What the Killer Sees: Avatar

Returning after a short sabbatical, What the Killer Sees is pulling out the big guns for this edition. As a nod to the recently released podcast interview with writer Michael R. Perry—a highlight of the Millennium Group Sessions’ entire run and a very revealing interview that I highly recommend—we turn our attention to one of the most popular episodes in Millennium’s entire run and an antagonist to rival Lucy Butler as Frank Black’s archnemesis…

Killer: Avatar

Episode: “The Mikado” (6 February 1998)

Writer: Michael R. Perry

Director: Roderick J. Pridy

Quote: “Avatar will tell us how to find him. And then, after he escapes, he proves his superiority.” --Frank Black


Profile: Avatar is a highly organised killer. The degree to which he stages his murders and the level of pre-planning demanded by the obtuse clues he leaves in his wake along with their complexity all indicate this and point to an extremely high intellect. He is also very unusual in a couple of respects. Whilst most serial killers follow a particular modus operandi, even when this develops over the course of a killer’s career, Avatar has completely changed his approach from a decade previously. Also, it is notably rare for a serial killer to go for such a long period as this without any activity unless incarcerated or otherwise restricted. Perhaps Avatar has simply evaded detection over this period, although this seems unlikely, since what truly defines him and forms his overriding motive is the extent and methods by which he taunts the authorities that would seek to catch him. This sociopathology not only leads to him asserting a level of control and superiority over the authorities as he demands that they “defer” to him—“The Lord High Executioner”—but also cultivated a culture of fear and infamy from his previous killings.

This should not detract, however, from the fact that Avatar has another motive belying his crimes. His typology is that he selects couples, killing the male and then enslaving the female before murdering her. He thus seeks to usurp the men and gain control and ownership over the women he murders. Frank Black gives an insight into this element of his motive by voicing what he “sees” as the investigative team seeks his lair:

“You slaughtered that young girl for no other reason than you wanted to. You hate yourself but you feel like you're God at the same time. But maybe the bitch had it coming. I watched the life blood drain from her body. And now she is mine forever. I showed her to the world. And now I have her in a safe place where I can see her any time I want.”

Avatar is, of course, closely based upon the Zodiac Killer. Various particulars of the cases and the killers mirror one another: the use of ciphers, delivering a minute change to a known text in his encrypted messages, the taunting of the police, the adoption of a symbol as a calling card, the evasion of capture, even down to sending of a segment of The Mikado to the authorities.


Kills: 22

Investigation: The most notable aspect of this latest investigation into Avatar’s killings of course derives from the fact that the murders are broadcast online; it offers a social comment in that the public’s voyeurism precipitates the bloody culmination, making them complicit to the crime. “The web has become his world” as Frank puts it. Given it is not immediately clear where the crimes are being perpetrated, no-one has jurisdiction; it is as though Avatar has selected the medium to highlight this shortfall in the law, or maybe even to defy Frank Black’s gift. As Frank indicates when it is suggested his apparent re-appearance is in fact a copycat killer:

“The most recent events are not a copy. It's a whole new creation, from the slipstream of electrons, a world as real as life or death but that disappears in the blink of an eye. The devil has a new playground.”

Nevertheless, assisted by Roedecker unleashed on the Millennium Group’s state of the art technology and Frank Black’s instincts, albeit muted by the fact he is not present at the crime scene, the investigation closes in on Avatar’s location by unravelling some of his subtle clues. Ultimately, though, Avatar manages to stay one step ahead and proves he is still a rare match for Frank’s gift, escaping from the stage on which he has performed for him and for us in order to fight—and kill—another day.

Charity Auction Round Five

Amidst a swathe of other activity here at Back to Frank Black, we have now commenced Round Five of the charity auction! Our eBay auction page now has the following items up for bidding:

1. A complete series DVD box set of Space: Above and Beyond signed by Glen Morgan, Kristen Cloke and James Morrison
2. A Special Edition DVD of Aliens accompanied by a 10"x14" signed photo of Lance Henriksen as Bishop
3. Lance Henriksen's autographed copy of his script from Tarzan II
4. Lance Henriksen's autographed copy of his script from Nature of the Beast including his own notes from filming
5. Lance Henriksen's autographed copy of his script from Baja including his own notes from filming

As with previous rounds, all of these exclusive items are being auctioned in aid of Children of the Night, so please get bidding now and dig deep for this very worthy charity.

Write a letter to FX!

It has begun. The time is now to send your letters to FX!

In the wake of our landmark "Make or Break" podcast, the creators behind Millennium have given the Back to Frank Black campaign a new focus: FX! In order to bring Frank Black to FX, however, we need you to add your voice to the campaign. To help you help us, help you help Frank Black, we've written up a letter that will ensure your voice is heard!

There are three approaches to writing your letter to FX: 1) A pre-prepared letter you can print and sign. 2) An letter download which can be edited and customized. 3) A simple letterhead for you to print and write your own personal letter on. (These options are also available on the Back to Frank Black letters page.)

And if you've not heard Lance's plea on this, take a listen to his message on Facebook! As Lance says, "We can take the power in our own hands with Millennium... Start mailing!"

Here are the links. Download the letter template of your choice and get writing! Express how you feel about Millennium and its future. This is our chance to let FX know that there is an audience eagerly awaiting the return of Frank Black!

1) PDF letter. You just need to print this out and sign it!
http://backtofrankblack.com/letter/FXLetter_PDF.pdf

2) DOC download. This provides a starting template you can then personalise, print out and sign!
http://backtofrankblack.com/letter/FXLetter_Word.docx

3) PDF letterhead. Print this letterhead and write your own letter!
http://backtofrankblack.com/letter/FXLetterhead_PDF.pdf

Where do you send it?

Senior Vice President for
Original Programming at FX
Danielle Woodrow
Twentieth Century Fox
10201 W. Pico Blvd.
Bldg. 88, Room 132
Los Angeles, CA 90035

Michael R Perry speaks to Back to Frank Black!

We've been waiting ages to release this interview. Finally, here we are! This is it! This is our exclusive interview with Michael R Perry, writer of some of Millennium's top stories and a key player in season three! Don't miss this!

PLUS: We talk about the next phase in the campaign as we follow the implications of the "Make or Break" podcast to their logical conclusions! This includes a new address for sending your letters. We are now focusing the campaign on trying to get the FX channel to consider the potential in Frank Black's return! Write to FX, let them know just how passionate you are about seeing Millennium back on television...

Senior Vice President for
Original Programming at FX
Danielle Woodrow
Twentieth Century Fox
10201 W. Pico Blvd.
Bldg. 88, Room 132
Los Angeles, CA 90035

More information on the podcast!

How to listen to this FREE podcast:

Flash Player: Listen directly!

To download to your harddrive, click this link!

Available on iTunes. Search for "Back to Frank Black" or "BacktoFrankBlack" and click "subscribe"!

Also available on iPhone and Android as part of the Back to Frank Black app! Nominal app fee goes towards supporting the campaign. No profits come from this app service.)

Second Sight: "The Wild and the Innocent"

“The Wild and the Innocent” (10 January 1997)

Writer: Jorge Zamacona
Director: Thomas J. Wright
Editor: Stephen Mark

Quote: “An inordinate amount of violence and suffering has occurred in this house. [Maddie Haskel] might know something that could help us.” --Frank Black


Overview: In a previous installment of Second Sight, our bi-weekly examination of Frank Black’s visionary talents, we considered that location might be key to understanding the nature of those visions witnessed in “Kingdom Come.” By the mid-point of the show’s first season, the dedicated Millennium fan knows the familiar triggers for the profiler’s gore-laden reveries. We brace ourselves for an onslaught of nightmarish imagery when we see Frank button up his coat as he steps onto a crime scene.

As the man who channeled the character’s sensitivities, Lance Henriksen is certainly aware of the link between site and sense. The actor has quite vocally challenged any oversimplification of this complex relationship, however, defying those who would misconstrue the visual devices of Millennium. When the camera offers us a close-up of a piece of shattered glass, triggering one of the hero’s blood-drenched hallucinations, it should not suggest to us that there is some negative psychic energy imbued within the glass itself. The shattered glass is just a piece of the puzzle, and Frank Black is gifted enough to see the larger picture at a glance. “I always felt Frank Black had morphed into a person who put abstract loose ends together in his head in a way that other people couldn’t,” Henriksen once explained in a Back to Frank Black interview. “He could take threads of an idea and they would suddenly appear to him, almost as a linear story. In other words, walking into a room he would see pieces of a puzzle, like a great chess player, and he would string them together.”

Nevertheless, we cannot ignore the fact that location and physical objects play an integral role in the coalescing and unraveling of such threads. In “The Wild and the Innocent,” Frank Black lingers in the house of Killean and Maddie Haskel long after the local police have moved on to their crime lab, spending his time poring over the personal items that fill their home. It is the possessions he finds there--mirrors and jewelry boxes, blankets and toy dolls, photo albums and high school yearbooks--that introduce him to the troubled young woman at the center of this heartbreaking story. These objects speak to him, telling the linear story of the young girl’s traumatic life and prompting a series of those powerful and evocative visions we’ve all come to expect. The formula for detective stories should draw our attention to the evidence that we all leave behind as we live our lives, in public or in private. It is a theme brought vividly to the surface each and every time one of our hero’s visions is triggered by an artifact or a crucial piece of evidence. There is significance and meaning imbued in the items we touch, the residue of our lives, even if they are merely individual pieces of a much larger mosaic. In those lonely scenes in which Frank tours the Haskel homestead by flashlight, as Bobby and Maddie take to the open road in a desperate bid to track down Angel, “The Wild and the Innocent” somberly reminds us of the traces of ourselves that we leave behind as we live out our everyday lives.

Connections: The visions of “The Wild and the Innocent” are used to reveal a character’s backstory, an effect similar to that used to illustrate Galen Calloway’s past in “Kingdom Come” and the history of sexual abuse in “The Well-Worn Lock.”

Trances in Total: 3 (0:12)

Gore Score: 7/10

Make or Break: Chris Carter, Frank SpotniTz, and Lance Henriksen talk about Millennium's future!

This is the big interview! This is Lance Henriksen, Chris Carter, and Frank Spotnitz talking about the future of Millennium. Is there a future? Listen to the podcast and find out how this conversation has shaped the future of this campaign! Don't miss this!

How to listen to this FREE podcast:

Flash Player: Listen directly!

To download click this link!

Available on iTunes. Search for "Back to Frank Black" or "BacktoFrankBlack" and click "subscribe"!

Also available on iPhone and Android as part of the Back to Frank Black app! App version includes an Xmas message from Lance and a PDF greetings card from the team! (Extra features are included in most app versions of the podcasts. Nominal app fee goes towards supporting the campaign. No profits come from this app service.)

Lance Henriksen Autobiography has a publisher!

Back to Frank Black is honored to be the first Lance Henriksen related site to bring you the news that he has signed a deal with a publisher to release his autobiography! And as if that's not enough, the first limited release will contain original artwork by artists such as Bernie Wrightson, Erick Powell, Tim Bradstreet, Mike Mignola and many others!

Lance has been working on his autobiography for over a year with the very talented Joe Maddrey and is excited to have the fans read it. Stay tuned to Back to Frank Black for more details and competitions in the very near future, and to read the official story, please follow this link.