"Signs & Wonders"

"You're saying that you, Fox Mulder, would welcome someone telling you what to believe?"
Originally Aired 1/23/00

It never fails. No matter how long or short the season is, I always fall behind by this time of year. I even lost track of more time than I realized, as this episode aired two weeks ago; not last week as I was originally thinking. I suppose that makes sense because The X-Files aired Sundays and last weekend was the Super Bowl. No one is going head to head with that ratings juggernaut.

As for "Signs & Wonders" its another 'back to basics' horror story. Season 7 seems to be stuck in that groove of an episode that tries to push the boundaries like a Season 6 episode, but then it's followed up by a return to the "catch the monster" flavor of the early years. I feel like The X-Files is unsure of what it wants to be- capture our imagination with inventive stories or thrill us with things that go bump in the night, and I'm sure that the rest of Season 7 will be the same way. At least we're back to Mulder's office as he presents her with the case file- a man was bitten by 50 snakes! Eegads! (not to be confused with Ee-gah, for the one person who might get that reference.) With that, Mulder and Scully are off to Tennessee, and in a stretch by the writers to work in the episode's title, the Church of God with Signs & Wonders. Why not just "The Church of Signs Wonders"? Otherwise, it's a mouthful. There's another church within the community, just like every town in America has multiple churches, and while both believe in the same God, they have radical differences. There's even a sequence that highlights the differences- both are preaching the same Bible passage, that god hates the lukewarm. The snake charmer church preacher is doing the typical "Praise the Lord!" televangelist routine and shouts that "God wants you on fire!", while the church across town is actually being treated to a rather luke-warm reading of the Bible. The choice in editing here is superb as it cuts back and forth several times between both churches.

The real villain of "Signs & Wonders" is this lady's hair!

There are a few recognizable faces this hour. The girlfriend of the deceased has played crazy chicks on other Fox Network dramas- Millennium and Beverly Hills 90210- yet she's mostly tame in "Signs & Wonders". I believe her name is Tracy Middendorf. Her father, the Reverend Enoch O'Connor, actually is crazy and he's played chillingly by Michaels Childers. While he's not a recognizable face, he does remind me a lot of a real-life Dale Gribble from King Of The Hill, though in appearance only. The other notable face is Beth Grant, playing the church-going Iris Finster, whom I recall seeing in the overrated movie Donnie Darko and the underrated TV series Yes, Dear.

The snakes are a neat gimmick, like the snake crawling out of a sink, though I'm left feeling like this is a more serious version of Season Two's "Die Hand Die Verletzt." The baddie shows up, "raises hell", and then leaves without a trace. There's even an incest element in both episodes, which both are eventually revealed to hold no truth. Another similarity in both episodes is that a father is visited by a snake while in captivity- in "Die Hand Die Verletzt" it was a snake attack in a basement; "Signs & Wonders" is a reptile in a jail cell. I prefer the former episode over this entry into the series, and it's a "wonder" what happened with Jeffrey Bell's script. In Season 6 as in this current season, his first entry is a whimsical, almost fairy tale-styled entry, only to be followed up by a serious monster tale. I guess both of these monster episodes, "Signs & Wonders" and Season 6's "Alpha", feature a monster that is more than meets the eye, so there is a common thread shared by these episodes. I just feel like something was lost in translation. And it's never a good "sign" of an episode's quality when I'm hard-pressed to find a quote to feature for my review. At least February should improve the quality of this season