“The Dreamscape” is episode nine of season one of Fringe.
A man, Mark Young, arrives late at a conference room for a presentation, but it goes well. Afterwards, when he is the only one in it, a large butterfly lands on his finger. When it flies away, it cuts him. Which is unusual. It then cuts his face. Young swats it, then cuts his finger on a wing. Two more attack, then disappear down a vent. Then a whole cloud of butterflies erupts and attack. Young ends up diving out the window to escape. He’s quite high up and crashes onto a car outside his company, Massive Dynamic.
Olivia is at home getting ready to go out whilst on the phone when Broyles rings. He wants her to assemble the team and go to the airport. She says she quits. For a couple of days. But heads out.
They arrive in New York; Walter says Young has odd lacerations on his body. Some are under his shirt. They’re not from the glass, are unlikely to be from the fall and why isn’t the shirt cut? Olivia briefly notices Scott in the crowd. Olivia talks to Nina Sharp; she says sometimes people succumb to their responsibilities and find things too much to take. Though Young hadn’t seemed suicidal.
Charlie, Olivia and other agents head to Young’s apartment. Olivia finds a plane ticket to Omaha, bought a couple of days ago. Not generally done by the suicidal. She finds the word ‘MONARCH’ written in a Filofax, then mounted butterflies on the wall start vibrating until Charlie touches her shoulder.
Walter is examining Young at his lab. He tells Astrid that the wounds originated inside Young and pierced their way out. She asks how that happened. Walter says the medications are normal, but perhaps they were used to transfer the foreign compound to Young’s brain. He forgot to mention the compound; a synthetic in the blood. Then someone calls Peter. A woman, who says she needs to see him.
Olivia, after doing some research, turns her computer off to go to bed. It turns itself back on again and she gets an email. From Scott. Saying to meet at 1312 Labrador Street, basement level. Olivia heads there and hears a sound. This leads her to a storage box full of frogs.
At the office. Charlie checks on Walter’s order of a terrarium. That’s because she gave Walter some frogs. She doesn’t think it connects to Young jumping out of the window. Olivia takes Charlie aside; she explains that Scott sent her an email. She thought he was helping her like he did when they were partners. Olivia doesn’t want a psych eval on her record; she’d like a week of personal leave to do nothing for a week or two. Then Astrid calls. Walter thinks Olivia’s frogs cracked the case. They are why Young jumped out of a window.
Peter is meeting a woman, Tess. It looks like they had a relationship. She also says if she can find him, they will too, and they’ll hurt him.
Walter shows Astrid and Olivia a tape of an old experiment he did. He explains that the mind can cause actual physical changes in the body. Walter had hypnotised someone and burnt their arm with an ice cube by telling them it was a hot coal. The frogs are actually toads and they secrete a psychoactive compound. The substance Walter found in Young’s blood was a concentration of this venom. A powerful hallucinogenic that stimulates the fear centres of the brain. Young hallucinated he was being cut and his mind made it happen. A clever means of murder. The dose was thirty times higher than any sane person would have used.
Olivia explains to Walter that Scott led her to the frogs. Walter had previous told Olivia that the process she went through in “Pilot” would have transferred a residue of Scott to her head. It could take years to work through. Olivia wants them out. Walter may be able to help, by putting her back in the tank, but he advises against it. She’s going to do it anyway.
Though Walter may believe that what’s in Olivia’s head is just memories, that might not be true. Scott, when he was last seen at Massive Dynamic, didn’t look as dead as he should. And problems appear to be rising up from Peter’s past.