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Summary: As Trust representative Richard
Gilbert dies under tragic circumstances,
Frank Black is given a lecture by Millennium Group superiors that only intensifies
his fears regarding the now apparent cult-like organization. Peter Watts
fights back against the Group he followed loyally for so many years.
Lara Means, confronted with the knowledge and sights of the coming doomsday,
finds herself spiraling into insanity. As the bloody plague spreads far and wide, killing
many, Frank, Jordan, and Catherine retreat into the woods of Washington to
escape a grim end to the world as they know it.
Season Two on DVD
Full Transcript Available
Synopsis:
Jordan, Frank and Catherine
bury the dead parakeet, prompting more questions from Jordan
regarding God and the hereafter. Later, a Millennium team
clad in biohazard suits sweeps into the Davis home, where
earlier an entire family was wiped out by the mysterious
virus. Outside the house, in the backyard, are a dozen dead
birds of various species.
Catherine, Frank and Jordan return
to the yellow house. Frank realizes that, with all of the unhappiness associated
with the structure, such as the deaths of Bletcher and the Old Man, it
is time to find a new home. A short time later, Frank receives paperwork
in the mail, indicating his father left him a cabin in a remote wooded
area. Frank tells Catherine about Watts' prediction that there would be
an earthquake. Although he distrusts the Group's power and control, Frank
cannot walk away until he knows what the future entails.
Richard Gilbert meets Frank in
a parking lot. When Frank reveals he has decided to stay with the Group,
Richard warns against it, as even now, they are being spied upon by Group
members. Gilbert drives off in his car, and shortly thereafter, Mr. Lott
steps from the shadows. He reveals that the Group is uninterested in any
single individual life, but feels its responsibility lies with the whole
of mankind.
The next morning, Frank discovers
that Richard lost control of his automobile as he drove away from their
meeting. Frank examines the automobile, searching for evidence that it
was tampered with. Watts informs him that the Group is not at fault, its
attention focused on something far more important. He reveals that he broke
into the Group's database, and has learned that the mysterious virus was
discovered by the Soviets years earlier in the jungles of Africa. It was
then genetically enhanced, creating a biological weapon of astonishing
toxicity. When the Soviet Union fell, the virus was inadvertently exposed
to the environment, and carried aloft by birds. In 1986, a Wisconsin farmer
and his entire flock of hens died from exposure, but like the Spanish flu
of 1918, it mysteriously went away. The boy who died by the lake the previous
week had somehow contracted the disease. Watts believes the Group developed
a vaccine to the virus back in 1986, but produced only enough to inoculate
its own members (both Frank and Watts received the vaccine during their
quarantine period). Frank instructs Watts to find Lara Means and meet him
back at his house, as he knows of a location where they can live until
the crisis passes.
When Watts arrives at the cottage
where Lara is staying, Blaylock and another Group member intercept him.
During the ensuing struggle, a gunshot rings out. Frank receives a phone
call, and listens to the sound of the struggle, followed by the sound of
a car pulling away in the distance. With help from Giebelhouse, Frank traces
the call to the cottage.
Lara experiences powerful visions
of the apocalypse. For a moment, she considers taking her own life. Instead,
she writes something on an envelope. Frank breaks down the door and races
inside. In a nearly psychotic state, Lara raises her gun and opens fire,
narrowly missing Frank. Paramedics rush inside and help restrain Lara.
As she is wheeled away, Frank takes the envelope, which contains a syringe
filled with a vaccine to the virus.
Frank telephones Catherine and
instructs her to begin gathering provisions. He then drives to the psychiatric
hospital, where he speaks with Lara. He asks her about Watts' fate, but
she can only stare back with lifeless eyes. Frank thanks Lara for the vaccine,
then drives his family to the remote cabin.
Frank tells Catherine that during the years of the
Black Plague, people gathered their families and retreated to the mountains,
allowing them to survive the outbreak. Later, as Jordan sleeps, Catherine
listens to a news broadcast, which details the symptoms of the virus. Catherine
asks Frank to kill her if she should become infected. Frank counters it would be
impossible for him to do so, arguing that if he got sick, he would go off into
the woods to die. He then produces the syringe containing the vaccine. He
explains that he has already been inoculated, and the syringe contains enough
vaccine for one person. Catherine immediately insists that Jordan be given the
shot.
Later that night, Catherine wakes experiencing
symptoms of the virus. She quietly walks out of the cabin and heads towards the
woods. Finding blood on Catherine's pillow, Frank watches the darkened forest.
The next morning, Frank's hair has gone completely gray. As he holds his
daughter in his arms, he experiences internal blasts of static, interspersed
with apocalyptic distress calls in many languages. And it is in the cabin that
Frank and Jordan remain alone and uncertain. |
Photographs:
- An insane Lara Means fires at Frank
- Frank struggles to control the frantic Lara
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Frank and Peter investigate the accident
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Peter describes Gilbert's fatal accident
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Frank holds Jordan as they face an end
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Jordan finds Frank devastated
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Jordan is amused by her father's hair
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Abyss Rating:
(5/5)
Media Review:
"For
me, Lara Means earned her role in television history during 'The Time
Is Now,' the season's final episode, in one of the most daring and
unconventional sequences of the past decade; it is easily the
equivalent of anything David Lynch did with Twin Peaks, and it
runs for nearly nine minutes. If you've seen it you know what I'm
talking about, and if you haven't it makes this season two set a
mandatory rental, if nothing else. The emotional impact of Patti
Smith's 'Horses' will take on an entirely new meaning afterwards."
—Rich Rosell, Digitally Obsessed
"This
is a dense presentation, 90 minutes of mythology, murder,
misunderstandings, death, disease and disgusting, depressing imagery.
The ‘bleed out’ cases are especially gruesome, giving these episodes a
weight and new sense of urgency. Also aiding in the atmosphere of
dread are Terry O’Quinn, making Peter Watts the most sympathetic
— and suspect
— that he’s been all season, and
Kristen Cloke, who gets a tour-de-force mental montage set to the
Patti Smith song 'Horses,' is just amazing. This is what Millennium
did best, not only in individual swatches but overall. These shows pay
off in ways we have wondered about all series long, bringing in
elements cast off from other shows and involving ancillary issues we
thought unimportant at the time. With the stunning finale and the
ambiguous nature of its symbolism, it is hard to see where the series
would go in season three. Fans would argue that the creators had the
same feeling." —Bill Gibron, DVD Talk
Trivia:
The episodes of the two-part second
season finale — "The Fourth Horseman" and "The Time is Now" — were
written by executive producers Glen Morgan and James Wong at a time
when Millennium's future on the Fox network was undecided. The
dramatic events seen here were intended as a suitable series finale as
well as a satisfying end to the season in the event that the show was
to be cancelled.
Uncertain whether or not Millennium
would return in the fall, Morgan and Wong discussed a variety of
possible endings with series creator Chris Carter. Carter's
suggestion, that Catherine Black be killed during the climax, took the
two by surprise. After considering the choice, however, Morgan came to
realize how meaningful the death might be for the series. The writers
discussed the decision with actress Megan Gallagher, who agreed.
Morgan explains, "I told her the neat part will be that after Frank
Black has done so much sacrificing for his family, ultimately it will
be Catherine who makes the ultimate sacrifice. She liked that. So,
that had a big part in the decision to kill Catherine."
Glen Morgan explains that the shelter the
Black family unites within during the conclusion to this episode
ultimately becomes Frank Black's symbolic yellow house. "I didn't feel
right leaving Frank without his yellow house. I think in life you
sometimes search for a yellow house, but for Frank it actually was
that cabin."
Included in this episode is another subtle
sight gag designed to excite those constantly looking for means of
connecting Chris Carter's two conspiracy-driven television series.
While infiltrating the Millennium Group storage area, Peter Watts
discovers the stub of a Morley cigarette on the basement floor. On
The X-Files, Morley is the brand of choice for the villainous
Cigarette Smoking Man.
This episode offers us a glimpse of the
volumes that fill Frank Black's bookshelf. Among those books that can
be seen are J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye, John
Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, and the complete works of
William Shakespeare.
Guest star Daryl Shuttleworth appears in this episode
as Brian Dixon, an associate of Frank Black's and a prominent member of
the Trust. The character is named for Brian A. Dixon, the webmaster of
this website.
Kristen Cloke appears in this episode as
Lara Means for the last time. Her character's final bow is among the
most dramatic the show would ever feature, however, taking the form of
a bizarre, stylized music video set to the music of Patti Smith's
"Horses." The song, written about heroin use, was a favorite of Glen
Morgan's during college. Morgan once explained that the lengthy
sequence was challenging to create but experimentally worthwhile for a
television drama. "Editing was really difficult. Doing this was rather
naive on my part. Music videos probably have a budget close to what
one of our entire episodes costs, and we had only three days to put it
together. I don't think we competed very well with the kind of imagery
you see on MTV but I felt that this hasn't been done on a primetime,
network drama. I'm glad we did it but it was really, really hard."
Periodic spurts of television static are seen throughout this
episode. Although there is a symbolic meaning that can be assigned to
the static, the effect is the result of frustrations experienced by
the show's producers. Glen and Darin Morgan once discussed the Fox
network's disinterest in promoting Millennium. The producers
felt much of the deserved advertising time that should have been
allotted to the show was being transferred to Fox Sports, used to
promote the fall season's football games. Darin suggested that, as a
means of striking back at Fox, Morgan and Wong should arrange to show
uninterrupted static during Millennium episodes, precisely as
much static as standard advertising time that had been taken from the
series. While "The Time is Now" does not feature a long, continuous
block of uninterrupted static designed to compensate for the exact
amount of lost advertising time, the scattered spurts of static remain
and represent the staff's frustration with Fox as well as Frank's
sensory overload.
The final image of
the episode, depicting a catatonic Frank Black with shocking white
hair, is stunning. Such whitening during times of extreme stress
has been recorded both in historical annals and noteworthy literary sources. An
excerpt from Oxford University Press' The Pigment System
explains, "For centuries the mysterious sudden appearance of white
hair as a response to fear or grief has fascinated the literary,
medical, and anthropological worlds. Many reports have been over
dramatized, but it certainly occurs." Famous cases of hair whitening
include Duke of Bayern Louis II, scholar Guareno of Verona, Henry of
Navarre, and Sir Thomas More. Biblically, it is noted that when Moses
first spoke to God he was physically transformed by the experience;
Moses' hair was made pure white and his face was given a newfound
glow.
Death Toll:
2+
Title:
This episode's title presents a
variation on one of Millennium's second season taglines, "The
Time is Near." That phrase is taken from the opening chapter of the
Book of Revelation, prophesizing the end of the world and final
judgment. The cataclysmic events at the close of this pivotal episode
seemed, at the time this episode aired, to indicate that the end had indeed arrived.
Soundtrack:
"Horses" by Patti Smith
"In the Year 2525" by Zager and Evans
Starring:
Lance Henriksen as Frank Black
Megan Gallagher as Catherine Black
Brittany Tiplady as Jordan Black
Terry O'Quinn as Peter Watts
Guest Starring:
Kristen Cloke as Lara Means
Glenn Morshower as Richard Gilbert
Stephen Macht as Mr. Lott
Daryl Shuttleworth as Brian Dixon
Hiro Kanagawa as Team Member Lewis
Barry W. Levy as Blaylock
David Longworth as Duffy Deaver
David Palffy as Dr. Sorenson
Ian Robison as the Computer Monitor
Production
Credits:
Production #5C23
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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