Fringe

It's Other Universe time! Otherworldly Freak of the Week: A guy sets things in motion leading to a chick getting pwned by a bus. It was like he knew what to do in order to make the chick get hit.

OMG let me just say again how thankful I am for the Other Universe - because we get Charlie back. And Charlie & Olivia being BFFs. It's freaking heaven. Olivia's back to work at Fringe Division, though of course thinks she's Faux-livia.

We also get Walter being large and in charge and I love it. He tells Broyles that Olivia is important because she can cross between the universes - and will help them "defend themselves" (which I have a feeling is code for "taking over our universe").

The Fringe Team finds a pen when investigating the bus accident - it's the first thing that the guy placed down in order to start the chain reaction that led to the accident. Apparently, pens haven't been used in about 20 years. They also see a pen at the scene of a prior bus accident, and then again at another accident.

At the scene of the third accident, Olivia notices the creepy chain-reaction dude (Milo) -- because he's hella creepy. He escapes by setting off another series of chain reactions. This dude is Dustin Hoffman in Rainman or something, he's really good. The actor was creepy and strange in the best way possible for this show.

Anyway, all of the victims are connected to a hospital, where a doctor is conducting a drug trial that essentially makes people smarter. The doctor takes people with IQs under 60 and give them amazing math skills (also, they use pens, so there you go). Milo targeted the victims because the drug trial was ending, and these people were going to regress him back to dummy state. Guess he didn't want to be no dummy.

The show had a cool way of showing what was going on in Milo's mind - taking a scenario, dividing it into different outcomes, then running it backwards to see how to start the chain reaction, and then doing it. He finally gets caught when Olivia chases him without stopping for oxygen like he thought she would. Oxygen's needed when you pass by areas of compromised air quality, though it's not entirely clear to me what that means. But obviously this Olivia "forgot" about the whole oxygen thing.

Olivia sees a vision of Peter standing on the street, and our Walter at the hospital. And later her vision of Peter talks to her, saying she's alive because she forgot protocol, because she's not really Faux-livia. Ooooo are they bleeding through her subconscious? Awesome! I also love that her vision of Peter includes his awesome black peacoat. That's my vision of Peter too!

In the end, Walternate and his scientist, Brandon, discuss how to relax Olivia enough to get her to jump to the other side. The answer, as it always is, is the sensory deprivation water tank. Jesus, that girl's been in it like 2 or 3 times already!

Background details: a beggar who was an "Aruba War" veteran. Avocados are rare and expensive. Faux-livia's sister is dead. And then there's the pen thing - I'm not clear -- do they just not write with anything anymore? Not even to just jot down a quick note?

This Week's Code: BREACH.