Stowaway (Fringe)

"Stowaway" is the 17th episode of the third season of the American science fiction drama television series ''Fringe'', and the 60th episode overall. It followed the Fringe team's investigation into a woman, Dana Gray (Paula Malcomson), who repeatedly but unsuccessfully tries to commit suicide. Meanwhile, Olivia continues to serve as the host for William Bell, to the dismay of most of her other team members.

The episode's story was written by Akiva Goldsman, Jeff Pinkner, while Danielle Dispaltro contributed its teleplay. Charles Beeson served as the director. Along with Malcomson, "Stowaway" featured a guest appearance by previous ''Fringe'' actor Seth Gabel. Though Leonard Nimoy had recently retired, the writers still had storylines involving his character, leading to their decision to have Bell possess Olivia's body.

"Stowaway" first aired in the United States on March 18, 2011 to an estimated 3.8 million viewers and a 1.3 ratings share for adults aged between 18 and 49. This was the series' lowest ratings share for adults up to that point. Reviews of the episode were generally positive, as multiple critics praised Anna Torv's Nimoy impression as well as Joshua Jackson's reaction to it.

Plot

Following from " Os", Olivia's (Anna Torv) body has been possessed by William Bell. Though he promises that no harm will come to Olivia while he seeks a suitable host for his mind, Broyles (Lance Reddick) demands that Bell leave Olivia in 48 hours. Bell begins searching local hospitals for a host.

They are alerted to eyewitness accounts of a woman who, after jumping with another man from a high roof and crashing onto a taxi parked below, simply walked away. As the Fringe team investigates, they are approached by another FBI agent, Lincoln Lee (Seth Gabel), who identifies the woman as Dana Gray (Paula Malcomson). Dana, who had been struck by lightning twice, was killed eighteen months earlier along with her family during a robbery of their home, but she apparently was able to walk away from the morgue. Since then, she has appeared to commit suicide with several others, but always managing to walk away. Walter (John Noble) and Bell, in studying Dana's blood samples, find that her body may have been altered by several past lightning strikes, making her incapable of dying.

Peter (Joshua Jackson) and Lincoln find that Dana worked as a suicide hotline operator, and in investigating her belongings, find that she appears to have a strong desire to take her soul to heaven or hell. Lincoln comes to believe that Dana may be looking for a way to have her soul "stow away" with that of another to join her family in the afterlife, and used the suicide hotline position to find those who are close to committing suicide.

Another man is found dead by a self-inflicted bullet wound, though Dana was seen leaving his apartment. Evidence in his apartment points to the construction of a bomb, and the Fringe team suspects that Dana knows its location and may be hoping to exploit an event which will kill several people simultaneously in order to increase her own chances of death. Peter calls her, using caller ID spoofing to disguise his number as that of her late husband, and the signal allows authorities to pinpoint her location to a commuter train. The train is stopped and searched, while Dana leaves on her own with the bomb, moving it far enough away from the train. The bomb soon explodes, and when Peter and Lincoln search, they find Dana's body nearby, finally dead, and the only fatality from the explosion.

Peter returns home where Walter has invited Bell to stay the evening. Bell explains that he believes that Dana was finally able to die after serving a purpose—saving the lives of the people on the train.In the middle of the episode Dana had visited a nun who had procured for Dana a (fictitious) rare and very obscure religious book. The nun related one prominent story from the book about a dead man named Azrael who had been a great sinner and was accordingly trapped in Purgatory. Twenty angels felt compassion for the man and went to Purgatory to carry him to Heaven. They appealed to God to allow the man into Heaven and God permitted this on the basis that their innocence overweighed the man's sins. When church bells go off nearby, Olivia's personality slips through momentarily. Bell regains control, but expresses new-found fear that his possession of Olivia's body has become more complicated than he thought.

Production

The episode's teleplay was written by Danielle Dispaltro, while the story was contributed by consulting producer Akiva Goldsman and co-showrunners Jeff Pinkner. ''Supernatural'' veteran Charles Beeson directed. The episode was shot in early February 2011.

Despite previous guest actor Leonard Nimoy's recent retirement, the writers still had plot lines concerning his character William Bell. Some months prior to the airing of "Stowaway", Nimoy and others had noted that Bell's character would return to ''Fringe''. Anna Torv, who portrays Olivia, was not aware that her character would be channeling Bell until just prior to filming of the episode, and stated of the role, "This is not one I had been asking for!" To prepare, Torv sought advice from her fellow star John Noble, as both as a friend and because Noble's character, Walter, had spent the most time with Bell. She took further advice from the show's dialect coach and reviewed footage of Nimoy's previous work, though eventually she decided to jump right into the role. Noble later commented "I think the solutions she came up with – taking the essence of the man, playing with the eyebrows, simulating the voice — were really smart. We had a lot of fun doing it."

Executive producers J.H. Wyman and Jeff Pickner were both impressed with Torv's take on the role, with Wyman stating that it "just transcended all our expectations", while Pinkner noted that Nimoy himself was "the most proud and most impressed" with the outcome. Actor Joshua Jackson found her performance "so creepy". He explained, "In the episodes, you see I can barely look at her. I think it ended up being a good way to play Peter’s reaction to Olivia, but it was born out of the fact that when that voice came out of her, I was like: ‘Oh, that’s just wrong!'" Pinkner confirmed in an interview with TVLine that Bell's appearance would last for "a couple" episodes, and also warned that "cohabitation is not as benign as William assumes it is", a reference to problems Bell would soon have in Olivia's body. The possessed state of Olivia has led viewers to refer to her as "Bellivia".

"Stowaway" featured a guest appearance by actress Paula Malcomson, her first and only time on the show to date. Guest actor Seth Gabel had previously played just one version of character Lincoln Lee, who existed as the head of Fringe division in the parallel universe. "Stowaway" marked the first appearance of the character from the prime universe. Gabel described his prime universe character as someone who works for the FBI, "but has no idea about Fringe Division. He's more of a desk jockey hoeventually comes to believe there is much more than reality suggests". Executive producer Jeff Pinkner

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