Polite Dissent

This week’s episode was a bit of a letdown after last week’s Over There, Part 1 (and the several great episodes leading up to it). It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t terribly good — or very Fringe-y at all. It seemed like it was an episode designed to get everyone in place for next season, rather than a fitting ending for this one.

The Plot: Olivia and Bell are searching hospitals, trying to find Walter. Olivia sees the alterna-Fringe team arriving and realizes that they must be in the right hospital. Bell stalls them while Olivia finds Walter and escorts him out of the hospital.

Peter meets with his father, who tells him that he wants to repair the rift and save both universes, but that he’ll need Peter’s help. He asks him to take a look at the power source for his “fix-the-rift” device ( power source that looks amazingly like an original XBox).

Walter, Olivia, and Bell stop just long enough to shill for Kentucky Fried Chicken, and then they head out again. Walter and Bell are off to Walternate’s old Harvard lab to build a device to let them cross back over into our universe while Olivia heads back to the city to look for Peter.

Alterna-Olivia has questions for the Secretary of Defense and he admits that yes, the people who crossed over are our doubles, only evil (or, more correctly, eeeviiilll). Sensing a connection between her and Peter, he asks her to escort him to his new apartment. Alterna-Oliva arrives back at her house, only to find Olivia waiting for her. They exchange some family history (Mom dead? No? Sister dead? No? Niece?) before getting to the inevitable fight. Alterna-Olivia is the stronger fighter, but Olivia decks her with a convenient piece of wrought iron. She then cuts and dies her hair so that she looks just like alterna-Olivia. Just about this moment, alterna-Charlie shows up at her doorstep and tells her that there’s been a power surge in Walternate’s lab and they’re supposed to check it out. Olivia tells him they’ve got a new mission, and that’s to move Peter to safety. They arrive at Peter’s apartment and Olivia warns him what Walternate is up to. Alterna-Charlie realizes something’s wrong with Olivia, but not in time to stop himself from being clobbered. After hearing his father’s plans, Peter tells Olivia he doesn’t belong in either universe — but then she kisses him and poof! — problem solved.

Olivia, Peter, Walter, and Bell arrive in front of the theater where they crossed over in the previous episode. A minute later, the alterna-Fringe team arrives. Peter and Walter move his machine inside and set it up while Olivia and Bell hold off the alterna-Fringe. The battle is chaotic, and at one point Bell finds himself confronted by two Olivias — and then clobbered by one of them. When he comes to, he finds the battlefield in flames and Olivia tells him she had to use one of his experimental grenades to save their life. The two of them hustle inside the theater to meet up with Walter and Peter. Walter is still complaining that they won’t have enough power to cross over, but Bell tells him not to worry. Bell explains that he has crossed the dimensional gap so many times his structure is unstable, like trillions of atom bombs, and he will provide the power for crossing over, even though it will cost him his life. The machine is activated and Peter, Olivia, and Walter cross back into our dimension.

A little while later, as Astrid is fattening him up with pie, Peter tells Walter that he’ll stay around for at least a little while. Meanwhile, it becomes apparent that the Olivia who crossed over was actually the Alterna-Olivia, and the real Olivia is locked up in the alternate universe.

1. And Flash Gordon Was There in Silver Underwear
I have to give alterna-Olivia props for her great choice of ring tone on her home phone.

2. Watch It Wiggle
The Quarantine Zones looked like the Jell-O bus from Fringe’s third episode “Ghost Network”

3. Answer Me That, Mr. Green Lantern
The show continued to hint at the subtle differences between the two worlds. I wish I had been able to see more of the comics that were framed in Peter’s apartment, but here’s the one I did catch:

That’s the original cover to Green Lantern #76 (April 1970, cover by Neal Adams) on the left, and the alterna-version on the right.

4. Full Stop
I’m sure it will be hand-waved away with mentions of “door stops” and William Bell’s atom power, but Walter seemed quite insistent that they needed Olivia’s abilities to cross back over. Does alterna-Olvia have the same abilities, or was that just papered over? In other words, was alterna-Olivia exposed to Cortexiphan too?

5. I Thought They Were Twins
Is there anyone who didn’t realize that was alterna-Olivia who helped Bell up? There was nothing even remotely subtle about it. And it never crossed Bell’s mind — who had just seen two Olivias — that this may be the wrong one? (Yes, I’m sure it will be handwaved away because she “knew about the grenade” — but maybe alterna-Olivia, unlike real Olivia, actually has some investigative skills).

6. Frankly My Dear
They never did explain Olivia and Frank’s “last night” comments from last week’s episode.

Not a bad episode, but rather anti-climactic compared to the last several. The Fringe Doomsday Clock stays in place and ends the season at 11:56

Tags: television fringe alternate universe peter olivia

UPDATE: Here’s the other alternate world comic book covers:


The originals are Crisis on Infinite Earths #7 (with Superman holding a dead Supergirl), Superman #75 (”The Death of Superman” — the “Collector’s Cover” shows a bleeding Superman symbol), Justice League #1 (with Guy Gardner instead of Jonah Hex), and Batman: The Dark Knight #1 (”The Dark Knight Returns”).

From DC’s “The Source” blog.