Since the new Season has started I am going to start recapping the new episodes (along with making my best of list and funny poem recap) after they air and go back and do the old ones as I can. Unfortunately this means that my recaps will be out of order, unless I can figure out a way to fix that. Enjoy the recap and if you have any questions, or anything to add leave a comment.
Season 4 starts off with Olivia and Faux doing what I assume is exchanging case files so they can read up on the opposite universe. This scene was great. They were so catty with each other. Olivia in an every word has an angry undercurrent type of way and Faux in an outwardly flippant up yours type of way. Neither one of them thinks they can trust the other. Faux blatantly came out and told Olivia all she had was herself so it's no wonder she can't trust anyone.
In the new timeline Olivia was still held by the other side and Faux came here and impersonated Olivia. They didn't go into too many details about that.
To see the two Olivia's side by side and how Anna manages to portray each of them differently is amazing. It really is like watching two completely different people. I really wish the Emmy's had more sci-fi love.
As Olivia is leaving the shared room, there is some static infused flashes and there is a quick flicker of Peter. But he is gone again in a blink.
In a small restaurant the Observer September meets the Observer December. They say that since the timeline has been rewritten there should be no trace of Peter at all, yet there are still pieces of him bleeding through. December gives September a small component of equipment and tells him he must take care of it, that they cannot know that Peter lived and grew up.
The Season 4 opening titles are an orange gold color and the words have changed. The words are: Existence, Quantum Entanglement, Philosophers Stone, Psychometry, Viral Therapy, Ethereal Plane, Gravitons, Time Paradox, Psychogenesis, Bilocation, Psychic Surgery, Observers are Here, and Transgenics.
In Hartford Connecticut, Lincoln Lee knocks on a door and a man answers wearing a dress shirt, a loose tie, and boxer shorts with a half of a piece of toast sticking out of his mouth. The Lincoln of this timeline looks like the one that was in Stowaway.
Lincoln comes in as the other man explains that there was a problem with the toaster, but he's ready. The boxer-clad man's children run into the room and swarm Lincoln as he greets them. We find out that the half dressed guy is Lincoln's partner, Robert Danzig. As they talk Lincoln tosses him his pants to put on.
Robert gets his pants on sometime before the next scene because we see him and Lincoln chasing someone across a rooftop. With some daredevil jumping and some neat tuck-and-rolls they drop to lower overhangs until they are on the ground again and disappear into a dimly lit warehouse.
They split up and slink around the building. As Lincoln walks through a doorway someone with a gun steps out from behind it and points it to his head. Lincoln moves lightning fast and shoves the guys arm to the side as the gun discharges. Lincoln gets him on the floor and handcuffs him to a railing.
He calls out to Robert, but doesn't get an answer so he goes to look for him. He walks up on his partner flat on his back on the ground with someone crouching over him. The croucher looks back at Lincoln and his face is mottled and purplish.
That man takes off running and Lincoln follows. The guy dives through the window of the building they are in and crashes through another window of the building beside them. He stops for a second to look back at Lincoln and then takes off. Lincoln goes to check on Robert, but
his eyes just stare sightlessly upward. Then, his face starts to take on the purple hue the other guy had.
Olivia and Astrid arrive on the scene. Olivia enters the ambulance and looks at Robert in the body bag. She leaves Astrid in the ambulance, who is trying to call Walter, but the earpiece of her phone is getting so much interference she can't even keep it in her ear.
Olivia goes over and introduces herself to Lincoln. September and another Observer (maybe August or July) are standing behind the police barricade, observing Olivia and Lincoln. (I couldn't resist.) Although Lincoln and Olivia knew each other in the previous timeline, in this one they do not.
Olivia asks Lincoln to tell her what happened, she won't tell him anymore than she works for a special division. Lincoln explains what he saw, saying the man's face was translucent.
Lincoln is not happy when Olivia tells him that they are taking Robert's body back for her people to examine. He also says something about Olivia not understanding having a partner and when he asks to speak to someone else, Olivia informs him there is no one else, only her. (Do we feel a theme?)
As she leaves Lincoln makes a mental note of her license plate.
At the lab at Harvard we get our first glimpse of Walter as he is removing something from the refrigerator. He says things have felt funny around there for the last week. Astrid points out that it's been a week since the two universes intersected.
Walter is emphatic that he doesn't trust Walternate but Astrid judiciously interjects that Walternate has good reasons to hate Walter as well.
As Olivia looks over the pictures of the last case in her office, Walter and Astrid continue to discuss working with the Other Side. Walter uses Peter's favorite mantra: There has to be another way.
During this, Lincoln Lee shows up and enters the lab, just as Astrid remarks that it was a good thing the machine didn't blow up both worlds.
Lincoln walks up to Walter, who doesn't bat an eye, just hands him a bird, which is what he had removed from the refrigerator. Walter injects the bird with something, counts backwards from three, and the bird jumps out of Lincoln's hands and starts flying around the room.
Walter is excited by this, although when Astrid comes out he explains to her that despite flying about the room, the bird is still dead.
This is the time when Lincoln decides to ask, "Who are you people?"
Before anyone can answer Olivia comes out of her office and questions Lincoln about being there.
Then, the bird thuds to the floor and lays motionless once again. Walter picks it up and seems happy he got anything at all out of it.
Lincoln tracked Olivia and Co. down by tapping into traffic camera feeds using her license plate.
Olivia threatens to call Lincoln's division head, but Lincoln doesn't back down and threatens to do some calling of his own to a reporter friend who would love to know what he just witnessed Walter do with the bird.
Broyles calls before either of them can make good on their threats. He says there is another body. Olivia consents to let Lincoln go with them. Walter tells Astrid he fixed the squelching in her phone and she heads off too.
At the crime scene they find a woman who is dead behind the wheel after having crashed her car.
The only witnesses were some kids across the street and no one saw anything after the crash itself. The lady's face has the same odd translucent quality that Robert's had.
Astrid calls Walter, who is making popcorn and listening to Rockin' Robin. At first Astrid's reception is splotchy, which Walter explains away as being a disturbance from the microwave. He tells Astrid she's clear as a bell. Which of course makes me think of Belly.
Through some kind of camera Astrid must have on her somewhere, Walter is able to view the body. Apparently it's Astrid's lucky day because Walter tells her she will have to check the dead woman's anus.
The newest victim's name is Nadine Park and she commuted to her job by train. After leaving the train station that night she crashed into a lamppost on the way home. The agents think that possibly someone could've been lying in wait in the car and then attacked her as she drove.
As Olivia and Lincoln look towards the gathered throng of people who were around when the incident happened, Lincoln says "One of these things are not like the other." This phrase seems really familiar to me, in the Fringeworld. I keep thinking maybe Walter said it once when he was referring to an object in the room that was from the Other Side.
Olivia goes to talk to a young lady sitting on a bench and after some hesitancy and concern about getting in trouble the girl shows Olivia a picture she took of a person who left the scene of the accident. It appears to be the same being that ran at the warehouse.
Olivia tells Lincoln there's been more than two murders and takes him to meet Broyles. Broyles has him sign paperwork that raises his clearance level and also says he knows he will be prosecuted if he talks about what he is about to see.
Broyles, Olivia and Lincoln enter a room with several lines of steel tables, with a dead victim resting upon each.
Broyles says this started three days ago and so far they don't know what the murder does to the victims, how he does it, or why he does it. Despite comparing anything they can think of, they have been unable to find a link between the killer's prey.
Lincoln mentions that his partner had Crohn's Disease and took iron pills. Broyles looks thoughtful for a moment and then leaves.
As Lincoln and Olivia stand beside Robert's body, Lincoln tells her he and Robert were like family, after having been partners for five years. Perhaps we are given a clue to this Lincoln's past because he says family is something he never thought he would find.
September is in a shop gathering parts of old electronic equipment. When the shopkeeper asks him what he needs the stuff for, September tilts his head in that Observer way and matter-of-factly says "I need to erase someone from time." I'm willing to put money on that being something that the shopkeeper doesn't hear every day.
At the lab the newest victim arrives for Walter to look at. Lincoln, Astrid and Olivia are not sure where Walter is. Here we learn that in this timeline, Walter is afraid to leave the lab. Astrid and Olivia go to check different places to see if he is there.
While Lincoln waits for them to finish their hunt for Walter, he starts to hear noises coming from the tank. He is on his way over to it, when one of the doors of the tank swings outward and a sopping wet Walter climbs out. As he stands dripping, he talks about seeing a man in the mirror, who wasn't actually there when Walter turned around to check behind him.
He is quite shaken up over this and Olivia calms him down assuring him that he is safe now.
Olivia gives Lincoln a bit of background on Walter, saying "he's functional, except when he's not" and while being brilliant he "never had anything to tether him to the world." Hmmm, very interesting.
A towel clad Walter observes the lady that was in the car crash had an engagement ring and remarks how sad it is when two people are meant to be together but something happens and they are unable to be. Here, my spidey senses are tingling as I'm thinking Peter and Olivia. Well, actually, Peter is meant to be a part of all their lives.
The results of tests Walter had been running are available. He begins talking about how all the victims suffered from different health problems, but all the issues did have something in common. He interrupts himself and glances over at Astrid, telling her "I'm not wearing pants." Astrid goes to find him some.
Walter says that all the ailments that the victims had were caused by heavy metal poisoning. At the time of death the levels of metal in their blood is back to normal so it appears that the killer is removing the metallic particles from their blood. Walter says there has been over 30 murders so whoever is doing this must need a large amount of what they are looking for.
In another lab, the translucent man fills a syringe with liquid. He injects it into his forearm and then records some data in a notebook.
Olivia is on the phone and ponders how the killer is identifying his victims, since he appears to be selecting specific people and not just at random.
Through a conversation between Walter, Olivia and Lincoln it is disclosed that in the cases that the Fringe Division deals with the victim's bodies are not returned to the families. Instead the families are told that their loved one has gone missing and they are being looked for.
Lincoln asks Olivia how she thinks that would feel, to experience that kind of absence. Walter says, "People die, it happens." with almost a hint of anger. Then he tacks on, "Sometimes they even die twice."
Olivia tells Lincoln that even the reason they have to do that is to avoid having to fill out documentation that would bring attention to the Fringe Division.
When Astrid gets a ping on one of the vics credit cards that had a charge go through for a commuter pass auto renewal, Lincoln remembers that the latest victim also had a connection to the commuter station. After checking a map Olivia figures out that there were four kill zones and they were all located around commuter rail stations.
She gives Astrid instructions to call Broyles and get teams of agents set up at the rail stations. She tells Lincoln to come with her.
At the other lab the see-through man is making notes again as his hand starts to shake. As he watches, a new fingernail slides down from his cuticle to the tip of his index finger. In a gag-inducing moment he grabs the new fingernail and pulls it off, leaving a slimy string stretching from it to his finger.
Then he takes a good look at himself in the mirror and smiles a ghastly smile.
Olivia and Lincoln are sitting inside her car outside of Avon Station. Olivia tells Lincoln that she also lost her partner about 3 years ago. He had been exposed to something and that was when Olivia got Walter out of the institution, in hopes of saving her partner. But Walter was unable to.
A call comes over the radio to say that they have seen the man they are looking for. Olivia takes off to where the other agents are.
The agents that originally spotted the man are cautiously creeping around unused tankers and cars on the rail line. Suddenly, one of the agents is pulled backwards, underneath one of the rail cars.
Olivia and Lincoln arrive and find one of the agents dead on the tracks. The other one has been shot and is bleeding severely.
Lincoln stays to take care of the downed agent and Olivia runs off check the warehouse in search of the man.
Translucent man is in the warehouse burning his notes. I can't be sure of this, but it looked like he ignited the paper with a flame he shot from his wrist.
Olivia walks up on him and trains her gun on him. When she gets close enough the man lunges and hits her with his briefcase. A fight ensues, during which Olivia gets thrown or banged into several things. She finally manages to stab the man in the neck with a needle, but he still throws her into some blue barrels. As he descends down on her she hits him in the face, which makes him back up enough to where she can grab her gun and discharge bullet after bullet into him.
Lincoln hears the shots and is relieved after he sees that Olivia is still walking around inside the warehouse. The agent who was shot comes to and croaks out to Lincoln that there was another man and he took the agent's fun. Lincoln turns just in time to see a figure dart by.
Lincoln follows and then he and the man fire at each other. The man's shot misses, but Lincoln's enters the man's chest and he goes down. Lincoln stares down at the dead man and sirens are heard in the background.
Later Lincoln tries to make some sense of who these people are and Olivia tells him "I think the better question is what are they?"
Then in another scene we see a woman standing alone. She also has see-through skin on her face. She takes a deep breath and her skin seems to become a little less transparent. She turns and ascends some steps beside a large round building.
At the FBI Headquarters in Hartford Lincoln opens a box containing Robert Danzig's badge and ID card. Someone hands him an envelope and he takes a piece of paper from it.
In Walter's lab Astrid is looking at the charred remains of the notes from the barrel in the warehouse. She says she is unable to make sense of them because they were burned so badly.
Walter says that the situation reminds him of a book he read every Wednesday while in St. Claire's. It was called The Spy Who Came in From the Cold and the spy burned his things and covered his tracks.
Lincoln walks in and Walter wants to know if he brought candy. Lincoln doesn't have any candy, he has come to thank Olivia for releasing Robert's body.
Walter removes something from the body he is working on. He says these things are a biological mechanical hybrid. But this version is human. However, they don't seem to be working. Walter says that the tech he has pulled from the body is not from here.
When Lincoln questions if that meant it was from China, Olivia simply says "No, not China."
She takes Lincoln and has a special ID made for him. They enter a room where they are full body scanned. Olivia tells Lincoln she's had a hole in her life for as long as she could remember and she thought that the Fringe Division would be where she would come up with the answers. A door opens and shows a large hanger ahead. Olivia says "Sometimes answers lead to more questions."
She and Lincoln enter the hangar, which must be the link between the two universes (?). Lincoln looks around, as an elevator descends carrying Fauxlivia. She and Lincoln look each other up and down but they do not speak to one another.
Olivia gives Faux the object that Walter removed from the body. She tells Faux it was powering human shape shifters and the last shape shifters she encountered were under Walternate's control. Faux says she'll look into it.
As Lincoln looks upward through the windows in the ceiling, a zeppelin passes overhead.
September is sitting on a bench outside of Harvard. Inside, Walter is grinding something with a mortar and pestle. He adds the contents of the mortar to a glass of liquid. He says Goodnight to Tommy/Timmy, (his name was actually Tim.) and enters a room that is furnished like a one room apartment. He gets into bed and drinks down what he was working on in the lab.
The observer opens the briefcase he has with him and powers up what's inside. After a few pensive moments, he shuts it back down and closes the case. Then he walks away, taking the case with him.
In bed, Walter is nodding off as he watches TV. He shuts the TV off and lays the remote down. He glances back at the TV and Peter is there on the screen, like a reflection. Walter yells and there is a crash. Tim comes running in from where he was stationed outside of Walter's room. Walter is scared and tells Tim that he saw the man from the mirror again, in the TV. The crash must've been Walter throwing something at the screen, because it now has a hole in it. Tim dashes off to get help.
I waited all day for Friday's episode of Fringe. Well, actually I waited about 4 months for Friday's episode of Fringe. Four months of asking Where is Peter Bishop? Four months of wondering how in the universes were they going to follow-up that mind-blowing season finale? Well, just like with Olivia's conundrum about answers leading to more questions, Neither Here Nor There left me with a few questions.
Were John Scott and Olivia lovers in the new timeline?
Was John Scott a traitor?
Is that hangar that Olivia took Lincoln to the "bridge" that Peter linked the two universes with?
And is that room located at Liberty Island Over There? Since a zeppelin was flying over?
Did William Bell and Walter work together?
I enjoyed this episode. I missed Peter, both for reasons of liking to watch Joshua Jackson on television and liking Peter as a character. I am hoping that he will be getting more screen time in the upcoming episodes. I wonder if the previews they ran after last night's episode were all for next weeks show or just bits and pieces of the coming season?
The ratings for yesterday's episode were up from the Season 3 finale but down from the Season 3 premiere. Read more about it here.
I'm glad that Fringe is back. Remember watch Fringe Live on Fox, Friday nights at 9:00 pm!
Update: 9/26/11
After reading some forums and rewatching this episode again, I have a few things to add.
I didn't realize that in this timeline Olivia actually wore slightly colorful shirts. Nothing drastic just light blue and light green I think.
Another glimpse of Peter can be seen behind Walter in the lab right around the time Astrid is telling him Walternate has reasons to dislike Walter also.
The Observers say Lincoln used to know Olivia. In the old timeline Lincoln met Olivia when she was Bellivia. Olivia as herself never met him.
It was Lincoln who previously said "One of these things is not like the other." in Stowaway.
I realized at the end that the girl walking up the stairs looked like Nadine Park. I didn't catch that at first. And that the other shapeshifter looked like Robert. Haha, I guess that's why they are referring to them as shapeshifters.
It kind of bothered me when Astrid cut Walter off when he was going to say he was in St Claire's for 17 years. I'm not used to Astrid being that way with Walter.
Another question: What's up with Charlie in this timeline? Alive? Dead? I'm sure answers are coming. I just have to be patient.
Still can't get enough about this episode? Check out my Recap Poem. Plus, there's my Best Ofs and Favorite Moments of "Neither Here Nor There."
Next Fringe Recap: Episode 4x02, "One Night in October"
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