Tonight’s Fringe episode was the exact opposite of what “White Tulip” was. Instead of a standalone story which had little impact on the overall story, we had a havy mytharc episode which featured (mostly) the return of the shapeshifting soldiers, led by Thomas Newton (Sebastian Roche). The episode also featured perhaps the most heartbreaking moment of the series so far, and you probably don’t have to have three guesses to get what that was.
That sad moment was facilitated by the case of the week, which was brought on by the arrival of three new shapeshifting soldiers to this universe, who took their first forms by killing a stoner couple and using their bodies. Because without it, they’d be skinless guys with bad complexion (and before they morphed into that shape, they were huge masses of flesh sitting on a warehouse floor).
One of these three had a problem, though, and didn’t progress past the “fetal” stage, in which he was just a hunk of flesh on the ground. That’s how our FBI team found it, and Walter was able to deduce it was a shapeshifter due to the three-pronged punctures in the soft palates of the nearby corpses. Taking it back to the lab, Walter tried to restart the creature, but his earlier diggings had caused a bit of damage — the figure was only able to briefly live, dropping the name “Daniel Verona” on his way out.
Meanwhile, Newton and the two surviving shapeshifters went about placing rods in three locations. These rods, Walter would later surmise, would create vibrations that would sync up the two universes (at the date and time when they were most synced naturally) and then bring somebody over from the other side. And that’s just what they did. They tried to do so on a bridge, though Peter, Walter, Olivia, and the FBI were there to stop them. By playing the reverse of the vibrations, they were able to close the universal gap, though in the process, Peter discovered that the vibrations of the Other Side didn’t destroy him like they did an FBI agent nearby. However, he gets concussed and is hospitalized.
It’s all for naught, though, because Newton got the guy he wanted; a shadowy figure walking across the bridge from the Other Side whom he called “Mister Secretary.” He returned M.S. to his lair, helping him to get through the pains of universe-hopping. Who is Mister Secretary? I think the common theory is Walternate, and I’ll definitely agree with that. They’re not showing us his face because it’s someone we know, and that makes it likely to be Walternate — or maybe even William Bell.
In any case, the real Walter is having quite a few familial problems though. Midway through the episode, Peter calls him “Dad,” which is a pretty big step for the once-hateful-to-his-father Peter. That’s all undone, however, after Peter realizes that he and Mister Secretary (“the man from the other side” on the bridge) have one thing in common — the vibrations didn’t kill them. “I understand,” he tells Walter. “I’m not from here, am I?”
But before Walter was able to laboriously explain his heart-wrenching decision that would eventually lead to his wife’s suicide, Peter told him that Walter is not his father, and asked him to leave. Walter returned home briefly before deciding to return to the hospital, only to be told by Olivia that Peter checked himself out of the hospital and has gone missing. His devastated expression ended the episode.
The episode was a good one, though nowhere near the classic status of “White Tulip” or “Peter.” Instead, it focused on a fairly solid case that worked well as a story, and progressed the plot well. Olivia and Astrid were criminally underused, though the return of nerdy Massive Dynamic employee Brandon is always a welcome bonus. Overall, the episode was a devastating addition to the story that left me wanting for more. Which is a good thing, because we’ll be getting a unique Fringe dose next week with the musical episode “Brown Betty.” Meanwhile, “The Man from the Other Side” gets an A.
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