Fringe TV Show - Snakehead - Fringe Recaps, Fringe Reviews, Fringe Episodes | TWoP

Aired 2009-12-03

Even though it's nighttime and there's no traffic, someone should really move those floaty letters reading "BOSTON MASSACHUSETTS" out of the middle of the street before a car runs into them and riddles the numerous pedestrians with floaty shrapnel. The floaty letters also do not specify that this is Boston's Chinatown. For that, we have to look at all the street vendors with steam rising from their kiosks and the fact that all of the people on the sidewalk look as homogenously Asian as an episode of Most Extreme Elimination.. One of these, a man who is looking quite desperate on top of being the only person in sight who's soaking wet, is drawing further attention to himself with his uneven gait and a Chinese phrase he keeps muttering to himself. He waylays a passing woman and repeats the phrase. Finally the subtitles, which apparently slept in a little late, let us know that he's looking for Ping-On Street. He begs the woman to take him there, but she nervously (and wisely) declines to do more than point him in the right direction.

He seems to find the right place, and buzzes a security intercom. The subtitles slack off again as he speaks into it, but whoever is inside doesn't need them, because he gets buzzed in. A moment later, he's in the parlor of a man played by Tzi Ma, the Chinese Consulate Cop who made a full-time career out of Jack Bauer in seasons four through six of 24. "Did any of the others make it?" the sick man asks from the depths of the blanket Tzi Ma has wrapped him in. "You are the first," Tzi Ma informs him. The man worries that everyone else is dead, but Tzi Ma kindly advises him to have hope and invites him to spend the night here. A moment later, he's helping him down into what looks like a cavernous basement kitchen, only this one seems to be equipped with a lot of cots. Tzi Ma points out all the amenities, but all his visitor can do is complain about pain in his stomach. Tzi Ma invites him to lie down and rest. The man's panic increases as he wonders what's happening to him, but he just lies there screaming while blood starts coming out of his nose. Blood, and a pointy little tentacle that comes out and waves around before withdrawing again. His mind is not eased by the sight of Tzi Ma donning a large rubber gauntlet and unrolling a "surgical kit" that looks about as clean as my barbecue utensils in September. He cuts open the man's shirt, revealing a chest that's undulating in waves, like he ate some of my barbecue in April. But just when we're expecting something to come Aliening out through his rib cage, suddenly his mouth is obscured by a mass of Lovecraftian tentacles emerging into the open from his throat. Tzi Ma seizes it and holds on. Fringey!

By M. Giant

How much of that girder bridge's weight is supported by the floaty letters under the deck reading "DORCHESTER BAY INLET"? I can't seem to find the answer on Wikipedia, so let's move on. Somewhere in the maze of access roads near the waterfront the morning, Peter climbs out of Walter's station wagon, which doesn't even remotely look as though it was driven into a telephone pole a few weeks ago. Maybe the FBI paid for the bodywork. "Where's Walter?" Olivia asks him as she leans against a Boston PD car with its flashers going. "He's practicing some self-actualization," Peter says. Which sounds a little dirty, especially since Walter's the one doing it, until I am relieved to see that a yellow cab has just pulled in behind the wagon and Walter is getting out. Peter explains that Walter is also doing his own cooking, cleaning, and making his own wardrobe choices. Olivia smiles at this as they watch Walter paying the cabbie from a distance. Peter raises the subject of why they're there, and Olivia asks, "Did you eat?" Peter did. "That's unfortunate," Olivia cracks. Walter walks up at this point, and it's a good thing Peter was careful to give credit where it was due for his outfit; in addition to his usual brick-toned plaid shirt and tweed jacket, Walter is also wearing white sweater and an ascot that fits around his neck like a toilet seat. I guess I should be glad that the sweater is on under the jacket instead of over it. He's pretty annoyed with Peter for following him. Peter points out they had the same destination, but Walter thinks Peter just doesn't trust him. Olivia and Peter can't think of much to do about that but follow Walter to the scene.

Which is the shoreline near where a Chinese merchant ship ran aground and caught fire, according to Broyles. The boat's carcass is still smoking in the water not far out, but there are Asian corpses scattered all over the bank. "Strong current, freezing water," Broyles explains. "They died attempting to swim to shore." Twenty-seven of them so far, and some of them have those masses of tentacles sticking out of their mouths, although none of these are moving, at least. I guess those were the ones who didn't make it to Tzi Ma's place. Walter thinks the creatures look like a kind of livestock parasite, but he's never seen them this size or in humans before. Crouching down over one of them, he grabs it just beneath whatever passes for its throat and takes his sweet time pulling it free of its victim's mouth, just so we can have plenty of time to wonder just how far down that thing goes. It finally tapers to a slimy point about two feet down, and Walter hands it off to Peter for transport to the lab (despite Peter's amusingly forceful yet ultimately futile head-shake). Walter thinks it might still be alive. Speaking of which, someone calls over that they've found someone still breathing. Peter throws down his coffee cup and runs over to help pull her out of the water, like the scene isn't swarming with cops and paramedics. Walter takes one look at her and rushes the EMTs, telling them they have to get the organism out of her before it's too late. She's loaded up and carried off.

By M. Giant

Back at Tzi Ma's place, he has apparently been harvesting those horrid, squalling creatures all night, going by the corpses on all the cots and the small swam of beasties spitting and hissing in a barrel of bloody water. He hears his doorbell ring and goes up to greet another new arrival. Same drill as before, right down to the point where he tells the new guy, "You're the first."

At an unnamed hospital, a guy from the Chinese Consulate is leading Peter and Olivia down the hallway. Apparently the woman they pulled from the water has been awake for a while, her name is Mei Lin, and she's from outside Hong Kong. "She happen to mention how she got a gigantic worm stuck in her stomach?" Peter asks. Consulate guy mildly says no worm, just dehydration. "She wasn't infected," Olivia realizes. Lucky her.

Inside Mei Lin's hospital room, she's giving her story from her bed while the Consulate guy translates. Eventually Peter gets bored with that and starts talking to her directly, in her own language. "I didn't know you spoke Cantonese," Olivia says with surprise. "Well get to know me a bit," Peter says. I didn't know Olivia knew the difference between Cantonese and Mandarin. To get this back on track and also justify his existence, the Consulate guy takes over and translates for Mei Lin that all the other passengers took medicine for seasickness, which doesn't affect her, so she alone didn't take it. If she explains why she knows this might be relevant to the investigation she doesn't know they're conducting, the Consulate guy doesn't pass it along. And besides, she's moved on to the topic, which is to show Olivia and Peter a photograph she's got of herself, her daughter, and her husband, a photo which survived an overnight dunk in seawater quite admirably. Apparently hubby and child were on a second boat two days behind hers. What kind of Mickey Mouse illegal immigrant trafficking operation is this, that splits up families like that? I hope Mei Lin remembers to fill out a customer satisfaction survey. In more immediate concerns, Olivia and Peter quickly realize they've got about thirty-six hours before another boatload of passengers arrives, with passengers of their own.

By M. Giant

Back at the lab, Astrid throws a dead worm on the scale that weighs in at seven pounds, ten ounces, their largest yet. "Parasitic worm, to be precise," Walter corrects, busily dissecting one and rhapsodizing about Mother Nature's "disturbing sense of humor." "Considering your new pet, I think mother Nature's a real bitch," Astrid says, casting a look at the giant worm looping gracefully yet somehow malevolently back and forth in the fish tank. I don't think it's a spoiler to say that Mother Nature is kind of getting a bum rap here. Peter and Olivia arrive, and while Peter and Astrid banter about the worms' possible utility as bait, Olivia updates Walter on what they learned from the survivor about the "seasickness medication." Walter says that despite the size of the adult worm, a larva could be small enough to fit into, say, a drug capsule, which would be a handy method for implanting them into the human hosts they need to gestate in. This as Walter drops a bloody little knot that might be a larva into a petri dish. Now they know the how, but while Olivia's wondering about the why, she gets a text from Broyles: the ship's manifest has been found, and an arrest has been made. No explanation as to what the arrest was for. As usual, this show isn't about the police work, which is good because it probably wouldn't hold up. She and Peter rush off while Peter tells Walter to keep working on the worm. "Parasitic worm," Walter corrects again.

Tzi Ma is doing some dissecting of his own, gutting a worm (excuse me, parasitic worm), reaching in, and pulling out some kind of gland the size of a garbanzo bean that he drops into a beaker of slime to join a gruesome little collection he's got going. And the thing we see him doing is tipping a flask of white powder onto some wrapping paper, which he then folds closed and seals with a sticker marked with Chinese characters I can't read. So apparently it only takes a matter of hours to distill pure powder from pure nightmare fuel.

By M. Giant

At the Federal Building, a very rotund bald Chinese man in a wifebeater is shackled to a table in an interrogation room. In the adjoining observation room, Broyles is telling Olivia that the manifest led them to the place where the boat was headed, which is where they found this dude. "He'd just finished burning every document in the place." Peter tells Broyles the man won't talk, being a Triad gang member and all. How does he know that? Peter points out all of the suspect's tattoos, which apparently he can read like a personal ad. I don't know what he's talking about, but I do notice that the same characters that were on Tzi Ma's packet sticker are also on the inside of the suspect's forearm. They're also on his neck, and that's the one Peter translates as marking him as a member of the Soon Hong Triad. Olivia recognizes that as the name of a heroin-smuggling gang. "They're expanding their business," Broyles guesses. While Peter starts babbling a theory about how some parasites secrete opiates and this just might be the more Soon Hong smuggling but with a Fringier M.O, suddenly the suspect manages to pull an entire razor blade from his mouth. Nice searching protocols, FBI. Olivia and Peter rush for the door while Broyles hangs back, snatching up the phone to call in a code blue. Olivia bursts into the interrogation room, and the suspect smiles at her -- twice, if you know what I mean. And if you don't, I guess I could explain that the second smile is a wide, self-inflicted gash across his throat that begins spilling blood all down his front. But I'd rather not have to. It's kind of gross.

The floaty letters reading "HARVARD UNIVERSITY" are reflected in the placid waters of the Charles River as the Harvard crew team rows beneath them. In less picturesque news, Walter and Astrid are down in the lab struggling with their squealing live specimen as Walter grunts, "If only all parasitic worms were full of narcotics." Astrid uses a syringe to extract a clear fluid from the creature, which makes it look awfully easy. While Walter's talking about how they'll analyze the fluid to find the active ingredient (and then Walter will snort it, no doubt), the creature suddenly wraps its long tail around Walter's arm and latches its horrid, four-toothed mouth onto his wrist, then commences a pumping, sucking motion, like Walter's a giant mad-scientist smoothie and his arm is the straw. Astrid hurries to try prying it off, but Walter tells her to wait. "This is rather pleasant," he says, and is still smiling as Astrid manages to peel the thing off him. When they look up, Broyles is standing there starting at them impassively. He asks where Olivia is, and Astrid directs him to the back, where he goes without bothering to offer any help with or even asking any questions about the writhing hellspawn Astrid's currently struggling to keep subdued. Below his pay grade, I guess.

By M. Giant

In the back office, Peter and Olivia are speculating on who the buyer for the still-hypothetical drug could be when Broyles enters with a folder on the Triad and its suspected leader, John Soo, whereabouts unknown. It looks like a lot of shell companies. And there's no official word on the second boat, either, even though the Coast Guard has been boarding and searching incoming ships, because I guess they can do that. They still have about 20 hours, but it occurs to me that if the bad guys know the FBI is onto them, which they clearly do, they might just redirect the second boat of immigrants to another port city. There probably aren't many other destinations that would be less convenient for a vessel originating in China, after all. Duluth, perhaps. Sorry, I'm overthinking, aren't I? Looking at the papers Broyles brought, Olivia finds a record of a wire transfer of a half-million dollars from somewhere in Beacon Hill, at about the same time the first ship left. "Sounds like someone is financing those shipments," Broyles duhs.

Olivia's car drives under the BEA in the floaty letters reading BEACON HILL, BOSTON across a suburban street. Good thing they didn't take the SUV or she would have lost her roof. Pulling over to the curb and looking up at a fancy house, they wonder how this could be the source of a sizable wire transfer to a Chinese Triad. Well, maybe they order a lot of takeout.

When they ring the front doorbell, it's answered by a ten-year-old kid named Matt. At least, I assume that's his age, because that's how they treat him. They ask if his parents are home, and after he asks to see "like, a badge," and Olivia shows hers, he calls back into the house, "Mom, some FBI people are here." Peter and Olivia share a smile over the adorable little moppet as he invites them in. All of which is kind of odd, because this "little kid" is as tall as Olivia, looks like a blond Tom Welling, and has a voice like a radio DJ.

By M. Giant

Cut to the living room, where "mom," a rather severe-looking patrician woman named Elizabeth Jarvis, is explaining how the money was an investment suggested by her financial advisor. Olivia ends up telling her more than she tells Olivia, including their suspicion of this being the work of notorious human-smuggler John Soo. But the real point of this scene is the snooping around that Peter's doing while Olivia does the interviewing. As usual. This week's clues: large and numerous bottles of off-brand hand sanitizer, air purifier units built into the walls, and little stickers on the windows that read "hermetically sealed." Meanwhile Elizabeth refers Olivia to her financial adviser and promises to help in any way she can, just like guilty people on TV always do.

When they emerge, Matt is out playing basketball in the driveway as Olivia wonders what Peter was looking for. He doesn't share yet, but they decide Olivia will go to the hospital to check on Mei Lin after dropping Peter off at the lab. All this talk of logistics is riveting.

Peter finds Walter lacing up a pair of sneakers in the lab. He breezes in, asking, "Walter, what do you think the connection is between an obsessive-compulsive germophobe and our worms? Nice kicks." Walter says he has a theory, and proudly shows Peter his fresh bite-marks. Astrid tells Peter what happened, and when she says Walter might be infected, Walter assures them both he's fine. In fact, he seems somehow more together than we've ever seen him. "My white cell count is through the roof, I have several new antibodies in my blood, and even the gas I had is gone." Plus he's standing up straight, speaking in a strong, confident voice, and generally acting like he's done being a mad scientist, at least for today. He calmly assures Peter that the creature's output isn't a narcotic but medicine, and has Astrid show Peter a picture of an intestinal hookworm. Normally they're about ten millimeters long (or a centimeter, if you want to get super-science-nerdy about it), and used in Chinese medicine to treat chronic asthma. And all forms of Walter Bishop-itis, it seems. Throwing on a smart suit coat over his neat vest and perfectly knotted tie, Walter explains that their giant worm is "a new species, bioengineered from this hookworm." Sounds like someone owes Mother Nature an apology. He goes on to say that they were apparently designed to grow in humans and nowhere else. With that, he crosses to his workbench and pulls out the same gland Tzi Ma did earlier, telling Peter that it produces an enzyme that boosts immunities. Peter is starting to see the connection to germophobes. And he's not done with his brilliant deductive leaps, either, because he seems to finally realize that Walter seems to be getting ready to leave. Walter confirms he's already found three Chinatown herbalists in the phone book that sell the hookworm in question, and he's off to collect samples for genetic comparison. To their specimen, I presume. Peter quickly offers to take care of that, but Walter takes offense. "You don't believe I can do it," he accuses." Well, I can. Don't you dare follow me." Peter smiles innocently, and he and Astrid watch Walter go. But not before Walter has to beg change for the bus off his son. Which doesn't really do much for the dignified image he's trying to convey right now.

By M. Giant

At the hospital, Olivia is showing Mei Lin some close-up photos of the dead Triad's gang tattoos, before he bled all over them. Through the translator from the Consulate, she explains her theory, which just makes Mei Lin stress out about her family some more. Olivia responds with vague promises to do everything she can. I hope the interpreter punches that up a little in the translation.

Down in the hold of the other ship, a little girl, presumably Mei Lin's daughter, is telling her father she doesn't feel well. He in turn tells her to sleep. Instead of doing that, she plays with a little mechanical bird and watches a sleeping fellow passenger whose shirt is open. And whose stomach is moving unnaturally. Her eyes widen in horror, but she keeps quiet, at least until the ads hit.

When Olivia returns to the lab, Peter tells her that Walter's "out self-actualizing," but Astrid's shadowing him. I guess Walter didn't say she couldn't follow him. Peter, meanwhile, is online doing research on air filters. He tells Olivia about all the clues he found at the Jarvis home, including oxygen tanks he didn't actually see but is sure are there. Peter tells her what Walter told him about the worm's magic lymph gland and how it might connect to Elizabeth Jarvis, and when Olivia offers to get a warrant for the Jarvis place, he says he has a better idea.

By M. Giant

Which is, apparently, to go give Matt Jarvis some basketball pointers as he bumbles around in his driveway. "Bend your knees more," he says after watching the kid bounce one off the front of the rim. Matt's not about to talk to any FBI agents, so Peter takes off his jacket, saying they can be "just a couple guys hanging out on the court." Or, more accurately, one guy and another guy playing a kid. Olivia excuses herself, hinting, "I have to go talk to a judge about a warrant." Peter hangs back to watch Matt swish a few shots, shagging his rebounds and trying to relate to being raised by a single mom. "You're worried that if you lose her, you'll have no one." He warns that Matt's mom is dealing with some scary people who will want to cover their tracks, including possibly Matt's mom, which seems to get through to the creepy little man-child. Peter asks Matt if his mom's sick with some immune deficiency disorder. Matt says no and pulls up the side of his t-shirt, revealing a recent surgery scar. "The treatments are for me," he says. And at this point, he further reveals that he is in fact thirty-six years old. Okay, not really, but I wouldn't have been surprised.

Walter looks to be enjoying his freedom out in Chinatown, but while referring to his phone book page for the address of his destination, he looks over and spots a familiar face peeking out from behind a vendor's cart. "Agent Farnsworth," he says stiffly. Yeah, Astrid's busted. Walter looks hurt, and isn't fooled when Astrid claims this is a coincidental meeting. "I have a...friend that lives right down...by the, uh...the Chinese restaurant." Heh. Suddenly I feel a lot better about Astrid being a lab assistant for the FBI rather than out in the field shadowing suspects or doing undercover work. Walter indignantly says he just wants to be able to do stuff on his own, like buy a hot dog or join a gym (he should probably pick just one of those). Astrid apologizes, and Walter says she can come along for the stop. "But as a friend, not a supervisor," he insists. Astrid agrees, and Walter finally gives a childish little smile and says, "I love Chinatown." Friends again, I guess.

Broyles has apparently decided that having his meetings in the park doesn't suit the seriousness of his position, so he's having this one beneath an overpass. Olivia and Peter tell him what they learned about Matt. "Technically this kid should be living in a giant plastic baggie," Peter says, "but we just shot hoops with him this afternoon." What keeps Matt alive, Peter further learned, is a powder inserted directly into his spleen that Walter thinks comes from the worm's lymph gland. He gets monthly treatments, including one coming up in two days, which just happens to be after the boat is scheduled to arrive. I suspect there's more that Matt isn't telling them -- namely, that his mom has a recent portrait of him hidden in the attic that shows him with an apparent age of four and a half.

By M. Giant

At the herbalist shop, Walter marvels to Astrid over a plate of normal-sized hookworms. "You haven't seen anything until you've seen one of these four feet long," Walter boasts to the proprietor of the shop they're in. Who is, of course, Tzi Ma. You'd think given the scale of the operation he's running, he might be able to find someone to pick up a shift on the register. But then, he also ships his priceless medicinal powder in packets of paper, so maybe his business priorities are a little out of whack. Gazing at them intensely, he charges Walter fifteen dollars (which Walter insists on paying instead of Astrid). Transaction completed and customers gone, Tzi Ma pulls out his cell phone and makes a call. Which causes a large man in a black tank top -- another Triad, no doubt -- to emerge from a doorway across the street. Oblivious to this, Walter and Astrid are outside buying smoothies from a street vendor. While Astrid's paying, and turning down the vendor's half-serious offer to throw in some fish heads, Walter is distracted by some lacquered cricket boxes and wanders over for a closer look. By the time Astrid has their goodies in hand, Walter's gone. So in addition to undercover work, we have also just learned that Astrid is also not qualified to work in the FBI's day care center.

Broyles ends his underpass meeting by telling Olivia and Peter to lean on Elizabeth Jarvis. As he gets in his SUV to leave, Peter's phone rings with a call from Astrid, reporting that she lost Walter. She says Walter seemed fine with her being there, "but he lulled me into a false sense of security." "Just so he could ditch you," Peter figures. "You know how much he likes to prove a point." Peter sighs and says Walter has bus fare and his phone numbers, so he should be fine. "He's gotta learn how to cross the street by himself sometime." Astrid says she'll go check for him back at the lab.

But when she gets there, there's no sign of Walter. The only way he's there is if that worm, still swishing around in its tank, finished the job it started on him earlier. While she's checking the back, she hears whispering out front. She comes out to find one Triad member opening the lid on the fish tank, and another -- the one Tzi Ma called earlier -- advancing on her with an unfriendly smile. Considering this place is effectively an FBI satellite office, maybe a little better security would be in order.

By M. Giant

Walter's boost has apparently worn off, because he's back to his normal confused self. He's in a phone booth in Chinatown, trying to reach Peter. Except he keeps getting wrong numbers, feeding in quarter after quarter until he finally reaches into his pocket and comes out with nothing but the lining. Apparently he forgot about the list of phone numbers he's supposed to have. So he's lost in Chinatown, has no way to contact anyone, no way to get anywhere, and no method of returning to the present day, where there are no phone booths. Even the coin return slot is empty. Finally there's nothing for him to do but sit sadly on a bus stop bench. When an elderly Chinese woman sits down to him, he tells her that the number 5 bus is two hours overdue and besides he used up his bus fare dialing seven wrong numbers. And he's telling this to a woman who can't speak English, apparently. In tears, he says he remembers the digits of Peter's phone number, but not in the right order. Even knowing that it starts with three fives doesn't help, because all phone numbers on TV start with three fives.

Peter and Olivia find Astrid flat on her back on the floor of the lab in a muddle of broken equipment. So maybe facilities security and hand-to-hand combat are not in her area of expertise either. For some reason, Peter waits until she's awake before getting out his phone to call an ambulance, probably so she can insist she's fine and talk him out of it, which she does. She says her attackers were "two big Asian guys with tattoos...I don't know how they knew we had the worm." Peter and Olivia look over at the now-empty tank. "They must have followed you back from Chinatown," Peter guesses. Apparently it hasn't occurred to anyone that Gene, already feeling insecure about her lack of screen time in recent episodes, felt so threatened by the arrival of a new pet that she tipped the bad guys off. Peter answers his cell phone and Astrid has to deal with both Olivia trying to pick chunks of glass out of her hair and listening to Peter have a conversation with someone in Cantonese. He confirms that Astrid is okay, and heads off to pick up Walter, leaving the two women on the floor. Olivia says she's off to see Elizabeth Jarvis after this. So, you know, have fun cleaning up yourself and the lab on your own, Astrid.

By M. Giant

Over at the Jarvis house, Olivia is finally leaning on Elizabeth like her boss told her to do hours ago. "Who's been treating your son?" she demands.

Peter knocks on the door of an apartment somewhere in Chinatown, standing off to the side as he does so like there's someone inside with a shotgun. Old habits, I guess. The old woman from Walter's bus stop lets him in, and indicates his father, sitting serenely at her table with a bowl of noodles and wearing a blue silk kimono like an honored guest. Walter introduces Peter to his hostess, Fay, who tells Peter, "He could not remember your number correctly. We made many calls until we reached you." Annoyed, Peter tells Walter the numbers are in his pocket, and quickly produces a card from the folded pile of clothes off to one side. Walter's smile fades as Peter starts to chew him out. But seeing Walter's sad face as he settles in for an ass-chewing, Peter cuts himself off and asks if he's okay. Walter picks up his clothes to get dressed and graciously compliments his hostess on her noodles with as much dignity as he can manage, given that he insisted on going out on his own, got lost, forgot how to reach anyone, and is wearing a lady's robe.

Outside, Walter says he hopes Astrid wasn't too worried about him. "No, she had other things on her mind," Peter says, and asks if Walter remembers any of the addresses. "Certainly not," Walter says. "That's why I held onto this." He produces his phone book page and says that at the last one, he "exaggerated a bit when I told them that ours was four feet long." Peter realizes that that's how they knew to follow Astrid. This is of course the first Walter's heard of that, but before he can learn more, Olivia calls to say the second boat just docked, and they're about to raid it, having tracked it by a shore-to-ship phone number Elizabeth Jarvis had. They'll talk after the raid. Walter wants to know about Astrid, but Peter puts him off and tells him to get in the car. Astrid can wait. She's a pro at that, in fact.

Down at the docks, it's about to get very Unusual Suspects up in here. Guys are finishing tying up the boat as FBI agents and SWAT teams swarm in, including Olivia and Broyles. They quickly board the boat and do a sweep, but no one's there. Olivia finds one clue in the hold: that mechanical bird the little girl was playing with earlier. Olivia picks it up as Broyles tells her there are no illicit passengers. "But there were," Olivia says. "We're just too late."

By M. Giant

Peter pulls up outside Tzi Ma's shop, to Walter's confusion. He's in a hurry to get back to the lab and check on Astrid, but Peter assures him she's fine. As they watch, a panel truck in an alley opens up its back doors and a small crowd of immigrants streams from it to the front door of the building. Oh, very discreet. While they're watching this, Peter gets a call from Olivia telling him what they found. Peter in turn tells her what he's looking at. "We're on our way," Olivia says, and hangs up without getting the address. Seeing that the last of the people have been brought inside, Peter's about to go investigate, because waiting for backup is for chumps. Walter tries to convince him to wait, but Peter assures him with a smile that he'll be careful. "Stay in the car," Peter orders. As soon as he's gone, Walter locks both front doors, which will be handy if Peter ends up having to come out of there in a hurry.

Outside the back door, Peter produces a set of lock picks that he apparently carries around everywhere, which is a splendid plan when you spend as much time as he does around FBI agents and other law enforcement officers. He's inside momentarily. Nobody busts him, because he's starting in the empty part of the shop. But he follows some eerie noises down to the basement, keeping low and out of sight as he sneaks around the cots, to which all the people have already been strapped. Okay, I can see strapping one person down or even two, but you might think that the third through twenty-third might put up a little resistance when they see what's going on. One of them, whose dress is being cut open as we speak, spots Peter crouching among the gurneys. Peter shushes her with a finger to his lips, which seems redundant since she's gagged and all. A gag which seems counterproductive for Tzi Ma's purposes, considering where the worms come out of. Oh, I see he's just pulling out a big butcher knife to open up a downstairs exit. But before he can use it, Peter rushes up and attacks him from behind, bouncing his face off the table and dropping him to the ground. Peter assures the victim that she'll be okay, but then is attacked from behind himself.

Outside in the car, Walter sings tunelessly to himself, something about somebody who walked into the lion's den. Whoever he's singing about, he sounds like an idiot.

By M. Giant

By the time we return inside, Peter is strapped to a table and rotated to a 45-degree angle. As he watches, blood flowing from his nose, Tzi Ma opens up a capsule, freeing the worm larva inside. The Asian goon who clobbered Astrid earlier watches. Brandishing the larva in a pair of forceps, Tzi Ma asks Peter who knows he's there. Peter lies and says nobody else knows (which seems like the reverse of what one would normally do in this situation), and Tzi Ma isn't convinced. "Oh, that's a shame, most people find me very trustworthy," Peter says while trying to twist his face away from the oncoming bug. Tzi Ma nods at his goon, who grabs Peter's head to start forcing his mouth open. Which, again, seems like the reverse of what one would normally do.

Fortunately for Peter, here comes the cavalry, in the form of the FBI pulling up just outside. They'd better hurry, because Peter's mouth is forced open, and Tzi Ma warns him that chewing the worm will kill him, just before dropping it in so the goon can shut Peter's mouth for him. Peter struggles futilely, until the FBI bursts in. Tzi Ma draws a sidearm, which only gets him two in the chest from Olivia. Glad she finally learned how to shoot. The goon gives himself up, and Peter spits out the larva in the floor in a gobbet of bloody spit. Olivia asks if he's okay, and he says he is now. I don't know, I'd be checking that worm pretty closely to make sure it still had all its parts.

Walter lets himself into the lab and calls for Astrid, who doesn't even look like she's gotten started on the clean-up. She assures him she'll take care of it, though. "Peter said you were followed," Walter says, coming around one of the workbenches and getting a good look at her face for the first time. In addition to the blood and bruises, there are tears in her eyes. Walter is devastated, and Astrid says it isn't his fault, because I guess she's figured out that he didn't ditch her on purpose. They even hug each other, each trying not to cry for different reasons. It's a moving moment that Walter does not spoil by stabbing her in the neck with a syringe.

At the hospital, Broyles debriefs Peter and Olivia. It's too soon to know what will become of any of the Chinese, but it's looking good for Mei Lin's family. The better news is that they'll all get political asylum. Well, that was easy. Peter releases, rather belatedly if you ask me, that there must have been other patients, and Broyles says they're already questioning six others. Maybe things wouldn't have been cut so close if they'd started on them earlier, you think? Olivia asks if they've tracked down John Soo, and Broyles says there's no such person; It's only an alias. For WILLIAM BELL? No, just Tzi Ma. With that done, Olivia excuses herself, so she can visit the Lins in their hospital room and return the mechanical bird to the little girl. Who accepts it and begins playing with it without so much as a mh goi.

By M. Giant

Chez Bishop. After his complaints about Walter not wanting to sleep in his own bedroom, Peter's sleeping on the couch again. I guess that's so we Walter can wake him without the production having to build a bedroom set for him. Peter starts awake and turns on the lamp, wondering what time it is. Instead of answering, Walter starts talking about how much he wants his independence back. "Not to have my son watching after me all the time. Not that I don't appreciate all that you do for me. That's not the way it's supposed to be." He says he's been out for a year, and is still worried about getting lost. "So I have implanted a tracking device in my neck." He turns to show Peter a bandage there on the left side. "You did what?" Peter says, as though this is surprising, and sighs in exasperation. Walter gives Peter the little remote that goes with it and leaves him to get back to sleep. As he goes, and as they exchange goodnights, a soft but rapid beeping can be heard, and it slows down as Walter moves away. Concerns about what might happen if bad guys get a hold of that transponder will have to wait for a future episode. Peter smiles to himself, because at least he's not the one who ended the episode with a foreign body inside of him.

M. Giant is a Minneapolis-based writer with a wife, a son, and a number of cats that seems to have settled at around two. Learn waaaay too much about him at Velcrometer, follow him on Twitter, or just e-mail him at M.Giant[at]gmail.com.

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