Robert Bletcher quotes from Millennium

Frank

The killer is confused about his sexuality. He feels guilt, quite possibly from his mother. So he goes to peep shows to try to feel something toward women but all he feels is anger - anger that fuels his psychosis, that distorts and twists his view of reality.

Twists it to fit some screwy French poetry?

Frank

The killer doesn't see the world like everyone else.

Bletcher

How does he see it?

Frank

Differently.

Wait a second. You say this guy is angry at women, that he cruises boys but then he kills this John Doe we found burned in the forest. How does that work?

Frank

He's very confused.

Undoubtedly.

Frank

His way of dealing with it is by fulfilling a prophecy.

I don't buy it.

Uh, it's a good story but I've got to agree. Evidence just doesn't support it.

Frank

I was approached by a group of men who helped me understand the nature of my facility... my gift.

Bletcher

This Millennium Group. They really believe all that stuff? Nostradamus and Revelations? The destruction of the world?

Frank

They believe we can't just sit back and hope for a happy ending.

Bletcher

Tell me how you know. Why are you so sure? You see it, or something.

Frank

It's complicated, Bletch.

Bletcher

What do you see?

Frank

I see what the killer sees.

Bletcher

What, like a psychic?

Frank

No. I put myself in his head. I become the thing we fear the most.

Bletcher

How?

Frank

I become capability. I become the horror--what we know we can become only in our heart of darkness. It's my gift. It's my curse. It's why I retired.

Frank

A controller. Someone calling the shots. Out of caution or distaste, he's chosen to avoid direct action. Now he's found himself a new surrogate.

Someone to carry on the killing.

Frank

Someone predisposed to an alternative theory of justice. Disillusioned, credulous, naïve...

Bletcher

You mean we're looking for two guys now?

Frank

The killer's capable of a high level of violence, probably someone who's been in the justice system once or twice, done time.

Ex-con, moves in similar circles outside. Limited number of places these people go. Limited ways they socialize.

Bletcher

I think I know the kind of places you mean.

Frank

Sit down. What should I call you?

'Judge' is fine. Or the name on the report. My name is 'Legion.'

Frank

'Legion?'

When Jesus of Nazareth expelled demons from a herd of enchanted hogs, story has it that the demons told him their name was 'Legion.' How would you like to work for me?

Frank

Work? You mean killing.

Every man finds his own path to justice. You needn't commit yourself now. The offer's open. A month, a year... Many benefits. I know you're sometimes scared for your family, your wife. There's a child now too, yes?

Frank

When you spoke to Bardale, what did you say to him when he called you from the bar?

Bardale... who can speak to Bardale? A slave of echoes. I can talk to you. We're after the same thing.

Frank

How's that?

I can show you an absolute justice, an unconstrained justice. You'd have freedom to act without fear. Bardale and his kindred... they fear me, they obey me. Your family would be safe from such threats.

Frank

Uh-huh.

The police are about to release me. You and your group of associates have never been as close to me as I've allowed this time. I wanted you to hear my offer, feel its truth, see my strength.

Frank

We're going to find Bardale.

Oh, yes. My congratulations in advance. Well, it's time to go. And remember, the offer's open. And if I'm hard to reach, well, don't make the conventional assumptions.

Bletcher

What'd he say?

Frank

He offered me a job.

Wherein where previous findings indicate the other body parts were all sundered while the victims where alive, but I believe this tongue was removed after death. Also the instrument wasn't as sharp or as skillfully used as in previous excisions.

Bletcher

Would that point to, uh, rage, loss of control?

Doubtful. The cuts aren't unusually forceful, just imprecise. A few false starts, repetitive blade strokes.

Bletcher

Frank?

Frank

We do have a pattern change.

Unlikely to be intentional deviation from the established method.

Bletcher

So how do we account for it?

The victim died prematurely or the killer was interrupted.

The perpetrator may be getting lazy, becoming more casual as his activities lose their novelty.

Bletcher

So it really doesn't tell us much then.

Frank

Well, it tells us that he's less concerned about being discovered but no less dangerous... possibly more so. There's nothing here to indicate that this is going to stop.

Frank

He knew who she was.

Bletcher

Not many housewives make that kind of enemy.

Frank

It's not about her. Killer's rage is directed towards someone else.

Peter

I agree. The stab wounds were brutal but impersonal, clustered well away from her face.

So he knew who she was, but it wasn't about her? And he sliced her up, but it wasn't directed at her?... Hey, I'm just trying to keep up.

Bletcher

So, what we have here is a guy that goes to funerals for fun and kills people.

Plus carves them up.

Bletcher

Does Social Service have a name for that?

Catherine

He's a classic lost child. And there's an army of them just like him... Put up for adoption at one and a half. Never placed... In and out of foster care, reform school, abuse. He essentially raised himself.

Bletcher

Then he didn't do a very good job.

Catherine

They never do. No one showed him how to connect with the world. Odd as this may sound, going to funerals is his attempt.

Attempt at what?

Catherine

Finding human contact. Family.

Family? Please!

Catherine

Read his diary... Decide for yourself... but I'm telling you, at some level, he wants what we all have.

He wants to destroy what we have.

Bletcher

I read once the first two weeks of a kitten's life seal its fate. If it has human contact... it's domestic. If it doesn't... it goes feral.

Catherine

Tough room.

Catherine

You've got to let him see his wife.

Bletcher

I'm not jerking him around here. She was cut up... viciously. All the evidence is under wraps until I get my game plan in order.

Catherine

It won't be real to him until he sees the body.

Bletcher

I seriously doubt that that's the way he wants to remember his wife.

Catherine

Then don't expect his cooperation. It would help to have him on your side.

Bletcher

Oh, I could definitely stand to have someone on my side.

Catherine

Maybe someone else should have picked up the phone when you called our house this morning.

Bletcher

You should have waited for us, damn it.

Frank

She'd be dead now.

Bletcher

He should have waited. You tell him.

Catherine

I know... I know you had to go in there... Because of who you are... Because you had no choice. Frank... I can't lose you.

Frank

I'm not going anywhere.

Catherine

Promise me? I don't want to ask myself 'am I strong enough to be alone?'

Frank

It's okay. Nobody is.

Bletcher

I'm sorry, Frank.

Frank

You saved Helen's life, Bletch. It's your surveillance that forced him into hiding her in his house.