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Summary:
Christmas Eve and the anniversary of his mother's death bring Frank
Black into confrontations with Catherine, his estranged father, and
even an angel. All of these painful memories and arguments serve
a purpose, however, in helping to advise Frank on some important decisions
he must make regarding Jordan and the gifts
she's inherited.
Season Two on DVD
Full Transcript Available
Synopsis:
In flashback,
five-year-old Frank Black draws the form of an angel. A woman, her
face unseen, writes the date "12/24/1946" on the bottom of the paper.
In the current day, Frank returns home with an armload of Christmas
decorations and gifts. He listens to messages on his answering
machine, the first a reminder from Jordan regarding her upcoming
Christmas pageant, the second from Frank's estranged father. Without
listening to the entire message, Frank deletes all calls. Shortly
thereafter, Frank receives a Christmas card bearing the likeness of an
angel. Frank turns the card over and examines the postmark, which is
dated "December 24, 1946."
Jordan and Catherine pay Frank a
visit on Christmas Eve. Jordan shows Roedecker one of her Christmas
presents, a virtual pet, which turns out to be the same gift Frank
purchased for his daughter. Frank travels to a toy store to buy Jordan
a different gift. There he experiences a vision from his childhood,
one in which he asks his sickly mother, Linda, for a toy. When the
flashback ends, Frank is assisted by three store clerks: Caspar,
Balthazar and Melchior. The men attempt to steer Frank towards a
specific toy, but Frank insists up a Danny Dinosaur doll. When Frank
exits the store, he sees the image of a young man, Simon, reflected in
a shop window where an angel mannequin presides over a Nativity scene.
Simon says "tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow," words said by Frank's
mother in his vision. But when Frank whirls around, Simon has
disappeared.
When Frank attends Jordan's
pageant, he again sees Simon, this time standing in the back of the
church. He follows the vision outside, into the churchyard. Simon
explains that ghosts, or fetches, the souls of those who are
destined to die during the following year, make "their way to the
church in search of those who will soon be their companions." Later,
after the pageant ends, Catherine tells him a piece of paper
containing a crudely drawn angel made by her daughter — who claims
she was assisted by her dead grandmother.
Frank realizes Jordan received
Danny Dinosaur as a Christmas gift the previous year. He returns to
the toy store, where he asks the three clerks for a doll. The clerks
point him in the direction of an aisle containing a variety of
dolls — including an angel. But when he picks up the angel, its face
transforms into a hideous death mask. Though the doll returns to its
proper form, an angry and frustrated Frank marches out of the store
empty-handed. Frank returns home and retrieves a piece of paper from
a box of personal memorabilia. On the paper is an angel identical to
the one drawn by Jordan.
Frank invites Lara Means to
his house to discuss the events of the past day. Lara describes how
she first began feeling the presence of angels, and how, one day,
she accurately predicted the death of her father's business
associate. She has been seeing angels — whom she believes are
messengers — ever since. Lara concludes that the angels are
attempting to communicate with Frank.
Frank returns to his father Henry's
house. There, he enters the room where his mother died by herself.
He discovers that every inch of wall space has been covered with
images of angels. In flashback, Frank recalls his mother saying
goodbye to him for the very last time. Afterward, Henry describes
how Linda first predicted the death of her brother, Joe, during the
invasion of Normandy in 1945. Though Henry believed his wife's
words, he feared she might be institutionalized if word of her
ability spread. Eventually, Linda's prescience tore them apart.
Finally, Linda foretold her own death.
Though Henry admits he believed her,
he nonetheless acted as if Linda was crazy. Before she died, Linda
told Henry she would move an angel figurine "from the other side,"
as proof she was waiting for him. But the angel still sits, just as
it had been left many years earlier, covered with dust. Frank shows
his father the angel Jordan drew. With tears in his eyes, Henry
picks up the dusty angel figurine, and hands it to his son — a gift
for Jordan. Frank meets Jordan and Catherine at church. When Frank
gives Jordan the angel figurine, she says, "Grandma wants me to have
it." Frank and his daughter then gaze upon the churchyard, where
they see ghostly fetches, one of whom is Henry. Frank watches as
the specters vanish — comforted that he has made peace with his
father.
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Photographs:
- Lara Means decorates a tree with tinsel
- Frank's estranged father, Henry Black
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Frank and Henry connect
-
Henry gives Frank his mother's statue
- Frank considers an angel doll
- Frank and Lara discuss the holidays
- Frank gives Jordan his mother's statue
- Lara Means considers her gift
- Frank and Jordan observe the fetches
- Frank and Catherine discuss Jordan
Abyss Rating:
(5/5)
Media Review:
"Leave it to Millennium to find a
way to make a holiday-based special into something far more serious
and sentimental, with just a taste of the sinister on the side. This
is truly an acting tour de force for all the performers involved...
But the true highlight comes when Frank’s father
— played by Carl Kolchak himself,
Darren McGavin —
arrives. McGavin has an amazing monologue about the death of Frank’s
mother, and in combination with the ongoing family issues in his life
(and the possible flirtation with Lara Means) this emotion tangle
threatens to undo Frank’s fragile mind. That we sense both hope and a
kind of closure at the end of this episode means that, once again,
this series has managed to find a way to thwart convention while
providing the key to successful television
— total entertainment value." —Bill Gibron, DVD Talk
Trivia:
Guest star
Darren McGavin, who portrays estranged
father Henry Black, served as a significant influence on series
creator Chris Carter. McGavin was the star of Kolchak: The Night
Stalker, the 1974 paranormal investigation series that inspired
Carter to create The X-Files. Carter strove for
years to schedule McGavin in a prominent guest role on The X-Files,
originally hoping he could portray the father of Fox Mulder, but it
was Millennium that took the honor. "Since it was a
Christmas episode, we wanted to deal with Frank's family," Erin Maher
explains. "It was a good opportunity to show some of his past with his
father. Originally, we had talked about Johnny Cash as Frank's dad,
but then he got sick. And then, of course, we were very jazzed to get
Darren McGavin." Some viewers will
also recognize McGavin, particularly around the holidays, in a fatherly
role in the 1983
comedy A Christmas Story.
Kay Reindl once commented, "We
couldn't have expected anyone more perfect than Darren McGavin. He was
heartbreaking. He was Henry, completely. We were very interested in
the relationship between Frank and his father, since it seemed like
they were distant. We wondered if that was always the case. We also
wanted to explore the origins of Frank's gift and thought if we
introduced the gift through his mother, it could parallel what Frank
was going through with Catherine and Jordan."
The episode seen here is not the first
story that Maher and Reindl pitched for the show's producers after
being given the Christmas-themed assignment. After viewing a number of
Christmas horror films, including Silent Night, Deadly Night, the duo developed a storyline involving serial
killers of the past, present, and future. "We came up with the idea of
doing A Christmas Carol with Frank," Reindl notes. "The three
ghosts would be serial killers of the past, present and future. We
pitched our board, and after the first act, Glen said, 'Did we talk
about this at all?' And we said, 'Well, not really, just generally.'
He said, 'Well, we have this scene in the Halloween episode.'" Scenes
that Maher and Reindl had written featuring flashbacks to Frank
Black's childhood were remarkably similar to scenes in Glen Morgan and
James Wong's "The Curse of Frank Black." The plotline of the Christmas
episode was reconsidered as a result.
Glen Morgan suggested that in "Midnight of
the Century" the writers might approach the story as the
Halloween-themed "The Curse of Frank Black" had been approached,
depicting a day in the life of Frank Black. The focus then shifted, as
a result of the holiday influence, toward the Black family. Erin Maher
explains, "We were thinking about Frank's visions, and we thought if
one of his parents had visions, that would mean something, since his
daughter Jordan has them. It's something that's passed from generation
to generation. So, we decided that his mother would have visions too,
mainly because last year in 'Sacrament,' the episode with Frank's
brother, we got a very strong impression that Frank and his father
weren't very close and that his father was very remote and very
strict. We were wondering why that was. And Frank and his brother
never talked about their mother. So, we came up with the idea of
Frank's mother dying when he was six years old, and he really didn't
understand how deep his father's love was, so he blamed his father for
letting her die alone. We also thought about the idea that Christmas
is always supposed to be this perfect family holiday, but Frank's
family has split up —
he's without his wife and child. He really
doesn't have a good relationship with his dad. It's sort of the
Christmas that you end up with, rather than the Christmas that you
really want."
Death Toll:
0
Title:
The episode's title,
inscribed on the face of a mysterious card that Frank Black receives
and repeated during Peter Watts' holiday toast, eloquently symbolizes
the final days of the twentieth century. The characters of
Millennium figuratively exist at a moment of midnight, at a
historical landmark marking the end of the century and of the
millennium.
Soundtrack:
"Arabian Dance" by
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Starring:
Lance Henriksen as Frank Black
Megan Gallagher as Catherine Black
Brittany Tiplad as Jordan Black
Terry O'Quinn as Peter Watts
Guest Starring:
Kristen Cloke as Lara Means
Allan Zinyk as Brian Roedecker
Darren McGavin as Henry Black
Andrew Blinks as Neil
Tim Bissett as Melchior
Gerry Currie as Simon
Donny James Lucas as Balthazar
Cheryl McNamara as Linda Black
Jessica Schreier as Barbara Watts
Trevor White as Caspar
Production
Credits:
Production #5C11
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
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