If I were this group, I'd be worried that marching down the street en masse to go to the black lab might not be the greatest idea -- and regardless of what Nina said about it being close by, this part of town doesn't even look like it's in the same state as the big city in which they just were -- but whatever. Nina punches in the code to open a door that looks, on the outside, like a nondescript entrance to a small commercial or industrial space. However, when the door slides up, it reveals the door to a passenger elevator, surrounded by concrete on both sides. The group silently boards the elevator, the door to which closes without incident.

Downstairs, Nina scans her ID card to get the lights turned on. She motors forward into the lab while calling to Olivia to keep Michael back for a moment, and I didn't know what she was on about at first, but it is nice of her to consider that the test subjects therein might be the teensiest bit upsetting for him. Of course, Walter would probably toss him in one of the pods just to get a reaction, but there will be time enough for that later. Inside, Walter and Peter see, well, dead (it would seem, anyway) Observers in pods, and that's not a revelation for me on second viewing, but it still seems like an appropriate point at which to go to commercial.

For Michael's sake, Peter and Walter cover up the dead Observers as Walter notes the obvious -- that the Resistance experimented on Observers -- and Nina confirms that, saying that they hoped to figure out how the Observers read them and possibly come up with technology to do the reverse. However, they only succeeded in extracting fragments of data -- assorted images and words -- that proved not to be useful in their endeavors. However, Nina goes on, since they were able to communicate with Michael in the past using neural stimulation, there's reason to think that the tech in the lab could help them do it again...

...so Peter goes to retrieve Olivia and Michael. First though, Peter asks if Olivia's okay given the poster of Etta they just saw, and Olivia confesses that every time she sees one of those posters her heart jumps. Peter confesses that he feels the same way and given that we later see evidence that Michael is moved by strong emotion, if I were Peter and Olivia later in the episode I'd feel a little insulted at his continued indifference here. Anyway, Olivia breaks the moment by asking if they're ready, so Peter leads them in, whereupon Nina gives a little impromptu lecture on the workings of the brain as Michael looks at one of the pods and is like, "Um, I may look young, but I didn't just fall off the turnip truck?" As Walter looks out of his mind with delight, Nina goes on that the device they're going to use, which looks like a scaled-down version of "The Teacher" in that classically terrible Star Trek: TOS ep "Spock's Brain," ("Brain and brain. What is brain?") is an electrocognitive translator, or "ECog for short." Walter, with a "Gentlemen, to evil!" look on his face, is like, "Prep the subject," and Peter replies, "His name's Michael," which would carry more weight if we all hadn't learned that little nugget of information like practically ten minutes ago in the show's time. Regardless, Walter nods in acknowledgement...