"They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly poison, it shall not hurt them." - Mark 16:18

To many, the practice of snake-handling is as alien as little green men. Devout followers of a single statement in the mass of advice contained within the Bible, snake-handlers live by a distinct doctrine. This unique ideology leads them to embrace a creature most of us would rather run from, a shivering, shimmering, slithering beast. Taking us behind the scenes of this unknown world, "Signs & Wonders" brought us face to face with the foaming fangs of this enigmatic being. Y'all like snakes, don't ya?

"Tennessee. Snakes. Thank you Mulder. Thank you so much."

Scully might have been less than thrilled with Mulder's latest caper, but I wasn't. "Signs & Wonders" embodied all the elements of the classic stand-alone from seasons of yore, a style of episode which has been largely neglected in recent times. It wasn't earth-shaking or delectably amusing, but darkly intense. Strangely, it took a relative newcomer to get to this heart of the series, a core notably missing from some of the more established writers' works. Penetrating our psyche with disquieting characters and a beguiling plot line (He's the murderer! No he is!), Jeff Bell kept us on our toes throughout the episode, showing us just how credulous we can be. (Did you know gullible's not in the dictionary?) Such humiliation I can bear, however, if it heightens an episode's interest and lessens its predictability. Then all you have to do is throw in Mulder, Scully, a few snakes, the wrath of God, and voila! You've got an X-File.

"Why would anyone use poisonous snakes as a murder weapon?"

Because they were serving evil, of course. Duh. ;) Not exactly the kind of thing you want to put on your travel request, but then again, Mulder and Scully rarely seem to take such things into consideration. Until this episode, oddly enough. I always thought their completion of such "menial" tasks had been restricted to the days of Kersh, the paperwork Hitler, but I guess they have been keeping up. Even their office has been getting a bit of a spit and polish. Though busy chasing down human oddities (and filling out forms about them too!), they've still found time for a few upgrades. The old basement briefing went high-tech in "Signs & Wonders," with the usual slide show being replaced by computer graphics. Though I have to wonder if this decision has anything to do with the disappearance of the slide projection screen. As I recall, after Mulder and Scully finally got their office back from Spender and Diana, it had "mysteriously" vanished... Nevertheless, these basement conversations remain my favourite method of episodic introduction, slides or not.

"Snakes?"
"Lots and lots of snakes. Very pissed-off snakes, by the looks of it."

After innumerable encounters with monsters and mutants of all sizes and descriptions, Mulder and Scully seem to be nearly unshakeable. Rarely do these two stoic crusaders appear frightened, or even remotely phased, by their experiences with the less than ordinary. When not being emotionally stressed in one of those "very special Mulder/Scullycentric" episodes, they most common expression is one of boredom. Yet after seeing just one completely normal snake in "Signs & Wonders," they looked positively petrified. Not that either of them had anything to worry about. Mulder's pretty much proven himself indestructible and Scully has always been an all around "righteous babe." Still, whenever those snakes showed up, out came the guns. How one would actually go about shooting what amounts to a slithering piece of rope is questionable (Jarod didn't seem to have too much luck), but somehow I don't think Mulder and Scully took this into consideration. They were just demonstrating their instinctual fear, one most of us share, of the all too commonplace snake. Are you afraid of the dark?

"It's okay. It's empty."
"Why is it empty?"

Filled with serpents and religious fanatics, the theme of "Signs & Wonders" was a familiar one. The tenets of Christianity have been a popular basis for many episodes, appearing as recently as "Orison." But unlike the latter episode, "Signs & Wonders" took the time to fully explore this topic. Juxtaposing a radical religious ministry led by a man who looked like Buddy Holly's creepy twin against a more traditional church service, it created an intriguing paradox. There may be power in having very black and white rules to live by, but (to use a horrible Super Bowl analogy) what happens to those who stray from the game plan? On the other hand, who's to say the "accepted" forms of Christianity aren't seducing the masses with crisp white pamphlets and carefully organized prayer groups? Perhaps snake handlers are more honest than such establishments, not hiding behind a conservative...skin.

"Are you a righteous man, Agent Mulder?"

For an episode centered on faith, Scully's saintly qualities were markedly toned down in "Signs & Wonders." A reverse from the usual opinion swap in such episodes, Scully took the middle road, affected by what she saw, but not claiming Reverend Mackey to be anything but "a man." Instead, Mulder had a turn in the judgement seat. While his disbelief in all things spiritual wasn't quite as vehement as usual - perhaps in the aftermath of the "Biogenesis" trilogy, they both can anticipate and appreciate the other's side - the old bias still lingered in his arguments. His disregard for Scully's beliefs in these religion-inspired episodes is something I never understood, since "buying into confessionals and communion wafers" is not much different than "believing in flying saucers," as Scully rightly (though a tad defensively) pointed out. Only when confronted with "rattlesnakes and medieval visions of damnation" did he finally begin to take the idea seriously. In any case, this epiphany came at the perfect time. With Scully's physical and spiritual help, he drank the deadly poison and survived.

"If this really was a test, I feel like I failed."
"If it was, I'd say you passed with flying colors. You're alive, aren't you?"
"Proud and fancy-free."

I have a feeling Jeff Bell has been doing some research lately. "Sign & Wonders" had many moments reminiscent of earlier X-Files - a good priest/bad priest plot twist similar to "All Souls," an ending like that of "Sanguinarium" with a devilish sort of fellow starting his life over again with an unsuspecting public, a slimy birth evocative of "Agua Mala," as well as the perennial rain, darkness, and flashlight favourites. So it's not surprising most of my regard for this episode came from nostalgia of old times. Admittedly, this may have led me ignore a few things, such as the fact that the message behind this episode a bit confused and its plot as frenzied as the Church of God with Signs and Wonders. However, it was those old times that defined the series, and I can overlook a few poisons if I get the thrilling bite of a scare in return.

Notes:

--Here's a new circus trick - instead of filling a car with a bunch of clowns, try snakes instead!

--"You think because you're educated you're smarter than us? You ain't." Ah, the irony.

--And the irony continues. Scully's reluctance to enter the church on their return visit led her into an even more serpentine situation. Out of the frying pan and into the fire....

--I wonder how difficult it is for a professional writer to continually use double negatives throughout his script. I know Grammatik can't never accept that!

--I'll have to be careful the next time I use a staple remover. You know, to make sure I didn't accidentally pick up a rattlesnake by mistake.

--It wasn't the most spectacular visual effect in the episode, but my favourite shot had to be that of a snake biting the camera. Eat up!

--Kudos to the make-up people for a great job on O'Connor's snake bites too. It looked sort like Skinner's nano-infected skin, but pussier.

--One of the episodes cheesiest logic leaps occurred when the formerly soft spoken Reverend Mackey started talking with Southern slang ("I told ya boy. You still don't know what side you're on."), which of course meant that he was in fact the murderer.

--Scully got to save the day for once. Yeah! Her response to O'Connor's claim that, "You can't help [Mulder]. This is his judgement." seem to say, "Whatever! Now let me get back to kicking down this door."