Millennium Monday: Recap of "Maranatha"

With just one more episode to go after this, Frank finds himself facing up against a potential Antichrist. Find out more after the jump in our recap of "Maranatha". 

• Chip Johannessen is back to write his fourth episode for the show.
  
  
• In the director’s chair is Peter Markle who will return once more to Millennium. He also directed “Christmas Carol”, “Alpha”, & “Redrum”.

• We eventually get a reveal on what we’ve been watching during the cold open: Chernobyl. Look out for rogue flukemen!

• Yaponchik is played by Levan Uchaneyshvili. He played John Mostow in “Grotesque”.

• This is possibly the worst CGI explosion I’ve ever seen on TV. And I watch SyFy original movies sometimes.

• The Book of Habakkuk is part of the Old Testament/Tanakh. Habakkuk was one of the twelve Minor Prophets.

• Frank really doesn’t do well with people talking incessantly near him. It’s all he can do to maintain a vague look of interest.

• "Looks like glass."
  "This is hand loads. It's designed to obliterate a face."
  
  Yura is referring to the practice of handloading a gun instead of purchasing ammunition. Handloading is legal in the USA but normally involves making normal bullets, not loading a gun with foreign objects like glass shards.

• The medical examiner is played by Brian Downey. Look out for him again during the second season.

• Andrei is played by Dmitri Boudrine, he appeared in "The Host" as a Russian engineer.

• "It's a smear in the powder burn. What do you make out of it?"
  "It's a mob sign."
  
  Yura isn’t convincing anyone, least of all Frank.

• "Frank, the killer is not in your computer."

• The lounge singer is played by Beverly Pales, this is her one and only TV appearance.

• "The man at the club said the name 'Yaponchik.' You moved in the second he did."
  
  Frank’s hearing is clearly better than mine, I had to watch twice to hear someone shout Yaponchik before the trigger is pulled.

• "Who is Yaponchik?"
  "Who's Dracula? Who's Frankenstein? He's the Russian Bogeyman."
  
  There is no Russian “boogeyman” myth about a character named Yaponchik. The name may well come from the Russian mobster, Vyacheslav Ivankov, whose nickname was Yaponchik. He moved to the USA in 1992 & soon had a gang in Brighton Beach where this episode is set. Ivankov was assassinated in 2009 after being deported back to Russia on murder charges. He was found not guilty.

• I love that Frank has just wandered into this service. He’s as brazen as Mulder ever was in his investigating.

• Not only that but he’s positioned himself on the front row!

• The Twin Towers can briefly be seen off in the distance.

• "Before the Soviet Union broke up, Yura worked with the state security forces at Chernobyl."

• "Are you familiar with Revelation, Chapter 8, Verse 10?"
  "John talking about the apocalypse – bright star falling, brilliant like a torch."
  "The name of the star was Wormwood. One-third of the waters became wormwood and many men died because the water was made bitter. Chernobyl is Ukranian for wormwood."
  
  Not quite. “Chornobyl” is the Ukrainian word for the plant Artemisia vulgaris, wormwood is Artemisia absinthium.

• “I don’t work with assassins.”

• Beautiful lighting here, the light reflecting from the gold in the Icon is illuminating Frank's face.

• "$48 at the museum store. It's a reproduction of the Kazak Theotokos."
  "No, it's real. The label was added."

• "Frank, this guy has diplomatic immunity! You don't go poking him in the face!"
  
  Diplomatic immunity means nothing to people like Frank Black and Fox Mulder. They’re single-minded in their pursuit of truth.

• One way to swear on US network television is to use another language, as Yura does in this scene. Watch Firefly for a masterclass on that technique.

• The poor paramedic who just got the shock of his life is played by Michael Cram, he played Officer Corning in “Unruhe”.

• The E.R. doctor is played by Roger Haskett, he appeared as Deputy Tyson in "Miracle Man" and the coroner in "Travelers".

• "I've watched you chase me. I could have killed you many times. You live because I let you live. Do you understand? You are here to protect me."

• "No! Frank! Don't let me go! No!"

• "What have I done!?"
  
  A quick glimpse of the helicopter as it vanishes reveals the number 666 on the bottom.

• "Gradji skora."

Photos courtesy of Chris Nu.