Fringe “Back To Where You’ve Never Been” Review

They say that good things come to those who wait, and after 56 days it’s great to have a brand new episode of Fringe. When we left off in the Fall, Peter was trying to figure out how to get back to his original timeline and the cause of Olivia’s mysterious headaches was revealed. In tonight’s episode, “Back to Where You’ve Never Been”, we get to see just how Peter thinks he’s getting home and the lengths he’s willing to go to do it. This episode also marks the meeting of the Lincoln Lees, but to make things clearer in the summary and the review I’m adopting the nomenclature that our Lincoln Lee is called Lee, while his alterverse version is called Lincoln (at least until the fans decide on a better naming convention).

After Walter refuses to recalibrate the Doomsday Device to send him home, Peter is left looking for help from an unlikely source, Walternate. With help from Olivia, Lee and Peter cross over to the alterverse hoping to gain an audience with Secretary Bishop and hopefully learn if he’s the one behind the recent shapeshifter attacks. Their plan doesn’t last long as Bolivia and Lincoln catch them, but Peter escapes their grasp after a botched assassination attempt by a military guard.

On the run, Peter turns to his mother, Elizabeth, who is able to get him to see Walternate. Although Walternate knows Peter is not his real son, he is happy to see him. Just like in our universe, there have been shapeshifter attacks in the alterverse. Walternate has been investigating these attacks independently from Fringe division or his own scientists because he’s not sure who has been compromised. To prove his point, he incapacitates alt-Brandon, who was a shifter spying on Walternate. In return for helping him get him to his timeline, Walternate asks Peter to go back to our universe and explain about the shapeshifters coming from someone else.

Throughout Peter’s escape, Lee has been held by Lincoln and Bolivia at Fringe headquarters as they look into his story about the assassination attempt. Their investigation points to an abandoned area in the city, but it appears they are being led to a trap by none other that alt-Broyles. In our universe, Olivia is waiting in the Orpheum for Peter and Lee to return, but she receives a visit from The Observer. Although injured, he is able to deliver a message to Olivia as the episode ends, “ I have looked at all possible futures, and in every one, the result is the same. You have to die.”

I was wondering what we would get with tonight’s Fringe since it was originally meant to be a mid-season finale and not the first episode of the second half of the season (the episode was bumped back due to the World Series going so late into October). Normally finales are fast paced episodes that help wrap up storylines and end on a cliffhanger, while first episodes of the second half of the season are meant to ease the viewer back into things. Luckily it works for Fringe in part because the pacing of the episode was really well done for the amount of plot they covered. It also helped that the last episode of the fall “Wallflower” had its own mini-cliffhanger at the end with Olivia’s headaches. If anything it may help build up a good head of steam going into the second half of the season and bringing in more viewers, but time will tell.

Although the writing and acting were good all around, my favorite parts of this episode were all about the meeting of the two Lincoln Lees, as you can see in the favorite parts section below. I thought at first there would be a bigger difference in behavior and attitude when the two met, kind of the difference between Walter/Walternate and Olivia/Bolivia, but I kind of like that they seemed to be the same person. It’s almost like saying that regardless of the universe, this is what the real Lincoln is like, even when he was wearing a suit and horn rimmed glasses. I’d like to see how they continue to develop the “Lee” Lincoln Lee in the next few episodes, especially if he stays in the alterverse for a bit.

A couple of other high points in the writing for the episode were bringing in Peter’s mom to the storyline, and the scene Walternate in his office. Peter’s mom provided a nice touchpoint to Peter’s original visit to the alterverse. It seemed to almost communicate a universal truth that Peter’s mom will always accept Peter. The scene with Walternate was excellent for everything it wasn’t. The entire scene seemed to be building up to Walternate attacking Peter (especially when he’s building up a small claw like gun in front of him) and that all turns on a dime suddenly in a way that shocks everyone (especially alt-Brandon). The concept of Walternate possibly not being evil in this timeline is a game changer that is hopefully brought out more in the second hald of the season.

My Favorite Parts of “Back To Where You’ve Never Been”:

- Walter’s cooking attire (or lack thereof) in Peter’s dream.
- Double Decker Car sighting in the alterverse (outside the convention hall).
- “Ours is not to question why, ours is to get the hell out.” – Lincoln
- “I killed a guy like that once. Don’t worry, he was a bad guy.” – Peter to Lee before the cross over
- “Agent Lee, I presume” – Lincoln to Lee after they first see each other
- “So clearly in the other universe I’m a nutjob.” – Lincoln to Lee
- The Observer / Olivia scene at the end

I wanted to also leave you with one thought. When Olivia sees The Observer he is injured, likely shot. The question we should be asking ourselves is not only who shot him but when? I think the answer to that question will tell us a lot more of what will happen this season and maybe in the future of Fringe.

What did you think of tonight’s episode? Were you surprised about who is and isn’t a shapeshifter? What about the meeting of the two Lincolns? What do you think the Observer means when he tells Olivia she has to die? Let me know what you think in the comments section, I look forward to reading them.

Next week is the return of David Robert Jones, the original Fringe baddie, and the guy Peter killed once with the cross over device, but that was a different timeline ago. Will the Fringe team be able to stop him and the shapeshifters? Will Peter ever go home? Tune in to Fox next Friday at 9 PM for the next episode of Fringe, “Enemy of My Enemy”.