Have Yourself a Very X-Files New Year, With a Side of Zombies

Millennium was a Fox show created by Chris Carter, but it failed to achieve the same pop-culture heights as The X-Files, and was canceled in 1999. The episode features a guest-starring appearance by Millennium's lead character, Frank Black, who gets someclosure for his storyline as a result, though it feels a bit shoehorned into what's otherwise fairly

A former FBI agent dies as a result of suicide, which is the fourth such incident in a short period of time. After each man's grave is vandalized, the bureau flags each case. It's called grave robbing with a twist by the agent. The usual eye-rolls and paper-shuffling are not required when he elaborates on this cemetery funny business. It is a form of magic that has been around for a long time in the Christian church. The dead are brought back to life for the purpose of divulging knowledge and performing rituals.

The Millennium Group fell into disrepute after it became clear they were involved in a cult. They are up to something. After a bumpy ride through Millennium, Frank Black checked in to the psychiatric hospital where he is currently being cared for. His Millennium Group escapades led to the death of his wife, and when he is found, he is in a custody battle with his former in-laws over his daughter. He won't look at the case file they have before him.

With New Year's Eve inching closer, it's become clear that there's a doomsday plot afoot and it involves zombies. The necromancer is a man who performs ceremonies, digs up the bodies, and whispers the Book of Revelation under his breath. He was on schedule until he was forced to turn one of his zombies on a cop who had the misfortune to detect a human corpse in the back of his truck.

Both of the show's main characters have their own close encounters. He was dead and then he wasn't. This particular strain of shambling corpse won't transform attack victims unless they die as a result. They do, however, give in to the temptation to get hit. When it matters, Frank Black will step up and give the agents a profile of the necromancer so accurate it is not really a surprise when we realize he knows who the agents are looking for. He knows that the Millennium Group is at stake and that he will help prevent a zombie apocalypse.

Fans of Millennium might have been hoping for another season of the show to wrap things up, but at least they got to see Frank and his daughter in a moment that is sweet even without the context of three different TV series. Millennium was directed by Thomas J. Wright and co-written by Vince Gilligan, who went on to create Better Call Saul. The final seconds of the episode are even sweeter, as the two agents share a kiss on New Year's Eve. The world didn't end, they realize, and whether they meant 2000 continued without an undead uprising, or planet Earth kept revolving even after the couple had a romantic lip-lock.

The X-Files can be watched on the internet.

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