Hot off the cliffhanger from last week’s episode, we’re thrust into Bell’s vision of the new world. Bell is passionate for what he is about to create and, despite Walter’s protestations, will do nothing to stop it. This world is one created by humans but Bell sees Walter finding him after all these years as a divine hand showing them the way.
Back from the previous night’s action Olivia and Peter (arm in a sling) get back to the lab and look for Walter and Astrid. Peter mentions the “Jedi mind trick” Olivia pulled on the building with DRJ and Olivia surmises the cortexiphan was at play. Before they can go further into the conversation Jessica (from last episode) calls Olivia and tells her someone may be following her. Cut to Jessica’s apartment and we see September, the Observer who ends up becoming trapped when he steps on a run carved on the floor.
Olivia and Peter arrive at Jessica’s flat and find her purse, phone and wallet still there. Peter stumbles across a hole in the floor in the exact position (unbeknownst to them) where the Observer was standing. Again they are interrupted by a phone call; this time it’s Broyles calls about Astrid; she’s in the hospital due to last episode’s gunshot would. They arrive at the hospital and she seems to be doing okay. She relays the story about the waterfront warehouse, her guilt at not protecting Walter coming through. Peter and Olivia use Astrid’s information and drive down to the docks where they find September, held by the stasis field. Jessica appears, gun in hand as she’s been working with Bell the entire time. She relays the fact that the Observer would return if they put Olivia in danger and she shoots at September who catches the bullets. She ends up pulling out another gun, created by Bell, whose bullets the Observer cannot catch. Olivia can, and when Jessica tries to shoot September a second time Olivia stops the bullets and ends up sending them right back into Jessica, who is stunned before she collapses, hopefully dead.
Peter and Olivia check up on September and remove him from the stasis field. Olivia remembers the opera house where he showed up wounded and told her “In every version of the future, you have to die”. He says he must investigate the future to see what he meant before disappearing. With their only lead dead, Peter comes up with a plan to extract information from Jessica’s brain. They enlist the help of Nina who says she will one day ask him how he knew about this particular technology. As Peter finishes prepping things, Olivia and Nina talk; Olivia wants to know why Bell is activating her now. Nina says that from the beginning, Olivia’s compassion is what made her the perfect candidate for the cortexiphan trials. She hypothesizes that Bell wants something only Olivia can provide.
On the ship Walter still tries to reach Bell, expressing the insanity of the idea. Bell has no qualms in reminding Walter that it was his idea to create a new world as, for all intent, an ‘F you’ to the Man upstairs after Peter died. When Walter realized he was able to do it, he got scared and had Bell remove the part of Walter’s brain where the original idea germinated. For his part, Bell started taking cortexiphan to slow the cancer but helped him understand everything. During the conversation Bell displays how far he’s gone when he tells Walter “you’ve always been playing God. I am…”
Jessica ‘wakes’ up to some crazy eye seizures and has no idea what’s going on. She talks in riddles but ends up confessing Bell’s location on a boat and needs an energy source to complete his plan. Olivia grabs Jessica, demanding to know more and shorts things out. It doesn’t take long for them to guess that from the significant EM energy output Olivia is the energy source. Using this new information, Nina thinks she has a way to find Walter. They share the findings with Broyles that Olivia’s frequency will coincide with the universe overlap, the calm from the storm that’s in the process of forming.
Olivia and Peter talk. She still feels like the lost, lonely little girl being used by Walter and Bell but Peter reminds her that she’s not alone this time. Back on the boat, Bell shows Walter the coming storm outside, gleeful as it is the harbinger of a new dawn. At Fringe HQ, they locate Bell at the center of the storm and make their way to the location. Interestingly enough, only Peter can see the ship as he resonates at the same frequency (the ship has crossed over into the alternate Earth. Olivia says she can access the ship with the help of Peter. Nina convinces Olivia of the power she has within her. The two of them jump from the chopper and Olivia’s ability to jump between worlds puts them on the ship. They find Walter and Bell pretty quickly. Bell never planned on having humans but ends up tabbing Peter and Olivia as the new Adam and Eve for this world. Walter, who’d been examining Bell’s pistol for some time, picks it up and shoots Olivia. More than a bit upset at his plans being ruined, William Bell bids adieu by chiming the bell at his desk and phasing back over to the alternate earth.
Olivia can’t be dead!! Peter sure thinks so and filled with grief, he doesn’t listen to Walter’s pleas until the other man slaps him. Based on the healing properties he discovered last episode with the lemon cake ‘healing’ itself, Walter can save Olivia if the bullet can be removed from her. He gets the bullet out and they wait with bated breath until they watch the wound slowly close and Olivia begin to move.
A quick stop in DC shows Broyles talking with a committee head regarding the Bell situation. Due to the efforts of the Fringe division, they get a serious bump in funding and Broyles has been elevated to General. He taps Nina to run their now fully funded science division. At the hospital, Walter and Peter await word on Olivia. Walter believes that after such a heavy cortexiphan fueled output, Olivia may be normal, though there’s no guarantee the cortexiphan may pop up some time in the future. The doctor comes out and says Olivia is ready to go home; Peter leaves Walter alone with Astrid, and the old scientist finally calls Astrid by her real name.
Peter shows her the house he found for them and instantly we can tell something is not quite right with Olivia. Is it bad? It seems to be until she tells Peter she’s pregnant. Walter and Astrid walk in and the four share a well-deserved moment of happiness.
Later that night, Walter is back at the lab fixing himself a PB&J when September returns. “We have to warn the others,” he says. “They are coming.” Walter asks September just who ‘they’ are but we never hear the Observer’s reply as the credits roll.
Man oh man, what a way to end this season. The startling re-introduction of Bell—kept secret despite the spoiler-filled world we live in—as the engine behind David Robert Jones and the push for a new world fit nicely into this crazy ‘Fringe’ world where things aren’t always as they seem. I knew the healing properties of the cortexiphan would play a role in the future but I couldn’t hold back the gasp when Walter put a bullet in Olivia’s head. Though she lived, the Observer’s point that she had to die ended up being true. I can only wonder where things go from here. Several stories were tied up while others remain open and possible story arcs for next year’s truncated swan song of a season. The ‘Fringe’ group has made it through some tough times…we’ll have 13 more episodes to see just how many more they have yet to face.
