Onto the episode itself, season seven just keeps on getting better and better each week (I was one of the few people who loved Hungry admittedly Mulder and Scully were largely absent but as a one-off I loved it, it was a wonderful X-Files take on the nature versus nurture debate) with Millennium. The show was a classic, old fashioned MOTW X-File and none the worse for it. After approaching the topic of zombies in a serious manner in Fresh Bones and the pseudo zombies of Folie À Deux The X-Files does zombies in the style of George Romero and in my opinion does it better.
The characters were handled perfectly in this episode. Take the FBI scene for instance, Mulder addresses a panel of incredulous agents with his bizarre explanation "I don't think it was grave robbery per se...it was necromancy...the summoning of the dead...it's a form of magic dating back to primitive Shamanism with a long tradition in the Christian church. Through it, the dead are brought back to life for the purposes of divulgingarcane knowledge or performing ritual tasks", uncaring of the fact that the other agents obviously thinks his theory is insane and finishes with a deadpan quip "He may also desire to wear the clothes of the dead man to create a bond between them. You would not want to be this man's dry cleaner."Later he uses his extensive knowledge of arcane matters to explain the symbolism of the Ouroboros while Scully looks on sheepishly. The acting was that good that there was no need for an overt reference to her tattoo.The same subtlety is evident in the first hospital scene where parallels are drawn between Mulder and Frank Black "...he's been called the greatest criminal profiler that Quantico ever produced...he fought to bring them down at the expense of his own career and reputation", after taking away the specifics regarding the Millennium Group Mulder could just as easily be describing himself. Scully recognises and acknowledges the fact by remarking "single-minded...sounds like someone I know." without losing the subtlety of the comparison.
Seeing Frank Black himself I was astounded by how old and weary he looked. Having only see the first season of Millennium as ITV refused to buy the second season I was shocked by his appearance and demeanour. It was disheartening to see him unwilling to assist Mulder and Scully on their case and abandoning his quest in search of a quiet family life (much as Mulder did in Amor Fati), Mulder's reaction mirrored that of the viewers "Mr. Black, you are not what I was expecting."
The next day Mulder and Scully investigate the disappearance of a Deputy who was killed by one of the zombies. Mulder notices a ring of salt which was used as protection against the zombie (traditionally salt is supposed to restore the memory of a zombie as well as being used as protection against Demons). After the body of the deputy is discovered Scully finds more salt and a piece of paper which contains a verse from the Book of Revelation chapter one, verse 18. Mulder realises that Frank Black's earlier reference to "...first and 18" was not a reference to the football score but a cryptic clue. Mulder and Scully approach Black with this information and persuade him to divulge what he knows. Black tells him that the four FBI agents who committed suicide represented a split in the group and wished to be brought back to life as the four horsemen of the apocalypse. Scully goes to the morgue where she discovers the dead body of the coroner and is attacked by the dead Deputy, she survives due to the intervention of Johnson. Later she unflinchingly describes her encounter to Skinner telling him "He was dead and then, somehow, he wasn't. He attacked me. ". After the events of the Biogenesis trilogy it seems that Scully is becoming more open to 'extreme possibilities'.
Meanwhile Mulder approaches the residence of Mark Johnson and roots through his trash finding a large, almost empty sack of salt. He pockets a handful of salt, enters the house and goes into the basement where he is locked in with four zombies. At the hospital Scully shows further character development following the shake up of her belief system in the Biogenesis trilogy by asking Black "...what if it were true? Good and evil - which would prevail?", Black is disturbed enough by this thought to approach Johnson's house who believes he is going to take the place of one of the member's Mulder killed. Black takes a revolver from Johnson and points it at his chest before tying him up. Johnson desperately cries out "Don't do this. I'm begging you, please. You know what the world is. Evil goes unpunished. The good suffer. There's no future here but uncertainty and pain. Let the judgement come! You're damning yourself, Frank!", congratulations goes to the writers for taking this line. It would have been simpler to make Johnson evil, yet the writer's decided to mine the ambiguity of the Apocalypse by suggesting that Johnson is doing God's will or at least believes himself to be doing God's will. Black enters the basement after throwing flares down to try and rescue Mulder, (the lighting in this scene is wonderful and contributes significantly to the tension) Mulder and Black both kill a zombie and Scully arrives in the nick of time to shoot the last one.
In the last scene Black is reunited with his daughter and as the new Millennium dawns Mulder and Scully share a kiss. As Mulder pulls away he remarks "The world didn't end", Scully replies "No, it didn't." and they leave with Mulder putting his arm around Scully's shoulders.
Overall this was an excellent episode. I was pleasantly surprised at how well the worlds of Millennium and The X-Files fitted together. The episode also gave some closure to the cancelled TV series Millennium. Admittedly the fate of the Millennium Group was treated with too much simplicity (then again Black did make it clear that those responsible for trying to bring about the apocalypse were a breakaway sect and not the Group as a whole) but nevertheless this episode gave closure with Frank and Jordan going home together and leaving their troubles behind them.There was some interesting character development in this episode, the zombies were genuinely scary and the lighting and direction were fantastic. As for the kiss...personally I feel that people have made too much of it, in my opinion it was a sweet, tender New Year ritual, nothing more. It merely added the icing to an already perfect cake.
A Copy of this review is archived on the Rat Tail Production's Club Message Board
Reviews
