2x06 The Curse of Frank Black
Millennium (1996)
2x06 The Curse of Frank Black, written by Glen Morgan, James Wong and Michael R. Perry, directed by Ralph Hemecker.
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Do you ever find yourself talking with the dead? Since Willie's death, I catch myself every day, involuntarily talking with him, as if he were with me.
-- Abraham Lincoln - upon the death of his son
This is my favorite episode of television. I have to outline it.
We've lived in the Millennium world long enough and gotten to know Frank Black well enough to enjoy a multi-faceted view of his Halloween journey. Some of it is wry, but some quite serious.
Frank enjoys trick-or-treating with Jordan, but other kids won't come to his door. He has a sinister reputation.
He sees demons, but they are just hanging out, watching him. Maybe they enjoy his Halloween too.
Jordan won't go up to one of the demon houses, saying it has ghosts. "There's no such thing as ghosts", he reassures her.
We flashback to young Frank (age 5?) trick-or-treating at recluse Crocell's house. The kids are afraid of him.
We see a newspaper headline: Hermann Göring's suicide, which was on October 15, 1946.
Crocell tells young Frank:
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Do you know why you're doing this, kid? No? You know what Halloween is all about? Halloween is believed to have been started by the ancient Druids who believed that on this evening, Saman, the lord of the dead, summoned evil spirits. For the Celts, it was the last evening of the year, and an especially propitious time for examining portents of the future. And the devils and witches were free to roam the earth.
And on this night the spirits of the dead returned to visit past family and acquaintances from this life. Hmm?
He misses his buddies from the war:
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So, kid, for your trick, I want you to tell me... is it true? Is it possible that the, uh, dead can return? Just for, uh, five minutes.
Just to tell someone who had no idea that he'd never see them again that there's a better place than this and that they're waiting for him. Just for a minute. Just so I could have the chance to say, 'So long.' Just for a second. Just to let me know that there's a better place than this.
Huh, kid? Now, is it true? Is it possible? 'Cause if it is... then there's a hell of a lot of guys I'd rather have here talking to me than you.
Young Frank tells him: "There's no such thing as ghosts", which is not reassuring.
Back in the present, after trick-or-treat, Frank enters a haunted time. His electronics go goofy and play devil tunes and his red jeep just quits. "I surrender" he says.
Walking he interrupts kids egging a house. Surprise: it is his yellow house, empty now.
Kids have broken into the basement and are hearing "The Curse of Frank Black", the whole tale of Bletcher's murder and the evil apparitions. No lies detected. A skeptical girl says "There's no such thing as ghosts", but the teller of the tale says:
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Tell that to Frank Black. They say he can see them. They say he can't escape them. That they follow him everywhere. And it is believed that the Devil uses the souls of the dead to get at people. To drive them insane. So to keep from losing to the Devil and even though he knows his friend is eternally trapped in his house, Frank Black has left and gone to... nobody knows where. And he will never be seen again.
Frank: "Except if you look over here". They scream and run.
Was the kid on to something: are spirits of the dead lures for the living? Making Halloween a dangerous time?
Believer or not, Frank calls out: "Bob, if you're here, now's your chance". No response.
In frustration he throws eggs at his own house.
All this night, Frank has been seeing "268" and "ACTS" everywhere. (Crocell's house was "268" 50 years earlier). He finally consults the Bible, Acts 26:8: "Why should it be thought incredible by you that God raises the dead?"
Back at his apartment, awakened by noises, he goes up to the attic and finds the ghost of Crocell, sitting and smoking:
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I'll tell you this – all that stuff you hear about the fire and the brimstone and the rats and the excrement and the demons tormenting you for all of eternity – there's none of that stuff. It's worse. It is so much worse.
[...]
The one thing you've got that I never did is that you're getting close to understanding what's about to happen. And he's been watching you. Uh-huh. Oh yeah. More closely and more often, the closer you get. Here's the deal, kid. Give up the fight. Sit it out. Forget about this Millennium Group. Go back to your wife and to your daughter and to your puppy and to your yellow house and just live out a nice, happy, normal life and there's going to be a place for all three of you afterwards.
[...]
But you pass on this... and you're going so much farther than I have ever been. Hell, the way you gutted that guy who took your wife... the anger inside of you... Whew. I don't know why you're not being offered a sweeter deal. You got the heat inside of you to fight for this side. [...] Because the time is near and he will win. There's no way he can lose.
Frank asks "when?" but Crocell has vanished, leaving nothing but cigarette smoke.
What to make of that? Why would the devil give Frank friendly advice? Or was it another more subtle trap?
His haunting time over, Frank's jeep starts. Next day is sunny and he cleans egg off the side of the house, wiping away devil faces.
Crocell was played by Dean Winters, who was Viggo's lawyer in John Wick.
