FRINGE Recap: Through The Looking Glass (And What Walter Found There)

Walter works diligently at recovering more of the scattered video tapes outlining his plan to defeat the Observers. He is alone in the lab when he rescues tape seven from the amber and watches it. This video gives a location that is key to Walter’s plan, and in the video he meets the not-yet-seen Donald at an apartment to introduce this stage of the plan. After viewing it, Walter sets out on his own to the location, which was bombed out 20 years ago and is now mostly a ruin except for the lower floors. Once he maneuvers to the 4th floor apartment, he uses the precisely measured movements depicted in the video and locates a portal that transports him into a hidden pocket…an alternate dimension.

Inside the hidden pocket, all that can be seen are long hallways and lots of doors. At least until Walter catches a glimpse of a man at the end of the hall. When Walter peeks again, the man slips behind him with a knife. The man’s name is Cecil, and he was in the apartment robbing it when it was bombed 20 years ago, only he thinks it has been five days. Time is not the same in this safe haven as it is outside, nor is gravity as we see when they enter a room where they appear to be walking on the ceiling. Cecil is reluctant to show Walter around at first, but Walter pressures him to help if he has any hopes of ever getting out of there.

Peter and Olivia arrive at the lab and are concerned when Astrid tells them Walter is missing. Walter knows how dangerous it is out there, they are fugitives. The three of them  watch the tape he left behind, and come to the conclusion he probably went to the apartment in the video. They go after him. They aren’t the only ones who know where Walter went, though, elsewhere Captain Windmark receives a report that Walter was spotted, and he also goes to search for him.

Once Peter, Olivia, and Astrid find the apartment, it doesn’t take long for Peter and Olivia to find the portal using Walter’s taped instruction. Once they enter the hidden pocket, however, there is suddenly additional footage on the tape that wasn’t viewable to them before. Walter on the video continues instructing them where to look. It isn’t long before they find Walter….and Cecil, who has to be wondering why everyone thinks he is someone named Donald. Walter explains that Cecil is collateral damage. That should make him feel good. Or not. They show Walter the section of tape that just became viewable in the pocket, and notice there seems to be a third person in the video with Donald and Walter. Eventually it is revealed to be the boy from Season One’s “Inner Child” episode…the young empath with strong resemblance to the Observers. Walter was hiding him here to keep him safe. They find the room where Walter placed the boy, but he isn’t there. They wonder if Donald took him somewhere after Walter disappeared, or maybe someone else found him. Olivia finds a radio beside the boys bed, which wasn’t in the picture in Walter’s video. She thinks someone left it there for them to find, and it seems to be jammed on a specific station. It isn’t working, though, so that mystery will have to wait.

With Walter and Cecil in tow, they set out to find a way out of the pocket. Windmark’s men are closing in, however, and after knocking Astrid unconscious in the apartment it doesn’t take long for them to see the portal in the apartment and step inside. They attack the group in the pocket, and Cecil is the first casualty. He was collateral damage, after all. He should have been wearing a red shirt. Peter, who still hasn’t told anyone that he is sporting Observer tech in his head, can actually see where the portal is located…he gets through it with Walter, but an Observer grabs Olivia before she can step through. When she tries to shoot him, she finds that her gun won’t work on that side of the portal. She dives backwards through the portal with the Observer hanging onto her. Once on the other side, she fires her gun again, and it works. That particular Observer was also collateral damage. Back together, the group tries to hurry away before more Observers catch up with them.

They get outside the building, and Peter encourages Olivia and Astrid to get Walter out of there, he will draw the Observers away from them and then meet them at the monorail. When confronted by an Observer, Peter demonstrates some of the new abilities he is developing. He has the strength of the Observers, he can anticipate his opponent’s next move, and he has the ability to disappear and then reappear at a different location. The Observer tells Peter he knows what he has done. He won’t be able to tell anyone, though, because Peter suddenly appears behind him and breaks his neck.  More collateral damage.

Olivia is about to go back after Peter, but he finally appears boards the monorail. She asks him how he knew where the portal was in the apartment, but he doesn’t tell her the truth. He sits with Walter, who is upset with himself over his lack of compassion for Cecil, who wanted only to get out of the purgatory he was in. Walter fears that the parts of his brain he regained have turned loose that selfish part of him who cared only about success. Peter tries to comfort him, and the two share a nice father-son moment. Peter looks over to Olivia, sitting with Astrid on the monorail, but something is different. Peter is now seeing things as an Observer would see them. The tech he inserted in his neck is slowly starting to change him, and Peter looks worried.

Fringe airs Fridays at 9/8c on Fox.