The X-Files s01e16 Episode Script

God - What are you doing to Barnett? - Excuse me? What are you doing to Johnny? Go back to your ward.
There's nothing you can do for your friend now.
- What? - John Barnett is dead.
No, I heard him screaming.
I said John Barnett is dead.
You understand? Go on, Crandall.
Get outta here.
There's nothing more to see here.
You understand? I still don't get it.
What does this have to do with us? Robbing ajewellery store is a federaI crime.
Thank you.
I don't know.
I got a call from a guy I worked with in Violent Crimes.
Said it was important.
Reggie! Reggie! Mulder! I hate it when you do that.
This is SpeciaI Agent Scully.
Reggie Purdue.
- How are you? - Fine.
What happened here? Lone gunman took out a salesgirI after she filled up a bag for him.
You guys turn up anything? Not much, except this.
It's gonna blow your mind.
Why? I'm telling you, Mulder, this is going to blow Your Mind.
- What is it? - Wait wait a second.
- See why I called you? - What about witness descriptions? White male, five-eleven to six feet, ski mask.
- Damn it, Reggie.
That's Barnett.
- Yeah, but it can't be.
Who's Barnett? It was my first case at the Bureau.
Barnett was doing armed jobs all over DC and getting away with it.
He killed seven people.
There was this big task force.
Reggie was my ASAC.
I was 28 years old.
Right out of the Academy.
I had this theory on the case.
Reggie thought I was full of it.
I was full of it.
- What was the theory? - That Barnett had an inside connection.
An employee at the armoured car company was tipping him off.
I was sort of right.
Sort of? Yeah, we planted bogus waybills with the armoured car company to set a trap.
But Barnett was way ahead of us.
That's when the notes started.
"Fox can't guard the chicken coop.
" Clever, huh? - So you never caught him? - No, we did.
We did, but not not clean.
An agent died because I screwed up.
And what happened to Barnett? He avoided the death penalty on a technicality but he went down for every job he did.
Consecutive terms: 340 years.
The judge promised me he'd die in prison.
So you think he escaped? No, that's just it.
He did die in prison, four years ago.
You're sure? I was paying attention.
This guy a friend of yours? Yeah, I play golf with him every Sunday.
What do you think? You just brought this in ten minutes ago.
You're slipping, Henderson.
Ten minutes may be enough time for you.
Course, I wouldn't know from experience.
Yeah Seriously, what do you think? OK, first impressions: the ink is fresh, the note was written in the last 48 hours.
Ballpoint, but you knew that.
A right-hander.
Let's see Written by someone sitting down.
Now I'm just showing off.
Yeah.
Does it match Barnett? I'd say it's him.
But you're not sure? Writing's sloppy.
Some of the ascenders and descenders are heavier.
Could it have been traced over an old note of Barnett's? Could be, but it's a damn good job if it is.
- Thanks, Henderson.
I owe you one.
- Promises, promises.
There's Barnett.
We staked out an airport warehouse but everything went to hell when Barnett took the driver of the armoured truck hostage.
Where's Mulder? There, coming round back.
Barnett doesn't see him.
- He's got a clear shot.
- Yeah.
He should have taken it.
But he couldn't.
No, no, not with the hostage so close.
Because it's not by the book.
It would have saved one life, maybe two.
Bastard Barnettjust started blasting away.
So Mulder did shoot Barnett.
Twice - in the shoulder and hand.
But not before Barnett killed the driver and Agent Steve Wallenberg.
Mulder Never forgave himself for that.
You should have heard his testimony at Barnett's triaI.
Probably had a lot to do with the sentence Barnett got.
I'll never forget Mulder coming down from the witness stand and Barnett turning and saying he'd get Mulder.
To tell you the truth, I wish Mulder had killed Barnett right there in the warehouse.
- What did Henderson come up with? - 95 per cent sure it's Barnett's handwriting.
What's that? FederaI Bureau of Prisons sent me a copy of his death certificate.
Name of deceased: Barnett, John Irvine.
Cause of death: cardiac arrest.
Date: September 16th 1989.
- Then it must be a very clever copycat.
- The note was written in the last 48 hours.
- Pull any prints? - No prints.
Barnett had time in prison to plan this with someone on the outside.
- Revenge from the grave? A neat trick.
- He planned to get you, didn't he? I was just down talking to Agent Purdue.
He show you the video tape? - You did the right thing, Mulder.
- Did I? Steve Wallenberg had a wife and two kids.
One boy is an all-star on his football team now.
I shoot two seconds earlier and Wallenberg'd be here to see his kid play.
Instead, I got some dead man robbing jewellery stores and sending me haikus.
Let's go! Go, go, go.
Right in there! Very good! Way to go, Alec.
Two! One! Hut! I'll get you, you son of a bitch! I've been thinking about it, Mulder, and I think somebody is messing with your head.
- Barnett said he'd get me.
You were there.
- I don't care what he said.
He's dead.
- Apparently not.
- Aw, come on.
There are a lot of guys who know that Barnett made the threat.
It's Barnett, Reggie! - How could you say that? - I don't know.
I just feeI it.
All this talk around here about Spooky Mulder, I never paid it much mind.
I figured it was just talk about how paranoid you were an' all.
And now? Remember the day you walked into my office wet from Quantico? You pissed me offjust looking at you, but then I saw how your mind worked.
How you were always three jumps ahead.
It was scary, Mulder.
Everybody said so.
- I've heard this story.
- Well, maybe you ought to hear it again! You let a lot of people down here in the Bureau.
They had big plans for you.
A lot of people are saying that Spooky Mulder has become an embarrassment.
A liability.
What? Are you saying that somebody from the Bureau's behind this? Maybe, maybe not.
Just always best to cover your ass.
Sorry.
This was just faxed.
It's a copy of John Barnett's last will and testament.
No surviving relatives.
Left what little he had to another prisoner, a Joe Crandall and instructions to be cremated.
His will was executed six months after his death and this states that his ashes were spread along the bank of the Delaware River by an employee of the crematory used by the prison.
Somebody's messing with your head.
Killing a salesclerkjust to leave me a note? I'd say that's going a little out of your way.
He's older now.
He may have put on some weight.
- How much older? - Five years.
He could be wearing any kind of disguise.
Take us back to the day in question.
Was it your impression, Agent Mulder, that John Barnett took a perverse pleasure in his crimes? Didn't he send you notes to taunt you? Yes, I felt that he was daring us to catch him.
That he killed his victims almost as if it were part of a game.
Describe for the court, if you would, Agent Mulder what happened when you finally caught John Barnett.
We had a customs warehouse at the airport staked out.
We knew Barnett had someone working for the armoured car transport tipping them off about large cash shipments.
But we never figured he'd be inside the vehicle when it arrived.
That's how Barnett was able to take the driver of the vehicle hostage.
In other words, John Barnett used his own accomplice as a hostage? Yes, ma'am.
And then what happened? We surrounded Barnett and we ordered him to surrender his hostage and his weapon.
And where were you at this time, Agent Mulder? I was right behind Barnett.
With a clear shot of the suspect? Yes, ma'am.
But you didn't fire.
Why? No.
It's against FBI regulations to unnecessarily endanger the life of a hostage.
And I thought that with no means of escape Barnett would give up.
But what happened instead? The suspect, John Barnett fired his weapon point-blank at his hostage and then he turned his gun on Steve Wallenberg.
Shot him in the face.
Thank you, Agent Mulder.
No further questions at this time.
He gunned him down just for spite.
Your Honour, we object! This was a man with a wife and two small children and you shot him without hesitation, without a conscience - Or humanity! - Your Honour, do something! Which is why you should die like an animaI, you son of a bitch! If you do not stop, it will be contempt of court.
Order! If there's not order, I will be forced to clear the courtroom! Your Honour, this is inflammatory against the defendant.
- I ask that it be stricken from the record.
- Duly noted.
The jury will disregard the witness's last statement.
I'II Get You.
- I'll need print-outs of every variation.
- Right.
I just got off the phone with the prison.
- What did they come up with? - No, I called them on a hunch.
Barnett died of a heart attack.
Or so it says on his death certificate.
Well, I had them fax me all of his medicaI records.
Barnett was admitted to the prison infirmary for an infection in his right hand.
There isn't any indication or diagnosis of coronary complications.
In fact, on his physicaI six months earlier he was given a clean bill of health.
Crandall, someone to see you.
I don't get many visitors.
- You knew John Barnett? - Yes, sir.
How well did you know him? Pretty well.
He left you everything in his will.
You must have known him better than "pretty well".
I used to change his bandages and we just got to Know each other.
Are you aware that Barnett died of cardiac arrest in this facility in 1989? - Cardiac arrest! Where's it say that? - On his death certificate.
He ain't dead, is he? Why do you say that? Last time I saw John Barnett was right in that room over there.
Doctor with a knife took his bad hand clean off.
- What doctor? - Was it Dr Ridley? Yeah, it was Dr Ridley.
That's the one.
He told me Johnny was dead, but I knew it was a lie.
He put a knife up under my chin just for asking.
How could you tell Barnett wasn't dead? I saw him looking at me.
I saw him blink.
I'll never forget those eyes.
What are you gonna do? I know what I'm not gonna do.
I'm not gonna wait for Barnett to send me another valentine.
You mean the ghost of John Barnett? I didn't know you believed in ghosts, Scully.
Hello? Yeah, just a minute.
It's for you.
Mulder.
Fox Mulder.
- Barnett? - I'll run a trace.
- You sound surprised.
- You know Shouldn't I be? You know, it's illegal to tape another's phone call without their express permission.
Isn't that what they call it? In some states.
What makes you think I'm taping you? Same thing makes me think you're tracing this call.
What state are you in? Same state you are! I stood next to you in line for coffee this morning.
I don't think so.
Man, I'm everywhere you are.
Everywhere.
I own you.
How do I know it's really you? What did I say to you in the courtroom? Did you ever doubt me? I don't know.
What did you tell me? Huh! If you think you're gonna keep me on this phone with this Clumsy act Listen, by all accounts, John Barnett is a dead man.
Oh, you're the dead man, Mulder! Fine.
I just need confirmation that you are who you say you are.
You want confirmation you got it.
Barnett You there? - You lost him? - Yeah, he was hip to the trace.
Was it Barnett? John Barnett was from New Hampshire.
He had a slight accent.
Listen to this.
Fine.
I just need confirmation that you are who you say you are.
You want confirmation, you got it.
- What did he mean by that? - I don't know, but that is John Barnett.
I'm sure of it.
- Yeah? - Reggie, it's Mulder.
What do you want? It's the middle of the night.
It's only 10.
45, Reggie.
Yeah, well, I was sleeping.
Listen, it doesn't look like Barnett's dead after all.
Now what? I got an inmate at the prison who swears he saw Barnett alive the night they say he died.
Mulder go home.
Get some rest.
Just one thing doesn't make sense to me.
What's that? Agent Henderson said that that note left at the jewellery store - was written by a right-hander.
- Yeah.
So? This inmate swears he saw Barnett's right hand amputated.
Reggie, are you there? Hey, Reggie! Reggie, what's goin' on? Are you there? What the hell's goin' on, Reggie? Reggie! What happened? Hey, Reggie! Reggie! What's going on? Are you there? What the hell's goin' on, Reggie? I hope you brought your fine-tooth comb.
I want every piece of lint analysed.
If nothing turns up, run it through again.
Mulder.
His wife died of cancer six years ago.
He never liked to talk about it.
As long as I knew him, he was working on a mystery noveI.
He promised to show me it, but he never did.
I think he was afraid I wouldn't like it.
I'm probably the only guy in the Bureau he trusted enough to even ask.
I'm sorry.
I'm just thinking how different things would have been if I'd shot Barnett.
Mulder we're still not 100 percent sure this is him.
Fresh ink, slightly smeared.
I hate to tell you, and I'm not known to be wrong but this note was most certainly written by a right-handed person.
You see the pressure points inside the pen grooves? It's a dead giveaway.
Would you be able to tell if this was written by somebody using a prosthetic hand? Well, this fella - and I'm assuming from the cursive figures that it is a male suspect - he has a fairly nice, fluid style.
Judging from the pressure variations in the connectors they would need good finger dexterity.
You won't get that with a prosthesis.
You think it's the same person that wrote the first note? - This the guy you think killed Agent Purdue? - Yeah.
Know what occurred to me? You never got any prints off those notes.
If this guy was wearing a glove on his pen hand, note wouldn't be smeared like it is.
For what it's worth.
I was just trying to find you.
Listen to this.
According to the AMA, Dr Ridley, who signed Barnett's death certificate hasn't officially been a doctor since 1979.
- What do you mean? - His membership wasn't renewed after Maryland State revoked his medical licence for research malpractice and misuse of a government grant.
- Where does it say that? - The NationaI Institute of Health's journaI.
What kind of research? He was conducting experiments on children afflicted with a disease called progeria.
The patient, you see, is an eight-year-old girI suffering from the advanced stages of progeria.
She looks about 90.
Only about 100 cases have ever been reported, so the disease is rare.
But fataI.
Some patients make it to early adulthood.
Others become terminaI aged seven or eight.
What's the cause of death? Clinically it's cardiac or cerebraI vascular disease, but actually these poor kids die of old age.
Is that Dr Ridley? Yes.
In 1974.
Joe Ridley thought that he could take their accelerated ageing and slow it down.
Initially, some of his lab work was promising, but then things got out of control.
He wanted to begin human trials.
Why wasn't he allowed to? Because he hadn't met the criteria.
It was all too hypotheticaI, too dangerous! I mean I knew Joe Ridley.
He didn't care about those kids.
He talked about them as if they were laboratory animals.
This terrible disease, progeria - he saw it as a wonderfuI opportunity.
He used those exact words with me once.
An "opportunity" to unlock all the secrets.
When they refused to allow the human trials, he became enraged.
Do you know what they called Joe Ridley behind his back? - What? - Dr Mengele.
So how did Dr Ridley eventually lose his medicaI licence? He went ahead with the human trials secretly on an outpatient basis.
When we learnt about it, we terminated his grant and filed charges with the state medicaI boards.
I'm afraid your colleague Dr Ridley has dropped off the face of the earth.
Yeah, although it's rumoured he went to South America to continue his work.
- You don'tjust reverse ageing.
- Ridley's found a way.
He wanted human research subjects, right? Prisoners like John Barnett.
It's science fiction.
What would you have said 20 years ago about gene splicing? DNA fingerprinting? Cloning? ArtificiaI intelligence? Maybe the man's not in his late forties.
Maybe John Barnett has found the perfect disguise: youth.
I wanna age him backwards now.
Let's start with ten years.
Now five years more.
And add 20 pounds.
A healthy 20 pounds.
Ridley's notes from the human trials at NIH indicate he didn't see ageing as inevitable, but as an opportunistic disease.
A disease that could be prevented, reversed even by changing the chemical cues that trigger certain genes.
However, there is no evidence whatsoever that Ridley's work yielded any results or that his theories, all hope to the contrary, hold any validity.
According to scientifiic journals, projections on this kind of genetic engineering are at best speculative and futuristic.
Who is it? Dr Joe Ridley.
If you're really Dr Joseph Ridley, where have you been for the past five years? I originally continued my research in Mexico but for the last three years I spent my time in CentraI America.
In Belize, to be exact.
What about Barnett? He's the only patient left.
The only one who survived the experiments.
What about you? My appearance is deceiving.
I have no more than a month to live as I am dying from a rare cerebraI vascular disease.
The disease that kills kids with progeria? That's right.
An unfortunate side effect of the treatment.
By using the genetic components of progeria I was able to reverse the ageing process in the same way the disease expedited it.
At the same time, I and my patients became susceptible to the same ailments a child of six or eight would if he had the disease.
What about Barnett? John Barnett.
If I didn't so personally detest the man I might call him my one triumph.
Barnett's not dying? Only his eyes - which, for some reason do not respond to the gene therapy.
Otherwise, John Barnett appears to be thriving.
But how? I varied Barnett's treatment.
Once I isolated the progeria receptors, I stumbled on something quite unexpected.
These same genes related to myelin production.
The materiaI that insulates neurons in the body.
Yes.
Myelin is not present in the very young and by reversing the effects of ageing I found with Barnett I was able to regulate the production of myelin.
Myelin being the materiaI that prohibits you or I from, say regenerating a new hand if we were to have ours Cut Off.
You were able to grow John Barnett a new hand? Not exactly.
Not a human hand anyway.
I could never get the cells to divide or behave properly.
I- I'm afraid to ask.
- What kind of hand did you grow? - There'd been successfuI work in London.
By taking samples of what we call cell morphogens from an amputated salamander arm and applying them to the back of the creature they could grow a new limb on a different part of the body.
But only on salamanders.
- UntiI John Barnett? - Yeah.
- Unbelievable.
- My work has cost me dearly.
I'm an outcast in the medicaI community.
I was called Dr Mengele, Dr Frankenstein, but I didn't care.
Because you knew that if your theories panned out The man who owns the fountain of youth controls the world.
When the AMA censured me, certain sponsors came out of the woodwork.
One of them was the US government.
They financed your research? You might be more surprised to learn how high up the ladder this dirty little secret goes.
I know why you've contacted me.
Listen and I'll explain.
I am not proud of the way in which this matter was handled but, like it or not, John Barnett is a fact of life.
I wish Agent Purdue were around to appreciate the irony.
The government knew full well that Barnett was in the country.
You, of course, know that Barnett stole all of Ridley's research.
What Ridley doesn't know is our government is bargaining with Barnett to buy it from him.
What does he want? A lot of money, immunity, safe haven.
Will he get it? He holds all the cards.
You're aware that this Freak of science you're negotiating with is a murderer? The information he has could change the course of mankind.
Consider the options.
I will.
Hi, this is Dana Scully.
Please leave a message after the tone.
Retrieving messages.
Hi, Dana.
It's Mom.
I just wanted to call and say hi.
Um, give me a call whenever.
OK, hon.
Bye-bye.
Hi, Dana.
It's Kathy.
I hope you'll still meet me before my cello recital.
What's that? It's my private answering machine, or at least it used to be.
Meaning? This morning I heard someone dialling in my private code and replaying my messages.
Last night I could have sworn someone was in my apartment but when Ridley knocked I thought I'd mistaken the noise for him.
- Scully - I took this down to Prints before I came up.
John Barnett's left index oblique is on the underside of this unit.
Mulder.
Barnett? Your new friend- Ridley.
Don't grow too fond of him.
He's gonna die soon, like the rest of your friends.
The rest of my friends? One by one.
You're not that smart.
Tell me, you're not gonna make me prove it to you again, are you? Oh, well, no matter.
It'll be your turn soon enough.
But you won't get that chance.
Oh, no? Who's gonna stop me, huh? Man! This is This is the land of the free! Well, I'm just checking in.
Bye for now.
What does Barnett know from your messages? That my mother called for no reason and I'm meeting a friend before her cello recital.
Where's that? We're working at a disadvantage because we don't know exactly what Barnett looks like.
Study each of these faces.
Know them.
- Particularly the eyes.
- I'm including a diagram of the theatre.
You have six front entrances and four more backstage.
If he shows he'll key on Scully, so wherever she is, she should not leave your sight.
We've got two hours before the performance.
Know this place inside and out.
We don't want any shots fired, if we can help it.
We want to take Barnett alive.
OK? How you feelin'? This is the first time I've ever played the target.
Well, let's make sure it's not the last time.
Gun! Down! Check her out! Get back, Mulder! Shut up! Back off! Back off! Don't even think about it.
Just let her go.
Go ahead and shoot! Go ahead, man! Shoot, Mulder.
What are you afraid of, huh? What? It's against regulations, huh? No, man, you need me alive, don't you? Cos I'm the only one who knows where the research is, huh? So I could shoot her and you just have to live with it, don't you, huh? Shut up! How about it, Mulder? Just like old times, huh? - Call an ambulance! - I'll do it! Hear me? It's OK, Scully.
An ambulance is on the way.
Easy.
You all right? Don't try to move.
Where are they? Can you hear me? Barnett? Where did you hide them? - How you feeling? - Like somebody kicked me in the ribs.
The bullet went through eight layers of Kevlar.
You're lucky to be alive.
What about him? They flew in three specialists to save his life.
That guy in the ugly suit is probably CIA.
He's been trying to talk to him.
- Is Barnett conscious? - Yeah, but he's not talking.
Mulder, I know what you did wasn't by the book.
Tells you a lot about the book, doesn't it? Where is it? Barnett! Come on! Where are the papers? - OK, we're gonna have to hit him.
- Intubate.
Come on! Come on! Shock him.
Shock him now! Got no pulse, no rhythm.
They lost him.
Bastard'll take that research with him to the grave.
Where do you think it is? Who knows? If Barnett didn't destroy it, he could have stashed it anywhere.
Which would have a certain cruel irony.
Scientifiic knowledge that could change the course of mankind buried out in a field somewhere, or sitting in some safe-deposit box getting old just like the rest of us.
If he didn't destroy it, chances are somehow, someday, somebody will find it.
And when they do, maybe he didn't get his revenge from beyond the grave but somehow I feel like we haven't heard the last from John Barnett.
I made this!