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Catherine And Lara In Season 2

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Guest Reynard Muldrake

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Guest Reynard Muldrake

Long winded and rambling thoughts ahead.

I've only fairly recently started watching Millennium (caught a few episodes when it was on tv but didn't follow it much), and now I've seen most of season 1, all of season 2 and some of season 3.

I just finished up season 2 and although I knew Catherine died, I wasn't prepared for how sad it would be. I sobbed over Catherine's death afterward. Not only was it tragic to see her go, but could the *way* she went was so tragic and freaky. I'm getting sad about it right now. And poor Frank and Jorden.

Although Catherine wasn't very likable in season 2. Her motivations for leaving Frank were never expressed clearly, and in some episodes she just seemed like a cold, nasty person, particularly towards Jorden. Like in the episode with the woman who killed all the guys on the boat, the way Catherine was so snotty about Jorden ("my daughter is the little girl who was so *rudely* staring at you the other day) and especially in Midnight of The Century. Her behaviour in Midnight of the Century towards Jorden was horrible! Jorden draws angels and either communicates or feels she communicates with her dead grandmother, and Catherine flies off the handle and forbids her from wearing her angel costume! She was ridiculous and mean in this episode. I have to wonder if the writers didn't deliberately try to make her into a less likable character just so they could kill her with the audience having less of a problem with it (something that didn't work for me). If so, it's loathesome that they would disgrace the character before killing her. It also seems like this was the real reason for the seperation, to distance Catherine from the show.

If they had to have Frank and Catherine seperate, I wish they'd made it alot less muddled. First she wanted the seperation because she didn't like seeing Frank gut the psycho who abducted and tied her up and made her think her daughter was dead, then it's because Frank was spending too much time with the group or because he didn't tell her about the stalker or because he's not honest with her or he was having an "affair" with the group or he doesn't treat her equally or whatever else they threw in. And all of this comes with absolutely no warning from season 1. I wish they'd just said she had a breakdown after her abduction and just couldn't be around Frank because he brought the group into her life, and the group made her afraid. If they'd just done that from the start and gone all the way with it it would have been alot more understandable and sympathetic. It's easy to believe Catherine just short-circuited after her traumatic experience, and blame her behaviour towards Jorden and her attitude towards Frank and the group on this. Even the way she suddenly changed her clothes could have been attributed to this, the way she went from warm, loose fitting earth tones and naturally curly hair to snug, black little suites and straightened hair. But the show never really told us what she was going through, and I wish it had instead of basically throwing away the character before killing her!

I also didn't like the way Frank communicated with her in season 2. There was too much hostility there. He didn't want to leave her, he did it because she told him she wanted the seperation. I just wish it had all gone differently with Catherine in season 2. I like the idea of making her less of an appendage to Frank but that wasn't the way to do it. They should have stayed together and for that matter, Catherine should have lived.

Alright, now I'm finally going to say something about Lara (Laura?). First of all I really like Lara. I like that she's smart, gifted, edgy, crazy and miserable and I think she's interesting. I could have done without the incredibly long music video/Natural Born Killers rip off in the season finale. Did they have that much time to kill? It was interesting for about a minute and a half, but eventually it really seemed wasteful and boring. Did they ever bring Lara back in season 3? From what I've seen, she isn't around. And does anyone know what she was doing with those dice?

Well, thanks for reading.

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Guest A Stranger

I think the Frank/Catherine split was long time coming and was hinted at numerous times in season one. She even makes a mention of "something having to give" in "Powers..." which Frank doens't even seem to understand. He doesn't see the problems. Catherine is upset with the way Frank conducts his work and family life right from the Pilot episode. Frank pretty much tells her that what he is doing is okay. What he is doing is trying to protect his family from evil, which of course he learns the hard way, cannot be done.

I do think though, that it was handled pretty poorly in season two. Catherine comes off bitchy and annoying most of the time and she only appears to be the antagonist. Catherine is right though, Frank is getting brought into a cult and allowing his gift to further isolate himself from the world by not fully opening up to her.

I don't think it's that strange that Catherine would want to seperate after "The Beginning..." that much. She saw Frank murder a man and he went overboard. It's not like he shot him in self-defense, he gutted him. It also works nicely with the theme of sacrifice. I just think they lost focus with the seperation. I didn't like Lara very much at all. I appreciate what Morgan and Wong were trying to illustrate with the two them who both feel lonely and isolated but she was just really annoying and not very appropriate for the show. I would like to have seen more of Catherine's life without Frank and they could have shown more about why it is that she needs him. We already know why he needs her but why does she need him? Which she does. Catherine was severely underused in the series in general. The one "Catherine episode," "Anamnesis" is horrible and offers little insight into the woman.

Frank feels terrible guilt after Catherine dies and it's not entirely "survivor's guilt" because of what happened between them before she died. I think by "Sound of Snow" Frank come to a greater understanding of their relationship. It also gives us a nicer way of seeing her go, a very romantic, beautiful one.

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Guest citizenk

I think the producers didn't know what to do with the character of Catherine Black. Most shows don't know how to utilize married couples effectively because the writers don't know how to create sexual tension between two committed people. It's easier when there's uncertainty of how the other person feels.

Im not positive but I think after being stalked and kidnapped, Catherine wasn't ready to deal with how she perceived the rest of her life would be in Frank's world. She knew there were secrets he was keeping from her about their security and having watched him have a breakdown while still in the FBI, now she had to deal with the MM group sneaking around them and monitoring them. She felt their privacy had been invaded by more than just the kidnapper but by the group. And she felt the trust between her and Frank had not been honored. The only way she could take Frank back would be for him to totally quit the group, the force and that life forever.

Jordan's gift became a problem for Catherine. She worried that Jordan would be led astray by the visions that Frank confronted on a daily basis. So obviously anytime Jordan's "abilities" would manifest themselves like in "Siren" or "Sacrament", Cat would become concerned. But her reaction would be to try and stifle those abilities rather than encourage. Im sure she knew about Frank's mother and the angels she drew, so of course she would worry about Jordan's affection for angels. She just wanted Jordan to be a normal child and grow into a normal adult.

This is all just an opinion. Im just kind of guessing.

Edited by citizenk
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Guest ZeusFaber

Muldrake, you're spot on in identifying the rebranding that went on with the show in S2, particularly in the lead characters of Frank and Catherine, right down to their wardrobe and hairstyles.

I agree that their separation was poorly executed, an arc that had potential when it was set in motion but never allowed to conclude or resolve, never allowed to arc.

Catherine was also completely underused. She could have had more to do in S1, yet she had even less to do in S2. The only real Catherine episode of the series is "The Well-Worn Lock", which makes an admirable attemtpt to give her something of her own (only a shame that other staff writers never followed this up). I would say that "Anamnesis" was by no means a Catherine episode -- it was a Lara episode. I must say that I do not care much for Lara at all, and she was largely a usurping presence, someone who we are asked to believe "understands" Frank better than Catherine. If I'm in a cynical mood, I might suggest that some of the character-assasination of Catherine in S2 was an attempt to sneak Lara in through the back door. If M&W had stayed on for another season, I wouldn't put it past them to have tried to get these two characters together romantically (*shudder*).

I could have done without the incredibly long music video/Natural Born Killers rip off in the season finale. Did they have that much time to kill? It was interesting for about a minute and a half, but eventually it really seemed wasteful and boring. Did they ever bring Lara back in season 3?

I agree about the disasterously drawn out MTV stuff in "The Time is Now". It took up an entire act (11 minutes). "Horses" is a good song, but making a new music video for it in the season finale was not good TV. Smacks of lazy writing to me. How do you get out of writing 11 pages of your script? Easy, give the director carte blanche with a dialogue-free music video and call it done.

And no, Lara never came back in S3. I for one am very happy about that.

Edited by ZeusFaber
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Guest tempusfugit

Surely I can't be the only one who thought the 'Horses' sequence in The time it now was bloody brilliant. Maybe I'm just a slightly biased Patti Smith fan, but I think the scene was very daring on the writers' part and it was a piece of art in the end.

I mean, most shows have that need to use spacefillers, one typical methos that comes to mind are useless car chases. Sure it's edgy camera maneuvering and all, but how often do we see something like that trippy montage in the S2 finale? I think it's something worth applauding. Just IMO of course.

Sorry to have dragged this slightly off topic. I don't want to reiterate what's already been said about Catherine/Lara since I wholeheartedly agree. *runs off to listen to Patti Smith*

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Guest ZeusFaber

I agree that Patti Smith is great, but my point of view is that making a music-video for it in a season finale is just a waste of a quarter of an episode. It would have been fine as, say, a two-minute sequence, but the entire third act?! In my book that is not good drama.

In any case, I'm not sure how it can be considered "daring writing", since there was virtually no writing involved.

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