FRINGE: “Making Angels”

Ever since the “alternate universe” first appeared, and brought with it the Fringe team doppelgangers, all of the main characters have met their alternate in the flesh. All, that is, except Astrid, who’s double is most interesting of all – she’s high functioning autistic. In this episode, Alt-Astrid crosses the bridge with one purpose in mind, meeting Astrid Farnsworth.

Alt-Broyles calls Lincoln and Fauxlivia in to tell them of Alt-Astrid’s defection. It’s her job to give clearances to those who cross over, and she gave one to herself. Fauxlivia is sure she must have a reason, and believes she knows where Alt-Astrid is going. Faux goes after her.

Chet Williams is a man who just learned he has cancer. It’s stage one and his chances are good for survival. He’s understandably shaken, but he takes heart in his physician’s optimism. As he waits at a bus stop, a man approaches and sits beside him. The man starts telling him about the treatments for cancer and what it will do to him, how it won’t work. When Chet tells him the doctor said he had a 95% chance, the man tells him he’s the other 5%. A bus stops in front of them, and when it’s gone so is the man. Chet lies dead on the park bench with blood running from his eyes.

Walter and Peter are still working together. I’m still loving it. I never realized how much I enjoyed these father-son moments until they were gone. Alt-Astrid shows up at the lab. Walter realizes almost immediately that she is not his Astrid. Take note, Peter: You’re still the only one who didn’t realize when someone you care about was replaced. When Olivia and the other Astrid arrive in the lab, Astrid screams at the sight of her double. Olivia expresses wonder that nobody ever did that. She has a point. Alt-Astrid tells them she came to meet Astrid. She begins telling Astrid about her life, her mother dying when she was young (Astrid’s did also), and as confusing as her story is, it sounds like she’s telling Astrid her father had died. Walter thinks maybe they should eat. Walter always knows just the right thing to say. Olivia gets a call warning her Fauxlivia is on her way to sort it out. Walter calls Faux “the Viper.” He calls Alt-Astrid “Astrid”, offending the original Astrid, whose name he still can’t get right.

The team is called to the scene Chet’s death. Walter tells Astrid to check his crotch. Sometimes I wonder if Astrid ever thinks they just don’t pay her enough to do her job. There’s no blood in the crotch, so Walter asserts that the organs haven’t liquefied. He orders the body back to the lab. At the scene of the death, an observer, March, steps through a glass. He messages to someone that he thinks they have located it, then steps back through the glass and disappears.

Chet was apparently a really nice guy. They find nothing unusual in his files. Fauxlivia arrives. Or Mata Hari as Walter calls her. Alt-Astrid understands the solution to a problem regarding chemical interaction that was eluding Walter. Walter loves her. As he goes off with Alt-Astrid to work, Fauxlivia takes it as a sign she’s not leaving anytime soon and decides to get comfortable.

A woman purchases a bottle of liquor and walks out of the store. She seems hesitant, debating with herself, then throws the brown bag in the trash. The man from the bus stop steps behind her and tells her she’s going to give in and have the drink, then tells her all the other horrible things that will happen to loved ones because of her. He holds a device with a blue light in her face and activates it, some kind of smoke comes out of it. She’s finished.

Back in the lab, Walter has a bag full of Fauxlivia’s things he insists she get out of his lab. She seems amused. As he rambles on, she notes that she really got to him and encourages Walter to admit…he really liked her. Astrid interrupts with news of another victim.

Walter tells Asterisk to get a DNA sample. Yes, he still isn’t getting her name right, even after she expressed frustration that he has no such problem with Alt-Astrid. Peter thinks maybe this victim inhaled something through her nasal passage. As Walter is trying to convey instructions to Astrid, Peter (who is on the scene) is doing Walter’s job. Walter does not look happy. Later he is short with Peter. Alt-Astrid notes that he is angry with his son. Walter denies him being his son. She wonders if he feels love for him. Anger usually is indicative of an investment. She thinks he should think of him as his son if it makes him happy.

Fauxlivia and Olivia talk about Peter, and the case. Mostly the case. If they can’t find a link between the victims, they have a killer on the loose and no clue to find him. We next see the killer, a TSA agent named Neal, checking credentials and writing down the name of his potential next victim. He tracks the man, Jared, down in a parking garage. He tells him the harm that will come to him and others because of his being on his cell phone all the time to the point of distraction. Jared runs, and before Neal can catch him, Jared is hit by a car.

Olivia and Peter go to Boston Medical Center to find out Jared’s condition. He won’t walk again, he has a busted spinal cord. He tells them what Neal had told him, but doesn’t recognize either of the other victims. Neal had told him he would put him out of his misery, as though he were doing it for him, like he was a saint. As Fauxlivia would later point out, that is some twisted view of compassion.

Fauxlivia is taking Walter’s candy, and he remarks he didn’t hear her ask. She notes he’s still mad at her. He complains she’s also breaking his concentration. Alt-Astrid interrupts the squabbling when she notices from the files that all three victims traveled through Logan International Airport. She also notes they were all screened by the same agent. Peter and Olivia go check it out. When Neal sees them, he runs. They can’t pursue because he’s in a secure area that their badges won’t buy them access to. They learn he used to be a professor at MIT and go to talk to someone there. When they ask how an advanced mathematics professor ends up working for TSA, they are told that he lost his mind. He believed math was the key to unlocking the secrets of the universe. Basically, he thought it possible to see past, present, and future simultaneously. He had lived at a lake house, at Reiden Lake. On their way to the lake, Peter notes that the observers have that same ability, and the lake was the locale where one of the observer’s saved him in his timeline.

Walter is listening to music while he thinks, as the two Astrid’s talk. Alt-Astrid asks if she cares for him like a father. Then she starts talking about her father. That she couldn’t give him what he wanted, because of the way she is. She couldn’t love him back in a way that he could understand. She wonders if he would have loved her more if she were more like Astrid, more normal. Her words seem to break Astrid’s heart.

At the lake, Olivia breaks into Neal’s house. There are a lot of mathematical equations decorating the walls. There’s a newspaper article about an accident – Neal was a twin, his father and brother were killed. He also has photos of saviors on his wall. Peter wonders where Neal is….and we see him placing the device in a safe and retrieving a gun at his mother’s house. His mother questions him about where he’s going, she doesn’t understand his vague comments. He tells her he heard her the night his brother, Alex, died. She said God took the wrong one. Neal believes God had a plan and let him live for a reason. She is frightened. He keeps watching out the window, knowing Olivia and Peter are coming for him. He tells his mom he knows what God had planned for him now and he’s willing to go. Olivia busts the door open and tells him to put his hands up. He tells his mom he’ll see her in heaven, then turns and fires his weapon in Olivia‘s direction. She shoots him, he dies. As he is taken away, Olivia says said she doesn’t think he wanted to hit her, he fired at the window on purpose. Peter wonders why he didn’t just kill himself if he wanted to die. Olivia thinks it’s because he’s religious and wouldn’t get into heaven if he killed himself. Before they leave, she tells Peter she knows it’s taken some getting used to, but as long as he’s stuck there, he makes a good partner. He smiles and thanks her.

When Alt-Astrid tells Walter goodbye, he wants to hug her and she signals it’s okay. Fauxlivia wants to show Walter her genius piece of spy tech from her belongings, which had troubled him. It’s mints. Or similar to mints. He reciprocates by giving her some red vine candy from his desk. He thinks she may possess positive qualities he had previously overlooked. She takes that as flirting.

Astrid tells Alt-Astrid it was amazing meeting her. She tells her that she wasn’t very close with her father either. He’s a complex man, he doesn’t really show emotion. But Astrid knows he loves her, at least it’s what she tells herself. She tells Alt-Astrid not to regret that she couldn’t be more for him, it wasn’t her. They say their goodbyes. When Astrid arrives home, her dad is there. She can’t tell him what’s bothering her, but he gives her a hug and tells her he loves her.

Observer’s March and December sneak into Neal’s mother’s home and open the safe. March pulls out the device Neal had used and hands it to December, who recognizes it as September’s. He must have lost it in 1985, the night he didn’t save Peter. March tells December that September didn’t obey his instructions, because Peter Bishop is back.

So September’s disobeying orders has finally been discovered. I can’t help but wonder what this will mean for Peter moving forward. Will they correct it, and get rid of Peter for good? Put him back in his own timeline? Peter was never supposed to exist in the timeline he is in, so it seems likely that some shakeup will have to occur now that December knows. Just when Peter is finally starting to gain acceptance in the current timeline and become a part of their team. And what will come of September? Does his being found out have anything to do with the gun shot wound he had when we last saw him? Hit me up with your theories in the comments.

Fringe airs Friday’s at 9/8c on Fox.