Wallflower

Fringe Wallflower
Season 4, Episode 7
Air date	November 18, 2011
Written by	Matthew Pitts & Justin Doble
Directed by	Anthony Hemingway
← previous And Those We've Left Behind	next → Back to Where You've Never Been
Cast | Transcript

"Wallflower" is the seventh episode of the fourth season of Fringe.

Synopsis

While Olivia copes with migraines, she and her team investigate an invisible force which kills its victims and causes the body to turn a ghostly white. As they trace the pattern of deaths, the Fringe team realizes that the force is linked to someone who died of an unknown genetic disorder.

Plot

Olivia Dunham, suffering from a late night migraine, runs across her fellow agent Lincoln Lee at an all-night diner,

Peter and the machine blueprints.

and they spend a moment talking and sharing their thoughts about the difficulties of their work.

Man with white hair and skin.

Meanwhile, Peter Bishop, having been allowed to live on his own under guard, attempts to figure out how to use the Machine to return him to his original timeline. The Fringe team is alerted to the death of a man, his skin and hair turned white. Walter determines that the pigment from the man's skin has been extracted, and identifies traces of animal DNA along with human ones. The human DNA leads back to a child who reportedly died within a week after his birth in 1989, but its body was moved to a pharmaceutical company that was a subsidiary of Massive Dynamic. Olivia and Lincoln approach Nina Sharp, who affirms that the child had not died, but instead suffered from a genetic

Astrid and Lincoln.

the disorder that allowed them to implant animal genes on his body, giving him the ability to perfectly camouflage with his surroundings and

Olivia, Lincoln and Nina Sharp.

an instinct for survival. Kept in the lab for years, the child, named Eugene (short for "unidentified genetics") eventually escaped during a fire and has remained undetected for years. As other incidents and deaths occur at a condominium high-rise, Walter Bishop deduces that Eugene is trying to extract the pigment from his victims to make himself visible, a treatment that will likely kill him if he

Eugene.

continues the practice. After Walter identifies that Eugene can be seen using ultraviolet light, Fringe and the FBI seal off the building and conduct a manhunt. Olivia discovers Eugene first, but he takes her gun and holds her at gunpoint while he

Eugene.

explains that he has been invisible to everyone and wants to become visible once again. He refuses to heed Olivia's warning about taking too much of the treatment and runs off. The teams are unable to find him and close down the hunt, but not before discovering his makeshift lab in the building's basement. From the numerous valuables in the lab, the Fringe team determines that Eugene had been silently watching the residents.

The next day, Eugene arrives late to the elevator that he rides every day in order to be around Julie, a woman he is infatuated with but has never talked to. He is amazed when this time Julie talks to him, mentioning that she sees him every day in the elevator at this time and thought he might be catching a cold that is going around when he almost didn't arrive this day. He introduces himself and watches as she leaves the elevator, collapsing to the floor, succumbing to his treatment and dies, with a smile on his face for finally being seen.

As Olivia reports Eugene's death to Nina, she wonders if she herself, having been part of the Cortexiphan experiments, is unable to feel for others.

Oliver and Lincoln at the diner.

In the episode's conclusion, Peter gives Lincoln a pair of glasses that Olivia will appreciate more than his

Olivia injected with an unknown formula.

current pair. Olivia offers to meet Lincoln at the late-night diner. As she is getting ready to leave for the meeting, she is gassed and falls unconscious; agents working for Nina Sharp inject her with an unknown formula that, once she wakes up, will have erased the last two hours from her memory and left her with a bad migraine.

Notable Quotes

Astrid: Hey, Walter, why did we just get a bill for $818? You know I'm going to be the one to take the blame for this.
Walter: Tell Agent Broyles... science has no price tag.
Astrid: I'm sure he'll be very pleased to hear that.

Peter: You got to love this assignment, right, Tim? Where else can you find baked goods, car parts, and video games, all under the same roof?
Agent Tim: Yes, sir.
Peter: "Sir"? I'm moving up in the world. Did Broyles tell you to call me that? Keep that level of formality, that way you don't get attached to your prisoner?
Agent Tim: You're not my prisoner.
Peter: So, what, then, you're my bodyguard?
Agent Tim: Maybe just imagine I'm a friend.
Peter: Yeah, because every 32-year-old man needs a friend to chaperone him while he's underwear shopping.
Agent Tim: You know what, that reminds me. Uh, Agent Broyles told me to tell you that he has authorized you $200 a week allowance.
Peter: Two hundred, big spender.

Trivia

• The Observer can be seen in the crowd outside of the building where the agents are searching for Eugene Bryant.
• The man who flirts with Julie in the elevator and is later killed in the carpark is named Ned Ryerson, which is also the name of a character in the movie Groundhog Day. He is never called by his full name; Julie calls him "Ned" on the elevator, and he is called "Mr. Ryerson" after his body is found.

Music

• "Fade Into You" by Mazzy Star

Cypher

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