TEASER

A man, Jared Chirp, is in his house rushing around grabbing things to pack. A rattle snake rattle sits on his dresser. He also has a gun. He prays that he and his girlfriend will be safe. He runs out to his car and locks himself inside. Suddenly he hears rattling sounds and sees a rattling snake. He goes for the door, but the snake is covering it. He goes for his gun, but another snake slithers around it. There are a lot of snakes in the car now. He grabs his gun from under the one and starts shooting at them.

The camera pans away from the car as gunshots and then screams are heard.

ACT ONE

SCULLY: Snakes?
MULDER: Lots and lots of snakes. (hands her a file) Very pissed-off ones from the looks of it.
SCULLY opens the casefile. The camera pans to show a crime scene photo of Jared Chirp, dead from snake bites.
MULDER: It's the former Mr. Jared chirp of McMinn Country, Tennessee.
SCULLY looks at the next photo of the body
SCULLY: Oh my God...
MULDER: 116 separate bite marks. Judging from the wound measurements, there were 50 different snakes involved -- mostly copperheads and rattlers.
SCULLY: But it says here that he was found dead in his car.
MULDER: Yeah, with a pistol in his hand. He fired six shots into the floorboards, into the passenger seat, even his own right kneecap. And the windows were shut and the doors were locked.
SCULLY (reading the report): But, uh, what happened to all the snakes?
MULDER: No one seems to know that. There was not a scale found. I just got off the phone with a herpetologist at the Smithsonian -- he's stumped. Especially because these rattlesnakes tend to hibernate in winter.
SCULLY: So you think that, uh, Mr. Chirp was murdered?
MULDER: Well it certainly would appear that way, but the question is "How?" There's no physical evidence at all: no tire tracks, no footprints. I can't see how anyone could have accomplished this. And then you gotta ask yourself "Why?" Why would anybody use poisonous snakes as a murder weapon?
SCULLY: Maybe it's symbolic. I mean, serpents and religion have gone hand in hand. They've represented the temptation of Eve, Original Sin. They`ve been feared and hated throughout history as they've been thought to embody Satan. To serve Evil itself.
MULDER: Maybe these ones actually do.
SCULLY: These particular serpents actually were serving Evil? I mean, are you gonna type that on our travel request?
MULDER: Mmm, no. But at the very least, this case does seem to center around religion. And you're not the only one to think that, by the way.

BLESSING COMMUNITY CHURCH
BLESSING, TENNESSEE
At Jared Chirp's funeral is a very pregnant Gracie (Jared Chirp's girlfriend). The head of the church, Reverend Mackey talks to her.

When Mackey goes outside, he is met by Mulder and Scully. They question him. He tells them that Gracie and her boyfriend had left "The Church of God with Signs & Wonders," and come to his church, because of their beliefs at "Signs & Wonders," which includes snake handling. He thinks that the reverend or someone there probably killed Chirp because he left the church.

Mulder and Scully go to "The Church of God with Signs & Wonders." One the way to the door:

SCULLY: Snake handling. I didn't learn that in catechism class.
MULDER: That's funny, I knew a couple of Catholic school girls who were expert at it.

Mulder and Scully enter the building after knocking and calling out to O'Connor.

MULDER: Where's the light switch?
SCULLY: The nearest one? Probably ten miles from here.

Mulder and Scully start to look around.

SCULLY (with sarcasism): Rattlesnakes and medieval visions of damnation. Well, I for one feel a whole lot closer to God.
MULDER: I don't know, Scully, when you, when you get right down to it, is snake handling any harder to buy into than communion wafers, or transubstantiation, or...?
SCULLY: (right back at him) Or believing in flying saucers, for that matter.
MULDER: I'm just saying that, that, that your faith and O'Connor's seem to be based on the same book.

Mulder and Scully continue to look around. Mulder finds a crate.

MULDER: Uh, oh, Scully, what do you think O'Connor keeps in here?
SCULLY: Something slithery?
MULDER (shaking crate): It's all right, it's empty
SCULLY: Why is it empty?

They both hear a rattle and suddenly snakes come at Mulder and Scully. Before they can be attacked, Reverend Enoch O'Conner comes in wanting to know who they are. Scully digs out her badge and says they're with the FBI.

MULDER: Reverend, do something about these snakes, please?
O'CONNOR: You've got nothing to fear if you're righteous people.
MULDER: Just in case we're not, we could use a little righteous help here.

O'Conner picks of one of the snakes.

They start asking him about Jared.

O'CONNOR: That boy strayed from the path and was lost to the Dark One. I'm sorry for his soul. There ain't much else to say.
MULDER: He died from multiple snake bites. We thought you might have a special insight into that.
O'CONNOR picks up another snake
O'CONNOR: I do. It was a test.
SCULLY: A test? What do you mean?
O'CONNOR: A test of faith. A test of righteousness. (picks up snake) When the Devil aims to test you, you best be ready. And you sure better know which side you're on.
SCULLY (giving THE LOOK): Are you speaking about the devil's test or you're test.
O'CONNOR: I don't think you people realize which side you're on. I do. You can leave now.

Once out, Scully tells Mulder that they should just arrest him, but he tells her that has an alibi. Apparently he was in Kentucky when Chirp was murdered. He says that Jared died with a packed suitcase by his side, and that there has to be someone who knows where he was headed.

BLESSING COMMUNNITY CHURCH
7:03 PM
Gracie's mother, Iris, talks to Reverend Mackey. Upset because the night Jared was killed he had called to talk to Gracie, but she was in bed. She wouldn't let him talk to her, but she hadn't known it would be his last night alive. She tells him that on the phone Jared sounded drunk and was saying something about being tested, and paying for his sins. She says that she didn't know how to tell Gracie, and Mackey tells her that he will help her.

CHURCH OF GOD
WITH SIGNS & WONDERS
7:09 PM
O'Connor is holding his service. Everyone is very loud.

Back at the communnity church, Mackey gives the same sermon, but in a much different way.

In the back of the room, Iris is stapling booklets.

O'Connor continues his service in his own way. He opens a crate of snakes.

Iris is still stapling.

O'Connor starts to hand out snakes to the people.

Iris starts to use the destapler. The camera closes in on the "fangs" of the destapler as it turns into a snake head and bites the woman's hand.

The scene switches back to O'Connors church again. They are holding snakes and singing.

Iris thinks that she must be imaginging it, and she goes into the bathroom to wash her cut off. Suddenly, a snake comes out of the sink. More crawl out of everywhere. She starts to scream when a snake comes at her face.

ACT TWO

Reverend Mackey tells Mulder what he found out from Gracie's mother before she was killed. He says that they didn't get to finish the conversation, and Mulder says that maybe that was the point.

Scully and Mulder talk to Gracie, telling her that they think Reverend O'Conner killed Jared and her mother, but she tells them that he didn't. Reverend Makey says that she may be biast - O'Connor is her father. Mulder says that she and Jared were barred from the church. Mackey adds that she was barred from his home as well.

10:06 PM
Mulder and Scully go to O'Connors again. They get to the door and peer inside. Scully hesitates.

MULDER: You comin'?
SCULLY: I think I'll check around back.

Inside on the wall, Mulder sees a display of pictures of the ones that church "has lost." Jared, Gracie, and Iris are there.

Scully finds an old trailer with a lot of snakes in cages inside. O'Conner jumps out and grabs her. He tells her that she will be judged, and tells her to repent, as he tries to push her arm into the snake cage. Mulder burst in and Scully is let go.

McMINN COUNTY SHERIFF'S STATION
11:22 PM
O'Connor tells Mulder that he hadn't of stopped him, Scully could have learned something about herself - maybe some powerful good news. (Maybe this is a reassurance after Orison?)

MULDER: I'd say it's good news for you that she's not here right now. After what you tried to do to her.

Mulder asks if that's what he tried to do to his wife. He takes out the picture that was on the wall. Alice O'Connor died in June 1994 from multiple snake bites. He tells him that he almost got away with it. He asks him if his wife wasn't righteous enough for him -- like his daughter's boyfriend or Iris (she must be his x-wife or just the mother of his child).

O'Connor tells Mulder that he (Mulder) is an educated man -- too smart to know any better. Mulder tells him that he's smart enough to know he's a murderer. O'Connor tells him that Satan's near, and that he doesn't have eyes -- he's just proud and fancy free. Mulder tells him he's wrong, and that no one quite passes muster to him. He guesses that he feels the need to exact some kind of Old Testament revenge. He then asks what his plans for his daughter was. He just says that he prays for her soul because she's lost. Mulder guesses that it's because she doesn't believe the same as he does. He asks Mulder if he thinks because he's educated that he's better than most. He tells him that he isn't, unless he's educated down there (he points to his heart) that the devil is going to make a fool out of him, and he won't even know it.

Outside the interview room, Gracie makes a decision.

GRACIE (to Scully): I changed my mind -- I don't, I don't want to see him. Besides, I won't do any better'n you people in getting him to talk.
GRACIE starts to leave but Scully stops her.
SCULLY: Gracie, you still don't believe your father did it?
GRACIE: Doesn't matter what I believe. He'll be judged as he deserves. Can't nobody avoid it.

O'Connor is in jail. He hears a rattle as snakes start coming into his cell. He sits on the floor and prays, surrounded by them.

ACT THREE

O'Connor is in the ICU in the hospital. He is almost dying, having been bitten by the snakes. Some of the suspicion is taken off of him.

SCULLY: I guess he's looking less and less like he's a suspect.
MULDER: Unless he somehow managed to do this to himself...as a test of his own "righteousness."

Scully tells him that she just talked to the doctor, and right now the tossup is whether he's going to survive or not. Mulder asks about anti-venom treatment, but Scully tells him that he isn't receiving any because Gracie stepped in and is trying to forbid treatment on religious grounds. It's not clear whether she has a legal claim to do it, but she says that it's up to God whether he lives or dies. Mulder guesses that she thinks that Gracie's actions might not be entirely motivated by concern for her father's eternal soul. Scully asks what if more to the point, Gracie did it. Gracie told her that O'Connor would be judged as he deserves. She says that Gracie grew up around snakes, and she could be just as adept at handling them as her father is. Mulder is confused why she would kill the others.

JARED CHIRP'S RESIDENCE
10:58 PM
MULDER: He left in a hurry. Packed one suitcase and a gun. Earlier that night, he calls Gracie. It's Iris instead -- starts rambling about paying for his sins. (beat) He's frightened -- wants to leave town, presumably, with Gracie.
SCULLY: So, what's he scared of?
MULDER notices something.
SCULLY: Though I can't understand it, O'Connor's church exerts a strong pull on these people.
MULDER picks up the rattle from the teaser and shakes it.
MULDER: It's not so hard to understand. It's, it's a culture with very well-defined set of rules.
SCULLY: It's an intolerant culture, Mulder.
MULDER: I don't know, Scully. Sometimes a little intolerance can be a welcome thing. Clear-cut right and wrong. Black and white, no shades of gray. In a society where hard-and fast rules are harder and harder to come by, I think some people would appreciate that.
SCULLY: You're saying that you, Fox Mulder, would welcome someone telling you what to believe?
MULDER: I'm just sayin' that somebody offering you all the answers, can be a very powerful thing.

Mulder finds lab results, saying that Jared was infertile. Jared couldn't be the father of Gracie's baby. The lab report is dated the day he died. Scully said that maybe he was killed because he discovered the truth.

Gracie tells Mackey that she won't let her father be treated with anti-venom medicine to help him, saying its based on the religion. She says that he would want to be judged and using the medicine would interfere with God's decision. Mackey tells her that she came to him, trying to leave the church because of her father's beliefs. She wanted to be independent and make her own decisions. He tells her that letting him die wouldn't be her decision. She decides to let them help him.

Mackey leaves and Gracie looks over at her father as his heart monitor shows his heart beating irregularly. Suddenly, stuff starts oozing out of his bite wounds - the venom. She turns and starts to run, but he grabs her.

Mulder, Scully, and Mackey find out that O'Connor and Gracie are gone. Mulder thinks that O'Connor kidnapped Gracie, even in his condition. Scully wants to know what his reason would be. Mackey implies that the father of Gracie's baby, is O'Connor, Gracie's father. He tells him that that is why Gracie wanted to get away from him and the church as fast as she could.

O'Connor drags his daughter to the church. Still sounding quite disturbed, he pushes her head under water as he chants and prays. She tells him that something is wrong with her baby. He starts pushing on her stomach and its contents start to move around. Gracie screams. Suddenly snakes slither around her. She just gave birth to snakes!

ACT FOUR

Mulder and Scully find Gracie, who has lost a lot of blood. Mulder takes off after O'Connor.

O'Connor is in the church with a knife against Mackey's neck, telling him that he took what he loved away from him - his daughter. He tells O'Connor that his daughter came to him. Mulder rushes in and tells O'Connor to drop it, but he gets ready to kill Mackey anyway. Mulder shoots him in the shoulder so he drops the gun. Mackey goes to get a towel and call for help.

In the ambulance, Scully tells Gracie that they will catch him, but she tells her not to. Her father saved her life.

Mulder tells O'Connor that he'll be OK, that help is coming. He tells Mulder that it's not.

O'CONNOR: I told you boy, you still don't know which side you're on. Be smart - down here.
O'CONNOR points to MULDER'S chest.

Mulder finds Mackey and confronts him, pulling a gun on him. He figured out he killed Jared because he learned the truth -- the father of Gracie's baby is Mackey's. He asks Mackey if Jared came to confronted him that night, only see who he really is.

MACKEY: Just who is it you think I am?
MULDER: Is that what happened with Iris Finster? Was she beginning to catch on, is that why you killed her? Or was it just to further frame Enoch O'Connor? Is that what this is really about? Ruining O'Connor? Seducing his daughter? Destroying him by any conceivable means?
MACKEY: Are you a righteous man, Agent Mulder?
MULDER: Stay where you are.
MACKEY: It's just a simple question. Most people believe they're on the side of angels. But are they?

Suddenly the doors in the room slam shut.

MACKEY: If you were put to the test, how would you do?

Mulder's gun turns into a snake, so he throws it on the ground. More snakes come out of everywhere and start surrounding and attacking Mulder.

Scully enters the church and finds O'Connor on the ground. She asks where Mulder is, and then hears him scream for help. O'Connor tells her to stay away from Mulder, that she can't help him. The test is for him and him alone. Did he actually think she would listen?

Scully goes to the door of the room where Mulder is at and finds it locked.

Mulder is on the floor covered with attacking snakes. Mackey looks down at him and one bites him on the neck.

Scully breaks the door and rushes in just in time. When she walks in the room, Mulder is bleeding on the floor, except all the snakes are gone, except for one that she sees slither out. Mackey is gone.

O'Connor walks in as she opens Mulder's shirt to assess the damage.

Mulder lays in a hospital bed when Scully comes in. He has some bite marks, but he will be all right.

MULDER: Mackey?
SCULLY: Nah, still no trace, even though every law enforcement agency in Tennessee's out looking for him.
SCULLY sits down on his bed beside him.
MULDER: They won't find him. People think the devil has horns and a tail. They're not use to looking for some kindly man who tells you what you wanna to hear.
SCULLY: He's just a man, Mulder. Just like O'Connor.
MULDER: shakes his head.
MULDER: Not like O'Connor...If this was some kind of test, looks like I failed.
SCULLY: I'd say if it was, you passed with flying colors. You're alive, aren't you?
MULDER: Proud and fancy-free.
SCULLY gives MULDER a big smile.

HAMDEN CONNECTICUT
Mackey sits at a desk in a church, being welcomed as the new reverend.

The woman walks out. Mackey opens a case to take something out. It's not a snake, but a white mouth. He tilts his head back preparing to eat it. (This imaging reminds me a lot of LB) His mouth opens wide, and a snake comes up out of his mouth and eats the mouse, then goes back down Mackey's throat.

IMAGES FROM "SIGNS & WONDERS"

Overall Rating : 9
*Shippy Rating: 6.5
*Based on the Redux II scale (1-10, as Redux II being a 10 [now with Triangle being an 11, and Millennium being a 12, above the scale])*


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