A demolition crew stumbles into a sealed-off tunnel system that contains rats, insects and some kind of feral boy. Well, "boy" is probably wrong, because the tunnels have been sealed off for decades. Walter theorizes that the lack of sunlight and oxygen has kept the guy youthful (apart from the dreadfully pasty complexion and complete lack of hair).
The kid doesn't speak, but he is somehow able to write, and provides some clues to Olivia that help her out with a once-dormant case involving a serial killer who is all of a sudden murdering again. Seventy years in an underground sensory deprivation chamber has also turned the boy into some kind of empath, who is able to sense and feel things over great distances, much like a shark can sense its prey miles away. None of that explains the shut-in's familiarity with Boston's streets, really, but there's more to the story than the Fringe team is aware. One is that the CIA is very interested in getting their hands on the kid, for reasons that are a little more ulterior than their stated goal of learning whatever the kid can tell them about surviving on his own. "Looks like we've found another one," says CIA guy on the phone to some unidentified person.
Another what? Another Observer? Because that's who this kid resembles, not that anyone on the Fringe team is able to make that connection. Or maybe it's just coincidence. But at the end of the episode, after the still-mute kid has helped them find the killer, Olivia keeps him out of the clutches of the CIA and helps the kid find a foster home, and as the kid is being driven through the city, he and the Observer, walking along the sidewalk, spot each other. The Observer: "The one time I don't use a condom!"
The show opens with someone rigging some dynamite. It's shot all closeup on his hands, so I'm suckered into thinking it's some malcontent about to blow a hole in the Boston infrastructure. Instead it turns out to be some legitimate construction worker getting spurred on by his boss, who tells him if they blow their schedule, they lose their permit. Demolition Man, meanwhile, says he's too old for this, because he went to Danny Glover Demolition School.Meanwhile, other guys from the crew are sweeping the abandoned building they're in for squatters, and once the building's clear, they head outside at T-minus three minutes. Outside, Demolition Man talks dinner plans with his buddy, who suggests steak and eggs at Cora's, while Demolition Man wants to head up Route 9 to Parkview, making his buddy chuckle and tease him about the waitress there. Demolition Man protests that he was just thinking about the lean corned beef. "The lean corned beef named Marcie," needles his friend.
Buddy then stops, looking thoughtful. "Dennis?" says Demolition Man. Dennis doesn't answer for a moment, then looks back at the building. "You swept it, right?" Dennis says he did, but... and trails off. "All of a sudden I got a weird feeling," he says. Demolition Man says he does too: "Mine's called, 'I don't want to die looking at Dennis.'" Dennis runs back towards the building, telling Demolition Man to radio Mike to let him know he wants to do another sweep.
Inside, Dennis has the blueprints out, and says the plans show there's another room here (so why wasn't it already checked out?). But he can't find anything, and Mike is impatient on the radio with Phil (Demolition Man) over the holdup. While Dennis walks around, looking for what they missed, one of his footsteps rings hollow. Phil tells him it's solid foundation, and the concrete's cracked due to frost damage. Dennis stomps on the floor, which gives way, and Phil has to keep Dennis from falling down what appears to be a deep well. "Mike, I think you'd better come down here," says Phil on the radio. We finally get to meet Mike!
The well opens into some kind of underground tunnel system, the kind that may contain huge rivers of pink slime when there's an increase in paranormal activity, if I recall my Ghostbusters 2 correctly. There's all kinds of debris and garbage scattered about, and apparently a god awful smell, and the trio find what seems to be some kind of cage. There's some rustling movement in the foreground, unnoticed by the three of them as they discuss the cage in the closed captioning (but not in the audio). They shine their flashlights around the room, until they spot something that, had this happened to me, would have caused me to ... how do you say? Soil myself. In the corner, panting, is a mostly naked feral-looking human... oid, maybe. Completely bald. Iridescent pale blue eyes. No telltale Joy Division music playing to indicate this is just some suburban kid playing weekend goth.
Yay! Fringe is back! With its freaks and geeks and sassy FBI agents! I wanted to commemorate the occasion by writing lyrics for the theme music, but all I could come up with is "Fringey, fringey, fringey (etc.)... fringeyfringeyfringeyfringey (said really fast during the piano crescendo)!" I'll work on it.
And then we're watching Lost, because there's a closeup of a closed eye, which opens, and ... no, wait, it's just Olivia, awaking to her niece sitting there staring at her.
"Mommy gets grumpy if I wake her too early," Ella explains. Ella's lucky that she didn't get her face shot off by her burning-out FBI agent aunt, you know. Olivia asks if Ella wants some pancakes, which Ella definitely would, and I agree it beats a bullet in the face.
Over at the federal building, Charlie is taking a phone call from his old buddy Jim, and Charlie teases him about his mayor getting into a little bit of trouble: "That couldn't have been fun for you guys." Is Jim in Detroit? Small chat aside, Charlie suddenly looks all serious. "When?" he asks. Then he rushes over to a fax machine and asks if anyone took anything off it in the last five minutes, like nice document security, FBI, and Charlie rifles through the papers until he finds what he's looking for: a picture of a dismembered doll with "You are invited to the showing of a brand new work" written across the top and "Time: Today" and "Place: Boston" written across the bottom. Charlie stares at it.
Meanwhile, despite everybody else being at the office and working their asses off, Olivia is still at home with her sister, who apologizes for Ella's waking her up: "I told her to let you sleep late," she says, and Olivia wryly says Ella did, until 6:17, which her sister confirms is late for Ella. Ella comes in with a couple of shirts for her mom to pick from, which is cute, only when I need to get my daughter dressed, I have to pick two shirts for her to choose from, otherwise she will reject each and every article of clothing I choose for her to put on, and Rachel picks the yellow shirt, but Ella doesn't go anywhere before confirming the selection with Aunt Liv, who backs up her sister. "Did you tell her?" asks Ella before being shooed out of the room by her mother. "Tell me what?" asks Olivia, and her sister says they're going apartment hunting today. Olivia's surprised that she's thinking about moving to Boston, and I'm surprised that Olivia's surprised, given that her sister and niece have been here for what seems like months. "You know you can stay here as long as you want," she tells Rachel, like YEAH, I THINK IT'S SAFE TO SAY SHE KNOWS THAT, and Rachel says Olivia doesn't need a "little creature" waking her up every morning, which hopefully doesn't get Olivia thinking about John again. "If that little creature is Ella, I am fine with it."
Olivia's cellphone rings. It's Charlie, telling her "The Artist is back." Olivia asks if they got another fax, and Charlie says they did, and the Hartford office got one too. Yeah, except the Hartford office apparently CHECKS their fax machine every once in a while. Charlie says it was sent from a copy shop in Allston, and he's got a couple of agents checking it out now. Olivia says she'll be there in fifteen minutes.
She gets off the phone, and Rachel asks her if this is some new horrifying event that Olivia can't tell her about, which it is. And then Olivia's cellphone rings. "OK, now it's gonna be fourteen," she says after answering it, only it's Broyles, who manages to give her a withering glare over phone lines, which is kind of impressive, even for him. He tells her to get the Bishops and to meet him at Children's Hospital. She says she just had an old case reopened, and... "It can wait," Broyles says.
Over at the hospital, Broyles leads the team through the hallways, explaining that after the boy was found, the tunnels were searched, and it was determined they'd been sealed shut for at least seventy years. The only living things down there were insects, rats and the boy. They look through the room windows at the kid, now wearing hospital pajamas and seeming to have some difficulty breathing. "He's so pale," says Olivia, and Broyles notes that he seems to be developing some pigmentation, which Walter thinks might be due to the boy not having seen sunlight in years. Peter asks if the kid has a name, but Broyles says he hasn't spoken a word since getting here. He asks Walter for any thoughts, which is Walter's cue for his wacky food request of the week, only he throws us a curve by asking for a special piece of equipment: "my turntable." Broyles asks if that's some special piece of lab equipment, and Walter practically calls Broyles a moron when he says he's talking about a record player. "You like music, don't you, Mr. Broyles?" Broyles gets a look on his face like he wonders why he even bothers, but Walter is rambling on about how awful it is to have an extensive record collection with no means to play it, and Broyles dourly says he'll get someone right on it.
He raps on the glass, and a doctor tending to
the boy comes over. Broyles introduces her as Dr. Winnik, chief of pediatrics, who gives them the standard doctor spiel about how she doesn't want the law-enforcement people talking to him because he's been through a trauma. "Is he sick?" asks Peter. Dr. Winnik says he seems to be fine, although he seems to be having difficulty breathing, so they're going to have to administer oxygen. Walter tells her that would be a mistake, because it's obvious that the kid was trapped in a low-oxygen environment for so long that his body got used to it, which is why he's having difficulty breathing now. "I don't think so," says Winnik, even though it's perfectly plausible, at least for this show. I mean, pull a fish out of water and it's going to have difficulty breathing. It makes sense. But this way, Walter gets to snap, "Unless you have an IQ higher than mine I'm not interested in what you think." He says that giving the boy oxygen would only make his lungs fill with fluid, drowning him where he lies. Peter clears his throat, which is apparently code for, "Quit acting like such a douchebag, dad," because Walter softens his tone and suggests getting a nasal cannula and a tank with a low oxygen mixture, like five percent.Meanwhile, over in Somerville, Mass., Becky Connor is washing her clothes at a laundromat and looking a lot more pierced and tattooed than when she lived with her parents, Dan and Roseanne, and a guy sitting at a table folding clothes compliments the gryphon on her arm, and she brusquely says she just picked it out of a book because she thought it looked cool, like it's this guy's fault she doesn't even know what her permanent tattoo is a picture of, and he asks her if it hurt much, because he always imagined getting a tattoo would hurt. "It's a good pain," she says, which kind of scared me a little. Getting the hint, he says he's sorry if he embarrassed her, and she curtly says he didn't, and then she already looks a little sorry for being rude, and the full-on guilt trip starts when he pushes back from the table and wheels away in his wheelchair.
So naturally, when she heads outside to her motorcycle and sees him struggling to get his clothes into his van, she asks if she can help him. He turns her down at first, and then accepts. She comes over, and he asks her what make her motorcycle is. "'67 Harley Shovelhead. She's a beauty," she says, taking his laundry basket and putting it into the van. Behind her, he says, "Yes, she is," and he stands up, uncaps a syringe, and lunges... and blackness.
After the commercial break, it's getting dark, and the van is just sitting there. Interior shot. We hear plastic rustling, and then buddy's upper body pops up. He's wearing a heavy apron and is covered in blood. He holds up what looks like a reciprocating saw, turns it on, and bends back over.
Over at the children's hospital, the doctor has administered the nasal cannula to the kid, and sure enough, Baldy Boy's breathing becomes less laboured. "It worked," says Winnik. Walter tells her she'll want to increase the oxygen by ten percent every hour until he acclimates. He sounds awfully sure of himself. Like he's done this a hundred times.
While Peter steps away to answer his ringing cellphone, Olivia asks how they know Baldy Boy can hear if he hasn't spoken. "He responds to sound," says Winnik, and there's no damage to his tympanic membrane. She says considering where the kid was living, he's surprisingly well -- healthy heart, good blood pressure. Olivia wants to know how the kid survived, what he ate, and Walter figures he ate rats and moss insects, which are high in protein and are "tastier than you'd think, especially millipedes." You know, insects would pretty much fucking have to be tastier than I think, because I imagine they'd taste pretty foul. Walter figures the kid is still suffering from a lack of minerals, which would account for his "follicular dilemma," which Peter helpfully translates as "baldness," like "follicular" is some arcane doctor word or something, like maybe Peter could put down the damn cellphone for two seconds and pay attention.
Walter asks if the doctor's done a urinalysis yet, and Winnik says they haven't been able to yet; they've been feeding the kid intravenously since he got here, but he hasn't relieved himself yet. Walter disdainfully picks up a piece of normal looking toast and says he doesn't blame Baldy Boy for not eating, because this looks worse than the crap they used to serve at St. Clare's, or something, and Winnik assumes Walter means he was a doctor there, and Walter straight-out says he was a patient, which makes his ass-clown son laugh and pretend Walter's just joking, and I'd like to point out to Peter that Winnik is a DOCTOR, so she's probably got at least a little understanding of mental health issues, so it's not necessary for you to embarrass your dad like this.
Anyway, Olivia walks over to Baldy Boy and introduces herself. The kid looks at her but doesn't speak. He jumps, though, startled when Olivia's cellphone rings. She steps back to answer it. It's Charlie, and she tells him she's still at the hospital. So the kid's watching everyone, with Walter telling Peter about how Peter didn't speak much when he was a boy either. And for all we know Walter locked Peter in a windowless basement for weeks on end too, so that's something else they would have in common. As the kid watches everyone, the voices fade out, become indistinct. We can make out Olivia asking Charlie for an address and then saying that Charlie got a call, something about The Artist, and then she's writing "Coolidge Park" on a piece of paper.
Baldy Boy silently grabs her wrist, and then takes the pen and writes on her paper while everyone watches. He writes "Sam Gilmore," only he writes it upside-down, making it right-side-up from Olivia's perspective. She asks him if that's his name, and he just looks at her. Broyles says he'll see what he can find out on any Sam Gilmores in Massachusetts.
Olivia's off to a crime scene in a park, with a detective telling her and Charley that the body was found just after 6 p.m. by some kids using the park as a shortcut, since this part of the park is usually closed this time of year. The detective says it's definitely the work of the Artist, as alterations were made to the body post-mortem. What we see is a woman chained standing up, hands behind her back. She's in a white dress, and although her hair is black now, we can see that this local girl from Weston is actually the former Becky Connor. Charlie's got the file, and says her name is Samantha Connor, which of course gets Olivia's attention. As usual, she doesn't say anything to Charlie.
Back at the federal building Charlie brings the other FBI agents (and us) up to speed on the Artist, whom they first encountered three years ago, when he killed four women over the span of two days, and then stopped, but this death of Samantha Gilmore bears all his hallmarks. After he killed them, he used surgical tools and chemicals, to "enhance" their appearance, which in Gilmore's case meant bleaching her skin, removing her piercings and dying her hair. Meanwhile, Olivia gets off the phone with Dr. Winnik as Broyles comes in, and she tells him they're giving the boy an MRI and when they're done, she's going to try to talk to him again. In the meantime, she's sent a picture of the boy to Samantha Gilmore's friends and family to see if they know anything about him. So far, no one recognizes. "You didn't really expect that they would, did you?" asks Broyles, and Olivia eventually admits she didn't. So Broyles asks the obvious question: what's the connection?
This is where Walter troops in, and he goes through some kind of book of folklore, and teaches them about Amala and Kamala, the wolf-children of India, and Marie Angelique Memmie LeBlanc, the wild girl of Champagne: "They're all feral children who grew up completely isolated from human contact, surviving, like our boy, for many years alone." Peter says, yeah, but none of them could write upside down, right?
Broyles asks if Walter's sure the boy grew up there, and Walter says certain deficiencies indicate it, like the complete lack of Vitamin D (which we get naturally from the sun) and lactobacillus, which Peter explains are micro-organisms that help us digest and are everywhere, apparently (although not underground?). "If the boy had spent any time above ground, he certainly would have absorbed some of those," says Walter. Yeah, but the tunnels have been sealed for seventy years, right? The boy can't be any older than ten, points out Olivia. Walter thinks the kid is actually significantly older than that but doesn't look it because he hasn't experienced the aging effects of oxygen and sunlight. Yeah, he hasn't experienced the dying effects of lack of oxygen and sunlight either.So with everything else "explained," there's still the big question: how did he know about Samantha Gilmore? "That I can't explain," says Walter, who tells Broyles that there is some good news: he's found his turntable, so he doesn't need Broyles to get him one after all. While Broyles stands there nonplussed, Walter starts a whole story about finding it under the sink, and when he gets to the part about sitting on the toilet, Peter thankfully steps in. Some extra FBI agent comes in to tell them they got another fax: the Artist is going after another victim.
And we're there, on a city sidewalk, with the Artist, not in a wheelchair, approaching a woman walking her dog. "Is he friendly?" he asks, and she says "of course," and says the dog's name is Mack. The Artist crouches and plays with the dog, who's not really into it, whimpering slightly. That's a clue, lady! Get out of there!
After the commercial break, Olivia knocks on the Baldy Boy's door, and she strolls in and says, "They told me you haven't eaten anything solid yet." She's got a little bag of M&Ms with her, and she pours a bunch into her palm. "I thought you might like these more than the mystery meat." Yeah, great. He's lived for seventy years on rats and millipedes. I think the M&Ms might kill him.
That is, if he ever gets an M&M, which isn't a certainty, given how Olivia is plowing through them herself, and rambling on about how when she was a kid she used to live on them, except for the yellow ones, because they reminded her too much of medicine, or something. So as she eats, she sets aside the yellow ones on the kid's bedside tray. She offers him a candy. He slowly reaches out, picks up a red one, stares at it. Then he offers it to Olivia, who eats it right off his fingers. Erotic! She thanks him, and then dumps a palmful of yellow ones back on his tray.
And hey, now that we're friends, how about you do something for me? She tells him that yesterday he wrote down a name for her, and she's hoping that today he can write down his name. But before they get too far with that, there's some dude in the doorway saying, "You have a real way with him." He introduces himself as Elliot Michaels, with social services. They shake hands, and Olivia introduces herself. Elliot asks the kid if it's OK if he borrows Olivia for a moment, and Olivia promises the kid she'll be right back, which is when they'll presumably resume the M&M feeding.
Just outside the room, Elliot tells Olivia that Dr. Winnik brought him up to speed on the FBI's interest in the case. "The circumstances by which he was found attracted our interest," she says. Wow, you can tell she's all hotted up with that kind of flirting!
While Baldy Boy stares at them through the glass, Elliot asks if she's been able to find out anything more about him, like a first name, where he's from. Olivia says she hasn't. Elliot nods and says he just figured he'd stop by and see him before he gets the ball rolling, and Olivia is all, "which means...?" and Elliot says, "Physically, it doesn't seem as if there's anything really wrong with him, so I've arranged to have him moved." Olivia wants to know where, and Elliot tells her he's going to be moved to a facility that can provide him with the treatment he needs. You mean like a hospital? is what Olivia doesn't say, but probably should have. Instead she just asks when, and Elliot says tomorrow, assuming all the paperwork is in order.
In the boy's room, the kid suddenly starts to hyperventilate, and his monitors start beeping, prompting Olivia and Elliot to come rushing into the room, along with a nurse, who says the kid's blood pressure and heart-rate are spiking. The kid's got his hands over his ears, so Olivia speaks soothingly to him as she pulls his hands away from his head, telling him everything's OK. The kid starts to come down. "Should I get the doctor?" asks the nurse, like, YOU'RE THE NURSE, YOU TELL US, and Olivia says she thinks they're OK, and Elliot asks if they're OK, and Olivia says they are, so Elliot says he needs to step outside to make a phone call that reveals him to be potentially evil.
As he walks away, he pulls out his cellphone and makes a call. "I'm at the hospital. I think we may have found another one."
Back in the hospital room, Olivia tells the kid she thinks she should let him get some rest. Instead, he takes Olivia's pen and paper and writes -- upside-down again -- 547 Marlborough.
So it's off to Marlborough Street for Olivia, who meets up with Charlie and asks him if he's found anything yet, and says he got here just five seconds ago. "So what's the plan? Start knocking on doors?" he asks. "Unless you can think of a better idea," she says. Should you start with 547? Charlie tells her to go east, and he'll go west.
Through the back windows of the Artist's van, we see Olivia approaching on the sidewalk, while the creep whispers "shhhh, shhhhh" and grips the plastic tightly and sits crouched in the back, with his hand over his victim's mouth. Olivia walks by. "Good. You are very good," the Artist tells his victim. Which is nice, because it shows he's not all bad if he can pay someone a compliment.
Back at Olivia's place, everyone's favorite FBI agent is drinking in the kitchen when Rachel comes in, and asks if she minds some company. "Did I miss you last night, or did you not even come home?" asks Rachel. Olivia drinks her drink and fesses up to not coming home. A concerned Rachel pours herself a drink, which at least will make Olivia's drinking alone not seem so bad, and she asks if she's eaten anything. "Uh, M&Ms," says Olivia. Rachel asks if she likes her job. "Yeah. Most days. Today, not so much," says Olivia, explaining that she followed a lead that didn't pan out. She asks why Rachel is up, and Rachel rubs her nose. Cocaine? Before she can answer, Olivia's cellphone rings, and Olivia apologizes to her sister.
It's Charlie, telling her they found their second victim, a woman named Kate Harper, right outside St. Catherine's, surrounded by candles. Yeah, way to "find" a dead body mocked up outside a church surrounded by a friggin' bonfire. "Good news is we might have finally caught a break. ERT said they found some blood underneath her nails. So they're running it." Olivia, looking distraught, says she'll be right in.
Charlie says, all Columbo, that there's one more thing: "The address the boy gave us. Little while after we left, a neighbour found a dog tied to a fence. It was whimpering. It was the victim's dog." "We were there," says Olivia. Charlie tells her there was no way they could've known. "But he was trying to tell us, and he was right, and we were there?"
After the commercial break, Peter's knocking on Walter's hotel room door, saying Olivia needs to talk to him. Walter asks if she can come back later, as he's about to step in the bath, and Peter points out that she can't come back later, because it's the middle of the night, so this is important, so Walter grumbles his way out of his room, barely wrapping a robe around himself. He seems surprised to see Olivia, and chides Peter for not telling him Agent Dunham was here. "I'm pretty sure I did," says Peter dryly.
Olivia tells Walter about the kid giving her a clue, but she didn't know w
hat she was looking for, so she's wondering if he has any idea how she can reach him or even just how he's doing this. And Walter comes up with some cockamamie story that's pretty ridiculous, even for this show, and it has to do with how the kid's been underground for so long that he's hypersensitive to light and sound, and possibly to people's emotions too. Uh, what? Sure he'd be hypersensitive. But if that's the theory, wouldn't all the light and sound be sensory overload for him? Walter calls him a "raw nerve, able to intuit the feelings and intentions of others. Your killer, for one." Olivia asks if Walter's saying the kid's psychic, but Walter says he's more like a shark, which has an electromagnetic field that allows them to detect their prey's bioelectric field from a distance of many miles. "We humans have it too, of course: pheromones. Undetectable chemicals that nonetheless affect our behaviour, our sex drive..." And "sex drive" is as good a place as any for Peter to inform his dad that his bathrobe is wide open, and his dad tells him not to be such a prude: "I'm sure Agent Dunham knows what a penis looks like, don't you, Agent Dunham?" Olivia wisely lets that one pass by and asks how the kid would know things she doesn't, like know about the killer or victims whom he's never met. "My dear, there is much that is unexplained, until it is," he says, and Peter sums up that bit of nonsense: "In short, he has no idea," although I don't exactly hear Peter coming up with a ton of ideas. Olivia says even if the kid is sensing the killer, he's not really able to tell them in any kind of useful way. So Walter gets the brilliant idea that all they have to do is hear his thoughts. "And I'm sure you can do that, can't you? Hear his thoughts?" says Peter, snidely, but yes, his father thinks he can do just that.So Olivia strolls into Baldy Boy's hospital room, and she sees that he's rearranged Olivia's leftover yellow M&Ms into an arrow, and can I just ask how huge a bag of M&Ms it was that Olivia was chowing down on, anyway? I mean there are more yellow ones there than there are total M&Ms in any given bag. Anyway, Olivia's there to kidnap Baldy Boy, but at least she asks his permission first, and they go walking hand in hand down the hospital corridor, Baldy looking around wide-eyed, wearing Olivia's Northwestern T-shirt.
So in the Fringe lab, Astrid plays some vintage Bugs Bunny for Baldy. "Didn't get any better than this, right?" like ASTRID, HE GREW UP IN A SEWER, and between the cartoons and the M&Ms I think maybe the real department of social services SHOULD get involved, especially when Walter whips out his neural stimulator, which is that headgear device that he used to drill into the dude's skull in that one episode, and Peter says there's no way he's putting that "medieval torture device" on that poor kid, and Walter thinks if the kid finds the whole brain-drilling thing "disagreeable" that it could be modified. "Really? You didn't think to mention that to the last guy?" says Peter, and then Walter mutters something about "placing electrodes in the halo ring," and then "synthesizing the impulses." He tells them to think of it as "creating artificial vocal cords." Peter sarcastically calls it simple, like "making an omelet," and his dad winks at him and says making a good omelet is far more complex, and maybe Peter should think twice about mentioning food around his father in case Walter gets one of his insane cravings. "We'll have him talking in no time," says Walter.
Over at the children's hospital, Elliot Michaels shows up at the kid's room and is dismayed to discover that the kid has been discharged. But I say that whatever super-secret shadowy organization you're working for should have kept a better watch on the kid if he's so important to you.
Back at the lab, Olivia's holding Baldy's hand and telling him that he doesn't have to do anything he doesn't want to do, and if he's scared or doesn't like what's happening, he should just squeeze her hand. "I've seen that look before. Usually right before somebody throws up," says Peter, and I'll thank Peter Bishop to spare us the stories of his love life.
And then one of the strangest scenes on this show -- and this is a show that has dead people talking and people walking through walls -- Astrid puts on a little Al Green, Walter gets his hair all stylin' and then starts dancing around to "Love and Happiness," in a matter that is supposed to make Baldy happy and comfortable, but instead made me wish I had my own hand to hold. He puts it on his own head first, and keeps dancing and singing, and Baldy's hand relaxes its grip on Olivia's, and then Walter puts the apparatus over Baldy's head. "Nicely done, Walter." Baldy smiles at her as Astrid turns off the music, and then suddenly he squeezes her hand and frowns, looking at the door.
A second later, Elliot Michaels stomps in, Broyles close behind him. "What's going on here?" he snaps.
In Olivia's inside office, Elliot asks if she really thought she could just steal a child out of protective custody without anyone noticing, and it appears that a) that's pretty much what she did, and b) doesn't protective custody involve guards of some sort? Olivia gets her condescending smug smile on as she says they didn't steal him: "The child's assisting us in an active criminal investigation," she says. Elliot asks how he's assisting them. "No offence, Mr. Michaels, but that's classified information. The department of social services doesn't have clearance to know that." Elliot exchanges a look with Broyles, and Olivia knows something's up. "Mr. Michaels isn't social services. He's with the CIA's directorate of science and technology." So now it's Elliot's turn: "I'd have told you earlier myself, but you don't have clearance to know that." Heh. Even Olivia's face says, "Well played, Elliot." Broyles tells her Elliot's department will be taking full custody of the child. "So they can what? Study him?" snaps Olivia. No, so they can slap electrodes on his head and use a massive apparatus to try to read his thoughts, Olivia. Oh, wait. That's you. Elliot says the kid was apparently able to survive years in an oxygen-deprived environment with no food or water: "Surely you could see how someone who doesn't have his best interests at heart might want to exploit that."
And Olivia snaps some more at him, saying she doesn't buy that for a second. So Elliot figures that he can dispense with the pleasantries and inform her it really doesn't make a difference what she thinks, as the boy's coming with him. "I'm afraid this is above both of us," Broyles tells her. That's when Astrid comes in to let them know that Charlie just called, to say they got another invitation from the Artist. Broyles asks Elliot for one day with the kid: "He could help us catch a murderer and save a life. The boy would be under my protection. I'll personally guarantee his safety." Elliot thinks about it, and then says if he agrees to this, they'll have to turn the boy over to him without a fight. "Do we have an agreement?" Olivia doesn't say anything, but Broyles agrees.
Elliot walks out of the office, and looks at Baldy, who gives him the stinkeye while the agent leaves the lab.
After the commercial break, Walter's trying to recall something: "My very educated mother just served us nine pies," he says, before remembering that that's the planets of our solar system, or at least was (before Pluto got bounced from the galactic nightclub).
Meanwhile, Peter is showing Baldy his G.I. Joes, specifically Roadblock, who Peter has the nerve to call "not one of the top-tier G.I. Joes," like HOW DARE YOU, and then Walter says "Cannot build phallic puzzles in the lab," which is his mnemonic to remember where his safe-deposit boxes are, and Astrid explains to a puzzled Peter that his dad is trying to remember which wires go into which connections on the machine.
Olivia gets off the phone with Charlie and relays the news that the blood under the second victim's fingernails doesn't belong to the killer: "Not unless G
ene is the killer," she says, gesturing to the poor cow who doesn't live on a farm like it should. It was cow blood under the fingernails, along with some plastic polymers. Olivia asks Astrid to contact the Bureau of Animal Health so they can start pulling livestock licences around Boston, like petting farms, research facilities. I'd have thought "butchers" was obvious, but I'm not an FBI agent.Meanwhile, if anyone cares, Walter finally comes up with "She's a bad mamma-jamma," which means "Signal, amplification, bifurcation, modulation, juxtaposition." His glee is almost psychotic, and Olivia asks if Baldy is "hangin' in there." Meanwhile, Peter's had a thought, and he tells them that he used to be a floor sweeper at a meat-packing plant. "Sounds awesome," says Astrid sarcastically, like, YOU'RE LOOKING FOR COW BLOOD, Astrid, and Peter explains that they had these big rolls of industrial-grade plastic that they would wrap the cuts of meat in before they were sent to the grocery store. "Cow's blood in plastic," says Olivia, who is some kind of genius.
So thing you know, Olivia's got a list of meat-packing plants, crossing them off one by one. She shows up at Beacon Hill Meats, while Walter is finishing up putting the headgear on Baldy. Then they do their thing where they twiddle knobs and flick switches and stuff, and the computer plays some high-pitched whine, and Walter gets a boner about it, but Peter says it's just noise. "No, that's just the computer calibrating the signal to noise ratio," says Walter. He tells Peter to adjust the attenuation setting to seventy decibels, which is exactly what I was just about to suggest. Something that sounds more like a voice starts to come through. "Yes, now, the sound pressure level. Dial the audio meter to 1,500 hertz," Walter tells his son, and Peter does so, but apparently too fast for his old man, who's all, "Slower, dammit, go slower!" and Peter says if he wants to do it himself, feel free.
Peter gets it to where Walter wants it, and then Walter asks "Astro" for a tape recorder, which he probably should have had handy before he started this. And they've got their backs to the kid, so it takes them a few moments to notice that the poor guy is actually shivering. Peter's the first one to see it, and he tells his dad to turn the machine off and Astrid to get a blanket. They take the headgear off him. "It doesn't make any sense. If anything, brain activity should generate heat," says Walter, puzzled. Baldy sits there, shivering.
Cut to Olivia, blowing into her hands to warm them up at the meat-packing plant, telling the manager that they're trying to track down a suspect in a murder investigation. "You mean the guy on the news? Who killed those girls?" asks the guy. Olivia says maybe, and asks if there are any past or present employees who stick out: "Like antisocial behaviour or a history of violent incidences here at work?" The manager says they're good men, hard workers, and Olivia says she'll need a copy of his employee records regardless, as well as a sample of their shipping plastic. He asks why, and Olivia just says it could be an element in their investigation, and asks if it will be a problem. "No, but..." he says, trailing off. "Mr. Wu?" she prompts, so he explains. "A man came in here yesterday, and I ... I sold him some plastic."
Meanwhile, a woman loads groceries into the trunk of her car, and is gratified to get a helping hand from some nice stranger on the street. "Your mother raised you well," she tells the Artist, who just smiles.
Olivia calls Peter to ask him if they made any progress with the kid. "Hard to say. We heard something, but I don't know if it was the kid trying to talk," says Peter. Then he explains about how Baldy just started shivering, like the weather had dropped thirty degrees, even though it hadn't, but now he's wrapped up in a blanket and doing fine. He asks if she found anything, and she explains that it looks like the Artist bought some plastic from a slaughterhouse in Roxbury, and she was able to get a sketch of the guy: "All thanks to you," she says.
He relays the good news to the team, that Olivia found the meat-packing plant where buddy got the plastic, and they've got a sketch of him now. Walter urgently tells Peter to ask if the plant was refrigerated. "It's a meat-packing plant full of raw meat. So yeah, let's go out on a limb here and say that it's probably refrigerated," says Peter, like he can't ever just give a straight answer. He asks what it matters. "Because that explains everything," says Walter. Suuuure it does.
After Olivia's returned, Baldy wanders around the lab while the Fringe team confers. "The boy ... our strange little friend ... is an empath," says Walter. He explains that the boy is capable of making emotional connections, with the construction worker who found him, with the killer. "But most importantly, he is emotionally bonded to you, Agent Dunham. That's why he's telling you about the crimes. Because he knows that the information is important to you. He's trying to help you." Baldy has wandered over and is watching from the doorway while the team discusses him, and Olivia notices him and walks over. "Are you trying to help me?" she asks. Surprisingly, Baldy says nothing. She explains that the man who's been hurting people is going to hurt someone else unless she stops him. She asks if he knows who the man is, or if he can tell Olivia anything about the man. Peter suggests the kid doesn't know. Astrid suggests he can't always use the ability. Walter suggests "a small electric shock to kick-start things," but nobody even busts him for it.
Olivia says this is something different, like the kid is mad at her. "Well, you told Michaels that once the boy helped you stop the Artist, you'd turn him over to him," Astrid points out. "He heard you. Or, more accurately, felt you," says Walter. Olivia looks at the kid and launches into this long apology, all about how she's been so caught up in what she needed, that she forgot how strange this all must seem to him. And she knows he's scared, but she needs his help again, even though she can't stop them from taking him: "Even though I wish I could. And if you really can feel what I'm thinking, you know how much I mean that," she finishes. The kid takes a pen and writes on the paper: "York/Glenway." "Thank you," she says. I guess she can't very well bitch now about how cryptic the clues are.
So the best they can do is set up a police roadblock at the corner of York and Glenway streets, with Olivia using the sketch to check against the faces of the drivers while Charlie checks their trunks. And the second stopped vehicle we see is none other than the Artist's van. She asks the guy what he's doing in the neighbourhood, and he says he's just coming home from work. He's acting kind of suspicious, nervously saying he hasn't had anything to drink and asking what this is about. She looks at the sketch and looks at him again, noticing a resemblance. She says she's not really allowed to say, and shines her flashlight around the van. Suddenly she notices the air freshener hanging from the rearview mirror. It's one of those pine tree ones, bright yellow, and she flashes back to the yellow arrow (well, a tree, it appears) that Baldy made on his hospital tray. Olivia doesn't really have much of a poker face, so when she tells the Artist they need to check the back of his vehicle, he peels on out of there. Olivia fires off a couple of shots, and then there's a slight gap because it's now the top of the hour but American Idol the airtime hog ran late, like it's not enough that Fringe hasn't even been on for six weeks, but Idol needs to make people miss the last few minutes of the first show since February. And somehow despite shooting from behind, Olivia manages to put a bullet through the windshield, and at the beginning of my recording of Fox 28 News First at 10, the Artist is already on foot and racing through some residential streets, with Olivia shouting for Charlie to check the back of the van. He does, and he radi
os Olivia to let her know that they found a victim in the back of the van, and she's alive.Olivia's too busy chasing the dude to answer, obviously, and she catches up with him in a cemetery, where he comes after her with a knife, but his knife-fu is no match for her kung-fu, and the knife winds up buried deep inside himself. On the plus side, the cemetery is right there, so that'll save some gas.
Broyles's office. He gets a call from Olivia, a short time later. She needs his help with something. He listens. Then Olivia shows up at the hospital to talk to Dr. Winnik, and then we're at the Fringe lab, where Walter tells Olivia that Baldy's doing much better. In fact, his skin colour is more or less normal now. Olivia's got Winnik in tow, and Olivia tells Baldy that she's going to take him, not to a facility, but to a home with a very nice family that'll take care of him and keep him safe. And then Olivia and Baldy are trying to have a moment, but Winnik is all, "We should go now," and Olivia kisses Baldy on his forehead and says goodbye while the Bishops watch.
Michaels confronts Broyles in his office, because he can't believe the boy's gone. He wants to know where, but Broyles plays dumb. "That's what we can't figure out. He disappeared from right under the noses of protective detail." Michaels is all, "He's just a kid!" and Broyles points out he's a kid who lived his whole life underground, and they don't know how he got there in the first place. Maybe it was a meddling FBI agent! "I'm beginning to suspect there's a lot about him that we don't understand. And apparently we never will," says Broyles. He looks quite close to smiling. Michaels stares at him. I don't think he buys what Broyles is selling, but he probably figures there's nothing he can do about it now, so he turns around and walks out.
Ella and Rachel are at home screaming at the top of their lungs, so have fun with that, new neighbours. Olivia strolls in. Ella yells, "Mommy is so bad at Simon Says! She won't even do what I say!" Hee. Olivia joins in the game and turns out to suck at Simon Says too. God! She's four years old! You should be able to beat her!
Baldy, smiling and wearing a baseball cap is being driven by Dr. Winnik in the good doctor's Benz. Suddenly he frowns, and looks out the window. Walking past is the Observer, who spots the kid, and they lock eyes, and the Observer turns to watch the car as it passes him. Then he turns and continues walking up the street.
Well, duh. I don't know why that occurred to everybody except the Fringe team.