2x12 Luminary
Millennium (1996)
2x12 Luminary, written by Chip Johannessen, Michael R. Perry and Erin Maher, directed by Thomas J. Wright.
We open in the Alaskan wilderness with a body rolling downhill and into a river, its journey narrated by after-death thoughts.
Then cut to Peter Watts taking Frank to an important interview where he is questioned by a circle of Millennium Group bigwigs. It does not go well. His killing of the man who kidnapped Catherine is an issue.
When Frank agrees to look for a missing person -- this mission arranged by Catherine -- he has a break with Peter and the Group who have forbidden it. They go to his house to take his Millennium computer.
The missing person is a runaway who does not want to be found, who perhaps seeks death in the wilderness. I wonder if the character wasn't inspired by Chris McCandless, who was later featured in the book and movie Into the Wild.
Frank seems to become psychically aligned with him as he searches.
The sheriff at the remote Alaskan town is played by Brion James -- Blade Runner (1982), Southern Comfort (1981).
When Frank is missing Catherine goes to Peter's house in desperation:
quote
Catherine: What happened this past year? I felt I just stood by watching while Frank and Jordan and I got run over by a train.
Peter: Well, we've all felt that way from time to time.
Catherine: Then how can you not help him?
Peter: This is very difficult for me, Catherine. All of it.
Catherine: What do you do? How do you make it work?
Peter: Really? Barbara, my wife.
Catherine: So it's my fault.
Peter: It isn't about fault, it's about coming to terms with the times we live in.
Catherine: You know what I spent the past two days doing? Reading astrology books. Digging into Pluto and Neptune, because that's what it's come to for me. I don't even know where to look for answers any more.
Peter: I don't read my horoscope but I think you know exactly where to look. Anywhere that makes you conscious of the part you play.
Catherine: The part I play in what?
Notes:
At the end we see the opening was deceptive.
The soundtrack uses Celtic pipes for Alaska.
Frank accuses the Group inquisitors of putting him in a "trick bag", which has several meanings. In this case: a situation devised by enemies leading to a bad outcome. And yet: in the end he passes the test.
This must have been a miserable production, with a lot of time in that cold rushing river and hauling a body through the woods.
We see Peter's girls: they wear false mustaches. A gag, we suppose.
The Blacks go to a planetarium show. I'm surprised they have an astrology table. The woman staffing it has millenniumistic utterances about the cyclical ages of the world.
Catherine dives into astrology, also surprising. Perhaps, as Peter suggests, when you are searching for meaning anything can be grist for the mill.
