The Box (S03E02)
Airdate: 30 September 2010
Written by: Josh Singer & Graham Roland Directed by: Jeffrey Hunt
Running Time: 44 minutes
Season Three of Fringe opened with something of a damp squib. The premiere, whilst establishing an intriguing structural pattern—alternating episodes between parallel universes and presenting two distinct versions of the protagonist—never quite managed to justify the breathless anticipation that had built over the summer hiatus. Olivia Dunham, the genuine article, found herself trapped in the Redverse, subjected to psychological manipulation and identity-replacement therapy that made for uncomfortable viewing. Yet just when one feared the show might lose its footing, along comes The Box, the second instalment, which rights the ship considerably. Set firmly back in the Prime Universe—the "Over Here" reality we've come to know—the episode introduces us properly to "Fauxlivia," the alternate version of Olivia who has taken her place within the Fringe Division. The contrast between the two Olivias, and the doppelgänger dynamic that defines this season, finally begins to bear fruit.
The episode opens with Fauxlivia clandestinely meeting Thomas Newton Jerome, the Redverse's top operative this side of the dimensional divide. Their rendezvous is all business: Newton provides her with dossiers, books, and various cultural materials designed to help her acclimatise to Prime Universe customs, familiarise herself with Olivia's friends and colleagues, and brush up on popular culture references she might otherwise miss. The objective is straightforward enough—maintain her impersonation of Olivia Dunham for as long as possible, gathering intelligence on Fringe Division's capabilities, resources, and weaknesses whilst the real Olivia languishes in captivity.
Her first assignment arrives in the form of a genuinely disturbing case. In Milton, Massachusetts, a seemingly ordinary house becomes the scene of a bizarre tragedy. What initially appears to be a straightforward home invasion and robbery soon reveals itself as something far stranger—the perpetrators have excavated something from the basement, a mysterious box of unknown origin and purpose. When authorities arrive, they discover a house of horrors: the entire Milton family lies dead or in vegetative states, their neural functions apparently obliterated. Two of the robbers have suffered the same fate. Walter Bishop, examining the corpses with his characteristic blend of scientific rigour and emotional remove, concludes that an ultrasound signal—powerful, targeted, and lethal—must be responsible for the neurological devastation. The source, he deduces, is almost certainly the object buried beneath the house. A review of fingerprints at the scene reveals a curious detail: a third robber was present, yet somehow survived the incident and made off with the box.
Fringe Division's investigation proceeds methodically. They identify one of the deceased burglars and trace him to an abandoned apartment. Fauxlivia, operating with characteristic independence, decides to scout the location without alerting Peter Bishop—a decision that backfires when Peter appears anyway, complicating her efforts to maintain operational secrecy. Their search reveals that the dead man had a roommate, almost certainly the mysterious third accomplice who escaped the Milton house with the lethal device. That evening, Fauxlivia pores over Olivia's case files in her apartment, frustration mounting as she confronts the limitations of her own memory. Unlike her counterpart, she lacks Olivia's photographic recall, and the gap proves maddening as she struggles to absorb years of operational detail.
Fortune, however, proves fickle. The third robber, a man named Joe (Russell Harvard), arrives at her door. Joe is deaf—a detail that saves his life initially, as the ultrasound weapon cannot affect those without hearing. By carefully observing her earlier and reading her lips, he has deduced that she is a police detective investigating the Milton incident. Hoping to clear his name and perhaps receive protection, he brings the stolen objects, including the deadly box itself. Fauxlivia, recognising the device's significance, contacts Newton immediately. He arrives to collect the box and delivers chillingly casual instructions to "take care" of the witness problem. What follows is one of the episode's most brutal moments: Fauxlivia, despite evident reluctance, murders Joe in cold blood. The timing could not be worse—Peter arrives at her apartment moments later, forcing her to conceal the body in the bathroom and, in a moment of calculated desperation, engage in romantic activity to distract Peter from traces of blood.
The plot thickens with an urgent call: an incident has occurred at a nearby underground station. Newton, having retrieved the box, has planted it in the subway tunnels. After paying a homeless man (Eric Lynch) to "guard" the package—a cruel irony given what follows—Newton ensures he is well clear before the device activates. The signal kills everyone within range, leaving Fringe Division to discover another scene of inexplicable mass death. Convinced the box remains hidden somewhere in the tunnel network, the team initiates a search. Peter volunteers to investigate the most dangerous sections, and Fauxlivia takes the extraordinary step of firing her weapon near his ears, temporarily deafening him. With only three minutes before his hearing returns and the lethal ultrasound can claim him, Peter locates the deceased homeless man and the device, managing to defuse it just in time. Fauxlivia, meanwhile, saves his life by pulling him from the path of an oncoming train he cannot hear approaching. Back at the laboratory, Peter and Walter examine the deactivated box and reach a chilling conclusion: it is merely the first component of a larger "doomsday machine," one designed specifically to be activated by Peter himself. The episode closes with Fauxlivia reporting to her superiors in the Redverse, confirming that Peter now possesses "the first piece" and has become "engaged" in the machine's destiny.
Running parallel to this main narrative, William Bell's death casts a long shadow over Walter. The loss of his former partner forces Walter to confront his own questionable moral decisions, particularly those surrounding Peter's childhood. When Walter and Peter attend the reading of Bell's will, they discover that the sole beneficiaries are Nina Sharp and Walter himself. Walter receives a key to a safe deposit box, which he opens after considerable hesitation and emotional turmoil. Inside lies a document that fundamentally alters the show's power dynamics: Walter Bishop is now the sole shareholder of Massive Dynamics, one of the most powerful and technologically advanced corporations on Earth.
The Box represents a significant improvement over the season opener, largely due to its conceptual coherence. The script by Josh Singer and Graham Roland adopts deception as its organising principle, weaving it through multiple narrative layers. The episode itself performs a sleight of hand, opening with the trappings of a standalone "mystery of the week" before revealing its deep connections to the overarching mythology. Another misdirection involves Joe, initially presented as a potential threat wielding a pickaxe against a captured family, only for the tool's true purpose—excavation rather than murder—to become clear. Most significantly, Fauxlivia embodies deception itself, her every interaction with the Fringe team a performance. Her seduction of Peter, motivated not by genuine attraction but by the urgent need to conceal a corpse, exemplifies the moral compromises her mission demands.
The episode also finds time for world-building exposition regarding Fauxlivia and her native reality. Her unfamiliarity with Prime Universe culture surfaces in small but telling details—her blank expression at references to Bono suggests that either the musician never existed in the Redverse or never achieved comparable fame. More striking is her capacity for ruthlessness; the murder of Joe, an innocent and vulnerable man seeking help, establishes her as a genuinely dangerous operative rather than a sympathetic alternate. Even Newton, for all his experience—he claims to have operated in the Prime Universe for years—commits critical errors. The robbers he hired to plant the device for Fringe Division to discover fouled up their assignment by bringing along a "dumb" cousin whose deafness, whilst temporarily saving his life, ultimately created the very witness Fauxlivia was forced to eliminate.
The revelation regarding Walter's inheritance of Massive Dynamics arguably constitutes the episode's most consequential development. Placing one of the world's most powerful organisations in the hands of a man who openly admits to severe mental instability—and who has spent seventeen years in a psychiatric institution—raises fascinating questions about competence, responsibility, and the concentration of dangerous knowledge. Walter is manifestly not the ideal candidate to lead a technology giant, yet circumstances have conspired to place exactly that power within his grasp.
Directed by Jeffrey Hunt, The Box is a solid, workmanlike instalment that prioritises plot mechanics over stylistic flourishes. The business with the ultrasound device occasionally verges on confusing, and the Milton mystery is somewhat overshadowed by the Massive Dynamics twist. Nevertheless, the episode succeeds in laying crucial groundwork for developments to come, establishing the rules of Fauxlivia's infiltration, introducing the doomsday machine mythology, and repositioning Walter within the show's corporate landscape. It may not be the most memorable Fringe episode, but it is certainly one of the most necessary.
RATING: 6/10 (++)
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