AIR DATE:  April 18, 1999
Teleplay by Chris Carter
Story by John Shiban and Frank Spotnitz
Directed by Kim Manners

	Can there ever be a Scully episode were she isn't some kind of
victim?  "Milagro" was an average X-Files episode that could have used
Scully not acting so stupidly at times while at other times acting like
her normal self.  The episode wasn't helped by Chris Carter's heavy handed
script (boy, you can always tell when he writes an episode) though at
least this time he was able to hide behind a hack writer.  Of course, we
could excuse some of the actions as being the imagination of Phillip
Padgett on why Scully, who must have never heard of the word stalker,
would go into Padgett's apartment alone, then go into his bedroom.  It is
this scene that made it hard to believe the episode because it seemed as
though the plot was running the character so Scully would act illogically
when she goes into Padgett's room.  Whereas when she went out with Jerse
in "Never Again" he at least didn't seem like a weirdo, but Padgett had
weirdo written all over him from his wide eyed look to his choice of
words.  Scully of old would have been far more cautious than she was in
this episode, but where would the fun be in that if she acted more
suspicious of Padgettt though we can guess she was curious about him.  But
the second Padgett said to her that he tried to move into her apartment
building and when he couldn't he moved next door to her partner she should
have been thinking of getting out of his apartment. 

	This episode didn't feel right.  It feels as if it should have
been better than it turned out to be instead of making Scully a victim
then having Padgett say Scully loves another, indicating Mulder, was just
another way of jerking our chains about their relationship.  It is times
like these which make me long for the good old days of their relationship
when there was some real sexual tension between them instead of this fake
sexual tension.  Otherwise, it was a fine episode with an interesting
premise (though not a new one) of a writer who imagines things that end up
really happening.  The conversation between Padgett and his imaginary Ken
Naciamento was good in trying to explain to us more deeply what motivates
Padgett beyond Scully.  As it is with tv and movies this was the same
thing Scully and Mulder were talking about earlier in the episode.  Scully
says if you find out the motive then you can find the murderer.  Little
did she know she was the motive.  Unfortunately Padgett was a weirdo and
had to die in the end so we will never know what his true motive was
beyond Scully and maybe Carter didn't know either. 

	A few comments on "Milagro":

- Was this the ultimate tribute to all the writers who have had writer's
block when we see in the opening teaser Padgett walking around his room or
staring at his wall with his notes tacked up on the wall.  The best part
was when we see Padgett sticking the glass up against the wall trying to
hear into Mulder's apartment. 

- I never thought about it, but the best way to get rid of heartburn would
be to take out you heart for a bit to let it air out.  Now I know the
reason they showed Padgett taking his heart out was to show us that he has
this ability, but as a friend of mine pointed out how was he able to get
it back in and why did Scully have any blood if she survived the attack
and how much was she hurt.

- Another way to make us think of "Never Again" was having an incinerator
in Mulder's apartment basement.  I still can't believe with environmental
laws that an apartment building would have such a thing that would allow
anyone to burn what they want. 

- When exactly did Mulder spit and rinse after he answered the door with a
toothbrush and toothpaste in his mouth?  All I saw was him letting in
Scully, then we see him shut the door and going to his couch to talk to
Scully with his mouth fully clean.  I suppose he must have swallowed it. 
Yuck. 

- I'm not even going to get into how doubtful that for all the years
Mulder has lived there it would be that easy for anyone to hear what is
going on in his apartment by listening through a ventilation grate.  This
would explain why the apartment was free for Padgett to rent since I'm
sure people leave that apartment all the time.  I'm going to say it again
I cannot believe Mulder hasn't been kicked out of his apartment because
now we can add a person pulling out his heart in the basement to a number
of things that have happened in Mulder's apartment building.  Maybe that
could be the last episode of the season where Mulder gets kicked out of
his apartment and the whole episode is Scully and Mulder trying to find an
apartment that he can afford on an F.B.I. salary.  It can be called "The
Search".

- The voiceover of Padgett didn't work in this episode because it really
exposed Chris Carter's heavy handed writing abilities.  It just came out
of nowhere and it was the first time we heard his voice so it took a
second to figure out whose voice we were hearing.  Sometimes it is best to
leave the voiceovers out though it was the only way to tell us that
Padgett was writing about Scully.  It did make it difficult sometimes to
know what was real and what was going through Padgett's head.

- I love F.B.I. security when they would take an unmarked envelope without
making sure there wasn't anything wrong with then take the time to bring
it down to the basement and slip it under the door for Scully.  Who knew
it was so easy to drop things off at the F.B.I..  What does this episode
say about the Scully's office/desk situation?  We see Scully come into the
X-Files office and answer the phone by saying Scully.  If the envelope was
for Scully why would someone have slipped it under the X-Files office if
she had an office somewhere else in the building.  This is the biggest
X-File of them all.  Does Scully have an office somewhere else in the
building and if she doesn't why doesn't she have a desk and a nameplate on
the door?

- What was with Scully's attitude when Mulder said he scheduled a time to
do the autopsy?  Didn't she expect him to do it?  Well, maybe next time he
should say it nicer.

- I have to admit I did like how they used the Catholic painting to tell
us the story of the ripped out heart and where Padgett got the idea. 

- Hey, can I get one of those government preferred parking stickers so
whenever I get to the University late I don't have to drive around for an
hour trying to find a parking space.  Gee, here I always thought it was tv
parking.

- Mulder was in full force breaking the law.  First he breaks the law by
opening up Padgett's mail then he busts into Padgett's apartment with his
gun drawn and he arrests him on no evidence other than everyone who had
died had put a classified ad in the DC Muse.  Can we say false arrest? 

- Boy, Padgett sure has written a big book, I guess if you are going to
write the great American novel you might as well go big. 

- I'm not going to make any comments this week on Duchovny and shades. 
Also, wouldn't it have been easier for Mulder to have gone up to the
cemetery worker instead of pulling out his gun and tackling him. 

- I loved it when Mulder twisted Scully around in the hallway when she
started to say that Padgett might be able to make these things happen by
imagining it and Mulder did this to prove a point to Scully so that she
could hear herself starting to sound like him. 

- We get the classic Scully is left behind as we see her taking her time
putting her boots on so that Mulder goes off without her.  Also, wasn't it
kind of nervy of Mulder to claim that Padgett was destroying evidence when
they gave the book back to him so he could pretty much do with it what he
wants with it.

	"Milagro" makes me think of how on Star Trek getting married
almost always means death or the old Cartwright syndrome so that in the
X-Files whenever one of the main characters even thinks about sex or going
out with someone it means death or some terrible thing happening to the
other person.  It would have been a better episode if they didn't do the
Scully as a victim routine again where we see she is almost killed at the
end.  The ending of her crying in Mulder's arms did not have the same
effect as it did in "Irresistible".  In "Irresistible" there was a
believable build up to Scully crying in Mulder's arms whereas in "Milagro" 
there wasn't any of this because it seemed too pat an ending. 


Claudia
E-Mail:  Claudia.Cauchon@unh.edu

4/20/99

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