Millennium (The X-Files)

"Millennium"
The X-Files episode
Dana Scully and Fox Mulder searching for evidence related to the Millennium Group
Episode no.	Season 7 Episode 4
Directed by	Thomas J. Wright
Written by	Vince Gilligan Frank Spotnitz
Production code	7ABX05
Original air date	November 28, 1999 (Fox)
Guest stars
Lance Henriksen as Frank Black Brittany Tiplady as Jordan Black Holmes Osborne as Mark Johnson Monnae Michaell as Coroner Octavia Spencer as Nurse Stephen Ramsey as First Agent Romy Walthall as Second Agent Eulan Middlebrooks as Young Cop Michael Dempsey as Sheriff Colby French as Deputy William Forward as Funeral Director Marilyn McIntyre as Widow Dick Clark as himself Donald Trump as himself
Episode chronology
← Previous "Hungry" Next → "Rush"

"Millennium" is the fourth episode of the seventh season of The X-Files. It is a crossover with the show Millennium. It is also the episode in which Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully share their first kiss of the series after developing a relationship throughout the previous six seasons.

Plot

In Tallahassee, Florida, on December 21, 1999, a memorial service is held for a former FBI agent named Brandon Crouch. His widow is approached by a mysterious man who claims to have worked with her husband. After the other mourners have left, the man returns to the funeral parlor, dons the corpse's clothes, and places a cell phone in the coffin. One week later, the man is monitoring Crouch's grave when his phone rings; he walks towards the grave with a shovel.

Fox Mulder and Dana Scully are called in to examine Crouch's empty grave. They notice damage done to the interior of the casket. Scully theorizes that the scene was staged. A briefing is held by Walter Skinner, who notes that Crouch is one of four former FBI agents whose graves have been exhumed; all four men had committed suicide. Because of the presence of goat's blood encircling the grave, Mulder states that the crime was an act of necromancy. After the briefing, Skinner takes the agents aside and asks them to investigate Crouch's possible ties to the Millennium Group, a disbanded organization of former FBI agents focused on the fulfillment of biblical prophecy at the start of the new millennium.

Mulder and Scully go to a mental institution in Woodbridge, Virginia to visit criminal profiler Frank Black, a former member of the Millennium Group. Black is initially reluctant to help the agents, as he believes that any further involvement with the Millennium Group may hinder his custody battle for his daughter, Jordan. But he agrees to help in their investigation, explaining that the members of the Millennium Group believe they can bring about the end of the world by killing themselves before the dawn of the new Millennium. Acting on information from Frank, Mulder concentrates on trying to find Johnson, when Scully is attacked in the morgue by the dead deputy. The two agents put all their effort in to finding Johnson before it is too late.

The plot progresses as the agents search for Mr. Johnson, uncovering information about a bizarre string of zombified corpses rising from the dead searching for victims. Mulder later tracks down Mr. Johnson's house, and is trapped by Johnson in his basement with a group of corpses capable of rising and attacking Mulder. Mulder is saved when Frank shows up with his loaded revolver to take out the zombies by 'aiming for the head'. As the gun runs out of bullets, and death seems imminent for Mulder and Frank, Scully busts in saving both their lives.

The epilogue shows Frank in the hospital with Scully and Mulder. Scully informs Frank that he has a visitor and brings in his daughter Jordan. Meanwhile, Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve is on a television in the background, as the countdown begins. Frank decides to leave, and Mulder and Scully are left watching the final countdown. As the clock strikes zero, and the crowd begins to sing 'Auld Lang Syne' on screen, Mulder and Scully are swept in a brief moment of intimacy and they kiss to ring in the new year.

Production

The episode is often cited as bringing closure to the Millennium series story arc and features the last appearances of Frank and Jordan Black. When Walter Skinner hands Fox Mulder and Dana Scully the Millennium Group's symbol, it is an Ouroboros. This is the second crossover with the canceled Millennium show, although the previous crossover involved a minor character, author Jose Chung (from "Jose Chung's From Outer Space"), appearing in the Millennium episode "José Chung's Doomsday Defense", both episodes written by Darin Morgan.

When Mulder says to shoot the zombies in the head as doing so seems to stop them, his exact line of dialogue is an homage to the original Night of the Living Dead.

Reception

The episode earned a Nielsen rating of 9.1 with an 13 share. It was viewed by 9,173,000 households.^[1]

References

1. ^ "The X-Files Compilation: Nielsen Ratings". Compilation. http://x-files.host.sk/nielsens.php. Retrieved February 16, 2011. 

External links

• Millennium at the Internet Movie Database
• Millennium at TV.com