Season 1, Episode 9:
The Dreamscape
Massive Dynamic executive Mark Young delivers a presentation at the company’s Manhattan office. When he is done and the other attendees have left, he sees an unusual butterfly. Upon picking it up, he experiences a cut on his hand and is then attacked by a swarm. Mark jumps out of a window to his death. Olivia, despite preparing to go out to dinner with her sister, instead agrees to Broyles' demand that she join the Fringe team's investigation at the scene. While examining the body, Walter Bishop sees lacerations on Young’s skin and notes a lack of corresponding tears on his shirt. At the scene, Olivia has a brief vision of her deceased lover John Scott watching them, which troubles her.
Later, in the lab at Harvard, Walter's autopsy reveals a synthetic compound in Mark's blood, though any link to the cuts is not yet known to them. Olivia receives an email from someone who claims to be John Scott, listing an address for her to visit. Upon arriving she finds boxes, one of which contains a group of toads. At the lab, Walter finds that the toads contain a "psychoactive compound", a hallucinogen that affects the fear center of the brain. They conclude that Mark’s brain was so convinced of something happening to his body that actual physical marks appeared. Mark was infected with a large dosage, leading them to attribute his death to murder.
Olivia admits to Walter how she found the address and learns that her brain still contains some of John's memories. Wishing to discover what else John knew and prevent any further visions from occurring, Olivia insists on returning to Walter’s sensory deprivation tank. Inside the tank, Olivia sees a memory of John in a restaurant. Despite Walter's vehement protest that it is impossible, Olivia is convinced that John Scott saw her. Afterward, she sees John meeting with Mark and two other unidentified men. After Mark and another man leave, John kills the remaining man. Olivia believes the group intended to sell the compound as a street drug, and she's able to track down the other man, George Morales. Once apprehended, he denies killing Mark and demands immunity and protection from Massive Dynamic, who he believes was responsible for Mark's death as well as other recent fringe events. Olivia confronts Nina Sharp with her suspicions, but George is murdered before he can be of further help to them. Later that night, Olivia gets another email from John Scott simply saying, "I SAW YOU. IN THE RESTAURANT."
Meanwhile, Peter is contacted by Tess, a woman from his past, who warns him to leave Boston. When he meets her, Peter intuits that she is being abused by her boyfriend Michael. He ambushes Michael and warns him not to touch Tess again. Michael then informs local crime boss Worth that Peter is back in town.
Tropes
- Aborted Arc: More hints of Peter's shady past that will amount to nothing.
- Absurdly Sharp Blade: The butterflies' wings. Just touching it lightly opens the guy's thumb, and Walter states that it cuts all the way to the bone. Justified, since it's all an hallucination causing psychosomatic wounds.
- Artistic License – Chemistry: This may be a bit picky, but bufotenin secreted by Bufo alvarius is a triptamine and not an ergoline derivative.
- Car Cushion
- Death by a Thousand Cuts: Mark Young hallucinates with a cloud of razor-winged butterflies, and his mind makes it real. If he didn't run out the window, he would have likely been torn apart and bleed to death by a thousand bone-deep cuts.
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Fridge Brilliance: It's possible he ran out the window because he realized what was going on and decided it's Better to Die than Be Killed, especially when his death would have been slow and messy otherwise.
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- Fright Death Trap: It is never explained why anyone wanted to scare him to death, a shove seems more efficient.
- ZFT likes showing off by killing people with Weird Science methods, both as their signature method and as a discouragement from their members from attempting betrayal. This may also have been a demonstration test to sell the weapon, they probably recorded it.
- Ghost Memory
- Killer Rabbit: or rather Butterflies.
- Left Hanging: So how and why were Mark Young and Morales killed? Was it ZFT? Massive Dynamic? William Bell? Were they infiltrated agents just like John Scott?. We never learn.
- No Escape but Down: Though he was probably desperate and unable to see where he was going while being attacked by Razor Wing butterflies.
- Number of the Beast: Morales' cell phone number isn't the standard 555 phone number, but instead has a 666 prefix.
- Slow-Motion Fall
- Water Is Air: No difficulty hearing Walter when submerged in water
- Your Mind Makes It Real: Hallucinated butterflies produce real incisions down to the bone.
