Season 1, Episode 5:
Power Hungry
Joseph Meegar, a shy delivery boy who lives with his mother, arrives late for work and delivers a package to an office building where he comes across Bethany, a receptionist with whom he's infatuated. Afterward, while in an elevator, Bethany notices Meegar has pictures of her on his cell phone. Meegar's angst then apparently causes the elevator to fall to the underground parking lot levels, killing all but Meegar. He is able to walk away unharmed, but is then startled as all the car alarms go off around him.
Olivia talks to Charlie Francis about her encounter with her deceased lover John Scott in the (previous episode). She, Peter, and Walter Bishop arrive at the scene, where they determine that the deceased were electrocuted before the impact, and that the elevator did not fall, but drove down. Furthermore, Walter detects electromagnetic energy in the area. Meanwhile, Meegar inadvertently causes a packaging machine to malfunction, severely injuring his boss right after Meegar is fired. He later reveals to his mother that some time ago he answered a magazine advertisement promising to "unlock [his] hidden potential", and although he has no knowledge of what has been done to him, he believes that everything that is happening is a result of being experimented on. A further panicked Meegar then causes his mother's pacemaker to fail, and she dies.
The team becomes aware that a human has the uncontrolled ability to affect electrical energy, made this way by Jacob Fischer. Fischer is a rogue scientist wanted by Interpol, who experimented on humans by luring his victims through bogus ads. Olivia continues to encounter John Scott, who promises her that he does love her, and will prove it. Through him, Olivia realizes that someone survived the elevator impact. Now aware of Meegar's identity, they attempt to track him. However, Meegar is captured by Fischer who wishes to perform further tests on him. Walter finds Meegar's Walkman and uses its cassette tape to find a unique electromagnetic signature, then has homing pigeons guide Olivia, Peter, and Charlie to his location. Alerted by the FBI's arrival, Fischer attempts to leave with Meegar, who escapes. After Fischer is apprehended, Meegar attempts to flee, but he's also caught. They send Meegar to a hospital to be examined.
Walter realizes Olivia is seeing Scott, and reveals she's not hallucinating. He theorizes that when both minds were linked during Scott's coma ("Pilot"), a part of Scott's consciousness embedded itself within hers. Later, while driving home, she spots Scott again. He leads her to a basement where Scott has been running his own Pattern-related investigations. Phillip Broyles hands Olivia some of Scott's personal effects. Among them she finds an engagement ring, proving Scott's claim to have loved her.
Tropes
- Elevator Failure: Joseph's ability causes the elevator to fail, killing everyone but him. But it doesn't fail in the usual way of just falling, Joesph's powers overcharge the elevator engine, pushing it down until it crashes.
- Mad Scientist: Jacob Fisher. He runs illegal clinics offering bogus plans like weight loss, and experiments on them. He is the one who gave Joseph electromagnetic abilities, promising to make him more confident.
- Meaningful Name: Meegar sounds like meagre.
- Power Incontinence: Joseph has little to no control over his abilities.
- Shock and Awe: Joseph Meegar is given electromagnetic abilities without his knowing. Unfortunately, he can't control it, which leads to frying his company's equipment, crashing an elevator with himself inside (he unknowingly levitates and saves himself, but kills everyone inside, including the girl he had a crush on), crushing his boss's arm in a machine and killing his mother by frying her pacemaker.
- Shrinking Violet: Joseph is a male example. He still lives with his mother (or she lives with him, she has health issues and he takes care of her).
- What Happened to the Mouse??: Joseph Meegar and Jacob Fisher's fates are left hanging, as well as whether Jacob was part of ZFT or not.
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The Woobie: Joseph is having a VERY bad week, all of which includes being given abilities against his will, and accidentally killing both his crush and his mother. And at the end we don't even get a reassurance that he'll get better.
