Millennium Monday: Recap of "522666"

This week's Millennium Monday recap looks back at S01xE05 - "522666". Read after the jump to check it out.

• This episode is written by Glen Morgan & James Wong, and directed by David Nutter.
• In the opening bar scene someone laughs in the background that really sounds like Gillian Anderson, have a watch and see if you can hear it too.
• The posh British accents in this scene are hilarious. I live in England and I never hear accents like them.

• The cigarette close ups are very X-Files. Apparently in the Carter-verse smoking = evil.
• We hear the announcer on Frank's TV saying, "Call it one of the best new shows of the season, Sundays, after football" - That's Fox slipping in that they just got the rights to NFL Football, the new scheduling position for The X-Files, AND what people were saying about Millennium itself!

• Frank makes a huge leap after watching the news. He must see something in this incident that we don't.
• I found the placement of the credits in this episode quite odd. I'd have put them after the explosion, before we see Frank.

• This week's quote comes from Sartre's book "Being and Nothingness". In the book he attempted to try to prove the existence of free will.

• "Deadeye Dick" is a novel by Kurt Vonnegut in which the protagonist, Rudy, commits accidental manslaughter as a child. At the end of the book Rudy's hometown is destroyed by a bomb.

• Task force leader Agent Pierson is played by Sam Anderson. He appeared in "The Pine Bluff Variant" and was a regular on Lost.
• "The Turner Diaries" is a novel by William Luther Pierce depicting a revolution in the US that will see the government overthrown by white supremacists. Pages from the novel were found in Timothy McVeigh's car.
• The Abu Nidal Organisation (ANO) is a Palestinian terrorist group also known as Fatah–The Revolutionary Council. They were very active in the early 90s. Pete is talking about the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks which had begun earlier in the year.
• In real IRA bombings the caller speaks the codeword, usually to police or the media. They are not dialled in with a keypad like this. My home city Manchester was blown up by the IRA in 1996, five months before this episode aired. The bomb was called in with a codeword. The object of the codewords is to allow evacuation of the area and minimise loss of life. As a result no one died in the Manchester bomb.

• It's really not the most subtle of codewords is it? Sounds like one Wile E Coyote might choose.
• Agent Takahashi (Hiro Kanagawa) appeared in "Firewalker" and "Synchrony".
• Just look at that elegant, palm sized cell phone Frank has!

• Our killer Raymond Dees is played by Joe Chrest. He will be starring in both Ant-Man and Mockingjay Part Two later this year.
• Agent Sullivan (played by Robert Lewis) appeared in "Eve", "Duane Barry", and "Paper Clip".

• Cell phone technology is still very new here, it needs explaining to the audience much more than it would do today.
• The surveillance vans being used here are about as subtle as that car Starsky & Hutch used to drive around in.
• Agent Nolan in the background is played by William MacDonald. He appeared in "Fallen Angel", "The Host", "2Shy", "Unhruhe", & "Chinga".
• Dees demonstrates the very definition of bad guy monologging.
• Interestingly the promo for "522666" invited viewers "inside the mind of a terrorist". Dees is anything but your standard terrorist.

• Catherine gets an insight into what Frank does tonight. It's a difficult thing for her to hear but it adds to her understanding.
• There's a bomb somewhere! Check the vending machines!
• The receptionist (Lucia Walters) appeared in "Leonard Betts". 
• If the bombed building looks familiar, it's because it also played the Eurisko building in "Ghost in The Machine".

• Remember that Jordan had a nightmare about her dad earlier in the episode...
• Lance performed all his own stunts in this episode. He was 56 years old at the time.
• Frank's doctor is called Doctor Bowman - could that be a reference to Rob?

• Pierson's fears over arresting Dees refer to the bombing of Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta four months before this episode aired. A security guard discovered the bomb & evacuated the park. He was falsely implicated by the FBI and the media focused on him as the culprit.
• Is there anyone out there who doesn't know about Frank's visions just by looking at him?

• The desire to gain fame through violent acts is even more prevalent today back in 1996. The Isla Vista shootings are a prime example.

• The Unofficial Companion to the show discusses terror attacks on US soil in the 522666 chapter. It makes for an interesting read because it was written several years prior to 9/11 and discusses how suicide bombers have become a rarity.

Screencaps courtesy of Chris Nu.