Fringe

In which Fringe tries to win back the #1 spot in my heart that Justified stole from it.

Astrid lures Walter out of standing watch at Peter's bedside with the promise of tapioca pudding. Olivia takes Sam Weiss and his now-awesome haircut to see the Peter Bishop Doomsday Machine. He has some conveniently-unpublished pages that will help them bypass the Machine's force field and allow Peter to enter. They visit the Great Tomb of Sam Weisses Past to get a box for an "In case of emergency, break glass" kind of fix. Then they head to a museum to get the key. The key opens the box and inside is a drawing of Olivia, similar to the one of Peter and the Machine.

Meanwhile, we've got freak lightning storms hitting the Northeast. The events are occurring between the locations of the Machine in Our Universe and The Other. Walter wants to move the Machine to Liberty Island so that it's at the same location as it is on the Other Side; that will slow down the rip in the Universe.

Peter wakes up alone in the hospital, since everyone else is out investigating. He can't remember who he is, and walks out, hails a taxi and asks for 42nd & Lexington -- in NYC, and he's in Massachusetts. The cabbie is happy to oblige once Peter produces a credit card.

Walter figures out (somehow, because he's just brilliant, OK?) that Olivia needs to control the Machine from the Other Universe with her mind, and that she can do it through the Otherworldly Typewriter. Poor Olivia has a hard time working it, even with some fatherly coaching from Walter. Then they get the call that Peter is missing (he had also left a note at the hospital - "I'm going home").

Peter has made it to New York, where he is drawn into a pawn shop and some old coins. He thinks he's Other Peter (or at least living in the Other Universe), because he heads to Liberty Island to see his father, the Secretary of Defense. Olivia and Walter go to meet him, but he's clearly confused.

Back at the lab, Astrid hears the Otherworldly Typewriter typing on its own. The message? "Be a better man than your father," which was the phrase Olivia was concentrating on. So she's just on some kind of delay, that's all. It's like a time zone.

So now they've got the Machine at Liberty Island and Olivia feels more confident about her ability to telekinetically work it. She starts concentrating and the Machine powers down. Olivia tells Peter she loves him before he goes into the Machine. Aw, you crazy kids are cute but I still don't buy in on their relationship.

Peter latches himself into the machine and wakes up in what looks like a war-torn New York City. He's got a uniform on, and sees a 9/11 memorial has been built -- and it was dedicated in 2021. According to the preview for next week, he's 15 years in the future. Holy crap! That's pretty cool. You packed a lot of stuff into this episode, Fringe. But you're still #2.

This Week's Code: MULTI.