Catherine Black

Catherine Black
species: Homo sapiens
Social worker
from "Millennium"
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Catherine Black was a regular character on Millennium during its first two seasons. The character was played by Megan Gallagher.

Catherine Black is a clinical social worker, married to Frank Black, and mother of their young daughter Jordan. She is twenty years younger than her husband (judging by Gallagher and Henriksen's ages), but their relationship is one of mutual love, respect and understanding, and the age difference never appears as a factor of exploitation, since Catherine's character is portrayed as mature as Frank's.

Although the opening credits of Millennium listed Megan Gallagher as the second of its only two regular characters for the first two seasons, Catherine Black was much less important to the plot of most episodes than her husband. She appeared mainly in her capacity as Frank's wife and co-parent, remaining at home while he travelled for his work and conducted his investigations, thus following gendered narrative conventions and espousing the concomitant sexism, inasmuch as Catherine was also objectified, to serve as Frank's motivation within the framework of the series, and particularly in some episodes. (Though the character of Catherine was usually no more sexualised than Frank.)

A few episodes featured Catherine acting as a professional, offering counseling to traumatised victims, and only one, "Anamnesis", starred Catherine alone, without Frank.

Both Catherine and Frank tried to make their yellow house a haven of goodness in a world they knew to be dark and dangerous, but this symbol was repeatedly invaded by evil, and their marriage suffered from severe difficulties, leading to a separation in season 2, although they never considered divorce, and continued to share parental responsabilities for their daughter.

The end of Season 1 cliffhanger put Catherine in jeopardy, when a stalker who had been sending Frank threatening Polaroid photos of Catherine (taken without her knowledge) kidnapped her. She was drugged and held in captivity by this kidnapper during the first episode of Season 2, while Frank tried to locate her. The Polaroid Man hung Catherine from a basement ceiling by her arms and psychologically tormented her, making her believe he had also kidnapped her daughter. Frank was able to find Catherine and rescue her, but he killed the kidnapper quite brutally in the process, stabbing him repeatedly in front of her.

These events lead to the separation of Frank and Catherine for the rest of the season, and both of them move out of their symbolic yellow house, and try slowly to come to terms with each other again. But Frank's involvement with the Millennium Group drives them further apart: the Group's secrets and Frank's sacrifices for his family excluding Catherine, and putting them both at risk.

In the first episode of the two-part Season 2 finale, Frank and Catherine finally return together to the yellow house, following Frank's decision to quit the Group, whose cult-like tendencies he can no longer tolerate.

But this reunion coincides with the outbreak of a deadly disease, which turns into a lethal, rapidly-spreading pandemic, and so Catherine, Frank and Jordan flee to an isolated cabin in the mountains. Although Frank had been inoculated against this disease by the Millennium Group, they only had one other dose of the rare vaccine, given to Frank by Lara Means. Catherine and Frank make the decision to give the vaccine to Jordan.

When she wakes up in the middle of the night with symptoms of the disease, Catherine chooses to leave the cabin and die alone in the woods, so that her daughter will not witness her death.

From the Millennial Abyss page for this episode ("The Time Is Now"):

Uncertain whether or not Millennium would return in the fall, Morgan and Wong discussed a variety of possible endings with series creator Chris Carter. Carter's suggestion, that Catherine Black be killed during the climax, took the two by surprise. After considering the choice, however, Morgan came to realize how meaningful the death might be for the series. The writers discussed the decision with actress Megan Gallagher, who agreed. Morgan explains, "I told her the neat part will be that after Frank Black has done so much sacrificing for his family, ultimately it will be Catherine who makes the ultimate sacrifice. She liked that. So, that had a big part in the decision to kill Catherine."