“Nothing As It Seems” is episode sixteen of season four of Fringe.
On a plane, a man is writing when blood drips from his nose. The man is Marshall Bowman, who turned into a monster in “The Transformation”. Events seem to be unfolding the same way. Except he doesn’t transform.
On the ground, Bowman is being interviewed by two TSA agents who start opening his baggage. Then Bowman starts bleeding again. He heads to the bathroom, as the agents find what they think are drugs. Just before the transformed Bowman crashes through the door.
Olivia is speaking to an FBI shrink; after Peter discovered in the previous episode, “A Short Story About Love”, that she is his Olivia, she’s not been trying to stop the other memories coming back. Which is worrying the FBI. Olivia is asked about her sister, who she says went back to Chicago with her niece so she could be close to her ex.
Back at the federal building, Olivia heads to Broyles’ office. It seems Olivia’s sister is still married and has two children. According to the shrink, 40% of the information about her life that Olivia remembers is wrong. She isn’t the agent they licensed.
Olivia heads home to see Peter. However, he gets a call from Lincoln about a case. He heads to the lab to meet Lincoln, Walter and Astrid. Lincoln mentions about an incident on a flight; Peter recognises details and asks if it was the flight he remembers. Then Walter wishes him happy birthday; he’d bought presents for Peter over the years to deal with his loss. Peter hugs him.
Peter explains how Bowman was an undercover cop who transformed into a creature after being infected with a designer virus that transformed his DNA. He became a giant porcupine and the plane crashed. Astrid says the plane didn’t crash. The TSA sent footage. Which is of a giant porcupine attacking the agents.
Bowman is dead. Peter speaks to his sister, who doesn’t seem to know anything. Except her brother seemed stressed. He joins the others; Bowman was a cop who retired six years ago but it does sound like he could have been working undercover. He was on the floor writhing in pain by the time anyone got to him. Peter says Bowman had a partner, who was also infected. He transformed a couple of days later. Peter can’t remember the name. Olivia might.
Olivia does, and on the way to the partner’s house, Lincoln and Peter end up talking about Olivia. At the house, Olivia is there, despite not being supposed to be.
Though there are some similarities between this case and the original one, there are also differences.