The ability to manipulate electricity may sound like tons of fun, but last week's episode of Fringe taught us that such power is only useful if it can be controlled.  After being experimented on by creepy Dr. Fisher, sad sack Jonathan found himself shorting out clock radios, sending an elevator full of people to their doom, and accidentally disrupting his mother's pacemaker.  The FBI arrested Fisher and sent Jonathan to the hospital, but only after plenty of damage had been done.  Last week's episode also found Olivia having visions of John (Mark Valley), which eventually led her to an old cellar containing numerous Pattern-related files that he was investigating in his spare time.

On tonight's episode of Fringe, a woman with a strange disease causes a diner full of people to die from radiation poisoning.  Paging Dr. House!

Two people in hazmat suits dump a woman named Emily out of the back of a van as this week's episode kicks off.  She stumbles woozily into a nearby diner and orders some vegetable soup, but doesn't seem to remember much of what happened to her.  She lets a cop know that some strange people made her take red medicine, but when he tries to take her into custody it ends very badly.  People in the diner start screaming and bleeding from the eyes, and a moment later everyone is lying dead in a blood-soaked mess.  As for Emily, her head explodes and her brains burst against a window.  Holly's Diner is officially closed for business.

Olivia, Peter and Walter head to the diner to investigate the next day.  Broyles reveals that the people died from a high dose of radiation, and it just so happens that Emily's body was emitting three times more radiation than anyone else's.  After jumping into a hazmat suit, Walter discovers that Emily was suffering from an incurable rare disease, and he also figures out that the cop's brain was boiled.  Yummy.

Olivia (Anna Torv) visits the clinic where Emily was treated, asking her doctor how her supposedly fatal disease went into remission before the diner incident.  She believes high doses of radiation were the cause, but the doctor claims he didn't give her any radiation therapy.  Meanwhile, Walter discovers that Emily was abducted and administered drugs against her will.  He also believes that the kidnappers let her go intentionally to conduct a deranged "field test."  They wanted her to explode inside that diner.

A woman named Claire, who just happens to have the same strange disease, is also missing without explanation.  Olivia and Charlie (Kirk Acevedo) visit Claire's husband, who explains that his wife's disease randomly went into remission about six weeks prior to her disappearance.  He also claims he doesn't recognize Emily from her picture.

Walter has found capsules that were injected into Emily's bloodstream, which released enough radiation over time to send her disease into remission.  Unfortunately, they then released enough radiation to make her head explode.  Peter (Joshua Jackson) thinks it's no coincidence that people are being used as guinea pigs in every case they investigate, but there's no time to ponder that now.  Olivia grabs Peter and rushes to Emily's house, where they crash her wake in an attempt to discover who abducted her.  Emily's mom reveals that her daughter knew Claire through hospital visits, and it also becomes obvious that Claire's husband knew her as well.  Olivia confronts the man yet again, and this time he explains that he hid the truth because both women were treating themselves illegally.  The radioactive capsules they were using weren't exactly approved by the FDA.

Emily's doctor has changed his tune.  He now admits that he knew about the illegal treatment and was giving the drug company updates on the trials.  When Olivia demands to know who he's been reporting to, the doctor mentions a man named David Esterbrook, who works for a huge drug company called Intrepus.  The doctor then blows his own head off with a pistol, officially making this a very bad episode for brains.  To get close to Esterbrook, Olivia poses as a fan and chats the man up in a local bar.  He admits that he's not afraid of diving in morally gray waters, but he's quick to backpedal and issue threats when Olivia reveals her true identity.

Broyles (Lance Reddick) is upset that Olivia confronted Esterbrook in such a public forum.  She doesn't give a damn if her methods were controversial, but Broyles assures her that she doesn't want to lose his trust.  Over in the creepiest hospital in the world, Esterbrook and another doctor have Claire strapped to a table.  They've ensured that the capsules in her blood can be triggered remotely, turning her into a walking weapon.

Olivia opens up to Peter about why she's been in a terrible mood during the investigation, which happens to be taking place on her birthday.  She explains that she grew up with an abusive stepfather who used to beat her mother on a regular basis, and one day things got so ugly that Olivia had to put two bullets in the man.  He left without a trace after recovering from his wounds, but he still sends her a card every year on her birthday so she knows he's still out there.  Creepy.  I'd say the chances of the evil stepfather returning before season's end are pretty high.

The pharmaceutical divisions of Massive Dynamic are in competition with Intrepus, so Peter advises Olivia to talk to Nina (Blair Brown) for some dirt on Esterbrook.  She doesn't think it's a wise idea, so Peter meets with her instead.  Is Intrepus actually testing drugs on unwilling human subjects?  Nina hints that it's possible, and also mentions that she was quite close with Walter when Peter was a kid.  She offers to give Peter the location of these experiments, but it has to be a mutual back-scratching kind of deal.  She's going to want information from him one day, and when that time comes Peter will have to deliver.

Walter (John Noble) figures out exactly what the doctors injected Emily with to make her radioactive, and he can make the antidote quite easily.  While Walter bustles around his lab, Peter gives Olivia the address where Claire is being held, lying about how he discovered the information.

With the antidote in hand, Olivia and a horde of FBI agents go to rescue Claire.  After getting in a shoot-out with armed guards, Olivia hands Claire the antidote through the door and tells her how to administer it.  She jabs the needle straight into her neck just moments before her head explodes.  Thanks to Olivia, there's one less busted brain to clean up.

After rushing Claire off to the real hospital, Olivia confronts Esterbrook, who she knows was behind the illegal experiments.  The guy puts up a fight and acts like he's untouchable, but Olivia arrests him anyway.  Broyles once again isn't thrilled with Olivia's tactics, but she explains to him that her emotions help make her a better agent.  He doesn't think her explanation is good enough, and he tells her she'll be in trouble the following day.

As this week's Fringe wraps up, Olivia learns that Massive Dynamic's stock is through the roof thanks to the scandal with Intrepus.  She also knows that Peter got his intel from Nina, though he doesn't admit that he'll have to trade information down the line.  When Olivia returns home after what must be the worst birthday ever, she finds a card from her stepfather under her door.  It only says "thinking of you," but that's more than enough to creep her out.

Thanks to the upcoming election, this is the last new episode of Fringe until November 11.  Tuesdays are going to be boring for a little while.


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