| 6955 kHz | |
| Cast | Transcript |
PROLOGUE[]
Numbers Broadcast - Tuning In 6955 kHz[]
(in Stockton Harbor, Maine)
DAVE BARRETT: (over ship-to-shore radio) Stockton Harbor, Stockton Harbor, come in. Requesting clearance.
MURRAY HARKINS: Tide is coming in strong. Pulling a fog bank in from the east. It's close to shore, so watch yourself and take it slow.
DAVE BARRETT: (over ship-to-shore radio) Copy that. We see it up ahead. Looks like pea soup.
MURRAY HARKINS: Maintain a bearing at three-five-eight. I've hung a lantern out for you. (music box tune plays)
(in Chinatown, NY)
DAN LIANG: Did I tell you? Mia's friend June is coming too. Seriously, one-hundred percent hot.
SHEN CHAN: Uh-huh? (electronic beep) It's about to come on!
DAN LIANG: Shen, are you seriously not coming?
SHEN CHAN: Dude, when I crack this thing, They are gonna write books about me. [music box tune plays]
(in Merrimack County, New Hampshire)
LAIRD WOOMER: Hey, Beck. You want a tea? Love one.
BECKY WOOMER: Hey, Aaron. You gonna make mommy a tea? (chuckles) (electronic beep) It's starting.
LAIRD WOOMER: Okay, I'll leave you alone. (electronic beeping. female speaking in native language. music box tune plays. grunting)
DAVE BARRETT: (over ship-to-shore radio) Captain Barrett to Fort Point Light Station. Come in. Over. (gasps) Fort Point, we're lost in the fog bank. We can't see the light. Over. Fort Point, are you there? This is ‘’Swedish Fish’’. Come in. Murray, it's Dave. I've got no eyes out here.
DAN LIANG: Hey, I forgot my I.D. Dude. Shen?
LAIRD WOOMER: Becky.
BECKY WOOMER: Stay away from me.
LAIRD WOOMER: Whoa.
BECKY WOOMER: I said stay back! Who are you?
LAIRD WOOMER: It's me, Laird. (baby Aaron cries)
BECKY WOOMER: Who am I?
ACT I[]
Olivia's Apartment - Breakfast In Bed[]
BOLIVIA DUNHAM: (sitting in bed and reading) Oh, wow. This is better than room service. (as breakfast is served on a lap tray) What did I do to get so lucky?
PETER: (dutiful) Nothing. It's just for being you. (kiss on the lips)
BOLIVIA DUNHAM: Thank you.
PETER: You're welcome. So what's the latest catastrophe I want to know nothing about? (walks around, then hops into bed)
BOLIVIA DUNHAM: (returns to the newspaper) Well, uh, earthquakes, oil spills, financial disaster. It's not really the best way to start the day.
PETER: Here I thought there was nothing good until the Entertainment Section.
BOLIVIA DUNHAM: What's in the Entertainment Section?
PETER: (provocatively) I don't know, but you should find out.
BOLIVIA DUNHAM: (checks the section and tickets fall out) I love U-2.
PETER: I figured we were way overdue for a normal date.
BOLIVIA DUNHAM: That is just so sweet and so kind of romantic.
PETER: Try not to sound so shocked. (another kiss)
BOLIVIA DUNHAM: Thank you.
PETER: (answers cell phone) Walter? Walter, is that you?
WALTER: (from the lab. angered) Of course it's me. I came in this morning and found your little project.
PETER: And what project would that be?
WALTER: You know very well what project. You are continuing to work on this infernal device-- The one depicted in the blueprints.
PETER: That's correct. I'm running diagnostics. (gets out of bed)
WALTER: I thought I made my -- You have no idea what it does. You might as well be building a nuclear bomb in my lab.
PETER: (chuckles) I don't think that's entirely fair.
WALTER: Do you? Well, fine. If you end up breaking the universe, this time, it's on your head. (hangs-up)
BOLIVIA DUNHAM: What was that about?
WALTER: It's nothing. Apparently, Walter doesn't want me playing with his toys. (gets back in bed)
BOLIVIA DUNHAM: (answers her cell phone) Dunham. (listens. there has been an incident) Yes, sir. We'll meet you there. (to Peter) Broyles.
PETER: Guess that means we're doing the crossword in the car.
Woomer Residence - Broadcast Recording[]
PETER: (walking with the science team from their parked vehicles) So fifteen people all up and down the Eastern Seaboard, all suffered from retrograde amnesia at the same time?
BROYLES: Around ten forty-five P.M.
WALTER: Collective memory loss. That's a new one for the medical books.
BROYLES: According to the Pentagon, the victims were all using shortwave radios.
WALTER: Ham-radio enthusiasts -- maybe their brains were erased by the magnetic winds from the solar storm?
PETER: If it hadn't happened four hours after sundown, you might be on to something.
BROYLES: Becky Woomer. Her husband said he left her alone for roughly three minutes. In that time, she forgot all details about her life, including her name. The D.o.D. is concerned this could be a test run for a potential terror attack.
LAIRD WOOMER: (in his kitchen) The doctors at the hospital don't understand it. They can't even tell me if she's going to get her memory back.
PETER: Did your wife ever tell you what it was she was listening to?
LAIRD WOOMER: Becky was a moderator in a chat room. They listen to number stations.
PETER: Number stations?
LAIRD WOOMER: I don't know much about them. They're kind of a mystery.
WALTER: (in the victim's hobby room) Oh. A reel-to-reel. I used to have one exactly like this. I remember hours spent ripped out of my gourd listening to Beatles albums backwards for secret messages. They weren't there. (Broyles is not surprised)
PETER: So apparently Becky recorded last night's broadcast. Whatever she heard should be on that tape.
WALTER: Listening to what they recorded last night could cause us to forget why we wanted to listen in the first place - Einstein.
BROYLES: Did he say what he thinks is on it?
PETER: He said that she spends her night's listening to numbers on random ham-radio stations. She's trying to crack some code.
BROYLES: Number stations?
PETER: You heard of them?
Massive Dynamic - Number Stations 101[]
NINA: (all-knowing. candid) Number stations. Nobody knows what they are or even where they come from. As far as anyone knows, they're artificially generated voices reading streams of random numbers in a wide variety of languages. The Department of Defense hired us to investigate them. Other than the fact that they were first discovered more than seventy years ago, we came up with nothing. We could never triangulate their point of origin. This one we picked-up four years ago. (plays the original Spanish language recording) Some people think they may be covert communications between spies or drug-traffickers. The problem is no one has been able to find proof to support any theory at all. So, at the moment, they remain unexplained.
BOLIVIA DUNHAM: But the number broadcasts have never caused amnesia before.
NINA: Not to the best of our knowledge.
WALTER: Perhaps Peter would like to play last night's tape aloud to everyone, given his recent fondness for dangerous activity. (stands brusquely) As soon as she's up to it, I would like to examine the woman who lost her mind. And I think I know a way to analyze the tape without losing our memories. Oh, I need something from the child development center. Sixth floor? (intends to leave)
NINA: Actually, the Seventh. (to Peter as Walter exits) You might want to escort him, Peter. Yesterday, he spent fifteen minutes in front of a utility closet thinking it was the elevator.
PETER: (amused) Right. Be right back. (leaves to follow his father)
BOLIVIA DUNHAM: Would you mind if Astrid took a look at your research? She might pick up something that your code breakers missed.
NINA: Of course. (observant) Olivia, are Peter and Walter okay?
BOLIVIA DUNHAM: (dismissive) Yeah. (back on topic) You know we found a piece of the machine that Walternate is building. And Peter's trying to figure it out.
NINA: He should. We need to know what we're dealing with.
BOLIVIA DUNHAM: Except Walter doesn't agree. He won't help. He's setting up roadblocks for Peter. (persuasive) You know, you two go back a long way. Maybe you could talk to him.
NINA: What? You're not having any luck?
BOLIVIA DUNHAM: (brash) Oh, I haven't tried.
NINA: But that's not like you. You're usually more direct with Walter?
BOLIVIA DUNHAM: Well, it's complicated between them. I don't want to make it worse. (her cell phone rings)
NINA: (assuring) I'll speak with Walter.
BOLIVIA DUNHAM: (answers cell phone) Dunham. (listens) Yes? (listens) Where?
Alford, MA - Investigating A Break-In[]
BROYLES: (briefing Bolivia as they approach a radio tower surrounded by law enforcement vehicles) Homeland Security traced the broadcast. When they tried to contact the tower employees, they didn't get a response.
UNIFORMED OFFICER: As far as we can tell, the break-in happened around ten-thirty. Security system was state-of-the-art. Whoever did this was a pro... but there's something else.
(the two agents enter the facility through an access door at ground level and walk past a dead man sitting nearby. they continue past a dead woman on the floor laying between the racks of electrical equipment. beyond her they find a large, shiny cube attached to the transmitting equipment - the device hovers in mid-air)
ACT II[]
Alford, MA - Fingerprint Lead[]
(the forensics team inspects a hovering cube attached to the rack of transmitting equipment in the radio station)
BOLIVIA DUNHAM: How the hell is it doing that?
BROYLES: It's not floating exactly. Apparently it's got some sort of magnetics inside. (a technician unplugs an internal connector in the device and it drops from its' hover)
BOLIVIA DUNHAM: So do you think that this was the source of last night's number broadcast?
BROYLES: This is definitely wired to output a transmission. (to the technician) Hold on. I want to see that panel. I need the print powder. (sprays the large board extracted from the device and exposes a large fingerprint) It's impossible to do microelectronics with gloves on. Let's get this to Doctor Bishop. (leaves)
Walter's Lab - Analog Demodulation[]
ASTRID: (signs for the large quantity of storage files that were just delivered) This should keep me busy for... eternity. Thank you.
PETER: (returns from private cell phone call) Okay, that was Olivia. They're analyzing the fingerprints they found up at the radio tower, and they think they found the device used to upload last night's broadcast.
GENE: Moo!
WALTER: What?
GENE: Moo!
PETER: What's that?
GENE: Moo!
ASTRID: (looks at child's audio toy) Property of Massive Dynamic?
WALTER: It's not theft if you own the company. I've found a way to listen to the tape of the numbers broadcast without losing what faculties I have left.
PETER: Well, how'd you manage that?
WALTER: The key is analog demodulation. I knew my Jimi Hendrix wah-wah pedal would come in handy. Take a look. This is the sound of the transmission, modified so it's safe, of course. But if we demodulate... (electronic tone pitches down and the waveform on the monitor divides to two separate waves)
PETER: So there are two signals?
WALTER: Precisely. The top wave is 'the numbers. The bottom wave, which I have suppressed is a pulse. And I believe that this is responsible for the amnesia. Someone found a way to attach this pulse to the numbers broadcast.
ASTRID: Well, that explains why nobody's been affected by listening to the number stations before, because they're not causing the problem.
WALTER: So we still don't know where the numbers are coming from, but I suspect that the device that Agent Dunham found is the source of the pulse.
ASTRID: Okay, but who would do this, and why give these people amnesia?
PETER: Because they cracked the code, or they came damn close to figuring out what number stations are... and somebody wants to keep that a secret.
WALTER: Well done. You sounded very Sherlock Holmes just then. (to Astrid) Which makes you Watson, Dear.
PETER: Walter... is this the soundboard I was using to run diagnostics on the weapon? (growing upset)
WALTER: I was using it to down-convert the signal.
PETER: Really? (holds-up unplugged electrical prongs)
WALTER: (defensive) I was focused on solving the case at hand. I'm not concerned with preserving your wretched experiment. Now, if you don't mind, I have some thinking to do. (walks off)
PETER: (softly to Astrid) This has got to stop. (joins his father in a quiet office) Walter...
WALTER: (miffed) I asked you not to work on that device in my lab!
PETER: They're working on it on the other side. We need to understand exactly what it does.
WALTER: What's to understand? You're playing with fire. Stop being so bull-headed and put a stop to this.
PETER: Walter (sits)... when I touched that device on the other side... it came alive in my hands... like it was bonded directly to me. How can you expect me to ignore that?
ASTRID: (joins the somber duo) I just talked to Olivia. They pulled a picture of our suspect from his prints. She's taking it to the Woomer house now to show it to the husband. Becky was released from the hospital. She's back home now.
WALTER: Oh.
(in the dark woods near a large radio tower, a man carries another cubed device toward the facility)
Woomer Residence - Critical Lead[]
(sitting in the kitchen with the victim's husband. studying a photo of the man suspected of planting the device in the radio tower)
BOLIVIA DUNHAM: His name is Joseph Feller. Earlier today, we picked up his prints from a radio tower just outside Boston. His last known address was Milwaukee, Wisconsin. That was 1997. But since then, he's been off the map.
LAIRD WOOMER: (studies the image) I've never seen him before in my life.
PETER: Do you mind if we poke around a little bit? There's some things here that could be useful to us. Maybe check out her computer, her address book?
LAIRD WOOMER: Of course.
(the man in the woods, Joseph Feller, works quickly in a second radio facility to install another cubed device)
WALTER: (sitting with the victim and running some tests) Read this and then do what it says.
BECKY WOOMER: Stand up, then sit down.
WALTER: Wonderful. Thank you. Earlier, I told you the names of three things.
BECKY WOOMER: Cat, horse, cotton candy.
WALTER: Very good. (watches as she picks-up an unfinished knitting project) It's beautiful.
BECKY WOOMER: I don't remember doing this. I suppose I was knitting it for the baby. (teary) I don't recognize him. (intimidated) I don't recognize that man who is out there. I look at the pictures everywhere and I see myself in them. But I - I don't know them.
WALTER: (reassuring) The human brain is a miracle... a most resilient organ... a storage unit for everything you have ever known... seen, or felt. It's all still in there, whether or not you are conscious of that.
PETER: (privately, after searching the victim's hobby room) This is a list of everybody that Becky talked to about the number stations. You recognize anyone?
BOLIVIA DUNHAM: (flatly reads what he was pointing to) Ed Markham?
PETER: Bookstore owner? Purveyor of rare manuscripts? Your favorite ladies' man?
BOLIVIA DUNHAM: Oh, right. (laughs) How could I forget? (clueless)
PETER: I'm gonna give him a call, see if maybe he has some idea about this.
BOLIVIA DUNHAM: (after Peter moves off) Walter, are you alright?
WALTER: (reflective) I know what it's like, what this woman's going through. I lived it. To not recognize your life... it's awful.
BOLIVIA DUNHAM: (sincere) I'm sorry, Walter.
WALTER: Don't be. (pained smile) Let's just focus on putting a stop to this before more people get hurt.
(Feller completes his work in the radio station by inserting an additional circuit/chip on a main panel. he activates the device he installed and the cube hovers in-place)
Landau 287 - Diversion[]
PILOT: (a dark and stormy night, thunder rumbles as the small commuter plane struggles at altitude in the violent flight conditions. radio call) Baltimore Center, this is Landau Two-Eight-Seven. Request to divert to Richmond. Over.
BALTIMORE CENTER (on radio): Roger, Landau Two-Eight-Seven. Weather is... (radio static) Level Five thunderstorm... (radio static) You'll have... (radio static)
PILOT: Baltimore Center, say again. You're breaking up. (severe turbulence rattles the passengers. tuning to another channel gets music and a recitation of numbers. the pilot reacts to the broadcast, grabs his head and yells from the overload)
ACT III[]
Walter's Lab - Frustrated Inspection[]
TV NEWSCAST: The small twin engine plane went down just outside of Owings Mills, Maryland.
ASTRID: (turns from TV) NTSB just released a statement. It looks like the plane's radio was tuned into the same frequency as the second numbers broadcast.
WALTER: (fiddling with the pulse device) Precisely what I was worried about. A second attack, and now not only do we have twenty new amnesiacs, but six people died. (frustrated with the device) Damn it! Why can't I get a current?
ASTRID: Maybe you reversed the poles?
WALTER: No. It just doesn't make sense. Everything that I know about the physics of electricity says that this device shouldn't work at all.
ASTRID: Walter, I know that you're angry right now, and I get it. I cannot make heads or tails of this code. It's immense. It's not even just one code. The... the numbers are a code. The time between the numbers is a code. (answers her cell phone. listens) Yes, sir? Okay, I will make sure that he gets it. (hangs-up) That was Agent Broyles. There was another radio tower break-in. It was unmanned, so nobody was hurt, but they found another cube... the one that must have downed the aircraft. They're sending it over right now.
WALTER: Wonderful. Another cube I can't make any sense of.
ASTRID: Well... maybe this will do us some good? (shows him a classical music album) Hmm. (soothed. they smile at one another) Alright, let's get back to work. (claps hands)
Markham's Bookstore - The First People[]
EDWARD MARKHAM: (sitting and sorting books) Number stations? It was a hobby. I banged my head on that wall for five years and gave up. Stamp collecting... now there's a hobby with dividends.
BOLIVIA DUNHAM: Well, all the people who listened to the last two number broadcasts have had their memories wiped. We're trying to identify who's behind it.
EDWARD MARKHAM: Are you serious? (stands-up)
PETER: Whatever they knew and whatever they figured out about the numbers, somebody made sure that they forgot it. So whatever you know about what they mean would really help us.
EDWARD MARKHAM: (sighs) Okay... I'll help you, but you have to promise me I'll be safe.
PETER: Sure. Done. Just tell us what you know about the stations.
EDWARD MARKHAM: (in a separate part of the store) First of all, they're as old as dirt. They say when Marconi invented the radio, the first thing he heard was the numbers, like they were floating around in space just waiting for someone to listen.
PETER: So you're trying to tell me that Marconi picked up a transmission before humans invented the technology to send one?
EDWARD MARKHAM: Creepy, right? (opens a metal lock box, removes a book and displays it)
BOLIVIA DUNHAM: Wow. The First People.
EDWARD MARKHAM: By Seamus Wiles, 1897. There was only one edition. You're holding one of the last copies.
PETER: And this will tell us what the numbers mean?
EDWARD MARKHAM: No, but it'll tell you where they came from, or one theory at least.
PETER: By "First People," what are we talking about... Adam and Eve?
EDWARD MARKHAM: No, before dinosaurs, before all of it, there were the first people... the first humans to evolve on this planet.
PETER: If you don't know anything, you can just say that.
EDWARD MARKHAM: I'm serious. Look, just read the book. It's all in there.
PETER: How much do you want for it?
EDWARD MARKHAM: I don't want your money. I want protection. What if someone comes to erase my memories?
PETER: (chuckles) I should be so lucky.
BOLIVIA DUNHAM: Thanks, Markham. (turns and leaves with Peter)
Walter's Lab - Fetched By Nina[]
WALTER: (begins to inspect the second pulse device that just arrived) Fantastic. Now I have bookends.
NINA: (unexpected entrance) Definitely a conversation piece.
WALTER: Nina... if I had known you were coming, I'd have baked a cake.
ASTRID: He means that... literally.
NINA: Next time I'll call. Hello, Astrid. (turns) Walter, I need to speak with you.
Harvard Campus - High Times[]
NINA: (sitting on a bench in the wooded commons watching students walk around. Walter lights up) I forgot how serious this campus has become. I remember my time here quite differently.
WALTER: (exhales smoke) We did have fun, didn't we? (inhales again) Don't know what happened to this generation. I have a prescription.
NINA: (takes a hit of Walter's "medical" cannabis) So do I.
WALTER: Look at all these students. When did they become so afraid? We had the courage to think against the grain of what we were told. We let our curiosity be our guide.
NINA: (candidly) So why stop Peter from following his?
WALTER: (hesitates) What Peter's doing is different. He's bent on pursuing something despite the grave risks it poses to his well-being.
NINA: You can't create a vaccine without working with the virus.
WALTER: No, but I have experienced what this kind of hubris can do.
NINA: Well, and yet you didn't heed anyone's warnings. I begged you to stop, but you insisted on finding a way to cross over. Peter wouldn't be here now if you hadn't.
WALTER: If he continues to investigate--
NINA: Yes, well, he will continue to investigate - whether you like it or not.
WALTER: Then he will play right into Walternate's hands. I--
NINA: What do you mean?
WALTER: (passionately) If only one world can survive, then it stands to reason that Walternate will use Peter to ensure that it's his world that does. But he has already built as much of the machine as he can. He gave the blueprints to Peter and asked him to complete it... even though... this... could kill him. (hands her the drawing of Peter activating the weapon)
NINA: I remember, Walter, but who says this is the only outcome? It's a drawing, not destiny. Even if you're right about Walternate's plan, I mean, you don't know if he'll succeed. And given the stakes, won't Peter need your guidance more than ever? (earnest) Walter... one of the things I have most admired about you is your optimism. Don't become a fatalist now.
Bolivia's Car - Numbers Connection[]
PETER: (sits and reads as Bolivia speeds) So according to this... something happened, some sort of cataclysm that so completely decimated the first people, they were just wiped out of the historical record.
BOLIVIA DUNHAM: So how did Seamus Wiles know about them?
PETER: Yeah, exactly. They were apparently very technologically advanced. They discovered the vacuum.
BOLIVIA DUNHAM: Oh, the vacuum cleaner?
PETER: (chuckles) no. The Vacuum as in "the source of all creation and destruction."
BOLIVIA DUNHAM: Interesting.
PETER: This book is useless. There's nothing here. (turns page) What were the numbers on the first broadcast?
BOLIVIA DUNHAM: Why?
PETER: Well, if you were to believe the book, the First People measured time in months that had wildly different numbers of days in them. But humor me. What were the numbers?
BOLIVIA DUNHAM: (uncertainty, slowly recalls) uh... 12... 34, 17... 9, 15, and, uh...
PETER/BOLIVIA DUNHAM (simultaneously): 8, 42, 40.
PETER: Yeah. The numbers of the first broadcast correspond exactly with the numbers in this book. They match the numbers of this calendar exactly. Never thought I'd say this, but I think Markham's right. Somehow the number stations are connected to these First People. What the hell does that mean?
ACT IV[]
Walter's Lab - Ancient Calendar[]
WALTER: (walking with Astrid through his Harvard lab) It's fascinating. Remarkable. Read more.
ASTRID: You don't actually believe this? An ancient people who evolved before the dinosaurs just vanished without a trace? (stares at the content in the book Peter retrieved from Markham) It's -- it's absurd.
WALTER: (after stopping at Peter's workstation) Why should we be so arrogant as to assume that we're the first Homo sapiens to walk the Earth. History is full of extinction events... climate change, meteorites, Atlantis.
ASTRID: Atlantis? Peter, come on. Help me out here.
PETER: I don't know what I believe yet. All I know is that the numbers in their calendar correspond with the numbers of the first broadcast. That can't just be a coincidence.
ASTRID: (reading from the book) They were a people of great technological prowess who made the ultimate discovery. A mechanism known to them as The Vacuum, containing at once both the power to Create, and to Destroy.
WALTER: (chuckling) The Vacuum. What a wonderful name, and it verifies some of my theories.
ASTRID: What theories, Walter? Create and destroy what?
WALTER: Well, everything. (excitedly) Many religions speak of such a power. And science, the Big Bang, And it's counterpart, the Big Crunch. The universe expanding and contracting And expanding... an endless cycle of creation and destruction.
PETER: Okay, let's run with that. Let's say that these First People did create this mechanism and then somehow translated into a code.
ASTRID: And now someone is wiping people's memories to keep the code a secret?
WALTER: It's not so surprising. It's the key to the universe. It's a secret worth protecting.
BOLIVIA DUNHAM: (walks into the lab from the access hall) Hey. Sorry I'm late, but I thought these might cheer you up. (hands Walter a pastry box)
WALTER: (opens the box) Oh. Oh. Oh! Malassadas! Oh, it's wonderful. (happily starts to devour one of the donut-y treats)
BOLIVIA DUNHAM: Anything new in the book?
ASTRID: I'm sure the numbers hold the answers, But beyond that, nothing tangible.
PETER: (inspecting the pulse weapon taken from the broadcast tower) Wait a minute. Hey, Walter? Come here. Take a look at this. This transistor is newer than the rest of them. Somebody must have replaced it. It's Polish, and it's military grade. (*holds up the transistor with tweezers, then drops it in an envelope) There's only a couple of places that are licensed to sell parts like that, and they're all regulated, which means that you have to give a verified address to buy one. (stands and walks to this office) I'm gonna make some phone calls.
WALTER: May I borrow that? (reaches for the book)
ASTRID: Mm-hmm.
WALTER: I feel a bowel movement coming on.
ASTRID: (somewhat disgusted) Walter.
BOLIVIA DUNHAM: Can you tell Peter I'll be back? I'm gonna let Broyles know where we're at.
ASTRID: Mm-hmm.
(Bolivia drives away quickly in her car)
WALTER: (later, Walter joins Astrid as she sits and studies) Avocado, cucumber, and cheese. (places a plate of food before her) In 1974, the C.I.A. asked me to develop the best sandwich for clarity of thought.
ASTRID: (focuses on the paperwork covering her desk) There's too much information here.
WALTER: But of course the chips are just because I like foods that crunch.
ASTRID: (sighs and starts to eat what Walter has brought her) There has to be a pattern here. Every code relies on a pattern. I just need to see it.
WALTER: But you can't. That's your problem.
ASTRID: Thanks for the vote of confidence.
WALTER: Oh, oh, no, no, no, no, no. No, I... I simply meant that to break the code you would have to think like they did, and they lived millions and millions of years ago. I... I mean, for one thing, look at their concept of time. Nine days in a month? (side-tracked) If you're not going to eat those chips, May I? (as Astrid's jaw drops in a moment of clarity) What? What? What happened?
ASTRID: Here. Read me this calendar. (hands him the old book) How many days are in each month?
WALTER: Why?
ASTRID: Humor me.
WALTER: The first two are twelve and thirty-four. Then seventeen, nine, fifteen. What are you thinking, Watson?
ASTRID: That maybe what we're missing is a Cipher Matrix... our decoder ring. Okay, what are the next months?
WALTER: Eight, forty-two, forty, twenty-seven...
Feller's Apartment - Goodbye Feller[]
BOLIVIA DUNHAM: (knocks on the door of her shapeshifting accomplice in his high-rise apartment building. when the door opens) We've got a problem. (walks in)
JOSEPH FELLER: (closes the door and follows) The Secretary said we weren't supposed to meet.
BOLIVIA DUNHAM: Well, the Secretary is on the other side. He can't foresee every turn of events. Now, you replaced a transistor in one of the boxes. Polish -- they found it. They're tracking the sale as we speak.
JOSEPH FELLER: Who are these people?
BOLIVIA DUNHAM: Look, you were sloppy. You've jeopardized the mission.
JOSEPH FELLER: I'm supposed to upload another pulse tomorrow.
BOLIVIA DUNHAM: I think you've done enough. We've got their attention. There's no need to hurt any more innocent people.
JOSEPH FELLER: What do they say on this side? (cell phone rings) "All's fair in love and war"? If they were in our shoes, they would do exactly what we're doing.
BOLIVIA DUNHAM: (answers cell phone) Dunham.
BROYLES: We've got an address on the suspect. Joseph Feller. 989 Nelson Street, Medford. We're en route with backup.
BOLIVIA DUNHAM: Okay, I'm on my way. (to Feller) They're coming.
JOSEPH FELLER: Where should I go? Do you have any information on my next mission?
BOLIVIA DUNHAM: Yeah, I do. (tires screeching)
PETER: Olivia's already here. (gunshot and glass shatters) (thud) (overlapping chatter)
BROYLES: It's a shape-shifter. (elevator bell dings)
PETER: Olivia... Thank god you're alright. Tell me what happened.
BOLIVIA DUNHAM: He--he came at me. I had no choice.
PETER: But you're alright?
BOLIVIA DUNHAM: Yeah, I'm alright. But, uh, he was coming out as I got here, and...
PETER: But you're alright?
BOLIVIA DUNHAM: Uh-huh. ( radio chatter )
ACT V[]
Walter's Lab - Astrid's Epiphany[]
WALTER: Any breakthroughs? (standing next to his colleague as they study the multiple cipher matrices she has created on the many clear plexiglass boards around the lab)
ASTRID: (scanning for possible patterns) I don't know. I thought that maybe if I added up all the numbers...
WALTER: ..well, keep at it. And I wouldn't go in the bathroom, Dear. (walks away)
ASTRID: (starts to erase part of a matrix and marvels at the sunshine passing through the drawing board - and onto the circular globe of Earth nearby) Huh.
Medford, MA - Toasted Data Chip[]
(racing to the disabled shapeshifter before the technician can zip closed the body bag)
PETER: Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! Hold on! I need to look at that body. You got a pair of gloves on you?
BROYLES: What is it?
PETER: Well, it makes sense now why Walter couldn't figure out the tech that emitted the amnesia pulse. It must have come from the other side.
BROYLES: Which suggests Walternate knows what the numbers mean. He must be the one protecting the code.
(Peter flips the shapeshifter on to its' side to search the lower spine area)
BOLIVIA DUNHAM: What? (as Peter feels around inside the machine)
PETER: Data storage unit. (pulls out the badly mangled component and holds it up) I'm guessing we're not gonna get anything off of that. It's toast.
BOLIVIA DUNHAM: (answers ringing cell phone) Dunham.
ASTRID: (calling from Walter's lab) I think I cracked the code. I know what Number Stations are.
Walter's Lab - Pinpoint Geography[]
ASTRID: (standing before her work on the clear plexiglass drawing boards) It's a coordinate system. These numbers indicate locations. Latitude and longitude. 35 degrees and 40 minutes South by 58 degrees and 40 minutes West, that's just outside Buenos Aires, Argentina. All of these numbers indicate specific locations on a globe... Ethiopia, Spain, China.
PETER: So what's there at the end of the points?
ASTRID: So far as I can tell, nothing special... a farmhouse, public swimming pool, and random stuff like that.
WALTER: We're not looking for a man-made structure. If this message is millions of years old, then we're likely talking about something buried beneath the earth.
BOLIVIA DUNHAM: How many locations?
ASTRID: I haven't finished plugging in all the numbers, But so far, twenty-two.
PETER: And what's the closest one?
Jersey City, NJ - Excavation[]
PETER: (walks across the very active excavation site with two beverages and finds Bolivia) What'd I miss?
BOLIVIA DUNHAM: Oh, uh, thank you, (takes her drink) Nothing yet. They just pulled up an old buried football, so...
PETER: I had to go back. Forgot to say skim.
BOLIVIA DUNHAM: (chuckles) You walked there twice? You didn't have to do that.
PETER: Well, I had a motive. (charmingly) It's the little things that make me irresistible.
BOLIVIA DUNHAM: What if he's right? (looks at the doctor standing by himself, nearby) Walter?
PETER: Right about what?
BOLIVIA DUNHAM: I've been thinking, Peter. Your father's concerned about building Walternate's device. What if it does mean the destruction of one universe or... or the other?
PETER: (heavy with concern) We don't know that yet.
BOLIVIA DUNHAM: (trying to sound upbeat) That's not really my point. If you knew that only... one of our worlds could survive and if it was up to you, and you alone, to defend your side... You'd have no choice, right? I mean, you would have to do what you had to do... no matter the cost to protect... our world.
PETER: (earnestly) There are billions of innocent people over there... just like here... people with jobs, families, lives. I got to believe there's another way. And whatever my part in all of this is... I got to believe there's another way. There's always hope, right? (sips his drink, then runs to the dig site when he hears)
EXCAVATOR: We got something!
(Walter and Bolivia join Peter at the deep hole as a large, heavy cylindrical-shaped object is hoisted from the deep pit. In the lab, Astrid continues her deciphering and assignment of values to position on the map)
ASTRID: Oh, my. (softly to herself)
(Peter clears packed dirt from the surface of the object and finds large carved glyphs)
BOLIVIA DUNHAM: (answers cell phone) Dunham.
ASTRID: (calling from the lab) I just identified the last coordinates... Milton, Massachusetts, the house where the first piece of Walternate's machine was buried. Do you think it's possible that these locations are all a part of the machine, that Walternate's device is the vacuum described in The First People book?
BOLIVIA DUNHAM: Uh, yes. I think they're one and the same. (ends call, then to Peter and Walter) Astrid finished the code. There are thirty-seven more locations.
WALTER: (resolutely) In that case... it seems we have work to do. We have to recover the pieces, assemble it, and figure out how it works. (looks Peter in the face to assure that this is the course he wants to pursue) Creation and Destruction... I suppose we'll have to hope for the former.
(after the visit to Jersey City, Bolivia returns to the vintage office equipment shop and her communication device. She rolls paper into the typewriter and reports that "THEY'VE LOCATED THE PIECES OF THE DEVICE." After a few seconds she receives a reply - WELL DONE. INITIATE PHASE TWO)
Bolivia's Apartment - Testing Postponed[]
(in the alternate universe, Olivia exits the shower into her steamy bathroom and places her earpiece in her ear to take a call)
OLIVIA: Dunham.
BRANDON FAYETTE: (calling from his lab on Liberty Island) Agent Dunham, this is Brandon Fayette.
OLIVIA: Oh, Brandon. Hey. Uh, I'm on my way. I should be about an hour.
BRANDON FAYETTE: Actually, that's why I'm calling. The Secretary has decided to postpone today's procedure.
OLIVIA: So when do you want me to come in?
BRANDON FAYETTE: It may not be necessary. We'll let you know.
OLIVIA: Okay. Bye.
PETER (as a vision): You have to get out of here. You know why they canceled the last test, don't you? Whatever they needed from you, they have it now. It's not safe for you here anymore, Olivia. (emphatic) You have to go home.