X FILES LYCEUM

311 REVELATIONS

"Behold, he is coming amid the clouds,
and every eye will see him,
even those who pierced him.
All the peoples of the earth will lament him. Yes, Amen."
Revelation 1

"What happened here was a miracle, and I want you to fuckin' acknowledge it!"
"All right, it was a miracle. Can we go now?"
Jules and Vincent - Pulp Fiction

SYNOPSIS

Mulder and Scully seeks the killer of eleven 'stigmatics,' whose latest prey is the real deal: a young boy with a father in a mental home.

SCULLYVISION

It is no revelation that whenever Scully's faith is tested it is always riveting and makes for great banter with her partner. It is fun to see their roles reversed; Mulder as skeptic and Scully the believer. Watch her closely as she and Mulder are in the morgue when she says, "I believe the hand of God can be witnessed." She pauses just before saying 'believe,' and her head movement after delivering the line speaks volumes about the fact that she kind of, sort of, well most definitely does, believe. She witnesses the hand of God, but Mulder doesn't. He doesn't detect the floral scent of Owen's corpse nor does he hear Kevin's father comment about things coming full cycle as Scully does.

As usual during a case, it's skepticism that keeps everything that happens in balance, only this time it's Mulder's skepticism not Scully's. Their discussions of faith, in matters of religion and the paranormal, bring at once heated discussion, but also another layer of these two exploring each other's minds and feelings.

Mulder gets a bit jealous when Scully mothers Kevin, even commenting, "You never draw my bath." In the opening sermon, Reverend Findley says, "Most people today tend to vest themselves in science and cynicism. They expect proof for all that they see, but miracles are wonders by nature. They need no rationale, no justification. You must witness the miracles of the Lord without question."

Sounds as if he's talking about our dear Scully. All through her X Files experiences, that has been her function, and need. During this case, it's Scully that has the inklings about the clues that bring them to the next revelation

The Reverend goes on to say, while his hands are bleeding as a stigmata's would, "My blood flows as a test of your faith. Open your souls to the divine possibilities. It is then, and only then, that you will truly understand the awesome powers of the almighty Lord."

By the end of this case, Scully had opened herself up to those possibilities. She had seen them and acknowledged them, but sadly, because her partner wasn't open to her new-found openness, declares that she's "afraid that God is speaking... but that no one's listening."

OH, COME ON!

Mulder and Scully bring Owen up in to the attic to interrogate him. It wouldn't have been as cool if he had jumped out of a first floor window, I guess.

Our agents let Kevin get taken from them not once but twice and then even Homer Simpson's evil twin manages to escape from them.

Saint Ignatius is in the bible?

Mulder doesn't believe that someone would have the heat and power to bend bars? He prefers to believe "acetylene torch?" Mulder? Our Mulder?

THINGS LEARNED

FBI agents are faster than a speeding bullet. The agents are called in to the case when Kevin starts bleeding and arrive on the scene before his bandages are on.

SFX

Wonderful angles and shots. Blood on the reverend's shoe in the opening. White chalk with Kevin's red, red blood on it. Scully through the confessional lattice work - fragmented like a puzzle - sort of like her faith. Beautiful stuff.

WRITER
Kim Newton

Making Scully and Mulder change places on the believer scale, making Scully motherly while at the same time smart and funny, and tackling the delicate issue of religious faith, Mr. Newton brought a good X File to life on his first time out. At the end, there are no answers, even for little Kevin. Is he 'the one' and Gates knew what he was doing, or was Gates just as wacko as Kevin's father?

DIRECTOR
David Nutter

Mr. Nutter is my (Jo's) favorite director of Scully. Look at his track record thus far: Ice, Beyond the Sea, Lazarus, Tooms, Little Green Men, 2SHY, and now Revelations. Most of the cases that have shown us more into Scully's psyche.

RUNNING TALLIES

Flashlights
Guns
Scully does an autopsy
Necklace
Bathroom - Kevin is kidnapped, again
Scully Drives! - she had to in order to get to the recycling plant while Mulder's checking out the airport

POINT/COUNTERPOINT

SCULLY: Mulder, you believe in everything. From little green men to old gray men and their conspiracy theories. Yet, when it comes to issues of religion and faith, you are cynical and disbelieving. What's up with that?
MULDER: Me? Skeptical? I believe, but not in the same way you believe. I bet Homer Simpson believes.
SCULLY: How can you believe in aliens and God at the same time?
MULDER: I can chew gum and walk at the same time. I can even read a magazine and watch TV at the same time.
SCULLY: Mulder?
MULDER: Yes?
SCULLY: I don't want to know what you're 'reading' and 'watching.'
MULDER: Don't tread in waters you don't want to plug you nose and dive into.
SCULLY: I don't think I did. You did.
MULDER: Hm. Imagine that.

ATHENAEUM

Puzzled, Mulder burrowed his way down into the bowels of the Athenaeum seeking revelations. He hauled a massive dictionary down off the shelf; "Definitions for the Faith Impaired."

He perused the definitions irreverently;

Bilocation - the state of being or the ability to be in two places at the same time. Padre Pio, a twentieth century Italian priest certain to obtain Sainthood, was a bilocator.

Jerusalem Syndrome - a form of mental illness - though not listed in the bible of psychiatric disorders the DSM IV - that strikes tourists to the Holy Land. The tourist becomes convinced that he or she is a biblical figure. It often strikes people who aren't completely convicted in their faith. They do, however, become completely convinced of their new identity. They seem to recover quicker if they leave the area.

Revelations - the Revelation of St. John the Divine, the last book in the New Testament; the Apocalypse.

Stigmata - marks resembling the wounds of the crucified Jesus Christ. Usually wounds or bleeding from the hands or wrists, a wound to the side and head wounds or bleeding as if from a crown of thorns. An unusual stigmata was suffered by Saint Veronica Giuliana of Italy in the 1600's. A postmortem exam revealed "a considerable curvature of the right shoulder which bent the bones just as the weight of a heavy cross may have done." The Catholic Church believes in the existence of stigmata but has never issued any infallible declarations about it, not even in the most famous case of all, Saint Frances of Assisi. Most stigmatics are members of religious orders and most are women. Nearly 70 percent are from Italy including the most famous recent case of Padre Pio who was also believed to be able to bilocate.

Mulder shelved the book. He was startled by the Curator, who appeared dressed as a female librarian, half rim glasses perched low on her nose, her severely black hair pulled back into a tight bun, her mouth pierced just as Mulder's second grade teacher had. She was not a pretty picture, and looked a bit like a bespectacled Mrs. Danvers in Rebecca.

"Having trouble believing, Agent Mulder?" she asked.

"Of all the people I could have this discussion with, you are not on the list."

"Tut tut, we're a little sensitive about this, aren't we? You know, Fox, Faith isn't just a girl's name."

"Very funny." Mulder smirked. Then he ascended from the literary catacomb and went home.

QUOTES

MULDER His parishioners said the Reverend Finley was bleeding from his hands like the wounds of the crucifixion.
SCULLY Stigmata?
MULDER The sign bestowed by God upon the righteous.
SCULLY I don't see any wounds here on his hands or wrists or otherwise.
MULDER No, I think this is a case of too much faith.

MULDER I've been tracking a series of international religiously motivated murders. All of the victims have been so-called stigmatics and all of them have been frauds, like the Reverend here.
SCULLY According to certain religious lore, at any given time there are twelve stigmatics in the world, representing the twelve apostles.

MULDER Either we're dealing with a psychotic religious fanatic who's hell-bent on exposing these kind of frauds, or a less programmatic psycho who harbors a murderous resentment towards the church, or maybe it's just a very disgruntled altar boy.
SCULLY Well, that narrows down the field.

KRYDER You must come full circle to find the truth.
MULDER Excuse me?
SCULLY Full circle to find the truth? I don't know what that means.
KRYDER You will.

MULDER What color hair did he have? Was it brown or blonde or...
FIRST KID He was bald. He didn't have no hair.
SECOND KID Cuz it all burned off in hell.

SCULLY Did you get a composite?
MULDER Yeah, looks like Kevin was abducted by Homer Simpson's evil twin.
SCULLY This isn't the killer, Mulder.
MULDER I think that's a safe assumption.

MULDER Did you hurt him?
OWEN No. I'm not the one that wants to hurt him.
SCULLY If it's not you, then who is it?
OWEN I was only asked to protect the boy.
MULDER By who? Who asked you to protect him?
OWEN God.
MULDER God! That's quite a long distance call, isn't it?
OWEN You don't understand, unless someone protects Kevin ...
MULDER It's the end of the world as we know it, right?
OWEN He who has ears, let him hear.
MULDER And he that has a tongue, let him speak. Now tell me where he is!

SCULLY Mr. Jarvis, my religious convictions are hardly the issue here.
OWEN But they are. How can you help Kevin, if you don't believe? Even the killer... he believes.
MULDER And townsfolk wonder why I sleep in on Sunday.

SCULLY There appears to be some kind of a pattern just to the right of his windpipe, possibly a hand print. Note to the lab to check further. It is now 14 hours after the time of death, but so far his body hasn't even begun to break down. Rigor mortis has yet to set in. His core body temperature remains at 98 degrees. His skin color, lividity is healthy.

MULDER Any revelations?
SCULLY Mulder, would you do me a favor? Would you smell Mr. Jarvis?
MULDER You want me to smell him? What am I supposed to be smelling?
SCULLY You don't detect a faint floral odor?

SCULLY Mulder, this man's body is in no way decomposing normally. In catechism, we learned of instances like this - so-called "incorruptibles", whose bodies wouldn't decay and who emitted a smell of flowers.
MULDER You're serious?
SCULLY St. Cecilia, St. Francis ...
MULDER And now you're suggesting that this is St. Owen?
SCULLY I don't know.

MULDER Scully, those stories you're referring to are mostly regarded as hagiographic fabrications, not historical truths, just like the occurrence of the stigmata.
SCULLY Well, what do you think this is?
MULDER This man? He was rather abnormal in life, maybe he's decomposing abnormally.
SCULLY Well, isn't a saint or a holy person just another term for someone who's abnormal?
MULDER Do you really believe that?
SCULLY I ... believe in the idea that God's hand can be witnessed. I believe He can create miracles, yes.
MULDER Even if science can't explain them?
SCULLY Maybe that's just what faith is.
MULDER Well, I wouldn't let faith overwhelm your judgement here. These people are simply fanatics behaving fanatically using religion as a justification. They give bona fide paranoiacs like myself a bad name. They're no more divine or holy than that ketchup we saw on the murdered preacher. And I think once you've finished your autopsy, you'll come to the same conclusion. St. Owen.

MULDER Have you heard of Jerusalem Syndrome?
SCULLY Yeah, it's when people who visit the Holy Land suffer religious delusions induced by the journey.
MULDER Yeah, they return home convinced they're the Messiah, Moses, the Virgin Mary, even the Devil himself. Well, if that's what Simon Gates believes, he's just as delusional as Michael Kryder, only a lot more dangerous.
SCULLY Yeah, but it still doesn't explain how he was able to burn his fingerprints into Owen Jarvis' flesh.

KEVIN She died because of me.
SCULLY It was an accident, Kevin. Your mother was only trying to protect you.
KEVIN Why does he want to hurt me?
SCULLY I don't know. But I won't let him hurt you. I promise.
KEVIN It's because I'm different, isn't it? Why can't I just be like everybody else?
SCULLY How are you different, Kevin?
KEVIN I just am.
SCULLY Agent Mulder and I are going to take you back to the shelter. There'll be a doctor to take a look at you there.
KEVIN Do I have to go back there?
SCULLY No ... No, you don't. Why don't you duck back inside.

SCULLY Look, I know about getting personally involved and I'm not.
MULDER Did he ID Gates?
SCULLY Yes.
MULDER That'll help. A man fitting Gates' description rented a car, under the name Forau. That's one of the Devil's disciples.

MULDER You never draw my bath.
SCULLY Kevin has a cut under his ribs.
MULDER He was in an accident.
SCULLY No, I ... I was with the paramedics when they were looking at him. It wasn't there.
MULDER Maybe you missed it.
SCULLY No, Mulder, I was paying close attention.
MULDER What do you think it is?
SCULLY Yesterday, I saw Kevin's hands. They were bleeding from identical wounds on the top as on the bottom ... just like in the crucifixion.
MULDER Scully ...
SCULLY There have been other signs. I haven't said anything until now, because I haven't been sure ... and I'm still not sure.
MULDER Sure of what exactly?
SCULLY How Kevin was able to be in two places at once ... just like St. Ignatius was able to do in the Bible.
MULDER That was in the Bible. It's a parable, it's a metaphor for the truth, not the truth itself. Why didn't Kevin conveniently bi-locate when Owen Jarvis abducted him from the shelter.
SCULLY How is it that you're able to go out on a limb whenever you see a light in the sky, but you're unwilling to accept the possibility of a miracle? Even when it's right in front of you.
MULDER I wait for a miracle every day. But what I've seen here has only tested my patience, not my faith.
SCULLY Well, what about what I've seen?

MULDER Scully, the man is at the airport. If he hasn't already killed Kevin, he's trying to get as far away as he can.
SCULLY I don't think so, Mulder.
MULDER You think it's you, don't you? You think you're the one who's been chosen to protect Kevin.
SCULLY I don't know. Look, if I'm wrong, I'll meet you out at the airport. OK?

SCULLY Kevin! Hold on! Hold on!
KEVIN I knew you'd come.

MULDER You OK?
SCULLY Yeah, I think so.
MULDER We have a couple of hours before our flight. I told the sheriff we'd go down and make a formal statement about Gates' death.
SCULLY I'd appreciate it if you'd handle that alone, Mulder. I have an errand I need to run.

SCULLY Bless me, Father, for I have sinned. It has been six years since my last confession, and since then I've drifted away from the church. I'm not sure why exactly.
PRIEST Have you come to confess?
SCULLY No, um, there's a man that I work with - a friend - and usually I'm able to discuss these things with him ... but not this. Father, do you believe in miracles?
PRIEST Of course, I see them every day ... the rising sun, the birth of a child ...
SCULLY No, I'm talking about events that defy explanation. Things that ... I believe helped me to save a young boy's life. But now I wonder if I saw them at all. If I didn't just imagine them.
PRIEST Why do you doubt yourself?
SCULLY Because my partner didn't see them. He didn't ... he didn't believe them. And usually he ... he believes without question.
PRIEST Maybe they weren't meant for him to see. Maybe they were only meant for you.
SCULLY Is that possible?
PRIEST With the Lord, anything is possible. Perhaps you saw these things because you needed to.
SCULLY To find my way back?
PRIEST Sometimes we must come full circle to find the truth. Why does that surprise you?
SCULLY Mostly, it just makes me afraid.
PRIEST Afraid?
SCULLY Afraid that God is speaking ... but that no one's listening.

THE END