Post-Finale Editorial

Like many GunFen (Lone Gunmen Fans), I hoped against hope that the so-called finale, with its promises of resolutions, would somehow resurrect Our Heroes from a gruesome and unnecessary "death." 

If only.

Instead, the Gunmen's much-ballyhooed "return" was merely a "vision" of Mulder's... one we're supposed to accept with all his other visions of "dead" people throughout the two-hour FARCE they shoved down our throats.  And that wasn't the only disappointment of the night.  Resolutions?!?  There were none--not unless you count an hour-and-a-half recap of the history of the show's mythology.  Hey, I saw that the first time around--it only took me 9 years.  Why waste three-quarters of the finale arguing a trial which we are told from the beginning is a set-up?  Oh, that's right--gotta have another chance to allow all the surviving heroes to look like buffoons under cross-examination, especially A.D. Skinner, another favorite character of mine.  That is, if he survived.  I can't tell.  The last we saw of him, he was walking into a possibly fatal confrontation with a big-wig FBI supersoldier who knew he'd help sprung Mulder from a death sentence.   But that apparently wasn't important enough to wrap up.  The child who was once considered the "Holy Grail" of alien-human- hybrid proof, Gibson Praise, must still be wandering around the corridors of the J. Edgar Hoover Building; guess they didn't think that mattered either.  And Doggett and Reyes, who've risked their lives so many times for Mulder and Scully's crusade, disappeared while hauling their asses outta Dodge when the Smoking Man was killed (again.  That makes 3 times now.  And do Chris Carter & Co. really think if they brought back one character three times that they couldn't bring back three characters once???)  --What was that?  Oh, yeah, we did learn one thing in those two dragged-out, meaningless hours.  The date of alien colonization:  December 22, 2012.  Can't stop it, can't fight it.  But if that's true, and Mulder's quest is such a hopeless one, THEN WHAT THE HELL WERE THE LAST 9 YEARS FOR?!?!?

Yes, I can hear the response now... it's the typical response to any fan's gripes.

"Don't you know...it's just a TV show?"

Yes, I know that.  By that logic, I don't have the right to feel as outraged, betrayed, used and abused by CC&co as I do now.  You know something?  I don't care.  For almost 9 years--not quite a third of my life--I've been captivated by this show, its turns and twists exhilarating, its creativity sparking my own imagination, its sense of wonder and possibility resonating somehow in the strands of my own hopes, dreams, and beliefs.  It helped make the bad times good and the good times better.  It sparked off conversations, both on-line and real-time, with people I might never have met or spoken with without it.  My fiance and I made it our Sunday-night date for years.  I told my Phil after the end, half-jokingly, that it was almost like a relationship of its own.  Sounds pathetic?  Maybe.  But for me, and a lot of the fans out there, THE X-FILES was something we'd come to rely on for good, quality entertainment...and not only did they let us down in the finale, they cheated us.  Hoodwinked, gypped, royally screwed, whatever you want to call it, we got hosed.  I may not be able to explain it properly in words...  but watching that finale hurt.  By the end of that two-hour FARCE, I was crying--in sheer frustration and depression.

We, the loyal fans and supporters of THE X-FILES and 10-13 Productions, who by our time, money and efforts enabled them to last 9 years on network television, deserved better.

WAY better.

And if they don't feel we deserve their best, then they shouldn't get ours.

I, for one, am hereby swearing off the X-Files.  No more merchandise, no more DVDs, no movie tickets, not even reruns.  I refuse to support any individual or company that doesn't respect the ones it depends on. 

Maybe, just maybe, if they give us some form of justice and bring back the Gunmen, I might reconsider my position.  But considering what lack of thought I've seen so far, I'm not exactly holding my breath. 

I highly urge the rest of the disgruntled fans to do the same.  If enough of us band together, we just might get Our Guys back.  Even if we don't, we show the idiots at 10-13 how we feel... and just who they depend on for their success.

I'm still a Gunfen...but now I'm an EX-Phile.

(P.S.  And I don't think the Gunmen are dead either.  We never saw any bodies, and the "rules" of the X-Files used to be no body, no deaths.  They're still out there, somewhere, and the burial was a hoax designed to throw off the terrorists whose plans they spoiled so they wouldn't attack the Gunmen while they were recuperating.  It wouldn't be the first death hoax the X-Files team has pulled off--it's practically a tradition.  As far as that so-called "vision," it was merely a figment of Mulder's delusional mind.  It couldn't have really been them, since they never gave up and wouldn't have tried to convince anyone else of it either.  So how did X give Mulder a piece of paper if the visions were mere delusions?  Chalk that up to yet another 10-13 inconsistency, or perhaps someone else gave it to Mulder and he hallucinated it was X.  However you slice it, THE GUNMEN ARE ALIVE.   And I'm sticking to that...no matter what.  :^D )   

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