1.16 "Young at Heart" Trivia Quiz

Answer: A note

Purdue had been Mulder's boss when he first joined the FBI. They worked in the violent crimes section, and Mulder's first case involved John Barnett, a "trigger-happy" robber who had killed seven people while committing his crimes. Mulder believed that Barnett was working with someone at an armored car company since he always knew when to commit the crimes, so Mulder had used fake manifests to try to set a trap for him.

But Barnett found out, and he started leaving notes for Mulder like the one that Purdue found at the crime scene.

It said "Fox can't guard the chicken coop".

Answer: He had a shot but didn't take it.

Mulder was standing behind Barnett and had a clear shot at him, but Barnett was holding the hostage, and as Scully said, "That's not by the book". Mulder did end up shooting Barnett in the shoulder and the hand, but not until after Barnett had killed the hostage and Agent Steve Wallenberg. Agent Purdue showed Scully the video of the operation and told her that "Mulder never forgave himself". John Barnett survived and was sentenced to 340 years in prison.

At the trial, Barnett swore that he'd get Mulder.

Answer: His right hand

The official death certificate listed John Barnett's cause of death as a heart attack, but when Scully requested medical records from the prison, there was no mention of a heart condition. Barnett had gone to the infirmary for a hand infection. When Mulder and Scully went to the prison to interview Crandall, he laughed when they told him that Barnett's cause of death was a heart attack; he didn't believe that Barnett was dead.

He told them that the last time he saw Barnett, "the doctor was working on him with a knife and took his bad hand clean off".

The fact that it was the right hand was important; Mulder had had a handwriting expert look at the note found at the jewelry store, and she had said it was written by a right-handed person.

Answer: Agent Reggie Purdue

Purdue had fallen asleep while reading in bed when he was awoken by a phone call from Mulder. Earlier, Purdue had told Mulder that he thought the notes were just a prank from people within the Bureau who wanted to get rid of "Spooky" Mulder. But Mulder told him that he believed that Barnett was still alive because of his conversation with inmate Joe Crandall.

While Mulder was talking with Purdue, Barnett walked in and strangled Purdue with his right hand, a very strange-looking right hand. Later at the crime scene, Mulder once again regretted not taking the shot at Barnett when he had it.

The note that Barnett left at the scene said "Funeral for Fox's friends - then for Fox". Apparently, the scene where Barnett strangled Purdue was originally longer and more gruesome, so much so that it didn't make it past the network censors.

Answer: Progeria

The doctor who had worked on John Barnett at the prison was Joe Ridley. When Scully researched him, she found that his license had been revoked in the 1970s for conducting questionable experiments on children who were afflicted with progeria. The rare disease causes children to age prematurely, with most dying from heart attacks or strokes before they reach adulthood.

The young girl shown in the episode was played by Courtney Arciaga, a progeria patient from California who was a fan of the show.

Answer: Eyes

Ridley told Mulder and Scully that John Barnett was the only remaining survivor of the experiments he had conducted. Ridley had also used the treatment on himself which made him look younger than he was, but he was dying from a rare cerebrovascular disease, "an unfortunate side effect of the treatment". Barnett, however, wasn't dying, but his eyes were. Both Ridley and Barnett had the same milky eyes, which according to Ridley, didn't "respond to the gene therapy".

Answer: Salamander

Ridley told Mulder and Scully that he had been able to regulate the production of myelin in Barnett's body, which allowed for the regeneration of a new hand. But he said he couldn't get the cells to "behave properly" so he wasn't able to create a human hand. So he took advantage of research into the regeneration of salamander limbs and was able to grow a salamander-type hand to replace the one that Barnett had lost.

Answer: The U.S. Government

Ridley told Mulder and Scully that after he lost his license and had his research stopped, there were a number of entities interested in allowing him to continue with his work: "You might be surprised to learn how far up the ladder this dirty little secret goes". Mulder met with Deep Throat, who confirmed that the government was interested in Ridley's research and had arranged for him to work in the prison and use prisoners for test subjects.

He also told Mulder that Barnett had stolen Ridley's research and that the government was bargaining with Barnett to get it back.

As Deep Throat said, "The information he has could change the course of mankind".

Answer: Concert hall

Scully's friend had left a message asking if Scully would meet her before her cello recital. Mulder and Scully and a crew of agents arrived at the hall two hours before the performance to search for Barnett, but they didn't know exactly what he looked like so they missed him onstage, tuning the piano.

As the crowd filtered in, Barnett went into the lobby and shot Scully, who survived thanks to a bullet-proof vest. Barnett then ran back into the theatre and grabbed the cellist as a hostage. This time, Mulder didn't play it by the book, and he shot Barnett.

Answer: A locker at a train station

After watching the medical team trying to save Barnett (with a good shot of his four-finger salamander hand), Mulder said that Barnett "would take that medical research with him to the grave". When Scully asked Mulder where he thought it was, he responded that if Barnett didn't destroy it, it might be buried in a field or in a safe deposit box.

The camera meanwhile showed a scene at a train station and eventually focused on locker number 935 as Mulder said "Somehow I don't think we've heard the last of John Barnett".

Incidentally, the CIA agent was played by William B. Davis aka The Cigarette Smoking Man. Mulder referred to him as "probably CIA" in the episode, and the credits had him listed as a CIA agent.