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"Tis better to be hot or cold than lukewarm."
Unfortunately, this episode was lukewarm in its best moments. "Signs and Wonders" (which might have been more accurately titled "Snakes and Blunders") is one of the biggest messes of an X-Files script to make it to screen in a while. This one sports the name of writer Jeff Bell in the credits.
What left me really cold was the story. Or rather what I could piece together of the story. What exactly was writer Jeff Bell trying to say here? Things are not as they seem? That's not exactly a real revelation on The X-Files. I'm not sure this was much more than a few planned shocking moments strung together with religious mumbo-jumbo the focus of which changed from act to act just to move towards the next gross-out. Take Gracie (with the oh so clever name) pregnant no doubt just so we can see her give birth to snakes (though what the hell that means who knows). So, we play musical fathers. First it's the poor kid who dies in the teaser (who is, by the way, the only one whom Gracie even acts like could be the baby's father). However, like all young men, he decides to go in to get tested to see if he is sterile. Right. Anyway, then because we are in backwoods Tennessee I guess we get to have the incest angle which Mulder and Scully jump to given just a hint. Even though she's been cast out of the church for getting pregnant. O.K. Lastly, they decide it must be Mackey. Of course there is no indication by the characters that they have ever been lovers, but at this point who the heck cares, right? Birthin' snakes is creepy stuff - that's all that matters.
What was the point of all this? Sometimes people aren't who you think they are? That those that preach tolerance are of the devil? While the crazy ones may be "right"? Is the point ruining O'Connor as Mulder guesses? If so, why? Is he that much of a threat? Is this Mackey the devil? And if so, does he come from a different devil tribe than the devil in "All Souls" who could not even enter a church? Or, is he some bitter alien still reeling from the cancellation of "V" when he used to get to eat mice on camera every week? Is he perhaps just some generic snake demon who is mad at O'Connor for not treating his snakes with proper respect? Does he travel around the country ruining odd little fundamentalist preachers who some how threaten his good taste and impregnating girls with snake litters? How lucky and convenient for him he just happened to stumble across a snake handler! Just what is he going to do in Connecticut? Will he have to change his ways and attack people with what they know there? I guess he'd have to use WASPS in that case.
To give him credit there were a few bright spots in the dialogue. I'll admit it, I thought the Catholic girls and snake handling joke was funny. And I liked the "rattlesnakes and medieval visions of damnation. Well, I for one feel a whole lot closer to God" line despite what followed.
What was warm? Well, the characterizations were hit and miss. I guess we're supposed to believe Mulder who has in the past been the one intolerant of religion has changed his ways. Maybe snake handling was just so cool it sucked him in. Now instead of discounting like he's done with Scully whenever she's brought up the devil before, he's newly convinced and even using divine revelations to help him make his leaps. Someone seems to have at least remembered a little episode called "One Breath" where we find out Scully as a child was afraid of snakes. Gillian Anderson was certainly playing it that way as well, and I did find it amusing that when Scully was clearly trying to avoid going back in the church because of the snakes she stumbled into their condo instead.
What was hot? Well, I particularly liked the look and feel of this one. It had the mood of the old X-Files: rain, shadows, dim or diffused lighting, lightening and flashlights. Director Kim Manners and Director of Photography Bill Roe did all they could to try to make it at least visually entertaining. I was especially taken with the intensity of the revival scene. I liked the juxtaposition of the frenzied versus sedate services, and the nice match cut from the snake's fangs to the fangs of the staple remover. Actually, the snake birthing scene was also exceptionally well shot and creepy from a technical perspective. I thought Tracy Middendorf was especially good and believable as Gracie which was essentially a constantly weepy role. Michael Childers also worked for me as Enoch O'Connor, but I found Randy Oglesby as Mackey a little too bland even for that part.
hate the tag on endings for the most part, but this one really took the cake. Another example of something thrown in just to be "cool." It was indicative of the whole episode.
-I saw the real evil in this episode, and it was sitting like some sort of deformed badger on top of Iris Finster's head. I think my theory of the hairdresser/costumer revolt (which has proven in some cases to be downright revolting) has gathered more evidence. In order to distract us from disparaging Scully's shorter haircut (Grow! Grow! And cast out the evil of the wayward gel!) they decided to show us what truly bad hair really is. It's a trick fellow believers! No matter how bad that snake-bait hairdo was on Iris we must still pray for the return of the days when Scully's hair is proud and fancy free.
-Frank's Fashion Spot #1: At least we have something here to talk about, but like most of the episode it made little sense. What the hell did Mulder think he was going to Tennessee for? A golf vacation? Did those pesky magicians last week make all his ties disappear too? Perhaps we should have been a little more afraid when we found out that the show's costumer this year is from 90210. I'm sure afraid now.
-Well, it looks like Mulder was able to find snakefest.com for his pre-case studying. I couldn't be sure, but it looked like a ghost in the corner of the browser where the logo goes. Perhaps he was surfing with Spookyscape.
-Frank's Fashion Spot #2: Yes, we like the black turtleneck on Scully. Thank you. But she used to have more than three outfits in her closet. Even back in the days of the cute little button up sweaters they at least came in different shades. Plus, is this some sort of all or nothing deal with Scully's necklines this year? Either she's got on a turtleneck or is busting out all over. Oh, and keep that long black coat. That was cool.
-Why shouldn't Mulder put "serpents serving evil" on a travel request? There was actually a body and it certainly couldn't look any more stupid than "babies with tales" or "El Chupacabra."
-It's the Little Things That Count Department: Nice reaction shot by Gillian to the line "it's very difficult to walk away from a belief system that one is raised with." A small telling moment.
-Why in the world can't Mulder and Scully find a light switch? Despite what Scully says you can clearly see outside lamps sporting lightbulbs more than once, and the church is later lit up for the service. Maybe they just wanted an excuse to use the flashlights.
-I'm a little annoyed at how easily Scully was overpowered (I guess she was in shock from all the snakes). For someone who has proven over the last few weeks to be very flexible I was surprised she wasn't able to do more with the one arm she had free. At least she got to bust down a door later.
-The makeup people really went to town with the gross out effects. When the bite wounds started spewing out the poison was one of the grosser moments on the show.
Autumn
"Tennessee. Snakes. Thank you, Mulder. Thank you so much."