'Fringe': Walter's grey matters. A lot.

Tonight on "Fringe," we're finally back to the weird bald man with the Omega-shaped scar from a parallel dimension.

We start with Mr. Slater in a mental institution. A man is removing part of his brain. The man doing the removing is the bald-omega-scar man from the "last great war" episode (who I mistakenly thought was The Observer).

Mr. Slater is Mr. Katimsky from "My So-Called Life!" When he turns around after the man runs off with his brain, Mr. Slater reveals that half his brain is exposed. Yeach.

Our intrepid team of fringe scientists arrive at the mental institution to investigate. Mr. Slater is now acting perfectly sane, so Walter wants to see the video from when he was insane. He talks of a little girl with flowers in her hair whom his doctor (Dr. West, who is from "Head of the Class." Am I the only one who remembers that show?) says was never there. Mr. Slater remembers nothing from the brain-removal incident, but his mind feels like it's had "a spring cleaning." He does remember the brain-removers as "polite." Well, that's nice. I hate those RUDE brain-removers.

There's surveillance video of the brain thieves. Olivia recognizes bald-robot-man from Laston-Hennings Cryonics. They were stealing the frozen heads in the episode I mentioned above. Baldy (who now has hair) is named Thomas Jerome Newton (which is an alias, but we'll go with it because it's better than calling him bald-omega-scar-frozen-head guy). Anyway, his goal is to open a window to another world. But why did he cure Mr. Slater's crazy?

Mr. Slater was referred to the loony bin by a Dr. Paris. Walter is wondering if someone made Mr. Slater crazy on purpose because madness isn't just "curable." Dr. Paris has no AMA record but he sent up an indefinite set of prescriptions for Dr. Slater (and two other patients in the same week).

The other two patients both experienced recent and sudden cures from their madness (one was obsessed with the number 28 and the other was schizophrenic). Both of them have surgical-laser scars on their heads. Turns out they were being given a medication only given to organ transplant patients. Walter puts it together that the mental patients' brains were merely holders for other people's brain tissue. The anti-rejection drugs helped them act as the incubator. But why would they do that?

Because they needed places to keep Walter's brain tissue. HOLY CRAP. The tissue was taken from his hippocampus, which controls memory and spatial orientation. It's the first area affected by Alzheimer's. It's why Walter can't remember how to open the door to another dimension. The team realizes the brain matter will have to be reimplanted into Walter's brain in order to use it. Of course, Walter gets left alone and Thomas Newton shows up.

Newton and all the King's men (one of them is Curtis from "24") sedate Walter and go about putting his brain back together again by mapping his neural pathways. They show him pictures and hope he'll make the connections. Not even a picture of Peter's coffin does it.

Meanwhile, Walter's tracking chip is rendered useless, as Newton has removed it and left it in a public bathroom at a train station. Peter and Olivia are frustrated. Did you see the Observer in the background as they rushed into the station? It's like a "Where's Waldo?" game!

Peter figures out that the bad guys must have taken Walter to where he came up with the "opening the door" idea, which is Peter's childhood home. Newton reconnects Walter's brain to the removed pieces and suddenly he's Evil Walter. Newton gets what he needs, gives Walter something and runs for it.

Peter and Olivia arrive and give chase. Olivia shoots the two henchmen (one bleeds mercury, I think) and then Newton comes out of the van with his hands up. Peter comforts Walter, who is grieving for his lost memories in the brain tissue they took. Walter then collapses. Newton tells Olivia that he'll die unless he gets the antidote to the neuro-toxin he was injected with.

There are three vials that must be injected in the correct order, and Newton trades his release for the order. Olivia runs back to Walter and they save him. Olivia is mad at herself that he got away, but Broyles says that now they have an enemy with a name and that there's only ONE Walter Bishop and they need him, so saving him was the right thing to do.

Later, Walter gets an MRI to see if everything's OK, and during it he flashes back to William Bell stealing his brain in order to hide the information on how to open the door to another world. Bell assures Walter he'll store the brain in a place only he can find.

Thoughts & Tidbits

• Excellent episode. I'm glad we finally got back to the mythology. I hope the first episode after the hiatus keeps right on the over-arching mystery track, instead of a Mystery of the Week.
• I really think John Noble could put together quite an Emmy reel for next year, don't you guys? He's so great.
• So are there more brain chunks out there floating around in other heads?
  
• Olivia:You so much as twitch and you won't have a head left to refreeze.
• Newton: Oh, and Olivia? Now I know how weak you are.
• Broyles: And you saved Dr. Bishop's life. That's something too. Because despite what you think, you made a rational choice, not an emotional one. If you'd captured Newton or even killed him, that wouldn't have been the end of this. But there's only one Walter Bishop and we'll be needing him before this is over. And don't be so hard on yourself. We're going to be needing you too.
  

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Photo credit: FOX