'Fringe' Vibrations

If someone told me that I'd be watching a scene unfold where an embryonic stage of a shape shifter was dissected and then hooked up to a lot of car batteries to jolt it back to life by continuing it's birthing process in the lab, I'd think that they were nuts. And if I thought for one moment that I would then feel bad for aforementioned shape shifter, I'd think I was nuts! But such is the weekly happenings of Fringe. BTW, was I the only person who thought that jolting the embryo to life was a bad idea? Even if he had lived and taken on the identity of the course (would that have even worked?), he would have been dangerous. As it turns out, this one was not long for this universe and had a conscience that made Walter take notice.



"I'm sorry."  Two simple words that carry a lot of weight, but were even more interesting in the context of a shape shifter in Walter's lab. He was also able to give them some info before he died. I'm telling you guys, I felt bad for him even though he was freaky and scary and his "friends" killed two teens horror-flick style. In the realm of good and evil, it's all relative to what side you're on. We've discussed here Walter's past and whether he's good or evil, so one could make a very good argument that Walter and Newton aren't different from one another on the good/evil line. Of course, we don't know exactly what Newton is doing or why, but we do know that Walter's discoveries are what enables the other side to come through to our side. Walter is very complex and made even more so by the fact that we only know the current Walter well, and he's different from the Walter of the Walter/Bell era. Is he reformed? I think, based on last week's episode, he's looking for forgiveness and hopes that his working-toward-reform self will warrant it. From what we know about Newton, it's hard to say.

Which brings us to the bridge. Besides being a really cool scene with an even cooler explanation behind it, it was incredibly pivotal. For one, we learned after that Newton was successful (I had assumed he failed). "Mr. Secretary" made it across the divide between that universe and this one. We don't know who "Mr. Secretary" is or why he's now in this universe, but it can't be good. But the more important discovery to come out of this scene (at least for the purpose of this episode and the characters ongoing story lines) had to do with Peter. While on that bridge, he realized that the man arriving from the other universe was unaffected by the vibrations, but the agent next to Peter from this universe was killed by them. Peter survived. That's when Peter realized the truth: he's from the other universe. Walter tried to explain, but Peter wanted none of it. Now he's MIA, Walter's crushed and Olivia's left to deal with Walter without her liason. Things just got even harder.

Fringe airs Thursday nights on Fox. If you missed this week's episode, you can watch it for free at Fox.com.