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Brief summary:
In pursuit of the mysterious Polaroid Stalker
who kidnapped his wife, Frank finds himself
at odds with The Millennium Group and struggles
to hold the darkness within himself at bay.
Rogue's Review:
"It will never again be the same,"
Frank Black whispers in voiceover during the
prologue -- a fitting statement as MILLENNIUM
plunges into its second season, and resolves
the circumstances of Catherine Black's abduction
by the malevolent Polaroid Stalker.
The episode opens
with the gripping encounter in SeaTac Airport
between Catherine and the Stalker (1013 perennial
fave Doug Hutchinson, who played the title role
in the XF outing "Tooms" and the sinister
Elroy-L in Morgan & Wong's first indie production,
SPACE: ABOVE & BEYOND). Chilling stuff!
Unfortunately, things
begin to slip soon afterward. The crux of the
problem, as always, is time. The ep begs to
be a two-parter, in order to more effectively
tell the story of the Polaroid Stalker, his
connection to the Millennium Group, and the
Group's decision to bring Frank into the fold.
We learn some intriguing new facts about Peter
Watts, including the story of the dead baby
in the water cooler -- the case that drove him
from the Bureau to the Group -- but the disconnected
nature of the sequence diminishes its impact.
"The Beginning
and the End" seems, in fact, like a series
of excerpts from a larger work. The introduction
of Brian Roedecker (not his finest hour), the
extended sequence where the Stalker torments
Catherine with meandering Biblical passages
(mixed with Dr. Seuss), the "search"
montage where Frank hunts down his quarry --
there is a rushed quality to the episode that
ruins the beauty of some of its individual moments.
Worse still, there
are leaps in logic that the tale itself cannot
justify. Despite all we learn over the coming
season, it is NEVER adequately explained why
Frank continues to tolerate the methods of the
Group, when he knows full well that if they
did not outright orchestrate the events of Catherine's
abduction by the Stalker (a former Group candidate
gone mad), they at least opted not to warn him
of the danger, or take actions to prevent her
kidnapping.
The Polaroid Stalker
himself is a tragic waste. After a season of
speculation over this strange, never-seen specter,
we're treated to the mad brilliance of Hutchinson's
performance for only one episode before he's
killed off! We know he was sending the Polaroids
even before MILLENNIUM began, back when Black
was still with the FBI -- but no attempt is
made to reconcile that fact. If the Stalker
knew more, knew the importance of Frank's work
or his role in the coming apocalypse... that
knowledge died with him.
And what's up with
the Group? The seesawing good guys/bad guys
thing may add depth and excitement to THE X-FILES,
but it only hinders the logic of this series.
When Frank dismisses Peter's cautionary words
and goes after the Stalker himself, Peter's
shadowy superior says, "He's only doing
what we should have done by now. Help him."
So why, exactly, does the Group spend so many
future episodes condemning Frank's subsequent
behavior?
The worst offense
is the way the Black family comes apart. Catherine
condemns Frank's actions, telling him he's lost
a part of himself by taking a life, and they
go their separate ways. Absolutely unbelievable!
The series would have been better served if
Catherine had simply decided enough was enough
-- his work, the Group, the darkness that has
been introduced into their lives and their home...
The groundwork had been laid for Catherine to
simply leave until Frank made a choice between
his work and his family.
But Morgan and Wong,
in their first outing as MM's executive producers,
decided to take an illogical route. Her life
was put into mortal jeopardy, she had been led
to believe this madman had murdered her child
-- yet when Frank arrives and the Stalker attacks,
actually STABBING him, Catherine is appalled
that Frank defends himself and takes the killer's
life with the killer's own weapon?! I didn't
buy it at all.
The estrangement DOES
set up the groundwork for the season to come,
however. It's an unusual story choice -- one
that ultimately gives us some of the finest
MILLENNIUM outings to date. I only wish this
introductory episode had devoted as much time
to logic and credibility as it did to stacking
the deck for the season to come.
Some interesting factoids:
Peter's daughters are named Taylor, Erin and
Chelsea... The scientific name of the split-tailed
comet is "P1997 Vansen-West" -- Shane
Vansen and Nathan West were the lead characters
in S:AAB... The Polaroid Stalker also throws
out an interesting bit of foreshadowing when
he says, "The Mayans saw [the comet] just
before a plague wiped out half their civilization."
For viewers familiar with the way Season Two
concludes, that's some chilling prophecy indeed.
[Rating: 4/10]
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