Millennium 4C13: “The Thin White Line”
The Millennial Abyss | Episodes | Season One
“The Thin White Line” (4C13)
Written by Glen Morgan & James Wong
Directed by Thomas J. Wright
Edited by Stephen Mark
Aired February 14, 1997
Summary
Frank Black is forced to confront his past when startling similarities in serial slayings twenty years apart indicate that the man imprisoned for the earlier crimes molded the current killer.
Epigraph
“A man’s past is not simply a dead history... It is a still quivering part of himself, bringing shudders and bitter flavours and the tinglings of a merited shame.”
Synopsis
Frank enters a hospital emergency room looking for Catherine, who is working the night shift in child counseling. Suddenly, paramedics rush in with a bloodied woman on a gurney. Frank is inexplicably drawn to the stranger, and as he moves closer, notices a curved slash on her palm. He raises his own right hand, revealing a thin white scar which matches exactly the slash on the victim's hand. The woman dies from her injuries.
Frank asks Bletcher for any information pertaining to the victim. Bletcher reveals the woman was Anne Rothenburg, whose husband found her body when he returned home from work. It's believed the woman surprised a burglar and was then attacked. A short time later, the same man who killed Mrs. Rothenburg shoots a liquor store clerk. Frank and Bletcher examine a security video of the murder. Frank notices the killer tossing something on the floor. When Frank searches the store, he discovers a torn playing card, half of the Jack of Spades, on the floor. A search of the Rothenburg home turns up the second matching half.
Frank tells Bletcher that, twenty years earlier, a man named Richard Alan Hance, was discharged from the service after serving two tours in Vietnam. That same year, a woman was found dead inside her home. Half a "death card," used by soldiers to designate their kills, was found at the scene. Three days later, the other half of the playing card was found beside the body of a jogger. A week after the first two murders, another pair of bodies was found. The FBI then received an anonymous tip indicating the killer was living inside an abandoned building. Frank and three of his fellow agents searched the structure for clues. Hance murdered two of the agents, dropping a playing card piece near each victim and cutting their hand with a knife. Hance then cornered Frank, scarring his hand just before moving in for the kill. But the fourth FBI agent interceded. Hance turned his gun on the agent and opened fire, killing him. During the commotion, Frank grabbed his gun and took Hance into custody.
Frank realizes that Hance's former cellmate, Jacob Tyler, is responsible for the current murders, calling him the "living reincarnation" of Richard Alan Hance. Shortly thereafter, two more bodies are discovered in a remote area.
Despite a great deal of trepidation, Frank meets with Hance at the prison. During their discussion, Hance admits he enjoyed killing the FBI agents, as "the hunters became the hunted." Frank then realizes it was Hance who placed the anonymous tip that drew the FBI to the abandoned building twenty years earlier. And he also realizes that Jacob Tyler intends to follow the same pattern.
Tyler phones police with an anonymous tip, claiming the man who killed the liquor store owner is living inside an abandoned building. Frank and a SWAT team set up a perimeter around the structure. Suddenly, several officers are hit by sniper fire from a nearby building. Frank and Bletcher, guns drawn, rush inside. Tyler smashes Frank from behind, sending him to the ground. Thinking quickly, Frank plays to Tyler's delusion. He shows him the thin white scar already etched in his palm. Seizing the moment, Frank knocks Tyler's gun away from his face. Frank retrieves the weapon, but not before Tyler pulls out another handgun and opens fire, emptying the chamber. But Tyler proves a poor shot, and Frank avoids being injured. Frank then attempts to reason with Tyler in an attempt to convince him his personality has been altered. Suddenly, Bletcher arrives at the scene. Tyler raises his gun, tightening his finger on the trigger. Frank attempts to avert disaster, but Bletcher instinctively opens fire, killing Tyler.
Starring
Lance Henriksen as Frank Black
Megan Gallagher as Catherine Black
Bill Smitrovich as Lt. Bob Bletcher
Guest Starring
Jeremy Roberts as Richard Alan Hance
Scott Heindl as Jacob Tyler
Ken Tremblett as Agent Riley
Allan Harvey as Agent Johnson
Mark Holden as Agent Clark
Nancy Sivak as Anne Rothenberg
Larry Musser as Warden
Tom Heaton as Store Clerk
Production Credits
Production #4C13
Music by Mark Snow
Production Designer Mark Freeborn
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
“How Deep is Your Love” (1977) by the Bee Gees
Awards
American Society of Cinematographers Award: Robert McLachlan, Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in a Regular Series (Nomination)
Location
Book Excerpt
“The hero’s remarkable inner eye is dilated as his trademark visions are supplemented with recurring nightmares, dreams in which he is forced to relive one of the most terrifying confrontations of his life. One of these dream sequences in particular, in which the present day Frank joins forces with his wide-eyed younger self in an effort to rewrite history, beautifully enacts the psychological struggle of the story.”
—Brian A. Dixon
Back to Frank Black
REVIEWS
“[‘The Thin White Line’ is] not the greatest script Glen Morgan and James Wong ever did. Indeed, it embraces many of their worst faults on some levels, as well as many of the worst faults of the show it’s a part of. But the thing moves, and when an episode rolls by as quickly as this one does, all sorts of objections get washed away by the momentum... We discover the facts of the case at the same time as the officers and Frank, who moves like a man possessed because he doesn’t want to believe his own worst fears.”
—Emily St. James
The AV Club
“Taking a page from Silence of the Lambs, Frank goes back to an old nemesis to pick his deviant brain about what makes a killer. The confrontation and quid pro quo are excellent. Less successful are the flashbacks to Frank as a young FBI agent in the 70s. Lance sports a silly sprout of hair and jacks his voice up a couple of notches, but he still looks like our middle-aged main man running around. Yet because the past material is directed and edited in a very spooky manner, we mostly fall for the fakery and go with the flow. With a stellar final act and a closing scene that has a great deal of impact in a very restrained manner, this is an excellent installment.”
—Bill Gibron
DVD Talk
“The Thin White Line” print ad.