The X-Files Season 7, Episode 9: Signs and Wonders

Snakes. Why did it have to be snakes?

I fell for the misdirection completely in this episode. Because why wouldn't the oppressive fundamentalist preacher be guilty of raping and impregnating his own daughter and then forcing her from his church?

Well, because apparently the devil had come to town and was orchestrating the whole thing.

So 'Signs and Wonders' was kind of a retread of some of the ideas in 'Die Hand Die Verletzt' and 'All Souls', but it was much better done than either of those.

This was also the second episode dealing with religion in the last three. And for some reason, I don't mind so much. I guess it's because the episodes aren't promoting certain religious values other than say, open-mindedness and tolerance, which I can still get behind. But it also dealt with religion in a very different way from 'Orison'. In fact, I would say it was the exact opposite.

In that episode, the preacher was obviously evil and was passing judgement on people. Here, Mackey is ostensibly a good guy, opening his church to any who choose to worship there, only to secretly and more viciously pass judgement on them when everyone is looking the other way. (Hey, a connection to 'The Amazing Maleeni', too, with the misdirection. Interesting stretch of episodes.)

At least, the reveal that Mackey was behind it and presumably was the devil himself, like the teacher in 'Die Hand Die Verletzt', was somewhat unexpected, except that I predicted it pretty early in the episode, only to start doubting myself as it progressed.

I initially thought he was nothing more or less than he appeared. A kind, good-natured religious leader who resented those who corrupted his faith and used it to intimidate and abuse people. But I always kind of wondered - why the focus? Why is he so important? He's just a secondary character, right? Part of the investigation, I suppose, someone to help Mulder and Scully track down the killer.

And maybe I've seen enough episodes of the show that my Spidey sense was tingling, or maybe it's just that I've watched enough TV in general - I'm not sure what that says about this episode if it turned out to be that predictable. I don't think it's a bad thing. I don't think it really was predictable. I made a lucky guess that could just as easily have been wrong, and has been before.

But again, as the episode progressed, I became less and less sure that he was evil and more and more certain that he really was what he appeared to be.

Note to self: always go with the first hunch.

I also have no real fear of snakes, though apparently David Duchovny and some of the show's crew members do, which surely made the filming of this episode interesting, to say the least, since they used real snakes. And honestly, I think they could have done a better job with the snakes to increase the tension even for those of us who don't normally fear them.

Sure, it was creepy, and there was the usual tension and nervousness for any character who was confronted with the snakes, but I never felt any of that pervasive fear that I'm so used to in X-Files episodes that deal with creepy monsters or plants or whatever. The snake scenes were really no more tense than say, the scene where Donnie Pfaster was hiding in Scully's closet when she got home. Actually, they were considerably less tense.

But that doesn't make this episode a failure by any means. Again, it was actually a reasonably good episode. Surprisingly good, even, because the episodes dealing with religion can be very hit or miss, as it's a difficult subject to address fairly on television in the first place. The X-Files has largely handled it in a balanced way, obviously spending more episodes on Christianity, not just because it's the most prevalent religion in the U.S., but it's also Scully's religion, so many of the stories, like 'Revelations' and 'All Souls' relate to her in some direct way.

It also occurs to me that this episode contained elements of season one's 'Miracle Man'. In much the same way as the healer was distrusted in that episode, the snake handler is thought to be the villain here. I don't think either of them were perfect people - they were certainly judgemental towards those who didn't follow their beliefs, and they were rightly suspicious of people who came around investigating them, but in the end, they turned out not to be the primary source of the crimes being investigated.

So while I don't view this episode as an endorsement of fundamentalism, it certainly makes a reasonable statement against judging appearances, which is also not uncommon in the series.