The X-Files Virgin’s Diary – A faith healer, a manitou and a killer bug walk into the woods

(Season 1, Episodes 17-20)

Even though we do get a ‘MythArc’ installment (episodes that progress the larger saga), not much happened in a major way in this quarter of The X-Files. Still, we got a very solid hour of horror at the tail end, as well as a too-brief appearance by Doc Coddle (Donnelly Rhodes) from Battlestar Galactica in a less impressive chapter.

I thing we’re kind of spinning our wheels, as many American series do at this point in their season. They like to save the big dramatic stuff for the last few episodes so we tend to get fillers leading up to them. It felt like a lot of that, but with The X-Files, we kind of get those types of episodes throughout, so it’s not as disconcerting.

17 – “E.B.E” [MythArc]
(Original Air Date: February 18, 1994) That was some pretty horrible effects on the flashlight in the sky during the cold open. It was better than the very stiff, and strangely silent, performance of Peter LaCroix as the truck driver.

Now I’m not sure what to take of Deep Throat, as he seems like he’s going to periodically lie to Mulder to keep certain truths buried. Hey buddy, you can’t reveal your cake and not eat it … wait, that doesn’t work. You can mislead an agent to water, but you can’t make him believe … uh. How are we supposed to know when to believe him now? Yeah, that’s what I meant to say.

If the truck was a decoy, that was a pretty elaborate decoy to throw Mulder and Scully off the trail. And expensive. The government sure is willing to throw a lot of money around to keep Mulder running in circles. I still think a bullet to the brain would be much more cost effective.

Man, if this were on the air now they’d both be dead. “In these tough economic times, we just can’t afford to stage elaborate hoaxes for two FBI agents. So we had to put them down.”

Um, you forgot to forward the story in this ‘MythArc’ episode, guys. Maybe next time?

18 – “Miracle Man”
(Original Air Date: March 18, 1994) I tried laying on of hands when I was in high school, and it got me slapped a lot. “I was just checking the strength of your heartbeat, Tara. It’s not my fault your breast is there.” Let me check the other side.

There are a lot of questions remaining about faith healer Samuel Hartley. He clearly did have the ability to heal, though I wonder if he was able to relieve Vance, the burn victim, of the chronic pain most suffer. Maybe that’s what set the guy over the edge?

I was glad to see both the Sheriff and Vance guilty, and for different things. Crimes aren’t nearly as simple as most television shows lead us to believe, so it was nice that even though this case had an “x-files” element to it, in the end it was a couple of generic murders.

19 – “Shapes”
(Original Air Date: April 1, 1994) It was interesting that this episode was in response to Fox wanting a more conventional monster. I’m glad the writers didn’t go with a traditional werewolf, rather making it a Native American legend come to life. Legends of monsters and creatures being real seems to fit well with The X-Files.

There were some nice twists and turns throughout, even if things were a little obvious as to Lyle Parker being the “manitou.” It was cool hearing that the first “x-file,” coincidentally about a manitou, was started by Herbert Hoover.

20 – “Darkness Falls”
(Original Air Date: April 15, 1994) Mulder really knows how to work a slide projector. He had Scully in the audience again and in response to her question of what happened to the 30 loggers they were looking at, he flipped to the next slide … which was blank! … and said they vanished! So dramatic! Fox Mulder should have gotten an Emmy for best director.

Other than the terrible effects, for the most part, on the flying green bugs, this was one of the most intense and frightening episodes so far. Even better, Mulder and Scully completely failed to get away from the insects and were fully cocooned. I loved that the show had the guts to victimize its leads in this way.

Even better, the episode ended with no real resolution as to what to do about the deadly insects. I like that because there really are threats out there, like kudzu, that we have no real answer to. All in all, this was a very satisfying, if inconsequential (or seemingly so), episode.

Previously on The X-Files Virgin’s Diary
Now you can just click the show title under TV Shows over there on the right for all our previous installments. Handy, isn’t it?

Clacked by Jason Hughes
on Jun 26, 2009 @ 12:00 EST5EDT