I watch CW’s The Flash on first run, meaning I actually catch the new episodes each week. There’s a new character named Joseph Carver, played by Eric Nenninger, and just three days ago, I was watching the show and thinking I know him from somewhere but just couldn't place him. And now here he is in the opening scene of this week’s ep "Signs & Wonders." Of course, now that I’ve taken a moment to read his IMDB credits, I probably knew him from "Malcolm in the Middle." But let’s get back to his other FOX TV appearance in 2000. On a rainy night in Blessing, Tennessee, Jared Chirp gets some bad medical news, starts praying, arms himself and jumps in his car. He’s safe inside until he isn’t. Now he’s surrounded by rattlesnakes and wasting his ammo. You’ve only got six bullets. Shoot the window, you idiot! You know, it took longer for me to explain the Nenninger connection than it did for his character to live in this ep.
Mulder convinces Scully they need to investigate because there were 50 different types of snakes involved and Chirp was alone in the locked car when someone found his poisoned, bloated body. Dana provides the biblical history of snakes, and for once, Fox seems to agree with her. Jared’s pregnant girlfriend, Gracie, doesn’t seem to be taking his death well. Sculder talk with Reverend Mackey at Jared’s funeral while Gracie gets escorted away by church member Iris Finster. Mackey doesn’t have nice things to say about Jared’s previous house of worship, The Church of God with Signs and Wonders, where they use snakes to test faith. The agents search for Enoch O’Connor, but find snakes instead. Enoch saves our intrepid heroes, but it’s kind of hard to hear the dialogue over the very loud rattlers. Glad I use closed captions when I watch TV.Iris meets with Reverend Mackey to reveal a drunken Jared called Gracie the night he died, but Iris didn’t let him talk to her. Mackey says they’ll talk about it later. (That must be code for one character to die, like “I’ll be right back” in a horror movie.) Mackey’s bible study group is clearly held differently from Enoch’s, even before you bring snakes to the table. Mackey is calm and peaceful; Enoch convinces his congregation that God wants them to be hot so he can avoid paying for central air conditioning.
Iris is working in Mackey’s office when she gets bitten by a snake, I mean, a staple remover. She treating her wound in the bathroom when she gets attacked by other snakes. Guess she’s not righteous enough to survive. Sculder arrive and learn more about Gracie’s connection to her former church. Did I mention Enoch is her father? He kicked her out of the church and their family because of her pregnancy. Fox learns Gracie’s mother is also dead as Dana gets attacked by Enoch in a snake-filled trailer. Of course, he’s just trying to save her soul, right? Mulder rescues Scully and arrests O’Connor. In an interesting turn of events, the snakes attack Enoch in jail. He barely survives, but Gracie prevents the doctors from treating him based on religious grounds.Sculder search Jared’s home for clues and learn he was not the father of Gracie’s baby. That leaves the only other men as potential baby daddies: Enoch or Mackey. (Boy, this is just a completely anti-religion episode, isn’t it?) When Mackey leaves Enoch’s hospital room, venom starts oozing from O’Connor’s wounds and Enoch regains consciousness. Mackey returns, but the O’Connors are gone. Mackey claims Enoch is the baby’s father and that was why Gracie left his church. Enoch brings Gracie to his congregation and they try to “save” her, but she gives birth to a litter of snakes. (Is that the right way to phrase it?)
The next morning, medics arrive for Gracie. Mulder points out the bloody snake trails to Scully and goes searching for Enoch, who confronts Mackey with a knife. Fox shoots Enoch to save Mackey. On the way to the hospital, Gracie tells Dana the truth while Mulder realizes it with help from Enoch: Mackey was behind everything. This time, Scully tries to save Fox, who passes the righteousness test and survives his rattlesnake bite. Mackey somehow escapes to Connecticut, begins a new life as Reverend Wells and reveals his inner serpent is literal, not metaphorical. It’s the year 2000, does no one check references?!?Sestra Professional:
Call it the "Teso dos Bichos" effect, but there's a dog every season -- one that I never see unless I'm in full rewatch mode. And we're on Season 7's. Since we're coming up to an incredible two-parter that caps off the Samantha storyline and is quickly followed by an uproarious Vince Gilligan tale, I'm prepared to traverse through this muck to get there.
The religious episodes with faith at the center -- not Scully's, mind you, but everyone else's -- haven't gone over too well over the years. But eps such as "Miracle Man" (Season 1, Episode 18), "Revelations" (S3E11) and "All Souls" (S5E17) have served as markers to let us know where Dana is on her journey. I guess it is about time to check in with her on that front, but the marker here seems to be Fox going along with her sentiment. That certainly is different. I didn't learn that in catechism class: What I didn't count on was how strangely relevant "Signs & Wonders" feels in this time of self-quarantine. The religious people in the episode are confident they can handle snakes and avoid death by poison. Sounds an awful lot like those determined not to adhere to stay-at-home recommendations. "You've got nothing to fear if you're righteous people," Reverend O'Connor tells our heroes. I'm pretty sure I heard the same thing on the news from a holy man who is no longer with us due to coronavirus.
Such thoughts of serpents and religion going hand in hand might overwhelm me while watching this episode, if it wasn't for the fact that I'm more frightened by Iris' very severe hairdo. Now that's the kind of thing that can scar you for life.
God hates the lukewarm: By this reckoning, God probably would be fine with this ep, because it pulls every punch and turns the volume up to 11. That fits right into director Kim Manners' wheelhouse, he's the one who can pull off a juxtaposition between a snake at a religious ceremony and a staple remover in a church office. I don't quite understand how the reptiles appear at Iris' house -- perhaps they're attracted by her pomade -- but the eye-level shot of the fatal snake attack shouldn't slip away unnoticed.There's not a lot of meat on this episode of the non-snake variety. As you probably know living in the time we do, changing people's minds doesn't really happen that often. So the two reverends are satisfied to keep on doing what they're doing, and we know Sculder will continue along their merry way. I hope the fact that all these people have been killed by snakes doesn't mean the intolerant faction is correct about its supposition, because I'm going to have to be about as stubborn as the religious naysayers on this one.
The devil has been cast out: Scully may be right that there's no way Mulder's going to be told what to believe, but Fox is also correct when he points out that being told what to think is a very powerful supposition. It explains why some of the masses are out there gallivanting around when they should be home binge watching TV shows and perusing rewatch blogs. They really do think resisting the devil will make him flee.At least there's something of a mystery and resolution within this tangled morass of snakes. And while it's true, maybe the devil doesn't always have two horns and a tail, it really shouldn't fall by the wayside to stay on your guard when you do see a creature with two horns and a tail. ... By the way, do you think Mackey has met up with slithery demon Mrs. Paddock from Manners' first X-Files episode "Die Hand Die Verletzt" (Season 2, Episode 14?). And above all, and to quote a famous fictional adventurer ... why did it have to be snakes?
Meta monstrosities: Among the cast and crew bugged out by the reptiles -- Manners, David Duchovny and supervising producer John Shiban, according to the official episode guide. ... Michael Childers, who played Reverend O'Connor, apparently knew a lot about the world in which his character hailed from. His father was a real-life snake preacher, the guide said. This was Childers' first screen role. ... The guide also credited producer Paul Rabwin for writing the song "Sweet Lord Protect Me and Take Me to the Light" when an appropriate gospel song couldn't be found for the snake-handling scene.
Guest star of the week: I'll go with another actor hanging around FOX TV around this time -- Tracy Middendorf, fresh off a stint as someone else wronged on "Ally McBeal." She gives a nuanced performance here as Gracie, and that's tough to do since, between one death and another, she spends the entire episode being overemotional.
No comments:
Post a Comment