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Millennium Episode Review of Gehenna by Erin (Raven Wolf)

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It was last viewed on Wednesday, March 27, 2024, 3:59 AM (UTC).

Episode Info

 Gehenna



MLM Code

#MLM-101


Production Code

4C01


Season

1


Original Airdate

1996-11-01

Episode Summary

When large quantities of human ashes are discovered in the flowerbeds in a San Francisco park, Frank Black joins an investigation that will lead to an overpowering cult that kills those members unwilling to conform to expectations. In getting closer to the cult's all-powerful leader, Frank gets his first glimpse of a dark force that is controlling the killers he seeks.

Main Crew

Written by Chris Carter
Directed by David Nutter
Edited by Stephen Mark

Random scenes from Gehenna

A random scene from this Millennium episode Gehenna.
 
A second random scene from this Millennium episode Gehenna.
 
A third random scene from this Millennium episode Gehenna.
 
 

There are a total of 135 images for Gehenna which are available in our Episode Image Gallery.

Awards and Nominations

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Reviewed: Gehenna

Contributor: Erin (Raven Wolf)

An image from Millennium: Gehenna.

Gehenna should have, in my opinion, been a part two of the Pilot, rather than a separate episode, despite the entirely new story, and the fact that it was set several months after the Pilot. It seems to be a continuing train of thought...easily interwoven with the first story. While the previous episode had begun to the throbbing beat of White Zombie's "More Human than Human", "Gehenna" begins with a dizzying rap, spinning you in a whirlwind with the spiraling cars, packed with young men as they circled a separate, doomed young man like a pack of hungry wolves, forcing him into an abandoned warehouse and imminent death....followed by the now familiar drums and violins of the main theme music.

"I smell blood and an era of prominent madmen" (W.H. Auden)

This was the first of the hauntingly mysterious quotes that became a trademark for the series. Quotes such as these became yet another example of the mix of horror and beauty that was woven throughout the series. This carried on into the first scene, with the discovery of human ashes, spread amongst the rose gardens in a park in San Francisco.

In "Gehenna", we meet Mike Atkins, the man who brought Frank into the Millennium Group. This also seems like a continuation of the first episode, as they discuss the Polaroids Frank got in his mail at the end of the first episode, and the question of "what IS evil" that was the backbone of the series was discussed in depth for the first time. Most evil in the world comes from men, was the recurring view in both The X-Files and Millennium....Reflecting the opinion that the Devil lies as a potential within us all. The room full of young men, all repeating the same rhetoric over the phones, "selling products nobody wants" is both horrifying and almost humorous, seeming to reflect that all telemarketers are in league with the devil. ".....numbers are all we are!" "It knows your numbers and it knows YOU." Evil and the devil are portrayed as the modern-day obsession with money and power, which slowly turns us all into mindless drones.

Yet another thread that connects this episode with the first one is the conversation between Catherine and Bob Bletcher. Through that, we learn more about Frank's personality, his passions, and his past. We learn of his devotion to his family, of his calling to "try to catch these terrible men before they kill again" and, of his mental breakdown. In the last few scenes, especially the final conversation between Frank and Catherine, we begin to understand Frank's feelings of utter hopelessness in the battle against evil, and we feel for him, as Catherine embraces him, trying to comfort him. There is so much feeling in this episode...horror, love, passion, fear, hopelessness, innocence, beauty...all woven together so effortlessly, that it marks it, in my opinion, one of the best of all of the series.