#MLM-111 Loin Like a Hunting Flame
Prev
Next
Episode Summary
Frank Black and Millennium Group sex crime expert Maureen Murphy are called to Colorado to investigate when a man's marriage failings turn into deadly sexual fantasies, attending local raves and swingers parties to track the killer. Unfortunately, the investigative pair find resistance in the form of a biased sheriff and a local law enforcement team unprepared to deal with such sexual attacks.
Main Crew
Written by Ted Mann
Directed by David Nutter
Edited by Chris Willingham, A.C.E.
Main Cast
Lance Henriksen as Frank Black
Megan Gallagher as Catherine Black
Terry O'Quinn as Peter Watts
Guest Stars
Barbara Howard as Karen Nesbitt
Harriet Sansom Harris as Maureen Murphy
Hrothgar Mathews as Art Nesbitt
William Lucking as Detective Thomas
Supporting Cast
Barry Greene as Mark
Crystal Cass as New Anne
Derek Hamilton as New Mel
Doug Abrahams as Detective Kent
Fawnia L. Mondey as Lauri
Malcolm Stewart as Vic
Michael Buie as Randy
Natassia Malthe as New Leslie
Peg Christopherson as Sylvie
Uncredited Cast
Carrie Davis as Anne
Dawn Mander as Leslie (II)
Dorion Davis as Sherrie
Eric Olsen as Mel Dodd
Jaclynn Grad as New Sylvie
Jenny Mitchell as Kim
Jon Ratt as The Husband
Kelly Irving as Ron
Laurel Gray as The Pathologist
Michael Sunczyk as Doorman - Red Robe
Rafe McDonald as Tim
Tyler Labine as Gavin
View full credits
Quotation/Proverb
Two souls, alas, are housed within my breast. - Faust
Promotional Episode Tagline
Please and pain. Flesh and fantasy. Sex and terror. Somewhere out there is a killer too twisted to know the difference. And too evil too care.
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 Loin Like a Hunting Flame episode transcript which has been painstakingly checked for accuracy against the actual episode.
Near the University of Colorado at Boulder, a group of college-age students gather at a warehouse/techno night club. Art Nesbitt, a pharmacist, approaches a couple, Mel and Leslie. He opens his palm, revealing two capsules. Under the influence of the powerful drugs, the couple accompany Nesbitt to a small room. Nesbitt captures their lovemaking on videotape, then injects them with a lethal poison.
The naked bodies of Mel and Leslie are discovered in a lush botanical garden, their genitalia covered with leaves as if mimicking the garden of Eden. Frank and Millennium Group member Maureen Murphy are called to the scene where they meet with Boulder Homicide Detective Thomas. He admits his discomfort with working the case with a female (Murphy), telling Frank that women do not understand male sexuality.
Meanwhile Nesbitt spies on a group of seven couples engaged in spouse-swapping in an upper middle class suburban home. Two women, Sylvie and Anne, leave the group and drive to a liquor store. When a blue light flashes behind the car, Sylvie pulls off the road. Nesbitt, impersonating a policeman, steps up to the vehicle.
The next day two men from the swing party, Mark and Vic, tell police their wives are missing. A short time later the bodies of Sylvie and Anne are discovered on a park bench, posed as lovers.
A couple, Laurie and Randy, enter Nesbitt's pharmacy with a prescription for an anti- diarrhetic drug for their honeymoon trip to Bali. Nesbitt hands them both a capsule and suggests they swallow it immediately for maximum effect.
Additional toxicology results indicate the perpetrator may have inadvertently contaminated his ecstasy-like drug with difficult-to-obtain controlled substances. Frank concludes the killer may have legitimate access to the drugs. He also believes the killer uses the drugs himself, allowing him to act on intensely sexual fantasies--fantasies the killer made real.
Further investigation leads the Millennium Group to Nesbitt's pharmacy, but Nesbitt is not on duty. Realizing Nesbitt is the killer, the group travels to his home. There they interview his wife, Karen, who tells Maureen that she and her husband haven't had sex for eighteen years. But she remarks how her husband recently told her how much he would like to try again.
Thomas admits to Frank that Maureen is a good investigator--his real problem is that he himself is uncomfortable with the case. Thomas had investigated sex crimes in West Hollywood, and felt as though he had become "contaminated," discovering he could not make love to his wife. They have since divorced.
Frank realizes Nesbitt is recapitulating sexual encounters he feels he should have experienced prior to marriage, capturing his victims in the happiest, most perfect moments in their lives. Thinking back on his inspection of the Nesbitt home, Frank realizes he missed something. A hidden trap door is discovered in the garage and opened, and Randy and Laurie are rescued from an old bomb shelter beneath the garage. Frank discovers Nesbitt inside his bedroom, about to inject his wife with poison. Frank knocks the syringe from Nesbitt's hand. But Nesbitt retrieves the needle and injects himself with a fatal dose.
Background Information and References
There is no background information or references relating to this episode of Millennium.
Episode Trivia
The episode's title is taken from "The Ballad of the Long-Legged Bait" by Dylan Thomas. Among the quatrains included in the six-page poem is one that reads, "And steeples pierce the cloud on her shoulder / And the streets that the fisherman combed / When his long-legged flesh was a wind on fire / And his loin was like a hunting flame." The poem is known for its surrealistic metaphors concerning sex and sexuality and, as a result, the line chosen as the episode's title seems an apt means of depicting the fantasy-prone sexual mindset of serial killer Art Nesbitt.
Credit: Brian Dixon, The Millennial Abyss
Character: Nesbitt, who was unable to consummate his marriage.
Nesbitt's operation or plication is a surgical procedure to correct a deformity of the penis.
Credit: Libby of TIWWA
Succlynocide: Clearly spoken by Terry O'Quinn and spelled that way in subtitles. However, a web search shows no reference other than the transcript. Probably based on the real drug succinylcholine (pron. suk-sin'l-koleen), a muscle-relaxant that has been used in real-life murder.
Credit: Libby of TIWWA
Original Fox Promotional Episode Stills
View the 11 available original 1996 Fox Millennium Episode Guide images for this episode of Millennium here.
Mortality Count:
5 Deaths
(Comprised of 4 murders + 0 kills in self defence + 0 justifiable homicides + 1 suicides.)
N.B. Where relevant, unquantifiable groups of victims (such as multiple casualties as a result of a plane crash) are represented by a group count of 1 due to the impracticalities with listing so many unidentified persons.
Violence Markers
- Art Nesbitt commited suicide during this episode of Millennium (Loin Like a Hunting Flame).
- Art Nesbitt was responsible for the attempted murder of Randy during this episode of Millennium (Loin Like a Hunting Flame).
- Art Nesbitt was responsible for the attempted murder of Lauri during this episode of Millennium (Loin Like a Hunting Flame).
- Art Nesbitt was responsible for the murder of Mel during this episode of Millennium (Loin Like a Hunting Flame).
- Art Nesbitt was responsible for the murder of Leslie during this episode of Millennium (Loin Like a Hunting Flame).
- Art Nesbitt was responsible for the murder of Sylvie during this episode of Millennium (Loin Like a Hunting Flame).
- Art Nesbitt was responsible for the murder of Anne during this episode of Millennium (Loin Like a Hunting Flame).
(View Millennium's Violence - Deaths, Killers, Victims and Criminality Analysis)