Olivia. In The Lab. With The Revolver. - Recap

A man claiming to be Neil Wilson goes to a café to meet with a lawyer, Miranda Greene. He explains that he picked her because they went to school together, and insists that he’s dying because of something he was exposed to in school. Miranda agrees to take the case and take some initial notes, and Neil takes her hand as he thanks her. As they talk about school, she mentions one boy, Lloyd Becker, and Neil suggests she check with their other classmates.

Miranda drives back to the office while talking to her mother on the phone. However, when the lawyer stops at a light, she’s seized by sudden convulsions. She looks at her hand and sees a series of blisters where Neil touched her. The blisters spread across her body and she collapses. When the driver behind her comes to investigate, he discovers a deformed and dying Miranda, pleading for help.

When Olivia realizes she can’t get to sleep, she goes to the bowling alley to see Sam Weiss. He’s working on a pin setter and admits that he’s surprised to see her after so long. Olivia explains that she’s starting to see strange things, just like he predicted, but Sam admits that it’s beyond his expertise. However, he suggests she can’t sleep for more prosaic reasons: something is bothering her. Olivia admits that it’s right, but it has to do with a secret she’s been asked to keep. Broyles calls to let her know they have a case. As Olivia leaves, Sam assures her that she’s a good person, and must have a good reason for keeping something secret.

Peter and Walter meet Olivia at the morgue as Walter talks about how he wants to go on a skiing trip with his son. Broyles tells them that Miranda died of cancer, and they meet with the morgue examiner, John Potash. Potash is a former student of Walter's and expresses his admiration. Walter concludes that the blisters are cancerous sarcomas, and they originated on her wrist... in the shape of human fingers.

At the lab, Walter cuts off Miranda's arm and prepares to bake the skin so they can identify the killer's fingerprints. As they work, Walter makes plans to take Peter to Atlantic City. Olivia and Peter go to talk to Miranda's boss, Ken Messing, who tells them about her case history. She was taking on a case against Intrepus Pharmaceutical. When Peter checks Miranda's appointment book, he finds an unidentified meeting with Neil Wilson. As they leave, Peter wonders why Intrepus would have someone killed in such a public manner. When they arrive at the Bishops' home, Peter invites Olivia inside but she nervously declines.

That night, Olivia is unable to sleep and goes to the lab, where everyone is surprised to see her so early. She's confirmed that Neil used a disposable cell phone to make his appointment wit Miranda. Once Olivia is alone with Walter, she tells him that she has to tell Peter the truth about his origins. Walter insists that she can't, and that he's at a better place with Peter than he ever has before. He asks her for time to prepare, and Olivia thinks about it. Peter arrives with coffee and Olivia checks Miranda's credit card record and confirms that she met with Neil at café. They talk to the waiter, who describes Neil as a cancer victim.

Neil, looking much better, is buying groceries when he suddenly suffers from cancer again. As he gets sicker, he goes through the phone book trying to contact Lloyd Becker.

At the lab, Walter speculates that the origins of Miranda's death lie in the Dim Mak, the Chinese touch of death, and that somehow he exchanged his energy with that of Miranda to temporarily cure himself while killing her.

Neil finally locates Lloyd Becker and goes to visit him.

Later, the Fringe team is called to Becker's apartment. He's dead of cancer, just like Miranda, and they confirm the disease started on his hand. They figure that Neil shook hands with Lloyd and passed his cancer on. As they drive back to the lab, Peter notices that Olivia is upset and incorrectly concludes it's because they almost kissed in Jacksonville. He tells her that he doesn't to become involved because it would ruin the family unit that they've built.

At the lab, Astrid explains that she's been tracking similar deaths and discovered dozens of them spread across the U.S. over the last year. Olivia goes over the files and insists that the names sounds familiar, but can't place where she's heard them. That night, she goes over the files and drinks, and Sam comes by with a game of Clue. They talk about her life and Sam notes that she still hasn't unpacked. He figures that she has a hard time forming lasting relationships, and suggests that she's a protector and a soldier. Oliver asks about him and Sam dodges her questions, but comments that he's taller than he appears. That gives Olivia the clue she needed. She visits Peter and tells him that the names of all the victims were on a children's height list at the school in Jacksonville. All of Neil's victims were cortexiphan subjects. They take the information to Walter, who explains that the cortexiphan exposure leaves them open to Neil's cancerous infection.

Olivia confronts Nina at Massive Dynamic, demanding that she provide a list of all of the cortexiphan subjects. Nina denies that there is any such list and is shocked to hear that Olivia knows about Peter's origins on the alternate Earth. When Olivia says that she plans to tell Peter where he's from, Nina says that she won't and points out that Olivia would already have done it if that was her intent. She figures that Olivia doesn't want to lose Peter, and that she actually came to see Nina in the hopes she'd talk Olivia out of telling him.

Neil, suffering from cancer again, comes to see Mrs. Lane to track down her nephew, Nick. She invites him inside.

Olivia meets with the others at the lab and tells them that Nina didn't have the cortexiphan list. Walter finally develops the fingerprints from Miranda's skin, but there's nothing in the FBI database.

Neil talks to Mrs. Lane about how he went to school with Nick and Lloyd Becker. She tells him that Nick lived in Brooklyn but hasn't contacted her recently. She does tell him that Olivia came to talk to her when she was tracking down Nick six months ago.

Olivia returns home and goes over the files, and realizes that the first victim was Julie Heath, and she died of cancer at a Philadelphia hospital visiting her brother James… another cortexiphan subject who was dying of cancer. She calls Broyles and brings him up to speed, and he mobilizes the FBI to check out the hospital. Olivia goes to meet him but in the hallway outside, finds James Heath waiting for her. She recognizes him but pretends not to, but he realizes that she's an FBI agent and attacks her in her apartment. Olivia manages to hold him off and hits the speed dial on her phone, calling Peter. James comes at her again and she knocks him down, and he falls onto the photos of the Jacksonville children. He sees a photo of Julie and starts crying, insisting that he didn’t for anyone to die. When James was dying of cancer, a man came to visit him and told him about Walter and William had experimented on them as children. His visitor tried to activate James' abilities to cure his cancer, but he seemingly failed. However, when Julie took his hand as he lay dying, James realized that he was getting better but a terrible cost. When James tried to find the man by tracking down the other Jacksonville children, he touched one of them and the same thing happened. Now he wishes the man had never visited him, because otherwise the other children would have survived. The police arrive with Peter and take him into custody. Peter asks why Olivia called him rather than Broyles, and Olivia jokingly notes that his was the most useful number on her speed dial. She starts to tell him what she knows, but then stops and thanks him for being there for her.

Later, Nina and Broyles visit James in the hospital. He's been placed in a coma to stop the spread of cancer. They believe that the man James said contacted him in Philadelphia is the same man who "activated" Nick Lane and Nancy Lewis, and that James' ability to transfer his cancer was an unexpected side effect. Broyles says that there are still children from Jacksonville who haven't been located, and others from the Wooster drug trials. Nina insists that they have to find all of them.

Olivia visits Walter at his home and admits that he was right about keeping Peter in the dark. Walter thanks her for her consideration, but tells her that he has to put things right and will tell Peter the truth himself.

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