Young At Heart [1x14]

Overall Rating: 6/10
Fright Factor: 7/10
Acting: 7/10
Mytharc Relevance: 6/10
Re-watchability: Medium
Connections:

Summary: In 1989, a wheelchair-bound prison inmate named Joe Crandall (Gordon Tipple) sees his friend, fellow inmate John Barnett (David Peterson), strapped to a surgical table with his right arm amputated. The doctor tells him Barnett is dead, and threatens Crandall with a scalpel to his throat.

Cut to present day - Mulder and Scully are called in by FBI agent Reggie Purdue (Richard Anthony Williams) to investigate a robbery/murder with an M.O. that strongly resembles Barnett's. This is strange, because Barnett should have been dead four years ago; but the truly eerie part is that the perpetrator has left a threatening handwritten note directed at Mulder - "Fox can't guard the chicken coop." We then learn that several years ago, during a botched armored truck hostage-taking, Mulder missed his chance to shoot Barnett, which resulted in the death of both the hostage and a fellow officer. Mulder has apparently never forgiven himself for hesitating. During a flashback to Barnett's trial, we see him mouth the words "I'm going to get you" to Mulder in clear view of Reggie.

So, is the suspect behind the new murder/robberies Barnett? Yes - he's been given a new lease on life with xenografting technology by one Dr. Joe Ridley (Robin Mossley) - the surgeon who amputated his arm in prison back in 1989 - and the new young Barnett (Alan Boyce) is back to get revenge on Mulder and his "friends."

Report: An interesting but ultimately perplexing early X-Files episode: Mulder and Scully appear more self-assured and serious than in many of Season One's eps, but the story plays fast-and-loose with the facts, and feels incomplete and rather implausible. My main complaint is that Young At Heart introduces several potentially fruitful plot devices that are - excuse the pun - amputated before they reach fruition. Mulder's old compatriot Reggie Purdue is killed off conveniently before we get a chance to relate to him, and before he serves his apparent purpose of revealing a glimpse of Mulder's early FBI years.

We never learn why the newly-young John Barnett begins a robbery spree years after he is presumed to be dead - we're told he has somehow stolen Dr. Ridley's secrets to rejuvenation, but couldn't Ridley have recreated most of his research from memory? Even if someone like Barnett "stole" his data (and I'm not convinced Barnett is smart enough to but that kind of scientific research to good use himself), Ridley still must remember the essentials of how it's done? What exactly is the connection between early-aging disease (progeria) and regenerative salamander cells? It feels like "apples and oranges".

Deep Throat (Jerry Hardin) and the Cigarette-Smoking Man (William B. Davis, in a brief non-speaking role) both make brief appearances to tie in Dr. Ridley with the mytharc conspiracy, but the explanation isn't very satisfying.

There are a few "jumpy" moments when Barnett breaks into Scully's apartment, arousing her fear and making her reach for her gun - but then, the notorious Dr. Ridley knocks on her door in the middle of the night, and she doesn't seem the least bit wary or surprised. What gives?

For most other programs of this genre, this is the best we can expect; but this is after all, the X-Files, and we have pretty high standards, right?