Fringe (2008–2013): Season 2, Episode 8 - August - full transcript

Peter and Olivia look into the latest appearance of an observer, other than September, that kidnaps a young woman. August prevents her from getting on a plane that would crash.

NARRATOR:
Previously on Fringe:

- There is more than one of everything.
OLIVIA: Who the hell is this guy?

BROYLES: We've recorded him
at over three dozen scenes...

...all of which relate to the Pattern.

- Why? What is he doing?
BROYLES: Watching. Observing.

- We refer to him as the Observer.
WALTER: We were dead, Peter.

Until someone grabbed me.

We were saved, both of us,
by a man that I had never met.

- You talked to him?
WALTER: He wouldn't be any use.

He just observes.

I have said too much.
I am not supposed to get involved.



MAN:
Nice specs.

I've never seen anything like them before.

They're from somewhere far away.

I don't have any money.

Oh, that's okay. I'm gonna
give you one of these anyway.

There. Oh, that's great.

Thank you.

(LAUGHING)

- Come with me, please.
- Excuse me?

What are you doing? Get off me!

What are you doing? Help me. Help me.

- Hey!
- Let go. Help me!

- Let her go!
- Somebody help me, please.

Somebody. Help!



(SCREAMING)

GIRL:
Please. Help me.

Please. Help me. Help.

Somebody.

Stop! Stop!

(ENGINE STARTS)

Fringe
s2e08 August

Morning.

(CHUCKLES)

Good morning, Funny Face.
You ready for our day?

Yep.

This is the map Mom left for us.

There's four roller coasters.

Oh, no, no, no.
We agreed, no roller coasters.

Go on any ride you like,
but no roller coasters.

Because I am scared
of the roller coasters.

Ha, ha.

Oh, you think that's funny?
You think that that is funny?

Okay. No roller coasters.

(PHONE RINGS)

Dunham.

Where?

Uh, no, I'll tell Walter and Peter.

So we're gonna
have to take a rain check.

That's okay, Aunt Liv.
I know you have an important job.

Well, I'm gonna call the Jacobson's
and see if they can baby-sit.

And then I'll...

- Make pancakes?
- Yes, ha, ha. Then I'll make you pancakes.

- You're sure it was him?
- Uh, we don't have security footage yet...

...but an eyewitness said that
he was wearing a gray suit and a hat.

Quote: "One of those old ones,
from the '60s."

- We don't have information on the girl?
- No.

The police showed her picture around
the museum. No one knew who she was.

- Is Walter awake?
- Oh, yeah.

He's in...

(BLENDER BUZZING)

...The kitchen.

- But talking to him's not gonna be easy.
- Why?

Walter, we have company.

Oh, hello, Agent Dunham.

Walter, hey.

I need you to tell me what you know
about the man we call the Observer.

You once referred to him as your friend.
Seems he may have kidnapped a woman.

They called it the Strawberry Supreme.

PETER:
His favorite ice-cream store shut down.

He made me wait in line with him for
four hours to get one last milkshake.

They have a secret ingredient.
It's mundane, but it's... Oh, it's sublime.

And I'm trying to stimulate my olfactory...

...and gustatory senses
to try to re-create it.

Walter. Can you come with me?

OLIVIA: We've recorded him
at over three dozen Fringe events.

- Do you remember him?
WALTER: Of course.

But there's nothing more
than I've told you before.

Peter and I were in a car crash.

In a frozen lake. When I was a boy.

We were drowning,
and he dove in and saved us.

But you say he's kidnapped a woman?

We think he may have.

Why? What are you thinking, Walter?

Hey, guys. The footage from
the abduction has been downloaded.

Also, the police found a book
on a bench by the museum...

- ...with some kind of weird writing in it.
- They think it was his?

Well, they don't know,
but Agent Broyles is sending it over.

OLIVIA: Have we ID'd the victim?
ASTRID: No, not yet.

OLIVIA:
Wait a minute, Astrid.

Can you zoom it?

Now freeze it.

Peter, that isn't him.

That's a different guy.

There's more than one Observer.

Stop. Hold on.
What just happened right there?

Was he hit?

Who are these people?

- Please don't hurt me.
- Please don't hurt me.

- Why are you doing this?
- Why are you doing this?

- Please let me go.
- Please let me go.

- I promise I won't tell anyone.
- I promise I won't tell anyone.

- You don't have to do this to me.
- You don't have to do this.

- Please.
- Please.

It will be safer if you stay quiet.

BROYLES:
Her name's Christine Hollis.

Twenty-seven years old, in the
master's program for fine arts at BU.

Far as we can tell, she's no one special.

Parents deceased,
no siblings, no arrests.

Twenty-seven hundred dollars
in her bank account.

- Nothing unusual at all.
- Do we have a home address?

We're working on it now.

Assuming she's still alive.

We have no reason yet
to think otherwise.

Well, that's just it, isn't it?
We don't know what to think.

I'm lost. Twenty-four years ago,
one of them saved Walter and Peter.

Walter doesn't know why.
Can't remember.

But beyond that,
everything we know about these guys...

...the little that there is,
suggests that they just watch.

They don't get involved. But now...

Figure out why he took this girl.
What makes her the exception?

Do that, and I think you'll find him.

PETER: Hey, I think we may have
a lead on the Observer.

Walter, look at this. In his book.

I think that might be blood.

You might be right, son.
Uh, scalpel, please.

Did he ever tell you why he saved us?

The Observer.

No.

We're close, Walter.

Whatever's going on, whatever
William Bell was warning Olivia about...

...these people have the answers.

- I know it. I can feel it.
- Mm-hm.

- This does not make any sense.
- What?

His handwriting.

So far I have counted
1246 distinct characters...

...and not a single one of them repeats.

All right, not all of us
majored in linguistics.

It means every written language
is based on repetition...

...so without repeated symbols
language is not possible.

Well, maybe it's a code.

ASTRID: Maybe. But if so, it is the most
complicated code I've ever seen.

The computer can't make
any sense of this either.

Hey. What you got?

Nothing on the symbols, but we found
a blood sample in the book.

- The kidnapper's blood?
PETER: Not sure. Walter's analyzing it now.

- Walter.
- Well, ahem, we can't be certain...

...till we run the labs, but I've noticed
the blood has an orange tint.

Perhaps a sign of hemophilia.

Well, if it is his blood
and if he's a hemophiliac...

...maybe he was treated at a hospital.
There could be a record.

I'll call Broyles, have him get
a list of known hemophiliacs.

Guys, I think I've found something.

Looks like someone else has been
investigating these symbols too.

What? Who is it?

These things have been
blowing my mind for a while.

Do you see the little
half-circle with wings?

That appears on a cuneiform tablet
at the Iraqi National Museum.

It's one of mankind's
earliest attempts at writing.

And, uh, do you see this little
triangular curlicue thingy?

It's etched on the Iron Pillar of Delhi.

Nine hundred BC.
It's pretty weird, right?

So Nina Sharp says you're FBI too. Uh...

You don't look FBI.

You have no idea
what any of them mean?

- What the symbols mean?
- Yeah.

No. I have no idea.

But I found something else.

We all remember Paul Revere's ride.
"One if by land, two if by sea."

But before that, he was famous for
his engraving of the Boston Massacre.

1770.

- Oh, come on.
- Well, that could be anybody.

Marie Antoinette.

1793.

Sarajevo, 1914.

Minutes before
Archduke Franz Ferdinand was shot...

...kicking off World War I.

So they've been around forever?

Or else they're not limited by
our human perception of time.

Are you with me?

We think of time as linear, right?
Life is a journey.

You're born and then you die.

And to get from one end to the other...

...there's only one way through.

Unless you look at it like this.

And then...

...you can see at any point.

It's all happening at once.

- So they're traveling through time.
- No.

It's more like they're observing time.

I think these guys
show up at important moments.

Uh, historical, technological,
scientific. But it's rare.

Maybe two dozen different
definite occurrences...

...in the past 5000 years
of human history.

But recently, I've charted 26 sightings
in the past three months alone.

- It kind of makes you wonder.
- Why now?

And what's about to happen?

WOMAN:
More hot sauce, gentlemen?

- Thank you.
- Sure thing.

We have a situation with August.

OBSERVER 1: Who is she?
OBSERVER 2: I don't know.

But she's supposed to be
on Tropos Air flight 821.

Why did he abduct her?

We don't know. And the flight has
already left the terminal.

Then he's created an irregularity.

We'll need to repair it.

Contact Donald.

(PHONE RINGING)

WOMAN:
I just don't understand it.

Why would anyone
wanna kidnap Christine?

That's what we're trying to figure out.
So you two aren't roommates?

No. We're friends. We've taken
a bunch of sculpture classes together.

I'm subletting her room while she's away.

Was supposed to be away.

- Where was she supposed to be?
- Italy.

She was supposed to fly today.

She was gonna spend the semester
studying ceramics in Rome.

Well, do you have a copy
of her itinerary?

Her flight to Rome or maybe where
she was gonna be staying?

WOMAN: She e-mailed me one.
I can print out a copy for you.

- Is this Christine?
- Uh, yeah.

It's a terrible story, actually.

Her family was visiting relatives
in San Francisco.

A few hours after that photo was taken
there was a big earthquake.

The one in '89?

They were driving on that bridge when
it happened. The one that collapsed.

Her parents were both killed.
That's the last photo she has of them.

I'll, um, get you her travel information.

Take a look at this.

Behind the father.

(GRUNTING)

Come on.

Come on.

I thought you might be hungry.

You've hurt yourself.

Why are you doing this?

What do you want from me?

It would be easier to show you.

REPORTER (ON TV): Popularity polls
show huge support for the president...

...as the economy rallies
and terrorism declines.

The poll found that 63 percent
of Americans are happy with...

It will be just a minute now.

OLIVIA: Phone.
COMPUTER: Phone. Please say a command.

- Call the Jacobson's.
COMPUTER: Calling the Jacobson's.

Whatever the Observers do
to keep from aging...

...they should market it.
They'd make a fortune.

So, what does it mean?

That he has been keeping tabs
on this girl for 20 years?

MAN (OVER PHONE): Hello?
- Uh, Ken, hi, it's Olivia Dunham.

I'm just calling to check in
and say hi to my niece.

KEN: Oh. Jane just took her out
for ice cream. You want me to call her...?

No, no, uh, just let her
know that I called.

KEN:
Sure thing.

- Rachel's out of town?
- Yeah. For the weekend.

- And?
- And what?

You do that thing with your mouth
when you're upset.

Heh. Oh, it's...

Ella and I had this whole day
at the amusement park planned...

...and then dinner after.

She was completely understanding
when I told her that I had to work.

(LAUGHS)

When my mom took me to
my first movie when I was 6...

...I was so excited. She bought me
a box of popcorn, and we took our seats.

They used to have that curtain
before the movie started.

It was this beautiful red velvet.

We sat there eating popcorn. Ha, ha.

And after a couple minutes,
I turned to her and said:

"Mommy, this is the best movie ever."

I didn't understand
that it hadn't started.

Ha-ha-ha.

That's one of my favorite memories
of my mother.

Don't worry, you'll make
memories with Emma.

REPORTER (ON RADIO):
New information on Tropos Air flight 821...

...which crashed into the Atlantic Ocean
two hours outside Rome, Italy.

The plane contained 211 passengers...

...and six crew members,
all of whom are assumed to be dead.

- Flight 821 departed at 10:45 a.m...
- What?

Okay, Christine's itinerary.
It's just in my glove box.

REPORTER: ... early this morning.
The plane was in the air...

Flight 821. Boston to Rome.

She was supposed to be on that flight.

REPORTER (ON TV): Rescue teams
and divers continue to scour the wreckage.

We will continue to bring you coverage
of this disaster as it comes.

Representatives of Tropos Air...

You were going to die.

REPORTER: We will bring you live coverage
just as soon as it happens. Right now...

AUGUST:
I saved you.

How did you...?

You're not safe yet.

There is something I need to do.

I have to go out.

I would prefer not to gag you.

But it is for your own protection.

OLIVIA:
What if he did?

What if he somehow knew
the plane was gonna crash?

You think Brandon was right,
they can see events before they happen?

I'm sorry, what plane crash?

Christine Hollis was supposed to be on a
plane that crashed off the coast of Italy.

- Two hundred people were killed.
- Oh, dear.

I mean, what if he wasn't
trying to kidnap her?

- What if he was trying to save her life?
- What's special about her?

Why save her?
Why did one of them save us?

ASTRID:
Walter.

I've got the results of the blood sample
from the book.

Oh.

Ha, ha. High concentration of capsaicin.

Which means it's not blood at all.
It's chili-pepper juice.

He must've spilt some on the book.

Well, that's great news.
We'll add "messy" to the APB.

No, it is good news.

A concentration of 970,000
on the Scoville scale.

That's one of the hottest
chili peppers there is.

I hypothesize a naga jolokia from India,
otherwise known as the king cobra chili.

I once ate one.

The flatulence was horrible.
Very embarrassing.

Walter, are these peppers
sold in Boston?

WALTER:
Oh, uh, I imagine so...

...though I don't suspect
one could grow them here.

Astrid.

Locate anyone who's importing
the peppers locally. Got it.

Well, it appears you've been busy.

Your actions took us all by surprise.

I take it you've come here
to explain yourself.

Then you are aware of the plane crash?

Of course.

Christine Hollis. Who is she?

I have observed this woman
for much of her life.

She is unique.

They are all unique.

That is not reason to interfere
with the course her life was meant to take.

We have interfered before.

Only to correct a mistake
of our own making.

- She has no future.
- Then why do I see it?

Why do I see that she is important?

Your perception must be in error.

Perhaps.

Your oversight will be forgiven,
but Miss Hollis must be corrected.

We've already seen to it.

PETER: You should eat something.
- Thanks.

If there's something significant
about this girl, I don't see it.

After her parents died, she was taken in
by her mother's friend, a veterinarian.

She got decent grades in college...

...and interned at art galleries
in the summer.

She's just like anyone else.

Hey, guys, I think I found something.

Those king cobra chilies?

Three Boston restaurants imported them
last year, and one private citizen.

- Who?
- I don't know.

He paid with a money order.
But we have an address.

It's an apartment in Cambridge.

Give the address to Broyles.

Get him to have a backup team
standing by in case we need them.

ASTRID:
Sure thing.

Taste this, please.

- That's what I was afraid of.
- Mm... Wha...? What is that?

French-vanilla ice cream
and cough syrup.

No, no. You see, I suspect
the secret ingredient is wild cherries...

...and I didn't have any fresh cherries.

Unless you would make
a trip to the market.

If I do, I am no longer your taste tester.

Deal.

You got my message.

I suspected that a likeness
of a nitrogen molecule...

...would attract your attention.

Please don't take my son.

Your friend and I had a deal.

We had an arrangement.

I know what I did was wrong, but...

That is not why I contacted you.

I need your help.

My help?

In that case, I should call him.

And Agent Dunham.
They'll want to know I'm talking to you.

I suspect
that they might be occupied right now.

DONALD:
On your knees.

Down on the ground.

Take it easy.

Take it easy.

Take it easy.

What is it that requires my help?

I have interfered
in the natural course of events.

To correct that...

...the others will try
to kill Christine Hollis...

...until they succeed.

If we run, they will find us.

If I stop the assassin,
they will send another.

I cannot see any course of action
that will prevent...

...her death.

What makes you think I can help?

Because you have solved
such a matter before.

You saw beyond the limitations
of your problems.

Not really.

I just missed my son.

May I ask what is so important
about Miss Hollis?

I cannot explain the reason.

I merely see it.

I have never experienced such...

...certainty.

But the others,
they say she is of no consequence.

Well, in that case, if you cannot
persuade the others of your conviction...

...then you must do something
to prove it.

You must make her important.

And, of course, whatever you do...

...you must be prepared
to face the consequences.

- The gunman leave a trail?
- No.

I called in his description to the PD,
but I expect he's long gone by now.

Broyles is sending in a CSU team
to dust this place for fingerprints.

I doubt he's gonna show up
on any databases.

At least none from this century.

What do you mean?

What Brandon said about them
being around for a long time?

1884. Apparently,
it was a great year for blubber.

What? What is it?

Do you...

...trust me?

Yes.

Then you must do exactly as I say.

AGENT: So far, we've pulled two off
the book. Got a possible match over here.

Any ideas?

What are they looking for?

We're looking for them,
but they're looking for something too.

That's why they keep on showing up.

(PHONE RINGING)

So, what are they looking for?

Dunham. Where?

Someone called in a description
of our second Observer.

He was spotted at a motel in Lowell.

(GROANS)

What are you doing?
Tell me where she is.

Just tell me where she is.

You know I'm just trying to do my job.
I have no quarrel with you.

- Are you insane?
- Goodbye.

FBI!

(GRUNTS)

Christine Hollis?

Christine?

Christine Hollis?

Christine. Ugh.

I'm Agent Olivia Dunham.
I'm with the FBI.

It's gonna be all right.

What...? What about the man?

The one who took me.

Let's get you home.

Will she be safe now?

Who is she?

Why did you save her?

I saw her many years ago.

She was a child.

Her parents had just been killed.

She was crying.

But she...

She was brave.

She crossed my mind.

Somehow, she never left it.

I think...

...it's what they call...

...feelings.

I think...

...I love her.

Will she be safe now?

Yes.

You made her important.

She is responsible
for the death of one of us.

So who was he? How am I supposed
to make sense of any of this?

Him. The plane.
The guy who came after us.

Did he say anything to you?

Anything? Did he tell you
why he saved you?

No.

He...

He asked me to give you something.

The bald man.

In the event that he couldn't.

My dad won this for me
playing Skee-Ball.

I was holding on to it in the back seat
when the bridge collapsed.

Christine...

...I think you'll be safe now.

When did you see the Observer?
And why didn't you tell me?

What do you mean?

- I just did tell you.
- No, that's not good enough.

We are so close.
I can't let these guys get away again.

They have the answers. I know they do.

Don't worry, son.

You'll get your answer.

Why don't we go
for a long drive together?

Perhaps pick up a tutti-frutti milkshake.

The man you shot
was named Donald Long.

Ballistics tied his gun to six unsolved
homicides up and down the East Coast.

The earliest one dates back 10 years.

- An assassin.
- Maybe.

- Do we know who hired him this time?
- We don't know.

Nothing in his car or on his person
gave any indication.

What about the Observer's gun?

Techs have never seen anything like it.
They can't make it fire.

Best we can figure,
Peter shot off the last round.

There's one more thing.

The tip-off that the Observer
was spotted at that motel...

...it was called in
from one of the motel phones.

Well, if he was trying
to protect Christine...

...and if he realized
he couldn't do it on his own...

Yeah. That's what I thought.

If it's okay with you,
I'd like to take the rest of the day off.

Sure.

- Big plans?
- Yeah.

Don't worry, Aunt Liv, I'll hold your hand.

You better.

- No, I'm not gonna...
- No, no, no!

(SCREAMING)

Look how happy she is.

It's a shame things are about
to get so hard for her.