Paper Dove

The episode's central antagonist is based on a composite of several real life murderers, including Edmund Kemper and Jeffrey Dahmer.

Catherine's father, Tom Miller (Ken Pogue), tells Black about two friends whose son, Malcolm Hunziger, was convicted of killing his wife.

His knowledge of offender profiling leads him to believe that Malcolm is innocent; however, the conviction was secured with a substantial level of physical evidence.

Black and several former FBI colleagues decide to taunt the killer into coming forward, giving a press release describing him as cowardly.

Police arrive at Dion's home to arrest him, finding him sitting, covered in blood, on the kitchen floor beside his mother's body.

[5] "Paper Dove" was Mann's last script for the series, having penned three others earlier in the season; the episode was also the only one to have been written by Green.

[14] "Carter was always obviously inspired by the works of David Lynch and Twin Peaks, in particular, and this episode feels like the most pure homage yet, particularly in the moments where Dion and his mother share screentime".

VanDerWerff felt that "Paper Dove" represented "the deepest the show has pulled us into a killer’s subconscious", making it "one of the most bone-chilling episodes Millennium has come up with so far".

VanDerWerff compared elements of the episode, most notably the relationship between the character of Henry Dion and his mother, to the works of filmmaker David Lynch, particularly his television series Twin Peaks.

[18] Robert Shearman and Lars Pearson, in their book Wanting to Believe: A Critical Guide to The X-Files, Millennium & The Lone Gunmen, rated "Paper Dove" four stars out of five.

Shearman felt that the series found a comfortable "tonal nuance" in the episode that worked for it, but felt that by the end of the first season none of the supporting cast had been developed well enough to play against Henriksen's Frank Black, noting "there are half a dozen actors who could be termed regulars ... but without exception they remain functional ciphers".