The Fringe gang go out to visit their doomsday device that Massive Dynamic is building which I'm sure is not at all in danger of ever almost going off in some future episode, and the machine (and all the equipment around it) goes a little haywire on Peter, because it has a bit of a crush on him. Walter, not satisfied with almost killing his son last episode, goes in search of some of his DNA that Belly kept around after removing parts of Walter's brain, so he can regrow his grey matter, only he winds up snorting some chimpanzee DNA instead. That makes more sense if you've seen the episode. I think.
Astrid (and later Olivia) go through Fauxlivia's diaries partly to try to figure out why dead shapeshifter bodies are turning up, and the working theory is that Walternate is tying up the loose ends of the infiltration operation, but it becomes clear that there has to be someone with inside information at Massive Dynamic. Anyone who might possibly know anything is questioned -- except for Peter. Turns out that the weapon had an effect on Peter, and it's weaponized him. He's hunting down the shapeshifters because he's tired of reacting instead of acting, and he needs to know what they know. Walter discovers what Peter's been up to, but he keeps the secret from Olivia, who is just getting over what happened between Peter and Olivia. This could kill her. Literally!
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Daniel is a writer in Newfoundland with a wife and a daughter. Follow him on Twitter (@DanMacEachern) or email him at danieljdaniel[at]gmail.com.
We're starting this episode off at some sort of music festival out in the middle of nowhere, only it doesn't appear to have started yet, because it's dark and there's a mini-convoy of SUVs headed towards the large cylindrical dome which is where I assume Girl Talk will be playing. And security is ridiculous! Actual soldiers at checkpoints with assault rifles. The window of an SUV rolls down. It's Philip Broyles and Olivia, with the fabulous Bishop Boys in the backseat, and they're asked for their clearance and ID. Walter's got a request of his own: chewing gun, any flavour will do. The soldier looks at him blankly, and Peter explains that his dad has a "thing" with his ears, and Walter hotly explains that he's got a blocked Eustachian tube.
After the soldiers are done rolling their eyes at the crazy old scientist, the SUV is waved through. Inside the hangar, a scientist is conferring with Nina Sharp, telling her that they've tried a dozen different power sources, with no reactions at all. An aide strolls up to tell Nina that her guests are here, kinda making it sound like the party's about to start. In a way, I guess it is. She tells him to "expand the telemetry parameters and run the tests again." I was just going to suggest restarting the machine. That usually works on whatever problem I'm having.
Nina guides the team through the hangar, and says she understands they broke the encryption on the computer "the other Olivia" left behind. That was thanks to Peter, Broyles says, who gave them a number of password suggestions, one of which worked. "It was a song lyric. And Fauxlivia ruined U2 for all of us," says a grouchy Walter. Well, at least you still have Violet Sedan Chair! Well, I guess you don't. Speaking of "Olive Can Read This," I should say that despite me mocking the "sudden" reference to Violet Sedan Chair as Walter's favorite band, it's been pointed out to me that they actually have been mentioned before, a couple of times, neither time I actually remember. But really, given the staggering attention to detail this show has, I really should have known better.
Anyway, since I was busy thinking "the last few U2 records have ruined U2 for me," it took a second or two to register that Walter actually said "Fauxlivia," and then Nina asks about it, and Peter explains it for her and for everybody, and I'd like to commend the powers that be on this show for seeing the light, and it's clear that our long national nickname nightmare of Bolivia vs. Fauxlivia is over.
That out of the way, Nina asks what actually is in the computer, other than subpar forgettable rock that is a shadow of its former self, and Broyles is all, "It's one big file, mission details buried in hundreds of pages of mundane observations about our world," by which he actually means that he recently discovered Frisky Dingo and hasn't actually gotten around to looking at Fauxlivia's computer.
Meanwhile, Walter has walked on ahead into the hangar bay, and he now stands transfixed before the almost fully built doomsday device. It takes his breath away to see it realized -- and the reactions from the rest of the team are similar. "It's bigger than I imagined," says Olivia, which is a line she has said in every single piece of Fringe fan fiction I have written myself into. Peter notes that it's just big enough to destroy a couple of universes.
So the scientist that Nina was talking to before tells them they haven't been able to figure out how the machine works, despite having the top people at NASA, the CIA, the NIH at their disposal. Walter awkwardly interrupts to find out which acronym the scientist belongs to, and Nina introduces Dr. James Falcon as Massive Dynamic's lead scientist on the project. "Oh. Well, I suppose that makes me your boss," says Walter, who introduces himself. "Now that I've established who the alpha dog is here, please continue," says Walter.
Anyway, now that we've drawn attention to a supposedly minor character, Dr. Falcon says there doesn't seem to be an energy source or anything that suggests the machine can hold or transmit any kind of power. Peter stares at it.
Nearby, a couple of scientists type away, until their screens start to go screwy and wavy. "Some kind of electromagnetic spike," says some scientist named Jack, and now objects on desks start rattling and a chair rolls by of its own accord.
Things are starting to shake, but that hasn't made its way to the Fringe team. Nina's saying she thinks the problem might be the missing piece stolen by Fauxlivia. Stolen? I mean, it's not like this thing actually belongs to Massive Dynamic. Peter says that could be right, given the missing piece goes right in the centre.
Dr. Falcon asks if Fauxlivia mentioned the machine in her files, and Broyles starts in with the excuses like the slacker he is, but he's interrupted by loud mechanical screeching noises, as parts of the machine start moving. Panels on the top encircling the device move in and down, with everyone in the hangar, watching amazed. Except for Peter, who actually looks a little blasé, and he finds that his nose is bleeding just a little bit. "It's like something triggered it," says Falcon, after the machine's movement grinds to a halt. "Something did trigger it. Me," says Peter.
After the opening credits, we move to the Bishop household late at night. The deadbolt on the front door slowly turns and then a gloved hand gently opens the front door. It seems like it's someone who's not supposed to be there ... and then it turns out to be Peter, wearing dark clothes, slipping into the house and setting down a tote bag. It seemed odd at the time, and then I forgot about it as I was watching the episode. Turns out to have been a big ol' clue!
In the kitchen, Peter settles in at the island with the fixins' for a peanut butter and jam sandwich, and he's a little startled to see Walter stroll in, carrying a book. "Peter. You've been out?" says Walter. Peter lies and says he just came downstairs, unable to sleep. For that excuse to work, Walter has to accept that Peter decided to get fully dressed before coming downstairs. Instead, he says that he thought he heard the door, and Peter chalks it up to a dream. Walter says he wasn't sleeping, but he doesn't sound suspicious. He's probably distracted by the sandwich preparation going on, and he asks Peter for one. Then he asks if Peter's had any more nosebleeds or headaches, and the answer is negatory. "But you're unable to sleep?" says Walter, and Peter says it's not because of the machine.
Walter plops the book down on the counter. It's that book on the First Peoples, and Walter says he's read it cover to cover a dozen times, looking in vain for something that might suggest how the device works or how it's connected to Peter, who tells his dad that he needs to stop: "I want answers too. And I know you want to help me, but I don't think that you can this time. You can't protect me from everything," he says. And just to show his dad that there's no hard feelings, he hands over his PB&J sandwich. Walter solemnly accepts, looking like he's trying to keep from crying.
Over to Massive Dynamic now, where the suddenly ubiquitous Dr. Falcon is placing electrodes on Peter's temple, preparing to slide him into an MRI-type device, with a fretful Walter saying that he's not convinced this is necessary. "Every human being gives off a unique electromagnetic signature. We're testing to see if it was indeed your son's that triggered the machine," says Dr. Falcon, explaining a couple of things to Walter, who explodes at Falcon's impudence for doing so, what with Walter's own graduate degree from MIT. Walter says he doesn't need a test to know how unlikely it is that this has anything to do with electromagnetics. It's a good thing Nina's there to keep Walter from taking the guy's head off.
Anyway, Walter asks Peter if he knows just how much radiation he's about to be exposed to. "Well, I do now, Walter," says Peter. Nina tells Walter that he's overreacting, and Walter wants to h
ave a word outside with her. So they go into the observation room, where Walter apparently demands that Falcon be fired, and Nina won't do it: "He's one of the most gifted biomedical engineers in the country," she says, which doesn't carry a lot of weight with Walter, who doesn't want Falcon poking and prodding at his son. He's terrified because of the machine's reaction to Peter, and he thinks the tests are a waste of time. What he does want is for Nina to help him regenerate his brain cells: "William was too clever for that. He not only took out pieces of my brain, he inhibited their ability to replicate," he tells her, adding that Bell kept detailed notes of everything he did. He wants to see Bell's research so he can reverse what was done and regrow his brain cells. "Walter, that's more than fifteen years ago," says Nina. Yeah, that's way back in 1996, when people didn't have things like computers that could archive data!So Walter pulls out the big guns: his quivering lower lip. "I'm not whole, Nina. If I'm to figure out how Peter is connected to the machine, I have to get smarter. It's the only way I'll be able to help my son," he says, on the verge of tears. Well, Nina's not made of stone! Some silicone, perhaps, but... anyway, she says she'll get on it right away, and he thanks her.
And then Olivia comes wandering into the test room, like THERE'S SUPPOSED TO BE SOME DANGEROUS TESTING GOING ON HERE, and she asks if Peter's OK, and he jokes that he's going to use his newfound superpowers to make the machine levitate, and maybe he could use his newfound superpowers to run a razor across his chin once in a damn while.
She says she called him last night, but he didn't pick up, and he tells her that "Walter was being Walter" so he went for a walk. Dr. Falcon strolls over to say they're ready, and he asks Peter if he wants something to help him sleep, as this could take a while. Peter says he's OK, and Falcon tells him to relax, as this procedure, which is apparently going to bombard Peter with scary amounts of radiation, is perfectly safe. "I'm sorry, doc. You'll forgive me if I'm a little bit leery of machines right about now," says Peter. In retrospect, that turns out to be an awesome line. She tells him she'll be right outside, and the table Peter's lying on slides right into the machine.
Meanwhile, over at the Massachusetts Port Authority, some poor sap strolls outside by a fish pond on the grounds to have a cigarette break, when he notices that there are several dead goldfish floating on top of the water. He picks up a stick and starts poking around, and goes all bug-eyed horrified when he sees a corpse in the fountain.
Over at the Harvard lab, Astrid is busy scrubbing a fish tank, so Broyles, strolling in, jokes that Dr. Bishop leaves the "high-intensity" work for her. She tells him the rest of the gang -- i.e. the important ones -- are over at Massive Dynamic. But Broyles is here for her. Broyles, you dog! Oh, wait, it's work-related. "For the past two days, an encryption team has been waiting for the data on the other Olivia's hard drive," he says. "More than three-hundred pages of material. Details about this world. Profiles on our people. Mission specifics. It's difficult to know what information's important." She says she's happy to help, and he tells her that Fauxlivia's mission logs are filled with personal observations. "And many of them concern her relationship with Peter. And given what Peter and our Olivia have been through..." he says, and Astrid says she'll be discreet.
Over at Massive Dynamic, Falcon and Walter are looking at a computer screen displaying Peter's vitals, with Falcon acknowledging that Peter's heart rate -- at 130 beats per minute -- is a bit high, and Walter angrily disputes his use of the word "bit" and wants Peter taken out of the machine. Falcon calls it a "narrow tachycardia, hardly life-threatening," and says it would be ridiculous to stop testing because of it. He does say at first he assumed it was nerves, but the heart rate should have stabilized by now. Olivia asks if his heart rate could have triggered the machine. "No, I don't see how it could have. But it is curious, and implies we should do more tests," he says, and Walter is spitting angry at the prospect of Peter being used as the new Massive Dynamic lab rat, and at least Massive Dynamic doesn't leave ingestible poison in milk jugs in the common refrigerator, WALTER. Olivia's interrupted in her role as peacemaker when her phone rings, and tells Walter she's got to go, and asks him to call her if he learns something new.
She meets Broyles at the Port Authority fountain, where Broyles fills her in on the dead guy, Michael Baird, found in the fountain by a colleague. The medical examiner puts his time of death at about 3 a.m. Olivia asks about the dead fish. "They died of mercury poisoning," says Broyles, which confuses Olivia, at least until she sees Baird's ash-grey face about to be zipped up in the body bag, and she understands: "He's a shapeshifter," she says. But wait, there's more! Broyles has the morgue guys flip the body over, so she can see that his clothes and back have been sliced open to remove the data storage disk. "Whoever did this knew what they were doing. So why would someone kill a shapeshifter?" he says. "You mean someone other than us," says Olivia. Hee! Then she wonders if Walternate sent over a cleaner to tie up loose ends, to kill him... "Before we learned what he knew," finishes Broyles looking all thoughtful. He calls Astrid back at the lab, and tells her to run a search for Michael Baird on Fauxlivia's data file. She finds him, on a long list of Port Authority employees.
Broyles, sounding as panicked as he ever does, orders her to shut down the mainframe. "And from this moment on, no one accesses that file except you," he tells Astrid. After he hangs up, he tells Olivia that they cracked the encryption on the other Olivia's hard drive thirty-six hours ago, and Michael Baird's name is on a list of thousands of names: "Suppose Walternate knew we were getting close to identifying the list of shapeshifters on that drive," he says, and Olivia wonders how he would know that, so Walternate has to tell her: "Because someone on our side may have told him." And even then she's gotta spell it out for everybody: "We got a mole."
Back at Massive Dynamic, Peter's sitting up and putting his jacket on. Falcon comes in with the test results, telling Peter to cut back on fried foods, but based on the lab work and EEG readings, everything looks pretty standard: "Nothing to indicate you and the machine share an electromagnetic signature." Falcon chalks up the elevated heart rate to stress, but Peter's skeptical: "When I got within fifty feet of that machine, things started flying around the room. My nose started bleeding. You're honestly trying to tell me that's just a coincidence?" Falcon doesn't think it's a coincidence, just that from a medical standpoint, Peter appears perfectly normal. That to me is the surest sign that the test is flawed, but that's just me.
Walter rushes in, quietly telling Peter that Olivia called: "They found a dead shapeshifter. She thinks someone on the inside must be feeding Walternate information," he says, so the Bishops leave, with Peter making sure to pat Falcon on the shoulder and thank him, and then we zoom in on Falcon in a "he's evil!" shot that I totally fell for. I mean... well, it wasn't without reason I suppose.
Anyway, back at Harvard (the establishing shot is of rowers who for some reason aren't the Winkelvii), the team is going over what to do about the mole. Peter says, "We need to round up anybody who had access to the other Olivia's hard drive," including the FBI decryption teams and anyone in Massive Dynamic, and both Olivia and Broyles somewhat shirtily tell him that they're on it. Walter and Nina are questioning them right now, in fact. Astrid says that Newton is also mentioned in the files, so if there are two shapeshifters, they assume that there's more: "But there are hundreds of names thro
ughout the file. Just lists of government employees, local cops," she says, and Broyles says they're running profiles on all of them, looking for recent changes in behaviour, anything that would suggest her having been replaced by a shapeshifter.Olivia's ready to roll up her sleeves and sift through the data -- which is when Astrid and Broyles get all awkward with her, puzzling Olivia and Peter. "Um, it's probably not a good idea," says Astrid, and Peter's the one who figures it out first: "Because she wrote about me," he says. Broyles says some parts of the data read like a diary in which Peter is quite prominent, and I hope to god that's not a comment on the size of Peter's peter. Peter kinda looks like it might be, and he says they should get over to Massive Dynamic. Olivia's a little too thrown to argue about it, and tells Astrid to call her if she finds something.
Over at the lab, Brandon is taking a blood sample from some schmo, Special Agent Matthew Nicholas Goldin. Falcon asks if the name Michael Baird means anything to him. It does not. Agent Goldin was born in Brooklyn, he says, his face also on a computer screen that is doing all kinds of presumably lie-detecting things, being watched by Peter, Olivia, Walter and Nina, who says there are still twenty-two Massive Dynamic people to be tested as well as seven from the FBI. "So far, all the blood tests have come back negative. But that doesn't rule out the possibility of a human mole," she says. Peter and Olivia are in the "lie detectors are unreliable" camp, but Nina says this one isn't, because her precious William designed it. "It measures the slightest shift in facial muscles, which allows us a link to stress and a particular emotion. His facial muscles tell us that his stress is not connected to feelings of guilt or shame." Walter's jealous that he didn't think of it. Yeah, well, you are missing parts of your brain, Walter, so don't feel too bad.
Peter says they should keep everyone in custody until they find the leak, but Nina says she doesn't think that's practical. "Do you actually want to catch the mole, Nina?" says Peter, and everyone looks a little surprised at Peter being a bit of a dick.
Nina asks Walter if he has a moment, and the two go into Nina's office, where she tells him that she found Bell's research. "His notes suggest that he designed a retroviral serum based on your DNA that will regrow your brain tissue," she says, handing him a box helpfully labeled DNA. Giddily, he opens it, but she cautions him that Bell experimented with lab animals first, a rat and a chimpanzee, and back in the '90s, they had a small lab fire. A lab fire that was so small that it destroyed the original labels but didn't destroy the DNA samples or compromise them in any way. "I'm going to ask the lab to run diagnostics on all three. Then they should be able to tell us which one was made for you," she says, but Walter is ALREADY SNORTING a sample, much to her dismay, and he says he's snorted worse, which I can't imagine is very reassuring. "A few good whiffs and my brain should be able to begin to regrow its missing parts," he says. "And what if the serum is not based on your DNA?" she says, and Walter giggles that he'll probably get a rash, so Nina drops it and says she's worried about Peter, because he's endured a lot recently: "Maybe he should talk with someone," she says, and Walter scoffs. "What I'm trying to say is there are people that are trained to help," she adds. Walter points out that Peter is his son: "I'm the one that needs to help him," he says. Now, if you'll excuse him, he has to sniff some more chimpanzee DNA.
Over at Massive Dynamic, Peter and Olivia are watching Brandon interrogate another FBI agent, and Olivia figures this is a good time to tell Peter that she knows he slept with Fauxlivia and he's just trying to protect her. But reading about it isn't going to make it worse, and she just wants to help Astrid. Peter interrupts to tell her that he's conned people, and he knows what he would've written about them: "She must've thought that I was a fool. And I don't want you to see me like that." Feel better, Olivia? It's not concern. It's vanity!
So they go into the interrogation room, where Brandon tells them they've talked to everyone. Olivia asks about Dr. Falcon. Brandon says Falcon wasn't on the team that worked on the hard drive. "Maybe not, but he was asking questions about it yesterday at the hangar," says Olivia. So Brandon gets on the phone and asks to have Falcon sent to him, but that's not going to happen: "Dr. Falcon left work early, Brandon tells them.
That touches off an FBI raid on Falcon's home. Just once I'd like to run through a house yelling "Clear!" every time I go into an empty room.
Then they find Falcon -- lying dead on the floor, mercury pooling under his head. That's going to be a bitch to get out of the hardwood. Mr. Clean Magic Eraser my ass.
Olivia's filling in Astrid, who's talking on her cellphone by holding it out in front of her for some reason, the way people do on reality shows when they have to be on speakerphone for microphones to pick up the audio, but I can't think of any earthly reason why Astrid would be doing this. I mean, if this is a thing that people do now, then I QUIT THE HUMAN RACE. Anyway, same M.O. as Baird: two shots to the head, and his data storage unit removed. Astrid finds Falcon in a list on Fauxlivia's computer, part of a list of Massive Dynamic employees. "So if Walternate's knocking these guys off, they must know something important," she says.
Nearby, Walter says, "Damn!" and Olivia hears this, so I guess that's why they're doing the contrived speakerphone thing, and she says, "Tell Walter I feel the same," so now I'm annoyed all over again because YOU ARE ON SPEAKERPHONE, TELL HIM YOURSELF, and it reminds me of when I lived by myself and my dad would leave messages on my voicemail saying, "Tell Danny his dad called."
Anyway, Astrid explains that Walter is giving himself an IQ test, and Olivia says that Falcon's body is being shipped to the lab, so maybe he can have a look when he's done exercising his mind. She gets off the phone and tells Peter that Astrid's having no luck identifying the remaining shapeshifters. "The techs are drawing a blank too. I don't think we're gonna find anything in here that's gonna tell us who Falcon was working with," says Peter. I'd make a comment about how shifty that sounds, but really that's only hindsight because I didn't see it coming at all. But it seems so obvious by this point that I'm embarrassed to have missed it. Olivia grumbles that it feels like every time they learn something new, they're still a step behind: "If we could get to one of these shapeshifters, maybe we could finally get answers."
At the lab, Walter unzips Falcon's bodybag and asks Astrid for a bone saw, aspirator, voltmeter and a ripe banana. Astrid wryly (hopefully?) says she assumes the banana's for Walter. He says he had a sudden craving, which is odd for him, because bananas are usually his least favorite fruit. Anyway, Astrid notes that another twenty names have been cross-checked from Fauxlivia's files -- they're not shapeshifters.
Walter, seeming somewhat embarrassed, asks her if she's read all of Fauxlivia's files. "Most of them," says Astrid, and Walter wonders what Fauxlivia had to say about him. Astrid smiles: "She liked you. She thought that you were kind and brilliant," she says. Not surprisingly, being told someone thinks he's kind and brilliant puts Walter in a cheery mood. As Astrid helps Walter move Falcon into a sitting position, Walter suddenly aggressively opens his mouth wide and bares his teeth, freaking Astrid out just a little. He apologizes, and then realizes what he did: "I was displaying dominance. The serum I took, it must have been meant for a chimpanzee," he says, not exactly making Astrid less concerned about Walter growing chimp DNA in his brain. "Just a bit," says Walter. Oh, well, just a bit. He says his immune system will recognize it a
s foreign and reject it. Just so long as that happens before he starts flinging feces around the lab.Anyway, Walter notices something under the fingernails -- blood. Great job missing that, FBI lab techs!
Well, despite Peter's opinion that they weren't going to find anything at Falcon's house, they're still there, looking at a window that was jimmied open, which Olivia says suggests Falcon and his killer were strangers, or otherwise he would've used the front door. Peter offers a noncommittal "hmm" and looks around the room, and now Olivia figures it's as good a time as any to apologize to Peter, who's rather surprised by it. "The last few weeks have been really hard for me. I've been so focused on what the other Olivia did to me that I... I just haven't thought about what she did to you," says Olivia. Well, maybe you shouldn't think too much about everything she did to Peter. She says the good news is Fauxlivia's gone, and they can move past it. Peter smiles and thanks her. Then his phone vibrates, and he says he has to go back to Massive Dynamic for more tests. She offers to drive him, possibly because she wants to have sex with him again, but he says he'll take the train. He does ask her to tell Walter he'll be home late.
He leaves, and Olivia's phone rings now. It's Astrid, telling her about the human blood they found under Falcon's fingernails. Walter tells her it's A-positive, which is fairly common. It's Walter's blood type, along with one-third of the population. Not Massive Dynamic's population though, because Brandon is the only one with that blood type who had access to Fauxlivia's files.
Cut to a woman running down the street, looking panicked. She ducks up some stairs and runs into an alley, where a homeless man asks her to spare some change. Great location the guy has picked, an alley where there is absolutely no one around, as opposed to the teeming nearby street. She smiles at the request, and agrees, but then snaps the poor hobo's neck.
Then she gets out a shapeshifter FireWire cord, and plugs it into the roof of his mouth, and then she does that creepy face-crunching thing, and then sticks the other end of the cord in her own mouth.
Meanwhile, the Fringe team strides down the hallway of Massive Dynamic, and then pulls guns on poor Brandon, eating his lunch at his desk. "Don't move," says Broyles. "Can I swallow?" squeaks Brandon, looking quite surprised.
Back in the alley, the woman has completed her transition to homeless dude (wearing nice women's clothes, anyway). As s/he unplugs the device, we hear Peter say, "Hey, Bermudez," as this shadowy figure with his hood up approaches and fires several shots, killing him/her. I'm not sure why they dragged out the Peter revelation for a few seconds after we heard his wife, but there it is anyway. Peter looking all evil, having just dropped a shapeshifter.
Back at Massive Dynamic, Brandon's being questioned but he seems to have got his groove back. He's asked if he's ever killed a shapeshifter. "No. I've been going to the gym, though. I'm kind of stoked you'd think I'd have that kind of strength," he says, adding that they can keep asking him questions but the machine's not going to give them a different answer, because he didn't do it. Nina, watching the monitor, says he's right; the machine says he's telling the truth.
So back at the lab, Olivia tells Astrid that Brandon passed the magical infallible lie-detector, and now she's here to help her go through the files. Astrid hesitates, and Olivia has to explain that she knows why nobody wants her to read the files -- i.e. Fauxlivia-Peter sexytime -- but given that they're trying to SAVE A UNIVERSE, she can probably pitch in. "If we can find the target and surveil him, maybe we can catch this guy," she says. Astrid says she's been through the stack already, but Olivia points out she's a fresh set of eyes. And not just any set of eyes, but Fauxlivia's own: "We're the same, the other Olivia and me. I should be able to think the same way. So maybe I'm gonna be able to find a pattern." Astrid nods, and Olivia gets to work.
So Walter's at home, apparently still reeling from the effects of the chimp DNA, as he is making himself a banana split, one that appears to involve one part banana for ten parts whipped cream, cherries, chocolate syrup, caramel -- and he manages to get a fair amount of whipped cream all over his face and shirt. The phone rings. It's Nina. "Nina! I was just thinking about you!" says Walter, then he licks the whipped cream off his finger because of course he does. He tells her that the first sample is definitely chimpanzee, and she's already forgotten the ridiculous DNA subplot, and anyway she's calling for Peter. "He's not with you? Has he finished the tests already?" asks Walter, and Nina is all, "What tests?" and explains that she wants to schedule a round of tests.
Walter's confused at first, and then looks like a terrible dread has overtaken him, one that cannot be cured by the biggest banana split in the entire world. He goes up to Peter's room. Well, there's your first clue. Peter apparently went to a kiosk in the mall that sells novelty signs, because he's put up a "Shapeshifter Assassin Parking Only" sign up on his door. Walter goes into Peter's bedroom, where he finds printouts of lists of names, all helpfully laid out on his desk, with the names of shapeshifters circled. Walter, looking hopelessly sad, turns and looks at the childhood pictures of Peter up on the wall. Peter still has those up?
Speaking of Peter, where is he? Sitting in a car, staking out someone's home. Typical Peter. Hanging out, while everyone else does work.
Over at the lab, Astrid asks how Olivia's doing, and Olivia reads out some of Fauxlivia's gushy thoughts on Peter: "PB's different than I expected him to be. A sincerity behind his eyes, a deep-seated goodness. It's hard not to get caught up in it, not to get caught up in him." Ha ha ha! Anyway, she's figured out that this might have started as an assignment for Fauxlivia, but she was having real feelings for him. Astrid's a little alarmed, but Olivia's OK with it. And then she figures it's natural because Peter's "a great guy" and everything, and she and Fauxlivia are alike, with the same feelings, the same phrases...
And then something occurs to her -- a quick letter substitution code that pinpoints where on the list the shapeshifters are, and quickly finds the two remaining ones -- Jackie Bermudez and Zach Alpert (and the Tijuana Brass) -- just like that.
Meanwhile, Peter is making his way through the window of Zach Alpert's place. Inside, he readies the silencer on his pistol, and slinks toward the ENTIRELY MOTIONLESS FIGURE sitting on the couch watching television. Not noticing anything amiss, Peter fires a few shots, and what is obviously a dummy falls over, and instead of realizing that it's a trap, Peter wastes time going over to check to see if it's a mannequin or what, at which point he gets hit on the head with a pistol by Zach Alpert, who says he's been expecting Peter.
So now Peter's got a gun to his head, with the shapeshifter demanding to know where he's getting his information: "I know who you are, Peter. You might think that we're not allowed to kill you. But that doesn't mean that we can't hurt you," he says. He pulls out some sort of implement and starts poking it around Peter's head. "We can get everything we need from you even if you only have nine fingers, or one eye," says the guy.
And that's when super ninja Walter strolls into the room, distracting Alpert. Peter takes advantage and knocks Alpert down -- and then chops off the fingers on Alpert's hand as he reaches for the gun, in a nifty effect that I guess is OK because the guy's not human. And then it's a few bullets to the torso and Alpert's taken care of. Walter takes this all in, looking quite shocked.
Olivia's speeding through the streets, updating Broyles, who's in a different SUV. He almost gets in a collision, but avoids it. I mention it in case it might be signifi
cant, but it's probably just to show how well the product-placed vehicle handles. Anyway, Olivia has a team on Bermudez's house because it's empty, and she's on her way to Alpert's.That's where Peter is cleaning and gutting Alpert's body, and asking Walter how he found him. Uh, because you left your assassination plans all over the place? Walter simply looked Alpert's name up in the phone book. Distressed, he watches as Peter pulls the data storage disk from Alpert's back. Peter says he didn't learn anything from the rest of them, so this guy must know something. "I have to know what they know, Walter. I'm tired of being reactive," he says. Walter's pleading with Peter, who coldly points out that these guys are sent here to kill them, and beside, they're not even human. To illustrate his point, he flips the shapeshifter back over and puts a bullet in its forehead.
Walter wants to know why Peter didn't tell them anything, if he wasn't doing something wrong. Peter's got no answer for that, but he coolly answers his ringing cellphone. It's Olivia, filling him in on their discovery, and that they're on their way to Alpert's house.
But they arrive too late and only find the dead Alpert, and neither fabulous Bishop boy. Later, Olivia's commiserating at the Bishops' place, upset because all of the shapeshifters are gone. "Well, we still have the other Olivia's computer," says Peter. Meanwhile, Walter is glaring at Peter to the extent that you'd think Olivia would say something.
Peter sees Olivia out of the house, and she tells him that she read Fauxlivia's file, and he's got nothing to be embarrassed about. He thanks her, she leaves, and he turns to see Walter standing there. Walter quietly says that he thinks he knows what's wrong with Peter: "Every relationship is reciprocal, Peter. When you touch something it touches you. You're changing, son. When you touched the machine, it changed you. It weaponized you." You know, being weaponized sounds like it might not be too bad. Peter asks what they do now, and Walter doesn't know. Probably because he hasn't snorted the proper DNA yet.
Over at Massive Dynamic, Brandon doesn't have new info on the device but MD did track down three copies of the First People book: in three different languages by three different authors: "They're all published within two years of each other. So forgiving for the translations, they're almost literally word for word," he says. She asks him what he makes of it, and he points out that there have been six major extinction events in the earth's five-billion-year history. "So who's to say that one of them didn't wipe out a great civilization?" he says.
But wait, there's more: he says when they put the word out at that they were looking for copies of the book, they discovered that someone had done the same a few years ago: William Bell. Nina looks shocked.
Back at the Bishop place, Peter sits staring at himself in the mirror, trying to look as little like Pacey as possible. It's the eye of the tiger! Fade into the doomsday device, superimposed over his face.
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Daniel is a writer in Newfoundland with a wife and a daughter. Follow him on Twitter (@DanMacEachern) or email him at danieljdaniel[at]gmail.com.