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Transcript of Millennium episode "Matryoshka"

Presented below is an episode transcript of Matryoshka from Chris Carter's Millennium TV series. These transcripts have been provided thanks to the dedication and time consuming hard work of Millennium fans Libby and Maria Vitale. Millennium - This is who we are is extremely greatful to Libby who has painstakingly checked, updated and edited each one for accuracy to make sure that they are as true to the actual episodes as possible.

 

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Matryoshka - Transcript


Season:

3

MLM Code:

#MLM-314

Production Code:

3ABC14

Original Airdate:

1999-02-19



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314 Matryoshka

[MLM–314 (3ABC14)]


Written by Erin Maher & Kay Reindl
Directed by Arthur Forney
Edited by James Coblentz
Air date: 19 February 1999

[Transcribed by Libby]

 

[A record player. Someone lifts the arm and places it onto the record. A rather scratchy version of 'Till Then' by The Mills Brothers starts playing.]

{'Till then, my darling please wait for me
Till then, no matter when it will be'}

FEBRUARY 15, 1999

[An elderly man listens to the song. As it plays, two elderly women slowly walking down the corridor outside the room. The place seems to be a retirement home. The elderly man closes the door of his room and locks it.]

{'One day, I know I'll be back again'}

[He holds a matryoshka doll in his hands.]

{'Please wait till then']

[He is sad. He puts the doll on a low table on which there are also some old photos.]

{'Our dreams will live though we are apart'}

[He picks up an old hat and handles it, remembering.]

{'Our love I know we'll keep in our hearts'}

[There is the sound of a typewriter. The hat is now worn by a much younger man, who looks around him.]

{'Till then when all the world will be free
Please wait for me'}

[The young man, Michael Lanyard, is sat on a bench in an office.]

FBI HEADQUARTERS
WASHINGTON, D.C.
AUGUST 1, 1945

[He watches as another man hurries down the corridor into an office. The nameplate on the office door reads: 'J. Edgar Hoover Director'. One of the nearby typists notices his attentiveness.]

TYPIST: Nervous?
LANYARD: You can tell?

[A buzzer on the typist's desk sounds.]

TYPIST: You can go in. Mr. Tolson's expecting you.

[He takes off his hat and smoothes down his hair. He hesitates, not knowing what to do with his hat, then hands it to the typist.]

LANYARD: Thanks.

[Crime scene photo slide. A man in a white coat, face down on the floor, one hand twisted behind his back, a pool of blood around his head. Someone has written on the floor: 'IT MUST END'.]

TOLSON: This is the body of Dr Daniel Carew. Found in New Mexico two days ago.

[Lanyard is sat on a chair, while another man, Tolson, operates the slide projector. The next slide shows the room in which the death took place – it appears to be a laboratory.]

TOLSON: Dr Carew was a physicist, engaged in an experiment critical to an allied victory in this war.
LANYARD: What sort of an experiment, sir?
TOLSON: I can only tell you we can't afford to lose another scientist.

[The next slide shows a close–up of 'IT MUST END'.]

LANYARD: 'It must end.'
TOLSON: This isn't just a murder, Agent Lanyard. We're counting on you to be our eyes and ears, to do the right thing. Do you understand?
LANYARD: Yes, I think I do, sir.
TOLSON: You'll fly by military transport to Santa Fe. A car will be waiting for you there. [Tolson hands him a document] President Truman, Director Hoover and I are all confidant you can bring this matter to a swift and confidential conclusion.
LANYARD: Who's my contact at the New Mexico field office.
TOLSON: Ah, no, no. My card with my private number. Report only to me.

[The card reads: Clyde Tolson LarK5–0154. He writes something on it and hands it to Lanyard. He has written: LarK5–0177.]

 

[Present day. Retirement home.]

{'Till then let's dream of what there will be
Till then we'll call on each memory'}

[The elderly man holds Tolson's card, now crumpled.]

{'Till then when I will hold you again
Please wait till then.'}

[He has picked up an old photograph of a little girl holding matryoshka dolls.]

{'Although there are oceans we must cross
And mountains that we must climb'}

[He places the photo on the table and writes something on the back. Also on the table is a book 'Waltz Into Darkness' by Cornell Woolrich, a matryoshka doll and a fob watch.]

{'I know every gain must have a loss
So pray that our loss is nothing but time'}

[Now he has picked up a handgun.]

{'Till then let's dream of what there will
Till then we'll call on each memory'}

[He places the handgun to the side of the head.]

{'Till then when I will hold you again'}

[On the back of the photo he had written: 'IT MUST END'.]

{'Please wait till then.'}

[Gunshot.]

[main titles]

[polaroid fade up]

[Present day. The elderly man's room. Hollis lifts up the record from the player and looks at it.]

BALDWIN: Are you gonna dance with that or bag it as evidence?
HOLLIS: 'Till then' – the Mills Brothers. Ever heard of them?
BALDWIN: Let's wrap this up. This guy obviously offed himself.

[Hollis continues to search the room.]

BALDWIN: Hollis!
HOLLIS: What's with the attitude? The guy was an agent.
BALDWIN: Fifty years ago. That's reason to be here?

[Hollis picks up the photo of the little girl.]

BALDWIN: A lot of old agents wind up eating their own guns. Ness, Melvin Purvess, the guy who got Dillinger.
HOLLIS: Hey, take a look at this. Private number.

[She hands him the business card.]

BALDWIN: Clyde Tolson.
HOLLIS: Hoover's boyfriend.
BALDWIN: Vicious rumors, Hollis. Never proven.
HOLLIS: I saw a picture of them together at Mardi Gras once. That was proof enough for me. You want to at least check out that guest register at the front desk?

[He already has the register and hands it to Hollis.]

BALDWIN: We are wasting our time here, Hollis. They said he had no family, no friends.
HOLLIS: I don't know about friends. Take a look at this. Just yesterday. Peter Watts.

[The entry shows: 02/14/99 Peter Watts Washington, D.C. visiting Michael Lanyard.]

 

[Photograph of the little girl, showing the writing on the reverse.]

[Frank and Baldwin in the bullpen.]

BALDWIN: It was a ritualistic suicide. Period music, clothing, personal mementoes, FBI issue weapon. You know, they make you return your weapon when you leave the Bureau now. Obviously a good idea.

[Frank shows him the photo.]

FRANK: You have any idea who this girl is?
BALDWIN: Look, there's a bunch of photographs. They're all ancient. We're not going to track everybody down on a suicide.
FRANK: Well, this might be an old photograph but this could have been written yesterday.
BALDWIN: 'It must end'. I mean, the guy killed himself. It's a suicide note.
FRANK: Maybe.
BALDWIN: Be honest. What really interests you is Peter Watts' name in the guest register, right? The rest of this –

[Hollis arrives.]

HOLLIS: Agent Lanyard's case files. The guy had a short, chequered career until 1945.

[Baldwin walks off in disgust.]

HOLLIS: He was sent to Los Alamos by Clyde Tolson himself. It's Agent Lanyard's last case.

[Hollis continues in voice–over as Lanyard is seen driving his car.]

HOLLIS: [VO] He goes to Los Alamos, investigates the murder of a scientist there, and then resigns from the Bureau the second he gets back. Does that make sense?

 

[Lanyard is looking at the crime scene photos as he drives. He approaches a guarded checkpoint. Soldiers point guns at him .]

SOLDIER: Halt! Slowly roll down your window. State your name.
LANYARD: Lanyard, FBI. I'm expected.

[He shows his badge. Another car drives through the checkpoint from the opposite direction and stops facing his car. The headlights shine in Lanyard's face. An officer, General Groves, gets out and walks to Lanyard's car.]

GEN. GROVES: Welcome to Los Alamos.

[Lanyard and Groves are sat in the back seat of Groves' car as they drive onto the base.]

GEN. GROVES: Let me make this clear. You will not interfere with the scientists. You will not ask them about the project. You will not mention the gadget. You will refer to them by their badge numbers only. Not ask their names or their backgrounds.
LANYARD: I already have their names and their backgrounds. And authorization running right to President Truman to investigate this as I see fit. I'll be starting with Dr. Alexander, badge number 633, the man who found the body. And I won't be needing an escort.
GEN. GROVES: Driver!

[The car stops and Groves gets out.]

GEN. GROVES: These guys are all half crazy, but Alexander takes the cake. Have yourself a nice chat.

[The car drives on.]

[Lanyard arrives at Alexander's house and knocks on the glass–paneled door.]

LANYARD: Dr. Alexander!

[There's no answer. Lanyard tries the door, which opens.]

LANYARD: Hello! Anybody home!

[He goes in. On the ground outside the door, lies a matryoshka doll. Inside, Lanyard looks around the room, searching through the desk drawers. He pulls out a piece of paper, a bail bond.]

LANYARD: [to himself] Warren Kroll.

[He put the bail bond in his pocket. He searches papers on top of the desk. A piece of paper has written on it – 'The tyranny of God has ended'. He turns it over – it's a photograph of a mushroom cloud.]

MAN: Some gadget, huh?

[Alexander is standing in the shadows.]

ALEXANDER: My first G man. Aside from the ones that tap my phone and read my mail, of course.
LANYARD: Agent Lanyard. I'm looking into the death of Dr. Carew.
ALEXANDER: Am I a suspect? Is that why you're ransacking my office?
LANYARD: I understand you found the body.
ALEXANDER: I did.
LANYARD: Well, then you know his bones were broken. Not just fractured, but shattered, splintered.
ALEXANDER: This isn't necessary.
LANYARD: Whoever did this is capable of terrible violence, evil.
ALEXANDER: We're all capable, Mr. Lanyard. Each of us, to a man.

[He takes the photograph from Lanyard's hand.]

ALEXANDER: We must be or we couldn't have created this.
LANYARD: Who's Warren Kroll, doctor?

[At that moment, the door opens.]

NATALIE: Papa!

[A little girl runs in, followed by a woman.]

ALEXANDER: Agent Lanyard, allow me to introduce a real secret weapon. Lily Unser. She helps me with everything. And my daughter Natalie.

[He has picked up his daughter – the little girl in the photograph.]

LILY UNSER: I'm sorry, I didn't know you had company. She wanted a book before bed.
ALEXANDER: Mr. Lanyard was just leaving.

[Lanyard turns to leave.]

 

[Lanyard is standing on the grass outside. He lights a cigarette. Through the thin curtains Alexander and Lily can be seen dancing. Natalie is playing with matryoshka dolls on the window sill.]

 

[Tolson and Lanyard speak by phone. Lanyard is in his quarters on the base.]

TOLSON: I knew General Groves in prep school. He was a bully then, and he's a bully now. I trust you didn't tell him about this suspect.
LANYARD: [into phone] No sir. Two days before the murder, Warren Kroll was arrested in Santa Fe for assault.
TOLSON: So, what's he say?
LANYARD: I haven't talked to him, sir. Like I say, at this point he's just a name. Well, Alexander's nanny, um, Lily Unser, posted bail for Kroll. I found out that she withdrew two thousand dollars out of Alexander's account. This reeks of blackmail or espionage.
TOLSON: Espionage?
LANYARD: Well, I have to wonder about this nanny. I mean, how many domestics can withdraw two grand of their employer's dough.
TOLSON: You're doing a fine job, Agent Lanyard. Keep at it. Go get this Kroll. But don't over–reach yourself. Believe me, we know who the spies are.
LANYARD: Sir, there's something else. There's a little girl involved. Alexander's daughter, and –

[The line goes dead.]

LANYARD: Sir?

[Lanyard replaces the phone and sits back.]

 

[FBI bullpen]

FRANK: The report just ends. No solution of the case, no conclusions drawn.
HOLLIS: Maybe Lanyard was just sloppy.
FRANK: No. His other cases were detailed and meticulous. Then he turns this one in, half completed, and resigns.

[Frank picks up a piece of paper. Vision: demonic face, Natalie, atomic explosion, Alexander.]

FRANK: This has to mean something.

[He shows it to Hollis – it's a pencil drawing of the ouroboros.]

[fade to black]

[polaroid fade up]

[Funeral casket. Cemetery.]

PRIEST: May he rest in peace.
MOURNERS: Amen.

[The small group of mourners move away. One of them is Peter Watts. Hollis is standing nearby.]

WATTS: What are you doing here, Agent Hollis?
HOLLIS: Investigating a death. You?
WATTS: Paying my respects to an old friend.
HOLLIS: Really. You only visited him once the whole time he was in the retirement home. And he killed himself the very next day.

[Watts moves off. Hollis hurries after him.]

HOLLIS: Frank says Lanyard's death is tied to the Millennium Group.
WATTS: Frank says everything is tied to the Millennium Group.
HOLLIS: We found this on his last report. He was a group member, wasn't he?

[Hollis shows him the paper with the ouroborous sketch.]

WATTS: He was nothing more than a very good FBI agent.
HOLLIS: Then what's the connection? The Millennium Group, the FBI.
WATTS: A lot of us are former agents.
HOLLIS: There is more to it, though, isn't there? You said once we'd talk.

[Watts points back to the grave.]

WATTS: What we have here, Agent Hollis, is a very lonely old man. Why don't you leave it at that.

[Watts walks off.]

HOLLIS: A scientist Lanyard interviewed in Los Alamos, his last case, a Dr. Alexander – what happened to him?

[Watts stops and looks at Hollis.]

WATTS: Alexander is supposed to have defected to Russia with enough plutonium to make two bombs. You can look it up.

[Watts walks off again towards a car, its engine running. Someone is sat in the back seat, looking out the window.]

 

[FBI office.]

HOLLIS: Watts was right. According to this, Alexander defected to Russia.
FRANK: He's not mentioned in the Venona documents. The Russians say he wasn't theirs.
HOLLIS: Alexander made several requests for fissionable materials.
FRANK: He was a theoretical physicist. What did he need it for?
HOLLIS: I don't know. But this last batch was never accounted for. You think he passed it to Kroll?
FRANK: I don't even know who Kroll is. He wasn't on any military list. And he wasn't at Los Alamos in any official capacity. It's as if he never even existed.
HOLLIS: No plutonium. No Kroll.
BALDWIN: No case. Autopsy report on Lanyard – poor bastard killed himself just like I thought. Case closed.

[Baldwin has dumped a file on Hollis' desk, with his usual smirk.]

FRANK: There's more to it.
BALDWIN: Well, you know, good luck with that, because Lanyard's not talking.
HOLLIS: Lily Unser. She bailed Warren Kroll out of jail in Santa Fe using Alexander's bank account. Like Lanyard said, kind of a cozy relationship for a nanny.
BALDWIN: It's still suicide, Hollis.

[Hollis does a computer search. The screen shows a lot of files. Baldwin is actually intrigued.]

BALDWIN: That's a lot of information to keep on a nanny, even for the Bureau.
FRANK: Well, maybe she was more than just a nanny, look. She's listed here as his assistant in Los Alamos.
HOLLIS: Now it looks like she's in the nut file. Writes letters to the President.
BALDWIN: Threats?
HOLLIS: Advice.

 

[A handwritten envelope addressed to the President. Lily is putting a letter into it.]

LILY UNSER: The President needs advice. Now more than ever.
STANTON PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITAL
BALTIMORE, MARYLAND

[Hollis and Lily are sitting at opposite sides of a small table, Frank standing nearby.]

HOLLIS: Miss Unser, we're interested in Warren Kroll. It's important. Warren Kroll, the man you bailed out of jail in Santa Fe while you were working for Dr. Alexander.
LILY UNSER: That was a very long time ago.
HOLLIS: Kroll was a suspect in a murder being investigated by an FBI agent, a Michael Lanyard.
FRANK: Do you remember Mr. Lanyard?
LILY UNSER: Very handsome man.
FRANK: He killed himself last week.

[Lily is stunned. Frank sits down near her.]

HOLLIS: We believe his death is connected with the murder he was investigating in 1945.
FRANK: The prime suspect was Warren Kroll. Do you know where he went?
LILY UNSER: He didn't go anywhere.
FRANK: How do you know?
LILY UNSER: Warren Kroll is dead.

 

[Frank and Hollis are walking down some steps back into the bullpen.]

FRANK: The dotty old woman was an act. When she heard that Lanyard had died, she was completely clear.
HOLLIS: Frank, she confirmed that Kroll existed, but we already knew that.
FRANK: Well, she said he died, that he didn't go anywhere. He's buried at Los Alamos.
HOLLIS: Not under his name, I'd already checked that.

[They have reached Hollis' desk.]

FRANK: Los Alamos was filled with nameless people. You checked your name at the front gate and became a number. People lived and died and were born with no names. They gave you your name back after the war. Kroll wouldn't have.

[Hollis is searching through documents, and hands one to Frank.]

FRANK: Anonymous death certificates from 1945. All the names are filled in except that one.
HOLLIS: You think that's Kroll?

[The document is a certificate of death for a John Doe.]

 

[Psychiatric home lounge. Watts enters and goes over to where Lily is sitting.]

WATTS: Still keeping the world from tipping off its axis?
LILY UNSER: Michael Lanyard killed himself.
WATTS: Yeah.
LILY UNSER: Were you coming to tell me?

[Watts doesn't answer.]

LILY UNSER: No, I don't think so.
WATTS: I didn't come here to argue.
LILY UNSER: What then? To warn me?
WATTS: It's very dangerous, Lily, what you do, who you talk to.
LILY UNSER: Maybe if you talked more to Frank Black, he'd still be in the Group.

[Watts sits down.]

WATTS: Yeah. Well, I'm working on that.
LILY UNSER: Too slowly. Fifty years ago, with the future of the world in the balance, we were five steps ahead. Now, the Group only looks back.
WATTS: On fifty years of peace.
LILY UNSER: They are gone. Don't you understand?

[Watts stands up, angry.]

WATTS: Look, I don't appreciate this Lily. We have taken care of you, I have.
LILY UNSER: You shut me up.
WATTS: This is a very important time right now. For all of us.
LILY UNSER: Have you forgotten what the Group could be? Peter, you of all people.

[Watts looks away.]

 

[Cemetery.]

LOS ALAMOS NATIONAL PARK
NEW MEXICO

[A mechanical digger. Frank and a detective are standing near where a grave is being opened.]

DETECTIVE: You might want to brace yourself. State of decay is hard to predict. You got to remember this was wartime.
FRANK: The Second World War, yeah, I've heard of it.
DETECTIVE: What I'm saying is a simple pine box is all you got. It wasn't unknown just to wrap it in a blanket unless this Kroll guy was a big deal.
FRANK: Suspect, suspect in a murder investigation.
WORKER: Hey, we hit something!
DETECTIVE: Hold it!

[The worker jumps down into the grave and scrapes earth off the object. Frank crouches down and watches as the coffin lid is being exposed. Vision: mushroom cloud, deformed face, young Lily. He blinks back to reality. The part of the coffin lid exposed has a symbol in red on it.]

WORKER: It's lead.

 

[Later. Containment laboratory. Frank and others watch from behind a high window as men in protective gear undo lifting chains around the coffin. They lift up the lid – the red symbol is five lightning/electricity signs surrounding a circle. As the lid is removed, a readout on a monitor shows 'dangerous radiation levels'.]

LAB TECHNICIAN: God, that's hot.
MAN: Kept the microbes at bay, though. Ever seen one so well preserved?

[The body is lying on its side, legs bent.]

MAN: Convulsive body posture is consistent with radiation poisoning. Obviously on a disastrous scale.
FRANK: Could you turn him so we can see the face, please.

[The body is lifted to show the face.]

FRANK: That's Dr. Alexander.
DETECTIVE: Alexander? What happened to what's–his–name – Kroll?

[Frank shakes his head.]

[fade to black]

[polaroid fade up]

[FBI office. Hollis is talking on the phone with Frank.]

HOLLIS: According to military records, no scientist died at Los Alamos after the murder.
FRANK: It's definitely him.
HOLLIS: Why would the military bury Alexander as a John Doe?
FRANK: Maybe the military didn't.
HOLLIS: Well, who then? The FBI? Millennium Group?
FRANK: All I know is he never left Los Alamos. Where's the daughter? What happened to the daughter?

[Hollis picks up the photo of young Natalie and studies it. Natalie is holding one of the matryoshka dolls.]

 

[Psychiatric hospital. Lily looks at the photo of Natalie.]

LILY UNSER: She must be in Russia. Her father defected, you know.
HOLLIS: He died in Los Alamos and was buried there.
LILY UNSER: You found him.
HOLLIS: Dead of massive radiation poisoning over his upper body. Face, arms, hands. Wasn't an accident, was it?

[Lily gets up and walks to the window, sighing.]

LILY UNSER: July 16, 1945. The Trinity test. The first atomic explosion. It wasn't until then that the scientists actually realized what they had done. Some, like Edward Teller and Carew, they were overjoyed. They immediately began imagining bigger bombs.
HOLLIS: And Dr. Alexander?
LILY UNSER: Maybe because he had a child, he understood better than the others just what they had done.
HOLLIS: What had they done?

[Lily seems puzzled by Hollis' question.]

LILY UNSER: They took the apocalypse out of God's hands and put it in their own. They created the end of the world. Here, in our minds, they even put that terrifying clock on the 'Bulletin of Atomic Scientists', the countdown, four minutes to midnight, two minutes to midnight, tick, tock, tick tock. The one advantage being my age is that I knew what it was like before this thing was hanging over us. So did Michael Lanyard.

[Lily sits down again.]

HOLLIS: He lived with it for fifty years. That's not why he killed himself.

[Hollis turns the photo over and points to what Lanyard had written on the back.]

HOLLIS: 'It must end'. His last words. The same words written in blood at the murder scene in 1945. Why did Lanyard write those words on the picture of the little girl.
LILY UNSER: I wouldn't know.
HOLLIS: You owe – –
LILY UNSER: I don't owe you anything.
HOLLIS: You owe him. You owe Michael Lanyard.

[Lily turns the photo over again.]

LILY UNSER: He didn't leave Los Alamos. He was ordered off the base but he stayed.
HOLLIS: Why?
LILY UNSER: Because I asked him to. Because he was concerned about Natalie. For her safety. And because he was an honorable man.

 

[Alexander's house. 1945.]

YOUNG LILY: [to Lanyard] He's here. Kroll.
MAN: [shouting] This. Must. End!

[Lanyard puts Natalie into Lily's arm.]

LANYARD: Go. Get out of here.

[Lily leaves with Natalie. A man slowly walks into the room, his face hidden by shadows.]

LANYARD: Go! Now!

[The man is Alexander – he looks ill. Lanyard watches as he slowly walks towards him. In a flash of lightning, Alexander's face briefly seems transformed, almost demon–like. Then Alexander attacks, throwing Lanyard to the ground and beating him repeatedly. Then Alexander seems to come to his senses and runs off into another room. Lanyard gets to his feet and follows, gun in hand. But Alexander is nowhere to be seen. As lightning flashes again, it shines around the edge of a wooden panel of the wall. Lanyard rips the panel away. Something falls to the ground – a large matryoshka doll. Lanyard picks it up. He steps through the gap in the wall into Alexander's laboratory.]

ALEXANDER: Take it to my daughter. I've written pages inside. Get it to her so she'll know.
LANYARD: Know what?
ALEXANDER: We've made a horrible miscalculation. Torn apart what must be whole. Promise me.
LANYARD: Of course.
ALEXANDER: Promise me you'll keep her safe.
LANYARD: Promise.

[Alexander picks up two half–spheres, containing plutonium, from his workbench and places them together. They glow brightly and heat up. Lanyard watches as Alexander's face is transformed into the demon. Again Alexander lunges at Lanyard who picks up a metal rod and hits Alexander with it. Alexander falls to the ground, unconscious or dead. Lanyard has dropped the matryoshka doll which lies in the corner next to Alexander's head. As Lanyard goes to pick it up, he hears the car start up outside. He runs off, leaving the matryoshka doll on the floor.]

 

[Present day.]

LILY UNSER: It's all my fault. I did what they asked.
HOLLIS: What who asked, Lily? You took her away. Where?

 

[1945. 'Till then'.]

LANYARD: Lily! Lily! [He runs to the car.] Stop the car! Natalie! Natalie! Lily, stop the car! Lily! Lily!

[But Lily drives away. Natalie is in the back, holding a small matryoshka doll.]

{'Our dreams will live through we are apart
Our love I know we'll keep in our hearts
Till then when all the world will be free
Please wait for me.'}

 

[Frank is in Alexanders's house. The music continues. His flashlight shines on the matryoshka doll left lying on the floor.]

{'Although there are oceans we must cross
And mountains that we must climb'}

[He opens the doll and takes out the papers and reads them.]

{'I know every gain must have a loss
So pray our loss is nothing but time'}

[He places them back in the doll.]

{'Till then let's dream of what there will be
Till then we'll call on each memory
Till then when I will hold you again
Please wait till then'}

[fade to black]

[polaroid fade up]

[Mushroom cloud, glowing red.]

FRANK: Scientists had been laboring for years and then this. The first atomic explosion. For better or worse it exceeded their expectations.

[Frank, Hollis and Baldwin watching a video in the bullpen.]

FRANK: Dr. Alexander was affected by this. He wondered how good men, good minds, had created something so obviously evil. The question obsessed him, haunted him. He started doing experiments with plutonium, trying to split off the evil he felt inside him.
BALDWIN: So, he was a nut.
FRANK: No. He wanted to do with himself what he had done to the atom. Split it in half.

[Another view of a mushroom cloud.]

FRANK: He split off Kroll.
BALDWIN: What, what does that mean? Split off?
HOLLIS: Kroll and Alexander were the same person, but Kroll committed the murder.
BALDWIN: That's some theory.
FRANK: It's not a theory. It's Alexander's last will and testament.

[He hands Baldwin the matryoshka doll.]

BALDWIN: A doll?
FRANK: It's a letter to his daughter. Trying to explain his mistakes. Warning her not to take the same path he'd taken.

[Baldwin has taken the papers out of the doll.]

HOLLIS: 'It must end'.
FRANK: Lanyard committed suicide before he could give her that.

[He hands over the photo of Natalie.]

BALDWIN: So where's the girl now?
HOLLIS: Lily's not saying. Not a clue.
FRANK: Lanyard was thinking about the girl when he pulled the trigger, remembering something about a promise he failed to keep.

[Frank takes a video out of the box of Lanyard's belongings. He puts it into the video player.]

FRANK: This is what he was watching before he died.

[A black–and–white movie.]

BALDWIN: Hey, 'Baby Face Nelson'. Take the boy out of the Bureau, huh?

[Frank fast forwards to a TV news report. It shows a photograph of a middle–aged woman.]

TV REPORTER: Critics say this woman heads a secret laboratory in Mexico. Growing organs or playing God?

[Footage of a reporter trying to interview the woman outside a building. The woman is hurrying away.]

TV REPORTER: This kind of research is illegal in the United States.
WOMAN: Legal here.
TV REPORTER: Who's funding it? Not the US government. They say you're creating monsters.

[Frank rewinds the tape back to the photo of the woman.]

BALDWIN: Oh, you're not suggesting that's her? How would the old guy even recognize her, I mean the last time he saw her she was four years old.

[Hollis, however, has seen it. She goes closer to the screen, holding the photo of young Natalie. Frank points – on the bookshelf behind the woman is a little matryoshka doll.]

FRANK: After all these years, this is what he saw. He tried to contact her. [pause] I know how to reach her.

 

[A sports stadium. Empty except for Watts. Frank walks over to him.]

WATTS: I'm glad you finally called. We've got a lot to talk about.
FRANK: No, just one thing.
WATTS: OK.
FRANK: From the first, the Millennium Group's been all over this.
WATTS: No, not the Group.
FRANK: Well, some version of it. That's what scared Lanyard off in 1945, isn't it? Did they threaten him?
WATTS: They asked him to join.
FRANK: To make him complicitous in what happened to the little girl and god knows what else. I know what that invitation means. [pause] She does secret biological research now.
WATTS: Not that secret. Everybody seems to know about it.
FRANK: Yeah. She grew up to make the same mistake her father did.
WATTS: You call it a mistake.
FRANK: He did. It's the same mistake he prayed she'd never make. Playing god, without divine wisdom.
WATTS: Her father's experiments weren't a total failure, Frank. They opened up some possibilities, to deal with an evil that can consume us. His tools were deficient, not his intent.
FRANK: Group propaganda.
WATTS: Fathers and daughters. She has his gift.
FRANK: Does she even know what her father did? She never had a choice. That's why Lanyard was so horrified when he found out what Natalie had become.
WATTS: There were other avenues to her than the Group.

[Frank tosses to Watts the matryoshka doll.]

FRANK: It's from her father. He gave his life trying to tell her that. Lanyard did too.
WATTS: What? You want me to deliver it?
FRANK: Unless you're afraid of the truth.

[Frank walks away. Watts watches him leave, then opens the doll and reads the document.]

 

[FBI office. 1945. Lanyard walks down the corridor as seen before.]

TYPIST: He's in a meeting. You can't go in there!

[Lanyard walks up to Tolson's door and opens it.]

TYPIST: [to Tolson] I'm sorry, sir.

[Tolson is sat there. Also Lily. The typist leaves. Lanyard looks at Lily.]

LANYARD: What's she doing here?
TOLSON: Miss Unser was helping to clarify some of the events you described in Los Alamos.
LANYARD: Is she why you rejected my report?
TOLSON: We felt the exact nature of Dr. Alexander's experiments should be kept inside a small group.
LANYARD: [to Lily] Where's Natalie? She's four years old. What did you do with her?
TOLSON: She'll be well taken care of.
LANYARD: By whom? Her?
TOLSON: No. Lily has other tasks facing her. She just accepted an offer to join our group. And I'm hoping you'll do the same.
LANYARD: What group? What are you talking about?
MAN: He's saying there's a bigger picture.

[Lanyard turns to see the man who is sitting in the shadows, and recognizes him.]

LANYARD: Director Hoover. Sir.
HOOVER: There are things the FBI cannot do. The group can.
LANYARD: With all due respect, sir, I joined the Bureau to uphold the law.
HOOVER: So did we all.
LANYARD: Then why did you remove pages from my report?
HOOVER: Bigger picture, Agent Lanyard. Bigger picture.
LANYARD: You kidnapped a four year old girl. There is no bigger picture.

[Hoover doesn't respond. Lanyard turns to Tolson.]

LANYARD: You'll have my resignation on your desk in the morning. I'll find that little girl. I know what you people did. I'll find her. [to Lily] I'll find her.

[He leaves. Hoover gets up and shows something to Tolson.]

HOOVER: Your group idea got me thinking. Kekule, another mad scientist had an illuminating dream, of snakes biting their own tails. The next day he discovered the benzene ring. An ancient symbol for our ancient group.

[Hoover hands Tolson a sketch of the ouroborous.]

TOLSON: I didn't know you could draw.

[The two men smile at each other.]

HOOVER: Too bad about Agent Lanyard. He was a good man. Tap his phone.

[Hoover touches Lily on the shoulder as he leaves.]

 

[A Millennium Group Elder and Watts are sat in the Elder's office.]

ELDER: A rocky beginning. Hoover and Tolson had the right idea though. Recruit the best and hope for the best.

[Watts nods.]

ELDER: You didn't tell him, did you?
WATTS: He suspects, which with Frank is as good as knowing.
ELDER: You blame yourself for what happened to him, don't you.
WATTS: He was my candidate. I recruited him at his time of need and the Group smothered him with angels and devils and Armageddon.
ELDER: Don't give up. These things have a way of returning. So where's this doll?
WATTS: You told me once that the Group didn't choose its members, that the members chose the Group. Doesn't she deserve the same opportunity? She's never known any other life.
ELDER: Her work is critical. Nothing can jeopardize It.
WATTS: Are we afraid of the truth?
ELDER: Whose truth, Peter? This is no time to question your faith. Now, what about the other matter?
WATTS: Already done.

 

[An office. Folders being placed in a briefcase. Then a small business card is noticed and picked up. On it is written 'You wanted to talk'. The card is turned over – it is printed with the ouroborous and the name Peter Watts. Hollis looks around her, then slips the card into her desk drawer.]

 

['Till then' plays throughout the closing scene.]

[A laboratory. White–coated people walk down a corridor. One of them is Natalie. She puts her hand on a pad by her office door. Her hand is scanned and the door is unlocked. She goes into her office and sits at the desk, looking at the computer screen which shows an image of a fetus–in–utero and a data stream of DNA. Then she notices the large matryoshka doll on her desk. She picks it up, opens it, takes out the papers and reads them. She begins to cry. The computer beeps and she looks at it: 'Welcome Natalie There are 316 days remaining'. Natalie breaks down, sobbing.]

[fade to black]

[end titles]

Starring:

Lance Henriksen (Frank Black)
Klea Scott (Emma Hollis)

Guest Starring:

Peter Outerbridge (Barry Baldwin)
Dean Winters (Young Michael)
Barbara Bain (Lily Unser)
Mark Houghton (Dr Alexander)
Peter Hanlon (Clyde Tolson)
David Fredericks (Hoover)
Marie Stillin (Natalie)
Wally Dalton (Michael Lanyard)
Matthew Walker (Group Elder)
and
Terry O'Quinn (Peter Watts)

Co–Starring:

Ocean Hellman (Young Lily Unser)
Vince Metcalfe (General Groves)
Mecca Menard (Young Natalie)

Featuring:

Monica Gemmer (Secretary)
Tiffany Burns (Reporter)
Alex Ferguson (Dr Caton)
Jim Thorburn (Agent)

Music by Mark Snow
Editor: James Coblentz
Production Designer: Mark Freeborn
Director of Photography: Robert McLachlan
Executive Story Editors: Kay Reindl and Erin Maher
Production Manager: Kathy Gilroy–Sereda
Co–Producer: Julie Herlocker
Co–Producer: Patrick Harbinson
Co–Producer: Kathy Gilroy–Sereda
Co–Producer: Paul Rabwin
Consulting Producer: Daniel Sackheim
Producer: Michael R Perry Producer: Thomas J Wright
Co–Executive Producer: Frank Spotnitz
Co–Executive Producer: Ken Horton
Co–Executive Producer: John Peter Kousakis
Written by Erin Maher and Kay Reindl
Directed by Arthur Forney

Executive Producer: Chip Johannessen
Executive Producer: Chris Carter



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