Fox Source

Yep, it's mostly a monster of the week episode. There's a rash of really strange homicides in Seattle, and Olivia and friends fly out to investigate. Oddly, the people who go on killing sprees are then having weird stuff happen with their eyes as their hair turns white and they die of exhaustion.

Walter notices the killers have all had brain surgery recently. Peter notices they all have sleep issues, and that uncovers what they all have in common -- a sleep specialist is conducting a trial of "pacemakers" implanted in patient's brains. It's a computer chip implanted in their thalamus to detect when sleep isn't normal and put things right. Sounds good, right?

Welllll...Turns out the chips don't work quite as intended. The good doctor is listening in on some of his patient's dreams, broadcasting them off to the main computer instead of allowing the patients to experience the dreams. This means they don't get the restful sleep they really need and so no matter how much they sleep they're exhausted.

Plus, the doctor has figured out how to bring on a dream state in a patient anytime he wants -- so they start dreaming while awake, can't tell the difference between dream and reality, and go violent. Why so reckless with people's lives? Because the doctor has become addicted to dreams. Walter figures it out by experimenting on the FBI agent who accompanies him back from Seattle to Boston. He doesn't like Seattle. Can't work there. It smells too much like the insane asylum he so recently resided in. We hear ya, Walter.

Walter, of course, recognizes an addictive substance when he tries it on, so points them in the right direction of the sleep doctor as the bad guy. They rush in on him as he's hooked up to his computer mainlining someone else's dreams. Peter tries to shut it down. Olivia takes the more direct route and shoots the computer. Sparks fly. The evildoer dies, apparently having overdosed on dreams. We're left blinking at the TV. Are we supposed to sleep tonight?

Things we wonder about:

• Did we see Peter steal an apple? What was that about? A hint that he's holding on to his old ways?
  
• Why didn't the nurses keep paper charts on all the people who had surgery?
• Why are hotel rooms so huge in TV land?
• Charlie's headstone said 2009, yet so much about the Fringe universe is not quite like ours. Are we another alternate universe?
• Who will replace Charlie as Olivia's partner? She's like a black widow now, isn't she?
• We like Olivia's Yoda. But is he from around here?
  

Best Lines:

Walter: The flight back was invigorating. The turbulence over Ohio was like being in the belly of a seizing wale. I screamed like a little girl.
Astrid: I'm sure that went over well with the other passengers.