22/01/2021

First thoughts of season 4: At first I wasn’t enjoying this as the last two seasons. For the main part I think this is because Peter was absent from the show and when he got back he was constantly trying to get back to his universe, his Olivia, which became a bit annoying. Especially because the audience already knows he is where he needs to be, where he belongs. They dragged this out too long if you ask me, it’s in episode 15 where it finally becomes clear to him that he is in the right universe. Since things are “normal” again, what is normal in this situation, the episodes are far more enjoyable again. Pity only third of the season is left at this point.

Season begins with Peter missing but he shimmers in the background. Walter sees him a couple of times without knowing it’s Peter. Lincoln joins the team after his partner (Sheppard from SGA) killed in a strange way. The observers don’t understand why Peter isn’t completely gone. The observer who helped Walter and Peter needs to make him disappear completely. A bridge has been built between both universes, they work together now. Lincoln meets the Olivia from over there when they find a device in a body which turns out that these people who died, are shapeshifters in human form. Walter does not trust Walternate. Afraid of that man he sees in reflections, Walter covers all the things what can be used as a mirror. Walter is afraid he will see that person again. Later when Walter goes to sleep, Peter calls out to him.

Walter is interviewed by a psychiatrist, Dr. Sumner, who wants to send him back to the mental institution but Walter does not disclose that he is haunted by a mysterious man. Walter is reading a book on the brain. He has a metal spike and hammer ready, with diagrams of the brain when Olivia finds Walter just about putting a spike in his eyes because he thinks he is going mad seeing that man in every reflection. But Olivia tells him she’s dreaming about him for the past 3 weeks, showing Walter a drawing of the man, which is the same man Walter sees. A naked Peter is found in Reiden Lake while an observer is watching. Meanwhile Walter is afraid he has to go back to the hospital for a long term stay but Olivia checked off that she does not recommend hospitalization. Oliva visits Peter in the hospital but she does not know him, while he know everything from before.

When the team has a Shapeshifter case on their hands Peter volunteers to help the Fringe team because of his knowledge about the data discs of the earlier types of shapeshifters. Olivia tells Lincoln she does not understand why she dreamt of Peter and she does not trust him. Peter asks for help to Walter but he is afraid to try since he failed to save both sons in the past. Peter is beginning to think this isn’t his universe because nobody remembers him. The "migraines" which Olivia has been experiencing recently clearly have something to do with interventions by Massive Dynamic, with Nina Sharp's knowledge, where Olivia is rendered unconscious by gas, then given an injection. At that point we are not sure if it’s Nina from over here or over there.

Peter convinces Olivia and Lincoln to help him to go to the parallel universe to ask for help to Walternate to return to his timeline since Walter refuses to help him. They cross using the original device used by Walter and try to reach Walternate. Their plan fails and Lincoln is arrested by the Fringe Division. Peter meets with Elizabeth, actually his own mother and succeeds in convincing her into ask Walternate for help. Walternate agrees but he first wants Peter to help him: Walternate proves to Peter that he is not responsible for the shapeshifters. Further, he asks Peter to help him to convince the other universe that he is facing also problems with shapeshifters. Meanwhile the alternate Olivia and Lincoln decide to investigate Lincoln's information about a mysterious phone call. They inform Broyles, ask for some leeway, he grants it but when they are gone he lets David Robert Jones know that they are coming! An observer, mortally wounded tells Olivia from over here that he checked out any possible future, he does not find anywhere Olivia doesn’t have to die!

The alternate Olivia and Lincoln arrest David Robert Jones and bring him to the Fringe Division headquarters. Peter uses his knowledge about the criminal to help to interrogate him. However David uses his accomplices to create havoc with a terrorist attack that kills everybody in a hospital. They let him go but with a tracking device, but David is warned by Broyles and uses a similar device in dollar bills to escape from his pursuers. Lincoln discloses to the alternate Olivia and Lincoln that it might have a mole within the Fringe Division. Peter and Astrid find that David is searching for a mineral. Capable to open holes between the two universes. Meanwhile Elizabeth decides to help Peter and has a surprising encounter with our Walter. She convinces him to help Peter. Because Jones is aware of what Peter/Astrid found out, he decides to execute his plan in this universe and succeeds. Now that they know Walternate is not the bad guy, both teams try and work together. Besides Broyles from the other side, Nina, unsure from which side, is also in this. Meanwhile Olivia is haunted by what the observer said to her at the opera about her almost certain death.

Alternate Astrid visits prime Astrid, she has difficulties with interaction and communication and is hoping prima Astrid is able to help her with this. Alternate Olivia comes after her, because they are not sure why Astrid crossed over. Alternate Astrid is instrumental in stopping a guy who uses observer September’s device, which he lost in 1985 when he tried and failed to save Peter. Prime Walter and alternate Olivia grow closer together and Alternate Astrid helps Walter see that, although Peter is not really his son, he’s the closest thing. The lead observer is being made aware that September also is responsible for bringing back Peter.

The Fringe team is stuck in a small town, they can’t get out. They almost get killed by a diner worker. Upon investigation they find that most of the people are dead but they find one survivor Cliff who tells them this has been happening for a couple of days now. Walter deduces that peoples from both universes are merging and only the ones who do not have a counterpart, survive. Olivia also gets sick but when Walter checks her out she is clean. But when they get home, Peter drops by and Olivia kisses him to Peter’s surprise!

Oliva begins to remember Peter, Walter blames Peter for projecting his feelings but Olivia also remembers things Peter doesn’t know about. When Walter learns that Olivia has cortexaphan in her system and he confronts Nina. She appears to have all vials locked away but Walter checks one and finds out they have been replaced, much to Nina’s surprise. Peter and Olivia kiss, but then she gets kidnapped and when she wakes up she is tied to a chair sitting before Nina, who is also tied to a chair.

Nina and Olivia have been kidnapped and held prisoner in an abandoned facility by David Robert Jones. He wants to (re)activate Olivia’s abilities, first step to activate the lights in a box. When Olivia is unable to, Nina gets tortured. Later she confesses to Nina that only Peter would be emotionally connected to her, not Nina because she does not remember their history anymore. Nina turns out to be the alternate Nina, working together with Jones. Peter is contacted by a wounded September. Peter goes into September’s mind to find Olivia, he learns whom the Observers are. He tells Peter to go home, when Peter realized he means literally to go home, he does that and gets kidnapped by Jones’s men. Olivia’s connection with Peter becomes apparent when he’s threatened. But she does more than activate the light box. Explosions electrocute Leland, Nina and David escape. Peter leaves Olivia because he now knows for sure that this is not his Olivia, his timeline.

Peter helps observer September getting free. The other observer had hidden the universe for him but Peter freed him. The observer says that Peter has been home all along, this is his universe, that the love he had for the others and the love they had for him never really made him disappear. Peter waits for Olivia as she comes home, his look is all Olivia needs, they run to each other and kiss. Walter finally accepts Peter also, he bought or created Peter gifts for every birthday he missed. They run a case which bears remarkable similarities with a case in the original timeline. People changing into a porcupine. Lincoln is infected also but gets cured by Walter. It appears this is also the doing of David Robert Jones who is trying to control things like evolution.

Lincoln does feel out of place in the team, mainly because of Peter and Olivia who are back together. He joins the alternate Fringe team on a case and he bonds with alternate Olivia and Astrid and he changes out stories with alternate Lincoln. Alternate Lincoln suspects there is a mole in Fringe division who has been working for Jones. Alternate Lincoln gets killed, prime Lincoln offers to stay and help a sad Olivia which she accepts. The viewers of course already know Broyles is the mole, we do not yet know the reason why.

Walter is helping the alternate Fringe team with a case. Jones is involved and Broyles is struggling with his actions which also killed alternate Lincoln. Walter suggest to Alternate Olivia that perhaps Broyles is the mole. She test this on Nina who has been imprisoned and she actually confirms he is the mole. Alternate Broyles has agreed to help Jones because he was able to help his sick son but when he needs to do something which obviously jeopardizes both universes, he surrenders himself to prime Broyles. Definitely an improvement since Peter knows he belongs here. The more universes episodes are my favorites. In episode 19 we suddenly jump to 2036! The Observers no longer just observe, they seized power in 2015. It’s now 2036. This episode is like a appetizer for next season, we see the observers as oppressors of the human race.

Jones is still designing a plan to destroy both universes and he’s the cortexaphan children. Walter comes to the inclusion that the only to stop this is to severe the connection to both universes, which would mean that the alternate universe could not continue to heal. The bridge has been closed and Jones is in our universe, but in an attempt to stop Jones, he is killed by Olivia’s growing powers. Walter has trouble believing that Jones is responsible for all of this because he believes Jones is simply not smart enough. Walter believes only one man can be responsible, Bell! Walter tries to convince the others but is having a hard time, he goes on investigation himself and Astrid joins him. When Astrid is shot, Bell shows himself.

Bell is the one who wants a new beginning and he even is okay with Walter being there who he now has in custody. But Bell needs an extra energy source, which is Olivia because of her continuous upgrade! But Walter shoots Olivia in the head, which effectively stops William Bell’s plan! Peter is horrified but Walter knew what he was doing, because of the cortexaphan in Olivia, he can save her. Astrid also makes a full recovery. In the hospital Olivia tells Peter she’s pregnant. Finale moment of season 4 we see Walter in his lab, preparing a snack when September stands before him, "We have to warn the others, they are coming," he says.