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"It's called a milagro. It's a Spanish word for miracle."
I say it's called "Hoo Boy". That's a Scullyist's word for THANK YOU for an emotion laden and tense character study of Dana Scully. It sorta feels like Christmas to me. It's no secret that I'm a sucker for episodes like this. However, what makes this different is that it is so much more than just a Scullycentric episode. It's well written, well directed, one of the scariest shows we've had in a long, long time, and the acting was phenomenal. "Milagro" was made even more special for me because for the first time in a long time I actually felt I learned things about Dana Scully, but at the same time they were things I already knew finally brought to the surface. I can say unequivocally that this one is going down in the books for me as an all time favorite episode.
What an absolutely perfect episode for Gillian Anderson. She's always been the master of conveying feelings without words and she was called on to do this repeatedly in "Milagro". The elevator, the scene on the phone, the church reactions, the moment in the autopsy bay, sitting on the bed in uncomfortable sexually charged silence all spoke volumes. Scully's reaction to the loneliness observation was so breathtakingly layered. Her shaky "My life's not so lonely... it's actually anything but" left me shaking my head and saying "you just keep telling yourself that dear". I have to take time to single out that scene in the church. Gillian nails this scene as the intensely private Scully's self assurance is stripped away by a stranger with too much information. Her eyes filling with unshed tears and her unsettled demeanor even stays with her as she relates the story to Mulder, impatient with his automatic posit of the contrary. We've seen a lot of sides to Scully, and a lot of dangerous moments, but the sheer terror of the last attack and subsequent unguarded breakdown as she literally clawed at Mulder was one of the most emotionally wrenching things this series has ever served up. Gillian stole my heart all over again by once again sharing with us the mysteries of Scully's heart in "Milagro". Can someone please give her another prize now? It's time.
Another acting joy of this episode was that despite being a showcase for Scully, Duchovny decided to show us what he is really capable of as well. From his alpha male posturing in the elevator, to the masked hurt and confusion Mulder felt over Scully's admirer, to the fear as he found Scully in his apartment and pain as his friend sobbed, he was on in "Milagro". A favorite simple moment was Mulder's reaction to Scully's snapping at him for making her schedule, a pouting confused second of "What did I do?".
Phillip Padgett fills up his pages with prose precise with descriptions of events, emotions, and character. His writing reflects Chris Carter's at his most overblown - like one big long philosophical dead guy speech. Here the prose works perfectly. This said, the autobiographical nature of the writing in this piece cannot be ignored. Shiban, Spotnitz, and Carter all tell us a lot about the way they feel about writing and these characters they have created in this piece. Padgett, while certainly unsettling and odd, lacks malice. Kudos have to go John Hawkes for being able to bring such calm and compelling honesty to his delivery while speaking of things as creepy as stalking. Through Padgett the writers voice their insecurities and process: staring endlessly at blank paper, having written failures, desperately wanting a positive opinion (I loved the bit where Padgett asks Mulder if he liked his book), trying to find motive, the characters becoming so real that they end up controlling you. They also use "Milagro" to tell us just how much they love Scully. While "Milagro" does focus on Scully's physical beauty it also spends a lot of time focusing on her inner beauty. All the things, strengths, weaknesses, power, and insecurities that make her such a complex, fascinating, and enigmatic character. Unfortunately, in The X-Files, you always hurt the one you love.
Love and motive are woven throughout the story. The crime involves the extraction of the heart, and in the end the writer has his own heart ripped out by love literally and figuratively. It is interesting to me that Scully twice denies to Mulder (her unspoken reaction telling us all we really needed to know about how she wishes Mulder to view her) the truth of Padgett's writing even after earlier telling him Padgett knew her "life story". He certainly seems to know the yearning in her heart, but not enough to control it to get him the naked pretzel he so desired. I'm going to go out on a limb here and take a stand that Scully was not controlled by Padgett at all. His presence, his unsettling and flattering understanding of her did give her an overwhelming compulsion to find out more, but not because he typed it. Perhaps because she is so rarely complimented. Perhaps she needed to know how he knew so much about her. She's not sure she understands her motives for staying to talk to him, but we don't always understand the things we do. Sometimes curiosity compels us. Padgett may be astute enough in his observations of her character to recognize the "self denial of her senses" , but he can't use that recognition to get her where he wants her. She makes her own choices. Loneliness is a choice when two people who clearly love each other spend most of their time hiding their hearts. Scully may indeed be "already in love" as Padgett observes, but for both Mulder and Scully this affection still only surfaces as "the old unconscious at work" as the stranger recognizes.
This is, in my opinion, some of director Kim Manner's best work on the show. He uses the camera as a stalker as well. They did some interesting and subtle things with costuming, camera, and Gillian's movements to accentuate Scully's womanly features. Where often in the show her figure is hidden beneath pants suits, this was not the case in "Milagro". She spends more time in a skirt than usual and the camera travels slowly up her legs more than once. As Padgett listens at the vent in the other room the camera peers down at Mulder and Scully from above giving the audience a tease of cleavage (as does the uncharacteristically unbuttoned one button further than normal shirt she wears to the church). The sweater clings to her. The camera slowly and affectionately swirls around her, then Padgett, then her again as Padgett describes what we have enjoyed for years in her mind, her passion and her appearance while detailing her thoughts. Manners uses uncomfortable close ups of her lips and eyes to stare at her as Padgett does unashamed and blatant in the elevator. He hides the camera behind a pillar while watching Scully in the church. All making the audience focus on the same thing Padgett sees the way he sees them - a beautiful, desirable woman. I have to also mention Mark Snow's score here which was one of my favorites he has done. The steady, growing bass beat of a heartbeat that permeated it sometimes almost unnoticeable and other times (as in the teaser) tense and overwhelming gave the episode even more heart.
Once again, a sincere thank you to all for a brilliant episode that captured all that is the complex character of Dana Scully.
-Retread alert. Damn, but it's been a long time since I've been able to say that. Angelo Vacco who played the funny kissing, console jumping, heartless 16 year old (yeah right, we're buying that one - next time change the script to reflect an age at least remotely plausible) has also been seen as the gas station attendant saved by his hair in "F. Emasculata" and the miraculously healed guy who got to have Scully stroke his tummy in "Talitha Cumi".
-Date Stamp: We don't get anything exact, but all signs point to the week of February 8th. One of the letters Padgett got was postmarked "Feb 8" and then we had the Valentine's Day wish in the paper. One of the note cards I could read also had a date of 1/24/99 fitting with this time as well. The only odd thing was the phone bill which indicated a last billing date of 11/30. Well, maybe since he never makes any calls they only bill him once a quarter...
-Of course this date does conflict with other episodes such as "Arcadia" where they claim it is their first X-File back in late February.
-Speaking of that postmark, the letter was mailed from "Your Town, USA". I think that's located right on the border of Your State and That Other State right in My County. A River runs through it.
-Did Mulder just swallow that mouth full of toothpaste? Eww.
-So we learn that Scully has been driving the same car since at least 1993 and has indeed lived in Georgetown for quite a while as well, thus putting a final cap on that little mystery.
-I wish they'd bothered to provide the actors with a prop that at least held some resemblance to the close up they inserted of the milagro besides being round. The piece Scully was always fingering was flat and had nothing on either side as opposed to the 3 dimensional textured piece we saw up close.
-How funny that as the voice over was talking about providing a pretty picture of herself Scully was removing bloody clothes with mussed up hair.
-What a Model!Mulder moment as he sauntered up to the crime scene with that spiked up hair and the shades.
-Can anyone think of a reason beyond obvious plot device that the gardener would be wearing that hood on a day that bright and warm? The bad hair day excuse does not even work in this case.
-Frank's Fashion Spot: OK, it's time to talk about this. Surely, *surely* Scully owns something other than black suits. We know she does. We've actually seen them. Really, we have. What is it with this season? Is there some sort of costume cost cutting going on here to pay for the move to Los Angeles? It's a dark dark time in Dana Scully's closet. Black shirts, black suits, black coats, black shoes, black bra. Well, I doubt anyone had a problem with the black bra. Still. I'm not asking for a return to unfortunate beige period. Really. I'm just asking for a little color once in a while. I swear when she was doing the autopsy I half expected her to be wearing black scrubs.
-Also, is it just me or are those heels getting progressively higher as the series continues? We've long since left three inch heels for progressively higher ground.
-I'm starting to wonder just how many identical white shirts Scully bought on sale so she could bleed all over them. Next time I see her in that shirt I'm going to be paranoid the whole episode that she's gonna end up with some sort of hole in her chest.
-Great moment: The light bulb popping out the second time. It just wasn't meant to be.
-"Milagro" or "Tithonus" for the Emmy committee this year? I'm thrilled Gillian has such a difficult choice to make. I think I'd go with this one though.
-So now Mulder's apartment has a great burning incinerator in the basement. I must have missed it in "Anasazi".
-Nice little touch: Scully, her shoes off and head back, comfortably lounging in Mulder's apartment.
-That Scully really brings out the fire bug in a boy doesn't she? It seems every slightly psycho guy with the hots for her spends a lot of time burning things.
-My God, I'm glad I'll never have to ride on an elevator with that Padgett. Talk about the ride from hell. He just stares at people. After those close ups of Scully in the elevator for a second I wondered if he was going to stare at her ass as she left the elevator and we'd get a close up of that too.
-I found it interesting that Scully referred to the office to Mulder as "your office" , but I think this is more because it *is* his office rather than she has her own elsewhere. The office has always been saturated with Mulder - his door, his desk, his space - even though she also occupies it.
-I really enjoyed the things I learned about Scully in "Milagro". Things like her awareness of her strengths and weaknesses as an investigator and her desire for attention as a woman undercut by her desire to be respected at her job in a traditionally male field. Even the fact that she may be a runner and her appreciation of art and architecture is welcome information.
-We finally get to see Scully in the process of getting laid, so of course it is an underlit fantasy. Once again, Scully only gets to have sex in a fan's writing. Also, what is it with their unwillingness to actually light a kiss so the audience can see it? If they are going to go to the trouble of filming it can we at least enjoy it?
-The fanfic parallels are impossible to ignore. I think this was my favorite example: "Even now as she pushed an errant strand of titian hair behind her ear she worried her partner would know instinctively what she could only guess." I swear I was half afraid he was going to mention that her titian hair held the scent of strawberries.
-I loved the moment when Mulder physically switched their places as she argued his usual side. It does seem like we're getting a more open minded Scully this season than ever before. It's a welcome trend as far as I'm concerned.
Autumn
"Loneliness is a choice."