For years the season 6 episode “Milagro” I touted as my favorite X File episode. Which even to me was strange. There was always something about it. The guest star John Hawkes is terrifying and odd. He’s definitely a stalker of Scully while having a genuine attraction to her, all while just wanting to write a novel. Hawkes performance and excellent. The attacker who extracts hearts with his bare hands is revolting. There’s always just been an interesting thriller story here that I felt was unique to the “X Files”. It’s pretty dark a season that shifted in tone drastically (in a good way for the most part).

I have seen a lot of criticism over time for this one calling it somewhat pretentious and contradicts Scully’s character. While the episode has dropped for me because of my love for Vince Gilligan episodes (Pusher is now my all time favorite episode of the series). I still hold this episode as a positive unique story for the series and I’m hoping others in this thread may think the same way. And if not, maybe they don’t and that’s good too.

John Hawkes is an underrated guest star who brought on a very sympathetic but creepy presence to the character of Phillip Padgett.