The X-Files: Millennium (7.4)

Millennium is a show that I own on DVD but have never gotten around to watching. I always seem to get to around the middle of its first season and then never tune into again, which is annoying. So my memory of the series involves a lot of standalone mysteries about squicky serial killers and the charismatic enigma investigating them. Which, I believe, is not at all what the show would eventually become, some kind of biblical end-of-the-world masterpiece. Or something. With that in mind, I'm not the greatest person to critique whether or not Frank Black has a great send-off here, or if his actions in this episode really reflect the same person his own show spent so long developing.

But judged on its own, Millennium is an intriguing X-Files detour. I've always been a fan of the Silence of the Lambs-ish "getting advice from an incarcerated genius" trope in genre storytelling, and in that arena the episode didn't disappoint. Holmes Osborne also made a compelling antagonist, with some squicky shades of Irresistible at times, especially in the early scenes where he's stripping off in the funeral parlor. Ick.

If there's one thing that feels a little 'off' about the hour is that it sometimes feels almost too genre, especially when the zombies begin to resurrect and attack Mulder in the basement. The X-Files' antagonists are generally played pretty straight, and even the nuttier villains (like Tooms, for example) still feel as if they could be real in some way. With the zombies and the explosions from beneath the ground, this sometimes felt like an old Tales from the Crypt episode. And it bugged that Scully was once again conveniently absent whenever monster shit went down.

Despite some of those problems, Millennium is pretty fascinating, something that easily works as a standalone mystery despite being written as a send-off for a whole different show. Whenever I watch Millennium the series in the future, I'll definitely watch this episode again to see if my opinions differ at all. On a different note, I should probably mention that great kiss at the end of this episode, which was adorable. I really ship this couple, even though it's taken seven long years for anything remotely physical to occur. Aww. B-

Credits
Guest stars Mitch Pileggi (Walter Skinner); Lance Henriksen (Frank Black); Holmes Osborne (Mark Johnson); Colby French (Deputy); William Forward (Funeral Director); Brittany Tiplady (Jordan Black)
Writer Vince Gilligan, Frank Spotnitz Director Thomas J. Wright