The essential episodes of Millennium

Watch these 15 in order and you've got Millennium — each pick states its reason.

1. 01

   S01E01 · Pilot · October 25, 1996 · 1h

   Pilot9.2

   Frank Black a retired police consultant, who once worked for the FBI has just returned to his hometown with his wife and daughter. He decides to offer his support in a case and is given resources by a mysterious organization called the Millennium Group. Frank must catch the murderer with his ability to see out of the eyes of the killers. But this case draws him back into a world which he was trying to escape. But will Frank be able to save the latest victim in time before it is too late?

2. 02

   S01E11 · Top rated · January 24, 1997 · 1h

   Weeds9.3

   Frank pursues a killer who kidnaps teenagers from an upper middle-class neighborhood and forces them to drink human blood. After one is killed and the other is returned home unharmed because his father admitted to making a mistake, Frank is forced to set up a trap to capture the killer before he can harm the third victim.

3. 03

   S01E18 · Top rated · April 18, 1997 · 1h

   Lamentation9.3

   Frank investigates when he is called in by the Millennium Group to assist them in tracking down an escaped serial killer that Frank helped put behind bars years ago. The killer, Dr. Ephraim Fabricant, was abducted from a hospital while donating a kidney to his dying sister. But during the search, Frank comes face-to-face with an even more terrifying enemy which terrorizes his family.

4. 04

   S01E19 · Top rated · April 25, 1997 · 1h

   Powers, Principalities, Thrones and Dominions9.3

   Frank is drawn into a murder investigation based around Satanic murders that somehow involve a mysterious attorney and a man who claims to be Bob Bletcher's killer. While on the case the Millennium Group get caught in a battle between good and evil.

5. 05

   S01E20 · Top rated · May 2, 1997 · 1h

   Broken World9.3

   Frank is called in to investigate the kidnapping of the owner of a horse-farm. Frank then hunts down a serial-killer-in-the-making who takes pleasure in slaughtering horses, but Frank fears that horses may only be the beginning.

6. 06

   S01E22 · Season 1 peak · May 16, 1997 · 1h

   Paper Dove9.8

   While visiting Catherine's family in Virginia, Frank is asked to help clear the name of a man accused of killing his wife. To his surprise, however, Frank finds that the situation hits closer to home than he initially thought.

7. 07

   S02E01 · Top rated · September 19, 1997 · 1h

   The Beginning & The End9.3

   When the Polaroid Man abducts Catherine at the airport, Frank is left to try and find her whereabouts. Watts arrives with some of the Millennium Group members and offers to help him track down his wife, and also offers Frank the chance to become a full member of the Group. Meanwhile, Frank must rely on his visions to track down the Polaroid Man when his profiling skills fail to help him find the Polaroid Man.

8. 08

   S02E07 · Top rated · November 7, 1997 · 1h

   19:199.3

   Frank and Peter help in the search for a bus load of school children. When they mysteriously vanish, they soon work out that the children have been kidnapped by a man who believes that World War III has just begun.

9. 09

   S02E13 · Season 2 peak · February 6, 1998 · 1h

   The Mikado9.5

   After three teenagers accidentally witness a real-life murder on the internet, so begins the hunt for the killer to stop his crimes. Roedecker helps Frank and Peter mount a national search for the felon, that may be the infamous Avatar killer from the 1980's. One who Frank knows well from his work in trying to catch the killer in the 1980's.

10. 10

    S02E14 · Top rated · February 27, 1998 · 1h

    The Pest House9.3

    When a murder, half-based on an urban legend, comes to the attention of the Millennium Group. Peter and Frank travel to the local psychiatric hospital to interview the inmates, but according to Dr. Stoller, the patients would have been unable to commit the murders. The murders continue, each one different to the last, but all matching various patients' modus operandi...

11. 11

    S02E20 · Top rated · April 24, 1998 · 1h

    A Room with No View9.3

    When Frank and Peter help track down Landon Brice, an ordinary teenager who recently went missing, they believe that the boy was abducted. But the investigation brings Frank to believe that Lucy Butler (the prime suspect in the murder of his friend Bob Bletcher) is behind an entire series of abductions so he sets out on a mission to avenge Bob's death.

12. 12

    S02E22 · Top rated · May 8, 1998 · 1h

    The Fourth Horseman9.5

    Frank and Peter are quarantined after they come in contact with an unknown pathogen which has caused several people to die. Meanwhile Jordan experiences a terrifying nightmare and Lara Means disappears under mysterious circumstances.

13. 13

    S02E23 · Top rated · May 15, 1998 · 1h

    The Time is Now9.5

    Frank continues his study of a bizarre, but extremely fatal disease as it continues to spread throughout the world. Frank also learns that he has been vaccinated for the disease and he undertakes an investigation into the Millennium Group that may cost him his life. But he finds that his wife and child, however, have not been vaccinated for the disease and that soon their life's may be at risk....

14. 14

    S03E13 · Season 3 peak · February 12, 1999 · 1h

    Antipas9.3

    Frank discovers a connection between the murder of a federal prosecutor, a gubernatorial candidate with a frail daughter... and the evil Lucy Butler who appears to have returned to torment Frank.

15. 15

    S03E22 · Series finale · May 21, 1999 · 1h

    Goodbye to All That8.6

    In the aftermath of the explosion, Frank continues his pursuit of the copycat serial killer, while Peter Watts offers Emma Hollis an opportunity to join the Millennium Group. Will Emma join? How far will Frank go? And how will it all end?