FRINGE: Novation

When last we left our Fringe crew, Peter had just returned and everyone at Fringe HQ was in a tizzy. It seems distrust is still in the air. When we pick up this episode, Peter has been taken to a new cell in the federal building, escorted by Broyles himself. Olivia is in the lab checking on Walter, who is trying to sleep because his visions of the man have been keeping him awake for weeks. He’s also upset that no one will allow him to examine the man. Olivia tells Walter that he is the only one the man says he will speak to, he claims to be Peter Bishop, Walters son.

We next see a woman tearing through drawers as her boyfriend arrives home. She says she’s looking for the electric bill and will go start dinner. The woman is visibly nervous, shaking. She hears his shower start and steals his keys. He catches her in the act and her face starts changing, literally, and he’s scared. He falls backwards, sees his actual girlfriend dead under the bed. The shapeshifter asks the man where the files are, then kills him.

When Walter wants to know why they think there is any basis to the strangers claims that he is Peter, he learns DNA tests have proven they are related. Walter thinks it’s possible the man might be from a third universe. Broyles wants Walter to get answers to their questions from Peter, but Walter doesn’t think he is the best candidate for the job.

Peter greets a visibly shaken Walter. Walter has trouble looking him in the eye. Peter needs Walter to figure out why no one remembers him. They talk about Peter‘s drowning as a child. Peter questions whether the Observer wasn’t there that night, to save him. Realizing events changed that night, Peter worries something has gone wrong. If he isn’t supposed to be here then how is he back? Broyles, Olivia, and Astrid are watching from behind a mirror…they don’t know what an Observer is.

Lincoln Lee calls Olivia in on a case involving two dead bodies. He believes a shapeshifter is involved. After running a background check, they learn the home belongs to a doctor who used to work for Massive Dynamic, Malcolm Truss, but he hasn’t lived there in a while. The woman killed was Truss’s former wife, the man her boyfriend. The doctor must be the shapeshifter’s target. Elsewhere, she finds him, pulls a gun on him, and tells him she needs his help.

Lincoln and Olivia visit Nina at Massive Dynamic to inquire about Dr. Truss and his projects. Lincoln asks Olivia about a photo of her as a girl that sits on Nina’s desk. Olivia and her sister went to live with Nina when they were kids, after their mother died. Nina saved them from going into the foster system. They are interrupted by Nina’s arrival. One of Truss’s projects was cellular reparation, copying genetic data of healthy cells and using it to replace damaged ones. Bell shut the project down before it was completed due to ethical concerns. It was based on copying human tissue, like shapeshifters. I can’t help but consider for a moment how unethical a project must be for William Bell to be concerned about it’s ethics. That never seemed to be a problem for him before. Perhaps another change to be attributed to the change in the universe?

The shapeshifter is forcing Dr. Truss to drive her at gunpoint. She feeds him a phony story about how she had cancer and research based on her work had stopped it, but she’s still dying and needs his help. He falls for the story, tells her his files are all in his head and he will help.

Peter is playing with the wiring in his cell as Olivia briefs Broyles in another office. They know the shapeshifter might be after information for repairing itself from Dr. Truss. Peter tells them they are looking for memory disks. He was playing with the communications system and hacked into the intercom. Peter tells them he knows a lot about the shapeshifters. Lincoln and Broyles go head to head when Lincoln oversteps his authority. Lincoln wants to see if Peter can crack the shapeshifter tech. Peter wants something in return. He wants to talk to Walter again. Walter, meanwhile, is going through an old lunchbox full of Peter’s childhood things and hurting.

Truss is amazed at the work that was done on Nadine, and regrets that Bell shut down the project. His Bell impersonation isn’t as good as Olivia’s, but he‘s definitely trying to channel a little Nimoy. At work in Nadine’s lab, he finds the source of the cellular degeneration and believes he can fix her problem.

Nina visits Walter in the lab, and he’s less than happy to see her. She thought this was a good time for them to get past their differences, she wants to talk about Peter. Walter thinks he deserves to be punished. He always blamed her for what happened to Peter, because she tried to stop him and caused him to break the vial. But it’s really himself he blames. He sees his boy in the mans eyes, the way he looked that night in the ice. It filled him with joy to see it, but he doesn’t deserve it.

Peter informs Broyles that he found six distinct profiles in the disk. The new shapeshifter models replicate victims down to molecular model, and keep it. They can switch back and forth. They take on the DNA also. If they can perfect it they can replace anyone, and there will be no way of knowing. Peter discovers the device is broadcasting a signal, and that it is tracking coordinates. Whoever sent the new breed of shape shifters is keeping track of their movements.

Truss gives Nadine an injection. Her face starts changing, taking on his wife’s appearance. He freaks, and she overpowers him. He said he would help her, and she demands that he does! He wants to know why Nadine looked like his wife and she tries to deflect the question. She’s offering him a chance to take back what William Bell took from him, his legacy. He seems to be going along, but she realizes it’s a trick and demands he finish what he started. The Fringe crew is closing in as Truss is trying to complete the serum. Nadine and the Fringe crew engage in a little gunplay. Nadine grabs the serum and knocks Truss across the room. Lincoln tends to him while Olivia goes after the shapeshifter. They end up on the roof. An agent has been killed there and another is injured. The injured agent tells Olivia that Nadine jumped into the water below.

Olivia informs Truss of his ex-wife‘s death. He knows it was his fault, Bell’s words about some things not being ours to tamper with make sense to him now. Meanwhile, the dive team has found a body…it’s the agent that they put in the ambulance. That one was the shapeshifter. They dispatch a team to intercept the ambulance, but Nadine has already killed the driver and escaped.

Back at headquarters, Olivia drops a file on her desk and assures Lincoln they will find Nadine. She invites him out to eat, but he wants to go back to hotel and he departs. Someone brings Olivia a file, and Olivia has a sense of deja vu. The file she had placed on the table is gone. The time slip experienced in previous episodes continues.

Walter goes to see Peter. Peter doesn’t know what to do, no one remembers him. Olivia looks at him like she’s afraid of him, like he’s a stranger. He needs Walter’s help to fix this. Walter touches his face…every day for the past 25 years he has tried to imagine what Peter would look like as a man, but he doesn’t deserve this. He shouldn’t be here. Walter says he can‘t help and leaves. Peter is totally alone in this world.

The shapeshifter is in Boston and injects herself with the serum she stole as her face is changing. Her face goes back to normal. She removes a typewriter from a locker and sends a status report. Whomever receives it responds that they are sending the others.

Who could the shapeshifter be communicating with? Walternate? The typewriter has been a tool of Walternate’s in the past, but with the changes in the universe is it still the case? And how will Peter ever prove himself in a world where no one knows him or accepts him as a part of their team?