1.18 - Miracle Man

I should be doing a more in-depth study here, taking precise measurements of each cold open’s length and their structure, then synthesizing all that data to figure out exactly what makes a great opening to the show. Instead I rate them as cool or not cool, basically. This one is cool.

Its coolness comes from the the imagery of the scorched dead body coming back to life to grasp hands with the little boy who, seconds before, had “laid hands” on him and spouted some religious proclamations. If it’s a minute it’s one minute and 20 seconds, at most. Its brevity plus the memorable imagery are just maybe the key ingredients to coolness for cold opens.

Further into the episode the imagery continues on being cool, written by Chris Carter and Howard Gordon, in fact their very first collaboration. In truth I think this episode just doesn’t connect with me, possibly because religious faith as a natural counter balance to Mulder’s belief in the supernatural needs to be handled subtly, yet they slam dunk some of this shit like maniacs.

Leonard Vance, the reanimated burn victim, is the strongest visual of the episode. Thick pancake makeup so his face seems like putty, dark sunglasses, black leather gloves, a black fedora, a limp and a cane all contribute to Vance dominating the frame whenever he appears. Dennis Lipscomb plays him perfectly, marble-mouthed and an appropriate southern accent despite this all being shot in Vancouver and Lipscomb being from New York.

Where subtlety goes bye bye is when Mulder begins seeing his sister. Samuel mentions how he could see a sadness on Mulder, sadness over losing a brother or sister…

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…that’s Mulder’s face, a huckster’s fucking Category 5 wet dream. None of what is written supports Mulder’s visions. Mulder’s pain and struggle falls in line with who he is, but nothing they actually write here places plot points down to have his sudden visions make sense. And I don’t mean in-universe sense, I’m talking narrative sense; the leap from “I see your sadness” to Mulder having factual visions isn’t supported enough, not by Scully explaining just how powerful the power of suggestion really is.

I absolutely understand Mulder’s belief is comparable to religious faith, but in truth the show has supported Mulder’s beliefs at this point (maybe later episodes take a firmer stance on God/Judeo-Christian angels and the like), so him having actually seen UFOs makes it kind of laughable to compare it to something with literally no evidence, at least none of the purely “Christian” kind.

It’s revealed The Exorcist is one of Scully’s favorite movies. That’s at least a cool piece of character trivia.

An obvious ending plods in exactly when and how you’re expecting. I guess maybe it’s not obvious, but only if you don’t know about that whole story where Jesus Christ is killed then is resurrected.