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Recapped by Daniel · Aired 01-13-2012

Peter makes one desperate plea to Walter to help him find his way back to his own timeline, but Walter won't -- mainly because the last time he tried to help another Peter, he wound up colliding a couple of universes and possibly dooming everyone to death. You know, the usual. So Peter decides to cross over to the other side to ask Walternate for help. He discusses it with Olivia and Lincoln Lee, who see an opportunity to do some recon on the other side and find out what's up with Walternate sending these illin' shapeshifters over to Earth-prime. Peter's not so keen on that, because he doesn't want their spy mission to affect whether Walternate tries to help him. Olivia agrees with Peter, but she had her fingers crossed behind her back, so it didn't count.

On the other side -- well, things could have gone better. Peter and Lee wind up captured when Fauxlivia and Alternalee suss out what's going on, but the Earth-2 Fringe Division agents are starting to have their own suspicions about Walternate's possible involvement with some shapeshifter excursions. With Lee distracting Fauxlivia and Alternalee, Peter makes his way to his parents' house and enlists his not-really Mom to protect him when the army comes in. He gets taken to Walternate's office, where the Secretary of Defense turns out to NOT have been behind the shapeshifters being sent over to Earth-1. Brandonate is involved, however; in fact, he's a shapeshifter himself (one that's dispatched by Walternate, who'd had some suspicions for a little while). Walternate figures he can trust Peter, since Peter has no allegiance to either universe.

Meanwhile, Fauxlivia and Alternalee -- Fauxlivia especially is suspicious of what's going on -- are checking out Lee's story about shapeshifters being sent over to the other universe, and a traced call leads them to an address in an industrial park that they go to check out. They try to be casual about it with Col. Broyles, but nothing's as it seems with Col. Broyles either, as he calls ahead to warn one Mr. Jones (!) that the agents are on their way.

Back in our universe, Olivia waits at the Orpheum theatre, where Peter and Lee crossed over. She's visited by the Observer, who has something to tell her, and given that he's got a gunshot wound to the chest, he only has so long to tell it to her: "I've looked at all possible futures, and in every one, the result is the same: you have to die," he says. Then he disappears. Welcome back, Fringe!

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.

It's the golden sunny glow of a lazy morning as a sleepy Peter makes his way to the kitchen, where he -- and we -- are surprised to see Walter, busily cooking. Walter's not wearing a shirt underneath the green apron he has on, and I'm willing to bet that just about everyone watching quickly glanced downward to make sure he has on pants. (He does.) Anyway, Walter says something about the waffle iron being in the shop or some such (stupid waffle iron's always in the shop) so he's making chocolate chip and banana pancakes instead. Peter's so thrilled that Walter's talking to him again that the indignity of having pancakes instead of waffles doesn't appear to bother him. So it's obvious early on that this is a dream, and that's made even more clear when Olivia breezes in smiling and kisses Peter good morning. Peter, despite presumably not remembering sleeping with Olivia last night, is still unaware that he's dreaming. Olivia even wanders into the kitchen to give Walter a kiss on the cheek.

Walter comes into the dining room, holding the waffle iron and promising to fix the "infernal machine" so that Peter can have waffles every day. The distress in his voice is rather out of proportion to the agitation that a broken waffle iron should cause, and then he drops the infernal machine in question. It hits the floor, and Peter wakes up. "Walter," he whispers. Right, but all kidding aside, your waffle iron is fine, right? Right?

Waffles are delicious.

Over in Walter's Harvard lab, he's blowing air at a couple of pinwheels when he hears the door open and close. He assumes it's Astrid, forgetting the law of television that states that if you don't look to see who has come in, then it is never the person you assume it is. He excitedly tells "Astrid" about how the metallic pinwheel is spinning against the flow of air, completely violating the laws of physics. I have no idea if that's a true thing or not, but I'm sure there are some other scientific principles that would have to be broken for Astrid to suddenly have a white man's hand, as the person who drops the box of pastries in front of Walter does. But he still thinks the visitor is Astrid, and is startled when he finally turns and sees Peter standing there, holding some blueprints under his arm.

Peter puts his hand out like you would if you were trying to approach a skittish animal, and he tells Walter that it stands to reason that since the machine was what popped him out of his timeline then it must be the way for him to get back to his own timeline, and Walter's the only one who can do it. Walter, though, wants none of it, and calls the machine "staggeringly dangerous" and capable of destroying universes. "Maybe I am too," says Peter, which ought to reassure Walter. Anyway, Peter, having dreamt of chocolate chip banana pancakes made by his dad and kisses from his foxy girlfriend, is getting increasingly anxious to get home. "I have been separated from my family, and you of all people should understand how desperate I am to get back."

Walter sits down and prepares us for another trademark heart-rending monologue. "The water was still running in the sink. She must have come to her decision while she was washing the dishes," he says. Oh, this ain't gonna be pleasant. He says he knew almost immediately, even before he found the body. The car's engine was still running, and there was no note. "There didn't need to be. We had just lost our only child," he says, as Peter stares at him. He says he should have mourned with her, instead of leaving her to grieve alone while he focused on getting to an alternate universe to save someone else's child. So you see, "son," I can't help you because the last time I helped a Peter, my wife killed herself and I may have set in motion the destruction of a couple of universes. Hope you understand.

He gets up and walks away. "I may be the only man that can help you, but I'm also the only man that cannot help you," he says, standing in front of a mirror, if that helps convey the paradoxical duality a little bit better.

So Peter tries Olivia -- she's surprised to see him turn up at her apartment door (no brownstone for this Olivia), as she's taking the day off to deal with a migraine. You know, the kind of migraine brought about by people led by Nina Sharp pumping knockout gas into your home. Anyway, he's there to ask a favor, and I'd just like to point out that Olivia probably enjoys pastries too, Peter.

Inside, they sit down. "I need you to ask Broyles to get me permission to use the bridge so I can cross over into the alternate universe," says Peter. Oh, is that all? Olivia was probably worried he wanted her to help him move into a new apartment. He explains that he thinks the machine is his best chance of getting home, but since Walter's not going to help him recalibrate it, he wants to ask Walternate for help. Olivia doesn't think that's a good idea, because Walternate is a -- what's the expression? Right, an "untrustworthy son of a bitch who is responsible for sending shapeshifters to our universe." I hate those guys!

Still, Peter doesn't feel he has any other choice, but Olivia says it doesn't matter because Broyles won't let him near the bridge: "You may have gained some trust here, but to him, you're still an unknown entity," she says, not to mention the fact that Over There they don't know Peter exists, and how is he going to get access to the Secretary of Defense anyway?

So before they can hatch a plan that involves Peter pretending to work for Vandelay Industries, there's a knock at the door. It's Agent Lee, with some chicken soup for Olivia and a sensitive-guy cover story about how he thought maybe she could use some company. Because there's nothing someone with a migraine wants to do more than have people over! Plus, shouldn't Lee be working? Anyway, the horny little bugger is nonplussed to see Peter there, but it gives Peter an idea: on the other side, Fringe Division reports directly to the Secretary of Defense, and their lead agent -- here's where Olivia jumps in, warming to the idea -- is Lincoln Lee. "That's so crazy it just might work," says Olivia. Well, she doesn't say exactly that, but nobody says that in television or movies anymore, and I kind of miss it.

By Daniel

So now all they need is a way to get to the other side, and Lee is all, "ExCUSE me, can someone fill me in on this dangerous and probably illegal spy mission that you seem to be drafting me for?" Amusingly, the other two ignore him; Olivia's got a Massive Dynamic requisition form for Walter's portal device, the one he used to cross over in 1985. "That's at the bottom of Reiden Lake," says Peter, because crossing over to an alternate universe to ask the evil doppelgänger of your father for help fixing a machine to pop you back into your proper timeline is one thing, but GETTING SOMETHING OUT OF A LAKE is quite another. At any rate, they don't have to even do that; Olivia says that it might be at the bottom of a lake where Peter's from, but here Massive Dynamic recovered it years ago, and it's been in storage ever since.

Peter's a little raised-eyebrow over Olivia just happening to have this form handy, and Olivia confesses to considering crossing over herself to do some recon. Peter asks why she needs Walter's device when she can just cross back and forth by herself any time she wants. Naturally, this ability is news to this Olivia, surprising Peter, but before they have a chance to discuss this, Lee jumps in, having figured out what's going on by himself, and thinks it's smart for Olivia to go over there off-grid and find out what the shapeshifters are after. She nods: "See if I can expose Walternate's entire agenda. Peter's just given us a way in," she says, but Peter gets all agitated about them horning in on his excursion -- he doesn't want them causing havoc because Walternate will think Peter's involved in them and definitely won't help him.

I guess when the kid told her about the two men fighting, she heard "butt sex" and goes for a police officer to help her -- please think of the children! "There's some inappropriate behavior going on in the men's restroom, and my eight-year-old was just subjected to it," she says.

So it's up to the officer to go roust what is presumably a Republican congressman and the troubled young man he's taken under his wing. "All right, transit P.D. Come on out of there," he says, opening the stall. One man -- with the bruised-looking translucent skin of the new hybrid shapeshifter -- bursts out of the stall, leaving behind the corpse of his victim. As the shapeshifter runs out of the terminal, his face appears to be settling, but the fact that he then scales a bus with his feet and then leaps a good thirty feet off the roof is more than enough to give onlookers pause. Fortunately for everybody (well, except the shapeshifter, I suppose) the shapeshifter is then flattened by a bus, so his new shape is "pancake."

Man, I forgot we haven't already had the opening credits yet! This episode's like a quarter done already!

Over on Liberty Island, Brandonate comes in to Walternate's office as requested, bringing along the shapeshifter tech Walternate asked for. "You've been working on this for several weeks. How much longer will it take?" asks Walternate. Brandonate's not sure, but he says he's identified a signal that they might be able to trace to whoever's responsible for the new shapeshifter prototypes. So ... not Walternate, then? Walternate says he wants Brandonate's diagnostic protocols. "And leave the disk with me. I'll handle the back-trace myself," he says.

Brandonate's a little surprised -- and perturbed -- at not getting to see his work through to the end, and Walter coldly says, "I shouldn't have to remind you that I am also a scientist. I'm perfectly capable of completing the task." Brandonate swallows and agrees and exits, with Walternate saying he'll send for Brandonate if he needs anything else.

Over in Manhatan, Fringe Division is on the scene of the guy who jumped thirty feet off the bus, and I'm not sure that "really long jump from the top of a bus" would draw Fringe attention, but OK. The agents barely get a chance to see the bloodied, lumpy, misshapen face of the jumper -- with one blue eye, one brown -- in the body bag before the army rolls in, ordering all Fringe Division and ancillary personnel off the scene. Agent Lincoln Lee offers up a token "You want to tell me what you think you're doing?" to the officer in command, a Sgt. Elias Kane, who shows him the orders that came directly from Walternate. So Agent Lee orders his people to pack it up, much to Fauxlivia's annoyance, wondering why, since they're Department of Defense too, that Walternate would remove them from what is clearly a Fringe case. "Ours is not to question why, ours is just to get the hell out," says Lee. You know, I'm going to need a nickname to clearly differentiate between the two Lees, aren't I? How about "Dualee"? "Linclone Lee"? "Lincoln B"? Actually, I kinda like "Lincoln B". Maybe even "Lincoln Bee"! That's it, settled.

By Daniel

Man, I forgot we haven't already had the opening credits yet! This episode's like a quarter done already!

Back in our universe, Olivia and Peter are driving through Stamford -- you know, where Jim Halpert worked for a while -- in a product-placed electric car. (Olivia amusingly notes that they've "got plenty of range.") Lee tells them, via Bluetooth, that he's got the equipment and he'll meet them at the theatre. Olivia signs off, and asks Peter why he's sure there's a soft spot between universes there. "Well, we've used it before," he says, quickly adding, "...in another timeline."

Over at Liberty Island, Walternate leads some soldiers bringing the bus-jumper's corpse into Brandonate's lab. "Sir, may I ask what's going on?" You may not, Brandonate! Walternate boots him out of the lab and posts Sgt. Kane at the door so Walternate won't be disturbed while he's working. He unzips the bag -- the man's face looks even lumpier than it did down at the terminal -- and then unzips the body with a scalpel. He reaches in and pulls out the shapeshifting device, identical to the one Brandonate showed him. He glares at it for a few seconds before we go to commercial.

At the dock to Liberty Island, Lincoln marches Peter up to the guard, one Cpl. Wheeler, who recognizes "Lincoln Bee." Lincoln says he needs to transport this prisoner to Liberty Island. "I don't have any transport order," says Wheeler. Lincoln says he wouldn't: "Secretary Bishop wants to keep this one off the books -- keeping it quiet for security reasons." Yeah, great idea -- telling SECURITY that he can't know for SECURITY REASONS. Wheeler doesn't say anything for a moment, and Lincoln says, swear to god, "You think I'm making this up?" because that's a brilliant, totally non-suspicion-arousing thing to say, but it works on Cpl. Dumbass here, although he at least has the good sense to say he'll just call Walternate's office to clear it up. That forces Lincoln to talk about all the people up the chain who will then be alerted to the classified interrogation: "You go right ahead. It's your ass, not mine." Cpl. Dumbass then agrees, even when Lincoln stammers out a lie about having lost his Show-Me in the East River catching "this scumbag". Fortunately Lincoln Lee and Lincoln Bee have the same handprint, so Cpl. Dumbass allows Lincoln in without a Show-Me or a transport order. At least Lincoln's holding Peter's collar nice and tight! Keep up the good work, soldier. Lincoln and Peter head through the gate to wait for the ferry on the pier. Wheeler calls after them to say that he'll report Agent Lee's Show-Me as lost. Well, that's going to be trouble. But Lincoln just says, "Thanks," instead of "That's OK, I already did." Peter's barely out of earshot of the guard when he starts praising Lincoln's knack for deception.

Over at the Orpheum, the Fringe team are waving their detection lightsabers around, but not getting any readings. Lincoln Bee checks in with Broyles to tell them that if there were any kind of degradation here, it's gone now. So... no weakening despite crossing over? That doesn't sound right. Anyway, they're starting to think it was a false alarm and prepare to leave.

By Daniel

As for Walternate, he's still working away on the body, when he gets a call from Col. Broyles, telling him about the incursion from the other universe, by the other Fringe Division's Lincoln Lee, and another man who claims to be Walternate's son Peter. Col. Broyles can't see the look of surprise on Walternate's face, so he can't tell that Walternate doesn't appear to be so quickly dismissive of the man's story. Lincoln Bee and Fauxlivia are bringing the prisoners back to Fringe HQ for questioning, and Col. Broyles asks if he should demand an explanation from the other side. Walternate doesn't want Col. Broyles telling the other side anything until they've interrogated the men. Speaking of explanations, Lance Reddick -- and you too, Seth Gabel! -- I happened to see Jonah Hex over the Christmas break, and now I'm wondering what you have to say for yourselves.

Over in the prisoner transport truck, Peter lays into Lincoln Lee because he thought he could trust him and Olivia, but Lincoln has had just about enough of Peter's bullshit and points out that they're fighting for an entire world and not just to get back home. "Whatever these shapeshifters are up to, we have to stop them. Sorry if I thought you wanted that too," says Lincoln, and the best Peter can do is mutter that it's not his fight.

In the front, the driver -- an Agent Murphy -- gets a call on his ear cuff. We don't hear whoever it is or what he or she has to say, but from Murphy's end we know it has to do with the prisoners. After receiving his orders, Murphy then wrenches the wheel hard to the left and breaks away from the convoy.

Fauxlivia and Lincoln Bee, in a vehicle farther ahead, see the transport take off, but Murphy doesn't respond to their radio calls asking what's going on. Murphy's partner, Agent Cole, is also confused, but instead of an explanation, he gets shot in the chest. It's like a classic buddy-cop show! One agent is by the book, and the other is a murderous traitor! Can they ever get along? Lincoln Lee and Peter look on in horror, then look at each other, both realizing that things are likely to get a whole lot worse before they get any better.

Anyway, Murphy manages to shake Fauxlivia and Lincoln Bee (while they try to get the transport tracked by Farnsworthbot), and he stops the SUV in a back alley. He gets Peter and Lincoln Lee out of the truck, and, still training the gun on them, gives them the key to their handcuffs, so they can unlock themselves. "You trying to make this look like an escape attempt, like we're the ones that killed your partner?" asks Peter. Murphy more or less ignores him, but that's never really been something to stop Peter, who asks if the call Murphy got was from Walternate. "He's making a mistake. I just came here to talk to him. He doesn't understand why I'm here," says Peter.

Murphy says it doesn't matter why they're there; he has his orders. Just before he plugs them though, Agent Cole turns out to not actually be dead and fires his own gun at Murphy, who then finishes Cole off. But it's enough of a distraction for Peter and Lincoln to go after Murphy, and it's Lincoln who winds up struggling with and then shooting him. "We're doing this my way now," says Peter, and I'd like to point out that everything up this point HAS been your way. Lincoln never got a chance to do any of the reconnaissance that he wanted to do.

With the Farnsworthbot tracking various transponders, Fauxlivia and Lincoln Bee track down the transport, which is now on the move again. Lincoln Bee goes after it, stopping just long enough to let Fauxlivia tend to the dead agents. He manages, with the help of another Fringe vehicle, to trap the transport in an alley, but after forcing Lincoln Lee out at gunpoint, they discover that Peter's nowhere to be found.

So it's interrogation time in the alley, and Lincoln Lee is not giving up Peter's whereabouts, although Fringe does discover that Murphy's Show-Me was used at the Canal Street subway turnstile 20 minutes ago. "So you led us on that little diversion so your friend could get away," says Fauxlivia. Well, OBVIOUSLY. Lincoln Bee invokes the terrifying specter of TRANSIT cops having Peter's description, so he won't get far, not after the two of them murdered two Fringe agents. "Right. That's what happened. We came all this way to kill two Fringe agents. That's brilliant. No wonder you're a detective," says Lincoln Lee. His powers of sarcasm have really been amplified in this universe, kind of like how Superman gets his powers from our yellow sun.

Anyway, Fauxlivia and Lincoln Lee are scoffing at Lee's version of events -- the mysterious call right before Murphy shot Cole and tried to kill everybody, and they're not convinced by Lee's suggestion that Walternate wants them dead. "So, clearly, in the other universe, I'm a nutjob," says Lincoln Bee. Lincoln Lee suggests they trace the call that Murphy got, and when it leads to Walternate, they'll know he's right.

Lincoln Bee wants to know why, if their division is compromised, why trust them? Lincoln Lee indicates Fauxlivia. "Because of her. Peter said I could trust you," he says. Fauxlivia says Peter doesn't even know her. "Peter said at the end of the day, you're a good person. You'd do the right thing," says Lincoln Lee. Plus, he digs the long red hair. It's a whole thing. Fauxlivia's not really sure how to respond, and just says they'll sort it out at headquarters.

Over in Tarrytown, a car pulls into the driveway of a beautiful lakeside house -- it's Elizabeth Bishop, arriving home. She's unpacking a small bag of groceries when she notices the door to the deck is ajar. She pushes some kind of silent alarm tucked under the sink, frightened but calm, and grabs her purse and makes for the door, when she's accosted by Peter and his stubble, scaring the hell out of her. She thrusts some money at him, despite his assurances that he's not there to hurt her: "I just need to speak with your husband. It's very important," says Peter. Elizabeth stares at him for a few moments in realization. "Peter?" she whispers. A mother knows!

So it's catch-up time with mother and son. Elizabeth talks about how her husband has opened her mind to things that she never thought possible, but even still, resurrection? She says she knew as soon as she looked in his eyes. Well, technically, as soon as she looked in his eyes, she thought he was there to rob, rape and murder her, but after that, I guess. She tells Peter they told her he died the night he was taken from her. "And they told you the truth," says Peter, holding her hand and gently telling her that he's not the Peter she thinks he is, that he's from another place, and it's very complicated, especially when you don't have time to watch ten minutes' worth of "previously on Fringe!" scenes to bring you up to speed. Touchingly, she says that she got through her grief by consoling herself with the idea that out there in another universe was another Peter who would grow up and be happy and fall in love, just not here.

Anyway, he's got to back to his own place, and her husband is the only one who can help. She says she'll call the office (she refers to Walternate as "your father" before catching herself), but Peter says she can't let anybody else know that he's here because people who work for Walternate tried to kill him. Elizabeth, having forgotten that she pressed the alarm, says they need to protect him, and Walternate needs to know about it. "I think that he already does," says Peter, and before Elizabeth gets a chance to question him about that, soldiers pull up outside. Elizabeth remembers the alarm, and apologizes to Peter, saying she hit the alarm before she knew it was him.

Rather amusingly, Peter pulls out his automatic and prepares to take on the U.S. army, at least before Elizabeth convinces him to give her the gun, or else the soldiers will shoot him. With the soldiers pounding on the door, common sense prevails and Peter hands over the gun, so no death in a hailstorm of bullets for Peter this week. Maybe for sweeps? Elizabeth lets the soldiers in and stands in front of Peter, warning them that anyone who fires on Peter will have her husband to answer to: "A mistake has been made. I need your men to transport us to the Department of Defense," she says. The soldiers, clearly hoping to kill someone today, don't move for a moment, and Elizabeth says it again, a little more forcefully. Finally, the lead soldier agrees, but says Peter will have to be restrained. Is it too much to hope for that they've got one of those full-body Hannibal Lecter cages out there?

Meanwhile, speaking of restraints, Lincoln Bee and Fauxlivia are handcuffing Lincoln Lee around a pole in a janitorial room at Fringe headquarters. "It's a maintenance closet!" says Lincoln Lee, who apparently wants a proper jail cell. "That's very astute. No wonder you're a detective," says Lincoln Bee. Ooh, good comeback, using the same insult Lincoln Lee used like half an hour ago! Fauxlivia says they're going to trace the call, and if it leads back to the Secretary of Defense, then they'll talk, but if not, this isn't the last windowless room he's going to find himself in. Lincoln Bee suggests Lincoln makes himself comfortable (which ought to be difficult since he's handcuffed standing up). "Nobody knows you're here but us," says Lincoln Bee. No, not until Milos shows up to clean the building. He tries to be good hard worker man, but refrigemator so messy. So, so messy.

Once outside the closet, after Fauxlivia locks it, Lincoln Bee seems a little less confident: "We're breaking about five different general orders right now. I hope you know what you're doing," he says. Me too, says Fauxlivia. But your plan is so crazy it just might work!

Over at Liberty Island, Peter and Elizabeth are ushered into Walternate's office by four soldiers, with Elizabeth referring to Peter as "a miracle," which is overstating things a bit. Walternate, doing his best to appear happy, says, "Of course it is," and then stands in front of a wary Peter, telling him that he's dreamt about this moment for many years.

Walternate orders the soldiers to take Peter's restraints off and then leave them. They prote

st, but Walternate IS their boss, after all. Peter doesn't waste any time telling Walternate that he's not actually his son. "I know that. How could you be?" says Walternate. Elizabeth tells her husband that she promised he'd help Peter, and now Walternate's asking her to leave them as well. She leaves, reluctantly, Peter thanking her as she goes.

Once she's gone, Peter goes back to being cocky, congratulating Walternate on his brilliant performance. Well, if the Emmys aren't going to do it... "You almost looked genuinely surprised to see me, which we both know is not the case," says Peter.

Walter, opening up some kind of case and assembling a multi-pronged handheld device, admits that he's known about Peter for some time: "I've been monitoring the intelligence feeds from the other universe," he says. "Yeah, if by 'monitoring' you mean 'spying,'" says Peter. Well, of course that's what he means, Peter. Don't be such a baby.

Peter says he knows Walternate already tried to have him killed once today, and Walternate, admitting nothing and actually seeming a little amused, asks why he would do that. Peter suggests Walternate sees him as a threat (because Peter's so bad-ass) and says the other side knows Walternate has been sending human shapeshifters into their side, in violation of the accord.

So you have come all this way to bring me to justice," says Walternate. Yeah, it's ludicrous, obviously. Peter's still on his whole "it's not my fight" routine, though, and says all he wants is Walternate's help to get back home: "If you want to get rid of me, just help me," he says. By this point, Walternate's standing in front of Peter, holding the little mystery device.

Walternate says that if Peter believes these awful things about him, then his decision to come here must've been difficult. Peter thinks about it for a long moment, and says, "I didn't really have any other choice." Walternate, half-smiling, says no one knows more about the burden difficult decisions than he does.

That's when Brandonate comes in, saying Sgt. Kane said Walternate wanted to see him, and he is practically yelling at the top of his lungs for some reason, and Walternate explains that Peter is from the other side and is accusing him of sending shapeshifters over to the other universe, murdering innocents, canceling beloved television shows, that kind of thing. "Now, you are my chief scientist. You know me and my operation better than anyone. Is it possible? Is there any way that what he is saying could be true?" Brandonate thinks about it for a moment, then says he doesn't see how, and Peter greets that with the smirk it deserves. Brandonate dresses it up a little bit, saying that he examined the shapeshifter tech in detail and saw nothing to indicate Walternate had anything to do with it. "There, you see?" says Walternate to Peter, and the two stare at each other for a moment, just before Walternate fires his little doohickey right into Brandonate's chest, sparking and whirring, causing him to collapse, his face morphing and shifting. Walternate turns back to Peter. "Not everything is as it seems," says Walternate.

When we get back after a commercial break, an unconscious Brandonate is laid out in some sort of lab, all manner of tubes sticking out of him. I have to admit, I'm a little curious about how Brandonate was moved from Walternate's multi-windowed office to this lab without any apparent problems. I mean, even for the Secretary of Defense, that's a neat trick. I'm going to assume that they stuck a hat and sunglasses on him and, Weekend at Bernie's-style, walked him down to the lab with no one the wiser. Anyway, Walternate tells Peter that he'd suspected for some time that Brandonate had been replaced by a shapeshifter, so he had his men follow him, monitoring his communications. He says he's going to interrogate him. "Earlier today, a State Department employee was the victim of another shapeshifter, trying to acquire his identity. It's become all too clear that elements of our government are being infiltrated," says Walternate. Peter asks, not unreasonably, why, if Walternate's known about this for so long, he hasn't done anything? Walternate says if word got out that elected officials and other authorities were not who they claimed to be, it would cause widespread panic and society would collapse. I don't know. I think the public is getting pretty used to elected officials not being who they claim to be.

Anyway, Peter says he's got to find the shapeshifters and expose them, using that little thingy he used on Brandonate. Walternate points out that he spent weeks convincing himself that Brandonate had been replaced; if he'd been wrong, and Brandonate weren't a shapeshifter, the tech would have killed him.

Peter wants to know why Walternate is telling him all this. "Because you are the only person I can trust," says Walternate. Again, given that you managed to get the body of your chief scientist out of your office and down to this lab, I gotta figure Walternate's got more people he can trust than just Peter here, but let's go with it. Walternate's logic is that Peter has no alliances to their side or the other, and he needs Peter to deliver a message.

Peter starts to protest, saying he appreciates what Walternate's up against, but -- "It's not your fight?" says Walternate. See, even Walternate's sick of hearing Peter say that. Peter says the Walter on the other side refuses to help, but Walternate understands the machine and -- AGAIN -- is the only person who can help him get back to where he belongs. Walternate says he'll help, as long as Peter first goes back to the other side and tells them that he's not their enemy, and whoever is behind the shapeshifters is a threat to them all. Peter stares at him -- I was kinda hoping he'd do that Larry David thing where he gets up close to a person to try to tell if they're lying -- and then, with just a trace of emotion, says he was wrong about Walternate: "You're not the man I thought you were." Walternate smiles and says Peter is exactly the man he thought he would be. Mouth quivering slightly, asks Peter to help them.

Over at Fringe Division, Fauxlivia tells Lincoln Bee that the Farnsworthbot traced the call to an industrial park in the Flatiron district, which has been abandoned "since the amber riots of '06." Lincoln Bee says that doesn't sound like it's connected to the Department of Defense or Walternate -- because Walternate wouldn't be smart enough to issue a kill order from a phone that couldn't be traced back to him, I suppose? Smarten up, Lincoln Bee! God! -- but Fauxlivia wants to check it out anyway.

Lincoln Bee wants to know how much longer they're going to keep Col. Broyles in the dark: they're chasing the story of a suspect who may have murdered two Fringe agents, and who they've got locked up in a broom closet instead of Holding, where he belongs. Yeah, about that -- how is it that no one at Fringe DOESN'T wonder what the hell is going on? It's not like Fauxlivia and Lincoln Bee arrested Lincoln Lee on their own. Anyway, Lincoln Bee figures they have to tell Broyles something.

So they go to his office, where Col. Broyles asks if they processed Lincoln Bee into Holding. Lincoln Bee doesn't technically lie when he says, "He's been secured, sir," and before that story can be questioned, Fauxlivia jumps in and says that's not why they're there. Col. Broyles looks up and then asks them if it's about the trace they ran on Agent Murphy's ear cuff. Fauxlivia and Lincoln Bee look momentarily surprised to find out they're not super-smart ninjas running rings around the rest of the morons here, and Col. Broyles says the Farnsworthbot told him. He asks what they're looking for.

"It may be nothing, but until we know more, we would like some leeway on this," says Fauxlivia. Col. Broyles sighs and agrees, telling them to keep him posted.

Fauxlivia and Lincoln Bee leave Col. Broyles office, and then there's a long shot of Col. Broyles watching them go, television standard for "We're about to reveal this guy

By Daniel

Walternate orders the soldiers to take Peter's restraints off and then leave them. They protest, but Walternate IS their boss, after all. Peter doesn't waste any time telling Walternate that he's not actually his son. "I know that. How could you be?" says Walternate. Elizabeth tells her husband that she promised he'd help Peter, and now Walternate's asking her to leave them as well. She leaves, reluctantly, Peter thanking her as she goes.

By Daniel

"It may be nothing, but until we know more, we would like some leeway on this," says Fauxlivia. Col. Broyles sighs and agrees, telling them to keep him posted.

Fauxlivia and Lincoln Bee leave Col. Broyles office, and then there's a long shot of Col. Broyles watching them go, television standard for "We're about to reveal this guy is evil too" and sure enough, he makes a phone call.

"Col. Broyles," says the voice on the other end, and there's only one person that raspy British accent could belong to: Lane Pryce! I mean, David Jones! "They're on their way to you now," says Col. Broyles. "Excellent. We'll be waiting for them," says Jones, his face a strange, leathery red. He's standing in front of a table laden with shapeshifter memory disks in the makeshift lab in what must be the industrial park. A translucent body is wheeled by on a stretcher -- appearing to be the original human David Jones, perhaps? Hard for me to tell -- in front of several people housed in stasis chambers. Well, it's not like we didn't already know that Jones is evil. If this Jones is a shapeshifter, will he be more evil or less evil? Or maybe that was just some other poor dead dude.

By Daniel

A zeppelin flies over the Orpheum theatre, and we're zapped back into our universe, where Olivia is lying on the stage, waiting for her boys to come back. Suddenly, there's someone in the theatre with her: it's September the Observer, not that this Olivia has any idea who the Observers are yet. She pulls her gun on him, and asks who he is and tells him to show her his hands, while he does the Observer trick of saying exactly what the other persons says at the exact same time they say it. He'd be great in improv classes!

"I have to come to tell you something, Olivia," he says. She wants to know how he knows her name. He's breathing heavily, and doesn't answer, but looks down to his chest. Olivia holsters her gun when she sees that September has already been shot -- there's a bloody red stain and hole in his white shirt -- even though getting shot doesn't necessarily mean you're not a threat. Anyway, September haltingly tells her that he's looked at all possible futures, and in every one, the result is the same: "You have to die," he says. Well, everyone dies, but if I'm Olivia, I think I'm drawing my gun again.

He's getting weaker. Olivia says she's going to get him to a hospital, and turns to get her jacket from the stage. She has her back turned for just a second, but when she turns back, he's completely disappeared. Or his cab arrived, one of the two.

Daniel is a writer in Newfoundland with a wife and a daughter. Something else, along with "That's so crazy it just might work," that needs to make a comeback: Rappers who start their rhymes by saying, "Well, I'm Such-and-such and I'm here to say..." Let's make that happen! Follow him on Twitter (@DanMacEachern) or email him at danieljdaniel[at]gmail.com.

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Fringe TV Show - Mother and Child Reunion - Fringe Photos &amp; Videos, Fringe Reviews &amp; Fringe Recaps | TWoP

Fringe TV Show - Mother and Child Reunion - Fringe Photos & Videos, Fringe Reviews & Fringe Recaps | TWoP