"A New Day in the Old Town"
 VITALS
| Episode #: 2.01 | Season: 2 | | Original Air Date:September 17, 2009 | | Writer: JJ Abrams & Akiva Goldsman | Director: Akiva Goldsman | | Special guest(s):Luke Goss (Lloyd Parr), Ari Graynor (Rachel Dunham), Simone Kessel (Nurse), Meghan Markle (Junior Agent Amy Jessup), Tegan Moss (Rebecca), Adrian Holmes (Forensic Chief), Ken Camroux-Taylor (Senator Kenneth Taylor), Douglas Chapman (Agent), Stefan Arngrim (Store Owner), Neil Schell (Senator Neil Schell), Chris Shields (Special Agent Fisher), Jeremy Jones (Paramedic), Christian Vincent (Surgeon), Elizabeth Thai (ER Doctor), Trevor Carroll (Morgue Attendant), Allison Riley (Receptionist), Michael Mitchell (George) | | Featured song(s): |
Synopsis: In the stunning first season finale, Olivia traveled to an intriguing parallel universe to meet Massive Dynamic founder William Bell.
Season two opens with her shocking return to this perplexing alternate reality, while Peter unknowingly in a race against time with an ominous mobile force pursues information about Olivia's visit.
Walter reenters the lab to cook up a fringe science and of course, some custard for Peter's Birthday.
Manhattan. A heavyset, middle-aged, man named George Reed awakens to horns and sirens in his sedan, following an accident in the downtown streets. Blood trickles down his face from his scalp as he forces open his door and falls to the pavement. Regaining his awareness, he flees the scene on foot, looking for safe haven in the nearby buildings. He finds an apartment complex and rings all of the tenants at once, and gains access when one of them buzzes him in. Upstairs he finds Lloyd Parr in the hallway dropping his trash in the disposal chute. He makes small talk and quickly immobilizes Parr, gaining access to his apartment. Inside, with Parr laid-out on the floor, George begins to manually reconstruct his own face, crunching cheekbones in the process. He returns to Parr with a small device. Two wires hang from it, both with prongs on the ends. He forces the prongs into the roof of Parr's mouth, then does the same to himself with the other prong. After activating a switch on the control box, he begins to convulse - and physically morph his own features to that of Lloyd Parr.
At the accident scene, Junior Agent Amy Jessup is trying to corral local law enforcement and trying to locate the drivers of the damaged vehicles.
In a grocery store in Boston, Peter tends to Walter as he wanders the aisles, boasting of culinary expertise. Bored, Peter wants to leave, but Walter insists they continue... as he intends to make Peter custard for his birthday this upcoming Friday. Walter is certain that custard was Peter's favorite as a child, but Peter explains that he has never liked custard... just then, Peter receives an important phone call.
Back at the accident scene, Amy greets Peter and Walter as they screech to a halt in an official vehicle. Peter recognizes one of the crashed vehicles as Olivia's, as Jessup attempts to interview him. Walter stays below Amy's radar and finds his way to Olivia's SUV. Peter learns that Olivia was never at the accident site, as Walter unlocks and enters the damaged vehicle, unabated by law enforcement. After fiddling with some switches and getting odd electrical feedback, Walter senses something is awry and quickly exits Olivia's vehicle. Once clear of the SUV, the engine starts, the horn and siren wail... then go silent - seconds later, Olivia is ejected through the driver's side of the windshield and soars thirty feet down the pavement. Bloody and motionless, Olivia rests there on her back, as everyone looks on in disbelief.
At New York General Hospital, Peter and Walter wait in the halls as Olivia is wheeled in for emergency treatment - a very gloomy diagnosis follows. Broyles meets Agent Jessup on the steps into the hospital to give her his orders regarding the Dunham accident... random accident, the report is already complete... just sign here - case closed. Inside, Walter takes exception with the attending physician when informed that Olivia's brain damage makes her unrepairable. Walter finds his way to intensive care and examines her for himself... and is saddened that she may very well be lost forever.
On the other hand, Peter finds his way to a quiet bar for a stiff drink. Planning on a little sad reflection, alone, he is unexpectedly joined by Broyles, who orders a double. Broyles informs Peter that the Fringe Division is being shut down... they share a toast to Olivia.
At the Federal Building in New York, dissatisfied with being manipulated by Broyles and stone-walled by Peter, Jessup takes it upon herself to continue researching and investigating the days incident and the science team. She calls up their personnel files, and then uses a special password to open many of the Pattern cases the team has solved since they were formed.
After the bar, Peter makes his way back to the hospital for a late night visit to the comatose Olivia. Inside, he finds Olivia's sister, Rachel, wandering the halls. She tells him she has only been back for a few hours, and that she left her daughter, Ella, with some friends. Somberly, she shares with Peter that Olivia had a living will with the stipulation - no life support - and that the hospital staff was going to take her off of life support the next morning. He quietly finds his way to comatose Olivia's bedside and starts to say his final goodbyes... when - she erupts with a quote in Greek, and bolts forward screaming... wide awake.
Still in her bed, Olivia's monitors are very active as she is questioned by the doctor to determine her orientation, and memory. Rachel is there to comfort her, but Olivia needs to speak to Peter. She has no memory of what has happened to her and confides in Peter that HE told her something, but she doesn't know who HE is. She is certain that there is something that she has to do... she just doesn't know what - but she is certain that lives are in danger. EVERYONE'S! And she wants her pistol.
At the Federal Building in Boston, Peter returns looking for Broyles, Charlie, or the case file on Olivia's accident. When he explains his plight to reception, his credentials are confiscated and shredded, as they are no longer valid. When he continues to make a fuss, he is asked to leave. Just when he is about to be forcibly removed, Agent Jessup intercepts the escort and takes responsibility for Peter.
Peter and Amy get in her car and head for nearby Lexington... she has the file he wants to see with her. The file contains surveillance photos from the time of the accident with George Reed clearly visible. However, Reed is dead in his nearby Boston area home, and could not have been chasing Olivia around Manhattan. Walter joins the investigation at Reed's house and determines that the corpse has expelled all of its excess water, he'll need to examine it further in his lab. Amy continues to press Peter for information.
Shape-changer Lloyd Parr enters an antique office equipment store in the Bronx and is granted access to a secret back room with a special old typewriter on a desk, next to a mirror. The proprietor is savvy to the process, but is anxious and tired of waiting... it seems the last such activity was six years prior. Parr enters the private room, rolls in a sheet of paper and begins typing. He claims to have terminated the target, prevented a meeting and now desires extraction. Looking at the typewriter in adjacent mirror, he sees the keys activate, but the paper in his typewriter prints what is being typed. He is being told he failed - that the target lives and that the meeting occurred. He then receives new orders - interrogate and kill the target.
At Walter's Lab, Peter escorts Amy in for her first visit. He tells her of the great things that have happened there - and warns of the bizarre... she still has time to turn back.
Charlie visits Olivia in the hospital and shares a somber story from his past, where he lost a partner and was shot in the process. The moral of the story - keep a pistol under your pillow. Olivia smiles at the humor... but starts to struggle with the fact that she cannot remember what happened to her. She is scared... her hands shake just trying to load her weapon.
Walter's examination of Reed's corpse reveals the shape-changer's prong marks in the mouth. He was reminded of a video of an experiment that he and William Bell conducted in the 1970's where they gave massive amounts of hallucinogens to a young woman. In her altered state, the woman describes a shape-changer who used a device that was pronged into the victims' mouths. Astrid starts to research records of cases with similar prong marks.
In Washington D.C., Broyles sits before a Senate Oversight Committee that is bent on closing down the Fringe Division. He stands his ground and defends the actions of the division through 3 administrations and 6 wars. The chairperson stands his ground, citing lack of results equates to lack of budget. Afterwards, outside the government facility, Nina stands toe-to-toe with Broyles, reminding him that the Fringe Division cannot be shutdown. After a quick speech to bolster Broyles confidence, Nina gives him a fairly romantic kiss... then scurries-off on other business.
While visiting a forensics morgue to view another victim of the shape-changer, Peter and Amy realize that they are up against a soldier. An individual that will stay on mission until the objective is achieved. They then realize that Olivia is the target and that they need to get to her immediately.
At Olivia's hospital, shape changer Lloyd Parr takes over the body of a nurse and tries to get Olivia to divulge what she remembers. Charlie joins in the rush to get to Olivia as the shape changing soldier attempts to kill her, and complete the mission. Jessup arrives in time to stop the attack, but the changer escapes out the window. As Peter and Amy converge on the soldier, they hear shots fired and run to find Charlie standing over the body of the nurse, with the alien device beside her.
Visiting Olivia bedside, and thinking they are now all safe, Peter tells Olivia that the Greek phrase she said to him earlier was something that his mother used to repeat about protecting those close to you. "Be a better man than your father."
Peter then meets with Broyles and hands him the broken device found on the shape changer. "We're calling the shots now," Peter says. With this evidence, the Fringe Division is reopened.
Amy continues her research... she is still reviewing recent classified Pattern-related case files on her computer - matching chapter and verse from the New Testament, to prior cases. Peter gets a big birthday welcome back at the lab from Astrid, Walter... and Gene.
Olivia reclines in bed. Hands steady... she loads her magazine and pistol. Confident. Locked. Loaded.
In the bowels of the hospital, "Charlie" rolls a laundry cart up to a central furnace and opens the door to it. After tossing aside a few bags of laundry, he reaches into the basket and lifts Agent Charlie Francis out... tossing him into the furnace for cremation. | | | |
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