Hand of God (Miracles episode)
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Hand of God is an episode of the 2003 ABC drama Miracles. It's only US network airing was on March 31, 2003, and in Canada on November 7, 2003 on Vision TV. It was the sixth and final episode to air on ABC before the show was aprubtly cancelled, even showing a teaser for next week's episode, and listing it on the official ABC website, which exists to this day.
The title refers to the act or performance of something that could only come from God, or, perhaps even, a miracle.
[edit] Synopsis
(From MiraclesTV.com)
It is raining heavily. Alone inside a car, a troubled young man is having a conversation with himself. “Look, I think what we’ve been doing is wrong… Maybe it’s better if we just call it quits … People are getting hurt … I don’t want to do this anymore!” He tells himself there’s got to be another way. He decides somebody is right. “Just tell me when to go.”
He gets out of the car holding a toolbox, and approaches a house. He knocks on the door, and tells the woman who answers that her landlord sent him out. He tells the woman that he’s working for his landlord, who is his uncle, and they are changing out all of the shower heads at no charge. The woman asks about her broken dishwasher, but the young man can’t offer any help with it. She tells him if he wants to come in, it’s dishwasher first.
Inside the kitchen, the woman asks the young man if he’s new at this. Very ominously, he pulls out a roll of measuring tape.
Hours later, the woman’s body lies at the center of a police crime scene. An officer announces that she was strangled with the measuring tape. Another officer opens a journal at the scene, revealing the words GOD IS NOWHERE written on a blank page. He calls Detective Victor Krantz over to take a look at it. “This is her journal,” the officer says. He turns another page, and reveals an artist’s sketch of a very familiar young man. Paul Callan.
”So, who the hell’s Paul Callan?” asks the detective.
The next day, Paul is playing some street hoops outside at a park. Detective Krantz approaches him. He introduces himself, and tells Paul that Father Calero says good things about him. He asks if Paul knows a woman named Gretchen Albright, who was murdered the night before. Paul says no, and asks why Krantz is telling him all this. Paul tells him the short version of where he was during the time of the murder, and what he was doing.
“Sitting alone in the dark, waiting for the walls to talk.”
“No kidding?” asks the detective.
“It’s part of my job … the people I work with, we investigate strange things,” says Paul.
Krantz doesn’t like what he’s hearing. “If it helps, I didn’t kill anyone,” Paul tells him.
“Maybe it does,” Krantz says. He asks Paul if the words GOD IS NOWHERE mean anything to him. Paul stops dead in his tracks. “No,” he says.
“See you sometime tomorrow,” Krantz says. He wants to hear the long version.
Alva is busy at Sodalitas when Paul walks in, asking him about Gretchen Albright. Alva knows about her already, and was the one who told the police where to find Paul. “A heads-up would’ve been nice,” Paul says. Alva maintains that it would’ve been counterproductive and would have given the police the wrong idea if he had warned Paul.
Alva tells Paul about Gretchen. In flashback, she is seen preparing a cake for her daughter’s 2nd birthday. The glass mixing bowl falls and shatters inside the sink. She cuts her arm pretty badly. Guests are arriving, so she simply wraps her arm and goes to greet them. When she comes back into the kitchen, she notices the dishtowel she’d wrapped her hands with. She sees the words “GOD IS NOWHERE” scrawled in her own blood.
Paul tells Alva about lying to Detective Krantz about the phrase. He says he doesn’t know why he lied to him. He asks Alva how Krantz connected the phrase to him. Alva figures the detective probably “googled” “GOD IS NOWHERE” and came up with results that included Alva’s research. “Why am I different?” Paul asks. He recaps that Alva has interviewed six others who saw “GOD IS NOWHERE,” while Paul saw “GOD IS NOW HERE.” What makes him different?
”It’s the kind of message that reveals the reader, isn’t it?” Alva asks.
“Maybe I read it wrong.” Paul turns and walks away.
Later, Paul is searching through old files. Evelyn is working in the background. He asks her where Alva went. She says he’s at a physics lecture in Boston with some friends. “He has friends?” Paul asks sarcastically. She asks Paul why he’s working late. He’s looking for the hemography files. Evelyn informs him that Alva has been keeping those in his office – she thinks he’s been working on them lately. Paul sees her out and locks the door. He attempts to break into the window to Alva’s office, but clumsily shatters it. Giving up all hope of stealth, he just crawls into the opening and retrieves the box marked “hemography.”
He examines the other case, and comes upon the picture of himself that was in Gretchen Albright’s journal. On the back of it is a date: 3/25/98. Looking at another file, he sees his name again. This time, in the dreams of someone he’s never met. File after file, Paul sees his own name connected to people and events he had absolutely no clue about. Finally, Paul sees a line of text about his own father, which blows his mind.
Alva returns, and Paul immediately confronts him. “You lied to me! Every one of those six people that saw ‘God is Nowhere’ in their blood also saw me. One of them even dreamed about my father!” He wants to know why Alva didn’t tell him.
“It wasn’t necessary,” Alva says. Paul angrily kicks the wall. He says he joined Alva’s organization looking for answers, ones that were right in Alva’s office all along. “And you found them.” Alva replies coolly.
Paul tells Alva he spent a few hours tracking those people down, and four of them are dead. All four killed within the last week, and Gretchen was the most recent. Alva honestly did not know this, and asks if Paul has said anything to the police yet. Paul says that he has not yet but he will, because it’s better if they hear it from him. Alva tells him this might become very dangerous for him. Paul thinks it already is.
Later, Paul is at his apartment packing, and Evelyn stops by to find out what happened with Alva. Paul tells her he lied about everything; about how the GOD IS NOWHERE people all dreamed of him and details of his life without ever meeting him. He also tells her how those people are now being murdered. He tried to track down the last two to warn them: Danielle Franklin in Denver, and a person who used to be named Kenneth Webster, but according to Alva’s files, has since changed his name and disappeared. Evelyn wonders why Alva would keep all this from Paul. Paul has no idea, but he knows he has to stop it. He’s headed to Denver to try and warn Danielle. Evelyn tells him he could also be on the killer’s list. Paul feels connected to these people, and wants to be with them. “Why?” Evelyn asks.
“Because I know what it’s like to be alone in the middle of things,” Paul explains.
He hopes to be able to answer some of Danielle’s questions, and maybe she can answer some of his. He shows Evelyn Danielle’s file, and in it where she told Alva of three dreams she had: The first about Paul got pneumonia when he was seven, which happened; the second, which she had in 1983, about Paul getting into an accident and being healed by a little boy; the third of Paul at a café talking to a man, who is his father. The man’s saying something, Paul is angry, and the water in the nearby fountain turns red.
Evelyn asks that if the woman knew anything more, wouldn’t it be in the transcripts? Paul says Danielle saw what he saw. She’s had dreams that have come true. “Can I tell Alva you’re in Denver?” Evelyn asks.
“Don’t tell anyone,” he says. She doesn’t like this.
At the airport, the troubled young man who murdered Gretchen Albright makes his way through the crowds. He makes his way to a local gun shop, and browses through the selection. He finds one he likes, a Jericho, and buys it and some ammo. The store owner asks how old he is; the boy tells him he’s 19. The owner looks at his I.D., and tells him that since it’s an out-of-state I.D., he can’t sell the boy a handgun. The boy looks him over for a brief moment. “Would you like a rifle?” the shop owner asks…
Back at SQ, Evelyn walks in and Alva heads her off, looking for Paul. She tears into him about withholding information from him. She demands to know why.
“Because Paul is on a spiritual journey. This is something that few of us undertake, and then in Paul’s case, it is not that one chooses, rather one is chosen.”
“Why did you lie?” she asks again. Alva tells her that he’s sure she’s read reports that violent crime is dropping, while in point of fact, the level of random violence is rising dramatically. Child abductions, sniper attacks, suicide bombings – many of those perpetrators believed they were doing these things at the request of a higher being. Evelyn reminds him she was a cop, and that people kill people because they are drunk more often than because God tells them to. Alva admits that may be true, but Paul’s particular problem isn’t booze.
“If Paul is in any danger because of this,” she tells him, “you had no right to keep this information from him.”
“What would you have me tell him, that he’s capable of great good or great evil?” Alva asks. He doesn’t want to plant that idea in Paul’s head because then it will be nearly impossible to uproot. Evelyn says they should plant the idea that he’s good. Alva says that even some who walk the path of good come to a bad end: JFK, Martin Luther King Jr., Joan of Arc, “even John Lennon.” Evelyn asks what happens if Paul gets involved with the others. Alva says they don’t know who this killer is, and if there were anything to be gained from contacting the others, he’d be doing it. He’s never seen anything like this before; people are being murdered simply because they shared a paranormal experience. “Now is a time for keeping one’s head down.”
Detective Krantz walks in. Paul left him a message about another murder in Colorado, and Krantz wants to know where he is. Evelyn tells him flat-out: “He’s on TransNational Airlines flight 629 for Denver.”
At the airport, Paul is stopped by two detectives and is escorted away. Meanwhile, at an undisclosed location that he has broken into, the troubled young man is talking to his mother on the phone. He hurries her off, and looks at the hunting rifle he bought from the gun shop.
Inside an interrogation room, the two detectives are asking Paul some questions, and taping the conversation for the record. They ask why Paul is so convinced Danielle Franklin is in danger. Paul tells them of the hemography, and of the murders related to the experience. He already knows they won’t buy it. And they don’t.
Back at the house which is now revealed to be the home of Danielle Franklin, the troubled young man hears her answering machine switch on, and listens while Danielle checks her messages from elsewhere. He hears the message from one of the detectives, and hears one from Paul, letting her know he’s headed to town and he’s trying to contact her. The young man checks Danielle’s organizer, and realizes she is picking up her messages from her salon where she is scheduled for an appointment.
Back at the precinct, Paul is still explaining the situation to the detectives. His cell phone rings, and it’s Danielle Franklin, outside of the salon and approaching her car. She can’t believe that it’s really him, after all this time. She says he even sounds the same, as he does in her dreams. She asks if he’s okay. He doesn’t understand what she means. She tells him she had another dream about him: a bad one. Paul tells her to get to the police station as soon as she can; it’s important that they talk. She thinks so too, and she says she’s going to be right over. As she sits down in her driver’s seat, the young man appears in the passenger side window.
“Danielle?” he asks…
The scene is now a crime scene. A uniformed officer is explaining to a detective that Danielle Franklin was killed by a single rifle shot to the head, fired from no more than 3 feet away. So far there are no witnesses. Inside the interrogation room, one of Paul’s detectives gives him the bad news. He is angry and near tears. “If you hadn’t stopped me, I could’ve saved her!” He attempts to leave, but the detective says that Paul knows an awful lot about a murder, and may be working with the killer. Just as Paul resigns himself to this, Alva walks in with a writ of habeas corpus, signed by a judge. Paul is summarily released.
Inside a diner, the young man is listening to a CD player while staring into space. Outside the window, a policeman can be seen pulling up to the diner. The boy turns to walk away, and runs right into a uniformed cop.
At the police station, Paul grudgingly thanks Alva for getting him out, but blasts him for keeping this information from him; information which could have saved Danielle Franklin’s life. As they leave, the detective that released Paul stops them. He says they just caught a guy 15 minutes ago, and he had a pocket full of Danielle Franklin’s credit cards. On the other side of the interrogation room, the detective explains that they’ve already notified Detective Krantz in Boston – they think there is a link between Gretchen Albright’s murder and Danielle’s. Paul insists he hasn’t seen the murderer before, while Alva wants to have a conversation with the suspect. The detective refuses. Paul and Alva leave, and the detective has a good look at the unseen person in the holding room, who is revealed to be someone other than the troubled young man who’s been committing these murders.
On their way out, Alva asks Paul if he is coming back to Boston. Paul isn’t sure, and he isn’t sure if he’s coming back to SQ even if he does. He thinks that he and Alva are looking for different things. Paul is looking for answers to his own mysteries, while Alva remains a mystery to him. He doesn’t even know why Alva started SQ in the first place. Alva pulls him aside and gives him a name: Hector Salgado, the new name of the former Kenneth Webster, the 6th person to see the words GOD IS NOWHERE. The only one still alive. Alva advises against Paul tracking him down. He apologizes to Paul, saying that he kept the information from him because he thought it would be detrimental to Paul. He hands Paul the most recent information they have on Hector. Paul asks why he’s doing this. Alva says that in his attempt not to influence events, he influenced them greatly. He offers Paul a ride to the airport, but Paul declines.
Outside the police station, he further explains things do have meaning, and they eventually add up. He relates a story about hearing his dead mother’s voice among the sounds of other bird calls – ravens. It was what eventually led him down the path that led him to creating Sodalitas Quaerito. “It led me to you, Paul,” he says.
In New Mexico, Paul pulls outside the last known residence of Kenneth Webster. He knocks on the door, and the person who answers is the same troubled young man. Inside, he confirms that Paul is the same person everyone has dreamed about, though he does not have the dreams himself. The young man is nervous and evasive to Paul’s questions. He tries to rush Paul out of the house, but it’s too late – the real Kenneth Webster arrives at home, and the young man bashes Paul in the face with an iron.
Paul wakes up minutes later, and stumbles into the kitchen to find the young man beating Kenneth with the iron. Paul attacks him, and knocks him out. Then, he calls the police. Kenneth is still alive, but badly injured. In the police car, where both men are suspects, the man tells Paul that he knows who he is. “Tommy comes to me too,” the young man says. Paul takes immediate notice of this.
The young man says he almost finished it. He knows that it’s all over for him; he’ll never spend another night as a free man. He is desperate to know that he did the right thing; that it wasn’t all for nothing. Paul has no idea what he’s talking about. “You’ve gotta know, because it’s up to you know. The voice told the man about them all. “God’s voice,” he says. He knows it’s Him, because he saw GOD IS NOW HERE in his own blood. “We’re the good ones, right?” he asks.
“You saw the words too...” Paul is stunned.
“Yeah. Six months ago,” the boy replies. “And then that kid Tommy, he said he knew you, or would. And then a few weeks ago, God’s voice came on inside my head, and he told me about the nine people who saw the words all wrong. And every time I closed my eyes he showed me what they were going to do. To everyone.” The man tells Paul that now it’s up to him.
“Nine people?” Paul asks.
“There [are] three more out there. Tommy calls them ‘The Darkness’ and God made it so clear: Kill them all before they can get their act together. I never knew God talked like that,” the young man says.
He tells Paul that he shouldn’t have stopped him back there, because if Ken Webster isn’t dead then that leaves four for Paul. He is weeping. “I hate this. Oh God I’m so scared,” he says. Paul just leans his head back and takes this all in.
In the station, the boy is booked, fingerprinted, and processed while Paul watches. The police uncuff Paul, and lead him away from the young man. The young man sees an opportunity to grab one of the uniformed cops’ guns. He breaks free and grabs it.
“Now it’s up to you, Paul,” he says sadly. “Tell my mom I’m sorry.”
A gun shot rings out.
Later, Paul is having his wounds treated, and the doctor tells him that he’d be dead if the iron was any heavier. Paul asks about Kenneth, and the doctor tells him he’s in intensive care, but they’re hoping for a full recovery. “Either way, you saved his life,” he says.
Paul watches Kenneth silently from the doorway. Slowly, he advances on him. He takes a pillow and holds it over the injured man’s face. Kenneth struggles while Paul advises him to “let go.” He flatlines, and the doctor runs into the room in time to catch Paul in this deadly act.
At the same doorway and, having finished his daydream, Paul continues to watch Kenneth sleep…
Back at SQ, Alva sits quietly alone, reading. Paul walks in and Alva tells him it was healthy to take a few days off. Alva asks him if he had spoken with the boy before he killed himself. “What did he say?” Alva asks.
“Nothing. He was out of his mind,” Paul lies convincingly.
Alva assumes that Paul has decided to stay on. “No I haven’t,” Paul says.
A moment of silence, and then Paul asks: “What have you got?” They both sit down as Alva begins to run the details of their next case.
- An ironic twist on the last line of the episode was that due to the show's cancellation, there was no "next case".
