Second Sight: "The Thin White Line"

“The Thin White Line” (14 February 1997)

Writers: Glen Morgan & James Wong
Director: Thomas J. Wright
Editor: Stephen Mark

Quote: “Can you see what I see, FBI? Can you see your fear? Can you see what you really are?” --Richard Alan Hance


Overview: At Millennium’s very center is an intrinsic concern with the nature of dreams and visions. This is, in part, because Millennium is a television series that continually embraced modes of alternate perception, both stylistically and thematically. Through the eyes of its visionary heroes and its delusional villains, the series explored the ways in which our memories, emotions, and instincts reveal themselves in the way that we see the world around us.

Perhaps no installment of Millennium’s first season embraces this more fully than “The Thin White Line.” The manhunt for copycat serial killer Jacob Tyler, who murders innocent men and women based on wishful fantasies, forces Frank Black to confront his own past. Thanks to an inventive script, the story that unfolds allows him to do this somewhat literally in some scenes. Our hero’s remarkable inner eye is expanded yet again as his trademark visions are supplemented with recurring nightmares, dreams in which the profiler is forced to relive one of the most terrifying confrontations of his life. One of these dream sequences in particular, in which the present day Frank joins forces with his wide-eyed younger self in an effort to rewrite history, beautifully enacts the psychological struggle of the story. “The Thin White Line” stands as one of the first season’s strongest episodes and this remains one of the first season’s most memorable moments.

In both nightmares and flashback sequences, “The Thin White Line” also offers us a number of minor tidbits that contribute to the mystery and mythology surrounding our hero’s remarkable talents. Dialogue suggests to us that Frank’s “feelings” had earned him something of a reputation among his colleagues as early as 1977, when he was a member of the FBI team that captured Richard Alan Hance. Marked on his palm as one of this fearsome killer’s victims, staring into the face of his own death as he endures Hance’s vicious taunts, Frank experiences the sudden flare of one of his visions. This is the first occurrence of one of Frank’s visions, chronologically speaking, shown to us in the series thus far. Whether they represent the hero’s intuitive imaginings or some prophetic insight, we now know that Frank Black was seeing what the killer sees as early as the late seventies.

This scene also marks out “The Thin White Line” as one of the few Millennium episodes in which the hero’s visions are in some way internalized, offering a self-conscious glimpse of his own fears, his own potential fate. Glen Morgan and James Wong remain true to form with this script, forever aiming to more deeply explore Frank Black’s unique way of seeing the world, to ensure that his visions contributed to the themes of the story rather than providing highly-stylized distraction or plot loopholes. This is the same writing duo that first hinted at Jordan Black’s inheritance with the bad dreams of “Dead Letters,” the same team that first turned Frank Black’s visions inward in a feverish nightmare seen in “522666.” Yes, dreams are undeniably key to understanding this series and the struggles of its characters. Under the direction of Morgan and Wong, dreams and visions would become an increasingly intrinsic element of Millennium’s deepening mythology.

Connections: Jacob Tyler’s delusional fantasies, in which he imagines his victims to be volunteering themselves, are based on the hallucinations of real life serial killer Herbert Mullin, who murdered thirteen victims in California in 1972 and 1973. Frank Black’s visions were first utilized for introspective purposes in a nightmare he experienced in “522666,” also scripted by Glen Morgan and James Wong. Serial killer Richard Alan Hance has been previously profiled in Adam Chamberlain’s What the Killer Sees.

Trances in Total: 5 (0:16)

Gore Score: 4/10

What the Killer Sees: Richard Alan Hance

Killer: Richard Alan Hance (Jeremy Roberts)

Episode: “The Thin White Line” (14 February 1997)

Writers: Glen Morgan & James Wong

Director: Thomas J. Wright

Quote: “The Joker! You think you’re safe in here, with all these guards all around and me shackled, and this little panic button at your fingertips? It takes them thirty-three seconds from the moment you push that button to the time they open that door. I counted. You know what I can do to you in thirty-three seconds, Meat?” --Richard Alan Hance

Profile: Richard Alan Hance was clearly possessed of a disturbed mind from an early age. Remanded into foster care at the age of six having never known his father, he spent the next decade between nine different foster families before being labelled “irredeemable” by the social welfare system. We are left not entirely certain whether his early childhood resulted in these disturbances or if these were in part or whole inherent to his psychological make-up.

What we do know is that his behaviour became murderous shortly after he moved to the rural isolation of his grandparents’ farm in Montana. Six months after he moved in with them, they were found dead in a nearby lake. In the absence of evidence, there was no attempt at a prosecution, but Hance was encouraged to join the military. This he did, serving two terms in Vietnam before being discharged in 1977.

This personal history seems most relevant to his subsequent killings. Shortly after his release, he committed two pairs of murders, leaving half a torn playing card – a “death card” similar to those used by some soldiers in Vietnam – at the site of the killings, and also marking each victim with a distinct cut on the palm of the right hand. The use of calling cards led to Hance being called the “Death Card Killer”, and it is not uncommon for serial killers to leave such tokens as part of their signature, taunting both the police and the wider public whilst engendering a sense of fear and so increasing their own sense of power. Hance himself offers an explanation for the marking of his victims: he is thus denoting them as his “meat”. This is not a mark of sadism – he would take longer to enjoy the act of mutilation if this were the case – but rather an indication of domination and control over his victims, and thus the perceived sense of ownership of their bodies to which he lays claim.

Hance also suffers a psychosis in thinking that his victims offer themselves up to him. As Frank quotes, “Certain people have to be sacrificed. God says if you're repentant, that you'll be forgiven. I've made my peace, now you must do your duty.” We see Hance’s protégé, Jacob Tyler, come to adopt this same mantra. Quite why he kills in pairs remains a mystery too, but we can speculate that it may relate somehow to how he viewed his own incomplete family unit as a young child.

Following a period of unknown activity after exacting two pairs of kills, Hance escalates his activities and becomes yet more aggressive. In luring the police to an abandoned building where he makes what turns out to be his last stand, he sets a test for both himself and them wherein “the hunters become the hunted”. Again he is trying to assert control over his situation here, killing three FBI agents in quick succession before Frank Black is instrumental in ensuring he is finally brought into custody. It is likely also that he deliberately evaded but did not strike the police during their search of the building but specifically lay in wait for the FBI since they would offer a more prestigious target.

Following his arrest and prosecution, Hance is kept in isolation under high security having killed a prison guard. There is increasing support from investigative units to preserve killers in this fashion so that we might learn more about their psychology and methods from them whilst in captivity and hence assist future investigations. Frank certainly takes a high – if calculated – risk in interviewing Hance in the way that he does, but from his experience he recognises that in order to strike up a rapport and stand any chance of gaining useful insights he needs to establish a level of trust, placing them on a level footing of sorts. He seems aware also that having already been marked he is unlikely to be attacked by Hance again, showing him his scar when the situation threatens to turn violent and thus letting Hance know that he has already “eaten” him. Serial killers confined under such circumstances will often become bored to the point of temporary insanity and will still be preoccupied by thoughts of their killings, and hence can in some instances be encouraged to discuss their crimes in some detail under these conditions.

There are some striking (and quite deliberate) parallels that can be drawn between Hance and the killer Edmund Emil Kemper, and hence which bear reflection here. Kemper was oversized as a child, which proved problematic for him socially, and he grew to be a giant at six foot nine in height. Added to this – and key to his psychology – he was brought up by a single mother who was overbearing and abusive towards him. Kemper started his career as a serial killer whilst living with his grandparents, first shooting and stabbing his domineering grandmother and then shooting his grandfather too before he could discover what he had done.

He subsequently spent several years in a mental hospital before convincing the authorities that he was safe to return to society, whereupon he soon started killing again, even whilst convincing the psychiatrists who continued to evaluate him that he posed no danger. He claimed to have been driven to his next kill by the imperfection of the previous one in comparison to his fantasies with his penultimate killing being that of his own mother, to whom he attributed his murderous desires in the first place.

Kemper allowed himself to be interviewed on a number of occasions by celebrated FBI agent Robert Ressler, and during one of these interviews threatened Ressler in a very similar fashion that Hance did with Frank Black, coolly stating to him that, “I could screw your head off and place it on the table to greet the guard.” Nevertheless, Kemper has proven to be a valuable resource in helping the FBI to deepen their understanding of like-minded killers.

Kills: 10

Investigation: Frank Black was a young – but still clearly gifted – FBI agent at the time of the investigation into the Death Card Killer. After the first two pairs of victims, there was a lull in Hance’s activities and the FBI believed he may have moved on. The Seattle Police Department then received an anonymous tip-off regarding his whereabouts but, whilst they found evidence that he may have squatted there, they could not find him and the FBI were brought in to examine the scene for themselves. Frank determined that the location was a good substitute for Hance’s grandparents’ isolated farm and so trusted the tip-off. It turns out, however, that it was Hance himself that made the anonymous call in order to lure the police and FBI to his hiding place, killing three agents before Frank – narrowly escaping becoming the fourth – is instrumental in ensuring his capture.


What the Killer Sees returns next week, making a special not-to-be-missed appearance for our Thirteen Years Later themed Halloween Week!

Re-up: The Thin White Line Millennium Group Sessions Podcast!

MILLENNIUM GROUP SESSIONS 18:
The Thin White Line

BacktoFrankBlack: The Millennium Group Sessions, hosted by Troy Foreman and co-hosted by Jim McLean is now available for free download via our website AND on ITunes!

Listen to the Mp3 on the BacktoFrankBlack Stream or download using the links below!


To download from BacktoFrankBlack.com

• For a high quality podcast: Right click here and select "save link as.." (approx 72 MB 75 mins)

To download from ITUNES

• To subscribe to the Itunes podcast, simply load up the Itunes store on your Itunes application, search for BacktoFrankBlack and wait for the podcast to pop onto the list. Then click "subscribe" - you will need to sign up to a free Itunes account to do this - but Itunes does run a great service for podcasts of all types (including our friends ThaDarkSideVibe and Spooktalkular)

BacktoFrankBlack: Millennium Group Sessions 18: The Thin White Line!

A Millennium Group Panel discussion for The Thin White Line harks episode number 18 of the Millennium Group Sessions. Jim and Troy are joined by the insight of www.secureimmaturity.com web master William Johnson and Millennium fans Paul Clark and Peter Holmstrom.

This free podcast is available on a weekly to fortnightly basis via ITUNES and BacktoFrankBlack.com. We'll naturally update you all on information on the podcast from this blog as well.

With ITUNES, anyone who has an Itunes friendly account will be able to subscribe easily and download the podcasts as they are released.

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AVATAR VISION PROUDLY PRESENTS: HEY MAN NICE LINE!

Time, once again, for MusicMonday™ and our jaunt into the world of Millennium Music Montages. This is one is a little special as it comes with a dedication. Our very dear friend, Vivi, was an essential cog in the machinery that made BackToFrankBlack.com possible and despite being an active staff-member in the Millennium Fan Community she also finds time to be a driving force in Filter fandom, a band she holds very dear to heart. Putting the two things together she cares about, Filter and Frank Black, had to be dedicated to her. So to Vivi and to all the fans of Filter and Millennium, this one's for you guys.

Josef takes the time to make these videos because he feels as passionately as we do about bringing Millennium back and anyone who frequents Youtube will know how much support and interest he is enjoying because of it and how many people have discovered us through his work.

The Thin White Line is a season one episode penned by Glen Morgan and James Wong and is clearly inspired by the real life interrogation of serial killer, Edmund Kemper. It's an notable episode for the commanding performance given by Scott Heindl as Jacob Tyler, an actor who would be forever immortalised in Millennium mythology as the male incarnation of Lucy Butler, The Long Haired Man. Telling the story of Frank Black reliving his first case, this is Josef's tribute to that episode. Dim the lights, grab the popcorn and and enjoy the show.

So don't be shy. Let Josef know what you think of his latest creation and tell us what you think about the episode. A good one, a great one, a very thin and white one? We want to know your thoughts so please do leave us a few comments as we really enjoy hearing from all you good people.

As promised, each music new release from Josef will be accompanied by a postcard that we urge you to send to Steve Asbell at 20th Century Fox. Making 20th Century Fox aware that we are here to stay and active in our support of a Millennium Movie is a vital way you can help this campaign achieve its ends. We are regularly asked what is the best way to help this campaign and there is no finer way than sending this postcard. The only way we can bring this show back is to make some noise and continue making that noise. That's how we will bring Frank Black back.

To see the address you need to send this to as well as a range of others you might like to send, click here!

• To visit Josef's Youtube page and ch eck out his own collection of videos, click here!

• To check out his myspace page and listen to some of his original compositions, click here!