eerie coincidences ... I'm a little slow on the draw

Apparently while I was away on my mission there was a short lived TV spin-off of the X-Files called The Lone Gunmen. I didn't know this until several months ago when it was pointed out to me by my significant other. I was excited because out of all the characters in the X-Files series, I think the Lone Gunmen were my favorites.

 

Flash forward to September 15, 2009 at 7:09 pm. After having previously watched the complete series of the X-Files, I decided to venture into the Lone Gunmen series to complete my collection. So for date night the husband and I curl up on the bed with a plate of cold french fries and ginger ale to enjoy our evening and pop in the first disk of this series... To my surprise it was an evening that lingers in the subconscious.

 

Pilot episode (originally aired 3/4/01) opens with the Lone Gunmen trying to steal a computer chip for one of their articles about government conspiracies hacking into your personal life, yada yada yada, and quickly the plot turns to the death of Byers' father. To make a long story short, Byers' father isn't really dead as he survived an assassination attempt to cover up the war game scenario known as "scenario D-12" that a small faction of the government is putting into action to increase arms sales. War-mongering at it's core...

 

What is Scenario D-12? It is a scenario that it has to do with airline counter-terrorism that, as Byers' father puts it, "isn't a game any more".

 

Bertrum Byers says in answer to his son's question: "The Cold War’s over, John. But with no clear enemy to stockpile against, the arms market’s flat. But bring down a fully loaded 727 in to the middle of New York City and you’ll find a dozen tin-pot dictators all over the world just clamoring to take responsibility, and begging to be smart-bombed.”

 

And thus introduces the main plot of the show... The lone Gunmen must stop the government from enacting a scheme to bomb an airliner over NYC creating war profiteering and a rise in the arms market... However once Byers and his father are on the plane searching out the bomb, they discover that the plane IS the bomb. Thankfully as the show progresses Langly, Forhike, and Byers save the day by disabling the remote access that is steering the plane straight in to the World Trade Center Towers and in the end Byers' father says that he's not going public with the plot and information because his life, and his sons are more important then fighting for the "American Dream."

 

Again, I love the Lone Gunmen, but this plot had me on edge. I was shocked at the first mention of bring a plane down in NYC. I was doublely shocked when they discovered that the plane was the bomb and it was heading straight for the Corner of Liberty and Washington, in Lower Manhattan. But I found myself holding my breath and fighting back a little panic when they showed the plane careening towards the towers before they were able to gain access and pull the plane up with only seconds left to spare. 

 

I don't know that shocked is the right word, but I can't think of another adjective that quite explains how I felt watching that show last night.  

 

I have avoided a lot of the 9/11 coverage the last few years for several reasons, but one of the biggest reasons is that I find myself in tears for the loss of innocence/trust/lives ...  I have had a growing sense of paranoia that has been compounded by my depression, disappointments, trials, and life experiences that makes it all seem so bleak. Some days I look at the world and see that it is all bad and that feeds into my paranoia of if I leave my house something terrible is going to happen to me. Last Friday, on the 8th anniversary of 9/11 John was flipping through channels and stopped on a documentary for like five minutes and I was choked up with tears with in a few minutes.

 

I guess what I'm trying to say is that this isn't the same world I grew up in, and I can feel it as well as see it. I don't know that I will ever watch the pilot episode of this series again because it reminded me of all the bad things that I'd like to forget. And if I were the distributer of this DVD collection (that was released in 2005) I would have added a Warning "This show contains scenes that some viewers may find disturbing".

 

I know, I know, I do complain a lot about the warnings that they put on things because quite frankly I think they are over used and ridiculous and we're stifling our children’s imaginations and lives by telling them that they can't/won't/never do there SO MANY things that we got to do as kids that the youth of today are dissuaded from, blah blah blah... I'll rant on this high-horse some other time. But needless to say, THIS episode probably should run that warning for all of us who lived through 9/11, for the families of victims, for those who were deeply effected by the events of that day and for the children who don't understand why mommy and/or dad turns the channel or leaves the room to cry when certain events are replayed in a thousand different ways on the tele.

  

did that make any sense?? who cares.

 

fin.