The Rogue's Eye View
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M I L L E N N I U M
113. THE THIN WHITE LINE

Written by Glen Morgan and James Wong
Directed by Thomas J. Wright
Original Air Date: February 14, 1997


Brief summary: Frank's painful past resurfaces when he investigates a series of murders that are strikingly reminiscent of a killer who is already behind bars.

Rogue's Review: "How did we get to this place," Frank Black asks of his friend Bob Bletcher, "where all we're good for is notifying the loved ones?"

Easily one of the most gripping SKOW episodes of Season One, "Thin White Line" has the added bonus of showing us some of Frank's history, as a coincidental visit to the hospital reveals to him a murder victim with a stabmark very much like a scar on Frank's own hand... But the man who put that mark on Frank is behind bars, and has been for 20 years.

"The Thin White Line" is a sharp study of transferred rage, of the single-mindedness of vengeance. The series has emphasized all manner of ways in which people influence the minds and actions of others, but here we see it written boldly in the marauding evil of Richard Alan Hance and Jacob Tyler, his partner in crime.

The episode is also a staggering indictment of our criminal justice system, condemning American penal systems that act as breeding grounds for greater evil, not rehabilitation. And most importantly, it's a study of a very personal relationship between hunter and hunted that foreshadows the shocking conclusion - in which both Frank and Bletcher must deal with the rage for justice the case has spawned in them. The resolution is grim foreshadowing of the shape of things to come for our heroes.

"The Thin White Line" should have put to rest the whole controversy over whether Frank's gift was trained profiling or a psychic power. When he and Bletcher view the videotape of the shooting in the convenience store, Frank does not flash on what actually happened - he flashes on the fantasy conversation Tyler had with his victim prior to the shooting. Frank's gift CANNOT be called mere profiling - he is remembering things that never actually happened, and he remembers them perfectly.

Critics have pointed out that "The Thin White Line" drastically toys with the existing timeline of Frank Black's past, but I'm reminded of the extreme difference in Season One and subsequent X-FILES flashbacks regarding the circumstances of Samantha Mulder's abduction (in Season One, she was taken from her bedroom; the Stratego game and living room abduction became the series' accepted story from Season Two onward). The exact dates and circumstances aren't as important as the lessons learned from the incidents in Frank's flashback to his pursuit of Hance. The REAL problem for me was accepting that this Frank was 20 years younger - simply because he combed his hair a different way. ;)

The metaphor of Hance's hatred for the 60-cycle hum of the fluorescents is perhaps one of the subtlest and most brilliant ever used in this series. SKOWs just don't get much better than this. [Rating: 8/10]

"Make them turn off the lights. In my cell, they keep them on twenty-four hours a day, every day. Fluorescent lights. It's the hum. You hear it? 60-cycle hum. Constant. It's like you're aware of your own heart beating. The pounding. Even when my eyes are closed and I'm sleeping, I can see the light right through the eyelids." -- Richard Hance


reviews by Rick Smith (1996 - present) and website by Matt Asendorf (2004)
all material property of Paper Street Productions ~ http://www.paperstreetprod.com