Man, lots of familiar faces this time. R. Lee Ermey appears briefly as a preacher faking stigmata. Horror icon Michael Berryman is a divinely-inspired gardener/bodyguard. For actors I don’t really know, there’s young Keven Zegers, who would go on to make a bunch of Air Bud movies, and Kenneth Welsh, who was a nasty piece of work on Twin Peaks, a show that also featured David Duchovny as a crossdresser.
Also, Scully is the believer this time.
The Case:Â Â Satanic Killer Vs. Stigmatic Child!
The Rest:  The standard formula for this show is Mulder believes in the fanciful and the far-fetched while Scully is a skeptic who won’t see what Mulder sees. Now, that’s oversimplified. Mulder can spot a fraud, and Scully will go along with a lot of what happens when even she can’t come up with a better explanation for what happens. Besides, she’s still a better agent. As it is, this episode has that rarity of a storyline: the two essentially swap roles. That happens once in a while, and it is usually due to religion. Scully, even as a lapsed Catholic, is more likely to believe in something as a sign from God than presumed atheist Mulder.
As such, when some guy with superhot hands is murdering preachers who fake stigmata, in rides Scully and Mulder to look into it. And when a boy starts to show signs, this time possibly legitimate, it’s up to Scully and Mulder to deal with it.
So, here’s the deal: Scully is right this time, and Mulder is acting like a responsible agent for once. He refuses to believe in miracles. Scully remembers all her old lessons from her childhood in the church, and when Michael Berryman’s protecting gardener dies but doesn’t decompose, and a host of other things, well, Scully might have to do something about it.
You know, Mulder is kind of a dick even on good days, but he’s even more of a dick when he’s saying what are usually Scully’s lines. It just seems a little weird that Mulder will go the scientifically obvious route when there are things that don’t fit into the theory. When Scully is the one who correctly interprets the visions the boy’s father, a drugged up mental patient, that’s one thing. When Mulder insists on checking the bus station because the vision can’t possibly be right, he comes across as the sort of person Mulder hates encountering, that guy who disrespects the theories Mulder espouses and can’t even fake respect for others’ views. Mulder gets along with Scully because she respects him despite his unorthodox views. He doesn’t give her the same consideration.
Regardless, Scully saves the boy from the demon man, and Armageddon is postponed or something.
Up next, man, watch out for them cockroaches.
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