FRINGE: “Back to Where You’ve Never Been”

Just before Fringe went on its seemingly eternal winter break, Peter Bishop had come to the realization that the universe he was in and the people in it were not his. This week Fringe returns and Peter is already working on his plan to get back to them.

We open to Peter entering the kitchen, where Walter is making him pancakes and wearing nothing but an apron. Ah, certainly feels like Peter is home. Things get strange after this, though. Olivia comes in, in her pajamas, and greets them. Obviously, it was a dream, but Peter awakens and immediately knows he needs Walter’s help.

Walter is in the lab running tests on pinwheels when Peter shows up with a box of pastries to try and win Walter over and enlist his help. Walter is still uncomfortable with him, though, and seems to want to get away. Peter begs for help fixing the machine to get him home. He’s been separated from his family and is desperate to get back; Walter of all people should understand that. Walter looks lost….he opens up and tells Peter of the day Elizabeth committed suicide. Walter feels guilty for not having been there with her; he had gone to another universe to save someone else’s child. He lost everything that day – his wife, two children, two universes harmed, and he also lost his career. Walter may be the only one who can help him, but he’s also the only one who can’t.

Olivia is Peter’s next option, maybe she can help him to cross the bridge to the other universe so that he might speak to Walternate. She has a migraine when she answers the door, not surprising after we saw what Nina has been doing to her in the previous episode. Olivia shuts him down, saying Broyles will never go along with it, and Walternate would never help. Lincoln Lee, the nerdy one, shows up. Peter thinks maybe Lincoln is the key because of his alternate’s position in the other universe. Olivia has thought about crossing over herself to look around, and had even filled out a request. Peter wonders why she would need help crossing over, but the quizzical look she gives him suggests either this Olivia doesn’t have that power, or at least doesn’t know about it yet.

At a bus station in the other universe, a small child goes into a public restroom and hears a scuffle going on in one of the stalls. He runs to tell his mother, who reports it to security. When the guard investigates, he opens the stall and finds one of the new shapeshifter hybrids standing over a dead man. The shapeshifter knocks the guard out of the way and runs, but is hit by a bus just outside the station.

Walternate is in his office when Brandon arrives with some of the new shapeshifter tech. He’s been trying to find the source of the person responsible for this prototype. Walternate wants him to forward his diagnostic protocols and leave the tech with him to trace. Brandon tries to resist, but it’s hard to say no to Walternate. He’ll do it.

Fauxlivia and AlterLincoln are investigating the scene outside the bus station, or at least were going to. The crime is taken out of their hands and given to the military instead by secretary of Defense Walternate. Fauxlivia wonders why, but AlterLincoln says it’s out of their hands.

Peter and Olivia meet NerdiLincoln at the theater where the soft spot allowing access to the other side is located. Olivia wonders how he knows about these soft spots and he tells her he’s used them in another universe. Olivia is going to wait at the theater while Lincoln and Peter cross over, in case they need help. Lincoln is dressed as AlterLincoln; they will use his access to Walternate. Lincoln wants to know what happens if the door closes before he gets through it. Peter tells him it will cut him in half; he killed a guy like that once, but don’t worry it was a bad guy. Peter thanks Olivia, she wishes Lincoln luck, and they cross through. No dismembered limbs. All is good.

AlterAstrid informs AlterBroyles of a breach at the opera house, and he dispatches Lee and Dunham to investigate. Peter and Lincoln are well clear of the site by then. NerdiLincoln claims Peter is a prisoner to be transferred to Liberty Island. The poor corporal on guard duty is fooled, and they pass through with almost no problem. Lincoln tells him his “show me” was lost but his hand print matches. Peter praises Lincoln’s knack for deception.

Fauxlivia and AlterLincoln find nothing at the opera house and chalk it up to a false alarm. She’s more interested in what happened at the bus station, and believes the guy was a shapeshifter. Fauxlivia is having suspicions that Walternate could have something to do with it. Lincoln tries to start his car, but it won’t start because his “show me” has been reported lost. He calls to find out what’s going on, and learns that he is located elsewhere. Surprise. NerdiLincoln wants to know where Walternate’s files are located, and Peter realizes what he intends to do. He needs Walternate’s help and if they are caught he’ll never get it. The two are so busy with their argument they don’t notice Fauxlivia and AlterLincoln closing in on them. When Peter tells Fauxlivia that he must speak to Secretary Bishop, her response is “who the hell are you?”

Broyles calls Walternate and tells him of the two interlopers, and that one claims to be Peter Bishop, his son. Walternate seems shocked to hear this news, and tells Broyles to keep him informed.

Peter and Lincoln are in the lockup van, being taken in by the Fringe division. The driver receives a phone call, says he understands, and swerves out of the convoy. He also pulls a gun and shoots his partner. He takes the prisoners to what appears to be an old warehouse, where he is about to kill them until his partner manages enough strength to shoot him from the SUV. Peter and Lincoln then overpower him and take off just as Fauxlivia arrives. AlterLincoln pursues the two and catches NerdiLincoln pretty quickly. Peter is gone, however. The first meeting of the two Lincoln’s is awesome. NerdiLincoln tries to convince them that someone wanted them killed and he thinks Walternate is behind it. AlterLincoln thinks in the other universe he’s a nut job. NerdiLincoln also tries to convince them Walternate is behind the shapeshifters. Peter told him he could trust Fauxlivia, which surprises her because she doesn‘t know him. Lincoln tells her that Peter said at the end of the day she’s a good person, she’ll do the right thing. They take him in, saying it will get sorted out at headquarters.

In Tarrytown, NY, a woman arrives home, notices a door ajar in her home, sounds the alarm and is about to run. Peter stops her. It’s Elizabeth, his mother. He begs to speak to her husband. He doesn’t tell her he’s Peter, but as she looks at him it’s obvious she knows. He isn’t the Peter she knew, though. He’s from another place. He shares his desperation to get back to the people he loves. She believes Walter would do anything he could to help him, and is going to call him, but Peter tells her that people who work for him already tried to kill him. She wants Peter protected, Walternate has to know about him. Peter sadly tells her he thinks he already does. Troops arrive, responding to an alarm she set off before she realized he was Peter. She promises not to let anything happen to him this time. She demands the soldiers take them to Walternate.

NerdiLincoln and AlterLincoln are still bickering. Fauxlivia learns that the driver of their car did receive a call before he dropped out of the convoy. She’s looking into where it came from. If it was Walternate then they might believe NerdiLincoln. As they leave, AlterLincoln remarks that they are breaking about five general orders, he hopes she knows what she’s doing.

Elizabeth takes Peter to Walternate and tells him it’s a miracle. “Of course it is,” says Walternate and he insists they take the restraints off. Peter tells him he’s not his son, and Walternate already knows that. He asks Elizabeth to leave them so he can speak to Peter alone. When she leaves, Peter congratulates Walternate on a brilliant performance, he wasn’t surprised to see him. Walternate admits he’s known about him for some time, he’s been monitoring feeds from the other universe. PHis word is “monitoring,” Peter’s is “spying.” He knows Walternate tried to have him killed once today already. Walternate wonders if Peter came all this way to bring him to justice, but Peter just wants his help to get back home where he belongs. If he wants to get rid of him, just help him. Walternate realizes it must have been difficult for him to come to him. He knows a thing or two about making difficult choices. He calls Brandon in to confirm to Peter that he knows nothing about the shapeshifters plaguing the other universe. Brandon doesn’t know how Walter could have anything to do with it, but he has barely gotten the words out when Walternate turns the shapeshifter device on Brandon and shoots him with it. Walternate then simply turns to Peter and says “not everything is as it seems.”

Walternate tells Peter that Brandon had been replaced by a shapeshifter, he‘s suspected for a while. He has him on some sort of shapeshifter life support machine. He tells Peter it’s become clear to him that elements of his government are being infiltrated, but if word got out it would cause widespread panic. Peter tells him he has to find them and expose them, the device he has seemed to do the trick. Walternate says if he had been wrong about Brandon, the tech would have killed him. He is telling Peter this because he’s the only one he can trust to deliver a message for him, he has no ties to either universe. He will help Peter to get home, but first he must go back to the other side and tell them he is not their enemy. Whomever is behind it is a threat to all of them. Peter says he was wrong about Walternate, he’s not the man he thought he was. Walter proudly tells Peter he is exactly the man he thought he would be.

Fauxlivia has had the call traced, it came from an abandoned industrial park. She and Lincoln continue to keep this investigation from Broyles. They go to confess to Broyles, but ask for some leeway before they tell him exactly what they are up to, and he grants it. As soon as they leave he calls someone and tells him they are on their way to him now. Inside the lab of this mysterious call recipient are rows and rows of chambers containing what appears to be shapeshifters in a dormant state.

Back at the opera house, Olivia is lying on the stage, still waiting for Lincoln and Peter’s return, when she is suddenly aware of an observer standing in front of the stage watching her. She jumps up, gun in hand, but every question she asks him he anticipates and asks at the same time. He says “I have come to tell you something Olivia.” Before she can find out how he knows her name, she realizes he has been shot. He tells her he has looked at all possible futures, and in every one the result is the same. She has to die. She turns to get her things so she can get him to a hospital, but when she turns back around he is gone, and the episode ends with jaws dropped all around the fandom.

Perhaps one of the nicest surprises in the episode, for me at least, was the reveal of a more vulnerable side of Walternate. He’s not the bad guy everyone thinks he is, and he wants help to prove it. Can we totally believe that, given what we know of Walternate from the past? Maybe he’s not the same Walternate we knew, thanks to Peter’s playing with the timeline. At any rate, Peter seems to be destined to be the bridge between the two universes.

So what did you think? There were so many questions were raised this episode, I couldn’t possibly keep track of them all. Who shot the observer? Was Broyles the mysterious caller that ordered Peter and NerdiLincoln killed? And is he really behind the shapeshifter hybrids? Why does Olivia have to die (not that I can bear to think of that anyway)? Peter went through all this so that she wouldn’t be killed and it turns out she will have to die any way?

Fringe airs Fridays at 9/8c on FOX.