Millennium 4C14: “Sacrament”
The Millennial Abyss | Episodes | Season One
“Sacrament” (4C14)
Written by Frank Spotnitz
Directed by Michael Watkins
Edited by Chris Willingham, A.C.E.
Aired February 21, 1997
Summary
The abduction of his sister-in-law embroils Frank Black in an intensely personal case linked to a vicious sex offender recently released from an asylum.
Epigraph
“He said to me in a dreadful voice that I had indeed escaped his clutches, but he would capture me still.”
Synopsis
Frank's brother, Tom, and his wife, Helen, travel to Seattle where they hold their newborn son's baptism. After the ceremony, Frank checks up on Jordan, who is off playing with a friend inside the church. He finds his daughter huddled in a ball on the pew, clutching herself. She speaks of a man she saw hurting her Aunt Helen. Frank rushes outside the church. He finds his baby nephew unharmed in the back seat of Tom's rental car, but notes a blood droplet on the infant's face. Frank and Tom realize Helen was abducted.
Frank, who saw the back of the kidnapper's head during the baptismal, pours through police mug shots. But he is unable to identify the perpetrator. Bletcher warns Frank he cannot interfere with the police investigation, noting a prosecutor cannot achieve a conviction using evidence gathered by the victim's brother-in-law. But Frank insists he can help find Helen.
Frank notices a baggage tag is missing from one of his brother's suitcases. He and Tom review video footage recorded by a surveillance camera at the airport. They see the kidnapper approach Helen at the baggage carousel. Later, Bletcher tells Frank police located a stolen car. Helen's blood was discovered inside.
Watts gives Frank a manila envelope containing photos of sex offenders living in the area. Frank recognizes the kidnapper, Richard Green, in one of the photographs. Bletcher assures Frank that Green, who lives at home with his parents, is already under surveillance. However, Frank decides not to tell his brother about the discovery.
Tom searches through his brother's files and discovers the truth about Green. Gun in hand, Tom confronts the kidnapper, demanding to know his wife's whereabouts. Green, however, claims he doesn't know anything about Helen. Giebelhouse and Teeple, who were surveying the Green residence, calm Tom. He lowers his weapon. Later, Frank tells his brother he deliberately kept him in the dark because "there are some truths no one should know."
Watts searches the abandoned vehicle and discovers the presence of several pine needles from trees which only grow in Peninsula National Park. Watts, Frank and Tom drive to the park, where they discover an abandoned cabin. Inside they find more blood — along with Helen's wedding ring. Later, police make casts of tire tracks outside the cabin. They match the abandoned car. Lab tests reveal the presence of Green's blood inside the cabin as well.
Meanwhile, Jordan continues running a fever. But doctors are unable to pinpoint the cause. Jordan asks her mother why the man who took her Aunt Helen is making her cry. Catherine is taken completely off-guard by her daughter's remarks.
Green is taken into custody, but Helen's whereabouts remain a mystery. Police begin digging up the lawn behind the Green residence. They discover a woman's decomposed body buried inside a plastic garment bag. Watts tells Frank the wrapping around the body slowed decomposition considerably. He guesses the woman was killed at least nine years earlier.
Frank realizes Green did not murder Helen at the cabin (as he was under surveillance since Sunday night). He also realizes that some tools found in Green's possession were not part of his torture kit. They were, in fact, used to hide Helen's body in the basement of the Green home. Helen is found entombed behind drywall. But her body is still warm, and she is revived. Afterward, Frank realizes Green's father forced his son to procure his victims.
Later, Frank finds Jordan cradled in a ball on the front porch. Jordan claims she is fine, but her father fears otherwise.
Starring
Lance Henriksen as Frank Black
Megan Gallagher as Catherine Black
Brittany Tiplady as Jordan Black
Terry O'Quinn as Peter Watts
Bill Smitrovich as Lt. Bob Bletcher
Stephen James Lang as Detective Giebelhouse
Guest Starring
Philip Anglim as Tom Black
Dylan Haggerty as Richard Green
Brian Markinson as Detective Teeple
Lorena Gale as Dr. Patricia Moss
Daphne Goldrick as Green's Mother
French Tickner as Store Clerk
Ken Roberts as Green's Father
Liz Bryson as Helen Black
Production Credits
Production #4C14
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
Location
Book Excerpt
“I was very eager in the second half of the first season to do a more emotional story and so I thought it would be interesting to pick up on that idea about Jordan and whether she would carry Frank’s gift and curse. So I wanted to touch on that, and then I wanted to bring in Frank’s brother and juxtapose his family against the other family, the Greens, and it all unfolded very naturally, actually. That was one of my most enjoyable writing experiences on anything.”
—Frank Spotnitz
Back to Frank Black
REVIEWS
“One of the more intriguing aspects of Millennium is Frank’s daughter, Jordan. Jordan, right from the pilot, seems like a very a very normal, happy child; with one exception—she seems more aware of what her father does than one would expect. In the pilot, when she asks Catherine if daddy is ‘going to catch the bad man,’ it’s a subtle foreshadowing of developments that become even more marked in ‘Sacrament.’ After she witnesses her aunt being kidnapped, Frank begins to suspect that she shares his ability to see into the mind of ‘the bad man.’ The role wouldn’t work with a typical Hollywood child actor, but Vancouverite Brittany Tiplady makes it look easy—she looks, and more importantly, feels like a real kid.”
—Sheldon A. Wiebe
Eclipse Magazine
“Sacrament” print ad.