- Air Date: 11/9/2012
- Directed By: Jon Cassar
- Starring: Anna Torv, Joshua Jackson, John Noble, Jasika Nicole, Lance Reddick, Blair Brown
- Guest Stars: Zak Santiago, Michael Kopsa
- Author: David Fury
Last week, wracked with grief over the death of his daughter Etta, Peter went nasty… and injected Observer tech into the back of his neck. Is Peter the first Observer, is he what creates the Observer race that dooms mankind, in some sort of TERMINATOR time-travel mind-freak? When will he start losing hair? If Peter’s actions are what cause, directly or indirectly, the Observageddon, it really would make him his father’s son.
As this episode began, I considered the notion that perhaps FRINGE ends exactly the opposite of how all of the Fringe science and events began. Walter stole Peter from the alternate universe, endangering both universes in the process and sacrificing countless lives. Now, perhaps it will come down to Walter to put Peter down, to avoid the awful future that humanity has coming. Just a thought, even if it doesn’t make a ton of sense.
Walter finds tape #7 from the lab, freeing it from its amber prison, and gets directions from his self to go to an address in Boston, where they’re hiding something from the Observers that’s absolutely necessary to their survival. Walter goes on his own without telling anyone, a clear shift in what Walter would normally do.
Peter watches a hologram of Etta over and over in his old apartment, where Olivia joins him. She wants to be there with Peter when he’s like this, not separated and stricken from each other by their grief, as they were the first time around when they lost Etta. Of course, Olivia clearly reminds Peter of Etta, so perhaps that’s why it’s tough to handle his wife’s presence.
Walter arrives at apartment 413 in the dilapidated apartment building, which has been bombed out for 20 years. Once inside, he shuffles his footsteps in some sort of pattern, and poof! through the looking glass Walter goes, stepping into some sort of portal. Turns out, Walter had created a pocket universe, one in which time and space operates very differently from our universe. Inside, he meets Cecil (Zak Santiago), a poor guy who thinks he’s been stuck inside for just 5 days, but it’s been 20 years since he was home. Unfortunately, Walter has no idea what to do once he’s inside.
Luckily for him, Peter, Olivia, and Astrid manage to track Walter to the building, bringing the video camera and tape with them. Peter and Olivia jump through the portal, leaving Astrid alone like the poor sap she is (when can she take the lead?!). Once in the eerie apartment building, the video camera keeps playing, past the point where it could work on the other side, an ingenious plot point. As Peter and Olivia seek to catch up with Walter and find what he hid here (is it Donald, the mysterious helper of the Resistance’s cause, or is it a weapon, or is it a wild goose chase?), Captain Windmark and the Observers catch their scents and come after them, tireless in their pursuit.
It’s another fantastic episode of FRINGE, as we’re almost halfway through the final 13 episodes of the show. We get some great developments with both Peter and Walter, as well as some creepy Observer action scenes. There are a ton of nods to FRINGE canon that avid fans will devour, and while not a ton actually happens or progresses the story this week, it’s an excellent set up for what’s to come, and it doesn’t portend well for the Fringe team.
Final thought: Where the hell is Nina Sharp?
