After a short hiatus for the baseball playoffs, Fringe is back with “Novation” as we discover more about Peter’s miraculous return and the team hunt down the newest hybrid shapeshifter running amok.
Tonight’s episode is a steady return back to the main Fringe storyline concerning what is the other side really up to. As we learned previously, the new shape shifters are actually human machine hybrids that are apparently far superior to their predecessors in that they can replicate their DNA structure itself, rendering them completely undetectable. It’s a dangerous situation, especially now that we know that more of them are inbound. As a viewer, we’re now going to have to look though all the characters with an eye of suspicion as we can no longer tell or rely on the fact we could know who the invaders are. I’m sure this fact will manifest itself later in the series, but for avid watchers, we need to keep it in mind as we monitor the movements and interactions of the various characters.
The episode itself didn’t spend much time discussing the how of how Peter returned, opting to continue along the lines of Walter’s protest against helping him. Interestingly though, it is not out of fear that Walter doesn’t want to help Peter, an emotion that can eventually be worked though, but rather his personal guilt and need to punish himself that prevents him from helping Peter. His guilt from the death of his son, and the failure to save the other Peter still haunts him, and his mental stability has yet to grow to a point where he can accept Peter again.
The only hope though is that we still don’t know what the effect of Peter’s return has on the universes. It might be that it will slowly reset itself over time and Peter makes ripples in the continuum.
Other observations
- Olivia has a wicked sense of Deja Vu. Is it the universe resetting itself?
- The Observer stands behind the crime tape as Olivia enters Karen’s house.
- Novation means a substitution of a new contract in place of an old one. Does this mean Peter’s contract that he must be destroyed to save the two worlds is now replaced with a new contract?
- Who is the shapeshifter reporting to? And isn’t it a bit obvious to be typing on a typewriter in the middle of a transit station, especially with it typing on its own?
