re: *OFFICIAL* Fringe M/TV Board rewatch thread (current episodes discussion p. 60)

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Co-executive producers David H. Goodman and Andrew Kreisberg wrote "Unearthed", while producer Frederick E. O. Toye worked as the episode director.[3] "Unearthed" was the last episode filmed during the first season schedule. Although it was filmed during the first season,[4] "Unearthed" aired during the following season on Monday, January 11, 2010, a departure from its normal timeslot on Thursdays.[5] Actor Joshua Jackson explained the move in April 2009, "[It's] for boring reasons. They only had 22 airdates for our show this year, but they ordered 23 episodes, so we shot one for next year, which is just silly TV network stuff. It's not for any cool reason like we had something we needed in New York that we couldn't shoot elsewhere. It's just an accounting issue."[4] That same month, executive producer/showrunner Jeff Pinkner further commented on the episode chronology for the new season, "It won't be the first episode, and it probably won't be the second, but it'll be somewhere in the first batch of episodes. It's a stand-alone, but it still honors the condition that we know it will fall into the world."[4]

Fox issued a press release on January 11 previewing the episode's plot. It concluded, "While the girl's mind-bending condition intensifies, Walter dusts off some old lab videos and hypothesizes the unthinkable, sending Olivia and Peter to investigate the bewildering case in an original 'Unearthed' episode of Fringe and here's another mystery: is it an unaired episode from Season One or is it from an alternate universe?"[6] As the press release purposely alluded to whether the episode was indeed originally part of the first season or from the parallel universe, one critic wrote that "FOX [was just] having fun with the fact that Fringe has alternate universes" and that readers of the press release should "take this with a grain of salt".[6] According to Fox's media site, "Unearthed" was listed as the 21st episode of season one,[7][8] despite its broadcast during the second season and inclusion in that season's DVD release as a special feature.[9] Though one character had been killed off earlier in the second season, a former series regular appeared in the episode, sparking confusion among some viewers.[7][10][1][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.

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