Lamentation (Millennium)

"'Lamentation" is the eighteenth episode of the first season of the American crime- thriller television series ''Millennium''. It premiered on the Fox network on April 18, 1997. The episode was written by series creator Chris Carter and directed by Winrich Kolbe and Alex Diakun, and introduced Sarah-Jane Redmond as Lucy Butler.

Millennium Group consultant Frank Black (Lance Henriksen) searches for an escaped convict he had helped to catch, believing that the criminal's new wife Lucy Butler (Redmond) may be helping him. However, Butler may instead be a much greater threat to Black and his family than he had anticipated.

"Lamentation" marked the death of recurring character Bob Bletcher, played by Smitrovich. Smitrovich had appeared intermittently since "Pilot". The episode has been well-received critically, described as a "pivotal point" in the series. It was viewed by approximately 6.5 million households in its original broadcast.

Plot

Millennium Group consultant Frank Black (Lance Henriksen) and Seattle Police Department detective Bob Bletcher (Bill Smitrovich) are hiking across the North Cascades when Black receives an urgent page from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Travelling to the Behavioral Sciences Unit, Black learns that serial killer Ephraim Fabricant (Alex Diakun) has escaped from a hospital while donating a kidney to his sister. Fabricant was arrested and convicted due to the profile constructed by Black; although he was spared execution when Black asked for leniency in order to allow Fabricant's mind to be studied.

Fellow Millennium Group member Peter Watts (Terry O'Quinn) informs Black that, before his escape, Fabricant had married a correspondent he met through a prison pen-pal service. Watts and Black interview the woman, Lucy Butler (Sarah-Jane Redmond), at her home. Butler is adamant she has not seen or heard from Fabricant since his escape. However, Black finds information on Butler's computer which he believes is linked to his own home address; and photographs of a judge who he recognizes as having been murdered.

Elsewhere, Fabricant is being operated on by a nurse whose face is hidden; she removes the staples from his surgical incision. Black and Watts return to Butler's home with a search warrant, having discovered that Butler's young son had been killed with cyanide, and she had been suspected of the murder; the judge had also been poisoned with the same substance.

Fabricant is found in a hospital emergency room, collapsing from his injuries. A doctor examines him and discovers his second kidney has been removed—without anaesthesia. Black's home telephone number is found on Fabricant's hospital bracelet. Back at Black's home, his wife Catherine ( Megan Gallagher) finds a human kidney in her refrigerator. A strange man appears at the top of her staircase, and she runs to find her husband's gun, which is missing. Bletcher arrives, letting Catherine know that her daughter Jordan is safe outside with a colleague of his. He searches the house for the intruder, finding Butler instead. As a bolt of lightning illuminates the scene, her face has distorted into that of a demon. Giebelhouse (Stephen J. Lang) later discovers Bletcher's body hanging from a ceiling post, with his throat cut.

Meanwhile, Fabricant warns Black that he was taken from the hospital and operated on by the "sum of all evil"; Fabricant also warns that this entity knows who Black is and what he is capable of. Returning home, Black discovers that Butler was arrested elsewhere for a motoring offence, but was released without charge. Black takes his daughter Jordan hiking over the same North Cascades trail he and Bletcher had visited earlier.

Production

"Lamentation" was the third of four episodes helmed by director Winrich Kolbe

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