#4: Symbolism

Reading Log:
Millennium (1996) Season 1, Episode 2, Gehenna

Plot Summary:
Ex-FBI agent Frank Black, now a member of the Millennium Group, works on a case involving a cult in San Francisco that lures people into working in a call centre. The catch is that they have been dying at an alarming rate, their ashes turning up in a city park. Frank eventually uncovers the crime behind the call centre front: weapons trafficking. However, Frank is unable to catch the killer, and the circumstances around the deaths remain mysterious. They do find out that the victims had been microwaved in an industrial microwave.

Symbolism:
Millennium is a wealth of symbolism. Each episode begins with a quote, often a biblical passage. As brought up in the episode, "Gehenna" is the Hebrew Hell. The story suggests that the victims were lured into this hell with promises of wealth. This concept establishes the idea of evil as a disembodied, non-physical force that roams the Earth. And although there may be scapegoats of evil that we can arrest and imprison, we can never really destroy evil.