Lauren's Review: "Millennium"

The episode opens during the funeral of Raymond Crouch, a former FBI agent who committed suicide. After closing time, a man named Mr. Johnson stays hidden and opens the casket, murmuring some kind of chant. The next scene shows him walking through a cemetery several nights later with a shovel in hand. Can you guess what he was going to do? Mulder and Scully are called in to investigate a "grave robbery with a twist". The corpse of Raymond Crouch has disappeared, uh-oh! Mulder suspects necromancy, or the summoning of the dead. Skinner brings up the Millennium group, former FBI agents in a cult based on the myth of the coming Millennium as an "end time". He shows Mulder and Scully three different graves of former FBI agents, dug up with the bodies missing and all apparent suicides--the same deal we have with Raymond Crouch. He sends our agents out to investigate.

Mulder and Scully travel to a psychiatric ward in Virginia to gather information on the group from Frank Black, a former consultant of theirs. He refuses to get into the investigation. Cut to next scene--we see our 'necromancer' from earlier fixing a flat while being approached by a police deputy, who is then attacked and killed by none other than the zombie of Raymond Crouch! Aah! Once again we see Mulder and Scully called in to investigate. At the scene of the deputy's murder, Mulder finds evidence of his necromancy theory--a circle of salt, used in heavy magic. The corpse has a verse from the book of Revelations in its mouth--creepy.

Back at the psychiatric ward, our agents find out why Frank Black's been concealing infornation-- so he'd be able to get himself back together and earn custody of his daughter. Black reveals that the four deceased former FBI agents were Millennium group members who believed that for the end to come, they must meet their own, as well. (Hence killing themselves.) They would then be brought back to life, along with the rest of the deceased world--armageddon. (Get it?) Our necromancer, we learn, is indeed Mr. Johnson, and that he's on his way to the county morgue to bring the dead deputy back to life. Scully leaves for the morgue, while Mulder goes out to search for the necromancer's living quarters.

Meanwhile, we see the coroner removing staples from from the dead deputy's mouth in her autopsy. She hears the phone ring in the other room and goes to listen to Scully's message, telling her not to remove the staples from the deputy's mouth. Whoops! The coroner is then attacked by the deputy's zombie moments later. Scully arrives and finds her on the floor, but then is attacked by the deputy! Oh, no! Skinner arrives on the scene. Fortunately, Scully was only cut. She tells Skinner that she doesn't know why, but the necromancer saved her by shooting the deputy in the head, then disappeared. At Mr. Johnson's home, Mulder finds an empty bag of salt in the trash and enter the house. He goes down into the basement as Mr. Johnson pulls up...then zombies arise in the basement and Mr. Johnson locks Mulder in with them! Eek!

Scully tells Frank Black about her attack and they leave to find Mulder. Meanwhile, a bloody Mulder is standing in a circle of salt surrounded by zombies ready to rip his head off. Black arrives and is attacked. They shoot what they think is all the dead guys, when one appears and they're out of bullets! Suddenly, we hear a gunshot--Scully shoots the zombie, and all is well with the world.

Back at the psychiatric ward, Black is reunited with his daughter and they leave for the night. Mulder and Scully watch the ball drop on TV as 1999 turns to 2000, and at the stroke of midnight, they kiss! The world didn't end after all, and we got a full lip-locking at the end, in the present day, without any dream sequences of hybrid bees we've seen in the past ruining it.

So, the whole big necromancy deal is over, and the armageddon theory proved to be wrong. Lance Hendriksen did a great job as Frank Black in this episode. It was good to see him again, since Fox canned his show. Plus, Mulder and Scully kissed! I, for one, thought this was a great episode that was pleasing for both "The X-Files" and "Millennium" watchers alike.