What the what? That’s all I can say about this week’s Fringe. The stage is definitely set for a big showdown finale that will finally give us some solid answers. Some about Olivia, some about Walter, and most definitely some about the pattern. Oh, and by the way, for all those viewers whose DVR’s cut off right before the end because Idol ran long, I have what happened then, too. Trust me, you didn’t guess correctly.
A woman spontaneously combusts and, naturally, Olivia gets the call. When she arrives, she sees two bodies and asks that they be brought back to the lab so Walter can work on them. Except there is only one body. Yup. She’s seeing double. That’s not the freakiest thing, either. Later, when she goes to brief Boyles on how the combustion case is coming along, she has a complete conversation with him and he asks about the second body. Then, the real Boyles walks in and you know Olivia was hallucinating. Nice, right. Like this girl doesn’t have enough problems, now she’s flat out imagining things. I mean, Broyles has her, and the entire team, looking for more evidence that Bell is involved in ZFT as well as everything else. She pushes it out of her mind and tries to focus on the case. Only there isn’t much to go on.
Astrid was able to learn the identity of the girl through her dental records but there’s nothing that suggests she had any friends or people who might know what was happening. There was a check for $30,000 from a lawyer but a visit to his office just showed that he had skipped out. Olivia decides to talk to Walter about her hallucinations, which he calls deja vous. We’ve all experienced this and from Walter’s explanation, we’re not seeing something we’ve already done, we’re seeing a glimpse of an alternate reality. You read right. He says that each choice creates a different dimension because there was a moment when you could have gone either way. Which means that Olivia isn’t going crazy, she’s simply more connected to this other plane of existence. The next time it happens, she uses this to her advantage and finds out that the second burn victim in that reality is the girl’s twin sister.
Back in the real world, the girl doesn’t have a twin, or at least not a close one. They were separated long ago but the other twin does live locally. Only, by the time Olivia and Charlie get there, she’s gone. It’s obvious she was kidnapped because of the damage to the apartment, not to mention the window is burned. Luckily, Peter’s been a busy boy working on a pet project. He’s been stealing parts from Walter’s equipment for weeks and it’s finally finished. This invention is supposed to be used so Walter can listen to his old records that have been damaged (I know, sweet, right). It will also allow them to use a piece of the burned glass like a record. After some fidgeting, they hear the girl struggle with a man. We know it’s the lawyer. He dials out and from that, Olivia is able to dial the same number, which belongs to….Harris. You remember the really douche bag FBI guy who hates Olivia and ordered Boyles to stop looking into William Bell. Yeah, him.
Olivia and Charlie follow Harris and he leads them directly to the twin. He’s been working with the lawyer and who knows who else to activate the soldiers they’ve created. He has the twin strapped down in a room and they’re testing her to see if she can focus her emotions and not explode. Apparently they’ve been activating many people, like the boy who was Olivia’s partner when they were little, to see who can handle their powers. The first twin failed and it looks as if this one is going to as well. Olivia kills the lawyer and goes into the small room with the twin. And, of course, Harris locks her in the room. I guess they don’t want to activate Olivia. Too bad for him, though, because Olivia talks the girl into focusing her emotions elsewhere and guess who goes up in flames. Yup. No more Harris. Olivia takes the girl back to the FBI and now can be suspicious of everyone without seeming paranoid. Seriously, though, did you think he was going to be bad? What about Nina from Massive Dynamic?
Nina busted into Broyles’ office to tell him to back off Bell but there was something strange about the encounter. When Broyles asked if Bell could talk to him, she stuttered and said he was traveling. Very odd. This coming after Walter showed the typewriter and the manuscript to Olivia and Peter. He said that Bell must have written the manifesto but that there was a chapter about ethics missing. That’s why he doesn’t think Bell is behind it all. He said that Bell wouldn’t go so far as to hurt all those people. And now he’s vanished? Definitely something fishy going on.
This is on top of the ending scenes: Walter finally discovers the missing chapter, which he hid in his files, and reads the part about respecting our children and what not to Astrid, who had just walked in. Only it wasn’t Astrid, it was the Observer (the bald guy). He simply tells Walter, “It’s time.” Walter looks shaken but seems to know exactly what is happening and he goes with the Observer. What? He just broke down crying because he told Olivia he couldn’t remember what he and Bell had done to her as a child and now with that little phrase he knows what’s happening. Interesting.
What’s even more interesting is that Nina shows up at Broyles’ house. He lets her inside (not us, drat) and they have a chat about something or other. I don’t know if Broyles is really bad or she’s being tailed or what but when Nina comes back to her apartment, there are two masked men waiting for her. They shoot her and the screen goes black. Say huh? Did she find something out about Bell? Had she known all along? Why is Walter okay with the bald guy? Agh. Did I mention I’m now addicted to this nonsense even though I feel like I’ll never know anything. They have to give us more answers next week. They have to.
