By Daniel
There's a little more exploration this week of what possibilities the bridge between the two universes hold: Earth-2 has a serial killer, so why not pop over with his counterpart from our universe, who is a non-murdering forensic psychologist, to help find the guy? They do their best to prevent him from finding out that he's investigating his counterpart in the other universe (or even that there is another universe), but of course that's going to come out. And when it does, John McClellan goes rogue to try to save the serial killer version of himself. Instead winds up the victim of the killer's memory-extracting machine (swear to God), which the killer uses to try to make himself feel better. The psychologist is able to pinpoint the event that made him a doctor over here and Dexter over there, so at least the murderer to get a little bit of peace, before blowing his own head off.
Anyway, we also get to see what the Peterlessness means for the other universe, and the best aspect is that AlternaBroyles is still alive. And you'll be glad to know that even though this week's plot seems to organically serve as commentary on the “where'd Peter go?” storyline, the dialogue is still as subtle as a sledgehammer to the temple, with Astrid wondering if Olivia has ever considered the fact that maybe her type just “doesn't exist.” He exists, all right, and Walter can hear him, but the poor man thinks he's going crazy.
Daniel is a writer in Newfoundland with a wife and a daughter. He still prefers "One Night in Bangkok." Follow him on Twitter (@DanMacEachern) or email him at danieljdaniel@gmail.com.
I forgot to comment on this last recap, but it's worth pointing out that the "Previously on Fringe" montages have tweaked the Peter-disappearing scene by giving him a little shimmer instead of just flat-out disappearing. A little revisionism there, eh? Or were these scenes prepared by someone who considers himself the George Lucas of "Previously on" montages?
Anyway, "One Night in October" opens with a man shakily holding his wallet open to the pictures that he carries, looking at one of a young boy. From behind him, another guy says to tell him about the day the picture was taken, and the first man says, "I think I was six years old. We'd go camping in the white mountains in the summer." Wait, that's a picture of himself and not his son? Who carries around a picture of himself as a child? With all the debit and credit and customer loyalty cards we have to carry these days, you gotta be ruthless with your wallet so you're not sitting on a Rubik's Cube in your back pocket. A picture of himself? Fortunately, this guy's appearance in the opening segment means we know he's going to die, and I say good riddance.
Anyway, the weird guy keeps interrogating the shaky guy about the picture, which was taken by Mama Shaky. "Did you have a good relationship with her?" asks the weird guy, who's a little annoyed when shaky guy doesn't answer but says he misses her very much. The weird guy adjusts a dial on his machine which includes a beaker of bright blue (or that could just be the lighting) fluid that's coursing through a convoluted path of flexible tubing in and out of various contraptions and finally up into the back of shaky guy's skull. The back of his head had been shaven and there is a hole in the skull, and I have to think that I'd be a little shaky if this were happening to me too. The interrogator asks what else happened that day. "My brothers and I... we begged her to keep it. We wore her down," says the poor dead bastard. A tear is running out one eye and it's getting harder and harder for him to speak. "She said yes. We named him Fred." We finally focus in on the questioner's stubbly face. He looks quite interested in the responses, and asks one final question: "How did that make you feel?" And the answer: "Happy." Then shaky man goes still. Completely still. The tinkling noises make it sound like he's frozen solid.
After the opening credits, Walter is bitching about the horrid creatures in the other universe: "They are loathsome. Hateful. Contemptible," he spits, to a mostly disinterested Agent Lincoln Lee, while Walter throws sheets and other assorted coverings over the tables and equipment in the lab, although it's possible he's just drying his laundry, like maybe the FBI could spring for a nice dryer for the agoraphobic mad scientist who lives in the lab.
Astrid strolls in and asks if he's doing the "synonym thing" again, and Lee says, "Uh, he was telling me about the shapeshifters, and now he's moved on to the other universe in general," like he's already completely blasé about this whole "other universe" business. Astrid lectures Walter about how they've agreed to move forward since what's in the past is in the past, and Walter says he doesn't have drugs strong enough to forget they kidnapped Olivia to the other side. Lee is all, "They did?" like could SOMEONE BRIEF THE NEW GUY, PLEASE, and Walter rails against the "awful woman" who "pranced" around his lab, who Astrid identifies for Lee as Fauxlivia. "She bought my ignorance with baked goods while she carried out her plan to steal pieces of the machine with that damn Portuguese sweet bread," says Walter, and Lee has at least figured out enough to know that he's talking about the machine that created the bridge, which Walter says the other side expected to destroy this universe. "Walter, it did not happen!" says Astrid, and I have to say I'm a little closer to Walter on this one; I mean, "attempted universe destruction" would seem to warrant a greater punishment than simply saying "my bad" and moving on. We'll work together, but you have to pinky-promise not to try to destroy us again, you trans-universe scamps!
Walter drapes a pillowcase over the computer monitor in front of Lee, then something occurs to him. "There's another mirror in the back storage cabinet. Kennedy, help me!" he says. Ah. He's covering every reflective surface so that he doesn't see Peter again. Peter and his eradication-surviving stubble will not be denied by sheets and towels, though. Oh, and Walter is probably going to call Lincoln Lee by the names of various presidents, which hopefully will peter out before it gets old. "Lincoln," says Lee, futilely (I mean, ask Astro here).
Astrid thanks Lee under her breath, and Lee all passive-aggressive says, "No... problem," making it clear it's totally a problem, and goes off to help Walter, who is already snapping at him to hurry up.
Olivia comes in and asks what's up with the redecoration, and Astrid simply says "Walter" and when Olivia looks at her for some elaboration, Astrid says, "Hey, don't look at me like I have some reasonable explanation. It's Walter," like don't bother trying to find out what's bugging the guy or anything.
Anyway, Olivia's surprised to find out Lee's here already, even though Olivia did tell him he could come by to learn about shapeshifters, and Astrid points out that he a) just lost his partner and b) is new in town and doesn't know anybody, and Astrid pointedly tells Olivia that Lee is probably lonely, and it's kind of too bad that the erasing of Peter has turned Astrid into some kind of amateur pimp, but Olivia says it's not going to happen. Astrid says, "Why not? He's cute," and Olivia has to clue her in on the awkwardness of dating (well, especially breaking up with) a co-worker, so here's another personality change, because it seemed like the old Olivia dated exclusively among her colleagues. "And you know what? He's not even my type," she says, and moves to answer her ringing cellphone. Astrid: "Do you ever think that maybe your type used to exist but then was suddenly blinked out of existence by a strange bunch known as Observers?" OK, she doesn't say exactly that, but what she says isn't far off. Anyway, Olivia says to whoever it is (presumably Broyles) that she'll be right there.
Over at FBI headquarters, Broyles shows her pictures of dead bodies with diamond-shaped incisions in the backs of their heads. Twenty-three victims that they know of, says Broyles: "He drills into the back of the skull to access the brain. The tissue was punctured and exposed to localized electrical charges. But that's not what killed them. The official cause of death: cerebral hypothermia." Olivia's baffled that she hasn't heard of 23 murders (and not how a drill makes a diamond-shaped hole). It takes Broyles a moment to explain. "These crimes weren't committed over here," he says, and hands her an Earth-2 Fringe file while she eyes him warily. "We've been asked to assist on this case. Is that gonna be a problem?" he says. We don't get to see her answer, so we're all gonna figure that the answer is "and how."
So Broyles and Olivia head through the giant photocopier that scans them into the bridge, where they meet with Fauxlivia, who briefs them on their first lead. After finding no trace at the first twenty-two murders, they found a stray hair on No. 23, and the DNA led them to one John McClennan, with no prior arrests. They went to his house, ready to arrest him, but he's disappeared. "He was ahead of you," says Olivia. Don't be shitty, Olivia. Fauxlivia ignores the minor dig and says that with a 220 IQ, he's probably way ahead of them. "Five years we've been looking for this guy. He was sloppy once. He's not gonna make the same mistake again," she says.
So the plan, it seems, is to bring Earth-1's McClennan over to maybe give some insight into the other one. Olivia's immediately skeptical, and Fauxlivia interrupts to say she already knows all the reasons why not to do it, as she's been over them with her own Col. Broyles. Which means Col. Broyles is still alive over here and not a grotesque partial corpse! Anyway, they're just out of options. "We want him to see where the killer was living, if he can, uh, interact with the space, study his belongings, he can glean something that we can't." Olivia, skeptically, says, "Well, you hope he can," and Fauxlivia cocks her head and saucily reminds her that she lived in Olivia's apartment and picked up a lot of things about you. Olivia just stares at her, and then says, "Will you excuse us a moment?" and at first I thought she was talking to Broyles and was about to remove her earrings, but that would never work because Olivia doesn't even wear earrings, what with her not believing in concepts like "fun."
She and Broyles step aside to talk in voices certainly loud enough for Fauxlivia to hear as Olivia raises her objections and Broyles essentially tells her to deal with it. "I know this is difficult for you. If there was any other way to execute this, I'd ask someone else," he says. Olivia wants to know if they're going to start telling civilians about the parallel universe now. Broyles says they're not going to tell "Professor McClennan" where he's been taken, and the fact that over here he's a professor and over there he's a serial killer has Olivia skeptical all over again that they'll find any similarities. "On our side, McClennan teaches forensic psychology at West Connecticut College. His area of study: serial killers." He admits that he's not sure if this will work, but on the other hand, he's not sure it's super far-fetched, either.
So it's off to see Professor McClennan at West Connecticut College, where Olivia's cover story is that she's apparently familiar with his work, which unfortunately prompts him to start stammering out that his follow-up is about how we can't underestimate the role that empathy plays in the structuring of the self (or the lack thereof). So he's in on trying to catch the serial killer, and now it's time to watch Olivia smoothly segue into tranquilizers, since he's not allowed to know where they're going. Nervously, he asks, "What happened to blindfolds?" and Olivia says it's a long journey, and he'll be more comfortable this way. So it's not unlike when the A-Team drugs B.A. to get him on a plane, right? Kids, ask your parents. No wait, there was a movie last year! The kids know! Anyway, where was I? Oh, yeah. McClennan says he's not allergic to any sedatives, and then this Agent Bergmann comes in with the special FBI roofies, and McClennan toasts "intrigue" before downing the amber liquid like it's his first drink at a singles mixer.
So it's over to Norristown, PA, on Earth-2, where the FBI is getting the serial-killer McClennan's house a good wiring. Fauxlivia's in the bathroom putting on a blond wig, and then Lee comes in and pops a boner about how she looks good in blond. "Lucky Frank likes the red, huh?" says Fauxlivia, and Lee admits to being horny for her in red as well.
They go outside as the Fringe crew -- with Olivia -- pull up, so Olivia can get a gander at the identically dressed and coiffed Fauxlivia. Lee thanks Olivia for helping out, and Olivia's cordial, and she runs her eyeball up and down Fauxlivia before saying, "I button my jacket," prompting a smirk from Fauxlivia (who nonetheless buttons up). Olivia could also say, "Also, my hair is straight, and not just a little wild, like I'm just back to the office after a lunchtime quickie." Gotta say, it's a testament to Anna Torv's division of the two roles that I find myself thinking things like, "You know, blond Fauxlivia is somehow hotter than Olivia." But it's true.
Anyway, McClennan gets wheeled up -- he's still unconscious -- while Lee tells Olivia she'll be with him, monitoring the goings-on from the nearby van. "Showtime," says Fauxlivia, who can't go for two seconds without reminding everyone that she's the crazy fun Olivia.
Over to a gas station, showing 99 cents for a... I want to say hogshead? Whatever Americans use to measure volume. That's a good price for a hogshead! Anyway, while the little girl squeegees the windows, Killer McClennan watches from a nearby picnic table.
Back at the Harvard Lab, Walter is recreating the classic Memorex ad whilst sitting in front of a wall of speakers blasting Mozart's "Requiem in D Minor," at least until Astrid gets in and gives him grief about cranking it so loud. He's still wound up (loud Mozart tends to do that to people) and she asks him what's wrong. All he admits to are raw nerves, saying he hasn't been sleeping for a while. She tells him she checked his meds, which were way off -- he's overdoing it. Walter admits to experimenting again.
She tells him she'll help him get back on track, but if there's anything else going on, he needs to tell her. He appears to consider this, but eventually just says he needs some rest, and gets up to go lie down in his office/bedroom.
"He needs to feel in control," is what we hear , but it's not someone talking about Walter, it's forensic psychologist McClennan talking (unknowingly) about serial killer McClennan, as he and Fauxlivia-as-Olivia walk through McClennan's house. The diagnosis: "Messy spaces bother him. He's highly intelligent. Probably self-taught." Also fascinated by the brain. A good memory. Still cries at a good film. Still kisses with saliva. No longer empty and frantic.
McClennan examines boxes on the table, from Germany, China, Thailand. Fauxlivia says he ordered a lot of parts online for the schematics he designed, and McClennan unrolls one, that I assume says something like "Brain-Sucking Device."
In the car, Lee and Olivia are bonding, with Lee correctly guessing (not that Olivia admits it) that she hates sitting out there: "Because it would drive her crazy." Because Olivia would rather die than acknowledge having anything in common with Fauxlivia (except for everything), she says she's fine with it.
Inside, McClennan has found some egg-hatching lights. He knows what they are because his dad used to work on a farm and they had chickens for a while. "I don't know what he'd be using this for," says McClennan. Other thoughts: He's deeply unhappy, says McClennan, and after a glance in the cupboard reveals jars of candy, the doctor figures the killer grew up feeling deprived: "Other kids had things, and he didn't. He's trying to make up for it now, but he can't."
Olivia's trying to explain the dual-universe thing to an understandably consternated McClennan. "In this universe, some things are the same, and some things aren't. People make different choices and therefore end up in different places," she says. He says it's like a nightmare.
But Fringe has a job to do, so Olivia's all, "Anyhoo, anything you can tell us about him will help," but McClennan says, "I am him. What's in him is in me." Well, THIS sounds interesting! Fauxlivia comes in as McClennan talks about how he's always known something was wrong with him, and his father knew it too, and used to try to fix him. With violence. So Olivia gets to bond with him by telling him she also came from an abusive home, but she's not able to get out much detail about her stepfather, but McClennan, seeming to understand, nods, and says it's no mystery why he does what he does; he wants to help people like himself.
Fauxlivia gets to the point a little bit quicker and asks if he's ever acted on it. He hesitates and says he didn't but he wanted to. Olivia wants to know what stopped him, and he says, "Not what. Who. She helped me find just small moments of peace," he says. Olivia thinks he's talking about his mother, but he quickly dispels that idea, hinting that his mother wasn't much better. The "who" who helped him was Margery. "Was"? This sounds sad... "And what my father did with cruelty she did with love. She taught me that I didn't have to live in the darkness. That when I got the urges, that I could just step out of it and into the light," he says. He's crying -- guest actor does a great job here. LOVE it when somebody nails a part like this -- because when he imagines what his life would have been like without her, this is it. To be fair, apart from the murdering, it's not that bad! Nice house, plenty of dinners ready to heat, and lots of candy in the cupboards!
You know, this show often has plotlines that reflect turmoil among the characters themselves, but few seem as natural as this one does, using the joined universes to examine the differences in a person's life depending on who shaped him, so nice job by the writers.
McClennan looks at the window, tears rolling down his face, stammering that he wishing he could tell his counterpart that it doesn't have to be this way, that he just had no one to teach him: "I mean, you said so yourself. Some things happened some way in this world, and some didn't, right?" His stammer is getting worse.
Olivia cautiously says that may be so, but the other McClennan can never know about his twin here. "You understand that. There's no other road for him," says Olivia, and a clearly disappointed McClennan agrees, so I'm sure THAT'S not going to be an issue.
So Olivia goes outside where Lee and Fauxlivia are discussing the newest victim, Noreen Miller, who disappeared from a gas station rest stop about an hour ago. They've got an image from a security camera that shows this universe's McClennan sitting at the picnic table. Great job by the gas station security cameras! Most gas station with security cameras focus them on the pumps to catch people who gas up and dash off without paying, but this one wants to make sure nobody's loitering too long.
Olivia says McClennan thinks he can help them, so everyone trundles back inside, only to find he's not in the living room. "Bathroom," says the worst guard ever. Olivia and her photographic memory spot the fact that the photograph of McClennan's father is gone as well, and sure enough, when they get to the bathroom, the window's open and he's long gone.
Back at Fringe division, Col. Broyles is alive and appears to have all his limbs, so he's got that going for him. Lee and Fauxlivia fall all over themselves each trying to take responsibility, but Broyles isn't interested in playing the blame game right now. That comes later, with glowers.
Fortunately, they think they know where McClennan's going -- to find his counterpart to try to stop him. Oh. So all they have to do is find this universe's McClennan, which they couldn't do and why they brought Earth-1's McClennan in the first place! But at least they knew where non-murderous McClennan was, which helps Astridbot calculate the possible routes he could've taken in the time he's been missing. Plus he's not from this universe, so differences in comprehension (plus lack of Show Me, unless he steals one) makes it easier to track him. Still, exponential possibilities means sorting through the data, even with their facial recognition software, will take time -- about thirteen hours, calculates Astridbot, failing to add that by the end of those thirteen hours the possibilities will be astronomically exponential again.
Fortunately, Olivia has an idea, and without even hearing it, Fauxlivia points out that Astridbot processes more information in an hour than the two of them will in their lifetimes. "She didn't see the photograph of John's father, and I did. Now, John said his father worked as a farmhand, so if we can trace the farm, then we..." says Olivia, and Fauxlivia interrupts to say, "Yeah, but we can't because John's father didn't own the farm, so his name wouldn't be on it." Oh, well, then DON'T EVEN TRY THAT, Fauxlivia, what the fuck? Olivia doesn't appear to be taking it personally, thank god, and just points out that in the picture, McClennan's father was standing in front of a tractor with commercial plates, and she rattles off the number. God bless her photographic memory! In this case, her photographic photograph memory!
Anyway, they'd better hurry -- McClennan is shaving the back of Noreen Miller's head at that very moment. Here's hoping Noreen isn't feeling bad about her last words to her daughter involving her half-assed window-wiping job. Anyway, he's JESUS THAT'S A BIG DRILL. I'm going to have nightmares! Wait -- before he gets the drill in, he hears a noise, and then comes face-to-face with himself. I mean, he's probably crazy anyway, so is this going to faze him?
Over at Fringe HQ, the team has tracked the license plate to Weir Farm, which was shut down ten years ago after the Richboro fires and has been unoccupied ever since. Lee shows everyone the picture of Noreen Miller and says all necessary steps should be taken to bring her back alive. They saddle up and go, with Fauxlivia bossily telling a surprised Olivia to "ride with me," so I'm looking forward to a season-long development of their friendship, and by the end I expect them to open up a private office to investigate crazy shit, called Olivia Squared.
Anyway, Prof. McClennan is telling Murder McClennan that it doesn't have to be like this, he doesn't have to hurt Noreen.
McMurder bolts, and the Professor stops him by saying, "You're going for your .45 silver. You keep it in the toolbox." McMurder wants to know how he knows that, and the Professor explains that that's where his father kept it. "What are you?" asks McMurder, and the Professor says he was like McMurder. "And then, one night in October, I went to a fair. I was ten. And that's the night that my father found the dead things," says the Professor, and he talks about how he was playing carnival games when his father came towards him, and he knew his father knew. McMurder angrily interrupts to say that that is his life. He was playing the ring toss. Yep! says the Professor. And McMurder hid, "behind the wagon wheel," finishes the Professor. McMurder says his dad found him, grabbed him by the collar, dragged him home and beat him for three days straight. "Not me. I ran. As far, as fast, as long as I could. I woke up in a field, and this woman ... was standing over me. Her name was Margery. And because of her, I don't have to do what you do to stop the pain."
Perhaps not surprisingly, McMurder isn't exactly enthralled with hearing about how his doppelganger escaped three days of beatings and turned out happy, and snarls that if the Professor really is like him, then he can't control it and it will never stop. The professor says he can: "I know the screams inside your head that won't stop. It's a horrible place to be," he says, offering to help John the way Margery helped him.
* * *
He asks if McMurder wants the pain to stop, and the calm way McMurder says "Yes" is a massive red flag to anyone watching, but the Professor's not expecting what happens : McMurder picks up a can from a shelf and clocks the Professor across the jaw with it, knocking him out.
Looks like the reason Fauxlivia wanted Olivia to ride with her was so she could quiz Olivia on what she told the Professor about her stepfather. "You were trying to open him up, huh?" she says, and Olivia says yes, but it's also true. They pull up at the farm and stop, and Fauxlivia asks what happened to him. "My stepfather? I killed him," says Olivia, matter-of-factly. So that's a difference in this Peterless world -- or I suppose another option is that Olivia's exaggerating because she regrets not killing him, but I doubt it. Or maybe she's trying to come off all cold steel so Fauxlivia won't mess with her.
As the Fringe team is setting up a perimeter, McMurder has hooked up the professor to his brainfreeze machine, only there's a twist this time -- McMurder has a cord connected to the machine that he plugs into a socket in his own skull. "We are ready to begin. Tell me about your happiest memories," he says, twiddling with the knobs on the machine. "Tell me about Margery."
Meanwhile, the Fringe crew is storming the farmhouse at Weir Farm, making their way through an empty house and down into a basement thick with cobwebs. "We're in the wrong place," says Lee.
Still, it's a big property, so the tactical team starts searching the grounds, and Lee and Olivia examine the detritus of a group of structures long since demolished. "This is where the family lived," says Lee, and behind a ridge, they find exterior cellar doors still intact. They open them, draw their guns, and head down the steps.
Meanwhile, the Professor is talking about how Margery made him feel: "Safe. She was so kind. So gentle. I never understood how someone so beautiful could love something so dark," he says. You'd think, as a forensic psychologist, that he'd have at least a touch of insight about that. Anyway, we see flashbacks of Margery laughing, reading, in a field, and McMurder seems to be drawing them into himself. So he's invented something like an iPod for memories. We watch as Margery enters the barn and opens a box -- we don't get a good look, so let's call them the dead animals that Dexter, I mean, John had killed. We watch as she hugs young John. Jeez, she doesn't look even a little freaked out! In the present, the Professor's breath is getting awfully frosty. McMurder is in tears as he experiences the memories of the Professor, who turns to him and manages to stammer out, "You ... don't have to do it ... anymore."
Olivia and Lee make their way in, finding the Professor sitting there. I hope McMurder pushed the eject button on the screen before ejecting and didn't just rip the cord out! Noreen's unconscious on the floor, and Lee checks to find she's got a strong pulse.
They hear a noise coming from a nearby pantry, and Olivia goes to check it out, and finds John, struggling, facing the wall. She tells him to put his hands where she can see them, but he gasps out that he wanted what the professor had, what she gave him. "I took her from him. I shouldn't have. She made him ... feel for them. What have I done to all of them?" he says. Sounds like taking the memory has made him feel for them too. He turns around with a gun and before Olivia can react, it's under his chin and then just like that he's not going to be murdering anybody anymore. At least not in this universe. And then in comes Fauxlivia, gun drawn, like thanks for showing up too late to be any help, Fauxlivia.
And the zeppelin and the Twin Towers are zapped from the shot of the skyline, so we're back in our universe, with Olivia going to visit McClennan at the hospital. Broyles is there because the head of Fringe doesn't have anything better to do than hang out at the hospital to guard the Professor and brief Olivia. "There appears to be no permanent damage to his motor functions or cognitive ability. He is, however, suffering from partial memory loss," says Broyles. Turns out McClennan doesn't recall the events of the past few weeks, including being involved in this case.
As for Margery? "His memories of Margery were extracted. The neurologists believe the loss is permanent," says Broyles. They have a lot of experience with the memory-extracting device built by a madman in an alternate universe, do they? A horrified Olivia points out that for all they know, she was the only think preventing Earth-1's McClennan from ringing up the body count, and Broyles says they'll have to keep an eye on him after he's released.
Anyway, Olivia goes in to talk to him (he was told that he'd been doing some profiling work for the FBI) and she has to introduce herself because he doesn't remember her. He says he's been told he saved a woman's life. "Yes. And probably many more. I came to say thank you," says Olivia, who asks if he remembers Margery, even though she already knows he doesn't. He says no, but "things are pretty dark right now." He asks if she had something to do with the investigation, and Olivia says "sort of" but doesn't offer any further explanation.
I guess she can't very well ask, "So, feel like killin' anyone today?" so she turns to go, but McClennan says, "You know what they say: that even when it's the darkest, we can step into the light." Oh, come on, who says that? THAT IS NOT A SAYING. But for Olivia and Broyles, it's a pretty clear "I'm not going to kill anyone" from McClennan.
As the Fringe buddies leave, Olivia wonders how it is that he can remember what she taught him, even though he doesn't remember her. Broyles: "At the risk of sounding like I'm a little on the nose when it comes to what's going on this season with Peter's disappearance, I've always thought there were people who leave an indelible mark on your soul. An imprint that can never be erased."
Speaking of imprints that can never be erased, Walter -- seeming trepidatious -- settles into bed, and he hesitates before turning off the light. At first, nothing. And then, creepily, we hear Peter: "Walter, I'm here." The voice fades in and out, but it's still louder than anything else Walter can do to distract it, including the record he puts on. He screams "You're a figment!" like Ebenezer Scrooge trying to ignore the ghost of Jacob Marley, and we're left with the unsettling scene of Walter being driven mad by the sound of Peter saying, "I'm right here, Walter. Help me, Walter."
Daniel is a writer in Newfoundland with a wife and a daughter. One night in October makes a hard man humble. Can't be too careful with your company. Follow him on Twitter (@DanMacEachern) or email him at danieljdaniel[at]gmail.com.
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