"Unearthed" is a bonus special standalone episode released during the second season of the American science fiction drama television series Fringe.
A seventeen-year-old girl, Lisa Donovan (Alice Kremelberg), is declared brain dead at a hospital and is pulled off life support.
While the doctors remove her organs for donation, she suddenly comes back from the dead and yells highly classified naval missile codes.
Fringe Division arrives to investigate, along with a naval officer; he tells them the codes are tied to a missing sailor called Andrew Rusk (Chazz Menendez).
Lisa is unaware of the numbers or Rusk, but suddenly starts speaking Russian while Olivia (Anna Torv), Peter (Joshua Jackson), and Walter (John Noble) question her.
Believing that he has left her mind, they learn too late that Rusk is still in control of Lisa; he goes to exact revenge on Teresa, but is stopped by Charlie shooting him with a tranquilizer dart.
[3][1][10][11] As the broadcasting change went unexplained at the time, one media outlet speculated it was a marketing ploy on the network's part, believing the episode title was "more than a stunning coincidence" and that it was a reference to co-creator J. J. Abrams' other television series, Lost.
[14] New York's Tim Grierson thought it was "the lamest in recent memory" and "a stinker that should have remained safely out of public view".
[15] IGN's Ramsey Isler rated the episode 6.4/10, commenting that it was "cheesy, with mediocre writing and some fairly bad performances from the guest supporting cast".
[16] Isler found little to redeem the episode, and wished the story's partial focus on the intersection of science and faith had been further explored.
[16] "This episode was briskly paced and had a few charming and/or nostalgic moments, but it was mostly generic procedural stuff with a minimum of Fringe-ready freakiness."
[17] SFScope contributor Sarah Stegall disliked that the network failed to issue a "disclaimer" about the episode's production date, stating "...maybe the producers assume that all their audiences are brand new to the franchise.
Fans looking eagerly for more 'mythology' episodes, where the links between the Fringe team, Massive Dynamics [sic], Nina Sharpe, William Bell and, for all I know, the Illuminati are explored, may be disappointed.
'"[11] She continued, "The whole episode was an interesting intersect between science and faith, not to mention the whole 'being possessed by a dead person because your brain waves crossed during life and death' thing.