By Daniel
Springfield, Massachusetts, home to one of those teens who are so good at the 21st-century multitasking, what with the computer on, and the music on, and he's on the phone, and he's texting, and (probably) doing crystal meth. He's joshing with his friend, saying, "If she said that, she's a bigger idiot than you are. And that's impossible. I'm really good at math. It's impossible." I think this is what they call "swingin' on the flippity-flop" in today's slang.
He hangs up the phone, and then his computer makes a little beep. A popup window reads, "WHAT'S THAT NOISE?" Intrigued, he clicks the button underneath, which I can't believe any halfway computer-savvy teenager would bother doing. The computer screen starts flashing indiscernible images. They look like negatives, or X-rays, or extreme close-ups. The kid leans in, transfixed. His eyelids start to flutter.
Mom comes in, fixing her earrings, saying they'll be back around ten, and to make sure to take "Bucky" out. The kid doesn't say anything. "You hear me?" The kid doesn't say anything. "Love you," says Mom, apparently pleased, walking off, and still THE KID DOESN'T SAY ANYTHING, like I can't even imagine how my mom would have reacted to being ignored like that.
It's becoming clear, though, that the poor guy isn't able to turn away from the screen, which is still flashing a lot of images. There's a building. There's what look like trees. Hey, is this The Blair Witch Project?
And now, a tear runs down his cheek. There's a lighthouse. A window. More tears running down his face, and over his lips, onto his chin.
And then a hand slowly pushing out from the computer screen, taking the screen with it like it's a hand pushing through some sort of stretchy plastic, towards the kid's face. He doesn't move. The hand inches closer and closer -- and then opens up and grabs the kid by the head, and he starts shaking.
After the opening credits, Olivia's playing Operation and giggling like mad with her adorable niece Ella, and they're listening to that "All The Single Ladies" song that I can't believe just won't go away yet. Rachel walks in and asks Ella if, when she brushed her teeth, she also completely dried her toothbrush. And my initial reaction was that I couldn't believe Rachel makes her kid dry her toothbrush after using it, for god's sake, and then I worried that maybe I was supposed to be doing that with MY daughter, like maybe it's a new health thing, and it took me an embarrassingly long time to realize that Ella lied about brushing her teeth.
By Daniel
After Ella poutily goes off to brush for real, Rachel says, "I just love being lied to." "You're a tough mother," says Olivia ("Shut your mouth!" "I'm just talkin' about Rachel!"), adding, "Ella's a sweetheart." "A lying little sweetheart," says Rachel, who then says, "She reminds me of you," only the closed-captioning awesomely says, "Would you arrest me if I killed her?" and I really think they should have gone with that original line.
Over at the Fringe lab, Peter, Walter and Astrid are hanging out, with Walter bashing Darwin for getting things wrong, and making a crack about how often his thinking was "unevolved." Peter, collecting the mail and noticing a card with Walter's name on it and nothing else, isn't really paying attention. "For a brilliant man, Darwin was occasionally a moron," says Walter, with Peter oblivious to him, too busy opening the envelope and looking at what's inside. Walter, meanwhile, is talking about Darwin's thoughts on man's propensity to sire as many offspring as possible (with all that sperm being constantly produced) while women are more selective due to their finite supply of eggs. Walter figures women can be just as aggressive as men, who can often be quite dispassionate, and you'd think a scientist like Walter would know that when you're speaking generally, specific examples don't necessarily contradict that, but anyway Peter's ignoring him, and Astrid's cellphone rings.
It's Olivia, asking Astrid to send the Bishops outside because she's sending over a body. Astrid relays the information, and Walter is giddy because he knows there's something bizarre out there, he just doesn't know what it is. "Like a grab bag of disturbing events, don't you think?" he says to Peter, whose mind is completely elsewhere. He follows Walter out the door, after crumpling up the letter and tossing it and the envelope in the trash. After they leave, Astrid, who'd noticed Peter reading the letter, retrieves it and uncrumples it.
Meanwhile, Charlie and Olivia are in Springfield interviewing the grieving parents, who want to know what could have done that to their son (and we don't know exactly what it is that they're talking about yet). The parents are baffled, since "Greg" hadn't recently changed, and didn't use drugs: "Whatever happened, Greg didn't bring it on himself," says the father. Olivia asks about pre-existing medical conditions. The mom says Greg had asthma, which was why he spent so much time on the computer, chatting with friends about girls. The detectives get a name -- Luke Dempsey -- and promise to do everything they can to find out what happened.
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By Daniel
"Everything" seems to include Walter using a power drill on the boy's skull to bore a hole. He then enlists Peter's help to turn Greg over so they can "drain the remainder of the brain" (which falls mainly on the plain?) and then examine the cranial cavity.
Olivia comes in on her cellphone, asking someone to get her "everything [they] can." You'd think she could hold off talking to her dealer for ONE DAY. Off the phone, she tells the Bishops that Greg was a "good kid" and asks for an update on their end. Walter explains that the kid's brain was completely liquefied, and his first theory was "an extremely virulent" STD. Olivia finds that one a little much, which unfortunately leads to Walter explaining to her that safe sex is important. "You do always have your sexual partners wear a condom, I hope," says Walter. Peter gives him a warning "Walter..." but Peter clearly doesn't want to think about Olivia having sexual partners. Peter, for his part, is collecting what is presumably Greg's brain in a beaker. It's a clear fluid with the consistency of pancake syrup. I bet it tastes great on a cracker!
Olivia thinks if Greg got this from a girl or a drug, there might be a record of it on his hard drive, and she asks Astrid to check it out. Walter advises her to be sure to check his "floppy disks" too, and Peter clues him in that those are a little outdated and says Walter should stick to what he does best. Aw. I kind of miss floppy disks! Anyway, Peter presents Walter with his liquid brains, and Walter gleefully goes to get his bone saw.
Meanwhile, Astrid tells Olivia that "the hard drive platters must be fused." Olivia asks if she's sure. "Linguistics major, computer science minor," says Astrid, adding that she's also been taking computers apart since she was "like, six." I sure hope Astrid won't just continue to have luckily studied whatever specific skills the Fringe team needs ("Linguistics major, taxidermy minor"). Olivia asks if she can pull anything off it, and Astrid says she'll give it a shot with some "aggressive data-recovery techniques," which is presumably violence coupled with cursing.
Meanwhile, Olivia heads over to a mechanic's shop where Luke Dempsey works. She asks a guy outside for Luke Dempsey, and he waves her in (and then checks her out as she goes).
Inside, Luke is raising a car on a lift when Olivia introduces herself. Over in a quieter area of the garage, Luke says he was just IMing with Greg last night. He asks what happened to Greg, and Olivia says they don't really know. She asks Luke what they talked about. "A bunch of stuff. I got him a deal on a split rear exhaust for his '93 GT." Luke gets a little choked up as he recalls that Greg just stopped answering his messages last night. "I figured he fell asleep," he says. Olivia asks how they met, and Luke says their dads worked together when they were kids, and he and Greg "stayed friends." That naturally raises a red flag for anyone watching, but not Olivia, who asks if anyone had a grudge against Greg or may have wanted to hurt him. "You think maybe somebody killed him?" asks Luke. "Do you?" asks Olivia. Luke thinks about it, but if he gives any kind of answer, we don't see it.
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By Daniel
Olivia's heading out of the garage when her cellphone rings. It's Peter, telling her there's another body.
Broyles is waiting for her at a car dealership, and he tells her the owner was found dead by an employee. Inside, there's a guy lying on his back. It looks more like he puked and choked on his own vomit, if anything. Walter, examining him says he appears to have died of the same thing as the boy, and he asks Peter to prepare six vials. "Yes, sir," says Peter, all crabby.
Olivia goes to talk to the employee who found him, who says "Anton" was a nice man with a family. Olivia asks when he saw Anton last. Well, that would be last night at the strip club they sometimes go to. "My wife doesn't know, just ... please don't judge me," says the salesman. Olivia grins. "I'm not judging you," she says, angelically.
Meanwhile, Walter is rather forcefully shoving some kind of swab up Anton's nasal cavity, much to Peter's disgust, even though, as Walter points out, the guy can't feel it. "I wonder if they sell cars here with the seats that warm your ass," wonders Walter as he swabs up brain vomit. Heh. I think Walter's a booty man.
Meanwhile, the salesman, having been unable to think of anyone who might want to hurt Anton, gives Olivia his card in case she has any more questions. Or if she needs a new car. "We have year's models in, so, uh..." He trails off, noticing Olivia staring at him. "Now you are judging me," he says. Poor guy. He was better off confessing his strip-club visitation to the pretty lady!
Back at the Fringe lab, Astrid is showing Olivia how the platters on Anton's computer were fried just like Greg's. That can't be a coincidence, figures Olivia, with Astrid pointing out that even a speck of dust is enough to make the sensitive platters unstable, but these look like they'd had a blowtorch taken to them. Also, both computers downloaded a big file -- 657 megabytes -- right before they crashed. Peter asks where the file came from, and Astrid says that'll take her a couple more days to suss out. "That's time we don't have," says Olivia. Going somewhere?
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By Daniel
Then a phone starts ringing. Not the trill of a cellphone or the electronic tones of those phones in the old CTU on 24, but an old-time brrrring-brrringgg clang of a black phone mounted on the wall. You'd think it was a teletype suddenly coming to life from the way everyone reacts, other than Walter, who marvels that he hasn't heard that sound in ages. Astrid says the number must still be in Harvard's directory.
Peter answers it all cheerful, and then instantly looks all grouchy when he says "There's no one here by that name," and then says that's he's sure, and hangs up. So I'm not sure why he thinks anyone ought to believe him when he says it was a student looking for financial aid, and from the look on Astrid's face, she clearly doesn't believe him.
Anyway, Peter just starts unhooking a hard drive, saying he's got a guy he thinks can help. Olivia asks who. "You really want to know?" "Good point," says Olivia. No, the correct answer is "yes." I mean, this is a unit that speaks to DEAD PEOPLE for god's sake. I'm sure Olivia can handle a slightly shady associate. Anyway, Olivia lamely tells Peter to be careful with the hard drive because it's evidence, and he flips it over his shoulder. Yeah, this is going to go well.
Olivia tells Astrid that she's going to go talk to Greg's friend Luke Dempsey (again), but Astrid stops her by saying she thinks she knows who was on the phone. She pulls a piece of paper out of her pocket and gives it to Olivia, who reads it, and then looks at her.
Peter strolls across the street to the old-school style of the Fort Knox Five. Sweet. Walk a little longer, Peter! Anyway, I take it by the hip-hop that we are supposed to know that we are in the gritty streetwise part of town. He walks into what appears to be some kind of computer or electronics shop and greets "Akim," who's fiddling with some machinery on the counter. "Peter Bishop. Long time. Not long enough," says Akim.
Peter flashes some kind of ... I don't know, gold doubloon? Akim's eyes go wide. "I can't believe you kept it," he says, adding he could have sold it for a fortune, and Peter, rolling the coin along his knuckles, says he kept it to remind him not to gamble more than ... no, wait. Always gamble more than ... no, that's not it. Some platitude about gambling, anyway. Akim says, "I can have it back?" and Peter says "sure" and goes to put the coin in Akim's palm, but he's made it disappear and then he pulls it out of his sleeve, like maybe he thinks Akim is six years old or something.
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By Daniel
Anyway, they go into that back room that computer guys always have, the one where they do the illegal stuff, and there's always wires everywhere and it's always dark ... Peter gives Akim the drives and says both of them downloaded a big file before they fried. "What are we looking for?" asks Akim. "I wanna know what it is and where it came from," says Peter, so Akim says, "Just hold on a second while my computer rapidly brings up multiple windows of streaming data that we can pretend to understand at a glance."
So Olivia's now at the federal building, where she is accosted by Sanford Harass, who says he understands that she's investigating the Bridgepoint Automotive death, and he asks her what she's looking for, and Olivia says some stuff about databases and cross-referencing and whatever, looking for a connection between the car salesman and Greg. He starts badgering her on how this is clearly a case for the CDC who handle stuff like this all the time, and Olivia in an amazing coincidence has a contact at the CDC who told her they've never seen anything like this (which, it should be pointed out, doesn't make it not a case for the CDC), and she shows Harass the pictures of the dudes with their brains running out of their noses and asks if he knows of any flu that does that. She should be asking him why this isn't a conversation Harass is having with Broyles, who is, after all, in charge of the unit.
He shuts the door and says the case looks like another excuse to justify the allocation of funds to a "rogue division" that is operating if not completely autonomously, then "well outside the standard regulatory purview." Gasp! Whoa, whoa, whoa! "Well outside the standard regulatory purview"? Let's not say anything we can't take back! Harass assures Olivia that he's here to "remedy" that. Olivia nods, completely transfixed by the light bouncing off of Harass's skull. He gives her twelve hours, after which he's shutting the case down and putting it in what he believes will be "considerably more capable hands." He stomps out.
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By Daniel
Back at the computer geek's illegal hackery lair, Akim studies all the numbers whizzing by and says the file must have been incredibly complex, with its integrated audio and video. Isn't that just, you know, a movie? "I mean, some of this isn't even computer code!" "Is that even possible?" says Peter. Yes, on this show it is. Akim says some computer terms, and then we look at a little map that has all kinds of lines indicating where the program was routed and rerouted from. Akim says whoever sent the thing was trying very hard to cover their tracks.
Back at the federal building, Olivia logs in to the FBI database and manages to find something on "brain liquefaction." And back in the hackery lair, Akim says, "Hold on while I pretend to type some things, which makes things happen on my screens." He says he can't find out where the thing is coming from, but he does have a destination. There are some concentric circles emanating from a point on the eastern seaboard. "Then that's the target," says Peter. Akim zooms in on the map of Boston, specifically Brighton, on 1124 Strathmore Blvd., . "Oh my god," says Peter. He spins and walks out, calling Olivia, who's reading nightmare-inducing stories about melting brains.
She answers her phone, and Peter tells her that the file that was downloaded just before the other victims died is being downloaded again, right now -- at her apartment.
Dun-dun! Oh, thank god. There's Olivia's laptop, safely sitting there closed. No danger -- oh, no! Ella's got it! She's opening it! She's trying to play on a program called "Paint-A-Pony"! She starts to fiddle on the computer. If she's anything like my daughter, she's about to insist that she gets to watch Feist sing "1 2 3 4" on Sesame Street about eighty times in a row.
Olivia races down the street in her SUV, frantically calling her apartment. But while Ella plays with the computer in the living room, Rachel is in another room, preoccupied with a handheld appliance. She's mixing something in a bowl and doesn't hear her cellphone ring. Meanwhile, Ella's painting the pony pink. Pink! Such a pony does not exist, except maybe in Shangri-La, but not here! Olivia tries Peter, who says he's maybe five minutes away. She tells him she can't reach her sister, and he suggests she try the neighbours, but Olivia doesn't know any of the neighbours, because she works twenty-five hours a damn day.
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By Daniel
In the apartment, the "What's That Noise?" pop-up has appeared on the screen. You do NOT want to get between a little girl and Paint-A-Pony. "Mom?" says Ella. THAT Rachel hears, but not her cellphone, despite pouring a rattling bag of pasta into a huge bubbling cauldron of water. "One minute, Ella," says Rachel. Ella clicks on the button, and the screen starts flashing with the images. Her eyes almost immediately start to turn heavy. The hand starts stretching out from the screen. Meanwhile, Rachel's damn pasta is boiling over. Damn, woman! Throw a little salt in that mofo!
Olivia goes careening around a street corner and then practically takes out a couple of pedestrians on the sidewalk as she flies right into the curb, knocking over some garbage cans. She races up the stairs of her brownstone and bursts inside, gun drawn, startling Rachel, who drops a bowl of pasta all over the floor, and that's going to be some extremely al dente pasta since she didn't cook it very long. Olivia asks if there's anyone else there, and Rachel says no, and Olivia holsters her gun while looking over at Ella. The screen is still flashing, but we don't see a hand, and then the computer reverts back to Paint-A-Pony. Peter's there, and Olivia asks him to check around the apartment, while she goes to Ella and takes the computer away. Ella's completely zonked out and doesn't respond when Olivia says her name. After a moment, though, Ella comes to and is surprised to see Olivia. "Aunt Liv? When did you get here?" Rachel looks on, confused. Ella always gets like that when she plays Paint-A-Pony.
Speaking of confused, Charlie's there now, completely befuddled as Olivia explains about the bursts of images on the screen that seem to have affected Ella somehow. Olivia says she can't explain it. "She was hypnotized." Charlie says he's going to call computer forensics. Olivia mysteriously does not mention that the other computers are with some possibly shady guy who Peter did not identify.
Speaking of Peter, he's in the other room bouncing a giggling Ella on his knee and enjoying a little flirtation from Rachel, who asks if he does birthday parties. He says he doesn't but admits to doing his fair share of babysitting lately, like he can't leave any chance go by to slam his dad. "The way you are with Ella, it seems like you'd be really good," says Rachel, and then hastily adds, "...at a party." Peter than crabs about not knowing what the word "party" means and says maybe if her sister gave him the weekend off once in a while. Rachel says Olivia was never really the "weekend off" kind of girl. "That was more me," she says. Peter smiles, and before someone has the chance to just turn a hose on Rachel already, Olivia comes in and totally -- is there a female version of the term "cockblock"? I mean, I could hazard a guess, but I probably shouldn't have even said "cockblock." Anyway, Olivia does that to her sister, all worriedly examining Ella, who Rachel insists is fine. Olivia says she's sure she is, but she should still get her checked out. "Yeah, um, she's probably fine, but since the last two people who did what she did have BRAIN STAINS ALL OVER THEIR SHIRTS, you should probably get her checked out."
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By Daniel
"There was a hand," says Ella. "There was a hand coming out of the computer." Rachel wants to cut out the sugar and possibly "visits with Aunt Olivia," but Olivia and Peter want to know more about what the hand looked like. Ella says it was weird and glowy and scary. Rachel thinks Ella's not telling the truth, while Olivia goes over to her laptop, sitting open on the bed. There's a green light on to the webcam on the computer's frame, above the screen. Olivia peers at it, and then we get the camera's point of view and pan out of another computer screen (which is to another monitor that has what appears to be The Observer on it). Sitting there watching Olivia look at the screen is hey! The guy who played Frank Sabotka on Season 2 of The Wire! Isn't it funny the way we get excited to see actors from shows that we like, especially ones that were criminally underwatched, on other projects? Anyway, now there's a little blue bar on the screen under Olivia that says DISCONNECTED, and he mutters, "That's right, sweetheart. I'm the one you're looking for. time you won't be so lucky." "time you won't be so lucky"? What kind of hacky line is that? Who is this guy, Cobra Commander? Then the screen says BUILDING SECURITY BREACH, and Sabotka looks around, but it's just Luke Dempsey, Greg's friend, who says, "Hey, dad." Nice security system, Sabotka. Gives you just enough time to turn around to see the intruder already up in your face. Luke asks if there's someone there, because he thought he heard voices. Mr. Dempsey says he was just talking to himself. Luke's brought his dad some lunch, and hands over a bag, before looking around at the array of computer monitors and equipment.
Mr. Dempsey chows down on lunch and goes back over to sit down at the computer, asking Luke how things are at the body shop. "Fine. Have you found a job yet?" asks Luke. "Who says I'm looking for one?" says his dad, not even turning around from the computer screen. Luke says he went by his dad's place. The mail is piling up, and "Mrs. Greeley" says he hasn't been there in a week. "She should mind her own business," says Mr. Dempsey, turning around again. Seriously. Mrs. Greely is the one who called the cops on us after that party, I swear to god.
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By Daniel
Luke looks around and sees a cot nearby. "Have you been sleeping here, Dad?" Dempsey stands up, and thanks his kid for the food, but he should be getting back to work. Luke asks what he's working on. "A new program. I don't wanna jinx it," says Dempsey, adding, "I think it's going to impress a lot of people." Not if you don't have a cute little graphic for the iPhone it won't.
In Broyles's office, Olivia gets off the phone with Rachel to report to her boss and to Peter that the doctor says Ella is fine, with no signs of neurological damage or anything. "If something would have happened to her..." says Olivia, but Peter advises her not to worry about hypotheticals.
"This is going to sound crazy, but I think whoever is responsible was watching through the computer," says Olivia. She explains about the light being on to the camera, which she says Ella doesn't know how to use. She wonders if maybe what happened was a warning to her for investigating the case. Broyles says maybe the person hacked into their system, in which case maybe they can be tracked. Olivia says computer forensics are on it, and Peter mentions a "subcontractor" of his (heh) who's trying to figure out where it came from.
Broyles asks if this Dempsey is connected. Olivia explains about Dempsey's connection to Greg, but admits there's no connection yet between Greg and the car salesman. Peter, meanwhile really wants to know why the two people were killed.
A trip to Evanston, Illinois, is going to bring things a little more into focus, though. A woman comes home yelling for "Mark." No answer. She asks for help with the groceries. No answer. "John and Alice are coming over for dinner. Thought I'd make a roast." Hey, maybe he's dead because you BORED him to death. She heads upstairs. "Hey, Dow Jones, are you alive in there?" Spoiler alert! She walks into a home office, where Mark is slumped back in his chair. She goes to wake him, but unless she knows how to put all his brains back together again and back in his cranial cavity, Mark ain't waking up. She screams and screams.
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By Daniel
Peter and Olivia stroll across the Harvard campus, with Peter shaking his head at how crazy the whole deal is, and how none of the people here have any idea. "If we do our job, they'll never have to," says Olivia, like that's supposed to make Peter feel any better. Charlie calls on Olivia's cell to tell them that the brain-snot thing has happened again, to a day trader outside Chicago. "When are you going to start calling them murders?" Olivia asks Charlie for some reason, and Charlie says, "When you find us a murderer." Olivia asks him to send her everything he's got on the victim.
They're about to head up the steps into the building when they notice an older woman staring at them. Peter says he'll meet Olivia inside, and walks over to talk to her, while Olivia slowly goes up, watching Peter.
"Are you Jessica Warren?" he asks the woman, who says she is. "I'm Peter Bishop," he says, and she says she knows. He tells her that he read her letter, and he understands why she wants to see his father. "But it's not the right time," he says, because his dad just got out of the institution. "After seventeen years--" he begins, and she interrupts him to snap, "And three months. I know how long it's been." "I'm sure you do," says Peter, not unkindly. He says he's very sorry, but nothing will bring her daughter back, not even talking to Walter. To be fair, if you were looking for someone to raise the dead, Walter's probably your guy. Jessica says she needs to talk to him. "To do what, to blame him for the accident?" says Peter. Jessica says it's between her and Walter, WHICH IT IS, PETER, but he says "It's not going to happen" and walks away.
Inside the lab, Astrid greets Olivia by saying that she's glad Ella's OK. The closed-captioning tells me that a toilet is flushing, which I can barely hear, but it does help explain why Walter comes out of a little room playing with his crotch. He excitedly tells Olivia that he's figured out what's going on. Something to do with a complex combination of "visual and subsonic aural stimuli" that amplify the electrical impulses of the brain, trapping it an endless loop. Olivia interrupts him because she doesn't understand, and Peter isn't there so Astrid pinch-hits and says it's like a computer virus that infects people.
Olivia's in her office shuffling some TPS reports when Peter comes in to ask a couple of rudimentary questions about the latest victim, but mainly so Olivia can tell him she knows who the woman was outside. Peter asks her what she thinks she knows. "That she's the mother of the lab assistant that was killed in a fire here almost twenty years ago." Yeah, that's pretty much it! Speaking of which, there isn't any fire damage in the lab. So I guess that means this fire did enough damage that it killed a woman, and Walter got sent to a mental hospital, and Harvard? I guess? Repaired the damage, replaced any destroyed equipment, returned the lab to the way Walter had it, and then shuttered it for the past seventeen years to wait for his return?
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By Daniel
Anyway, Peter closes the door. Olivia says it's "none of her business." Little late to say that now, but Peter tells her to go ahead. "Does Walter know that she wants to see him?" asks Olivia, and Peter is all, "a-doy," and says Walter couldn't handle it. Olivia nods and says, "I see," totally not meaning it. He asks her if she thinks he could. "I don't know why, but I do," she tells him. He asks if she really thinks it's a good idea for the two of them to meet, and Olivia blathers on about how it's unresolved for the both of them, and that it must be hard for Jessica too, to come back to the place where she lost her daughter. Peter wants to know what her point is. "That you underestimate him, your father. And you shouldn't," she says. Peter gets up (Olivia throws her pen down in frustration) and walks out the door, passing Astrid, who can tell something's wrong but MANAGES NOT TO STICK HER NOSE IN.
Anyway, she's bringing in the information on the latest victim: Mark Rosenthal, 48, married. Olivia asks about of kin, and Astrid says he just recently got married to a Miriam Dempsey. To make sure we all heard that, Olivia says, "Did you say 'Dempsey'?" Sure did! Olivia says she interviewed a Luke Dempsey this morning, and it turns out that Miriam is Luke's mother, making Mark Luke's stepfather.
Astrid suggests Luke's the killer, but Olivia dismisses that because Luke seemed "genuinely upset" that his friend was dead. Well, a good investigator like Olivia would know that A) that doesn't necessarily mean Luke's not the killer, and besides, B) Luke was acting weird, if anything, and maybe she should have picked up on the fact that Luke saying "we stayed friends" indicated their fathers didn't have the same relationship anymore.
Outside, Peter is actually ripping the phone off the wall as his father comes over to ask if everything's OK, because it sounded like he and Olivia were having an argument. Peter says it's no big deal, that he tried to expense a couple of Celtics tickets. Yeah, that TOTALLY EXPLAINS RIPPING A PHONE OFF THE WALL, but Walter accepts it because he's been there, man. He hopes Olivia doesn't notice the $2,000 worth of "baboon seminal fluid" he ordered, because he can't recall why he ordered it.
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By Daniel
Olivia and Astrid come out of the office having settled on a suspect. Brian Dempsey, Luke's dad. He was fired by Greg's dad, and apparently threw a fit over it. And his wife recently remarried the Chicago day trader after a really nasty divorce from Brian. Peter asks about a connection to the car salesman. "Uh, we're still looking for that connection, but it looks like Dempsey's MO is to hurt people who screwed him over by going after their loved ones." Olivia calls Charlie, to tell him to get over to Brian Dempsey's house, because that's their guy.
The sun sets over Boston Federal Building, and Sanford Harass strolls into a room where the agents are looking through one-way glass at Luke Dempsey sitting in an interview room. Harass asks where the suspect is, and Olivia says there was no sign of the guy, so they picked Luke up at work. Harass asks for the plan. "We're waiting for the right moment," says Charlie, whatever that's supposed to mean, other than provoking an argument between Harass and Olivia. Harass figures they should just go in and "break him" and Olivia doesn't: "I think that Luke suspects there's something wrong with his father. If we go in heavy-handed, then he could shut down, or call a lawyer, and then he won't tell us anything." Harass tells her it's her job to make sure that doesn't happen, which is kind of what she's DOING, asshole. She snaps that she's "more than familiar with passive coercion," and Harass is all, "Good! Then put your little hands around his neck and squeeze. That's an order."
Harass leaves to go be a douchebag somewhere else, and Olivia and Charlie walk into the interview room. Olivia asks Luke where his father is, and Luke says he has no idea. She sits down and asks Luke to tell them about him, and Charlie figures Luke's dad has gotten a rough ride, what with being fired, dumped by Luke's mom. Charlie doesn't mention the baldness, but yeah. The baldness. "People don't understand him. They don't take the time," says Luke. Olivia asks when he saw his dad last, and Luke, obviously lying, says it was a few weeks ago.
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By Daniel
Olivia glances at Charlie, and then asks Luke if he's talked to his mom recently, if he knows what happened to his stepfather. Luke doesn't say anything, and Olivia shows him the brain-snot pictures. "I told you about Greg myself," she reminds him, and shows Luke pictures of that. Charlie comes in to be the tough cop, and says the only thing the victims have in common is that they were all close to someone who pissed off Luke's dad: "Your friend Greg here, he died because his dad fired your dad!" he says, and Luke yells, "That's impossible!" and Charlie keeps it up, "The horror show in this picture was a friend of yours. You wanna cover it up now?" Luke yells, "No!" and then decides that he wants a lawyer.
Charlie and Olivia stomp back into the observation room, where Peter asks if it's any consolation knowing she was right, and an angry Olivia shakes her head. Then she asks Charlie to wait five minutes and then release Luke. Charlie says, "What about Harass?" "Screw 'im," says Olivia. Charlie: "My thoughts exactly." Peter's completely confused. "What did I miss?" he says, and Olivia tells him to just trust her. You know, for a guy who's supposedly ridiculously smart, Peter Bishop is awfully stupid.
So after the commercial break, Luke uses a phone to call for a cab, and Olivia says to an agent on the other side of the room that she needs to hear the call, and of course buddy doesn't ask any questions, but just pushes a couple of buttons and then hands the phone to Olivia, and already Luke has been on the phone longer than I've ever needed to call a cab in my life, and Olivia hears that he's going to 1432 Braddock Street.
Peter comes in and Olivia tells him Luke's taking a cab. "One guess where he's headed," she says, and Peter says, "He couldn't possibly be that stupid," and I'd like to point out that PETER didn't see through Olivia's little plan either. "He's 19," says Olivia, which is not exactly the same as being six.
So then Olivia and Peter are following the cab, which I thought was stupid at first since they already have the address, only then I realized that if Luke is smarter than they think and gave a false address on the phone and went somewhere else, they'd be screwed. And anyway, we might as well watch Peter and Olivia because they're going to argue some more about Walter, with Peter saying the woman's just going to accuse his dad of killing her daughter, which Peter says he didn't do, but Olivia figures that's all the more reason to let them meet, and then there is some blather about closure, and Olivia says she knows what it's like to live with something unresolved. "Congratulations! You just described the entire planet," says Peter, who then says if he didn't know any better, he'd think Olivia wants Walter to have a nervous breakdown, which Olivia denies, and then they bicker some more and Peter says what Olivia said before about it being none of her business was "right on the money," and I hate to tell Peter that he's the one who brought it up.
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By Daniel
So anyway, the taxi arrives at its destination on a dark street in a rundown area with a lot of dark, empty buildings. And, like, no traffic, so it ought to be completely obvious that they're following the cab. And Olivia tells Peter to stay in the car, and he says, "There's no way you're going in there alone!" and then she asks him nicely and he agrees to sit on his ass for the duration, as long as she calls for backup. Olivia says Harass wants her to screw it up, so if she calls for help, he'll do "whatever it takes" to make her look bad.
Speaking of Harass, he's now noticed that Luke is not there anymore, and he goes stomping into the bullpen to ask where "Dunham and the kid" are, like Olivia and Luke are a pair of Old West bandits. And he asks one suit who we've never seen before, who doesn't know, and then rather than just asking Charlie or Broyles, Harass orders someone to trace the GPS on Dunham's car.
Olivia's stalking through the warehouse, gun raised, and we can hear muffled arguing between Luke and his dad. "You actually killed Greg from here?" says a distraught Luke, and Dempsey says, "All they had to do was give me a chance! A fair shake! A chance to prove myself!"
Olivia draws closer, while Luke cries about how he used to look up to his dad, but now he's pathetic, and before Dempsey can respond, his Someone's Been In The Building For Several Minutes alarm goes off, and he's got three monitors that all show the same camera picture of Olivia looking around. Yeah, you need your security cameras to have triple coverage. Dempsey tells Luke to go: "They're coming for me, not you." Luke protests and then stomps off.
Olivia goes through a door, and we see Dempsey's cot setup, and she sweeps her flashlight around the room, and we can see Dempsey's bank of computers, but there's no Dempsey. She looks around at all the computers and monitors, and over at the mini-fridge and bachelor's mess all over the place -- this looks like the dorm room of the guy who lived door to me in college.
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By Daniel
Suddenly, all the monitors start playing the Who Farted? or What's That Noise? video or whatever, but it doesn't seem to hypnotize Olivia. No, she's transfixed by the monitor with the camera on top of it, because that computer seems to be displaying what the camera is looking at, i.e., Olivia walking towards it. Figures that she's drawn to her own image. She walks closer, and suddenly there's a gun pointed at her head. "Stay right where you are," growls a voice.
After the commercial break, there's Peter, fidgeting around in the car, waiting around until it's time for him to get out, because no one who's ever told to "wait here" in a movie ever does that for too long.
Meanwhile, Dempsey disarms Olivia and tells her she ruined everything: "People were going to respect me. Respect my work!" The work that murders computer users? Really? Dempsey tells her that this is where it ends, and he puts her gun under his chin while keeping the other gun pointed at her. Olivia moves towards him but he threatens to kill her too.
And still Peter waits.
God, Dempsey, if you're going to off yourself, just do it already! Enough with the diatribe! He says, "It was their fault. All of it. I just wanted them to feel the pain that they made me feel." Olivia urges him to put the gun down, and he asks why she cares if he lives or dies, especially since she knows what he's done. And Olivia can't even make up an answer for the guy?
Peter's still waiting in the car, and there are sirens far in the distance, and FINALLY he gets out and heads towards the warehouse.
Unfortunately for Dempsey, he's now caught sight of his own computer monitors and is becoming transfixed; Olivia pleads with him to look away from the screens (this raises a question for me: how did Dempsey test this thing?). "I wanna finally see my creation," he says.
Elsewhere, Peter is strolling through the warehouse, where he's confronted by a pipe-wielding Luke, who wants him to stay away from his dad. Peter tries to calm the kid down, but the sound of a gunshot sends them both running, with Luke dropping the pipe.
They find Olivia over a prone Dempsey, the back half of his head splattered behind him. Luke behaves like he's never seen his father blow his brains out before. He screams at Olivia, who says his dad went into a trance and shot himself. Luke runs screaming out of the warehouse, right into what appears to be every agent in the New England area, there at the behest of Sanford Harass, who gets to be Mr. Big Shot and tell the nineteen-year-old to get on his knees.
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By Daniel
Later, Olivia and Peter watch as the agents mop up the scene, loading Dempsey's body in the back of a van and leading Luke away. "I don't get it. He knew he was killing those people. Why would the kid protect a murderer like that?" And the show hits us right between the eyes with it by having Olivia tell Peter, "Because it's his father." Get that, Peter? Sons protect their fathers. Wait, doesn't this backfire? Shouldn't this strengthen Peter's resolve to protect his father? "Shit, that kid let his father down, and the father blew his brains out!"
Sanford Harass strolls into Broyles's office. "Interesting day," he tells Broyles, who says, "I heard," because it's not like Broyles was actually in the episode at all, like what's the point of having Lance Reddick around if you're not going to make up an excuse for him to glower at people in every single scene? Anyway, Harass makes himself at home and crabs about Olivia disobeying a direct order, releasing Luke Dempsey and going after Brian Dempsey on her own. "From what I can tell, Agent Dunham closed this case despite your obstructions," he says. Harass says something about Olivia not following protocol, and Broyles is all, "She IDed a murderer and contained a computer virus that melts people's brains!" Yeah, seriously! Broyles blasts Harass with both barrels, saying it's not bureaucratic concern that Harass has, but a personal vendetta, and if he goes after Dunham, Broyles will stake his career on her behalf. "You decide to go after Olivia Dunham, you're going after me, and all the red tape in the world won't protect you," says Broyles. Go, Broyles!
Harass smirks, and walks out, and says (in a line that was clearly added after the fact), "You sure you're up for this? 'Cause I got a lot of red tape, Phillip."
Back at the lab, Walter's working on something, when Peter walks up to him and says there's a woman who wants to talk to him. "Is she pretty?" asks Walter, who already works with Olivia and Astrid, like how greedy can this guy get? She's right behind you, Peter tells him.
Walter turns around, and sees Jessica Warren, and his smile slowly fades. "Now look. If you need me, I'll be right here. If you need to end the conversation for any reason, you just say the word," says Peter. Walter doesn't say anything; he just gets up and walks toward Jessica, who steps forward into the light and proclaims that her daughter's name was Carla Warren.
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"Oh, dear," says Walter. Jessica asks if he remembers her. "Yes," says Walter. "I wanted to see you because you were the last person to see my daughter alive, and I've always wanted to ask, was there anything else I could know? Anything, anything else you could tell me about my daughter," she says. Please, god, Walter, we better not hear the phrase "dynamite in the sack" come out of your mouth. "She was a wonderful girl," says Walter. "What I remember is her smile." Jessica smiles. "She had a wonderful smile," she says. "I miss Carla," says Walter, and Jessica starts to cry. "Me too. I miss her." Walter comes up the steps to comfort her. But I'm crying too! Who shall hug me? Walter whispers that he'll tell Jessica everything about their time together.
Back at Olivia's place, Dunham and her sister are chilling in the living room drinking wine. Rachel says part of her wants to ask what happened with Ella, but figures she wouldn't feel any safer if she knew. "You wouldn't," says Olivia, smiling, like they're rather prematurely sharing a smile over Ella almost having her BRAINS TURNED TO MUSH, for God's sake. "How do you do it, Liv?" asks Rachel, and thank god we never have to hear the response to that hoary old cliche, because Ella comes in to proudly say that she brushed. She hugs her Auntie Olivia goodnight, and Rachel goes off to tuck her in.
Olivia's doorbell rings, and she opens the door to find Peter, with what I'm assuming is meant to be a charming smile but instead kind of looks like he's picturing her naked. He says he's had a few drinks (don't worry, he walked over). "And, uh, I wanted to say, that ... I've never had him in my life. Walter." And now, thanks to her "insane freakshow" of an operation, he does. "I think that I was a little scared," he says, and babbles about his dad talking to the woman, but it's slightly drunk gibberish and he winds up saying sorry, because she was right.
And then Rachel strolls into view behind Olivia and says hello to Peter. He asks how Ella's doing, and Rachel says good, positively all aflutter, and then she tells Olivia that Ella wants her to tuck her in. "So I'll see you tomorrow?" says Peter, and Olivia says yes, and closes the door.
Wait, why was the car salesman killed?
Discuss this episode in the Fringe forums!
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