Miracles - E09

Mother's Daughter
First Aired: Friday November 28, 2003

A young Amish woman seems to be afflicted by stigmata. Paul and Alva investigate and find out that two souls are vying for control of the one body.

The episode begins with a young Amish woman afflicted with a sickness. Her family rushes to help her but are startled to find her in bed bleeding from the wrists. Paul and Alva come to investigate and see that there actually aren't any wounds now, even though there is blood. The two accompany the family to their home. The elder of the family dissapproves of their intervention, but before much more can be said, they all can here Hanna laughing in her room. They all go to check on her and Hanna is acting very strangely. Paul converses with her and finds out that she is Lucinda Morgan Bryant now. He and Alva, with Evelyn's help, investigate further and find a Mogan family in New York City that had lost their daughter to suicide ten years previously. It was on the same day and time that Hanna's father drowned and she almost did too. Alva begins to hypothesis that they are witnessing a type of reincarnation. Paul ends up going to New York and, after confronting the family, is surprised when Hanna shows up at the door. For a brief moment, Hanna returns, but she seemingly passes away. As Alva and her real mother show up, she is now completely Lucinda. With this comes the urge to commit suicide again by jumping off the building. Her Amish mother, however, is able to talk her down. Hanna/Lucinda ends up staying with the Bryant's while her real mother returns to her Amish life.

This was a good episode thanks to the acting of Maggie Grace and of the interesting take on possession/reincarnation. Consistently, this shows has been able take old ideas and shape then in a new way. While Paul and Alva act well in this episode, it more or less hinged on Grace's acting and she did a great job. I don't know what was keeping me from elevating this to a higher level, but I still felt the story was a little disjointed somehow.

Score: 8.2 / 10