Olivia. In the Lab. With the Revolver.

Did You Know?

• The title references the board game Clue, in which players state a suspect, room, and weapon.
• During the first sequence, a car-phone conversation mentions the name 'Gorlomi,' the assumed identity of Brad Pitt's character in the 2009 movie Inglourious Basterds, also starring Diane Kruger.

Plot

In Providence, Rhode Island, lawyer Miranda Green meets sickly young man James Heath, who claims to have known her from preschool. She believes her firm can help him against those who made him sick, but on her drive back to the office, she spontaneously develops tumors and dies. Olivia, sleepless over learning that Peter was abducted from the alternate universe by Walter, visits Sam Weiss at a bowling alley; Sam tells her she will do the right thing.

The case reveals that victims of similar attacks were connected to the Cortexiphan trials in Jacksonville. Olivia demands a full list of subjects from Nina Sharp, who claims not to have one. Heath confronts Olivia in her apartment building; she fends him off with a candlestick. He explains that as a child with cancer, a man claimed he could help him fight the disease, but instead he became worse and contagious.

Olivia decides not to tell Peter about his origins, while Walter says he has made the opposite decision and that the truth must be known.

Production

Matthew Pitts, a former assistant to series co-creator J. J. Abrams, wrote the episode, and former Fringe producer Brad Anderson directed. It marked the first guest appearances by Omar Metwally and Diane Kruger. Kruger, in a relationship with star Joshua Jackson at the time, requested that her part be as a 'gooey monster' with her eyes popped out. Her character Miranda Green became the first victim of Metwally's character James Heath, dying from malignant tumors. Metwally later appeared in the first part of the second season finale, 'Over There'. A deleted scene between Broyles and Olivia discussing the case was included on the second season DVD. Fox and Science Olympiad released a lesson plan for grade school children based on the episode's science, focusing on the causes and prevention of skin cancer.

Reception

The initial American broadcast on April 8, 2010, was watched by an estimated 6.33 million viewers, scoring a 3.9/6 rating among households and a 2.3/7 rating for adults 18–49. It dropped from 6.7 million to 6.1 million viewers in its second half hour but came in second for the night against repeats of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and ABC's Grey's Anatomy. CJ Stewart at The Celebrity Cafe praised the episode as an exciting return to the familiar story structure that moved along the season's main story arch with references to the series' mythos.

Andrew Hanson of the Los Angeles Times thought there were too many 'Really' moments and that the episode seemed too long compared to the previous week's 'Peter'. Noel Murray of The A.V. Club graded it a B+, calling it a 'return to normalcy' and appreciating its use of a secret that eats at people. Ken Tucker from Entertainment Weekly also appreciated the balance between mythology and single-episode elements, noting it stood as a comprehensible hour for new viewers while weaving in characters from previous episodes.