What happened?
Peter travelled to the other side in the hope to appeal to Walternate for help in using The Machine to get himself back to his proper universe. Initially accompanied by Lincoln Lee, an attempt on their lives forced them to split. Alt-Olivia and Alt-Lincoln investigate the possibility that Walternate is behind the new shapeshifters, unaware that this universe’s Mr. Jones is behind them.
Walternate confides in Peter that he is not behind the shapeshifters and Peter’s opinion of him changes. Meanwhile Olivia, waiting at the gate, is confronted by The Observer who has been shot, apparently dying, and he tells her that in every possible future he has seen she must die.
Thoughts
Oh, that was especially nice in hindsight. I am thinking particularly of the remark Peter made to Lincoln just as they were stepping through the gate. Lincoln asked what would happen if the gate closed before he was all the way through and Peter remembered a time he had killed a man by cutting him in half in that same manner. That man was Mr. Jones and, lo, he did turn up at the end as the surprise reveal villain.
Well, it was a surprise to me anyway. Hence why I thought it was a clever bit of foreshadowing.
His face looked a little worse for wear. Possibly that’s because this version of Mr. Jones underwent similar ordeals like we saw during the first season, when he escaped from prison, only in this timeline he managed to not fall apart as rapidly and monstrously as he did that time. Hopefully that’s one of the many things on a growing list of things that will get explained in due course.
The bulk of the episode was all about maintaining the potential for Walternate to be the man behind the shapeshifters, to the extent that he was even keeping it from his own people (namely Altlivia and Alt-Lincoln). The scene where Peter finally met up with Walternate was really great at maintaining that grey area. It was very disconcerting how, whilst speaking, Walternate was constructing the strange looking stun gun. All the time I was thinking, What the hell is he going to use that for? And all the time Peter saw it and didn’t even mention it!
It transpired that Walternate was aware that higher positions in power had possibly been infiltrated by shapeshifters, and Alt-Brandon was the first one he took down. I liked that Walternate turned out not to be villainous – quite the opposite. It’ll potentially give Peter the ‘father figure’ to bond with in this version of the universe, and with his ‘mother’ around as well I can’t help but wonder if he may begin to feel like this world may be a place he values.
Of course, there’s still the matter of his Olivia, which is what is fundamentally driving him to get back to where he belongs. I still think it’s doing his character a dis-service that he seems too blasé about the fact that returning to his home and erasing this universe will, in effect, be eradicating the existences of billions of people. Perhaps, like his mother, he believes that all the universes we have seen, and more, remain in parallel existence and one doesn’t replace the other.
September’s remarks at the end of the episode did lend themselves to reaching that kind of interpretation. As he sat bleeding out from a gunshot wound (another one of those mysteries to be explained; add it to the list!) he made remarks to Olivia about all the many versions of consequences and worlds he had seen. The inference depends entirely on how many different versions of events he has observed. If, when he says Olivia must die, he is talking only of this current version of the universe that emerged when Peter was erased, then we’re back to the fact that Peter undoing what happened would eliminate billions of lives.
It’s a pickle, no doubt about it.
Altlivia and Alt-Lincoln’s investigation ultimately dovetailed into an apparent rendezvous with Mr. Jones for the next episode. That ought to be spicy. And there’s the extra revelation that Alt-Broyles is most likely a shapeshifter (failing that he’s a covert ally of Mr. Jones, but I am more inclined to believe the shapeshifter theory). If Altlivia and Alt-Lincoln don’t make it back that’s going to leave regular Lincoln Lee still stuck in the windowless room!
I definitely did enjoy the episode, although it was a shame that the surprise at the end of the previous episode, with Olivia being attacked whilst unconscious by Nina, was relegated to her moaning about having a headache. Again, yet again, another mystery on the ever-growing list. . . But finally going Over There in this universe for some proper show and tell was much-needed (and holding off all this time really seems to have just been to generate the mystique that Walternate was a bad guy when he appears to not be).
I liked the reveal of Mr. Jones. His was a menacing figure of the first season that has felt abandoned, so it’s good to see him back. Less interesting for me was The Observer’s remarks about how Olivia needed to die. It was too ambiguous to be dramatic for me. Since this Olivia isn’t really our Olivia then her having to die doesn’t slam home like I think the creator’s wanted it to.
Intrigued to know about how September got shot, though. A case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time? Or an act of murder by one of his fellow Observers following the infringement in meddling with what was supposed to happen regarding Peter. An Observer-centric episode would be very welcome to clarify it all!
What was the best part?
I have to go with the scene where Peter and Walternate talked alone, whilst he coldly constructed the shapeshifter killer gun without a word of explanation. Delicious stuff.
What do I think will happen next?
I’d imagine the matter that September brought to Olivia’s attention is one of those that gets dropped in the immediate next episode or two, at least. I would expect there to be more time spent Over There. I do wonder if maybe Mr. Jones and his shapeshifters isn’t something that gets tackled and ultimately resolved in an episode or two, allowing the two universes to start talking more and firm up some trust.
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