Millennium 5C13: “The Mikado”
The Millennial Abyss | Episodes | Season Two
“The Mikado” (5C13)
Written by Michael R. Perry
Directed by Roderick J. Pridy
Edited by Chris Willingham, A.C.E.
Aired February 6, 1998
Summary
A killer screens his elaborately planned crimes over the Internet in a case that Frank Black links to Avatar, an ingenious serial killer who eluded capture in the 1970s.
Synopsis
Three teenagers cruising the Internet come upon a "live sex" web site, where a woman wearing a white bra is tied to a chair. Behind the woman is a wall, on which is painted a number, "37122." The teenagers watch as an electronic counter at the bottom of the screen records the number of "hits" the web site has received. As the count reaches "37122," a man wearing a black hood comes up behind the girl. As the teenagers watch, horrified, the man places a machete to the girl's throat and kills her. One of the boys hits the "print" key on his computer, saving an image of the web site as proof of what transpired.
The Millennium Group receives reports from police departments across the United States, all having received complaints from people who witnessed the alleged murder as it played out on the Internet. Frank senses that the killing was not a hoax. Using his computer, Roedecker compares the victim's picture (printed by the teenagers) to images posted on the National Missing Persons Registry. He and Frank determine that the victim was Rebecca Damsen, who used the Internet on a regular basis.
Roedecker accesses Damsen's e-mail messages, narrowing the suspects to three primary correspondents. Using a special live video link-up, Frank watches from the Group's computer room as law enforcement officials in three different cities travel to the suspects' homes. In one of those cities, San Jose, Watts and a police officer force their way into the residence of Branson Heygood after determining no one is home. As Frank watches from a live video feed, he notices the painting of a cemetery hanging on the wall. He tells Watts and the officer that Damsen's body is in that cemetery. Watts travels to the cemetery, where the dead girl, Damsen, and a boy's severed head, is discovered inside a shed. Frank realizes that Heygood was not the killer, but a victim. Inside the shed are a series of numbers, which is determined to be another Internet address.
The address turns out to be another of the killer's home pages. This time, however, the web site contains an empty chair. Roedecker attempts to trace the signal, but it turns out the killer has somehow made the origin untraceable. The killer, however, provides a clue in the form of a number painted on the wall behind the chair: 696314. Frank realizes the number is an F.B.I. case file on a serial killer known as Avatar, who was last heard from twelve years earlier. Shortly thereafter, the killer releases another clue, this one a multi-charactered cipher, which is transmitted twice. He also places his next victim, another woman, on the web site, but is careful not to show her face, preventing identification.
Roedecker realizes there is a slight discrepancy between the two ciphers sent by the killer. The difference turns out to be a sound file embedded in the message: "The Mikado," Avatar's favorite operetta. Frank responds by posting his own cipher, a quote from Henry James minus the last word, on a news group monitored by the killer. Avatar responds by burning the word "pain" into his victim's forehead, thus completing a misquote contained in one of Avatar's ciphers from years earlier.
Frank realizes that another of the killer's numerical clues is the latitude and longitude for San Francisco. The Group, however, receives no help from skeptical San Francisco Police Captain Bachman, who believes that the killer is not Avatar.
As the web site's counter edges upward, Frank realizes time is running out. Suddenly, he is inspired with an idea. The Group recreates a replica of the web page's setting, right down to replacing the victim with an identically dressed woman. This keeps the counter number on the killer's site from increasing. Shortly thereafter, the hooded figure apparently murders the girl on the "Avatar" web site and sends another cipher.
This time, the hidden message turns out to be two web site addresses. The first is a home page containing another empty chair. The second shows the exterior door of a mobile home. Eventually, police are able to locate the trailer. As an officer opens the door to the dwelling, he trips a booby trap and is killed by a shotgun blast. Meanwhile, Frank travels to San Francisco and, acting on a hunch, winds up at an abandoned theater where a poster for "The Mikado" is displayed in the lobby. Suddenly, shot guns blasts ring out, and Frank dives for cover. Frank chases Avatar, whose face is hidden by the hood, into the shadows. He finds Avatar standing in a dim hallway, arm extended, gun in hand. But Frank notices something isn't quite right. Frank pulls off the hood and sees the kidnapped girl, with "pain" etched into her forehead. Frank realizes it was all part of a plot to trick him into shooting the girl. He also realizes that Avatar has disappeared.
Starring
Lance Henriksen as Frank Black
Terry O’Quinn as Peter Watts
Guest Starring
Allan Zinyk as Brian Roedecker
Greg Michaels as Captain Bachman
Dawn Murphy as Special Agent Tully
Jonathan Bruce as the Haveford Man
Gillian Carfra as the Web Girl
Harrison R. Coe as the S.F. Officer
Micah Gardener as Brandon
Rachel Hayward as Angela
Eileen Pedde as the “PAIN” Victim
Tony Sampson as Anthony
Bobby Stewart as Sergeant Collier
Justin Wong as Danny
Production Credits
Production #5C13
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
“Behold the Lord High Executioner” (1885) by Gilbert & Sullivan
Location
Book Excerpt
“In the Pleistocene era of the internet, a young woman decided she would be on camera twenty-four seven, and thus was born Jennicam, the first webcam exhibitionist... I thought, ‘What if a crime occurred?’ I guess that’s why I’m a crime writer... The situation raised all kinds of knotty issues about when a spectator becomes an accomplice, the distancing aspects of mediated communication, the difficulty of law to keep pace with technology, and so on. Plus, it was just a straight-up creepy idea... It’s been oft imitated, but the imitators never understand what is interesting about the subject matter...”
—Michael R. Perry
Back to Frank Black
REVIEWS
“In many ways, ‘The Mikado’ has probably aged perfectly. The technology less so, but its message and Frank’s anger and despondency at how many will watch material of this nature probably remains more identifiable than ever... Dazzlingly original when it first aired, elements of ‘The Mikado,’ like Millennium the television series itself, have found their way into other sources... Twenty years after its debut, ‘The Mikado’ remains one of horror television’s best ever episodes and one of Millennium’s finest. There is also an argument to be made that Avatar fits into the mystical element of the second season nicely; the killer is never caught and there is a bogeyman feeling to him that is heightened by the idea he only appears when society is on the cusp of the next big change... It’s an episode you can return to at random whenever one is in the mood to simply watch an episode of the show and as such deserves to be mentioned within the confines of the very best the series had to offer.”
—Eamon Hennedy
Set the Tape
“The Mikado” print ad.