Directed by Thomas J. Wright. Written by James Wong and Glen Morgan.

EPISODE RATING: (1 to 4) ****

In the previous episode, 'The Fourth Horseman', Frank (and the audience) became aware of a deadly disease that has sprung up inside the United States, claiming several victims in horrible fashion. Here, the Millennium Group prepare for the terrifying results of what they believe will occur when the virus spreads across the country. They also don't appreciate being spied on security company The Trust member, Richard Gilbert (Glenn Morshower), who's warned Frank that they're not to be trusted. In fact, Gilbert dies in a crash shortly after speaking with Frank. Frank suspects The Group is responsible, but has nothing to back it up. 

Reports of the plaque breaking out around the globe suggests the end is beginning, exactly as The Group has predicted. Frank finally accepts that what The Group has been saying may indeed be the truth, and realizes there's nothing to prevent the outbreak, and he and Peter agree to take their families to safer ground. However, Watts goes to get Lara, and is confronted by a pair of ruthless Group operatives. Frank himself finds Lara, who has been driven insane by her visions of the apocalypse. Finally, Frank, who is immune to the effects of the plaque through The Group's medical injections, takes Catherine and Jordan to hide out in a mountain cabin as the deadly disease is raging across the country...

This is perhaps the most famous...or perhaps infamous...episode of Millennium's three year run. Although it's generally regarded as one of the best ever shows the series turned out, some consider it to be more than a tad pretentious or just plain goofy. I subscribe to the first school of thought on the topic.

'The Fourth Horseman' was a terrific first chapter (that, fuck it, I don't have a copy of on tape) with some thrilling plot twists and a couple of utterly horrific scenes of the plaque's effects on poor saps. But it's 'The Time Is Now' that really hits home, and hard. The first half of the show is actually pretty subdued. There's a few gentle scenes of the Black family in their domestic existence, such as Frank explaining to Jordan about death, and Frank and Cathering deconstructing their relationship, that are terrific, and ground things in a pleasing way.

However, when things do pick up speed, the show moves into rapidly into very scary places. Of course, the mental deterioration of Lara Means is the most discussed element of the show (if not the season). Alone and losing her mind, she experiences an onslaught of distressing and bizarre visions that push her over the edge. This sequence is certainly something to behold for TV audiences as well. We witness all manner of imagery, ranging from a moving coffee mug, blood flowing up a toilet basin, nuclear explosions, wildlife and a demon that looks suspiciously like Lucy Butler's alter ego, among other things. The weirdness is heightened by the playing of Patti Smith's strikingly unsettling 'Horses' throughout the whole ordeal. Okay, sure, this whole segment is perhaps a little too Natural Born Killers-ish (which even featured Smith's music), but it still works on both emotional and visceral level. Well, in my opinion anyhow. Others may find it to be a self indulgent, music video-ish way to pad the episode.

The closing moments are just as disturbing, but in a much more subtle way. The Blacks hiding out in the abandoned cabin allows for a touching final scene between Frank and Catherine, before she becomes aware she has contracted the disease itself. Great work by both Gallagher and Henriksen here. Of course, Frank and Jordan are alone in the closing moments, and a traumatized Frank seems to be receiving mental flashes of distress and terror from the outside world. Cleverly done with television static and radio broadcasts, this is very another knockout piece of filmmaking...or at least TV making.

What makes this show so unforgettable is the way it brings a feel of apocalyptic doom to the small screen. The X-Files has never been able to hit this kind of note and tone, and yet Morgan, Wong and Wright do it with apparent ease. This feels almost as frightening as the superb mini series The Stand several years earlier. We really do feel like the world is coming to it's end, and we're left hungry for the third season. And the addition of Zager And Evans classic, doomsaying song 'In The Year 2525' is brilliant. Millennium had a way of taking songs I normally wouldn't give a damn about and putting them on my must get list...which I now do, thanks to the miracle of MP3s.

The second season of Millennium was, more or less, a masterpiece, and 'The Time Is Now' is a spectacular, if grim and downbeat, way to end that amazing batch.