Mulder and Scully investigate a Tennessee snake-handling sect that may be involved in bizarre deaths by snakebite.

(originally aired January 23, 2000)

Written by Jeffrey Bell
Directed by Kim Manners

Michael Childers -- Rev. Enoch O'Connor
Randy Oglesby -- Rev. Samuel Mackay
Tracy Middendorf -- Gracie
Beth Grant -- Iris Finster
Phillip Lenkowsky -- Parishioner

It's a dark and stormy night in rural Tennessee. An agitated 20-something man packs his suitcase, glances at his girlfriend's photo and grabs his gun.

Lightning reveals a man's silhouette outside, but the young man doesn’t see it. But frightened anyway, he prays for protection as he gets into his car.

"Signs and Wonders" is a clever episode whose serpentine plot twists will leave many viewers genuinely surprised.

Although a bit overly reliant on the alleged shock value of snakes, the episode establishes, more firmly than any before it, the demonic nature of some of the powers at work in The X-Files.

Indeed, it is now hard to avoid a sense that supernatural forces must be reckoned with in any resolution of the series' "mythology arc" of extraterrestrial visitations. What remains to be seen is how the aliens and demons will interact with each other -- and which element holds the more formidable capabilities.

Interestingly, "Signs and Wonders" seems to offer support for a certain degree of dogmatism, both in its treatment of the respective pastors and in Mulder's understanding of the snake-handling sect's attraction. Liberal Christianity, we must now suspect, is far from an adequate protection against the onslaught to come.

Will Gracie now go back to her father's sect?

Is Connecticut the staging ground for a battle of biblical proportions?

Reportedly, at least 85 people have died in religious snake-handling since the year 1900.