White Collar 1.08: "Bad Judgment"

“Okay, I don’t think he bugged the dog!”

-Elizabeth

“Bad Judgment” was one of the more entertaining episodes “White Collar’ has produced. I appreciated that the case of the week was more tied into the overall story arc than usual. The case of the week has a strong tie to Fowler, and that gives Neal and Peter a chance to at least temporarily take him down. I also liked that we got to see Neal and Mozzie pull a con, “Leverage” style. I always like a good heist story. Overall, what this episode did well was play off of the chemistry between the characters. “White Collar” is at its best when there is plenty of banter, especially between Neal and Peter, and this episode definitely delivered on that front. There was even an unconventional character pairing- Elizabeth and Mozzie- that worked as well as any of the more traditional character groupings that we’re used to seeing week-to-week.

Normally I would devote blog space to tiny little episode details, but something in the beginning of this episode bugged me. Peter and Neal walk into the FBI office, and Peter is telling Neal about a sporting event he went to over the weekend. He mentions that the score was “4-3 in double overtime.” Given the score and the time of year, I assume he’s talking about hockey. There is no more “double overtime” in NHL hockey anymore, though, unless it’s the playoffs. There’s one overtime, then a shoot-out. Ah well, guess we can’t expect them to get every tiny detail right.

The case of the week is a mortgage fraud case. Mr. Sullivan recently had to probate his father’s estate, and it turns out that there was a surprise second mortgage on his father’s home. Even worse, the bank is foreclosing. Mr. Sullivan and his father had been estranged for a while, but Mr. Sullivan’s young daughter eventually brought father and son back together. Mr. Sullivan is adamant that his father wanted his granddaughter to have this home to grow up in, and he would not have endangered it by giving a second mortgage. For extra sympathy, Mr. Sullivan brought his daughter along on his trip to visit the FBI, which kind of freaks Peter out. He doesn’t do well with kids. It’s amusing to see that awkward side of Peter.

Peter agrees to take the case, and he starts his investigation with the NYPD detective who investigated the case in the past. This detective is now retired, which wouldn’t be unusual except for the fact that he’s only 35 years old. Some very important people are involved in this matter, and the detective basically burned his career by looking into it. The detective is antsy about talking to Peter and Neal, but he does leave one cryptic clue. $4.32 to pay for the tip. Later, Peter realizes this is the identification number of a federal district judge- Michelle Clark. A little detective work by Mozzie and Neal turns up the fact that Judge Clark also happens to be Fowler’s go-to judge when he needs a less-than-legitimate warrant to continue his crusade against Peter.

Elizabeth wants Peter to come home for lunch and bring Nate along, because she’s testing out food from a new caterer for an upcoming event. Neal and Peter’s car ride home is yet another obnocious bit of product placement for Ford. With declining television viewership, I understand the need for some product placement. I’ve got no issue with real-life products being used in TV shows, or even the camera lingering for an extra second on a corporate logo. White Collar, however, has whole scenes devoted just to Peter and Neal bantering about all the cool features of the Ford Taurus. It’s way too much, and it takes me out of the story. Although, Ford has just gotten me to write about them multiple times in this blog, so I guess the joke’s on me.

Peter notices that two coffee mugs are set out on the kitchen table, and Elizabeth offers the explanation that she gave the cable guy a cup of coffee earlier that morning. The cable was out throughout the neighborhood, so even though she was a little suspicious, she went with it. Neal and Peter know what’s really up, though. Somebody has tried to bug Peter’s house again- probably Fowler. Neal offers up the services of his “cleaning guy,” who, of course, is Mozzie. What can’t Mozzie do? The fact that Mozzie can do everything would irritate me except that the Mozzie as cleaning guy gives us some excellent, hilarious scenes of Mozzie and Elizabeth bonding. By the end of the episode, Elizabeth is calling him “Moz,” and Mozzie is calling her “Elle.” This perturbs Peter, to say the least.

Fowler, is, unfortunately for Peter and Neal, back in New York, but the investigation must go on anyway. Neal can tell that the signature on the second mortgage is a forgery- there are hesitation marks. Peter squirms uncomfortably as Neal demonstrates the proper forging technique using Peter’s signature. Peter goes to visit the judge, and she immediately responds to Peter’s questioning by bringing up the possibility of a bribe. Peter doesn’t accept the bribe, but he doesn’t say no either because he’s hoping he can arrange a sting and have the judge arrested. Unfortunately for Peter, the judge is videotaping this entire exchange.

Peter finds out about the taping later on, when Hughes shows up at his door in the middle of the night to warn him that Fowler says he’s going to present an incriminating tape in the morning. Peter rushes to the office to see if he can crack the case before his almost inevitable firing, but Elizabeth takes another approach. She goes to Neal for help. Somehow, in “the dead of night,” as Mozzie puts it, Neal and Mozzie manage to do surveillance and put together a plan to steal the videotape. I don’t doubt that Neal and Mozzie can grift and thieve with the best of them, but the fact that they only had one night to put it together stretches credibility a bit.

Watching the heist, however, was very entertaining. Mozzie pitches a fit to distract the real courier while Neal, dressed in a cheap imitation of the courier uniform, gets the videotape from the judge’s clerk. The plan is then for Neal to use a magnet to erase the tape. Seriously, though, this plan wouldn’t have worked so well if the judge was actually up on her technology. Videotape? Really? Don’t they make digital camcorders now? That video of Peter could be all over You Tube now if she did it right. Neal quick changes into a suit, and poses as a clerk just in time to hand the erased tape over to the real courier.

Before Neal leaves the court house, he gets an important call from Peter, who had paid another visit to the burned NYPD detective. The detective was forced into retirement when he tried to get a search warrant for the Judge Clark’s chambers. Neal comes up with yet another brilliant plan on the fly. He sneaks into chambers and makes it look like there was a break-in. Mozzie’s got a listening device set up across the street, and he hears the Judge tell her clerk that they’re going to have to move the money from the vault to a safe deposit box at a local bank.

Peter and Neal then set up Fowler to be forced to arrest the judge himself. The trick involves deliberate use of the fact that Fowler has once again tapped Peter’s phone and a forged signature. Peter basically sets it up so that Fowler is at the bank when the judge arrives with the money, and he has no choice but to arrest her. Fowler heads back to DC with his tail between his legs, but unfortunately, he’ll undoubtedly be back. He’s such a moustache-twirling villain and not very interesting.

Earlier in the episode, Neal had asked Peter to get a message to Kate. Neal wanted to know if the empty bottle Kate left in her apartment really meant “goodbye.” Kate’s response is simply “see Roger.” Peter, Neal, and Mozzie wind up at the grave of Kate’s father, Roger. There’s a moldering bouquet of flowers by the headstone, but Neal notices one clearly artificial flower in the bunch. Peter has already walked away and doesn’t notice, but Mozzie wants to know if it means what he thinks it means. And I have no freaking clue what he’s talking about.

Greek 3.11: "I Know What You Did Last Semester"

“I can’t see puffy paint making an impact on Dump Truck.”

-Rusty

I’ve got to say that I didn’t love this episode of Greek. It set up a few new conflicts for the new half-season, but it was mostly dealing with the fall-out from the events of the fall finale. It tried to deal with every sub-plot going on, and as a result, it was really disjointed. The rather thin thread that seemed to tie many of the stories together was communication problems. Casey and Cappie aren’t confiding in each other. Rusty can’t get the pledges to respect him. Ashleigh is in pain, won’t tell anyone, and is taking it out on Casey. Calvin and Grant are at odds. Evan and Rebecca are avoiding each other. It’s avoidance all around at CRU!

The episode begins with a bit of in media res, which I used to think was kind of cool, but so many shows have used it lately that it’s kind of played out. A bunch of ZBZ ladies are out in the woods, dressed in costumes, digging a hole in the ground. It’s supposed to evoke the image of burying a body, but since this is Greek, the truth can’t actually be that morbid. It’s also pretty obvious that whatever is going on is related to the fire that happened at the Gamma Psi house last semester.

We then flash back 48 hours earlier. The ZBZ sisters are just returning to the house from winter break, and everyone is on edge. Becky can’t eat, Laura can’t not eat. It’s just a mess overall. The one bright spot for Casey is that she gets to see Cappie for the first time in three weeks. Cappie surprises Casey by waiting for her in her room instead of at the campus bookstore. Really, Casey has known Cappie enough that she should have known he wouldn’t actually be at the bookstore! The happiness is short lived, though. Throughout the episode, Cappie and Casey become more distant from each other. Casey is really upset and feeling guilty over the fire, but because of the ZBZ pact, she can’t tell Cappie what is bothering her. Cappie is really upset that three of his brothers were expelled last semester because of how Omega Chi set them up to take the fall for a prank gone wrong. The loss of Wade especially bothers Cappie. Because Casey isn’t sharing what’s wrong, Cappie doesn’t feel like he can share with her, either.

Since Wade is gone, the KTs need a new pledge educator, and Rusty wants the job. Cappie sort-of halfheartedly says Rusty can give it a shot. To Rusty’s frustration, Cappie doesn’t really give Rusty a chance to excel at being pledge educator on his own. Cappie sends Beaver (still my favorite KT- a loveable oaf) to act as enforcer, interrupts meetings, and openly contradicts Rusty’s instructions. Rusty turns to Dale, who is so charismatic that he has landed himself a couple of “interns,” for advice. Dale, using his innate confidence, manages to scare the pledges into listening to Rusty, but the success doesn’t last for long. Rusty decides he needs Wade’s signature meat cleaver as a back-up plan, and he accidentally cuts of one of the pledge’s toes. This is played for laughs in the episode, but believe me, a stunt like that would get a house disbanded for good in real life. I guess being on my university conduct board for a few years made me a bit uptight about that sort of thing.

The investigation of the fire at the Gamma Psi house, and the guilt and fear it causes in the ZBZ house, keeps ramping up throughout the episode. First, Casey goes to see Katherine, the Pan-hel president who happens to be a Gamma Psi. Katherine tells Casey that the investigation into the fire is still ongoing. Also, Gamma Psi is going to be holding a “Rebuild our Castle Fairy Tale Fundraiser Ball.” The fact that the investigation is still ongoing makes the ZBZs a little more nervous, but the tension really ramps up when a local firefighter stops by the house with fire safety pamphlets. He tells the girls that they’re educating everyone of fire safety because a lit candle was the cause of the Gamma Psi fire. The ZBZs now are fairly certain they are at fault. It is just about 100% certain they are at fault when Katherine tells Casey that the Gamma Psis lit a ritual candle earlier on the day of the fire, but Katherine personally put the candle out.

If the ZBZs are going to escape blame for the fire, they need to be sure there is absolutely no evidence linking them to the scene of the crime. Ashleigh, kind of stupidly, still has the Songfest judging clip board that they stole from the Gamma Psi house on the night of the fire. She was hoping to still be able to protest the Songfest results. The rest of the sisters make her realize that it’s a seriously bad idea to keep that clip board, and they devise a plan to get rid of it. They’re going to bury it in the woods before they go to the Fairy Tale Ball. They carry out the plan, but there’s one small problem- nobody remembers how to get back out of the woods.

Just as my blood pressure was starting to rise thinking that the Greek producers got Casey and Cappie back together after all this time just to break them up again (things are really, really not good between them), things started to take a turn for the better. Rusty arrives at the KT house in a Pied Piper costume to see Cappie and the pledges just hanging out and playing video games. The pledges are supposed to be coming with Rusty to the Fairy Tale Ball, and Rusty actually holds his own in an argument with Cappie over the situation. As the girls are trying to make their way out of the woods, Ashleigh confesses that she and Fisher broke up because Fisher cheated on her again. She admits that her warnings to Casey about not trusting Cappie were really her projecting her own issues, and she apologizes. It also turns out that Rusty’s talking-to shamed Cappie into pulling himself together, and he’s waiting for Casey in a Prince Charming costume when the girls finally arrive at the ball.

The Fairy Tale Ball is good for the show’s couples all around, pretty much. Casey and Cappie have a good talk. They each confess what has been bothering them, and they comfort each other. Casey admits that she thought things would be easy once they finally got back together, but Cappie says it’s better that it takes work. I was extremely pleased that the show’s writers decided to have Casey and Cappie talk things out instead of making this just another road block- it’s much more satisfying television to me. Calvin and Grant had been on the rocks for most of the episode because of Grant’s continuing refusal to come out to his family and the Omega Chis, but Grant finally decides that he doesn’t want to lose Calvin. He comes out to his brothers by starting off the night’s dancing with Calvin- with a slow dance, no less. Evan and Rebecca also dance together, beginning to work past their initial embarrassment at their recent hook-up. Their happiness is over when they see Casey and Cappie dancing together (Cappie and Evan are enemies again after what happened to Wade and the other brothers), but it seems like they are on a good track.

So it looks like the continuing Cappie/Evan rivalry will be one plot of the new “chapter.” Another will be Calvin and Grant dealing with the fall-out of Grant’s coming out. Some inconsiderate Omega Chi left a pair of tiaras outside their door, and Grant is furious. It also looks like the tension in Casa Engineering will continue. The episode ended with Rusty and Dale getting a very important phone message. The winner of the engineering grant has been announced- and it’s Rusty. Dale is devastated. This was a pretty predictable move, but I find Dale entertaining enough that I’m mildly interested in seeing where this goes.

Chuck 3.05: "Chuck Versus First Class"

“Your pre-pubescent little girl screams are gonna be duly noted.”

-Casey

“Chuck Versus First Class” was a very entertaining episode, definitely among the high points of the series overall. There was action, humor, and heart- things I expect out of all the best episodes of “Chuck.” There was some definite character growth for Chuck, but he still retained his core sweet nature. There was also plenty of use of Casey, which is always great for the comedy. I was also very surprised that I actually didn’t mind the two new obvious artificial roadblocks to a true Chuck and Sarah romance. All the characters involved are likeable and interesting, which is more than can be said for some past characters that have filled the “roadblock” role.

The Buy More plot is pretty separate from the “spy” plot of the episode, but it involves a lot of Casey, so it’s definitely worthwhile and entertaining. Despite being rehired, Lester’s mutiny continues. Morgan can barely function in his new position as Assistant Manager. He’s having to avoid traps wherever he goes. His coffee is always spiked with laxative, so he can never get properly caffeinated. The final humiliation comes when he sits down on a chair in the break room, and it’s covered in glue. When he interrupts Chuck and Casey gossiping about Shaw, Morgan gets an idea. Maybe Casey can help protect him from the rest of the Buy More employee rabble.

Shaw is conducting the traditional review every Special Agent undertakes when he or she takes over a new project. His major concern is trying to figure out whether Chuck is just an asset or a true spy. Shaw’s conclusion is that Chuck has potential to be a good spy, but he’s been coddled by Sarah and Casey. Shaw’s solution is to give Chuck his first solo mission, and it’s in Paris. Sarah is irate, and Casey isn’t pleased either, but Chuck is thrilled. I think that he desperately wants to be more than just the Nerd Herd guy. He had greatness unfairly stolen from him back at Stanford, and he wants to regain what he thinks he’s lost.

Sarah wants to talk to Chuck alone before he has to leave, and I love how Casey just rolls his eyes, grunts, and walks away. Despite making a show of being by-the-book, he tolerates whatever Chuck and Sarah’s deal is. Chuck on the plane, by the way, is also pretty adorable. He has never flown in first class (or been to Paris) before, and he’s way too enthusiastic about everything. What makes the situation even more amusing is that he’s furiously trying to pretend that this is something he does all the time, especially when he’s talking to the woman sitting next to him, Hannah.

I like Hannah, which is surprising, given how much I usually dislike Chuck and Sarah road blocks. She’s warm and friendly, and she delights in Chuck’s naiveté just as much as the viewer. She’s also smart. She is flown all over the world to fix IT issues for a big time private investor. She’s vulnerable, too, as we’ll see by the end of the episode. Chuck and Hannah spend much of the beginning of the flight speculating about the lives of their fellow first class passengers. This is all fun and games until Hannah spots someone she thinks must be a professional wrestler. Chuck takes a look and immediately flashes. It’s a Ring operative. Shaw tells a panicked Chuck that his mission isn’t in Paris- it’s on the plane.

Chuck is supposed to use a tranq pen to drug the Ring operative and steal his baggage claim ticket. This, of course, doesn’t go at all as planned. The difference in air pressure due to being on a plane causes the pen to malfunction, spraying the operative in the face instead of dripping a few drops of the drug into his drink. A bit of the drug sprays into the operative’s mouth, which saves Chuck, but only temporarily. Chuck is down in the luggage hold looking for the match to the baggage claim ticket (the luggage contains an important CIA crypto-key) when the operative reappears. Chuck has no choice but to jump inside the item that matches the baggage claim ticket- a coffin.

Casey (and by extension, Adam Baldwin) is seriously on fire in this episode. Morgan, who was inadvertently drugged by an earlier attempt by Chuck to learn how to work the tranq pen, wakes up to find himself trapped in one of those claw machines. You know, the ones where you are so close to picking up a toy with that claw and always, always fail? Casey rescues Morgan from his uncomfortable predicament. He grunts and the Buy More employees beginning to gather around the claw machine scatter. Morgan appeals to Casey’s inherent patriotism and desire for order and asks Casey to help him regain control of the Buy More. I absolutely love Casey’s response. He grunts, “Insurgents. I hate insurgents.” Let the games begin!

Casey also has some very hilarious, yet also useful, advice for Chuck. He tells Chuck to let loose with a girly scream so the operative will underestimate him, then grab a weapon and flash on it. The plan works. Chuck happens to be near the equipment of the Yale fencing team, and luckily, he flashes on some mad fencing skills. Actually, it’s falling luggage that temporarily gives Chuck the win, but the fencing skills were still pretty decent. Falling luggage will actually come in quite handy throughout the episode.

Back at the Buy More, Morgan calls a staff meeting. He warns everyone that if they want to keep up their little insurrection, they’re going to have to deal with Casey. Morgan reminds them that after the “volley ball incident” at the last company picnic, they definitely don’t want to deal with Casey. Casey puts out a cigar on his palm to underscore Morgan’s point. Everybody gives up except for Lester and Jeff. Personally, I want to know what the “volley ball” incident entailed. I’m sure it was hilarious and kind of painful. Casey eventually converts Lester, too. He uses the tried and true technique of abduction and brainwashing.

Chuck is back in his seat happily enjoying a drink with Hannah when he runs into yet another problem. He didn’t order a drink, and what he’s drinking tastes funny. A quick phone call to Sarah confirms that yeah, Chuck’s been poisoned. It turns out that there’s a second Ring operative on the plane, and she’s been posing as a flight attendant. She hauls Chuck back down to the baggage compartment where once again, the original operative is back and ready to fight. Luckily, Shaw has a plan. He uses his connections to commandeer a satellite that can take control of aircraft. I know Shaw is CIA, but the Annapolis t-shirt he’s been wearing this entire episode makes me wonder if he’s ex-Navy, too. Anyway, Sarah uses her mad piloting skills to jostle the plane around a bit. Chuck escapes his captors and grabs the antidote to the poison. Then luggage conveniently knocks out both of the Ring operatives…multiple times. Chuck grabbed nun chucks out of his suitcase, but by the time he had flashed and was ready to use them, the operatives were both out cold.

When the plane finally lands in Paris, Hannah offers to show Chuck around the city. Since earlier in the episode, both have sort of told each other the truth about their situation. Chuck revealed that he actually works at the Buy More, and Hannah revealed that she’s been fired from her job and is just in Paris to clean out her office. Chuck wants to take Hannah up on the offer, but he gets another call from Shaw. He needs to head right back to Burbank to deliver the crypto-key. He says a sort-of-sad goodbye to Hannah and tells her that if she’s in Burbank and still in need of a job, she should look him up.

Meanwhile, Sarah is bonding with Shaw. When Chuck delivers the key, Shaw reveals that it actually opens a box containing intelligence from a deceased spy who was deep inside the Ring. There’s also a small envelope inside that’s just for Shaw. Sarah follows Shaw to his office, demanding to know what’s in the envelope. It’s Shaw’s late wife’s wedding ring. She was the spy who died on Shaw’s watch. Given that she’s had her own troubled romances with spies, both Bryce and Chuck, Sarah finally sees common ground with Shaw.

Back to his day job, Chuck is moping around the Nerd Herd desk. Morgan and Casey bring him up to speed on what happened while he was away, and Morgan is all excited about how things are changing for him at the Buy More. Chuck, however, is convinced that nothing in his own life is going to change. Just at that moment, he looks up. Hannah has just walked through the Buy More doors.

Fringe 2.13: "What Lies Below"

“I can’t let Peter die again.”

-Walter

“What Lies Below” was my favorite “Fringe” episode of the season thus far. The stakes were higher than they’ve ever been. Sure Walter, Peter, and Olivia have all been in mortal danger before, but this felt different. First of all, Walter being in danger, which has already happened twice this season, most seriously in the fall finale, isn’t ever quite as emotionally affecting as Peter being in danger. Walter is so intensely connected to Peter and invested in Peter continuing to live that watching him cope with Peter being in danger always means watching one of John Noble’s best performances. Peter has also been in mortal danger this season, but the situation he found himself in this time around seemed much more serious. Perhaps that’s because Peter himself was completely unraveling and not in control. The episode itself had a lot of similarities to one of my favorite creepy movies, “The Andromeda Strain.” It was definitely a great way to spend an hour.

A courier runs into an older man in the elevator of a fancy, high-rise office building. The man seems disoriented, and he ends up stumbling into the same office as the courier’s destination- the office of an oil company. The man ends up collapsing in the reception area, and the courier tries to administer CPR. His efforts are in vain, and tragically so. The man spontaneously spews blood all over the reception area, spraying some of the horrified onlookers.

The Fringe team is on the case, and Walter is, as usual, enthusiastically curious to find out what could make a man spontaneously spew blood. The true seriousness of the situation, however, is quickly apparent. The courier approaches the front door and begins to spew blood. The door is the only thing that keeps Walter from being infected. Now the CDC is involved, and Peter and Olivia have quite a tough task ahead of them keeping the office workers calm. Things go from bad to worse when yet another person, this time the oil company receptionist, starts to show signs of being infected.

Despite the chaos, Olivia does manage to get some good information out of Mr. Ames, one of the executives at the oil company. The first man to die had told Mr. Ames that he had something he wanted to sell. Nobody knows just what secret or item the man had in his possession, so the investigation goes on. Soon, however, the receptionist is starting to show wandering tendencies. Peter chases aver her, which is a very bad move. Surprisingly, she does spray blood on him (she jumps out the window and smashes in the roof of a nearby van), but what actually happens is no better. Peter slips on the blood of the first man who died.

Completely freaked out, Peter rushes to the rest room, Olivia following behind. Olivia’s reaction seems to be a mix of shock, grief, and resignation. Peter keeps scrubbing himself at the sink, as if he rubbed hard enough, the blood and whatever it is that is killing people would be gone. Peter pulls it together and decides to do something kind of rash. He goes back to the dead guy’s body and starts searching his pockets. He figures he was probably already infected, so he might as well try to help solve the mystery of what the guy was selling while he still can. Peter finds car keys and guesses that whatever the guy was trying to sell is in the car that belongs to those keys.

There’s a suitcase in the trunk of the car, and the contents are materials from a drilling operation. A competing oil company drilled deeper than anyone was meant to, and they have unleashed something horrific. I thought this was the biggest comparison with “The Andromeda Strain.” In the movie, a horrible virus is brought back to Earth via satellite. Here’s it’s dug up from within the Earth. Walter posits that the virus that has been unearthed is what killed off most of the creatures from the Ice Age.

Now that he knows what the virus is, Walter can at least make a test for it. The solution Walter develops will turn black if it comes in contact with the virus. Walter and Astrid don biohazard suits and begin the task of screening all the oil company employees for the virus. It’s pretty obvious by this point that Peter is infected. He uses a little slight-of-hand to make his test show up negative. He tries to get out of the building with the first group of people who have been cleared, but luckily, a guard notices that Peter’s nose is bleeding, and they don’t let him out. He screams at Olivia, who has already escaped, to open the door, but she holds strong.

When Walter finds out that Peter has been infected, he becomes a man on a mission in his own kooky, freaked-out way. He’s right to have a sense of urgency. The CDC has decided that the threat of this virus is too great to leave any possibility that an infected person will get outside. They’ve put in a request to the Army to completely destroy the building once all the non-infected people are safely out. Walter refuses to leave, I guess he figures he can work more quickly if he stays where he is, and Astrid decides to stick by him.

Walter comes up with a cure pretty quickly – sulfur- but the suspense doesn’t stop there. They still have to eliminate the threat of contamination long enough to administer the cure. The CDC is only willing to wait so long. The plan is to bring in a truck to administer gas throughout the building. This will eliminate the threat without killing the people who have been infected. The only problem is that for the gas to spread, the building’s ventilation system needs to be turned back on. Olivia volunteers for the job.

Unfortunately for Olivia, Peter finds her as she’s trying to make her way to the ventilation controls. He is most definitely not himself, completely controlled by the virus. Olivia fights him, but she doesn’t win. Peter gets Olivia’s gun, and Olivia is left cowering under a car in the parking garage. This was a seriously painful scene. Olivia has already been betrayed once by an important man in her life (John Scott, way back in the pilot), and now here’s Peter attacking her. She pulls it together, though, and gets the ventilation system up and running just in time. Once cured, Peter is, understandably, horrified at how he acted, but Olivia forgives him. He wasn’t himself.