By Daniel
Picking up where we left off at the end of last week, Fauxlivia and Lincoln Bee find David Jones in his industrial warehouse of horrors, where he kills one of the people being kept alive in a stasis chamber, just to prove what a badass he is and to warn them about the horrors that will befall others. We don't have to wait long, because after he's taken into custody he arranges for the murder of a bunch of people in a hospital ER room. It's death by toxic gas, the kind of toxic gas that causes your skin to fall right off your body; just one glimpse of skin sliding off a victim's palm as he paws at the door is enough to give me nightmares. Threatening the deaths of even more people, Jones gets himself released by Fringe division, with the hard drive he needed from the inoperational Brandonate, and he eludes the agents by, with a little help from evil Col. Broyles, creating a clamor by giving away free money to strangers and confounding the tracking device that Fringe put on him.
So he's free to jump back to the other universe to steal rocks from a quarry to make nefarious explosives. FBI Fringe tries to stop him, Jones gets away, through a portal back to Earth-2, and Olivia nearly gets sliced in half following him, giving us a nifty cross-section of SUV engine. And now it's double-universe team-up, with all the agents and their doppelgangers sitting around a table, putting their heads together to stop Jones. The wildcard is Peter, who's the only one who's dealt with Jones (although this Jones, of course, has no idea who Peter is).
Speaking of Peter, Elizabeth crosses universes to talk to Walter on his behalf, hoping to convince him to help this version of their son. He agrees, because could you say no to utter knockout Orla Brady?
Perhaps not surprisingly, but revealed at the end, is the fact that Jones is working with Nina Sharp, who may or may not be turning Olivia into a shapeshifter. But that's Phase 2 of this nefarious plan.
Daniel is a writer in Newfoundland with a wife and a daughter. He's glad Fringe is back, or else he'd just be covering The Bachelor, and no one should have to go through that. Follow him on Twitter (@DanMacEachern) or email him at danieljdaniel@gmail.com.
We start in New York's Fringe Division, with evil Col. Broyles looking at security footage to see where Fauxlivia and Lincoln Bee stashed Lincoln Lee last week... er, I mean, earlier today. He traces them -- watching video that includes audio of Lincoln Lee railing against the nefarious shenanigans of Walternate -- down to sub-basement Level 2, where his computer display shows him that the only rooms on that level without security cameras are a row of three maintenance closets. He gets a case out of a desk drawer that contains a syringe and three vials of yellow fluid. He fills the syringe half-full with some of the stuff and is on his way out of his office and presumably down to sub-basement Level 2 to deal a yellow-injection death of some sort to Lincoln Lee when Walternate shows up, Peter in tow, looking for Lincoln Lee. Col. Broyles manages not to blurt out, "I was just on my way to administer a syringe," but does want to know who Peter is. Walternate doesn't answer right away, but orders Lincoln Lee released immediately. He says he'll explain the rest in private.
That means back up to Broyles' office, where Walternate explains about the shapeshifters, Col. Broyles doing his best to seem incredulous. You know, given Walternate's speech to Peter last week about how Peter is the only one he can trust, I'm a little skeptical of Walternate laying everything out to Col. Broyles, especially when -- as Walternate points out right here -- that Fringe Division appears to have been infiltrated. Luckily for Col. Broyles, he gets to find out just what Walternate knows by asking questions like who the shapeshifters answer to. Walternate doesn't know yet, nor does he know what their agenda is. Col. Broyles helpfully says that Fauxlivia and Lincoln Bee are running down a trace on Murphy's last phone call, so they may know more soon.
Out at the Flatiron District, Lincoln Bee and Fauxlivia discuss the possibility that Lincoln Lee's story is true. Lincoln Bee's a little doubtful; he's known Murphy -- might want to start using the past tense when it comes to Murphy, Lincoln Bee -- since the Academy, and he's always been a "straight arrow." However, Fauxlivia's got a hunch he's telling the truth, and we all know that hunches trump everything. Lincoln Bee chalks it up to Lincoln Lee's supposedly trustworthy face, and then Fauxlivia says she actually thinks he's kinda funny-looking, and Lincoln Lee is of the opinion that Fauxlivia is actually the funny-looking one, and hopefully no one tries to kill them while they're busy flirting like this while they're approaching the warehouse.
By Daniel
When they finally shut up for a damn second, they hear some noises coming from the warehouse and see light spilling out of a door that's slightly ajar, so they draw their guns and enter, finding David Jones, alone. From what we can see, most of the equipment that was there before is gone, but there is a stasis chamber left, a woman standing in it. I think I thought the people were floating in some sort of liquid last time but that doesn't appear to be the case here. The agents order Jones to put his hand up. He obliges, but being super-evil, and British (the best kind of super-evil), he asks the agents if they know what -- looking at the woman in the chamber -- she is.
Fauxlivia and Lincoln Lee are psyched because they love guessing games. A shapeshifter! says Fauxlivia. "She was once just a human being like any other," says Jones. Until you killed her, says Lincoln Bee. But she's not dead, Jones tells them, even though she once was, in a manner of speaking: "A bookkeeper for an accounting firm -- can you imagine anything more lifeless?" he says. Isn't that the job Ben Wyatt turned down on Parks and Recreation? For pretty much that exact reason? Anyway, Jones starts in on how this must be what it's like to have a child, to love as a parent does. Yeah, people with humans in stasis chambers always think that it's just like being a parent -- until they actually have their own children. Like people with pets that don't have kids.
Jones admits to having forty-seven such kids so far, and each one "perfect". He apologizes, though, as some sort of gas starts filling the chamber, and the woman inside jerks awake and starts to struggle. Lincoln Bee asks what Jones is doing to it, and an angry Jones has to point out that "it" is a "her". I mean, he may be murdering this poor woman, but that's no reason for shoddy pronoun usage! It's unsettling, to say the least, partly because the poor woman looks like a Marilyn Manson backup singer. A horrified Fauxlivia -- in lieu of trying to make Jones stop or maybe shooting the glass to let the gas out (although I suppose that might kill them too) asks why he did that. Jones "explains" that he did it because they don't him or what he's capable of. Well, they didn't know, anyway. "But if I'm willing to do that to someone I love dearly, imagine what I'll do to people I don't care about." Well, he could do like most people, and wait a socially acceptable length of time and unfriend them on Facebook, but that's probably not what he's talking about.
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So the question is what Jones wants, but Jones dismisses them because they don't have the authority to give it to him. He holds out his hands. "Take me to your leader," he says. Fauxlivia cocks her head at him like she's an inquisitive cocker spaniel.
After the opening credits, we're back in our universe, and Olivia shows up at the Harvard lab, where Walter, thinking she's Astrid, asks if the cheese is done soaking, and then he sees it's her and looks really surprised. Pleasantly surprised, though.
Then he collects himself and offers her some "spherical pastrami," which Olivia wisely declines. Astrid strolls in, telling Olivia that Walter has discovered molecular gastronomy, which means that this poor woman gets paid to be with Walter round-the-clock while he conducts disgusting food experiments that involve liquefying meat and putting it in an "alginate bath," which is something that I don't even want to know what it is. And we learn that he also unsuccessful tried to make parmesan ice cream, and I think that successfully making parmesan ice cream would be stomach-churning enough.
Astrid surprisingly doesn't appear to look like she needs to be put on suicide watch despite what her life has become. Fortunately for her, Olivia's got some real work that needs doing; she has a blood sample -- from the Observer, I think it's safe to assume -- that she wants Astrid to check against national and international databases for a name, genetic marker, anything out of the ordinary. Astrid, though, says Olivia seems troubled and wants to know what's wrong, so Olivia fills her in on Operation Peter Go Home Now and Operation Lincoln Lee Find Out About Shenanigans. Astrid asks what that has to do with the blood samples, and Olivia says probably nothing. And then Astrid figures out that Broyles doesn't know anything about it, which Olivia admits to. "Peter and Lincoln should have been back by now, so I'm gonna have to go and tell him what's been going," she says, and Astrid wishes her luck, chuckling as she decides that making bowel-clenching foodstuffs with Walter doesn't seem so bad now.
Over in the other universe, Fauxlivia and Lincoln Bee lead the convoy into the Fringe Division HQ parking garage, where they tell Col. Broyles that Jones is certifiable, but they didn't find a Show-Me, and running his biometrics through the databases has turned up nothing as well. They even went so far as to run a check with Scotland Yard, based on his accent, but they've come up with diddly-squat. As for the location, it was cleaned out before they got there. "He knew we were coming," says Fauxlivia. Col. Broyles orders them to take Jones to an interrogation room. "And this time use an actual room. Not the maintenance closet," says Col. Broyles, and Fauxlivia and Lincoln Bee cover their surprise admirably, and go to do just what he said.
So Lincoln Lee and Peter are reunited in the situation room, with Lincoln wanting to hang around and assist with the interrogation of the guy who tried to have them killed, but Peter's not interested in telling Walternate how to do his job, especially since Walternate finally agreed to help him. Lincoln's all, great, so now that you got what you wanted, but Peter snaps that whatever they find out in the interrogation is going to be shared with Lincoln Lee, so he got what he came for as well. Lincoln wants more than that, though: "I need to be a part of this investigation. I lost a partner," he says, which Peter easily trumps with, "I lost a universe!" Yeah, but you gained another one, so it's a wash? I don't think it's fair for Peter to whine "I lost a universe!" since he wouldn't really care about that if Olivia were still sleeping with him and Walter were still talking to him.
Anyway, Lincoln Lee susses out that Peter's scared, and Peter admits to it. He's scared that every day he's here the people he loves get farther and farther away from him. He wants Lee to let them do their jobs, since there's nothing he can do that they can't do for themselves. But then things seem to change for Peter when he sees Fauxlivia and Lincoln Bee bring the subject in: David Jones. Lincoln Lee notices Peter noticing, and asks if Peter knows the guy. Peter just continues to stare.
Col. Broyles begins the interrogation by introducing himself and saying he's like to ask some questions, getting things off to a nice, polite start, and Jones says he doubts he's going to answer any of Col. Broyles' questions and besides, they don't have much time if they're to avoid unnecessary deaths. He explains that the shapeshifting agent Fringe knows as Brandonate was "taken offline" earlier today, and in his office, hidden behind a light fixture, is a hard drive Jones wants. "You have twelve minutes to bring it to me," he says. Broyles is surprised at the tight time frame, but Jones says he's been assured that by helicopter they can make it to the Department of Defense and back with two minutes to spare.
Walternate's watching the interrogation, along with Lincoln Bee and Fauxlivia, and the Secretary sends the agents. Not that anyone should be telling them how to do their job, but why not just get someone at the Department of Defense to retrieve the hard drive and bring it here? Why do a round-trip when you could just do it one way? Meanwhile, Jones is telling Broyles that there's nothing of interest on it to them, even though he's sure they'll copy the contents before they let him go. Col. Broyles chuckles at the idea of letting Jones go, but asks if there's anything else, and Jones asks for a cup of tea. Of course, he did, he's British.
Peter and Lincoln Lee show up, and they've gone from being prisoners to having the run of Fringe Division rather quickly. Walternate assumed Peter would be on his way back home, but Peter's there to see that he knows who that dude is: David Robert Jones. "He's a scientist. He has a background in biotechnology and genetic weaponry," says Peter. Col. Broyles has come in by this point, very interested in what Peter has to say about Mr. Jones. Walternate's skeptical, since they don't have a record of this guy in any database, but Peter says he's not from this universe but instead crossed over from the other side. Peter wants to go talk to him. Col. Broyles doesn't particularly think that's a good idea, but moments later Peter's strolling in, not with the tea that Jones requested though. Peter says, "You're not from here, are you?" and Jones sarcastically asks if the accent gave it away. Peter says it was actually the scars on his face, an answer that appears to take Jones by surprise. Outside the interrogation room, Lincoln Lee notes that Jones' pulse just went up.
While Jones stares two holes into Peter's head, Peter explains that the last time he saw Jones, he was completely falling apart -- molecular disintegration due to transporting out of a German prison. "They had to wrap you in bandages just to keep you from turning into a puddle on the floor," he says, adding that it looks like he figured out a way to heal himself though, like a DNA graft. Jones icily says he's never met Peter in his life. Peter, enjoying himself, says he met Jones when he was crossing out of his universe into this one. "You created a doorway, a portal. I'm the man who closed it on you. It cut you right in half," says Peter, who doesn't think to quantify that part of the story, even though, as Jones, raising his eyebrows, points out, he's still in one piece. Still Peter says nothing.
And then: Jones says they've run out of time. Immediately in the observation area, the phone rings, with a call being patched through from a woman who claims to be a friend of Jones. Col. Broyles, alarmed, looks at Walternate, and tells the woman to go ahead.
We cut to a hospital and see the woman on the other end of the line is a doctor. After patching the call into the interrogation room so, as she requests, Jones can hear the call too, Walternate asks what she wants. "Just for you to listen," says the doctor. She sets a little gizmo on top of the counter with what is some sort of electronic fuse or timer, and calmly walks away, leaving the phone off the hook. An intern accosts her, calling her Dr. Samuels and asking if he should give the little girl with the bike injury a tetanus shot. "Not necessary. I don't think she's gonna make it," says Dr. Samuels, leaving the intern befuddled. Behind her, the little gizmo starts releasing some kind of smoky gas, and as everyone in the ward watches, Samuels leaves, taking a crutch with her so she can jam it into the handles of the double doors. She watches as the soon panicked patients -- the first ones are parents with a little girl -- rush to the door in vain.
Back at Fringe Division, all we hear are the screams of the victims. In the hospital, the smoke has quickly filled the room while Samuels watches, and we can't see anything, save for a single hand that hits the glass in the door, and then slides off, leaving the skin of the palm behind and making a bloody smear, an image that gave me nightmares all weekend. You know, that gas is so instantly fatal that I'm not sure I'd stand behind two non-sealed doors to watch -- even the crutch would give a little bit, allowing some gas to escape -- but who knows how the homicidal mind works?
After the commercial break, we're back in our universe, where Fringe is tucked away nicely in the federal building. Olivia goes in to see Broyles, but he already knows about Peter and Lincoln Lee going on an unauthorized road trip to the other universe. He found out via word from his alter ego, who was just about as amused about it as Broyles is. Yeah, but you guys never smile, so no biggie. Olivia asks if Peter and Lee are OK. "They're fine. And we'll deal with the issue of your insubordination once we've resolved the situation," says Broyles. Ugh, there's nothing worse than knowing you're going to be punished but being forced to wait to find out what your punishment is. But Olivia's less worried about her impending execution for treason than she is about this "situation" that Broyles mentioned, so he starts filling her in, asking her if she knows David Robert Jones.
Back on the other side, Fringe Division is discussing the fallout from the hospital catastrophe: sixteen people were in the ER, all of them now dead. Lincoln Lee drops off Jones' requested tea, and then is stunned to find Walternate deciding to let Jones go, Jones having said that if he's not released within fourteen minutes, the attack will be worse. Walternate tells Lincoln Lee that while he shares Lee's concerns, he can't in good conscience allow him to continue to attack civilian targets. Lincoln Bee comes in, all, "What's up?" and Lee angrily says they're going to let Jones just walk right out of here. He asks if they even know what's on the hard drive, and Fauxlivia says Jones was accessing government satellites, and Astrid is reviewing the data. Walternate tries to polish the turd by saying they'll be keeping Jones under constant surveillance, and the situation may even play out to their advantage: "We may learn who he's working with, where the other shapeshifters are." Because Jones has proven himself to be such an idiot that he'll lead you right to that information, I suppose.
Bee suggests monitoring Jones with an internal tracker, like the one he just put into the tea that Jones is drinking right this second. Everyone agrees this was a stellar idea, so Broyles tells Fauxlivia and Bee to organize the surveillance detail, and Lincoln Lee steps forward to help.
Everyone -- not just the credited cast, but extras as well -- watches as Broyles marches Jones through the situation room to the elevator, where he removes Jones' handcuffs and hands over the hard drive. Jones is all, "Pip-pip, cheerio," and tips his bowler hat before -- with one last glance at Peter -- stepping on the elevator and skedaddling.
So the surveillance detail that Fringe has organized appears to consist simply of "everyone watch Jones at all times." Jones is just sitting at an outdoor table of some coffee shop in midtown Manhattan. But that doesn't stop Lincoln Bee, sitting with Col. Broyles in a nearby SUV from checking in with Fauxlivia -- who he calls "Red" and who is with Lincoln Lee watching Jones from a park bench across the way -- to see if she's "got" anything.
Fauxlivia says she's got the same as him: "I'm looking at a guy who knows he's being watched." Fauxlivia thinks Jones will make a move soon, though; it's coming up on lunchtime, and she thinks he's going to try to get lost in the lunch crowd. Lee notes that Fauxlivia and Bee seem close, and Fauxlivia says they are, before agitatedly clarifying that that doesn't mean they're banging each other or anything; they're just partners. Lee seems slightly hurt on behalf of his twin: "You don't have to say it like that, like you pity us," he says, and Fauxlivia explains that she just broke up with someone, and Bee's been her shoulder to cry on.
No time for that now! Jones gets up and goes over to a trash can, from which he removes a brown paper bag that contains some sort of Thermos. "I'm guessing that's not lunch," says Bee. Col. Broyles orders Hazmat and EOD personnel on standby. There's also an envelope with some cash in it, and Jones puts the Thermos under his arm and approaches some teenagers, asking one of them if he wants some money. Pretending to be somewhat sick -- well, given the toll universe-crossing takes on him, it's not really much of a stretch -- Jones says he needs help giving away all of it, since he's realized there's no point being the richest man in the cemetery.
So the teenager shouts, "This guy's giving out free money!" And who would have thought that the most preposterous scene ever in this show wouldn't have involved something supernatural? I mean, Jones is instantly swarmed by everyone within earshot. Nobody seems suspicious, nobody seems to think, "Let's wait-and-see what's going here" -- it's just instant mob scene. Seriously, go down to the mall and yell, "This guy's giving out free money!" and see if people react this quickly. Maybe people in the alternate universe -- which has been disintegrating before their very eyes for years -- are more trusting than over here?
"What the hell's he up to?" asks Bee in the SUV. Let me reiterate: having just discussed the possibility of Jones trying to lose himself in the lunch crowd, Bee sees Jones disappear in a swarm of people and wonders, "What the hell's he up to?" Back at Fringe HQ, the Farnsworthbot and Peter watch as the signal representing Jones on the big computer map suddenly proliferates into forty or fifty identical triangles that start to spread out. Farnsworthbot warns Broyles that there seems to be some sort of malfunction with the tracking software, but Fauxlivia figures it out: "It's in the money. He knows he's being tracked. He's put trackers on the money," she says, and hustles her ass off the park bench, with Lee following, wondering how Jones knew what signal they're using.
The agents all wade into the crowd, but they've lost Jones, who we see still wandering around, trailing money. Fauxlivia spots a new cluster of signals gathering around a fountain. Sure enough, that's where Jones is, but as he tosses the last bills into the air and walks away, his own signal simply blinks off on the screen, and he gets into a waiting car in a back alley, without the agents having any clue where he is. It would probably be wiser for Jones to have the back window rolled up, lest anyone see him, but he wants to make pointed eye contact with Col. Broyles before rolling the window up and making his getaway. With Fauxlivia reporting that they lost Jones, Col. Broyles orders everyone back to Fringe Division.
We move to a classy restaurant where Walternate is gulping back Scotch under the disapproving eye of Elizabeth, who says she knows that whatever happened today is a setback. He says it was more than that, that they were compromised. He orders another drink from the waiter, and Elizabeth is all, yeah, more Scotch will change things. My dear, not ordering another Scotch won't uncompromise Fringe Division either. Walternate doubts himself for gambling by releasing Jones, who is now gone. She thinks he's bothered by more than that, though, and asks if he's gone over the blueprints Peter asked him to. He nods, but says he's been trying to see that the machine is, as Peter says it is, capable of more than one function, but Walternate can't help him. He notes that the other Walter won't help Peter -- the waiter drops off the requested glass of Scotch -- which is ironic, given the lengths Walter went to in the past. Elizabeth says that's not his fault, and Walternate says the outcome is the same: He couldn't save his son then, and he can't save him now. That's why he's holding his rocks glass with both hands as he takes a sip. Then Elizabeth says, "Maybe I can. Maybe I can help Peter." You? But you're a lady.
Back at Fringe Division, the Farnsworthbot is particularly Aspergersy as she shows Col. Broyles the files from Jones' hard drive and explains that it looks like he was using Defense satellites and ground-penetrating radar to gather geological information. Col. Broyles asks what's there: minerals, oil deposits, millions of unsold Atari cartridges of E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial video game? Farnsworthbot says she's found nothing of obvious value. She's doing some cross-referencing and such and stuff to see which locations have been searched the most, but hasn't come up with a pattern yet.
Peter strolls up, asking if he minds if she takes a look at her list of locations, and Farnsworthbot says she doesn't mind, like it's really her list of locations. Plus she seems a little fascinated by Peter, and blurts out, "Are you really from another timeline?" Peter says he thinks so, and Farnsworthbot says, "Cool."
We go from Extremely Awkward and Incredibly Strange over to Fauxlivia and Lincoln Lee, who are trying to track Jones down. Lee's preoccupied with figuring how Jones pinpointed so quickly the wavelength of the tracker they put on him. Fauxlivia skeptically asks if he thinks someone from their team told him, and Lee asks if she has a better idea.
Before she can answer, though, Farnsworthbot comes over to tell them that "that man, Peter" says he knows where Jones is going. So they have a little conference with Peter saying the thinks Jones is looking for a mineral named amphilicite. Farnsworthbot, feeling a little bummed for overlooking its significance, explains that it's found mostly under sizeable deposits of limestone.
Peter says that's because on its own it has no significance. It's inert in its natural state, but if processed properly is a power source. He explains that where he's from, William Bell used a tiny amount to create a battery, and Jones stole the battery. Lincoln Lee's skeptical of this notion of a battery made from rock, but Peter assures him that with his stuff you get a lot of bang for your buck: "Enough to blow a hole in the universe," he tells Col. Broyles. He thinks Jones must have figured out the same process Bell used and possibly how to weaponize the stuff.
The upshot is that of all the locations Jones was studying, the one with the most potential for amphilicite is the Mohonk Quarry along the Hudson River Valley. Farnsworthbot says they contacted the quarry, and people there told them they haven't seen any signs of trouble. Peter says that means they could finally be one step ahead of Jones, and Col. Broyles orders the quarry secured.
So a fleet of Fringe SUVs arrive at the quarry, which has been cleared, the main entrance secured. Everyone's excited because they think they beat Jones there, since the soil shows no signs of excavation for at least two months. Broyles starts ordering people to secure the ridge line.
Peter's with Farnsworth and Lincoln Lee back at the HQ, and Peter, who was previously against telling people how to do their jobs, decides to patch in and say that they need to secure the north access road unless they want Jones to outflank them. But none of the agents can actually see this road that Peter's talking about. He rolls his eyes, and says he's looking right at the map, which is up on the big display screen in HQ. Then something appears to occur to him, and he asks if this map was downloaded from Brandonate's hard drive. It was, he's told. "We're in the wrong universe," says Peter. Oh, you think everyone's in the wrong universe.
So let's pop back over to our universe's Hudson River Valley, where a crew led by the shapeshifter we know as Nadine Park is ripping open a portal for Jones to step through, which he does, closing his eyes and breathing in that sweet, sweet Earth Prime air
Meanwhile, Walter's in the Harvard lab, fooling around with Gene's back end and reciting some sort of old saying about what the weather's going to be like based on which way a cow's tail is hanging, the sort of superstition you'd think a man of science like Walter would have little time for, yet he told Astrid she wouldn't need an umbrella anyway. He's brushing Gene's coat when an FBI agent approaches to tell him he has a visitor, and Walter snaps that he's working on something very important.
So the agent leaves, apparently not too concerned about Walter's refusal, because a moment later we hear Elizabeth say, "Walter?" And Walter turns to look at his still-stunning ex-wife, standing underneath an overhead lamp making it look like sunlight breaking through the clouds is shining down on her.
He stares so blissfully that Elizabeth feels compelled to make sure that he knows she's not her, and Walter's smile fades. He looks like he knew but didn't want to know. Elizabeth says she never expected to see him again, but she thinks it's appropriate that a version of their son has brought them back together. She explains that she's here for Peter, and she understands Walter's refusing to help him. Walter is resolute, and says he's sorry she's traveled so far, but he can't help. "The last time I saw you, you had come to save a boy's life. Now I've come to do the same," she says.
Elsewhere, Broyles is welcoming Lincoln Lee and Peter back through the trans-universe gate, with Peter immediately taking the blame for their little excursion. Broyles, all business, tells him to save it, because there's a chopper waiting and the tech team is already en route to the quarry, where they'll meet them. As they leave, Peter asks Olivia how much trouble she's in. "On a scale of one to ten? A lot," she says, adding, to an apologetic Peter, that it'll blow over, given that this isn't the first time this loose-cannon agent has played by her own rules.
Meanwhile, Walter has fixed Elizabeth a cup of tea, correctly putting honey in it instead of sugar, because that's how his Elizabeth liked it. She says that her being here must remind her of a lot, just like how she's reminded of that night he came to the other side and took Peter away with him. Oh sure, focus on the worst thing he did! What about all the times he didn't take your son away from you? Nobody ever talks about those!
So for the past two decades, as Walter has beaten himself up for what he did, Elizabeth has forgiven him because he was just trying to save Peter, and she saw how much he loved him. What she calls Walter's strength, though, Walter calls his hubris, and he's been punished for it ever since. "I broke universes. I asked for a sign of forgiveness, but I got nothing. There is no absolution for me," he says. Elizabeth doesn't agree with that though, figuring that if she can forgive Walter for what happened, then God can. I don't know -- God knows how to hold a grudge.
Walter says nothing, but it looks like to me that forgiveness from Elizabeth -- this Elizabeth, anyway -- is worth more than forgiveness from God. She takes his hand and talks about how they both lost their sons and will never watch them grow up, fall in love, and have babies. Holy shit, Earth-2's Peter could have had a baby? That seems like an even bigger deal than zeppelins flying around! Anyway, she's of the opinion that there's something of their sons in this Peter, and she knows Walter feels it too.
Walter's resistance crumbles until finally he admits that he's afraid. "So is he," says Elizabeth.
Looks like they're in the right universe this time -- David Jones and Nadine Park are going over blueprints in the quarry while their crew digs up the area. That's when the Fringe team comes roaring in, guns at the ready. Well, except for Peter, who asks Lee for a gun. "Think you'll need a gun?" asks Lee, and can I ask why the hell you're bringing Peter to a potential firefight without giving him some kind of protection? Well, at least he's got a bulletproof vest on.
A shower of automatic-weapons fire puts holes in the windshields of the FBI vehicles, and the agents spill out, firing their own weapons back. Jones, getting in the passenger side of a large truck, says, "We are done here," to the driver, but we don't see who it is, just get the POV shot, so it looks like Jones is saying that directly to us, which was kind of disconcerting. As Jones and his driver peel out towards the portal that a henchman is opening up, Olivia pursues in her SUV, a frantic Peter yelling into his walkie-talkie that the window will close behind him, and if it closes while she's going through it, it will kill her. Olivia completely ignores him, chasing the truck as it drives through into the alternate universe. Then there's a flash, and Peter tries to raise Olivia on her walkie-talkie, and she has to wait out the requisite dramatic pause before answering, and we can see that the portal slammed shut on the hood, giving us a nifty cross-section of the engine.
And now the moment we've all waited for! Probably! Olivia and Fauxlivia! Lincolns Lee and Bee! Broyles and Col. Broyles! All at the same table, seated across from each other! It's like those old Marvel Team-Up comic books I loved, only if it were Spider-Man plus a different Spider-Man! Walternate -- again, I marvel at how well John Noble portrays two different characters -- rails against the new breed of shape-shifter that has infiltrated both their worlds and says the only way to defeat them is to work together. "We know who our enemy is now. And that, in itself, is a distinct step forward."
And now Broyles and Col. Broyles are talking to each other! They're having a badass-off! Fringe Squared talks about how they have to figure out what Jones is after. That makes much more sense than not trying to figure out what he's after, I'll grant them that. Lee's quite pessimistic about their chances, since Jones has been ahead of them every step of the way. "He is holding all the cards on this," he says. Everyone's quiet, in silent acknowledgement.
Not to fear, though, because Peter says, "Not all of them. You have me." Hey, great! Looks like Mr. "Not My Fight" Bishop is deigning to help! Peter says he saw how nervous Jones was when Peter was questioning him, so if nothing else, Peter's a variable that Jones didn't plan for. While the music swells behind him, Peter confidently says that somewhere they stopped him once before, and they can stop him again.
After the meeting's done, Olivia's intensely ordering Peter to tell her everything he knows about Jones -- "every little detail that you remember" -- and she wants to get a room. Not the good kind of room -- the sex kind -- the kind where you work really, really late. Peter wants to get started tomorrow, because he feels like he hasn't slept in three days.
Olivia agrees, and then there's an awkward pause, and she haltingly starts into what sounds like she's thanking him for saving her life, and he says "You're welcome," and it sort of seemed to me that Olivia ignored Peter's warnings and just managed not to die. But Peter's not going to quibble, I imagine. She says she'll send someone for him in the morning.
And Peter's back at his place, irritatedly answering a persist rapping at his front door. He's very surprised to find Walter there, and even more surprised when Walter wants to come in. After a drink of water, he tells Peter that his mother -- every version of her -- was a wonderful woman. Peter figures out immediately that Elizabeth came to see Walter, who stammers about how he's lost the people he loved the most, and he imagines Peter misses the ones he's left behind. "I'll help you, Peter. I will help you get home," he says. Walter talks about little bit more about learning and loss, and Peter tries to hide a smile before Walter asks him to explain. "I just spent the last several days with the other Walter, and I was very surprised to learn that he's not the man that I thought he was. But I am not all surprised to learn that you are," says Peter, and poor Walter has to ask if that's a good thing. (It is.) Walter smiles. Then he looks around. "You know, I used to live here," he says, and Peter smiles again.
Elsewhere, wherever Jones is. Some dark, dank hideout. He types, on an old orange-type-on-black-screen computer, "Phase One complete. Where do we stand on Phase Two?" The response comes back: "In due time. We're working on her. She'll be ready soon." And who does the response come from? Nina Sharp. Yes, we know she's evil too! Get on with it!
Daniel is a writer in Newfoundland with a wife and a daughter. He thinks it will be easier to keep the Fringe universes separate if everyone on one side had goatees. Even Fauxlivia. ESPECIALLY Fauxlivia. Follow him on Twitter (@DanMacEachern) or email him at danieljdaniel[at]gmail.com.
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