2x22 The Fourth Horseman
Millennium (1996)
2x22 The Fourth Horseman, written by Glen Morgan, James Wong and Michael R. Perry, directed by Dwight H. Little.
quote
So I looked, and behold, a pale horse. And the name of him who sat on it was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given to them over a fourth of the Earth, to kill with sword, with hunger, with death, and by the beasts of the earth.
-- Revelation 6:8
Spoken by Peter Watts.
We open with a quiet morning at a Wisconsin chicken farm. Too quiet: the farmer finds all the birds dead then he also collapses from a swift hemorrhagic attack, bleeding from everywhere.
quote
Lord, how long will the wicked, how long will the wicked triumph?
-- Psalms 94:3
Also spoken by Peter. He suffers in this episode.
First of two parts, the season closer.
Many developments:
Peter is troubled and withholding even more than usual. He has flashbacks: the dismembered baby in a cooler, the voice of the Old Man, an induction ceremony in Latin by the river.
Lara Means is not answering her phone, then it is disconnected. Her apartment is sublet and she has vanished.
Frank later sees her being blood-initiated into the Group. She calls him, excited and barely coherent.
Frank is approached by the Trust, another investigative group. He accepts their offer. His first assignment will be the Millennium Group.
Frank's father dies. We met him once in a previous episode. Jordan brings a little angel figurine to his grave.
Jordan is having terrible prophetic nightmares:
quote
Catherine: She says that there's a jungle. A wall of trees and there are these men – who she calls "bad men", although she can't say why. And they go into the jungle but then all of these angry, screaming monkeys come out of the trees.
The monkeys are covered with blood.
She dreams that we are the only ones left in the world. And then suddenly we – you, me, and her – are in a cabin in the woods.
And then she sees me walk off into the woods – leaving her and you alone.
She sees your father chasing after me.
Frank admits to Catherine that the Group is a cult and he is out.
Peter accurately predicts an earthquake. We know the Group has advanced science but when Frank asks "how?" Peter just replies with Revelation verses.
Frank and Peter investigate another bloody death and are quarantined when the medical examiner speaks of Marburg virus and Ebola and engineered prions.
Frank discovers he and Peter have been inoculated against the disease, meaning it is running wild and the Group knows all about it.
They have a heated debate as to why Peter trusts the Group:
quote
Peter: I don't know why, Frank! Maybe I just have to have faith in something!
Frank: Faith fills in the holes of uncertainty. Elements that are never meant to be known: God. Death. The Group creates uncertainties with their secrets: that's not faith – that's control.
This is worth repeating: faith is for things that are unknowable by their nature. When the water is intentionally muddied that does not call for faith.
Notes:
Background music for an autopsy is "In The Year 2525", always a creepifying factor.
For the Mother's Day mass death it is "I'll Never Fall in Love Again" by Dionne Warwick.
Peter and Lara vow by slicing their palms with a knife, one of the stupidest movie tropes.
We find that Peter fired hacker Roedecker sometime previously.
Frank tries to research "Marburg virus" on the Group computer and Peter immediately calls: "Don't. Don't pursue this".
Frank is tough with the Group guards at the woodland ceremony. You could kill someone clubbing them like that. They were expecting him.
Glenn Morshower is the Trust representative recruiting Frank. They are the real deal.
Frank buys Jordan a parakeet. It's dead the next morning.
