Season 2, Episode 6:
Earthling
A Boston man is attacked by a shadowy, ghost-like figure; his wife returns home to find he disintegrates into ash upon being touched. After learning the victim had recently visited a hospital before dying, Agent Broyles explains the case is similar to one he was unable to solve in the past, in which his obsessive behavior effectively ended his marriage to his wife Diane. The suspect, an Eastern European man, had contacted him four years ago sounding distraught and asked him to figure out a special formula, which Broyles was unable to do. Walter and Peter study the victim's remains at their lab and begin studying the formula given to Broyles.
Several more people are attacked and reduced to ash. A search of Eastern European employees leads them to Russian night nurse Tomas, but he is gone when they search his apartment. Despite being ordered to end the investigation and that the suspect is wanted by both the Russian government and the CIA, Broyles tells Olivia to continue the case. Walter posits the entity needs radiation, and chooses its victims based on their exposure levels. They learn that Tomas stole his comatose brother, a former cosmonaut, and has been moving him around to both protect him and contain the entity. Fearing capture, Tomas removes his brother from the hospital; Walter speculates that the cosmonaut brought the entity back with him upon returning from space. Walter is finally able to solve the formula, and Broyles sadly tells Tomas over the phone that his brother and the entity cannot be separated. However, during their conversation, the entity escapes his brother's body and kills Tomas. The Fringe team is able to trace the call, and Broyles shoots the host in the head to stop the entity from attacking another victim.
At the end of the episode, a mysterious CIA agent approaches Broyles and tells him to not report the case. He reveals the cosmonaut resurrected itself, and it is implied to have been sent into space, "wherever it came from".
Tropes in this episode:
- A Day in the Limelight: This episode puts special focus on Broyles, letting us know him beyond his Da Chief role.
- Artistic License – Chemistry: Many of the Carbon molecules in the formula seem to have more then 4 bonds.
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Cargo Ship: Walter gets a littlle... personal with solving the formula, and starts referring to it as "she" and "temptress".B - Fate Worse than Death: That poor cosmonaut. Apparently, not even Broyles shooting him in the head killed him for real, and the CIA had to send him to space to stop the radioactive-vampire-alien shadow. Who knows if even the vaccuum can kill that thing and free him?!
- Friend to All Children: Broyles is revealed to be this, be to his kids or some random kid mimicking him on the restaurant. And when a child comes at risk, he WILL do anything to save them, even things he doesn't want to do.
- Life Drinker: An interesting variation. The cosmonaut is bonded with some sort of alien entity that consumes radiation inside people's bodies, and turns them to ash in the process. The more radiation, the more likely it is to follow you all the way home.
- Soviet Superscience: According to Walter, at least, the Russians were up to their own Fringe Science during the Cold War. Given the American Government asked some very ludicrous stuff from Walter during that time, it isn't farfetched.
- Tear Jerker: Everything about this episode. The couple at the beginning, the reveal that this case was the one that destroyed Broyles's marriage, the cosmonaut and his brother Timur's ordeal, the fact that not even Walter can separate the cosmonaut from the alien organism, Timur's death and the fact that even shooting the cosmonaut in the head couldn't free him from the alien, thus forcing the CIA to shoot him into space.
