Millennium 4C21: “Paper Dove”
The Millennial Abyss | Episodes | Season One
“Paper Dove” (4C21)
Written by Ted Mann & Walon Green
Directed by Thomas J. Wright
Edited by George Potter
Aired May 16, 1997
Summary
Vacationing in Washington, D.C., Frank Black agrees to try to clear an admiral’s son of murder in a case that appears to be the work of a serial killer.
Epigraph
“And now there is merely silence, silence, silence saying All we did not know.”
Synopsis
Frank and his family travel to a suburb of Arlington, Virginia, to visit Catherine's mother and father, Justine and Tom Miller. They are joined by Catherine's older sister, Dawn, and her husband, Gil.
Meanwhile, in Hagerstown, Maryland a man named Henry Dion follows a woman from the grocery store and murders her in her own home. Shortly thereafter, Dion is visited by a mysterious figure, a man with pale white skin wearing dark glasses. Dion thanks the Figure for his assistance with helping locate his victim. The Figure tells Dion he wanted the murder committed while Frank was in the area.
Dion drives the corpse to a campground near the Appalachian trial. During his trip, he talks to the corpse, as if communicating with a companion.
Tom Miller tells Frank about his friends, C.R. and Adele Hunziger. Four years earlier, their son, Malcom, was convicted of murdering his wife. C.R. developed pancreatic cancer, and hasn't long to live. Despite this, he has refused to see his son because of the murder. Their relationship has taken a terrible toll on C.R.'s wife, Adele, who holds out hope that her son may be innocent of the crime. Frank meets with the dying C.R. in hopes of changing his mind, but the elderly Admiral remains steadfast, referring to his son as "diseased garbage."
Adele gives Frank a file folder containing her son's defense records. Frank then travels to Quantico, Virginia, where he meets with three of his former colleagues, Agents Kane, Devlin and Emmerich. An overwhelming amount of physical evidence against Malcom had led to an easy prosecution victory. Despite this, Frank feels Malcom does not fit the profile of a man who would murder his own wife.
Frank believes that the perpetrator who murdered the housewife is responsible for the deaths of four other women in the same general area. Despite Catherine's disappointment, Frank leaves his family to investigate a crime scene in a national park where a body was discovered three years earlier, partially covered with leaves.
At the park, Frank meets with Chet, a talkative Virginia ranger. Chet describes how an unidentified hiker had notified police about the body. The hiker was never identified, leading Frank to conclude that the murderer himself contacted police. Later, Dion, pretending to be a passerby, telephones police with the general location of the dead housewife's corpse.
Dion returns home, where he is greeted by his mother, Marie France, an odd, fifty-year-old woman with a French-Canadian accent who talks incessantly.
Frank and his colleagues decide to deliberately bait the killer by informing the press that their suspect is a coward. Infuriated, Dion telephones police. The call is traced to a private residence where Dion works as a nurse. Police identify their suspect, but not before Dion returns home and murders his mother. He is taken into custody. Later, Malcom Hunziger cleared of murder is transported to his dying father's bedside.
Frank and his family fly back to Seattle. At the airport, Frank carries a sleeping Jordan out to the car as Catherine waits near the baggage carousel to retrieve luggage. Unbeknownst to the Blacks, the Figure watches from afar. When Frank returns to the baggage carousel, Catherine is no where to be found. He discovers an Origami dove that Adele had given to Jordan laying on the ground.
Starring
Lance Henriksen as Frank Black
Megan Gallagher as Catherine Black
Brittany Tiplady as Jordan Black
Guest Starring
Mike Starr as Henry Dion
Barbara Williams as Dawn
Linda Sorensen as Marie France Dion
Ken Pogue as Tom Miller
William Nunn as C.R. Hunziger
Maxine Miller as Justine Miller
Todd Waite as Agent Kane
Frank Cassini as Agent Devlin
Judy Norton as Carol Scammel
Noah Dennis as Nick Scammel
Garry Davey as Ranger Chet
Doris Chillcott as Adele Hunzinger
Paul Raskin as Figure
Arlen Jones as Agent Emmerich
Eric Breaker as Malcolm Hunzinger
Angela Donahue as Amy Lee Walker
Brenda McDonald as Mrs. Steinberg
Michael St. John Smith as Gil
Mitch Davies as Rick Scammel
Production Credits
Production #4C21
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
“Stranger in the House” (1997) by Wayne Kramer
Location
Book Excerpt
“Those who know Millennium appreciate that the central grounding of the first season is the yellow house, which—like those little yellow flowers—connects Henriksen on a powerful unconscious level to the reality of Frank Black. It is, in fact, what all of us continue to experience when we revisit those early episodes of Millennium. There is a sense of hope that permeates the entire first season as we descend toward ‘Paper Dove.’”
—Paul Clark
Back to Frank Black
REVIEWS
“Carter's Frank Black is an heir of Doyle's Holmes. Not as rational—who at the tail end of this century could be as rational as Holmes?—and not nearly as assured, he is nevertheless committed to maintaining the solidarity of love against the vile forces who both attack him and whose seduction he feels. He is a splendid neurotic, splendidly portrayed by Henriksen. Millennium, then—at least if you watch it the way I do—isn't finally about serial killers at all. It's about—and it's a heartening antidote to—our real fear that present happiness may not last. That anxiety may grow as we approach the year 2000, but that anxiety is always there anyhow. And watching Frank Black overcome it every Friday night may not be a solution, but it is bracing.”
—Frank McConnell
Commonweal
“Paper Dove” print ad.