Alone in the World (Fringe)
| "Alone in the World" | |
|---|---|
| Fringe episode | |
| Episode no. | Season 4 Episode 3 |
| Directed by | Miguel Sapochnik |
| Written by | David Fury |
| Production code | 3X7003 |
| Original air date | October 7, 2011 |
| Guest appearance(s) | |
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"Alone in the World" is the third episode of the fourth season of the Fox science fiction drama television series Fringe, and the series' 68th episode overall.
It was written by David Fury and directed by Miguel Sapochnik.
Walter (John Noble) is struggling with the hallucinations of Peter (Joshua Jackson), but refuses to talk about it to the Fringe team or to his psychologist (William Sadler), fearing they will consider him insane and put him back in the mental institution.
The Fringe team is alerted to the discovery of the bodies of two teenage boys in a service tunnel; though only missing for less than a day, their bodies show signs of long-term decomposition and fungal infection. As the bodies are moved to Walter's laboratory and the nearby morgue, the team discovers evidence of a third boy, Aaron (Evan Bird), who may have been present at the time the other two were infected, and he is taken to Walter's lab. Walter, while examining Aaron, finds that the boy lives with his neighbors, his father having died and his mother being away on business travel in Europe. Aaron, however, appears unaffected by the fungus. Walter allows him to stay with him in the lab, bonding with him and explaining how he lost his own son Peter as well as the Peter from the parallel universe.
Walter observes that the fungus on the corpse in his lab continues to grow rapidly, but he is able to contain it just before it expels a deadly cloud of spores. The same happens to the body in the morgue, but they are unable to evacuate the facility in time, and two hospital staff are killed by the expelled fungal spores. The spores leave a network of tendrils that cover the morgue, and which continue growing towards the drains in the room. The Fringe team is able to kill the spores using ultraviolet light. They subsequently discover a much larger fungal network in the service tunnel. When they try to expose this network to ultraviolet light and high temperatures, Walter observes Aaron suffering from a high fever. Walter quickly surmises that the fungal network (which he refers to as "Gus") is actually part of a single organism that functions like a giant brain. "Gus" has been able to make a psychic link with Aaron, who had spent several days previously in the service tunnel, and if the organism is killed, Aaron will likely die. The Fringe team finds that the organism is growing rapidly, spreading out over several city blocks and to public places, and give Walter limited time to find a solution before they will be forced to kill the organism regardless of Aaron's health.
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