By Daniel
Two 12-year-old bullies are killed by some kind of fungal growth that causes corpses to explode in spores (killing hard-working and slack-ass morgue attendants alike). The Fringe team (it's all Earth-1 this week) connect the fungus (which Walter names "Gus”) to the bullied kid, to whom Walter takes a particular shine, mainly because the boy, Aaron, reminds him of Peter. You know, Walter's son who died when he was a boy. And, as Walter tells the skeptical kid, the other Peter, who came from the other universe, only to drown in the lake immediately upon the return trip.
The fungal growth is essentially a big neural system that has formed a psychic bond with the boy, what with hom feeling so alone. That means that attempts to destroy the killer fungus result in pain (or death) for the boy, and Walter doesn't want to lose Peter again (or Aaron a first time). Fortunately, all it takes to break Aaron's psychic bond with Gus is for Walter to give him a speech about how he actually isn't alone.
Meanwhile, Walter's feeling like he's going completely insane, but at least he knows enough to try to hide it from the hard-ass head of St. Claire's, who's checking on him. Fortunately, he's got a plan to fix it. Whatever it is, I'm sure it will be based on scientific OH MY GOD HE'S GIVING HIMSELF A FRONTAL LOBOTOMY. Olivia intervenes, at which point Walter confesses to having hallucinations of a man who's calling for help. Olivia's all, "Uh, you mean this guy?” and shows him a drawing she made (of Peter) of a man she's been seeing in her dreams the last few weeks. Ol' Bloody One-Eye Walter is relieved to find out that this reflection isn't just his own psychosis. And now that they know this guy is real? "We have to find him,” says Walter. Looks like Joshua Jackson's vacation may be coming to an end.
Daniel is a writer in Newfoundland with a wife and a daughter. He thinks the mold wasn't any worse than the cupboard where he kept the potatoes when he was single. Follow him on Twitter (@DanMacEachern) or email him at danieljdaniel@gmail.com.
Walter anxiously taps his corduroy-slippered feet on the ugly rug in his office/bedroom. He's avoiding a question from one Dr. Bruce Sumner, who you all might remember as the hard-ass head of St. Claire's, the one who, in a version of this universe, was unconvinced that Walter was better outside of the asylum and so instigated shenanigans to trap Walter back on the inside. In some version in some universe this guy has to die with a syringe in his neck, right? Also, there was that whole thing in Die Hard 2 where he tried to kill John McClane, which I have yet to forgive him for. I mean, there's a reason I spent a couple of hours coming up with fake titles for Die Hard 5 on Twitter.
Anyway, what he wants to know is whether Walter is keeping up with the new medication he prescribed, and Walter says, "For the most part. With my own modifications, of course," which the Sumner doesn't comment on. Probably not aware that "my own modifications" consists of weed. He does, however, comment on how distracted Walter seems, which Walter -- who can't at all maintain eye contact -- chalks up to Sumner's coming at an inopportune time: "I'm in the middle of some very important work, and I'm anxious to resume," he says. Turns out in this reset universe, Sumner's monthly visits are a condition of Walter's release from St. Claire's. He says the agents assigned to Walter have reported "certain patterns of unusual behaviour." This is Walter you're talking about, you're going to have to be a little more speci-- oh, mirrors. He wants to know about the mirrors. And the television. "Virtually every reflective surface in and around your lab has been covered or obscured by you," says Sumner. Walter tries to pretend that it's an experiment, but Sumner's an asshole, not an idiot. "So this had nothing to do with your lab being haunted," he says, going to the part of the report that says Walter has claimed more than once to have seen a strange man in the lab who no one else has seen and who sometimes talks to Walter.
Walter unconvincingly chalks it up to minor hallucinations weeks ago brought on by his self-medication, and he's better now. "So you haven't had any more of these hallucinations since?" says Sumner, leaning back and setting his clipboard standing up on his legs, at which point we see that Sumner buys his clipboard at Mirror-Polish Office Supplies. I don't think Sumner did it on purpose, but it's hard to tell with him. Anyway, Walter sees Peter's face in the back of Sumner's clipboard, but croaks out a "no" anyway. Sumner leans forward and tells Walter it's important he be completely honest with Sumner so he can figure out the best excuse to throw Walter back in the crazy house. I mean that's not what he says, but you have to read between the lines!
Cut to a couple of bullies chasing some poor kid through a park. "You're dead, Sneddon! You hear me?" yells one, while they other yells, "You better run, rat!" "Rat"? What are they, junior Sopranos?
The two bullies have to pause to catch their breath -- see what happens when physical education gets cut in school? Weenies' heads go unswirlied! Nerds aren't going to wedgie themselves, you know -- and Sneddon ducks into some sort of manmade tunnel -- some kind of sewer access or something? And the bullies stop fighting each other ("You run like a little girl. Keep up!") to crow about trapping the poor kid under there.
One of the bullies steps toward Sneddon: "I know it was you, you little freak. You got me busted for the stash in my locker," he says, and his sidekick is all, "Come on, Matt! Kick his ass!" Matt throws his buddy his backpack to hold. Ah, he's like a knight's squire! Matt grabs Sneddon's jacket and says -- hilariously, almost sadly -- "You had this coming." He's about to punch when Squireboy says, "Uh, something touched my leg!" and an annoyed Matt says, "It's probably just a bug or something. Tough it out." Wow, this episode really has an ear for adolescent dialogue. Anyway, Squireboy is comically unable to tough it out and starts whining, "Dude, what is this?" And Matt is annoyed that whatever it is is getting in the way of whaling on Sneddon. He looks over to see his friend's face covered in black tendrils spreading over his face, and the thing we know, the same thing's happening to Matt, and Sneddon -- who looks scared but not entirely shocked -- decides to make himself scarce. Tough this out, Matt!
At FBI HQ, Olivia is doodling on a piece of paper a face we can't see, although the hairline looks familiar -- as does the sketch in the corner of her computer screen, which we see briefly, from a distance, while she's running facial recognition software. If you glanced away, you missed it, but if you were watching, the fact the picture is hidden from us rather gives it away than keeps it a secret -- I mean, who else could it possibly be? -- but I have to confess that over the ensuing fifty-five minutes of the show I completely forgot about what Olivia was doing when the episode started.
Anyway, Lee strolls up and asks if she's working on a case, which is a little like seeing someone in the grocery store and asking what they're doing. Olivia's cagey about it, though, and puts the paper away and shuts down the software. At best, I wondered if Walter had confessed to her about the man he was hallucinating. I never suspected that -- well, let's not get ahead of ourselves here.
Anyway, Lee's there because he got word that she wanted to see him, and he asks if they got any news on the shape shifter tech. She says she just wanted to see how he's handling everything (with "everything" meaning all the ridiculous crazy shit that happens in Fringe Division), as he goes through the case files to get up to speed. "I understand that it can be kind of overwhelming. It's hard when what you knew or what you thought you knew about the world... no longer holds. And I just wanted you to know that I'm here," she says. Dig Olivia's glasses, by the way. Anyway, Lee seems a little surprised by Olivia's "I'm here," so she continues. "To talk to, you know? I mean, just if things are getting a little too much or if you're freaked out..." He says he's not freaked out, and then they make awkward small talk -- if this is them flirting, they're never getting together -- until Olivia answers her ringing cellphone.
Over to the Hyde Park crime scene, where Broyles tells them they've got the corpses of two twelve-year-olds, and the desiccated corpses look like they've been dead another twelve years, but Broyles says the boys have only been missing for between ten and fifteen hours. Yeah, well, global warming or whatever.
Broyles goes over to Astrid, who's examining the tunnel and relaying information to Walter. Broyles wants to know if Walter has any theories about cause of death or the bodies' advanced decomposition, and Walter, with positively heroic sarcasm, says, "Tell agent Buh-royles that as there appears to be no unusual environmental factors to explain the rapid deterioration, that it is absurd for me to make any determination without first examining the remains." Then he starts railing on about flesh-eating bacteria, alien parasite, or even Bigfoot, and poor Astrid can't get a word in edgewise, but does wait for Walter to suggest she look around for massive fecal droppings before she diplomatically tells Broyles that Walter doesn't have any theories.
Meanwhile, in the tunnel, Lee has found another set of size seven or eight footprints going in and out, which is kind of amazing given the fact there are about fifty agents stomping all over the scene. Broyles thinks that means potential witness, but Olivia's thinking something else: "Even if there was another boy that got away, he could still be infected by whatever killed the other two," she says. Bottom line is they have to find him fast, which -- I mean, does Fringe ever handle any non-urgent cases?
So: at the Harvard lab, Walter and Astrid unzip the body bag and befoul the air with a "remarkably pungent stench," notes Walter (who is something of an expert on this score) so Astrid decides to go get some scented candles. Broyles has showed up to check on Walter, because Dr. Sumner called him after his evaluation with some concerns: "He thought you seemed unusually agitated by something you were reluctant to confide," says Broyles. Walter unconvincingly says he doesn't know what gave Sumner that impression, unconvincing because in the middle of him saying that, we were Peter's disembodied voice saying, "Walter?"
Walter asks where the second body is, and Broyles says it's on the way to the morgue, since he assumed one was enough for his examination. This throws Walter into a tizzy, since he says he needs both bodies, but he tries to explain this to Broyles while Peter's voice buzzes around saying, "Walter, do you see me? Walter, I can hear you." The lesson: even when ninety-nine percent erased from existence, Peter is still really annoying.
Astrid's back now, in time to see a complete meltdown, with Walter clapping his hands on his ears, trying to block out Peter saying, "I'm scared. I want to come home." As far as this case, he wants to study the decomposition of both bodies, to help him determine if there's a pattern, if the boys died at different intervals. All of this is tough to take in when Walter eventually screams, "I am not losing my mind!" Astrid and Broyles are staring at him -- Astrid's arms full of scented candles -- and Peter's voice appears to stop, and Walter quietly says he would appreciate Broyles arranging to have the second body sent to the lab as soon as possible.
Walter shuffles off while Broyles takes a call from Olivia, who says they have a lead on the third boy: another student told the principal the two victims were talking about plans to beat a kid named up. We see Sneddon in the school cafeteria, doodling pictures of geometric plants and diamonds, and we see him look up as Lee and Olivia approach him, not super surprised. Girls notice Aaron being picked up by FBI agents, and then suddenly the bad boy a couple grades up who steals hubcaps doesn't seem so dangerous anymore.
Back at the Harvard, the kid -- Aaron Sneddon -- continues to doodle while Olivia fills Broyles in: "He said it was pretty dark and he didn't see much after the boys chased him into the tunnel." Broyles wonders why the kid didn't tell anyone, like his parents, and it turns out he has no father and his mother is out of the country a lot for work. He stays with a neighbor in their apartment complex. "His principal said that he's a quiet boy, that she doesn't know him to have many friends."
Anyway, Walter's not coming up with anything as a result of the autopsy, but he needs the other body so Broyles tells Olivia to go fetch it with Lee while Broyles goes to tell Walter that the boy is here.
Olivia goes over to sit to Aaron and tell him that she likes to draw too. There, that should sufficiently bond her to the mini-human! That done, she tells Aaron they're going to have him checked out to see if he's OK, and their friend Dr. Bishop is going to examine him.
"I don't like doctors. They scare me," says Aaron, and Olivia, perhaps not thinking this through, tells Aaron that there's nothing scary about Walter. That's when Walter shows up decked out in trés chic Mad Scientist: heavy rubber gloves, visor, blood-spattered apron. The usual. "All right, young man, let's get started. Take off your shirt and get on the table," Walter says, all business.
So cut to the kid (shirt on) sitting on the table, with Manfred Mann singing "The Mighty Quinn" in the background. "Please, I don't want a shot," says Aaron, and Walter says that, technically, a shot deposits a substance in the bloodstream, whilst this is a withdrawal, like I don't think it's the substance-deposit that the kid is scared of but THE ACTUAL NEEDLE, WALTER. Anyway, Walter promises that it will be just this one time (like Walter can EVER promise to give someone only one needle) and Aaron nods. Walter takes the blood sample and puts it in the centrifuge while Aaron hops down from the table and goes poking around Walter's lab, touching the mounted skeleton of some small creature, and then picking up a G.I. Joe sitting atop a red truck among some other toys.
Walter glances over and sees Aaron with the toy and then starts yelling at the poor kid not to touch it, and snatches it from him. He composes himself soon enough, and tries to reassure Aaron that it's OK. It's just that the toy belonged to his son. "You have a son?" says Aaron. "I did. He died," says Walter. Somebody get Aaron out of here before he's traumatized for life!
Anyway, Astrid comes in and says Walter needs to have a look at something. She takes him over to the corpse and holds a lit candle near the body. The candle blows out. Then she shows him the lambda sensor (Lambda House rules!). "The corpse is pulling high levels of oxygen out of the air," says Walter. He looks closely at the body, and how many shows can you watch where you're going to hear someone saying something like, "I don't remember there being this much mold on the ribcage before"? He examines the body with a magnifying glass, and we can see the mold starting to swell. Walter frantically tells Astrid to get the incubation case. Fortunately it's right the table, and Astrid wheels it over, and they dump the body inside.
No sooner has Walter sealed the case shut when the corpse explodes, coating the inside of the case with brownish-grey dust. "Spores. I had assumed that the mold was just a symptom of the rapid decomposition," says Walter, who now thinks it was an aggressive form of fungus that killed the boys. Hey, and speaking of exploding corpses killing people? Didn't Lee and Olivia go to get the other one? Astrid runs for the phone.
She calls Olivia, who fortunately is risking the lives of patients on sensitive electronic equipment by NOT turning off her cellphone, and Astrid hurriedly tells her that they've got to evacuate the morgue lock down the body before it explodes and releases spores. All in a day's work for Olivia! The agents run for the morgue while Astrid tries calling it.
A morgue worker sits eating while the phone rings (staring at the corpse as he does so, because why not stare at that gruesome thing while you eat?), and he makes no move because he's eating his lunch, he dismissively tells his co-worker. She goes to answer it, while he notices the body swelling. "Hey, Beth, come here. Take a look at this," he says. She rolls her eyes, eloquently saying, without words, "No, I have to answer the phone because you're eating your lunch."
And you're kind of hoping that Conscientious Beth will survive while Douchebag Co-worker dies, but Lee and Olivia arrive just in time to see the windows spatter with the spores of the dead kid fungus, so it looks like the hospital now has a couple of openings in the morgue department. Lee tries to go in, but Olivia stops him: "We can't open that door. We need to get a team in here and lock down the area," she tells him. He protests that they can't just leave them to die, and Olivia says -- without actually knowing if it's true or not -- "They're already dead."
So once the stylish red contamination suits have arrived, the agents gingerly make their way through the morgue, already covered in fungus and spots with orangey-yellow-red clusters that look kind of like apple fritters. There's Beth, covered in fungus. She died the way she lived: answering the phone.
The team (including Broyles) is communicating with Walter (and Astrid) back at the lab, and Walter says it's "clearly not the garden variety of Cordyceps fungi. A genetic mutation with the capacity of hyper-accelerated growth and nutrition absorption, which explains the rapid decomposition of the bodies."
For Olivia's (and our) benefit, Walter explains that Cordyceps fungi is a species that can release neurotoxins to paralyze a host, usually an insect, so it can feed and lay its spores. Broyles wants to know why it's not attacking them, then. "These are not a pack of wolves, Agent Broyles. Size not withstanding, they are still a lower life form with rudimentary instincts probably based on tactile response. As long as none of you touch them, they won't even know you're there." Look, I'll just say it: I kind of want to see an episode about wolf fungus.
Lee looks in the sink, where we can see tendrils snaking their way towards the drain. Walter figures they're seeking more water and nutrients, showing a strong impulse to expand their reach as far as possible. It's one of those instances where Walter seems delighted by whatever creepy new killer they've discovered. Broyles wants to know, "admiration aside, Dr. Bishop," how they kill the stuff. Lemon Pine-Sol? Nope, strong dose of UV light or intense heat should do the trick.
So Broyles orders an "Agent Mace" to get as many high-intensity U.V. lamps they can find, and he tells Olivia to get a team together with Lee and meet at the tunnel. Olivia says, though, that the fungus colony at the tunnel is probably much bigger: "I'm not convinced that UV is the most efficient way to destroy it." She's thinking flamethrowers. I'm with Olivia! I have always wanted a flamethrower. It would be useful around the house! Plus a car-mounted one would, I hope, stop me from getting cut off in traffic.
Back at the Harvard lab, Walter tells Aaron that he shows no sign of fungal infection, which means he's free to go home. Astrid will take him. Walter notices how decidedly non-thrilled the boy is by this news. "Nobody's there," says the kid, who adds that the neighbor he stays with never talks to him. Well, so much for the Mrs. Robinson fantasy I always had about staying with the neighbors when I was this kid's age.
There's no place else for him to stay, he says, and Walter sympathizes: "I certainly know what it feels like to have nowhere to go, no family. This is the only home I know," he says, gesturing with his head around the room.
Aaron looks around. I can't tell if he's impressed or alarmed by the news that Walter lives here. "It's not much, I admit, but ... it's certainly better than the mental institution where I lived before this," he says. The kid says nothing, and then slowly starts to walk away, until Walter asks if he'd like to stay here a little while longer. Aaron brightens considerably. Walter sternly says he can't promise he'll have any time for entertaining him, being so busy.
Cut immediately to the two of them listening to music while wearing tinfoil hats (stylish and practical!) and drinking strawberry milkshakes. Aaron's so thrilled at having someone to spend time with that he figures why not bring the mood down a little by asking how Walter's son died.
Walter explains the backstory as we know it right up until the part where Walter brings the other Peter back from the other universe. "But the frozen lake where I created a portal between universes was unsound, and when we crossed back, the ice broke. And Peter -- the other version of him -- drowned. And I lost him all over again," he says. The music has very respectfully turned itself off for Walter's speech.
Walter finishes talking and stares out into space. "And ... you don't think you belong in a mental institution?" asks Aaron. Jesus Christ, no wonder your mom never comes home and the neighbor won't talk to you. Walter looks like he's trying to smile but he's still sad, but that's nothing that another slug of milkshake can't cure.
Back in the tunnel, the UV squad is setting up the lights for what is actually a very tiny infestation of the fungus. "Doesn't look like much in here. No wonder we overlooked it," says Lee. Olivia continues to look, and spies chalk drawings on the walls, geometric shapes and patterns very similar to what Aaron was doodling. Anyway, everyone steps back so the floodlights can be turned on, and -- really, no contaminant suits? Regardless, the lights are on, and back in the Harvard lab, Aaron starts squinting. "It's bright," he moans. He has to cover his eyes. Meanwhile, Lee is looking through cracks in the walls and asks for a handheld floodlight because there's lot in there. An agent gets one for him, not noticing the fungus slithering up the leg of a tripod holding a floodlight.
Lee shines the light through the cracks, and finds a lot more fungus, while Aaron starts freaking out back at the lab, screaming at Walter to "get away!" as Walter tries to help him.
Lee notes that the fungus is growing down through the grating, and then the lamps start to shatter from the tendrils snaking across the lenses. "Burn it. Burn it all," says Olivia.
Back at the lab, Aaron's on the floor, and Astrid has come over to help. Aaron's got a high-grade fever. A worried Walter tells Astrid that he was complaining about the brightness and now is burning up -- and then it twigs, and he rushes for the phone to call Olivia and tell her to stop the fungicide: "You're killing the boy!" he tells her.
Later, Walter and Astrid have Aaron in an ice bath to bring his fever down (which puts Walter in mind of a popsicle, and a weary Astrid promises to get him one later). Olivia calls for an update and asks if he's positive Aaron was affected by the fungus in the tunnel. He's positive there's a connection, since the collapse and fever coincided exactly with them trying to eradicate the fungus.
So why didn't the boy feel anything when they destroyed the fungus in the hospital? Walter doesn't know yet. "OK, whatever it is, it's dangerous, and we need to destroy it. So how do we break the connection between it and the boy?" Again, Walter doesn't know, but thinks the best way to figure it out is to learn how the connection was formed in the first place. Maybe the fungus is Aaron's brother from another mother? Nah, that seems unlikely, even on Fringe. Olivia says she's got an idea about that.
So Walter goes to talk to Aaron after Olivia fills him in on the artwork covering the tunnel's walls. "You never mentioned you'd been there before yesterday. Based on the size of your artwork, I'd say you go there a lot," says Walter.
A still groggy Aaron says it's hard to explain, but he would go there sometimes, just to get away, and then he'd start to feel better. Maybe he can go there now so he can speak at a normal rate again? Anyway, he says that he would feel like he wasn't alone, that there was something there that was sad whenever he was sad. He's reluctant to go on, feeling like it sounds stupid, but Walter encourages him to continue. "I guess I thought I was just imagining it. Maybe I was crazy. But it was like it understood me, like it wanted to protect me," he says, with Walter saying "...protect you" at the same time. Then, he gently asks if Aaron intentionally led the boys chasing him into the tunnel. Aaron starts to sob, saying he swears he didn't know what was going to happen. "I didn't know what it was," he says. Walter hushes him, saying he believes Aaron did nothing wrong, and then goes out to get in touch with Olivia.
Lee and Olivia are back in the lab, with Walter "explaining" that they're not dealing with colonies of fungi, but with a single organism with rapidly evolving communication skills, which allowed it to form a psychic bond with Aaron. Those orangey-yellow masses? Those are the equivalents of neurons, and the tendrils are dendrites and synapses linking them all together. Lee breaks it down for us: "You're telling me that this whole thing, all of it, is one big giant brain?" That's it exactly. Also, Walter has named it "Gus." You know, for the sake of clarity. I still think "brain fungus" is better. Anyway, that's why the colony in the lab didn't affect Aaron: it was only a mindless appendage that hadn't connected to the network yet.
So Gus can only make more of itself and is never going to meet a nice single fungus at work, so as it grows and becomes more evolved, it's more conscious of how ALONE IN THE WORLD it is, which is somehow why it forged a link with Aaron, and they've been spending all their time hanging out listening to the Cure and making plans to be roommates after Aaron graduates. Walter says that until they break the link with the boy, any assault on Gus will hurt Aaron, or worse.
But Olivia's phone rings. It's Broyles, with worse news about Gus -- there's been another attack, on a homeless man in Roxbury Crossing, which is six miles from the tunnel, directly above the Boston sewer line. "We have a major infestation on our hands. We need to eradicate this thing, and we need to do it now," says Broyles. Walter interrupts, anxiously saying he doesn't think Broyles understands that he hasn't found a way to brink the Aaron-Gus love connection yet.
Of course, Broyles does understand that, but the longer they wait, the more likely other innocent people will be killed. "He'll die! Do you hear me?" yells Walter, pounding the table. And in case you're not clear why he's taking this so hard, he says, "You're going to kill Peter!" Olivia corrects him -- Walter of course doesn't realize he said "Peter" -- and Broyles says Walter's got two hours -- or until there are any more attacks.
Time for Walter to kick it into high gear. He tells Astrid they need to reconfigure the neurostimulator for magnetic resonance to chart Aaron's brain activity. I was just going to say! Meanwhile, Broyles orders Dunham and Lee to be ready to move out: "Flamethrowers aren't going to be enough. We're gonna need some help." Something more awesome than flamethrowers? SO EXCITED.
Anyway, more than an hour later, the Fringe folks are walking through the park, with Broyles saying they've determined the fungus has encroached on at least a dozen populated buildings, all of which have been evacuated. Lee wants to know what the plan is to kill Gus (Broyles had not yet heard Walter's name for the thing), and that's when the Massive Dynamic cavalry runs to the rescue. Jeez, completely forgot about Massive Dynamic! Guess Walter doesn't run the show anymore. I guess it would be difficult to do that from his Harvard lab bedroom. Plus, in all those polished surfaces in Massive Dynamic's shiny facility would have Peter all over the place.
"You two, along with one of their techs, will be administering a potent toxin to the fungus," says Broyles. Oh, "one of their techs," is it? Broyles may as well identify the tech's of kin right now.
Olivia checks in with Walter, who has managed to isolate Gus's brain wave within Aaron and determine the link appears to be centered somewhere inside Aaron's prefrontal lobe. But that doesn't mean he knows how to disconnect it yet. "My attempts to shut down that part of his brain haven't worked," he says, which means there's only one other option: "Surgically remove the infected part." Olivia flips that he's considering lobotomizing a ten-year-old: "You're gonna find another way, and I'm gonna talk to Broyles, explain the situation to him, and see if I can buy us some time," she says.
Time is what they don't have, because Broyles comes up to say the fungus has reached a subway platform in midtown, and they have to move on it now. Over Olivia's protests -- and I'd like to know if Olivia would prefer to break the news to the families of people killed by the fungus -- Broyles says, "I'm sorry, but you know as well as I do we can't sacrifice countless other lives to save one boy."
Olivia looks stricken. She gets on the phone to tell Walter the bad news, and he's so bummed out that he won't even tell Astrid what happened; he just goes into his office and closes the door. Aaron, strapped into Walter's god-awful headgear, watches him.
In the Hyde Park tunnel, the soon-to-be-dead Massive Dynamic technician says they're looking for a central mass to best distribute the toxin. He finds it, and gets out this giant injection apparatus with a five-inch needle at the tip. He readies it, and then waits, telling Olivia he was told it was on her order. Olivia waits a moment, and then says OK. The tech jams the needle in, and the pushes down the huge plunger.
In Walter's lab, Aaron sits up and yells "no!" And back in the tunnel, a tentacle-like tendril has shot out into the technician's chest. Astrid rushes into Walter's office to tell him that Aaron's blood pressure is falling and he's lost consciousness. She wants him to do something. Walter has no idea what to do, and... OH WAIT! Now he knows what to do.
"The toxin's been administered but the technician is dead," Olivia tells Broyles. Hey, gotta break a few eggs to make an omelet, right? Broyles wants the two of them to fall back, but that's going to be a problem since Gus is wrapping some tendrils around Lee's legs.
In the lab, Walter's come up with one of those solutions that is completely out of left-field because it's the exact opposite of what he originally thought: first, the source of Aaron's distress isn't isolated in the pre-frontal lob, but also in the limbic system, the emotional centre of the brain. Want to surgically remove that too? He tells Astrid to get him some epinephrine.
Meanwhile, the fungus is really going to town on Lincoln Lee, and Broyles tells them that they're assembling a team now. What do you mean "assembling"? Shouldn't that have already happened? Anyway, the worse news is that Gus appears to still be alive.
Anyway, the other backwards part of Walter's hypothesis is that it's not the fungus that has a hold on Aaron, but the other way around. The link is emotional. Then Walter -- gah! -- gives Aaron a shot of epinephrine in the neck, and shakes the kid until he walks up, then starts yelling at him to let go of the organism.
Aaron says it's his friend, and he'll be alone. Walter tells him it's not real: "It's something that's invaded your mind. It's hurting you," he says, because it should go over great that the one friend the kid thinks he DOES have isn't actually real. His blood pressure is still falling, says Astrid, and his organs are shutting down. An emotional Walter tells Aaron that he cares, and he can't lose him. "Not again," says Walter. Again. And then he babbles on about how hard it is to make connections, what it means to be lonely, that sort of thing. He begs Aaron not to leave him, and I'm SO SURE WE'LL SEE AARON ON THIS SHOW AGAIN, and then he pleads with Aaron to let the organism go.
And that does it: Astrid says he's stabilizing, and in the tunnel, the fungus has started to fall apart, so Olivia can finally drag a catatonic Lee out of harm's way. He comes to, coughing, and looks up at Olivia. "Hey, you look a little freaked out," he says. "You wanna talk about it?" he adds, and he's lucky Olivia didn't drop him on his head right there.
Back in the lab, everything is OK again. Walter's even offering the G.I. Joe to Aaron, who declines at first. "Toys are meant to be played with," says Walter, who adds that he's seen the movie with the talking toys, which he deems "oddly disturbing." I guess Aaron, who takes the toy, is just lucky Walter didn't talk about seeing the movie baked.
Anyway, Aaron's a little disappointed to learn that Walter isn't coming to the hospital with him, but Walter -- spying Peter in the glass in the fire extinguisher box -- says he has things he needs to do. "We'll see each other again soon, I promise," says Walter, right before Astrid wheels him out of the show forever.
Walter then solemnly takes a book from a shelf, and sits down, unwrapping a large metal hammer and spike, and we see the book open to a section on -- gulp -- pre-frontal lobotomy.
Cut to Olivia coming into the lab, calling for Walter because she heard about the good news with Aaron. There's no response, and she heads into the office, where we can hear a steady metallic tok sound, and here's hoping they just leave this to our imagination and NO OH MY GOD HE HAS A SPIKE IN HIS EYE and Olivia, thank god, keeps her shit together much better than I ever could, and takes the hammer from him, even while he's saying the area is completely numb and he knows what he's doing.
She sets the hammer down, picks up some gauze and slowly withdraws the spike. Jesus, it's heart-rending watching Walter break down as Olivia asks what he was thinking. "I don't want to be recommitted. I can't go back there. Please don't send me back," he says. Olivia doesn't know what he's talking about. Walter says he's going insane: "I've been having hallucinations. No matter what I do, they won't stop." Well, a great way to keep yourself from being committed is to give yourself a lobotomy! He's reluctant to tell her what the hallucinations are, but eventually he says he's been seeing a young man, his voice in Walter's head.
A dumbfounded Olivia pulls out a piece of paper with a sketch on it, which we can see now is Peter, and the sketch she had at the top of the show. "Does he look like this?" she asks quietly. Walter looks at it with his ONE EYE THAT DOESN'T HAVE A SPIKE IN IT, and asks where she got it. She drew it from memory, she says: "I've been seeing him in my dreams for the past three weeks."
Walter says he thought the man was a figment of his psychosis. "I'm perfectly sane," he says. Yes, you're perfectly sane. Now press the gauze against your eye so you don't bleed out from the surgery you performed on yourself.
Walter asks Olivia who he is, but she doesn't know, even though she's been running facial recognition software, inter-agency databases, that kind of thing.
"A shared vision like this -- he must be real. And if he's real -- we have to find him," says Walter.
Daniel is a writer in Newfoundland with a wife and a daughter. Once upon a time he might have been able to tell you exactly which G.I. Joe Walter had in the lab. Follow him on Twitter (@DanMacEachern) or email him at danieljdaniel[at]gmail.com.
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