Midnight Of The Century

[Viivi]

Not sure if this makes any sense - sometimes we see what we hope to see, regardless if the thing really is significant or not. But I'm posting this anyway, for the Christmas season's sake at least.

In Midnight of the Century, when Frank leaves the toy shop (scene 5 on DVD), two little boys walk past him, dressed in old-fashioned clothes. Right after that you can see a plate with a number above the door of the shop. The number is 221.

Frank stops to view a nativity scene in a window, and Virgin Mary looks like his mother for a moment. He also sees a little boy and a man in black and white on the other side of street. And before going into the shop he had remembered a moment from his childhood, when he and his mother had viewed a toy shop window together. (Not to mention all the other flashbacks and memories in this episode!)

Well, being obsessed I always check certain books of the Bible after noticing any digits in any MM episode, and I usually check Ezekiel, Daniel and Revelations (not that there wouldn't be other relevant books there, but sometimes I just don't have the patience to get deeper into it ), and this is what is said in Daniel 2:21:

"And he changeth the times and the seasons: he removeth kings, and setteth up kings: he giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding."

Merry Christmas and happy holidays to everyone of you! I hope you all have a chance to be with your near and dear ones. :christmas_elf:

Love,

dbsd

[4th Horseman]

Not sure if this makes any sense - sometimes we see what we hope to see, regardless if the thing really is significant or not. But I'm posting this anyway, for the Christmas season's sake at least.

In Midnight of the Century, when Frank leaves the toy shop (scene 5 on DVD), two little boys walk past him, dressed in old-fashioned clothes. Right after that you can see a plate with a number above the door of the shop. The number is 221.

Frank stops to view a nativity scene in a window, and Virgin Mary looks like his mother for a moment. He also sees a little boy and a man in black and white on the other side of street. And before going into the shop he had remembered a moment from his childhood, when he and his mother had viewed a toy shop window together. (Not to mention all the other flashbacks and memories in this episode!)

Well, being obsessed I always check certain books of the Bible after noticing any digits in any MM episode, and I usually check Ezekiel, Daniel and Revelations (not that there wouldn't be other relevant books there, but sometimes I just don't have the patience to get deeper into it ), and this is what is said in Daniel 2:21:

"And he changeth the times and the seasons: he removeth kings, and setteth up kings: he giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding."

Merry Christmas and happy holidays to everyone of you! I hope you all have a chance to be with your near and dear ones. :christmas_elf:

Love,

dbsd

DBSD - excellent job. Yes, whether or not it refers to the old testament book of Daniel is really up in the air, but i think the quote itself certainly lends itself to the integrity of the episode...good job..NOW, if i could only either find for myself or have someone here post what the clock reference in "Seven and One" means...at the beginning, as Jordan blows the trick candles out, Frank has one of his visions, looks at the clock on the wall, and it stops at 3:07. Biblically, i dont find any Chapter and verse 3:07 that pertains to the show...this one is really bugging me, because it is so blatently obvious, it must have some underlying meaning...

Merry Christmas as well...

Fourth Horseman...

[vain68]

Don't be.

Excellent contribution here. I myself can not wait to get back around family and friends for this holiday season. This is indeed a very special time, and as with any year, a very unique, special year. For me indeed, this will be a very special homecoming.

Vv

[Raven Wolf]

Thank you for that insightful contribution, D.B.S.D.!

[HighPlainsDrifter]

i remember in some Chris Carter interviews that he does reference the bible alot

[Viivi]

NOW, if i could only either find for myself or have someone here post what the clock reference in "Seven and One" means...at the beginning, as Jordan blows the trick candles out, Frank has one of his visions, looks at the clock on the wall, and it stops at 3:07. Biblically, i dont find any Chapter and verse 3:07 that pertains to the show...this one is really bugging me, because it is so blatently obvious, it must have some underlying meaning...

Thank you for your kind comments, everyone!

About the Seven and One thing, that Fourth mentioned. It's been bugging me, too. Could it be possible that we've approached the problem from a wrong direction? I mean, maybe the numbers 3.07 (or 3.08) don't refer to a literary source at all.

Perhaps the time itself is meaningful somehow? Has something significant happened or will something happen at that particular time? Just a thought (which might lead us nowhere)...

[Raven Wolf]

Perhaps the time itself is meaningful somehow? Has something significant happened or will something happen at that particular time? Just a thought (which might lead us nowhere)...

Quite possible! 10-13 is not a biblical reference. It's his birthday. And 11-21 is his wifes. Is it possible that 3-07 or 3-08 is someone else's birthday? A child, perhaps?

[The Old Man]

Good point!

[Guest ZeusFaber]

Could it not simply be another version of 7+1=8?

As in 3:07 plus one minute equals 3:08.

Not a very profound exposition on my part, but I think it works.

Edited December 22, 2005 by ZeusFaber

[ethsnafu]

"During the early 90s, Furedi published an article called "Midnight of the Century", which suggested that conditions for revolutionary parties were the worst ever, and that the party needed to reorganise around opposing postmodernism, and win the argument that progress was possible."

Firstly my sincerest thanks to all who worried after me during my absence. I have just arrived back from Watford after arriving back from places far flung. It is nice to be home, I celebrated my return with some heavy supping and an episode of Millennium and I found the 'ethsnafu is back thread' for which I am humbled (the 'didn't even know he was gone bits' made me laugh) and I hope you will give me a bit of time to get back into the swing of things and apologise of this is all a bit rubbish to begin with.

Ah! Midnight Of The Century, Lara Means, Cranberry Bread, Bailey's and banana chunks (in the same glass - try it!) and Nat King Cole: my preferred Christmas Trifle if ever there was one. I love this episode and felt honour bound to watch it as my first as it is that time of year for all things festive and I wanted something sentimental to ease myself back into the mysteries of Millennium. I still find it a beautiful morsel more for what you miss rather than what you see with a cursory, in my case boozy, glance. If you take it back to basics, to the very title in fact, it appears to be a rather languid portent of the strife the Millennium Group was to descend into, it is the relaxation portion of the Millennium heartbeat before the impending 'systolic' warfare of Owls and Roosters and the voyage into the Marburg Apocalypse. Note the scene where Peter is seen in shadowy, covert conversation with group members before he joins Frank and Lara for something much lighter and it is this scene and his subsequent use of the episode's title that made me think immediately that plans were afoot for something that would be revealed once the jingle bells and revelry were over. If we take a trip back in our own history to the dark days of the triumph of fascism, the end of the European labour movement, the physical liquidation of millions of people, the evil of Nazi occupation: this period was, as Victor Serge forever named it, the “midnight of the century” - a dark epoch in history that would play out amidst a backdrop of factions, rebellions, heroes and villains. When Peter describes this Christmas time as the 'midnight of the century' he does not refer to Christmas Eve nor to any future New Years Eve that will usher in the Millennium but instead the 'midnight of the century' when the twin evils of Nazism and Stalinism almost obliterated the revolutionary tradition - jump forth to Owls And Roosters and his use of the famous phrase was to become remarkably apt.

Midnight is also a cautionary tale, a moment to remind us that Season Two is an arc of cycles and recurring themes, events that occur over and over or '...tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow...' as both the angel/man and Linda Black were to describe it. Again, this easily missed phrase is deliciously placed. It is taken from MacBeth - "To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, To the last syllable of recorded time; And all our yesterdays have lighted fools.." - and regardless of how it may appear out of context it does in fact relate to issues of futility, that moment at which we accept that all will be as it will be, time and time again or, as Frank so aptly puts it, "...It is what it is. There is nothing we can do to fix it."

I think it is important to note that this episode features the third appearance in Season Two of the two-tailed P1997-Vanson-West comet who's nebulous image streaks through those episodes that deal primarily with the cycles of return Morgan and Wong were so intent upon exploring and this is beautifully illustrated when Frank approaches his Father's house to watch a gas-light illuminate it's exterior making it yellow and to find within this yellow house memories of a family who were fractured by the visionary experience and who are now without a mother which is not only a parallel for his own life but an eerie prediction of the future of his own brood. And if you're fascinated by these analogies and repetitions, as am I, you will see that Franks new life apes his old, his daughter is growing to become his mother and his wife is becoming his father (gender issues aside) and as the fetches finally herald his father's demise they show him what they showed his mother over fifty years ago and also what they revealed to Lara as child - the same things occurring again and again - tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow. Oh and who can forget Catherine noting that the Gigapet is the 'circle of life' - ermm maybe. Oh (once more) a big nod the genius who had Frank seek the counsel of the 'Three Wise Queens' when searching for a Christmas Gift - camp as Christmas never sounded so apt.

Seriously though, it happens to me sometimes, I also adore the small but poignant scene with Peter Watts revealing, or unwrapping might be better, himself to be a man watching the turn of this wheel of fortune, a man who longs to hold on to moments of regret and hold back the seasons like King Canute and it is this human face of Watts that I loved the most before he became the ultimate pantomime villain later down the line. His maudlin musings, brought on by whatever is revealed to him at the beginning of the episode, are a memorable prologue to an episode awash with these themes. He is almost Scrooge's 'midnight spirits', attempting to show Lara and Frank that these cycles are there to forever repeat unless we are able to view the past, present and the future : "...Most of us only see the path we're on, but some people -- the gifted ones -- see those branches." Which is remarkably in keeping with metaphysical theory with regards to cycles of rebirth and reincarnation "..There was no need for anyone to walk waveringly; there is no need now. There was no necessity for the mistaken paths taken by nearly all the leading figures of the past; there is no necessity for our repeating and transmitting them..."

If I am allowed some audacity, as it has been advised that Millennium's Seasons must be discussed inclusively, I feel that Midnight is very much a starter to the full bodied main course that is Seven and One, it is beginners guide to acknowledging the cycles of life and introduces to us the first seeds of the seven year cycles that Season Three was to espouse. These cycles are so ingrained in the recesses of our psyche that even medical science acknowledges, though less so as each age passes, the presence of cycles of three, seven and twenty one years in the progression of chronic illness (3 x 7 = 21) and pagan magick revered these numbers as 'M=21 The Goddess in her three forms 3x7=21' it would appear that the number three follows Jordan around, as noted by the Mighty Fourth Horseman, and it appears twice in this episode (she is the third answer phone message stored on Frank's phone in which she note her Nativity begins at three) and throughout this episode I have seen further examples of three, seven and twenty one, though one never knows if it's simple coincidence it does make for great speculation. And ,if some further audacity is allowed, once I start I just run with it, I love the idea of Jordan as a shepherd as I recalled how she was to turn to her father at the very last episode and say "...we're all shepherds now."

P.S. I have always been a staunch supporter of the 'there was no Lara/Frank chemistry' faction but I noticed, for what must be the first time ever, the little comedy 'ahem' that Lara gives when she and Frank become concious that they are holding hands before the christmas tree. Quite nice really though certainly not proof positive one way or another but I imagine a few were slinging their handbags (as my mother would say) at the screen amidst shouts of heresy and such like - can't think why I never noticed that before.

On that note I had better go wrap some gifts before I depart for my parents. I'm destined to be home at some point I'm sure....

A truly wonderful festive season to all of you.

And a Happy New Year

Till then,

ethsnafu

Edited December 22, 2005 by ethsnafu