Fringe – Recap & Review – Over There, Part I

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Fringe
Over There, Part I

Original Air Date: May 13, 2010

Rachel – Sr. Managing Editor
rachel@thetwocentscorp.com

We open in Fringe Division Headquarters… wait a minute… Fringe Division has an HQ? And is that Charlie? Cool… we’re Over There. FD army descends upon a concert hall where there has been a “breach” causing a huge tear in reality. It is decided that a hole this big could warrant a “quarantine,” which is Other Lingo for a bomb that would seal up the breach (and take upwards of 10,000 casualties with it). Other Astrid is called into Other Broyles’ office to see if the quarantine is necessary. She goes all cyborg and analyzes the data. The breach is reversing; no need for the quarantine bomb.

Without the threat of annihilation, FD finds a guy in the balcony of the concert hall who is absolutely covered in cancerous carcinomas. Sounds familiar. What is even stranger is the money in his wallet. The bill has the picture of some guy named Andrew Jackson on it. Then we see Our Olivia, Other Walter, and two other people slip out of the balcony undetected. Sweet. They are Over There!

36 hours before, Olivia is drinking herself into a stupor. Walternate has taken Peter to the Other Side. It’s over. Nothing to be done. That is until The Observer walks by and leaves Olivia a drawing of a strange machine and Peter with his eyes on fire. That can’t be good. Walter tells Olivia that an Observer told him several years ago that he must promise to never let Peter go back Over There or he would be the cause of the end of the world. Both worlds, if you’re wondering. They need to go Over There and get Peter back… soon.

Olivia, Walter, and Broyles storm Nina Sharp’s office at Massive Dynamic. She recognizes the machine in the drawing and lets them in on some industry secrets (with the help of Lab Guy). First of all, crossing over really messes up your atoms. So much so that if done too often, you go all kerplooey. And another door like the one Walter created? No dice. That door caused so many bad molecular waves that using another one would also bring about the end of the world. Notice a theme here? The answer lies in Olivia. She, because of her “cortexaphan kids” pedigree, is the only one who can cross over without the side effects. Never mind that Olivia can’t control it. If only Olivia wasn’t the last cortexaphan kid left standing, they could concentrate and focus more power. What’s that you say, Broyles? There are other cortexaphan kid not either dead or in comas? Do tell!

Cut to a secret lab where Cancer Man James, Firestarter Sally (from Season One), and Emotion Controlling Nick (also from Season One) are in traning. They have all mastered their powers and are now willing to go Over There to get Peter back. Sounds very one-way-ticket to me. They go to a concert hall in Brooklyn (hmm) and Walter leads them in an exercise that causes Cancer Man to break out in carcinomas. No matter, though… it worked and they are on The Other Side, right where the episode started! Unfortunately, they are all not doing well. James dies and Sally is really sick. Remember on Lost when they kept shifting through time and that red-head died because of it? Yeah, apparently that happens when you shift through universes, too.

Meanwhile, back at the Department of Defense housed in The Statue of Liberty (huh?), Dunahm, Charlie and Lincoln meet with Walternate. He tells them that FD is NOT a task force that controls natural disasters that started in the 70s (when Our Walter made that first doorway? Yep!), but that the disasters are man-made and that there is another universe out there. He tells them that hostiles have entered their universe and they must take them out.

Thinking they are to meet William Bell at a bridge in Central Park, Our Heroes are ambushed by the Other FD. Sally and Nick are killed and Walter is shot. He wanders into an emergency room, which can’t be good since he looks exactly like the Secretary of Defense. Olivia is found by William Bell and told “we don’t have much time.” Whoo-boy!

On a not-so-side note, Peter is catching up with his real mother. It’s all quite sweet in a really painful way. Also, there are these blueprints Walternate wants Peter’s help with… blueprints of that world-ending machine! But, of course, Peter doesn’t know this. And maybe Walternate doesn’t know it either… uh, no. There’s a copy of that drawing with Peter’s eyes on fire. Yep, he knows and he doesn’t care.

What do YOU think? What does Part II have in store for us? What were your favorite Over There “differences”? I liked the gold Statue of Liberty, myself. Give us your Two Cents in the comment section below!