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Monday, July 11, 2011

Fringe Recap - 'The Same Old Story' - (1x02)

Fringe - Season 1, Episode 2
'The Same Old Story'

Episode 102 opens showing the location marker of Boston Mass attached to a highway overpass. Next, we are taken to a motel room where a very talkative stripper is stretched out on a bed speaking to a shirtless man as he zips up his jeans.

When he grabs his bag on the way to the bathroom, she asks if there is a mushroom pizza in it. Huh? I'm assuming she's joking, maybe trying to diffuse any post-copulation awkwardness, but she's so damn babbly there's no time for awkwardness. Some people have a cigarette after sex, she apparently has Chatty Cathy syndrome.

She proceeds to fire off an onlslaught of words at the man, asking him if he's married, stating she knows it's none of her business, telling him her real name (maybe she gets lonely working the pole all day, who knows...), explaining that she and her sisters all have flowers as their middle names.  She says that her Mom didn’t even spell her first name right.


The whole time during this the man is in the bathroom, unrolling a pouch with objects that resemble surgical tools or a really large travel sewing kit. He pulls some liquid from a vial into a syringe.

His work is interrupted when he starts hearing the woman in the other room grunt painfully. Then, she gets off the bed and starts crashing into things, knocking the bedside lamp to the ground.

He exits the bathroom and asks her what's wrong. As she says she doesn't know we can see that it looks like something is moving around in her stomach. I guess maybe her stomach is trying to tell her "No mushroom pizza for you!"

The man tells her it will be over in a second and dashes off to the bathroom. In the meantime she stumbles outside to the concrete walkway balcony in front of their hotel room.

Her anguished cries bring one of the adjacent room's occupants out. The guy she was with comes out and advises his neighbor that he will take the woman to the hospital in his car. He loads her up while she continues to cry out in pain.

As she's screaming the skin covering her stomach still writhes as though something is trying to get out of it from the inside.

The man gets her out of the car at the hospital and then gets back into the car alone and speeds off into the night as she collapses screaming onto the sidewalk.

Someone apparently heard her because next we see her on a hospital gurney being wheeled through swinging doors. Someone asks her how many months she is and she tells them she is not pregnant. We hear a voice say that the baby needs to be cut out of her STAT. (Okay, they didn't say STAT, but I thought I'd throw that in there, it seemed appropriate.)

Before they can make the incision there is a ripping sound and her head lolls to the side and a technician says that they lost her heartbeat. One of the doctors grabs a scalpel and cuts along her now hugely swollen abdomen. As the incision opens and they see what is inside the woman they visibly gag and one of the technicians lets out a blood curdling scream that rivals sounds emitted by the first careless teenagers bumped off in your run of the mill B horror flicks.

The screen goes black and the Fringe opening credits roll.

We are then sitting in on a meeting Phillip Broyles is having with the committee who meets about these anomalies that they can't explain. If they gave a real name for this committee I missed it. The incident that occurred at the hospital falls into that category. Nina Sharp of Massive Dynamic fame is one of the people in attendance.

Broyles tells everyone he wants to introduce his new team and people begin flipping through a portfolio that contains pictures of Olivia Dunham, Peter Bishop and Walter Bishop.

Broyles brings up a picture of Walter on a monitor and goes on to give some background information on him. Nina Sharp helpfully pipes up to tack on that Walter was also committed to St. Claire's mental institution for manslaughter. Broyles informs her he was never convicted and Nina volleys back that it was Broyles himself who speculated that Walter's past dabblings might actually be the cause of the unexplainable craziness they have been witnessing. I half expected her to whip off her forearm skin, smack him with it and say "I challenge you to a duel."

Broyles says since Walter was in the looney bin for the last 17 years he is not someone he would consider a suspect of the happenings of late. He moves on to talk about Peter and Nina pounces on that as well, bringing up Peter's sketchy past and questioning Broyles's judgment in divulging classified information to such a person.

Broyles says Peter could find out the information either from his father himself or considering he is a genius, he could figure it out on his own.

Nina doesn't stop there and continues to shred Broyles's new team choices as she starts in on Olivia. She points out that she had an affair with her partner, and then her partner turned out to be a traitor. (And the ref steps in to tell Nina to keep it above the belt since it wasn't Olivia's fault he was dirty. That was a low blow.)

Broyles tells Nina that it was Olivia's willingness to forego her own emotional well-being and expose the person she loved that made him decide that Olivia was trustworthy.  While Broyles is speaking we see Olivia sitting in her apartment. A clock shows that it is 2:15am. Olivia is reading through John Scott's old unsolved case files. There are flashbacks of her and John together as he tells her he loves her, then a bit of their car chase and then John staring up at her before he died.

Her phone rings and when she answers Broyles's voice informs her brusquely to "Wake up." Olivia, who is quite good with snappy comebacks says "Waking up won't be a problem, but thank you for the gentle nudge." Broyles tells her to gather the team and meet him at Bromley Medical Center.

Next, Peter opens his and Walter's hotel room door to find that Olivia was who has disturbed his slumber. He lets her know the reason why his phone was off the hook was because he didn't want to be woken up. Well, now, that does make sense. Olivia is not sympathetic to his plight and advises him to get Walter.

He shuts the door, leaving Olivia in the hallway and goes to get Walter up. And because this is crucial to the story line and this recap would be lacking without it, I will point out here that Peter is only in his boxers, although not for very long.

He finds Walter's bed empty and treks across the hotel suite to check the closet, as apparently this is somewhere he has found Walter before. He is indeed there. When Peter questions him as to what the hell he was doing in there again, Walter explains that during his stint in St. Claire's there was a patient who would sing Row, Row, Row Your Boat at night and now he has a hard time sleeping without that lullaby.

Peter puts his shirt on during Walter's explanation, stifles a yawn and just comments "That's nice" in a sarcastic way. He tells Walter they have to go.

Initially I thought that scene was funny, and it is, on the surface. Here's this crazy guy in the closet because he can't sleep without Row, Row, Row Your Boat, that's good for a few chuckles. But, now it makes me think about how much like a fish out of water Walter must feel. He lived one way for so long and now he's having to adjust to an entirely different life style. He's in the care of a son that he knows would prefer to not have anything to do with him and there are entire parts of his past he cannot remember.

Upon arriving at the hospital Olivia is commended by Broyles for making good time. Broyles introduces himself to Peter but Peter is less than forthcoming with his own greeting and informs Broyles that Walter is still in the car, playing with the seat warmer.

Broyles goes to thank Walter for coming out to help them. Walter is in awe over the seat warmer and tells Broyles "I've never seen anything like this before. It warms your ass. Have you tried it?" By the befuddled look on Broyles's face I'm guessing he didn't choose to weigh in on the benefits of having a toasty ass on a cold day.

Broyles takes Olivia, Peter, and Walter to see the woman who had died earlier and when he removes the sheet that was covering her Peter scrunches his face up at the unpleasantness.

Broyles tells them that the baby that she gave birth to remained alive for awhile, but was in pain. The hospital staff realized that it was actually growing as it lay there in the basinet.

He takes them to see the baby, who did not survive longer than a half an hour. As it grew it was also aging. He shows them what looks like an old man, very bloody, with a long umbilical cord still attached to his navel.

Broyles asks Walter if he has any clue as to what was going on here and Walter surprises Peter by spouting off a bunch of science and doctoresque words. (Unlike Peter, I do not have an I.Q. of 190 so most of what Walter says goes over my head.)

Walter says that he will need to examine the body more thoroughly so he needs a lab immediately. Broyles reminds him that his basement lab at Harvard has already been restored for his use, a bit concerned that Walter seems to have forgotten entirely about the not-so-long ago John Scott incident. Walter himself does not seem concerned and says it's "fantastic news" about his lab.

Peter asks why they are being called in to assist with this particular case so Broyles sits them down in the back office at the lab, and clues them in on the Pattern. Olivia is already aware of some of the details, but this is the first Peter has heard about it. He tells Broyles that even though he thinks that he is pretty smart, he doesn't get "The Pattern" thing.

Olivia helpfully tells Peter that "Inexplicable and frightening things are happening, and there is a connection somehow." But Alex Trebek made her forfeit her points because she didn't say 'What is' in front of her answer.

Astrid Farnsworth pops in and lets Olivia know they might have a lead at the Scarlet Red Motel. A lady fitting Jane Doe's description had been staying there with a man, and when she was having terrible abdominal pains the man rushed her to the hospital.

Olivia goes over to Walter, who is engrossed with working on OldManBaby to tell him that she needs him to come with her to the motel room in case there are samples for him to take. Walter ignores her until she forcefully says his name.

Walter snaps back at her and says he is busy putting together the pieces of this puzzle to solve the mystery of what happened and he can't concentrate with a "girl buzzing in his ear."

Peter admonishes him for his harshness and volunteers to go with Olivia to the motel in Walter's place.

They arrive at the motel and Olivia finds the ID for the woman so Jane Doe becomes Loraine Daisy Alcott. Olivia points out there is only one "r" in here first name.  Peter heads to the bathroom and finds an orange gel substance that he swabs onto a long Q-tip.

Peter attempts to apologize for his father's behavior but Olivia is distracted, looking at the bed sheets. She tells Peter to check the bedside cabinet, and as she predicted there are sheets in there.

Olivia storms out of the motel room and Peter follows her. She finally stops long enough to tell him she knows who is behind this killing. The facts fit the M.O. of a serial killer case that she and John worked, but never made an apprehension in. She tells Peter that for every case that she and John worked she feels she has to now figure out what she missed.

Next, Olivia is driving and Peter is in the passenger seat. Olivia is giving him the gory details of how this particular serial killer operated in the past. It involved taking women to a motel, paralyzing them and removing a piece of their brain by going through their nasal cavity. She believes the orange goop Peter found in the bathroom was the muscle paralytic. The killer always killed in fives, so Olivia says she thinks he will strike again.

The scene changes to a dimly lit bar or what is more likely a strip club since we see a pair of legs in high heels and a short skirt walk seductively around a pole while some men and a blonde haired woman look on. Entering through the door is the man who was originally in the hotel room with Lorraine Loraine.

The blonde catches his eye and walks over to him and introduces herself as Stacey. The person-I-am-going-to-refer-to-as-the-possible-serial-killer mentally fist bumps himself and thinks You da man!

Now we are looking at the outside of the Boston Federal Building.  I know this because the location marker tells me so.  Inside Agent Charlie Francis is holding a meeting in a conference room about John's upcoming funeral.  He lets them know that although there has been some talk of wrong-doing by John Scott he was still one of them and they will not pass judgment until all the facts have been ascertained.  As he speaks Olivia walks by the windows of the conference room and stands outside with her hands on her hips until Charlie glances back towards her.  She nods her head to the side to let him know she wants to talk to him.  Charlie dismisses the meeting and goes out to talk to Olivia.

Olivia is checking in with Charlie because she wanted to see if he got the message she left to let him know she wanted to open up the old case that Charlie refers to as The Brain Surgeon.  Charlie questions what she is working on and how long Broyles is going to have her on special assignment.

She answers his question with a question saying "You knew, didn't you?  About me and John?"  Charlie says that he did and it seems the reason he never took corrective action on the matter was because he knew Olivia was happy, and she hadn't been that way in a long time.

Olivia tells Charlie that she should've stopped John from doing whatever the hell it was that he was doing.  Charlie tries to rationalize with her, but she cuts him off mid-sentence and informs him "Mostly I just wanna take a shower from the inside out."  (Great line.)  Charlie agrees to get Olivia the case files and compassionately palms her shoulder as he walks by.

Now we are taken to Stoughton MA and a car is pulling up to a building.  Possible Serial Killer and Stacey get out of the car and enter the building.  Stacey's already got the motor mouth syndrome.  What is it with this guy?  Does he exude talk-to-me-alot pheromones?  She comments on his choice of Voulez-vous couche avec moi spot and says that most of the time people take her to a hotel.

He tells her that the window over yonder has a nice view of a bridge.  She tries to get the party started and asks him what he likes.  He tells her "I like the bridge, go check it out."  She complies, no doubt thinking If I knew bridges were involved I would've quoted a higher price.

She looks out a broken window at the bridge in the distance as he walks up behind her holding a capped syringe behind his back.  He pops the cap off with his thumb and she turns toward him, all sex kitten eyes and ready to play.  They start to kiss and he sneaks his hand around behind her and stabs her in the back of the neck with the needle.  She starts to make gasping noises.

From there we go back to the lab where Peter walks in to find Walter milking Gene.  He tells Peter that he has completed the test on OldManBaby.  It turns out that that the man who impregnated Lorraine, damn it, Loraine - was actually the outcome of experiments matching ones Walter did 30 years prior to now.  But, that's about the extent of what Walter remembers.  However, Walter informs Peter that he remembers where he parked his car before he went into St. Claire's.  Peter's a bit incredulous that Walter can remember this tidbit from 17 years ago but off they go to hunt it down.

They arrive at a structure with a rusty roll-up door.  When Walter opens the combination lock which was coded to Pi at 6 digits, an old station wagon is revealed in the dusty interior.  Walter opens the car and starts to remove things from inside.  He hands Peter a large clear jar with a severed hand inside of it.  "Friend of yours?"  Peter asks.  Walter says "Oh, I certainly hope not."

Walter continues to pull things out of the car while Peter surveys the vehicle.  Walter requests his help in the removal process, but instead of joining Walter Peter pops the hood and says that when it comes to mechanical things he is a reanimator in his own right.

A little later Olivia is sitting on a bench and looking over the case files that Charlie gave her.  There are some close up photos of The Brain Surgeon's victims.  As she studies the pages in front of her there are several backfire noises nearby.  She looks up to see the station wagon with Peter at the wheel pull up to a hard stop in front of her.

Okay, I'm getting ready to go on a small tangent here so skip this paragraph if you don't want to take the detour with me.  In my years of television and movie watching I have noticed that you almost never see a car come to a nice, gentle, non-jolting stop.  Plus, there is almost always the accompaniment of screeching tires along with the hurried stop.  And sure, sometimes that's totally understandable ... car chases, blind people wandering into the road, an oncoming train that the driver thought was further away, but even in the most mundane of situations it seems these two elements are present.  To give Fringe the benefit of the doubt here, I can concede that maybe Peter didn't see Olivia sitting on the bench until he was getting ready to pass by. I know it's probably thrown in there to heighten our visceral interpretation of the moment but to me it seems unnecessary. Of course, that may be why I'm writing this blog and not Hollywood blockbusters.  (I also wrote about this on my Thought Provoking Shirts blog.) Tangent concluded, I now return you to your regularly scheduled recap.

Astrid and Peter are carrying some boxes through the lab.  Astrid stands beside Walter as he flips through a folder, and Walter introduces himself to Astrid.  The way he says it is very reminiscent of Mister Ed at the end of either his opening credit or ending credit sequence, I can't remember which.  At least that's what it reminded me of.  Astrid informs him that they have already met, but introduces herself again as well.  "Third time's a charm" Peter quips from off-camera.

In an attempt to explain to Peter what it is that they are supposed to be looking for in the boxes Walter rattles off lots of scientific doctor type words.  Olivia gets up from behind the desk she was sitting at and asks Walter if he had just said something about pituitary glands.  He did, although he himself isn't quite aware of it.  She explained that the killer's M.O. involved removing the pituitary gland from his victims before sending them on their journey to the hereafter.

Walter tells them to look for any information with "pituitary" in it.  And thank you Astrid, for asking for some clarification on what this had to do with their present case.  Walter says that advanced rapid aging can be induced by tinkering with the pituitary gland.  Then he gets caught up in his own mind thinking about the letter P.

Peter explains quietly, so as not to interrupt Walter's musings,  that the pituitary gland is the leader of the gang when it comes to controlling a person's aging.  As Walter still continues to come up with words starting with P, Olivia finds a file marked Progeria and the case file is by a Dr. Penrose.  Walter remembers Penrose as a former colleague who had hellacious razor burn.  We know it's razor burn courtesy of the Unabridged Dictionary of Peter, because Walter uses the long medical term for it.

Astrid runs the name in the database and finds out that Penrose is now a professor at Boston College.  Peter and Olivia are in the car and Olivia makes a call to Charlie Francis.  She asks him to do some cross-checking to find out if any dead bodies have turned up lately missing their pituitary glands.  Charlie deadpans to Olivia about her saying sweet things to him and that he will look into it for her.  I really enjoy the dynamics of their friendship.  From Charlie's thoughtful face ...

CUT TO a close-up of Stacey with her head strapped down and some silver clamps holding her mouth open as she makes terrified noises.  Then Possible Serial Killer pulls some operating glasses down over his eyes and brings a scalpel forward near the lips of the scared woman.  I guess I will stop calling him Possible Serial Killer at this point even though we don't actually see the murder go down.

In Fringe:  The Aired on TV Version there would be a commercial here, but since I am using those magical things called DVDs we are catapulted past the glyph and zoomed in on the location header of Boston College.  Olivia and Peter enter a room and walk up to a man with a briefcase and thermos.  This man is Dr. Penrose.  Olivia introduces herself and wants to know if they can ask him some questions.  Dr. Penrose holds up his thermos and says, "Do you drink tea?"  At this point I yell at the television "NO!  Olivia - don't drink the tea!"  Oh, wait - no, that's later in the series.  Very well, carry on.

Olivia sits down with Dr. Penrose and shows him a picture of OldManBaby and when he asks about her tells him that the mother died during childbirth, shortly after claiming she wasn't pregnant.

Olivia brings up the doctor's former work with Walter when they manipulated hormones.  He agrees.  Olivia wants to know if he let anyone else see his research since then.  Penrose reveals that he thought the research they were doing was wrong and he left his position with the government after a year.  He goes on to mention that while he experienced sorrow at Walter's misfortune of being sent to the mental institution he thinks that it was for the best for humanity.  Then he drops this interesting remark:  "No one in power should ever learn what he knows."  He tells Olivia he has tried forget the research he did in the past during that time.

Peter and Olivia depart the building and discuss the meeting.  Peter thinks that Penrose is withholding something.  As they get to the vehicle Olivia receives a call from Charlie who has found a body that is missing it's central endocrine gland.  Olivia says to have it transported to the lab.

At the lab Walter is shining a pen light into the dead eyes of a corpse with a bruised face, which of course is Stacey.  Olivia and Peter enter the lab and Olivia starts talking to Walter about his findings.  Walter confirms that the pituitary gland has been removed from the victim.  Walter says he thinks he knows why the gland was removed and begins to explain.  He says back when he worked with the Defense Department he was part of a program that had the goal of cultivating soldiers.  And by cultivating them he does mean growing them.  He tells how they fertilized female eggs in a lab and then added a special combination of growth hormones.

If all went well, a baby would be born and by the time 3 years passed it would've grown into the equivalent of a 21 year old man.  At that age they would make the perfect soldier.  He says it was highly theoretical.  The problem they ran into was how to slow the process of aging once the age they wanted the soldier to stay at was reached.

Walter thinks that somewhere between the time they couldn't find a way to make their project pan out and now that someone has made a breakthrough.  He suggests that the killer may be the result of the breakthrough they found, that his conception was engineered in a lab and he faces the same rapid aging woes that the original specimens were up against.  But, by removing the pituitary glands of his victims and treating himself with hormones he extracted from the glands he is able to remain youthful.

After giving Peter and Olivia a short PSA on the effectiveness of condoms and also making sure they understood what he meant when he said fornicate, Walter explains that when the killer and Loraine (got it right that time) slept together she became pregnant.  Because the killer passed his condition to the forming baby the pregnancy became accelerated.

Olivia figures he didn't bump off Loraine because she must've screamed and another one of the motel visitors heard her.  Olivia becomes disheartened because if the murderer is not following his normal plan than she doesn't know how they'll track him.  Peter tries to tell her that things will be okay and Olivia snaps at him and storms out.  Walter says to Peter "I thought you had a way with women."

The scene changes and the killer walks through the doorway of what looks like a warehouse stock room.  Dr. Penrose calls his name, "Christopher!", and comes out of the shadows to tell him that the FBI paid him a visit earlier.  Penrose says he knows what happened.  They hug it out and Penrose refers to Christopher as "Son."  When asked Christopher says his pain is getting worse.  Penrose tells him after one more he will be better again.

Back at the lab Walter is examining the body of Stacey.  Peter gets frustrated with him for being nitpicky about the term "on your mind."  Walter explains that in a Jules Verne novel, The Kip Brothers, it was proposed that the last thing a person saw before they died was ingrained on the retina.  Peter voices skepticism as Walter continues to explain that since the woman was given a muscle relaxant the image of the last thing she saw would be trapped in her neural pathways.  If they could transfer that information to something they could see, then they would see what she saw.  Try saying that three times fast. 

Now, Olivia is outside sitting on a bench, thinking and observing a man and his child by a pond.  Peter walks up to her and she gestures for him to sit.  Olivia apologizes for her abruptness in the lab, and Peter says that he's glad she blew off some steam because "you've been so together with everything that's been going on, I was starting to develop an inferiority complex."  Alright Polivia shippers ... the seeds are being sown.  Olivia half smiles for a second and they look at each other.  Peter lets her know she isn't alone in this thing.  Then he reaches over and lightly touches her hands where she has them clasped in front of her.  He tells her that he thinks they've found something to help with the case but they are going to need a special piece of equipment.  And guess which company has the patent for it?

We see the outside of the Massive Dynamic building and hear someone telling Olivia that Ms. Sharp will be right with her.

Inside the building Broyles and Olivia are sitting on some white couches facing each other.  Broyles brings up that he's leery about asking for any favors from Massive Dynamic.  Olivia chooses this moment to bring up that John Scott had said that maybe Broyles's recruitment of Olivia for this assignment was not all happenstance. 

Broyles asks Olivia if he can ask her a personal question about her and Agent Scott.  Olivia looks conflicted and Broyles leans forward and says "The very last time you were intimate were you safe?"  Then in an accusatory tone he says "You weren't, were you?"  Olivia has a stunned look on her face for a moment and then her face contorts as she screams and bends over clutching her stomach.  She starts to arch backwards, in obvious pain as her stomach starts to swell.  A woman's voice says "Agent Dunham?"

Olivia's head jerks up from where she had been dozing on the couch.  Broyles is not there, just a lady saying that Nina is ready to see her now.

I have watched this episode at the very least 4 times now, and the majority of those in the past couple weeks and EVERY SINGLE TIME it gets to the part where we go from outside of Massive Dynamic to inside with Olivia and Broyles sitting on the couches I think I Oh look, Broyles is with her.  Then I'm shocked when he asks her about her safe sex practices.  At least this time I remembered before she woke up that it was a dream.  I'm like the fish in the fish bowl that every time it passes it's castle it says:  Oh, look a castle!  That is one of my favorite jokes. 

Nina meets with Olivia in a large room with floor to ceiling windows that looks out on the New York City skyline.   After inquiring about Olivia's trip, Nina says she doesn't like flying and that her "hand still gets sweaty on takeoff."  Nina thanks Olivia for keeping Massive Dynamic's name out of the media during the Flight 627 incident.  She also offers Olivia her sympathies for the loss of John Scott.  Olivia wants to know what Nina knows about John.  Nina says she knows they were partners and tries to relate to Olivia by telling her she has also lost people she was close with.  Then she mentions that some of Olivia's male coworkers probably insinuated that there was more than platonic feelings between her and Scott.  Olivia crooks up one side of her mouth in the semblance of a smile and does a grunt/chuckle. 

Before Nina has a chance to say anything else a man delivers the equipment Walter needs.  It is an electronic pulse camera.  Nina wishes Olivia a safe journey home and exits, leaving Olivia staring after her with her arms crossed, looking pensive.

Next, we have a close up view of Walter removing the eyeball of the last of Christopher's victims with a spoon like instrument.  Thanks for that, Fringe. I have cookies in the oven and now I don't think I want them anymore.  True story.  I had forgotten this part was next and was staring intently at the screen before I realized what I was focusing on was an eyeball being taken out of a socket.  Bleh.

Walter fixes the eyeball so it is being held suspended with the - geez I don't know what it's called so I'm going to make up a name I hereby christen thee "orbital muscle" - still attached and leading back down into the eye socket.  They set up the electronic pulse camera and start the process.  The machine starts to fire off a series of flashes.

We go from the lab to a darkened bar.  Then someone we recognize walks through the door.  Christopher.  He looks around for a second and then fixes his eyes on a woman sitting across from where he is standing.  The man must have some kind of gravitational pull associated with his rapid aging, because she slowly turns her head to meet his gaze.

We don't see any pretend foreplay this time.  From the bar we go straight to seeing the outside of Dr. Christopher's operating headquarters.  He and Dr. Penrose have the newest victim strapped down and are putting the finishing touches on the clamps holding her mouth open.

Back at Walter's lab they are continuing to try to get an image out of the unsocketed eye.  Peter snaps at Walter for telling him he has always been impatient saying "As if you ever knew me well enough to make a statement like that."

They start to see images flashing on the screen that actually resemble something that might be identifiable.  Once they play around with the picture a bit Peter pegs it as a bridge.  Astrid actually recognizes it as a bridge she knows.  The bridge is located in Stoughton, which is a warehouse district.  With some nifty computer moves using the National Reconnaissance Network's image mapping database and matching up the angles they are able to pinpoint that the victim was in the 1600 block of Bond Street when the she saw the bridge.

By looking at satellite images of the last 24 hours for that area they determine a vehicle was parked outside of unit 17 during the estimated time of death of their victim.  Olivia and Peter run out of the lab to go check the place out.

They arrive at the warehouse and Olivia gets out of the car telling Peter to stay where he is.  Peter is already walking around the car and tells her "That's just not gonna happen." 

They enter the warehouse and slink around looking for potential problems.  They come upon Dr. Penrose standing over the woman on the table.  Olivia levels her weapon at Penrose and tells him to put his hands up.  Peter runs to the side of the woman to check on her.  He announces that she's alive.

Olivia asks Penrose if there is anyone else there and a door slams in the background.  Olivia tells Peter to call Charlie and have him send back-up.  She gives Peter a gun and tells him not to let Penrose move.  She goes to locate the source of the previous banging sound.  As she goes through the warehouse, Christopher makes a run for the door.  He makes it outside.  Olivia chases behind him.

Back in the makeshift OR, Penrose makes a leap for the IV bag and does something.  Peter tells him to back off and Penrose takes off running.  Peter fires off a few rounds, but the woman on the table has started to seize and so he turns his attention to her. 

Peter calls Walter and gives him some details on the woman, including that she's just been given an overdose of anesthesia which has just caused her heart to stop.  Walter calmly asks, "Do you have any cocaine?"  Peter says, "Cocaine?  No, I don't have any cocaine."  After lamenting that it was too bad that Peter did not have any, Walter advises Peter to shock her heart.  Peter starts to gather equipment together to fashion a do-it-yourself defibrillator.

Outside of the warehouse Christopher runs around a corner, but then stops and clutches a pole as he groans in pain. 

Inside, Peter is still on the phone with Walter finding out the proper voltage for cardiac resuscitation.

Outside, Christopher is running again with Olivia still pursuing him.  Christopher runs into an alley and does some kind of damage to his leg, which makes him hobble.  Olivia turns a corner and Christopher limps off again.

Inside, Peter's first attempt to shock the victims heart back into working order fails.  Walter tells him to up the voltage, so he tries again.  This time the EKG starts to beep as it registers her beating heart.  After Walter hears that it was successful he tells Peter "good work son, good work."  Peter soothingly strokes the resuscitated woman's face and tells her she will be okay.

Outside,  Olivia is creeping around still looking for Christopher.  In the distance she hears coughing.  She slowly approaches.  She comes up on Christopher, shrouded in shadows.  Christopher tells Olivia "He should've let me die a long time ago."  He reveals that he is the result of an experiment and that the man her refers to as his father was paid to complete.  He wheezes out that the although his "father" should've let him die, he didn't because he loved him. (Was this a parallel to Walter/Peter, I wonder?)

During this the light shifts so we can actually see all of Christopher's face.  His hair is white and his face is now wrinkled and adorned with liver spots.  He passes away in mid-sentence in front of Olivia.

Now, Olivia is back at Massive Dynamic, thanking Nina Sharp for the use of the camera.  Nosy Nina says "I'd ask you what you wanted the camera for but I respect your confidentiality."  I wish Olivia would've called her out on that remark.  If she respected the confidentiality and knew Olivia wouldn't tell her anyway why the hell did she say it?  Nina sometimes rubs me the wrong way, I don't know how to take her. 

Then Nina offers Olivia a job which she declines.  I think Nina is trying to get Olivia on board with her because she knows how shady MD is that all the bad stuff that's happening most likely will lead back to MD.  Nina keeps talking and clues us in on just how much power MD has;  like their weapons programs being up close and personal with the Defense Department, their investments having the capacity to cause fluctuations in the markets and make or break presidential elections.  Then what I think is the biggest kicker of all, she says overseas they have abilities usually only allowed to be enacted by the state, such as the right to direct private armies.  Wha?  That thought gives me chills and this is only a TV show.

Broyles and Olivia are together at (I think) the FBI headquarters.  Broyles lets Olivia know that Penrose took a hit before he got away, and they are still tracking him but have yet to find him.

Broyles says that the cases they work on are strictly classified.  He says that some people, such as Nina Sharp do have access to some information regarding The Pattern but her clearance doesn't cover everything.  Broyles wants to know if Nina tried to get any information out of Olivia during their last meeting.  Olivia lets him know that Nina said he was a good man and that she offered her a job.  When Broyles wants to know how she responded Olivia says "I told her you were going to give me a raise."  I like the times when we see Olivia's lighter side come out.

At the lab Peter, Olivia, and Walter are discussing a document that if signed waives a person's right against unreasonable search and seizure.  Well, Peter isn't so much discussing it as ranting about it right before he tosses the unsigned paper on the table in front of Olivia.  Walter says he has no problem signing it, and Peter retorts he guesses not since Walter's already committed to a mental institution. 

Peter stalks off.  Walter starts talking to Olivia about the Penrose case and says some insightful things about the line being blurry between God's domain and your own when you are a scientist.  Then he mentions that Olivia already knows that Walter has that problem if she read his file.  In his file is the truth about Peter's medical history.  Olivia says the only thing in the file was Peter's birthday, no medical history.  Walter is relieved and says "Okay, I was going to ask you to keep it between just the two of us, but I suppose then there's no need."  Olivia doesn't say anything, just studies Walter for a moment.

So big HINT there. I would've never guessed what it was he was alluding to, at least not all the complexities of it.  This is the cool part about rewatching the episodes, I can see how they built it in right from the very beginning.

That screen fades out from Olivia's face to Peter lying down in the dark with Walter's voice counting numbers slowly, coming from off camera.  Peter calls his name and Walter tells him he was trying to coax himself to sleep.  Peter asks him "Do you think you could do that in your head?"  Walter says "Wasn't I?" and chuckles softly saying he thought he was.

In an unusually gentile moment for Peter he lets Walter know it's okay, to just try to be more quiet.  Walter resumes his counting, probably still thinking it is in his head, but alas, it's not.  He spouts off about 10 numbers when we start to softly hear Peter singing Row, Row, Row Your Boat.  Walter sounds a bit panicked when he asks Peter if it is he who is singing.  Peter confirms that it's him and tells Walter to stop talking and close his eyes, then he starts to sing again.  That scene right there is one of my favorite Peter/Walter moments because even though Peter isn't quite sure he's liking having to baby-sit his father, he still does this to help ease his mind.  I guess you could argue that Peter just wants Walter to shut up so he can go to sleep, but I like my first theory better.

Then the final WTF Fringe scene ... There's 3 people laying in a hospital room.  The ones on the right and left are enclosed in a protective chamber and the one in the middle is out in the open.  Quite honestly ... I have no idea what this scene was about.  I can't tell if they are all identical to Christopher or if it is someone totally unrelated.

Please leave a comment if you have any clarifications or observations you would like to add.

Still craving more?  Check out my recap poem for this episode.  See what parts of this episode I really loved in my Best Ofs and Favorite Moments post.

The recap for Fringe 1x03, "The Ghost Network" is also available.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I guess you're just so thorough in your recaps that no comments are necessary.

I'm really wondering if TPTB at Fringe really had the big reveal about Peter's origin in mind when they included this scene between Walter and Olivia. Sure, this 'medical' condition could refer to Peter's illness and miraculous recovery, but it could just as well be that they were setting Peter up to be some kind of clone or transmutation - hence the last shot, driving home the point that MD has the know-how to pull it off.

I agree completely, it's great to revisit the early episodes to look for clues that were planted this early on, foreshadowing later events.

Thought Provoking Shirts said...

Yes, the recaps are thorough ... that's why I'm glad to see a comment, so thank you (again).

I always thought Walter's comment to Olivia was because of his childhood sickness, I think it has only been referred to as a genetic condition before so maybe what you say about the cloning/transmutation could be true.