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Summary:
Catherine Black is summoned to a Seattle area high school to explain why
a local girl is claiming to have magnificent religious visions of Mary
Magdalene. When she arrives, however, she finds her cool psychological
findings to be in direct conflict with those thoughts of another
investigator: Lara Means, representing the Millennium Group. The
struggle for answers may provide Catherine with a deeper understanding of
her husband's work and his driving essence.
Season Two on DVD
Full Transcript Available
Synopsis:
Catherine, anxious and
tense, rushes down an empty hallway of a high school. Inside
one of the classrooms, a group of five girls — Clare, Leslie,
Shelley, Maureen and Kelly — gathers for prayer circle. A
figure opens the classroom door and removes a handgun,
pointing it inside. The gun fires—and screams reverberate
throughout the school.
The story flashes back to two
days earlier. In Rowan, Washington, Catherine meets with Emma
Shetterly, the high school Vice Principal. The town has been rocked to
its foundation ever since five female students claimed they saw a
vision of the Virgin Mary. Emma wonders why such a vision would appear
to five girls who, in her mind, are "unworthy." The leader of the
group, Clare McKenna, has been in trouble a number of times before.
Catherine makes an effort to reach out to the girls. Maureen gives her
account of how her friends experienced the vision during Reverend Sam
Hanes' sermon. Shortly thereafter, Catherine is approached by Hanes'
son, Alex. He gives a different account of events, claiming the girls
were, in fact, disruptive during his father's service. When Hanes put
the girls on notice, Clare experienced the "vision." Alex claims Clare
is far from divine. Later, when Catherine returns to speak with Emma,
she realizes Lara is inside her office.
Lara tells Catherine and Emma
that, throughout the years, the Millennium Group has investigated
similar apparitions. Though there is undeniable friction between
Catherine and Lara, the ice slowly breaks as they observe the young
students attending a prayer meeting. Lara locks eyes with Ben Fisher,
a drama teacher, then looks away, somewhat uncomfortable. As the
prayer meeting gets underway, Alex clashes with Clare over her
recitation of a passage she claims is from the Bible. As Clare
continues, she mentions "the beginning and the end," the same words
spoken by the Polaroid Man. Catherine is stunned. When she later
approaches the girl about what she said, Clare reveals even more about
the Polaroid Man, furthering Catherine's speechlessness. Lara steps up
behind Catherine. She experiences a vision, seeing a cloaked woman
standing near trees. Later, Lara and Catherine discuss the event. Lara
believes Clare is, indeed, a visionary, while Catherine believes the
girl is simply being mischievous. But Lara explains that the words
Clare recited were from Gnostic texts, which were excluded from the
Bible for promoting the idea that Mary Magdalene was the only apostle
who truly understood Christ's teachings.
Lara and Catherine meet with
Clare's father, Ray. They observe a great many books in Clare's
bedroom, books given her by Ben Fisher. Ray believes Ben is the only
person genuinely concerned for his daughter's welfare. The women then
note a Black Virgin, a statue associated with natural phenomena.
According to legend, the object will grow heavy if moved against its
will. Catherine discovers she cannot, in fact, lift it. An outraged
Clare runs into the room and easily lifts the statue, cradling it like
a doll.
Ray telephones Catherine,
informing her that Clare and her friends have disappeared. Lara and
Catherine set off to the woods. During their journey, Lara reveals
that the vision the girls saw was not of the Virgin Mary, but of Mary
Magdalene. Catherine is stunned. Later, the women come upon the girls
standing in a grotto. A scuffle breaks out. Ben lunges at Lara, but
she drops him with an impressive right hook. Ben is taken into
custody. Later, Reverend Hanes forcibly baptizes four of the girls,
believing it is the only way to end their "Godlessness." But when it
is Clare's turn, the wispy form of the cloaked woman appears in the
water. Everyone, including Catherine and Lara, are stunned. Later,
Lara confronts Ben Fisher. Ben, it is revealed, is a member of the
Family, a former part of the Millennium Group. Fisher is acting as
Clare's guardian, someone to guide and help her deal with her power.
He accuses Lara of being jealous, as she was not so fortunate.
Catherine learns that Ben was released
from the police station. She fears that he will do something to Clare,
but Lara warns her not to interfere. Realizing Clare is at the prayer
circle meeting, Catherine rushes to the high school. She sees the
armed figure approaching the classroom (see teaser)—which turns out
to be Alex. He opens fire, and moments later, is tackled from behind
by Catherine. Alex cries out, wondering why Jesus loves Clare more
than himself. When Catherine rises to her feet, she realizes Fisher
took the bullets intended for Clare. Shortly thereafter, Fisher dies.
Later, Lara explains that there had to be a sacrifice in order to set
certain events in motion. She then shows Catherine two DNA
reports — one for Clare McKenna, and the other taken from the Shroud of
Turin. The images match. Lara explains that some believe Clare is the
descendant of Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene. She hands the DNA
folders to Catherine — letting her decide if the world should know the
truth.
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Photographs:
- Clare discovers the Black Virgin statue
- The Millennium Group's Lara Means
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Clare McKenna, the center of controversy
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Lara is stunned by a vision of her own
- Ben Fisher, a member of
the Family
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Emma holds a distraught Alex Hanes
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Alex approaches the prayer group
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A group of boys taunts Clare
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Lara finds Fisher at the grotto shrine
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Clare's vision of Mary Magdalene
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Clare experiences a vision
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Abyss Rating:
(4/5)
Media Review:
"While
I mentioned that one particular episode might appeal to fans of The
DaVinci Code, the fact is that this season of Millennium
may very well do the same as it treads of some of the same themes. [Millennium
presented a] beautiful combination of modern crime and ancient
mysticism, all coming together under the auspices of something that
may or may not have our best interests in mind. And Frank Black caught
in the middle of all of it. When it aired, I found it to be the most
intellectually satisfying series on the air."
—Michael Patrick Sullivan, Underground
Online
"As
compelling as Catherine and Lara are as compliments to Frank’s flawed
center, they really can’t hold a narrative together as a solo act or,
as in this case, a duo. Lara always appears hampered when dealing with
individuals outside the Group, and Catherine has never really been
developed enough as an entity exclusive of Frank for us to get a
handle on her headstrong motivations... There is also a rushed feeling
to this story, as if we stumbled in at the last 15 minutes or so of a
much longer exposition. As a result, the events that happen to the
young girl, Claire, the link to the entire Gnostic Bibles and Family
issues get rather short shrift. Lara says it best when she admits that
all this talk about Mary Magdalene, Jesus and the possibility of a
Christ-based bloodline may be too 'amazing' to believe. At the time it
was. Now, with an audience way ahead of the game, 'Anamnesis' seems
out of step, both with the series and the times." —Bill Gibron, DVD Talk
Trivia:
"Anamnesis" is unique in that it is the
only one of Millennium's sixty-seven episodes that does not
feature Lance Henriksen as Frank Black. As a result, it is one of only
two episodes that can be said to focus on the character of Catherine
Black rather than her husband.
Kay Reindl, while discussing the origins
of "Anamnesis" with the Abyss, noted that the Millennium
episodes she wrote with partner Erin Maher have a common theme. "We seem to be inspired by the
discovery of forgotten things, like the Ghost Dance or Mary Magdalene
and the Gnostics," Reindl observed. "We were originally going to have
the girls see the Virgin Mary but the more Mary Magdalene cropped up,
the more intrigued we became with her and finally we just tossed poor
old Mary out of the window and came up with 'Anamnesis.'"
Explaining the intrigue of Mary Magdalene,
Erin Maher says, "She's the apostle to the apostles. She's the one who
really understands what Christ is saying. She was pretty much weeded
out of the Bible. Women can't be in any position of power, but when
you look back at the history there were early Christian women who are
priestesses. What happened to them? Why was that so threatening? We
wanted to play with that a little bit."
Millennium's writers and producers
regularly found themselves in conflict with those at the Fox network,
particularly the censors of the Broadcast Standards and Practices
division. "Anamnesis" in particular, because of its implications
concerning the life of Jesus Christ, is reputed to have alarmed the
network censors. Kay Reindl explains, "There are some hard and fast
rules, particularly with violence, but this was a new thing for them
and once they figured out what we were saying about Mary Magdalene and
Jesus Christ we had quite an argument on our hands. Our Standards
person, Linda Shima-Tsuno, was wonderful, however. She's always been
very fair and will listen to your arguments. She listened to ours for
three hours! Between me and Erin and Glen, we finally managed to get
our point across and although she required some changes and
clarifications, we got to do the episode. Which was good, since it had
already started shooting. Darin's office was in the same building and
every once in a while he'd wander by and see us still sitting
there, heads in our hands, trying to explain how Gnosticism is not
a bad thing."
This episode offered the show's writers
the opportunity to contrast Lara Means and Catherine Black, the show's
leading female roles, and to play the characters off of one another.
Maher explains, "We got to do a little Mulder and Scully thing with
them, because Lara is the spiritual one and Catherine is more
scientific. But in this episode you really see Catherine opening up a
little bit more to the possibilities." Reindl adds, "[Catherine] has a
really great strength in this episode. I think that one of the things
she learns is that although she's very protective of her family, she's
not protecting out of fear but out of strength, and she can do that
for Frank and Jordan. Nobody is going to mess with those two when
she's around, and that's what we really wanted to bring out in this
episode."
Death Toll:
1
Title:
In psychology terminology, anamnesis is the
process of recalling to memory, of
recollection, the ability to recall past occurrences. Catherine Black
and Lara Means, as trained psychologists attempting to probe the
memory of
Clare McKenna, are no doubt familiar with
the term.
Soundtrack:
"Dancing
Barefoot" by Patti Smith
Starring:
Megan Gallagher as Catherine Black
Terry O'Quinn as Peter Watts
Guest Starring:
Kristen Cloke as Lara Means
Genele Templeton as Clare McKenna
John Pyper-Ferguson as Ben Fisher
Brendan Fletcher as Alex Hanes
John B. Lowe as Reverend Sam Hanes
Gwynyth Walsh as Emma Shetterly
Garry Davey as Ray McKenna
A. J. Bond as the Sports Boy
Eryn Collins as Shelly
Christopher Gray as Buddy
Jenny Mitchell as Lydia
Angela Moore as the Teacher
Jessica Murdoch as Leslie
Kimberly Warnat as Maureen
Production
Credits:
Production #5C19
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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