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Sense and Antisense   Credits   Gallery   Transcript    

"Sense and Antisense" is the third episode of the second season of Millennium.

Synopsis[]

With the help of Peter Watts, Frank uncovers evidence of a conspiracy connected to the Human Genome Project.

Summary[]

Patient Zero (Clarence Williams III) tries to hail a taxi on a busy street, but is continually ignored. He is eventually picked up by Gerome Knox (Ricky Harris), but suffers a seizure in the back of the taxi, raving about a threat against his life. Knox takes him to hospital, where he is diagnosed as a drug addict. Zero is sedated, but becomes agitated when two men enter the hospital lobby; Knox helps him escape, believing his life is in danger. The two men, Wright and Patterson, quarantine the area, as Zero is carrying a highly contagious disease.

Millennium Group member Frank Black (Lance Henriksen) is contacted for help in finding Zero, and travels to a briefing on the situation. It is explained that Zero is carrying a disease ordinarily confined to the Congo. Meanwhile, Zero and Knox are attempting to have a local newspaper run Zero's story, believing he has been infected in a racially motivated conspiracy akin to the Tuskegee syphilis experiment. Police locate and apprehend Zero, who manages to smear blood on Black's shirt.

Black has the blood tested, and finds it free of any pathogen; meanwhile, the government center running the earlier briefing has vanished. Black realizes he was tricked into finding Zero for an ulterior motive, eventually learning that the organisation responsible is carrying out medical experiments on the homeless, and may be tied to the Millennium Group. Elsewhere a homeless man, acting similarly to Zero, attacks two policemen, and is killed in response. Black and fellow Group member Peter Watts (Terry O'Quinn) investigate, but are clearly not welcome. Black manages to obtain a blood sample from the dead man, and finds a stretcher tag which he believes is connected to the United States Department of Energy.

Further examination of the blood of both Zero and the dead man reveal that their condition has been induced through gene therapy. Watts and Black theorize that the DOE is developing a biological weapon which would incite violence and rioting in a targeted population; they learn that the research is being conducted by scientists involved in the Human Genome Project. Later, the body of Knox is found at a nearby morgue. Later, Black and Watts, assisted by local police, raid an office building connected to the project, which they believe is using homeless shelters to test their pathogen. They hope to recover Zero in the raid, but find him cogent and working for the project—his real name is Dr. William Kramer, and he denies any knowledge of the incident. Black believes Kramer was accidentally infected during his work, and finds a photograph in the man's office, showing him in military uniform, taking part in the 1994 Rwandan Genocide.

Background Information[]

Cast and Characters[]

Cast[]

Main Cast

Also Staring

Guest Starring

Featuring

Uncredited

References[]

SEMICOLON-SEPARATED LIST OF ITEMS/LOCATIONS REFERENCED IN EPISODE (BUT NOT LINKED TO IF ALREADY LINKED IN SUMMARY OR GUEST STARS SECTIONS)

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