By Daniel
Lincoln Lee -- feeling unwanted, unloved, unneeded -- heads over to the other side (remember? That whole other universe?) to, I forget, work a little harder on tracking David Robert Jones? Anyway, the other side's Fringe team catches a case of a serial killer who's targeting criminals. He might not have been discovered for some time, but the other universe has been stabilizing and healing, thanks to the bridge between worlds, which is allowing some previously amberized neighborhoods (where the killer is stashing bodies) to open back up -- and which means that Fringe agents there -- as opposed to Earth-1, where they operate as secretively as possible -- are seen as heroes.
It's our Lincoln who figures out the killer's a shapeshifter, and they manage to track him down with the evil Col. Broyles keeping evil Nina Sharp (is there a name for the evil Nina? Sharpie?) in the loop. Lincoln Lee -- who's having an identity crisis thanks to the reblossoming romance between Olivia and Peter, and now the fact that Lincoln Bee is a kickass, uber-confident super-agent -- also determines that the shapeshifting killer (Canaan) is not such a bad guy, but someone who turned to David Robert Jones (who has abandoned him) in a time of vulnerability that naturally mirrors how Lincoln Lee is feeling.
Evil Nina almost has Canaan taken out by sniper, who is then taken down by Fauxlivia, quite the sharpshooter herself, remember, but not before Lincoln Bee is shot. Then Canaan shapeshifts into the sniper so that Fringe can infiltrate the Fort Lee facility where Nina is being all nefarious, and she's arrested. No one appears to find out yet that Col. Broyles is evil. But Fringe's joy at discovering a treasure trove of information on Jones' network is tempered when Lincoln Bee dies of his injuries. Lincoln Lee takes Canaan over to our side, where the Bishops can give him a home and a starring role as a research project, and then Lincoln Lee decides he's going to stick around for a while in the other universe. Fauxlivia looks like she appreciates it, which is all he's asking for.
Daniel is a writer in Newfoundland with a wife and a daughter. Ten bucks says Lincoln Lee starts moussing up his hair like Lincoln Bee. Follow him on Twitter (@DanMacEachern) or email him at danieljdaniel@gmail.com.
Lincoln Lee strolls into the Harvard lab to the soothing strains of "Green Onions" by Booker T. & the MG's and he sees the rest of his coworkers wrangling a reluctant Gene, who's wearing a huge cow-poncho with FBI printed in huge letters on the side. So wherever they're going, it's not an undercover case that involves a cow in the cover story... unless they're going to try to pass that off as standing for "Federal Bovine Inspection."
He asks what's going on and is immediately shushed because it's "grazing day," and the story here appears to be that Walter thinks that Gene's depressed (seasonal affective disorder, actually), which is crazy because what cow wouldn't love to be cooped up all day and night in a mad scientist's lab? So they're taking a day trip out to Warwick, where her favourite pasture is. "I see," says Lincoln, in a manner that suggests he's already mentally composing his transfer paperwork.
But it's only going to get worse for Lincoln, because Olivia brings him a trinket that she found in her apartment that she thinks might belong to him, because it's got his old partner's name, Robert Danzig, engraved on the back. Lincoln looks stricken as he confirms that yes, it is indeed his, but he gave it to Olivia a few months back when she came to see him at the hospital. "It was a thank-you for saving my life," he says. Obviously she doesn't remember that and if she doesn't remember that, she's definitely not going to remember the Native American symbolism of the maze on it. So he reminds her: "The maze represents the journey of life. The obstacles, making the right choices, until we find ourselves in the center." And what's in the centre, asks Olivia. "Home. A place to belong," replies Lincoln. Well if Olivia watches this episode, she'll have that hammered into her head enough times that she'll never forget it! Lincoln gives a little speech about how Danzig knew that Lincoln was never much for putting down roots and blah blah blah, so he gave that to him as a reminder that he always had a home with him and with his family. "This, he said, "was my tether." Olivia's looking at him sadly and this heartfelt moment is interrupted by Walter whispering to Olivia that he needs the sedative for Gene, who I see is now wearing a massive FBI baseball hat -- like WHO WAS THAT HAT MADE FOR -- and Olivia leaves Lincoln to stare glumly at his dead partner's touching medallion that he gave to a woman who doesn't even remember why.
In comes Astrid with a couple of boxes marked "Classified" that Lincoln guesses is Gene's "picnic lunch" and she explains that the other side is requesting a detailed debrief of their run-ins with David Robert Jones. Given the gaps in Olivia's memory, Broyles figured it would be best if somebody else goes. "Lucky me," she says.
Lincoln amazingly picks up on her subtle verbal clue and notes that she seems less than enthused and she says she promised to take her dad to Castle Island today. Lincoln notes that breaking promises is "one of the many perks of the job," and then volunteers to go for her.
He'll have to sell Broyles on it though, and Broyles isn't buying: "Not to diminish Agent Farnsworth's assignment, but liaison duty is more of a formality -- part of our mutual co-operation agreement," he says. Nice to see that Broyles' appreciation of liaisons hasn't increased one iota since the very first episode, hey? Lee disagrees though, saying that coordinating with the other side could turn up new leads on Jones, because right now they have nothing to go on. Broyles says that Lincoln's more valuable here and then Lee says there's nothing going on today except for "grazing day," and I'm not sure his coworkers would appreciate Lincoln telling the boss that all they're doing today is taking a cow out to a field so she can eat some grass. Fortunately, after Broyles raises an eyebrow at "grazing day," Lincoln's got enough presence of mind to simply explain that Agent Dunham and the others are busy, while Astrid has family obligations. "I don't have anywhere to be. Frankly, I think I could use the time away," says Lincoln. Broyles just stares at him. The absence of any specific glare in his gaze is as good as a yes!
But we're heading over to the other side ourselves first, where we take in the upper floor of a parking garage. A woman exits the stairwell and is a little surprised to see the lot's deserted, so she speed-walks to her car. In her nervousness, she drops her keys. She bends down to pick them up and when she straightens up, there's a man standing there -- a ne'er-do-well, by the looks of him. "Hi," he says and she asks what he wants. Well, he wants to attack you or go after your purse or something. She fights him, bloodying his lip, but he knocks her to the ground. "That was a mistake," he says, showing her the knife that he's going to use to make it clear just what a mistake it was.
He gets on top of her, grabs her hair -- but then he's stopped by some shadowy figure behind him, backlit so we can't make out any of the features on his face. He grabs the mugger and lifts him effortlessly, feet dangling off the ground, and then throws him to the pavement. Close-up of the mugger's face, as death presumably closes in for the kill and then we're into the opening credits.
Afterwards, Lincoln Lee carries the boxes of classified material through the many guarded hallways and doors of the bridge to the other side. A soldier greets him and leads him to a room where he can get set up, then leaves to let Capt. Lincoln Bee and Agent Fauxlivia know he's arrived. Fauxlivia shows up moments later, griping (kiddingly) that it would've been nicer if he'd brought her a café latte instead of the pile of paperwork. At any rate, there's been a change of plans and Lee is going to brief her on the way and she leaves without explaining where they're going.
Then we're in a Fringe SUV, rooftop lights flashing, flying down the street as Fauxlivia seems to be enjoying the news that David Robert Jones has been dosing Olivia with Cortexiphan. "Peter Bishop believes he was trying to activate some kind of latent ability," says Lincoln and Fauxlivia asks if they're talking about heat vision or communicating with fish. Lincoln says her guess is as good as his and he looks kinda pleased to poke a little fun at the woman who broke his heart. As for whether it worked or not, he does acknowledge that there were some unforeseen side effects, but glosses over it with a "long story." I'm sorry, but isn't the whole POINT of this visit is to tell the other side what's going on?
Anyway, Fauxlivia asks if the side effects are why they sent him or did he just draw the short straw? He doesn't answer, but notes some activity down an amber-encased alleyway and asks about it. "The Department of Containment's re-opening this part of the city," she says and turns on her fancy Fringe Division radio, which announces that Zone 13-A, more commonly referred to as Parkside, was closed Nov. 12, 2004 due to severe toxic air conditions. Oh and there's one "live media alert" on this subject, which turns out to be a speech from Secretary Walternate pontificating on a turning point in history: "In the last week alone, 11 previously uninhabitable zones have been reopened. Our cities are healing. Our world is being restored," he says and then he adds a bit about never forgetting the people they've lost. Then he's out, dropping the mic on the floor and stomping off. "I take it things are starting to get better because of the bridge?" says Lincoln. Fauxlivia says that has stabilized spatial rifts in the ambered areas. She doesn't know how it works and she doesn't care. She's just happy.
Then she asks him if he wants to settle a bet and I believe he's obligated to do so under their mutual bet-settling agreement. She asks what his middle name is. It's Tyrone. "It was my great-grandfather's name," he explains and then asks why she wants to know. If she tells him, we don't see it, but when they pull up at their destination and get out of the SUV she yells, "What's up, Tyrone?" at Lincoln Bee.
Bee's decidedly unthrilled as well as surprised to hear that coming from her and then he spots Lincoln Lee and pieces it together. "Why would you tell her that?" he snaps at Lincoln Lee, who's somewhat surprised Bee doesn't like Tyrone. "I think it's a strong middle name," he says. Fauxlivia explains that Bee has been her partner for six years and yet he wouldn't tell me his middle name. I find it difficult to believe that Fauxlivia couldn't have easily tracked that down in Fringe Division, but whatever. Lincoln Lee says "My bad" about as whitely as you can imagine.
And now that the good-natured ribbing is out of the way, perhaps they can get down to investigating? What they have here is the body of an unidentified assailant; a woman made an emergency call last night after she was assaulted walking to her car. During the attack, someone saved her -- he thinks it has something to do with the vigilante cases the police department has been working. Bee explains for Lee that criminals have gone missing, junkies are vanishing, victims calling in and reporting their assailants being attacked mid-crime. "Maybe Batman's moved to the Bronx," jokes Lincoln, only Lincoln Bee and Fauxlivia have never heard of Batman. "The Caped Crusader, the Dark Knight? Billionaire playboy puts on a cape to clean up the streets of Gotham," explains Lee, and Bee says, "Oh, you mean Mantis," and Lee is all, "Seriously? Your superhero is an insect?" like A) I'm pretty sure each universe has MORE THAN ONE SUPERHERO, and B) EARTH-1 HAS PLENTY OF INSECT-BASED SUPERHEROES. Also, wasn't one of the framed comic-book covers in Peter's Earth-2 apartment a Batman comic?
Oh, and C) As Olivia points out "Oh, what, 'cause nothing says 'badass' like a flying rat?"
But neither Mantis nor Batman could have done this says Bee, as he unzips the body bag. We see the mugger's face, parts of which look -- well, "melted" is the only way to describe it. Lee asks if the other bodies looked like this and Bee says there haven't been any others; this is the first one they've found. So the question is -- assuming this is their guy -- what's changed that made him leave this body behind?
Elsewhere, someone who looks decidedly like the mugger -- but with an unmelted face -- is loading a cardboard box of junk into the back of a crappy fan near a fence with a Quarantine sign on it. He takes his wallet out of his back pocket, opens it up and looks at a picture of a young boy (also with an unmelted face). So it looks like we're dealing with another shapeshifter.
The sound of voices nearby makes him duck behind the back door of the van and we can see a couple of dudes in containment suits walking along the alley, amber in the distance, saying things like "Nominal readings" and "So far so good." They pass by a magazine stand and lift up a newspaper with a front-page photo that's actually a video of a boxing match, which is great, because once people learned that they could get their news on computers, they've longed to combine the limited space and newsprint stains of newspapers with video technology. "You remember this match?" asks one and the other wants to forget it: "I lost two Fillmores on that fight," like OK WE GET IT WE'RE IN THE OTHER UNIVERSE. Determining that there's only four parts per million of nasty stuff, they determine that they're all clear, and they take their hoods off.
Then one gets a reading of "high amounts of tissue organics." His partner dismisses it as a false positive, but the first one disagrees, since someone else got the same reading yesterday. The mugger ducks into the back of the van, but then notices that he dropped his wallet. He stares at it a moment before risking detection by hopping out and grabbing it.
The Containment guys don't spot him, though, as they've traced the reading to inside a nearby church. They break down a door and spot footprints in the dust on the stairs, so the guys are getting a little freaked out -- "This zone's been uninhabitable for eight years," says one -- but things are only going to get worse.
Calling out "hello?" and "anyone here?" as they descend, they get no answer.
Not that the no one's there: here's your high reading of tissue organics -- a pile of dead bodies in various stages of decay, scattered like college students the morning after a frat party.
After the commercial break, Fringe arrives on scene with Fauxlivia apologizing for the timing and telling Lincoln Lee that the debriefing is going to have to wait, since this is going to take them a while. But he balks at the notion of return to his own side just yet and offers his assistance, if they'll take it. Fauxlivia seems delighted and she turns to Lincoln Bee, who gives the biggest "whatever" of a shrug possible.
The three of them head to check out the crime scene, but Lincoln Lee's stopped by an agent who says that he just wanted to tell him "thanks." A very confused Lincoln Lee says "you're welcome" and shakes his hand and then asks Fauxlivia afterwards if the agent thought he was Lincoln Bee. Fauxlivia laughs and says he knows who he is. "He's just thanking you because our world, in part, is healing because our two sides are working together. I mean, your team may toil away in secret over there, but over here you're heroes." That's a nice change from being fugitives, I suppose.
Over in a soup kitchen, the shapeshifter/former mugger is standing around looking lost enough that a woman named Helen approaches him and introduces herself. We learn that his name is Canaan. She asks if he has a place to stay, and he says he did, but it's gone now. He helps her with the box of supplies she's got and she says they'll find him a place to stay and in the meantime he should have some food.
He sits down at one of the tables and tears into his plate of stew like someone who hasn't eaten in days, at least until the guy sitting across from him tells him he's got something on his neck. He does -- a big ugly wound. Canaan puts his fingers to it, then dashes out of the soup kitchen, Helen calling after him.
Meanwhile, the agents are up to their knees in corpses in the church basement: eighteen bodies and nineteen heads, counts Lincoln Lee, who notes that a few months ago he'd have had a much harder time stomaching something like this. You know, on every new case Lee has to update us on how well he's handling things, doesn't he? Lincoln Bee admits it took him a while too, but not Fauxlivia: "Things like this never faze her. She's the tough one." Lee gazes beatifically at Fauxlivia, working in another corner of the room, while Bee talks about how in all their years working together, he's never once seen her barf or cry.
Speaking of Fauxlivia, she calls over for Lincoln and both men look, with Lee pointing at himself. Fauxlivia chuckles and says "Mine." Lincoln Bee ambles over to where Fauxlivia shows him a mattress. So someone was living here and whoever it was likely realized its lair was about to be compromised with the zone being reopened, which is why it left its last victim behind last night.
Meanwhile, Lee is examining a body that's more jelly than flesh at this point, its head the color and consistency of leftover cold turkey skin, eyes puckered shut. It's disgusting. Using a pen, he lifts up a locket from the neck -- and the chain cuts right through the neck, severing the head, which plops onto the floor mouth gaping open and I just might never sleep again. He notices a few holes in the roof of the mouth.
He brings the locket over to Fauxlivia, who pops it open to find a picture of a woman that they'll run through facial recognition. Then he asks if they'll be able to determine time of death with the remains in this condition. Fauxlivia says yes, provided there are certain active enzymes or lactic acid still in the tissue. She asks what he's thinking, and he says he'd like to see all the surveillance feeds from the areas around this zone.
That leads him back to Fringe Division HQ, where the Farnsworthbot is confused by Lee's request, which is to find surveillance footage of the victim after she disappeared. Farnsworthbot has calculated that the likelihood of finding such footage is one in 86,700. "Humor me," says Lee and Farnsworthbot stares at him blankly, prompting him to add, "...so to speak." Heh.
Lincoln Bee's there too and he wants to know why Lee needed the time of death on the headless corpse. Lee says it's not worth mentioning it, but he'll let Bee know if it pans out. Bee, however, isn't done: he wants to know why Lee doesn't want to go back home. Lee pretends to not know what Bee is talking about and Bee points out that back at the church Lee wouldn't let Fauxlivia arrange his return trip. He asks Lee if there's a problem and Lee says they can handle things just fine without him back home. "Well, that's the difference between us: My world wouldn't survive without me," says Bee, about as dickishly as you can imagine. Lee says he noticed Bee's "unwavering confidence," and Bee doesn't notice the slight wryness in Lee's voice so he takes it as a compliment, at least until Lee punctuates it with "...bordering on self-aggrandizing narcissism."
Before an angry Bee can pop Lee in the mouth, Lee hastily says he could use some of that himself. "We're not much alike, you and me," says Lee. Bee says he noticed that too, in a tone of voice that suggests he wants to add, "...I'm not a wuss."
Prompted by Lee so he can determine where their paths diverged, the two of them compare biographies and discover they have identical histories: They lived in Teaneck until their mothers died and then their fathers moved them to Philadelphia where they started businesses -- Lee's Hardware -- while Lee and Bee went to Hamilton High, where they graduated with identical GPAs of 3.85, having slacked off senior year to work at their dads' stores. Neither of them went to prom, having just broken up with a couple of Alicia Dvoskins. Loss of virginity doesn't come up. I gotta say -- the blending of the same actor playing two roles is done so seamlessly that, up until just now rewatching it, I completely forgot that it's, you know, the same actor playing both roles. Well done.
"Is this normal? Sharing so much of the same history?" asks Lee and Bee shrugs.
No time to discuss it, as the Farnsworthbot calls them over to look at the surveillance footage -- she's found an 82% facial recognition to the locket photo with the other eighteen percent difference probably due to the gross growths on her face, like with Canaan at the soup kitchen. Lee points out that the footage is from more than two days after she died. "That's impossible," says Bee, because everyone here seems to repeatedly forget about shapeshifters. Unspoken is the question: Who wears a locket that contains a picture of herself?
Nevertheless, Fauxlivia and the two Lincolns present the theory to a skeptical Broyles, who's not convinced (not that, being evil, he has much motivation to let himself be convinced) that an error wasn't made in the lab: "I just don't see anything in this case that correlates at all with what we know about shapeshifters," he says and Lincoln Lee agrees with him: "You're right. Not the versions you've encountered, Agent Broyles." Broyles quickly and sternly reminds him that it's "Colonel" Broyles over here.
Anyway, Lee explains that since the death of his partner, he's become a bit of an expert on shapeshifters and the earlier biosynthetic ones required a three-pronged device that was jammed onto the victim's palate, leaving the indentation that they found on the roof of Bree Collins' mouth at the church. But when Col. Broyles asks if they found the same markings on the other bodies, they're forced to admit they found nothing conclusive.
Col. Broyles also asks Lincoln Lee to explain why the unique state in which they found the bodies in the church bears no resemblance to corpses left by the earlier shapeshifter prototypes. He can't. Col. Broyles also wants to know how targeting criminals fits in to David Robert Jones' agenda. Lee's got no answer for that either.
"I'm sorry, but I suspect in your desire to avenge your partner, you may be unconsciously perverting the evidence to fit the profile of a shapeshifter," says Col. Broyles. Fauxlivia tries to interject, but Col. Broyles just keeps right on rollin' and tells Lee that he appreciates the help, but since he was here for just a simple sharing of info, maybe it's time he went home.
Turning his attention to Bee and Fauxlivia, he tells them to alert him when they have something more concrete. Then he struts by out of his office, using his pecs to demonstrate what he means by concrete. "Well, that went well," says Lee. Ah, don't worry about it. Col. Broyles does that to all the outsiders! Plus he's evil.
In some neighborhood park, a bunch of kids are playing soccer with Canaan sitting on a bench watching them and finally thinking, "Oh yeah, I should pull my collar up over my gross neck." Of course, the stranger watching boys in the park doesn't help allay anyone's suspicion by looking like he's trying to conceal his identity.
An errant kick sends the ball rolling to Canaan's feet, and he picks it up and hands it to the boy who comes to retrieve it. "You know, you're really good," says Canaan. "Thanks," says the boy, a little awkwardly. If it's the boy from the photo, he's older with longer hair, but I suppose that might make sense too.
Over to some dilapidated flophouse, where a couple of guys behind the boarded up windows are injecting themselves with some sort of red drug -- must be an Earth-2 thing. One of them, Mikey, chides the other, Dawes, for using so much since it's all they've got until morning and gets told to shut up. Mikey gets up to go take a leak, while Dawes nods off. It's cold enough in there, despite the presence of more candles than the Police's "Wrapped Around Your Finger" video, to see his breath.
Then he's attacked by Canaan, who easily overpowers him and holds him down on the floor. Then, from his own mouth, Canaan pulls out some sort of a long flexible tube that he stretches out and jams in Dawes' mouth, while a horrified Mikey watches from behind a door. He'd probably go help his friend, but it's supposed to be really healthy to cut off midstream.
But by the time we get back from commercial break, Mikey has shaken off, zipped up and called the police and Farnsworthbot reports to Col. Broyles that it may be their vigilante suspect in Precinct 17, located in the northwest quadrant of the Pelham district. Broyles orders the perimeter locked down in a five-block radius.
Victim's name is Antonio Dawes, who has a record of possession and distribution of narcotics as well as auto theft and burglary, which fits the profile. Lincoln Lee pops up -- despite Col. Broyles' stony reminder that Lee's supposed to be on his way home -- to suggest circulating Dawes' mugshot, because if they're dealing with a shapeshifter, that's what he'll look like. Broyles stares at him, possibly trying to come up with a plausible reason to not do that. Fauxlivia asks what they have to lose and Broyles finally tells the Farnsworthbot to upload the photo onto the citywide database. She says she'll also scan traffic cams in the area as well. Col. Broyles orders Lincoln Bee to assemble a tac team and as Fauxlivia escorts Lee out, Col. Broyles gives him the stinkeye behind his back.
You know, I haven't seen anything that indicates Col. Broyles is OK with Lee NOT being sent back to the other side, but Lee is locking and loading in Fauxlivia's SUV. She reminds him they want the guy alive if he's to lead them to Jones. "I'm getting Jones. But I'm not gonna let this thing kill again," says Lee. Fauxlivia gets a call from the Farnsworthbot, who tells her they've got a sighting of someone matching Dawes' photo moving up Copenhagen to 146th Street, where Lee is setting up a perimeter.
When they get there, Bee is splitting up the agents and giving instructions. Dunham's taking the high ground, Lee the south and he's going in from the north. They're off, while Farnsworthbot warns them that they've lost visual contact with the suspect, but his projected trajectory is south of his last position, which would put him in Lincoln Lee's vicinity.
And just because they're tracking a dangerous suspect doesn't mean they can't hash out some personal business, right? Lincoln Bee tells Lincoln Lee that Col. Broyles shouldn't have come down on him like he did, because if it weren't for Lee's shapeshifter theory they wouldn't be about to get all up in the guy's grill right now. "What I'm saying is, you're a good agent," says Bee. Lee asks if he's as good as Bee and Bee's all, "Let's not get crazy."
Lee still wants to figure out why they turned out to be so different, since their lives were so parallel and Bee figures it's free will: "I pretty much just decided to be awesome," is his basic take on it. I'm paraphrasing. And then Olivia tells the "girls" to get off the line, because some of them are actually trying to work.
Lee spots Canaan -- who now looks like Dawes, remember -- who spots him right back and then the chase is on. And after thirty seconds or so, Lee has managed somehow to lose the members of the tac team who were with him and gets jumped by Canaan and knocked to the ground. Canaan gets Lee's gun and points it at the supine Lee. Canaan stares at Lee for a moment looking frightened and then runs off, only to be stopped by Lincoln Bee and Fauxlivia and the tac team -- like THANKS FOR SHOWING UP -- and Lee, having recovered, yells for everyone not to shoot. Canaan, with several red sniper-rifle sight dots dancing on his chest, makes the wise decision to lay his weapon down.
Back at HQ, the Farnsworthbot lets Col. Broyles know that they're securing the suspect on site and Col. Broyles asks her to relay his congratulations to Lincoln Bee and his team.
Then he goes off for some evil-doin', calling someone to say that they've got him in custody and gives the address: "They'll be moving him at the rear."
His contact is, naturally, Evil Nina, who I'm told has earned the sobriquet "Meana," which I like A LOT. "Thank you, Colonel. We'll take it from here," she says and then ends the call. Of course, since she's evil, she has to make an evil face for a few seconds until we go out to a commercial break.
When we come back, Lincoln Lee is peering through a door window at Canaan, sitting in a makeshift interrogation room in the abandoned factory or warehouse or whatever it is they caught him in. Fauxlivia strolls up to tell him Col. Broyles just sent over secure transport, but Lee wants five minutes to talk to the shapeshifter: "Jones created the shapeshifter that killed my partner. If this thing has any information that could lead us to him, I want to know," he says.
Fauxlivia's reluctant because she's "under orders," but says Lee can talk to him once the guy has been processed. Lee says once the prisoner gets back to HQ, he'll be so high up the food chain that he'll be inaccessible. "If it were your partner, you'd do the same," he says. That works on her, and she gives him five minutes.
Nearby, a guy carrying a briefcase enters a building and heads up the stairs -- snipers never take the elevator and we always need that high shot from up above showing him going around and around as he goes up the staircase. Then we get the requisite shot of him opening the briefcase, assembling the sniper rifle and loading a bullet in the chamber.
Down in the interrogation room, Lincoln strolls in and asks the agents to give him a moment. "Sure thin, guy from other universe who doesn't really have the clearance over here!" they say and leave. Once they've gone, Lee asks Canaan why he didn't kill him when he had the chance.
Canaan just stares at him silently, so Lincoln starts shuffling through the various IDs Canaan had been carrying and Lee starts peppering him with questions. "Who are you? Who were you? You were human once, right? American Idol or The Voice? Do you always keep mementos from the lives of people you've become? Do you hang toilet paper from the underside or over the top?"
Canaan keeps up the silent treatment, until Lee looks at the picture of the little boy in his wallet, which he says is his. Lee asks if it's his son and Canaan says, "I wish he was. There was once someone in my life. It's her boy." Lee asks if Jones took them from him when he did this to Canaan, but Canaan shakes his head and says Jones came later: "She left me on her own. Took Daniel (shout-out!) with her. They just went on living their lives as though I were never there. As if I meant nothing to them," he says and then tells his tale of woe of not being one of those people who drifts through life effortlessly and are unforgettable. "I wanted to be needed. Or at least to be missed. Do you understand?" he asks Lincoln. Lincoln's all, "Dude, did you SEE last week's episode? Of course I do!"
Canaan says he wanted to be something unique and "Dr. Jones" understood that and promised to make him like no one else -- the first of a new breed of human beings -- but he was a disappointment.
Lee notes that Canaan has been targeting criminals and sparing innocent lives, stealing DNA to keep himself alive, right? Canaan nods and Lee leans in, telling him that David Robert Jones is not worth protecting. "You were disposable to him. As disposable as you were to Daniel." Canaan shakes his head and says Jones promised he would come back for him, to fix him.
Lee just stares at him for a moment, but Canaan can't really hold his gaze and Lee gets up and leaves the room. Fauxlivia's waiting outside and can see that Lee won't exactly be running down Jones with anything he just got from Canaan and she says she's sorry.
And now begins the danger-fraught prisoner transfer! Bee's escorting Canaan out to a waiting van, unaware of the sniper's scope trained on them. The sniper decides to wait until there's a FENCEPOST in his line of fire, so misses his target and the agents all scatter and take cover behind vehicles. Fauxlivia tilts the van's side mirror so she can see where the shooter is (until he shoots it. Quick thinking!) and then yells for Lee to provide cover fire while she goes after him. He does so -- hardly necessary, since there are so many agents on the ground -- and she grabs a big-ass gun from the van and takes aim at the sniper, who's running along the building front's decorative façade, which unfortunately for him, has gaps and he goes down by Olivia's bullet.
Everyone on the ground holsters his or her weapon and that's when we see that Lincoln Bee took a bullet; his blood's staining his white shirt. Because he's bad-ass, he's still more concerned about figuring out who knew about the transport. Fauxlivia tells him that the medevac's on its way and he'll be fine. Bee agrees he'll be fine, noting that he's been blown up before and he compliments Fauxlivia on her shooting.
So Lincoln Lee, as angry as we've seen him on this show, slams Canaan up against a fence to yell at him about how that was meant for him and Jones -- the man Canaan is protecting -- is never going to welcome him back. Canaan simpers that he has to, because he doesn't know what to do. Lee says he can wait for somebody else to define him, to give him his place in the world or he can decide that you're not just "somebody's broken puppet" anymore. Even Canaan is looking at Lee like, "A little on the nose, no?" "Choose!" yells Lee, shaking him a little. All right! Quit bossing! And we're off to commercial before we find out what Canaan decides.
We come back to the greenish-yellowing lighting of Fort Lee, New Jersey, beneath a Jolly Rancher-red sky. This is where Meana is doing the evil villain thing of just standing around an evil facility taking pleasure in its sheer nightmarishness -- in this case, the tanks of shapeshifters.
Someone uses a key card to gain access -- it's the sniper! Meaning its Canaan, of course, being greeted with a "Welcome back, sir" from a sentry. He heads into Meana's office, where she's eagerly awaiting the good news he assures her he's got. "It's done. We've tied up our loose end," he says and she asks if there was any resistance. Canaan says "the redhead" almost took his head off with a nearly impossible shot. But instead you're not wounded at all! Meana talks about how "that girl" -- by which she means both Olivia and Fauxlivia -- amazes her. And I'm sorry, but given that Meana's in touch with Col. Broyles, I'm not at all buying that Meana doesn't already know the hit was botched. Meana looks out with maternal pride on the tanks of shapeshifters and talks about how "he'll be pleased we've taken care of the problem at hand" while Canaan starts pushing buttons on her desk until alarms start going off indicating a security breach. She whirls around, and understands instantly: "Canaan," she says.
And there's Fauxlivia, marching through the facility with armed agents. She busts into Mean's office, but Mean's already gone. Canaan, did you even try to stop her?
She's headed out a back exit, but her heels and cheongsam aren't going to help her get away. There are helicopters out there! Caught, she puts her arms up.
Back at Fringe HQ, Broyles is on the phone, saying "Let me know the moment she's in the building." He waves in the Farnsworthbot, who slowly tells him she's got something to report. Broyles says he already knows about Meana. The look on her face -- and what looks like a tear on her cheek -- indicates it's something else, but she stands there, her fingers twitching. Interesting read on it from some people who thought the Farnsworthbot was going to tell him that she knows his evil -- we know it's not the case now, but it was plausible in the moment.
Back at the Fort Lee facility, Lee and Fauxlivia are giddy over all the intel they've found -- blueprints, passports, aliases -- but there is a depressing lack of windmill-high-fiving going on, even after Lee points out the tracking board that shows where every shapeshifter is. "If we can hack this mainframe, we'll have the identity of every agent in Jones' network," he says. An agent approaches to ask for a word with Fauxlivia, she steps aside and leaves Lee gazing up at the Evil Foursquare map. He glances back and watches as Fauxlivia receives what's clearly bad news and he asks another agent what's happening. "Capt. Bee. He didn't make it," says the agent. Good god, Fauxlivia and Lee were the last to know! Fauxlivia covers her mouth with her hand and staggers, distraught, from the room.
We're on Liberty Island now and Lee and Canaan are going through the scanning device -- the big floor photocopier thing -- in the bridge and then arriving back in our universe. "I'd heard rumors of another world. Wasn't sure it really existed," says Canaan, agog. Um, all you've seen are the hallways of the bridge. Maybe wait until you see the outside world before you shit your pants? Canaan asks what they're doing there -- a question you'd think might have come up LONG before now -- and Lee says he's making good on his offer. "There's a man here who'll be able to help you," he says and then he introduces him to the waiting Bishop boys.
Walter is out of his mind with excitement: "It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm really looking forward to studying -- uh -- helping you," he says (his self-correction coming from Peter's prompting), which ought to be a giant red flag for Canaan right there.