| The Lone Gunmen |
| The Lone Gunmen are the publishers of a monthly magazine called The Lone Gunman, in reference to one of the many Kennedy assasination theories. The group includes 3 people Byers, Langly and Frohike, though sometime before "One Breath" they were joined by the fourth member. Thinker, their fourth member was very secretive about actually appearing in the office, so was contacted only through email. He was killed 6 months later. Mulder called these people an extreme government watchdog group, and belives that some of their ideas are first rate, while some are downright spooky. Scully believes they are the most paranoid people she has ever met, and not one word they said is remotely plausible. They are useful for providing Mulder with background information on any subject that he may need background information on. |
| Though they claim that Mulder's ideas are wierder than theirs ! Their office is packed with books, files, computers. The staircase to their office is bare and metallic. The building is in a rundown neighbourhood. The address is 566 something. The sign on the door reads "THE LONEGUNMEN, PUBLISHER OF THE MAGIC BULLET NEWSLETTER". In "Triangle", they drive an old battered pale blue Volkswagen van. In "Blood" , it is definitely called "The Lone Gunman," rather that "The Magic Bullet", and is monthly. We also see "The Lone Gunman" in "Kill Switch", revealing it to be a large broadsheet-sized newspaper, with lots of text on the front page. In Dreamland II, we see the magazine, called "The Lone Gunman: The Newsletter For Those Who Want to Stay Informed and Alive". The magazine's apparetnly been going for ten years, since their November 1998 issue (featuring an article of Saddam Hussein and Monica Lewinsky, a mandroid) is Vol. X No. 11. It's published monthly at a dollor an issue, ten dollars a year or the bargain rate of twenty five dollars for three years. Episodes The Lone gunmen have appeared in EBE, Blood, One Breath, Fearful Symmetry, Anasazi, Blessing Way, Paper Clip, Nisei, Wetwired, Musings of the CSM, Memento Mori, Redux, Ununsual Suspects, Kill Switch, The End, The Movie, Dreamland II, Triangle, One Son, Three of a Kind, Field Trip. Unusual Suspects Most of the stuff we know about "The Lone Gunmen" is from this episode, so here is the official summary for the episode. In 1989, a SWAT team storms a darkened warehouse, its floors dotted with pools of blood. There the officers encounter a naked, paranoid Mulder lying on the ground. Suddenly, the three Lone Gunmen-Langly, Frohike and Byers-spring from a hiding place and make an unsuccessful bid for freedom. Byers is questioned by Detective Munch, who explains that despite evidence of a bloody shoot-out, and the involvement of a (now delusional) FBI agent, he has few clues about what actually transpired. Byers recounts the events that led up to the warehouse shoot-out. As the story unfolds, Byers attends a computer show at a convention center. There he meets a strikingly beautiful woman, "Holly," who claims her psychotic ex-boyfriend kidnapped her daughter. "Holly" gives Byers an Internet address, claiming it is her only hope in locating her child. Byers hacks his way onto government computer, where he types in the name of "Holly's" daughter, Susanne Modeski. The computer opens an encrypted file. Frohike, who mans a nearby booth, agrees to decipher the document. When "Holly" notices Mulder walking the convention floor, she identifies him as her ex-boyfriend. Frohike and Byers approach Mulder, only to learn he is an FBI Agent. When "Holly" disappears, Frohike and Byers ask Langly to hack onto the FBI mainframe computer, hoping he can find information on Mulder. Langly successfully cracks the mainframe, and learns that "Holly" is actually Susanne Modeski, who is wanted in connection with the bombing of an FBI lab that left four people dead. Modeski locates the threesome inside Byers' motel room. She claims the information contained in her file is fabricated. She admits the story about her daughter was a lie... one she made up in a desperate attempt to have the encrypted file deciphered. She tells the men that the government is plotting an experiment in which the American public will be exposed to a paranoia-inducing gas-one she unwittingly helped develop. The encrypted file reveals the address of the warehouse where the paranoia-inducing gas is stored. It also reveals that a surveillance device was attached to Modeski's tooth by her dentist. Using pliers, Modeski extracts a molar containing a tiny transmitter. Byers, Modeski and the others break inside the warehouse. There they discover asthma inhalers containing the gas. Mulder steps forward and announces that everyone is under arrest. Moments later, government officials enter the warehouse and instruct Modeski to follow them. When Mulder orders the men to identify themselves, they open fire, inadvertently striking the asthma inhalers. The liquid rains onto Mulder, triggering a psychotic episode. Modeski shoots the unidentified men and escapes. X steps forward and prepares to kill the threesome execution-style. When X lowers the weapon, Byers realizes he only intended to intimidate them. When Byers' finishes his story, Munch dismisses it as fiction. Later, the Lone Gunmen are released from jail when Mulder verifies what transpired. Afterward, the threesome locate Susanne at a newspaper office. She laments that no one believes her story. Moments later, government men usher Modeski away. The Lone Gunmen: TV Series Episode Guide and Latest information on 1013 Production's new show - The Lone Gunmen. Please note that the section marked spoilers contains prior information to what the episodes will be about, so approach with caution if you dont want to be spoilt. General Information After years of playing second fiddle to Agents Mulder and Scully on the hit FOX series THE X-FILES, the hugely popular trio of computer-hacking conspiracy geeks popularly known as The Lone Gunmen are finally heading out on their own. Never ones to stray far from the center of corporate and government intrigue, the threesome of Byers (Bruce Harwood), Frohike (Tom Braidwood) and Langly (Dean Haglund) play like a misguided Mission Impossible team, embarking on a series of comic adventures that simultaneously highlight their genius and ineptitude. While their newfound independence inspires them to investigate even the most shadowy of conspiracies, their social skills remain stagnant, which only makes their lives more difficult when they learn their chief competitor in the "information business" is the brilliant and beautiful Yves Adele Harlow (Zuleikha Robinson). Perpetually short of funds to publish The Lone Gunmen newspaper, Byers, Frohike and Langly begrudgingly take on Jimmy Bond (Stephen Snedden) as an unlikely benefactor who bankrolls their missions and joins them in their investigations to uncover the truth. SAVE THE GUNMEN: If You Love TLG, Let USA Today Know: USA Today has put up a site wanting to know if you think that The Lone Gunmen should be renewed. It's at the link below. In addition, they are taking in ballots (printed in today's edition) wanting to know if you think that TLG and other shows should be renewed. They specifically want to know if (1) FOX should keep TLG, (2) FOX should drop TLG, or (3) you don't care. Send your ballot to Save Our Shows, USA Today, 1000 Wilson Blvd, Arlington, VA 22229. Include your name and address - the ballot must reach them by Monday, April 16th. You also have the option of attaching a comment page to your ballot, and if you enclose your day and/or night phone number, they can call you to get your permission to use your comments in the paper. REMEMBER: any comments MUST be on a separate piece of paper AND you do not have to have the preprinted ballot from USA Today to write them. The Cast Dean Haglund Richard "Ringo" Langly Tom Braidwood Melvin Frohike Bruce Harwood John Fitzgerald Byers Zuleikha Robinson Yves Adele Harlow Stephen Snedden Jimmy Bond Want to know more about Zuleikha? Visit this site The Timeslot The show premiered in March 2001, in the Sunday Timeslot of The X-Files to gain some extra exposure for its first four episodes. It has finally settled into its Friday 9:00 PM slot on FOX. Mythology Chris Carter says, Every show I do I seem to introduce a mytharc. It kind of comes about on its own.... Something I learned with HR is not to introduce it too soon. Give people a chance to get to know the characters and setup.... before you get into the heavy stuff. Susanne Modeski If The Lone Gunmen -- the upcoming X-Files spin-off -- is a success, expect to eventually see [Signy Coleman] there. Coleman twice appeared on X with the Gunmen (Agent Mulder`s three conspiracy-geek pals), and her character-sultry FBI fugitive Susanne Modeski-even married one of them in an Ozzie and Harriet-style fantasy. "I was waddling around eight months pregnant when they shot the Gunmen pilot, so that wasn`t in the cards," says Coleman, who recently gave birth to a daughter, Isabella Grace. "But they want to use Susanne if the show gets a pickup. How heavy or light that will be, they don`t know." |
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| The Cast John Fitzgerald Byers (Bruce Hardwood), named after John F Kennedy, was born on 22th of November 1963. Before the assasination, his parents were going to call him Bertram. He is the military and information systems expert. His neat beard and dapper suits seem out of place among his grungier colleagues, but his sharp mind and no-nonsense demeanor attest to an encylopedic knownledge of cospiracy theory and current speculation on everything from the Kennedy assasination to the latest in DNA research. Before becoming a Lone Gunman, he was working for the Federal Communication Commission, where he was "versed in computer networks". |
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| Langly and his friends, when met him for the first time, called him "The Nark". Though, after realising that there was a large conspiracy afoot, made him give up his job. He usually wears his usual clothes and a belted grey raincoat, even when breaking into seret installations, and is an expert skater (Aporypha). He wears a wedding ring all the time, though in Unusual Suspects, shot in 1989, he does not have any such ring. In "One Breath," Byers unerringly recognizes and describes the bizarre recombinant chemistry that lies at the heart of Dana Scully's disease, and quietly expresses sympathy to Mulder. He occasionally indulges in a wit as sardonic as Mulder's, as when he tells him, "That's why we like you, Mulder: Your ideas are weirder than ours." Unlike co-conspirators Langly and Frohike, he is the least liable to crack a joke or even a smile, but his calm intelligence lends authority and believability to the unlikely trio's offices. When undercover in a casino in Las Vegas ("Three of a Kind"), Byers not only manages to get himself and frohike thrown out, but also loses three thousand dollars on the game, suggesting he is not cut out for either undercover work, or for gambling. (Langly: "It should have been me in there playing, why does Byers get to do all the undercover?") Byers wears a wedding ring. It is not known if he is married, divorced or widowed, though. In "Unusual Suspects", though, which is set in 1989, he is not wearing the ring. He does go all romantic and gallant on us, getting involved in possibly dangerous things for the sake of a damsel in distress (Susanne Modeski) and getting quite smitten with her. Even ten years later, Byers is still smitten, having recurring dreams about her: From "Three of a Kind": "My name is John Fitzgerald Byers. I was named after our 35th president, and I keep having this beautiful dream..." As he narrates, two cute little girls run out to greet him. Carrying one and holding the others' hand, Byers enters the house and the narration continues. "In my dream the events of November 22, 1963 never happened. In it, my namesake was never assassinated. Other things are different too, in my dream. My country is hopeful and innocent, young again. Young in spirit. My fellow citizens trust their elected officials, never once having been betrayed by them. My government is truly of the people, by the people, for the people. All my hopes, for my country, for myself, are fulfilled. I have everything a person could want. Home and family. And love. Everything that counts for anything in life, I have it." As he moves through the perfect house, a golden retriever greets him, and follows him out into the backyard where he greets his dream wife, who we see to be Suzanne Modeski. They're kissing, and the camera moves in close to blackness as Byers continues his narration. The camera pulls out to find Byers is now standing in the desert, alone in the hot sun, holding a ring. "But the dream ends the same way every time. I lose it all." When Suzanne returns, in this episode, she asks him to run away with her. He declines, since his life is now with his friends and his work, but he is obviously very very tempted. |
| Ringo Langly is the one who has long blond hair and wears black rimmed glasses. The communications expert of the group tends to wear a dark t-shirt showing various rock bands such as the Romones. Before becoming a Long gunman, he was an avid player of Dungeons and Dragons. At the computer exibition in Baltimore, where the Lone Gunmen met, he had a stall named "Langly Vision". In "Via Negativa", his first name is revealed to be "Richard". He is the one most likely to joke with Mulder or invite him to "hop on the Internet to nitpick the scientific inaccuracies" of a new science fiction show. |
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| But he's also a little bent; in "Fearful Symmetry," his colleague Byers explains Langly's absence in a meeting as a philosophical aversion to having his image bounced off a satellite. He automatically records every incoming phone call, and is evidently as conversant with current conspiracy theory as his two compadres. He is ready with a laugh any time Mulder's theories get a little "out there," such as the idea that UFOs started the Gulf War. Nevertheless, when Mulder insists that Langly turn off the recording device in "E.B.E.," Langly does not hesitate to lie to him. Among the Lone Gunmen, truth is as rare as trust. Dreamland II shows that Langly can't pronounce Spanish, but Byers and Frohike can. "Three of a Kind" shows that Langly can not stomach watching an autopsy. He gets greener and greener, before running from the room to be sick. ("You know, blood and guts can bother some people," he says, afterwards, when he finds Scully passed out on the floor.) |
| Melvin Frohike, the eldest of the Lone gunmen, next to Langly and Byers, looks like the proverbian dirty old man. Middle aged, short, unshaven, and clad in combat boots, he is the Frog Prince of the gunmen. He serves as the photographic and surveillance specialist, and before becoming a gunman, was a computer hacker with a business called Frohike Electronics Corporation. From his first leering appearance in "E.B.E.", he has made no secret of his attraction to Dana Scully pronouncing her as "hot", which he repeated with more conviction after hearing her expound about the CIA. In "Blood" he loaned Fox Mulder a pair of night vision goggles for Scully's phone number, and was the only person to bring Scully flowers, as she lay dying in "One Breath". In "Blessing Way" he turned up at her apartment, to commiserate on Mulder's supposed death. He is pretty close to Mulder as well, infact when they thought that Mulder was dead, he remarked that "he was a true friend. |
| A redwood among mere sprouts" and embraces Mulder when he finds out he is alive. He does have something of a drinking habit. In "Blessing Way" when he goes to Scully's Apartment, he shows her an empty bottle, when asked how much he's drunk. He always comes up with the right information on everything. Not a great talker, Frohike grows loquacious only when Mulder teases him; he succinctly summarized the atmosphere of suspicion and paranoia in Mulder's apartment during "Anasazi" with one bon mot: "weirdness." In "Dreamland II", Frohike seems quite domestic, cooking huevos rancheros for breakfast. (He says he would have made more salsa if he'd known Mulder was coming.) Frohike doesn't like it when Morris (in Dreamland II) calls him "Melvin", and presumably likes it even less when he calls him "sneezy." |