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Summary:
Frank Black and Peter Watts call in Millennium Group computer expert
Brian Roedecker to assist in cracking a serious case when
they discover a serial killer who broadcasts his gruesome crimes over
the internet to a bevy of sick spectators. Is this the work of Avatar,
a sadistic zodiac killer that Frank has tracked before, utilizing a
new technological medium for his crimes?
Season Two on DVD
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.
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Photographs:
- Avatar's internet death room
- An artist's rendition of Avatar
- Group computer expert Brian Roedecker
- Frank Black discovers an old opera house
- Avatar's latest victim is displayed online
-
Frank, Peter, and Brian Roedecker confer
-
Peter leads a camera team in the field
- Frank Black faces Avatar
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Abyss Rating:
(5/5)
Trivia:
"The Mikado" marks writer Michael R.
Perry's Millennium debut. Perry is the author of The Stranger
Returns, a novel in which serial killer Ted Bundy returns to
continue his killings years after his execution. The author attributes
his position on the Millennium writing staff to his work on
this particular piece of fiction. The writer, who had won an Emmy
Award for an episode of NYPD
Blue co-written with Steve Gagahn, would
pen five
episodes of Millennium in all.
"The Mikado" wasn't the first
story that
Perry pitched for the series. His first
Millennium script, a story entitled "Dirty Snowball"
involving
Brian Roedecker and a suicide cult watching a comet, was rejected by
executive producers Glen Morgan and James Wong. The character of Brian
Roedecker was a favorite of Perry's, however, and he plays a prominent
role in this episode, his last appearance on the series. Perry
focused on contrasting Roedecker with the show's professional
investigators. "Frank and his colleague Peter Watts are accustomed to
dealing with the macabre, so as a viewer you think they're much cooler
than you are," Perry explains. "They don't have to flinch; they're
tough guys. What I like about Roedecker in this episode is that he
becomes an advocate for the audience. Roedecker is able to express the
revulsion, the tears, that Frank has to constantly hold back. For the
first time, Roedecker has a chance to see this is what Frank and Peter
do all the time. It makes Frank seem grander because, if nobody in an
episode reacts to the gruesome and macabre things that are around,
they don't seem so terrifying."
Michael R. Perry reveals the inspiration
for this episode by explaining, "I got the
idea for 'The Mikado' by hearing about Jennicam, the first girl to put
herself on netcam 24/7 in the spring of '97. Now there are thousands."
It is thanks to the writer's insistence, in fact, that the webcam
transmissions seen throughout the episode are presented in a realistic
manner rather than in realtime, a common inaccuracy in television
representations.
Perry was also interested in exploring the
yet unrealized ramifications of internet related crimes. "I wanted a
crime that no police department would have jurisdiction over," says
Perry. "Who's going to go after it? Ordinarily, if there's a murder
down the street, the city is going to take care of it. That's how our
entire society has been built. With a murder that isn't tied to a
physical place, this guy can go on forever, unless there's a
Millennium Group. That was the sport of it. It also has the great
beginning for a mystery. It's articulated by Frank, who says, 'We
don't know who the victim is; we don't know where the crime scene took
place. We don't have any crime scene. We don't have any evidence
except for a blurry print-out.' That's such a tantalizing beginning.
Avatar cut Frank off from what he naturally does; this also has to do
with the demonizing elements of the internet. It's both a character
and a thematic element, because 4,000 people per hour are logging on,
hoping to see this girl die. The dehumanizing aspects of mediated
communication, the internet in this particular case, are a sub-theme,
and it ties in to how Frank, being cut off from being in a real place,
can't do what he normally does. That was a fun thing to play around
with, and it works for both plot and character."
Avatar, one of Millennium's most
terrifying and memorable villains, is nearly identical in all respects
to the Zodiac Killer, the infamous slayer who claimed responsibility
for seventeen murders in San Francisco and northern California between
1966 and 1974. In the first draft of Michael R. Perry's script, in
fact, Avatar was the real life Zodiac Killer. Like Avatar, the Zodiac
Killer was never caught.
Clearly, since Frank Black is not stalking
Zodiac in "The Mikado," Avatar underwent a number of name changes
during the writing process. Network executives, despite Perry's
wishes, insisted that the character could not be identified as a real
world serial killer. Co-Executive Producer Ken Horton fought
with the network in an effort to maintain the blurring between fiction
and reality that Perry had intended but, ultimately, the network
demands were met. Zodiac thus became Omega, adopting a new, fictional
moniker. Lance Henriksen's endorsement agreement with the Omega watch
corporation, however, made this name equally unsuitable for the
prodution. Ultimately, the show's staff decided that the character
would be known as Avatar.
Michael R. Perry recorded an audio
commentary regarding "The Mikado" for Fox Home Entertainment's DVD
release of Millennium: The Complete Second Season.
Death Toll:
3
Title:
"The Mikado" is named for
the Gilbert and Sullivan opera favored by the sadistic Avatar.
The opera tells the story of Ko-Ko, a
tailor sentenced to death who is then made Lord High Executioner of
his village in an effort to defy the harsh law of the Mikado, the
Japanese Emperor. Frank hears one of the opera's themes,
"Behold
the Lord High Executioner," during the episode's thrilling climax.
Soundtrack:
"Behold
the Lord High Executioner" by Gilbert and Sullivan
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
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