Writers James Wong and Glen Morgan pit Frank Black (Lance Henriksen) and the Millennium Group against a serial bomber in 5-2-2-6-6-6 (which entered into a phone pad spells K-A-B-O-O-M), which first aired on 22 November, 1996.

Raymond Dees (Joe Chrest) is a bomber, there is sexual transference involved, as well as the desire to be what he calls a star. He and Frank engage in a bit of cat and mouse as Black travels to Washington to investigate a pub bombing.

With Peter Watts (Terry O’Quinn) at his side, and Agent Jack Pierson (Sam Anderson) running the task force, Frank is determined to stop Dees, who in turn seems set on inserting himself into the media narrative of the bombs, and making himself a hero in the eyes of the public.

Even as Dees attempts to control every aspect of the story, Black starts working away at him, even as he’s injured in one of the attacks, drawing his wife, Cathy (Megan Gallagher) to his side, where she learns even more about the darkness that he confronts on an almost daily basis.

Much like the episodes that have preceded it, this one is dark, and like all of them so far, seem even more relevant in today’s times. I have always dug Henriksen, and I think, it could be argued, that Frank Black is one of his greatest characters.

I like that the series tries to ground a lot of the series in actual profiling and procedure, even if its dark and terrible. I know the show has a couple of supernatural elements on occasion, but these episodes, the ones that eschew those paranormal parts are dark, troubling and terrific.

Kingdom Come written by Jorge Zamacona and first broadcast on 29 November, 1996 sees Frank pursuing a killer who seems to have a focus on members of the clergy even as he and Catherine are figuring how to deal with the big questions about life being asked by their daughter Jordan (Brittany Tiplady), caused by a bird flying into a window of their house and dying.

When a priest is burnt at the stake Frank is called in and paired up with an old work partner, Ardis Cohen (Lindsay Crouse) and they both see connections to killings from an almost decade earlier. As they investigate, Galen Calloway (Micheal Zelniker) continues his spree with carefully selected victims, and a series of ritualised deaths.

Frank begins to see more connections between the killer and his victims than Ardis does, and is able to figure out exactly what is motivating Galen, and trusting to his instincts, in the episode’s climax, puts himself in harms way as he enters a church to be held hostage while confronting, and attempting to talk Galen down.

There is a nice commentary on faith here, as well as some nice scenes of seeing how Frank and Cathy parent Jordan, and what they say to her about the nature of the world. Counterbalances.

It’s a solid episode, but the casework continues next week with Millennium!