Earthling
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Introduction
| Earthling | |
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| Season | 2 |
| Episode | 6 |
| Air Date | November 5, 2009 |
| Written by | Joel Wyman Jeff Vlaming |
| Directed by | Jon Cassar |
| Starring | Main Characters |
| Guest Cast | Ravil Isyanov as Timur Vasiliev JR Bourne as CIA Man Gerard Plunkett as Dennis Van Horn Karen Holness as Diane Broyles Yaroslav Poverlo as Aleks Vasiliev Joe Towne as Randy Dancik Michelle Harrison as Natalie Dancik Linda Ko as Nurse Darla Jeanettea Antonio as Hospital Security Blaine Anderson as CSI Officer Megan Charpentier as Tara (child) Charisse Baker as Tara's Mom Chris Shields as ND Agent D. Neil Mark as ND Agent #2 Matteo Mazziotti as Playful Boy Dean MacKenzie as Rob Linnea Johnson as Nurse #1 Angela Moore as Addtnl Nurse Veena Sood as Jerry Larsen |
| Previous Episode | Dream Logic |
| Next Episode | Of Human Action |
| Transcript | |
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Earthling is the sixth episode of the second season of FRINGE. It first aired on November 5, 2009. The Fringe Division takes on a puzzling investigation of victims who inexplicably disintegrate into ash. The shadowy case casts a light on Phillip Broyles’ past and entices the team with the possibilities of foreign fringe science.
Synopsis
Prologue
Randy Dancik is at home preparing a surprise dinner for his wife, Natalie, on their anniversary. She calls him on his cell phone to check and see how his business trip to Hong Kong is going, sad that they have to be apart on the special occassion. She says that she will be home soon and not to worry about the short separation. He has fibbed about his week long travel plans and further embellishes the lie - he is at the airport, and his flight has just been called for departure. After the call, the lights and television at the house begin to flicker on and off. He restores the lights. A shadowy entity appears behind him in the hallway. Randy walks around the house to check on the odd anomalies, restoring the lights. The lights go off again, but this time after he restores the lights, the dark figure marches directly towards as he backs away from it. When his wife arrives home, she is pleasantly surprised at the gift and note he has left her. She realizes his ploy and finds him sitting on a chair in the living room... she becomes increasingly worried by his lack of response to her, his blank stare. She goes to touch him, and he immediately begins to disintegrate. His head falls to the floor in a cloud of ash.
ACT I
In a tongue-in-cheek lighter moment, Phillip Broyles sits alone in an upscale restaurant studying the menu. Two tables away, a young lad of class, sits, facing him, studying him - imitating him. Broyles realizes he is under serious surveillance and a world class game of monkey-see, monkey-do commences. Saved from defeat by his ringing cell phone, the Senior Federal Agent flees the facility before the young victor has time to gloat. Fringe science calls.
The science team is already at the Dancik residence, and ankle deep in Randy dust. Walter draws a mental picture for everyone... firelogs that burn so hot they retain their basic shape after they have cooled. He also observes that there were no scorch marks on the seat - ruling out a fire, or spontaneous combustion. He must have the ashes taken back to the lab to study further, several vacuum cleaners should handle the job. Broyles arrives, and asks if Dancik worked at a hospital, or had visited a hospital in the last twenty-four hours. He adds that this is not the first time he has seen this phenomenon.
Broyles takes Olivia and Peter to his secure storage unit full of boxes, files and other items. He hands over some paperwork and reveals that he worked on a case four years prior, where the victims had turned to ash. There were five deaths by the time that the killings ended, and each victim had worked at or visited the same hospital. At the time, he was contacted by an Eastern European man who knew details only the killer could know. He offered to turn himself in if they could decipher his formula - a molecular model with complex organic compounds. Broyles adds that the CDC and NIH had not been able to solve the case. Peter takes a copy of the formula to Walter, to study. Olivia receives a phone call informing her that Dancik had visited his mother at Latchmere General Hospital, within twenty-four hours of his murder.
It is evening time at Latchmere and Darla stands, on-call, working at her dimly lit duty-station. In the quiet halls behind her, the shadowy entity makes its way towards her. As it passes, she looks up and sees nothing. None the worse for the encounter, she returns to work, and the entity continues on its way.
ACT II
Our team reviews all employee records looking for a man of Eastern European decent who may have also worked in the DC area hospital that was linked to the deaths four years ago.
Back at the lab, Walter notices that the formula contains a large amount of radioactivity. He uses a Geiger counter to test Dancik's remains for radioactivity to see if the formula has any link to his death. The Geiger counter fails to pick up anything.
At the hospital, a shadow begins to appear through the hallways. Soon after, another victim turns to ash. Olivia receives a phone call -- the team has found a match: Tomas Koslov, a night nurse in the coma unit.
Broyles, Peter and Olivia raid the Koslov apartment, but Koslov is gone.
ACT III
In the Koslov apartment they discover Russian electronic components and fingerprints. Koslov is actually Timur Vasiliev, brother to Cosmonaut Aleks Vasiliev.
Senator Van Horn contacts Broyles and tells him that the CIA is demanding that he cease and desist his involvement in the case. The Russian government also has an ongoing investigation against Koslov for removing property owned by the Russian federation. Broyles, however, refuses to stop. Senator Van Horn sends Broyles information on Tomas Koslov. His real name is Timur Vasiliev and it wasn't property he removed - it was his brother, a Russian Cosmonaut who was quarantined after returning home from a spacewalk. Is the cosmonaut the shadow
ACT IV
At the lab, Walter has learned that it's not radiation that is killing the cosmonaut; instead, the radiation is what he's after. All five victims were undergoing radiation treatment, and Dancik had recently been on an airplane and likely received radiation from the sun's rays.
At Latchmere General Hospital, the lights have begun to flicker again. A nurse sees Tomas about to remove his brother, thus he sedates her and puts her in the bed to take her brother's place.
ACT V
Bonding Exercise
Meanwhile, Timur has hooked his brother up to a homemade machine that allows him to shock his brother in order to keep the shadow from leaving his brother's body.
Broyles
Timur telephones Broyles asking for the answer to the formula. Walter reveals that the shadow and the cosmonaut have become one. They are bonded at a molecular level that can't be broken-the organism cannot be killed without killing its host. Broyles pleads with Timur to come in and to let them help but he does not respond.
ACT VI
Save The Girl
Broyles visits his wife to let her know that he has closed the case that tore apart their marriage. She is happy for him and invites him in for dinner but he declines. As he leaves their house, a man approaches him. He tells Broyles that he has a friend in Senator Van Horn because when the CIA says to cease and desist, they mean it. He warns Broyles to not file a report. Broyles asks him what they did with the cosmonaut. The man glances up to the stars and tells Broyles that they had no choice - once he started breathing again.
Quotes
- "I believe the Russians have tried to remove the organism from the cosmonaut -- they couldn't. It is not possible. The two have become one. Bonded at a molecular level. They can't be separated. You can't kill the organism without killing them both." - (Walter, to the team about the chance of saving the oddity)
Trivia
General
- The Observer walks behind Broyles under the Gate 43 sign at the airport while he is on the phone with Dunham.
- Timur Vasiliev called his brother three different Russian names - Alexander, Alexey and Leonid.
- A reference to LSD, Walter mentions purple blotter. LSD has been used in many of Walter's experiements over the years.
Production Notes
- Jon Cassar, the director of the episode, mentioned in an interview that the man from CIA appeared in the last scene was noted as "Mystery Man".
- The hospital interior is where the X-Files pilot and X-Files: I Want to Believe was shot.
Continuity Errors
- Act III. Broyles stands-up to leave Senator Van Horn at the end of a riverside meeting and a male bicycle rider (brunet/gray sweat jacket/dark jeans) rides nearby. Five seconds later, the same bicyclist rides by as Broyles turns to say his final words.
Recurring Themes
- Red and Green. Walter Bishop and Peter Bishop reconstructed the molecular structure using red and green TinkerToys
Literary Techniques
- Pathos. Broyles finds the time to have fun with the young boy in the restaurant, followed later by the awkward exchange with his former spouse - missing his absent children, represents an appeal to our sympathies and imagination.
Music
• Freezing by Mozella 
• Straighten Up and Fly Right by Nat King Cole
• Una Furtiva Lagrima by Mario Lanza (Donizetti, Elisir d'amore: Aria)
Episode References
Glyphs
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Unanswered Questions
| Theories about these unanswered questions should be placed and read at Earthling/Theories |
| Unanswered questions |
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- Why was the cosmonaut's condition dormant for four years between the clusters of deaths?
- Was Vasiliev looking for a new employer before this round of deaths began?
- Was the entity/cosmonaut returned to space?
- If so, will he be allowed to work/contribute there?
