By Daniel
Knowing that it's more the setup portion of the two-part season finale -- and knowing that there will be more to come after week -- makes it much each easier to handle "Brave New World."
In what felt almost like a Law & Order-esque episode structure, the first half was given over to what at first felt was a standard-issue Fringe case, with people spontaneously combusting. But it's not a surprise when it turns out to have been orchestrated by David Robert Jones, who tampered with an escalator and infected people with nanites that turn biokinetic energy into heat -- meaning that people had to stop moving so the nanites wouldn't incinerate them from within. One of the lucky ones (i.e. ones who stopped moving in time) volunteers for the dangerous transport to Walter's lab so he can work on a fix for the problem. That fix turns out, when the woman starts overheating anyway, to be "let Olivia's rediscovered telekinesis save her."
But Walter discovers that the nanites are of William Bell's design, and has decided that Belly is still alive, partly because he suddenly remembers Bell visiting him at St. Claire's after Bell was supposed to have died. No one else believes Walter, so he filches the logbook from St. Claire's and then bakes it with some Cortexiphan and pig brain in lemon pie, in order to regenerate Bell's sign-in DNA into Bell tissue, proving that Bell was alive then. Well, what would you have done?
So while Walter goes hunting (with Astrid) for Bell, we have learned that Jones is in fact working for Bell, and their new scheme is to use satellites to direct a devastating beam of sunlight through a Boston building towards an underground oil reservoir. I mean, you can imagine what would happen if that ignited, even if there's no Exxon Spill Inferno kids' game that Walter can use to demonstrate. Peter and Olivia work to switch off the satellites, fighting Jones in the process. Well, Peter gets his ass kicked by Jones, and then Olivia uses her telekinesis to use Peter's body like a puppet to fight Jones. And then Jones dies, realizing that the chess-game metaphor Bell used, about sacrificing a bishop, wasn't as much about killing Walter or Peter, but sacrificing Jones. So he's an honorary bishop!
And Walter and Astrid discover a warehouse of people with guns and huge crates that seem to be making animal noises. And Astrid lies dying, which is not cool. They'd better not have been planning to kill her off as part of a series-finale shocker. Then again, no one stays dead for long on this show.
Daniel is a writer in Newfoundland with a wife and a daughter. If they kill Astrid, every episode in Season 5 gets an “F”. Follow him on Twitter (@DanMacEachern) or email him at danieljdaniel@gmail.com.
We're at the Clane Center, some sort of sterile new office building, all sleek lines and escalators (the prominence of the handrail in one shot providing a little foreshadowing) and ad-free spaces -- well, except for the product-placed phone showing us all just how easy it is to pay with your cellphone when you're getting a café mocha one percent, no whip, half-caf, half-fat whatever from the barista at the coffee stand in the lobby while a Muzak version of Billy Idol's "Eyes Without a Face" plays. (Is it me or does it sound pretty great?) This is what Aldous Huxley had in mind. And then he gets charged nearly five bucks, because fuck you, coffee drinker. I think the idea is that the transaction took less time then it takes to make the coffee, but that has... always been true with every method of payment ever?
Anyway, this guy Neal takes his coffee and heads down the escalator with his free hand holding the handrail, as everyone here seems to be doing a level of escalator-safety-regulation compliance I have never seen anywhere. But don't get me started on escalators and the people who get on and then just stand there with dozens of empty steps in front of them. At least in larger cities people have gotten used to the stand-to-one-side-while-others-pass-you philosophy, whereas in St. John's people behave as though their legs are being held in place the second they step on.
ANYWAY, Neal's heading outside when he drops his coffee and appears to be in some sort of distress. He clutches his stomach and then drops to the ground, smoke coming from his mouth, which is blackening. All around him, other people start doing the same thing. "What's happening to them?" says a horrified passerby and another woman says, "I think when they move, they die. Nobody move." And the camera pulls back to show us smoldering bodies littering the concrete among a half-dozen people now playing a life-and-death game of freeze tag.
After the opening credits, Peter and Olivia are being all domestic and cutesy and looking for a place together, with Olivia offering up her opinions on various neighborhoods or suburbs or streets or whatever that I hope meant something to people in the Boston area, because I don't know what's so bad about Wayburn that Olivia would go there "only if I'm dead".
Peter finds a place on Lexington with three beds, central heat and air and a dog run and then starts talking about the Labrador he had when he was growing up. Olivia's more interested in find out if the place has a nursery, like Olivia, you turn one of the BEDROOMS into a nursery. Peter, though, is a little surprised. "Nursery?" he asks and Olivia says, deadly serious, "Nursery." Peter smiles and then they start making out, but I think I'd probably ask for a little clarification, like, "Hold on, are you saying we'll need one far in the future or you want us to start needing one soon or WE NEED ONE IN NINE MONTHS?" That kind of thing.
Then their cellphones ring on their respective night tables, in a scene that -- in what could have been the series finale -- is likely a reference to a similar scene in the first episode. Hey, maybe Peter will wind up killed!
Anyway, they've been called out to the Clane Center, I guess. Walter and Astrid are already there, standing behind police tape while Hazmat people examine the bodies and the survivors, with Walter yelling instructions and insults at the apparent idiots in the suits and Astrid fussing with Walter's coat, pulling it closed so he doesn't freeze. He grouches about her mother-henning him and she tells him to humor him, because she likes doing it. On the second go-around, the bond acceleration between Walter and Astrid is a little more apparent.
So a Hazmat guy takes off his helmet to tell them that they're good. No airborne toxins. That's GREAT news, actually, because if they were worried about airborne toxins, I'm not really sure that STANDING A FEW FEET AWAY BEHIND POLICE TAPE is much of a defense.
Walter and Astrid start making their way among the bodies (with the frightened survivors standing there blinking and generally making things a little more creepy). The woman who (somewhat implausibly quickly) came to the "don't move or we die" conclusion, asks Walter to help them. Walter looks a little too freaked out to respond. Walter spots the cellphone lying to Neal, who just wanted his regular café mocha and to pay for it with a certainly-no-more-and-possibly-less convenient way. Walter picks up the phone, which still has "Payment confirmed" on its screen, because I guess Neal couldn't stop admiring how beautiful and functional his phone is. "Maybe the deaths are associated with this mobile transaction," says Walter, which is at least a little amusing -- I mean, it's at least a little funny to suggest that your product-placed phone is responsible for killing several people. Astrid assures him that this is "just how people pay for things now" -- like SPARE ME -- and then Walter wanders off, muttering, "What will they think of ?" This is a man who figured out a way to cross into alternate universes, remember.
Elsewhere, Peter and Olivia are being briefed by Broyles, who tells them that more than two-dozen people experienced some kind of spontaneous human combustion. "You know that's a myth, right?" Like, shut up, Peter; these people BURNED UP and they haven't figured out how yet. That's what Walter's there for.
Walter is examining the still-smoking body of one of the victims and happily nattering away about how he once had a watch similar to the one the corpse, which was given to him by his Uncle Henrich, who loved rhubarb and he's interrupted by a woman standing nearby, asking, "Am I gonna die?" She gives it enough attitude to convey that she'd LOVE to hear more about Uncle Heinrich and his legendary love of rhubarb, but she'd rather not be reduced to ashes herself so maybe he can focus on the task at hand. Walter's startled. I think he'd managed to block out the silent living statues. But he does say he can't answer her yet. "What are you?" asks the red-haired woman, who you might remember as Charlotte Lewis from Lost, as the J.J. Abrams pipeline continues.
Confused, Walter explains that he's human and then asks what she is: "Is this some sort of alien invasion?" She clarifies that she just meant what is he doing here -- is he a doctor, etc. He says he's a scientist and then walks over to her to ask if he can take a blood sample. "The discomfort will only be temporary," he assures her. "That's what all you men say," she says and Walter lets himself smile. I think I may have just fallen in love a little with the knockout with the English accent and the beautiful red curls and enough bravery to, even as she's in danger of dying, mock every man she's ever slept with.
Walter starts getting her arm ready and then notices some black smudging on her fingers. He asks where she got it, and she doesn't know -- possibly the escalator.
thing we know, FBI agents are coming the escalator for clues while Astrid checks out the woman's blood sample; she says it shows signs of a foreign incursion at the cellular level, but to determine if it's viral, they'd have to get it back to the lab to be sure.
Until then, it probably does no harm to talk to the blood sample as Walter starts to do, asking what sort of virus it is: "If you were aerosolized, you would have infected everyone, not just those on the escalator. If you were harbored on a water tap or a doorknob, the first few contacts would have wiped you clean. What would have kept you fresh and so infectious, my lethal friend?"
Then an FBI technician working under the floor panel that services the escalators says that he's found something and Astrid and Walter come over and find some sort of machine clipped to the mechanism underneath. "Oh dear. This is not a virus at all," says Walter.
Walter explains to the rest of the team that the escalator is infested with nanites and Astrid explains for Olivia (the only one of the team who wouldn't know) that nanites are microscopic self-replicating robotics and there's a machine generating them on the escalator. Walter says that despite their itty-bitty size (good to see he's using proper scientific measurement terms), each of them is capable of storing a tremendous amount of energy and it appears they can be overloaded by the bio-kinetic energy in the cells of anyone infected. "You mean, these people's movement is what's activating the nanites?" says Peter, surprised, even though you'd think that was already a theory that's been discussed, given the woman who figured it out INSTANTLY and the reason the survivors have been standing still for hours.
Walter, annoyed, says that's what he just said, adding that the longer the nanites are in the bloodstream, the more sensitive they become so the slightest exertion can trigger the overload, causing them to spontaneously combust. I have no idea how much of this is bullshit, by the way, besides "most of it."
Olivia, as always, wants to get to the practical side of things: Who would do this, and how do they stop it. Walter says he doesn't know and he needs his lab, but the rest of them are too concerned about the danger of transporting them. Walter says he's not sure how long they have left even without moving them. That's when Walter's new friend speaks up, asking if they have any kind of insurance: like if she volunteers for the experiment and something goes wrong, what happens to her of kin? Astrid says the Bureau would take care of her: "Everybody that we work on is full covered. It's in the regs," she says. You know, it's almost unbelievable that this hasn't come up before now.
Anyway, she volunteers, saying, "You can use me, for whatever you need." I have a violent coughing fit. Olivia asks her name; it's Jessica Holt. Olivia wants to make sure Jessica knows exactly what she's saying and Jessica says she does and Walter calls for a solid-board stretcher, some ice packs and a blanket. Time to get the party started! Or not so much party, but a potentially lethal transport during which the slightest movement could kill this poor woman.
After the commercial break, the team has managed to get Jessica back to Harvard and into Walter's lab without burning her like a marshmallow in a campfire. Olivia says it must all seem a little bizarre to her and Jessica says that she's an ER nurse and "night shifts on Fridays" are what's bizarre.
Olivia asks if there's anything she can do to make her more comfortable and Jessica asks for the phone from her handbag. Olivia retrieves it and Jessica calls someone named Mike. "I need you to pick up Sarah after school for me, please. No, I know it's not your day." Olivia looks over, concerned, as Jessica -- struggling to keep from becoming overwhelmed -- tells this Mike (bad sex partner) that she'll explain it to him later. Olivia retrieves the phone and sneaks a glance at the picture of the young girl on the phone's lock screen before putting it away.
Jessica asks Olivia how long until the antidote is ready, and Olivia wanders over to Peter and Walter to find out, where she's told that they're just getting "first results" now, so it's going to be at least a couple more minutes.
But they might not have a couple more minutes: Astrid alerts them to Jessica's rapidly rising temperature. Olivia suggests an ice bath, but Walter says that won't help: he tells Olivia to try to keep Jessica calm, so while he works on a plan with Peter to "speed up the condensation" or some damn thing, Olivia goes to hold Jessica's hand. She's at 104 degrees and rising, getting flushed. Olivia tells her to focus on her breathing, while Walter asks for sixty seconds that Astrid tells him they don't have.
Olivia grips Jessica's hand and then her color starts to fade. "How are you doing that?" she asks Olivia, who doesn't appear to know what she means. Astrid says Jessica's temperature is dropping and then the lights and computers and other electrical devices in the room shut down.
Jessica's breathing and color return to normal. "She's... OK," says Astrid and Jessica asks Olivia how she did that. "I have no idea," says Olivia. Walter looks on, dumbfounded.
Later, while Peter gives Jessica a shot that will remove and neutralize the nanites in her system (and the system of anyone else who gets the shot), Olivia asks Walter if he has any idea what happened to her. Walter guesses that Cortexiphan has given her certain kinetic powers and if moving molecules quickly enough can cause combustion, maybe she slowed the molecules down, causing Jessica to cool down. "But how did I do it?" she presses and Walter doesn't have any idea.
So Olivia leaves to take Jessica home and, as they walk, Jessica wants to make sure Olivia tells her what happens with the others. Olivia says she will and assures her they'll be fine and then points out that not everybody would volunteer to be Walter's guinea pig. Jessica says it wasn't for her, but for a four-foot-tall redhead at home "who's constantly in dire need of mac and cheese and help with her math." Which is interesting, if only because, for a lot of people, that would have been the same reason used not to risk moving. Oh and "her father's an idiot," says Jessica.
Olivia and Jessica part ways as they arrive at the police car that's going to take Jessica home, so she tells Olivia, "If you ever need help getting to the head of the line in an ER..." and Olivia lets that stunning indictment of the U.S. health-care system pass but tells Jessica to call them if she gets any more symptoms and Jessica says she will.
No sooner is Jessica in the car when Olivia's cellphone rings. It's Broyles, who doesn't even say hello -- rude -- but tells her they know who's responsible for the nanites.
And now they're back at Fringe watching surveillance footage of the John McClane Center and they see that ten minutes before the first victim was reported, David Robert Jones was tampering with the escalator. I'm sorry, but how long could it have possibly taken to check the security footage? Why did it take them this long to find out? Anyway, Peter's looking on the bright side: "At least we know Jones is in our universe." Actually, that's a pretty terrible bright side.
Olivia's pretty bummed and wonders why Jones is poisoning a bunch of people with nanites. "Everything Jones has done has been in service of collapsing our two universes in order to create a third," she points out and Broyles reminds her that destroying the bridge ruined that plan. "As far as we know," she says -- yeah, did you guys all assume that he would just give up? Apparently, yes; yes, you did.
Back at the lab, Walter's examining the nanites and is shocked to discover chimeric structure, whatever that is. Astrid comes in with the news that David Robert Jones is behind this, but Walter's too gobsmacked by chimeric structure to respond. "A hundred different ways to design a nanite and he chose this. It's inconceivable, not by chance. Jones isn't smart enough, not by himself." I keep enjoying Walter's on-again, off-again "Jones is an idiot"/"Jones is brilliant" routine. Anyway, he says Jones didn't design these nanites and there's only one person who would construct this particular design. Astrid asks who. Walter doesn't answer...
... but we're going to get the answer now. Jones is aboard from, by the sounds of it, some kind of ship and he enters some sort of office (and composes himself to do so). Addressing the man standing behind a desk with his back to Jones, Jones says that he has bad news and addresses the man as "sir": "Agent Dunham has stopped us again." So we're left to quickly try to figure out who this could possibly be -- who would be important enough to warrant the dramatic reveal and be someone who David Robert Jones reports to and it wasn't that difficult to figure out it was Bell, right before he croaks out a chuckle, turns around and says, "Don't be so sure."
After the commercial break, a nearby chess board has become much more prominent in the staging as Jones remarks that Bell doesn't seem too concerned with Olivia beating them today. "Don't confuse a winning move with a winning game," says Bell, which is parallel and pithy and all, but I don't know that I've ever heard the terms "winning move" or "winning game" before. If those are chess terms and I'm revealing my chess ignorance here, so be it.
Turning his attention to the chess board, Jones notes that it never changes and asks how long he takes between moves. "Since the last move, about twenty years," says Bell. That's the problem with chess not on the computer or a cellphone: no Nudge function.
Maybe the game is taking so long because Belly has to launch into a half-hour lecture on the art of chess and knowing which piece is most valuable and then being willing to sacrifice it. "For in the vacuum created by the loss of what is most precious, opportunity abounds, influence is maximized, and desire becomes destiny," he says. He picks up the bishop, saying that on this board, it's the most valuable piece. Therefore, for the game to be won... "The bishop must be sacrificed," says Jones, understanding. He says he'll attend to it. "Promptly," says Belly, as Jones leaves.
Over at Massive Dynamic, Walter is agitatedly trying to convince Nina that Belly is alive, that Jones' plan was too ingenious, that it had to have come from William Bell. Nina points out that Jones had access to many projects at Massive Dynamic and Bell could simply have copied Belly's research. You know, like umpteen villains copied Walter's work for various episodes over the past four seasons? But Walter's unconvinced: "It was the work of a master, not an imposter! I know the difference!"
Olivia asks Nina about Bell dying in a car accident on New Year's Day seven years ago and Nina confirms it, saying she went to the hospital herself and say the body. "But it wasn't New Year's, it was Christmas," she says.
Walter, confused, says it was New Year's Eve; he remembers because they gave him additional shocks that day just to celebrate, but those shocks prevent him from remembering what Belly said. Nina actually gets angry with Walter and tells him that the car crash wasn't an accident; William had lymphoma, but he didn't want Nina to see him that way anymore, to be vulnerable. He wanted to go out on his own terms. Surely the founder of Massive Dynamic could have come up with a more elegant death, though, no? Walter is still skeptical -- and truthfully, knowing that Bell apparently intentionally crashed the car would only make me more skeptical too. Nina utters a line that could be said on not many shows other than Fringe: "The man I knew wouldn't try to destroy a universe." Although I suppose it's a little too early to know exactly what Don's going to do in the new season of Mad Men, hey, Couch Baron?
At any rate, Walter vows to prove it to her and tells Olivia that if Peter's not too busy monitoring his cure, Walter wants him to meet them. Olivia asks where.
The establishing shot of St. Claire's is our answer. Walter's former cell/room appears to be unoccupied, giving Walter the chance to sit forlornly at the stool bolted to the floor and run his hands over the equations he scrawled all over the table. No hurry or anything, Walter.
Eventually he gets up and goes out into the hallway, where a janitor is all, "Well, well. Wally Bishop," and asks if Walter's just visiting or planning to stay for a while. Walter doesn't answer, but starts fidgeting nervously. Fortunately, he's rescued by Peter, who tells him the administrator can see him now. Even more fortunately, it's not the evil Dr. Sumner but some woman with a mouth too large for her jaw and who looks barely old enough to legally drink alcohol. She's much easier on the eyes than Sumner though, that's for sure, and much nicer, apologizing for the state of St. Claire's record-keeping, (federal funding not being what it used to be -- thanks very much, Obama) making me feel bad about pointing out her huge mouth.
Walter is rather uncharitable towards her, even as she gives them the visitor logs during Dr. Bishop's... she's about to say treatment, but Walter interrupts to say "incarceration" and he's not got much patience for her explanation that she likes to think "treatment" better reflects what they do there. (I have to admit, I rolled her eyes at the other part of what she said, which is that treatment "has a nicer sound.")
Sadly, they don't have camera footage of anything older than two years. "How convenient," growls Walter, prompting Olivia to point out that Dr. Benlo has been cooperating completely. This does seem to get his attention and then Olivia asks if she sees anything in the logs that suggests they've been doctored. He doesn't and calls them, in fact, very thorough. But there's no record of William Bell visiting. Olivia gently suggests that, given the amount of shock therapy he'd been having, maybe it was a hallucination? Walter rejects that, because his hallucinations "were rarely biped and never men." I'll leave you to contemplate the implications of Walter hallucinating primarily four-legged females yourself. There's only so much horror I'm prepared to contemplate.
He's sniffing a lot and it's not like it's inconceivable that Walter has a heretofore-unseen cocaine habit, but then he starts sniffing and yes, licking the log book, with a tongue darting like a lizard's. He asks a thoroughly discombobulated Dr. Benlo if he can borrow the logbook. She's taken aback, but since the records have already been digitized, she agrees to it.
He thanks her and makes for the door, but doesn't leave without telling her that she's much prettier than her predecessor. We won't be able to fully assess that unless she also does naked yoga like Col. Stuart in Die Hard 2, though, will we? Of course, I'm feeling a little concerned that I had the same initial reaction to Dr. Benlo as a slightly mad scientist did.
Later, at Olivia's place, our favorite lovebirds are making supper and discussing the case; Peter still has no idea why Walter wanted the log book, because Walter's not saying and he's also not backing off his William-Bell-is-still-alive theory, either. Olivia's chopping onions and she cuts her finger. Medic! We need a medic! Peter jokes that that's what happens when you drink and mince and there's probably a joke in there that I could get in a lot of trouble for, so I'll leave it alone. Olivia seems distracted though and Peter thinks she's worried about Walter. She's not, but she was thinking about Jessica. Peter looks QUITE intrigued for a moment, although it turns out that Olivia's thinking about how one encounter with them and her child almost becomes an orphan and they deal with that every day.
You know, I'm completely on board with reflection and analysis, but at least in this case it was Jessica's encounter with Fringe that prevented her child from becoming an orphan.
Of course, she's really worried about herself and Peter: "What do you really think our chances are of having a normal life?" Well, as far as we can tell in a few years William Bell is going to do something bad to Olivia and the rest of them are going to wind up in amber for twenty years. But let's not get ahead of ourselves.
She confesses she's terrified of this power that's inside her because she doesn't understand it and she just wants it out. Peter tells her they'll figure it out together, which oughta shut her cryhole. "Is that a personal guarantee?" she asks, and he smiles and kisses her. Uh, answer the question, Casanova! He says that after all they've been through, he won't lose her again and they nuzzle for a moment before Peter starts crabbing about being hungry and wanting a home-cooked meal, but before Olivia can start shoveling food down his gullet it suddenly gets very bright outside the window so they go to have a look.
Elsewhere, Broyles walks out on the roof of a car park when he notices people standing staring at something. He looks and it's a beam of light cutting straight down through the night. And as he watches, it narrows and suddenly heads for a nearby tower, shattering windows and floors from top to bottom. Broyles looks horrified and I can't blame him. That tower had just two days left until retirement!
After the commercial break, Peter and Olivia are speeding through the streets in an SUV while getting the heads-up from Walter, who has apparently told them it's sunlight, much to their surprise and he crabbily reminds them that even though they can't see it, it's still there in the sky. Sure, but when it's night, that means its rays are hitting the earth somewhere else and certainly not demolishing towers, so CHILL, Walter. "Jones must be reflecting the light off of something, like one of those disco balls and then focusing it, like we do with a magnifying glass," says Walter. I hate to say that I'll need a little more convincing than "disco ball and magnifying glass," Walter. Olivia says it looks like Jones is trying to burn a hole to China and Walter feels the need to point out that it's a myth that China is on the opposite side that it would in fact be India, which isn't anywhere close to being the point. Peter has more practical questions: "What does this have to do with nanites and how do we even know that it's Jones?" Walter's all, "A-ha!" and asks if Peter is now prepared to concede that it may well be the work of William Bell and maybe Walter can quit trying to score debate points and worry about stopping the evil disco-ball sun laser.
As usual, Astrid is doing all the work and getting no help from Walter in terms of prioritizing all the orders he's barking her at her about satellite imagery and radio waves and geological data. Eventually, what comes together is this: three months ago, a subterranean oil reservoir was discovered below Beacon Hill and unless they stop it, the sunbeam will essentially set Boston on fire from below. But like for real, not the way Aerosmith does it. Walter tells Peter that Broyles is going to have to evacuate an area much wider than the one mile he's already doing. Peter asks how much, which is his first mistake. "All of it," says Walter. "All of what?" Peter asks. "Boston," says Walter. Peter's going to have to get back to him on that.
Anyway, Astrid is now working on her radio-waves assignment and has found two frequencies not owned by the government transmitting in the S-band: 2202.518, and 2202.520. "You brilliant bastard, Belly," says Walter, who now urgently needs something to write on.
Then Olivia gets a call from Walter, who has scribbled a bunch of calculations on a clear board and orders them to head toward Beech Street, on the edge of Chinatown: "I believe that's where Jones is commanding the satellites from," says Walter. Peter's all, what's this about satellites now? You may know them as "disco balls," Peter. Walter spins a bunch of hooey about Jones commandeering or launching two satellites and bouncing the sunlight around the planet. Walter says he's triangulated the signals and they appear to be coming from Beech Street. "Interrupt the signals and you shut off this nonsense that is the kind of plotline that might appear in a particularly ridiculous James Bond movie, one of the ones right before they decide to remake the franchise and get back to basics," says Walter.
And then with an oven's ding, Walter's lemon cake is ready. Astrid says if he was hungry, she could have gotten him something. "This is not about food, Athos. This is about Bell," says Walter.
Meanwhile, Olivia and Peter have arrived in the 1600 block of Beech Street, which is where Walter figured the signal was coming from. They spot an antenna on a nearby roof and then another one, so they split up to shut them down. Nothing ever goes wrong when characters split up like this! Sure enough, we can see David Robert Jones watching them from a car parked down the block. He watches Peter enter a building, on his way to the roof to take out the antenna and he gets out of his car. We go to commercial.
When we come back, Walter is cutting into his lemon cake and I'm going to try to describe why as economically as possible, because I don't want to waste any more time on this than necessary, because it's one of those scenes that is the science-fiction equivalent of "A wizard did it." To wit: Walter baked the logbook from St. Claire's that he suspects Belly to have touched, in the cake with the pig brain and some Cortexiphan, because a "little-known" side effect (which means "a side effect we made up this week) is temporary tissue regeneration when it's heated between ninety and a hundred degrees.
So the pig-brain-Cortexiphan DNA stew reveals some fingerprints on the page that will be too smudged to be definitively identified, but there's also a mysterious smudge. While Walter sniffs it with his bloodhound nose and licks it with his lizard tongue, Astrid watches in amazement as the Cortexiphan's regenerative powers knits the sliced lemon cake back together. (Walter advises Astrid not to eat it. I'm sure she's good, Walter.)
Anyway, after unadvisedly licking the mysterious brown stain on a document several years old, Walter crows, "I knew it! Chilean almonds!" and explains to Astrid that Belly was obsessed with them and had an agreement with the wholesaler to buy directly from them, and OF COURSE this means Walter's going to go down to A-1 Imports, down by the seaport, despite Astrid's pleas for him to not be insane. "What do you think you're gonna find there?" Astrid asks, chasing after Walter as he gets his coat on and heads for the door. She stands there stunned as he says he knows it's a fool's errand and he's a fool, calls her "Alex" and then flashes her two fingers while saying "peace out."
Then she calmly goes for her coat and is ready when, moments later, he comes stomping back, having forgotten he can't drive. Her only admonishment: "'Alex'?" "I was on a roll," he mutters.
Meanwhile, Olivia and Peter have made it to the roofs and are fiddling with the antennae and communicating via walkie-talkie. They have to turn the "transmission amplitude" dial all the way down, but do it in unison: "If we don't, the beam could go off-kilter, cut a swath across Boston. It's be sort of like 'don't cross the streams,' just, you know, in reverse," he says.
Olivia has no idea what he's talking about, which makes him laugh. Since he didn't actually point out that it's from Ghostbusters, I'd like to think she has seen Ghostbusters but is too busy trying to stop the sunbeam FROM KILLING EVERYONE to make sure she catches all of Peter's witty pop-culture references.
So they turn the dials down and the sunbeam fades out and they're too busy smiling at each other to notice Jones coming up behind Peter. I suppose it is dark. Peter gets cracked across the back with a crowbar, so this has some potential! Unfortunately we go to commercial, so hopefully there's some beatdown left after the commercial break.
Hooray, there is! Peter fights back gamely, but he's no match for an evil limey with a crowbar. Jones is whaling the shit out of him. Olivia raises her gun at them, but first she can't get a clear shot off because the two of them are grappling and then she's ordered to drop her weapon by the security guards who have decided to focus their efforts, apparently, on apprehending the intruder on just one roof instead of all of them. Olivia tries to tell them she's FBI, but they order her -- guns of their own drawn -- to put down her weapon. She complies and then the guards throw down there's as well, in movements that mirror Olivia's. They look confused. Too confused, in fact, to simply pick their guns up again or even to do anything more than just stand there.
So she turns her attention back to the other rooftop. Jones will be right with you, he's just busy choking Peter with the crowbar! Olivia turns herself into a human Kinect game, making Peter dance to her movements. She shifts her shoulders and Peter slips out of Jones' grip and then she appears to pop Peter's dislocated shoulder back into place. Then its punch punch punch and Jones goes flying into the antenna, setting off a shower of sparks and lying still. Peter clutches his shoulder and stares across at Olivia. Um, I'm not hearing a thank-you!
"I got it wrong," croaks Jones, still lying on the ground. "I was the sacrifice. I was the bishop." I guess? I mean, doesn't it seem like Belly would have rather kept you around? Well, there isn't going to be any interrogation of Jones; his face crumbles into ash, because I guess there are nanites around here too? All right. Let's go with that.
Walter and Astrid arrive in Boston Harbor, having apparently used the time to hear Walter's dissertation on how Old Cars Are Awesome, what with the tailfins, the whitewall tires and the gasoline derived directly from polar bears and the lungs of toddlers. Walter skips up to the door of A-1 Imports, with Astrid saying they're probably not even open, which might be true. But you ARE HERE, so it would actually seem more crazy to not at least try.
The door is, of course, open -- a fact that will seem rather odd as events unfold over the last few minutes of the episode. Astrid's still not convinced that this is a great idea, but that's only because it's not.
Inside the empty warehouse, Walter says it's just as he remembers it from his trips with Belly. "Not a smell you forget," he says. Astrid points out that it smells like sweat and Walter says, "Exactly."
They're greeted by a shifty looking dude coming down some stairs, looking a little confused as to what they might be doing there (like, LOCK THE DOOR, A-1) and Walter apologizes for disturbing them so late, but he was hoping to speak with "Ms. Weisberg." Buddy has no idea who Walter is talking about, even as Walter describes her as a "lovely woman, yea high, nice laugh." Astrid wants to scram, especially after she notices the gun on Buddy's hip, but Walter's oblivious. "Oh, I think I get it. You're talking about that import-export company. They went out of business three years ago," says Buddy. He gets a call on his walkie-talkie from someone who calls him "Tom" and answers that he's coming right now. Astrid thanks him for his help and apologizes for bothering him and Tom departs, leaving Walter and Astrid there, which again, I don't buy at all.
And Walter still seems more oblivious than suspicious and dismisses Astrid's concern over Tom carrying a gun by pointing out it's a dangerous neighborhood. Walter's biggest concern seems to be that there are no almonds there and he scurries off towards the sound of... animal noises? Jesus, Walter!
So they find another part of the warehouse filled with forklifts and shipping containers -- and the sounds of huge beasts. "One of them sounds almost like a rhino, but more nasal," says Walter. More nasal than a rhino? It's a rhino!
Aaaand then the run into Tom again, who maybe should have ESCORTED THEM OFF THE PROPERTY, but at any rate, Tom's got friends including one with a submachine gun. "Go and tell him we have visitors," Tom tells one of the other henchmen. Astrid tries the "I'm with the FBI" route and almost gets shot for it, but a few well-placed kicks buys them a momentary diversion and they start running around between the shipping containers dodging gunfire, with Astrid firing back and taking down one of the gunmen.
But there's only so long you can dodge a crew gunning for you, when you're shepherding a mad septuagenarian scientist and Tom winds up shooting Astrid in the back. She crumples to the floor, an anguished Walter cradling her.
And then along comes Belly. "I'm not sure I ever thought I would see you again. Hello, old friend," he says, strolling up and smiling broadly. You'd never know someone was dying at his feet.
Daniel is a writer in Newfoundland with a wife and a daughter. Born and bred in Brooklyn, U.S.A. They called him Adam Yauch but he was MCA. Follow him on Twitter (@DanMacEachern) or email him at danieljdaniel[at]gmail.com.
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