Wide Open

[Guest]

Was watching the end of this episode tonight, while dubbing it for one of the fan fic Deal-ites.

Okay, here is a prime example of something that I think was great and daring about MLM.  Toward the end of this episode, after they had put it all together that the perp had witnessed his parents torture and death at the hands of a one of their hired hands... We see Frank meet up with Catherine at the hospital room where the girl (who's parents had been torched and slain by the perp) had been staying.  After Frank and Catherine hug outside the door of the room, the camera pans back and we see the pictures the girl had drawn, indicating her horrific experience.  Then fades to black, etc.  And that is the end!  We are left with an unresolved feeling of the possibility that the tragedy might or will live again thru her.

This is the beauty of MLM!  It dares to say that "everything is NOT okay in the end,"  and everything does not work out, and perhaps there will never be a resolution or solution.  That is what the show over and over dares to suggest, dares to tell us the truth.  Dares to let us see through Franks honest eyes, not the linear, "things will work out" or "everthing happens for a reason" myopia that most people buy into or are programed with.

Upbeat? Vibes,

Scott

[Guest Second Coming]

Don't be so dark.(in Jose Chung's voice)  :D  hehehehe

[Libby]

I'm going to have to watch this episode again. I didn't get the same feeling, Scott, but having re-read the synopsis I can understand your interpretation. A lot of people think Millennium is violent but, as you say, it's more to do with MM daring to tell the truth - that things don't always work out OK at the end. And there are lot of people who really don't want to be reminded of that.

Hope you and others can keep making these observations. I've watched most MM episodes, but rather haphazardly as and when I discovered them hidden away on TV schedules over the last few years. I've been downloading them from a.b.tv.millennium starting with season 2, season 1 is now being re-posted along with season 3, so I'll still be watching them out of order. Useful insights like these will be a great help.

[Guest Wellington]

Hi

I had this feeling of "not ok" when I watched X-F in the first seasons. I found it very attractive because for once you did not always solve everything at the end. They terminated a mutant and another one waits in the dark in the last pictures of the episode, they really made a point to show that they were investigating about x-files and not classical murders or abduction or blackmail. The end is wide open for your imagination to get in and think of a plausible future of the story.

In MM there is the same touch, but the main theme of the series shifts the feeling dramaticaly because you are not really in a sci-fi world. You are at home and the things that happened during the last hour could happen to anyone, including you! Then it is not an appeal for the imagination, but for some thought about how serious it can become if it were to happen like this to someone you know. Frank fights Evil but never stops It before it had time to get into action and spread chaos and suffering. There is little preventing, and lots of repairing, just like in life. As soon as a MM episode begins, it is already too late. Heroics take place in a very humble manner.

Regards

[Guest]

Second Coming,

"How can you not be, when your job is to..." moderate a message board dedicated to the darkest drama ever made.  "Only two options left - suicide or become... a television whetherman."  (Jose Chung VO).

Libby,

No need to worry.  I shall indeed keep making these observations, and am sure that other shall as well.  I really enjoy it.  Actually, the show is really so rich in subtlety and truth that I am always picking up on some nuance or another.

Wellington,

Excellent points and insights about the 2 shows.  As I read your post, it made me realize something.  The X-Files also left you with that sense of the unresolved and dare to reveal the darker truth of life.  However, these truths were couched inside the extraordinary, supernatural, and heavy sci fi context of the show.  So, when you were left with that unrelsoved feeling or were showed the darkness, you unconsciously always had somewhere to leave it.   MLM never afforded us this luxury.  And even the supernatural aspects of the show played on archetypal and cultural fears, and were so subtle, that they really didn't give you the escape, that the XFs did.

Upbeat and chillin'

Scott

[Guest Mr. Ected Hostility]

That is strange Selfosophy Psycho, I didn't get that feeling at all. I took it mainly as a moment to refelct as all the characters leave. I didn't feel like they were implying it will spread even though looking back on what was said last between Frank and Bletch would suggest that is what was meant. I was left thinking things turned out fine. Which seems to be the complete opposite of what you got out of it. Funny.

[Guest Second Coming]

Second Coming,

"How can you not be, when your job is to..." moderate a message board dedicated to the darkest drama ever made.  "Only two options left - suicide or become... a television whetherman."  (Jose Chung VO).

Selfosophy Psycho,

"Thank you for being you."

[Guest]

Hey, it's "a piece of cake with ice-cream on the side!  Ha-ha!"

Wide Angle Upbeatness,

SP

[Raven Wolf]

Scott,

I know I'm a couple of months behind, but I wanted to say I can see what you saw, about the "wide open" ending.  I had not seen this possibilty before, but I can see how you can percieve it that way.  How very introspetive of you...(may not be quite the right word, but I tried to get the point across)

RavenWolf

[Guest VergeR]

I have a new question about this episode,

What did the "X" symbolize in the visions of the killer?

His visions consisted of a red "X" on the floor and also a red "X" in the hands of the person who killed his parents.

I don't know what this "X" is refering to in his visions.

The significance of the "X" left by the [son] killer is that it's a clue to his identity of crossing guard (X'ing guard).

The significance of the "X"'s in the little girl's drawing is she knew the person who killed her parents as the crossing guard at her school who wears a uniform with a big "X" on it.

But why does the killer have flashbacks of "X"'s on the floor and similarly, why does the little girl draw "X"'s on the floor?

An assumption i made about the "X" in the hands of his parent's killer is that since this was a farm and the parents were said to be tortured, the "X" is a branding iron.. but i don't know.

Very good episode otherwise.

Speaking to the thread starter's impression of the ending, I thought it was a hopefull ending that wanted to punctuate the horror that the girl HAD gone through. However Catherine's reaction to seeing the pictures indicated that she was disturbed saddened by the horror that still lingers with the child that may never go away. Her reaction was a big part of the ending.

first post.. woo.