Grade: B-
Fringe is back for its fourth season & like the episodes title suggest, things are not as they seem but that doesn’t keep the show from bringing us more weird cases for our team to investigate. The full grown Peter Bishop no longer exists & the red & blue title intro reflecting which universe the episode would be centered in is also gone & replaced with an all new orange intro reflecting this askew new world we have been thrown into. The differences don’t stop there though & as we start off the episode we see that maybe the Observers grand plan to correct the world might not have had entirely as desired.
“Neither Here Nor There” rejoins us with the blue universe version of Lincoln Lee, given away by has thick framed “Buddy Holly” style glasses. As we follow him & his FBI partner they go on a mission that leads us to a showdown with a pair of translucent skinned men which leaves Lincoln’s partner dead & Lincoln with a lot of questions. Once the Fringe Division descends on the scene it becomes apparent that Lincoln does not remember Olivia & last seasons team up with the Fringe Division. The weirdness does not stop there as it becomes apparent that the translucent people have divots embedded in them & seem like early version of our friends the shape shifters. As the episode unfolds we see Lincoln, after some hassling, get inducted as a member of the Fringe Division. We also see that Walter is still his eccentric self but is now contained to his Harvard lab while Astrid does all his field research.
All this time in the lab however does not seem to be going that well for Walter, or the Observers for that matter, as glimmers of Peter start to appear. In the subplot of the episode our friendly neighborhood observer September meets with probably head observer January about said glimmers & how it is September’s job to take care of this since he is the cause for all the hoopla of the series in the first place. “Neither Here Nor There” seems to set up a great build for this season’s story arc & embeds the viewer with a lot of trust as the main focus of the episode centers on the teams case. While the episode is not entirely built to bring in new fans it does focus on keeping its loyal fan base pleased with making its regular operations fresh again with an all new dynamic similar to the relationships we witnessed in the red universe.
Ed. Side Note
“I need to erase someone from time.” Awesome line from September in a resale store.
- Walter hiding in the tank just brought me back to season 1.
