Previously on Fringe, we were introduced to the mysterious man known only as The Observer.  We may not know what he wants, where he comes from or how he can predict The Pattern, but we do know that he likes spicy food and has been keeping an eye on Walter and Peter for years.  Peter's run-in with the creepy bald man finally convinced him that there are some crazy, unexplainable things going on in the world, which hopefully means he'll stop making so many snarky comments about his father's research.  Dr. Bishop may be nuts, but he knows a thing or two about wacky phenomena.

On tonight's episode of Fringe, the gang tracks down a man who has the power to harness electricity.

This week's episode kicks off with a man named Joseph waking up, taking his pulse, and rushing out the door to his job at a shipping company.  Joseph seems to have a problem around electrical objects, especially when he's feeling stressed.  Not only does he short out his alarm clock and break a tool at work, but after failing to woo his dream woman he accidentally makes an elevator full of people crash.  The dream woman dies, but Joseph miraculously walks away, setting off car alarms as he goes.  The Observer is also seen exiting the elevator just before Joseph enters and sends it plummeting to the basement.

Olivia tells Charlie (Kirk Acevedo) about her run-in with John.  She only saw him for a moment before he disappeared, so of course she thinks it was all in her mind.  Charlie assumes she's seeing things due to her traumatic experience with the guy, but at least he doesn't think she's nuts.  In Walter's lab, he's trying to remember why the Pulse Gun Guy that tortured Peter in the last episode seemed so familiar.  Broyles soon walks in, tells everyone about the elevator incident and sends the gang to investigate.

Somehow the elevator plowed itself into the ground, which is completely impossible.  A man at the scene theorizes that the elevator must have been overloaded with electricity, which seems even more plausible when Walter discovers that everyone inside died of electrocution.  What's worse: frying to death or plummeting to your doom in a tiny box?  I can't decide.

As usual, Walter has worked on an experiment like this in the past.  He once theorized that people, with all the electrical impulses running through their brains, are nothing more than walking batteries.  In one particularly weird experiment, he surmised that homing pigeons may be able to track down a person based on his/her unique electrical signature.  After yanking out one of the victim's hearts and noticing that it's still beating, Walter figures out that another human being's leftover energy must be responsible.  The elevator didn't crash because of a regular generator, but because of a walking, talking one.

Joseph obviously doesn't respond well to rejection.  After his boss fires him for flaking out on the job, Joseph causes the man's arm to nearly get ripped off in a machine.  Ouch.  Later, Olivia (Anna Torv) tells Broyles about Walter's Electro Man theory, and he tells her that there are known clinics who have illegally experimented on humans.  One man, Dr. Fisher, is wanted in four states for his wacky experiments with oblivious guinea pigs.

The power goes out in Olivia's office building, and though you'd expect Joseph to be the culprit, it's actually John (Mark Valley) she sees as she walks down the hallway.  He tells her he's there to help and that he always loved her, which screws with her head big time.  John tells Olivia that she's on the right track with the case, but says she has to get to Joseph before Dr. Fisher does.  With that, he takes off in an elevator and disappears.

Peter (Joshua Jackson) doesn't believe that a man could have survived the elevator crash, but Walter explains that he could have levitated due to his electromagnetic energy.  After deducing that the guy probably isn't in control of his abilities, Olivia asks her department to look for any strange electrical anomalies around the city.

Joseph tells his mom that he answered an ad in a magazine and allowed a company to fiddle with his brain.  His mom talks to him like he's nuts, which causes Joseph to let out an electrical surge that disrupts her heart and kills her.  As he tries to flee the scene, he's abducted by the mysterious Dr. Fisher.

Olivia gets wind of the incident with Joseph's boss and soon makes all the connections.  After finding his mom dead, she heads to Walter's lab, where he explains that Joseph will have a stronger electromagnetic signature than normal people.  Using nothing but the cassette tape from Joseph's Walkman, Walter figures out the man's exact electrical fingerprint, then gathers up some homing pigeons to track the guy down.  This stuff sounds all kinds of crazy when I actually type it out, but somehow John Noble makes it sound believable.

Walter uses a fancy device to imprint Joseph's electromagnetic signature on the pigeons, then lets them loose to hunt him down.  While Walter equips the birds with GPS trackers, Olivia runs into John again in the hallway.  He gives her a quick kiss and promises that he's not the one who betrayed her.

As Walter unleashes the pigeons all across Boston, Olivia and Peter hop in the SUV and follow them.  The birds lead them right to Dr. Fisher's lab, where he's busy conducting horrible experiments on Joseph.  Fisher tells his goon to sneak out the back with the test subject as the Feds break into the building.  The goon gets Joseph into the car, but doesn't expect Electro Man to turn the vehicle on with his mind and run him over.  Joseph flees the scene when he sees Olivia, who almost gets a power line dropped on her while chasing him.  Luckily, Peter saves the day by walking Joseph in the face with a crowbar.

As Dr. Fisher gets shipped off to prison, Olivia sends Electro Man to the hospital before he can cause more damage.  She heads to Walter's lab afterwards and almost tells him about John, but he figures it out on his own and assures her she hasn't been hallucinating.  Part of John's consciousness may have slipped into her mind when she was mentally connected to him in the first episode.  Walter thinks her brain will eventually work it out and make John disappear, though there are no guarantees.

As Fringe comes to an end, Olivia sees John walking down the street and decides to follow him.  She soon ventures into a hidden cellar filled with Pattern-related files that John was investigating on his own.  Broyles (Lance Reddick) still has no idea what side the agent was working for, but it's possible the box of personal effects he left behind contains some clues.  Olivia finds an engagement ring in the box, leading her to believe that John may have been a good guy after all.


- Don Williams, BuddyTV Staff Writer
(Image courtesy of FOX)