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Millennium: A Single Blade of Grass

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When a Manhattan construction site unearths a body of a Native American man, Frank is called in because it seems he was slaughtered in an apocalyptic ancient ritual. At the site Frank learns more about the Indian culture and he begins to unearth many strange prophecies involving the resurrection of Indian men and the destruction of the white man from the west. Frank also begins to learn a little more about his visions.
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Writers:: Erin Maher Kay Reindl

Director:: Rodman Flender

Stars:: Megan Gallagher (Catherine Black); Lance Henriksen (Frank Black)

Guest Star:: Rondel Reynoldson (Coroner Hutson); James Nicholas (Ernie); Byron Chief-Moon (Fenton); Clint Andrew (Daniel Olivaw); Floyd 'Red Crow' Westerman (Old Indian); Michael Greyeyes (Joe Reynard); Doug Abrahams (Sgt. Manny Walters); Garry Chalk (Richard Powell); Amy Steel (Dr. Liz Michaels)

Perhaps more a nitpick, at one point in the episode, Frank performs CPR briefly on a construction site owner, then stops CPR and declares him dead. All first aid procedure aside (once you begin CPR, you are not supposed to stop until a medical professional declares the recipient dead), as the camera pulls back it is very, very clear that the corpse is still breathing. edit »

The throw of the dice that Frank bets on comes up a hard eight (two 4's). Hard Eight is the name of Wong and Morgan's (executive producer's this season) production company. edit »
This episode is set in New York, New York. edit »
This episode features the songs "Hell" by the Squirrel Nut Zippers and "Hand in Hand We Die" by Glen Jordan. edit »

Michaels: The prophecy. It came true.
Frank: Part of it, but not the part they really want, I guess. I wonder what's out there that's been said that will one day come true. Will it be part of what we really want? edit »
Frank: The buffalo will return here.
Joe: When? Tell us when?
Frank: The prophecy has been fulfilled. Your just to blind to see it.
Joe: No. edit »
Joe: Once you join Daniel in the spirit world. The circle will be complete."
Frank: I'm not the white brother. Killing me won't bring you paradise on earth.
Joe: You are honored. You have been chosen to deliver the prophecy from the ancestors in the other world. You will tell us what to do. You... the single blade of grass.
Frank: You invented this apocalypse. You created it. This ritual out of old prophecy that never came true. These interpretations are out of your own desperation. Its what you wish it to be. Your seeing what you want it to be, Joe. The grass will not grow over the white man. edit »
Old Indian: (Voice over) Long ago, there were two brothers. One red. The other white. The Great Spirit gave them a stone tablet with a sign of the circle upon it. Each took half of the tablet. Half the circle. The white brother went west to develop the power of reason. The red brother stayed behind to develop the power of spirit. When Bahana the last white brother returns. He will bring together both halves of the circle. Spirit and reason will become one and at last we will have a paradise on earth. edit »
Frank: This is the head of the Iroquois' false face. Its identical to the one found on the body of Daniel Olivaw.
Michaels: Red half symbolizes the east. The black half, the west. And the mask represents half human bodies with the power to walk between the real and spirit worlds.
Frank: Half human.
Michaels: Well not literally. It's...
Frank: Whoever dismembered Daniel Olivaw's body took it literally. Daniel was buried with a mask that represents the ability to contact the dead.
Michaels: I believe the symbol may belong to a lost tribe of the Iroquois. See when the Seneca were put on the first reservation back in the 1790s, the bound between the five Iroquois tribes was severed. The other tribes ended up on reservations with the exception of this one. Which apparently... died out.
Frank: ...Or scattered. The symbols left at the murder scene were from different tribes. What if the members of the lost tribe hid themselves among other tribes? And they were so successful that the white man completely overlooked their existence. Daniel was a Mohawk. The others were Hopi, Cheyenne, Navaho. But in the beginning their place was here. They've been hiding for centuries. Until a prophecy told them to reunite. Through separation and time the original prophecies have been lost or forgotten. The men who killed Daniel Olivaw, have been taking from other tribes and filling in the blanks.
Michaels: You see the carvings tell a story. The grass will grow over the white man. The ancestors will be resurrected. And the buffalo will return. Ah... that's Ghost Dance. At the end of the last century, Wovoka told the Indians to dance the Ghost Dance and the white man would be eradicated. Only it was the Indians who were massacred at Wounded Knee.
Frank: A prophecy. This is a blueprint for another cultures apocalypse.
Michaels: No. No... you can't believe that this is just symbolic. Like the Book of Revelation or any other religious apocrypha.
Frank: The Book of Revelation may be portrayed allegorically, but the overarching idea of the apocalypse is real. Everything starts with one blade of grass. These events to them are coming true. You said that this images prophesies the destruction of the earth and the return of the ancestors. Well that's already happened. When Powell's men unearthed the grave site."
Michaels: "This symbol represents a messenger.
Frank: The murder victim Daniel was sent to the west. To the land of the dead to speak with his ancestors.
Michaels: That could be. I'm still not sure what this lower figure is suppose to mean.
Frank: Its me. Daniel was sent to the west. I came from the west. They think I came here because I was summoned. My death, my reunion with Daniel, will open a door to the east.
Michaels: Frank. People have researched this. I have studied myths ever since I can remember and I don't understand all this.
Frank: I see it Liz. That other plane. How you wished it were true. How you wanted it to be there. When I'm here touching this earth, I sense it. I'm in that plane. I can't call it up. I can't control it. I can't understand it. I have an ability. That I thought I lost. I was told that it would change in ways I wouldn't understand. Its happening now. A door opens in the west. A rough hume building.
Michaels: That's an Iroquois longhouse.
Frank: Yeah... huh... Crows, fly in.
Michaels: That could be the... the dead ancestors returning.
Frank: A coyote turns and he looks at me.
Michaels: He's a contradictory creature. He... he manages to be both the trickster and, in the southwest tradition, uh a creator of the universe.
Frank: I see myself walking on a road and then I fall down to the earth.
Michaels: That could be the spirit road.
Frank: This represents heaven.
Michaels: Yeah.
Frank: Phases of the moon.
Michaels: What? I...
Frank: Full moon. First quarter moon. New Moon. Third quarter moon.
Michaels: I don't understand... what?
Frank: Its a calendar telling them when to act. edit »

Old Indian: When Bahana the last white brother returns.
Bahana (or Pahana) refers to "the true white brother" or "the lost white brother". Hopi prophecies speak of the return of Bahana who left them in ancient times with the promise to return. Some see the Bahana as an almost messianic figure. edit »
Dr. Michaels: That's an Iroquois longhouse.
An Iroquois longhouse was a large building made of wood and animal skins. One average they could be between 25 to 150 feet long and were usually large enough to hold a family of 30 to 60 people. edit »
Dr. Michaels: Ah... that's Ghost Dance. At the end of the last century, Wovoka told the Indians to dance the Ghost Dance and the white man would be eradicated. Only it was the Indians who were massacred at Wounded Knee.
Wovoka (c.1856-1932) was the Paiute tribal mystic who spread the Ghost Dance religion among many Native American tribes across the American West. His pronouncements heralded the dawning of a new age in which whites would vanish and leave Indians to live in a land of material abundance, spiritual renewal and immortal life. His teachings stressed the link between righteous behavior and imminent salvation. Salvation was not to be passively awaited but welcomed by a regime of ritual dancing and upright moral conduct. Though Wovoka told his followers to "not hurt anybody or do harm to anyone. You must not fight. Do right always... Do not refuse to work for the whites and do not make any trouble with them." The Ghost Dance religion was connected unrest on the Lakota reservations and eventually to the massacre at Wounded Knee. edit »
Frank: This is the head of the Iroquois' false face.
The "False Face Society" was an Iroquois society that attempted to employ magic in the healing of the sick or injured. The False Face Society wore painted masks carved from wood. Members of the society were often concerned with driving away the spirits of sickness or injury that were, presumably, plaguing a sick or injured Iroquois Indian. edit »
Coroner Hutson: Timber rattle snake. The venom has a high LD 50. It takes a lot to kill you.
LD 50 is an expression of comparative toxicity. LD 50 means that a lethal dose that kills 50% of test animals (mice being the univerasally accepted test animal). edit »

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kyle_anderton
member since: Jul 12, 2005
A Single Blade of Grass
The Bottom Line: "Out of character"
FOX chose this episode to represent Season Two on the DVD release. Even God doesn't know why. ...Continue »
09/04/05 01:56pm | report abuse