Simon's recovering in the cabin with Olivia, while Peter and Walter wait outside. "Every new thought he reads is an added stressor. To cope, his brain pumps adrenalin and cortisol into his system. Naturally, he experiences headaches, nausea, accelerated heart rate. That's why he gets sick." I know people who get like that when they haven't checked Facebook for a while. "How many more, Walter? How many more are gonna come crawling out of the woodwork?" asks Peter, and Walter stays grimly silent instead of saying, "Yes, maybe I should be more forthcoming, and while I'm at it I'll let Broyles know about you going all Terminator on the shapeshifters."

Inside the cabin, Olivia brings Simon some tea or coffee. Looking around the room, she sees the walls covered with several sketches of a woman. After a few moments of silence, he tells her that it's refreshing not to be able to read her mind. "It's the first real conversation I've had in twenty years," he says. Great, he's going to ask her if Nirvana's got any new records out. That's going to be awkward. He explains that his mind-reading started when he was about 10, and could hear other kids' thoughts in school. It kept getting worse, though, and now he can't control it.

Olivia asks if that's why he lives alone. "It's the only place that's quiet. Do you know how it feels to be burdened with something that makes it impossible for you to relate to another person? That makes you feel completely alone in the world?" Yeah, funny you should ask. Instead of saying, "Yes, but fortunately every file we handle these days has parallels to my personal situation that help me work through my feelings," Olivia just says she can imagine.

But let's get down to business, shall we? Olivia awkwardly segues into saying that sometimes their capabilities, while difficult, can also help people. "Look, I don't have to be able to read your mind to know that you want something. What is it?" he says, and Olivia says they need him to help with an investigation by reading a suspect's mind. So in other words, this ability that drove you crazy and into isolation and also makes you horribly ill? Yeah, we need you to do that. He's reluctant, and Olivia pleads with him to come back to Boston. "A city the size of Boston?" he says. Well, Boston. "You've got to be joking. All those thoughts, they're like millions of needles in my brain." He says there's got to be another way. And despite the fact that every case up until now has been solved without reading minds, Olivia puts an awful lot of pressure on him by telling him that if he doesn't help, more people will die. He just stares at her for a moment.