“The Same Old Story” is episode two of season one of Fringe.
A man and a woman are in a motel in Boston. They are clearly not in a relationship, and by the sounds of it the woman, Amber, which she explains isn’t her real name and gives that, Loraine Daisy, is part of a business transaction. She’s chatting away as the man heads into the bathroom. And unwraps a roll of medical tools. He’s filling a syringe when Loraine starts coughing, then crying in pain. Her stomach is moving and the man takes her to a hospital and dumps her there. She’s taken in is being rushed in as the doctor asks how many months pregnant she is. She says she isn’t pregnant. There’s a ripping noise and Loraine’s readings flatline. The baby is cut out of her and whatever the doctors and nurses see, they find disturbing.
Broyles is giving a briefing to a number of people, including Nina Sharp from Massive Dynamic, about this; another anomaly that is the sole purpose of this committee. He wants to introduce his new team, who joined in “Pilot”, who have been tasked to investigate these anomalies. They will hopefully do better than the previous one. A worrying statement. Nina doesn’t seem terribly impressed with Dr Walter Bishop, whose experiments may be the root of all this, his son, Peter, who has an erratic history, or Olivia Dunham. Broyles says that a woman who doesn’t hesitate to follow the evidence to expose the man she loved, causing herself personal pain and embarrassment, is worthy of trust.
Olivia is looking into John Scott when Broyles calls her and tells her to wake up. Not a problem. She’s to get the others and meet him at a medical centre in 30 minutes. Olivia heads to find Peter, who then gets his father out of a closet; Walter is having problems sleeping.
They arrive at the medical centre 27 minutes after Broyles called Olivia. Broyles introduces himself to Peter and asks where Walter is. Currently fascinated with the seat warmer in the car. They head inside and Broyles explains about Loraine, currently a Jane Doe, who, less than 2 minutes after being pronounced dead, became a mother. The baby was growing before their eyes. Half an hour later, he was pronounced dead of natural causes. He wasn’t just growing; he was aging. They have a dead old man. With an umbilical cord attached.
Walter may have some ideas, but he needs to get the bodies to a lab to run extensive tests. He needs a lab. Broyles reminds him he has a lab; has he forgotten? Well, yes. But that’s fantastic news. Peter asks what they are doing there. Broyles explains that a series of events is occurring and they and other US agencies are on alert. The events seem to be scientific in nature and suggest a larger strategy or coordinated effort. They refer to this as the ‘Pattern.’ Astrid reports that the hospital got a call form a motel guest asking about the pregnant woman. Olivia is going to head there. She wants Walter to come, but he’s being erratic, so Peter volunteers.
In the motel room, Peter finds a sample of an orange gel. That sounds like it means something to Olivia. She examines the bed. Peter asks if she’s checking the thread count. Yes, she is. She tells Peter to open a cabinet because the sheets will be in there. He’d replace the sheets with leak proof medical grade linen so as not to leave evidence. Olivia explains she knows who it is. A serial killer case she and Scott worked on. The killer was never caught. Each time, five young women would be killed over a series of days. They’d be taken to a motel, given a muscle paralyser and then he’d perform surgery, removing a piece of their brain. Whilst they were paralysed – but aware and feeling pain. The muscle paralyser was a bright orange. If that orange gel is the same, he’s their guy. And he will kill again. The man is currently finding another woman.
At the Federal Building, Charlie is talking to agents about Scott’s memorial. Oliva is outside; he asks why she wants to open the Brain Surgeon case again. Because Olivia doesn’t think he retired. She asks, and it turns out that Charlie did know about her and Scott. But did nothing, because he’d never seen her happier.
In Stoughton, in a warehouse, the Brain Surgeon is with the woman he found. He injects her with the paralytic.
Walter tells Peter that the woman was impregnated by a man who was the result of experiments identical to ones Walter conducted in this very lab 30 years ago. He has good news. No, he doesn’t know how this happened. Walter has good news; he’s remembered where he parked his car. 17 years ago. It’s not the car so much as what’s inside. Not the hand in the jar but the files. Peter restarts the car to take them back to the lab.
Walter is still behaving in a rather erratic fashion. But this case does tie into an old experiment. Nina, though she might have been dismissive of Olivia to Broyles, suggests she has a rather different opinion in person. Massive Dynamics are clearly involved in something, though how much Broyles knows about this is open to question.