Fringe TV Show - The Last Sam Weiss - Fringe Recaps, Fringe Reviews, Fringe Episodes | TWoP

Recapped by Daniel · Aired 2011-04-30

Peter's still in his coma, wearing some sort of cap with electrodes and wires protruding from it. Looks about a hundredth as complicated as anything Walter would have him wear. Speaking of Walter, he's asleep in a chair by the window. He wakes up, and walks over to his son, quietly telling Peter that he's there. He touches Peter's brow and takes out his watch so he can take Peter's pulse.

Astrid strolls in, happy to see Walter up -- "I was just resting my eyes," mutters Walter, and then he tells her that Peter's pulse is strong. Astrid also has some positive news: the doctor plans to keep Peter sedated for at least another twelve hours, as she feels the fact his vitals are stable is very good, and she hopes he'll come out of this without any permanent damage. Walter's quite gloomily skeptical, and starts listing the problems that might result -- disrupted neural patterns, memory deficits, aphasia -- so Astrid tries to cheer him up by suggesting they go for a walk, which he only agrees to once she dangles the prospect of tapioca pudding in the cafeteria. Walter kisses his fingers, and then touches them to Peter's forehead before they leave, likely to go offer pessimistic prognoses for other patients in the hospital.

Meanwhile, a family is driving through Holyoke, Massachusetts, on the highway, moderate traffic on the road with them. The teenage son has somehow, possibly through the encouragement of his parents, discovered the Doors and is listening to "Riders on the Storm." I have no problem with listening to the Doors, but it can be a gateway drug to pretentious douchebaggery. I do like this song, though... anyway, he looks to his left and sees storm clouds on the horizon, and the distant sound of thunder, and then he watches as all the hair on his forearm starts to stand straight up. He tells his dad that something weird is happening, but before he gets a chance to tell them what's wrong, lightning hits the SUV in front of them, and it flips and slides on its roof. Nate's mom screams, but fortunately the product-placed vehicle they're driving has apparently excellent brake response. Another lightning bolt strikes directly in front of them, so the dad throws it into reverse and starts slaloming backwards around similarly stopped cars, thanks to the dashboard rear-camera display and magnificent handling in this stylish, affordable vehicle.

They stop, and the dad tells his son that it's all over, and orders his wife and his son to stay there while he goes to have a look. His wife is all, "Gary, no!" and he says they'll be safe in the car, and I would really like to know what he's basing that on.

By Daniel

Anyway, this Gary character gets out of the car (weirdly, not a single other person is getting out of any of the other cars behind them, even just to see what's going on), and jogs up the nearby overpass, where, to another crashed car, he can see the highway stretching out, several more stopped vehicles, and bolts of electricity zapping cars and the ground all over the place.

After the opening credits, Sam and Olivia are in the hangar looking at the Doomsday Machine, with Sam saying that it wasn't supposed to happen this way. Really? Not supposed to happen this way? Freak electrical storms all over the place? Vortexes swallowing people up? He says it doesn't make sense for the machine to be on. Olivia shares Walter's quantum entanglement theory, but Sam says that doesn't make any sense either, because how was the other side able to turn it on when it was built for Peter?

Olivia tells him about what happened when Peter tried to get in, so supposed super-genius Sam Weiss pulls a pen out of his pocket and throws it at the machine, which zaps it, sending it shooting back like a ballpoint missile, embedding it in the back of a computer monitor. Jesus, good thing that didn't hit anyone... speaking of that, where the hell IS everyone? Sam and Olivia are the only people in the hangar! Shouldn't there be, I don't know, ANYONE there? It's a goddamn Doomsday Machine! Someone keep an eye on the thing!

Anyway, Sam says the machine's been tricked into thinking Peter's inside, which is why it's repelling anyone or anything trying to enter. "It's frustrated, in a manner of speaking. That's why you're seeing all this damage out in the world. It's not a doomsday device, but it's acting like one," he says. Olivia wants to know how they stop it, and Sam cryptically says, "In case of emergency, break glass," and Olivia tilts her head quizzically (with a touch of annoyance).

See, Sam's got a scroll with some lettering and diagrams, and he unrolls it, saying he thinks there's a way they can disarm the force field and let Peter in. But Olivia says she's read the First People book cover to cover and there's nothing in it about that.

"Not in your book. This is the manuscript the books are based on. These pages were never published," he says. Oh. So the book is like an instruction manual, but for no given reason some pretty crucial information was just left out of it? That makes even less sense then most of the rest of this! We're getting into nonsensical Alias Rambaldi territory here! Anyway, there's a picture of a box with funky grooves all over it, with a stick thing that is apparently the key that opens the box, and Olivia naturally asks what's inside the box. "According to this, it's a crowbar of sorts," says Sam. "It'll pry the force field open long enough for Peter to get in." Olivia asks if Peter will die, and Sam offers a less-than-confident, "No. I don't think so." He explains that the machine is indestructible, so if Peter gets in, he should be safe. Yeah, but doesn't that rule out the possibility that the machine itself might kill him? I mean, the picture shows Peter with flames shooting out of his eyes. I'm no, what's the word, doctor, but flaming eyeballs are generally not desirable. So anyway, Mario and Luigi go off in search of the key to open the box that's got the crowbar to open the doomsday device, and they've only got one life left each.

By Daniel

Meanwhile, the prospect of an old-school fruit cocktail means Walter has forgotten all about his comatose son. He can't believe it's been so long since he's seen a classic fruit cocktail, and Astrid wryly notes that she supposes loading fruit with sugar, artificial flavors and dyes has just fallen out of favor. Walter, as you can imagine, finds that a shame.

They're brought back to reality by the conversation between a nurse and doctor, discussing a freak lightning storm that's sending a lot of cases their way, and then later they watch as charred and gross victims are wheeled in and triaged. Walter grimly says it's getting worse, and Astrid, the cock-eyed optimist, says they don't know that this has anything to do with the machine. But when Broyles arrives, with a couple of agents, it seems pretty clear. Astrid flags him down to ask what happened. "A spontaneous dry lightning storm just outside Worcester. Twenty-five people injured in similar storms are being reported up and down the Eastern seaboard," he says, with Walter saying he's not surprised by the electro-static fluctuations in the atmosphere. Sure, it's easy to not be surprised about something after you know it's happening.

Broyles begs off when his cellphone rings with the governor's call, and Walter heads back to Peter's room. Astrid says they need to get back to the lab to deal with the fringe event. "Peter would not want you to sit by his bedside and do nothing," she says, but Walter's adamant, saying he's out of ideas, and he wants to spend his remaining time with his son.

By Daniel

With duty having failed, Astrid tries shame, and points out that it was hard for Olivia to leave Peter too, but she's out there trying to find a way to end this. Walter says he tried: "I went so far as to ask God for help. And how did he respond? Nothing." I'm sorry, but Walter saying, "I did too try! I asked God for help, for crying out loud!" is one of the funniest/most implausible things we'll see here tonight.

Fortunately, Astrid's not having it, and says, "God helps those who help themselves," and since that's Benjamin Franklin from Poor Richard's Almanac, that galvanizes Walter into action for some reason, and he decides that they have to investigate. "We can't begin to neutralize this until we understand," he says, and he hurries off down the hall to get his ... kite, he says? Oh sure. Benjamin Franklin, there you go.

Over at St. Arthelais cemetery, Olivia and Sam find themselves in a crypt around a stone sarcophagus that Sam says contains his great-great-great-great-grandfather. Sam isn't the first Sam Weiss, you see, and quadra-great-grampy Sam Weiss here was digging for mastodon bones when he discovered an ancient manuscript instead. But that's not who wrote the book; that was the fifth Sam Weiss. "The third and fourth Sams spent their lives searching for the manuscript's missing sections," says Sam. Yeah, and then... they weren't included in the book? Seems reasonable. Olivia notes their dedication, and Sam points out that a machine with the power to create and destroy worlds shouldn't be taken lightly. No, but searching for it probably doesn't pay all that great.

They pry the lid off the sarcophagus, not enough so we can see a musty old pile of bones but enough so they can pull out the metal container about the size of a shoebox.

But while Olivia, all gung-ho, wants to go get the key, Sam's suddenly having second thoughts, because the crowbar's not to be used unless something goes wrong with the machine. Olivia's like, "Duh!" and she gestures to the lightning crashing down all around outside. Sam wonders if this is just a "cosmic hiccup" that'll course-correct on its own. "Or maybe it will destroy two universes," says Olivia. Sam's all, "Uh, who's the latest in a long line of arcane knowledge keepers dedicated to just this subject?" and he says no one said anything about the other side turning on the machine first. Olivia makes it a little easier for him by pointing out that she's armed, and she wants him to take her to the key. Sam doesn't look happy about it. Most of the rest of the viewing audience who are attracted to women are probably getting a little turned on.

By Daniel

Walter, meanwhile, is having the absolute time of his life outside on campus -- he's got a kite rigged up with wires while he wears rubber gloves and yells at the elves and the sprites to strike him down. "Walter, this can't possibly be safe," yells Astrid over the wind. Meanwhile, in the background, there are a couple of people strolling to class like nothing is going on, and I wish this show could make up its mind whether this is a blitzkrieg harbinger of the apocalypse or not, and if so, could more than the Fringe team and a family in a Ford Focus seem to give a shit about what's going on?

Anyway, Walter's kite is zapped with lightning, but Astrid couldn't get the voltage so she's just gonna go with "high" because the equipment seems to be fried. "We're not even getting any more electrical readings," she says. He asks about barometric pressure, but before she can answer, he's zapped again, and knocked on his ass. He's out cold for a moment, but revives, and when Astrid tells him he got hit by lightning twice, he's positively giddy, and tells "Ostrich" that she's a genius for finding the missing variable and he kisses her. Astrid has no idea what he's talking about. "Repetition, my dear. We have to account for repetition!" And then he orders poor Astrid to pack everything because they're going back to the lab.

Meanwhile, over in the hospital, Peter suddenly opens his eyes. He sits up, and does that thing that people always do in movies in television when they wake up in the hospital: they immediately yank out all the cords and tubes and IV lines that are connecting them to POSSIBLY LIFESAVING EQUIPMENT AND MEDICINE.

He gets out of bed and goes to the closet, where he finds some clothes hanging, as well as an envelope of his personal effects. Cellphone, keys. No Subway Sub Club card though. I hear hospital staff like to nick that kind of thing.

By Daniel

Fully dressed, Peter, looking disoriented, wanders out into the hall. There is apparently only one other person in this wing of the hospital, and that's a nurse, who Peter avoids -- not deliberately, but coincidentally, as she's distracted by having to answer the telephone. She tells the caller that they've got two, maybe three free beds, so they're going to have to send some of them to General.

Peter makes his way to the emergency ward where chaos is still ensuing, and as he watches a nurse passing by stops to ask if he's OK. When he can't seem to remember what his name is, she notices his wristband and asks if he's a patient. Then she's pulled away by a doctor who needs a crash cart. She tells Peter not to move and says she'll be right back, but as soon as she's gone, Peter puts on his jacket and he's out the door, the same door that Olivia stepped outside last week. But where she saw an ominous yet beautiful sunset, Peter sees a nightmarish hellscape of lightning and smoke.

So Peter's gone walkabout on the mean streets of Pittsfield, but I guess he quickly decided "the hell with this" and he just hails a taxi. Getting in, he tells the cabbie to take him to 42nd and Lex, and the cab driver is all "Come again?" and Peter repeats himself, so the cabbie turns around and asks if he's feeling all right: "Forty-second and Lexington is New York, and we are in Pittsfield. That's a pretty steep fare." Peter thinks about it, and then takes out a wallet that he only seems to have just remembered he has, and hands over a credit card. "Forty-second and Lex it is," says the cabbie, swiping the card yet still seeming put out.

Meanwhile, Sam and Olivia arrive at the Whitley Museum, which is surrounded by police and fire vehicles. The museum looks like it's being pretty hard hit by the storms. "Appears we've got another problem. The key is in there," says Sam.

Fortunately, they find a cop with a mild Boston accent to help them out. "Mayah's office has us setting up safety zones at locations of all the lightning stahms," he says, as he escorts them to the museum. The sergeant tells them this storm is about six blocks, but there are bigger ones, and he's barely got enough manpower to keep up.

He brings them to the museum director, who is on the phone telling someone that she doesn't care if it's "the bloody apocalypse," but she's not leaving the museum unattended. "You remember what happened in Baghdad," she says, and hangs up. She's got the short curly hair that always means "city artsy" type. Like Sigourney Weaver in Ghostbusters.

By Daniel

The sergeant introduces Olivia to Dr. Christine Albright, who shows her identification, while Sam Weiss amusingly flashes his Whitley Museum membership card and in all seriousness says, "Patron member since '82." He's as serious as Joe fucking Friday. Albright glances at Olivia, and the two of them share a "can you believe this guy?" moment unnoticed by Sam.

Anyway, the director's got the floor plans they asked for, and Sam points to a room where he says the key is. Albright says it's the Native American wing, which she curated herself, and there's no key there. "I beg to differ," says 29-year patron member Sam Weiss. Olivia ignores the two of them and just wants to know what the most direct route is, but Albright says it's not safe for them to go in. "Battalion commandah said he'd never seen anything like it. Lightning coming out of thin air," says the sergeant. Not just inside the museum but inside every building on the block.

Undeterred, Olivia says it's a chance they'll have to take, so Albright tells them the quickest route is through the front entrance. She asks them to be considerate, because they've lost enough priceless artwork for one day, and Olivia says she has their word.

Back at the Harvard lab, Astrid brings Walter the latest raw data from Massive Dynamic, and he wants them to mark all the spots where lightning has struck more than once, because they want to measure the frequency of multiple strikes, along with the frequency of seismic events and multiple radiation and thermal strikes -- and maybe that will give them a pattern.

So they start plotting the data on clear overlays and then assemble the overlays, where they discover that there are two foci that the events are clustering around. "And a rift seems to be forming on the axis between them, like they're tugging at each other," says Walter. You know, I realize that Fringe is a super-secret division, but it seems to me that the decision makers in the halls of state and federal government know about them -- so why, when shit is going down like this, is it left for two people to clumsily plot co-ordinates on a map to find a pattern? And the backup line of defence in this fight is a more evil Microsoft? Anyway, Astrid notices that one of the foci is the exact spot where the doomsday devices is housed, and the other is Liberty Island. "Walternate," says Walter, suddenly figuring it out.

By Daniel

Over at the Federal Building, Broyles is angrily yelling at someone who apparently will cause mass panic with whatever they've suggested, and I'd like to say that if LIGHTNING STORMS INSIDE BUILDINGS FOR BLOCKS AT A TIME isn't freaking people right the fuck out already, then these are people who can handle their shit, Broyles.

Anyway, Walter rushes in for one of those why-tell-Broyles-over-the-phone-when-I-can-take-the-time-to-drive-over-and-demonstrate-because-it's-not-like-time-is-of-the-essence-or-anything demonstrations, and he sets down a small, clear table on Broyles' desk, and dusts it with iron filings. Admittedly, the demonstration is kinda nifty: he puts a couple of magnets under the table and taps the surface, and the filings shake and shimmy into a magnetic field pattern. Broyles wants to know what his point is.

"The two machines, they're acting just like the magnets. Only in this case, across universes. The pull between them, creating this swath of events," he says, adding that one end is the hangar where the doomsday device is, and the other is Liberty Island. Broyles takes a second to remember that's where the Department of Defense HQ is on the other side. Walter figures that's where Walternate must have built his machine. "But if we move our machine to the same spot as theirs, we stall the pace of destruction," says Walter, moving the magnets together to demonstrate. Broyles can't believe it: "You want to move our machine one hundred miles and over water and park it offshore from the most densely populated city in the country?" Walter simply says yes, adding that Astrid's working out the logistics of stable transport. Yeah, that should take all of half an hour or so. Broyles has a concern: won't the intensity of the events in that area increase when the two machines are brought together?

Walter admits it will, but it will buy them time (how so?), and Olivia's looking for a way to get Peter inside the machine. "We just have to contain the damage until she succeeds and pray that Peter is ready," he adds. Broyles looks perplexed, and then he looks perplexed and resigned, which means that Broyles says yes.

Over at the museum, Sam shows Olivia a clear display case with a rock with cave drawings on it, and he tells her it's the key. She doesn't see it, but he's unperturbed and says that's the beauty of it.

By Daniel

Nearby is a Native American war hammer, but before he can get all smashy smashy, Olivia feels the electricity building in the air. At the last second, she shoves Sam clear as lightning slashes through the room, destroying the skylight and several of the display cases. And now the alarm is going, and Olivia wants to go shut off the alarm and she tells Sam to grab the key, so he smashes the case and picks up the stone tablet.

Out in the hall, the alarm has sent the security fencing rattling towards the floor, and Olivia tries to stop it with the nearby breaker panel, but it was short-circuited by the lightning. It's too far for them to make it on time, so Sam grabs a piece of debris and rolls it down the hall so that it hits a massive urn that tips over and rolls under the gate, stopping it from descending. Olivia's not too frantic that she can't be impressed by that little display, but Sam shrugs it off: "I work in a bowling alley," he says. Yeah, is that bowling alley designed by Rube Goldberg? Because if it isn't, I'm not sure that applies.

Anyway, outside Sam uses a hammer to split open the stone tablet to find the key, which is actually a small metallic rod encased inside. She wants to know how to use it, but Sam has no clue. "I told you, the instructions are incomplete," he says. Jesus, it's only your family's life's works. Olivia fiddles with the box and the key until the key clangs magnetically to the underside of the box, and it unfolds open itself. Inside is a scroll. Great. Is that the map to get to the key that opens another box that contains a key card?

Sam unrolls the scroll. More arcane scribbling, but the drawing on it, a woman with her head bowed and eyes closed, is unmistakably Olivia. At least her eyes aren't on fire.

Commercial break, and then we're back at the lab, where Walter is studying the diagram, theorizing that if it's a companion to the other picture, then it means that she and Peter both have a connection to the machine. Sam's no help: "All I know is the original manuscript is very clear on this point. The lockbox contains the crowbar."

So Walter's got it sussed out: Olivia's got the ability to turn off the force field long enough for Peter to get inside. Oh, and also that "Crowbar" would make a pretty bad-ass nickname, I think. Anyway, Olivia has no idea how she's supposed to get in anyway, so Walter turns to the drawing. He notices that there are waves behind Olivia's head on the right side of the page, and similar waves around the machine on the left side of the page, so he rolls the scroll back up, picture on the outside this time, revealing the answer. It's kind of like a reverse Mad fold-in. Olivia's incredulous, and Sam's all, "Telekinesis!" and Olivia says, "I can't." And Walter has to remind her that she in fact can and has done it in the past. I mean, it's kind of bullshit to have to say, "Remember that time you defused a bomb with your mind?" But it's arguably worse for Olivia to insist that she can't do it when she's done it before. What she means is that it was different, but Walter's only willing to concede that it was less advanced. But there is one snag: "Since it's the machine on the other side that's turned on, that's the machine you'll have to interact with," he says. Olivia's aghast at the implication that she might need to cross over, but that's not the case. He says the same part of her mind that allows her to cross over contains her telekinesis ability, so they should be able to work together in combination. "Control the machine over there from over here," says Sam. Now you're on the trolley!

By Daniel

Olivia says it's ridiculous, and even if it were possible, manipulating a light is nothing compared to manipulating the machine. Walter concedes the point. So she'll need to practice! She needs to find a teacher on the planet of Dagobah... Actually, Walter hauls out the typewriter that Fauxlivia used to use to communicate with the other side, and it's quantum entangled with the one over there, so it's perfect for testing her abilities.

He rolls a sheet of paper into the typewriter, and tells Olivia to clear her mind and to look into the mirror he has set up. "Imagine that you're looking at the typewriter on the other side. Now, press those keys using your mind."

She tries for like TWO SECONDS and nothing happens so she's ready to call it quits. Walter tells her it's like meditating, and she should focus on something specific, like a word or a phrase. She gives it another whirl, and stares intently into the mirror.

Meanwhile -- did it really take all this time? What kind of crappy-ass hospital was Peter staying in anyway? -- a nurse strolls into Peter's room, and is surprised not to find him there. She finds the envelope on which he's written "I AM GOING HOME" and she quickly grabs the phone.

By Daniel

Back at telekinesis training, Olivia is having no luck. She looks sick about it too, and when Walter comes into his office with a cup of tea, Olivia suggests he give her some Cortexiphan. He says it would do her more harm than good. "These abilities are inside you, Olivia. You simply need to harness them," he says. She says she doesn't know how, and she never has.

He quietly says that he knows what it feels like to feel unequal to the task, and it has to do with the fact that a long time ago his friend carved pieces out of his brain. Again with this! Well, he's really only referring to it obliquely, but he says that he's come to embrace those parts of his mind that are "peculiar and broken," because that's what makes his mind special.

After a long, long pause, he says he wishes she could see herself the way he sees her. "You have no idea how extraordinary you are," he says, adding that if she embraces it, there's no end to what she could do. Olivia's clearly touched, but still not convinced: "Believing doesn't make it true," she says, and he urges her to try. You can't really not try for someone who thinks you're extraordinary, so Olivia gives it another shot. So she stares into the mirror for a good thirty seconds, and the music swells, and you're thinking that she's going to get it done... but nothing. I mean, OBVIOUSLY it's going to happen, but they tricked me that time! Walter says it's OK, and suggests taking a break before they try again. Olivia nods, but then Astrid comes in with the news that Peter's missing, so that's obviously going to cut telekinesis practice short today.

And while the doomsday device is floated out to Liberty Island on a barge accompanied by a helicopter escort, Peter wanders the streets and asks a stranger about a pawn shop that Peter is sure must be nearby. The stranger, after some prodding, suggests he try Third. Peter finds it, and the guy behind the counter looks up -- possibly due to the surprise of seeing someone in the otherwise empty shop -- and then goes back to whatever work he's doing. Probably planning to cancel Customer Appreciation Day for lack of necessity. Peter wanders over to the counter to look at the coins.

He points and asks to see one of the displays, and the owner, sounding skeptical, asks if Peter's a collector. Peter says he was when he was a kid. So the owner pulls out the tray and tells Peter they're all graded and authenticated. "Price-wise, everything in here, five hundred and up," he says. Well, Peter can afford to take a cab to New York, so that's probably not a problem. Peter picks up a silver half-dollar, says it's his favourite, and always brings him luck. The store owner likely doubts this, or at the very least is a little concerned by Peter's bandaged face.

By Daniel

Back at Harvard, Astrid gets off the phone and says the house was searched and Peter wasn't there. Walter frets that Peter might not be able to remember the address, steamrolling right over Astrid's rejection of pessimism by pointing out that they don't have a clue how the machine affected Massive Head Wound Peter (apart from dropping him on his coconut, I suppose). He growls at Astrid more than is strictly necessary, and then his face softens and he apologizes, but this is old news to Astrid at this point and she forgives him.

Olivia comes in to let them know that Peter's credit card has been used twice in the past two hours: eight-hundred dollars to the Western Massachusetts Cab Company and six hundred dollars to a pawn shop in Manhattan. Walter looks perplexed. If he's any kind of dad, he's thinking, "Eight-hundred for a cab? I'll KILL him!" But he just says, "What would he be looking for in New York?"

Well, Peter has taken a harbour taxi over to Liberty Island, which is currently being evacuated. He looks up at the Statue of Liberty -- do they have one of those in Vancouver? And he gets stopped by a guard who tells Peter he can't be here. "I have to talk to my father. I have something to show him. It's really important," says Peter. "And who, out of a stinger to go to commercial on, is your father?" asks the guard, and Peter says, "Walter Bishop. The secretary of defense." He says it like the guard should KNOW that.

Back at Harvard, everyone's just kinda sitting around. Olivia brings Sam some tea. He's reading an old magazine that either has an extremely text-heavy ad featuring George Burns on the back cover, or magazines used to run articles on the back cover. Sam says he's reading and then corrects that to trying to read. But it's not a slam at Olivia for bothering him but a "pathetic attempt to distract myself with ancient gossip. Better than thinking about what I've done," he says. "I intervened." Olivia reminds him that she didn't exactly give him an option not to.

By Daniel

Broyles comes in to tell them that Peter has been found. By people ACTIVELY LOOKING FOR HIM, I presume he means. He's on Liberty Island, says Broyles, and the machine is there now too, and there's transport waiting for them at the heliport. Walter goes to grab his coat and some Dramamine, and Broyles tells Sam that it's official personnel only from here on out. You think maybe an exception might be made for the guy who's the latest in a long line of experts on the machine? No one sticks up for Sam, and Olivia says, "Whatever's happening, it's not over," and they wish each other luck, and then we see a shot of Sam staring out over the water at... Liberty Island in the distance? He's come to New York too? Maybe he had his own transport at the heliport. Anyway, the Newton's Cradle is clacking merrily away behind him.

Peter's nursing a cup of coffee on the island when the Fringe team rushes up, Walter wondering what on earth made Peter go there. Olivia gives him a hug, but Peter seems really confused by Walter. He's almost childlike as he stands there, baffled, before he says, "There are two of you, aren't there." He says he thinks he's been confused. Been rewatching old episodes and trying to make everything add up too, hey?

So Walter gives Peter a physical, which he passes. The last thing he remembers is trying to get into the Doomsday Machine. Also, he knows that Walter is not the secretary of defense, as the sweater is a dead giveaway, and you can tell it's Peter again when he starts slagging off his dad for no reason. Walter says the fact his memory's returned is a sign that the confusion is temporary, which sounds a bit tautological to me, but then Walter spies the half-dollar Peter's playing with and seems a little spooked by it and grabs it and wants to know where Peter got it, but before we find out what Walter's deal is, loud thunder rattles the room. "The machine," he says, and he runs out to the hangar where Broyles says he thought Walter had a plan, but Walter says the system wasn't designed for sudden fluctuations, and as long as the machine is on, there's nothing they can do.

Olivia and Peter, meanwhile, are having a touching moment where Olivia talks about how worried she was. Peter says he's fine, and they should try to figure out how to initiate Olivia's crowbar function. She tells him about trying to concentrate on a specific phrase, and Peter asks her what it was.

By Daniel

Meanwhile, back at the lab, where poor Astrid is usually forced to hang out if she's needed to be kidnapped or advance a plot somehow, she hears the sound of typewriter keys clacking, so she goes into Walter's office, where she's amazed to see the typewriter spitting out its message despite the fact the keys aren't moving. Right away she's on the phone with Olivia, all, "Are you doing that?" and explains that the typewriter is typing, "Be a better man than your father," over and over again. Judging by Olivia's reaction, yeah, that's her.

And now Broyles is stomping through the hangar that's the new home of the Doomsday Machine, yelling for everyone who isn't essential personnel to get the hell on a boat right now. Meanwhile, Walter is coaching Olivia to think of the Doomsday Machine as a giant typewriter, which is kind of worrying because she only barely just got that one to start going.

Anyway, Peter's here now, and he's staring at the machine, and Olivia walks over and he asks if she's ready, and she's not, and she asks him the same thing, and he's not, like THE WORLD IS FALLING APART COULD YOU MAYBE SPEED THIS UP A BIT, and they hold hands. "Don't say I never took you anywhere," says Peter, and I don't believe it's the first time he's said that. So they walk up to the machine, Peter looking a lot more confident than Peter. "You can do this," he says, smiling, and Olivia takes a few more steps forward on her own. She stares at the machine -- we get a good look at the hand clamps and the curvy grooves etched onto the inside of the panels. And she closes her eyes and thinks for a moment and the machine powers down and the hand clamps open. Well, that was certainly much easier than a typewriter.

Quick hop over to the other universe, where Brandonate sees their Doomsday Machine turn off, and he immediately gets on the intercom for someone to notify the Secretary that something's happening to the machine.

Back over here, Peter tells Olivia that she did it. It's his turn now, but Olivia won't let him leave without jamming her tongue down his throat. She says she loves him first, and then they kiss, and then instead of saying it back, he says, "Wish me luck." Bit of a stretch -- as another Star Wars Day comes and goes -- to call this a Han Solo moment, if you ask me.

She smiles, and nervously watches him go. He turns to look at his father, who tries to smile through his fear. This time, Peter opts for the stairs, rather than that little motorized lift he took last time, and climbs into the machine -- accompanied by a rapid-fire montage of images of himself, Olivia, Walter. Second-last episode of the season is a clip show!

By Daniel

He steps forward into the footholders, which clamp shut 'round his feet (poor Walter says "oh, god"), and reaches first into one arm holder, and then -- with another montage, this time almost exclusively scenes of Olivia -- puts the other one in. I'm not going to slow down the playback so I can examine each one to make sure they're all plausible as Peter's own memories, but feel free to do it yourself.

Anyway, the arm holds clamp shut, and Peter's body instantly arcs with the sound of an electric current, and it's only a few seconds before Peter's eyes open. He's in a fuzzy sideways world! Hold on, he's just getting his sight back and he's lying on his side, in some sort of hellish urban battleground. He staggers to his feet, hair amusingly combed back to highlight the receding hairline and overdone crow's feet on his face. Kinda like the lines you put on your Nintendo Wii avatar.

He wanders around dazed, explosions going off everywhere and people running every which way, until he stumbles on a large plaque that reads "We will never forget September 11, 2001/Dedicated to their memory, September 11, 2021." He looks up to see the memorial Freedom Tower. Two days after his episode aired, Osama Bin Laden was killed. Coincidence? Good work, Fringe!

Anyway, Peter's still taking this in, when some soldier tackles Peter to save him from an attack, and Peter's surprised to see a Fringe Division badge on the guy's uniform. The agent himself, having already yelled at "Agent Bishop" before, calls him "sir" now, and starts screaming for the medic, because Peter's been hit.

Daniel is a writer in Newfoundland with a wife and a daughter. It's the end of the world as he knows it, and he feels fine. Follow him on Twitter (@DanMacEachern) or email him at danieljdaniel[at]gmail.com.

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