An inexplicable attack involving disfigured people leads the Fringe division to the small town of Edina City, where it becomes apparent that the disfigured people have managed to hide themselves from the rest of the world, and are intent on keeping it that way.

In a special unaired episode from season one, a young girl is pronounced brain dead and taken off life support, but she shockingly regains consciousness just as her organs are about to be harvested. Even more bizarre, she now has the ability to speak Russian and possesses information that only high-ranking Russian soldier could know. The Fringe division investigates as her strange condition grows.

A patient at a mental institution undergoes an impromptu brain surgery that leaves his brain exposed. Fringe division comes in to investigate and discovers that his insanity has completely disappeared. While Olivia and Peter scan surveillance tapes (and Walter enjoys his pudding), Olivia recognizes Thomas Jerome Newton (guest star Sebastian Roche), the leader of the shape-shifters. Similar cases begin occurring and the Fringe team heads back to the lab to determine what cured their ailments. In trying to solve the case, they learn that Walter, during his stint in the asylum, had three p

A damaged cargo ship washes ashore and all of the crew members seem to be infected with squid-like creatures that turn out to be gigantic parasitic worms. The worms are said to be a modified version of Ancylostoma duodenale (though not appearing as depicted, the species is a real-world hookworm that infects approximately 25% of Earth’s population, which as said in the episode, has been used by some as an alternative treatment for asthma[10]) While Fringe division investigates, the clock starts ticking when Olivia, Peter and Broyles discover a terrifying connection between the inci

The Observer abducts a woman in Boston, and when the Fringe division studies the footage they realize that this is a different Observer, and that there are more than one of them. This leads them to a symbologist (the Massive Dynamic tech analyst) who has been studying them. He reveals that the Observers have been around throughout history, and hypothesizes that they are time travelers who appear to observe important historical events. The Observer known as "August" is reprimanded for kidnapping the girl, as the Observers are not supposed to interfere except to counteract one of t

Tyler Carson (Cameron Monaghan), the son of a Massive Dynamic employee, is kidnapped and taken hostage in New York. When the police close in and try to rescue Tyler, something causes them to kill one another. Walter posits that one of the kidnappers is using hypnotism to cause people to do what he wants. Peter reminds him that hypnotism can’t force action, only suggest it, so Walter suggests mind control. Fringe division closes in on the kidnappers, wearing headphones designed to protect against mind control, but the kidnappers kill themselves and it is revealed that Tyler is the one co

The Fringe Division is flummoxed by a case where victims are inexplicably disintegrated into ash. Agent Broyles takes a particular interest in the case, as it is revealed that he worked on this case in the past, and had been so involved that it cost him his marriage. He says that everyone who died had recently been to a hospital. The investigation leads Fringe division to Russia, where they learn that Fringe science is taking place in other countries as well. A man sent to space came back with a dark entity with him, and it is this entity that is killing people. Walter discovers that the entity is stea

The Fringe division investigates the case of a man who attacked his boss in Seattle, believing he was a strange horned creature. While investigating the body, Walter finds a computer chip attached to the thalamus, the part of the brain that controls dreams. This part of the brain is also attached the the motor cortex, leading Walter to believe the chips are being used as mind control. Broyles and Nina Sharp reveal new information which leads to the sleep researcher who implanted the chips. Walter changes his theory; the dreams are being stolen from their hosts to cause a "high" in the

Fringe division investigates a series of robberies of human heads that are linked to shapeshifters. Olivia is given a memory-jogging concoction by Walter made of flatworms. Walter finds that the shapeshifters are made of mercury and that the shapeshifter they thought was dead is still alive. Walter and Peter visit the woman that Walter experimented on with psychedelics to see what she might still remember about the shapeshifters from her visions. She immediately remembers Walter and volunteers to help. Back in the lab, they give her a dose of drugs including Salvia divinorum and phenothi

There is an explosion in a train station that leaves no trace of any explosive device. Walter finds the remains of a human body who was not identified as one of the deceased. He heads back to the lab to examine the remains. He discovers that this person was actually the bomb. He had been injected with a mysterious compound regularly for a few years as part of a secret military experiment. Olivia and Peter head to Iraq, where Peter has connections with someone who may have been involved in the government project. They learn the names of everyone involved in the experiment, of whom only a few survived. T