Season 3: Episode 16: "Saturn Dreaming of Mercury"

Written by Chip Johannessen and Jordan Hawley

Directed by Paul Shapiro

Airdate: April 9, 1999

Guest Star: Michael Bofshever (Will Sanderson); Dillon Moen (Lucas Sanderson)

Demons, both literal and metaphorical, continue to haunt Frank Black despite everything he's been through. Throughout Millennium's third season Frank struggles with being a single father, realizing Jordan is not only getting older but also shares his gift. "Saturn Dreaming of Mercury" effectively plays upon those anxieties and features some truly frightening moments. 

The episode begins with Frank training Jordan how to ride her bicycle, a childhood rite of passage. When new neighbors move in next door, Jordan seems fixated on the boy Lucas. She has frightening visions of the new house and speaks of her imaginary friend Simon. At school. Jordan is accused of attacking Lucas. at one point biting him. While Frank is upset about Jordan acting out of character, he also discovers strange things about the new neighbors that may account for her behavior. 

Frank discovers Lucas was adopted by the Sandersons, as Jordan begins to see demonic faces. A connection is also made to the murder of a pregnant woman in Phoenix, the city the Sandersons moved from. When the Sandersons are visited by a Welcome committee, we discover a collection of eyes in their home. Upon leaving, the mother and son in the welcoming committee are in a car accident. Jordan is led to the Sanderson's basement and finds a terrifying boiler, shades of Nightmare on Elm Street, and supposedly attacks Will with scissors. Frank visits the basement and has a dreamlike vision of a demonic attack; he wakes up and escapes the house as its burning. As Frank and Jordan watch the engulfed house, they witness Lucas transform into Lucy Butler - she was manipulating everything. 

Johannessen and Hawley leaned into horror in their fever dream of a script - topped off with a terrifying basement! At the end of 'Antipas" Lucy threatened Jordan and this episode - and threat was not empty. The story also tapped into the loneliness Frank feels and the absence of Catherine, leaving him and Jordan more vulnerable than ever. Hollis plays a peripheral role in the plot, her frustration with Frank's mysterious methods boils over in the final scene. There's a melancholy atmosphere to the episode, even overriding all the horror elements, Frank's been trying to find refuge from his past and despite all his best efforts he cannot escape it. But they survive another day.