By Daniel
Peter risks life and limb and discovery by the Observers and the Loyalists, siphoning gas and bartering in a pawn shop so he can buy a silver chain for Etta. She needs one to put the bullet on so she can wear it again, the bullet she found among her mother's things, the bullet that saved the world more than two decades ago. Etta never finds out it was buried in her mother's brain, but I'm hoping that little connection proves significant in that death on this show isn't necessarily forever. Because let's just skip to the end here: they killed Etta.
In the course of this episode's installment of this season's videogame-like gathering of objects needed for the big boss battle at the end, Windmark shoots Etta, leaving her gunshot in an empty warehouse as bait for the rest of the team. It succeeds, to a degree, and Etta knows that her parents need to get lost before they're captured too. She's bleeding out and knows she'll slow her parents down, so she sets off the counter on an antimatter bomb. I imagine Peter might have been very tempted to stay by Etta's side even as the bomb went off, taking him out of this awful, horrible universe that gave his family a second chance only days before ripping it away again.
Olivia, I suspect, much like two decades ago, will be the driving force to save the world again, although I can say you shouldn't underestimate the rage of a father towards anyone who would harm a single hair on his daughter's head. If Peter doesn't kill Windmark in the season finale, I will be sorely tempted to go into the Television Without Pity site and change every single grade on every episode, retroactively, to an F. That's right, I'll go Bachelor on its ass. I just wonder if Olivia will be more likely to want to still save the world, but Peter will have to be convinced it's still worth saving.
It might even be too early for Peter to realize that it was his venturing into a pawn shop -- where his thoughts were read by an Observer and he drew suspicion -- that touched off the chain of events that ended with his daughter being killed. But that's coming. Oh, is that coming.
Also: the Observers found the Resistance mole who'd been warning them of the Observers' movements, and he unwillingly gives up the Harvard lab. The Fringe team gets out in time but has to reamber the lab to make it appear that no one was been there, or else they'll never get through the rest of the videotapes. I don't know if this was explained, but I guess all of the videotapes are still in the lab as opposed to being scattered around the city. It's just the plans and ingredients -- in this case a huge complicated formula that's too complicated for Walter to read (done by September) stashed in Penn Station
Etta's death felt particularly unsettling because of the reunion with Broyles, who it turns out -- not the biggest surprise -- is a mole for the Resistance, having been recruited by Etta herself, after he met her a few years ago and instantly recognized by him as Olivia's daughter. (He saw her from behind, so let's all hope her recognized her for her hair and posture.) It's a touching reunion, although if I'm Broyles, I'm probably a little bummed that the amber has preserved the Fringers in their youth (Olivia and Peter, anyway) while he now looks at least as old as Walter. He is codenamed "The Dove," which I approve of, probably for Prince-related reasons.
I think Etta's death is going to turn the crusade from a hopeful resistance to an even darker revenge drama, but I'm not ruling out her return; this episode featured Walter revealed yet another secret spot, this one a trove of artifacts from all the Fringe cases they've solved, including the body of porcupine man, and his cracked window into alternative universes. This show's not above a good deus ex machina, and I'll be happy if they use one to save Etta. I know, I know, she was only in for a few episodes. And arguably bringing her back will feel like a cheat that lessens the emotional impact of this episode. But things are already bleak enough -- the Fringe team are desperate enough that for their foray into the heavily guarded Penn Station, they use that gas that seals up people's orifices. Remember that creepy stuff? That stuff isn't incapacitating; it's lethal.
Daniel is a writer in Newfoundland with a wife and a daughter. Look, he cries at the end of Monsters, Inc. What do you think this did to him? Follow him on Twitter (@DanMacEachern) or email him at danieljdaniel@gmail.com.