Grey Matters - Recap

Two men break into the Hennington Mental Health Institute in Boston and examine a patient, Joseph Slater. The leader does something with the back of Slater's head while asking him to describe the girl in the red dress in his delusions, a girl with flowers in her hair. The man takes out a bloody piece of white tissues and puts it in a nutrient jar. The other man gets a call from the Hybrid commander, Smith, telling them that someone is on the away. The second man goes out in the corridor and is spotted by an orderly, who calls in alert. The second man shoots him and warns their leader. The leader apologizes to Slater for leaving him with his skull open and departs with his assistant. A nurse comes in a minute later and discovers that the back of Slater's skull has been cut open and his brain is exposed.

Fringe Division is called in and they meet with Dr. West, Slater's attending physician. She explains that Slater suffers from schizophrenia and delusions and was committed 14 years ago. The surprising thing is that since the break-in, Slater seems to be completely cured. Walter, who is nervous at being back in a sanitarium, asks to see the tapes of Slater when he was still schizophrenic. On the tapes, Slater talks about the girl and when he's told she doesn't exist, angrily insists that West bring her back.

The team talks to Slater but he isn't able to add anything useful and doesn't recognize the two men who assaulted him. Walter is intrigued by the fact that Slater is now cured. As they go, Slater's wife arrives and Walter admits it's nice that he is lucky to have visitors. Peter guiltily apologizes but his father tells him not to worry about it. When Olivia asks if Walter has anything to offer, he admits that he doesn't but is eager to find a cure to insanity.

Peter and Olivia go over the security tapes and discover that the two men used a high-tech electronic lockpick to get in. Olivia stops the tape and realizes that she knows who the leader is. She brings up the records from the cryonic company where the heads were stolen and identifies one head as belonging to the leader. The head belongs to Thomas Jerome Newton, and Olivia meets with Broyles to give him a report. She has learned that Thomas Jerome Newton is an alias and there's no paper trail. She explains again that Bell told her that Newton held the key to opening a portal between worlds, and that if he does so the result will be global annihilation. Clearly angry, Olivia promises to find Newton and stop him.

At Harvard, Walter and Astrid review Slater's medical records. They discover that a Dr. Simon Paris referred Slater to Hennington but discover that Paris has no AMA record. As they work, Walter seems depressed. When Astrid asks why, he admits that he's accepted there is no cure to insanity, and someone did something to make Slater insane. He wasn't cured: the process was undone by the intruders. They check the prescription records for Paris and discover that not only did he put Slater on an indefinite prescription, but he committed two other patients in the same week and proscribed the same drugs.

Olivia and Peter visit one of the other patients, Deborah Crampton, who is at a different facility. She describes how she suffered from OCD-related arithomania, causing her to obsess about the number 28. Shortly before the break-in at Hennington, her obsession miraculously disappeared for no reason. Peter checks the back of her head and discovers a surgical scar, sealed by a laser. They ask her about Dr. Paris, and Crampton explains that Paris sent her to the sanitarium for a mild case of postpartum depression, and the arithomania manifested shortly thereafter.

At a secret base, Newton and Smith are working on three pieces of white matter, which they've placed in nutrient jars. Smith warns that they got to Slater too late and his sample won't survive more than five hours. However, the process they have set up is ready to go.

As Peter and Olivia go to see the third patient, Stuart Gordon, they review Gordon's file. He is in a similar situation to the first two patients: committed for a relatively minor psychiatric issue which turned into a full-blown case of schizophrenia. He believed he was Sydney Greenstreet from Casablanca. After 14 years, Gordon was miraculously cured. As they drive, Peter notes that Olivia is upset and she admits that the fact she can't get a handle on Newton's motives and psyche is bothering her. Peter assures her that she's not alone and that he'll be there to help her.

After visiting Gordon and confirming he has the same scar, Olivia calls Astrid to update her on the situation. She's working with Walter, who has discovered that one of the drugs Paris proscribed for the three patients was an anti-rejection drug for organ transplant recipients. As Peter and Olivia arrive at the lab, Walter realizes what Paris was doing. The mystery doctor placed foreign brain tissue inside of the three patients' heads, and then had them committed to the sanitariums for safekeeping. However, the foreign tissue interfered with their cognitive functions because their own brains were unable to interface with the new brain material. When Newton removed the tissue, they reverted to normal and were "cured."

As Walter explains, Astrid gets a call from Dr. West, who tells her that she's checked with other sanitariums. She passes on some news to Peter, who asks Walter if he had any visitors while he was at St. Claire's Mental Hospital. Walter admits that he doesn't remember anyone. Peter informs him that according to the record, Dr. Paris visited Walter six times early in his stay. They examine the back of Walter's head and find the same surgical scar as on the three patients.

Peter takes a nervous Walter to Dr. West for a MRI. Walter finally proscribes himself Valium to calm himself down. After the procedure, Astrid takes Walter home while Peter waits for the results. Olivia arrives and Peter explains that Walter is trying to find a cure for his mental problems. The FBI agent assures him that his father is a better man for being insane, and a better father as well. Peter admits he feels guilty for not visiting his father at St. Claire's but Olivia tells him that he's trying to make up for it now.

Dr. West arrives with the MRI scans. The images reveal that someone removed three pieces of tissue from Walter's hippocampus, the part of the brain that monitors inhibitions and contains long-term memories. Looking at the scars, Peter takes the three MRIs from Paris' patients and overlays them over Walter. The holes where the foreign tissue is missing is now missing in their brains exactly match the pieces removed from Walter's brain.

Astrid gets Walter home but he's suffering from a Valium overdose. He asks her to go to the lab to get him a record album to help him come down and she goes to get it, leaving him there.

At the hospital, Peter figures that Paris removed the three sections of Walter's memory that contained the information on how to open a portal between worlds, and now Newton is trying to recover the information. However, Newton will need Walter to interpret the memories. They call Astrid, who explains that she left Walter at the house. They tell her to meet them there.

Walter answers a knock on the door and finds Newton waiting for him. A few minutes later, Astrid and then Peter and Olivia arrive and discover that Walter has been abducted. Peter gets the radio transmitter that Walter gave him to home in on the chip he implanted in his own neck in case he got lost.

At the First Wave base, Smith puts a neural monitoring device on Walter's head while the team leader, Newton's assistant, gives Walter a sedative and assures him that he'll enjoy it on top of his Valium dosage. Newton explains that they need to remap Walter's brain since it has changed in the last 14 years. The neural monitoring device will help them remap the connections.

Olivia, Peter, and a FBI team follow the signal to a men's public restroom. They burst in only to discover that Newton removed the implant and left it in the sink.

Newton shows Walter slides of various images and asks him to describe what he sees, so they can trace the connections. Walter wonders if they can cure him like the others, but Newton apologetically admits that they can't. They start showing the slides and several of them remind Walter of Peter. One of them is a coffin. Newton apologizes for upsetting him but says that it's necessary. Smith warns that the slides aren't sufficient to establish connections they can map, and Newton realizes they need stronger stimulation via sound and smell to map the connections.

Broyles meets the others at the lab and they figure that the removed brain tissue will only last so long, so the First Wave operatives must be relatively close. They start putting out an APB for hospitals but Peter warns that Newton may have high tech equipment that lets them perform the procedure almost anywhere. Broyles admits it's the best they have for now. However, Peter realizes that all three patients' obsessions tie together. A girl with a red dress lived across from Peter's house in Cambridge when he was a child, and she lived at 2828 Green Street. Peter figures that Newton will take Walter back to his old home to reestablish the neural connections.

Newton and his team leader take Walter to the house, currently occupied by the Rables. When Walter remembers being there in a different season when the trees were in bloom, Newton talks about how there is a similar house in his world, but there the trees and grass have been destroyed by something called the Blight. They bring in the three brain fragments and hook up Walter to them, and then trigger the procedure. Walter becomes more arrogant and coherent, and demands to know where his wife and son are. Newton asks him to remember how to build the portal between worlds, and Walter mockingly asks him how things are on the other side. Newton admits that things are getting worse there. When Walter refuses to give up the information about the portal, Newton responds by saying he knows why Walter built the portal, and asks if he wants to lose Peter again.

Olivia and Peter drive by Smith, who calls the team leader and warns that they're coming. Newton and the team leader take apart their equipment and give Walter an injection. They leave out the back door as Peter bursts in. He goes to Walter while Olivia ungags the Rabels. Mr. Rabel tells her that Newton went out the back door. She runs out the back, down the alleyway, and spots Newton's team leaving in the van. She shoots the team leader in the head as he drives away. When the van crashes, Smith emerges and she shoots him in the head as well. She orders Newton out and slams him to the ground.

At the house, Walter examines his stolen brain tissue and tells Peter that it's dying. He then collapses to the ground.

In the alleyway, Newton explains that he injected Walter with a neurotoxin as insurance. She has four minutes to save Walter. Olivia calls Peter to confirm that Walter is dying. She demands the antidote and Newton tells her to give her the cell phone and go back to the house. He'll then tell her which three vials in which sequence to inject Walter with to save him. After a few tense seconds, Olivia angrily gives him the phone and runs back to the house. When she arrives, Newton keeps his word and tells her how to save Walter. As Peter saves his father, Newton tells Olivia that now he knows what her weakness is and then hangs up. Walter revives and Peter hugs him.

Later, Olivia meets with Broyles and says that she made an emotional choice and it cost them. The brain tissue is dead and they're not even sure if Newton got what he needed form Walter. Broyles tells her that she's accomplished a great deal, because they now know who they're after and what he looks like. More importantly, she saved Walter. Broyles points out that capturing Newton wouldn't have ended the First Wave threat. However, there's only one Walter and they'll need him to deal with what's coming. Broyles also tells her that they need her, and not to be so hard on herself.

Walter goes in for another MRI and while they wait, Peter apologizes for not visiting him at the sanitarium. Walter says that it's okay and admits he wouldn’t have known if Peter was there anyway.

As Walter undergoes the MRI, he remembers what happened to him 14 years ago. Bell, posing as Dr. Paris, ordered the operation to remove Walter's memories. Bell apologized to Walter, telling him that there's no other way to hide the memories but that he'll put them in a safe place.

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