Second Sight: "Weeds"

“Weeds” (24 January 1997)

Writer: Frank Spotnitz
Director: Michael Pattinson
Editor: George Richard Potter

Quote: “He sees his victim as ugly, decayed. The mutilation suggests that he wants us to see the boy the same way. He’s trying to tell us something... That he won’t stop killing until he makes us understand whatever it is he’s trying to communicate.” --Frank Black


Overview: In the presentation of its startling visions, “Weeds” faithfully follows the televisual template laid out in Millennium’s unforgettable pilot. Indeed, “Weeds” and “Pilot” are connected in many ways. This often gruesome whodunit allows us to experience both the nightmarish hallucinations of an obsessive killer as well as the investigative insights of our heroic criminal profiler. The episode’s killer, Edward Petey, has much in common with the Frenchman, not least the fact that he doesn’t see the world like everybody else. (How does he see it? “Differently.”) As a result, both “Weeds” and “Pilot” stand out as episodes of Millennium that, rather uncharacteristically, rely heavily on special effects make-up in the realization of their visions--special effects make-up encompassing more than the usual blood spatters and gore, make-up that alters the very physiology of the victims on display. As the episode’s title implies, Petey’s unique perception of Vista Verde Estates shows us a world dominated by decay, its residents wan and aged. Men and women of all ages, parents and children alike, are transformed into withered husks before our very eyes. The artists at Lindala Make-Up Effects had their work cut out for them with this installment.

Interestingly, the effect of such transformations, as in the pilot, almost subliminally suggests that there is something preternatural about the visions flashing before us on the television screen. That whisper of a paranormal sensibility originally suggested to the audience by the prior work of Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz seems, somewhat unfairly, to be enhanced by the use of obvious visual effects. When we see children transformed into the elderly in a flash of white light we know we are witnessing something wholly unnatural. It is difficult to shake the insinuation that what we are seeing is not simply some over-imaginative flourish born of a diseased mind but something far outside the realm of the natural. Our impression of Frank Black’s talents is affected by association. Once again, we are inspired to pose questions about the nature of his gift. Indeed, that seemingly miraculous facet of the profiler’s abilities hinted at in the early days of Millennium would soon be explored in dramatic fashion in another installment scripted by Frank Spotnitz.

Connections: The visions of “Weeds,” featuring extensive prosthetic work and old-age make-up, evoke the imagery of “Pilot,” featuring make-up depicting mutilated faces. For the Millennium viewer, it is difficult not to see Edward Petey’s distorted perception of the Comstock residence--that of a red house under roiling black clouds--as a stark negative of the imagery typically associated with the Black residence.

Trances in Total: 3 (0:11)

Gore Score: 7/10

Second Sight: "Pilot"

Last week, Adam Chamberlain performed an act of televisual profiling by offering us a glimpse inside the mind of a serial killer with What the Killer Sees. This week, I am proud to introduce a companion to his bi-weekly column: Second Sight. Millennium lingers in the minds of its faithful viewers in part because it left us with many enduring enigmas, mysteries that are discussed and debated still today. Chief among these is the true nature of Frank Black’s extraordinary gift. Was our peerless forensic profiler employing a brilliant but purely intellectual deductive skill? Or was there something miraculous, something inconceivable, about his astonishing insights? Identifying connections as well as discrepancies, statistics as well as disputes, Back to Frank Black’s newest regular column is concerned with confronting these lingering questions. On alternating Fridays, episode-by-episode, Second Sight will endeavor to offer viewers a fresh perspective on Frank Black’s mysterious talents by investigating the inner eye of Millennium’s visionary hero...


“Pilot” (25 October 1996)

Writer: Chris Carter
Director: David Nutter
Editor: Stephen Mark

Quote: “I see what the killer sees... I put myself in his head. I become the thing we fear the most... 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. It’s why I retired.” --Frank Black


Overview: One of many stunning stylistic elements that separate Millennium from earlier crime dramas--indeed, one of the show’s trademark hooks--is to be found in the attempt to offer a distinctive visual representation of the hero’s deductive methods. “Pilot” takes full advantage of this device by offering us a string of gruesome, sometimes symbolic montages representing the unique vision of both the Frenchman and Frank Black. Whilst they often serve to illustrate the particulars of the crimes that have been committed, these visceral sequences are also undeniably surreal, immediately evoking the supernatural sensibilities already associated in the minds of the audience with creator Chris Carter.

As a result, the script for the episode goes out of its way to defend Frank’s so-called facility as purely intuitive or intellectual. In what is undoubtedly the show’s best-remembered monologue, our favorite criminal profiler emphatically insists that there is nothing psychic about his deductive feats. Carter has repeated this mandate on countless occasions. In his audio commentary for the episode, the show’s creator describes Frank Black as a man “who doesn’t necessarily have an in-born gift but something he has developed through his hard work with catching criminals, seeing how they operated, knowing them, and ultimately being able to see like them.” For the Millennium devotee, “psychic” is a dirty word.

From the very start, however, there exists an undercurrent of the miraculous that troubles our understanding of Frank Black’s extraordinary gift. At least two specific aspects of “Pilot” leave us wondering about the true extent of Frank’s mental talents. Firstly, there is his refusal to use his eyes as he repeatedly turns down opportunities to personally view the bodies of murder victims hidden by tarps or body bags. (It is this quirk that prompts a coroner to glibly dub our hero “the man with the x-ray eyes.”) Then there is the Frenchman, who, in the midst of his ravings, instinctively insists that he shares a sort of apocalyptic power with the retired lawman who has hunted him down: “You can see it, just like I do. You know the end is coming.” Should we simply shrug this off as a tirade from a murderous madman? Or is there something unusual, something unavoidable, about the implied prophetic connection between the two? Is there more to the hero’s gift than meets the eye? Millennium’s exceptional pilot episode, like so many of those installments that would follow, raises just as many questions regarding Frank Black’s gift as it seemingly answers.

Connections: The blood-and-fire visuals associated with the Frenchman’s point-of-view are inspired by evocative imagery to be found in “The Second Coming” (1920) by William Butler Yeats and the biblical Book of Revelation. Frank’s attempt to describe the precise nature of his abilities recalls “Heart of Darkness” (1902) by Joseph Conrad, a novella that explores the capacity for darkness inherent to the human heart. Whoever Fights Monsters (1992) by Robert K. Ressler and Mindhunter (1995) by John E. Douglas--both men who served as models for the character of Frank Black--offer insight regarding a factual approach to the psychological profiling of serial killers.

Trances in Total: 5 (0:20)

Gore Score: 9/10

Here's My Thing.. The Pilot!

DiRT's back with possibly one of his best reviews yet (myself and Troy were talking about this baby earlier - Troy is in love with this vid!). This review is of the quintessential Millennium episode, the dark, grisly "Pilot". So what does DiRT thing? Here it is! Press play and find out!

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Calendar Girl - Letters from Tuesday!

Since her very first role as Tuesday in the Pilot, Kate Luyben has bagged numerous roles in film and television, often appearing alongside some of Hollywood's biggest stars. Her credits include "Two and a Half Men", "Dead in the Water", "Criminal Minds", "Arrested Development", "The 40 Year Old Virgin", "Bad News Bears", "Dark Angel", "Shanghai Noon" and "Dead Man's Gun" and of course her returning role in Millennium as Eva O'Malley/Marta Danbury in ...Thirteen Years Later, to name but a few. Kate took time from her busy schedule to write to me and kindly agreed to let me share her correspondence with you all. No better time than Tuesday to hear from Tuesday methinks.

Mark x

Click on Kate's images and words to open them in a new window at a larger resolution!

Kate will be viewing this Blog in the next few days so, as always, if you have any words or comments you would like to share with her please do. The more the merrier!