"The Ghost Network" first aired on September 23, 2008, as the third episode of Fringe. I don't remember what this one is about, but I can only assume there will be ghosts in it. Time will only tell if my assumption is rightful. Let's dive in.
The recap
In a cathedral, a distressed man is seen confessing his sins to a priest, saying "I see things" and that "It's happening again." He also remarks that he's "scared of what's going to happen on the bus." At the same time, on a bus driving down the street, another man dons a gas mask and unleashes a mysterious gas on the unsuspecting passengers, before calmly exiting, getting in a car and speeding away. The first man abruptly leaves the confessional, leaving behind a drawing of the terrified passengers. When a police officer finds the bus, he sees that everyone inside is frozen in a weird amber-like substance.
Later, everyone is at the cemetery for John Scott's funeral, and holy shit, it's only JUST NOW John's funeral?!?!? HOW? They investigated and solved a whole case before John even got buried?? Fine, whatever, TV time doesn't equal regular time and so forth. John's mother spends the service giving Olivia the stink eye, which Olivia later attributes to her blaming Olivia for what happened to her son. Broyles then shows up and asks Olivia and Charlie to come with him.
Walter and Peter are having lunch at a diner when Peter suddenly goes over to some guy and performs some impromptu wrestling moves. It turns out the guy has been following him all day and taking photos. The guy says "You were supposed to check in before you came home," and Peter orders him not to tell anyone else he's back. All very shady stuff. Not long after, Peter, Walter and Olivia show up to the scene of the bus incident (I'm not sure where Charlie went?). Broyles explains that the attack wasn't biological in nature, and theorizes that it might not have been an attack at all. Walter describes the victims as "like mosquitos trapped in amber." Meanwhile, the man from the church is seen working in an office cubicle when he suddenly has a terrible vision of a bloody figure and is compelled to draw it on paper.
Back at the lab, Walter is studying the amber and concludes that it starts as a silicon-based aerosol that solidifies. He asks Peter who the man from the restaurant was, but Peter lies about it. Olivia finds that one of the victims had a camcorder and was recording on the bus. She sees a woman on the recording, one of the victims, holding a backpack that wasn't found with her afterwards. They learn that the woman was an undercover DEA agent, and they bring in her handler for questioning. From him, they learn that the agent had infiltrated a Nicaraguan cartel, but got spooked and asked her handler to pull her out after she overheard members of the cartel discussing the Pattern. Olivia allows the handler to "say goodbye" to the corpse of the agent, and the camera suspiciously lingers on the handler touching the corpse's arm, which definitely isn't gonna be relevant later, nope.
Back at the lab, Walter has figured out that the only one who manufactures the compounds needed to create the amber is, you guessed it, Massive Dynamic, who seem to have their fingers in every pie around here. Then, Charlie informs Olivia that a tip was called in from the priest from earlier, warning about the man who confessed to him, Roy McComb. They head to Roy's apartment, where they find loads of creepy drawings, all depicting accidents and disasters, including the doomed flight from "Pilot," and all dated before said incidents even happened.
Olivia heads to Massive Dynamic to ask Nina Sharp what the fuck is up with the whole "the compounds used on the bus are manufactured exclusively by your subsidiaries" deal. Nina says Massive Dynamic supplies those compounds to a dozen labs around the world and offers up a list of said labs. Olivia points out that Massive Dynamic has had something to do with every case she's investigated (which, to be fair, numbers three at this point, but still), and Nina counters that this is only because Massive Dynamic is so damn big. She turns it back around by pointing out that Olivia has had something to do with every case so far, too, and not-so-subtly implies that Olivia might be responsible for... what? I don't know, man. Being cursed? Being a harbinger of doom or something? What exactly Nina is implying Olivia is responsible for evades me. Like, dude. Imagine you're accusing a gigantic multinational trillion-dollar corporation of being evil, and they try to be like, "No, you!" I mean, come on, man, Olivia is literally ONE PERSON. Like, the level of gaslighting. Nina sure did try it! The sheer audacity of this! It gets more ridiculous the more you think about it. (Especially given the fact that Nina is probably going to turn out to be right somehow.)
Meanwhile, Charlie is interrogating Roy, who admits that he experiences prophetic visions of horrific incidents. He's been experiencing this for nine months, which Broyles tells the Bishops is about how long they've been aware of the Pattern. Walter hypothesizes that Roy is psychically linked with whoever is responsible for the events. Later, Olivia confronts Broyles about something Nina told her, that this wasn't the first time the substance on the bus was used. Broyles confirms it, and Olivia demands why she doesn't even have clearance to know basic background info on her cases. Broyles hits her with that "it's for your own protection" maneuver. Olivia hits back with "If I'm gonna do this job, I need to know what I'm dealing with," and Broyles is like, "Trust me." All very shady.
Walter puts Roy through a CAT scan or MRI or something. Yes, that's right, I'm an adult who doesn't know the difference between a CAT scan and an MRI, sue me. Anyway, Walter is scanning Roy in some sort of scanning thing, hoping to detect the signature of another person's thoughts in Roy's head. Roy starts panicking and every vein in his face and neck start grotesquely bulging, forcing them to pull him out of the machine. Walter theorizes that there's something in Roy's blood causing this reaction, maybe metal.
Later, Walter, Peter and Astrid search through Walter's old files, and Walter finds some old research he and William "Belly" Bell, founder of Massive Dynamic, did together. This research was on the subject of a spectrum of invisible psychic waves that could be used for communication, which was called the ghost network, roll credits! I guess I was wrong and there aren't going to be actual ghosts in this after all. Oh well, can't have everything. Also in Walter's files, Peter discovers that Roy was one of Walter's test subjects from back in the day, which enrages Peter. Walter believes that the experiments done on Roy have turned him into a "receiver" for transmissions from the ghost network, essentially listening in to the conversations of others. He decides to perform a surgery on Roy to rewire his brain, but to do so, they're gonna need a piece of equipment that Walter left behind in the Bishops' old house 17 years ago. Peter and Olivia head to the house to retrieve it.
Back at the lab, they perform the surgery on Roy. Walter's intention is to change Roy's ability so that he's able to actually hear what the baddies communicating through the ghost network are saying. rather than just being like, vaguely tormented by visions, so they can catch the bad guys faster, I guess? Roy manages to tap into a conversation, and they learn that an exchange is about to be made in an hour at South Station. On a hunch based on one of Roy's drawings, Olivia goes back to the morgue, where she finds that the handler extracted something from the corpse's hand. She and Charlie then head to South Station to intercept the exchange. Olivia confronts the handler, but he's shot by an unknown third party, and she discovers the exchange was already made. Pursuing the guy he made the exchange with, she and Charlie manage to corner him and secure the briefcase he was carrying, but he leaps in front of a bus before they can capture him.
They discover that what was extracted from the DEA agent's hand was a small, translucent disc of unknown purpose. Olivia is understandably upset about the outcome of the case, and in response Broyles says, and I QUOTE: "Do you ever smile, Dunham?"
ANYWAY!! Broyles informs Olivia that they ID'd the shooter, who was connected to two other Pattern incidents. Later, Olivia returns to the lab, wearing a huge smile, because she DOES smile WHEN SHE'S AROUND PEOPLE WHO AREN'T BROYLES, and discovers that Roy has been healed of his former ability. Then, we see Broyles and Nina meeting up in secret, definitely not evilly, where Broyles gives Nina the mysterious disc and they discuss "our interest in Agent Dunham."
Nina gives the disc to one of her... lab tech guys, I guess?... who says "This might be what we need to break the encryption." Then, we see that they've got John Scott, or at least his dead body, in a weird little airtight chamber, pulling a bunch of encrypted information out of him. Yet another Nina-related dun dun dun moment! The end! For now!
Impressions
For sure, this was an improvement on "The Same Old Story," more exciting and intriguing, but... I mean, I know it's only the very third episode and this is kind of a bullshit complaint, but I gotta speak my truth, it's kind of irritating how both cases so far have tied back into the Pattern. Like, I want a simple monster-of-the-week episode! I want wacky shit to happen that's not tied to anything! I want a break from the damn Pattern! *banging forks and knives on the table and chanting* No more mythology!! No more mythology!!
That being said: it was fine. There were a lot of cute little character moments that really gave this one some much-needed pizzazz. More Olivia/Peter bonding, Walter and Astrid working together, and Walter gets at least one wacky old man line. Also, especially with full knowledge of all the twists and turns this arc takes, it's absolutely fascinating to watch Walter and Peter's relationship unfold. It's like few others on TV: combative, cold, almost wholly unkind, weighted down with decades of painful history the audience isn't privy to yet but which have clearly left deep scars on both of them. At this stage, Peter treats Walter like a burden, grudgingly tolerating him at best and screaming at him at worst, and meanwhile Walter is (seemingly) too busy being mentally ill and committing grossly unethical atrocities of science to even remember Peter's around half the time. God, they're just SO interesting. I can't wait to see their story unfold.
Most disgusting moment
This ep wasn't too gross, but the veins popping out on Roy's head were kind of bleh.
Nicest moment
Peter playing the piano for everyone!!!
Shit Walter says
"I think it's time for some intracranial penetration." I mean, when is it not?
"Oh my God. I believe that, with proper demodulation, you could receive satellite television for free."
Foreshadowing!
Lots of stuff about the Pattern, continually-unseen character Belly, and Massive Dynamic. Also, Olivia asks Peter where his mother is now; he replies, "That's a story for another time." It sure is!
What did the glyphs spell?
"AEGER."
Rating
7/10.
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