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Owls and Roosters

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Guest Second Coming

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Guest Second Coming
I was watching these two episodes late last night. Such a pivotal point in Millennium. To me it's up there with Lamentation in the way it changed things. I mean up to this point we had seen where there were some strange things going on with Millennium. But the discovery of these two factions of Millennium just hits you like a ton of bricks without any warning.(yeah, I've seen them before,I'm just saying if you would have never seen it before.) Just an overall good two-parter.  But the Old Man! :cry:  :cry:  Why? why? He was so cool.
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Guest Wellington

Hi

I have taped them during Christmas holidays, because they have so much content that they are worth many replays! I think I will produce a longer reply tomorrow, with some analysis. Not only did the whole myth arc progress a huge lot, but also did the characters get a very new (deeper) aura. I would personaly select Watts and the pair Old Man/Elder as the greatest enhancements. This 2-part episode was my favorite pair, far ahead of the one at the end of S2. Beside of that, their were so many open plot elements that could have been pushed further!

Can't wait till tonight to get my pen!

Regards.

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Guest Second Coming
Hi

I have taped them during Christmas holidays, because they have so much content that they are worth many replays! I think I will produce a longer reply tomorrow, with some analysis. Not only did the whole myth arc progress a huge lot, but also did the characters get a very new (deeper) aura. I would personaly select Watts and the pair Old Man/Elder as the greatest enhancements. This 2-part episode was my favorite pair, far ahead of the one at the end of S2. Beside of that, their were so many open plot elements that could have been pushed further!

Can't wait till tonight to get my pen!

Regards.

Yeah, I hear you. There was so much going on in those eps. I just don't feel like I've gotten out all I wanted to say.

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I really love this two parter.  It really devlops the mythology of the Millennium Group and adds more to the mythology of Millennium while throwing in the piece of wood which may or may not be part of the cross that Jesus was crucified on, Odessa who are enemies of the Millennium Group, Wagner's the Parsifal, a furthering of the arc with Frank and Catherine being seperated, and two episodes that made Catherine Black part of the plot, and so on.  I loved the Old Man and I'm sad he was killed.  He was such a great character.   Have a better one.

Be Seeing You,

David Blackwell

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Guest Cookyman
Yup I agree a fantastic 2 part epsiode - My favourite part is when the guys car cuts out and he is killed - it was so well filmed and the music worked beautifully.  Probably my fave scene in all 3 seasons of Millenium. :ouro:
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Guest Wellington

Hi

I could not wait to watch them again yesterday evening! So these are my thoughts about Owls/Roosters...

I think these episodes were great about the main characters. Lara was shown very vulnerable. She suffers from her angelic visions but cannot seem to fall for religion. In fact, she looked for some medical explanation, and the Owls contacted her by de-mystifying her gift. It could be removed, as simple as that! However, when Watts disclosed that they were looking for the Cross she seemed very disturbed. She makes an act of faith when she said that her visions had some meaning that she could not sweep aside, thus negating the wish of the Owls. How prophetic her meeting with Johnston was! Clearly she heads for insanity if she decides not to deal with her visions. Did she know that then? Otherwise, Lara seemed so remote from all that trouble! I wonder why she went on her investigation, apart from what her visions meant to her...

Frank is really on a down. Not only his family life suffered a setback with which he seems to have difficulties to cope, but he also realises that he deeply hates the one whom he wants to see as responsible for that. I enjoyed the moment he finds an uninvited Watts in his home. It was really a great argument, if any argument can be great. Frank looks like he definitely lost everything. He cannot even be master of his own dwelling, he cannot even chose a side (although he did not know it was at stake). The Group is still in his life, the Group has eaten it alive and is now digesting over him. I think it is the firt time he exposes to Watts all that he thinks about the occult oppression and the crowd manipulating goals of Millennium. It seems to me that Watts was maybe the only problem between Frank and the Group: if Peter had not always been so secretive and despising, would he have got Frank's candidacy to an initiated end? Frank sounds very unstable: he could not even react when Catherine said to him the same words he had against Peter (hiding things is like lying). The facts depicted in the episode were not easy on him: he was a candidate, then rejected the Group and came back at the end. There are clearly many answers he looks for, up to the point to let Catherine down even after some kind of confidence. He regained her trust (his own act of faith), was assured of her love, and all he could do was giving the Group another try! Perhaps it is because of his open mind, after all he gained nothing during all the story: his wife was manipulated, his life was threatened, another man was killed in the basement of the yellow house and he was a pawn in the game of an internal conflict ridden Group! It could have been a good occasion to put an end to all this!

The Old Man once again was wisdom in flesh. Was he the real target of the plot? I do not think so, because it would greatly reduce the impact on the Group. I did not really like what was done of him. Maybe he was a target for Odessa, but it was more the story of his link to the leader of Odessa that disturbed me. Why look for some unfinished job after 50 years when you are at the helm of a powerful international gathering of party spoilers? It seems too artificial for me. The Old Man is the shepherd he looks like. He comes out to gather everyone, that is his act of faith for the Group. But he knew many things other members could not think about: he has a nemesis, which consequently has become the nemesis of the Group. He is responsible for the Group and does not let it down, even if he cannot count on it to do what he needs to do. In fact, his death was the solution for the plot. His death had to happen before the Group imploded. Did he realised it when he left his house in the woods, when the hounds let him pass? I suppose they did not have to prevent an already dead man from making his last bow.

The Elder immediately appears suited for the job ahead of him. He has influence on members, does not bother with which end of the world will come first, and does not even act as a referee between the Owls and the Roosters. His only concern is the Group itself and the task ahead of the millennium. I really liked his comments about the analysis of the piece of wood: the Owls may be interested in having it disappear, the Roosters in possessing it, but what if it is a fake? What will become of the Millennium Group? What was it all about? He may still be on the executive side of the group, but his mind his clearly levels above the minds of the other members attending that meeting. His glare to Watts, when he took the Old Man's staff, was full of it: I am getting an outside point of view, what will happen next? I do not even know what I am leaving behind, so how will it grow? This was his act of faith.

Peter Watts was the most attended to character of the episode. He showed many sides of his personality, of his thoughts. I felt dismayed when he did not seem to defend the Group to Frank. He only justified it with a reference to the Masonic ideal laying under the birth of the US of A. It is weak, like justifying his errors with those of others. He is the next step after the Old Man and the Elder. He can think, not get hot headed about the problem, not be tempted to accuse one side (the Owls, for he is an admitted Rooster). But he is in the action, not on the philosophical part of the job. He understand that the Group itself is in danger, and he acts accordingly. He will take his responsibilities, however. He pushes tests, whatever the answer, and will acknowledge the results. Then there is his flaw. How much could he try to hide it, he embraced the Rooster side (what did he think when he took the burnt piece of wood from the car? Was it the end of his world?). He needs to be prepared to believe that what leads his way may not be true, and he hides some investigation elements. Lucky for him, the Old Man represents the non affiliated member he can trust. Did he do that because he knew the Old Man would not interfere? Then he was mistaken. All of his appearances showed his love for the Group: when he sneaked into Frank's house (he is more ready to lose Frank once and for all than showing any wrong side of the Group), when he dismissed Lara, when he attended to the meeting with the Elder, the Roosters and the Owls, when he prayed in the basement of the yellow house. Then he showed something more: regrets for Lara and Frank, vengeance in Paraguay. Watts is not ready to become the Elder. His acts and thoughts are too deeply involved in time and space. Action is his answer, his means of expression, his day-to-day act of faith toward the Group. How ironic could it have seemed to him to discover that the burnt piece of wood was a fake. Did he know that there was another in the house he blew up? Is he aware that the Old Man received the true Cross?

Last character: the Group itself. We are still far from the beast that Frank will fight after that. It is the pivotal point of the story, as was very accurately mentioned before. This episode is one step above the Hand of St Sebastian, in the matters of mysticism. This time, the whole Group is involved, the interests are complex and everything does not look like a well lubed machine. We discover more of its traditions, of its philosophy. We can understand that his goal may not be easy to reach: Watts says they must keep secrets in a nation plagued by UFO abduction belief and Elvis sightings. But an Owl mentioned the problem that would rise if they prepare us to an End that would not occur on schedule. The Group is a crude sample of the nations: half driven by a blind faith and half rooted in firm cartesianism. Its goal is a spark: the two factions cannot live under the same roof. That is indeed a great addition to the show! However, if the end of S2 went on with this idea, I think S3 did poor about it.

Odessa was a great finding. As I mentioned in the topic dedicated to it, it had all that the Group possessed, but was on the dark side. It could have been a great opponent for many more episodes.

Sad it is that all this happen for nothing! I am not quite sure I understand the end of Roosters... Watts finds that the wood in the car was a fake, the then-true piece in Achsmann burns as well (but protected the French guy in Jordania), and the Old Man gets another one! I think that he has the true one and will hide it not to unbalance the scale between the Owls and the Roosters. Then the Roosters would not get the upper hand, but it could have prevented the Marburg virus spreading (the home-made apocalyps according to Frank). But then he could have another fake, for the absence of the Cross would be a blow for the Roosters. I really wonder who sent it (it looks like arabic writing on the wrapping paper). It must be a member if I refer to what was on the letter, but for what purpose was the Cross kept hidden while a whole drama happened? That is Carter the way I like it: nothing is solved in the end, many more questions come in mind. And it is also the Carter I hate: many good ideas wasted after all...

Regards

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