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ANGELS AND DEMONS
"For Jesus had said to him,
'Come out of this man, you evil spirit!' Then Jesus
asked him, 'What is your name?' 'My name is Legion,' he
replied, 'for we are many.' And he begged Jesus again
and again not to send them out of the area."
--Mark 5:8-10
The mythology of
Millennium focused heavily on the
nature of evil, both human and supernatural. Frank Black's greatest nemesis would
prove to be the unworldly evil
which offered him bliss if he resigned from the Millennium
Group and joined the other side.
This offer was first proposed by
the Judge in the first season episode of the same name. "Every man
finds his own path to justice. You needn't commit yourself
now. The offer's open. A month, a year... Many benefits. I
know you're sometimes scared for your family, your wife.
There's a child now too, yes?"
Catherine's continued distress caused Frank to question his
position with the Millennium Group and their promises of
safety. Legion would continue to tempt the Black family.
"The Curse of Frank Black" introduced Mr. Crocell, a man
from Frank's past who returned from the dead on an especially
unsettling Halloween night. Like Frank, he was consumed by the
pursuit of evil and had become something of an outcast because
of it. When his strength collapsed and he committed suicide,
he succumbed to the evil which had pursued him for so long. Crocell offered
Frank a similar fate. Of course, Frank declined.
Tamara Lee, a haunting Chinese woman that seduced and killed
men, appeared in the episode "Siren." She told Frank she
could offer him anything and showed Frank a tempting vision of
what life without the Millennium Group would be like.
Suddenly, the vision turned violent and Jordan was shown
screaming in the clutches of a winged beast. Frank was
reminded of what his pursuit of justice may cost him.
Legion's first appearance was in the guise of cult leader
Ricardo Clemett in the episode "Gehenna." He was depicted
in several scenes as a winged beast, descending on its prey
(questionable members of the cult), ripping them to pieces.
The cult in "Gehenna" presents a clear example of Legion's power
over the weak and vulnerable. This theme of control and
manipulation is used repeatedly throughout the series.
Among the most overlooked episodes is "Sacrament." A
former doctor of Richard Green, the man who abducted Frank's
sister-in-law Helen, states: "He claimed Satan was forcing him
to do evil. He thought he was protected as long as he stayed
here, but the Devil would pull him back into evil when he got
out." Frank subsequently had visions of Richard being pulled
against his will into a lake of burning sulfur. He also
discovered the Mark of Lucifer, carved on the floor of
Richard's former room.
The most shocking revelation of the episode is that Richard's
father, known only as Mr. Green, was instrumental in his son's
activities. The famous shot of him looking down from the top
of the basement steps was repeated in "Lamentation" and "All Souls," an episode
of The X-Files with heavy Legion
overtones.
Danielle Barbakow, a five-year-old responsible for the deaths
of her classmates, was revealed as a manifestation of Legion
in the episode "Monster." The girl attempted to divide
the townspeople and frame Frank for child abuse, but she was
not successful and was placed under the custody of the
Millennium Group.
Legion's presence in "The Pest House" was less obvious,
never directly interacting with Frank. As the male nurse
Edwards, he preceded to remove the nightmarish dreams from
inmates of an insane asylum and use them as vehicle to
unleash his terror upon unsuspecting victims. Frank surmised
that, in Edward's case, "those who touch evil run the risk
that evil will touch them."
In "Lamentation," Frank was confronted by the wife of
serial killer Dr. Ephraim Fabricant, Lucy Butler. Sweet and seductive,
Lucy was suspected of orchestrating her husband's escape (from
police custody) as well as the murder of a federal judge. She
also was previously accused of murdering her child, but was
ultimately acquitted. When Bob Bletcher was killed, he saw a
figure walking towards him in Frank's house that took the
appearance of Lucy Butler, a winged beast, and a long haired
man. It was
clear to Frank that Lucy was another manifestation of Legion
and, according to Fabricant, "the base sum of all evil."
Lucy Butler proved to be perhaps the most powerful among Frank
Black's demonic foes and became a recurring figure in Millennium's
ongoing mythology,
returning first in the episode "A Room With No View." Her
abduction and reeducation of average, featureless teenagers
closely parallels the brainwashing cult in "Gehenna."
Instead of promises of wealth and importance, her sexual
dominance convinced her victims that she alone could add
meaning to their lives. She again eluded Frank at the end of
the episode.
She later resurfaced in "Antipas" as the nanny for a
wealthy family. Although her sexual advances on John Saxum
peaked and his curiosity and his wife's jealousy, she was
merely exploiting their weaknesses to attract the attention of
the equally elusive Frank Black. She appeared in his hotel
room as a winged Beast and raped him, to support the
argument that the child she was carrying was his. Frank
dismissed the argument and Lucy reacted violently, threatening
the safety of Frank's daughter Jordan. When Frank and Emma
drove away from the Saxum home, they struck a long haired man,
but it was Lucy Butler they found lying on the ground before
the vehicle. Lucy
glumly informed Frank that she lost their baby as a result of
the accident.
Legion's presence in "Saturn Dreaming of Mercury" assumed
the form of Lucas Sanderson, a classmate of Jordan's. Although
Frank was initially skeptical of Jordan's claims (she was
partially incorrect, because she blamed Lucas's father Will),
he investigated the Sanderson home and was attacked.
Fortunately, he regained consciousness and escaped before
being engulfed by flames. Frank and Jordan watched as Lucas
Sanderson stood in the burning home, morphing to briefly
assume the appearance of Lucy
Butler.
The long haired man, as seen by Catherine Black in "Lamentation," is assumed to be a contrast to Lucy's
seductiveness. His appearances in "A Room With No View"
and "Antipas" depicted him to be threatening and physically
forceful.
"Powers, Principalities, Thrones, and Dominions"
introduced Alistair Pepper, an lawyer who, like the
Judge, Mr. Crocell, and Tamara Lee, promised Frank safety if
he would only join him. Mike Atkins noted that Pepper
had undergone a severe personality change after a near death
experience and switched to criminal law.
Among his clients was serial killer Martin. While chasing
Pepper through a supermarket, Frank witnessed Pepper
morphing into Lucy Butler and Martin.
Following his murder of Mike Atkins, Pepper was shot (from
Frank's perspective, by a lightning bolt) by Sammael, an
enigmatic figure who has an important role to play in the
events leading to the millennium. Sammael commented that
Pepper's "own actions made it possible" and that "he would not
have stopped with Atkins."
Sammael, presumably an angel, plays the role of accuser,
seducer, and destroyer. After his murder of Alistair Pepper,
he told Frank that it only "pained" him, not "harmed" him to
be here on Earth.
The episode "Borrowed Time" marked the return of the
character, although with a new agenda. Instead of restoring
the balance between good and evil by destroying manifestations
of Legion, he murdered people to postpone the deaths of
others -- fulfilling God's plan. Among those who had been
given the gift of additional time on Earth was Jordan Black,
who fell ill in the pilot episode. Ultimately, Samiel
sacrificed his terrestrial existence so Jordan could live.
Please note that the name variations above are usually
interchangeable, but some publications and fans have made a
distinction between the two (Sammael in "Powers...",
Samiel in "Borrowed Time"). Despite their differences,
it's assumed that they are merely different incarnations of
the same divine being, much like Legion which has appeared in
many guises and for many different reasons.
Frank Black met the angel Simon in the episode "Midnight of the
Century." He informed Frank that ghosts (or "fetches of the
soul") of people destined to die in the coming year go to the
church yard on Christmas Eve to search for those who would be
their companions.
It's conceivable that Jordan's imaginary friend Simon in "Saturn Dreaming of Mercury" was an angel, although his
origins were not completely supernatural, but human. As the
unborn child of a woman murdered by Lucas Sanderson, Simon led
Jordan to falsely accuse Will Sanderson of being evil.
[recap: Gehenna, The Judge, Lamentation,
Powers, Principalities, Thrones, and Dominions,
Monster, The Curse of Frank Black, Midnight of
the Century, The Pest House, Siren, A
Room With No View, Somehow, Satan Got Behind Me,
Borrowed Time, Antipas, Saturn Dreaming of
Mercury]
FRANK/JORDAN/LARA'S GIFTS
"I see
what the killer sees. I put myself in his head. I become
capability; I become the horror. What we know we can become
only in our heart of darkness. It's my gift; it's my curse."
--Frank
Black
Chris Carter originally stated that Frank's ability to "see
inside the mind of a killer" was not psychic, simply extremely
refined criminal profiling. This belief dismisses the
complexity of what Frank has seen and experienced, because he
has not only seen abstract images of the true nature of evil
but is also continually alerted by its presence. Lara Means said
she never knew where evil lay, only that it existed.
Lara's gift assumed the form of an angel that warned her of
imminent danger. During the weeks leading up to her induction
into the Millennium Group, Lara's angel abandoned her in fear
of a higher power and she was left without its guidance. Alone
and faced with the responsibility of being a Group member,
Lara's sanity quickly diminished and she told Catherine the
same would happen to Frank, without the support of his family.
Frank's mother Linda also experienced visions of angels,
although they gave her a comfort which Lara's often did not. Her
ability has apparently been passed through the bloodline,
first to Frank and now Jordan, who
can see demons ("Saturn Dreaming of Mercury"), angels ("The
Beginning and the End," "Midnight of the Century," "Saturn Dreaming of Mercury") and the future ("Saturn
Dreaming of Mercury").
Frank first speculated that Jordan had inherited his gift
after she fell ill coinciding with the abduction of Helen
Black in "Sacrament." In the episode "Walkabout,"
Frank became involved in an experimental drug trial for Proloft, an antidepressant used to treat certain temporal lobe
anomalies, hoping to find a way to suppress his gift. The trial went
awry and he concluded that the best way to treat Jordan's gift
was to help her understand the nature of it.
In both "Pilot" and "Borrowed Time"
Jordan was hospitalized after exhibiting the symptoms of
meningitis, a typically fatal disease. Her miraculous recovery
and inconclusive tests would lead a doctor to conclude the
problem was purely psychological.
[recap: The Pilot, Sacrament, Walkabout,
The Beginning and the End, Monster, Midnight
of the Century, Anamnesis, Borrowed Time,
Saturn Dreaming of Mercury]
THE MILLENNIUM GROUP
After moving to Seattle with his wife Catherine and daughter
Jordan, Frank offered his services to the local police
department via the Millennium Group, an organization that
believed pre-millennial fever was responsible for dramatic increases
in national crime rates. The enigmatic Group was later revealed not to be
a mere consulting firm, but in actuality a centuries old sect
with origins dating back
to the beginning of Christianity.
The split between the Group and the Family (mentioned in the
episode "Anamnesis") at "The Cutting of the Elm"
parallels the actual organizations of the Knights Templar and
the Prieuré de Sion, respectively. This is confirmed by Ben
Fisher's interest in Clare McKenna, who was suspected to be a
descendant of Christ and Mary Magdalene, and a tattoo on his
back: a red cross, the symbol of the Sion.
In "Matryoshka," legendary Federal Bureau of Investigation director J. Edgar Hoover and
assistant Clyde Tolson were shown resurrecting the ancient
Millennium Group and
integrating its beliefs into the United State government.
The relationship between the FBI and the Group strengthens as
more federal agents accept candidacy.
Frank Black's immersion into Millennium Group politics lead him to believe they
were a dangerous people, paranoid about the approaching
millennium and corrupted by the very evil they were fighting
against. Through heinous crimes and unethical experiments,
they were bringing about "an apocalypse of their own
creation." Among these experiments was the Group-engineered
Marburg Virus which, in the spring of 1998, resurfaced in the
Pacific Northwest and claimed the lives of seventy-some
people... including Catherine Black.
[recap: The Beginning and the End, Beware of the Dog,
The Hand of Saint Sebastian, Luminary, Owls,
Roosters, Anamnesis, The Fourth Horseman,
The Time Is Now, The Innocents, Exegesis,
Skull and Bones, Collateral Damage, The Sound
of Snow, Matryoshka, Seven and One, Bardo
Thodol, Via Dolorosa, Goodbye to All That.]
Profiling Millennium:
Defining the Myth-Arc
by Rodney Smith
Without question, myth-arcs have
become an essential part of many modern TV dramas. A string of character and
plot developments that tie individual episodes together under one arcing
story line. A myth-arc forces the audience to view a show differently.
Impressing upon them the idea that the series is really like one long book, and
each episode, just another chapter. This, of course, should make it harder for
the audience to leave the show. Stop watching now and
you won't find out how it ends.
Coming from the king of TV show
mythology, Chris Carter's Millennium is no different. However, with so many
changes in plot and character development over the last two years, many fans
are left with the most important of questions: What is the Myth-Arc?
Does Millennium have a clear
mythology? Is there a story that has passed through each season and now
continues into the third? Using episode details and a little deductive reasoning,
I hope to show that there is and, more importantly, indicate where we are
headed.
BEFORE THE BEGINNING
Frank Black, a man with a gift (a
curse), can put himself into the mind of a killer. While the gift provides
him with a great deal of success in the field where he works, Frank grows
increasingly aware that the evil he fights is seeping through the protective
wall he has built around his family.
Eventually, the evil demands he
take personal notice. Frank receives
Polaroids of his wife and child
from a vicious killer. Awoken to the fact that he is helpless to protect his
own family, Frank has a nervous breakdown. Paranoid and delusional, Frank is
unable to leave the confines of his own house, and indeed his own
paranoia. Desperate, his family tries to get Frank some help, but nothing works.
Hospitalized, Frank receives
regular visits from a man named Mike Atkins. Mike Atkins talks to Frank on
several occasions, explaining that while Frank may not be able to stop the evil,
there are ways to re-direct it -- to use his gift to curtail it. Mike extends
the offer to Frank to work with a Group of individuals who appreciate the way
Frank sees the world, and who have greater resources to curtail the evil and
help Frank protect his family. With a new vision, and the idea that "it can
be stopped," Frank slowly overcomes his fears. Frank, being grateful to
Mike, agrees to do consulting work for Mike's consulting agency,
the Millennium
Group.
SEASON ONE
Having worked with the Millennium
Group for a few months, Frank decides he's finally back in shape and looks to
start over. Frank takes his family and the three of them move to a
yellow
house in Seattle. The house become a significant part of the show's
mythology. It symbolizes the idea that the Black family has a safe haven,
away from the horrors of the outside world.
As his investigations continue,
Frank comes to certain revelations. The human element of the crimes which have
always permeated his work have suddenly also started taking on another
dimension. There is a force, "a gravity" which Frank also feels
-- something
inhuman working behind the men who commit the crimes. This element has a
familiarity to it. Is it simply the Western culture at work, or is there
something out there? A Devil of sorts, a puppeteer manipulating the actions
of humans...
Any doubts Frank has regarding
this inhuman element are quickly erased when his good friend, Bob Bletcher, is
found dead in the basement of his house. The evil is there, and it is
speaking to Frank - directly. The evil has now displayed itself in a new context.
It appears that Frank will be
emotionally derailed again. He tries to step away from his work
once again, but is
almost immediately drawn back.
Then, finally, the myth-arc, if
not clear at this point, takes form -- Frank receives
"the offer." The Devil
puts the offer to Frank, "Come work for me. Name your price, name your
desire". Frank staunchly refuses.
Engaged by an agent (Sammael),
presumably from the "other side," Frank witnesses events which have no
explanation in human understanding. A new context has been placed on the
show. Frank is no longer fighting a series of deranged human beings, he is after
something else. An adversary which Frank doesn't have a full comprehension,
but something much worse then he has faced before.
Nonetheless, the human element
rears it's head once more, and Frank's wife is kidnapped...
SEASON TWO
What must be sacrificed to get
back what Frank has lost? What part of Frank must be excised to retrieve his
wife?
Frank unleashes the evils inside
himself. What he fought to protect his wife and child from, he becomes. He
becomes "evil and capability" he becomes "the thing we fear the most". Frank
slaughters his wife's kidnapper.
Catherine senses that Frank has
evolved, changed in some way. She decides that space is needed between Frank
and herself, for the sake of their family. She waits to see if what Frank
lost will ultimately sever the family unit they had tried to build.
Unstable and isolated from the
ones he cared for the most, the Millennium Group knows it is time. Frank has
seen and experienced for himself what they knew all along: the future is
unknown, treacherous, and controlled by forces beyond human intervention.
The Millennium Group, however,
isn't going to sit around waiting for a happy ending. Through the years they
have been a group of determined and (at times) desperate people
trying to find
clues in the "events" of our history, looking for
moments when the human and the inhuman have crossed paths,
studying whatever possible clues they can find, and attempting
to piece together the future. They are trying to
find the appropriate branch of the future to take, the branch
which will shift the control from these inhuman elements and into their hands. These
objectives have forced them to ignore conventional ethics governing individuals in
exchange for the responsibly of ensuring the survival of mankind.
Frank, however, now pursues these
evils on his own turf. What he ultimately learns is that he can not fight
the evils without facing it head on. He can't simply work at it 9-5 and then
retire to his home. The evil will follow him if he chooses to fight it, and it
will wear him out.
Without the strength of his family
to fall back on, he is once again approached by evil ("The Curse of
Frank Black"). Will he not succumb now? Won't the promise of a simpler
life, a safe life for his family, prove too attractive? Once again Frank
refuses.
Frank has had his chance. Fair
warning has been given. The time is now.
Frank loses his wife to a deadly
virus, and the Millennium Group, which had proved so insightful, is slowly
revealed as something else. They appear to have allowed the evil to trickle
in. Their efforts to manipulate the future at any cost have directed them
away from the crusade as humanity's savior, to that of it's dictator.
The myth-arc has many sub-plots.
The Millennium Group's involvement with the virus, Frank's relationship with
Peter, Frank's involvement with religious entities, Jordan's developing gift,
etc. But the story that has never changed has been Frank's commitment to
maintaining his standard amidst the challenges to take short-cuts; to make life
simpler for himself by going with the flow, accepting the deal. This is not
about chasing aliens, or capturing religious artifacts, it is about the human
condition and the choices we make daily to strive for what we know
(sense/want to believe) to be "the better way". It's about making it to the finish
line, it's about not giving up.
Frank has every reason to give
up. The forces at play have given him every reason. He has already sacrificed
everything... why should he have to do any more?
The season doesn't end until
Frank comes to a realization that changes his life (similar to "Luminary" and
the character of Alex Ventoux). Frank must make a kind of peace with the
world.
Frank must realize that life is
about maintaining your standard -- not understanding everything, not
having explanations... it is about finding your reward in those you leave behind
(his daughter, and the friends/family that remain... his brother and
in-laws). It is about preparing yourself for the next journey, beyond death (and
joining Catherine). Those who think about it for very long rarely believe that
we die and that's the end of the story, we believe there must be something
more, something beyond.
Frank's life on earth is destined
to be full of tragedy, as Chris Carter says, this season is "about when bad
things happen to good people." However, life must also be about nurturing the
good, as much as it is about fighting the evil. Frank needs to learn this.
We know where Frank has been
(Season 1: Discovers the context. Another dimension of
evil -- Season 2: Discovers that you can't beat it, you can't
destroy it, and you can't protect others from it). We
also know where he's going, to the point where he accepts that
you must fight it, but you can't expect to defeat it -- and
that fighting the bad shouldn't be the focus of one's life,
nurturing the good is also necessary.
There are so many ways to tie the
myth-arc into your stand alone episodes; little "nods" to what
we learned in the previous seasons. Subtle things the
casual viewer would skip over. Things that, when lined
up together at the end of the season, paint a clear picture of
what Frank was missing by running away. The theme I
present ties directly into "Beware of the Dogs," really.
Frank is upsetting the balance by running away.
Frank Black still has a ways to
go...
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