"I was raised a Catholic. I have a certain familiarity with the 
scripture, and God never lets the devil steal the show."

The X-Files plays their religion card in a significant manner 
for the first time in the Gordon and Carter penned "Miracle Man" 
with mixed results. While being careful not to offend, the script 
skitters randomly between the profound and the self-indulgent (as 
is often the case when Carter explores religion). For instance, 
while I find this early episode refreshing in the fact that they 
did not feel so hamstrung to clearly delineate between themes in 
the mythology episodes and the monster of the week variety (thus 
allowing for more continuity), the inclusion of the visions of 
Mulder's sister just seemed so heavy handed and out of place. I'd 
have much rather kept in the conversations about Samantha between 
the two men and ditched the overly dramatic Mulder visions of 
her - especially that last one which was a groaner complete with 
bad "looking for miracles" dialogue. I think they also falter in 
their attempt to obfuscate whether or not Samuel was indeed divine 
by tossing in a glowing risen from the dead apparition instead of 
something more subtle which could have been more easily mistaken 
for Vance's guilty conscience.

One of the things I most enjoyed about this episode (especially 
in retrospect) was the dichotomy between Samuel's and Scully's 
faith. The defining moment for me was the exchange "God has given 
me a special gift"/"Did he buy you all that jewelry too?" between 
the two of them. Indeed, Samuel's faith is based on pride. He 
hides stigmata amongst the gold adorning his hands. Even when 
he is convinced that God is punishing him he reacts in a self 
indulgent manner complete with drinking and fighting and the 
unwavering knowledge that he is once again RIGHT in his proclamation 
that he has been wrong. Scott Bairstow did a fabulous job of 
bringing a real depth of pain to Samuel and convinces us that 
right or wrong he believes everything he says with a fierce 
conviction. Scully, on the other hand, has always approached 
her faith with an internal strength but a questioning and humble 
nature when faced with spiritual crisis. She sincerely tells us 
that she does not doubt the power of God, but does doubt the 
veracity of the claims of this messed up messenger. I like the 
idea that she has enough faith to wonder if she is wrong about 
things, while Samuel proclaims to always know the truth even 
when he is wrong. We also see in this early version of Scully 
all the markers of the compassion we are familiar with, from 
handling the crowd of mourners with respect, to convincing the 
grieving parents to allow an autopsy, to kindly acknowledging 
the Reverend's loss.

As far as the other supporting performers were concerned, I 
was less impressed. I found R.D. Call's Sheriff to be rather 
one note - it seemed every time the camera lingered on his face 
he had the same expression struggling to get out. George Gerdes 
as the Rev. Hartley went to the stereotypical southern preacher 
well too often for me with his drawled out "Gaaaawwwwwddd" or 
"Heeeeaaaaalll" and was better in the quieter moments. I imagine 
acting under those dark glasses and makeup was a challenge for 
Dennis Lipscomb as Leonard Vance, but by the time we got to his 
dramatic death scene I just found it comical.

There was a real freshness to the interplay between Mulder and 
Scully in this episode that gave their interactions depth. It's 
nice to see them without the weight of years of disagreements 
when they played and parlayed off each other's ideas and theories. 
The ease with which Scully introduces and Mulder jumps on the 
case mixed nicely with the irreverent humor Mulder always tossed 
at her early on. These were the days when Scully would even crack 
a sly smile at Mulder's comments or come back with a joke of her 
own. I especially liked the scene at the motel where they 
discussed the case obviously rejuvenated rather than discouraged 
by the opposing ideas - each building off the other, conceding 
points and questioning. I miss that type of interaction between 
them. There is also a pervading kindness in their interaction. 
Scully clearly is uncomfortable with Samuel playing the sister 
card with Mulder and it's effect on him, and when she brings 
this up to Mulder it is in one of those delightful and intense 
whispered conversations over the power of suggestion. Duchovny 
and Anderson expertly reel the audience into this moment as only 
they can, leaving us as interested in their chemistry as what 
they are actually saying.

>From a technical standpoint this episode had its ups and downs. 
Director Michael Lange conspired with the always wonderful John 
Bartley to give us a few cool atmospheric shots. Most notable 
were the graveyard scene where the candle vigil emerges from 
the fog, the shadowed crucifixion beating in the jail, and the 
slightly slow-mo shot of the badly burnt hand grasping young 
Samuel's in the teaser. From an editing perspective, I was less 
than impressed mostly because it became so obvious that all the 
tent scenes on the three different days were shot at the same 
time. Close-ups of the same extras sitting in the same places 
wearing the same clothes were used for different revival meetings 
and you can even clearly see the woman who later dies sitting in 
the front row at an earlier prayer meeting. In combination with 
the fact that they did not even bother to change Rev. Hartley's 
costume (he has a car for every day of the week complete with 
cheesy plates like "B HEALD" and only two suits?) either of the 
three times made for an episode that looked like it was skimping 
on the production budget.

If you can get past the Carter/Gordon three ring revival, what 
saves this episode, and makes it one I do enjoy re-watching are 
the subtleties of character. As for the overdone parts, I'll 
just explain that as a "trick of the devil".

Random Musings
--------------

-Retread Alert: They were not retreads when it first aired, 
but "Miracle Man" may hold the distinction of being the 
episode with the most actors reused later. Almost all of the 
players with smaller parts are seen again. The hardest one I 
had placing was the man who played Judge Hamish Purdy (what a 
name!) who shows up again in "Unruhe". You'll find re-watching 
this episode like a who's who of Vancouver players.

-Date Stamp: From Scully's autopsy 11:21pm on March 7, 1994.

-The episode takes place in "Kenwood, Tennessee" and "Kenwood 
County". While there is a Kenwood in the Clarksville area, it 
is in Montgomery County. 

-I especially enjoyed the fact that during a shot of the 
courthouse where you could read "DeKalb County Courthouse" 
(which is in Tennessee) they subtitled it "Kenwood County 
Courthouse".

-That woman in the video looked more like she was suffering 
from tragically three tone hair rather than a tumor. She would 
have been better off letting Miss Clairol "heal" her affliction.

-If Samuel had indeed been healing people in this way for ten 
years as the episode suggests, I think he'd have a much bigger 
congregation and people coming from a bit further than 
"pen-see-cola" Florida to witness the "Miracle Ministry". 
Maybe even his own "Heal Along With Hartley Hour" on TV.

-Well, in the tie war competition sadly Mulder once again 
loses even though a few of his choices did make it seem like 
he dresses in the dark. The Rev. Hartley and his passion for 
pink and purple was much more frightening.

-"Come as you are... leave as you always wanted to be." I 
hardly think that those people always wanted to be adorned in 
those hideous Miracle Ministry trinkets. The baseball caps 
were just plain ugly and the T-shirts were the cheap transfer 
variety. It's obvious we are leading up to...

-Frank's Fashion Spot: it's hit and miss in Scullywear in this 
early episode. Scully, firmly in her hair flip phase, looks 
fetching in her tan double breasted suit (well she almost always 
looks fetching in a double breasted suit), but strikes out with 
what I like to call her "Halloween outfit" of the orange top and 
black suit. Here's a hint: orange shirt + red hair = scary for 
everyone. She also wears that long black vest with the 
wide-collared-big-buttoned shirt underneath for I believe the 
first time this episode. Pity it was not the last.

-When Samuel says "just as I can see the pain on this man" I 
always want to say "No, that's just an unruly cowlick."

-The courtroom plague is pretty entertaining. When the first 
bug lands on Scully she sort of just stares at it with 
scientific detachment before swatting aimlessly at nothing 
around her head.

-I loved the juxtaposition of Mulder reading from the Bible 
to Scully as she stares at a grasshopper.

-Bad dialogue award: Goes to the exchange where Mulder says 
he saw a girl outside.
	Scully: "Who, Jessica Hahn?"
	Mulder: "A little girl."
Oh the stupid joke, sniff, the Mulder angst. Puhleaze.

-Scariest extra: That twitching girl with glasses that they 
kept cutting to in the revival scenes.

-Yet another fumble on the "Doctor" Scully front. You've got 
to love the way she pushes through the crowd just so she can 
do her three favorite things: Ask for an ambulance, check a 
nonexistent pulse to proclaim someone dead, and totally neglect 
CPR. No wonder she's a pathologist.

-Speaking of that, this episode still has one of my all time 
favorite Scully autopsy shots as we hear the ssshhhhrrrrpp of 
Y-Incision!Scully and she sharpens that huge slice and dice 
knife.

-We also get Queasy!Mulder as Scully tosses internal organs 
around asking "do I have to?" in response to her attempt to 
get him to look at a lung.

-I guess the little girl who plays Samantha in this episode 
is best seen and not heard since they tossed her out for 
another actress as soon as they needed a speaking Samantha.

-It seemed like in the first season Mulder was munching down 
on seeds almost every episode and now they're a rare occurrence.

-Scully's penchant for horror films also makes an appearance 
here when we learn "The Exorcist" is one of her favorite movies. 
I've always found this an interesting character quirk.

-The notion that Mulder travels with a picture of Samantha by 
his bed is another example of where this episode went too far 
for a point.

-One of my favorite playful moments: Mulder and Scully 
investigate the courthouse. Scully asks what they are 
looking for to which Mulder replies "Clues". Take a look at 
the sarcasm on her face as she mocks surprise before they cut 
away inexplicably for a shot of Mulder's back.

Autumn
"Apparently miracles don't come cheap."