This episode by far is one of my favorite season 8/9 Doggett episodes. It creeped me out when I saw it first run, it creeped me out right now when I watched it again.
It is similar to "Chimera", that had never occurred to me. But the explanation for Chimera is not the same as it is here. It is similar, but ultimately Chimera was about deception, deceiving oneself, and pretense: in Chimera there was Skully on a different assignment looking for a blonde haired prostitute who ended up being something totally different. While Mulder was confronting a woman who was pretending to be a wife and mother, and she was also something else entirely.
But with Robert Fassl, this is not pretense, it is a "miracle". And the focus is on Dogget, upon seeing it happen right in front of him, absolutely refuses to believe what he has just seen.
Which is odd, because a few episodes previous, in "Providence", he has as close to what can be described as a spiritual encounter as one could have, he hears something in his comatose state that brings him out of it. But he still refuses to believe in it. "If you can accept that, God love you, but that's not the way I'm wired at all".
Most of season 9 reflects on Faith: Skully's faith, Dogget's lack of it, Mulder's belief and will to believe, spilling out on the rest of the players in this basement of the Hoover building. All the way up to Alvin Kersch.
The reason I liked Dogget was, despite his lack of faith, he knew how the X-Files worked, and he was able to do his job despite not believing in anything. Because he had a streak of goodness. There were lines he would not cross, compared to his former partner "Duke" (played by the great character actor Arthur Nascarella).
The thing I want to know is, that wonderful underground location, was that a set or was it a real location?