#MLM-121 Paper Dove

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Episode Summary

The Black family travels to visit Catherine's parents in Maryland. Catherine's father asks Frank to look into an old local case that may have been resolved improperly the first time around. The murder in question may have in fact been committed by the Woodsman, a serial killer still depositing bodies in the Maryland woods. In investigating these events, Frank might inadvertently be pulling his family closer toward the intentions of the Polaroid stalker.

Main Crew

Written by Ted Mann & Walon Green
Directed by Thomas J. Wright
Edited by George R. Potter

Main Cast

Brittany Tiplady as Jordan Black
Lance Henriksen as Frank Black
Megan Gallagher as Catherine Black

Guest Stars

Barbara Williams as Dawn (I)
Ken Pogue as Tom Miller
Linda Sorensen as Marie France Dion
Mike Starr as Henry Dion
William Nunn as C.R. Hunziger

Supporting Cast

Angela Donahue as Amy Lee Walker
Arlen Jones as Agent Emmerich
Doris Chilcott as Adele Hunziger
Eric Breker as Malcolm Hunziger
Frank Cassini as Agent Devlin
Garry Davey as Ranger Chet
Judy Norton as Carol Scammel
Maxine Miller as Justine Miller
Paul Raskin as Figure

Uncredited Cast

Brenda McDonald as Mrs. Steinberg
Michael St. John Smith as Gil
Mitch Davies as Rick Scammel
Noah Dennis as Nick Scammel
Todd Waite as Agent Kane

More...

Quotation/Proverb

And now there is merely silence, silence, silence, saying, All we did not know. - William Rose Benét

Seasonal Episode Tagline

wait... worry... who cares?

Synopsis

Please note that this is the original Fox synopsis and occasionally this may differ from the events that were actually filmed. Please also view the Paper Dove episode transcript which has been painstakingly checked for accuracy against the actual episode.

Frank and his family travel to a suburb of Arlington, Virginia, to visit Catherine's mother and father, Justine and Tom Miller. They are joined by Catherine's older sister, Dawn, and her husband, Gil.

Meanwhile, in Hagerstown, Maryland a man named Henry Dion follows a woman from the grocery store and murders her in her own home. Shortly thereafter, Dion is visited by a mysterious figure, a man with pale white skin wearing dark glasses. Dion thanks The Figure for his assistance with helping locate his victim. The Figure tells Dion he wanted the murder committed while Frank was in the area.

Dion drives the corpse to a campground near the Appalachian trial. During his trip, he talks to the corpse, as if communicating with a companion.

Tom Miller tells Frank about his friends, C.R. and Adele Hunziger. Four years earlier, their son, Malcom, was convicted of murdering his wife. C.R. developed pancreatic cancer, and hasn't long to live. Despite this, he has refused to see his son because of the murder. Their relationship has taken a terrible toll on C.R.'s wife, Adele, who holds out hope that her son may be innocent of the crime. Frank meets with the dying C.R. in hopes of changing his mind, but the elderly Admiral remains steadfast, referring to his son as "diseased garbage."

Adele gives Frank a file folder containing her son's defense records. Frank then travels to Quantico, Virginia, where he meets with three of his former colleagues, Agents Kane, Devlin and Emmerlich. An overwhelming amount of physical evidence against Malcom had led to an easy prosecution victory. Despite this, Frank feels Malcom does not fit the profile of a man who would murder his own wife.

Frank believes that the perpetrator who murdered the housewife is responsible for the deaths of four other women in the same general area. Despite Catherine's disappointment, Frank leaves his family to investigate a crime scene in a national park where a body was discovered three years earlier, partially covered with leaves.

At the park, Frank meets with Chet, a talkative Virginia ranger. Chet describes how an unidentified hiker had notified police about the body. The hiker was never identified, leading Frank to conclude that the murderer himself contacted police. Later, Dion, pretending to be a passerby, telephones police with the general location of the dead housewife's corpse.

Dion returns home, where he is greeted by his mother, Marie France, an odd, fifty-year-old woman with a French-Canadian accent who talks incessantly.

Frank and his colleagues decide to deliberately bait the killer by informing the press that their suspect is a coward. Infuriated, Dion telephones police. The call is traced to a private residence where Dion works as a nurse. Police identify their suspect, but not before Dion returns home and murders his mother. He is taken into custody. Later, Malcom Hunziger, cleared of murder, is transported to his dying father's bedside.

Frank and his family fly back to Seattle. At the airport, Frank carries a sleeping Jordan out to the car as Catherine waits near the baggage carousel to retrieve luggage. Unbeknownst to the Blacks, The Figure watches from afar. When Frank returns to the baggage carousel, Catherine is nowhere to be found. He discovers an Origami dove that Adele had given to Jordan, lying on the ground.

To Be Continued...

Episode Trivia

Once again, Millennium's writers created a fictional serial killer built from real world research. The fate of Marie France Dion was directly inspired by acts committed by real life serial killer Ed Kemper. Like Henry Dion, Kemper was driven to commit his crimes by a nagging, overbearing mother. Upon beheading her on Easter Sunday in 1973, Kemper removed her larynx and forced it into a garbage disposal, precisely as Henry does during this episode's climax.

Two of the FBI Special Agents that appear in this episode, Agent Devlin and Agent Emmerich, are named for writer/producers Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich. The creative duo is best known for their science fiction films, including Stargate, Independence Day, and the American Godzilla.

Credit: Brian Dixon, The Millennial Abyss

Original Fox Promotional Episode Stills

View the 4 available original 1996 Fox Millennium Episode Guide images for this episode of Millennium here.

Mortality Count: 

7 Deaths

(Comprised of 7 murders + 0 kills in self defence + 0 justifiable homicides + 0 suicides.)

NB. Where applicable, large groups of victims (such as multiple victims in a plane crash) are represented by a count of group count of 1 due to impracticalities with listing so many unidentified persons. For enhanced details, see the Violence Markers below.

Violence Markers

• Henry Dion was responsible for the murder of Amy Lee Walker during this episode of Millennium (Paper Dove).

• Henry Dion was responsible for the murder of Mrs. Hunziger Jr. during this episode of Millennium (Paper Dove).

• Henry Dion was responsible for the murder of unnamed woman (1) during this episode of Millennium (Paper Dove).

• Henry Dion was responsible for the murder of unnamed woman (2) during this episode of Millennium (Paper Dove).

• Henry Dion was responsible for the murder of unnamed woman (3) during this episode of Millennium (Paper Dove).

• Henry Dion was responsible for the murder of unnamed woman (4) during this episode of Millennium (Paper Dove).

• Henry Dion was responsible for the murder of Marie France Dion during this episode of Millennium (Paper Dove).

(View Millennium's Violence - Deaths, Killers, Victims and Criminality Analysis)