FRINGE Recap: ‘Subject 9’

A few weeks back, I pointed to “One Night in October” as a prime example of how even in its smaller episodes, FRINGE excels.

“Subject 9”? Clearly not a small episode. To call it the biggest hour of the season so far might seem silly since we’ve only had four of them, but it’s also very, very, true.

In lieu of just a straight-up traditional recap for “Subject 9,” I’m going to do things a little differently. Seems only appropriate given what went down…

After more than five months of wondering when the heck Peter Bishop would reappear in our world, he’s back! But, of course, his return wasn’t easy.

We had weeks of Peter showing up in dreams, appearing in lab reflections and calling out to Walter, but in “Subject 9,” he took on a whole new form — a blue mass of energy that kept following Olivia.

Olivia was appropriately freaked out and went to consult Walter, who had his own idea of how to capture a glimpse of the man who was haunting him (AKA Peter): a series of cameras set up from various angles, “an idea I got from the fight sequences in THE MATRIX.” (I love this show.)

Olivia shared her problem with Walter and Astrid and revealed the blue mass touched — and burned — her. Olivia was worried she was causing it, similarly to how she burned down the room when she was a child. Good to know that hasn’t changed in the new timeline.

Walter went to his desk to put Olivia’s jacket down and discovered she was carrying a letter from Dr. Sumner, who recommended Walter return to St. Claire’s. Olivia had yet to mark the box to say whether she agreed with the assessment or not. Walter was clearly shaken by the prospect.

Olivia and Astrid returned to her apartment and the blue energy mass shut Olivia into her bathroom. Not cool, energy mass. Not cool. Walter realized the mass might be one of the former Cortexiphan kids who had the ability to astral project — subject 9. Olivia and Astrid visited Nina (!!) at Massive Dynamic to see if she could give any insight about who this kid was and viewers got to hear Nina give this speech to a group of people:

“Nanotechnology — the bloom is not off the rose. Because of the far-ranging claims that have been made about potential applications of nanotechnology, a number of serious concerns have been raised about how this will affect our society if realized. And what actions, if any are deemed appropriate, might be needed to mitigate these risks. This is not Massive Dynamic’s concern. We create technology. How it is used is not our concern. We just own the patents.”

New-Nina is season 1 scary. And apparently new-Nina is very much hated by new-Walter, who called her a viper (in Astrid’s ear) and was visibly agitated while Astrid and Olivia were with her.

And as shocking as that hatred was, it was equally shocking to see how comfortable Nina and this Olivia were. How comfortable? Nina mentioned she hadn’t seen that much fear in Olivia’s face “since Bobby Hastings asked you to the prom.” Okay…

Astrid and Olivia looked through the files of the other Cortexiphan kids, and it appeared this was the first Astrid had heard of those trials. Walter — who didn’t need to hear his past misdeeds be rehashed — turned off his connection to the women when Astrid and Olivia started talking about how William Bell and Walter experimented on children. But in this timeline, the trials went a bit differently — Olivia ran away from them as a child and allegedly William and Walter shut them down completely a few years later. Astrid and Olivia successfully found the name of subject 9 — Cameron James — and Walter told Olivia he was going with her to find him.

However, Walter’s attempt to prove he could be “normal” backfired. After spending three years confined to the lab, the outside world was difficult for him to manage, whether it was the crowds on the street or a dirty hotel room. Olivia tried to comfort him with a root beer shake, but while they were enjoying their sugary snack, he told her he knew about the letter from St. Claire’s. Unfortunately, their conversation gets interrupted by the blue mass of energy. Olivia shot out a window so she and Walter could escape, but the mass kept following Olivia until it was hit by a car.

Olivia and Walter finally reunited with Cameron James who denied being the blue mass. Cameron was devastated to see Walter again, because the side effects from the Cortexiphan trials still impact his life — and he didn’t even have cool powers to make it worth it. However, he was able to stop the blue energy mass from getting too close to the trio when it appeared at Cameron’s apartment lobby.

With Cameron off the suspect list, the three put their minds together to figure out what was going on. Walter wanted to see if they could get Cameron to essentially blow up the energy mass so they went on a field trip. As Walter theorized, the blue mass followed them…but this time Olivia saw the face of the man who had been in her dreams (Peter!) in the mass and begged Cameron to stop what he was doing. He didn’t until she fired a shot in the air. Unfortunately for her, the mass was gone. Fortunately for us, over at Reiden Lake, Peter appeared in the water. Oh yeah, and the Observer witnessed Peter’s return, too.

Walter was annoyed at Olivia’s disruption, but she explained she saw the face from her dreams. Broyles called Olivia and informed her a man was pulled from Reiden Lake who knew a ton of information about the Fringe team and claimed to know them all. She and Walter met Broyles at the hospital and the doctor told them the man kept asking for an Olivia Dunham.

When she left, Walter saw the St. Claire’s form was filled out — Olivia vetoed the doctor’s request to have Walter return to the hospital.

Olivia went to see Peter in his hospital room. He was thankful to see her, but she had just one question for him: “Who are you?”

Olivia, since you seem to be at a loss for questions, I have a few for Peter…

• Where was he during the past 3+ weeks?
• What does he remember from his time there?
• Did he have any control over the way he appeared to Walter and Olivia?
• Is he aware of how much things have changed in his absence? (Seemingly not, if he thought Olivia would remember him.)

And now that Peter is back and Olivia clearly doesn’t remember him, we dive into what could be a series-lasting complication: have the relationships we’ve come to know and love disappeared permanently? If the bonds we saw being formed over the last three seasons are gone, I feel like in many ways I’m going to have to mourn that loss.

If/when Peter and Olivia were to romantically reunite, in this timeline there would be no childhood meeting, no traveling between universes to save someone, no knocking up your soulmate’s alt-persona (and yes, I would miss that. It was part of their journey, baby Henry was adorable and it made me look at Fauxlivia differently.) and certainly no slowly building up that relationship. If things continue the way they are now, Peter will always have the knowledge of what was, and so will we.

If we stay with these people, Walter arguably would suffer the most. The Walter we see now is in a constant state of vulnerability; it’s the Walter we saw when his lies about Peter were finally exposed, when Olivia confronted him about the tests he did on her as a child, but that’s his norm. When things get bad for this new Walter, he sinks even lower. And that’s heartbreaking.

Even his relationships with his allies from the old timeline have changed. Walter and Nina’s friendship? Gone. In this timeline, Walter’s hatred/mistrust of Nina was so obvious he was literally squirming as he relayed messages for her via Astrid. (I’ve been curious about Walter and Nina’s original history for three seasons. Now it seems we have more questions to tack on to that list.) Their scenes in the promo for the next episode seem to indicate things aren’t purely terrible, but they’re not as close as they were in our world.

And Astrid! He depends on her in an entirely different way, but there seems to be a considerable distance between them. (Though the new timeline might be kindest to poor Astrid. Now she gets to leave the lab!)

Of course, if we lose this timeline, we lose alt-Broyles, Nina and Olivia’s fascinating new relationship and more. And that’s only what we know now. If it even becomes possible to go back to where we were before, who knows what else will be presented to us by then.

A few other thoughts from the episode…

• Walter owned Massive Dynamic in the old timeline. Clearly that isn’t the case in this new timeline. Does that mean William Bell isn’t dead? Or does that mean Bell’s will was different?
• It seems Elizabeth still committed suicide in this new timeline which makes this spoiler-y tidbit even more intriguing.
• Did anyone catch a glimpse of Nina’s arm? Is it still robotic?
• Olivia said she hadn’t used her powers, which means she certainly wasn’t able to turn off the lights in “Ability” for David Robert Jones in this new timeline. Hm…

Quote of the night: “Her voice goes right into my inner ear and rattles around like razor blades.” (Oh, yes, I will be using this in my day-to-day life.)

What did you guys think? Are you happy Peter is back? And will you survive waiting two weeks for a brand new episode?

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