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“I pulled you out of a moving car. Momentum can be deferred, but it must always be paid back, in full… As I once said to Walter, physics is a bitch.”

Tonight’s Fringe Icon’s spelled:

This was one of those episodes where the more you think about it, the more you like it. There were some major reveals, deaths and Ralph Fiennes.  Who doesn’t love an episode where semi-human hybrids who bleed mercury are stealing cryogenically frozen heads? And how about that “Willam” Bell? His intentions become a little clearer tonight as we get to see some of the conversation between him and Olivia. Was that all of it? Is there more? I hope so because giving her a warning isn’t enough for me. Maybe he told her how to stop the shape-shifters if she didn’t get to their leader’s head in time. Yes, I said head in time. That wasn’t a mistake. Let’s begin.
Why would someone want to steal cryogenically frozen heads, you ask? Well, I guess they think it is cool to steal heads or maybe they want to bowl with them? Ok, I kid. It turns out that these shape-shifters that have infiltrated our world are stealing these heads from the facilities as they are being transported. Once they get them, they shave them looking for something, but once they don’t find it they toss the head out. I want to know: why would you freeze your head anyway? What is the point of that? Are these people dead? Are they trying to make it through to 2500 when we have a wrestler running the white house and everyone drinks Brawndo, “it has electrolytes” (Thanks, Idiocracy). Cringe. That’s where William Bell and Olivia’s talk comes in.
Walter makes a drink of flat worms for Olivia. He contends that he and Bell once did an experiment where if you fed flat worms to another type of worm that those worms absorbed the memories of the ingested flat worms. Huh? He says it is a bad idea, but Olivia drinks it anyway. I’m not going to lie; I threw up a little in my mouth when she did that. YUCK. But it works, because later, Peter rings a bell and Olivia falls on the floor, remembering her time “over there.” (Bell rings a bell when his time is up with Olivia, what does that have to do with it? Puts a new spin on “Ring my Bell” doesn’t it?) It turns out that Bell pulled Olivia out of a moving car to give her a warning. Olivia, the only person strong enough to be pulled over there and survive, has to stop the “coming storm.” He says that he and Walter knew this was going to happen once they discovered this “other world.” He draws Olivia a picture of a symbol and says that this symbol will be on the neck of the shape-shifter leader. He is the one that can open the door between the two worlds. 
So, Olivia awakes knowing that she must find this guy with this symbol before the shape-shifters do. That is why they are stealing the heads, to find the head of this “leader” who can “open the door to the other world.” That’s not good. She goes to talk to Nina who demonstrates with two snow globes what would happen if this door were opened:  only one world would survive. Cue disaster movie music. This season of Fringe just took a right turn down Impending Doom Lane. Olivia now knows she must stop these people before they find their leader, but she unfortunately tells Charlie where the head is. As we know, he is the shape-shifter and with that knowledge he attacks Olivia because his mission has been accomplished. He calls his shape-shifting cronies about the location of the head and then tries to kill Olivia. They struggle, but of course, she wins out with a shot to Charlie’s head. It’s too late though; the shape-shifters find their leader’s head before the FBI can get to them. So that whole meeting with Bell was a waste of time for him, for her? All of that was for nothing? I hope not. Maybe he also told her how to stop him if she couldn’t find the head first? Crossing-fingers.
Also tonight, we learned a lot more about the shape-shifters themselves. They are 47% mercury (yes, like a thermometer) and a Mechano-organic hybrid that isn’t necessarily human. They are what Bell described as the “first wave.” I know they want to open this door, I know they are more advanced but what good would it do if they open the door and their world doesn’t survive? Does that make it easier for them to infiltrate and take over? Hm. Also, Massive Dynamic gets a hold of a working shape-shifter device through Olivia and now can repair the first one, finding out the identity of the at-large shape-shifter that attacked Olivia. With this knowledge of this device maybe they can also fight these shape-shifters? Know how they work? Why does their device transmit data? We know it turns out to be Charlie, of course. I felt so bad for Olivia when she was standing in that alley and got the full rendering of the shape-shifter. The look on her face was heart-stopping. She was looking into the face of her enemy, literally and just told him where the head was! Oh. No.
Walter also had an eventful episode: kisses, drugs and glowing men! He decides that maybe Rebecca, a girl from an old experiment might still be able to see these shape-shifters from another world. She could recognize them (after tons of LSD) by their glowing bodies. So they have been here since the 70’s? Wow! So, they go and get her and reproduce the experiment. Olivia’s melt down occurs during this time, so they didn’t show much of it. The whole experiment thing was just a way to reveal something about Peter. They walk her to her car and Peter goes to thank her and she sees him glowing. She thinks it is just some left-over drugs, but what does that mean? I know he is from over there, but I thought only shape-shifters had that glow. Does that mean he is a shape-shifter and not even human? Or just from over there and someone might figure it out (Rebecca)? Curious. Also, Bell said something about Olivia needing Peter by her side to fight this war. What did that mean? Why is Peter so special? We haven’t seen him bleed yet, so I’m starting to wonder…
Welcome Ralph Fiennes to our little show called Fringe. I knew when they cast him last year that he would play a pivotal role this season, but who knew he would be the leader of the shape-shifters, the door opener, the ender of the Fringe world? Ok, so he does play Lord Valdemort from Harry Potter, so we knew it was possible, but this is so cool. I can’t wait to see what he brings to the Fringe table. What I want to know is how did they get his body over here? Was it frozen too? How does that mercury reattach a head to a body? So sci-fi! What does that symbol mean on his head? Why was his head disconnected from his body in the first place? My head is hurting. Too many questions.
Did you see the observer in this episode? He was fuzzy in the foreground when Olivia came out of Massive Dynamic and met up with Charlie in the alley. Why would he be there at that moment? I just can’t wrap my head around the observer being a scout for bad guys. He seems too invested in Olivia and her team to really be bad. Wouldn’t it be cool if it turns out the observers are here to save us and that colonel guy in the last episode was just crazy? What if he was a shape-shifter trying to stop information from going TO the observer. These were all things I couldn’t stop thinking about when I re-watched the episode. Why would these shape-shifters need the observers to dig up info when they have been here all along? What do you think? Are the observers good or bad? What do you think of Ralph Fiennes being the ultimate shape-shifter? What did you think about that gross Rebecca/Walter kiss? What do you think of Olivia’s time over there? Discuss.