"Milagro" is the eighteenth episode of the sixth season of the American science fiction television series The X-Files.

The episode's teleplay was written by Chris Carter from a story by John Shiban and Frank Spotnitz, and directed by Kim Manners.

The show centers on FBI special agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) who work on cases linked to the paranormal, called X-Files.

"Milagro" was inspired by the idea of someone thinking of something so much that it becomes a reality, a topic Shiban later noted was "familiar" to anyone who had written a script.

Phillip Padgett (John Hawkes), a fledgling author, sits at a desk, suffering from writer's block.

Noticing a beating heart amidst the flames, and unfazed by the vision, he nonchalantly tosses in a paper bag.

The girl, named Maggie (Jillian Bach), runs into the woods to be alone and Kevin (Angelo Vacco), her boyfriend, gives chase.

Mulder bursts in and arrests him based on accurate descriptions of the case murders in his novel, which he secretly read after discovering it in the mail.

Back at his apartment, Padgett converses with the killer from his book, a deceased Brazilian surgeon named Ken Naciamento (Nestor Serrano).

It is revealed that through some sort of psychic connection, Padgett's Naciamento has come back to life and has been removing hearts from victims.

After hearing gunshots, Mulder runs toward his apartment and finds Scully on the ground, covered in blood but alive.

The stranger lies stricken on the basement floor in front of the incinerator, his beating heart in hand, having "... given what he could not receive".

[3] The idea behind the episode occurred when John Shiban and Frank Spotnitz were discussing how stressful being an X-Files writer could be.

Carter re-wrote portions of the script, including the ending, to show that the writer, although confused, does indeed "have love in his heart".

[8] Several weeks before production of "Milagro" began, John Hawkes had auditioned for the part of Pinker Rawls in the episode "Trevor".

[9] Manners wanted to frame the opening scene in a way that told "the story […] in a series of images", and so, he utilized quick cuts between shots.

[4] Two churches that had been selected for the episode rescinded filming permission just before production commenced, requiring the location scouts to find replacements as quickly as they could.

[14] Due to the fact that the actual park is rather sparsely populated by brush, the foliage was all created by the crew of the series.

[15] Manners shot several of the forest scenes with a 200 millimeter lens to obscure the lights of Los Angeles in the distance.

[19] Finding a graveyard with "old-fashioned vertical tombstones" proved a challenge for locations manager Ilt Jones.

[26] During the graveyard scene, one of the tombstones is marked "Salinger," with the names "Nicholas" and "Diana" visible underneath, a reference to the parents of Charlie, Bailey, Julia, Claudia, and Owen in the Fox television series Party of Five.

[31][32] Michelle Bush, in her book Myth-X, writes that the episode sheds light on Scully's motive throughout the series: she wants to gain Mulder's attention, something she feels she does not have.

Tom Kessenich, in his book Examination: An Unauthorized Look at Seasons 6–9 of the X-Files gave the episode a positive review, writing "The power of ['Milagro's] revelations was stunning.

[37] Shearman and Pearson also felt that Anderson's performance was "revelatory", and also praised guest star Hawkes as "both sinister and sympathetic".

[37] The Munchkyn Zone reviewer Sarah Stegall rated the episode 6 stars out of 5, writing "my congratulations to Carter, Shiban and Spotnitz on a daring experiment for commercial television".

[39][40] Zack Handlen gave the episode a "B−" and wrote that it "works far better than it deserves to", due largely to the performance of Hawkes and the "bat shit weirdness" of the plot.

"[38] Handlen argued that the episode reduces Scully "to a victim waiting to find out which handsome man will rescue her".

[45] She was once approached by a fan who applauded Scully as the "epitome of womanhood" because she is a character who "not only can kick ass but she […] works with Mulder without jumping him".

"[45] The episode was particularly analyzed by fans of the show, and the fact that Scully was almost seduced provoked "lively internet discussion".