Brave New World (Part 1)
Several people in an office complex suddenly exhibit signs of spontaneous combustion and die; others witnessing it realize that the symptom is onset by movement and stand perfectly still as help arrives. As Fringe division investigates, they find a device planted in the building's escalator system that released nanites into those that rode it, triggering the combustion by body movement. One survivor, Jessica, offers to be a test subject for Walter as he tries to discover a cure. When Jessica's body temperature starts to rapidly rise before the cure is synthesized, Olivia uses her Cortexiphan abilities to slow Jessica's system, which stops the nanites and allows Peter to inject the cure into her system.The Fringe team finds that David Robert Jones had planted the device, and worry that despite the deactivation of the bridge, he is still trying to collapse both universes to create a third one. Walter studies the design of the device and recognizes that the nanites were not developed by Jones but by William Bell, and begins to suspect Bell is alive. Nina Sharp rejects this theory, explaining that, in the this timeline, Bell had committed suicide in a car accident in 2005 to end his suffering from lymphoma. Disbelieving Nina, Walter returns to St. Claire's Mental Institution and finds the scent of Bell among one of the log books that dated back to when Walter believed he had visited, and continues to assert this claim.
Unknown to Fringe division, Jones reports to William Bell aboard the container ship (seen in Nothing As It Seems) that Olivia and team have created a cure for the nanites. Bell references a chess game that he has been playing for 40 years, saying that a winning move doesn't mean winning the game. He explains that the art of chess is to be willing to sacrifice one's most valuable piece to open up opportunity. He remarks that he needs to sacrifice the bishop to win the game.
Later, a column of light suddenly appears over Beacon Hill, burning a hole through a building and into the ground. Walter identifies it as sunlight, reflected to satellites likely under Jones' control, aimed to ignite an oil reservoir deep below Boston. He directs Peter and Olivia to the most likely location from which Jones would be controlling the satellites. They find two antennae that must be disabled simultaneously, requiring them to split up to do so. Though they are successful in stopping the beam, Peter is attacked by Jones. Olivia utilizes her Cortexiphan abilities again, and is able to telekinetically control Peter's body, allowing him to get the upper hand, throwing Jones into one of the antennas. The electrical shock causes Jones' body, previously altered by his teleportation, to disintegrate, and he realizes too late that he was the bishop to be sacrificed before crumbling into ash.
Walter discovers evidence of Chilean almonds on one of the log sheets from St. Claire's, Bell's favorite food. He and Astrid travel to the warehouse of the shipping company that imported the almonds, finding it abandoned with one man, armed with a gun, stating the company went out of business three years prior. Astrid implores Walter to leave, but he is enticed by a strange sound from the back of the warehouse, finding several shipping containers being moved about with the noises coming from them. They are discovered by henchmen and attempt to flee. Astrid is shot, and as Walter tends to her, William Bell appears, reintroducing himself to his old friend.
Tropes
- Call-Back: Walters' "Uncle Heinrich" refers to the Bishop's Germanic origins.
- Chekhov's Gun: Walter's lemon cake, laced with pig brain and Cortexiphan.
- The Long Game: Bell's chess match, ongoing for forty years. As it turns out, his master plan has been going on at a similarly deliberate pace.
- Product Placement: In today's episode, Walter discovers the benefits in using a Sprint phone to pay for goods such as coffee.
- Shout-Out: Peter tells Olivia that shutting off the satellite is like "not crossing the streams" but the opposite.
- Spontaneous Human Combustion: A fringe incident is initially believed to involve several people spontaneously combusting after their bodies exerted too much energy (with others in the affected area needing to stand perfectly still to avoid meeting the same fate), but it is revealed to have been spurned by nanotechnology entering the affected persons' bloodstream.
