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Synopsis of Millennium episode "522666"

Presented below is the original published synopsis of 522666, from Chris Carter's Millennium TV series. It was originally published on the original Fox Millennium website.

 

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522666


Season:

1

MLM Code:

#MLM-105

Production Code:

4C05

Original Airdate:

1996-11-22



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Episode Profile | Transcript | Credit List | Original Fox Photos |  Episode Images

Written by Glen Morgan & James Wong
Directed by David Nutter
Edited by Chris Willingham, A.C.E.


Sitting inside an upscale Washington DC pub, Raymond Dees is immersed in fantasies of death and destruction. He leaves the pub and finds a nearby pay phone. Dees dials 911, but says nothing. He merely punches in the numbers 522666.

Avidly watching the pub from the parking garage across the street, Dees masturbates, timing his release to the moment he knows will come. Inside the bar, the bomb he planted explodes. The concussion is enough to knock him backwards.

At home, Frank sees the resultant chaos live on TV, and begins to pack his bag. He knows the group will call him. Back on TV, police and civilian volunteers dig in the rubble for victims. One of the rescuers is Raymond Dees.

Frank and Peter Watts fly to DC, joining a multi-agency task force led by career FBI agent Jack Pierson. At first assuming the bombing is political, Pierson plays tapes of the terrorist groups that claimed responsibility. Frank discounts all of them until he hears the coded message left by Dees. When Frank hears the numbers, he matches them with the corresponding letters on phone buttons. KABOOM.

Visiting the crime scene, Frank sees the moment of detonation just as Dees had imagined it. He realizes that although the bomb was professional, its placement was not. Pierson follows as something draws Frank to the nearby parking garage. They find the evidence Dees left behind as he watched - a semen soaked tissue in a trash can.

Realizing Frank seems to have a unique understanding of the bomber, Pierson relies on him to run the investigation. Frank informs a meeting of the task force that the bomber will obsessively follow their investigation, and has the technical know-how to listen to every radio and cell phone transmission they make. So Frank and Pierson set a trap. The only one allowed to use a cell phone will be Frank.

As Frank has predicted, Dees is able to eavesdrop on them electronically. He monitors Frank's cell phone, figuring Frank must be a member of the task force. He calls Frank and leaves the message: 522666. Contact. Frank knows Dees is hooked and will call again.

As the team attempts to trace the call, Dees phones Frank and boasts of his next bombing, daring the police to catch him. Frank notes that Dees calls himself "a star," and adds that if Frank catches him he too will be a star. Dees hangs up before the task force can pinpoint his exact whereabouts, but they are able to get the frequency and sector grid of his location.

That night, Dees calls Frank and punches in "522666" every 15 minutes. Frank thinks he's trying to keep them off base and knows he's planning something. When the next call comes in, it's not Dees: it's Catherine, worried because she hasn't heard from him. Frank gets her off the phone, and returns her call on a land line. Dees phones in again, after having monitored Frank's brief conversation with Catherine. Frank takes the call, forgetting to hang up with Catherine. Still on the land line, Catherine listens, a frightened voyeur, as Frank gets inside Dees' mind and enters his chaotic and violent world. Dees tells Frank to expect another explosion at 9 am the following morning.

With three and one half hours to find the bomb, the investigators use cell phone data to identify the two block area of shops and business that might fit the bomber's pattern of attack. But Frank is worried. He knows the bomber's thrills are wearing off quickly. How far will he now go to increase his excitement? Frank knows this somehow ties in with Dees' desire to be a "star."

With fifteen minutes to go, the searchers have found nothing. Spotting a parking garage across from an office building, Frank recognizes Dees' pattern. He alerts the cops in time to evacuate the building.

But Dees has misled them. He's planted two bombs, not one. The first bomb goes off at 8:45. Dees calls Frank's cell phone, informing him that the next bomb is set to explode. Frank rushes into the building to warn those who remain inside. In the midst of the chaos, Frank reaches the second bomb just as it's about to blow up. At the moment of detonation, he's rescued from death by a man who works in the building. Frank doesn't know or see his savior, but it is Dees himself.

Frank awakens in the hospital with Catherine at his side. She tells him the man who pulled him out from building is on TV. Seeing him, Frank realizes they found Kaboom. But Dees outwits them again. Still monitoring them on his electronic equipment, Dees is long gone by the time the cops get to his place.

Dees' next and pentultimate move is something even Frank doesn't expect. Just as Frank gets in his car, Dees calls Frank's cell phone. He implies he's booby-trapped Frank's car, and tells Frank that he's about to get what he wants -- fame. He wants people to know his name. In Dees' apartment, the cops are listening to the whole conversation on Dees' monitoring equipment. Dees sits in his car across the street from Frank's. In position, a sharpshooter kills Dees just as he's about to press the detonation transmitter.

Upon investigation, no explosives are found in either car. Frank realizes Dees controlled the whole thing from beginning to end, including the method of his execution. And the media has already begun to spread the name of the mad bomber gunned down by police -- even in death, he's become a star.