SIGNS AND WONDERS

AIR DATE: January 23, 2000
Written by Jeffrey Bell
Directed by Kim Manners

        I hope the people at 1013 made a New Year’s resolution to stop doing any X-Files episodes that have any religious themes because each time they fail to get beyond the stereotype image of the religion and the people who believe especially the ones who truly believe with all their hearts in God. I keep asking myself is it just me that I’ve become bored with the show or has the writing truly become uninspiring and they have no new ideas. I have to say it is the latter because these past 3 episodes have just been awful. Two weeks ago in "Orison" we have Scully shooting an escaped prisoner in cold blood, then the writers trying to get out of having Scully acting unScully-like by trying to weasel out of it by saying either the Devil or God was controlling Scully. Last week’s episode we get no follow up to "Orison", instead we get a weak version of "Colombo" where two magicians try to pull a fast one on Scully and Mulder. This week we get another variation of the old Good Vs. Evil deal with both the Devil and God fighting over Scully and Mulder’s faith. Or something like that, I just didn’t care because no one was believable. It didn’t take long to figure out that Rev. Mackey was involved in it somehow or that Enoch O’Connor was only the typical religious fruit cake and not the murderer of Jared Chirp. Good writing and a good plot can go a long way to make an episode such as "Signs and Wonders" into a decent episode instead of this tripe.

        There’s even less to write about this episode than last week’s episode so let’s go straight to the comments on "Signs and Wonders":

- Well, at least we get the old shadow appearing in the window then disappearing a bit in the opening teaser. Of course, that only means one thing, something bad is going to happen to poor Jared Chirp. The makeup on the dead snake bitten Chirp photo was fairly cool compared to the not so good job done on Enoch O’Connor. Hey, working in the name of God must be pretty good because O’Connor’s snake bites went away the second he woke up and kidnapped his daughter. This says something about "Signs and Wonders". I can’t even remember when O’Connor was bitten.

- Good to see Scully in her basic black, but when did the F.B.I. allow their agents to stop wearing a suit and tie when they are in the field. I’m getting a little annoyed at Mulder’s casual wear. It seems as if he is dressing more for Southern California instead of D.C. or Tennessee. It is supposed to be winter time in Tennessee and even though I’m not from there somehow I don’t think it would be warm enough to be outside in only your shirt without a coat of some kind. Let’s get Mulder back to looking like an F.B.I. agent and not someone posing for GQ.

- I’m so glad they had Scully explain to all us laymen who don’t know the Old Testament from the New Testament about the meaning of Serpents in the Bible and how people have looked upon Serpents throughout the ages. Now if they could explain the point of this episode.

- What was the deal with Iris Finster’s hair? Did she think it was 1950’s? Talk about distractions. This along with the Rev. Mackley’s big ears was enough to get me thinking about other things instead of what was being said. More likely Rev. Mackley’s big ears had more to do with how they filmed the over the shoulder shot of the Rev. to Mulder.

- As always Scully and Mulder go busting into a building without a warrant or any backup so they got what they deserved when those snakes suddenly appeared and later on when O’Connor attacked Scully and stuck her hand into the cage of rattlesnakes. Too bad Mulder stopped O’Connor because it would have been fun to see if she is still St. Scully and she wasn’t attacked by the rattlesnakes. One last thing: for a minute there I thought Scully and Mulder forgot their flashlights when they first went into O’Connor’s house, but I should have known better when they took them out.

- O’Connor must have some special powers because the second he put the rattlers in the bag they became dead quiet.

- Favorite line Mulder telling O’Connor, "No one passes muster for you".

- Funniest line was O’Connor telling Mulder he has to start listening to his heart if he doesn’t want the Devil to make a fool of him. Heck, the Consortium has been doing that for years so it isn’t much of a threat.

- How convenient that the local P.D. doesn’t bother to search Jared Chirp’s house and Scully and Mulder do so Mulder can conveniently find the medical report telling Chirp can’t be the father of Gracie O’Connor’s unborn child.

Isn’t there a more effective and efficient way for the Devil to work than in a small town and kill everyone with snakes. Oh yeah, I get it, the Devil is working in Blessing Tennessee to help destroy O’Connor and to impregnate O’Connor’s daughter.

- We get a classic Mulder ditch in "Signs and Wonders" when he leaves Scully behind with O’Connor’s daughter and we don’t hear him tell Scully where he is going though Scully sure knew later on. He must have yelled it to her as he was getting into his car. It was pretty good he was able to figure out where O’Connor was going and instead of bringing any backup with him he goes by himself. Now that’s Mulder.

- Where was Mulder’s Cell phone when he told the Rev. Mackley to call an ambulance for O’Connor.

- We do get the old X-Files ending of showing the villain of the episode still at work somewhere else in the country. Did Mulder really fail the "test" because he is a righteous man? Which we know he isn’t because of some of the things he has done these past 7 years such as shooting the spy in living the upstairs apartment then dragging the body down to his apartment. I sure hope that man he shot didn’t have any family.

        "Signs and Wonders" is a perfect title because we are seeing signs of a show that should have gone off the air two years ago with a bang instead of a whimper. The wonder of it all is I still look forward to each new episode. Somewhere in "Signs and Wonders" there is a good story about faith and God’s and the Devil’s wrath instead of this fairly predictable story. The story wasn’t helped by Michael Childers as Enoch O’Connors overacting the part of the righteous religious person. Let’s hope this is the last religious based episode they do this season because I think we are getting the point for both Scully and Mulder that there is good and evil and you better know which side you are on. Why do I have this fear that the last episode this season is going to be some big religious/end of the world episode. Now that is scary.

Claudia

E-Mail: Claudia.Cauchon@unh.edu

01/25/00

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