“Lungfish” is episode seven of season one of First Wave.
A boy is playing on a tractor when he sees something catch the light in the garden. He goes over and finds a fish on the ground. Alive. He takes it home and puts it in the fish tank. Whilst he’s cooking a meal, the fish jumps out of the tank. When he drops some peas on the floor, he sees the fish. Out of the tank, breathing air and seemingly with legs.
Cade is following up a newspaper clip about a farm in Indiana where a large mouthed bass was found that breathes on land. He’s linked it to a quatrain, though Eddie thinks it’s a waste of time. There’s a board up at the farm about the bank foreclosing on it. When he knocks on the door, a young woman answers it. No, Cade isn’t from the bank. He claims he’s a reporter looking for the fish. It’s gone; somebody stole it the day after the newspaper report. Cody thought they could do with the extra cash. The boy is Cody and the woman is his older sister, Esther. Cody claims he can get Cade another fish but Esther disagrees. She shuts the door. Through a window, Cody indicates he wants to talk.
Elsewhere, Colonel Grace and her men have arrived. She wants Cade found and tells them to instruct all the local police.
Cody and Cade are talking about loss; Cody’s father died last year and it’s just him and Esther. Esther says she’s going to get the money for the farm. How much is Cade willing to pay for the fish? Cade admits he isn’t a reporter and can’t pay any money. He didn’t think Cody would believe the truth. Cody says he didn’t even try. Cade says he thinks the fish was a normal bass, but changed. By people not of this planet. They probably stole the first fish. By a pond, Cody puts some peas on the ground. It seems the fish like peas. A bass clambers out of the water on legs.
Cade calls Eddie, who still doesn’t think it’s necessarily unusual. Though a mention of guinea pigs leads Eddie to suggest that perhaps the fish is the first step in a larger experiment. Currently, he thinks the fish is a genetic aberration. An Indiana state trooper notices Cade on the phone and stops. Whilst he’s in the process of arresting Cade, Eddie hacks into the police and a message is sent that Cade Foster is already in custody. The trooper drives off and Cade gets back on the phone. Eddie says Colonel Grace was behind this, and he can’t find out much about her. He has found a fish expert at the University of Western Indiana. She’ll want a sample of water from the pond.
That night, Cade collects a water sample, then notices bubbles from something larger approaching the shore. The something larger turns out to be Esther. Cade says there’s unusual life in the pond, not least of which is Esther. She was under the water for a long time. Esther says she doesn’t need help; she’s handling the situation on her own. Cade warns her she and Cody are in danger, and says she lied about the fish. Well, Cade lied about being a reporter. Cade thinks the fish are experiments and he wants to find out what’s going on. Esther suggests he jumps into the water to find out himself.
At the university, Cade goes to see Dr Alice Gundry. She’s not impressed with him having a large mouthed bass. She’s an expert in tropical fish, in Indiana surrounded by bass. Cade says it’s an amazing bass. Dr Gundry lists all the reasons why bass are not amazing when Cade shows her the, living, fish in a box. He explains it crawled out of a pond. She asks how a fish got like this. He has no idea, but wants to know. Dr Gundry says it will take several weeks to find out; Cade needs to know now, whilst he wakes. If she can explain it, she will become famous. Colonel Grace has discovered that Cade’s car has been seen at the university.
Dr Gundry says that the water from the pond is stagnant; the fish couldn’t have been in it. Cade asks if it was put there. She wouldn’t be surprised if it had walked. It’s not a mammal – at least, not yet. It’s growing skin and mutating, evolving practically as she watches. Dr Gundry thinks she knows where the fish walked from; a fish farm.
The fish farm has armed guards, which is not something you’d expect. It’s not like the fish are going to be dangerous or anyone would want to break in. At least, that would be the case if this was a normal fish farm. It isn’t.
Cade ends up getting oddly attached to both Esther and Cody, considering he’s only just met them.