There is craziness afoot on this week’s episode of the increasingly addictive Fringe. Remember David Jones, the guy who escaped the German prison? Yup. He’s back. And he has some answers for Olivia, but first he has to cause some mayhem.
A guy turns up having suffocated because of his orifices sealed shut with scar tissue. Yes, it’s gross but his eyes, mouth, nose, you name it is covered over with skin. And as soon as Olivia finds out Jones has escaped, she knows he’s behind it. Only there’s no way to find him. No cash traces, nothing. Then, magically, he walks right into the FBI building and turns himself in. He’ll only talk to Olivia, though. Of course, when the IA guy, Harris, hears this, he refuses and he goes in to interrogate Jones himself. Bad move, buddy.
Don’t worry about Olivia. The team has tracked down a recently used warehouse that’s owned by Jones. They raid the place looking for any evidence of this new virus but there’s nothing. Then, screams from the second floor bring the agents to see the virus in action. One of the FBI agents touched a $2 bill that had the virus on it and his orifices are closing in front of Olivia and Charlie’s eyes. Olivia cuts a hole in his chest and puts a tube down it so he can breathe but before they can keep him alive, scar tissue forms over the tube and he dies. I guess now it’s kind of personal.
Olivia busts in on Jones’ interrogation room with the items he told Harris she had to bring. While they’re talking, he makes an interceptor so all of the electronics that were surveying the interrogation room went dead. Now it’s just Jones and Olivia. She pushes him to tell her when the next attack will be and he says there’s a bomb somewhere and in 16 hours it will go off, releasing the deadly virus to countless people. Before he can tell her where to find the bomb, however, she has to get a box he left for her. Inside there are multiple tests and once she passes the first test, Jones will tell her where the bomb is.
Meanwhile, so you don’t think Peter and Walter aren’t doing anything…The FBI figured out the ZFT ‘group’ they thought Jones worked with isn’t the name of a group at all. In fact, it’s actually the name of a book. Basically, it’s about the destruction of humans by technology. No, not robot type killing machines a la “Terminator,” but more the weapon aspect, both biological and technical. Naturally, even though the text has been lost for more than 10 years, Peter knows a guy who gets a copy that some guy had in his basement.
Reunited at the lab, Olivia, Peter, Walter, and Astrid stare at the box of tests. The first one is a box with many little lights sticking out. The recruit (what it’s called in both the instruction manual and the ZFT) is to turn on the light box and then turn it off without ever touching it again. And no, she can’t have some one else simply switch off the box. It’s called using her enormous brain power. A power that Jones believes she has and it was confirmed when they tested her blood and found it contained a drug that was manufactured by Massive Dynamic. I know. Everything’s finally coming together. Massive Dynamic isn’t in on the whole thing, though. They did develop the drug and held a few clinical trials but ultimately gave up when nothing happened. It was supposed to open a child’s brain so it wouldn’t be diminished as they grew up, as it happens to the rest of us.
Staring at the box, she gives up. She asks Peter to fix it so it’ll trick Jones and it odes just that. As the guy is dying on a table in the lab (he’s having complications from his whole teleportation thing), Olivia stares at the little lights and one by one, they go out. Jones tells her where to find the bomb so she and Peter (with increasing sexual tension with one another) go running off. When they arrive, though, the bomb is another one of the light boxes. Only it’s hooked up to the virus that will infect thousands of people if it goes off before Olivia can solve it. She calls the lab and Jones says he has faith that she will pass the test, then he passes out. Great help, fella.
Everyone runs out of the room, including Peter, but Olivia approaches the box and just looks at it. She’s not concentrating especially hard or anything, just staring at the box. Peter shows up behind her but she doesn’t even notice. She just looks and eventually, the lights go out, one by one. The last one goes out with two seconds left on the clock. And she just saved people with her brainpower. This could sound silly but in this it works and I have no doubt that Olivia Dunham just passed the first test. She may not think so but Peter’s starting to believe and he’s quite a skeptic, too. Afterward, she visits Jones in the hospital only to find he’s gone. No, he didn’t die, he’s just gone. There’s a huge hole in one wall and on the other is written, “You passed.” Okay, a little freaky.
Walter did tell Astrid teleporting won’t kill you, it’ll do something much worse. I don’t know what that means but if they keep this up, I’ll definitely tune in to find out!
