the LCD gang - Lowest Common Denominator. The stupid. The ugly. The impotent. The lazy whiners and complainers who are against the GPL even though they don't understand it or what it does for them. The losers who can't code to save their lives. The verbal diarrhea authors who can't construct a decent sentence, and swear in every sentence they DO construct properly. I personally don't know why any of you guys waste your time here. You're killing any chance open-source (or Free Software for those who still care) ever has by monopolizing the time of the few GNU coders there are out there with this meaningless drivel, reducing them to /. addicted news porn fiends. Slashdot's doing more for Bill Gates than George W. Bush and his "open wallet, closed mouth" policy.

Zooberman

Re:I'm really very sorry.

[M-G]

Not to mention the fact that the promos for the show for the last week have said that someone was going to die.....

I LIKE..

[_aa_]

the fact that your role model is TV. And even moreso, fictional TV.

Not a spoiler. It's your own damn fault.

[Henry V .009]

This is not a spoiler. It's your own damn fault for reading it. Don't you know that the great slashdot blackout is going on?

Re:All right, call me a troll...

[mcoletti]

No, you're not a troll, and I agree with you vehemetly. I'm on the East Coast, but regularly time shift "X Files" to watch it later sans commercials. Of course now , thanks to /. administrative MORONS the major plot point has been given away.

Unbelievably, pig-headedly, unforgiveably s-t-u-p-i-d.

Re:THANKS!

[2muchcoffeeman]

Don't blame chrisd for this. Point your blame guns at Taco. In my opinion, he should've held it back until midnight EST, at least. There really was no good reason not to. Could've put spoiler warnings on the front page, too -- warning of information about major characters in the show's mythology getting killed off and "if you want it spoiled, click the link."

But that's just my opinion. I could be wrong.

(And then there's the old punishment from rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated, but that's too harsh.)

(Uh, then again, maybe not.)

Cmon, give the guy a break

[alazor]

chrid fucked up. Then chrisd apologized. If I had made this mistake and a zillion people jumped down my throat I would feel like shit and I bet chrisd does. Leave the guy alone.

Re:Thanks, morons

[kubrick]

You ever hear of something called the Earth? See, there are *many other countries* out there that doesn't get TV shows in the exact same *year* YOU do.

wait a minute...

[telstar]

I though the internet took three more hours to reach the west coast too!

THANKS FOR THE SPOILER!

[codexus]

Ok, I'm gonna burn some karma on this one but I'm really angry at the /. editors for letting such a spoiler on the frontpage without even a warning.

Yes, this message is redundant, so moderate me down but I just had to say it. :(

WORST EPISODE EVER

[gnovos]

Poorly written, filled with chese, complete lack of pacing, the deaths of those characters for the SOLE PURPOSE of ending the fan mail campaign asking to brink back "The Long Gunman" spinoff, and plot holes you could shoot a Kennedy through... The more I watch, the more I think that the writers have begun to really hate and resent this show, so they want to make damn sure that when they end it, it stays ended. Like, piss off and disgust your fans enough right at the end that not a single person will care enough to write a letter asking for more. Either that, or the guys at FOX have finally decided that it's time to retire, so they are trying thier best to get dumped out on the street. Bye bye X-Files, bye bye Futurama... bye bye FOX!

Geez, I'm old... Oh... my arthritis...

[tommck]

I don't know about you guys, but back in the prime of the X-Files, these guys were as close a role model as I could find on television as a kid.

COULD I FEEL ANY FUCKING OLDER RIGHT NOW?

When you were a kid!?!?!

Jesus, I need a beer.