The X Files - Miracle Man
This is one of those episodes that I enjoyed during my initial run of the first season. The first few times in the 90s, I thought it was a unique episode for the series if just because it touched on evangelicalism and the idea of the possibility of a miracle touch.
I think for the exception of Samantha's "vision" (or perhaps just a delusion caused by either Scott Bairstow's "faith healer" or desperately longed-for visitations Mulder longs for) showing up here and there to Mulder after speaking to Samuel, with his supposed "miracle cure touch", who tells him of his "pain", a lengthy pain. Scully is very present to anything that might manipulate Mulder, because she cares about him, so she's always alert to any potential influence that might skew their investigation's results. Dealing with a sheriff seemingly itching to see that Samuel is beaten to a pulp and just ready to lock him up and throw away the key, Mulder and Scully don't realize there is another working against the young man...the very one he seemed to have died and was "resurrected" with Sam's touch. Also invested in Sam's return to healing instead of losing members of their growing congregation, Reverend Hartley needs the FBI investigation to move in his favor. Unfortunately, Leonard Vance, right at Hartley's side, might be involved in what is hurting the ministry. The real victim of the episode is Samuel, who as a kid was used by his adoptive father as a tool to secure riches by featuring him as someone touched by God...with a lot of people desperate for medical help when nothing else seems to work, Sam's supposed power could be seen as worth an effort to check out. Scully's medical genius is once again well utilized when another young woman dies when Sam touches her face while praying for her, available for the autopsy, noticing cyanide reaction results. Mulder, meanwhile, spends time with Samuel, very interested in what he has to say, since he has been seeing Samantha. Again, the Samantha angle really seems to be that real dramatic arc for Mulder's overall character while the remaining portion of the episode is a trip to so-and-so state to look into something possibly supernatural. Sam appearing to Leonard at his bed while there is a lightning storm and a report from a morgue nurse that she saw him get up and walk out could be seen as questionable...unless you are willing to believe. 3/5
January 2016 - IMDb User Comments
This episode fascinates me. I think it is how it doesn't necessarily choose one way or another regarding whether or not Samuel was a "faith healer" who could heal the sick just by touching them. This all starts in 1983 when Samuel touches the burned body of a supposedly dead man (character actor Dennis Lipscomb; he was among the government leadership trying to figure out how to stop Tommy Lee Jones and company in Under Siege (1992)), speaking the gospel and calling upon the Lord. Then we are updated to present day 1993, ten years later, and now the kid is a young man (played by Scott Bairstow; a heart throb in his day) whose miracle touch has seemingly lost its power to heal and now kills. Scully is interested in the case and convinces Mulder to accompany her to the tent service location of the faith healer and his "Holy Rolling" reverend (George Gerdes) adoptive father. The burned man at the beginning is a firm part of the ministry, and his own voice seems to carry weight with the faithful congregation/flock. Meanwhile, Mulder is seeing what he believes to be his sister (supposedly taken by aliens which has been an absolute motivational push for Mulder since he watched the shining light and her departure, an event that has forever haunted him), after a conversation with the tormented young man in a bar (Bairstow, after an altercation with barflies, considers his "death touch" a punishment for sin). Scully wants to perform autopsies on the victims who died after being touched by the healer but the flock resists, led by the burned man named Vance (Lipscomb) who seems very interested in deterring the agents from learning of a possible cause of death. But when a MS woman brought by her parents to meet the faith healer, and she seems to seizure, Scully and Mulder might just get their chance to uncover answers not yet determined. R.D. Call is the town's sheriff who considers the ministry a fraud bilking the naïve sheep. What Call might be capable of in regards to stopping this kid bookends the episode in tragedy…particularly if it was possible that the kid might have cured his arthritic wife. The "Lazarus" twist at the end is a doozy! That is if it wasn't a hoax. Again, the episode doesn't deny the possibility of a real miracle behind the man, but just the same the idea that the reverend might have been responsible (the attending nurse in the hospital where Bairstow's body was insists he walked out of the morgue on his own!) isn't out of the question.
Scully mentions she's raised Catholic, Mulder reads about the locusts (which appear in the court during Bairstow's court date set-up!) in the bible, the burned man sees the faith healer's spirit coming to him looking for answers, and cyanide poisoning factors into the prognosis by Scully while performing an autopsy while Mulder looks away repulsed. I failed to mention this I believe in the past, but I enjoy the little details revealed by the characters and Mulder's sunflower seeds addiction is a nice touch (we see an early scene of him in his X-files office taking to the seeds while Scully talks about the faith healer case). The sheriff's unease and disgust with the ministry is a driving force in all the tragic circumstances that lead to a deputy appearing at his door with a request from the district attorney's office while he wife grieves sore with the torment of "What if the kid was legit?" Once again, Christian folk are viewed as gullible and so eager to pass around the offering plate...can't really blame them after the debacles of evangelism and avarice so realized during the 80s.
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