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Summary:
The Black family travels to visit
Catherine's parents in Maryland, leading Frank to reconsider a local case that may have been resolved improperly the first time
around. The murder in question may have in fact been committed
by the Woodsman, a serial killer still depositing bodies in the
Maryland woods. In investigating these events, Frank might inadvertently
be aligning his family with the dark machinations of the Polaroid
stalker.
Season One on DVD
Full Transcript Available
Quote:
"And now there is merely silence, silence, silence saying
All we did not know." —William Rose Benet
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.
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Photographs:
- Henry Dion, the Woodsman
killer
- Dion displays unexpected compassion
- Frank leads an FBI team into the forest
- Frank and Catherine at the Sea-Tac Airport
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Abyss Rating:
(3/5)
Media Review:
"The
cliffhanger of this darkly comic episode seems too much of an
afterthought, though one that, for those in the know, has long-lasting
and catastrophic ramifications. Indeed, through the episode’s final
invasive act, the first season’s pre-apocalyptic signs and portents
give way to the normally observant and removed Frank Black’s true test
of character. Like many a Carter protagonist, Frank’s greatest enemy
may ultimately be himself." —Keith
Uhlich, Slant Magazine
"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
Trivia:
Once again, Millennium's writers
created a fictional serial killer built from real world research.
The fate of
Marie France Dion was directly inspired by
acts committed by real life serial killer Ed Kemper. Like Henry Dion, Kemper was driven to commit his crimes by a nagging, overbearing
mother. Upon beheading her on Easter Sunday in 1973, Kemper
removed her larynx and forced it into a garbage disposal, precisely as
Henry does during this episode's climax.
Two of the FBI Special Agents that
appear in this episode, Agent Devlin and Agent Emmerich, are named for
writer/producers Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich. The creative
duo is best known for their science fiction films, including
Stargate, Independence Day, and the American Godzilla. They
also created the short-lived Fox drama The Visitor, a series
which shared Friday nights on the network with Millennium
during the 1997-1998 season.
"Paper Dove" includes the first on-screen
appearance of the mysterious Polaroid stalker who had tormented Frank
Black since the series' first episode. Seen only briefly here,
actor
Paul Raskin would be replaced in the role
by Doug Hutchison for the season premiere follow-up, "The Beginning
and the End."
Actor Mike Starr, who appears here as
serial killer Henry Dion, is a recognizable veteran of film and
television. He has appeared in films ranging from Lean on Me
to Dumb & Dumber and guest starred on such television shows as
The Equalizer, Wiseguy, The Pretender, and Law
& Order.
Death Toll:
2
Title:
The episode's title is a
direct reference to the origami paper dove given to Jordan by
Adele Hunzinger. Symbolically, the dove serves as a representation of the peace
achieved between C. R.
Hunziger
and his son. For fans, the title is an appropriate one for, in a
memorable cliffhanger, Frank Black is left at episode's end clutching
only the titular paper dove in the wake of Catherine's abduction.
Soundtrack:
"Stranger in the House" by Wayne Kramer
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
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