“Brown Betty” is episode nineteen of season two of Fringe.
In the previous episode, “The Man from the Other Side”, Peter worked out the truth of his origin and left. Walter is in the lab, smoking something, after which he decides to label everything to music. Astrid comes in to find the lab has undergone a sudden massive organisation. She suggests Walter has been smoking marijuana. Walter says you can hardly classify what he just smoked as marijuana. It’s his own creation; he calls it Brown Betty. Astrid reassures Walter that Peter will come back.
Olivia arrives; she hasn’t found Peter. She has some leads, but she has something else she needs to do. Walter asks what’s more important than finding Peter. Ella comes in. Walter asks who it is. Ella. Rachel’s daughter. Who is Oliva’s sister. Rachel has had to go to Chicago and asked Olivia to keep an eye on her. Olivia starts asking but Walter thinks he’s too stoned. Astrid believes Olivia was asking her.
Walter is playing Operation, badly, with Ella. She wants him to tell her a story. He’s not very good at stories. Ella asks if he ever told Peter stories. No; he was always too busy with his work. Ella asks if his parents ever told him stories. Yes, his mother loved detective stories and musicals. Astrid convinces Walter to tell a story. He starts, speaking about an accomplished detective, O. Dunham, PI. Who was quitting because of a mystery no-one could solve; how to mend a broken heart. A woman, Rachel, arrives at her office. She wants to hire Dunham to find her boyfriend. It was love at first sight. Dunham tries dissuading her but Rachel persists. Then starts singing. In Walter’s voice. Ella and Astrid are looking at him. Walter blames his medication.
Back to the story and Walter says the man’s name was Peter Bishop. Ella objects; her mother doesn’t love Peter. Walter says it is just a story. Dunham takes the case, to see if she can prove true love is real. Elsewhere, a young man, Peter, has a very special item. An artificial heart,
Dunham finds a piano-playing and singing Broyles, a lieutenant in the police. She has dirt on him. She asks him about a symbol on a car. Broyles adds a couple of lines; it’s the symbol of Massive Dynamic. A vile firm, Walter says. Dunham heads there to speak to Nina Sharp, who says that Peter is a dangerous con man. After Dunham leaves, Nina calls someone.
Dunham calls Rachel, to hear the answerphone. Then Rachel picks up, shouting for help as she’s attacked. Dunham finds her dead, with her heart missing. Ella says she can’t be dead. Walter asks why not. Because it’s Ella’s mother, according to Astrid, but Ella says that’s not how stories work. People in true love can’t die. Walter says things are not as they seem. According to Broyles, Rachel’s real name was Kelsie, an actress. He doesn’t want her around. Dunham agrees suspiciously easily, swiping an address book as she leaves.
Inside the book is a cheque from Walter Bishop. Dunham finds Walter, who says he misled her as she only takes cases where someone lost their heart to love. Walter says his lab assistant, Peter Bishop – no relation – took his most important invention. Walter invented everything wonderful in the world. Until recently, he was kept alive by a glass heart. He thinks Peter stole it whilst he was asleep. Dunham has to rehire her assistant, Esther Figglesworth. Astrid gives the real Walter a look.
This is an unusual episode with very little connection to the main story. Walter’s story uses familiar people in unfamiliar parts. It’s a noir episode, somewhat sepia-toned, but there’s a mix of old and new technology; mobile phones, rotary phones and computers. And singing.