"the Time Is Now"

[Guest lonegungrrly1121]

IMHO, Laura Mean's sacrifice was out of affection for a man she seemed to have an "initial soft breeze turn into a hurricane" attraction to. But the one thing forgotten in that episode is that only 77 people died in the "outbreak". Was she one of them? There was never any indication as to what happened to her, only that we were left with an image of someone going thru a Carlos Castaneda moment.

obviously, in giving Frank the syringe, she ASSUMED that she was going to become infected. And she also knew that giving Frank her syringe would still leave him one shy of protecting his whole family. With the foreknowledge (Midnight of the Century) that Jordan saw things similar to what she saw, Laura's true intent was clear in WHO should get the vaccine, thus driving the final nail, if you will, into the coffin of Catherine's character, and thus guaranteeing the success of the group in the future with Jordan...

And also, no mention was made of what happened to Peter's family either...man, too many question left unanswered...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

it said in a season 3 episode that peter watt's family survived because peter was a full member of the millennium group so in the end all his family got vaccinations too.. so frank felt extra guilty for turning down a full membership just prior to the outbreak. that would have saved catherine.

wow i never thought of it that way, as in Lara saving Jordan for the millennium group.

I have to agree with the "initial soft breeze turn into a hurricane" attraction. i definately sensed tension between them and lara was the only woman who ever 'understood' frank.

[Guest SouthernCelt]

I have to agree with the "initial soft breeze turn into a hurricane" attraction. i definately sensed tension between them and lara was the only woman who ever 'understood' frank.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yeah, and I think the Catherine/Lara tension was only exacerbated by the fact that Catherine seemed to accept only real scientific explanations for odd occurences while Lara tended to look more for the metaphysical influences of good and evil. This was really brought out in "Anamnesis" when they had to sort of work together with the girl that was experiencing the religious visions.

[Guest lonegungrrly1121]

Yeah, and I think the Catherine/Lara tension was only exacerbated by the fact that Catherine seemed to accept only real scientific explanations for odd occurences while Lara tended to look more for the metaphysical influences of good and evil.  This was really brought out in "Anamnesis" when they had to sort of work together with the girl that was experiencing the religious visions.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I loved 'Anamnesis' though i thought the episode would have had a lot more tension if Frank was investigating with them. I love the scenes where all three of them are in the same room. and catherines flash back to when she was kidnapped were very disturbing

[4th Horseman]

" Carlos Castaneda moment"

interesting reference, fourhorseman

I took my journy to xland in the 70's.  After a year and some pretty scary "dreamland time", I ran straight to Jesus.  Whew.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Ah yes, Senor Castaneda...read first three books then it just got too weird for me. If i remember right, he was proven to be a fraud near the end of his life, which i guess makes me look like the idiot because i liked his writings at one time.. Now, for the past 10 years, my favorite author has been Tony Hillerman...check him out...Thief of Time is his best work..

[Raven Wolf]

i thought Lara was sent to the insane asylum

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Me too...

[Guest lonegungrrly1121]

Me too...

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yeah she did but it was implied that either she went mad and "found peace there" so she would never return, or died in the outbreak because she didnt have the vaccine

would have been cool if she came back for an ep, or if it was just explained lol

[stuartW]

Morgan & Wong are certainly masterful at what they do and have added a lot to the MLM legacy but having just finished the last two episodes of Season two I could not help but think that it was M&W finishing their story with no account that there would be a third season.

Killing off Catherine, Peter Watts assumed dead, Lara in the insane asylum, the major traumatic events that changed Frank both emotionally and physically and then the fade to black at the end.

All that was very reminiscent of those feature films of the 80’s where the audience was left to tidy up the loose ends in their own minds after the curtains closed.

But now to watch the 3rd season.....

[The Old Man]

Morgan & Wong are certainly masterful at what they do and have added a lot to the MLM legacy but having just finished the last two episodes of Season two I could not help but think that it was M&W finishing their story with no account that there would be a third season.

Hi Stuart,

That's correct, Morgan and Wong were hired for the 1 season and (possibly becasue of the 'poor' ratings (or rather because Fox promoted a sports channel instead) it was understood to be the last so they were wrapping things up). Darin Morgan suggested they 'end the world'.

Graham

[Guest MillenniumIsBliss]

Morgan & Wong are certainly masterful at what they do and have added a lot to the MLM legacy but having just finished the last two episodes of Season two I could not help but think that it was M&W finishing their story with no account that there would be a third season.

Killing off Catherine, Peter Watts assumed dead, Lara in the insane asylum, the major traumatic events that changed Frank both emotionally and physically and then the fade to black at the end.

All that was very reminiscent of those feature films of the 80’s where the audience was left to tidy up the loose ends in their own minds after the curtains closed.

But now to watch the 3rd season.....

I have a different view on this myself. I think they wrapped up the show nicely if the show ended after season two. Lets face it Millennium never was a huge ratings success, and there was question if there would be a season 3. Therefore, if the end of S2 was a typical cliffhanger, they could easily have left everything wide open, like reading a book 2/3 of the way through, and then having someone take it away from you.

Once again, I think it is unfair to say there was "no accounting" for the future, because not only did it look like there may be no future for the show, but I also think they left it open to continue, and we see that it did continue with a third season. Killing off Catherine was a decision that was made because Megan Gallagher wanted off the show. I don't see any reason why this would effect S3 at all. The show was really about Frank, and leaving a story line about Frank dealing with yet another hardship seemed OK to me. If Megan changed her mind, I don't see why they wouldn't have been able to bring her back. We see Catherine walking off into the woods with a sore on the back of her head at in the last episode, not her decomposing corpse. The viewer doesn't have any kind of knowledge or understanding of the virus they were dealing with. What would be wrong with them finding her and giving her the vacine. This, in my opinion, would be no harder to believe than Taylor Watts being on the brink of death and looking like she was submerged in boiling water, and then breaking the neck of her captor and making a full recovery and being none the worse for wear (Collateral Damage). We also, for example, in the X-files, see Scully and Mulder age to where they look like they are 120 years old, and then recovering without any lingering effect, or get partially digested by green slime and have no lingering effects, and on and on. As for Peter, I think this is totally irrelevant, because they don't even show his face. He could have been knocked out and regained consciousness, or it could have been somebody elses body. Lara was a character that came around in S2, and was there for one season. We often see actors come and go on TV, and I think Lara was more or less replaced by Agent Hollis. I would have loved to see more of Lara, but it was obvious that she would be gone after her husband left.

The same can be said for the story itself. We do not see the world end at the end of S2. It's not like they show hundreds of mushroom clouds extending into the air. What we do see is that there is an outbreak in one area, and that it was contained when they start again in S3. I view S2 as either being a good way to end the show, or a good way to peek the viewers interest, as they contemplate what will happen to the world, as well as Catherine, Frank, Peter, etc. I don't think the end of S2 or the continuation in S3 was any harder to swallow than many other shows I have seen. It certainly never occurred to me at the time that there couldn't be a S3 after the way S2 ended. Anyway, just my two cents. PS, maybe I'm wrong, but wasn't a full transition made from S2 to S3 within the first episode or two if S3? I get the impression that many people feel like they had to muddle through a bunch of episodes and use large sections of certain episodes to explain away S2. To me, it seemed more like a side story in the first episode or two. I had no problem with the way they moved into S3, and I didn't really think it took any rocket science to accomplish.

[stuartW]

I have a different view on this myself. I think they wrapped up the show nicely if the show ended after season two. Lets face it Millennium never was a huge ratings success, and there was question if there would be a season 3. Therefore, if the end of S2 was a typical cliffhanger, they could easily have left everything wide open, like reading a book 2/3 of the way through, and then having someone take it away from you.

Once again, I think it is unfair to say there was "no accounting" for the future, because not only did it look like there may be no future for the show, but I also think they left it open to continue, and we see that it did continue with a third season. Killing off Catherine was a decision that was made because Megan Gallagher wanted off the show. I don't see any reason why this would effect S3 at all. The show was really about Frank, and leaving a story line about Frank dealing with yet another hardship seemed OK to me. If Megan changed her mind, I don't see why they wouldn't have been able to bring her back. We see Catherine walking off into the woods with a sore on the back of her head at in the last episode, not her decomposing corpse. The viewer doesn't have any kind of knowledge or understanding of the virus they were dealing with. What would be wrong with them finding her and giving her the vacine.

Good point MIB, my observations were from someone who has not seen MLM on air, except for one or two episodes, so I am working my way through the DVD’s for the first time. Obviously I know that there is a third season and I have now watched the first two shows in S3 and it is all hanging together nicely. I thought that it was interesting hearing Lance in the commentary for “The Innocents” that he was unsure where the show was going at that point and he used that uncertainty in the projection of the character as Frank Black was in that state of uncertainty as well.

The suspension of belief where the audience tacitly agrees to provisionally suspend their judgment in exchange for the promise of entertainment I think is at work with all shows of this genre like Xfiles as you quoted.

At the end of the day, to see a further season of Frank Black in action or a MLM movie (he says wishfully) all plot variances can be accommodated.