116 YOUNG AT HEART

"It's not like me to pretend.
But I'll get you, I'll get you in the end
Yes I will, I'll get you in the end.
Oh yeah, oh yeah."

Lennon/McCartney

"Fairy tales can come true
it can happen to you
If you're young at heart."

Young at Heart
Frank Sinatra

SYNOPSIS

TASHMOO FEDERAL CORRECTIONAL FACILITY
PENNSYLVANIA 1989
WASHINGTON DC

Mulder's first case with the bureau comes back to haunt him.

SCULLYVISION

We go from meeting one of Scully's ex-lovers in that last episode to meeting Mulder's first superior with the bureau in this one, Reggie Purdue. Right from the start we can tell this will not be an easy time for Scully. When Mulder and Reggie talk about a former case, Scully asks a couple of questions including "who's Barnett?" She is ignored. Mulder does get around to telling her about Barnett. Regardless of this, however, Scully is a hard working agent and she really does her homework on this one, constantly coming in to give Mulder important information that she has uncovered. It's Scully who, acting on a hunch, calls the prison and gets all the leads that eventually solves this mystery. Barnett didn't have heart problems, Ripley wasn't licensed, they ended up at her place. Mulder only contributes handwriting analysis.

Scully is very loyal to Mulder as he relives the pain of the Barnett case and how he wasn't able to bring it to a complete end, by killing him. She supports his actions on the old case where he "went by the book" and she supports him again when he doesn't go by the book. She seemed to not judge Mulder at all which may have seemed cold but it was perfect. This is her partner, who is she to judge? No point praising or condemning him. She understands what he did, why, and what he's dealing with because of it.

Scully as bait. Boy was this scene troubling. First of all Scully was wearing a bullet proof vest. Why would she? Barnett killed his last FBI agent by shooting him in the face. Scully should know that, she watched the video tape. Then again, maybe she felt safe with all those agents who were instructed not to let her out of their sight. Maybe it's Scully who is young at heart here, not to mention naive. Above all, she's brave as hell.

She may have felt safe when Mulder smiled and winked at her but she didn't smile back, so maybe she's getting wiser. Scully's friend doesn't fare much better. Sure, some people do wind up on the floor screaming and crying after their recital, but this one seemed more brutal than most.

This is ScullyVision, but this episode cries out for Mulder reflection. While he's on the phone with Reggie as he was killed, while on the stand in court revealing his blame for letting another agent with kids die... very touching. One wonders what with all the guilt Mulder's carrying around how he can even get out of bed in the morning... or in his case, off the couch. A young, vibrant agent with a family is shot point blank because Mulder played by the book. Since the pilot, Mulder has been berated for not playing by the book. Now, we maybe know why.

OH COME ON!

How did everyone know where Scully lives?

We know Scully lives alone, but would she leave her gun loaded on the mantle when she gets home at night? Granted, she does get a lot of unexpected visitors.

Barnett tells Mulder on the phone, "I'm in the same state you are." Well, Barnett called Mulder, who was in the FBI building which is in Washington, DC, which last time I looked, isn't a state.

Scully's mother on the answering machine sure didn't sound like Margaret Scully who we just met in Beyond the Sea.

Scully is promptly shot a couple of times at point blank range right in the Kevlar. Exactly where were all those agents who were supposed to be protecting her?

None of them saw Barnett as he strolls in wearing huge gloves and carrying a hand cannon? They actually let him get that close to her?

How often do they clean out lockers? Wouldn't someone have found it?

THINGS LEARNED
or All I Ever Needed to Know I Learned From the X Files

If you're bait, don't rely on FBI agents to do anything while you're getting shot.

When your partner and a doctor come over to talk about the case, do as Scully does, light some candles and sit with your feet under you on a comfortable chair.

Salamanders have dexterous fingers to be able to write.

If someone listens to your machine and you know it, tell them to go on a LONG vacation, or ask them to be a target to draw out the killer. I wonder if Scully's friend is still her friend.

You can give CPR just by lowering your elbows and not your hands on the person's chest like the doctor working on Barnett at the end.

You can yell for a man with a gun to SHUT UP while he's holding a hostage and the man with a gun won't shoot her, or you.

You can keep top secret medical research in a terminal locker and it's never found.

SFX

The salamander hand was gross and certainly made of rubber. Barnett's cloudy eyes that were to show that he's an old man in a young body just looked like uncomfortable contacts for the actor.

RECURRING CHARACTERS

Deep Throat!

WRITERSScott Kaufer/Chris Carter

Nice job with bringing out more depth to Mulder's past. I'm still a little ticked that they brought out an old chum in Reggie only to kill him off, but I'll live.

DIRECTOR
Michael Lange

Ho hum. Nothing really stood out as above average.

RUNNING TALLIES
Guns - lots of guns
Slide Projector and TV/VCR
Scully wears glasses
Scully types out a report
Raining - misting
Scully lights candles
Scully's big clunky white phone

POINT/COUNTERPOINT

Mulder,

I stick by your side through thick and thin. And with you there is a whole lot of thick. As in a criminal not only growing younger but growing a salamander hand? Oh come on, Mulder. And I certainly could have second guessed you about not shooting Barnett the first time you had the chance but I didn't. Nor did I criticize you for shooting Barnett the second time where you clearly put the hostage, my friend, in danger by not even aiming your gun with two hands. You violated Bureau policy, partner.

After all of this loyalty on my part, you set me up as bait for a shooter known to aim higher than any Kevlar vest and you gather a bunch of morons masquerading as FBI agents and tell them not to take their eyes off of me. Well they didn't, they all stood around and watched closely as Barnett nearly killed me. And to add insult to near injury you give me this gratuitous smile and a wink. Gee, what a sweet memory that I nearly took to my grave. What's up with all this Mulder?

Still your partner,

Scully

~~~~~

Now, Scully,

I appreciate what a good partner you are and would sure hate to lose you. The place was covered. Thanks so much for bringing up my past mistake with Barnett. I was playing by the rules by not shooting him in the back. See why I don't take the rules seriously anymore? I didn't need to use two hands, Scully. Haven't you seen my scores at the range? I did let you direct the investigative team, didn't I?

Hm, thanks for thinking that I'm your superior and you have no say in anything that I 'make' you do. I'll remember that. I know you're upset about having to be bait and that's why you've come off sounding a little whiny. Good thing this isn't in person, I wouldn't know what to do with you. Why don't you light some more candles, take a deep breath and I'll see ya in the office on Monday. Okay?

And I thought you liked my smile.

And I did introduce you to Reggie, don't I get any credit for that? You two would have made a really good team.

Mulder

ATHENAEUM

They compared Dr. Ridley to Dr. Mengele but Scully knew that using unwilling humans as guinea pigs for medical experiments is where the comparison stopped. Mengele was guilty of far more and yet Mengele in many ways remains a mystery. Scully just had came to the Athenaeum to find out more.

"Is Mengele still alive?" Scully asked the Curator.

"It is possible," the Curator said with an open mind. "He would have reached his eighty-ninth birthday this year. However, in Embu, Brazil in 1985 remains were found of a man who had drowned years earlier off the beaches in Bertioga. Extensive examinations by experts led them to conclude that they had indeed finally caught Mengele. Unfortunately it was too late to bring The Angel of Death to trial."

"He had lots of nicknames, didn't he?"

"Dr. Death and The Angel of Extermination, to name a few."

"Why was he never caught?"

"You ask quite complex questions Dr. Scully. Here is a book that attempts to answer that." The Curator handed her "Mengele; The Complete Story" by Gerald L. Posner and John Ware.

Scully leafed through it and commented, "By all accounts he was truly a monster."

"If he had been caught, not only would there have been some sense of justice and closure but we may have had the opportunity to examine the mind of a man who did things that a rational mind cannot even begin to comprehend. Sadly, however, we don't know nearly enough about him. He was born and reared in a small German town. The family business was, and still is, big business. His father worked hard and was apparently not very close to Beppo, Mengele's first nickname. He was closer to his mother but she has been described as a strict disciplinarian. Mengele was described by some as a sickly child who was, nevertheless, intelligent, aggressive and somewhat of a loner. He has also been described as a bright, sunny child who may have suffered inwardly. What that 'suffering' may have been about, we do not know. He chose not to go in to the family business and entered the University in Munich instead, studying philosophy, anthropology and paleontology. He received a doctorate degree and went on to obtain his medical degree. Shortly after medical school he joined the Nazi party and then the SS. He served in the military and was sent to Auschwitz in May of 1943 where he began his reign as The Butcher who had a deadly interest in twins."

"And that leads me to a most baffling question. How can a physician, who takes the Hippocratic Oath to do no harm, harm, torture and murder his patients?" Dr. Scully looked quite at a loss.

"The closest and most comprehensive answer to that is contained in this book." The Curator handed Scully a thick volume titled "The Nazi Doctors; Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide" by Robert Jay Lifton. "Lifton is a psychiatrist who interviewed many death camp physicians and gives a brutally fascinating accounting of just what went wrong."

"And just what did go wrong?"

"It is enormously complex. One must consider the history of Germany and the mind set of the citizens when Hitler came in to power. Then you must look at how their society began to evolve including the role of physicians and even medical schools. Another factor was the whole belief in the quite contemporary issue of genetic engineering of so-called superior human beings. The biological needs of the many outweighed the survival needs of the few. Or rather, a scientific excuse for murderous racism. And then careful consideration must also be given to the status of physician as military officer and the incomprehensible situations at camps like Auschwitz."

"Not to mention the psychological dynamics of butchering, gassing and cremating innocent people by the thousands each and every day," Scully added.

"Dr. Lifton advances the theory that many of the Auschwitz doctors coped by using what he calls 'doubling.' They created an alternate self, the Auschwitz self, that was split off from their real self. Split off but not completely separate as you might see in the multiple personalities of someone with Dissociative Identity Disorder. The Auschwitz self was not a separate entity, just a defensive splitting that enabled these physicians to kill and keep on killing."

"And they used other things too like alcohol in an attempt to numb themselves against the reality of their actions."

"Yes, many of the physicians were intoxicated when they greeted the trains and selected who would live and who would die. But apparently not Mengele. By many accounts, he seemed to enjoy the task."

"Unreal."

"The healing-killing paradox is very complex. Perhaps also at work was the stark reality that atrocity begets atrocity. But Dr. Scully, to try to answer your earlier question about these physicians, the Hippocratic oath did not exist at places like Auschwitz. As Lifton points out, when these physicians took the oath to Hitler, it nullified their Hippocratic responsibilities to anyone who was Jewish."

Dr. Scully sat quietly in the Athenaeum for a long time just shaking her head. What else could one do.

QUOTES

MULDER Reggie thought I was full of it. I was full of it.

SCULLY "Fox can't guard the chicken coop."

MULDER I'll get you, you son of a bitch!

MULDER Killing a sales clerk just to leave me a note? I'd say that's going a little out of your way.

MULDER He gunned him down just for spite.

JOHN BARNETT I'll... get... you.

MULDER I'm not going to hang around and wait for Barnett to send me another valentine.

MULDER Reggie, you there? Hey, Reggie!

SCULLY Listen to what you're saying.

SCULLY Mulder, it's science fiction.

SCULLY It's the first time I've ever played the target.
MULDER Let's make sure it's not the last time.