1x21 Maranatha

Millennium (1996)

1x21 Maranatha, written by Chip Johannessen, directed by Peter Markle.

We open at Chernobyl, the night of the disaster. In the chaos guards are frantically searching for "Yaponchik". We see him walking away as the plant explodes.

Eleven years later, Russian emigres in New York are being murdered, faces obliterated by shotgun blast and fingers cut off. They fear the supernatural Yaponchik is among them.

Frank and Peter Watts arrive but aren't getting much help. Locals are not talking and a Russian policeman scoffs at their fears, but we recognize him as one of the Chernobyl guards.

Frank and Peter know their Bible and make much of prophecy and the apocalypse, of the expected Antichrist. Because of the case, or do they really believe it? The Millennium Group takes such things seriously.

"Chernobyl" = "Wormwood", the name of the star in Revelation that falls and poisons the earth's water. (Also the bitter ingredient of absinthe).

Yura, the Russian policeman: "If Americans were slaughtered on the streets everyday, would you come to me with these grandmother superstitions?" Well, Frank just might. Sometimes what was myth becomes real, a reversal of what we expect.

Yura is played by Boris Lee Krutonog -- The Hunt for Red October (1990).

Yaponchik is very real, played by Levani -- Air Force One (1997).

The local police detective is played by Bill Nunn, a familiar face I best remember as Radio Raheem in Do the Right Thing (1989).

Notes:

• According to the wikipedia, "The episode's title, 'Maranatha', is an Aramaic language word translated as 'our lord has come' or 'come, our lord'; the word is found in the biblical First Epistle to the Corinthians and is believed to have been used as a greeting among early Christians.

• "Yaponchik" means "little Japanese". It has been used by different crimes figures.

• Do torch singers in Russian nightclubs really sing "Ochi chyornye" ("Dark Eyes")?