Weeds (Millennium)

"Weeds" was Spotnitz's writing début for the series, and saw the return of recurring guest star C. C. H. Pounder, whose appearance received some critical appreciation.

Sheriff Paul Gerlach (Ryan Cutrona) seeks the aid of the Millennium Group, who dispatch profiler Frank Black (Lance Henriksen) and pathologist Cheryl Andrews (C. C. H. Pounder) to help the investigation.

When Birckenbuehl's son Charlie is kidnapped from his bedroom, Black and Andrews discover that his goldfish had been poisoned with whiskey, which they believe to be another message similar to Comstock's number.

[2] Spotnitz was a prolific writer for Millennium's sister show The X-Files, receiving his first writing credit for that series for the episode "End Game".

[5][6][7] Terry David Mulligan, who played Bob Birckenbuehl, would go on to appear in the third season episode "Collateral Damage", in an unrelated role;[8] while Ryan Cutrona, who portrayed the town's sheriff Paul Gerlach, would later be cast in The X-Files' ninth season opening episode, "Nothing Important Happened Today", which was written by Spotnitz and Millennium creator Chris Carter.

[14] "Weeds" was first broadcast on the Fox Network on January 24, 1997;[15] and earned a Nielsen rating of 7.6, meaning that roughly 7.6 percent of all television-equipped households were tuned in to the episode.

Robert Shearman and Lars Pearson, in their book Wanting to Believe: A Critical Guide to The X-Files, Millennium & The Lone Gunmen, rated the episode three stars out of five, describing it as "a portrait of a community in fear" that "simmers with recrimination and vigilantism".

However, Shearman and Pearson felt that the individual characters lacked personality, as Spotnitz's script "spends a lot of time introducing figures as potential suspects rather than giving a great deal of depth to any of them".

However, Handlen praised C. C. H. Pounder's guest role, finding that she "manages to put herself across quite well" despite the difficulty of standing out amidst the series' sombre tone.