If you haven't seen this episode..

SPOILERS

This episode is not for the faint of heart. So... didn't Gracie ever get a sonogram or anything? And whatever happened to the snakes she gave birth to?

I suppose I should refrain from commenting on the idea that the mainstream churches are minions of Lucifer. . . .

Here's a link about the real-life religious groups that promote snake handling for the righteous. Unfortunately, when the group's leader was bitten, the snake venom did not escape out the wounds (yucch!). He simply died.

I personally loved the twist at the end... I, honestly, would have expected the fundamentalist extremist preacher to have been the evil one. (Bad Catholic! Bad! :-)

Think about it. Making the hellfire-and-brimstone preacher be the evil one is way too cliche. Making the nice, tolerant minister is not. His telling Gracie "You left the [snake handling church] because you wanted to think for yourself" is very similar to the account of the snake seducing Eve.

Besides, they already used incest as a plot device in "Home".

Yeah! They finally mentioned Kentucky in an episode of the X-Files. The snake handeling preacher was in Kentucky on the day of one of the murders. I'm really excited about this because I live in Kentucky, and it rarely is mentioned in TV shows. (We usally loose Kentucky slots to more midwestern Indiana or more southern Tennessee.)

It would be nice if they put an episode in Kentucky, not a throwaway line.

Wow, talk about a wolf in sheep's clothing. I was expecting the Rev. Mackey to plop the mouse down his mouth but I guess it was more dramatic having the snake come out to grab it. Nice work. :-)
I guess Gracie didn't get a sonogram because it was contrary to her religion or at least say that it is. And I believe the baby snakes she gave birth to were burned or killed by O'Connors' flock. I think Mulder mentioned something like that before heading out to find O'Connor.

I take it that the church that hired the supposedly tolerant minister after he left the Tennessee church didn't do a background check or ask for references.

See the end of "Sanguinarium".

Well, if he is a demon/devil, I suppose he could just fake them.

I predicted the minister to be the baddie early on the show (remember "All Souls"?), but yes, I was fooled midway through the show. The basic style of this show was rather similar to the book "This Present Darkness", in which the tolerant minister turns out to be evil.

So, Agent Mulder has become religious? Gasp!

What's up with this season? It's either religion or escapism, usually alternating. For religion, we've had "Amor Fati", "Millennium", "Orison", and now this. Of course, there's "The Goldberg Variation", "Rush", and "The Amazing Maleeni" for escapism.

This was rather interesting scheduling, as my pastor's sermon for Sunday was about "religious nuts". Interestingly, he bore a small resemblance to Enoch O'Connor.

to MikeC: I read that book, {my wife gave it to me as a wedding present.} I thought the minister in that book was the good guy. wasn't his name Hank Busch?

I noticed that they actually looked for a light switch in O'Connor's cabin! First time in seven years! Of course, there wasn't one, but at least they're making progress.

Notice how quickly they whipped out those flashlights? Long practice, I guess.

And making the tolerant minister the evil one was soooo obvious! I pegged him after 20 mins and I'm usually pretty obtuse.

Speaking of flashlights these were not the high-power ones they used to have. What happened to them?

Wow, Mulder got a racy one in!
Scully: "Snake handling. I don't remember that from cathecism class"
Mulder: "Funny-I knew a few Catholic school girls who were expert at it".
Scully should have punched him in the shoulder for that one.

Yep, Hank was the good guy, but I was referring to Reverend Oliver Young, the bad reverend.

If I were an demonic being posing as a priest bent on keeping my identity secret, one thing I'd definitely avoid doing is impregnating women with snakes.

But then, I'm not.

Murray, I think the demonic being impregnated Gracie for the reason of destroying her father. I think that as much was mentioned. I think he wanted to frame both father and boyfriend as being "bad" but didn't count on the bf finding out he wasn't capable of making her pregnant. Miscalculation on his part? Or just maybe he wanted to have little ones to dominate the world.

Here is another Bible quote that bears directly on the subject of snake handling and its superstitions:


ACT 28:3 And when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks, and laid them on the fire, there came a viper out of the heat, and fastened on his hand.

ACT 28:4 And when the barbarians saw the venomous beast hang on his hand, they said among themselves, No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he hath escaped the sea, yet vengeance suffereth not to live.

ACT 28:5 And he shook off the beast into the fire, and felt no harm.

ACT 28:6 Howbeit they looked when he should have swollen, or fallen down dead suddenly: but after they had looked a great while, and saw no harm come to him, they changed their minds, and said that he was a god.

They made a big thing out of there being no electric in O'Connor's church. Why then was there a welcome light just outside the door? OK, it wasn't on, but why would it be there in the first place?

It sure looked like there were a couple of electric lights inside too.