Religious mythology plus typical X-Files mythology equals an interesting role reversal for Mulder and Scully in 'Revelations'. And some fantastic character development for Scully.
But this is also a difficult episode for me to watch and comment on, due to my intense non-religiousness and general lack of religious knowledge.
OK, so I know pretty much nothing about stigmata, other than that I think the entire concept is ridiculous, and a matter of people seeing what they want to see. That said, I don't know how to explain the kid in this episode other than, "This is The X-Files, weird shit happens."
But then, the general plot of this episode is fairly run of the mill for an X-Files episode anyway. Sure, there's the religious significance of Kevin and Owen and Gates, but otherwise, it's not really anything overly special. Gates is a creep, and he's a creep using religion as his excuse for being a creep. So maybe the explanation really is just, "weird shit happens."
Also, "children on The X-Files are creepy."
So what makes 'Revelations' special and not a typical episode is that in blending religious faith and scientific skepticism, these events have severely shaken both Scully's faith in god and miracles, and her faith in science. She doesn't seem to be able to reconcile the two, especially after Mulder insists that the stories she knows from her religious education and background are fabrications or parables.
It's interesting to see her reaction to this while at the same time seeing her hostility to Mulder's insistence that there are aliens or experiments done on humans to create hybrid species. Because what is the difference, really? Everyone has faith in something, right? I wouldn't describe my atheism as a lack of faith - I have faith that there is no god; I have faith that there will one day be proof that there is no god.
And in the context of the series, Mulder has faith that there are aliens and that he will one day find his sister, while Scully has the faith most of the world recognises as such - the belief in god, but also faith in the scientific method and a true explanation for everything they witness.
I don't think this episode is explicitly saying that what Scully believes in is true, either. In this case, what most people would take as religious symbolism and acts of god fit into the overall pattern of paranormal activity in the universe established by the series. Here, a person able to spontaneously bleed from his hands and feet isn't particularly different from a person with telekinetic or psychic ability.
At least that's how I reconcile the religious and the scientific in the context of 'Revelations'.
Regardless, it all eventually leads to Scully returning to the confessional after six years away from the church, not to confess her sins, but for spiritual guidance that she knows she can't get from Mulder. The conversation illustrates an interesting point, and one that I think I've pointed out before - in the early episodes, there seemed to be a lot of cases where Mulder would witness something that seemed to perfectly explain some phenomenon or line up with his beliefs about it, and Scully was either in a different room or arrived just seconds too late to witness the same thing. And here, for the first time, Scully, the believer, has witnessed something Mulder didn't.
Only now, as the priest explains, maybe he wasn't meant to see what she did, and maybe the point of everything that happened in the episode was to bring her back to her faith, to come full circle, a phrase that unnerves and frightens her as this isn't the first time she's heard it.
One thing I'm glad the episode did not do is use Clyde Bruckman's implication that Scully is immortal to turn this into a 'Chosen One' story about Scully. I'm kind of hoping that idea is just dropped entirely, because it's kind of an annoying trope, especially when the person who is 'Chosen' just happens to then choose a profession that fits with what they're supposedly chosen for. (I'm looking at you, Fringe!)
But in this particular instance, Scully was simply believed or assumed to be Kevin's protector, and since the episode is about religious faith, it really doesn't matter whether she actually is. She protects him here because it's her job as an FBI agent to protect the innocent and track down those who threaten them, but not really for any reason from her perspective.
I have to admit, for an episode I was initially skeptical about, this was a very good one.
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