It’s been some time since we’ve visited our world’s neighbors over in Alternate Earth but the absence is more than made up for as Lincoln takes a jaunt over to the other side in “Everything in Its Right Place” for some information sharing and quite possibly somewhere to call home.

The central character in this episode, Lincoln arrives at the lab as the gang is tending to Gene, the cow. Clueless as to what’s going on, Olivia informs Lincoln of said cow’s depression (according to Walter).  After a bit of levity, she gives Lincoln a charm with Robert Danzig’s name, Lincoln’s former partner, etched on it. He reminds her that it was a thank you for saving his life but she has no recollection of it. He explains to her its meaning – a maze whose center represents home, Lincoln’s tether to this world (according to his partner).  Olivia is pulled away to tend to Gene and Lincoln is left to his own devices until Astrid arrives with some files on David Robert Jones (DRJ). She tells him about Alt-Earth’s investigation into DRJ and, due to Olivia’s memory lapses, Astrid is needed as liaison. She mopes a bit about being unable to spend time with her dad, though Lincoln volunteers to take her place. He takes the idea to Broyles who, after a bit of convincing by Lincoln, agrees.

Jumping over to Alt-Earth a woman is accosted by a man brandishing a knife, ready to do some serious harm to her when she’s saved by an unidentifiable man. She runs away but her would-be attacker isn’t as lucky.

After the break, Lincoln transitions to Alt-Earth and is greeted by the charming and energetic Fauxlivia who doesn’t give Lincoln a chance to breathe before he’s riding along with her to the next case. During the ride he fills her in on a few things, namely Olivia’s cortexiphan injections though he’s vague on the details about her memory loss.  As far as Alt-Earth goes, Lincoln finds that the bridge connecting the worlds has helped improve Alt-Earth, even allowing amber containment areas to be reopened.

Alt-Lincoln fills his doppelganger in on the crime scene, an assailant attacked by an unknown vigilante, an MO that fits several other cases. There’s a very spirited discussion (targeted at us geeks, no doubt) where Lincoln relates the vigilantes to Batman, an icon Alt-Earth knows as Mantis. Discounting the Joker’s unfortunate accident, Batman never melted someone’s face in such a way; it’s the first clue as all the other cases didn’t have any bodies to examine.

Back at the quarantine area Lincoln and Fauxlivia passed on the way to the case, someone wearing the assailant’s face is putting things away in a van. He hides from the quarantine team who are gathering readings from of the area when they identify human remain that end up being leftovers from the vigilante. The crew is called in to the scene and though it’s not what he crossed over for, Lincoln volunteers his services to the case.

The vigilante makes his way to a homeless shelter and introduces himself as Kaynon. He starts eating until another resident tells him about something on his neck and he ends up running out. The Fringe group is at the vigilante hideout, examining the bodies when Lincoln finds a locket with a woman’s face on it. He gives it to Fauxlivia and suggests they look at the time of death for the bodies as well as footage of the area. As Alt-Astrid analyzes the surveillance footage, the two Lincolns do a bit of detective work on each other and find that they have quite a bit in common, even more so than the other counterparts we’ve been introduced to. Alt-Astrid interrupts their discussion and shows them the facial recognition of the woman in the photo; it’s proof enough for Lincoln to identify the vigilante as a shape shifter. He takes his suspicions to Colonel Broyles who is not only unconvinced of Lincoln’s hypothesis but harshly dismissive as well, citing Lincoln’s partner’s death at the hands of a shifter for his desire to with Lincoln, suggesting his desire to avenge his partner’s death is coloring his thou the perpetrator and strongly urges him to return back to Earth.

Alt-Lincoln and Fauxlivia catch the shifter

Kaynon watches a young boy play soccer before he’s at it again,  attacking a junkie and changing bodies again. As Lincoln starts to leave, the death pops up and he suggests sending out a photo of the latest victim, which Broyles reluctantly agrees to. Lincoln and Fauxlivia make their way to the scene where the victim has been spotted and Lincoln’s hatred for shifters appears as he vows to take this one down. As they surround the area, he and Alt-Lincoln have another bonding chat with the latter encouraging his less confident ‘twin’. Fauxlivia interrupts their bonding session and it’s not long before Lincoln spies Kaynon and starts giving chase.  Separated from the rest of the unit, the shifter gets the upper hand on Lincoln but instead of killing him, Kaynon tries to get away only to be caught by the task force. When Broyles hears the news, he’s congratulatory towards the group but in a turn from the Broyles we met last year from Alt-Earth, he sells out the group to Nina, providing her with the shifter’s location and the team’s exit plan.

Still surprised he’s alive after the shifter had the advantage, Lincoln asks Fauxlivia for five minutes with the prisoner. Having a bit of a soft spot for Lincoln, she acquiesces to his request.  Outside another man sets up in a sniper position. Lincoln dismisses the guards and asks Kaynon why it didn’t kill him. Kaynon’s own emptiness of wanting for someone to belong to, to be needed or missed is a sentiment Lincoln relates to. Kaynon went to DRJ who promised he’d become special but despite his new shifter abilities was labeled a disappointment due to the good heart he still has, unlike other shifters. Stealing DNA is what’s keeping him alive he still protects DRJ based on the doctor’s promise to fix him. Lincoln leaves, disappointed. As Alt-Lincoln leads the shifter to the truck, the sniper fires. A shootout takes place and before he can get away, Fauxlivia takes out the sniper with a hell of a shot. Focused back on the scene, Alt-Lincoln is the one that was hit though he promises Fauxlivia he’ll be okay. Lincoln wonders how many people knew of the transport and explodes in Kaynon’s face, telling him that DRJ will never welcome him back into the fold.

In Fort Lee, NJ, Nina smiles as she looks over several tanks, no doubt housing more shifters. Kaynon arrives wearing the sniper’s body. Unbeknownst to Nina, he overrides security, allowing the Fringe team in; Nina tries to escape but gets caught. Back at HQ, Alt-Astrid goes to Broyles with more information and judging by her trepidation and his dawning horror, it seems as if she may have discovered his betrayal.

At Nina’s lab, Lincoln finds possible information that could lead them to every shifter agent in DRJ’s network but the potentially outstanding news is overshadowed when word comes through that Alt-Lincoln has died from his wound. Pained to see Fauxlivia hurt so much but unable to do anything at the moment, Lincoln returns to his world with Kaynon so that Walter can help him combat the symptoms of his body breaking down. He gives Kaynon the charm Olivia had just given him, promising Kaynon that he now has a home.

On Alt-Earth Fauxlivia cleans out her Lincoln’s locker, taking a picture of him and her. She’s surprised when Lincoln shows up. With all the research left to do, he offers to stick around and she gratefully accepts.

I’ve missed seeing Alt-Earth, most especially Fauxlivia. Though she’s not in this episode quite as much as I would have like, Anna Torv looks like she has so much fun playing our Olivia’s alternate. She’s so different, so free spirited; despite the vast differences between her and Olivia, Lincoln’s longing for the red headed Olivia is on display though one has to wonder if it’s more about him possibly having a chance with this one that drives his attraction or could it just be she wears a different outer shell but inside, where it counts, she and Olivia are more similar than we realize? As it is, “Everything in Its Right Place” is a standalone episode that continues to fill in the abstract of this season’s story arch and David Robert Jones’s end game. The ‘Fringe’ team has quite a stable of information, possibly breaching DRJ’s network though with Colonel Broyles’s allegiance in question, the good guys will also need to watch their own backs. With Lincoln helping Alt-Earth’s Fringe division, we’ll probably be seeing more of the groups interacting as they try to track down DRJ and bring his machinations to a halt. And with Alt-Lincoln biting the bullet, I’m a bit nervous about who else may fall as a casualty of this war of attrition with the baddies. Here’s looking forward to next week’s installment as we get more answers at the expense of even more questions.

Miss an episode? Check our recap of last week’s episode: ‘Nothing As It Seems’.