The Dreamscape - Recap

Executive Mark Young arrives late for a meeting at an office building New York City. He gives his presentation but as he cleans up afterward, alone, he sees a butterfly floating through the conference room. It lands on his hand... and slices it open with razor-sharp wings. Mark manages to kill it, but a couple of others fly in and slice him. They fly into the heating duct and Mark bends over to look in... and hundreds of the butterflies pour out into his face. Covered in lacerations, Mark finally runs through the window and falls to his death. He lands on a car below... in front of the Massive Dynamic Building.

Olivia is at home discussing a surprise party with Beth over the phone. Broyles calls and tells her to get the team to New York City. She tries to quit for a few days but Broyles doesn't let her. Upon arriving at the scene, Walter examines Mark's corpse and discovers lacerations beneath his clothing that couldn't have happened when he ran through the window. He orders the corpse taken to his lab at Harvard. Meanwhile, Olivia is watching the crowd and sees a familiar face: John Scott. However, he disappears a second later.

Olivia goes to see Nina Sharp, who says that she believes Mark killed himself due to the pressure of his job. She notes that working in their particular field of "science" can be stressful, and suggests again that Olivia should consider a job with Massive Dynamic. Olivia turns her down and says she's going to go wherever it takes to solve Mark's death. She also finds it suspicious that Nina knows so little about Mark, a highly placed employee. Nina notes that it's big company and not everyone there can handle the new ideas that come with their job.

Olivia and Charlie search Mark's apartment. A FBI tech removes the hard drive while the agents find an appointment book saying that Mark had booked a Christmas trip back home: not something a suicide plans. Olivia finds the word MONARCH written in Mark's appointment book. He also has a collection of butterflies but when Olivia looks at it, the butterflies start to twitch. After a second they go back to normal.

Walter examines the lacerations and reveals that they erupted from the inside out. A tox scan reveals standards medications but Walter notes they could have been used for the delivery of another synthetic chemical Walter has discovered. However, the chemical doesn’t account for lacerations. Peter gets a call and talks privately to the woman, Tess Amaral. She says she's discovered he backs and wants to talk to him. Peter reluctantly sets up a meeting.

Olivia is at home going over Mark's appointment back and doing a web search. She gives up for the night and shuts down her computer. However, as she gets in bed the computer turns back on, seemingly by itself. An e-mail from John Scott appears, with a basement-level address. Olivia goes there and finds storage containers holding toads.

Olivia requisitions supplies for the toads and has them shipped to the Harvard lab. Charles sees the requisitions and asks her what's going on. She says that she thinks she might be going insane, hallucinating John Scott leading her to clues. She asks for a couple of weeks rather than undergo a psych evaluation and get a black mark on her record. They're conversation is interrupted when Astrid calls to tell her that Walter has figured out how the toads led to Mark's death.

Peter meets with Tess at a diner. She warns him that if she could find him, the others could too. Peter tells her not to worry and they talk about their relationship and how she's the only one who really knows him. She wonders if that's par of his problem. He notices bruises on her wrist and asks if "Michael" did that to her. She doesn't answer his question but says he needs to leave Boston before things get worse for him.

Olivia returns to the lab where Walter shows her and Astrid a film he made of his experiment in the 70s of his convincing a suggestible patient via hypnosis that he was burned, and a psychosomatic injury appearing on the subject. Walter explains that the toads' venom is a hallucinogenic and the synthetic in Mark's body was manufactured from it. The compound stimulates the amygdala, provoking the victim's greatest fear, and then causing him to suffer psychosomatic wounds from it. Walter notes that it was murder: the dosage was too high for casual or accidental ingestion.

Olivia privately talks to Walter about her hallucinations involving John. She wants Walter to try and purge his memories from her, but she also needs to know what John knew about the toads. Walter figures something in the case triggered John's memories (including the butterfly hallucination Olivia had at Mark's apartment). Walter suggests he can use a memory-repression technique to bring the memories to the surface and then purges them, but warns it could be dangerous. Olivia insists, hoping to find more about the toads.

Peter is watching Tess, who lives with Michael, when Astrid calls him back to the lab. At the lab, Walter prepares Olivia to go back into the tank for the memory treatment. He tells her she has to listen to his voice at all times, as he'll be her tether to reality. He hooks up the electrodes to her brain and injects the hallucinogenic, then puts her into the tank.

Olivia hears music and Walter directs her to walk through a door. She finds herself in the restaurant where her and John went on their first date. The memories of her and John are there. When her memory-self gets up to go, Olivia sits at the table and admits she loved John, and wonders if he ever loved her or if it was all a ruse. She wonders if John can see her, despite Walter's insistence it's just a memory that she can't interact with. She tries to focus on Mark Young and the memory switches to an area by the piers where John, a black man, a Latino, and Mark Young are meeting. She tries to get close to overhear their conversation, but the Latino man walks off with Mark, assuring him he'll be well-paid for his efforts. They disappear out of Mark's memories once they're no longer in his presence. Olivia looks on as John and the other man discuss Mark... and then John stabs the man, killing him. Olivia screams in terror and tells them to get her out.

Olivia assembles a sketch of the one surviving man, the Latino, and Charlie begins to do a search to find him. As she dresses, Peter tells her that she can count on him if she needs help. She then meets with Broyles and lays it out for him: Mark was selling the hallucinogenic from Massive Dynamic's chemical division to the highest bidder. Broyles says she should continue with the investigation but she says she needs Mark Young's project files from Massive Dynamic. Broyles says he'll see what he can do.

Michael is coming out of his apartment when Peter attacks him on the street. Michael goes for his gun but Peter disarms him, knocks him to the ground, and warns him that if he harms Tess again, he's dead. He ejects the clip and leaves the gun as he goes.

Olivia is working with the FBI agents to find the Latino when Broyles has Mark's case files delivered. Olivia notices that Mark's business card had as alpha-code for the last few numbers. Making the connection, she dials MONARCH out on the phone and is connected to the Latino. Recognizing his voice from the memories, she claims to be a long-distance carrier representative. He tells her to leave him alone and hangs up, and Olivia has Charlie run a trace. It leads to a cell phone, which is moving toward the Lincoln Tunnel. They go after him while Charlie identifies the Latino as George Morales, a black market trafficker. He's heading for the airport but his signal stops. They catch up and discover he's stuck in traffic. He makes a run for it but is hit by a cab.

George is taken to the hospital where he asks Olivia for protection against Massive Dynamic in return for information. He insists that Massive Dynamic had Mark killed as a warning to other employees. He knows all about the Pattern, and ZDT, and John Scott, and says it's all a hoax set up by Massive Dynamic so they can what they want to whomever they want. He offers to testify against Massive Dynamic in return for immunity and protection. When Olivia wonders why he thinks he can trust her, George explains that John Scott told him about her.

Olivia goes to confront Nina Sharp. Nina denies everything and wonders if Olivia is hallucinating. She concludes that Olivia won't be accepting her job offer and suggests that their suspect is making unfounded accusations against Massive Dynamic. Meanwhile, George sees a man come into his hospital room: John Scott. John takes out a knife and cuts George's throat. A nurse comes in and sees that George is alone in the room--but his throat is splitting open by itself.

Broyles calls to inform Olivia that their witness is dead. Olivia figures that Nina had someone get to George and give him a dose of the hallucinogenic. Broyles warns her not to make unfounded allegations.

Later, Olivia visits and Walter and insists she needs to go back into the tank to get more information. Walter refuse, saying it's too dangerous and that she can't interact with John. Nina insists that the John in her memories did respond to her, but Walter says it's impossible. He says he'll try and help her but says he wants time to develop a safer approach.

Michael meets with an older man on the street and warns him that Peter is back.

Olivia is at home at bed when her computer comes on and another e-mail from John Scott appears. It says that he saw her at the restaurant.


Share this article with your friends