Millennium 4C79: “Pilot”
The Millennial Abyss | Episodes | Season One
“Pilot” (4C79)
Written by Chris Carter
Directed by David Nutter
Edited by Stephen Mark
Aired October 25, 1996
Summary
Renowned criminal profiler Frank Black retires with his family to Seattle, where he joins the mysterious Millennium Group in an effort to track a serial killer whose viciously slain victims include an exotic dancer.
Synopsis
A seedy peep show in downtown Seattle. As seedy men pay for brief glimpses of female flesh, one customer has more than sex on his mind. Mumbling obscure and ominous phrases, he hallucinates sheets of blood pouring over the body of a blond dancer. Later that night, she is savagely murdered.
Just arrived in Seattle, Frank and Catherine Black, and their five-year-old daughter Jordan, are happily settling into their new suburban home. But the evil of the outside world soon disturbs Frank's contentment. Spotting a newspaper account of the dancer's brutal death, Frank contacts his former boss, homicide cop Lieutenant Bob Bletcher. Frank volunteers his expertise as a retired FBI agent specializing in serial killers.
When he views the body, Frank catches vivid and bloody glimpses of the crime, and knows the killer will strike again. His intimate knowledge of the details spooks his old friend. Now a consultant for a consortium of ex-law enforcement officers called the Millennium Group, Frank offers their resources to help the department find the killer. Peter Watts, a member of the group, agrees with Frank's assessment. Driven by an external stressor, the killer is out of control...and out for more blood.
Stalking the gay cruising scene for his next victim, the killer is lost in a warped world of hallucinations, surrounded by passers-by with eyes and mouths gruesomely sewn shut. Later that night, the cops find his latest victim's charred, headless body, and nearby, an empty coffin. Again, Frank's detailed knowledge of the crime startles Bletcher. Frank's investigations and visions even lead him straight to the killer, who manages to lose Frank after a close chase.
Frank presents his findings to the homicide department. Obsessed by apocalyptic prophecies, and maddened by twisted sexual guilt, the killer believes he is cleansing sin from plague-infested Seattle. Not unexpectedly, the cops reject what they don't understand...except for Bletcher. He demands an explanation from Frank. And Frank, at last, reveals his secrets.
His gift is also his curse. He sees what the killer sees, becoming what we most fear to hunt what we must destroy. In the past an anonymous person sent Polaroid photos of his family to him, distorting Frank's knowledge of evil into paralyzing fear. He quit the FBI, refusing to let his family out of his sight. Then he was contacted by the Millennium Group, an association formed to battle the darkness that approaches with the coming millennium. They offered to help him use his gift, and Frank moved his family back to Seattle.
Frank must rush to the hospital when his daughter is stricken with a high fever. Despite his love for Jordan, he can't leave his job behind. Alerted by sudden insight, Frank leads the cops to their most horrifying discovery: a man buried alive, his eyes and mouth sewn shut, his fingertips roughly amputated.
Finally, Frank tracks the killer to the police department's own evidence lab. In a psychotic rage, the killer savagely attacks Frank, raving about the apocalypse. Just in time, Bletcher's bullet saves Frank from the killer's deadly assault.
The killer's death releases Frank to seek peace in the love of his family. But his serenity is shattered by a nightmare sent in the mail: anonymous Polaroids of his family.
Starring
Lance Henriksen as Frank Black
Megan Gallagher as Catherine Black
Brittany Tiplady as Jordan Black
Bill Smitrovich as Lt. Bob Bletcher
Terry O'Quinn as Peter Watts
Guest Starring
Paul Dillon as the Frenchman
Stephen E. Miller as Det. Roger Kamm
Stephen J. Lang as Det. Bob Geibelhouse
Kate Luyben as Tuesday
April Telek as Calamity
Don MacKay as Jack Meredith
Mike Puttonen as Pathologist Curt Massey
Jarred Blancard as Sammy
Production Credits
Production #4C79
Music by Mark Snow
Production Designer Gary Wissner
Director of Photography Peter Wunstorf
Supervising Producer John Peter Kousakis
Co-Executive Producer David Nutter
Executive Producer Chris Carter
Soundtrack
“Head Like a Hole” (1989) by Nine Inch Nails
“More Human Than Human” (1995) by White Zombie
“Piggy” (1994) by Nine Inch Nails
“Roads” (1994) by Portishead
“In the Hands of Death” (1996) by Rob Zombie & Alice Cooper
Awards
People's Choice Award: Millennium, Favorite New Television Drama Series (Winner)
American Society of Cinematographers Award: Pete Wunstorf, Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in a Pilot (Nominee)
Online Film and Television Association Award: Mark Snow, Best New Theme Song in a Series (Winner)
Online Film and Television Association Award: Best New Drama Series (Nominee)
Online Film and Television Association Award: Best Visual Effects in a Series (Nominee)
Online Film and Television Association Award: Best New Title Sequence in a Series (Nominee)
Online Film and Television Association Award: Best Episode in a Drama Series (Nominee)
Online Film and Television Association Award: Best Music in a Series (Nominee)
Location
Book Excerpt
“I was utterly transfixed. [‘Pilot’] was for me the single greatest hour of television Chris had ever written—and that was saying a lot, even in those relatively early days of the X-Files run.”
—Frank Spotnitz
Back to Frank Black
REVIEWS
“In a season of massively hyped but somewhat undernourished new series, here's a program that finally delivers. The anxiously awaited brainchild of X-Files creator Chris Carter, Millennium stars craggy Lance Henriksen as an ex-FBI agent whose specialty is tracking down serial killers. What gives this hypnotically frightening program its special twist is that Henriksen has the ability to see inside the minds of his murderous prey... With its creepy soundtrack, terrifying visuals and ingenious plot twists, Millennium is far and away the best new show of the year.”
—Joe Queenan
People
“Mr. Carter pushes all the right apocalyptic buttons. There are the Bible’s Book of Revelations, of course, and quotations from Nostradamus. Literary sources include the William Butler Yeats poem ‘The Second Coming’ and its declaration that the ‘the ceremony of innocence is drowned.’ In a nod to J. D. Salinger, someone says of Frank, ‘Think of him as the catcher in the rye, standing at the edge of the cliff trying to save the world’... We’re not in fluff-land anymore, Toto. Frank’s little girl does get an adorable puppy. Somehow, in this context, that cozy image is foreboding.”
—John J. O'Connor
The New York Times
“Chris Carter’s latest series pulls no punches—it’s less contrived than its sister series can be at its weakest, and far, far grislier... Has Chris Carter gone too far? Possibly. Certainly some viewers will be turned off by the blatant horror, yet at the same time it’s impossible to deny that this is superb television, brilliantly made at every level. And, as Frank Black, Lance Henriksen gives a masterfully understated performance—and one that deserves some recognition come the Emmy Awards.”
—David Richardson
Xposé
Millennium promotional poster.
Fall 1996 primetime network schedule.