'Fringe' Parasites

Anyone with pets is a little too familiar with parasites: hooks, whips, rounds and so on.  Thankfully, those parasites aren't quite as large as the one infecting the victims of human trafficking in this week's episode of Fringe.  Those parasitic worms did provide something good (a super immune booster that could help with many medical conditions), but the whole incubation part is a bit of a b!tch.  When we first saw one of those things coming out of the smuggled immigrant's mouth, I thought it was some sort of mutant squid.  It wasn't until that lovely scene at the shipyard that I realized that they were more worm-like complete with long slimy bodies.  Yum!  And poor Peter had to hold one without gloves!  Seriously, sometimes I wonder about Walter.  Handing Peter the over-grown parasitic worm when he wasn't wearing gloves wasn't even the craziest thing he did this week.  For that, we have to jump ahead a bit.



Since he was "lucky" enough to find one of the creatures alive, he kept the little guy in an aquarium tank at the lab while he dissected the dead ones to discover what they were and why they were incubating inside human beings.  He had a theory (as usual), but he needed to remove some of the parasitic worm's secretion to test it.  This involved taking it out of the tank and holding it while Astrid attempted to draw the secretion out.  The creature wiggled and squirmed and then bit right into Walter.  But Walter being Walter, didn't want to pull the thing off his arm so he let it feed off of him for a few minutes. He soon discovered that the secretions made him feel good and this, along with his study of the secretion itself, allowed him to conclude that the creatures secrete immune boosters.  Thankfully, because it could have been something far worse.

Unfortunately, a nasty immune-boosting bite from a mutated parasitic worm wasn't the worst of Walter's problems this week.  In an effort to become more self-reliant and less dependent on Peter, he decided to break out and do things on his own.  This led to a trip to Chinatown to visit a few herbal shops for research.  Things would have gone well (Peter has secretly sent Astrid to follow him), but Walter spilled the beans on the "4-foot long" parasitic worm back at the lab, and that put Astrid in danger after he ditched her to prove a point.  He ended up lost in Chinatown and she ended up with a few scrapes and bruises.  Luckily, they both wound up OK in the end.  Walter has the kindness of a non-English speaking stranger to thank.  On the positive side, I think he learned his lesson -- as difficult as it is to accept.

Fringe airs Thursday nights on Fox. If you missed this week's episode, you can watch it for free at Fox.com.