Fringe Bound 1.11

For nearly a week now I've had these comments on the 1/20/09 episode of Fringe lying around like ashes strayed from the ashtray.
So, before tonight's episode airs, here we go!
Best Walter line: "I'm dosing a caterpillar." As in spritzing it with LSD. Anyone else have an Alice In Wonderland moment with that?
Moving on, there has long been held the contention that your shoes reveal more about you than any other article of clothing. This assumption holds true in 'Bound' where agent Dunham is strapped to a table and prepped for a spinal tap. When her evil masked abductor rotates the lab table so that she is facing the floor, he reveals far too much to her in his choice of footwear.
After the procedure the masked marauder, who once he takes off his mask we see that it's agent Loeb, exits stage left, leaving Dunham in the care of his flunkies. Why is it that everyone underestimates a woman? Why oh why? Dunham plays all weak and helpless, asks for a drink of water, further asks contritely to be freed from her restraints, and BAM POW KAZOOEY, she's escaped, taking with her a gun and some vials of god only knows what. She hides the lab samples in a big pile of sand conveniently located near the warehouse she'd been held in. She calls in for assistance, but instead of the white hats riding in to save the day, she gets roughed up by the Homeland Security goons when they descend upon the scene, headed up by agent Harris. Harris has a creepy past with Dunham. She took him down on charges of sexual abuse, but now with the conviction overturned, the US gov't has welcomed him back with open arms and placed in a position of dangerous authority. Under the Bush administration this all sounds about right. It puts the eep! in creep.
Dunham, Walter and Peter work especially well together in this episode. Clearly placing trust in each other above that of any of the agencies that they work for/with. The team gets called out to investigate a giant slug that killed a research scientist while he delivered a lecture. The slug suffocated the good doctor from within. Walter captures the surprisingly speedy invertebrate beneath an upturned trash can. With the slug and retrieved lab samples in tow, they head back to Walter's laboratory to figure out what's what and all of that good stuff.
Second best Walter line: "I'm not even sure that we all exist on the same plane of consciousness."
The slug is a giant common cold cell, and the vials contain eggs that grow into the living lugie once they are activated by stomach acid. EW! Dunham discovers that scientists tapped to head the CDC's epidemic division are being systematically murdered by the massive mucous slugs. Of course agent Loeb is in this up to his eyeballs, and Dunham figures that out when the Magic 8 Ball she's been toying with leads her eyes to fall upon Dunham's shoes. He's her abductor and spinal tapper!
Dunham heads off to Loeb's house to ferret out some poop on him, but Loeb's wife is suspicious. While Dunham is out of the room, Samantha Loeb calls her husband to ask WTF? Meanwhile, Peter is having a friend tap the Loeb's phone line. Thank god people still use landlines! Loeb tells his wife to get the gun and kill Dunham now. NOW! Meanwhile, Peter calls Dunham and tells her that Samantha Loeb is going to kill her, so get out of the house now. NOW! A brutal chick fight ensues, they shoot at each other, and suffice to say that they can't kill Dunham, so it's S. Loeb who takes one in the cranium.
Agent Loeb, now in custody, is confronted with evidence against him. Loeb isn;t one of those guys who secretly wishes that his wife were dead so that he can collect the insurance money and start dating women half his age. And that weakness, or love, I should say, is what Dunham uses to get him to confess. She shows him pictures of his dead wife and he spills his guts.
But a lot of questions remain. Loeb tells Dunham that there are two sides battling it out right now, and she doesn't know anything that's going on. Who are the two sides and how are they both within the government? How can Loeb insist that the spinal tap was to save Dunham, but then justify ordering his wife to kill her? It makes no sense! A riddle for the ages...or at least for the Magic 8 Ball.