“Concentrate and Ask Again” is episode twelve of season three of Fringe.
At Massive Dynamic, Nina Sharp enters a room that looks to have a lot of William Bell’s things stored in it. The camera lingers on a book by Dr Spock – likely not a coincidence – then Nina opens a safe disguised as a heating vent. She looks through some personal mementoes before taking out a book. The First People, in German. She calls Olivia.
Olivia arrives and Nina says that all five books say the same thing exactly, though they are supposedly by different authors. What the book claims would be incredible – if the information in them hadn’t led to the coordinates of the device. This makes them impossible to discount. Nina wonders if there’s anything in Fauxlivia’s journal. Olivia says no; Nina wasn’t aware Olivia had read it. She imagines it was awkward. Olivia says her alternate did develop genuine feelings for Peter, which she understands. But she wonders if Peter feels the same way. Fauxlivia is like Olivia, but better. Nina says that she and William Bell had a complicated relationship. Her one regret is that they never honestly acknowledged how they felt. If Olivia wants to know what Peter feels, ask him.
At a company, after his birthday party, a man returns to his office. His assistant brings him a package. He opens it and inside it is a rag doll. There’s a cord and he pulls it. The doll laughs, then sprays a powder at him. The man starts crumpling. His assistant returns to find him in a mess on the floor.
Broyles fills the other three in. Dr Warren Blake, a scientist in the company’s R&D division, the victim of a suspected bioattack. Peter, Olivia and Walter suit up and enter. Walter says Blake doesn’t have a single bone left in his body. The blue substance is the culprit. Peter has found the doll, which is still working. Olivia says the attack was personal. There’s a card in the package, wishing Blake happy birthday from Madison. And it’s too big for a mail drop.
Olivia is downloading post office footage at the lab and Peter has brought her a coffee. Made how Fauxlivia likes it, by the look of it. Astrid is reading about Blake and Walter is playing with the substance and chicken bones. Which Astrid thinks is an excuse to eat fried chicken. Walter wants to figure out what the substance is which might help them work out where it came from. He and Bell worked on something similar, in order to vaccinate people without their knowledge, but discontinued it when Nixon wanted to use it to make bioweapons. He’s dismantling the doll when the other two enter. Olivia wants someone on the post office footage running. Walter says the device is military technology. Olivia asks how the user got his hands on that and Astrid tells her the man, Aaron Downey, is an ex-Marine.
They head to Downey’s address which is safe and empty. He hasn’t been gone long. Downey resigned his commission four years ago, went off the grid for a couple of years then bough this house, cash. There are photos of a woman and Olivia wonders who she is. Before asking Peter about Fauxlivia. Peter thought the differences he noted where because of him. Them. Another agent calls Olivia downstairs. She heads down and they have military canisters with serial numbers filed off. Three are missing. Peter hears a phone outside. From upstairs. Downey is on the roof. He runs, Peter chases after him and Downey is hit by a car.
At the hospital, they’re told Downey might not come out of his coma and the brain damage means if he does, he won’t be able to talk, swallow or breathe without help. Walter may know a way of questioning Downey but he needs to go back to the lab and think. Walter seems disturbed. Olivia tells Peter the woman in the photos is Downey’s ex-wife and she’s coming in.
Sara Downey (Jody Thompson) when she comes in knows that her ex said he was going to kill Blake. She just never took it seriously. After leaving the Marines, Downey did some private contractor work. Good money; he was overseas for a couple of years. When he came home, they were going to start a family. She became pregnant but seven months in the baby died. Something was wrong with Downey and it was passed on to the baby. He was convinced it happened overseas on a weapons project run by Blake. He blamed Blake for Maddie’s death. Short for Madison. Two other men in Downey’s unit lost children the same way. A bone disease. They had no skeleton. As Olivia goes to talk to Broyles, Walter calls Peter. He needs picking up in New Hampshire.
Walter had run out of petrol. He was heading to see one of the participants in the Worcester cortexiphan trials. Simon Phillips. He isn’t in the records because he didn’t complete the programme. He developed the ability to read minds. Peter realises that Walter couldn’t risk the truth about Peter coming out.
The other men also want revenge on what happened to their unborn children. And they’re willing to kill quite a lot of people. Nina discovers something about the books.