Millennium 4C05: “522666”
The Millennial Abyss | Episodes | Season One
“522666” (4C05)
Written by Glen Morgan & James Wong
Directed by David Nutter
Edited by Chris Willingham, A.C.E.
Aired November 22, 1996
Summary
A deadly explosion in a crowded Washington, D.C., pub is traced to a serial bomber who subsequently toys with Frank Black and the authorities as he plots to strike again.
Epigraph
“I am responsible for everything... except my very responsibility.”
Synopsis
Sitting inside an upscale Washington D.C. pub, Raymond Dees is immersed in fantasies of death and destruction. He leaves the pub and finds a nearby pay phone. Dees dials 911, but says nothing. He merely punches in the numbers 522666.
Avidly watching the pub from the parking garage across the street, Dees masturbates, timing his release to the moment he knows will come. Inside the bar, the bomb he planted explodes. The concussion is enough to knock him backwards.
At home, Frank sees the resultant chaos live on TV, and begins to pack his bag. He knows the group call him. Back on TV, police and civilian volunteers dig in the rubble for victims. One of the rescuers is Raymond Dees.
Frank and Peter Watts fly to DC, joining a multi-agency task force led by career FBI agent Jack Pierson. At first assuming the bombing is political, Pierson plays tapes of the terrorist groups that claimed responsibility. Frank discounts all of them until he hears the coded message left by Dees. When Frank hears the numbers, he matches them with the corresponding letters on phone buttons. KABOOM.
Visiting the crime scene, Frank sees the moment of detonation just as Dees had imagined it. He realizes that although the bomb was professional, its placement was not. Pierson follows as something draws Frank to the nearby parking garage. They find the evidence Dees left behind as he watched - a semen soaked tissue in a trash can.
Realizing Frank seems to have a unique understanding of the bomber, Pierson relies on him to run the investigation. Frank informs a meeting of the task force that the bomber will obsessively follow their investigation, and has the technical know-how to listen to every radio and cell phone transmission they make. So Frank and Pierson set a trap. The only one allowed to use a cell phone will be Frank.
As Frank has predicted, Dees is able to eavesdrop on them electronically. He monitors Frank's cell phone, figuring Frank must be a member of the task force. He calls Frank and leaves the message: 522666. Contact. Frank knows Dees is hooked and will call again.
As the team attempts to trace the call, Dees phones Frank and boasts of his next bombing, daring the police to catch him. Frank notes that Dees calls himself "a star," and adds that if Frank catches him he too will be a star. Dees hangs up before the task force can pinpoint his exact whereabouts, but they are able to get the frequency and sector grid of his location.
That night, Dees calls Frank and punches in "522666" every 15 minutes. Frank thinks he's trying to keep them off base and knows he's planning something. When the next call comes in, it's not Dees: it's Catherine, worried because she hasn't heard from him. Frank gets her off the phone, and returns her call on a land line. Dees phones in again, after having monitored Frank's brief conversation with Catherine. Frank takes the call, forgetting to hang up with Catherine. Still on the land line, Catherine listens, a frightened voyeur, as Frank gets inside Dees' mind and enters his chaotic and violent world. Dees tells Frank to expect another explosion at 9 am the following morning.
With three and one half hours to find the bomb, the investigators use cell phone data to identify the two block area of shops and business that might fit the bomber's pattern of attack. But Frank is worried. He knows the bomber's thrills are wearing off quickly. How far will he now go to increase his excitement? Frank knows this somehow ties in with Dees' desire to be a "star."
With fifteen minutes to go, the searchers have found nothing. Spotting a parking garage across from an office building, Frank recognizes Dees' pattern. He alerts the cops in time to evacuate the building.
But Dees has misled them. He's planted two bombs, not one. The first bomb goes off at 8:45. Dees calls Frank's cell phone, informing him that the next bomb is set to explode. Frank rushes into building to warn those who remain inside. In the midst of the chaos, Frank reaches the second bomb just as it's about to blow up. At the moment of detonation, he's rescued from death by a man who works in the building. Frank doesn't know or see his savior, but it is Dees himself.
Frank awakens in the hospital with Catherine at his side. She tells him the man who pulled him out from building is on TV. Seeing him, Frank realizes they found Kaboom. But Dees outwits them again. Still monitoring them on his electronic equipment, Dees is long gone by the time the cops get to his place.
Dees' next and penultimate move is something even Frank doesn't expect. Just as Frank gets in his car, Dees calls Frank's cell phone. He implies he's booby-trapped Frank's car, and tells Frank that he's about to get what he wants, fame. He wants people to know his name. In Dees' apartment, the cops are listening to whole conversation on Dees' monitoring equipment. Dees sits in his car across the street from Frank's. In position, a sharpshooter kills Dees just as he's about to press the detonation transmitter.
Upon investigation, no explosives are found in either car. Frank realizes Dees controlled the whole thing from beginning to end, including the method of his execution. And the media has already begun to spread the name of the mad bomber gunned down by police—even in death, he's become a star.
Starring
Lance Henriksen as Frank Black
Megan Gallagher as Catherine Black
Terry O’Quinn as Peter Watts
Brittany Tiplady as Jordan Black
Guest Starring
Joe Chrest as Raymond Dees
Sam Anderson as Agent Jack Pierson
Robert Lewis as Agent Sullivan
Hiro Kanagawa as Agent Takahashi
William MacDonald as Agent Nolan
Roger Barnes as Agent Smith
Deryl Hayes as Officer Mark Stanton
Mike Killeen as Reporter #2
Ed Striedinger as Agent Mills
Claudine Grant as Agent Wallace
Peter Bryant as Officer Riley
Production Credits
Production #4C05
Music by Mark Snow
Production Designer Sheila Haley
Director of Photography Robert McLachlan
Associate Producer Jon-Michael Preece
Consulting Producer Ted Mann
Consulting Producer James Wong
Consulting Producer Glen Morgan
Co-Producer Ken Dennis
Co-Producer Chip Johannessen
Co-Producer Frank Spotnitz
Co-Executive Producer Jorge Zamacona
Co-Executive Producer Ken Horton
Co-Executive Producer John Peter Kousakis
Executive Producer Chris Carter
Soundtrack
“I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts” (1983) by X
Location
Book Excerpt
“As writers, Glen Morgan and James Wong were among those most interested in exploring and expanding the hero’s gift. Many of their first season episodes embrace the enigma inherent to his insights... ‘522666’ internalizes the profiler’s visions for the first time, using his mysterious gift for introspective purposes. ”
—Brian A. Dixon
Back to Frank Black
REVIEWS
“The psychological link between killer and cop is fertile ground for thrillers, and in '522666,' Millennium does it better than most. There is a believable sense of the entire FBI machine swinging into action to solve the case, and the techno-phile bomber's daydreams of what will happen when his bombs go off are grotesquely beautiful... It's pretty much a two-handed show, but one of the better stand alones.”
—Andy Lane
Dreamwatch
“Morgan. Wong. Nutter. This combination of writers and director have a history of delivering the goods... there is a wonderful coming together of talents with these three and ‘522666’ is no exception, a taut thriller that is right up there with Millennium’s ‘Pilot’... Incredibly complex and with much to chew on, and which can be viewed as an intense thriller with action movie overtones, it once again shows that while falling into the realm of crime procedural, Millennium is an altogether much different beast than other shows... There is a deepness to it that feels almost exclusively Ten Thirteen, that it’s not merely enough to just do a crime and have it investigated, that there is more thematically. It is truly one of television’s most complex depictions of violent crime produced for American network television”
—Eamon Hennedy
Set the Tape
“522666” print ad.