Fringe “Over There Part 1” Recap & Review

All photos from Fox

We actually do take a trip “Over There” in this episode of Fringe (Fox). Agent Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv), Dr. Walter Bishop (John Noble) and a few other people part of Walter’s Cortexaphan experiments head over to the alternate universe to try to bring Peter Bishop (Joshua Jackson) back. It seems that Peter has crossed over to the other side with “The Secretary” - who is the Walter Bishop alternate (“Walternate”) and who is Peter’s real father. Major gloom and doom will ensue if he stays there, according to Walter. This episode gives us a good look at life in the alternate universe, with its different scenery (the World Trade Center Twin Towers are still standing, the Status of Liberty looks brand new, and dirigibles fly in the sky), different money (a $20 bill is a “Junior” for Martin Luther King, Jr., and a coin has Nixon’s face on it), and a different ID system ("show me"). Our main characters also have their counterparts who look different – and some that we know to be dead are still alive here. It’s an interesting episode that serves to set up the season finale very nicely. This has been a fantastic season of Fringe so far, and I suspect that fans will not only be excited about the finale, but also energized for the next season.

Here’s what happens in this episode:

When the episode opens, we’re already on the other side, watching the alternate Fringe team with a strawberry blond-ish looking Agent Olivia Dunham and her team – made up of a very edgy dressed agent Broyles (Lance Reddick), Agent and Charlie Francis (Kirk Acevedo), and Nick (David Call) – who on the “real” side is one of the Cortexaphan test group. They are investigating a “breach” in a large theatre – and after tense moments which included Broyles working with what seems to be a version of Astrid (Jasika Nicole) who seems to have some special ability, they don’t need to quarantine the area in the theatre. We see, though, that the breach was caused by Olivia, Walter, and 3 other members of the Cortexaphan test group crossing over to the alternate universe. The alternate Fringies find a body that doesn’t have a “show me” – which is their version of an ID – and the person has a $20 bill on them that is foreign to the alternates.




The story goes back 36 hours, and we see Walter in his lab, sadly watching a video of Peter disappearing in a flash with Walternate. Olivia is drowning her sorrows in a bar, but an Observer walks by and leaves her what looks like a large piece of paper. When Walter calls Olivia telling her something terrible is going to happen to Peter, she tries to calm him, but she looks at the paper the Observer left her and it is drawing of an odd machine and Peter's face with what looks like glowing fire coming out of his eyes. Later, when she shows this to Walter, he thinks this is what has been upsetting him and says "My son is going to be responsible for the end of the world."

Walter knows he needs to go to the other side to get Peter back and enlists the help of Nina Sharp (Blair Brown) at Massive Dynamic, who recognizes the machine as William Bell’s technology, but says they never built it. As they work to get to the other side, Massive Dynamic lab geek Brandon (Ryan McDonald) shows them the danger of going over – their molecular make up could shatter, and that William Bell crossed so many times he became molecularly unstable. Walter doesn’t want to build another door like the one he first used to get Peter – he is concerned both worlds would be destroyed. He thinks he could do it with Olivia and the Cortexaphan group. When Broyles says they do have a few more of them other than Olivia, they decide to use them to make the cross over. James Heath (Omar Metwally), the guy who transfer cancer can now cure disease. Sally Clark (Pascale Hutton) is a controlled pyro-kenetic and Nick Lane can seemingly transfer his feelings, making everyone, including Broyles, laugh.

Walter later talks with the Cortexaphan group and despite Heath seeming a little skeptical of Walter, they decide to cross over with him. After having the night off – and after Olivia gives her crucifix to her niece Ella (Lily Pilblad), and hugs her sister Rachel (Ari Graynor), she heads off to the theatre which is their best place to cross over. Nina sends a message to William Bell on the other side as to where to meet them, and hopes that he will get it. Despite Broyles objections, Walter will cross over with them, and they join in a circle and essentially “will” themselves over.

Once there, sirens can be heard and James falls ill and collapses and they must leave him. They quickly make their escape as they watch the alternate Fringe team work on the breach. Once outside, they try to get to the meeting place but they don’t have a “show me” to get on the bus, so they have to walk. Sally also becomes ill and Nick tries to help.

Meanwhile, the $20 bill the alternate Fringies found raises a red flag to the Department of Defense and they are called in to see The Secretary. He admits that although they think the Fringe team was created to investigate natural disasters that have occurred since the "zero event" in 1985 at Raden Lake (which is where Walter crossed over to get Peter), causing tears in the universe, and that the Secretary wrote about them in the “ZFT” in 1995, that the ZFT is a half-truth. The tears aren't natural and lead to a parallel earth. He believes the dead man they found didn't come over alone and he thinks the "invaders are anything but peaceful."

Elsewhere, Peter, after sleeping for 3 days, wakes up in a bed in a home in the country, and his mother Elizabeth (Orla Brady), is cooking breakfast. She tells him he's been sleeping for three days. They have an emotional hug. Later, they talk about his “other mother” and her suicide. She gives him something from Walternate. He looks at it later, and it is the blueprint for the same machine in the drawing the Observer gave to Olivia.

Walter, Olivia, and the others reach the area where they expect to meet William Bell, and instead are greeted by the alternate Fringe division, who fire their guns on them. They all attempt to flee, but Sally is ill and Nick again tries to help her. Nick gets shot, and in retaliation, Sally shoots a ball of fire at alternate Nick, turning him into a crispy critter – alive but badly burned. Nick and Sally have also vaporized. But later, and separated from Olivia, Walter realizes he was shot, and collapses at the entrance of a hospital. Olivia has tracked down the address of her alternate and stands outside her home, seeing that her alternate has male company. And soon Olivia herself has company – William Bell (Leonard Nimoy) who meets her on the sidewalk and says he got the message too late and he knew she would come here. He tells her Walter's in trouble and they don't have much time.

Elsewhere, Walternate walks into a large, secret-looking room and we see what looks like a parchment paper that depicts the machine and Peter with his glowing fiery eyes, like the drawing the Observer gave to Olivia. There seems to be strange writing on it. Walter looks up at what looks like the machine. He takes something out of a case that is marked “mC Wave Sink No. 3” and leaves the room with it, and as the door closes behind him, we cut to black.

Stay tuned for part 2 next week – the season finale!



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