Later, Walter tells Olivia about a synthetic contagion worked on by the Pentagon for use against the Vietcong, and he thinks John's been exposed to the raw materials and not the finished contagion, which means he could synthesize a counter-agent. The only problem is he needs a precise inventory of what was in the storage locker.

No good, says Olivia, because John was the only one who saw it all before the storage locker went up in flames. She wants to know how long John has left. At the current "rate of crystallization," twenty-four hours. Olivia looks downcast, clearly not familiar, via Jack Bauer, with just how much can be done in twenty-four hours. "I'm so sorry that I can't offer you a less dangerous solution," he says, confusing Olivia. "Whatever you think you said, you didn't say," says Peter. So Walter starts in with the "synaptic transfer stimulation" and "shared dream state" and says the human mind gives off a quantifiable electric field. He posited way back in '76 that it's possible to synchronize the fields of two different minds and share information across the unconscious state, like a string between two tin cans. Well, here's hoping it works better than that. "You know, the great thing about that is that it's completely insane," says Peter. Olivia asks Walter if he means she can talk to John in his coma, and he can tell her what the suspect looks like.

"It's not an exact science," admits Walter. "It's not even science," yells Peter, playing Statler and Waldorf all wrapped up in one. Or Tom Servo and Crow. Or just the viewer. Walter says he used this technique to extract information from a corpse once. "You can do that if they haven't been dead for longer than six hours," explains Walter. "Right, because after six hours, that's when they're really dead," says Peter.

Walter says Olivia can access John's memories this way. Of course, she'll need an electro-magnetic probe implanted in the base of her skull whilst floating naked in the tank. "And you'd be heavily drugged," he says. Well, there's gotta be a down side she can't see, right?

Walter rattles off the drug cocktail Olivia would need to take (which includes LSD, which they'll have to make), and a skeptical Peter tries to make Olivia see how ridiculous it all is, by warning her that his father will kill her. Olivia considers it. "John would do it for me," she finally says. I don't see what John also being an idiot has to do with anything. "Excellent. Let's make some LSD," says Walter.