Episode Report Card Daniel: B+ | 2 USERS: A+ YOU GRADE IT What Child is This
By Daniel | Season 1 | Episode 15 | Aired on 04.07.2009
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.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!" Want more? The full recap starts right below!
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