By LuluBates
Nina, the Massive Dynamic exec, is rushed to the hospital. She has been shot. When she awakens she tells Dunham that is was that multi-named escaped fiend, David Robert Jones whodunit. Adding insult to injury, he swiped an energy cell from her fake arm. That's just rude. Turns out Jones used to work at Massive Dynamic, which sort of explains why he seems to know everything. I assume I don't need to mention that he was fired. For being evil! His evil doing is going to be brought to new heights since he swiped the energy cell. First up? Standing in the middle of a street and disappearing half a truck. And by disappearing I mean "the window closed" taking half the semi with it and leaving the other half in the middle of the street to confound the FBI team. Also, the truck doesn't appear to exist. That has got to be annoying. Then Jones decides to up his evil cred and takes half a kid with him when he drops his magical window in the middle of a soccer game. I wonder how the FBI explains that to the kid's parents. Olivia gets to work. He can't go around halving children and think he can get away with it. Not on her watch.
Meanwhile, Walter is missing, but no one can figure out whether or not to be concerned. Walter is in a cemetery with the bald white guy (think less Mike Chiklis, more Powder) who seems to be helping Walter remember something he has forgotten. Walter ends up at his beach house and Peter shows up looking for him. Walter still can't remember what it is he wants to remember. But in the house he finds some magical, I mean, scientific, device that can be used to cross over into an alternate world. Yes, that's where this show is going: alternate worlds. Walter explains that he crossed over seeking something important that he loved and lost. He says that if you want to cross over you have to find the right location or "soft spot." Now that he has this gizmo, they can. The team rushes off to find the soft spot where they can cross over into the other world.
They find the soft spot at the same time as David Robert Jones. They face off, with Olivia getting a good shot in, but it doesn't stop Jones. The Good Guys win (yay!) when Peter uses Walter's gizmo to close off the portal, cutting Jones in half. I would say good riddance, but somehow I am convinced he is not really dead. Being cut in half seems a small obstacle to continuing your contract on this show.
Olivia has been instructed to stop all investigation into William Bell. But when Nina calls with instructions to meet her so she can arrange a visit with Bell in the alternate reality where he is currently residing, she leaps at the chance. It looks like Nina is standing her up, but when Olivia leaves in a huff, the elevator ride takes her to this alternate world where the World Trade Center towers are still standing and Leonard Nimoy is William Bell.
To Peter's delight, Walter leaves him a note before he goes on a little adventure. Where's he headed? Back to the cemetery and he is very sad. He leaves a special coin on the headstone. The headstone reads "Peter Bishop 1978-1985." Zoinks! I see dead people!
The paramedics rush someone in to the ER. The paramedics on this show are much less attractive, I mean, much more realistic than they ever were on ER, which is kind of funny for a show that is soooo not realistic. I mean, as far as this reality is concerned. The doctor asks about breath sounds and some other medically stuff, but the paramedic wants to get done with the small talk because he has something much more interesting to show her. He pulls back a blood-soaked blanket to reveal a highly futuristic bionic arm. The camera pans up to reveal that the victim is Nina Sharp, the de facto head of Massive Dynamic. What sort of crap bionic arm can't deflect bullets? If that's the future in this reality, I'd rather go live in the parallel universe where Wonder Woman exists.
Agent Dunham gets the briefing on Nina's shooting. Agent Francis is already cueing up the security footage. They watch as three men, one heavily wrapped in bandages, the others masked, walk in, shoot the guard and then wait until Nina arrives. They surround her, and the tape goes blank for four minutes and then they walk out leaving Nina on the floor of the elevator. Quick question: if you have the ability to delete the security tape, why not do the whole thing? The FBI is more concerned with what the masked men did to Nina that they didn't want anyone seeing. The boss, Broyles, helpfully points out that whatever it was they did it in only four minutes. Like is this one of those firing up situations? Because that was an incredibly dumb thing to say. More helpfully, Olivia asks them to enhance what the bandaged guy said. They enhance it and then run it through voice recognition. The man in question? David Robert Jones, the man so nice they named him twice. You remember him, right? The Hannibal Lecter-channeler from the prison in Germany who broke his attorney's neck for a suit of clothes and then beamed away to annoy Olivia? Yeah that guy is wearing a mummy's-worth of bandages and sunglasses, and a fedora, because if you're going to go for the Invisible Man look, you might as well own it. Olivia doesn't understand why he's wearing the bandages, either, which is somewhat reassuring. At the sight of David Robert Jones she insists that Broyles let her bring in William Bell for questioning. They have good evidence that he is funding the activities of ZFT and many of the acts have been carried out by David Robert Jones. Even William Bell is not above the law! She almost stamps her foot, but Broyles stops her. He agrees with her, but would like it if she would stop cutting him off before he can agree with her. She smiles wanly, glad that she didn't make too much of an ass out of herself.
Peter wanders into the lab from god knows where and asks Astrid (poor, poor Astrid) where his father is. She shrugs, because she was too busy on Craig's List looking for a real job to keep track of Walter. Olivia arrives at that point, also wanting to see Walter. Astrid and Peter get a little nervous then. As Astrid goes to check the cafeteria (off camera naturally) Olivia tries to tell Peter that David Robert Jones shot Nina Sharp, but Peter is in the middle of a phone call trying to track down his dad. No one knows where Walter is and Olivia starts to feel a little guilty about yelling at Walter at the pastry shop about the Cortexifan trials. Peter lets her off the hook way too easily for someone who made his old man cry, in public! He more or less shrugs, which I think is unrealistic considering the developing relationship between Peter and Walter. Peter is sure that Walter is just back at the hotel eating ice cream and reading US Weekly. So he's sulking. Or PMSing. Or maybe took acid again?
Cut to Walter not at all in a hotel room, but, rather, in a cemetery staring mournfully at a grave. In the woods watching him is the bald headed pale guy we'll call Powder in a shout out to a 90s film I never actually saw. Over at the hospital, Nina awakes to the unrelenting and intense gaze of Agent Broyles. As Nina stares at the damage done to her arm, and her fingers are wiggling like a bug on a pin, or what I assume a bug on a pin looks like, not having committed that particular atrocity myself, Broyles tells her that it was David Robert Jones. He wants to know what he did to her arm, but she won't tell him. Dunham, she wants Dunham. Well that probably hurt Broyles' feelings.
A black van pulls up on a rainy street. The Invisible Man gets out with his team. They set up a bunch of equipment in the middle of the street. They are in the shadow of the Williamsburg Bridge in Brooklyn, which is actually where they do nine-tenths of their filming, but let's just keep up the illusion that this show is filmed in Boston, eh? As a viewer who lives like five blocks from where they do all the bulk of their filming it is particularly annoying. Anyway, if anyone cares to stalk me and yell at me about my overuse of parentheticals, my house is five blocks from this scene and I buy coffee on that there street corner and my friend lives across the street and my aged Chihuahua has definitely peed on that lamppost. So there you go.
At the hospital, a team of Massive Dynamic experts is working on Nina's arm. When they finish, Nina tells Broyles and Dunham that Jones used to work for Massive Dynamic, but was let go. She won't go into the details, but she assures them that Jones knows a lot about the inner workings of the mega-corporation. She goes on to tell them that in the last few weeks Jones has been lurking around MD HQ looking for William Bell. He sent flowers, an edible arrangement, even sat under their boardroom window with a boombox and played "In Your Eyes" really loudly until security tackled him. Dunham wants to bring Bell into protective custody, but she can't because Nina doesn't know where he is. She hasn't seen Bell in months, they only communicate via email. But she knows Jones is looking for him and if he finds Bell first, all the answers Olivia is searching for will die with William Bell. She then promises Olivia that if she saves Bell and stops Jones, that she will personally arrange a meeting with William Bell. Olivia looks intrigued by the arrangement. But first, a question: what did Jones do to Nina's arm? Nina grimaces as she explains that Jones stole a very powerful all purpose energy cell that William Bell hid in her arm. A cell so powerful that he can do almost anything he wants with it. Um, hold up, he hid something in your arm?? I hope you get paid a lot for that job, honey. Also, serious worker's comp claim. HR is going to hate this.
Meanwhile, Jones is still in the middle of the street in (ahem) Boston and puts what I can only assume is the aforementioned energy cell (which looks like a cross between a CO2 cartridge and a AA battery with a radiation warning on it, just in case you run across one) into a box on a stand. The team of evildoers mutters about whether something is working and a weird patch of light shows up. A semi truck appears to be barreling towards them. It hits the light patch and someone does a pretty good Scotty impersonation and yells "It can't hold!" and then the patch disappears as does the back tires of the truck that is still barreling toward Jones and his fucked up face that is peeking through the bandages. The back of the truck drags on the street, shooting sparks in the air and comes to a halt mere feet from Jones. He takes off his sunglasses to make us all barf at his peely skin and blanched eyeball. I know no one cares but me, but my kid's first word was eyeball and I still think it's hilarious.
Powder and Walter stand on a beach staring at something off camera. He hands Walter a coin and asks him if he recognizes it. Walter asks him how he got it. It's like a liberty dollar or something. Walter asks him where he got it and Powder explains, er, better put that in quotes -- he "explains" that it looked the like coin he was thinking of, but it comes from another place because there is more than one of everything. See why the quotes were important? He adds that he said too much, but is not supposed to get involved. He has taken him as far as he can, but he has to leave him now. He wants to know if Walter remembers the house (which is what they are staring at) and Walter does, but he does not remember what he is supposed to be finding in that house. Powder speaks like he is a Zen master, which could actually explain the bald head. But not the black suit. And wasn't he driving people to their deaths last time he was here? Probably annoying them so much with his damn sparse yet nonsensical jibber jabber that suicide was the only option. I'm damn near sticking the old head in the goldfish bowl and I've only been watching him for a few minutes. Powder tells Walter he must try to remember and there isn't much time. He then turns and walks away leaving Walter on the beach, looking confused. He walks up to the house, which we now see is boarded up.
Astrid is hard at work trying to make herself relevant when Nina Sharp walks into the lab. Astrid looks surprised to see her and Nina assures her that the reports of her death were greatly exaggerated. Broyles follows Nina into the lab and they question Astrid about the last time she saw Walter and whether he was acting strangely. Astrid stares at them for a minute, because, seriously guys how can you ask that question with a straight face. Of course Walter was acting strangely that is his entire raison d'etre. Astrid coyly replies that he was acting no stranger than usual. When she asks whether she should be concerned, Peter joins the conversation. Nina and Broyles (I can't write Sharp and Broyles, it sounds like an appliance manufacturer) explain that David Robert Jones has been on the attack and he took something that Walter most likely knows about. You would think they would narrow it down since Walter knows something about damn near everything. Well except social etiquette. Astrid reminds them that Walter gets lost more often than they probably realize. Broyles tells them not to worry and smiles, but then he and Sharp both call their teams and put out APBs. Nina's phone isn't so much a phone as, well, pyrex? Or you know when Superman is in the Fortress of Solitude and he moves stuff around by rearranging large crystalline stalactite looking rods? It kind of looks like one of those. She's so future.
Back in the Boston that closely resembles my neighborhood, Dunham and Francis (looking dapper in a little cap, that actually seems kind of inappropriately cute for an FBI agent, don't they have government issued headwear?) interview witnesses. They remember seeing some men fiddling with a black box, then something shimmered, and a truck appeared out of nowhere and was then cut in half. One witness recalls seeing a masked man, but when pressed she thinks it was bandages. Why would Jones summon up a truck that was aimed directly at him? Back at the lab, Nina pulls out a copy of a photo. It's Walter and it was taken off a security camera at a commuter train station out somewhere. When Peter hears the location, he realizes where Walter is. They own a beach house near there and Walter used to love it. Since Walter had a rough couple of days (thanks to Olivia McYellalot) Walter probably headed out there to recuperate from the tongue lashing. Feel guilty yet, Olivia? Nina suggests sending her agents out to get him, but Peter wants to do it himself.
Back at the crash site, Francis gets his report on the vehicle. The truck isn't registered, the vin number and the serial parts numbers don't exist. The truck was never made. They have no idea where it came from. You would think Agent Francis would stop being surprised by these things. I mean, come on, it's an untraceable truck. On the scale of spine-sucking monsters and oversized flu bugs, that is pretty darn tame. Meanwhile, Peter drives out to the beach house looking for Walter. The place is filled with dusty furniture and memories for Peter. He finds a photo of the family and stares at it for a moment before putting it down and continuing to look for Walter. He wanders the halls of the seemingly large home and finally finds him sitting in a room flipping the coin anxiously through his fingers. He is very agitated and distracted. He says hello to Peter and then paces trying to remember what it is that he is looking for. He just can't remember.
Back at FBI HQ, Dunham argues with Sharp. She suspects that Nina knows a lot more about this than she is telling them. She wants her to stop playing games and help her connect the dots between a truck appearing out of nowhere and a stolen energy cell. Sharp coyly replies that nothing comes out of nowhere and she thinks Olivia is already guessing what is going on and where William Bell is. At that Olivia leans over the table and aggressively tells Sharp to stop playing games and tell her where Bell is. Sharp is unimpressed with Olivia's antics, and really Olivia, you are no Eliot Stabler. Leave the bad cop to the pros or at least to those with less delicate features. Olivia swears that if Nina doesn't tell her where Bell is, she will turn this world over looking for him. Nina smiles at that, because William Bell isn't actually in this world.
At a soccer game in Providence, Rhode Island, a nefarious black van pulls up onto the field. A heavily bandaged evildoer steps out. Back at FBI HQ, Nina, Olivia, and Broyles try to explain the alternate reality thing to poor addle headed Agent Francis. Nina explains that it's not another world, just a different version of this one. At that poor Francis stops them and says Dudes, I don't even understand a truck with no tags, how am I supposed to grasp this alternate universe thing? I don't know. Maybe the hybrid monster babies that were trying to hatch in me, like, ate part of my brain, because no matter how much weird shit I see with you all, I don't seem to ever remember my wacky experiences and apply them to new situations. And thus we end up in these conversations. Can I please go back to acting my pay grade? And how about them Red Sox, eh? Olivia tries to explain again. Did Francis ever get déjà vu? He nods, but is definitely getting pissed that they are making him even try to understand. Olivia goes on anyway. Déjà vu is a glimpse of this alternate reality. Broyles jumps in, too, adding that while most people can get a glimpse some can go further and travel there. The truck came from the other side where they have totally different vin numbers on cars. That's why they can't trace it. Nina is pretty darn sure that Jones is trying to travel to the other side. Luckily for poor Agent Francis, everyone's phones start ringing. Something has happened.
Back at the beach house Walter is frantically looking through closets ranting about starting something a long time ago. Peter tries to calm him down as he starts throwing boxes and almost literally tearing out his hair. Walter cannot be stopped as he tosses the house looking for...something. He still doesn't know what it is. Peter follows him into the living room calmly reminding him that it is getting late and they need to start heading back. I know he's his son and all, but the way Walter is acting I'd be calling Astrid to bring out some halderal more than reminding him of the time. Peter leans against the window and decides a trip down memory lane will soothe the increasingly savage soul of his poor pops. So he talks about coming down there as a child and staring at the ocean and waking before his alarm for pancakes. So obviously he is a big old liar. 'Cause who sets their alarm during vacation? LIAR! Peter reminds Walter that the smell of pancakes meant that Walter was there. He would always make the pancakes in the shape of ... Walter excitedly finishes his sentence: Whales! Whales were Peter's favorite. My pancakes look like whales, too, but not, you know, on purpose. Seriously can anyone make a round pancake? I think it's all a myth perpetuated by the pancake association. Also, some (I can only assume hopelessly breakfast-oriented lousy-spelling tap dancer of a) graffiti artist has scrawled "Time to do Pankake Dance" on the building to mine and every time I see it, it makes me hungry, but not dance. Fail? Anyhoo, the mere mention of whale-shaped pancakes fills Walter with glee because he now remembers what he is looking for and where it is. In the belly of a pancake whale? Not that far-fetched I guess since William Bell was hiding things in his employee's arm.
Back at the soccer field, some extra in an FBI jacket is picking up something that looks like a helmet off the ground. Which does not bode well for the helmet wearer. Agent Francis is interviewing a witness. The guy explains that he was on the soccer field and he saw a shimmer of light, like in a heat wave, like something was there, but it wasn't. The slightly dim Agent Francis asks, "what do you mean like it was there, but wasn't?" Like he didn't just get an entire briefing on the fact that Jones is in hot pursuit of an alternate reality and the truck, remember the truck Francis? Oh well. Maybe the hybrid scorpion monster eggs ate just a wee bit of his brain. Francis goes to fill Dunham in and I'm really hoping she has additional resources to draw upon because Agent Francis just does not seem to get it. He tells her that the kids are playing on the soccer field, the window appears, and the guy runs into the window. The FBI agent lifts the blanket to reveal three quarters of a body (gag!). The man's head and one shoulder and arm are missing. Shorn clean off. Agent Francis asks how something like that could happen. Can someone get Agent Francis a flowchart please! Olivia manages to barely respond at all to the decapitated plus body. She and Francis try and figure out why Jones would appear first in New York and now in Providence. What is he looking for? Cheap real estate?
Back in Boston, wait, really? Did they improve Acela service or something, because that was quick. Agent Dunham assigns some poor lackey the task of looking back through all the agency's files to find anything related to science, biology, or unexplained phenomenon. Wow, that seems like unnecessary roughness. Eh, he probably took the last cinnamon bun at the breakfast meeting. That'll teach him. Dunham starts pouring through the many many many files that come pouring into her office. She puts up a picture of Jones sans bandages (do cops really do that? Every cop show has them finding a picture of their villain and tacking him up to their vision board.) and then using thumbtacks maps out all the incidences involving biology or science or unexplained phenomenon. It looks like a Mastermind game board when she's done. I guess they don't have a computer program that can do this. The FBI should really consider doing some cross-agency hooking up with CTU on 24. I mean they could get that shit done in about two minutes while Jack is under fire with his thumb holding back the detonator on a nuclear weapon with one hand, raining down fire and brimstone with the other and still managing the time to make sweet sweet love to his woman while unraveling a vast criminal conspiracy. Agent Dunham stares at her cute little thumbtack map (note to self: move to west coast) and then charges out of the room. She has a thought. She asks Broyles to call Nina Sharp. She thinks she found a connection between the mean streets of New York and the park in Providence.
Walter is digging through a chest (not a human chest for once) and unpacking everything until he finally sees what he was looking for. He pauses for a moment, picks up a coin identical to the one that Powder gave him on the beach, and then takes out a small grey box. Meanwhile, Olivia shows Nina and Broyles what she discovered, only now it's on a computer screen. Some poor guy in the IT department probably had to upload it. Nina shrugs, she's had a team at Massive Dynamic looking at all the incidents of activity related to "The Pattern" for two years. They were never able to find a connection between the spots. Olivia smiles and says almost smugly, yeah it took me a while too. Like shut up, Agent McBraggy. Olivia points out the spots where Jones set up his magical doohickey and pattern of lines radiate out from the areas. It looks like a child's drawing of a sun. Nina has an explanation. Obviously. Back at the beach, it's getting really dark as Peter picks the lock on the grey box and Walter pulls out a gadget of some sort. Peter asks what it is and Walter explains that he and William Bell used to take a lot of acid. Peter doesn't look surprised. Walter goes on that he and Bell used to see glimpses of another reality with slightly different versions of themselves and they were convinced it was real. They could prolong their visits by using LSD, but were working on ways to get there without the use of drugs. Aw Walter, you could almost make Nancy Reagan proud with that say no to drugs attitude of yours. Bell used his Cortexiphan trials to prepare children to be able to cross over. Peter suddenly gets a little cynical about this whole other world thing. I guess once you start testing drugs on children people tend to get snippy. Peter's change in attitude stops Walter short. He tells him that around that time Walter lost something very important to him, something he held very dear, and he was convinced that if he could cross over to the other side he could reclaim it and bring it back. Peter snarkily asks if he was just going to open up a hole and walk on over to the other side. Ah crap, now I have The Doors stuck in my head. I haatttteeeeee The Doors. Walter explains that crossing over is more complicated than that. You have to find the right spot first. Nina Sharp is explaining to Dunham and Broyles why finding the right spot is key. You apparently have to find a "soft spot" where the fundamental laws of nature don't really apply. Oh shit. Did my dog take a crap on a spot where the fundamental laws of nature don't apply? Does that mean I didn't need to clean it up? Blimey. Nina goes on that the membrane between the two realities is very thin. The Bermuda Triangle is one of the areas (yeah yeah, and the refrigerator in Ghostbusters), but they used to be relatively rare. Used to be? Nina explains that all the human meddling with nature and scientific progress had increased the rate of decay between the two worlds. Jones is using his machine, searching for soft spots, in the hopes of crossing over. Walter finishes the explanation to Peter. If someone opens a hole on this side, he can cross over, but if the hole remains open things from that side can also cross over. And that would be bad. Remember the Stay Puft marshmallow man? Like that bad. Luckily the gadget that Walter holds in his hand (which really looks like it was pieced together from parts from a plumbing supply store) is a plug that will shut any hole between the two worlds. Peter scratches his head and sums up the scenario: So we have to go plug a hole to the alternate world? Walter eagerly nods his head. He knows just where the hole is, too. Man he should really work with Agent Dunham. Wouldn't it be great if the FBI teamed up with these two? Oh wait...Nina, Olivia, and Broyles are still studying the map of incidents. When Olivia asks which of the incidents is the oldest, Broyles remembers something upstate. They renew their focus in that area and realize that all the lines are heading towards Reiden Lake. Which, of course, is where Peter and Walter are headed. Come on peeps, pick up a phone!
Jones and his van of miscreants set up shop in a wooded area that the helpful floating title card tells us is Reiden Lake. He tells his men to hurry up because they are going to the other side. If you knew where the spot was all along, what the heck took you so long? Criminals are dumb. You know, I titled this recap "The Physicist's Nightmare" because I was talking to a friend of mine who is a real life physics professor and I was asking him about this show over dinner and he pretty much slammed his head into the table until he passed out. But now, I am thinking I should have called it "Keeping Up With the Joneses." So please pretend.
Walter and Peter drive their trusty station wagon to Reiden Lake. Peter snorts that it is awfully convenient that he opened the hole to the alternate world so close to their beach house. Walter says the proximity was intentional so he could stay close. Wait. Yep. I just rewound to double check, but dude, there is no way your beach house is close to Reiden Lake. According to Dunham's map, Reiden Lake is in upstate New York. Which is about three hours to any beach in any direction. So, look, we need to have a talk. How about I'll believe in this whole alternate world malarkey if you will at least ascribe to basic geography. Do we have a deal? Thanks. Walter is anxious about being late and Peter doesn't get the time crunch, but Walter explains that his friend came and warned him. And he only comes when there are dire consequences. What friend is that? The bald one, that Olivia calls The Observer, the one that attacked Peter in the woods, but undoubtedly had a very good reason for doing it. Peter doesn't look particularly relieved by that addition to the crazy, but it doesn't matter, because they are there! When Peter stops the car, Walter opens his box and pulls out the plug. He pauses and then reminds Peter that he may not remember it, but when he was a boy, he was very sick and close to dying, and to distract himself he would play with coins. He hands Peter the coin he found in the box. Peter takes it, but tells Walter he doesn't remember anything about it. Just then the car doors are thrown open and Peter and Walter are dragged out of the car. It looks bad until Olivia runs up and announces that they are with her. They are all surprised to see each other. Luckily they are all on the same page about plugging a hole in the universe. Just then a white light shines through the trees. The FBI surrounds Jones' team who are all standing, typing frantically on keyboards. When Agent Francis directs one of his men to move out, he gets shot by the guard on Jones' team. Jones tells his team not to stop. Peter takes the gadget from Walter and promises to close the hole before Jones can cross over. Jones and his men are still typing and zeroing in on some coordinates apparently. The FBI, headed by Olivia, moves in. She kills his guard, then shoots his IT guy, but it's too late -- the window has opened. She barks at Jones not to move, but he ignores her. She shoots him once, he stumbles, loses his glasses, and keeps going. She shoots him again. He stumbles again, but keeps walking. He says something about the transporter making him special and the bullets just going right through him, but since I can't actually remember what happened to him I'm just going to ignore it. He stumbles toward the window bidding good bye. Dunham runs after him, trying to stop him, and Peter launches himself onto the field of play, running towards the window and whipping out his universe plug. As Jones walks into the window, Peter hits a button, shutting the window on Jones. He falls backwards, seared in half. Yuck. O.
Back in Boston, Olivia is packing up the thousands of files littering her office. Broyles comes in to check on her. While normally he would ask when he could expect her report, he's at a loss. And, really, who wants to see a report on a man severed in half lengthwise? Probably the same guy who wants a report on spinal fluid sucking monsters or a virus that seals up orifices. So she'll have his report in the morning? Olivia asks after Nina and Broyles extends her gratitude to Olivia for "catching" Jones before he could take out William Bell. Broyles stands there silently and Olivia asks what is going on. Broyles bleakly reports that they have been ordered to cease and desist any investigation into William Bell. Olivia can't believe her lousy luck. Why do I get the sense that orders mean very little to her?
Astrid comes back to the lab with a bag of groceries. Walter is gone again, but he left a note. Peter looks concerned as he opens it. The note simply says that Walter is stepping out for a bit and for Peter not to worry. Astrid asks if she should call the police, but Peter stops her. He is happy because this is the first time Walter has ever left him a note. Their little boy is growing up. So where is Walter? He's back at the graveyard he visited with Powder. He puts one of the coins Peter liked so much on a headstone. He is crying as stares at the grave. The camera cuts to the headstone and it reads: Peter Bishop 1978-1985. Oh shit. That was unexpected. I guess we know what Walter lost and had to collect from the other side.
Olivia's phone rings and when she answers it, it is Nina. Since Olivia lived up to her end of the bargain and caught Jones (or at least stopped him), Nina is going to set up a meeting with Bell. She invites Olivia to Manhattan tomorrow and instructs her not to tell anyone where she is going or what she is doing. She unnecessarily adds that Olivia should come alone. Olivia drives into Manhattan, and despite being a Boston driver, even she can't handle NYC driving and almost gets in a crash. She is understandably jumpy when she finally gets to the hotel where she is supposed to meet Nina. She waits and waits and Nina doesn't arrive. She finally calls Massive Dynamic and is incredibly unhappy when she finds out Nina is out of the country. She stomps over to the elevator, pushes the down button and descends. There is a bright light, a crowd appears around her, the light flashes, the crowd is gone, and the door opens onto a white hallway. A long-legged woman greets Olivia and shows her into an office. She stares around the office in confusion. A door opens, a man comes in, his face shrouded in shadow. He announces that he has a waited a very long time for this. Olivia cuts to the chase: where are they and who the heck is he? He seems to smile a little as he explains that the answer to her first question is complicated. As for the second question, he's William Bell. He steps out of the shadow and we see that it is: Leonard Nimoy!! All hail! He grins impishly, as if knowing that legions of Trekkies are swooning right now at his return to the small screen. Man, I could not be more surprised if William Bell was played by Andrew McCarthy. Anyway, Bell settles on the edge of the desk as Olivia doesn't respond at all, but swivels around the room trying to get the lay of the land. The camera pulls back and back and we see that they are in an office on a floor in the World Trade Center building. Both towers are still standing. Wow.