Fringe TV Show - Over There, Part 2 - Fringe Recaps, Fringe Reviews, Fringe Episodes | TWoP

By Daniel

Peter gets acquainted with his new universe -- which is really his old universe -- by going on aerial tours and witnessing the blobs of quarantine "amber" that encase buildings, trees, and thousands of people where "Fringe" events have taken place. This makes him even more determined to work on Walternate's machine, as he believes it's supposed to help heal the cracks that are appearing in the fabric of the world around him. Meanwhile, Olivia and Bell, having met up at the end of last episode, set off to rescue Walter from the hospital, where he's been given wonderful drugs and healing procedures. Fauxlivia and Charlie are after him, too, seeing as how he is, to them, an alternate version of the Secretary of Defense. In reviewing the security footage of the great escape, Fauxlivia is shocked to discover a blond version of herself. She's even more shocked to later discover her blond twin in her apartment, having guessed the spare key's hiding place because some things don't change with universes. At first, Olivia thinks she's convinced Fauxlivia to help her track down Peter, but Fauxlivia is a lying liar. A big Olivia-on-Olivia fight ensues, with the blond one eventually triumphing. She dyes and cuts her hair to match her now-unconscious doppelganger and convinces Charlie to take her to Peter.

Peter has been making use of his time by figuring out that Walternate's machine is symbiotic in nature and needs a certain human's DNA sequence to activate it. That certain human is Peter himself. Olivia arrives with her new hair, knocks out poor Charlie, and gives Peter the prophetic sketch given to her by the Observer. She also pleads with him to return with her, not just to save the world, but because he belongs with her. They kiss finally and Peter goes with her to meet with Walter and Bell at the opera house. Leading up to the opera rendezvous, Walter and Bell have been pulling a particle accelerator out of Walternate's old Harvard lab that will act as a power source for the return trip. Along the way, they bicker like an old married couple, but the argument turns serious as Walter persists in demanding to know why Bell removed a piece of his brain. Bell eventually confesses that Walter himself asked for it, to change the man he was becoming. At the opera house, the Fringe Division crashes the party, and a big honking firefight ensues. Olivia uses a nifty grenade given to her by Bell and takes out the opposing team. When it seems like they don't have enough power to return home, Bell sacrifices his life by using himself as a power source, seeing as how he's crossed universes so many times that he's essentially a trillion nuclear bombs waiting to go off.

Once home, things still seem tense between Walter and Peter, but there are signs that Peter will eventually forgive him, as he recognizes that Walter crossed universes twice to save his life. Walter is thrilled. Less thrilled is Olivia, who has been trapped on the other side and is now Walternate's prisoner. Dun! The Olivia who made it back home is, in fact, Fauxlivia, as evidenced by her neck tattoo and her profiency with a certain Selectric 251.

-- Tippi Blevins

We're high above alt-Manhattan, and Peter looks out the windshield of what seems to be a helicopter on autopilot. Interestingly, the glass is highlighting features in the landscape and providing encyclopedic information in the heads-up display -- on, for example, the Grand Hotel that never got built in our universe but was built in 1908 over here. Over to your right you can see the "Long Island Triangle," also known as "Fringe event 2461," which apparently is a "semi-permanent thin spot" caused in 1990, featuring temporal and spatial distortions. And it's off-limits! Also off-limits is "midtown quarantine, Fringe event ." Peter looks over at a huge, translucent amber blob encapsulating Madison Square Garden. An unstable wormhole wouldn't close, and so MSG had to be quarantined in 1999. The pleasant computer lady voice says that due to recent legal developments, the 10,000 people encased in "quarantine amber" had to be declared legally dead. Were they there for a Knicks game? They're better off. Any one of them would have preferred to have been quarantined before John Starks went two-for-eighteen in Game 7 of the '94 NBA Finals when the Knickerbockers lost to the Rockets.

The helicopter heads out to Liberty Island, with its bronze Statue of Liberty, which we discover was appropriated by the revised "Eminent Domain" provision of the Earth Protection Act in 1989, now the headquarters of the Department of Defense (which we knew already). Peter looks over the landscape and frowns.

We're in Walternate's office now, and his desk has a framed photo in which he's been Forrest Gumped into a picture with Barack Obama, and another photo of an older, white-haired JFK (or perhaps in this universe, Teddy gave up drinking early on and lost some weight).

Walternate appears to be just sitting at his desk staring into space, when an officer in camouflage fatigues is suddenly in his office. "You said 'anything odd,' sir," she says, and he tells her to go on. She says there was a high-priority individual admitted into the ER at New York General Hospital. "Who?" asks Walternate, and let's-call-her-sergeant Warner says, "That's the odd part, sir. It's you." Looks like he's all better!

Frank and Olivialt are asleep in bed, when the bedside videoclockphone or whatever the hell goes off, displaying an incoming call from Philip Broyles (and playing "Science Fiction Double Feature," hee). "It's Sunday. Day off," complains Olivialt as she reaches over Frank to accept the call. "'Fraid not," says Col. Broyles, adding that he's uploading her assignment now.

By Daniel

And then Broyles is checking in with Walternate, letting him know that the Fringe team is on its way, and they'll get them "quickly and quietly."

Peter strolls in and says, "Mr. Secretary." Walternate leans back in his chair, smiles and says hello. "I've imagined this moment so many times," he says, adding that he can't imagine how strange this must be for Peter. "I've seen strange. But this... this is something else," says Peter.

Elsewhere, Bell and Olivia are jumping the line at a busy hospital that Bell says is the last one before the park, so if Walter's not there, they'll head uptown. Olivia wants to know how Bell knows Walter isn't already in custody, and Bell says he checked with his sources at Homeland Security. "I don't believe Walternate's people have found him yet," he says, and Olivia's all "'Walternate'?" and Bell explains the nickname Walter gave to his alternate-universe counterpart, and also that Walternate is the Secretary of Defense, and Fringe answers to him. Olivia can't believe this, probably because she's envisioning entire assignments devoted to hunting down soda pop and Frankenberry. "I know, it takes a little getting used to, doesn't it?" says Bell.

Anyway, the triage nurse is asking the dude currently at the front of the line "how big were the bees?" when Bell steps in, and the nurse curtly says that if he "ain't bleeding, back of the line," and seriously, I'd kind of like to hear a little more from bee-sting man. So Bell pulls out a little ID card that changes the nurse's tune, and she apologizes.

And while Bell tries to find out if Walter's there, Olivia notices Olivialt and Undead Charlie stroll in. She nudges Bell, who tells her to go find Walter while he stalls them, and he'll meet them in the parking lot after.

So while nobody at the hospital sees fit to stop some civilian just wandering through the hallways pulling open curtains looking for people, Charlie and Olivialt are downstairs getting the info they need from the nurse, with Charlie telling her that the patient's medical records also need to be purged from the system, by the order of Fringe division. She deletes the file for W. Bishop and tells the agents he's in Bed 18, and Charlie and Olivialt seem to already know where Bed 18 is because they just start walking without getting any kind of directions.

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By Daniel

But that's when Bell steps in, blocking their path, wondering if he knows them from somewhere, and then "remembers" that they're Fringe agents, who work for the Secretary, who's a friend of his. "I'm William Bell," he says, proudly displaying this card that appears to have no end of applications. "I see you're carrying the 76 pulse sidearms. I designed those, you know," he tells them, and then proceeds to go all rambly Grampa Simpson on them, despite their best efforts to break away. He says the 76s don't have the "phase repeaters," which was a design flaw. Well, it was the style at the time!

Meanwhile, Olivia's found Walter, who's happy to see her, at least until he realizes he's not sure if it actually is her. "Prove it," he says, glaring, and she irritatedly throws his clothes at him and tells him they don't have time for this. "It is you. That's wonderful. Hi!" says Walter, beaming. Heh! Olivia might want to consider that Walter's only convinced it's her when she's being an officious bitch to him.

Downstairs, Charlie and Olivialt successfully break away after Bell promises to add the "pulse function" to the 77s, and then Walter is rhapsodizing about the quality of drugs here. To answer Olivia's question, yes, he can walk. He can dance if she likes! That's how good he feels! He shows her his side, where once was a bullet wound but now is just a little scar due to this universe's miraculous accelerated healing techniques. "Come on, Walter, Bell's waiting for us," says Olivia, running out of patience. "Nice of him to finally show up," grumbles Walter, and they're on their merry way.

Moments later, Charlie and Olivialt show up, finding only a bloodstained bedsheet and an empty clothes bag. Charlie goes off to get the hospital locked down, and of course the agents who showed ID are the ones a nearby nurse decides to question, asking if they're looking for something. Olivia says she'll need all the security footage for the unit. The nurse just stares at her, because hey! Didn't the nurse just see this chick?

Walter and Olivia hustle out into the parking lot, where Bell pulls up. The two men seem initially pleased to see each other, but it lasts, oh, two seconds, before Walter growls, "I see you've aged," and Bell responds with, "It appears I'm not the only one!" and Olivia interrupts Grumpy Old Men 3: The Grumpening, and orders Walter into the SUV.

Back in the hospital, Olivialt is already looking at the security video, and finds the part where Olivia hustles Walter from his bed and down the hall. She stares at the screen in disbelief, backs up the video and zooms in, looking at herself helping Walter from his bed.

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By Daniel

Charlie strolls in and asks if she's OK. "You look like you just saw a ghost," he says, which is a cliché line that really needs to be retired from movies and television. You can always predict when a character's going to say it. They should get rid of it, and bring back, "That's so crazy it just might work!" Frankly, I have high hopes for the upcoming A-Team movie.

Anyway, the opening credits are the red ones again this week, and then speaking of red, Peter's having drinks with his dad in his spacious office and looking up at the map of the alternate United States. "What's the red?" he asks his dad, looking at dark spots scattered mostly across the northeast, with the occasional splotch in the west. Walternate says they're quarantine areas. "Boston?" says Peter quietly. "Most all of it. Because of what that man did. The man who stole you," says Walternate. Peter says that's a lot of blame to place on just one man. "It's true, I'm afraid," says Walternate, adding that while "soft spots" were created over in the other universe, things were a lot worse over here. "The laws of physics were turned into mere suggestions," he says. He hopes Peter can help fix that. Peter says he doesn't know what Walternate's heard about him, but changing the laws of physics might be beyond his ability. Walternate chuckles and says that's fair enough, but says there have been some breakthroughs on the other side that they haven't achieved over here yet, and Peter does have some understanding of those. Peter nods.

Which brings Walternate to the schematic he left for Peter to look at, and Peter admits he's never seen anything like it before. "It's very old tech," says Walternate. Like PlayStation 2, I suppose. Or zeppelins. Anyway, Walternate says he thinks it can be applied to heal the problems of this world ... and Peter's world, he adds. Does he mean Peter's adopted world? Is he being cagey? I mean, we know he's being cagey, but ... anyway, Walternate says he's replaced missing parts with new equipment but it still doesn't work. His engineers tell him the problem is probably in the power source -- here Walternate opens his briefcase to display the ridged item we saw him take last week -- and he hopes Peter will have a look at it, which Peter agrees to.

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By Daniel

"Peter, I know it wasn't easy, making the choice to come home. But I'm very glad you did," says Walternate.

And then the major comes back in to say that Agent Dunham is here, but she doesn't have an appointment. Walternate's about to blow her off when Peter gets all, "Olivia's here?" And then Walternate figures out this ought to be good and quickly tells the major to send Olivia in. If we're supposed to accept Peter as this super-smart son of genius scientist Walter Bishop, then he really needs to stop being such an IDIOT.

Anyway, Olivialt comes in and introductions are made, and Peter stares at her to the point that she asks if she has something in her teeth. Peter, clearly thinking, "Not yet," just tells her that she reminds him of someone he knows. "But your hair is different," he says, and then adds that he thinks he likes Olivialt's better.

Instead of telling his son to put his tiny penis away, Walternate asks Peter to excuse them, as he needs to speak to Agent Dunham. Peter leaves, and Olivialt tells Walternate that they lost Walter at the hospital, and they think he had help escaping. Since it ain't exactly convenient for someone to come to Liberty Island to deliver a message that could easily have been sent with one of those fancy videophones, Walter figures that's not why she's here: "I told you there would be invaders coming over from the other side, but I didn't tell you they would be us," he says. Got it in one, sir.

Walternate tells Olivialt that the alternate versions of themselves are "monsters in our skin. They'll do anything, say anything to gain our trust, but they can't be trusted." Olivialt, who is some kind of genius over here, figures that Peter is from the other side. "That's why he was staring at me." Yeah, that's part of it, sweetheart. Walter confesses that it's his son Peter, and Olivia's all, "Your son who was kidnapped twenty years ago?" The very same! Walternate tells her Peter was kidnapped by them. And now he's got a favour to ask.

Meanwhile, Olivia, Bell and Walter are chowing down at what in this universe is known as "Kentucky Grilled Chicken," although I'm pretty sure several years ago they decided to just start calling themselves KGC. And it appears to be a place where The Observer likes to eat, presumably bringing his own bottle of Tabasco sauce. Olivia's worried about them showing up on security camera footage, but Walter's too busy tearing into a Big Crunch -- this from the same guy who delivered a fire and brimstone rant about the dangers of the additives at the grocery store -- to worry about it, and reminisces about the time he was able to identify all of the eleven secret herbs and spices. Does the Double Down over here consist of grilled breasts for sandwich bread? Olivia mentally prepares another entry to her STFU, Walter blog, and then says they should split up, since she can look for Peter faster on her own (translation: you two are slow and old, and are NO GOOD AT EVERYTHING). Walter says there's a bigger problem, that they can't cross back without the other Cortexiphan kids. "Olivia can still open the door. That's her gift, is it not?" asks Bell. Walter's just not sure how much of a toll the crossing took on her, but Bell comes up with the idea of a doorstop so that when Olivia opens the door a crack, the doorstop can hold it open, and Walter considers it for a few moments, then dismisses it, because he'd need a particle accelerator, which aren't exactly sold at the local drugstore. Well, they are, but they're a lot more expensive than when you buy in bulk at the warehouse.

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By Daniel

Bell knows where they can get a particle accelerator, which opens the door for Walter to start bitching about how Bell must have opened Massive Dynamic up over here too so he could get rich and famous while Walter rotted away in a padded cell, and then Olivia has to shut up the two bickering old dudes again, and says she's going to look for Peter, and asks Bell if he has a cellphone. She doesn't want to use hers because the between-universes roaming charges with her provider are a bitch, and Bell says Fringe monitors all the communications networks, which is probably how they knew about Central Park. So they'll just meet back at the opera house in 12 hours.

Olivia skedaddles, and then Bell tells Walter, "We've accomplished a lot together, Walter. But she may be our greatest achievement." Walter grunts in agreement and goes back to sucking on his soda.

Meanwhile, Olivialt is setting Peter up in an apartment where the Secretary figures Peter will be comfortable, like it MUST BE NICE to have high-ranking government officials spending taxpayer money on you. Bolivia outlines the amenities of the place: UV-proof windows, the latest anti-fire tech, and a gym and a pool upstairs. On the wall are framed comic-book covers, but because this is the alternate universe, the comics include feature "Red Lantern" vs. "Red Arrow" instead of Green Lantern and Green Arrow. There's a tattered Batman logo, mirroring the famous Death of Superman storyline. There's also a cover that features a silhouetted Superman with a lightning bolt behind him, which is a replica of a The Dark Knight Returns in our universe, which had Batman on the cover (which, by the way, is the greatest graphic novel I've ever read -- forget Watchmen -- and beats a lot of traditional literature too). Anyway, Olivialt says a car will come by at eight to pick Peter up for dinner. Peter pokes around the apartment, and has a look at an old framed family picture of him and his parents. Bolivia asks what it was like on the other side. Peter explains that it's a lot like here, just slightly different.

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By Daniel

Bolivia says that when people find out he's back, he's going to be famous, because everybody knows about the kidnapping. "So I'm like the Lindbergh baby?" asks Peter, only Bolivia has no idea who that is. Moving on! What Bolivia really wants to know is what the other version of herself is like. "She's a lot like you. Darker in the eyes, maybe," he says, and then spouts off on a bunch of abstract qualities like, "She's always trying to make up for something. Right some imaginary wrong. Haunted, I guess," when Bolivia probably just wants to hear, "She's about twenty pounds heavier." Anyway, Bolivia just kind of looks at him, until Peter says, "Maybe she's nothing like you at all," and thanks her for the ride.

Speaking of rides, Walter's shipping up to Boston with Bell (who's eating Red Vines -- shouldn't those maybe be green over here?). As they drive a deserted road, Walter looks out on the barren landscape of dead trees, devoid of vegetation. The blight, everyone. "Am I responsible for this?" he asks, and Bell says, "Yes, Walter. I'm afraid you are." Well, that's why pencils have erasers! We look ahead to the Boston skyline, a good portion of which is encased in amber. Since it's Boston, let's call the amber "Mariano."

Part of Harvard itself is under amber, with people frozen forever. Probably on their way to some yachting competition against the Yalies. A sign outside the entrance reads: "Notice: Quarantine Rezoning -- Campus Relocation. As of September 2003, all faculties will be relocating to our new Medford campus. Please forward all inquiries to the central university administration office." Yes, but what of the spring semi-formal? WHAT OF THE SPRING SEMI-FORMAL?

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By Daniel

Inside, Bell and Walter go to Walternate's old lab. "Of course," says Walter. Written on the chalkboard is "A demon's twist rusts." And what's the first thing we do with cryptic messages? That's right! Look for anagrams! How about: "Don't trust Sam Weiss." Think we have a winner?

So Bell turns on the power. Which of course is still on, despite the university having been abandoned seven years ago, because it's PARTIALLY ENCASED IN AMBER. Bell says Walternate was once intent on finding a means to cross between universes. "He didn't succeed, but it stands to reason the technology we need might be here." Wait, what do you mean he didn't succeed? Anyway, while the two men start pulling sheets off the abandoned pieces of equipment, Walter asks if Walternate worked with him -- and he means the William Bell from this side, but Bell says it turns out that this universe's William Bell died in a car accident when he was a young man, so he and Walternate never met. "What a shame," says Walter dryly, and then sticks it in a little more: "Imagine how much money you could have made if there were two of you," like SHUT UP, WALTER! GOD! Bell points out that creating Massive Dynamic was not his idea: "We both talked about borrowing this world's technologies to help our own." And then Walter snipes about Bell pilfering this world for profit, which Bell says was just a "byproduct" since he only came over to prevent a war: "And to stop a chain of events set into motion the day you stole Peter!" Walter says Bell's actually fueling the war: "I know that you helped craft the shape-shifters. Your design signature is all over it," and Bell says he had to remain valuable to Walternate to keep tabs on him, so then Walter plays his trump card by reminding Bell again that he spent seventeen years in a mental institution, and even today forgets things, and it's because Bell cut out pieces of his brain. OK! So Bell cut out pieces of your brain! Who among us can say we've never carved out pieces of a friend's brain before?

Anyway, while Walter is boo-hooing about some missing memories of his wife and his son or whatever, he's managed to find the particle accelerator. He pulls himself together: "We should get started," he says.

And there's Bolivia coming home to her apartment, and finding a casserole dish in the fridge with a big red bow on it and a sticky note that says, "Remember to eat. See you in a week, love [heart] F," like how much do I hate Frank now, and then she strolls into the living room carrying the casserole, like it's too bad Frank didn't think to leave any heating instructions on his sticky note, but it doesn't matter because all of a sudden Olivia is there, pointing a gun at Bolivia. "How did you..." says Bolivia, and Olivia says, "We both leave our Hide-A-Key in the same place." They stare at each other for a minute.

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By Daniel

And Bell and Walter have already configured the particle accelerator to work as an intra-universal doorstop, with Walter saying they need to simultaneously amplify and limit the molecular destabilization margins, and all I can say is THAT'S WHAT I'VE ALWAYS SAID, and Bell jokes that they should try not to electrocute everyone in the process. Walter says this will reopen the crack in the door, but without the others, he's not sure that Olivia will be strong enough to keep it open. Wait a minute, isn't Olivia the one reopening the door, and the whole point of this jaunt is that the particle accelerator will be holding it open? THAT'S WHY IT'S THE DOORSTOP! Goddammit! Anyway, Bell says, "leave that to me," and fortunately Walter has quit griping about how evil Bell is.

Back in Bolivia's apartment, Olivia says she needs Bolivia's help, and Bolivia says she's got a funny way of asking for it, but Olivia's not interested in putting the gun down at all. What she wants is for Bolivia to take her to Peter Bishop. Bolivia moves to put down the casserole, which she complains is "getting heavy," like it's a CASSEROLE that she's been holding for all of one minute. Hey, remember when television shows never used to be able to do the "one actor plays twin roles" thing very well? Like when Lisa Kudrow played Phoebe and her twin? And they would just kind of stand and stare into the middle distance, not really at each other? We've come a long way since then -- it's easy to forget it's just Anna Torv up there. It's two Anna Torvs, which is not a scenario unfamiliar in my imagination. ANYWAY, then Olivia sees a picture of Bolivia with an older woman. "Is that Mom?" she says, and Bolivia says it is, and Olivia says, "She's alive?" and Bolivia doesn't say anything, and Olivia, trying not to get TOO choked up while she's got a gun pointed at the alternate version of herself who wants to arrest her, asks what Mom is like. "Well, the last few years have been hard for her. My sister died during childbirth. You have a sister too?" and Olivia nods and says she has a seven-year-old niece named Ella but fails to say anything about Ella's impossible adorability, and Bolivia says "Ella" and smiles, and you think they're about to start bonding and then Olivia says she needs to speak to Peter: "He's in danger here, and he needs to understand that." Bolivia susses things out, sort of: "This isn't just an assignment, is it? Are you two a couple? Is that what this is about?" and we could be here all night if Olivia starts in with "Well, it's complicated..." so fortunately she just says she needs to speak to him. "You gotta trust me. I'm you," she says, and trust is a funny thing to ask of someone when you're pointing a gun at them.

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By Daniel

Back at the lab, Walter still wants to know why Bell removed his memories, and all Bell will say is that he has his reasons and that Walter should let the past be the past, and they only have four hours to go back. That's four hours of old-man driving, so I don't know if they're going to make it all the way from Boston. Bell wheels the particle accelerator out the door, and Walter dispiritedly shuts off the power in the lab and follows.

In Bolivia's apartment, Bolivia finally agrees to help Olivia, and then she goes to pick up her purse, and Olivia tells her to stop, and Bolivia says she was only getting her keys. Olivia takes the purse and starts rifling through it. "You keep your backup gun in your purse, don't you?" says Bolivia, who then whips out her own, pointing it at the distracted Olivia: "I keep mine in my jacket." And now it seems the prey is ... the prey again!

Bolivia tells Olivia to put the gun down on the table, and Olivia whines that she thought they had an agreement. "You know, I don't know what you are, but you are nothin' like me. You know, he was right," says Bolivia, like maybe one of Bolivia's characteristics over here is that she starts every sentence with "you know." Anyway, as she taps her Bluetooth ear thingy to call Fringe, Olivia grabs the purse off the table and swings it to knock the gun out of Bolivia's hand. And there was no way we weren't going to have some Olivia-on-Bolivia hand-to-hand combat, and here it is! With all the grunting and kneeing and tackling and punching that a good Olivia fight usually entails. I love this show's fight scenes. There should be more of this in, say, The Bachelor. And now Olivia's on her back and Bolivia's on top and punching the crap out of her! Holy shit! And now Bolivia's got Olivia in a chokehold, and Olivia desperately reaches out and manages to snag what looks like the base of a lamp that got smashed and clocks Bolivia in the face with it, knocking her out. Olivia stares at her unconscious counterpart on the floor. This is the stuff existential nightmares are made out of.

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By Daniel

And after a few minutes with some hair dye in the bathroom, Olivia is now Bolivia! She stares in the mirror, still looking pretty freaked out about the whole thing. Then she finds one of those fancy little interactive sit-rep card things that she uses rather easily to see Peter Bishop's location, and she heads out the door, with a last glance back at Bolivia, tied up sitting on an easy chair. She fails to notice CHARLIE standing right there, and he's all "What's up?" as she quickly shuts the door. "I tried your cuff a couple of times, everything OK?" She stares at him. Hey, Olivia, are you all right? YOU LOOK LIKE YOU'VE SEEN A GHOST.

Charlie tells her that there was a power surge at the Secretary's old lab, so Broyles wants them to go and check it out. He has to ask again if Olivia's OK, because THAT'S HOW WEIRD SHE'S ACTING, and then Olivia says that the Secretary just called, and he wants them to move Peter Bishop: "Apparently, he's not safe where he is." Olivia might as well be holding up a sign that says, "I am lying," but Charlie's apparently too stunned by the news that "they found Peter Bishop" to detect anything amiss.

So Peter is looking at the power source that Walternate gave him, and talking to himself -- or more likely to a recording device -- about how the device is unresponsive but there's nothing obviously wrong with it. And then he gloms onto the idea that maybe it's symbiotic in nature: "Which is to say that it wasn't entirely mechanical, that it needs some sort of ... some sort of organic interface?" And as he passes his hands over a couple of the parts, they vibrate and stick to his hand, magnetically.

Meanwhile, Charlie and Olivia are driving across town, and Olivia's doing her best to not say any more than she needs to, so she doesn't give herself away, even though Charlie's asking her what she knows about Peter Bishop being found. "Can you imagine when the tabloids get hold of this?" he says, and then Olivia throws out a little fishing line of her own, saying, "I think it has something to do with why these people have come from the other side." And then Charlie rambles off on how the job isn't what it was ten years ago, what with its alternate universes and such, neatly mirroring a similar speech he gave to Olivia in the pilot (although that one had a little bit more to do with corporations having more clearance than investigators), giving her a little bit of déjà vu.

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By Daniel

Peter's really warming up to his task, going on about how the parameters of the device are human, a reflection of the human genome. He says a bunch of stuff about spectrums and specificities and responses to subsets and it all boils down to figuring out that he's the missing piece of the device. Having successfully connected some of the pieces, it lights up and lightly clamps to his wrist.

That's when Charlie and Olivia show up, and Peter detaches himself from the device to answer the door. Charlie seems kind of jazzed to meet Peter, actually. Peter invites them in, and Olivia starts trying to signal him as to who she really is. She gives him the sheet of paper that shows his eyeballs exploding, explaining, "This was given to me by an acquaintance of your father. An Observer." Peter's all, whuh? Olivia continues: "He gave it to me, I think, to warn me about what would happen to you if you ever returned here. And now CHARLIE is all, whuh? And Olivia hastily says, "He wants you to know that your friends are here and that they have come to keep you safe," not long before grabbing -- oh, let's say it's another lamp, and bashing Charlie with it, knocking him out. "Peter, it's me," she says. "Thanks, I just figured that out," he says. Awesomely, he's in some kind of casual kung-fu stance. Lucky for Charlie that Peter never had to bust out some moves.

After the dust settles, Peter tells Olivia that his dad (his real dad, Walternate, not Walter) lied to him, saying Peter could heal the problems of this world, which started when Walter came over and stole him. "But his bringing me back was never about fixing this universe. It was about destroying yours," he says. Olivia says she's sorry, and something about the way she says it tells Peter she knew. He asks her how long, and she says a few weeks. She starts to explain but Peter cuts her off and says he's not going to let Walternate do this. "I don't think that he can. I mean, not without you," she says, and then after a moment she adds, "Peter ... you don't belong here." He agrees, but says he doesn't belong in the other universe either.

Olivia begs to differ; not for any of the reasons she considered arguing -- to fight the shapeshifters, to take care of Walter, to save the world -- but because she's got needs, y'all! She needs to get her Peter on! "You have to come back. Because you belong with me," she says, and now they get to the making out that they postponed when Olivia realized she could see the alternate-universe shimmer. And it's kind of sweet except for the fact that Peter only puts ONE arm around her, and even that takes him a few minutes to do.

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By Daniel

And there's Walternate and Bolivia busting into Fringe HQ to start ordering everyone around, telling everyone that he wants all surveillance retasked to find a fugitive. "What fugitive, sir?" asks Broyles, who is too smart to point out that they could already be working on that if Walternate had just PHONED instead of taking the team to burst in all dramatically. Anyway, the fugitive? "Me," says Bolivia. So you didn't call Broyles IMMEDIATELY after you freed yourself? And she scans her handprint, and apparently everyone at Fringe just immediately knows what these two are babbling about, and Robo-Astrid has picked up Bolivia's "Show Me" passing an auto-scan checkpoint, and Walternate immediately decides they're heading back to the opera house, and Col. Broyles orders everyone to get moving.

Over at the opera house, Walter is frantically looking down the street for Peter and Olivia, leaving Bell to just stand on the sidewalk as inconspicuously as one can when one is standing there with a particle accelerator. "They should be here by now," says Walter anxiously, and Bell says they'll be here, but more important, HELP ME MOVE THE DAMN PARTICLE ACCELERATOR INSIDE.

And then Olivia and Peter come tearing around the corner in an SUV, and then get out and jog towards the grumpy old men. Peter's still got a glare on for his father, who nonetheless still looks surprised and happy to see him. Bell introduces himself and says, "Haven't seen you in many years. You're holding up better than I would have thought." Peter says, "What's a little universe-hopping between friends?" only Bell says that's not what he meant. Is there something else wrong with Peter? Is he talking about the emotional strain of finding out the truth about Walter?

Not much time to ponder that, as we can hear sirens in the distance. Bell tells Peter to help his dad bring the particle accelerator inside while he and Olivia holds off Fringe. When the agents pull up, Bell gets a gun out of his car, explaining to Olivia that he supplied Fringe division with the 76 model. Then he calmly fires at a vehicle, which explodes, sending everyone running for cover. "This is the 77," he says to Olivia, who is standing there all slack-jawed.

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By Daniel

Inside, the Bishops work to get the particle accelerator set up. Walter tries to explain that he never meant for any of this to happen, but Peter's not at all interested in talking about it. Which isn't a good idea. After all, he's probably going to want the birds and the bees lecture from Walter before he goes on his big date with Olivia, so he and his dad ought to be on good terms.

Outside, Bell has even more weapons to give Olivia -- phosphorous grenades. Does he just drive around with those? "Be careful. They're prototypes. They could be unstable," he says. If they're prototypes, doesn't that also mean they might not work? Olivia, taking the grenades, is all, "What do you mean 'unstable'?" and Bell tells her not to jostle them. That's how we know there will be jostling. Oh yes, there will be jostling. They duck for cover as Fringe Division, recovered from almost getting blown up, starts firing at them. He tells Olivia to cover him, and she starts firing back while he heads back out to his car, and he's so slow and old that you half-expect a Boy Scout to show up and start escorting him across the street.

While Peter and Walter, inside, activate the particle accelerator, Broyles and Bolivia are getting their instructions over earpieces from the Secretary. "Yes, Mr. Secretary. I understand," says Broyles, looking over at Olivia, who then walks off, away from the firefight.

Olivia fires until she runs out of ammo, and then it looks like she's getting a grenade ready, and she yells for Bell to get down, and then we see Bolivia standing behind them, holding a pulse pistol or whatever kind of weapon she's got. Wow, it sure was easy for Bolivia to circle around and get the drop on them? Why didn't anyone else at Fringe try that?

Inside the opera house, Peter and Walter hear an explosion and see a bright flash coming from outside.

And there's Bell coming to, with Bolivia standing over him. I mean, she's pretending to be Olivia, but I don't think the show really expected anyone to be fooled by this. The point is, I suppose, that Bell is fooled, or too groggy to question it. After all, the street is now littered with flaming wreckage. "I used a grenade. I think I bought us a few minutes. Come on," says Bolivia. But I'm more interested in the theatre marquee. Movies showing appear to include Splash (I have to assume I'm reading that wrong), Star Wars: Legion of the [Something], Indiana Jones & The Hex of the Hydra, and Superman Vs. Batman. I assume Superman Vs. Batman is the movie version of The Dark Knight Returns. If so, I am getting my own damn particle accelerator so I can switch universes and check that shit out.

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By Daniel

They head inside, where Walter and Peter are still fiddling with knobs and switches. Bell asks if it's working. Walter says it's opening a crack, but they don't have enough power to keep it open. Bell's not too concerned; he's all, "Yes we can," and Walter says, "Olivia doesn't have the power, and I haven't thought of a solution." He gets all shirty over Bell arguing with him: "Always thinking you're smarter than me!" But Bell tells him that he'll provide the power. "I've traveled between universes so many times, my atoms are ready to split apart with the slightest provocation." Really? Dude, you're almost 80, and you're barely scuffed after being knocked on your ass by a phosphorous grenade that apparently KILLED everyone else. What exactly do you mean by the "slightest provocation"?

Anyway, Bell continues by saying that Walter taught him that there are as many atoms in the human body as there are stars in the sky (which must mean that Walter was Bell's seventh-grade biology teacher, because COME ON). "That's how many atom bombs I am. That should be enough power to get you home." Shouldn't that be enough power to DESTROY EVERYTHING? Walter apologetically says he never should have doubted Bell, who tells him that he was always as stubborn as a donkey with a nail in its head. A dead donkey? File that under "Ways Shrek 4 Could Have Been Less Crappy Than I Was Already Expecting It To Be But I Have a Three-Year-Old Daughter So What Do You Do?"

Anyway, that glimmering sphere forms around Walter, Bolivia and Peter, and Walter quietly thanks Bell, calling him "old friend." But there's one more thing: Bell explains why he took out a part of Walter's brain: "I did it because you asked me to. Because of what you were becoming." Oh! Well, that makes sense. Anyway, Bell touches the sphere, which starts glowing brighter as Fringe agents come racing down the aisles of the theatre. And then everything goes white, and suddenly the three intra-universal travelers are back over here, in the abandoned opera house, Broyles strolling towards them. "Welcome back," he says.

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By Daniel

Back at Olivia's apartment, Bolivia grabs the hide-a-key from atop the doorjamb, opens the door and walks inside. She turns on the lights and looks around to a degree that I reassert my suspicion that no one was actually supposed to be fooled by the ol' switcheroo.

And back at the Harvard lab, Astrid hands Peter what turns out to be his third slice of pie. "Are you trying to kill me?" he jokes, like SHUT UP AND ACCEPT THE YUMMY PIE OR DON'T, and Astrid tells him that she cooks when she gets nervous, and she's been baking pies for about a week. "Pies and muffins and cakes. And I've been eating them all too, so don't be surprised when I send you a bill for my lap band." He apologizes for making her nervous, and she tells him that it's OK: "At least you're back." And she makes big moon eyes at him, and you know what? Maybe Peter belongs with Astrid!

Anyway, Peter asks her to give Walter a ride home, since he's going to go for a walk, and she says sure, and then he formally says good night to Walter, who nervously says, "You are back now, aren't you? You're -- you're not leaving again?" Peter considers this a moment, and then says that he's trying to see this Walter's way but he just can't. Walter's crest fallen. His crest just falls, but then Peter says, "But ... you did cross universes twice to save my life. So that's gotta count for something, right?" It's like a life preserver to a drowning man, as Walter cheers up immensely. "Thank you, Peter," he calls out, as Peter leaves, and then adds "...my son," quietly to himself. And at this point I don't mind a summer break from Fringe as it will give my tear ducts a chance to replenish, DAMN.

And we're back to the antique typewriter store, where the dirtbag owner is all "Help you, gorgeous?" to Bolivia, who says she needs a typewriter. "Well, you're in luck," he says, and then she says, "A Selectric. Model 251." He looks really disappointed. Probably because this guy only gets shapeshifters or whatever Bolivia appears to be in his damn old-timey typewriter junk shop. Maybe if somebody ever actually BOUGHT a typewriter he could afford to eat once in a while.

So he fishes the key out of the cash register, and Bolivia heads to the back room, where she sits down at the desk with the magic typewriter, and in case anyone HASN'T figured it out by now, she pulls out her ponytail and we get a glimpse of her neck tattoo. And she starts typing: "INFILTRATION ACHIEVED. AWAITING ORDERS." The answer comes right away, but we don't see what it is. Briefly I attempted to slow down the playback to try to see which typewriter keys were being pushed in the mirror's reflection, and then I decided that it was insane, and I figure Walternate just needs Bolivia to pick up some drycleaning that he left behind while he was over here.

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By Daniel

Speaking of Walternate, here he is walking down a dark hallway towards a window with a steel blind pulled down. He rolls up the blind to reveal a dark room. Flicking on the light, he reveals a tiny white cell, with Olivia sitting on a cot. She approaches the window. "Please let me out of here," she pleads. Walternate doesn't respond, and that's when Olivia starts to get angry. "I know you can hear me!" she shouts, slamming on the glass. He stares at her with barely concealed disgust, and ignores her screams and cries, eventually turning off the light, pulling the blind down, and walking away.

See y'all in Season 3, folks. That's more seasons than The Sarah Connor Chronicles got.

Daniel is a writer in Newfoundland with a wife and a daughter. He plans to use the summer to catch up on his drinking. Follow him on Twitter or email him at danieljdaniel[at]gmail.com.

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