Fringe “There’s More Than One Of Everything” Recap & Review Season Finale

All Photos From Fox

The season finale for Fringe (Fox) “There’s More Than One Of Everything” was true to its title. It seems that the alternate universes that Walter Bishop (John Noble) described in the previous week’s episode ”The Road Not Taken” are a reality, and this provides some interesting twists in the story. We also get to meet the elusive Mr. Spock, er, I mean William Bell (Leonard Nimoy) and see what reality he happens to be inhabiting at the time. And it looks very familiar – maybe even disturbing to some.

It seems that William Bell is in an alternate reality in which we have a very much alive former President Kennedy, a “new” White House (what happened to the old one?) and the twin towers of the World Trade Center, still standing. What Olivia and Peter and everyone else doesn’t know -except Walter – is that we also seem to have a Peter Bishop who is likely not the same Peter Bishop that was born into Olivia’s reality. It seems that the original Peter Bishop, who was ill as a child, died as a child, and Walter likely brought back another Peter Bishop from an alternate reality. I think that when Peter visited the gravesite I suspected that was going to be the case, and then when Walter was telling Peter how he had lost something dear to him, I knew that the original Peter was dead. Still, all these little reveals were brilliant, although I can understand if some people who lost friends and family in the very real destruction of the World Trade Center may not be very pleased. For me, who lost three siblings when they were very young, would not be so saddened to think that they would be alive in another reality.

I chuckled a bit to myself in the scene where Olivia asks for all the files they have on all kinds of scientific and unusual events – I wondered if Mulder’s X-Files were in there?

One thing worth noting is the seemingly innocent near miss with Olivia and the other car as she drove to her meeting with Nina. If one carries the alternate reality even further, Olivia could have been killed in that accident in William Bell’s alternate reality. It gives you something to think about – not like you don’t have enough already. This episode was simply brilliant, and it was a perfect end to the first season of probably the most interesting show of the season.


In case you missed it – here’s what happened:
The episode opens with Nina Sharp (Blair Brown) being rushed to the hospital after being shot. It seems that a critical component is missing from her mechanical arm and hand. They find that the shooting was orchestrated by David Robert Jones (Jared Harris) and he also stole the part from Nina. He needs it in order to complete the mechanism to open the window to one of the alternate universes – more on this later.

Agent Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv) now thinks she has enough to bring in William Bell, and when she tries to oversell the idea to Broyles (Lance Reddick) he tells her she’s overselling herself and she is assuming he doesn’t agree. He is on the same page as Olivia.

Meanwhile, Peter (Joshua Jackson) and Astrid (Jasika Nicole) come to the realization that they have no idea where Walter has gone. We see Walter (John Noble) visiting a grave with The Observer (Michael Cerveris) “observes.” But we don’t see the name on the headstone.

When Nina wakes up, her mechanical hand isn’t working right as a vital component had been stolen. She asks Broyles, who is at her bedside, to speak with Olivia. When Olivia arrives, specialists from Massive Dynamics are working on her arm. Concurrently, Jones is setting up shop in the middle of a busy street, his face covered with bandages. Nina tells Olivia that Jones worked for William Bell years ago but Bell fired him and Jones remained bitter about it. After Jones got out of prison, he attempted to contact Bell several times. Broyles suspects Jones wants to kill Bell, but Nina insists she does not know where Bell is located, she only is in contact with him via email and she hasn’t actually seen him in months. She knows Olivia wants desperately to speak to Bell and says if Olivia can stop Jones, she will make sure she gets her meeting with William Bell. She also tells Olivia that the item stolen from her arm was a very powerful energy cell that Bell hid there.

We then see Jones taken out a small device from a case and putting it into the machine he is setting up in the street. His face looks like it is disintegrating under the bandages. When he activates the machine, it emits a very high-pitched tone, and people on the street react by covering their ears. When he turns up the energy field, a sort of wavy window begins to appear – an energy field is being established. But the field can’t be held open, and as it shuts, a truck materializes and drives through the field, the back half shearing off as the window of the energy field shut. Jones says it is “too thick here” and it seems they have the wrong coordinates to properly establish the field.

Elsewhere, The Observer and Walter are walking on a beach. The Observer asks Walter if he recognizes a coin he's holding, and Walter asks him how he got it. Walter comments that it looks similar to one Walter is thinking of, but it's different. The Observer adds "There's more than one of everything." He asks Walter if the house they're standing in front of looks familiar and if he remembers what he has to find. He says there isn't much time.

Back at Walter’s lab at Harvard, Broyles brings Nina to the lab. They ask Astrid if Walter talked to anyone strange lately. Peter overhears, and Nina tells him that Jones has something Walter might know about. Peter says he hadn’t seen him since last night, and Nina immediately gets on the phone to call someone to do a grid search for Walter.

At the scene of the damaged truck, witnesses describe the curtain-like window that appeared and from which the truck came through. One also describes a man whose face is covered in bandages. They later find that the VIN and serial numbers on the truck simply aren’t registered anywhere and technically the truck just does not exist.

Later, Nina shows Peter train security footage of Walter near a beach house that Peter identifies as one they owned. He thinks Walter headed there as he’s had a rough couple days and he needed to help things makes sense. Peter wants to go there himself to get Walter. When he gets to the beach house, he finds a very distraught Walter teaching the place apart looking for something but he can’t recall what. He is repeatedly turning over a coin in his hand. When Peter recounts a story of how Walter used to come there and make Peter whale shaped pancakes,

Elsewhere, Olivia asks Nina where the truck came from and she asks where Bell is, telling Nina to stop playing games or she'll turn this world over looking for him. Nina says that's the problem, he's not in this world.

Meanwhile, in Providence, Rhode Island a black van pulls up to a kid's soccer game, and Jones exits.

Olivia, with Broyles and Nina assisting, explain the alternate reality theory to Agent Charlie Francis (Kirk Acevedo), saying this is where the truck likely came from. She thinks Jones is using the energy cell to cross over to get to Bell who is also in the alternate reality. Their phones all begin to ring

Back at the beach house, Peter tried to help Walter focus. He recounts a story of how Walter used to come there and make Peter shaped pancakes, and this triggers Walter’s memory. He knows what he is looking for and where to find it.

At the soccer field, witnesses have described what seem like a transparent window that shimmered and then collapsed. There is a body there – cut cleanly in half. Charlie can’t believe it but now he is buying into the alternate reality theory. He and Olivia wonder why Jones picked this location. Back at the office, Olivia asks for every file that mentions science, biology or unexplained phenomena. She maps them out using pushpins. She thinks she has found a connection and tells Broyles they need to get Nina involved.

Back at the beach house, Walter found a small metal box in a trunk, a coin on top of it looking like the one The Observer gave him. The box is locked and Peter picks the lock to open it, and they find an object that fits in the hand. He comments when he and William were young they took copious amounts of LSD and were convinced they could experience alternate realities. They believe some children could see these alternate realities naturally and may be able to travel to alternate worlds. Around the time the came to this theory, Walter says he lost something very dear to him, and he thought he could find it over there in the other reality.

Back at the office, Olivia goes over the pattern the pushpins made with Nina and Broyles and indicate the spots where Jones used his device. The other locations radiate out from those spots. Nina explains that finding the right place to cross over is the key. William Bell proposed that our world has "soft spots," which are areas where the speed of light and protons have begun to decay and where it is easier to cross over. She cites the Bermuda Triangle as an example. Over the years, the increase in technology has increased the soft spots and she thinks Jones is looking for those.

At the beach house, Walter continues this explanation, saying that opening the hole could let things from there cross over to here, which could be dangerous. The object he is holding is plug that he built, more like a patch to close the hole. He knows where the hole is: Reiden Lake, and he has to plug it.

Meanwhile, looking at all the data, Olivia, Nina and Broyles come to the same conclusion – Reiden Lake. Jones and his crew are already there, setting up.

Peter is driving Walter to the lake, which is close to the location of the beach house. Walter tells Peter to hurry but can’t explain why. He also tells Peter about the bald man that visited him, and Peter realizes that was The Observer - the man who once attacked him in the woods. Walter says he probably had a good reason. Walter suddenly tells him to stop. Peter asks, “Now what?” Walter pulls out the plug/patch, and the coin. Walter then recounts a story that he says Peter probably does not remember, but when he was a kid and very sick and dying that Peter took to collecting coins, and he gives Peter the one he was holding, saying it was Peter’s favorite. But Peter doesn’t remember any of that; Walter says he does.

Suddenly, their car doors are opened and they are pulled out. But we then hear Olivia yelling that Walter and Peter are with her. They realize they are all there for the same reason – to plug the hole and/or stop Jones. As they see a bright light forming in the area, they race over to see Jones with his machine up and running. Walter gives Peter the patch to close the hole, and as a shoot out ensues, Jones continues to try to open the hole. Olivia threatens to shoot Jones as he approaches the hole, and when he continues to move closer, she takes a shot. He says that the teleporter maybe killing him but it is meaningless, it made him special – bullets can pass through him. He continues to walk to the opening, and Peter approaches, holding the patch. As Jones begins to step into the window to the alternate reality, Peter aims the patch at it, cutting off the window and causing Jones to be sheared in half.

Back at headquarters, Broyles tells Olivia that Nina is thankful for her efforts but they have been told by powers higher up that cannot be challenged that they must cease and desist their investigation into William Bell.

Astrid and Peter return to the lab, and find a note from Walter, along with a roll of Necco Wafers. The note to Peter says "Stepping out for a bit, don't worry about me son, I know where I'm going." Peter is happy and unworried, as this is the first time Walter has left a note. Meanwhile, we see Walter standing at the gravesite he was visiting earlier when he was with The Observer. Walter leaves the coin on top of the headstone, the headstone marked with "Peter Bishop, 1978-1985." Walter cries.

Back at Olivia’s home, her phone rings. It’s Nina, and she tells her to come to a hotel in Manhattan, she is planning to hold up her end of the bargain, but not to tell anyone. On her way to the location, Olivia is nearly hit by a car. She makes it to the hotel as planned. She waits in the restaurant until it seems everyone else has left. She calls for Nina and is told Nina is out of the country. Clearly annoyed, Olivia leaves the restaurant. She steps into an elevator and presses the button for the first floor. A man is also in the elevator with her, and exits on the 18th floor. She continues to ride the elevator down, and nearing the 15th floor she suddenly sees a flash of light and sees flashes of more people in the elevator – and then she is alone again. The elevator doors open to a very sterile, white hallway, and a woman greets her and shows her into an office. As Olivia enters, we see a large bell on a table, and the New York Post, dated May 17, 2009, with the headlines “Obama’s Set To Move Into New White House” , “Former President Kennedy to Address UN” , ‘Stock Markets Remain Closed – 21 days and counting” and “Celtics Sweep - Len Bias Wins MVP.” There is also a small oxygen tank.

A man enters and says to Olivia "I've been waiting quite a long time for this" and she asks where she is and who he is. He says the first part is complicated but the second is easy: He's William Bell. Olivia turns and looks out the window. As the camera pulls away, we see she is now on one of the top floors of one of the twin towers of the World Trade Center building, clearly in one piece and still standing.


All Text Content (Recaps, Review, Commentary) © iliketowatchtv.blogspot.com unless otherwise noted

Fringe Season Finale Ending Scene


Fringe Promo For Season 2



Check out my blog home page for the latest information, at I Like To Watch TV, here.