Bad Dreams (21 Apr. 2009)

FBI agent Dunham believes that she is killing random people in her dreams.

Director:

Akiva Goldsman

Writers:

J.J. Abrams (creator), Alex Kurtzman (creator),

Stars:

Anna Torv, Joshua Jackson, Lance Reddick

Cast

Episode cast overview, first billed only:
Anna Torv	...	Olivia Dunham
Joshua Jackson	...	Peter Bishop
Lance Reddick	...	Phillip Broyles
Kirk Acevedo	...	Charlie Francis
Blair Brown	...	Nina Sharp (credit only)
Jasika Nicole	...	Astrid Farnsworth
John Noble	...	Dr. Walter Bishop
Ari Graynor	...	Rachel
David Call	...	Nick Lane
April Grace	...	Police Detective
Johanna Day	...	Mouse Willis
Victor Verhaeghe	...	Billy Willis
Kelly Briter	...	Ginger
Rebecca Naomi Jones	...	Risa Pears
Ed Vassallo	...	Manager

Storyline

Agent Dunham dreams about pushing a woman in front of a subway train, and then finds out such a death occurred while she slept. After a second death from her dreams, she starts to feel responsible and investigates the one link between these two deaths, and a possible link to her own childhood.

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Plot Keywords:

dream | subway | manhattan new york city | stabbed to death | new york city | 

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Genres:

Drama | Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Certificate:

TV-14

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

21 April 2009 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Bad Robot, Warner Bros. Television, Fringe Element Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

58 min 58 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

When the Fringe team arrives at the building in New York where Nick Lane has stationed his "hostages" around the top of the building, The Observer is seen crossing the street as they approach that building.

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Goofs

The train station in New York City is identified in the floating caption as "Grand Central Station." Grand Central Station is actually a post office; the correct name for the train station is Grand Central Terminal.

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Quotes

Agent Olivia Dunham: [Olivia is feeling what Nick Lane is feeling] Oh...
Astrid Farnsworth: What's happening? Is he hurting her?
Agent Olivia Dunham: [moaning softly] Oh.
Astrid Farnsworth: Oh...
Dr. Walter Bishop: What?
Agent Olivia Dunham: [continues moaning] Oh.
Peter Bishop: Oh...
Peter Bishop: What?
Agent Olivia Dunham: [moaning with pleasure] Oh!
Dr. Walter Bishop: Oh! I see.

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Connections

References 17 Again (2009)

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Soundtracks

"Nellie the Elephant"
(uncredited)
Written by Ron Goodwin
Performed by Mandy Miller

User Reviews

Nick Lane, Soldier of ZFT

"What was written will come to Pass"

In "AbilitY" we saw that Walter ironically had discovered who had actually written the text of ZFT. This Episode shows that the manuscript of ZFT was to be used with the Cortexiphan Kids: Who were being "Prepared" and this Arc is played out through the rest of the season and into seasons 2 and 4.

Olivia has a dream where she sees a Mother (Rebecca Naomi Jones) singing to her child, (She is singing "Nellie the Elephant" by Oi Band "The Toy Dolls") who Olivia apparently pushes into a moving Subway Train. Disturbing as this is, Olivia tries to pass this off as simply a Bad Dream. But while she is having breakfast with her sister and niece, she sees on the news that it had actually happened just as she had seen it.

Olivia goes "Off Mission" with Peter to NY, but what started off as an apparent disconnected event, turns out to be a bona-fide Pattern event. Walter has to check Olivia for 'radiation" in case she had "Astral Projected" which becomes the "Astrid" joke of the episode.

Olivia still thinks she had something to do with the grisly death of the woman, so she tries to stay awake by taking caffeine pills. But she soon falls asleep and this time sees herself in a posh Italian restaurant while a woman knifes her husband for no reason. By this time, Olivia is losing it, and when Peter and Olivia are interviewing the Posh Restaurant Owner, she grabs the guy and asks him WAS I HERE? But the owner says that a man wearing drab clothes was sitting close to the couple. Olivia then identifies the man as Nick Lane, who she went to Cortexiphan School with.

Parallels, again: It becomes apparent that Nick Lane is a male version of Olivia, wears the same kind of gray and black clothes, even has the same morning routine. But his Cortexiphan-Power is more insidious than Olivia's ability to "cross over." Walter takes advantage of this connection and puts Olivia under so she can connect to Nick's conscious mind, who at that moment is in the process of getting someone else killed. But in the process, Olivia sees where he lives.

In Lane's Apartment, there are all kinds of news articles relating to Fringe events tacked to the wall, and written on the wall are the words "What was Written will Come to Pass" - Which is a phrase we have heard Mitchell Loeb use before: And we will hear it more in Season 4.

Nick has the ability to project his emotions onto other people, a kind of "Reverse-Empath" - and it seems that he was "activated" by Agents of Jones.

Can Olivia stop him before he affects more people? And why did Jones have him activated? That too becomes apparent later in the series.

The Beginning and End of this episode are "Bookends" - As we came in with Olivia having disturbing dreams, We go out with Olivia's sleeping peacefully with her niece "Ella"

In this episode, we also hear "William Bell's" voice for the first time, in a Video Tape that Walter has. The face attached to that famous voice is revealed in the Season Finale, "There is More than One of Everything"

Nick is brought back in the series as both ally and enemy, so that is another thing to watch out for.