 = The Dreamscape = 
 
 " The Dreamscape " is the ninth episode of the first season of the American science fiction drama television series Fringe . It centers on a Fringe investigation of a Massive Dynamic employee who , after believing himself to be under attack by a swarm of sharp @-@ winged butterflies , jumps out of a window . Meanwhile , Olivia ( Anna Torv ) continues her visions of the deceased John Scott ( Mark Valley ) , and discovers how he related to a deadly psychoactive drug synthesized by Massive Dynamic . 
 " The Dreamscape " was written by series staff writers Julia Cho and Zack Whedon , and was directed by Fred Toye . To create the opening scene , they " relied entirely on actor performance , " with guest actor Ptolemy Slocum simulating being cut , freezing for the crew to apply prosthetic make @-@ up , and then unfreezing to continue shooting the scene . VFX coordinator Christopher Stollard wished the computer generated butterflies to look as realistic as possible , and modeled them after mounted butterfly specimens his team studied . 
 The episode first aired in the United States on November 25 , 2008 on the Fox network . It was watched by an estimated 8 @.@ 73 million viewers and earned a 3 @.@ 9 / 10 ratings share among adults aged 18 to 49 . Reviews of the episode were mixed , with one reviewer believing it " certainly moves [ the series ] in the right direction " . 
 
 = = Plot = = 
 
 Massive Dynamic executive Mark Young ( Ptolemy Slocum ) delivers a presentation at the company ’ s Manhattan office . When he is done and the other attendees have left , he sees an unusual butterfly . Upon picking it up , he experiences a cut on his hand and is then attacked by a swarm . Mark jumps out of a window , to his death . Olivia Dunham ( Anna Torv ) , despite preparing to go out to dinner with her sister , instead agrees to Phillip Broyles ' ( Lance Reddick ) demand that she join the Fringe team 's investigation at the scene . While examining the body , Dr. Walter Bishop ( John Noble ) sees lacerations on Young ’ s skin and notes a lack of corresponding tears on his shirt . At the scene , Olivia has a brief vision of her deceased lover John Scott ( Mark Valley ) watching them , which troubles her . 
 Later , in the lab at Harvard Walter 's autopsy reveals a synthetic compound in Mark 's blood , though any link to the cuts is not yet known to them . Olivia receives an email from someone who claims to be John Scott , listing an address for her to visit . Upon arriving she finds boxes , one of which contains a group of toads . At the lab , Walter finds that the toads contain a " psychoactive compound " , a hallucinogen that affects the fear center of the brain . They conclude that Mark ’ s brain was so convinced of something happening to his body that actual physical marks appeared . Mark was infected with a large dosage , leading them to attribute his death to murder . 
 Olivia admits to Walter how she found the address and learns that her brain still contains some of John 's memories . Wishing to discover what else John knew and prevent any further visions from occurring , Olivia insists on returning to Walter ’ s sensory deprivation tank . Inside the tank , Olivia sees a memory of John in a restaurant . Despite Walter 's vehement protest that it is impossible , Olivia is convinced that John Scott saw her . Afterwards , she sees John meeting with Mark and two other unidentified men . After Mark and another man leave , John kills the other man . Olivia believes the group were looking to sell the compound as a street drug , and is able to track down the other man , George Morales ( Yul Vazquez ) . Once apprehended , he denies killing Mark and demands immunity and protection from Massive Dynamic , who he believes was responsible for Mark 's death as well as other recent fringe events . Olivia confronts Nina Sharp ( Blair Brown ) about her suspicions , but George is murdered before he can be of further help to them . Later that night , Olivia gets another email from John Scott simply saying , " I SAW YOU . IN THE RESTAURANT . " 
 Meanwhile , Peter ( Joshua Jackson ) is contacted by Tess ( Susan Misner ) , a woman from his past who warns him to leave Boston . When he meets her , Peter intuits that she is being abused by her boyfriend Michael ( David Vadim ) . He ambushes Michael and warns him not to touch Tess again . Michael then informs local crime boss Worth ( Tom Riis Farrell ) that Peter is back in town . 
 
 = = Production = = 
 
 " The Dreamscape " , the season 's ninth episode , was co @-@ written by staff writer Zack Whedon and playwright Julia Cho . It was Whedon 's first contribution to the series , and Cho 's second . In an interview fifteen days before the broadcast of " The Dreamscape " , showrunner and executive producer Jeff Pinkner stated that it and several surrounding episodes would be " stand @-@ alone in quality , but at the same time we [ will ] start to peel back another layer of the onion " to transition the second half of the season into a " new chapter . " Anna Torv later commented that she wished for Olivia to " lighten up " during the first season , " but every time she did , something would happen . " The writers inputted small scenes to shine more light on her character , which included Olivia dressing up for a night out but then " the phone rings . It ’ s Broyles , and she wipes the lipstick off , puts on a coat , and goes out . That ’ s it . You ’ re on call . She breaks my heart . " 
 Fred Toye served as the episode director , his second after directing " The Ghost Network " six installments earlier . To create the opening scene of character Mark Young being " attacked " by butterflies , Toye shot it in multiple phases . Series co @-@ creator Roberto Orci preferred the opening scene to involve a " more subtle " death , so Young was made to die from falling out a window , which was " a real thing , something that 's not imagined or whimsical " . VFX coordinator Christopher Stollard stated that his crew " relied entirely on actor performance , " with guest actor Ptolemy Slocum communicating often with the crew during filming . He shot his scenes in short bursts . Slocum summarized that he " would experience the [ butterfly ] cut and then we would freeze , apply make @-@ up [ to create the cut on his skin ] , and then unfreeze and move on " filming . On his first day , Slocum stated that he wore more than 75 individual prosthetics over his entire chest and arms . 
 Stollard wished the butterflies to be as realistic as possible , and modeled them after mounted butterfly specimens his team studied . The butterflies were computer generated animations and added later in post @-@ production . To create the illusion of Young falling through the window , the visual effects crew placed small explosive charges on the tempered glass window ; Slocum 's stuntman Jared Burke then jumped through while they triggered the glass to explode . Two cameras , one high and one profile , were positioned to shoot the fall , and were composited together later into a matte painting of the World Trade Building . The fall was filmed multiple times with a green screen , with the stuntman falling on a cushion . While on @-@ set , Toye explained of the shoot , " with all the pieces put together with the visual effects and with the performance we got with our actor Ptolemy , it 's going to be fabulous . " A crewman believed that the addition of music to Young 's fall made the scene " far more elegant and more of a statement . " In a December 2012 interview , actress Jasika Nicole stated that she developed a fear of butterflies as a result of this episode . 
 
 = = Reception = = 
 
 
 = = = Ratings and marketing = = = 
 
 " The Dreamscape " first aired on November 25 , 2008 in the United States on the Fox network . With its timeslot dominated by the Dancing With the Stars season finale , Fringe attracted an estimated 8 @.@ 73 million viewers , down from the previous week 's audience of 9 @.@ 36 million . This placed it in third place in its timeslot , behind The Mentalist . The episode also came in third place among viewers aged 18 – 49 , as it earned a 3 @.@ 9 / 10 ratings share ; this means that it was seen by 3 @.@ 9 percent of all 18- to 49 @-@ year @-@ olds , and 10 percent of all 18- to 49 @-@ year @-@ olds watching television at the time of broadcast . 
 Fringe 's marketing team designed and launched www.massivedynamic.com near the beginning of the first season . Parts of the website can be seen in " The Dreamscape " , including on Olivia 's computer as she researches the company . 
 
 = = = Reviews = = = 
 
 Noel Murray of The A. V. Club was generally favorable to the episode , giving it a B + . He wrote , " Much like Fringe fan favorite ' The Arrival ' ( not a favorite of mine , sorry to say ) , ' The Dreamscape ' is an episode more involved with insinuation and mythology @-@ building than with telling a complete @-@ in @-@ one story . But perhaps because I 've come to trust Fringe more over its recent run of entertaining episodes , I enjoyed it fairly well , and found myself trying to figure out what kind of thematic connections I could make using the notion of the body reacting to mere thoughts . " Travis Fickett of IGN rated the episode 7 @.@ 8 / 10 , explaining that it " certainly moves in the right direction " . Fickett found the " coolest moment " to be when Olivia witnesses John Scott 's memory , and he also appreciated Peter 's backstory ( " It 's more than Peter usually gets , but what we know isn 't much and isn 't very exciting . " ) . Fickett criticized Olivia however for leaving the man at the hospital unsuitably protected . 
 SFScope reviewer Sarah Stegall enjoyed Peter 's sideplot and hoped to learn more of his past , but thought the " cute in @-@ jokes " were meant to distract the audience from a " thin " plot " full of holes " . She added that " the shallow , cookie @-@ cutter plotting " was starting to annoy her , and noted that while the series had the potential to become " a breakout show like The X @-@ Files or Lost ... its major weakness is the continual reliance on the worn @-@ out cliché of the Big Bad Corporation , " which had become " stale and dry . " 
 Jane Boursaw of AOL 's TV Squad wrote , " Another great episode tonight , and some of the little symbols we see leading into commercials were actually in tonight 's episode , " referring specifically to the hallucinatory butterflies and the frogs / toads found in the basement . Andrew Hanson of the Los Angeles Times took notice here of the pattern of Easter eggs teasing the next episode of the series . This feature of the show had earlier been touched on in an interview with showrunner Jeff Pinkner . As an example , the previous episode " The Equation " had contained a shot of a butterfly on a trashcan , foreshadowing the hallucinated butterfly attack in this episode . 
 In a 2016 retrospective of the series , A.V. Club writer Joshua Alston considered " The Dreamscape " as a strong example of Fringe 's " monster of the week " episodes that predominated the first season , showing " how much effort and imagination went into the self @-@ contained stories " . 
 
 