Suffering through Fringe withdrawal while the show was benched for two weeks during the World Series, we hoped that the first episode back would compensate by giving us fresh clues about the Pattern, Massive Dynamic, and the First Wave. Sadly, we learned nothing new about those mysteries, but this standalone episode did have one thing going for it: Agent Broyles.

The Evil: In Boston, a man waiting for his wife at home is killed by a human-shaped shadow that turns him into ash.

The Determination: The shadow is an alien organism that attached itself to a Russian cosmonaut while in outer space. The cosmonaut’s brother, Tomas, has been caring for his sibling, who’s in a coma, trying to find an antidote for this interstellar parasite that sucks out the radiation of other people to survive, reducing its victims to a pile of dust.

Wacky Factor: Walter spent most of his time trying to decipher the makeup of this otherworldly parasite, which allowed him an opportunity to stare at its chemical formula and mutter, “Titanium tetrachloride — you sly mistress.” But his best