Young at Heart (The X-Files)

"Young at Heart"
The X-Files episode
John Barnett's hand
Episode no.	Season 1 Episode 16
Directed by	Michael Lange
Written by	Chris Carter Scott Kaufer
Production code	1X15
Original air date	February 11, 1994
Guest stars
Jerry Hardin as Deep Throat Alan Boyce as Young John Barnett David Peterson as Old John Barnett Dick Anthony Williams as Reggie Purdue Christine Estabrook as Agent Henderson Robin Mossley as Dr. Joe Ridley William B. Davis as CIA Agent Graham Jarvis as NIH Doctor Merrilyn Gann as Prosecutor Gordon Tipple as Joe Crandall Courtney Arciaga as Progeria Victim Robin Douglas as Computer Specialist
Episode chronology
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List of season 1 episodes List of The X-Files episodes

"Young at Heart" is the sixteenth episode of the first season of the American science fiction television series The X-Files. It premiered on the Fox network on February 11, 1994. It was written by Scott Kaufer and series creator Chris Carter, and directed by Michael Lange. The episode featured guest appearances by Dick Anthony Williams, William B. Davis and Alan Boyce, and saw Jerry Hardin reprise his role as Deep Throat. The episode is a "Monster-of-the-Week" story, unconnected to the series' wider mythology. "Young at Heart" earned a Nielsen household rating of 7.2, being watched by 6.8 million households in its initial broadcast; and received mostly negative reviews from critics.

When FBI special agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) aid a former colleague of Mulder's in an investigation into a series of robberies, it becomes apparent that the culprit is an old nemesis of Mulder's—who had seemingly died in prison several years previously.

Plot

At the Tashmoo Federal Correctional Facility, Pennsylvania in 1989, an inmate, Joe Crandall, hears screaming from the prison's infirmary. Inside, he finds prison doctor Joe Ridley amputating the hand of fellow prisoner John Barnett. Despite Ridley telling Crandall that Barnett is dead and threatening him with a scalpel, Barnett blinks at him.

Four years later, FBI special agent Fox Mulder is notified by his former supervisor, Reggie Purdue, about a note from a jewelry store robbery mocking Mulder by name. Mulder recognizes the message as being from John Barnett, the man whom he helped capture on his first case. Even though Barnett supposedly died in prison, the note seems to bear his handwriting.

Purdue shows Dana Scully a video of Barnett's capture years earlier. The video shows that Mulder didn't fire on Barnett due to him having a hostage, per FBI regulations. Mulder's hesitancy permitted Barnett to kill both the hostage and a fellow agent. Scully looks into Barnett's cause of death and discovers that despite it being listed as heart attack, he had no history of heart problems; he went to the infirmary over problems with his hand. Meanwhile, Barnett leaves Mulder another note in his car, along with photos of him and Scully.

Mulder and Scully visit the prison and meet Crandall, who recounts his experiences with Barnett and Ridley in 1989. Barnett makes taunting phone calls to Mulder, and strangles Purdue with his salamander-like hand. Scully looks into Ridley's past and finds that his medical license was revoked in 1979 due to malpractice; he had performed illegal medical trials on children with progeria, a disease that causes premature aging. Mulder theorizes that Ridley's experiments helped him find a way to reverse the aging process.

Scully summons Mulder when Ripley suddenly appears at her apartment. He tells the agents that he succeeded in making Barnett age in reverse after replacing his hand using salamander cells. However, Barnett stole Ripley's government-sponsored research. Deep Throat meets with Mulder and confirms Ridley's story, saying that the government is negotiating with Barnett to purchase Ridley's work.

Scully hears someone dialing into her answering machine and spots Barnett's fingerprint on it. After Barnett calls again, Mulder decides to set up a sting operation at the cello recital for a friend of Scully's, which Barnett learned about from her answering machine.

That night, FBI agents wait at the concert hall for Barnett's arrival. Barnett, who goes completely unseen due to his youthful appearance, poses as a piano tuner. He shoots Scully in the chest during the recital and then flees, taking the cellist hostage. Mulder doesn't hesitate this time around and fires at Barnett, fatally wounding him. Scully is revealed to have survived the attack, having worn a bullet-proof vest. Despite the efforts of doctors and a mysterious CIA agent to resuscitate Barnett, he dies, and takes the secrets of Ridley's research to the grave. The episode ends with the camera zooming in on locker number 935 in a train station, implying the secrets along with Barnett's precaution, a bomb, are contained within and one day will be discovered.

Production

This episode originated as a script from freelance writer Scott Kaufer, who was an acquaintance of Chris Carter and former employee of California magazine and Warner Bros comedy development department. Chris Carter rewrote the script, which included the addition of Barnett's salamander hand. Fox's standards and practices department fought with the producers over the scene where Barnett strangles Reggie Purdue, and as a result the producers were forced to reduce the length of the scene. The footage of the young girl with progeria was filmed after the production crew contacted the Progeria Society and were put in touch with the family of Courtney Arciaga, who was a young girl with the disease. She and her family were fans of the series, and were flown from their San Diego home to Vancouver to shoot the scene.

Director Michael Lange felt the episode offered him excellent scope to try new techniques, noting that the series producers "encourage cinematic stuff". He felt a highlight of this approach was in shooting the episode's climactic stand-off, explaining that "instead of shooting at a normal eye level as the Salamander Man takes the gun, I tilt up, and now I'm shooting up his nose almost, and it was kind of like very disorienting. The show's got a certain ennui that appeals to me, the film noir-y movies of the '40s look, an undercurrent of tension and anxiety 'cause of all the weird things going on".

William B. Davis makes his second appearance of the series in this episode, although his role is simply credited as "CIA Agent", rather than "Smoking Man", as per his credit in the pilot episode. The character of Reggie Purdue would later be referenced in the fourth season episode "Paper Hearts", and the fifth season episode "Unusual Suspects".

Broadcast and reception

"Young at Heart" premiered on the Fox network on February 11, 1994, and was first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC Two on January 12, 1995. The episode earned a Nielsen household rating of 7.2 with an 11 share, meaning that roughly 7.2 percent of all television-equipped households, and 11 percent of households watching TV, were tuned in to the episode. A total of 6.8 million households watched this episode during its original airing.

Director Michael Lange said that he "liked the script very much, and I think I stayed fairly close to the original draft. I liked it because it had a good spookiness to it. To me, the intriguing part was the doctor's research into being able to reverse the aging process, which I wish we could have explored more." Executive Producer Robert Goodwin considered the episode one of the most emotional episodes of the first season, due to the time spent working with Courtney Arciaga, the little girl with progeria. In a retrospective of the first season in Entertainment Weekly, the episode was rated a C, being called "far-fetched" and criticised for its unoriginal themes. Zack Handlen, writing for The A.V. Club, described it as "sloppy, poorly edited" and "thoroughly unexciting", pointing out the "forced" nature of the supporting characters' past involvement with Fox Mulder. Matt Haigh, writing for Den of Geek, expressed mixed feelings over the episode, comparing it to Quincy, M.E. and stating that it "just wasn't weird enough" for an episode of The X-Files. "Young at Heart" has been cited, along with the fourth season episode "Paper Hearts", as representing "the supreme irony and the hidden agenda of the series"—in both cases, Mulder, directly through his work on the X-Files, puts information permanently beyond reach by killing those who hold it, showing that "despite the fact that Mulder drives the car, he frequently ends up—and goes—nowhere".

Footnotes

References

• Edwards, Ted (1996). X-Files Confidential. Little, Brown and Company. ISBN 0316218081. 
• Lovece, Frank (1996). The X-Files Declassified. Citadel Press. ISBN 080651745X. 
• Lowry, Brian (1995). The Truth is Out There: The Official Guide to the X-Files. Harper Prism. ISBN 0061053309. 
• Sharrett, Christopher (1999). Mythologies of Violence in Postmodern Media. Wayne State University Press. ISBN 0814327427. 

External links

• "Young at Heart" on The X-Files Wiki, an external wiki
• "Young at Heart" at the Internet Movie Database
• "Young at Heart" at TV.com