Via Dolorosa

Season:

3

MLM Code:

#MLM-321

Production Code:

3ABC21

Original Airdate:

1999-05-14

Written by Marjorie David & Patrick Harbinson
Directed by Paul Shapiro
Edited by Casey O. Rohrs

Frank and Jordan run down the hallway of Jordan's school, toward the exit.

Three weeks earlier… Frank and a group of onlookers observe as convicted serial killer Edward Cuffle is strapped into an electric chair. Moments before a black leather mask is placed over Cuffle's face, his eyes lock with someone sitting in the group. He mouths the word, "yes." The executioner then flips the fatal switch, electrocuting Cuffle.

An intruder wearing a night vision device enters the home of John and Cyndie Dryden. As the man, who we will come to know as Lucas Francis Barr, makes his way through the living room, he carves the Roman numeral "II" into a wall. He makes his way upstairs, as the sounds of the couple making love filter through the house. Barr enters the bedroom, his night vision apparatus recording the proceedings. The following day, a cleaning lady finds John and Cyndie's bodies lashed to dining room chairs with barbed wire.

Frank and other investigators comb through the Dryden household, looking for clues. Frank notices a small-bore hole in John's temple. Though Baldwin concludes the injury was the result of a bullet, Frank later explains that the couple died when holes were drilled into their skulls. He tells Baldwin he knows this because the killer is Ed Cuffle… a man who died in the electric chair three days earlier.

Frank tells Baldwin and Emma that Cuffle, the son of a cleaning woman, resented the upper class. As a young boy, Cuffle overheard his mother-who "turned tricks" for extra income-having sex with the men who owned the houses she cleaned. Frank believes that someone is copying Cuffle's modus operandi for reasons unknown.

Watts tells Emma that the Millennium Group is involved in biomedical research. He hints that they have discovered a way to reverse the affects of Alzheimer's disease.

Frank reviews surveillance footage of the execution chamber. He realizes that when Cuffle mouthed the word "yes," he was communicating with a man sitting in the gallery. Unfortunately, the image is so blurry it cannot be electronically enhanced.

Wearing the night vision apparatus, Barr invades another home as the occupants have sex. This time, however, as he enters the bedroom, he spies his own reflection in a mirror. He freezes. The man having sex, Tommy Marcetti, chases Barr from the house. Marcetti and his girlfriend, Maria, contact the police. Frank retraces the intruder's steps. He realizes Barr saw his reflection in the mirror.

Frank returns to the Dryden house, where he encounters Baldwin. He notices the Roman numerals "II," "IX" and "XII" carved into the walls. Frank realizes that the killer is following Jesus Christ's path, the fourteen stations of the cross. The killer, Frank believes, feels as though he is suffering, much in the same way Christ suffered.

As Emma sleeps on her father's couch one night, a figure, gun in hand, approaches her form. Emma's eyes open. She sees her father pointing a gun at her. Emma slams the gun away, causing it to discharge. She then wrestles away the weapon.

Emma places her father inside a nursing home. Watts again approaches her and offers a Faustian deal: the Group will cure her father if she agrees to help force Frank out of the FBI. Emma insists she has no control over her colleague's future plans.

Using a process of elimination, FBI agents pour over military records, hoping to find their suspect. Eventually, Emma is able to match the image of the man in the execution gallery to a military photo of Lucas Barr. Despite Frank's misgivings, Baldwin organizes a raid on Barr's apartment. As Frank watches from afar, Baldwin, Emma and a group of FBI agents prepare to storm the apartment. Moments before the agents break down the door, Emma is distracted by her pager. Baldwin and his team move inside, finding an empty apartment. But Frank is overcome with a sudden premonition. He races towards the building, and as he does so, yells into his radio. He tells everyone inside to evacuate at once. Moments later, Baldwin notices a metal case connected to blinking lights and a counter. He orders his men out of the apartment, but it is too late. The device explodes. Meanwhile, Barr moves through yet another darkened house.

TO BE CONTINUED