Reviewed: Covenant
Contributor: Erin (Raven Wolf)
"Thou dost frighten me with dreams and terrify me by visions." (Job 7:14)
The inscription "If a man fails at home, he fails at life", on a plaque just inside the door of the Gary's home as Frank walks in is the base theme of the hidden story within a story in "Covenant". At first, when assuming the father, "William's", guilt, it seems a cruel joke, but it is actually a message, pointing toward the truth.
"Assumption" seems to play the dominant role in this episode, and it is apparent that this is the "point" it is making. Frank is, as always, the voice of reason in an unreasonable world. As the entire town seems more interested in blaming someone, and in exacting revenge, they manage to totally overlook a huge, glaring piece of evidence, the inscription 12815, written in blood on the kitchen window. Then, again because of a lack of persistence, they write it off, without even trying to figure out what it meant. Yet, Frank persists, and determines that, actually, it isn't 12815. It is I2815. As in Isaiah 28-15. "Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves..."
This episode also has the only blooper that I've noticed as of yet. After Frank determines that it is, in fact, I2815, rather than 12815, he is conversing with the others, and refers to the message, still saying 12815, even though he has established that it is not a "One" it is an "I".
Then, again breaking all the rules of conventional television, it does the opposite of the previous episode, "The Well-Worn Lock", in not only not giving a "feel good ending", but in fact, giving no ending at all! Frank simply comes in, finds the truth, reveals the truth to the others, tells William the right thing to do, and then walks away. As he drives away at the end of the episode, we are left to wonder what will happen, showing that, in life, sometimes we must come into a situation, do what's right, and then walk away, perhaps never knowing what effect we had, if any. This is truly an excellent example of the impact that Millennium left with the world.
