The X-Files Recap: Episode 18 - Miracle Man
Posted by Brian Cramer on 08.26.2008
Hallelujah! Read on to find out a little more regarding Mulder's sister and make sure to check out Twitch's Take for obscure Simpsons references!
I’ve got nothing witty to say right here, so in an effort to get past that little advertisement you see to your right, I’m just going to write this sentence under the pretenses of saying that I’ve got nothing to say. Clever, eh?
--- I’m thoroughly intrigued by the lineup for Smackdown’s Championship Scramble match at Unforgiven. The Hs against THE Brian Kendrick, Shelton Benjamin, MVP and Jeff Hardy? I’ll take it. It really seems like the perfect opportunity to hot-shot the belt to someone. Unfortunately, the only person who has really been built up as championship material is Hardy and I’d like to think they’re going to save that win for a bigger day on a bigger stage. MVP picking up the win wouldn’t necessarily surprise me and frankly, I don’t think I’d have a problem with it, but I just find it highly unlikely. Benjamin and Kendrick? Thanks for coming guys. Be thankful for the exposure in such a high-profile match.
--- The Undertaker is the only person I know that can get away with a line as cheesy as, “I came for your soul” and make it not only NOT campy but actually creepy.
--- Pittsburgh and Minnesota had a nail-biter of a game Saturday (or at least as much of a nail-biter as you can have pre-season). That last-second field goal made sitting through the rest of the action much more satisfying. They better tweak their lines and get their shit together before the regular season starts though.
--- On an unrelated note, it irritates the hell out of me when someone blows up my phone trying to reach someone whose number it obviously doesn’t belong to anymore. Some guy keeps calling me and leaving voicemails for some guy named Mike. My voicemail clearly starts off, “Thank you for calling DJ Enigma.” If this guy knows Mike well enough to justify blowing up his phone, he should know him well enough to realize it’s not his number when the voicemail message clearly says it’s ME. Ugh.
Not a whole lot of insight this week. Just a few people who would return for later episodes. Following the format of several weeks ago, I will list the individual followed by a number in parenthesis. That number is the total number of episodes they appear in over the course of the show’s run.
o Walter Marsh (3)
o Campbell Lane (4)
o Chilton Crane (4)
o Lisa Ann Beley (2)
o Roger Haskett (2)
Cast:
David Duchovny - Fox Mulder
Gillian Anderson - Dana Scully
R.D. Call - Sheriff Maurice Daniels
Scott Bairstow - Samuel Hartley
George Gerdes - Reverend Calvin Hartley
Dennis Lipscomb - Leonard Vance
Walter Marsh - Judge Hamish Purdy
Campbell Lane - Hohman's Father
Chilton Crane - Margaret Hohman
Howard Storey - Fire Chief
Iris Quinn - Lillian Daniels
Lisa Ann Beley - Beatrice Salinger
Alex Doduk - Young Samuel
Episode 18 – Miracle Man
KENWOOD, TENNESSEE
1983
A young boy named Samuel prays to Jeebus and brings a dead, very badly burned corpse back to life at the scene of an accident.
*cue The X-Files introduction credits and theme song* THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE
Scully is in the X-Files office showing Mulder a tape of the same young boy, now all grown-up, attempting to heal a woman with cancer. Apparently, 20 minutes after he “healed” her, she was rushed to the hospital and pronounced dead-on-arrival. Local authorities requested FBI assistance to acquire a prosecution on charges of murder. Mulder says he’s down and asks when they leave.
MIRACLE MINISTRY
KENWOOD, TENNESSEE
In the Miracle Ministry tent, Reverend Hartley announces that Samuel won’t be there today but in two days, TWO SHORT DAYS I SAY, he will be back, PLZKTHZPRAIZJEEBUS!
Outside, Scully and Mulder talk to Hartley, who says he has no idea where Samuel is, before excusing himself into his Cadillac. They then meet Sheriff Daniels, who gives Scully the copies of the medical reports she requested and informs them that Daniels had his autopsy requests blocked, on the grounds of some religious bullshit. Scully suggests that they have the bodies exhumed.
At the graveyard, the exhumation is joined-in-progress right around the time that a group of Hartley’s lackeys show up to protest, led by the guy who Samuel brought back from the dead at the beginning of the episode, Leonard Vance. He tells the agents that they won’t allow them to “defile” the bodies and are prepared to do whatever it takes to prevent it. Right about now, Daniels gets a call on his radio that Samuel’s car was spotted downtown. They decide that discretion is perhaps the better part of valor and go to investigate.
They find the miracle boy sitting at a bar (on the inside, waiting for my ride on the outside…sorry – it’s stuck in my head from karaoke last night). Anyway, Samuel it pretty corked up and got into a bar fight just before they arrived. Mulder talks to him and he tells Mulder that he can see pain in him. He then goes on to allude to what happened to Mulder’s sister all those years ago, so far as even mentioning the “bright light”. This obviously gets Mulder’s attention, while Scully stands behind him with a look on her face evident of skepticism. Daniels cuffs Samuel and takes him off.
KENWOOD COUNTY COURTHOUSE
Bail is set at $100,000 dollars but before they can be adjourned, locusts fill the courtroom, apparently out of nowhere. Ha. Samuel screams about the Lord testifying against him and that he needs to be kept in custody for everyone’s sake.
At their hotel room, the agents hypothesize about what could be going on. Mulder thinks Samuel is for real and tries to explain how it could be possible in a scientific way to appease Scully. Before their conversation can develop much more, Vance knocks on their hotel room door and tells them that the good reverend has requested their presence.
At his house, Hartley implores the agents to forgive his rude behavior when they first met and invites them to the services that night to see Samuel at work. Scully agrees but before Mulder can say anything he notices a young girl in the yard in a red dress and takes off. When he gets outside, she’s gone. He questions an employee of the estate, who tells him there are no little girls around there at all.
Fast-forward to the Miracle Ministry tent later that night. Backstage, Samuel makes it clear he doesn’t want to go out for fear of hurting someone. Meanwhile, Mulder and Scully find seats as Hartley does his song-and-dance routine. As Hartley introduces Samuel, Mulder notices the little girl again, this time on the opposite side of the tent. He gets up to try to catch her as Samuel makes his way down the front row of people, until he comes to a woman in a wheelchair. He tells her to pray with him and close her eyes and about 10 seconds later, she starts gasping for air and is dead as a doorknob.
KENWOOD COUNTY HOSPITAL
Outside the hospital, Vance is rallying the troops to prepare to protect the woman’s body from the attempts at an autopsy.
Inside the hospital, Mulder tells Scully about seeing the little girl again and they both try to convince the woman’s father to allow an autopsy. He finally consents after talking it over with his wife and we cut to a REALLY campy shot of Scully running a blade against a knife sharpener in the autopsy room. Seriously, the way they shot it, real up-close, was like something out of a B-flick. Ha. After an hour, Scully points out some lesions on the lungs and suggests some sort of poison that cut off oxygen to the cells. Mulder tells her to get the toxicology screen as soon as possible and takes off.
KENWOOD COUNTY JAIL
At the jail, Mulder tells Samuel that he doesn’t think he has anything to do with the murders. Samuel will hear nothing of it, though. Mulder then asks about his sister and Samuel runs him through a few hoops until he gets frustrated and leaves. He meets Daniels and a deputy on his way out. Daniels refuses his request to release Samuel and Mulder leaves. We cut back to the jail cell, where the deputy that was with Daniels lets two men into the cell who proceed to beat the ever-loving shit out of Samuel. The last scene before commercial bears noting, as it’s the shadowed reflection of Samuel’s body as he uses the cell bars to hold himself up as they attack him – the way the shadow casts is eerily reminiscent of Christ on the cross.
The next morning a different deputy shows up at Daniels’ house and informs him that they had “an incident” at the jail. Apparently, Samuel is dead.
KENWOOD COUNTY JAIL
Outside the jail, Hartley confronts Daniels, who more-or-less brushes him off. Scully apologizes for his loss and Mulder stands around and seems to ponder something.
Apparently, Mulder was trying to figure out how to Mission Impossible his way back into the courtroom to look around. Inside, he steps on a locust, which prompts him to look up and see a ventilation shaft. On the roof, he finds a trail of potatoes leading into the shaft and postulates that whoever set up the “plague” is responsible for the murders. For some reason, this just started to feel like an episode of Scooby Doo.
At Hartley’s place, in Vance’s room, he awakens to see Samuel standing there. He asks Vance why he betrayed him and Vance goes on about bringing him back to life “looking like this” (all scarred up).
Downstairs, Mulder and Scully and Daniels knock at the front door. When Hartley answers, they tell him they have a warrant for Vance’s arrest. They traced the pesticide order back to him, which contained the cyanide used to kill the victims. Up in Vance’s room, they find him lying in bed, shaking badly. Scully finds a glass next to the bed and after smelling it, confirms that it’s cyanide. Vance tells them that Samuel was just there and forgave him. Then he dies.
Back at their hotel rooms, Scully is typing up her field report when Mulder knocks and tells her that Daniels just called him and Samuel’s body is missing. At the morgue, the (good) deputy tells them that the night nurse saw Samuel walk out by himself. The night nurse then tells them herself what she saw and Daniels gets fed up with the “crazy talk” and leaves.
Back at his house, Daniels sits down at the table, deep in thought and looking like he has a guilty conscience. His (wheelchair-bound) wife asks him several times if the boy really WAS for real and seems quite upset. Before he can answer, his doorbell rings and the (good) deputy tells him that the District Attorney wants to ask him some questions about Samuel’s death.
Outside the Miracle Ministry tent, Mulder and Scully prepare to get in their car to leave town. Mulder tells Scully that he thinks that people are looking so hard for miracles “that maybe they make themselves see what they want to see”. Right after he says this, he sees a reflection of the little girl in the car window but when he spins around to find her, she’s gone. With that, he joins Scully in the car and they depart.
*cue credits*
Twitch here. So we got another one of these religious-themed episodes, eh? I don't know if they're really my cup of tea. But this one has a guy who can supposedly heal people (hallelujah brothers!). But wait a minute – now people are dying by his powers.
Remember the episode of The Simpson's where Bart thought he had the power to heal people? That was fun. Oh wait – I'm supposed to talk about The X-Files.
Remember the episode of The Simpson's where Scully and Mulder help Homer find the alien he thought he saw but it ended up being Mr. Burns?
Ok, ok. Back to this episode. Another one of these "Mulder feels guilty about his sister's death" episodes as well, it seems.
You know, if I saw as much weird shit as Scully sees on a daily basis I might start to think to myself, "Hey – there's some weird shit out there."
Ok – sure there is an explanation for the locusts in the courtroom and the lady in the wheelchair dying, but still, Samuel being beaten to death and then walking away while dead? Now that's hardcore.
And Mulder sees his dead sister again. Do the dead ever stay dead in this show?!
If I saw a dead person I once knew, I would just be convinced they were a zombie and I'd aim for the head. But maybe that's just me...
The 411: Thumbs in the middle. Nothing in the episode really dragged but nothing grabbed your attention and really hung on either.
Fortunately, we got some storyline acknowledgment of Mulder's sister, which is slight foreshadowing that the issue isn't going to be dropped anytime soon. Aside from that, just a so-so episode. Watch it if you get the chance - you won't hate it. Just don't go out of your way to get your hands on it.
Not a whole lot of insight this week. Just a few people who would return for later episodes. Following the format of several weeks ago, I will list the individual followed by a number in parenthesis. That number is the total number of episodes they appear in over the course of the show’s run.
