“Stowaway” is episode seventeen of season three of Fringe.
In the previous episode, “Os”, William Bell’s spirit was drawn into Olivia. In the lab, BellLiv is telling Peter, Broyles and Astrid that Olivia’s conscious is currently resting. She’s totally safe. Bell planned this when he first met Olivia in his office on the other side, giving her a cup of tea with the soul magnets in it. Walter has found two brainwave patterns, one effectively in dreamless sleep. Bell says this isn’t permanent; he needs to find a more suitable home to move onto. 24, maybe 48 hours is all he needs. If he leaves now, he would die. Peter is not happy. Broyles gives Bell 48 hours; leave Olivia after that or he will get Walter to find a way to drive Bell out. BellLiv wants Peter to get some files from Massive Dynamic in a box labelled ‘Re-entry.’
In Roxbury, a woman joins a man on the roof of a tall building. They talk about hope and how she apparently wanted to kill herself too. The man gets on the ledge but the woman catches him before he can jump off. But what he says causes her to roll them both off. They land on a car. She gets up and walks away afterwards, barely hurt at all. With a crowd of onlookers watching and filming.
Peter has got the files Bell wanted. BellLiv wants a computer too; he’s essentially looking for someone braindead. A human is preferred, but not a prerequisite. He sees the image of Peter and the machine, and says that this still might be Peter’s fate, no matter what. Peter doesn’t believe in fate. BellLiv tells him it’s not that simple. Sometimes walking away from fate leads you to fate’s doorstep. Astrid tells them Broyles has something they need to see.
This is the clip of the woman falling from the roof. Walter thinks it might not be the woman, but the location. BellLiv asks Walter if he thinks it’s spatial decay. Walter says they are already seeing signs; BellLiv is surprised it took this long. He wants to go with and explains to Peter that the computer is already running searches and he can’t make it do so faster. Meanwhile, he is the only person in this universe with extensive experience with interdimensional decay.
At the Hartford FBI office, an agent gets a fax about the woman. He rushes outside to another agent, saying they will want to see this. Lee. Lincoln Lee; this side’s Lee, the first time he’s been seen.
At the scene, BellLiv and Walter rule out spatial decay. It’s the woman. Broyles arrives with Lee and introduces him. Lee says the woman who jumped in Dana Gray. She was murdered 18 months ago. Two bullets to the head, she, her husband and children murdered in a home invasion. The killer was found and was put down when he pulled a gun. Case closed. Dana’s body disappeared from the morgue; Lee thought it was stolen.
Lee didn’t think any more of this until there was a double suicide, but only one body found at the scene. Dana’s prints were there. Lee flagged her in the system. There were three more double suicides with only one body, never hers. It may sound insane, but he doesn’t think the woman can die.
Lee arrives at the lab, having been invited by BellLiv. Peter tells Lee his security clearance just got a whole lot deeper. Walter reports they have two sets of DNA. One from Dana Gray. The molecules are held together by an unusually strong bond of electromagnetic force. He and Bell speculate that she is taking energy from her victims to keep herself alive. Peter says each victim tried to kill themselves in the past. Lee boils this down to a compassionate soul vampire. Everyone agrees. Peter will head out with Lee to find places where Dana could be getting victims – suicide helplines and the like – and he’ll explain about Fringe on the way.
Dana is at her family’s graves when she gets a call. She’s on a suicide helpline. The man at the other end thinks he’s going to hurt himself. She wants to meet face to face.
Lee and Peter are at a suicide helpline. They’re told that Dana Gray works there, as Joan. She’s not been in in a few days but is one of their best counsellors. Their most challenging calls are forwarded to her. In three months, she’s saved 37 lives. Anyone who survives being struck by lightning twice has a perspective on hope. Lee and Peter wonder why anyone stealing lifeforce would save lives.
There’s more to Dana Gray than meets the eye. And there’s more to her last caller, Brian, as well. Bell is still looking for a body. And, by the looks of it, flirting with Astrid too. Which makes her uncomfortable.