A plane crashes, killing everyone on board, after one of the passengers transforms into some kind of half-man/half-porcupine and then going berserk, which I can only imagine is a reasonable response. A twinge of John Scott’s memory leads Olivia back into the tank to stroll around in John’s memories that she’s still got stored in her brain to a couple of presumed bioterrorists working with John. Only it turns out that John was actually working undercover for a very secret NSA unit. Deep black ops. So deep it can’t be confirmed, but Olivia believes Memory John when he tells her what he says is the truth. When the other one of John’s fellow black-ops agents is infected with the same porcupine-mogrifying stuff, the Fringe team is able to arrest the mutation long enough to help nail a notorious arms dealer that John and his partners were hoping to bring down. This requires Olivia and Peter to go undercover and almost get their heads blown off, which probably wouldn’t actually be a big deal, since Massive Dynamic -- which is back this week, along with Nina Sharp -- probably has a cyber-head attachment to fix that sort of thing. The arms dealer gets taken down, and Olivia gets that proposal from John. I mean, John’s actually dead and this is really only happening in her brain, but I suppose it’s better than nothing.
So we're aboard Oceanic Flight 815, and ... sorry. We're aboard Glatterflug Airways Flight 627, and ... no, wait, sorry.We are on some totally different flight, and up in first class, I think the extras have been told to "act like you're in an airline company commercial." They're just that pleased to receive the drinks from the smiling flight attendant. Seated in the middle to an older woman is a guy scribbling something in a notebook, including such words as "technology" and "the." Also "imperative" and "avoid capture." And "e underst" and "ems dangero."
All of a sudden, his nose starts dripping blood on the paper, just a few drops, and then a few more. He reaches for a tissue.
"You should put keys on your back," his seatmate tells him, calling it an "old wives' tale." He smiles politely while trying to stanch the flow of blood. "Actually, I tried it once. It doesn't work. It's all bull," she says. He excuses himself to go to the washroom. But you know, lady, feel free to offer any more remedies that you ALREADY KNOW DON'T WORK.
In the bathroom, the man examines himself in the mirror, and grips his teeth, looking like he's trying to see how firm they are. With his hands shaking, he unzips a little black case and pulls out a vial of clear fluid and a cotton swab. He swabs around in his mouth and then puts the Q-tip in the vial, swirling around. After a moment, the liquid turns bright red. This makes him audibly gasp.
And then he's out of the bathroom and down the aisle to talk to a stewardess who's attending to a passenger. He says he needs to talk to her, and she tells him she'll be with him in a moment. "No, now!" he barks, and she, slightly perturbed, motions him up to the flight attendant station, where a steward is putting away glassware.
She asks him what the problem is, and he tells her that there's something happening to him that he has neither the "time nor the permission" to explain to her, but she needs to go to the other passengers and collect whatever sedatives they might have. "OK, sir, I need you to take a deep breath," she says, and he snaps, "This isn't a panic attack! This is real!" Then, because he thinks this might help get some co-operation, says, "We will die, all of us, if you don't do what I say." This is when the steward steps in to point out that a threat like that is an FAA violation. "Does it look to you like I care about that?" says the man, whose nose has started to bleed again, just a little more profusely. He gets a little more urgent, and asks the attendants what weapons they have on board. The steward tells the stewardess to call the captain, and then tells Bloody Nose that there's a Taser in the cockpit that will be used on him if he doesn't calm down. "No, a Taser won't do anything, it'll just piss me off," mutters Bloody Nose. Meanwhile, the stewardess, Melissa, is on the phone to the captain, explaining that the guy wants drugs, "but it looks like he's already on something."
Bloody Nose says he's going to go back to the bathroom, like maybe he has IBS or something, and the steward pleasantly says he's free to go back to the bathroom, so Bloody Nose grabs the steward's shirt and says he isn't messing around. He wants them to gather the sedatives and then come back to the bathroom door and knock. "If I don't answer, or if what you see in there isn't me anymore, you keep that door closed," says Bloody Nose. "You keep me in there, away from the other passengers." The steward says he will. Bloody Nose runs off back down the aisle, and the steward and Melissa look at each other and don't DO anything.
Back in the bathroom, which buddy has managed to get into without waiting in goddamn line for like twenty minutes, he's panting heavily. He checks his face, his eyes, in the mirror. Then he wiggles a couple of teeth with his tongue, and pulls one loose, dropping it in the bathroom sink, and then he begins to heave.
Melissa's on the phone with, presumably, the pilot, saying forty minutes is too long. And the banging and groaning coming from the lavatory is much too loud for other passengers to ignore or to chalk up to some extremely enthusiastic attempt to join the Mile High Club, so Melissa gets on the cabin speaker to explain that there's a passenger having a "hard time."
Yeah, a "hard time," all right. Buddy's doubled over on the floor of the bathroom, screaming, and then spines start shooting out of his back, ripping his shirt as his body seems to grow in size.
Then it's quiet. Melissa confers with the steward, who suggests Buddy passed out. Melissa: "The captain says we should restrain him, but --" and suddenly a huge porcupine-man rips out of the bathroom and stars tearing into the passengers. We only get a split-second look, which is probably enough, and then the screen goes black, letting our imaginations do the rest.
We're in Scarsdale, New York, now, where a soccer mom is rounding up a couple of teenagers after a soccer game on one of the brownest dead-grass pitches I've ever seen. "Seatbelts, seatbelts!" she hollers at them as they get in the SUV. As she closes the rear hatch, she sees in the window's reflection an airliner passing overhead, way too closely. She looks up as the plane screams past, tilting in the air, and crashing some kilometres away behind trees. It doesn't seem to pay off in the episode, but it looks like something falls out of the plane and fall much more gently to the earth below.
Over at Olivia's place, Ella has gotten into her aunt's makeup and painting supplies, which is the only way I can explain the huge swatches of purple adorning her eyelids. "Look, Aunt Liv, I'm beautiful!" she says as Olivia comes in. Rachel comes in to take off the strands of pearls and jewelry that Ella also has on, and apologizes to Olivia, who laughs and says it's fine. Olivia starts to reminisce about a sleepover and Aunt Missy's pouring perfume all over a dog named Roxy.
Rachel's not super interested, because she's confused about finding a diamond ring with "ALWAYS" inscribed on the inside. "Is this Mom's?" she says. Liv hesitantly admits that it was from John, and I gather Rachel was aware he and Olivia weren't together anymore, but that seems to be all she knows at this point. Not that Olivia is overly eager to share, so Rachel has to point out that they're sisters and Olivia knows every detail of her sister's failed marriage.
Possibly so she doesn't have to hear those details again, Olivia says, "He was a traitor. The people he was working for, I still don't even know who they were." She says whatever was between her and John was a lie, and he only wanted to gain her trust so she wouldn't see him for what he was. Rachel says she's sorry, and then Olivia's cellphone starts ringing. "And I thought Greg was a jerk," says Rachel, and Olivia says, "Greg IS a jerk," before answering her phone. She listens for a moment, then says, "Where?"
Broyles leads the Fringe team over the crash site, featuring many bodies laid out under tarps. "Witnesses say the plane just fell out of the sky," says Broyles, and I'm wondering exactly how these witnesses EXPECT a plane to crash, and Broyles says they'll know more when they recover the black box.
The reason the Fringe team is there has to do with what Broyles is about to show them, which investigators thought was an animal at first. It's a smouldering mass of spines. Walter crouches down to examine it, saying it has the pelage of an animal. "And yet..." he flips the heap over, revealing a charred humanoid underneath, making the Fringe team gag, except for Walter, who says, "I will say this: Our friend here didn't start out this way."
Charlie's there too, and he shows up with the passenger manifest, saying there were 147 passengers on board and it'll take some time to get through. Or it won't take any time at all, because Olivia's going to flip through the passenger manifest and linger over the licence of a guy named Marshall Bowman, who became the charred remains of Porcupine Man. She tunes out Charlie
droning on about how the official cause of the plane crash is engine failure, and then we see Marshall sitting to a guy and talking about not having a clue what this stuff does to you. "I'm telling you, this stuff... it's a horror show, John."Ah. So it's one of John Scott's stored memories. Olivia doesn't exactly feel like she can tell Charlie that, so when she points out Bowman's licence and says she thinks that's porcupine man, she lamely offers up, "Call it my gut." She's so insistent that Charlie agrees to get everything that can be dug up on Marshall Bowman, but he's awfully skeptical.
Speaking of "gut," back at the Fringe lab, Walter is elbow deep in Porcupine Man's innards. "I would expect whatever caused this mutation would have completely altered his internal organs," says Walter, adding that the kidneys appear normal. Astrid, meanwhile helpfully points out that buddy has "four extra nipples." Peter suggests buddy mutated into a possum, but naturally Walter knows that possums have fifteen mammaries, even though most mammals have an even number of them, and then expounds on the one-half nipple rule, which suggests that the number of nipples a mammal has is usually twice what the typical litter size, e.g. humans with their two mammaries and usual litter size of one. Peter, for one, is grossed out by his scientist father using the word "nipple," like HOW OLD IS PETER, and Walter gets back to the examination. Walter finds evidence of extradural hematoma, possibly epistaxis. "That means he had a colossal nosebleed," Peter explains, and Astrid is all, "Yeah, I know." But wait, there's more! Walter finds something hard in Porcupine Man's hand. The pizzicato strings kick in as Walter starts rooting around in the palm with forceps. "What is it, a tumour?" asks Astrid. And thank you, Kindergarten Cop, because for almost twenty years now I can't hear that word and not hear Arnold Schwarzenegger saying, "Not a toomah!" Christ. I'll be in an oncologist's office someday with the doctor breaking some bad news to me and then I'm going to start giggling after a moment or two. Anyway, in this case it really is not a toomah, unless toomahs are little glass discs. We've seen that before!
Over at Boston Federal Building, Charlie's got Marshall Bowman's file: 42 years old, worked at a credit ... cortier? Anyway, he worked at this company in Marseilles, managed their corporate accounts. He asks if Walter's been able to make a positive ID yet. That's a negatory, Olivia tells him, before saying they should talk to the bank to find out what they know, like maybe Charlie hasn't done this before or something. Charlie has, fortunately, and points her to a list of Bowman's U.S. clients. Olivia flips through, and once again settles on a picture, this time of Daniel Hicks, who was the dude sitting to Bowman in the flashback. Bowman says, "He outdid himself this time," and then Hicks says, "And he's going to get impatient to sell it off. So you have to get the money lined up fast." Olivia's lost in thought looking at the picture, and Charlie asks what's up, but before she can say anything, Broyles comes in announcing that they've got the final sixty seconds of the black box recording.
He plays it over the room's PA system, and it consists of the pilot radioing the tower and saying there's a disturbance in the cabin, and it's already killed three, and "It's trying to get in!" and "Dear God, hold that back!" And then static. So either Porcupine Man, or somebody looking forward to a movie but got charged five bucks for headphones to watch Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2.
Even Broyles looks stunned, before saying they're trying to recover more of the recording, and then orders everyone back to work. So Olivia tells Charlie that this Daniel Hicks guy is who Bowman was flying in to meet, so they should bring him in for questioning. She's full of shit, and Charlie seems to know it, and asks if this is her gut again. She doesn't answer. "What's going on, Liv?" he asks again.
"This is going to sound insane," starts Olivia, saying that she wants to file it under Crazy Things Happen In Walter Bishop's Lab. She fills him in on how she and John are psychically connected and she can see his memories and can jump through time or whatever, and explains that she saw Marshall Bowman and Daniel Hicks together talking to John: "I think they were all working together." On what, Charlie asks, but Olivia doesn't know that, but speculates it might be a weapons sale. Charlie agrees to bring in Hicks, surprising Olivia just a little bit. "Despite the thousand questions I have in my head right now, I'm going to bite my tongue right now," says Charlie. Like don't worry about probable cause or anything, I'll just haul a guy in for questioning based on your SHARED MEMORIES WITH A DEAD GUY.
Olivia calls the Fringe lab, and Peter answers, "Bishop's House of Horrors," and maybe he can take just one thing seriously for once in his life, and he tells Olivia that they got the bloodwork back, and it is (was) Marshall Bowman. "Walter seems to think he was dosed with some kind of designer virus," says Peter, adding it was likely intentional since the stuff doesn't exist in nature. "And whoever did it would have to have a deep understanding of cutting-edge genetics. It completely rewrote Bowman's DNA," he says. Turns out Porcupine Man wouldn't have survived the transformation even if the plane hadn't crashed.
He tells Olivia about the glass disk found in Bowman's left hand, and uses his cellphone to "stream" it to her, instead of just taking a picture to send it to her (which wouldn't show off the capabilities of the product-placed cellphone nearly as well). Olivia's gobsmacked: "We found a similar disk on the DEA agent a few months back," she tells him. Peter: "I thought you told me that Bowman was a banker. Now you're telling me he's some kind of agent?" No, she's telling you THEY FOUND A SIMILAR DISK ON THE DEA AGENT. That's all she's telling you! Olivia says Charlie's bringing in a guy who might be able to give them some answers.
So here's Hicks, looking rather unthrilled to be in an interview room, telling Charlie and Olivia that he imports and exports furniture, mostly French, 18th and 19th century. "I'd like to know what this is all about," he says. Well, Charlie's looking for a nice little credenza... "How do you know Marshall Bowman?" asks Charlie, and Hicks says Bowman's his overseas banker: "Why, has he gotten into some kind of trouble?"
From the other side of the one-way glass, Walter's loving the whole thing, saying it's like a "good detective movie." It's like a boring detective movie right now if anything, but that'll change.
Yeah, Hicks has heard of the crash of Flight 718, what about it? Olivia opens a folder and pulls out a picture. Man, she loves this part of the job, doesn't she? "This might be hard to recognize, but this is Marshall Bowman. He was on board that plane."
The picture of Marshall as Porcupine Man throws Hicks for a loop, but he says he doesn't understand. "I believe you do, Mr. Hicks. I believe you know how that happened. I believe that you and Marshall Bowman conspired to distribute a deadly virus, and this is the unintended result," snaps Olivia. Hicks, struggling to maintain his composure, hands back the picture, saying they've mistaken him for someone else.
"Your nose is bleeding," says Charlie. Indeed it is. Charlie calls for a box of tissues, not understanding the significance. But it's a good thing this is one of the rare times that Walter's watching an interrogation instead of working back at the lab. "No, tissues won't help," he says, and tells Peter to get him some sedatives, while in the interview room, Hicks starts to convulse.
Walter bursts into the interview room and says he thinks the same thing is happening to Hicks as happened to Bowman. And there's Peter, who apparently found a sedatives box right around the corner, bringing in a box of them. "I may be able to suspend the process," says Walter, readying a syringe. While Peter and Charli
e hold Daniel's arms, Walter's just about to jab him when Olivia stops him: "Not yet! Not until he talks!" Damn, Olivia! Daniel stammers out that they must have been dosed. "I want to know the name! Who dosed you?" asks Olivia. "Conrad!" screams Daniel, and now Olivia gives her CONSENT to treat the guy in distress, and Walter sticks the syringe in Daniel's neck. Peter and Charlie let him go, and he starts to flop around on the floor. "I don't think that's working," says Peter, who should stick to explaining Walter's jargon, instead of stating the obvious.Later at the Fringe lab, Olivia, looking frustrated, is rifling through files. Astrid strolls up to say she checked the DHS database: "Nothing came up on a 'Conrad,' first or last name, when cross-referenced with a David Hicks." Olivia says there's been no mention of a "Conrad" in John's old files either.
Astrid offers to take a turn with them, and Olivia thanks her and steps aside to go check on the Bishops, see how they're coming with Hicks, who is unconscious and strapped to a table, and given what happened with Bowman, you'd think they'd have Hicks just a LITTLE more secure, but maybe that's just me. Walter says, "As often is the case, there's good news and bad news. He is transforming, but I placed him in a medically induced coma ... the good news is that I've already synthesized a preliminary sample of an antidote." He's testing it on tissue samples. And a watermelon, he says, holding up a slice, and he feebly calls it a "control group" because Olivia shoots him a look like she assumes he's having SEX with it for crying out loud.
Anyway, Olivia asks if the antidote will be ready in time. "If you mean before he turns into a beast ... I wouldn't wager on it, no," says Walter. Olivia has a gander at Mr. Hicks, and picks up his hand. Then she gets an idea.
"Cut open his hand," she says. "I want to see if there's a disk in it." Walter's all too happy to get out his power saw and make like Jigsaw.
Cut to Olivia throwing both disks down in a plastic bag on Broyles' desk. For some reason, one of the disks has been rinsed off and the other is still covered in blood. Olivia tells him where she got them, and asks if the NSA ever determined what they were for. "A data storage device. Apparently used to transport information," says Broyles, like thanks for explaining that data storage devices STORE DATA, Broyles.
So Olivia wants permission to dig up John Scott's body, because she thinks he was working with Bowman and Hicks and has one of the disks on him too, but Broyles says it's not possible, giving Olivia licence to tell him to "MAKE it possible" and rail on about how she doesn't give a damn if it's "against protocol," and she's prepared to call Agent Harass herself, and god I hope she doesn't because this episode has been nicely Harass free. Broyles interrupts her self-righteous tirade to tell her she can't dig up John's body, and the disk didn't go to the NSA. "Where did it go?" she asks, but most of us watching already know.
Whee! It's over to the immaculate white walls of Massive Dynamic and Nina Sharp. It's been a few episodes since we've been here! Broyles gives a little for-new-viewers-only introduction before telling Olivia that when they were unable to retrieve the information on the disks, he requested Nina's help. All of which is probably a conversation they would have had LONG before actually arriving there, like in Broyles' office immediately after where the last scene ended. Olivia suspects that Broyles' telling her this isn't the only reason they're there, whatever that's supposed to mean.
They're greeted by cyber-armed Nina Sharp. "For what it's worth, it was not my decision to keep this from you," Nina tells her, indicating the lab behind her. She places her hand on a palmprint identification device that features the blue leaf from Fringe commercial breaks, spinning. The door slides open, and they go in to what appears to be a toothbrush/toothpaste research centre.
Well, except for the glass chamber enclosing John Scott's body, with wires and plugs attached to his head. Broyles says, "As you suspected, we discovered a glass disk identical to the others embedded in Agent Scott's hand." Nina wants to make sure Olivia knows that while John appears to be sleeping, he is not: "We've kept him in a suspended state because we believe that the information stored in the disks self-destructs when the disk's host dies."
Olivia just stands there staring at John while Nina continues, saying they tried to use John's body, blood and DNA to retrieve the data, but what little they got seemed to implicate him as part of a bio-terrorist cell. Broyles: "There were also references to a Conrad. We believe he's a scientist, designing chemical and biological weapons for sale on the black market." But there's no concrete intel on the guy; they don't even know his full name.
"So a plane full of people are dead, and our best lead is ... nothing? A chemist whose name we don't even know?" says Olivia, an awful downer now just because she's been confronted with the dead body of her former lover being held in suspended animation.
Broyles is all, "It gets worse," like it would kill him to inject a little optimism. He says three hours ago, French intelligence told D.C. that an informant of theirs says a major weapons sale is about to happen in Chicago: "However, what the informant was unable to say is exactly where or when the sale is going to take place." Wow, that's some great intel right there. Anyway, the informant knew that the man behind the sale is known as Conrad.
Olivia's driving back to the Fringe lab, so she rings up Peter, who asks if Walter is there. Yep. They never go home, apparently. Olivia fills Peter in on the sale of the virus, only she doesn't know any details: "But if I'm right, and John was working with these guys, then he has the answer in his memory, which means it's in mine." Peter sees where she's going with this already. "Olivia... you know how dangerous this is," he says, but Olivia ignores him. "Tell Walter to prep the tank. I'm going back in," she says.
So there's Olivia, floating in the tank. Now, I have some questions: Does Olivia just always wear a black bra and panties? After deciding to go back in the tank, did she drive home and put them on before going to the lab? Or did the fact she happened to have them on today factor into the decision? Like, if it were laundry day and she was wearing a white cotton bra with a mismatched pair of granny panties, would this scene even be happening?
So Walter talks her through the process again, saying he's going to try to guide her back to the place where John Scott met Daniel Hicks. He uses the "flight of stairs" imagery to send her back into memory world. After he counts back from five to one, Olivia sits straight up, waking up in a bedroom bathed in red light from outside. Walter asks where she is. Olivia says it's a bedroom at first, before realizing it's the motel where she and John used to meet. Just after she remembers, John and Olivia herself come crashing through the motel door, kissing and collapsing on the bed, removing their guns, as you do when you'd rather not shoot yourself in the balls. Memory Olivia says, "This is crazy," and John says, "Absolutely. This will never happen again." Olivia watches the whole scene. Walter asks what she sees. "Me and John," is all Olivia says. Walter tells her not to worry, that John can't see her: "Remember, you're observing a memory," he says, even though last time John WAS able to see her.
Anyway, Memory Olivia says, "I'll be right back," and heads into the bathroom, while John takes off his tie. He gets up to adjust his hair ... and then looks at Olivia in the reflection in the motel mirror. "Hi, Liv," he says. In the tank, Olivia gasps. "John's talking to me," she says. "That's not possible, Olivia," says Walter, insisting that John can't see her. Someone should tell John that, as he continues to stare at her in the mirror. Walter says they'll try to take her somewhere else, back to
where John and his accomplices met.But before they can do that, Memory John turns around and looks at Olivia, who, freaked out, draws her gun on him. "Liv, what's wrong?" he asks. Olivia tells him not to move, which the Fringe team can hear, and Walter urges her to focus on the sound of his voice.
Olivia is instead focusing on keeping Memory John from coming any closer. "I miss you," says John. Doing her best to keep from completely losing her shit, Olivia asks John about working with Conrad, who developed a biological weapon: "I want to know who he is, and who he's planning on selling it to."
John wants her to put the gun down, but Olivia won't. "I know that you're part of a terrorist cell, and tells him about Bowman being dead and Hicks dying of a virus. John looks like he's mulling this all over, and comes a little closer, which earns him a shot through the heart, and Liv's to blame.
The little scan things on the instruments the Bishops are watching go all cuckoo, and Peter wants to get her out, but Walter says it's too dangerous, and they need to "reconnect" with her before they pull her out. He starts calling her name, but she doesn't respond.
We go inside the tank again, and then the mist clears and we're in some sort of alleyway. It's raining. Olivia has added a snazzy Stylish Agent Lady vest to her ensemble. She wanders down the alley, and then suddenly John's standing there in front of her. "I want answers, John," she says. He turns away and walks towards the street. She follows him. "There he is," says John.
A car turns onto the street and drives past them. "He's a monster, Liv. Capable of creating horrible things. Weapons, which he does for no other reason than because he can. 'Cause he's curious." John points up. "And that's me," he says. Olivia looks up, and there's John up on a fire escape, holding a sniper rifle. John says none of them had ever seen Conrad before: "If I'd have known I had him in my sights, I could've taken him out right then and there. It was my most important mission, and I failed." John looks almost nostalgic, like he's looking at his college yearbook, for God's sake.
Olivia wants to know what the mission was, who he was working for. John looks at her for a long time before saying Bowman and Hicks were (are) government agents. "NSA secret task force. And so was I." Olivia doesn't believe him; she wants him to prove it. "I can't, Liv. It was black ops, a deniable operation." Also, I'm a freaking memory and not supposed to be able to talk to you at all. He says he could never tell her, that's why he wanted to. Olivia's all, well, make up for it now and tell me where the sale is going down.
Only John doesn't know about a sale. Olivia tells him Conrad's planning on selling the virus. John says he doesn't know what's going on inside Conrad's organization anymore, like I guess not, HE IS DEAD AFTER ALL, but Hicks would know: "He was privy to all that information. He has it right in his hand," says John, starting to flicker and disappear. Then he's suddenly on the other side of her. "Liv, trust Hicks. He can help you." Then he disappears in a flash again.
She starts calling his name, and all her readouts start going crazy, so that means it's time once again for the Fringe team to yank her, shuddering, out of the tank. She snuggles up to big, protective Peter.
Some time later, it looks like Olivia's had a shower and changed her clothes, and she comes back in the lab on her phone. "I understand. Thanks for checking," she says and hangs up, and then tells Peter that her "contact" at NSA couldn't confirm a single thing that John said. "Of course, John said they wouldn't be able to." Peter calls it the perfect alibi: one that can't be confirmed, but I can't think of a WORSE alibi than one that can't be confirmed. Anyway, Peter says they don't know if the antidote is working for Hicks yet, and Olivia figures they should wake Hicks up to see: "Conrad could be selling this virus as we speak, and Hicks is the only one who can tell us how this is going to go down."
Peter's skeptical, wondering if Memory John could still be lying to Olivia, and using her to tip Conrad off. "Maybe he wants to get you killed. This is a bad idea, Olivia," he says. He walks away, giving Astrid the opportunity to stick her nose in, calling Olivia the best judge of character she's ever met: "So, I guess the question is what's you're instinct? When you were with John, when you were looking into his eyes, was he for real?"
So Olivia thinks it over for a few moments, and then tells Peter to prep Hicks: "Ready or not, we're administering the antidote. Astrid smiles, all proud of herself for meddling, and Walter is actually giddy at the prospect, and Olivia puts in a call to Broyles.
So after the commercial break, Hicks bolts upright, having just been given a shot in the arm by Walter. "Sorry to wake you. Little worse than adrenalin, except perhaps lice, which is a nightmare," he says. Wait, what? Astrid tells Hicks, who looks quite freaked out, to try to breathe normally. She asks if he can hear him, and he nods. Walter goes about injecting the antidote into his IV, saying he can't guarantee it works, but he does have a recorded IQ of ... and he trails off, and Astrid supplies the answer: 196. Hicks looks quite terrified. Astrid tells him they know about the work he was doing with John Scott, and now they need his help.
So then Broyles the narrator kicks in at Boston Federal Building, bringing all the agents up to speed with all of the developments, including some that we're only seeing as Broyles explains them, like the prospective buyer of the weapon showing up at O'Hare and being arrested, and refusing to co-operate. So Hicks is going to help by relaying necessary information to Dunham, using an encrypted and untraceable two-way radio, which they implanted earlier this afternoon. I think by "implanted" they mean "used tweezers to shove in her ear."
Charlie steps up, because he's coordinating surveillance, and he explains that Conrad's intermediaries will be meeting with Olivia in Room 1021 at the Fairchild Hotel, and the FBI'll have agents ready to go in corresponding rooms when Olivia "has visual" (agents like Olivia and Jack Bauer don't see things; they "get a visual" on them) on the weapon, at which point she'll give the signal: "Christmas," says Olivia. "Now we all look forward to seeing how she works that into conversation," says Charlie, breaking up the room a little, and then Broyles tells everyone to get it done, or maybe it was "git 'r done." Probably not, though. Olivia and Peter lock eyes across the room, and Olivia practically withers under Peter's steely gaze of disapproval. Peter, this is what she DOES.
So the FBI agents swarm the hotel and get set up in their various rooms while Olivia awaits the arrival of Conrad's intermediaries in the lobby. Charlie alerts her that the seller has pulled up in front of the hotel and is making a phone call.
In the lobby, Olivia says, "You didn't have to come with me, you know," and PETER is sitting right there in a suit, and I guess Peter managed to convince the FBI that he should tag along on this crucial mission to recover a deadly biological weapon because "shady deals with shady guys in shady hotels is [his] MO," like what kind of ridiculousness is this? Peter also says that if someone is going to kill you, it's a good idea to have an ally in the room. Olivia says she isn't scared, which Peter says doesn't mean she's being safe. No, but bringing along a civilian on an undercover mission, that makes things a LOT less dangerous, right, Peter?
Anyway, Olivia smiles at Peter and then asks Astrid how they're doing. Back at the lab, Astrid has Hicks ready to go on speaker phone, and Walter chimes in to let Olivia know what Hicks' BLOOD PRESSURE is for some reason, and Olivia asks if these guys are going to expect "bona fides," and asks Hicks to tell her what she needs to know. Hicks says they're going to be suspicious because they've never seen her before (thanks for the insight, Hicks) so
she should tell them she used to work with Anderson. Also, Ernesto flew in for the meeting, but he got called back to "the basement" and couldn't come. "What do you mean, 'called back to the basement'?" asks Olivia. Hicks tells her just to say it, and they'll understand. "You're not messing with me, are you , Hicks?" asks Olivia, and Hicks says, "You trusted John Scott, right? Then trust me," which is a stupid thing to do if John Scott really was a traitor, isn't it?So the seller comes strolling into the lobby with his bodyguards, and Olivia gets up with her steel briefcase to go greet him, Charlie unnecessarily telling her to be careful. "You're Gavin. Susan. I used to work with Anderson," says Olivia, holding out her hand to the guy. He stands there looking at her for a few seconds before shaking it and saying he was expecting someone else. Olivia tells him what Hicks told her to about Ernesto. Not taking his eyes off Olivia, Gavin points at Peter and says, "Who's he?" Olivia indicates Gavin's thugs and says, "Who are they?" at which point I'm surprised Gavin didn't crack up laughing at Olivia trying to pass Peter off as some kind of security. Gavin says they'll sweep her and get to business, so they walk off to the elevator.
In the hotel room, one of Gavin's thugs waves an electronics/metal detector or whatever over Olivia's body, with Gavin staring at her. There's a tense moment when the thing starts to go haywire near Olivia's left ear, so she brushes her hair aside to indicate her long dangly earring. "She's clean," he says, instead of saying, "Hey, why didn't this thing go off near her OTHER ear too?" Gavin asks for the money and Peter hands over the briefcase. Gavin opens it to see bundles of currency I'm not familiar with, and hands it over to one of his men for counting, which he assures Olivia is just a formality. The goon runsthe bills through one of those money shuffling counter things, and Gavin asks Peter if they've met before: "You look familiar. Did you work with Anderson too?" Peter considers this while Hicks tells Olivia that they're testing her: "You tell him Peter met Anderson at New College at Oxford." That's what Olivia says, adding, for effect, "Isn't that right?" And Peter has to get all gruff with, "What does it matter to you where I met anyone?" like now Peter is ACTIVELY trying to get the two of them killed. Gavin asks if they met on campus. Hicks tells Olivia that he doesn't know the answer, and Peter has to think about it for an awful long time while Gavin stares at him, and Peter finally says, "We met at the White Horse. On Wheatly Road. You know it?" and Gavin says he doesn't recall, and Peter says he would, because the Thai food is fantastic, and blah blah blah, and offering to describe what each of them was wearing was a bit much. One of the FBI agents in the surveillance room is all, "Where the hell did he come up with that?" and Charlie all gloomily says he has no idea, probably thinking about adding a chapter to the FBI agents' handbook: "How To Get Killed Undercover: The Peter Bishop Case Study."
So the money's all there, and Olivia, Peter and Gavin all go to sit down. Gavin says he's skeptical that they'd come at all: "I thought it would be Paris all over again." Hicks tells Olivia to tell him that was because of the French intelligence report, and he knows it. Olivia does so, while Peter shiftily looks from Olivia to Gavin, like I'm surprised Peter didn't blurt out, "Nice one, Olivia!" Gavin nods, but points out that this is a larger purchase.
One of his goons comes in with a huge black briefcase, and opens it up. There are two large rounded beakers that look light blue and ... are glowing? And a smaller vial. Gavin's cellphone rings, and he answers it, and then says OK. To Olivia: "Conrad would like to see you?" Olivia, unable to contain her surprise, asks when. "Now. He's on his way," says Gavin.
One of the agents in the surveillance room is all, "What's going on? Do they have the package? Why isn't she calling the raid?" Charlie tells him it's because Conrad's coming: "She doesn't want to scare him off. She wants to get him. She's waiting for Conrad," says Charlie, shaking his head either at Olivia taking the risk or the knucklehead FBI agent who needed it all explained to him.
Back in the hotel room, Gavin pulls out the smaller vial and tells her it's a "reverse mutator." Is that even possible? Wait, a man turned into a porcupine. I withdraw my question. "It would take you years to reverse engineer an antivirus. It's why the purchase price is so high," says Gavin. Well, that, and the overhead. Those two thugs aren't cheap, I imagine. While a stunned Hicks looks at Walter, Gavin explains the formula itself is "deceiving in its complexity."
Olivia says they shouldn't have a need for it, and Gavin says it's only in case of accidental exposure, which he assures her would be fatal. But Olivia's got a problem now. Gavin, sounding skeptical, asks, "Now why wouldn't Ernesto call me back himself? And tell me someone else was coming to meet?" At the Fringe lab, Hicks starts shaking, and his nose starts bleeding. Walter tells Astrid to get him a tranquilizer, and Astrid frantically alerts Olivia that Hicks is transforming.
But Gavin's waiting for an answer, and a slightly unnerved Olivia lamely says, "How would I know? I'm not Ernesto's mother." Gavin wants to at least know who Ernesto was meeting. Hicks, meanwhile, is convulsing and bleeding and presumably moments away from turning into a porcupine, and all the FBI agents are sitting there looking tense, and Gavin puts his gun down on the table. "I asked you a simple question. Who was Ernesto meeting?" Astrid urges Hicks to give her a name, somebody, anybody else in the operation, but Hicks is about as coherent as a frat boy on the first night of spring break. "Hicks is out!" Astrid yells at Olivia, who looks like she's passing a kidney stone.
After the commercial break, Gavin asks again: "Who was your colleague meeting?" No answer from Olivia, and one of Gavin's goons starts getting his gun ready. In the room, the dingbat FBI agent asks Charlie if they should move in.
Since the cavalry's not forthcoming, Peter jumps to his feet, and all the bad guys start pointing their guns at him, and he says, "That's enough!" and tells Olivia to tell them, because he's not getting "greased over Ernesto's dirty little secret," and Olivia, playing along (I think) tells him to shut his mouth, so Peter says Ernesto is dying, but doesn't want anyone to know.
Despite everything obviously going to hell in the room, Charlie is still waiting for Olivia to give the signal to move in. Olivia, meanwhile, is pretending to chastise Peter for spilling the beans, and so they argue, and then there's Conrad (presumably) strolling in. Hey, it's Mikey Palmice from The Sopranos! "Gavin! Who are these people?" he says. Gavin says according to them, Ernesto's sick. Olivia says, "It's true. He found out the day before Christmas." Then she and Peter share a meaningful look and might as well have said, "Nudge nudge, wink wink." Conrad says he spoke to Ernesto this morning: "He's fine. Kill them both right now." Gavin steps forward with his gun in Olivia's face, which is when the FBI teams bust in and Olivia and Peter start cracking a couple of skulls while the other agents handcuff everybody.
Conrad's bent over, hands behind his back, and Olivia strolls over to say, "John Scott says hi."
Back at the federal building, Olivia's in Broyles' office. He tells her that Conrad Etienne Moreau is a French citizen wanted in at least half a dozen biological attacks, and those are just the ones they know of. "He's been manufacturing biological weapons and distributing them on the black market for years. And you caught him." By which he means that Olivia might try cracking a smile. Which she does, but then grouches that "I didn't do it alone." Broyles tells her that despite the successful outcome of the case, John Scott's still a traitor as far as the department is concerned, like NICE JOB CHEERING
HER UP, BROYLES. "Even if he was telling the truth, there's no way to confirm it," he says. Olivia says she knows the truth, and leaves to go mope somewhere else.She shows up at the Fringe lab, which seems to be deserted, so she goes over and stands by the tank. After a moment, Walter comes in from one of the side rooms and tells her the others took Hicks to the hospital to recover. "So the antidote worked," says Olivia. Walter's a little bummed that his own "concoction" didn't do the trick. Anyway, he's off to bed, but then Olivia asks him for a favor. He looks at her, and knows what it is. "Even if you did go back in, I'm dubious you'd even be able to find him," he tells her. He explains that her brain wave patterns are returning to normal, because her mind is finally succeeding in purging itself of Scott. "Even if you could reconnect, it'd be for seconds, minutes at best, and then you would never see him again," he tells her, which to her is all the more reason to do this now.
So back in the tank she goes, and closes her eyes, and then suddenly we are in the ... what is this, The Prince of Tides? She's on a pier at a small lake. It's fall. She walks to the end of the pier, and suddenly John's right there with her. "It's beautiful out here, isn't it?" he says. Glad to see he's forgiven her for shooting him in his own damn memory! She smiles, and they look out at the water. She tells him that they caught Conrad today. He seems impressed. "I'm sorry that I doubted you. I should've trusted you," she says. He tells her that it wasn't her fault and that he always meant to tell her; he just ran out of time. And speaking of running out of time, there was one other thing: He's got a little box with a ring in it. Olivia starts to smile. He slips it on her finger. "I know we can't ever be together. Not really. Maybe I won't know the difference." She kisses him, and closes her eyes. "I love you, Liv," he says. She opens her eyes, but he's gone. In the tank, Olivia whispers, "I love you too. Oh, wait, before you go, could you tell me why, if you were good all along, did you have to try to run me off the road way back in the pilot?"
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