What happened?
Lincoln took a trip to the other side, feeling like his life with the new Olivia and loved-up Peter lacked substance. With the alternative Olivia and Lincoln, he was involved in a case of a suspected shapeshifter, albeit one that turned out to be killing morally unsound individuals purely to stay alive. However, Alt-Nina was out to kill this shapeshifter before he could potentially reveal that Broyles had also been converted. An assassin is sent, and kills Alt-Lincoln.
Lincoln and Alt-Olivia conceive a plan by using the friendly shapeshifter and they track down Alt-Nina and locate her base, with the possibility that they could now find every single shapeshifter around. With these prospects, and with Alt-Olivia grieving for her lost partner, Lincoln elects to stay in the alternative universe.
Thoughts
Ask and you shall receive! For the last episode I was concerned that Lincoln was threatening to become redundant, and how I hoped he wouldn’t and how I wouldn’t have minded more of a foray into his life – and then this episode goes and answers all my concerns and gives me a great big dose of Lincoln-related thrills! It turned out to be a cracking episode as well, containing all manner of character drama, interesting discussion points and serious potential for the shit to hit the fan in the next episode or so.
Olivia, Peter and Walter having a grazing day for the cow amounted to a rather frivolous excuse for Lincoln to be allowed to cut loose and go his own way. I can understand Walter taking a day for such things, for Olivia and Peter? Not so sure about that. Still, let’s put the quibbles aside and appreciate the fact that Lincoln once more went Over There and reminded us that one of the strongest aspects Fringe has is this parallel universe set up and, lately, they’ve been guilty of not utilising it. Things are certainly more fun Over There, most of the time, with Alt-Livia and Alt-Lincoln’s more easygoing, humourous spin on things a lot more appealing than the heavy fretting romance of Olivia and Peter (whom I didn’t miss this episode at all, and only realised they’d been absent when Peter cropped up briefly near the end).
It seems the world of Over There is in a state of repair. This certainly does suggest that the potential war I thought might be brewing between the two sides probably won’t happen. It’s a good thing, but does leave me confounded about what it is Mr. Jones and Alt-Nina were up to. They have shapeshifters all over the place, and they’re breeding superhumans in the other reality, and then Mr. Jones foresees Olivia has great potential. . . What is it all leading to? A conflict? An attempted unification? The possibility that there’s a third universe to be conjured out of all this?
I don’t know. In Fringe I must trust.
The insinuation that the friendly shapeshifter was a failed early attempt that Mr. Jones eventually perfected seems to be the way of it. It’s difficult to ascertain whether the shapeshifter was considered a failure due to his personality or because of his manufacturing lifespan. . . Probably not all that important. What seems pertinent is that there’s a band of shapeshifters at large, working at the behest of Mr. Jones, and quite what they’re up to is yet to be revealed.
Broyles the Shapeshifter is certainly in a tricky spot, now on the verge of being exposed for what he is the moment Alt-Olivia and Lincoln check out the trackers and realise there’s a shapeshifter in their department. I imagine he’s going to have to either make a rapid exit, or sabotage the tracker he is carrying, or else there will be an escalation in their plans to hasten what needs to happen before all is undone. I fully expected the episode to end on the cliffhanger reveal, actually, with Alt-Olivia and Lincoln realising there was a traitor in their midst.
I really enjoyed seeing the two Lincoln’s interact, which is just as well since it seems highly unlikely there won’t be any more of that. The central issue of why it is they had such differing personalities when their histories were near-identical was an intriguing debate. On the surface it appeared like it was a question left unanswered, but I personally believe we received our answer. It was plainly obvious. The reason Alt-Lincoln was so confident and arrogant and dashing was all to do with the fact that he had had Alt-Olivia in his life. It was clear that they were close from the photos Alt-Olivia was looking at in his locker, and she was the fundamental difference between the two men. One Lincoln had her close friendship, the other didn’t. Evidently the episode pointed towards the prospect that Lincoln may fill in Alt-Lincoln’s place, at least in Alt-Olivia’s life, and perhaps a consequence of that could be that he will become more like Alt-Lincoln.
There’s certainly an element of crassness about it; a version of a man stepping in to replace the version of him that had died. Yet Alt-Olivia is the barometer of how acceptable that is, and her warm smile at the thought of him staying around with her was all the validation that was required. I don’t want Fringe to try and force through a rushed romance between the pair, but I’ll happily watch a friendship blossom and flourish over the course of episodes.
At time of writing I still don’t know if this is going to be the last season. By this point I imagine that the end of the season has been confirmed and written, possibly even filmed, so the show creator’s and writer’s will have wrapped things up in some way. The question is have they ended this season on a game changing cliffhanger like last time, or have things been brought to a resolution that could be picked up and taken further if another season is commissioned? It’s a pity how the demands of TV networks and audience ratings can dictate the actual narrative development but there’s not a lot to be done about it now.
Very enjoyable episode, which actually generated enough momentum and interest in the characters for me to happily rejoin them Over There for a whole next episode. That probably won’t happen, but considering that Shapeshifter Broyles is surely set to be rumbled then Over There is a place that can’t be neglected in the short term.
What was the best part?
I most liked the part where Lincoln and Alt-Lincoln were continuing their discussion on comms about their similarities and personality differences. Trying to track down a shapeshifter, countless guys all listening in and Alt-Olivia quick to butt in and tell them to quit their chatter, it was just great stuff to see these characters tackling head on the critical fundamentals about themselves. It’s always something I’ve been surprised Fringe hasn’t been keen to explore – how these characters are the same, how they’re different, and why that might be so. The answer provided here was elegant, but it was just fun to see the two Lincoln’s actually tackle the matter.
What do I think will happen next?
I absolutely hope that Over There is kept in the mix and Shapeshifter Broyles feels the net closing around him as Alt-Olivia and Lincoln discover there’s an enemy in their midst. Desperate circumstances may prompt desperate measures from Broyles, and since he’s not really Broyles and surely has no compassion for anyone, any desperate measures could have devastating impact. The end of season is looming and the stage is looking set for Mr. Jones to tip his hand and clue us in about what his masterplan is shaping up to be. He’ll surely be coming back for Olivia, with perhaps a new set of extreme circumstances to provoke stronger unleashing of her innate powers.
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