Mike hurries to catch the elevator as the doors close. There's another guy in the elevator, a middle-aged man with a bald head and a pronounced Dutch accent. They exchange pleasantries, then Mike notes that the guy isn't looking so hot. He's sweating, and his nose is bleeding. The Dutch man grunts in reply and dabs at his nose with a handkerchief.

They get off on the same floor. The Dutch man stumbles down the corridor. Mike approaches the receptionist, whom he appears to know, and tells her the man looks like he's not doing well. The receptionist tries to stop the Dutch man (I just did a quick search to see if "Dutchman," one word, would be an appropriate and inoffensive way to refer to someone of Dutch nationality, like "Frenchman" or "Spaniard," and discovered that "Dutchman" is also a derogatory slang term for an Afrikaner. Language is a minefield!). The man doesn't seem to hear her. He staggers around, gasping for breath, then passes out. Mike yells for the receptionist to call 911, then immediately begins performing CPR. Oh, Mike, you poor doomed Good Samaritan.

The Dutch man is obviously dead. His corpse looks waxy and covered with prominent veins, and then, without warning, his mouth opens and he vomits forth a generous geyser of blood over Mike. Everyone recoils in horror.

There are sleigh bells in the Fringe theme music. I never noticed that before. Huh.

Astrid strides through the exhibits at the Boston Children's Science Center, looking around, visibly flustered. A museum aide asks if she needs help. Astrid says she's lost someone. The aide asks what school the missing child is from. Astrid clarifies that it's an adult: Dr. Walter Bishop. The aide smiles knowingly and says, "Ah, a special needs individual." Okay, this banter is kind of cute, and given his various mental afflictions (the insanity, the missing chunks of his brain) Walter could certainly be classified as such, but seriously, how many special needs individuals are doctors? Ergo, how likely is the aide to jump to that conclusion?

...Am I being too nitpicky? I apologize. I liked this episode a lot, really; I just thought they went a little too far out of the way to shoehorn in that joke.

Astrid finally finds Walter. He's lecturing an assembled group of small children on the voyage of Magellan's ship Victoria, in which only eighteen of the original 237 crew members survived. Walter cheerfully tells the rapt children that the other men died painful and horrible deaths. When you open new doors, says Walter, there's a price to pay. Hey, I think there's a hidden meaning in that! Walter goes on to talk about how monsters might be waiting to kill them under their beds, until their teacher snippily asks him if he even works at the museum. Walter blithely tells her he's just a member with a season pass. Cut to a mortified Astrid pulling Walter toward the exit while he grouses that the museum had no right to revoke his membership. Astrid is interrupted by a call from Olivia, alerting them to the situation at Vitas Petroleum.

Olivia and Peter arrive at Vitas. Olivia introduces herself to Detective Castle, the investigator on the scene. Castle has identified the dead man as Radjan Vandekamp. Observing Vandekamp's mottled and bloody corpse, Castle says he's never seen anything like it. "Lucky you," grumbles Peter.

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Posted in Fringe by Fairchild at 1:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)
Last Comment: Fairchild on Feb 20, 2010 06:04 PM.