Ability - Recap

David Robert Jones kills his lawyer and teleports out of his cell in Wissenschaft Prison in Germany, leaving nothing behind but scorch marks.

Two weeks later, Olivia visits the lab to inform Walter and Peter that Jones has escaped, and that she figures he used Walter’s time/space scoops that Mitchell Loeb stole. Walter admits that the device can be used to teleport someone, but they’d have to undergo depressurization in a barometric pressure chamber.

In a warehouse, Jones emerges from a barometric pressure chamber after two weeks of treatment. He thanks the operatives for acquiring Walter’s machine and freeing him. They assure him they’ve assembled the equipment they need. As he drinks a cup of tea, Jones notices that his hand is shaking.

Tommie Averie, a newsstand vendor in Boston, gets a $2 bill from a customer. He chats with another customer about Rear Window, but then complains there’s something in his eyes. In a matter of seconds skin grows over his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth and he collapses to ground, suffocating to death.

Charlie informs Broyles that he’s going through the financial records of Jones’ dead lawyer, Kohl. He’s found a slush fund and figures it was being used to help Jones.

Olivia talks with Mitchell Loeb as he’s transferred to prison. She wants his help in finding Jones, aware that he stole the teleportation device that Jones used to escape. When he refuses to cooperate because Olivia killed his wife, Olivia tells him that she’s arranged for him to go to a maximum security prison. Loeb says that “what is written will come to pass” and what she does, doesn’t matter. Broyles calls to tell her to meet him in Boston.

The team examines Tommie’s corpse and Walter concludes that lipids have caused the orifices to seal over. Olivia assumes that Jones is responsible but Broyles points out that it doesn’t make sense for him to target a news vendor. Olivia checks with her contact in Germany for background information on Jones’ organization, ZFT. The initials translate to “Destruction by Advanced Technology,” which derives from an anonymous manuscript that was destroyed ten years ago. She asks Peter to see if he can find someone who can locate a copy.

While Walter examines the corpse, Charlie’s underling goes through a list of Kohl’s business contacts in the U.S. Peter and Olivia meet with Edward Markam, an illicit bookseller, who says he’ll do what he can to find the ZFT manuscript.

Charlie discovers that one of Kohl’s business clients owns a building in Austin and it was shut down until two weeks ago: the same time Jones escaped. They prepare to search the place but are interrupted when Jones walks into the lobby. They arrest a willing Jones and find an unmarked key on his person. They take him to an interrogation room but he insists he will only talk to Olivia. Jared Harris refuses to let her talk with Jones and sends her on the raid to Austin to find evidence to connect Jones to Avery’s bizarre death.

Markam gets Peter a copy of the ZFT manuscript. Peter goes over it and reads parts of it to Olivia over the phone. It talks about a coming world-shattering technological battle. Olivia, Charlie, and their team arrive at the building and find it deserted. Jones has left one of his sketches of Olivia behind, confirming that he was there.

Harris talks to Jones, who refuses to talk to him and asks for several pieces of equipment, including a walkie-talkie, a jewelers repair kit, and Harris’ analog watch.

One of the agents in the building finds a $2 bill in a drawer. He touches it and Olivia and Charlie hear him scream. They run upstairs to find the man suffocating as his orifices close over. Olivia performs an emergency tracheotomy but the skin covers the tube.

Upon their return, Harris allows Olivia to talk to Jones and gives her the component that Jones requested. Olivia hands them over to Jones, who assembles them into a jamming device so that Broyles and Harris can’t monitor them. Jones, looking ill, tells Olivia that the news vendor was an example. Jones tells Olivia she needs to pass a test and tells her the key opens a locker at an amusement park. Inside are a series of tests that she needs to take. As Jones’ condition worsens, he explains that the teleportation caused side effects. He then tells Olivia that his colleagues are transporting a device that will kill several hundred people the same way, and they’re using a white van. Harris orders Olivia out and she tells them to track down white vans while she goes to get the tests.

As she drives to the amusement park, Olivia checks in with Peter. Walter has identified the toxin and is working on an antidote. Walter has been reading the manuscript and quotes a section that talks about how there are other universes and beings that can travel from one to another. As they travel to a new universe, unusual scientific events occur at the destination. Ultimately the invaders plan to destroy the target world.

Olivia gets the tests and returns to the labs. The first one is a box filled with lights, and she is supposed to turn them off simply by concentrating. Olivia and Peter think it’s nonsensical, and Walter reads Jones letter which talks about “recruits.” The ZFT manuscript also talks about unwilling recruits who will eventually become soldiers against the invaders. Olivia has no luck shutting off the lights.

Charlie runs a trace on white vans and discovers that it was rented by someone claiming to be Olivia. Realizing she has no choice, Olivia talks to Jones again over Harris’ objections. She demands answers and Jones says that she was treated with cortexiphan. His men kidnapped her and performed a spinal tap to confirm the drug’s presence in her system. Olivia has no idea what he’s talking about but Jones insists that she can pass the test. He collapses in agony and is taken to the lab. Walter determines that Jones is suffering from the side effects of teleportation and doesn’t have much time. Olivia confirms that cortexiphan was a drug created by Massive Dynamic but never approved by the FDA. With time running out, Olivia asks Peter to tinker with the light box so they can fake the test for Jones.

Olivia meets with Nina Sharp, who checks the files on cortexiphan. As she does, Nina’s prosthetic arm acts erratically. The file reveals that Dr. William Bell developed the drug in ’81 and that it was supposed to remove the inherent limitations in the human mind. The drug was abandoned after the research showed no results. The tests took place in Ohio, but Olivia notes that she was in Florida with her father at a military base during that time period.

They go ahead with the test and Olivia “passes.” Jones gives her the address where the device is located. Charlie, Peter, and Olivia go there and find the device: a bomb fastened to the window of an office building, with a series of lights identical to those in the test. There is no way to defuse or move the bomb and they only have three minutes left. Olivia calls Jones, who admits that he knew she faked the test but he knows she can do it for real.

Olivia tells the others to leave and she starts to concentrate. Peter warns it’s useless but refuses to abandon her. Olivia manages to shut down the lights and the bomb goes off-line with seconds to spare. Olivia thinks it’s some kind of trick to get Jones to meet Walter, but Peter isn’t so sure. Olivia goes to Boston General where Jones is being transferred, so she can get more answers from him.

Astrid talks to Walter about his teleportation device and notes that it kills people. Walter, surprised, says that it doesn’t kill, but it does something “unthinkable” to the user.

At the hospital, Olivia discovers that Jones has disappeared from his room, several floors up. Something has smashed a huge hole in the wall. Two words are written on the wall: “You passed.”

Walter reads the ZFT manuscript and notices something unusual about the “y”s.

Nina calls Olivia to update her on the cortexiphan drug trials, nothing that her artificial arm is working properly again. She explains that Bell ran a second smaller drug test in Jacksonville, FL, at a military base.

Walter pulls an old typewriter out of a cabinet. He types the word “ability” and notices that the “y” is out of alignment… just like the “y”s in the manuscript.

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