Millennium 3ABC20: “Nostalgia”
The Millennial Abyss | Episodes | Season Three
“Nostalgia” (3ABC20)
Written by Michael R. Perry
Directed by Thomas J. Wright
Edited by James Coblentz
Aired May 7, 1999
Summary
A journey back to the town where she grew up is anything but sentimental for Emma Hollis, who investigates unsolved serial murders with a sheriff she knew as a child.
Synopsis
As twenty-year-old Jan McCall drives her decrepit car along a two-lane rural road in South Mills, Pennsylvania, she notices a flashing red light in her rear view mirror. Jan accidentally drops her marijuana cigarette onto the floor and is unable to retrieve it as she pulls over to the side of the road. A man, his face unseen, steps up to the car and shines a flashlight in Jan’s face. Later, a dog digs up a severed foot that had been buried beneath a shrub. A series of toe rings identifies the body part as Jan’s
Emma and Frank travel to South Mills, where Emma lived for a few years as a little girl. Her childhood friend, Tommy Briggs, is now the town sheriff. It turns out that Tommy had sent the severed foot to the FBI hoping for an identification. Emma tells him that an alligator tattoo on the foot may be the mascot of Everglades University. Sand and sunscreen found on the skin and under the fingernails suggest the victim was killed on a sunny day. Briggs believes the location must be Allehela State Park, a few miles away. Emma, Frank and Briggs meet with park ranger Jerry Neilson. Frank moves towards a lifeguard stand, where he experiences internal visions about the girl’s attack. He orders the area cordoned off. Later, Frank happens upon a new missing persons listing for Jan McCall. A list of distinguishing marks includes an alligator tattoo. Her automobile is listed as an old Datsun. Briggs remembers a similar car found abandoned ten days earlier. The threesome visit a salvage yard. It is determined that the license plate on the car does not match the vehicle identification number. Frank discovers a bloody face print on a window. A partial fingerprint is also recovered. A computer search identifies the print as Jerry Neilson’s.
Police search Neilson’s house for evidence, but come up empty handed. Neilson denies any involvement in the girl’s death. Frank, however, suspects otherwise. Meanwhile, police match four cars found as the wrecking yard to other missing women. Frank notices Neilson’s defensive attitude towards the park. He suspects Neilson may have committed his first murder just outside its borders, something that may have passed for an accident. Upon viewing photos of the missing girls, Frank is drawn to one in particular: Liddy Hooper. Briggs explains that Liddy’s death had been ruled an accidental drowning.
Frank and Emma have Liddy Hooper’s coffin exhumed. It turns out to be empty. Later, Liddy’s daybook "turns up" in the police station. Briggs alerts Emma to the fact that his name, as well as Neilson’s, can be found within. He admits having a sexual encounter with the trashy Liddy. He also warns that many other men from the small community, some of them married, are mentioned in the book. Frank takes a special interest in an entry made on the day Liddy vanished, which mentions a local bar. He questions Lana, a woman who works at the establishment. Frank experiences several internal visions when he enters the bar’s back room. Lana remembers Liddy has "having a thing" for men in uniform, such as police officers and firemen. But she cannot recall Liddy hanging out with Jerry Neilson.
Using an abandoned vehicle report, Frank makes his way to the location where Liddy’s car was discovered. He walks along the wooded edge of a reservoir near a hydroelectric dam. He eventually comes upon a bridge, under which is a cement casting. Frank takes particular interest in a metal ring, which is attached to the casing by a hinge-like pin. He experiences an internal vision of a human foot being shoved through the ring.
Neilson meets Frank at the bar. He proceeds to tell him what really transpired on the night Liddy disappeared. In flashback, Neilson, Sheriff Briggs, paramedic Lee Smith and Deputy Wayne Johnson play cards as Liddy Hooper observes. Wayne "bids" Liddy in lieu of money. He tells the other men that if he wins the hand, Liddy will have sex with Neilson. But Neilson stepped forward and told the men to leave Liddy alone. When the story resumes in the current day, Neilson tells Frank he last saw Liddy passed out in her car, which was parked on the side of a road. He and Frank drive to the location so Frank can look for possible clues. As Neilson listens, Frank describes what happened on the night of the murder. He tells Neilson that the perpetrator wasn’t interested in killing Liddy. He leads him down the river, until they reach the bridge. Underneath is the now-familiar cement casing. In flashback, a figure leads the drunken Liddy down the embankment. The man smashes Liddy’s foot through the iron ring and proceed to drown her. Frank concludes that the killer left the foot of his last victim buried under a shrub because he wanted to get caught to show authorities what he had done. He asks Neilson to show him where the other bodies are buried. Later, Liddy Hooper is at last given a proper funeral.
Starring
Lance Henriksen as Frank Black
Klea Scott as Emma Hollis
Guest Starring
Ted Marcoux as Jerry Neilson
April Telek as Elizabeth "Liddy" Hooper
David Barrera as Sheriff Tommy Briggs
Blake Stovin as Deputy Wayne Johnson
Jim Shield as Lee Smith
Ron Small as Ron Hauge
Kaitlyn Burke as Alicia
Linnea Sharples as Alicia's Mom
Madeleine Campbell as Cora
Lisa Marie Caruk as Jan McCall
Jennifer Griffin as Lana
R. David Stephens as the Agent
Ian Brown as the Minister
Production Credits
Production #3ABC20
Music by Mark Snow
Production Designer Mark Freeborn
Director of Photography Robert McLachlan
Associate Producer Jon-Michael Preece
Co-Producer Robert Moresco
Co-Producer Paul Rabwin
Producer Thomas J. Wright
Co-Executive Producer Ken Horton
Co-Executive Producer John Peter Kousakis
Executive Producer Chip Johannessen
Executive Producer Chris Carter
Soundtrack
"A Perfect Day Elise" (1998) by PJ Harvey
Location
Book Excerpt
“['Nostalgia'] is, in some ways, a straightforward procedural, but I did a dirty trick. In the first five scenes we say, ‘This is the guy who did it...’ We’ve taken the whodunit element off the table and now it becomes how are you going to bring this guy to justice, and what are the social elements? What is the culpability of the other people in this town… ?”
—Michael R. Perry
Back to Frank Black
REVIEWS
“This isn’t an episode about a mystery, exactly, or at least it’s not about the mystery crime shows usually deal in. It’s more about the grinding, unpleasant work of tracking down monsters, and the way that work can take over your life, until you start to wonder just how much of it has changed you, and changed how you see the world... ‘Nostalgia’ is a gripping, intense piece of work."
—Zack Handlen
The AV Club
“Nostalgia” print ad.