WRITERS: Josh Singer & Ethan Gross[SPOILERS] Maybe it's because the writers know their show's been renewed for another season and can think long-term again, or the simple fact we've entered a "sweeps" period in the US, but Fringe has really started to deliver the goods since it came back from hiatus. There's been some proper development of Walter's (John Noble) back-story and progression of the series' mytharc, which has all resulted in some excellent recent episodes, of which "The Man From The Other Side" was no exception...
DIRECTOR: Jeffrey Hunt
GUEST CAST: Peter Bryant, Morris Chapdelaine, Katie Findlay, Shawn Macdonald, Ryan Mcdonald, James Pizzinato, Sebastian Roché & James Tsai
The overall storyline of "The Man From The Other Side" was actually very formulaic in some respects, as it amounted to another of those episodes where genius scientists race around the city doing cryptic things (stealing identities, installing equipment), which Fringe Division has to first make sense of before inevitably stopping whatever's been planning. We've seen it done a number of times on the show already, but it's fortunately still a trick that hasn't run out of juice just yet. Here, the two surviving 'shifters immediately made contact with their already resident comrade Thomas Jerome Newton (Sebastian Roché), who has a plan to bring something into "our" reality by planting "harmonic rods" at three points across town, set to trigger at a calculated time when the two universes are temporarily in sync with each other.
Away from the sci-fi, the relationship with Walter and Peter (Joshua Jackson) was also explored quite nicely, with Walt planning to tell his son he was stolen from "the other side", unaware his recent behaviour has convinced Peter that he's planning to explain that his wife Elizabeth actually committed suicide – a fact Peter's already long been aware of. What made things particularly difficult for Walt was noticing how much closer he's growing to his son, who even calls him "dad" for the first time in years, all while knowing he risks destroying the bridges they've made in their relationship by telling him the truth.
Overall, there was a lot going on here to keep fans of Fringe's mytharc happy, despite the plot's similarities to a few storylines we've seen before, but the show's too fun when delving into its core mysteries to complain about too heavily. I'm just very grateful the show has started tackling its more interesting themes so regularly, and now appears to be pushing forward with a few new ideas. I'd be very surprised if the mysterious Secretary, who was taken to a secret base after traversing dimensions to recover, isn't "Walternate"; so the prospect of two Walters fighting over Peter around the time of the finale should be particularly entertaining. Would you choose the biological father you've never known, or a dimensional copy who was responsible for saving your life but stole you from your true family?
Asides
- These shape-shifters aren't very clever, are they. If they'd simple dispose of the bodies of the people they kill to copy, Fringe Division would never be alerted to their presence. At least incinerate any of your compatriots that don't make it through alive!
- Before it died, the half-formed shape-shifter urged Walt to "find Daniel Verona", so it'll be interesting to see who that person is and why he's so important. I assume his fellow 'shifters are aware of Daniel Verona, too.
- I can’t help comparing the shape-shifters to the T-1000 from Terminator 2. That was clearly an inspiration. They even arrive in our reality as blobs that bleed mercury.
