“The Abducted” is episode seven of season three of Fringe.
An old man shaves his head then pours part of a vial of liquid into a bowl, which he then rubs over his body whilst reciting a prayer. He then picks up a metal mask.
In New Yonkers, a young boy is scared there’s a monster in his closet. His mother checks, and pronounces the room monster-free, and tells him how to get rid of them. When she’s gone, there’s a noise from the closet. Then a hand pushes the door shut. The boy tries to make the monster go away. But a man in a metal mask grabs him and renders him unconscious, before picking him up and climbing out the window.
Olivia gets in the cab of Henry, the man she encountered in “Olivia”. She offers to buy him breakfast. In the previous episode, “6955 kHz”, Olivia was told by AltBrendan that she wasn’t needed for any more tests and her Peter told her that she had to get home. Olivia explains to Henry that she needs to get to the DoD facility on Liberty Island. She can steal a boat, but can’t leave it there or the patrols would spot it. She has to break in so she can get home, and Henry is the only person she’s willing to trust. Henry says his cousin has a boat. Give him a day or so. Olivia gets a page, about New Yonkers.
Olivia arrives at the scene and AltCharlie fills her in. Lee has checked for breaches. It seems that Walternate has ordered every child kidnapping treated like a Fringe event. AltCharlie thinks it’s a waste of manpower. Olivia, seeing the crying mother, does not. She and Lee go to the boy, Max’s, bedroom and are filled in. Olivia is theorising who could have done it, given he climbed out the window – a young man, 20-35 – when Lee detects something in the fingerprints. Sucrose. The Candyman is back.
AltBroyles is looking through the files on the Candyman’s victims when Walternate arrives. Walternate says they both know there is no crime more heinous than the theft of a child, and there’s no shame in letting this fall on another desk if it’s too personal. Four years ago, the Candyman took AltBroyles’s son and had him for two days. What came back was not his little boy any more. If there’s anyone Walternate wants on this case, it’s Broyles. AltBroyles asks how long before his Olivia Dunham is back on his team. Walternate explains they discovered something unique in Olivia’s her brain chemistry, what enables her to cross between worlds. So, soon.
Olivia is having the Candyman’s case explained to her; it was before AltLiv joined Fringe. The kids are as if they’ve had the life sucked from them. There are incisions on the back of their necks. Every two years, the Candyman took a kid aged 7-9, kept them for two days then returned them with massive internal degradation. The Candyman is a man but in the majority of cases there was no physical description, because he wore a mask. Two victims said there were two people, one old, one young. Olivia pulls up the details on the two victims. One is Christopher Broyles. She wants to talk to him. Lee and AltCharlie tell her not to even think about talking to Broyles. She does more than think about it. He is not happy.
Max has a device attached to the back of his neck where the incisions were on the previous victims.
AltBroyles returns home and talks to his wife. He talks about the Candyman being back and how Olivia wants to reinterview Christopher. His wife liked Olivia. And she thinks Christopher is strong enough to talk, even if her husband isn’t.
Lee has brought Olivia red vines – apparently, they’re new – and she is talking about the victims. The kids had many of the symptoms of old age. Aging is connected to the pituitary gland, which can be accessed through the back of the neck. She mentions a pre-Fringe Division case in which a guy was draining hormones from pituitary glands. Perhaps there weren’t two suspects, but one person changing from old to young. Lee says if that was the case there would be serious side effects. And one of those could result in secreting sugar in sweat. Then Olivia gets a call. AltBroyles has agreed to her speaking to Christopher.
As well as the Candyman case, there are other things happening. Walternate is going to pull Olivia out of the field and he doesn’t think she’s needed any more. Especially as AltLiv’s mission is nearly complete. Olivia herself is planning to flee back to her own universe.