Fringe 4.01: "Neither Here Nor There"

Where's Peter? After last season's explosive finale, it's on everyone's minds.

To be fair, there's a lot on everyone's mind these days, what with the melding of alternate universes and such. But apparently Fringe didn't want to jump right into that at the moment, so we only get the snide remarks of Fauxlivia at the beginning of the episode. A single frame shot of Peter Bishop appears on the screen, and Boss Observer tells Friendly Observer that he needs to completely eradicate Peter from everyone's memories. Then we jump right into a typical episode. I WANTED ANSWERS THOUGH (residual Lost pain).



With the way last season took off towards the end, I had forgotten how much of a procedural this show is in the beginning of each season. This week, no Peter, instead we get a guy with translucent skin! Immediately it seems like a shapeshifter plot again, and look there's Lincoln Lee. Is that a great name or a terrible name? Anyway, in the prime universe he's a regular FBI agent who knows nothing about Fringe division and just lost his partner to the translucent guy. And then his partner turned translucent.

Olivia goes to investigate the scene, and our boy Lincoln refuses to accept her authority. He's a regular Johnny Reb, except, you know, named after the guy who put down Johnny Reb. We get into our regular proceedings as Walter plays with re-animation again and makes me think we're headed for a complete reboot. Remember the pilot? "Oh my partner is dead, something happened to his skin, please make him not dead anymore Mr. Jumpy Genius!" Single-frame shot of Peter again.

Anyway, it seems there are more cases of people being killed by translucent guy (t.g.), and they must have something in common. Olivia brings Lincoln in on the case, and he of course has essential skills from being a nameless, low-level agent. Maybe metal diseases? Eureka! The everyman in all of us.

Back to the lab to investigate! Walter, where are you? Oh just chillin' in the sensory deprivation, saw someone that looked scary. Turns out your hypothesis was half-true, Lincoln. All these dead people had metal-heavy diseases, and I don't know why t.g. would do that! Cut to shot of t.g. injecting himself with something. Probably skag (people still say skag right?).

Morality v. Science time: Lincoln can't believe they're not telling the victim's families that each died. Olivia knows, but this is top secret and they can't give out any details. Lincoln: "But, but, but, loved ones and family! Sad for them!" Walter knows pain, the pain of losing someone twice*. Apparently no one erased Peter from his memory. Are we about to get plot-y?

*Are they really going to go through the whole episode pretending Peter doesn't need to be addressed? This is why people jump on and off the Fringe wagon so often. Most shows know that they need to hook the viewer by at least making mention of the mysterious background plots. But Fringe really just waits til the episode to give you some insignificant nugget during the tag. It's immensely frustrating.

No. They go looking for t.g., and he's attacked a few agents. Oh no! Lincoln: "I'll fix up this guy's wound with my skinny tie, you go get ambushed in that facility!"Olivia runs in and gets the drop on t.g., but damn he's so strong and she has to get thrown down to the ground and smacked around (anyone think Abrams has marital problems) before she finally shoots him. Outside, leg-wound-guy tells Lincoln there's another t.g. outside, so Lincoln says no more Mr. Nice Guy and hunts him down. Bang bang.

Lincoln finds out his partner's body is being released to the grieving family. Morality and doing things that could potentially endanger more people wins again! Walter finds out that t.g. and his buddy are organic-mechanical hybrids, not that we've ever seen this before. He hates Walternate though! He's going to betray us! Who's he, wonders Lincoln Lee.

Olivia's about to tell him. They go to the secret base where something is happening, and after dragging out for 4 minutes, we see that this is where the two worlds collaborate. Whoa foreign tech. "Sometimes answers lead to more questions."* Lincoln is confused by this brave new world with fanciful zeppelins.

*Translation: our showrunners are going to end every season with a cliffhanger that later won't be resolved. Typical Abrams.

Walter now lives right outside his lab, and has a security detail. He goes to bed, and Nice Guy Observer sets up to do something with his machine that has buttons and lights. But he can't. He just can't do whatever he was going to do, because that thing he was going to do would make him feel so bad (apologies, I don't even pretend to understand the made-up technology unless Walter is explaining it). He goes away. Walter sighs deeply and turns on the TV. WHY IS PETER THERE?