1.16 - Young at Heart
Special Agent Reggie Purdue introduces us to a case that is going to “blow. your. mind.” Even says it twice to make sure we know. The repeat seems more like an editing mistake than a character choice.
Purdue is played by Dick Anthony Williams, who has a cop’s face and thus was cast as a cop no less than 174,000 times. Probably also helped he was good at playing a cop. He and Mulder have instant buddy chemistry as Purdue takes him through that mind-blowing case.
Mulder and Scully are people who have histories, they’ve got scars! But mostly that just means they have cases in their past that haunt them. Things haunt a lot of other things in the X-Files. It’s obvious Mulder and Purdue have a history right away due to how Mulder chants his name as soon as he sees him: “Reg-gie, Reg-gie.” They giggle and give each other an FBI hug (handshake).
Not only is this a glimpse into Mulder’s past, but it’s an origin story, kind of: his first FBI case, evarrrr. Mulder was helping chase down John Barnett, who began sending notes all Zodiac-like, ended up getting caught, “But not clean,” as Mulder says it. An agent died, Mulder takes the blame for that. You see more, which I’ll leave alone.
And then Barnett died in prison four years prior to this episode, but is somehow still rubbing Fox’s nose in it all with more crimes and more letters? Mulder does seem pretty spooked about it, no pun intended.
Agent Henderson, played by Christine Estabrook, is only on screen for right around a minute, if that, but she’s amazing the whole time. I’m not sure if she’ll be back, but her witty repartee with Mulder, plus how confident she is in her abilities (and how good she actually is) made me want to see more of her in the series.
You could easily get caught up in how Mulder’s emotional and mental scars from cases like this don’t manifest regularly enough, not for how obviously they pain him in the episodes they’re revealed. That’s a fool’s game though. Monster of the Week episodes can almost exist outside of time, off the same galactic plane as the alien saga.
Agent Purdue tells Mulder this can’t be Barnett, ‘cause dude is dead dead dead. How could it be him?
“I don’t know I just feel it!” This admission of Mulder’s is one of my favorite parts of the episode. The working relationship of the guys, but also what’s clearly a friendship as well, means they can have an honest conversation. A lot of it is Purdue explaining Mulder to himself, which sounds worse than it is. Really, I think that’s some of the stronger character work here, both for Purdue and Mulder. The case itself is somewhat forgettable, sadly, some of that having to do with Barnett being underdeveloped. Even during the flashback, Barnett is so unremarkable it doesn’t do much for us to see him. For one, we’d already had that scene related to us by Agent Purdue, and second, it’s just so bland: Mulder’s outburst doesn’t go far enough, and Barnett’s whispering isn’t creepy, it’s just, well, hard to hear.
Despite Barnett’s boring character the episode holds together well due to Mulder and Purdue’s history, Agent Henderson using her handwriting expertise, and Scully trying to keep Mulder sane while also doing most of the investigatory heavy lifting. Time after time in this episode Scully supplies the leads that push the plot further, including arriving at footage of Progeria. X-Files Confidential by Ted Edwards tells a story of how the producer found an actual little girl with Progeria so they could film that footage. Turned out her parents were big fans of the show, as was she.
There are some excellent practical effects here but I don’t want to spoil them because they’re a lot of fun to come across on your own.
My favorite moment of the episode comes toward the end and features a music cue that is utilized fantastically. It’s super unsettling. Dr Joe Ridley shows up shortly after, and he is FAR more interesting than Barnett. He’s played by Robin Mossley and is awkward, weird, and 100 times more memorable than the “villain” of the episode. Will we see Dr. Ridley again? I believe so. Why? We see ol’ Mr. Throat and get some info on what exactly the G-Men have been up to with crazy-ass Dr. Ridley. Also there’s some preeeeetttttty direct evidence outside of that, but go ahead and watch to see.
Over all, a good episode, and if Barnett had more depth it could’ve been close to Beyond the Sea quality.