Forced Perspective - Recap

At Fringe Headquarters, Olivia shows photos of the man she saw at the Orpheum to Broyles, and points out that they’ve had surveillance footage of the man at fringe events for the last three years. However, this is the first time that one of the mysterious men has contacted them. The blood sample that Olivia took from the wounded man has been analyzed, but its only distinguishing factor is that it has antibodies for the Spanish Flu, which hasn’t been active for 90 years. Olivia believes that the Observer was trying to warn her about something, and promises to tell her superior if he makes contact again.

A young girl, Emily Mallum, is on the street sketching. She hears a hum and then starts sketching something on a clean piece of paper. Once she’s done, she goes up to a man, Rob Englehart, gives him the sketch without a word, and walk away. Englehart admits to his friend Joyce that he has no idea who Emily is. They look at the sketch and consider it rather dark. As they continue walking past a construction site, an i-beam breaks loose and falls, skewering Englehart. Joyce looks on, holding the sketch... which shows Englehart being skewered by an i-beam.



At the lab in Harvard, Peter and Walter are examining the blueprints for the Machine, provided by Walternate from the Other Side. Olivia arrives and they tell her that they hope to use the Machine to send Peter back to his original timeline. Olivia is happy just to see Walter working with an alternate version of his son. Lincoln arrives to tell Olivia about Englehart’s death. She immediately assumes that the Observer is involved, but her fellow agent tells her that the person who predicted the death was a teenage girl, and that a witness can identify her.

Emily returns home and her father Jim, along with her mother Diane and brother Danny, welcome her home. Jim talks about how he just interviewed for a new job and he starts tomorrow. Emily goes to her room and starts sketching again, and Jim comes in to check on her. He notices that she’s drawing a sketch of a lake, and Emily asks if he’s tired of having to move constantly because of her. Jim assures her that what matters is that the family is together. When his daughter wonders why God made her the way she is, her father tells her that God has a purpose for everyone, even if they don’t understand it, and that his purpose is to take care of them. After a moment, Jim closes Emily’s bedroom curtains and leaves.



The next day, Olivia is reviewing the sketch predicting Englehart’s death and rubs at her brow. Broyles notices and come over, and Olivia tells him that Lincoln is talking to the witness. Her superior is more interested in discussing her headaches, pointing out that she’s been to health services three times in the last month. Olivia says that she had to pick up a subscription and Broyles explains that health services called him and that he isn’t snooping. Olivia asks if he believes in fate, and admits that she didn’t until now, when she ended up investigating a case where someone was fated to die. She wonders if the fate that the Observer predicted for her is unavoidable, and Broyles says that they’ll be extra careful about keeping her out of the way of danger for the time being. Lincoln arrives to tell his partner that they have confirmed that Emily goes to a school near the construction site and they have a photo.

As Emily takes the bus to school, she hears the humming noise and then starts sketching a man sitting on the bus behind her. She goes to give it to him but discovers that he’s left the bus. When she gets off and runs back, the man has disappeared in the crowd. Emily looks despairingly up to God and says that she tried.

Meanwhile, Olivia and Lincoln go to the Mallums, explaining that their neighbors have said a girl matching Emily’s description lives there. All three family members deny that Emily lives there, but Olivia notices a backpack matching the one in the photo. Outside, the agents encounter Emily as she comes home. Olivia asks her about the sketch and Emily immediately concludes that the man is dead. She hesitantly explains that she can sense death.



Before Emily can explain further, Jim comes out and orders her into the house, saying the agents have no right to question her without parental permission. Olivia says that it’s up to Emily, but the girl agrees with her father. Jim then complains that the government always finds Emily and threatens to take her in so that they can study her ability, or that other companies like Massive Dynamic come looking for her. He asks them to let Emily have a normal childhood, and Olivia gives him her card and says to call her if he changes his mind or if anyone harasses the family. As Lincoln and Olivia leave, she asks her partner to run a background check on the Mallums while she meets with someone who may have more information.

Inside, Jim tells Emily that she did the right thing. His daughter tells him that she saw something awful happen to the man on the bus. However, Jim warns her that nothing she can do will make a difference, and the last time she tried, something bad happened.

Olivia goes to Massive Dynamic to see Nina. She’s shocked when Nina admits that the company is still testing children. However, Nina insists that they are only investigating children with existing abilities, rather than giving them drugs to instigate new abilities. Olivia isn’t reassured, insisting that it’s just as abusive as the cortexiphan program. Before she can pursue the matter, Olivia gets a call from Emily, asking her to meet at the park by the river. When Olivia gets there, Emily tells her that the view reminds her of a better time. The girl admits that her father doesn’t know that she’s there, and then shows Olivia a sketch she made of the man from the bus... surrounded by dozens of dead people.



Olivia takes Emily to Harvard and Walter examines the girl. The teenager explains that she had her first experience when she was 11 when she “sensed” that a man was going to have a heart attack. The doctors were unable to determine the cause of the visions, and Emily’s friends soon grew scared of her. Ultimately, Jim and Diane had no choice but to move away. Walter and Astrid identify elevated theta-one waves, and Walter suggests that Emily has the ability to see “ripples” from the future, moving into the past. Emily warns them what she sees always happens, and Peter asks her why she tries to warn people if that’s true. The teenager admits that she tells them so that they can do at least one more good thing before they die. While Peter and Astrid tap into the city bus records to identify the man from the sketch, Olivia thanks Emily for calling and asks if she can sense anything from her. Emily tries and looks scared, just as Lincoln brings in Jim. Jim wants to leave with his daughter, but Emily asks him to let her stay. Peter an Astrid identify as Albert Duncan, and get an address from the city files. Olivia and Lincoln leave to track him down while Peter suggests that Walter hypnotize Emily and see if she can remember more. Walter is hesitant to try, pointing out that he’s never done hypnosis before, but Peter assures him that his counterpart could do it.

The agents go to Albert’s address and learn that the construction worker has been gone for the last week. Olivia checks in with Astrid, who tells her that Walter is just getting started. Under hypnosis, Emily remember being on the bus and following Albert, and then seeing him and the other dead people frozen in time, in the middle of a building collapse. When she hesitates, Peter has Jim reassures her, and Emily is able to read a partially-buried sign, which has Latin words on it. When she recites the words, Peter recognizes them and calls Olivia to tell her that the sign is from a courthouse. Olivia is going through Albert’s records and confirms that he was recently divorced and lost custody of his kids.



Albert goes to the Allston Courthouse and makes his way through the metal detectors without raising an alarm. Meanwhile, FBI squads move in and begin searching for Albert and the bomb. They figure that judging by the collapse, the bomb was in the parking garage when it exploded.

Jim takes Emily home and she apologizes, but her father assures her that he’s proud of her. However, he warns her that they’re back in the system now. He spots a black van down the street and thinks it looks like the one that followed them in Baltimore, and orders Emily into the house. Jim tells Diane and Danny to start packing, ignoring Emily’s objections. As she goes to her room, Emily has another vision of herself, at the park with Olivia.

Albert asks a court clerk where he can find Judge O’Malley. However, before he can get an answer, the FBI announces an evacuation and Albert realizes that something has come up.

Lincoln and Peter go to the parking garage with the FBI bomb squad, and find Albert’s pickup truck filled with explosives. Peter calls to warn Broyles that it will take time to defuse the bomb, and Broyles suggests that Olivia get to safety outside of the blast radius. She refuses, saying that she won’t live that way, and continues looking for Albert.



When the bomb squad officer warns Peter and Lincoln that they should leave because it’s remote-wired, Peter gets an idea. He gets the radio frequency of the bomb, calls Broyles, and tells him to have everyone put their radios to the same frequency.

Albert finds Judge O’Malley and takes him prisoner, saying that he’s the one who took his children from him. He activates the radio remote, but nothing happens. Olivia and Broyles arrive with a squad and Broyles tells him that they’ve blocked the signal. Undeterred, Albert opens his coat, revealing that he’s rigged himself with plastic explosives. As he prepares to trigger the explosive, Olivia says that none of them have to die and that nothing is written in soul. She assures Albert that he’s the one in control, but that she doesn’t think that he’s ready to die. Olivia points out that all of the people there have children as well, Albert realizes what he’s done, releases the detonator, and lets O’Malley go.



Once Albert is secured, Olivia calls Jim but doesn’t get an answer. He listens as Olivia leaves a message on the machine saying that Emily saved hundreds of lives. When Jim goes to the bedroom, he discovers that his daughter is gone and that the van parked outside has driven away. He calls Olivia, who confirms that the van belonged to a dry cleaners and had nothing to do with Emily’s abduction. Realizing what has happened, Olivia goes to the park and finds Emily there, seated on the same bench and dying. Lincoln calls an ambulance as Emily tells Olivia that she had a vision of her own death. She drew it, and the sketch shows Jim sitting next to her while Olivia looks on. Olivia insists that the visions aren’t inevitable and that they were able to change Emily’s vision of the courthouse bombing. Jim arrives and Emily tells him that she’s known for a while that she was going to die, and she knew he’d be there. She tells her father that he was right in believing that everyone has a purpose, and hers was to save the people at the courthouse. Jim embraces her daughter as she quietly dies.



Later, Peter arrives at the lab and Olivia tells him that Emily died of a stroke caused by the excess electrical activity in her brain. Peter sees Olivia examining a photo of the Observer and comments about how they exist in her timeline as well and that they show up at significant historical events. When Olivia wonders if they can know the future, Peter explains that they exist in different time periods simultaneously and actually experience the future rather than predict it. He asks if Olivia has met one and she lies and says she hasn’t.

That night, Nina comes to see Olivia to apologize for her earlier comments. Olivia says that she thought she was going to die, and that she realized that Nina is the closest thing she has to a mother. When Olivia complains about her migraines, Nina promises to get some experimental medication for her from Massive Dynamic, and then goes to make some soup. Meanwhile, the Observer stands across the street from Olivia’s apartment... watching.

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