'''Season 2, Episode 19''':
!Brown Betty
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/300px-Episode220_3190.jpg]]
[-[[caption-width-right:300: I have spent my life making things that bring joy and happiness, to make the world a better place. Bubble Gum was one of my first. Ah. Flannel Pajamas. Oh, Rainbows. And my latest project, Singing Corpses.]]-]

The episode begins with Walter smoking his own strain of marijuana called "Brown Betty" while Olivia attempts to find Peter, who has disappeared after learning Walter stole him from the alternate universe. Because Olivia's sister Rachel is unavailable, she brings her niece Ella to the lab for Walter and Astrid to look after. To pass the time, Walter tells Ella a detective noir story in which Olivia is a private investigator.

In the story, Rachel approaches Olivia to find her boyfriend, Peter, who has gone missing. During the investigation, Detective Broyles leads her to Massive Dynamic, where the CEO Nina Sharp informs her that Peter is a conman and industrial spy. Later, Rachel is found murdered, with her heart taken. Olivia finds a check signed by Walter Bishop, an inventor that has created "everything that is wonderful in the world" in order to benefit humanity (hugs, rainbows, bubblegum, singing corpses). Questioning Walter, Olivia learns that Peter worked with Walter, who treated him like a son. One day, Walter made a glass heart but Peter later stole it. Were the heart not to be found, Walter and his ideas would die. To help find Peter, Olivia calls her assistant, "Esther Figglesworth."

Later, Olivia follows Nina Sharp, only to find herself kidnapped by a "Watcher," working for Sharp. The Watcher attempts to kill Olivia by placing her in a wooden crate and sending it out to sea. Fortunately, Olivia is rescued by Peter. After taking her to his hideout, he reveals that the glass heart was his by nature of having been born with it, and that after working with Walter, Peter loved him enough to donate it to him. However, he took it back after learning a terrible secret behind his inventions: they were stolen from children's dreams and replaced with nightmares. Later, the house is under attack by an army of Watchers. Olivia fights them off, but not before they manage to take Peter's heart with them. After placing batteries in his heart cavity to act as a temporary measure, Olivia discovers that Walter set up the attack. In the confrontation, Walter apologizes for his misdeeds and promises to change. However, Peter cannot forgive Walter and leaves him, ending the story.

Ella is disappointed by the ending, so she proposes an alternate ending: when Walter says he can change, Peter believes him and splits the glass heart in two, and together they "lived happily ever after." Olivia returns, having found no leads on Peter's location. Astrid returns Walter to his home, where the Observer watches from a distance and notes Peter's disappearance.

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!! Tropes found in this episode:

* AccidentalMisnaming: Of the C Variant.
-->'''WALTER:''' Be careful, Stella (to Ella).
* AffectionateParody: Of FilmNoir
* AllAnimalsAreDogs:
-->'''WALTER:''' Gene, Gene, no licking. no licking.
* AllOfTheOtherReindeer: We find out that Walter was roughed up in school because [[AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents his mother would dress him up as parts in musicals]].
* AmazingTechnicolorWildlife: Gene's polk-a-dots.
* UsefulNotes/AmericanAccents: Anna Torv seems to have a little trouble with Olivia's Noo Yawk accent.
* AnyoneCanDie: [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded.]]
-->'''ELLA:''' That's not how it goes. She can't be dead.
-->'''WALTER:''' Why not?
-->'''ASTRID:''' Probably because it's her mother, Walter.
-->'''WALTER:''' Oh.
-->'''ELLA:''' No, that's not it. Because that's not how stories work. She's in love -- true love. She can't die.
* AnachronismStew: Done deliberately for laughs. For example, Nina Sharp uses an old rotary telephone right next to her iMac monitor.
* ArtisticLicenseChemistry:
** Walter spells [=MnSO4=] as “manganese sulphate”, ignoring IUPAC guidelines, but later spells [=H2SO4=] as “sulfuric acid”
* ArtisticLicenseMedicine:
** The cricoarytenoid muscles do not actually contract the larynx. They are muscles intrinsic to the larynx. The posterior cricoarytenoid muscle laterally rotates the arytenoid cartilages, opening the vocal folds. The lateral cricoarytenoid muscle internally rotates the arytenoid cartilages, closing the vocal folds.
* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: The singing corpses.
* BizarroEpisode
* CallBack: Picture of John Scott on Olivia's desk.
** While explaining Peter's disappearance to Olivia Rachel claims he's in debt to Big Eddie, who the real Peter was trying to avoid back in [[AbortedArc the first season]].
* TheCastShowoff: Oddly averted in September's case. Michael Cerveris is both a musical theatre actor and a rock singer, but he doesn't get a song.
* CellPhonesAreUseless: No signal in the crate.
* ContinuityNod: Ella plays operation with Walter as she previously played with Olivia in 'The No-Brainer' and Teddy played with Astrid in 'Johari Window'.
* CloudcuckoolandersMinder: Astrid
* DeliberatelyMonochrome: We see black and white photos and Bell on the Viewing device appears like a black and white television.
* DownerEnding: Walter's version of the story ends with Peter taking back the glass heart and coldly telling Walter that "some things you can't undo". Ella objects and comes up with a new ending (see HappilyEverAfter below)
* DreamStealer
* DrugsAreBad: InvertedTrope
* FantasticDrug: Brown Betty
* FantasticNoir
* FrothyMugsOfWater: AvertedTrope. They actually show a bong on network television, though they do not show Walter until after he uses it.
* FunctionalAddict: Although how functional Walter is could be debated.
* GRatedDrug; MarijuanaIsLSD: Given Walter's typical ingestion of psychedelics, sedatives, and various other drugs, the effects of marijuana are a bit overplayed in this episode.
* HardboiledDetective: Olivia's character.
* HappilyEverAfter: Ella's version of the ending has Peter split the glass heart in two and give half to Walter so they can work together to create more things that will bring people happiness.
* HeartTrauma
* HeroicSelfDeprecation: In an act of self-flagellation Walter casts himself as an evil MadScientist who steals children's dreams.
* LoveAtFirstSight:
-->'''RACHEL:''' We met only a few weeks ago, but... it was love at first sight.
* MusicalEpisode
* TheNicknamer: Walter decides to change some names, [[Franchise/{{Dragnet}} to protect the innocent]]:
** Astrid Farnsworth becomes Esther Figglesworth.
** Instead of calling the Observer by a Month name, he is called by the Zodiac sign Gemini.
** The Observers are called Watchers.
* NoirEpisode
* NotThatKindOfDoctor:
-->'''ELLA:''' (playing the board game - Operation. to Walter as the buzzer repeatedly sounds) You're killing him. You're not supposed to touch the sides. What kind of doctor are you? You're not even trying.
* OutOfGenreExperience: A FilmNoir MusicalEpisode in a ScienceFiction show.
* OnceUponATime:
-->'''WALTER:''' Once upon a time... there was an accomplished detective.
* ProductPlacement: [[http://www.americanlicorice.com/our-brands/red-vines/ Red Vines]] get a label.
* SchizoTech: An episode set in a 40's FilmNoir...with cell phones.
* SeparateSceneStorytelling
* ShoutOut:
** We find out Walter's mother loved Creator/RaymondChandler and Creator/DashiellHammett.
** "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart" by Music/TheBeeGees
** "Head over Heels" by Music/TearsForFears, maybe also reference to another story of time travel with an unusual character -- Film/DonnieDarko.
** The search for the glass heart seems to reference the Tin Woodman's quest in ''Literature/TheWonderfulWizardOfOz''.
** The [[{{Chiaroscuro}} dramatic shadows]] during Creator/LeonardNimoy's appearance suggest he may have [[BeardOfEvil facial hair]] recalling MirrorUniverse [[TheSpock Spock]].
* StonersAreFunny:
-->'''ELLA:''' All you've done is eat all my snacks and talk about weird stuff and everything makes you laugh.
* StorybookEpisode
* TitleDrop:
-->'''WALTER:''' I'd hardly classify what I've just smoked as marijuana. It's -- it's a hybrid. Of Chronic Supernova and Afghani Kush. I call it Brown Betty.
* ThatRemindsMeOfASong:
** Walter sings Music/TearsForFears "Head over Heels".
** Broyle's does a very good job singing Traffic's "The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys".
** The corpses sing "Candy Man".
** Astrid really brings it with "I hope I get it" from Theatre/AChorusLine.
** Olivia sings Music/StevieWonder's "For Once in My Life".
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: The man stabbed in the back at the Hawaii themed jazz bar.
* WhenYouComingHomeDad:
-->'''WALTER:''' I never told Peter stories. I was always... too busy with my work.
* WouldHurtAChild

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