Stowaway (18 Mar. 2011)

When the Fringe team investigates an apparent suicide victim, they uncover a second set of fingerprints leading them to a woman with uncanny characteristics that cannot die.

Director:

Charles Beeson

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 / William Bell
Joshua Jackson	...	Peter Bishop
Lance Reddick	...	Phillip Broyles
Blair Brown	...	Nina Sharp (credit only)
Jasika Nicole	...	Astrid Farnsworth
John Noble	...	Dr. Walter Bishop
Seth Gabel	...	Lincoln Lee
Paula Malcomson	...	Dana Gray
Patti Allan	...	Landlady
Nicholas Carella	...	Jim
Jason Poulsen	...	Brian
Dave Leach	...	Friend Two
David Leach	...	Friend Two
Catherine Lough Haggquist	...	Lucy
Branden Nadon	...	Friend One

Storyline

When the Fringe team investigates an apparent suicide victim, they uncover a second set of fingerprints leading them to a woman with uncanny characteristics that cannot die.

---

Plot Keywords:

suicide | immortality | hematite | jumping to death | passenger train | 

---

Genres:

Drama | Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller

---

Details

Country:

USA Canada

Language:

English

Release Date:

18 March 2011 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Bad Robot, Warner Bros. Television, Fringe Element Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

60 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

16:9 HD

Did You Know?

Trivia

Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv) imitates William Bell's voice throughout the episode while her body is "possessed" by Bell.

---

Goofs

Broyles asks an agent to check a suspects "Metrocard". In the Boston area the stored value cards for mass transit are called Charliecards after the song "Charlie on the MTA".

---

Connections

References Sesame Street (1969)

---

Soundtracks

"Take Five"
(uncredited)
Written by Dave Brubeck Quartet
Performed by Dave Brubeck Quartet

User Reviews

Enter Agent Lee, THIS Side

I always have said Fringe treats religious subjects with care and respect. But there is a lot more here than religion, there are legends in religion as with anything else. So this episode deals with those legends, be they scientific or religious.

This is the first full episode of "Oliviam" or "Bellivia" - And I had to keep from giggling through this arc. Anna Torv did a great job "impersonating" William Bell- And now "Belly/Olivia" is searching for a suitable body to implant his personality into. And in this episode, one practically "Falls" into his lap!

Irish Actress Paula Malcomson (Tombstone, The Green Mile, Lost and Sons of Anarchy) is a Dana Grey, a hapless-I love that word "Hapless"-woman who meets a man, Jim, on a rooftop. He seems intent to jump off and she does nothing to stop him, even seemingly encouraging him to jump — which he does, and she goes along for the ride. But that is not the end of it, he dies: but she gets right up and walks away.

Someone had made a movie of this event on their phone, and it goes viral leading both Fringe Division and "Blue Universe" Agent Lincoln Lee to the same spot. This is our introduction to "our side" Lincoln Lee, who is noticeably much different from the Leader of Fringe Division on "The Other Side."

And so Walter, "Bellivia," Peter, and Agent Lee all pitch in to find out why this woman apparently cannot die, and why she is apparently talking people into killing themselves. Which, it turns out, is not what she is doing at all. Because this woman is dead!

Fringe is always Parallels - Belly-In-Olivia is looking for a Body, and Dana Grey looking to be let OUT of her body. As I watched this episode, I kept thinking, this woman obviously does not want to be here, why not have Bell use hers? But irony does not allow this possibility to crop up.

But before that can even be considered, Dana Grey must be apprehended. Fringe Division and Lincoln Lee track her down with help from Walter and Bellivia working as they must have done all those years ago-Each completing the other's thoughts. Walter is obviously very pleased to be working with "Belly" again. But Peter is irritated that "His" Olivia is displaced by Belly's consciousness.

This episode is part of an arc of story, where Walter thinks he can either regenerate his missing brain pieces, or get "Belly" back - In order to fight Walternate who has full brain capacity. Walter is not thinking clearly, if he had those pieces back, then there would be two Walternates.

Dana Grey in fact works at a suicide hotline under the name "Joan," her job is to talk people out of jumping, and is very successful at it. She is so good at her job that she commonly takes calls right on her cell phone. After a creepy scene where she visits her family's grave site, she gets such a call from a despondent man "Brian" (Jason Poulsen from Small-Vile) - Who has planted a Bomb on a Train with Passengers! Before he shoots himself, he makes reference to the legend of Azrael, whose soul was taken from "Purgatory" into Heaven because the righteousness of the Angels who brought him outweighed Azrael's sin. There is a big difference here, between this legend and actual Faith, legends like these are religious stories which people read for added comfort. But this story is not a part of Fundamental Faith. This is confirmed by the nun Grey talks to in a Catholic Church, where she goes to find out more about the legend. She finds an unlikely parallel to her own situation. So she decides to take Brian's place on the train - He had told her which train the bomb was on.

Peter is able to trick Grey into answering her phone, tries to talk her out of it. But she's intent on trying anything she can to get to "heaven" - Even if it dooms a train full of innocent people. But in the long run, Grey cannot do this. Using a recording of the phone call, Walter and Bellivia are able to pinpoint exactly which train Grey is on, and they are able to get it stopped. But Grey had left the train with the Bomb.

Ironically, at the moment Grey seems to have decided to accept her fate, the bomb goes off and the concussion kills her. Before the Bomb goes off, Grey prays for an end to it, but also accepts "God's Will"- She was wiling to keep living.

Earlier in the episode, Bellivia had told Peter, that maybe he was simply fated to get into "the Machine." If this is the case, then it was Grey's fate to save the people on the train.

This episode seems to mix scientific and religious aspects, with the fiction that Bell had created "Soul Magnets" which he fed to Olivia in order to effect his return, mirrored with the mechanism Walter postulates of repeated lightning strikes that kept Grey from being killed with her family.

The religious aspects of this show have more to do with how the Grey character felt inwardly - That God had abandoned her, left her on Earth as part of a Cosmic Joke, which she had been trying to end. The moment she realized that this in fact was not the case, it was ended for her.

Agent Lee shows interest in Fringe Division, practically asks to come back. He gets his wish, but not in this time-line.