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The Innocents
Air date: October 2, 1998
Written by Michael Duggan
Directed by Thomas J. Wright
Guest: Klea Scott as Emma Hollis
Key Phrase:

    Eight months following the fade of the Marburg virus that killed Catherine, Frank and Jordan find themselves in Washington, D.C.Frank struggles with Jordan's avoidance of her grief, Catherine's bitter father, and his new supervisor at the Federal Bureau of Investigation. When the case of a plane crash full of identical blonde women seems to hold connections to the Millennium Group and other Marburg mysteries, Frank decides to join Special Agents Emma Hollis and Barry Baldwin in investigating.

Commentary:     

 

 

Exegesis
Air date: October 9, 1998
Written by Chip Johannessen
Directed by Ralph Hemecker
Key Phrase:

    Frank Black and his new partner, Special Agent Emma Hollis, continue to investigate a family of identical women that are being systematically killed off. Are they the product of a Cold War experiment in remote viewing? If so, what is the now-murderous Millennium Group's interest in having them brutally eliminated?

Commentary: "Ancient Greeks had oracles. A band of women blessed with the gift of future sight, but given the sublime possibility to know what tomorrow might bring, all the Greeks could think of to ask these seers was, "What are our enemies up to? How can we wage war? What secret weapon can we use to control the future?"

    "A 1000 years ago everyone thought the end was near. And yet a few years after the first millennium, the world was covered with a row of white churches."

    "Maybe the end was near, but it didn't happen. Maybe somebody saw a different future. We can see the future in tantalizing glimpses, that vanish as quickly as they appear. A premonition, not what the future is, but that it is. Waiting for us. A reassuring thought. This sight is a burden for some, a duty, a clear view of something that is happening in this country. That could never happen in this country. Of forces we believed that could not gather here. We sense the chaos, we worry, we wait. Who is going to see a different future?"

The answer is:  YOU ARE!

 

 

TEOTWAWKI
Air date: October 16, 1998
Written by Chris Carter & Frank Spotnitz
Directed by Thomas J. Wright
Key Phrase:

    After a fatal shooting during a high school basketball game, Frank Black, Emma Hollis, and Special Agent Barry Baldwin travel to Seattle to become involved in an investigation that will soon lead to a survivalist group supported by a high-brow computer corporation. It soon becomes evident that this group is so frightened of the predicted Y2K computer meltdown that they're stockpiling food and weapons in preparation for Armageddon and willing to kill anyone, including their own children, in order to ensure their own survival.

Commentary:"It is prophesied that when the end comes, it will come in darkness. A catastrophe all foresaw but few believed. Most of us will battle too late against the chaos, but not the few, the radical few, who obey no disciplines. Unencumbered by conscience they prepare ruthlessly for their own preservation. If they survive the rest of us perish. None will weep for the civilized, the principled, US. None but God himself!"

 

 

Closure
Air date: October 23, 1998
Written by Larry Andries
Directed by Daniel Sackheim
Key Phrase:

    A heavily armed spree killer and his tag-along friends are on the loose, killing for pure amusement, and the case leads Emma Hollis to relive the violent death of her own sister. Frank Black, who had previously been keeping a distance between himself and his new partner, takes Emma under his wing to bring some closure to both their current case and her own troubling past.

Commentary:

 

 

Thirteen Years Later
Air date: October 30, 1998
Written by Michael R. Perry
Directed by Thomas J. Wright
Key Phrase:

    Frank Black is dismayed to learn that a movie is being shot based on an infamous serial killing case he solved thirteen years ago. Things get out of hand when new murders, committed by a copycat killer, begin occurring with the same patterns featured in the film and case files. Frank hopes to find answers during the filming of the movie's finale, at a KISS concert, while Emma searches famous horror films for clues.

Commentary:

 

 

Skull and Bones
Air date: November 6, 1998
Written by Chip Johannessen & Ken Horton
Directed by Paul Shapiro
Key Phrase:

    When Emma Hollis and Barry Baldwin are dispatched to investigate a mass grave found beneath a highway construction site they come face to face with Peter Watts and a Millennium Group team. Frank Black, at Quantico investigating the case through a reclusive and paranoid man who seems to have witnessed the killings, tries his best to determine what interest the Millennium Group has in the deaths. Both Frank and Emma soon discover the Group may have sinister intent and that anyone who uncovers the truth may be in grave danger.

Commentary: Note the eye symbol on the retaining wall. It is identical to one on the wall of remote viewer 512 in the episode Exegesis. The man Frank found is one of them. The reason why Peter Watts and the Millennium group assassin are there is to monitor the progress of the FBI and mislead them from the truth. Cheryl Andrews was performing an autopsy on a man who had a tumor that had been induced by a secret radio transmitter in Alaska. Peter Watts makes some statements that seem to indicate that the Millennium Group has been involved in the direction of U.S. government since it's creation. A SHADOW government? Peter asks the question, "Who is it that is willing to do what is necessary to protect the future?" Is he protecting the future or trying to control the future? And what about the real life counter parts of the Millennium Group in the form of the Shadow Government who's existence was first revealed on 9/11? I used to think that all these ideas were the product of paranoid whacko's. I'm not so sure that's true anymore.

 

 

Through a Glass Darkly
Air date: November 13, 1998
Written by Patrick Harbinson
Directed by Thomas J. Wright
Key Phrase:

    When a child disappears in a small town, attention immediately turns to a recently released sex offender tried and convicted for similar offenses twenty years ago. Frank Black and Emma Hollis arrive on the scene and are quick to point out that this man may not be deserving of the townspeople's blame and that their hate for him is blinding them to the truth.

Commentary:

 

 

Human Essence
Air date: December 11, 1998
Written by Michael Duggan
Directed by Thomas J. Wright
Key Phrase:

    After failing a random FBI drug test, Emma Hollis disobeys orders and travels to Vancouver in search of her half-sister, an addict. A concerned Frank Black soon follows and finds his partner struggling to get to the bottom of what local addicts claim to be a series of bizarre mutations being induced through tainted heroin.

Commentary:

 

 

Omerta
Air date: December 18, 1998
Written by Michael R. Perry
Directed by Ken Fink
Key Phrase:

    Frank Black decides to take Jordan on a Christmas vacation rather than allow her to dwell on the fact that this will be their first holiday without Catherine. The small Vermont town they travel to proves to be less quiet than expected, however, when the two become involved with a dead Mafia hit man who appears in the woods looking very much alive! What is the secret behind two magical women living amongst the trees and what effects do they have on those they heal?

Commentary:

 

 

Borrowed Time
Air date: January 15, 1999
Written by Chip Johannessen
Directed by Dwight Little
Key Phrase:

    Frank Black and Emma Hollis investigate a series of apparent drownings that occurred on dry land and discover that each victim had cheated death once before. Could these people, all members of a near death experience group, have been living on time borrowed from heaven? The case becomes personal when Jordan falls life-threateningly ill and Frank notices a man from the recent crime scenes, clad all in black, standing by her bedside.


Commentary: I don't know what to think of the culprit / victim of this episode. Was he a walk in? If that's the case then how was he able to teleport himself? This is a quality normally attributed to those without a body or spirits. Without question Catherine sacrificed her life for Jordan of her own free will. If that is what is at issue here there's no room for debate. So was Jordan really on borrowed time or did the culprit / victim offer his life as a substitute for Jordan's?

 

 

Collateral Damage
Air date: January 22, 1999
Written by Michael R. Perry
Directed by Thomas J. Wright
Key Phrase:

    Peter Watts is forced to make the most distressing of choices when the eldest of his three beloved daughters, Taylor, is abducted by an enraged Gulf War veteran who has turned violent, hoping to push the Millennium Group into admitting their crimes. Frank Black and Emma Hollis, part of the team enlisted to help, are met with conflict from the bitter Watts who seems sorrowfully determined to let his daughter die rather than betray the secrets of his Group.

Commentary: The Millennium Group created an aerosolized version of the Marburg PRP virus so that it would be easy to dispense on a battlefield or in a city. They dropped a biological shell on our own troupes in Iraq and blamed it on Saddam. Who could not be moved by Peter when he pleas with Frank for help. Peter knows he can't trust the group and has no one to turn to. I've noticed that in attire, demeanor and appearance people in the Millennium group look a lot like George W. Bush.

 

 

The Sound of Snow
Air date: February 5, 1999
Written by Patrick Harbinson
Directed by Paul Shapiro
Key Phrase:

    Frank Black is forwarded a mysterious copy of a cassette tape filled with audio white noise. A trip to Seattle reveals that people all over Washington state are being sent the tape, and its effects are killing them. Refusing to drop the investigation, Frank submits himself to the tape's power again and again, leading him to a shocking reliving of Catherine's death and a powerful meeting from beyond the grave.

Commentary:

 

 

Antipas
Air date: February 12, 1999
Written by Chris Carter & Frank Spotnitz
Directed by Thomas J. Wright
Key Phrase:

    When murder and mayhem become frequent at the estate of the Wisconsin Attorney General, Frank Black snatches the case from Emma Hollis in order to pursue the woman he knows to be the source of such evils: his demonic nemesis, Lucy Butler. Now posing as a nanny, Lucy seemingly has a vested interest in the politician's daughter. Frank's investigation becomes dangerously personal when he is once more reminded of the influence Lucy wields over his life.

Commentary: The word Antipas is not a reference to the devil as Frank said.  It is a Latin word referring to Herod Antipas, we all know who he was, and simply Antipas which is a reference to an unknown martyr from Revelations.  This is all a thorough research provided from the internet.  Even Webster's had no additional info.

 

 

Matryoshka
Air date: February 19, 1999
Written by Erin Maher & Kay Reindl
Directed by Arthur Forney
Key Phrase:

    An investigation into a retired FBI agent's suicide conducted by Frank Black and Emma Hollis reveals some confusing facts that link the Bureau to the Millennium Group's modern rebirth half a century years ago. Piling evidence and personal memoirs also imply that both organizations were involved in the historical events the occurred at the Los Alamos nuclear research center.

Commentary: The Millennium Group was involved in the Manhattan Project. The modern version of the group had as one of it's founders J. Edgar Hoover, which is interesting because the stream of paranoia that is consistent with the group was also Hoover's in real life.


Forcing the End
Air date: March 19, 1999
Written by Marjorie David
Directed by Thomas J. Wright
Key Phrase: 

    A fundamentalist Jewish group abducts a pregnant woman, intending to fulfill biblical prophecy by raising the unborn child in the priesthood such that he may lead the second coming of the Messiah at the yet-to-be Third Temple in Jerusalem. Emma Hollis suspects Millennium Group involvement in these events and is shocked when Peter Watts reaches out to her to help close the investigation.

Commentary: Frank is correct when he says that the Millennium Group wants to control the outcome of the future.  That's it's problem. That's what's wrong with it.  I love how the symbology expresses it 'self in the form of the mundane, which is similar to the episode, "A Single Blade Of Grass."  It doesn't mean that the symbology is wrong, only that it wasn't meant to be as literal or as dramatic as we interpreted it to be.  Does that make it any less correct?

 

 

Saturn, Dreaming of Mercury
Air date: April 9, 1999
Written by Chip Johannessen & Jordan Hawley
Directed by Paul Shapiro
Key Phrase:

    Jordan is filled with unease when a new family moves into the Black's neighborhood. Frank is unsure how to handle the situation when an imaginary friend named Simon leads his daughter into a biting incident at school, an attack on the new family's father, and violently uncharacteristic behavior. Could Jordan's now advanced powers of perception be identifying the presence of evil? Emma is hurt when Frank refuses to reveal what it is he and his daughter are cursed to live with.

Commentary: Frank says, "I see what I'm allowed to see." This is the case with all psychics. But is the limitation the result of ones own abilities or from a higher power? No one can say.

 

 

Darwins Eye
Air date: April 16, 1999
Written by Patrick Harbinson
Directed by Ken Fink
Key Phrase:

    Frank Black and Emma Hollis are forced to consider how many of their cases are truly ruled by conspiracy when a young girl, put in an asylum after being accused of murdering her parents, escapes from captivity with the help of a willing Sheriff's Deputy. Are the girl's rants regarding evolution and constant drawing of crossed palm trees a sign that there may be a more complex cover-up at work? Or has she, like Emma's ailing father, simply lost her mind?

Commentary:

 

 

Bardo Thodol
Air date: April 23, 1999
Written by Virginia Stock & Chip Johannessen
Directed by Thomas J. Wright
Key Phrase:

    The discovery of a cooler full of living hands draws Emma Hollis' attention to mysterious research conducted by former Millennium Group member Dr. Steven Takashi, a man now afflicted by a disfiguring and deadly disease. These secrets leave one murderous Millennium Group operative desperate to kill Takashi as Frank Black holds watch by his bedside. Emma engages in a desperate attempt to lash out at the Group with the knowledge she's gained, hoping to prove she can do so on her own.

Commentary: The Bardo Thodol is the last rights of Buddhism used to guide the deceased in the after life. The basic premise of Buddhism and the after life is that what we experience after death is a projection of our own mind and therefore an illusion.  When we don't realize this we become caught up in it like we can be caught up in a dream.  The result of this mistake is that it causes us to reincarnate.  Buddhism says that the entire universe is a projection of mind and therefore an illusion.


Seven and One
Air date: April 30, 1999
Written by Chris Carter & Frank Spotnitz
Directed by Peter Markle
Key Phrase:

    Frank Black, for the third time in his life, finds himself receiving a series of disturbing Polaroid photographs. This time, however, the paranoia they inspire could prove critical for the digitally enhanced photos depict the victim of a drowning accident and the face in the Polaroids is Frank's own. Is a ruthless demon seeking to push him over the edge into madness? Frank's painful childhood memories and the FBI's concerns regarding his sanity make it all the more difficult for him to confront the evil attempting to ruin him.

Commentary:This episode again reveals the true identity of the Millennium Group assassin.  He's not human, he's demonic.

    "I've been given the gift of insight, of seeing in the dark and seeing into the darkness of men's hearts and minds.  I know what evil is, I've seen it, felt it, tasted it, inhaled it's even breath of ancient powers.  The same powers that have been prophesied through history which are now marshaling.  Who is witness to this?  Have we stopped listening to the prophets, the seers and the sayers?  I have misjudged my gift.  If I see in the darkness it is only because there is light.  And it is the light which guides me now.  The light that will not go out.  The light that will lead us out of the dark night.  If we let ourselves feel this too.  It will protect me.  As it protects those around me.  Even as the ancient forces try to steal our breaths.  Seven years of trials and tribulations.  Seven plus one the prophets tell us.  Is this the end, the last year of this peace, or the beginning?"

 

 

Nostalgia
Air date: May 7, 1999
Written by Michael R. Perry
Directed by Thomas J. Wright
Key Phrase:

    When a dog digs up a woman's severed leg in a small town where Emma Hollis spent part of her nomadic youth, Frank and Emma travel there to investigate. Frank, from the start, knows fully well who the culprit is but a lack of evidence forces him to engage in a dangerous game of slowly breaking down the killer's psyche, forcing him to reveal his own crimes.

Commentary:

 

 

Via Dolorosa
Air date: May 14, 1999
Written by Marjorie David & Patrick Harbinson
Directed by Paul Shapiro
Key Phrase:

    As Frank Black watches one of his greatest foes, Ed Cuffle, die in the electric chair he assumes he's found a way to put evil behind him. Shocking serial murders with patterns familiar to Frank prove, however, that someone's found a way to bring Ed back. Emma Hollis' father's illness takes a dangerous turn, forcing her through a series of painful choices. Peter Watts emerges from the shadows with a deal for Emma, offering her father a cure if she agrees to assist the Millennium Group. As Emma and Peter enter into a silent agreement, Frank, Barry Baldwin, and the FBI make a desperate attempt to stop the new Ed Cuffle.

Commentary: What I do not understand about the group is their failure to understand that popping out of the shadows, in a moment of personal tragedy with secret deals is not a way to instill a decent persons trust and loyalty.

 

 

Goodbye to All That
Air date: May 21, 1999
Written by Ken Horton & Chip Johannessen
Directed by Thomas J. Wright
Key Phrase:

    With Frank Black being held responsible for Barry Baldwin's death at the hands of a Millennium Group assassin, Emma Hollis further distances herself from her former mentor while gaining Millennium Group membership. The Federal Bureau of Investigation dismisses Frank once and for all from its ranks, an act that serves to further strengthen the connection between the Bureau and the Millennium Group. Frank, Emma, and Peter engage in angry attacks against each other as the new Ed Cuffle continues to leave a trail of bodies. The battle will end in role reversal for all, an end to things as they once were, and an uncertain future.

Commentary: Isn't it amazing how quickly people turn on you? People you mentored and sacrificed and cared for. People who owe you dearly! Frank was right, the group did assassinate Peter Watts. I am saddened by this because I liked Peter even though he was misguided, self righteous and over zealous he wasn't all bad.  The group has lost it's power to control because it was so focused on control that it held it's grip too tightly.  Members are dying in large numbers both from each other and the Millennium assassin.  At the end I think it is almost certain that the group has totally collapsed, in part due to the constant pressure of Frank Black.  The demise of the group is revealed in the X-Files cross over episode.  I like how Frank pulls Jordan out of school and runs off with her, leaving everything behind.  It is true, we are all shepherds.

    "I've seen the future.  Where the battle between good and evil that has raged for millennia is fought to conclusion and the struggle for our hearts and minds is decided for all time.  We survive, maybe, but only by discarding the question that confuses us. "What do I want?" And asking what the world, what the universe wants and needs.  Asking what does life itself expect of me?"

    I wish I knew the answer to that question.

 

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