1x11 Weeds

Millennium (1996)

1x11 Weeds, written by Frank Spotnitz and Charles Holland, directed by Michael Pattinson.

A gated community, three square miles surrounded by walls, has their own security force and they still have a serial killer. Cattle prod, kidnapping, forced to drink blood, bodies returned to the wrong houses with severed hands. Unusually for the series so far we do not know the identity of the killer at the outset. We see that he sees people as old and decayed, monstrous.

The police are investigating delivery people and gardeners from outside, but Franks tells the residents something they don't want to hear: the killer is one of you.

Asked, "what does he want?", Frank replies "He doesn't want anything. He's insane". Which is not quite right: Frank is provoking the killer, a risky tactic.

Return of C.C.H. Pounder as the Group pathologist. Some snark when arriving: "Security here is excellent, Frank. I've been stopped twice since I entered the gates".

The adults are not very appealing and the young victims positively snotty. Are we supposed to have reduced sympathy for them? Or does the writer presume we are humane enough to look past that?

First episode written by Frank Spotnitz.