By Daniel
Walternate's decided to activate his Doomsday machine, since the blood sample he got from his grandson has given him enough Peter-essence to fire up that sucker. But only a few people are in on the plan, which is unfolding on Liberty Island, and the detected energy surges arouse the suspicion of the Fringe department in general and Fauxlivia in particular. She confronts Walternate about what she suspects is going on, and is chilled when she realizes Walternate is willing to sacrifice his son. She attempts to get over to the other side to bring Peter back to stop what's going on, but only winds up getting thrown in prison by Walternate.
Meanwhile, on our Earth, shit is starting to go down -- plagues of locusts, vortexes -- but Massive Dynamic isn't ready with enough amber to contain events as they occur. Worst of all, our Doomsday machine has activated itself. Sam Weiss is checking things out with his own trans-universe magic window viewer, and writing down equations in a notebook. We don't know what the formula is, but the answer is zero, which can't be good. And the Fringe team has figured -- prompted by Peter himself -- that Peter needs to get into the machine to control what's happening. But when he tries to enter it, he gets zapped and hits the floor, knocking himself out. He's in the hospital and all his vitals are fine, but he's unconscious and isn't waking up. And now Sam Weiss needs Olivia to come with him! Good Friday? More like great Friday! Although the fact that Earth-2 is a place where the Dodgers still play in Brooklyn and the Montreal Expos still exist makes me wonder if Earth-1 shouldn't just surrender to Earth-2.
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Daniel is a writer in Newfoundland with a wife and a daughter. He wishes he lived in a universe where his Montreal Expos tattoo wasn't becoming increasingly outdated. Follow him on Twitter (@DanMacEachern) or email him at danieljdaniel@gmail.com.
We open up on Liberty Island this week with Brandonate consulting with another scientist about the Doomsday device. The scientist is explaining that they've doubled the thickness of the lead shielding around the machine, and Brandonate talks about the Faraday cage, and the scientist wants to know if all of this is necessary. "We're standing underneath a giant lightning rod. It's unclear what kind of electrostatic discharge the device may give off," is Brandonate's answer. Well, I know I would be reassured by being reminded that I'm standing underneath a giant lightning rod.
Then Walternate comes in, so Brandonate boots everyone else out of the lab, and then he gives Walternate a little vial of liquid and says they used Fauxlivia's DNA profile to identify the 23 chromosomes her son inherited from her and strip them out. That leaves them with only half of Peter's genetic profile, but hopefully that will be enough... to activate the machine, and they should be ready to do that within the hour.
Then Brandonate launches into a brownnosing speech of the first order, all about how history may never fully know what they've done here, how they saved the universe, but he's proud to be a part of it. A very sour-sounding Walternate then starts talking about how Oppenheimer saved them too, but at what cost? And now he is talking about Oppenheimer's nightmares, the screams of all the innocents who were killed. Quite the pep talk Walternate's giving here! Then he trots out Oppenheimer's famous "I am become death, destroyer of worlds" quote just in case Brandonate has not yet decided to go home and blow his own brains out. "Only in our case, that really is true. We destroy their world to save ours. May God have mercy on us," says Walternate.
We make the switch, via transforming Statue of Liberty and disappearing Twin Towers, over to Earth-1, where a farmhand named Rich in Accord, N.Y., comes upon a flock of sheep, bleating madly and huddled together in a tight bunch. He gets on the walkie-talkie to a dude named Joe, who's enjoying his breakfast in the cab of his truck on the side of the road. Joe's reluctant to interrupt his idyllic truck-feasting to go to work, but Rich's urgency gets him going, and he dumps out his coffee on the side of the road. [No cup-holders? - Zach]
Along the way, Joe's radio cuts out as he sees an approaching swarm of locusts, and before he has much chance to react, he's driving through the living cloud, getting locust guts splattered all over his grille and windshield. Look, I'm from Canada, so I hope I can be forgiven for thinking locusts only actually existed in the Bible.
He swerves a little bit, but manages to maintain control as he makes it through the swarm, and he survives with a bit of a story to tell about how the swarm of locusts is like the "blessed Apocalypse," and Rich points out the sheep and says they appear to be thinking the same thing. So far this apocalypse does fall a little bit short of the Book of Revelation, but things are about to pick up steam.
A strong wind suddenly blows up, and Joe gets on the walkie-talkie to order all hands to the north field. Those are the last words he will ever speak: the wind gets stronger, and just as Rich says, "What is that?" they shut their eyes against a sudden, bright-bluish light.
After the (blue) opening credits, we're at the mystical bowling alley, where a guy named Donnie is rolling while Joe Walsh (of the Eagles) plays in the background. The writers know their Big Lebowski, I'm guessing.
Then Sam Weiss notices the last ball in the ball-return is bouncing repeatedly against the ball to it. This is perplexing, and he goes into his office and unlocks a huge padlock on a cabinet. Inside the cabinet he finds an old valise, and he opens it and pulls out one of those desk toys with the stainless-steel balls. Frowning, he sets it down on a table, and then folds his arms and stares at it. The point seems to be that it starts moving without Sam Weiss having touched it, so I'm not sure why they didn't let us see that effect as the Newton's cradle started up. Anyway, he doesn't look happy about this.
Much happier is Olivia, waking up to Peter. I'm told this is how many women and about ten per cent of men would react as well. She smiles in the morning sunlight and caresses his face, and then she gets up and goes out into the hall, where she runs into (not literally, thank God) a completely naked Walter. He's delighted to see her -- let's hope not too delighted -- and promises the squirmy Olivia a frittata made with morels with the biggest caps she's ever seen.
Walter being Walter, he then advises her to bring some slippers for the time she comes over, since it can get a tad chilly in the mornings, and he skips off singing, never once having acknowledged his own wrinkly nakedness.
She dives back into bed with a younger naked Bishop, and she rats Walter out: "Oh, yeah, it's Tuesday. He always cooks naked on Tuesdays," says Peter, nonchalantly, like it's NO BIG DEAL, and then he admits it's neither safe nor pretty, but one gets used to it. They nuzzle for a few minutes, and Olivia whispers, "I could get used to this." Then she says it's her favorite time of day: "Sunrise. When the world is full of promise." Peter smiles, wondering how he can politely tell his girlfriend to shut up so he can sleep just a little bit longer.
Never mind: Olivia and Peter's cellphones start buzzing and ringing on their nightstands, which you knew was going to happen once Olivia started cooing about the world being full of promise.
Broyles is waiting for them at the farm, where a burned-out swath of land is all that's left marking where a ranch foreman, farmhand and five hundred head of sheep used to be, with no explanation of what happened and why they're not there anymore -- and no, it's not experimental weapons testing from the army base nearby, Broyles says in response to Peter's suggestion. "Whatever happened here, we didn't cause it," says Broyles. "I wouldn't bet the farm on that," says Walter, grimly. Then he puts on his sunglasses: "Yeeeeeeeaaaaaahhhhhh!" Or maybe he takes off his sunglasses: "Yeeeeeaaaaahhhhh!" Whatever, however David Caruso does it on CSI: Miami. I don't watch that show. You know what I mean. That's still a thing, right?
Broyles tells them it happened around 6:05 a.m., give or take a few minutes. Olivia goes to interview the owner of the neighboring farm, while Walter calls Peter over to have a look at the ground -- it's full of granite, which contains quartz crystals. Walter asks for his electrometer, and Peter hands it over but not without telling his science genius dad that quartz crystals only develop an electrical potential when they're put under physical pressure. Extreme physical pressure with a major gravitational event, corrects Walter, which makes Peter's point stronger, but sure enough, the crystals are electrically charged. Walter's theory is that a vortex appeared above the field, swallowing everything there. "My worst fears realized," says Walter, other than not finding the bacon splatter shield when he cooks breakfast on Tuesday mornings.
Peter wonders what would trigger a vortex. "That's a good question," says Walter.
Elsewhere, Earth-1 folks will start to learn the answer. Over in Doomsday Device Park, Nina is striding around barking orders under a low rumbling: security clearance is now Double-A (until it gets called up to Triple-A, God willing) and all non-essential personnel are to be sent home, she says. The scientist she's talking to says the device wasn't tampered with before it came on all by itself without Peter this morning, and Nina gets on her cellphone to relay the information to Broyles, in one of those particularly obtrusive product placement phone calls that distract from the actual show by coming off like the finished commercial done for a Celebrity Apprentice task. Nina tells Broyles to tell Walter the machine came on: "He needs to know," she says.
So Broyles tells the gang about the machine activating itself, adding: "It appears our assumptions were wrong," which is pretty much the case every week, and Walter starts putting the pieces together when he finds out that the machine started up just before the vortex appeared. "And if it's the end of the world, this is just the beginning," he says, gloomily.
But I guess that's no reason not to try to prevent it, so our heroes are now back at Harvard working on the problem, although Peter grouchily says the information they have is useless, since they'd been working on the assumption that he was the sole power source for the machine. Olivia points out that the machine responded to Peter, and Walter -- finally showing a little spirit -- says he might have a theory. He shows them a printout of the doomsday device's magnetic field, which looks vaguely umbrella-shaped, a kind that he's seen only once before: on the typewriter that Fauxlivia used to communicate with the other side. "Quantum entanglement!" says Peter. Sigh. It always comes back to quantum entanglement, doesn't it? Total television cliché. Just once I'd like to watch a television show that didn't trot out a "quantum entanglement" plotline.
Olivia figures out that means Walternate activated the machine over there, which Walter says would have sparked a "sympathetic" response over here. "It makes sense," he says. Sure it does! When you consider Fringe plotlines, the only possible response is "That makes sense!"
But there's not a whole lot of time for glee at the breakthrough theory, because Astrid relays some sobering news from Broyles: three more incidents -- colonies of bats above the New Jersey turnpike, mini-quakes in Florida, and in Newton, 30 acres of woodland completely decimated -- all organic life just dead and desiccated in a matter of hours. "The blight," says Olivia. Walter, being a total downer again, says he expects the events will increase exponentially, and there's no way to stop it. "He's won. Walternate's won," he says, a shining can-do spirit that's sure to inspire the rest of the team, none of whom says anything to contradict him.
And we go back over to Earth-2 where Fauxlivia is taking her son out for his first walk -- he's three weeks old, so I assume the rapid growth was halted somehow upon delivery. She's with the nanny? I assume? Which is fortunate because Fauxlivia gets a page alerting her to a Fringe event on Liberty Island, and she leaves her son with the woman who says she'll keep him safe while Fauxlivia keeps the rest of them safe.
Some time later, she's riding in the back of a Fringe van while Lincoln Lee tells her that "the Lookers" have detected a spatial discontinuity. Is there a "Looker" in every episode over here? "Power density spikes reaching over 3000 milliwatts per square meter, and that's two-hundred meters away from the focal point," he says, which doesn't mean much to anyone watching, but apparently that's a Class 10 event. The power spikes are coming from the Liberty Island DOD complex, and Charlie and the evacuation team are en route.
They arrive at the ferry landing, and the air quality is normal so there's no need for oxygen masks, but as everyone piles out of the back of the van, Lee gets on his earpiece and sounds surprised as he explains to the person on the other end that they're still seeing dangerously high levels. Then he signs off, defeated, with this: "Understood, Mr. Secretary."
So Lee gets off the van and announces it's a false alarm and orders everyone to pack up. Naturally, Fauxlivia needs a little bit more explanation than that, especially since the energy surges are still happening. They look across the harbour at Liberty Island, as Lee says explanations are above his pay grade. "I think I know who to ask," snaps Fauxlivia. She think she all that just because Walternate's son is her babydaddy!
Meanwhile, Walternate and Brandonate are monitoring the goings-on, with Walternate pissed that there's been no measurable improvement. "Environmental degradation levels haven't changed since the device was activated," says Brandonate. This thing's going to fix the tears in the fabric? Does that mean you're also going to bring back to life all the people in amber?
Walternate seems to accept that reversing years of vortexes and reality-fabric-tears will take more than a few hours (seems like a solid hypothesis), but they don't discuss it too much because Walternate's assistant buzzes in to let him know that Fauxlivia's there to see him. Brandonate's dismissed, and he says hi to Fauxlivia as he leaves.
Walternate's quite happy to see Fauxlivia, although he's disappointed she didn't bring Henry, and his demeanor heads a little farther south when she tells him she's on duty at the moment: "Fringe Division identified a Class 10 energy surge emanating from this complex, which would normally justify evacuating a 10-mile radius around the epicentre," she points out, and Walternate, without explaining what they're doing, says there's no danger to the general public, because they've taken proper precautions. Can Walternate say anything without sounding sinister? Jesus, he's like Hannibal Lecter.
Fauxlivia reminds Walternate that she brought back a piece of tech from the other side that he told her was part of a weapon that could destroy the other side: "Have you activated that weapon? Is that what's causing the surge?" she says. Walter, stony-faced, tells her that's classified. That means yes, obviously, so Fauxlivia asks what's going to happen to the people over there. I hope that's a rhetorical question, because "destroy the other side" seems rather unequivocal.
Walternate, having turned his back to stand in front of the map of the messed-up United States, says his concern is for the people of their world. "But your son is over there," says Fauxlivia, more angry than shocked. Walternate says he's aware of that, and he turns to face her and coldly tells her that Peter chose to leave, and chose his allegiance. "I chose to give up my son so that you could keep yours," he says, unsurprisingly keeping to himself the fact that he needed Henry to activate the machine. Jesus, I know some people don't get along with their in-laws, but I get along great with mine, so I can't imagine ever having to confront my father-in-law over his universe-destroying plans. If I were to do so, I think I'd sit down with him over a few beers first. You're dismissed, Fauxlivia.
Back at Harvard, the gang is studying charts and diagrams, trying to figure out what to do. Peter suggests breaking the machine back down into its component parts, but since it's quantum-entangled, Walter doesn't know what it would do: "It could tear us apart with the energy from the other side alone," he says. Astrid asks if that's more dangerous than vortexes putting holes in the universe. Well, it doesn't sound like it would even work, Astrid. Walter's worried about the devastating consequences of anything they do, but I do take Astrid's point that "devastating consequences" > "total annihilation," though, and it's not like she's wrong.
Olivia pops over with the news that Nina told her they picked up an electromagnetic spike in New York fifteen minutes before the vortex opened, and Walter asks if that's how they predict anomalies on the other side. It is, says Olivia, and they also look for odd thermal patterns and radiation spikes. She's got Nina tracking all three. Remember when Nina kept offering Olivia a job? Nina's working for Olivia now!
It's minor good news, because at least they'll be able to warn people, maybe save some lives, but no one looks particularly jazzed about that. Olivia says she's going to Massive Dynamic to help Nina with the protocol, and Peter stops her, probably to warn her to make sure Nina enters any elevators first, but all he says is "Olivia" when he sees how scared she looks. She tells him she'll call him when she gets to New York, and asks him to let her know if Walter comes up with a way to stop the machine.
She leaves, and Peter turns back to where Walter is suggesting encasing the entire machine in lead, to contain the energy it's emitting. He doesn't look like he's actually convinced, though. Peter walks back over and calmly tells Walter that they both know there's another way.
In Walter's office, they look at the schematic with the awesome badass picture of stubbly Peter with his eyes on fire. If I were Peter, I'd have that tattooed on my back.
In Walter's office, Peter says, "It makes sense" like there's that phrase that people toss around in inappropriate situations on this show. Anyway, his idea is that they used to think Peter would be the one to turn the machine on. Maybe instead he's able to turn the machine off. "We don't know what the drawing means," argues Walter, who is sitting down and now pouring himself a drink. Is Walter going to have a drinking problem over the last three episodes of the season? Peter sits down to him and says that every piece of data points to one conclusion: that machine was made for Peter. And to paraphrase Jewel -- something I can't believe I'm actually saying -- Peter was made for the machine. "You could die," says Walter, sadly, and Peter says, "And if we do nothing, we all could die." Walter knows that Peter's right, and we see now that Walter poured two glasses of whisky. He slides one over to his son.
Then he reminisces about how the Observer told him "give me the keys and save the girl," and this is the first time Peter is hearing about this, and Walter has realized the Observer was preparing Walter for having to give his son up later. "Because he knew I would have to let you go. That I would have to sacrifice you to fix the problems I'd created," he says.
Peter thinks about this for a moment and then says he thinks this is what he's supposed to do -- but he can't do it without his father's help. He holds his glass up, and Walter clinks his against it, and they both drink.
Meanwhile, Olivia's driving to New York, whilst listening to K-Plot radio, your exposition destination, which is yammering away about unexplained weather phenomena up and down the eastern seaboard over the past 24 hours, as well as the storm warning that's in effect for the entire coast.
In New York, Nina is yelling at some flunky on the phone about how some person couldn't have just disappeared. There has to be a trail, so find him! she yells. Olivia arrives, and Nina tells her that she's assigned people as Olivia requested to the protocol she requested, and Olivia wants to know where they are in terms of coverage, and Nina's got satellites focused on the northeast states, which gives them some sort of thermal reading blah blah that will give them some lead time if a vortex starts forming in a densely populated area. "What about electromagnetic disturbances?" asks Olivia, and Nina says their cellphone towers have been recalibrated to detect them, etc. Has this all happened since this morning? Good God. Also: did Olivia really need to drive all the way to New York for questions that could have been answered over the phone? Like on one of the fancy product-placed phones that we know EVERYONE here uses?
Olivia asks about the amber, and Nina admits they've hit a wall and only have enough amber to contain eight, maybe ten events, but beyond that, their chemists are having trouble finding some of the more rare elements. Olivia snaps that without the amber, early detection is irrelevant. Well, I presume evacuation is still a goal, right?
Anyway, Nina looks rather upset, and she blabs to Olivia: "I was told on good authority that if you and Peter were together, it would all work out." Olivia wants to know what the hell Nina is talking about, so Nina tells her about Sam Weiss (but she doesn't say Sam's name yet), whom Bell told her about and advised her to trust, and who knows a lot about the machine. Olivia's furious that Nina never thought to mention this before now, but Nina says Sam said if she divulged what he told her that she would never hear from again, and she didn't want to risk that. Olivia demands to know who it is, and Nina says, "You've already met him. Sam Weiss."
In another room she shows Olivia all the books she received under the The First People Book of the Month Club, and points out that the authors' names, even the Hebrew and Russian ones, are scramblings of Sam's name. Olivia's amazed, since they've been over those books hundreds of times. She wants to know what else Sam knows, and Nina points out that Sam reveals only what he wants to reveal, as Olivia well knows, but Olivia's not to be deterred, despite Nina saying they don't have an address for him, and the phone's been disconnected and the bowling alley shut down. That's unfortunate. In a time when the fabric of our reality is being ripped apart, humanity needs bowling alleys more than ever. Olivia vows to find Sam and stomps out of Nina's office.
Then we watch a young couple annoyingly chase each other through a field in Saratoga Springs, and Jeanie's got the truck keys and is playfully running away from her boyfriend, Jack, and they get in the truck and whatever little squabble that turned into key-keepaway dissipates as Jack says, "I meant that you mean a lot to me. You're kind of amazing," and instead of getting annoyed for the "kind of," Jeanie gives him the keys and they start making out. But before he can impregnate her (again, I mean), Jeanie notices something through the front windshield that concerns her. The sky is shimmering, in a prism of colours. Think of a rainbow aurora borealis in the middle of the afternoon, that's what it looks like. It looks like our young lovers will survive this for now, because we cut to another observer: Sam Weiss, who has one of those trans-universe viewing windows set up, through which he's watching what's going on whilst solving complex physics equations in a notebook. I have no idea what the equations mean, but the answer he arrives at is zero, which doesn't look to be good news.
Back at Fauxlivia's house, she's rocking Henry to sleep and singing him a lullaby, and not one of those scary lullabies that involve babies falling out of trees but a proper lullaby about love. She puts him in his crib, and then makes a worried face, and then goes out into the living room, where Lincoln Lee is looking at a picture of the two of them, Fauxlivia holding a medal -- her first commendation, she says, but Lee doesn't need reminding because it was for dragging his ass out of a Class 4 vortex.
After a little more joshing, Lee gets serious and says she can't do this alone. He wants to come with her. "As much as I would love to have you watching my butt, I need you here," she says, and makes him promise to take Henry to her mother's if she doesn't come back tomorrow. "You really think Peter Bishop can stop this? That he can heal both worlds?" She's not sure but thinks that if anyone can change Walternate's mind, it will be his son. Lee says he'll see her when she gets back, and they hug, and Fauxlivia's on her way.
Brandonate's in his lab listening to a ball game in which A) the Dodgers are still playing in Brooklyn at Ebbets Field, and B), breaking MY heart, the Expos are still a team that exists. All of a sudden I'm rooting for Earth-2 to survive. Then Fauxlivia is suddenly there, shutting off the radio, surprising Brandonate, who calmly reminds her that this is a restricted area. Fauxlivia's got a gun that says otherwise, though, and she points it at him and asks him how Walternate brought Peter back from the other side 10 months ago.
He plays dumb, and she threatens to shoot him in the knee if he lies to her again. thing we know, she's marching him down the hall at gunpoint -- he says the watch commander patrols the area every five minutes, but she already knows it's every twelve. So he tries the standard "This is never going to work" routine. "The technology you want never made it out of the test phase because it breaks down the molecular cohesion of the person crossing over. The Secretary took a huge risk crossing over once," he says, adding that for some test subjects, the crossing was lethal.
She thanks him for his concern, and they're at the door now, so he uses his palm print to get into the lab where the crossing technology is kept. "This is not organized," he says, like he's stressed about his house being messy when company unexpectedly stops by.
All bluffs dispensed with, Brandon opens a case with a bunch of large metal and glass cylinders, and he tells her one will get her there and back. "If you make it to the other side, just stay there, because when the Secretary finds out you're a traitor..." he sneers, and then Fauxlivia knocks him out with the butt of her pistol, which he's kinda had coming. Smartly, she grabs two of the vials, and heads back out into the hall, only to find some guards on patrol. Fortunately they're guards of the slow-to-react and terrible-shot variety, giving Fauxlivia enough time to duck into an elevator that she takes down to the basement. The sentries aren't too far behind her, though, and as Fauxlivia doesn't exactly know where she's going, she quickly winds up in a dead end. She pulls out one of the cylinders, and starts twisting the top. Rods on the inside start glowing red, and there's some sort of noise that increases in volume and pitch as the guards approach -- and then it just shuts off. "Son of a bitch," says Fauxlivia, who really ought to have forced Brandonate to explain how to work it before she knocked him out. And now the guards are upon her.
Back on Earth-1, Olivia has tracked down Sam Weiss's apartment -- well, the landlord knew him as "Seamus Wiles," which didn't make as much sense to him as "Sam Weiss" does, he tells Olivia, as he lets her into the apartment. He wants to know what Sam did, but Olivia says she just wants to ask him a few questions. "So long as there's no dead bodies in there," says that landlord. Note that Olivia wisely doesn't promise anything she can't deliver.
Inside, the apartment is almost completely barren, apart from some papers and a bottle of Brut -- really? -- on the fireplace mantle. Sam's departure seems to have come as a surprise to the landlord. "Last guy who bailed on the apartment ended up being a hoarder. Took me three weeks to clear out the trash," he says. Arguably, if he left all that stuff behind, he wasn't a very good hoarder.
Over at the doomsday warehouse, Peter sits looking at a computer screen in a room full of monitoring equipment, and he contemplates the plastic bag that contains some sort of clothing. Probably trying to remember if he returned the Little Fockers DVD to Blockbuster.
Elsewhere, Broyles asks Walter if he really thinks Peter could turn off the machine. An anxious Walter says the machine's emitting an energy signature like an electric current: "Peter thinks that because of his relationship with the machine, that if he goes into it, the current will run through him, creating a kind of a closed circuit. And if he can complete the circuit, then he can also break it or turn it off," he says. But Broyles wants to know what Walter thinks as a father, if he thinks it's a good idea. Man, you want to know a father's perspective on what's safe for his kid? I don't think it's a good idea for my daughter to date while I'm still alive! I'm a terrible judge! But Walter bravely says that it's because of his selfish inability to let his son go 26 years ago that this is happening, so his opinion as a father doesn't matter.
Broyles says it matters to him, so a very scared Walter tells him that he honestly doesn't know what's going to happen: "The current of energy is so powerful. It's unlike anything I've ever seen. And the thought of what that could do to my son... I don't want him to suffer." Broyles comfortingly puts his hand on Walter's shoulder.
Well, at least Peter gets to wear a kickass black jumpsuit! He's in the main area, with the device humming nearby, zipping up. Astrid asks if he's sure he doesn't want her to call Olivia. "If it doesn't work, she's gonna find out soon enough," says Peter, which kind of misses the point. He thinks better of that, and he starts to give Astrid a message to tell Olivia, and Astrid, blinking back tears herself, trots out the hoary old action movie cliché: "You'll tell her yourself," she says. Look, if we're going to use classic overused movie lines, why the hell has nobody said, "That's so crazy it just might work" yet?
A jittery Walter wants to know if he can Peter a sedative or something to calm him, but Peter assures him he's fine. Broyles stick out a hand to shake and wishes Peter good luck. "If this works and I save both universes, I want you to consider me officially retired," says Peter. Heh. Or at least give him a nice bonus gift, like an iPod! Broyles dryly says he'll consider it. Astrid's back for a hug, and she says they'll be here waiting for him, and then a distraught Walter tries to put some electro-conductive gel on Peter's hands: "If there's an energy current, it will pass through the handholds and this gel will keep it from burning your skin," he says. Peter stops him -- but that's a good idea! -- and tries to reassure Walter again that he's fine. Walter, breaking your heart only for the millionth time since this series began, says he was never good at letting Peter go. "This time you have to," says Peter. Walter straightens up somewhat. "Son..." he says. That's about all he can muster. "I know," says Peter. Then he turns toward the machine and walks toward it.
He gets on a nifty little platform that elevates and then extends towards the machine. Everyone's watching, open-mouthed. Astrid takes Walter's hand. Peter stares at the machine, for a few moments, and reaches her hand out to it. The second he makes contact, he's zapped backwards, off the platform, crashing down to the hard concrete floor. Jesus, you guys couldn't put any gym mats around? Given him a goddamn helmet? He's unconscious, head bloodied. Everyone freaks. As you would.
The EMTs roll Peter's body on a gurney down the hallway, Walter in pursuit. The ER doctor shouts out orders, with Walter anxiously telling them Peter's blood type, and saying they need to do an echocardiogram. The doctor has to physically restrain Walter from following them into the trauma bay, but he does it as compassionately as the father of the patient warrants, promising to take good care of him, and then Astrid is there to look after him.
However long it is later, Olivia rushes into the hospital, and is stopped by a nurse who tries to tell her that this area is for staff and immediate family only. Olivia flashes her badge and lets the nurse live, and Astrid comes over to tell Olivia that Peter is unconscious, but his vitals are stable. "They just... they can't wake him up. He's with the doctors now."
Olivia's stunned, and Astrid says the MRI revealed no brain trauma. "They're just hoping that he's gonna come out of it soon." God, it must be awful to find out that all the doctors can do is just hope. Astrid tells Olivia that Peter tried to go into the machine but it wouldn't let him. "It's like it's protecting itself or something," she says. Olivia asks after Walter, who Astrid says is taking it pretty hard.
Speaking of Walter, he's in the hospital chapel, looking uncomfortable. But then he figures since he's here he might as well have a talk with God, and so he admits he doesn't know his way around here. "Other people, I suppose, find comfort being in chapels, speaking to you. I have no other place to turn," he says. Psst! Walter! Saying this is your last resort might not go over so well! Most things make him angry!
Walter, addressing the blue-neon-backlit crucifix on the wall, talks about the sign he was given once -- the white tulip, remember -- and how grateful he was for that. "Since then, in moments of deep despair, I have found solace in believing that you had forgiven me," says Walter. You know, normally I find scenes like this utter tedium, but Walter, as usual, redeems this one. "I was willing to let him go. I was willing to let Peter die!" he says, getting angrier. He says he's changed, and that should matter. Settling down somewhat, he offers up a bargain: "God, I know my crimes are unforgivable. So punish me. Do what you want to me. But I beg you: spare our world." There is no answer forthcoming from God, as Walter drops to his knees, hands clasped.
In the waiting area outside, Olivia's battling her own private anguish. She sits and looks at the floor, and the sunlight shimmers and moves somewhat. She gets up and walks outside, and looks at the sunset, the sky light orange, the sun's rays streaming over the horizon as it sinks in the west. She only has a moment to look at it before Sam Weiss comes bounding up the nearby stairs.
He's all, whassup? And she tells him she's been looking for him, that the machine is on. He knows, and he needs her to take him to it. She asks him what's going on, and he tells her she just needs to trust him, because they don't have a lot of time. Ah, the ol' "there's no time to explain!" nonsense. Perhaps it's not fair to judge because Kevin Corrigan, who I normally really like, only had a handful of lines, but he seems pretty flat here, in stark contrast to the impending end of the universe.
Back over to Earth-2, where Walternate is striding down the corridor to visit Fauxlivia, who's being held in what we'll presume is the same cell Olivia was held in. "I know this is hard for you," he says, and she smirks and says he doesn't know anything about her. Is she... hitting on him? Because that's cool. That's totally cool.
Walternate reminds her that this morning she asked how he could be willing to let his son die to heal their world: "But you understand sacrifice better than anyone, Olivia. You were willing to leave your son behind, to risk your life for what you perceived to be the greater good. We're more alike than you think."
If Fauxlivia hates to be compared to her ersatz father-in-law, she doesn't show it, but she says she doesn't understand how killing billions of people could possibly be in the interest of the greater good. That's because she still has the luxury of her ideals, while he has to be pragmatic.
Anyhoo, she's put him in a difficult position, he says, although he seems to be handling it all right. He tells her that anyone else would be rotting away in a stockade for treason, but since she's the mother of his grandson, she'll merely stay there for her own good until this is over.
Then he turns out the light and walks away, because being the mother of his grandson doesn't earn her any reading privileges.
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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.