Unearthed - Recap

At Boston General Hospital, Maureen Donovan is at her brain-dead daughter Lisa's bedside as a priest says the last rite. Maureen then has the doctor take Lisa off of life support and take her for organ removal so that in death, she can help others. They take Lisa to the operation theater and begin to cut her open to remove her kidneys first. Lisa suddenly comes to life, grabs the doctor, and starts yelling in Russia.

The Fringe team arrives at the hospital and Broyles confirms that Lisa collapsed due to a cerebral aneurysm and was declared brain dead. They meet with Lt. Commander Will Turlough. The Navy has taken an interested because the attending physician, who worked on an aircraft carrier, recognized the Russian numbers as an alphanumeric code. Turlough confirms that the first half of the sequence, a personnel identification code, belong to an Andrew Rusk. The second half are the launch codes for nuclear missiles aboard the Gloucester, the boat that Rusk served aboard. The Navy assumes that Rusk gave the code to Lisa, committing treason. Rusk's wife reported him missing three days ago, and they have no idea how Rusk contacted Lisa.

Olivia shows the photo of Rusk to Lisa, who says she has never seen him before. She doesn't remember saying anything but when Olivia mentions Rusk's name, Lisa starts speaking in Russian again. Maureen refuses to let the team question her daughter. Outside, Peter says that he recognized Rusk's words as, loosely, "Little star," because he knows some Russian. Olivia notices that Walter has gone. Peter goes after him and finds him in the coma ward where he's listening to unconscious people. Walter talks to one of the patients and notes that comatose patients have woken up and claimed they floated, spirit-like, to remote locations and witnessed things they couldn't have possibly seen. Walter believes that Lisa may have died for a moment, and her spirit left her body and listened as Rusk told someone the launch codes.

Maureen apologizes to Olivia for being rude, and notes that Lisa is running a fever. She explains that she got into a fight with Lisa on the day she collapsed, and worried that would be the last thing she said to her daughter. Now she's glad to have the chance to tell Lisa how much she loves her, and insists that God gave the girl back. Olivia appears skeptical and asks for permission to have Walter examine Lisa in the hopes he can help her and find Rusk. Maureen insists there's nothing more Lisa can tell them.

Lisa goes to the bathroom to runs some water. When she looks up, she sees Rusk in the mirror, muttering in Russian. They run in and find Lisa insisting that the man in the picture was there.

Teresa Rusk, Andrew's wife, comes to the Federal building to help Olivia with the investigation. She claims never to have seen Lisa but confirms that what she said is "My star," and it was Andrew's pet nickname for her.

At the lab, Walter speculates that Lisa's brain aneurysm happened in the Broca's area of the brain, which processes language. He shows the team a tape of an experiment he was asked to perform boosting psychic ability. His best results occurred when he fed electrical current into the Broca's area. Walter suggests he could learn more if he could examine Lisa in the lab. Olivia goes to the church where Maureen and Lisa are leaving. When Olivia explains they might have an explanation, and that Rusk is trying to communicate through her, Maureen talks to the agent in private. She asks if Olivia is a religious woman. When Olivia says she isn't, she does say that she knows what faith means. However, she believes what is happening to Lisa is real. Maureen says that whatever happened is over now, and she wants Lisa to put the entire thing behind her. Olivia gives Maureen her card and the mother reluctantly takes it.

At the lab, Peter reads the Tibetan Book of the Dead, which talks about how the near-death experience can talk with those who have already died. Peter is skeptical that it has any bearing on what happened to Lisa, or that she's alive because God changed her mind. Olivia notes that her mother believed in God, but it didn't protect her from an abusive stepfather. Olivia gets a call from Lisa, who says that she's seeing Rusk again. Lisa went to a place that she kept seeing, an auto junkyard. Peter and Olivia go there and find her. Lisa says that she's seeing another man, who had a gun and killed Rusk. Peter looks around and finds a 9mm bullet.

Olivia and Peter call in a FBI team to search the area. Charlie finds Rusk's corpse in the trunk of a car. Lisa suddenly screams and starts to have a seizure. They get her to the hospital and wait for the Donovans' physician, Dr. Newell, to check Lisa out. Olivia calls the medical examiner and confirms that Rusk was murdered, and has been dead for three days. Peter wonders how he could have communicated with Lisa, and Walter notes the time of death. Dr. Newell informs Maureen and their priest that Lisa had a major seizure but she's stable. However, she can't guarantee there won't be another attack, and Lisa's condition continues to worsen. Walter comes over and asks about Lisa's resurrection. When he confirms that Lisa's rebirth happened at the same moment that Rusk was killed, Rusk's lifeforce energy jumpstarted her body and brought her back to life. When the priest questions the entire premise, Walter asks for a moment to entertain his fantasies. He suggests that Rusk's memories have taken possession of Lisa's mind. When the priest takes offense at the idea of what is essentially possession, Walter snaps at him. Maureen asks if Walter can get the memories out and cure Lisa. Walter simply says that he needs Lisa transferred to his lab. However, in private he admits that he believes he's wrong, and he has no idea why Lisa is sick from Rusk's memories. Walter admits he has no idea what he's going to do. Peter wants to tell Maureen the truth, but Olivia gets an idea. She wonders if any illness Rusk had would have been transferred with his spirit. The files don't indicate an illness, but they suspect the files are false.

Olivia calls in Turlough and tricks him into revealing that Rusk was sick. The commander reluctantly admits that there was a nuclear accident aboard the Gloucester, and Rusk was locked in the engineering section for 36 hours. He was airlifted to Pearl Harbor and given an experimental radiation inhibitor. He's been on medical leave ever since. Olivia demands the real medical records on Rusk.

Walter runs out of things to try and stall. Peter arrives with the accurate medical file and Walter realizes that Lisa had the seizure because the radiation and the synthetic treatments kept Rusk's life force from dispersing. Walter suggests they use more drugs to calm Lisa's mind so that Rusk's memories can painlessly leave her.

Peter administers the sedative and Lisa admits it's nice to have someone around who isn't afraid of her. She explains that her friends now talk about her behind her back and think she's a freak for coming back from the dead. Peter notes that they're all freaks there. As they talk, she wonders if Olivia is Peter's girlfriend, but he denies it. Meanwhile, Olivia asks Walter if he can access Rusk's last thoughts and find out who killed him.

They strap Lisa down as a precaution and Peter reassures her that everything will be fine. Walter induces a light trance and Olivia tries to talk to her. Lisa has what appears to be a seizure and starts talking in Russian. She claims to have no idea who Lisa is, and Walter believes that Rusk is now in control. Walter explains that Rusk's entire consciousness was transferred into Lisa, and Lisa's consciousness is suppressed. He can't stop the process and they have to let the drugs run their course. Astrid escorts Maureen out and Olivia tries to talk to Rusk. When she tries to find out who killed Rusk, he explains that he called his wife when he went to get a beer. The killer hid in his backseat and directed him to the junkyard, and then had him kneel before shooting him. However, Rusk claims he never saw the killer's face, but saw that the man's left arm was bleeding. Rusk passes out and they cut off the drug dip. Olivia calls the hospitals to see if anybody checked in with an injured left arm.

Later, Lisa recovers consciousness and Peter frees her. Charlie calls Olivia and tells her that Jake Selleg, a Naval officer who trained with a counter-terrorism unit, checked in with an arm injury. Now he owns a boxing gym. Olivia and Charlie go there and Selleg runs off. The agents run him down and capture him.

Back at the lab, Lisa contemplates Rusk's corpse where it's wrapped up. Peter leads her away and she asks for something to drink. He goes into the office where Walter is examining Lisa's brain scan. Walter realizes that the brain scan indicates that Rusk is still in control. Peter runs out and discovers that Rusk/Lisa has fled.

Charlie and Olivia interrogate Rusk and demand to know who ordered him to kill Rusk. Selleg insists that he never killed a man on Navy orders. However, he tells them that Rusk deserved to die because he beat Teresa. Selleg hung out at the bar where Teresa worked, and she told him that her husband beat her and couldn't deal with it any more. She hired Selleg to kill Rusk, so the man took Rusk to the junkyard, told him that Teresa ordered the hit, and then killed him. They realize that Rusk didn't tell them he knew who his killer was because he plans to get revenge. They call Peter and tell him what's going on.

Rusk/Lisa goes to "his" home, takes out a gun, and greets Teresa when she returns home. When Rusk/Lisa calls her "my star," she realizes that Rusk is in control. He ties her up and starts soaking the place in gasoline, while telling her to confess. Peter arrives at the house first and goes inside. He tells Rusk/Lisa to give it up and tries to get through to Lisa, insisting he knows what it feels like to be a freak. The Naval officer tells him to leave or he'll shoot and immolate them all. When Peter refuses, Charlie arrives just in time to shoot Rusk/Lisa with a tranquilizer dart.

Outside, Lisa recovers consciousness as she's taken to the hospital, and Peter assures her everything will be fine. He admits that he appealed to Lisa because he believed that there was some part of her inside that was still there to fight.

At the lab, Walter checks the brain scan and concludes that it's clean. He figures that Rusk purged himself with his final act and moved on. When Maureen wonders how he can be sure, Walter admits that it's a matter of faith, and sometimes even he has to rely on faith rather than science. Maureen thanks Olivia for her help and Lisa tells Olivia not to wait too long to make her move on Peter. After the Donovans leave, Olivia informs the others that the Navy has denied their request to launch an investigation into the incident aboard the Gloucester. Walter believes that the unique circumstances of the radiation couldn't happen again, and they have nothing to worry about.

In New York City, a man is killed in a car accident. As the EMTs rush in, the man suddenly comes back to life and starts speaking in Russian.

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