Millennium 5C03: “Sense and Antisense”
The Millennial Abyss | Episodes | Season Two
“Sense and Antisense” (5C03)
Written by Chip Johannessen
Directed by Thomas J. Wright
Edited by James Coblentz
Aired October 3, 1997
Summary
Frank Black is tasked with locating and identifying patient zero in a case involving a biomedical behavioral-control project and a conspiratorial cover-up.
Epigraphs
“Control of third world populations designated secret national policy.”
“U.S. Military released from liability for experiments on unwilling and unknowing human subjects.”
“Human Genome Project accelerated for completion by the turn of the millennium.”
Synopsis
An African-American man, Patient Zero, attempts to hail a taxi cab on a city street, but is passed by time and again. Only an African-American cabbie, Gerome Knox, bothers to stop. Without warning, Zero has a seizure in the back of the cab, foaming at the mouth and screaming about the "trucks" that are trying to kill him. Knox rushes his passenger to a nearby hospital, where doctors attribute his symptom to illicit drug usage. After receiving a shot, Zero's convulsions subside, but Zero again grows agitated when two mysterious men, Wright and Patterson, enter the hospital lobby. "They want to kill me," he tells Knox, terrified. Fearing for Zero's safety, Knox helps him escape.
Meanwhile, Wright and Patterson quarantine the entire area, as the missing Zero is infected with a highly contagious virus.
Giebelhouse contacts Frank and asks for his help in finding the missing Patient Zero. The men attend a medical briefing at the Center for Infectious Diseases. There, Dr. Pettey explains that Patient Zero is infected with a pathogen normally seen only in the Congo. Eventually, police locate Zero and Knox inside the offices of the Afro-Sentinel newspaper (where Zero was attempting to convince an editor to print his story by referencing racially driven medical tests in the past such as Tuskegee). Before he is taken into custody, Zero intentionally smears the back of Frank's shirt with blood.
Later, a lab test reveals that Zero's blood is not, in fact, contaminated with the rare virus... and even more mysteriously, the government-run Center for Infectious Diseases vanishes without a trace. Frank and Giebelhouse realize they were tricked into locating Zero for an unknown group, but many questions remain unanswered. Frank slowly realizes that the conspirators use transients to conduct their experiments and then involves the Millennium Group.
Within a homeless escarpment, an infected transient armed only with a small stick threatens two policeman. The officers open fire, killing the man. Frank and Watts investigate the incident, though their presence is an unwanted one. Secretly, Frank slips by patrol officers and manages to obtain a blood sample from the deceased. He also makes off with a stretcher tag marked with the letters "D.O.E.," which Frank believes is an abbreviation for the Department of Energy. Frank and Watts conclude that the government is developing a new breed of unconventional weapon that would incite erratic and violent behavior in its victims. The weapon is being developed within the Human Genome Project, an effort to produce a blueprint of the "functional and evolutionary history of the human species."
Watts compares the DNA makeup of Patient Zero with that of the homeless man killed by police. The gene sites of both men match identically, meaning their state of insanity was genetically induced. Frank and Watts speculate that a rogue facility outside of the Department of Energy may have discovered the secret to behavior control and now is conducting experiments on untraceable subjects under the guise of homeless assistance. Later, Gerome Knox's corpse is discovered at the morgue.
Watts, Frank and a group of officers storm a nondescript office building, that owns and operates soup trucks, in hopes of finding Patient Zero. Inside, they do indeed find Zero... in the form of Dr. William R. Kramer. Kramer feigns ignorance about his delusional episode, prompting Frank to wonder aloud if he experimented on himself, or was somehow accidentally infected. But he then notices a photograph of Kramer, in uniform, taken in Rowanda in 1994, where thousands of people were senselessly slaughtered.
Starring
Lance Henriksen as Frank Black
Megan Gallagher as Catherine Black
Terry O’Quinn as Peter Watts
Stephen James Lang as Det. Geibelhouse
Guest Starring
Ricky Harris as Gerome Knox
Allan Zinyk as Brian Roedecker
Clarence Williams III as Zero/Kramer
Badja Djola as Lacuna
Brian Jensen as Wright
Chris Nelson Norris as Patterson
Peter Bryant as Editor
Forbes Angus as Dr. Pettey
Michael Vairo as Officer Ginelli
Production Credits
Production #5C03
Music by Mark Snow
Production Designer Mark Freeborn
Director of Photography Robert McLachlan
Associate Producer Jon-Michael Preece
Consulting Producer Chip Johannessen
Consulting Producers Darin Morgan
Co-Producer Robert Moresco
Co-Producer Paul Rabwin
Producer Thomas J. Wright
Co-Executive Producer Ken Horton
Co-Executive Producer John Peter Kousakis
Executive Producer Glen Morgan
Executive Producer James Wong
Executive Producer Chris Carter
Soundtrack
“Gyp the Cat” (1965) by Bobby Darin
AWARDS
Image Award: Clarence Williams III, Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series (Nominee)
Location
Book Excerpt
“As Frank strikes out on his own, a lone wolf, to work independently on a case in ‘Sense and Antisense,’ it serves to aggravate the Group. Parallels to the secret society as family become more pronounced... He is an associate rather than an integral part of the inner circle. Frank explains that since his separation with Catherine he has ‘two of everything.’ Family and the Millennium Group are in essence the social component of Frank’s own personal sense and antisense.”
—Gordon Roberts
Back to Frank Black
REVIEWS
“This enigmatic episode does a brilliant job of bait and switch, setting us up for one thing only to completely controvert it with the next. The result is a narrative that never quite stays the course, that keeps bumping into areas of intrigue and interest, staying just long enough, and then moving on before we get bored, or worse, begin questioning the motivating back story. Some could consider this convoluted, or purposefully oblique, and they would be partially correct. From the very beginning of season two, Wong and Morgan are intentionally messing with the mannerisms of their show—experimenting with rhythms, ignoring the basic tenants of television. A show like 'Sense and Antisense' assumes a certain intelligence, an ability to buy into a concept steeped in genetics, camarillas and unexplained agents in sinister black cars. The acting here is especially good, with Clarence Williams III doing a magnificent job of selling his strange, split personality ideal.”
—Bill Gibron
DVD Talk
“‘Sense and Antisense’ doesn’t work. However, it remains an interesting and compelling piece of television. It doesn’t work in ways that are interesting and even rewarding, failing from trying to do too much rather than trying to do too little. This is perhaps reflective of the flaws with the second season as a whole; when the second season stumbles, it is often as a result of surplus ambition. This is hardly the worst vice.”
—Darren Mooney
The Movie Blog