Millennium 5C06: “19:19”
The Millennial Abyss | Episodes | Season Two
“19:19” (5C06)
Written by Glen Morgan & James Wong
Directed by Thomas J. Wright
Edited by James Coblentz
Aired November 7, 1997
Summary
In southeastern Oklahoma, Frank Black, Peter Watts, and Lara Means race against time to locate a busload of abducted children entombed in an abandoned quarry by a crazed visionary.
Synopsis
A man living in a trailer park switches on a radio and several different television sets and listens to several news broadcasts simultaneously. The man moves to a spot on his white linoleum floor and, using a marker, begins making brief notations about the news stories. Every inch of the floor is covered with his writing, all pointing to the last empty spot. It is here that the man writes the word, "me." The man steps outside his trailer and, bible in hand, experiences an apocalyptic vision: nuclear devastation and a field of ash.
Frank and Peter Watts join the search for a busload of missing children. Records indicate the vehicle's missing driver, Vernon Roberts, is more likely a victim than a suspect. The pair receive word that the bus has been located beneath a river. They join Sheriff Cayce-whose daughter, Jessica, is amongst the missing group-as the vehicle is towed from the water. Though the bus is empty, Frank receives a "hit" when he touches Jessica's backpack, seeing same apocalyptic vision experienced by the man at the trailer park.
Frank observes a white paint mark on the bus's emergency door. He tells Cayce the perpetrator, and an accomplice, are using a white van to transport their hostages. A chase ensues when police spot a speeding white van on the highway but the occupants turn out to be a group of meteorologists-storm chasers-hoping to link up with a violent weather system. The meteorologists warn Frank and the others that the storm front is capable of spawning a destructive tornado.
The man and his accomplice force Vernon and the children into an underground trailer buried in a field. The accomplice performs a head count and realizes there were seventeen children and one adult abducted, one shy of the number nineteen. The man forces Vernon to identify the one missing child. Meanwhile, a clue—in the form of a passage from Revelation 19, Verse 19—airs on a local radio station. Frank realizes the perpetrator meant to abduct nineteen hostages. He and Cayce race to the home of the missing student. There they encounter the man, who had broken into the house in an attempt to abduct the child. A struggle ensues, and the man is taken into custody.
Frank tells Watts that the man is not a criminal. To the man, his mission is "a fight between good and evil." Watts tells Frank that the Millennium Group possesses a database of names of anyone who purchased a Bible by mail in the last ten years—a list which can be narrowed down to specialty items. Using the list, the pair locate the man's trailer and the markings on the linoleum floor. Later, the man, now identified as Matthew Prine, states that World War III is inevitable and that he is protecting the future. Frank realizes Prine kidnapped all the children because one of them is a peacemaker.
With the assistance of Lara Means, Frank and the others determine that Prine scratches his hand whenever he experiences guilt. By analyzing a soil sample taken from Prine's clothing, it is determined that the children are entombed in an aluminum quarry. A deputy drives Prine to the quarry, and as the others watch via hidden camera, Prine inadvertently reveals the location of the tomb by scratching his hand. The accomplice spots the police vehicle and opens fire. Frank and Cayce race to the scene, and as the accomplice continues firing, a powerful storm suddenly erupts. A tornado descends from the sky, enveloping Prine—and lifting a huge cargo container off the tomb. After the winds subside, the children poke their heads out of the hole, one by one. Cayce rushes to his daughter and embraces her. Frank realizes that Jessica may be a future savior.
Starring
Lance Henriksen as Frank Black
Terry O’Quinn as Peter Watts
Guest Starring
Kristen Cloke as Lara Means
Christian Hoff as Matthew Prine
David Abbot as Vernon Roberts
Kurt Evans as Deputy Jack
Steve Rankin as Sheriff John Cayce
Colleen Rennison as Jessica Cayce
Bill Marchant as the Accomplice
Elizabeth McCarthy as Susan
Production Credits
Production #5C06
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
“Bless the Beasts and Children” (1971) by the Carpenters
Location
Book Excerpt
“I really believe that Millennium has a great deal to do with Rob McLachlan, the director of photography, and Mark Freeborn, the production designer. At that time, people were copying what The X-Files did, which was a very cold, blue-gray color scheme, and for what Rob and Mark could do working hand-in-hand with blacks, browns and ambers—which weren’t really seen as horror at the time—I thought that Millennium had such an incredible look.”
—Glen Morgan
Back to Frank Black
REVIEWS
“Week after week this season I've been tuning in to Millennium, FOX-TV's unworldly mystery series, and tuning out the rest of the world. It's bizarre, scary, and half the time I'm watching it through the space my fingers make when I clamp my hand over my eyes. Who said watching TV's no fun?”
—Glenn Waterman
The Journal Inquirer
“It’s not all that often that you see a show about a radical fundamentalist Christian who wants to prevent Armageddon, getting in the way of God’s plans... Really, I like just about everything featuring Prine, who has a damaged certitude, a terrifying sense of right and wrong and a sense of where he stands within that dialectic. It could be a standard ‘crazy Christian’ portrayal, but Christian Hoff makes him a distinctive character, and Morgan and Wong’s script quickly follows suit.”
—Emily St. James
The AV Club
“19:19” print ad.