Boston.  Chinatown area.  A sweating man stumbles down a night time street.  He asks for directions, he is clearly distressed.  Arriving at a building, he asks if any of the others made it.  His host says he’s the first and is very nice to him.  The older man takes him to the back room and the man says his stomach is hurting.  The older man puts on rubber gloves and opens some tools as the younger man convulses, something’s in his belly.  Soon some tentacles emerge from the man’s mouth.

Opening credits.

Dorchester Bay Inlet.  Peter shows up, Walter shows up in a taxi.  He’s practicing independence.  Walter thinks Peter doesn’t trust him.  The crew is investigating a boat crash and the people who swam to shore and died of hypothermia.  Broyles shows them the bodies with the creatures coming out of the mouths.  Walter pulls it out, it’s about two feet long.  They also find a survivor.

Back at the man’s place, another boat victim is there.  He asks about the others, and the older man says he’s the first.

A Chinese consulate takes Peter and Olivia to the hospital to meet the accident survivor.  She wasn’t infected.  Turns out the people who took sea sickness medicine ended up being infected.  Her family is another boat a couple days behind them.

Back at the lab, Astrid and Walter are dissecting worms.  One is alive in a tank.  Olivia and Peter tell Walter about the sea sickness capsule.  The worms are parasites, the Chinese passengers were host transports.  Olivia gets a message from Broyles so they go to investigate.  The older Chinese man pulls something out of one of the worms and drops it into a fluid.  Later he’s wrapping up some powder in wax paper.

Suspect in FBI custody is a Triad gang member.  While the agents debate the worms having some narcotic value, the suspect spits out a razor blade and cuts his throat open.

At the lab, Walter and Astrid are extracting stuff from the worm.  It latches onto Walter’s arm and he starts getting high from the interaction.  Broyles arrives to deliver some triad info and updates on Coast Guard searches.  Olivia finds a bank transfer, large amount from a nice area of Boston.  They visit a woman who’s invested in a Chinese construction company.  Peter snoops around the house.

At the lab, Walter explains the worms are genetically engineered from hook worms.  They probably couldn’t grow anywhere but humans and they contain vast medicinal properties; including the lymph glands that give humans an immunity boost.  Walter plans to investigate Chinatown on his own, needs to borrow bust fair.

Olivia questions the lady survivor again, she says men with gang symbols were on the boat.  The lady gives her a photo of her husband and little girl.  On a boat at sea, a man and little girl are sitting in the cargo hold with a few dozen others.  She says she’s not feeling well.  As she plays with a little metal bird, an old man in front of her starts convulsing in his sleep and his torso begins kneading.

Peter tells Olivia Astrid is trailing Walter.  Peter is researching why the people they visited had all kinds of germ blocking equipment.  They visit the house again, Peter plays ball with the woman’s son.  He tries getting info from the boy about his mom, asks him what she has, why she needs immunity drugs.  The boy raises his shirt and we see week scars on his side.  The treatments are for him.

In Chinatown, Walter finds Astrid following him.  After a speech about dignity, he says they can go to the next shop together.  They’re cute.  Olivia and Peter tell Broyles about the boy’s treatment in which they inject the worm drug right into his spleen.  They have the name of the surgeon.  Back in Chinatown, Walter buys some hook worms from the man who’s been taking in passengers from the boats.  After Walter makes a comment about 3ft. worms and leaves, the man makes a phone call.  Astrid loses Walter in the streets.  She calls to tell Peter who’s not terribly surprised.  She heads back to the lab where there are tattooed men waiting.

Walter is making phone calls on a pay phone.  He keeps dialing wrong numbers until he’s out of change.  While sitting at a bus stop, he begins talking to an older Chinese woman who doesn’t understand him.  He begins crying about the phone number.

Peter and Olivia get back to the lab to find Astrid unconscious and the worm gone.  She’s okay.  Peter gets a call from Chinatown about Walter.  Olivia talks to the mom again, saying her son told them everything.  She protests saying her son won’t live long.  Walter is at the old woman’s house, he’s wearing a robe.  Peter (who speaks Cantonese) rides him a little about not remembering that all his numbers are in his pocket.  After Walter shows him the phone book page with the herbalists, Peter figures how they found the worm.  Olivia calls to tell him there’s a raid going down at the ship yards as the second boat arrives.  They search the boat and find it empty, but there’s a little metal bird.

Peter and Walter go back to the doctor’s shop.  A van across the street lets out a bunch of people in hoods into the alley to the shop.  Peter tells him to stay in the car.  He goes up to the shop and picks the lock.  Inside he hears voices and follows them to a room with people on cots.  The doctor is working on a young woman who is gagged.  Peter jumps him and unties the girl but gets attacked from behind.  He’s tied to a board and the doctor pulls out a worm and puts it in his mouth.  A goon hold’s Peter’s mouth to swollow as the FBI arrives.  He spits out the worm, the team shoots the Doctor who has pulled a gun.

Walter is back at the lab where Astrid is cleaning up.  She’s a bit beat up and Walter is quite saddened.  They both cry and hug.  Olivia tells Broyles all the Chinese nationals are in the hospital with good prognoses, including the husband and daughter.  There are more records found at the doctor’s place indicating he was treating more people.  Olivia brings the little girl her metal bird toy.

Walter wakes Peter and tells him he wants to be independent very badly.  But he knows his limitations on his road back to being whole.  He’s put a transponder in his neck and gives Peter the tracking device.

HIDDEN

After the previous episode, “Snakehead” is a bit of a let down for Fringe overall.  Not much could top an episode with a rogue Observer, but dovetailing into a monster of the week episode was probably not a good idea.

There is study done on the beneficial effects of hookworms in humans with asthma.  One involved a man walking around the open air human waste grounds of West Africa, so it’s not for the faint of heart.  Hookworms are parasites that live off the blood they suck off your intestinal wall.

How the lymph gland (which was an odd phrase in itself) from another animal can help with human immunity is up for speculation.  We discover beneficial secretions and poultices from new animals and plants almost daily but I haven’t heard of medicinal lymphatic glands to treat immunity disorders or battle infections.  I also have never heard something that looks like the offspring of a giant earwig and squid make sounds like it did in this show.  Why do all small alien looking creatures have to have that high pitched squeal?  Think about a fish you might catch that’s 18 inches.  You pull it from the water, does it scream at you?  This is a worm, but it has vocal chords?

There was no major story attachments in “Snakehead” but there were a lot of nice moments with Walter, Peter and Astrid.  Peter is getting frustrated with his father, but he knows the man is close to being independent and it’s the patience of a parent you see in him.  Walter tries very hard, but in the end he needs help.  It’s crushing to him as an intellectual giant to have people be his nanny.  He an Astrid are becoming quite close and I wouldn’t put it past the show to have an awkward love interest blossom.

Sadly, you could have missed this episode entirely and been able to continue watching the series.

Two and a half out of five randomly chosen glyphs.