“August” is episode eight of season two of Fringe.
In Boston, the Observer is using the same binoculars he did in “The Arrival” and again making notes in a book. However, when a person raising money for veterans speaks to him, it turns out it’s not the Observer. But someone dressed the same, equally bald and with the same items. The man spots a young woman and goes after her, grabbing her. One of the people nearby tells the man to let the young woman go; the man shoots him with a gun that knocks him backwards. He then breaks a car window, drugs the woman unconscious and, somehow, fails to get hit by the shots a security guard fires and starts the car with his finger.
Olivia is woken up by Ella and they are discussing their plans for the day when Olivia’s phone rings. Ella realises Olivia won’t be able to make it and is unbelievably understanding.
Olivia arrives at Walter and Peters; Peter asks if she’s sure it’s the Observer. They haven’t got the security footage yet, but the description was of a bald man in a grey suit wearing one of those old hats from the 60s. No information on the young woman yet and no-one knew who she was. Olivia asks if Walter is awake. Yes; he’s in the kitchen. But talking to him isn’t easy. Because Walter’s favourite ice cream parlour has closed down and he’s gone mad with blenders trying to recreate the taste. Olivia tells him the Observer may have abducted a young woman.
At the lab, Olivia asks Walter about the Observer; he knows nothing more than he said before. He saved Walter and Peter from a car crash. Astrid has the footage and the police found the man’s notebook. When they view the footage, they realise it’s not the same man. Peter says there’s more than one of them. He asks the footage be slowed down. The guard didn’t miss; the new Observer caught the bullets.
The young woman wakens in a motel room as her abductor is tying her up, saying what she says as she does, before gagging her and saying it’s safer if she’s quiet.
Broyles tells Olivia the woman is Christine Hollis; nothing special or unusual about her. Olivia says that, apart from saving Walter and Peter, the Observers just observe. If they find out what makes Christine an exception, they can find him.
Peter has found what might be blood in the notebook. Astrid is not making sense of the writing; 1,246 distinct characters so far and no repeats. Language requires repeated symbols. If it’s a code, it’s the most complex she’s ever seen. Olivia arrives and Astrid tells her someone else is investigating the symbols in the book.
That being Massive Dynamic. A scientist there tells Olivia and Peter that one symbol has been found on a cuneiform tablet in the Iraqi National Museum, another on the Iron Pillar of Delhi. He has no idea what they mean, but has found something else. An Observer at the Boston Massacre, one at Marie Antoinette’s execution and one at the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. He thinks the Observers are not limited by the human perception of time, and are observing it, showing up at important events. But it’s rare. Two dozen definite sightings in 5,000 years. And 26 in the past three months.
The known Observer is dining with another when a third arrives. There’s a situation with August. The one who took Christine. She’s supposed to be on a plane, but it’s already left. August has created an irregularity which needs repairing. The Observer contacts Donald. A man who is not an Observer, but who has a silenced gun and receives a picture of Christine from a dot matrix printer.
Olivia and Peter are talking to a friend of Christine’s, whose subletting as Christine is supposed to be spending the semester in Italy. Peter finds a photo and asks; yes, it’s of Christine and her parents, taken just before the ’89 earthquake in San Francisco, in which her parents died. Peter shows Olivia the photo. There’s an Observer in the background.
Christine gets free just as August returns with food. He helps her up seems upset she managed to hurt herself. She wants to know what he wants. It’s better if he shows her. He turns on the news. You can guess what happened. The plane Christine was supposed to be on crashed. Everyone died.
August – and, perhaps because this is the first time a second Observer has been seen, this is the first time a name has been given – is acting out of character. He seems to be fixated on Christine for some reason. The other Observers want to fix this. As in kill Christine.