photo: fox
Fringe
What Lies Below
Original Air Date: Jan 21, 2010
Rachel – Sr. Managing Editor
rachel@thetwocentscorp.com
The next time you get into an elevator with an old Dutch man who had a bloody nose and looks as if he’s about ready to pass out, go ahead and run. Mr. Bike Messenger didn’t, and he, along with everyone else on the 16th floor of Boston’s Vitas Petrol building got a face-full of toxic, bloody mist when the man died. Nice.
Olivia and Peter show up first (Astrid and Walter are busy scaring kids at a Boston children’s museum). While interviewing witnesses, they learn that the dead guy, VanDeKamp, didn’t have an appointment and no one knew why he was there. Mike, the bike messenger, goes to the bathroom to wash his face (I don’t blame him!) and realizes he has a bloody nose, too. He tries to get out of the building but Walter, seeing his condition, prevents him from opening the door (which Mike “sprays” on and dies). Walter tells Broyles to quarantine the place, just as he and Astrid realize that Olivia and Peter will be trapped inside.
When the CDC shows up, mob mentality starts to effect the staff. Who got blood on them? Who didn’t? Who was near VanDeKamp? And when the receptionists gets a bloody nose, all hell breaks loose. Olivia learns that VanDeKamp was there to see a Mr. Ames: to “show him something” from a competitor… to “sell” Ames something.
Meanwhile (and after a little arrest), Walter takes blood samples from the victims and witnesses back to the lab to route the pathogen, escorted by Hubert, a CDC agent, and Astrid. After several attempts, they can’t get the virus strain won’t isolate, which means it isn’t airborne, but also that they need a better sample. Walter’s theory is that the virus has a “need” to spread itself and now has a “sense” that it is contained. So, they go back to the quarantine scene…
Just in time for the receptionist to go all body snatchers and jump out the window to her death and a little more “spraying” (the virus compelled her to get outside!) that was quickly contained by the CDC. In the confusion, Peter falls onto VanDeKamp’s body and gets infected. Oh, well – he’s got the virus now so why not search the body to figure out want VanDaKamp wanted to sell to Ames. Peter leads the CDC to a drill core sample full of… Holy crap! That looks like the Black Oil from The X-Files!!!
Walter develops a tox-screen to test who is infected and who isn’t. Peter, with a hidden bloody nose, switches his sample and he is cleared to go outside. Too bad that pesky bloody nose shows up again right before he walks. talk about Body Snatcher! He’s not himself… he’s all cave man. So we have 12 people who are infected and desperate to get out of the building. The uninfected leave, except for Walter and Astrid of course. Arnold McFadden (Field Director for the CDC) orders a Level 6 Eradication… killing all the infected because he knows they don’t know how to contain the virus. If it gets out, it will infect the entire globe in two weeks. Olivia, who was cleared and got out, is none too happy about the whole killing Peter thing.
But Walter comes through. He estimated, based on the depth of the core sample, that the virus was what wiped out the dinosaurs 75 million years ago… but something else must have killed the virus: volcanic ask, or sulfur. Sulfur will attack and kill the virus, but it will take several hours to mix up the antidote. Broyles suggests gassing the people in the building, buying them time while the sleep. But someone has to go in a turn on the ventilation system… Olivia volunteers and McFadden gives her 15 minutes.
So Olivia goes into a building full of delirious people controlled by a virus, the most scary of which is Peter… who attacks her. Zombie infestation, anyone? She gets the vents on, but Peter stole her gun and make a beeline for… where is he going? The gas knocks him out before he could do anything… sinister?
Interesting tidbit: When Walter tells Astrid “I can’t let Peter die again” she realizes something is up…
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Next Time: The Bishop Revival
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