The episode marked the first prominent appearance of more than one Observer, and follows the events that occur when one of them saves a girl from boarding a soon-to-be crashing plane.

An Observer, "August" (Peter Woodward) abducts Christine Hollis (Jennifer Missoni), a 27-year-old art student in Boston.

Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv) and Peter Bishop (Joshua Jackson) learn of the events and realize the assailant matches the description of the Observer.

Peter finds a picture of Christine from her childhood before her parents were killed in the 1989 San Francisco earthquake, and sees August in the background, indicating he has been observing her entire life.

At Massive Dynamic, Brandon (Ryan McDonald) theorizes to the team that Observers are time travelers, as they have been documented during several major events in history.

They write in an incomprehensible language, and the number of Observer sightings has increased over the past few months, leaving the team wondering why.

"August" was co-written by co-showrunners J. H. Wyman and Jeff Pinkner,[1] while being directed by NCIS veteran Dennis Smith.

[6][7] The creation of Observers was one of the first ideas the writers of Fringe thought of when developing the show in its early stages, when they asked each other, "What if there were these characters where all they did was watch?".

The producers thought of unique characteristics for "somebody who wasn't of our world," evolving to the Observers having bald heads, no eyebrows, and "largely deadened" senses, which led to a love for extremely hot peppers.

"[9] Later on, when still leading up to the airing of "August" in another interview, Roberto Orci elaborated that "Individuality will be one of the things that they will be fanatically struggling with, actually.

[11] He also expressed relief that his character was no longer the sole Observer on the show, joking that "it was nice to feel like I'm not the only freak in town for once".

[11] Actress Anna Torv stated in an interview with MTV News that "August" was one of her favorite episodes because "We sort of get to meet the Observers.

[15] Andrew Hanson from the Los Angeles Times called it a "good story peppered with a lot of great details... 'August' showed a greater connection to the larger Fringe universe".