They say a picture is worth a thousand words and that’s pretty accurate in this week’s episode. The opening shot focuses on an unshaven man wearing a wrinkled shirt, sitting in front of an electric typewriter in a room free of distractions. He’s got his Marlboro Reds and what is probably a glass of whiskey. (I seriously doubt it’s tea.) We learn he’s experiencing some form of writer’s block so he goes into the bathroom and rips his heart out of his chest. 
That doesn’t seem like an acceptable way to cure writer’s block, but let’s suspend some disbelief. He later gets to experience an elevator ride with Scully. Turns out the “heartless” writer Phillip Padgett, played by Deadwood’s John Hawkes, is Mulder’s neighbor. He has a habit of listening to Sculder’s conversations through the wall. This week, our intrepid heroes are investigating a serial killer who is committing “psychic surgery” -- Fox's words, not mine -- and yes, hearts have been removed. Later, boring couple Kevin and Maggie have a tiff in his car. She leaves and he goes after her, but gets chased down by the killer who tears out his heart. (By the way, the casting director really dropped the ball on this one. Kevin is supposed to be a 16-year-old kid but the 29-year-old actor looks like he could have a wife, two kids, an ulcer and a mortgage.)
Mulder is out at the scene, but back at the office, Scully finds a “milagro” (miracle charm) slipped under the office door. Phillip’s voiceover – allegedly necessary because of his work in progress – certainly sounds like a written narrative. Fox thinks the lucky charm – which is of a burning heart – was intended for Dana, not for him. Scully goes to church, where Padgett tells her the story of Saint Margaret Mary and the Sacred Heart. Dana accuses Phillip of following her, which is funny because he got there first. He’s very articulate, and in a different situation, it may even be endearing. Scully just looks disgusted, but still doesn’t believe he’s involved in her current case. Mulder uses his FBI training and resources to identify his neighbor … OK, he looks for a name on the mailbox and steals Phillip’s mail.
Of course, Padgett’s interest in Scully makes for an awkward elevator ride with Mulder. On the upside, it looks like Phillip's writer’s block has been cured, as possibly is Dana's dry spell. Nope, it’s just Padgett's vivid imagination brought forth by the episode’s director. Dana really does stop by Phillip’s apartment and has a cup of coffee with him. Too bad he keeps talking and reveals he’s been stalking Scully since before he got the apartment. She’s still intrigued, though, and chooses to sit in the dark with Padgett. Mulder enters the apartment, guns a-blazing, and arrests Phillip after realizing Padgett chose his victims through the newspaper of personal ads available by their mailboxes.Fox interrogates Phillip without an attorney present and admits to reading Padgett’s work in progress. He wants Phillip’s “psychic surgeon” Ken Naciamento located, but Dana has already identified him as a Brazilian doctor who died two years earlier. In his cell, Padgett continues writing his novel and describes Maggie (yeah, she doesn’t look 16 either) being hunted by the serial killer at Kevin’s grave. The agents arrive too late and Mulder finds Maggie’s body in the cemetery’s landscaping truck.
Back at the jail, the dynamic duo releases Padgett, who is convinced Scully is in love with Fox. Inside his apartment, Padgett encounters Naciamento, the character brought to life. Sculder, watching via surveillance camera, only see Phillip sitting alone by his typewriter. Padgett and Naciamento discuss his character’s motivation. Unfortunately, he realizes Dana must die in the story. Phillip heads down to the incinerator with his book. Mulder stops him at gunpoint while Naciamento attacks Scully in Fox's apartment. She shoots him several times, but the bullets go right through him. Padgett burns his book and Naciamento disappears. Scully is alive, but her dry-cleaning bill is going to be pretty expensive. She still fares better than Phillip who dies by the incinerator with his heart literally in his hand. No naked pretzel for you, Padgett.
Sestra Professional:
Last week's "Trevor" was as non-descript an ep as they come, one fitting the bill for any TV model specializing in the supernatural. "Milagro" is the polar opposite. This is a love story about and for Scully. Quite often, The X-Files defines itself in terms of Mulder's quest for the truth and his sister. But this episode shows that through almost six seasons and a movie, Dana not only continues to inspire legions of fans, but creator Chris Carter and his company as well.
Now "Milagro" isn't going to be everyone's cup of tea. Dreamy Scully sequences are interwoven with scenes of pretty gruesome violence. And I can't fathom those elements being mixed together better by anyone than Kim Manners, the director continuously counted on to drive home the emotional moments. Beyond that, the Hallmark fan base might just want Dana and Fox to say those magic words to each other, not have them spoken for them by a guy who conjures up the ripping out of hearts to wear on his proverbial sleeve.Coming in the so-called "X-Files Lite" season, "Milagro" proves there's so much left in the tank. Frank Spotnitz and John Shiban combined on the story while Carter wrote the teleplay, giving them all a chance to get their Scully ya-yas out. It feels freeing to watch it unfold, so it must have injected new life into all of them after diluting a major portion of the mythology a few episodes back and coasting through the most recent couple of shows.
But she was beautiful -- fatally, stunningly prepossessing: It's not all hearts and flowers. The vivid imagery of hearts being ripped out of chests belies conventional romance, suffusing it with elements of pain and suffering. And that only serves to make Manners' ensuing slow-motion 360-degree freeze-frame pans around gorgeous Gillian Anderson even more intense.As in a majority of Dana-focused episodes, we get to see our female lead irked about Mulder making plans for her. That makes her seem more human and less like a puppy dog following in her partner's footsteps. We're seeing something in Scully that was hinted at in "Never Said" (Season 4, Episode 13). There is a lot of sensuality in this woman, and when it's recognized by another -- even one on the outskirts of the society, or maybe especially in that case (and can't we include Mulder in that mix?) -- that passion can flare and burn.
The heart-and-fire motif running through our bottle episode is pointing out aspects of Dana we need to keep in mind. Should we be upset that these words are voiced by this Padgett guy and not Fox? I'm not, but I know a legion of shippers who might disagree with me. Yet there's another faction accepting it for what it is, knowing it's a race and not a sprint and expecting that someday someway, these two will be as exceptional at love as they are in their fields of expertise.
Loneliness is a choice: Another pattern in Scully-centric shows is less-than-idealistic behavior exhibited by Fox -- be it mail theft or unlawful entrance. The majority of the time, he's driven and correct in his suppositions -- your basic misunderstood genius. But in Dana-driven "Milagro," we see the cracks in his armor. This serves to refine his character as well. I need to see Mulder unsettled by Scully when they're in the same orbit -- as opposed to the different paths forged by her abduction and cancer scare -- before any major declarations are forthcoming. I'm plenty satisfied by the big moment here, namely that Phillip -- who has been so brash and sanctimonious all episode -- admits he got something wrong ... (insert fanfare here) Agent Scully is already in love. It makes my head swim as a viewer and gets me projecting what Fox and Dana might separately think about such a proclamation. Is it something Mulder's considered before and discarded? Is it something Scully recognizes to be true in her heart of hearts?
But that gets put on the back burner for a bit with Dana in physical danger yet again. Maybe that, in turn, will drive home the points Padgett made to them. These two couldn't possibly be right for anyone else in the world. Whereas Carter once told the world he had no plans to put Mulder and Scully together romantically, "Milagro" seems to reverse that position and plot a course precisely for that. And that is accomplished without dialogue, we're not hit over the head with it. Carter and company just let us know it's there. 
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