FOX

FRINGE: “Alone in the World” Recap

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[Editor’s Note: Sorry for the delay, Fringe fans. Jan had this ready to go on Saturday, but I’ve been traveling to and participating in the Syfy Media Tour in Florida and this is the first time we’ve had reliable Internet. ~Melissa]

Walter is answering his therapis’ts questions about his medication. Walter has been taking it…with his own modifications, of course. Their sessions are a condition of Walter’s release from Sinclair’s. The agents working with him have mentioned patterns of unusual behavior, covering reflective surfaces in the lab, claiming he‘s seen a man in them. Walter claims its only minor hallucinations due to his modifications of the medication. He denies that he is seeing a man, even as he sees Peter’s image again.

Two boys chase a third boy into a tunnel. Just as they catch him, one of them feels something touch his leg. Soon the two would be assaulters are rendered helpless as black veins spread across their bodies. The third boy, who just escaped the beating of his life, runs.

Olivia is working when Lincoln arrives. She asks if Lincoln is getting up to speed, lets him know she’s ‘here’ if he wants someone to talk to. The awkward moment is interrupted by a call notifying Olivia of the two boys deaths. The bodies appear to have been dead for months, but it’s only been hours. Walter rants while examining the scene via camera. Astrid can’t get a word in, so just relays to Broyles that Walter doesn’t have a theory. The Fringe Division team sees three sets of footprints and realizes there was another person. They need to find him.

Broyles visits the lab and tells Walter the therapist had concerns after their visit. Walter avoids the subject by rambling about needing both bodies (only one was brought to him), but he can’t get the words out, he keeps hearing Peter’s voice. He breaks down, thinking he’s losing his mind. Broyles and Astrid witness the erratic behavior. Walter regains composure and requests the second body be brought to him.

Olivia and Lincoln find the third boy, Aaron. He has no father, his mother is out of the country, and he’s been staying with a neighbor. A quiet boy, he doesn’t have many friends. They bring him to the lab at Harvard. Olivia talks to the boy while he draws. She tells him Walter will examine him. He doesn’t like doctors, they’re scary. Olivia assures him Walter is not scary. Walter arrives, looking scary. While Walter works with the blood sample he takes from him, Aaron finds one of Peter’s childhood toys. Walter gets upset and tells the boy about Peter dying.

Astrid rushes in and tells Walter there is something he needs to see. While moving a candle near the body, the flames flicker. The corpse is blowing high levels of oxygen into the air. Walter didn’t notice this much mold before. They detect movement in the body, and incubate it immediately, just before it explodes.

The mold spores are the culprit, they call Olivia and Lincoln and tell them to immediately cover the other body, which they have gone to retrieve for Walter. Before they can get to the examining room where it is kept, the body explodes. As Olivia and Lincoln seal off the room, Lincoln is concerned that the personnel inside will die if they don’t get them out. Olivia says they are already dead.

Walter is analyzing the fungi back in the lab. It’s aggressive, it wants to expand it’s reach. Walter is in awe of it. Broyles wants to know how to kill it. Walter thinks UV lights will do the trick, but Olivia wants to aim big and opt for flame throwers.

When Walter tells Aaron he can go home, he doesn’t want to go. There is no one there. Walter knows what it feels like to have nowhere to go, no family. He asks the boy if he would like to stay at the lab with him a while longer. He tells him he won’t have time to entertain him, he’s a busy man….then they make tin foil caps and milkshakes, and listen to music together. The boy asks how Peter died. Walter tells him of Peter’s illness, that the cure was found too late. He tells about the alternate universe Peter…and how he drowned in the frozen lake when they crossed back to our universe. Aaron isn’t so sure Walter doesn’t belong in a mental institution.

Olivia, Lincoln, and team go back to the tunnel the boys died in with plans to eradicate the entire colony. Olivia sees artwork on the walls with the fungi. It looks like what Aaron was drawing.

Aaron is getting sick in Walter’s lab, and tells Walter the light is too bright. He’s upset and obviously ill. The scene cuts back and forth between Olivia and Lincoln with the UV lights in the tunnel, and the boy in the lab reacting to the light. Walter realizes it’s a connection between the boy and the tunnel mold. To bring down Aaron‘s fever, Walter and Astrid put him in an ice bath. Walter and Olivia discuss the connection between the boy and the thing in the tunnel. They have to find how the connection was formed. Olivia looks at the artwork on the wall, she realizes that’s the key.

Walter talks to the boy about his artwork and the tunnel and learns the boy would go there to get away. After a while he felt better, like there was something there that understood him and wanted to protect him.

Walter realizes his original hypothesis was wrong. He thinks the organism isn’t a colony of fungi at all, it is a vast neural network, a giant brain, which Walter names “Gus.” Until Walter can find a way to break the link with Aaron, any assault on Gus will harm the boy.

Broyles calls to inform that there is another victim, six miles from the tunnel. Gus came up through grating. Broyles says they have to kill it, now. Walter tries to reason with him, and becomes very upset. If they kill it, it will kill “Peter.” Olivia gently reminds Walter it’s “Aaron”. Broyles can’t guarantee, they have to stop this from killing other people, but Walter sets about to try and find a way to separate the connection between Aaron and Gus.

Broyles briefs Olivia and Lincoln. Nina Sharp and Massive Dynamic have provided a toxin to kill Gus. Olivia calls Walter, who has figured out where the connection is in Aaron‘s brain. He thinks the portion of the boys brain will need to be removed, Olivia tells him he will have to find another way. Broyles interrupts Olivia to inform her Gus has reached a subway station and they have to move ahead now, no more waiting.

Walter doesn’t take this news well and works feverishly. The team locates the point that the toxin is to be injected. The tech tells Olivia that he was told to act on her order. She doesn’t like hearing this, as she knows what it means for Aaron, but she tells him to go ahead. When the tech injects the toxin, Gus reacts quickly, and the tech dies. Lincoln can’t move, Gus is immobilizing him.

Astrid reports that the boy’s stats are critical. Walter at first seems defeated, then realizes how he can help. The answer is in the emotional center of the brain. Meanwhile, Olivia and Lincoln are stuck in the tunnel, she doesn’t know why the toxin isn’t working. Walter tells Aaron he must let go of the organism, but Aaron insists he can’t, it’s his friend, he would be alone. Walter assures him he cares, and doesn’t want to lose him. He knows what it is to be lonely. He promises Aaron he won’t leave him, and asks that Aaron not leave him either. Let the thing go. His words reach Aaron, and it starts working, Aaron is stabilizing. At the same time, Olivia reports something is happening in the tunnels, Gus is disappearing As Astrid reports the brainwaves have separated….Gus is gone.

Olivia calls for a medical team as she holds onto Lincoln, telling him he’s okay. He tells her he’s a little freaked out, and asks if she wants to talk about it (a callback to her concern for him earlier in the episode, when she told him she was there for him).

As Aaron is wheeled out of the lab, Walter offers him Peter’s toy he had found earlier. He wants to know if Walter is coming with him to the hospital. Before Walter can answer, he sees Peter’s reflection in a metal surface in the office. He tells Aaron there are things he must do, then goes off to research lobotomies.

Olivia arrives in the lab looking for Walter. She finds him with a utensil sticking out of his head, attempting to lobotomize himself. She carefully removes it, and asks what he was thinking. He begs her not to send him back to the sanitarium. He’s been having hallucinations, seeing a person. He tells her about the person’s voice. Olivia shows Walter a sketch of Peter, and asks “does he look like this?” Olivia tells Walter she drew it from memory. She’s been seeing him in her dreams for weeks. She doesn‘t know who he is, she’s been searching databases and nothing has shown up. Walter tells her “He’s real. We have to find him.”

What do you think? Olivia has been seeing Peter too, so how long do you think it will take for she and Walter to learn the truth and find a way to make contact with him?

Fringe airs Fridays on FOX.

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