Fringe 5x06: Through the Looking Glass and What Walter Found There

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Peter is still having difficulty coming to grips with Etta's death. He's back at her old apartment, watching an old 3D holographic answering machine message of her over and over. When he doesn't come home, Olivia tracks him down. She's not concerned about what he's doing, but she wants to be included in his grieving process. Their shared pain can help them move get through things. He agrees, but still lies to her about the wound on the back of his neck where he inserted the Observer tech. This time, he's the one who's holding back on their relationship. She's lost too much already, though, and she wants to hold onto him as tightly as she can.

Reunited through loss.

At the lab, Walter works alone. He digs out the next tape, cleans it off and starts watching it, all without getting help from or informing the others. This tape is longer, and in far better shape than the others. It leads him, step-by-step to an apartment building in Boston. When he gets there, he finds that the building has been severely damaged, and is inhabited by an angry old woman, but the apartment he needs to enter is largely intact, and perfectly symmetrical, down to the smallest detail. He takes out a notebook, performs an odd sort of dance, then promptly disappears through a crack in the universe.

When there's a hole in the universe, Walter's usually the one to blame.

Unable to find Walter, Astrid, Olivia, and Peter watch the tape themselves. It shows
Past Walter meeting up at the apartment with the mysterious Donald who was mentioned a few episodes ago and detailing how to cross over into a pocket universe they've created within the membrane between the Amber and Red universes. But then it just ends abruptly.

Seven days.

Inside the pocket universe, things are weird. It's an approximation of the apartment building only physics doesn't work exactly the same way it does in our universe. The windows slide along the walls, the hallways pivot vertically at 90 degrees, and the illumination is an odd blue colour. Plus, Walter quickly finds that he's not alone. A man named Cecil was blown through the crack when the Observers bombarded the neighbourhood. He thinks he's only been there for five days, but time works differently on the inside, and Walter determines that he's actually been missing for 20 years.

He's understandably confused.

On the outside, Astrid, Olivia, and Peter arrive at the apartment, bearing the video camera. Peter follows Past Walter's instructions, grabs the hand of the woman he loves, and enters yet another universe. Once they're there, they find that the tape didn't actually end, but what was on it just wasn't visible in our universe. The remaining footage gives directions on how to navigate the pocket universe and find exactly what it is that Walter and Donald hid there. It's really helpful because Walter was tripping balls when he designed the place, and he even decided to use a perspective trick from the movie Labyrinth.

Jennifer Connelly did it better.

After some meandering, Peter and Olivia meet up with Walter and Cecil, and they show him what else is on the tape: The thing they were hiding twenty years ago was the boy they found under ground in the first season episode Inner Child. Walter can't remember him, though. Either he didn't experience the case the same way in this timeline, or it's been wiped from his mind. In either case, he has no idea why they needed the boy.

They walk a little further and find a corridor with doors featuring the glyphs that Fringe shows before the commercial breaks; Walter thinks they're very strange. The boy is supposed to be in the apple room, but when they open the door, the room is empty. Walter is livid. The boy was part of the plan, and without all of the parts the plan is useless. And that's not their only problem. Walter was spotted as he entered the building, and Windmark has arrived with a squad of Observers and Loyalists.

And they don't look like they're there for a party.

Peter manages to calm Walter down by telling him that the Observers would have destroyed the pocket if they'd found it, and the only other person who knew where it was and how to navigate it was Donald. Since they were missing for 20 years, maybe Donald thought they were dead, and came back for the boy. Olivia also finds a clue: There's a radio in the room that wasn't on the tape. Maybe whoever took the boy left it behind. With that, they're off, but they're out of time. An Observer pops in and gives Astrid five across the eyes, then two of them casually strut into the pocket.

Just jumping between universes. No big deal.

Thanks to his new brain chip, Peter is able to lead the gang back to the crack, but not before Ceil meets his untimely demise at the hands of an Observer force gun and an unfortunately-placed staircase. Olivia kills one Observer as they exit into the regular universe, but there's still another one on their tail and plenty more searching the neighbourhood for them. The team fights their way out of the building, but Peter stays behind to draw off their pursuers while Astrid, Walter and Olivia escape.

In mere seconds, he's shot in the back and forced to engage in hand-to-hand combat with an Observer. Normally, this would mean instant death, however, Peter's got a thing in his head, so his kung fu is strong. The Observer knows what's happening and tells Peter he's made a mistake, but before he can explain further, Peter teleports behind him and snaps his neck.

Tiger Style always beats Dragon Style.

On the train ride home, Peter and Walter talk. Walter's concerned that he's turning back into the man he used to be: the man of hubris who would do whatever it took to get what he wanted regardless of the consequences or who he had to step on/over/through to get it. Ever since the pieces of his brain were restored, he's been changing. Having his mind scrambled slowed things down, but it's still proceeding, and the man Peter helped him become is disappearing. But, Peter won't let that happen and he promises his dad that he won't let go of him. Walter's not wholly reassured, but the strength of his son's conviction alleviates his fears for now.

As the episode ends, Peter looks over at Olivia, and the reason he knows kung fu becomes abundantly clear.

Whoa.

What I Liked
-When they're heading back to our universe, Walter starts to do the dance that helps figure out where the crack is, but Peter just grabs him by the collar and tosses him through. When you're on the run, there's no time for dancing!
-The Observer actors actually display some very subtle emotions. The one Peter kills in a fight actually looks almost but not quite surprised, and Windmark looks... well, you tell me what he emotion he's displaying:

I think he's smiling, but that's the frowniest smile I've ever seen.

What I Hated
-Some of the effects were a little bit wonky. The Labyrinth hallway was dark and unimpressive, and when the Observer popped in to smack Astrid, things were a little jerky.
-They made a point of very much not showing a clear shot of Donald's face on the tape. If they'd only done it once, it would've been fine, but more than that is just rubbing it in the viewers' faces.

We got a good look at the back of his head, though.

Final Thoughts
The word of the day is SPLIT. But is it referring to the split in the universe, the split between Peter and Olivia, or the split in Walter's personality?

What's the deal with these ball bearings?

Now you see 'em...

He didn't kick them, they just disappeared.

We got to see a little bit of bastard Walter this week, but I'm not sure if they'll bring out more of that aspect of him or if Peter will be able to hold him together. I actually disagree with Peter here, though. He's been willing to sacrifice his relationship and even his humanity to save the world, so sacrificing Good Walter shouldn't be a big deal. A fully-functional Evil Genius Walter would be a powerful weapon against the Observers, and the loss of one good man is a small price to pay for the safety of the world.

If this were Lost, I'd be worried that they're setting up Donald to be some kind of big reveal only to forget all about it and make some BS excuse like answering the question of who he is would only raise more questions. But, it's not Lost, it's Fringe, and they've been pretty good about solving their mysteries lately. I don't think we'll ever find out why a demon's twist rusts, but they explained what the Observers are and what that metal thing from The Arrival was, and now they've explained what the bald boy was, if not where he came from. So, we'll meet Donald soon enough, and he'll be someone of substance. I'm guessing he'll be an alternate version of September.

Overall, I wasn't this episode's number one fan. They spent a little too much time wandering around the labyrinth of the pocket universe and not enough time dealing with the pertinent issues of what's happening between Peter and Olivia, and what's happening to Peter. They got a little bit into what's happening to Walter, but I still think it could use a little more fleshing out. Plus, Astrid got pimp slapped by an Observer in this episode. That's not cool.