Power Hungry (Fringe)

Joseph Meegar (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), a shy delivery boy who lives with his mother (Marylouise Burke), arrives late for work and delivers a package to an office building where he comes across Bethany (Diane Davis), a receptionist with whom he's infatuated. Afterward, while in an elevator, Bethany notices Meegar has pictures of her on his cell phone. Meegar's angst then apparently causes the elevator to fall to the underground parking lot levels, killing all but Meegar. He is able to walk away unharmed, but is then startled as all the car alarms go off around him.

Olivia reveals to Charlie Francis (Kirk Acevedo) about her encounter with her deceased lover John Scott (in the previous episode). She, Peter (Joshua Jackson), and Walter Bishop (John Noble) arrive at the scene, where they determine that the deceased were electrocuted before the impact, and that the elevator did not fall, but drove down. Furthermore, Walter detects electromagnetic energy in the area. Meanwhile, Meegar inadvertently causes a packaging machine to malfunction, severely injuring his boss right after Meegar is fired. He later reveals to his mother that some time ago he answered a magazine advertisement promising to "unlock [his] hidden potential", and although he has no knowledge of what has been done to him, he believes that what he has done was a result of being experimented on. A further panicked Meegar then causes his mother's pacemaker to fail, and she dies.

The team becomes aware that a human has the uncontrolled ability to affect electrical energy, made this way by Jacob Fischer (Max Baker). Fischer is a rogue scientist wanted by Interpol, who experimented on humans by luring his victims through bogus ads. Olivia continues to encounter John Scott, who promises her that he does love her, and will prove it. Through him, Olivia realizes that someone survived the elevator impact. Now aware of Meegar's identity, they attempt to track him. However, Meegar is captured by Fischer who wishes to perform further tests on him. Walter finds Meegar's Walkman and uses its cassette tape to find a unique electromagnetic signature, then has homing pigeons guide Olivia, Peter, and Charlie to his location. Alerted by the FBI's arrival, Fischer attempts to leave with Meegar, who escapes. After Fischer is apprehended, Meegar attempts to flee, but he's also caught. They send Meegar to a hospital to be examined.

Walter realizes Olivia is seeing Scott, and reveals she's not hallucinating. He theorizes that when both minds were linked during Scott's coma (in "Pilot"), a part of Scott's consciousness has embedded itself within hers. Later, while driving home, she spots Scott again. He leads her to a basement where Scott has been running his own Pattern-related investigations. Phillip Broyles (Lance Reddick) hands Olivia some of Scott's personal effects. Among them she finds an engagement ring, proving Scott's claim to have loved her.

"Power Hungry" was written by consulting producer Jason Cahill and playwright Julia Cho,[1] each of which would go on to write other first season episodes.[2][3] Christopher Misiano directed the installment.[4] According to Fringe co-creator Roberto Orci, series writers often approached episodes' fringe cases by coming up with an idea and then asking science consultants to "justify it scientifically."[5][6] For "Power Hungry", Cho and others brainstormed the concept of a computer virus being able to spread to humans. She explained, "And through kneading that idea over and over again, we came up with the idea of a character, Joseph, who would start waking up to this power of his to be able to actually control electronic- or computer-driven devices."[6] New Media consultant and scientist Glen Whitman, who later co-wrote some Fringe episodes,[7][8] noted that the science depicted in the episode was not totally impossible. "It is true that human beings as a result of the electrical activity in our brains, we do all have a very very weak magnetic field around our heads," he said. "And that's in part what is sensed by an EEG. So the notion was, 'how can you amplify that'"?[6]

The chase scene involving Joseph and Olivia required much preparation, as the crew had to simulate an exploding transformer. Special effects coordinator Conrad Brink used a "mechanical trip" to support an electrical cable, which he then strung to the other side of the adjacent road using a pole. The crew filled the fuse box with "sparking devices", meant to give the appearance of an exploding transformer and power lines. Demonstrating this, Brink noted, "What happens is the panel cover will blow off, sparks will come out, the cable will go up, sparking down to the ground." Misiano said of the sequence, "This young man runs by an electrical box and it blows up. It really blew!" The director added that guest actor Ebon Moss-Bachrach later told him, "that was actually really scary" to film.[9] After he filmed his character hitting Joseph with a crow bar, actor Joshua Jackson joked, "Finally I'm going to get a little respect on this set."[9]

Mark Valley returns as John Scott. The actor stated that despite the character's death in the pilot; "I'm going to be showing up in the first season. And, for a guy who died in the pilot, I consider myself pretty fortunate."[10] Actors who guest star in the episode include Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Joseph Meegar, Max Baker as Jacob Fischer, and Marylouise Burke as Flora Meegar.[1] The first season DVD contains a deleted scene of Olivia and Peter picking up the homing pigeons from a friend of his named Tony. Tony quietly mentions to Peter that his sister could use Peter's help, but when asked, Peter refuses to tell Olivia more of the story.[11]

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• "Power Hungry" at Fox
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