NYPD arrives at the top of a parking structure where they find two kidnappers and see a teenaged boy (Tyler Carson) in the backseat. Squinty-Eyed kidnapper tells them that they have no idea what they’re dealing with. As everyone watches the cops, one officer walks off the top of the parking structure and another takes out her gun and shoots the remaining officers and herself.
Team Fringe arrives. Walter is bored; there is no food onsite. When he’s asked if he needs the bodies sent to the lab, Walter says no- he already knows what happened. The cops were hypnotized. Peter objects, reminding Walter that you can’t be hypnotized to do something you don’t want to do. Walter’s not convinced that he is wrong. The FBI search has revealed that the kidnap victim’s father works for Massive Dynamic.
They all trot down to Nina Sharp’s office. Walter thinks he’s died and gone to heaven when their escort confirms that there are 73 labs in the Massive Dynamic Building. Tyler’s father Dr. Carson is waiting in Nina’s office. He hadn’t realized his son was missing until he got a call from the kidnappers. He didn’t talk to his son a lot; teenagers, you know. The kidnappers told him to wait for instructions. Nina informs them that the kidnappers have been identified and that they have no tie to Massive Dynamic. They are car salesmen. Olivia thinks, and Nina agrees, that this must be some kind of extortion attempt. Dr. Carson works on highly sensitive secret military projects.
As they leave, Walter whispers to Peter that Massive Dynamic was just a name until now. He and William Bell shared lab space. At a conference in Berlin (just before Walter’s incarceration), he and Bell had discussed forming a company. “I guess he couldn’t wait.”
Tyler tells his kidnappers that he’s hungry. They pull into a convenience story. Squinty Eye tells the clerk to give him all the money. The clerk and his burly friend pretty much laugh at them. Squinty Eye stares at Burly as he picks up a pot of hot coffee and pours it over his bald head. Then he cracks the pot on top of his own skull too. They try to leave, snacks in hand, but the owner pulls out a gun. They all watch as he puts down the gun and sticks his keys into an electrical socket.
Peter and Olivia watch the store’s surveillance footage. “These guys are no pros,” Peter says. And he’d probably know. Broyles lets them know that the car salesmen were good guys. They made a sale, took out a loaner for lunch and never came back.
“Chicken? Really?” Astrid asks in surprise. “Why not?” Walter asks. “I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about what a human brain would taste like,” Astrid admits. They are autopsying the dead cops. Walter thinks the extreme nature of the hypnotic suggestion would leave lesions on the brain. As Peter and Olivia arrive, Walter changes his hypothesis from hypnosis to mind control. People would be most sensitive to auditory commands, but Walter knows how to stop it.
As Dr. Carson gets a ransom demand, Peter and Olivia are sure that it’s a distraction. Considering what is at stake, the amount is much too low. Nina says that MD will cover any ransom demands. If it’s a distraction, what do we do? “Set a trap,” says Olivia.
Walter is running around the house singing “Baa Baa Black Sheep”. He eventually finds what he is looking for – a white noise generator in a teddy bear.
At the ransom drop site, Walter has hooked the bear up to several headsets. The cops are instructed not to take them off under pain of death. Dr. Carson waits with the briefcase full of money. One kidnapper comes on foot but there is no sign of Tyler. The kidnapper grabs the suitcase and runs into a neighbouring warehouse. Olivia pursues. He comes barreling out in a car, which crashes. Peter sees another figure slip out the back and gives chase after signing to Walter what he was going to do. Olivia finds a kidnapper cowering in the corner, holding a gun to his head. “Help me!” he says. The figure Peter chased is Tyler. Tyler commands him to take off the stupid headphones; they won’t work anyway. “Take me to your car.” Peter does.
Walter comes looking for Peter. The kidnapper tells Olivia that Tyler is the kidnapper. He makes you do things. Olivia takes this information to Nina, who admits that Dr. Carson had one project that carried over into pharmaceuticals. He was designing an automatic-pilot project that was controlled by a person’s mind. They think that Tyler must have stolen some of the drugs used in the project and that, combined with teenaged hormones, have given him the ability control people’s minds.
Tyler is a sociopath. He keeps Peter in pain until Peter agrees to co-operate. When Peter fights, Tyler almost causes the car to crash. Then, after they are pulled over by a patrolman, Peter begs Tyler not to make him shoot the cop. Tyler has Peter knock the cop out instead. (The actor was wonderful. Scared the hell out of me, but wonderful.)
Olivia checks on Walter and asks if he can come up with a way to neutralize Tyler. Walter is in bad shape. “I can’t lose him again.” He says that Peter is the one who helps him come up with ideas and that he doesn’t think he can do it without him. (John Noble was amazing here). Olivia says that Peter helps her too but that she also believes in Walter. Walter comes up with some Fringe hocus pocus – they will try using an EMF scrambler to disrupt Tyler’s beta wave transmissions.
At the same time, Astrid hits the motherlode on Tyler’s computer. She found computer searches for women who died in car crashes 14 years ago. Specifically a woman named “Renee Davis”. Dr. Carson said that his wife, Renee, took off after Tyler was born and he assumed she was dead.
Tyler the teenager has taken Peter to a strip joint. Peter tries to bond with the young psycho, who says that he started this whole escaped because his father lied to him. His mother didn’t die, like he was told. She’s alive and they are going to find her and then she and Tyler are going to live happily ever after and she’s going to bake him chocolate chip cookies after school and life will be bliss. When Peter points out that she will probably not be pleased with the fact that Tyler killed all those cops and hurt a lot of other people, Tyler shrugs his actions off as accidents.
Olivia returns to the lab. “Please tell me you have something better than what you are wearing on your head!” Walter steps forward wearing a tinfoil hat. “This has nothing to do with the case. I don’t like it here; I think they’re reading my thoughts. Astrid also has one on and she wears it with style. Walter has put together an EMF device that will give Peter a window to fight off Tyler’s control.
Peter and Tyler arrive at Renee’s house in Maryland. “Mom!” Peter gets them all inside. Tyler is thrilled to have found his mom. He understands why she left (because of his dad) but now they have money and they can run off to Costa Rica to be a family. Renee starts to explain what is going on… and then her husband comes in. Tyler thinks that he is the reason she is hesitating. He orders Peter to get the gun.
Just before Peter can shoot Renee’s husband, Olivia and Broyles arrive on scene. Broyles tasers Tyler to no effect. Tyler makes Peter shoot Broyles and they take off. Olivia, seeing Broyles was only hit in the arm, rushes out to follow them. She gets picked up by Walter and Astrid, who have spotted Peter and the missing car. They get close enough for Walter to use his EMF device. Tyler loses his concentration and Peter steers them into a light pole.
Walter hovers over Peter until he regains consciousness. He tells Peter that Tyler was knocked unconscious and they have given him a sedative to keep him that way. Back at home, Walter still hovers. “You were abducted, of course you need crepes.” Peter is somewhat disgusted by the fact that although Tyler killed a bunch of people, he is going to end up free after a little therapy.
That’s what he thinks.
Nina sends an email to William Bell, updating him on the status of the Carson-Penrose experiment – one of the subjects did develop mind control. Unfortunately, Tyler 5 also accessed his records and found out about his surrogate mother. Still, the experiment was a success.
And we see Dr. Carson wheeling a gurney holding a sedated Tyler down into a holding area where several other Tylers are resting.
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Great recap, Featherlite!
Great recap, Featherlite!