Greetings and salutations, kiddies. Mrs. X here with another X-Files episode review just in time for Valentine's Day. Okay, okay, you’re saying "Wait a minute, Mrs. X; there was never an X-Files Valentine's Day episode." And you, dear reader, would be right; there isn’t. There is, however, an episode that deals not only with the theme of love, but also centers around still-beating human hearts being removed from their owners' chests. So without further ado, I bring you the special Valentine's Day review of The X-Files episode “Milagro.”

Like the episode “Monday,” which I reviewed for Groundhog Day, “Milagro” is a season six stand-alone episode. And like “Monday,” “Milagro” was written by Vince Gilligan and John Shiban, but is much better offering from these two than “Monday.” Kim Manners directed “Milagro,” and if you watch this episode on DVD, I suggest listening to the his commentary.  Unlike “Monday,” “Milagro” is one of my favorite X-Files episodes. In fact, I would list it in my all time top five. 

"Milagro" is a really good Mulder/Scully character study, and for those of you who are big Scully fans, I would almost call it Scully centered. You will see a lot of Gillian in this episode. Of course, I also like it because I consider it to be somewhat of a shipper episode (if you are not familiar with the term, a ‘shipper’ is someone like myself who believe Mulder and Scully should be/are involved in romantic relationship). This is definitely hinted at in this particular episode.  There isn’t a ton of action in the episode, but there is a lot going on psychologically, and as you all know, nothing says love like ripping someone’s heart out of their chest. 

The episode opens with the main character, one Phillip Padgett, sitting at a desk in his virtually empty apartment staring at a type writer. Time passes and he hasn’t typed anything, although he has managed to wonder around the apartment smoking. He then goes into the bathroom, stands in front of the mirror, reaches into his shirt, and pulls his still bleeding bloody heart from his chest.  Cut to the opening credits.

After the opening credits we see Scully get on the elevator to Mulder’s apartment with Padgett.  He just stands there and stares at her.  She is well aware of him looking at her and while there are no words exchanged we can tell she is uncomfortable.  For those interested in Scully, there is a really tight shot of her lips in this sequence, so enjoy.

Scully and Padgett both get off the elevator on Mulder’s floor, and Scully realizes that Padgett is Mulder’s next door neighbor. Scully enters Mulder’s apartment and asks him what he knows about the guy.  Mulder thinks he is a writer, but beyond that he doesn’t know much.  They then began discussing a case that they are working on having to do with people’s hearts being removed from their chests with no invasive signs. Cut to Padgett’s apartment, where he is now typing something.

Next we see what appears to be a typical lovers' lane make-out spot, where a parked couple are having an argument about sex. Apparently the girl doesn’t like what the guy is doing with his tongue, so she gets pissed and gets out of the car and walks a few feet into the woods. The boyfriend goes after her and is accosted by what appears to be a psychic surgeon, who reaches into the poor guy’s chest and pulls his heart out.  If the girl just would've put out, the poor guy might still be alive. It’s always the girl’s fault, ain’t it? I blame her (she gets hers later though).

Back at the FBI building Mulder and Scully are trying to figure out what is going on with the case.  Scully is on the phone with Mulder and we get a voice over from Padgett basically giving us a character study on Scully and in a way controlling her actions.  Although it is never explicitly stated, I would guess that the voice over represents what he is writing about her at the time. Scully discovers an unmarked envelope on the floor of the office and opens it. It contains a milagro charm (a hand holding a burning heart).

Mulder eventually makes it to the office and the two discuss the charm; there are no markings on the envelope and no DNA, and of course the secretary who slipped it under the door can’t remember anything about the man who dropped it off.  Mulder tells Scully that maybe the charm was meant for her, and she is a bit taken aback. Then he tells her that he will check it out because she has a 9 AM autopsy. Scully exerts herself by thanking Mulder sarcastically for making up her schedule, and tells him she’s going to be late.

Cut to an old cathedral somewhere in DC; Scully enters and goes straight for a painting at the front of the church. The camera perspective is from the point of view of someone watching her. As she stands looking at the painting entitled My Divine Heart, Padgett appears beside her and begins talking. He tells her all about the painting, then proceeds to tell Scully all about herself. It’s a fairly lengthy diatribe that I won’t get into here, but it’s definitely bordering on stalker, and clearly upsets Scully who visibly has tears in her eyes. She tells him that she has no desire to get to know him, and leaves the church.

Scully does eventually make it to the autopsy and explains to Mulder that the charm was from Padgett and that he is her secret admirer. Clearly Mulder doesn’t know what to make of this; he’s not upset, but he is a quietly puzzled. Scully performs the autopsy and there is more voice over by Padgett as Scully removes the charm to look at it. Padgett states that “agent Scully herself had become simply aroused.” Cut to what I believe is Padgett’s fantasy about Scully, although in Kim Manner’s commentary he says it’s Scully’s fantasy; just watch the episode and you can decide for yourself. Anyway, for those interested in seeing Gillian’s breasts, here is your chance. We see Scully making out with Padgett in what seems to be his apartment. In the course of this make out session, Padgett unbuttons her blouse and we get a pretty good shot of Gillian’s breasts in all their glory.

In the lobby of the apartment building, Mulder picks the lock on Padgett’s mailbox and steal his phone bill. Maulder gets on the elevator, and Padgett appears and gets on with him; the two ride in silence. Padgett notices an envelope tucked into Mulder’s newspaper and immediately suspects that Mulder has taken some of his mail.  Mulder asks Padgett about being a writer, if he’d written anything Mulder would know. Padgett says no, then asks if Mulder is working on any cases he would know, to which Mulder offers a suspicious “Yeah, maybe.” Oh, yeah; Mulder is on to him.

Once again, Scully is at Mulder’s apartment, but before she can make it to his door she knocks on Padgett’s. She tells him that she has to return the charm because she can’t return the gesture. She notes that lack of furniture in his apartment, and Padgett explains that he doesn’t need anything because he lives in his head. Scully agrees to come in for a cup of coffee - I guess she figured that she had a gun, so what the hell; if he tried anything funny she would just shoot him. 

Next door, Mulder has discovered a connection between the murders and personal ads in the newspaper. Padgett tells Scully that he used to live in her old neighborhood and that’s when he first noticed her. There wasn’t anything in her building so moving next door to Mulder was the next best thing, since she spent so much time over there anyway. Oddly this doesn’t freak Scully out, and she stays. Eventually Mulder makes the connection with Padgett and breaks into his apartment, gun drawn, startling Padgett and Scully. Mulder starts throwing pages of Padgett’s novel around until he comes across a specific description of the murders, then places Padgett under arrest and confiscates his novel.

We cut to Padgett sitting in a jail cell. Mulder comes to question him about the crimes.  He tells Mulder that he doesn’t know anything about the crimes, and that he is writing a work of fiction. Scully walks in and tells Mulder that he shouldn’t be questioning Padgett without a lawyer. She grabs Mulder’s arm, and with this gesture Padgett realizes that Scully can never love him, and that he has completely misjudged her character and feelings about him. Mulder still believes that Padgett is somehow connected to the murders through his novel, but Scully refutes him; the psychic surgeon in Padgett’s novel is Brazilian psychic surgeon Ken Nasiaminto, who has been dead for several years. Mulder refuses to believe Padgett isn’t creating the murders and tells Scully that she better read the rest of the novel, because it ends up with her doing “the naked pretzel on the bed in an empty fourth floor apartment with the stranger.”

We see Scully sometime later, still at the jail, reading Padgett’s novel. A guard brings her a notepad, telling her that the prisoner wrote something that he claims is a statement.  Scully begins to read, and we cut to the girl whose boyfriend was killed in the woods (because she wouldn’t put out) standing at her lover’s grave. Scully’s voice narrates Padgett’s words as the girl is attacked by the psychic surgeon and has her heart ripped out of her chest. Scully and Mulder arrive at the graveyard the next day looking for the girl. Mulder runs down and attacks a caretaker wearing a sweatshirt on similar to the one Padgett’s psychic surgeon was described as wearing. They find the girl in the back of this guy’s truck, covered in flowers.

Mulder decides that the only way to catch Padgett is to let him out of jail and allow him to finish the novel. Mulder and Scully both go to the jail to tell him that they have made a mistake and that he is free to go. Padgett tells Mulder and Scully that he too has made a mistake by misjudging Scully, and that she is already in love and just doesn’t know it (YEAH! Shippy moment alert! Duh, she’s in love with Mulder!)

Padgett goes back to his apartment and Scully and Mulder go back to Mulder’s. They set up a camera so they can watch what goes on in Padgett’s apartment. We see the psychic surgeon enter the apartment, and he and Padgett begin to talk. Padgett tells him that he misjudged her character and her interest in him. He says that he has love and that he wants to give it to someone. The surgeon tells him that he has love as a thief has riches.  In other words, it’s not love but evil that is in his heart. He tells Padgett that he knows how it must end, and Padgett asks simply “She dies?” The surgeon responds, “Yes. See? It practically writes itself.” 

During this conversation, Mulder and Scully are watching Padgett, and only see Padgett staring at his typewriter. The conversation and the psychic surgeon exist only in his head.  Padgett begins to type. After a few minutes he finishes, picks up the novel and leaves. Mulder follows him, but Scully, who has taken off her uncomfortable boots, is delayed putting them back on. 

Mulder gets to the incinerator room of the building where Padgett is getting ready to throw the novel into the fire. Mulder points his gun at him and tells him to stop. Mulder takes the last few pages and reads them, asking if Padgett is there to give the instructions to his accomplice. Meanwhile Scully opens the door to follow Mulder, and discovers Ken Nasiaminto, the psychic surgeon, who shoves her to the floor (side note  - in the gag reel for season six, Gillian opens the door and the director Kim Manners is on the other side with a hooded sweatshirt on. It’s pretty funny).

The psychic surgeon reaches into Scully’s chest and tries to take her heart out. Not going down without a fight, Scully shoots him. Mulder hears the shots and races back upstairs to his apartment, giving Padgett a chance to burn the rest of the novel and make Ken Nasiaminto disappear, saving Scully’s life. When Mulder gets back to his apartment, he finds Scully lying unconscious and bloody on the floor. Scared, he bends down to see what’s wrong with her, and she startles awake. Scully sees its Mulder and grabs on to him for dear life, crying. He hugs her back, but can seem to understand what just took place (another great shippy moment here). In the last scene we see Padgett lying on the incinerator floor with his still beating heart in his hand, his voice narrating his final words:

Overall, I give "Milagro" 8 Xs out of 10.  Like I said, it’s in my top five favorites of all time.  It’s a great character study; not so much of Mulder, but of Scully.  Obviously the crazy psychic surgeon makes it an X-File, but we never really find out if Padgett really is controlling everything with his writing, or if its a combination of him committing some to the crimes and controlling some things with his writing. Some people would call that a plot hole, but I call it a well written discussion point that makes the episode worth watching over and over again. The dialogue in this particular episode was very rich; the speech that Padgett gives to Scully in the church draws you in, and you can tell that Gillian isn’t just acting visibly upset at Padgett’s words. She is genuinely lost in the moment to the point that she really is upset.

Of course, for me, there is the overall shippy element of the episode, where no matter what, Scully and Mulder are in love and destined to be together. So regardless whether you love Valentine’s Day or absolutely hate it, I suggest you watch this episode. Because nothing says “I love and/or hate you” more than a bloody still-beating heart extracted out of your chest by a dead, fictional Brazilian psychic surgeon.

Mrs. X signing off.