Millennium 4C08: “Wide Open”
The Millennial Abyss | Episodes | Season One
“Wide Open” (4C08)
Written by Charles D. Holland
Directed by James Charleston
Edited by Chris Willingham, A.C.E.
Aired January 3, 1997
Summary
A shadowy killer uses real estate open houses to commit heinous murders and terrorize a child whose traumatic experiences may prove to be the key to his capture.
Epigraph
“His children are far from safety; They shall be crushed at the gate without a rescuer.”
Synopsis
A man, Cutter, parks his automobile near a home with a "For Sale" sign on the front lawn. After speaking briefly with a Realtor, Cutter signs his name in a guest book and makes his way through the house, where he takes particular interest in a little girl's bedroom. Later that evening, the owners return home and tuck their young daughter, Patricia, into bed. Later that night, Patricia suddenly begins screaming.
An alarm company security guard discovers the parent's bludgeoned bodies on the first floor of the house. But Patricia's whereabouts are unknown. Frank, Bletcher and a team of detectives search the home for clues. After examining the alarm system, which was triggered when the intruder left the home—but not when he entered—Frank realizes the killer attended the open house and then hid somewhere until the family returned home. As he takes in the crimes scene, Frank is drawn towards an air heater vent. He yanks the grill from the wall, revealing Patricia, her small body stuffed inside the small space, curled into a ball and catatonic with fear.
Patricia is rushed to a nearby hospital where she is treated for dehydration and extreme shock. Catherine cautions the detectives that, although Patricia is the only eyewitness to the murders, her psychological state is extremely delicate. Catherine asks that the police postpone their interview, not wanting to force Patricia to relive the terrifying ordeal.
Meanwhile, Frank, Bletcher and Giebelhouse enlist the services of a handwriting expert and examine the killer's signature (written in the guest sign-in book as "John Allworth"). Graphological analysis links the perpetrator's signature to a least thirty-seven open house registers over the previous six months. Frank believes the key to catching the culprit lies in finding a pattern with the homes he visited.
When the killer mails a videotape of the murders to a Realtor, Frank is puzzled. The case develops yet another strange twist when the killer sneaks into an open house and murders a divorced woman by shooting her point blank with a shotgun. Bletcher notes the perpetrator called 911 and notified the police shortly after the murder. Frank notices a bloody red "X," the same one which appeared to him in a vision, drawn beneath the welcome mat. Meanwhile, Patricia begins drawing "X's" with her crayons.
While reviewing a videotape of the first murders, Frank spots the killer's image in a reflection. He asks Catherine to show Patricia a photo of the killer, but suddenly, Frank retracts his request. He realizes that, all along, the killer wanted the police to approach Patricia and force her to relive the murder—in much the same way the killer has been reliving some unspeakable act his entire life.
Cutter, who works as a school crossing guard, plants the shotgun (used to commit the second murder) in a dumpster, and then notifies police of its whereabouts. The officer who takes the report from Cutter later sees the photograph from the video and identifies him.
Frank realizes that Cutter has been attempting to prove wrong our pretensions of safety—we are not as secure as we think we are. The police stake out a number of different open houses. Cutter visits the home where Frank and his colleagues have set up surveillance, but escapes into the neighborhood. Frank and Bletcher search the neighborhood and realize the killer is hiding inside a house nearby, where Frank discovers a couple tied up in their bed. Suddenly, Cutter steps from the shadows and strikes Frank with a curtain rod, knocking him to the floor. Before Cutter can finish his assault, the family dog charges and leaps at Cutter, knocking him over the a banister and sending him crashing into a glass table on the floor below.
Starring
Lance Henriksen as Frank Black
Megan Gallagher as Catherine Black
Brittany Tiplady as Jordan Black
Bill Smitrovich as Lt. Bob Bletcher
Guest Starring
Glynn Turman as James Glen
Stephen James Lang as Detective Giebelhouse
Pablo Coffey as Cutter
Nevada Ash as Patricia Highsmith
Eileen Kenney as Beverly Bunn
Sandra Ferens as Mary Kay Highsmith
David Neale as John Highsmith
Roger R. Cross as Officer Shaw
Carter Kagume as ICU Nurse
Ernie Prentice as Mr. Marcelli
Colin McCarlie as Harry Marlowe
Mandy McKeen as Jane Marlowe
Cindy Lee as Riley Farnsworth
Iain Carson-Huggins as Young Boy Cutter
Production Credits
Production #4C08
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
Location
Book Excerpt
“Notably, one victimized family in ‘Wide Open’ carries the name ‘Highsmith.’ Highest of all Smiths. In other words, they are the typical American family. The name Highsmith simultaneously indicates ‘importance’ (high) and the quality of being ‘average’ (Smith is a common name). This is Millennium’s tactic, perhaps for revealing to us that any one of its viewers—even the Smiths, even us—could be the next victim of this particular criminal. ”
—John Kenneth Muir
Back to Frank Black
REVIEWS
“The cold open of this week's episode is one of the most thoroughly unsettling I've seen on the show so far, because it plays to such a simple fear: that no matter how much you protect yourself, there are always places to hide... One of the problems with Millennium's ultra-grim worldview is that its suffocating despondency can make it difficult to root for our hero's success. Sure, we think, Frank will probably figure this one out eventually, but so what? Who cares? There are always a dozen more psychos waiting to step in and carve people up. Here, because the killer's method of attack is so clearly monstrous, it feels like we've been given actual stakes, with the clear knowledge that the world will be a better place once he's out of it.”
—Zack Handlen
The AV Club
“‘Wide Open’ has a clever premise, a great deal of suspense and some gruesomely graphic imagery to appease the gorehounds (yours truly included). Though the open house ruse does get repetitive after a while, at least it is offered with enough passion and presence to hook us from the very beginning. The only flaw here is that the killer’s motives are left to a casual comment from Bletch about two minutes before the show is about to end. Something as cruel and calculated as this crime deserves some manner of in-depth detail, not an off-the-cuff quip.”
—Bill Gibron
DVD Talk