FRINGE Recap: ‘Novation’

FRINGE (and Peter) have finally returned after a hiatus that lasted entirely too long, wouldn’t you say? But after viewing tonight’s brand new episode, “Novation,” you know things aren’t entirely back to normal.

Let’s talk about what went down…

The shapeshifter goes on a road trip:

Nadine, the shapeshifter we last saw in the season premiere, goes searching from Dr. Truss, a former Massive Dynamic worker. She strikes out at the home of his ex (though she does kill the woman and assume her form for a bit), but finds him at his own house and essentially takes him hostage. (Shapeshifter+gun=yeah, I’d go with her, too.)

Lincoln and Olivia are put on the case, and thanks to some help from Nina Sharp, they’re able to find out that Dr. Truss worked on a project that dealt with cellular replication — an experiment that replaces the damaged cells with healthy counterparts. Unfortunately for them, William Bell shut the project down because of “ethical concerns.” Hm…

Nadine uses her road trip with Truss to give us a little background on her problems — she had stage 4 cancer when Massive Dynamic came to her. Her cancer is gone, but the new cells are unstable, which means she’s still dying. That seems to soften Truss up a bit.

Olivia, Lincoln and Broyles are stumped about a device that was found, but thankfully for them, Peter rigged the speakerphone near them to let him hear in on their conversation from his holding cell (way to play by the rules, Peter) and tells them it’s the shapeshifters’ memory discs. He informs the group that he’s decrypted several similar discs in the past. (He wisely leaves out that he killed a whole slew of the shapeshifters in order to get the discs last year. Can’t imagine that would have gone over well.)

Lincoln suggests that Peter take a crack at the devices since he has experience, something Broyles objects to, but Peter embraces. Olivia, on the other hand, is suspicious of what Peter could want in return for his help. Quite simply, he wants more time with his father. Olivia doesn’t think that would be a good idea given how upset Walter got the last time, but Peter acknowledges that his mistake was in treating him as the father he knew, versus the man he is now. Olivia says she’ll try to get Walter to come in to see him.

Nadine and Truss continue to bond as she discusses her child and he talks about his wife who always wanted kids. He hopes one day they’ll be able to reconnect…that’s not at all awkward for Nadine.

Peter discovers a DNA sequence on the disc and realizes that the new breed of shapeshifters can not only switch back and forth between the various people they impersonate, but they can take them on to a molecular level — making them impossible to identify. (Dear show, please don’t pull another Charlie Francis on us.) I’m actually a bit surprised Broyles didn’t accuse Peter of being one of those shapeshifters, but hopefully that won’t become an issue.

Dr. Truss is working on Nadine when suddenly she morphs into his (now-dead) wife. He doesn’t take that well, and she attacks him and eventually reasons with him to get him to continue his work. Unfortunately, he planned on double-crossing her….something she was able to immediately spot.

Thanks to Peter, they’re able to track where Nadine is and the team storms the warehouse where Truss is working on her. Two FBI agents follow Nadine to the roof and Olivia finds one dead and one wounded. The injured agent tells her that Nadine jumped into the nearby water. Unfortunately, no one thinks to be suspicious and the dive team finds the agent who was “injured” in the water, which means, yep, Nadine slipped out from under them yet again. She heads to a locker where she has a handy dandy typewriter stored. She types a message letting someone (presumably from Over There) know that the serum has been synthesized. They say they’re sending the others. Um…

Peter’s return:

Apparently our young Mr. Bishop didn’t take so well to Olivia not knowing who he was at the end of “Subject 9.” When he refused to cooperate, he was taken to a holding facility where he said he would only speak to Walter. Given Walter’s shaky — at best — mental stability, of course he doesn’t take this news too well. But with DNA backing up Peter’s claim that he’s Walter’s kid, Walter suggests he’s possibly from a third universe. (Which, to be fair, is not entirely incorrect.)

It was actually quite lovely to see Peter and Walter’s reunion. It wasn’t joyful and everything fans may have liked to see, but if you think about their reunion in season 1, the differences in the way Peter treats his father is remarkable. Walter may not remember the growth, but we as viewers surely do. Joshua Jackson (Peter) and John Noble (Walter) were in fine form as their characters went through an array of emotions in their brief initial meeting.

Another bonus to the return of Peter? It leads to Nina visiting Walter in the lab. “If there was ever a time to get past our differences, it seemed like now,” Nina tells him. Walter brushes off Nina’s concern (and the idea of Peter), but she points out he’s making Peter’s favorite dessert, which is kind of perfect in a Walter kind of way. Walter, however, is not so eager to get rid of his anger towards Nina.

“I’ve hated you. For 25 years, I’ve hated you. Had you not been there, the vial wouldn’t have broken, I could have healed Peter on the other side, he wouldn’t have fallen through the ice. I blamed you for the death of my son. I blamed you. I couldn’t live with myself because you were right. I crossed the line — for the sake of one life, I destroyed two worlds. Over the years, I’ve come terms with the fact that I deserve to be punished. To suffer.”

That scene? It hurt my heart. Almost as much as Walter playing with Peter’s possessions. How Noble doesn’t get constant Emmy love well never cease to baffle me.

After Peter helps with the case, Walter does come to visit the man claiming to be his son. Unfortunately for Peter, Walter views him as a temptation — something the universe has thrown at him to try and mess with fate again. Poor Peter is not going to get the help from his father that he so clearly needs.

Notable lines:

• Peter: “If I’m not supposed to be here, how am I back?”
• Olivia: “After our mother died, me and my sister were due to go into the foster system. Instead, Nina pulled some strings and we went to live with her.”
• “Some things are not ours to tamper with. Some things are God’s.” – Bell’s explanation for why he shut down the project.
• Walter: “I saw my boy in that man’s eyes. The way he looked that night in the ice, floating away from me. God help me, I saw the eyes of my boy in that man’s face. And that filled me with indescribable joy. But I don’t deserve joy. For anyone else, this would be received as a miracle, to get a glimpse of their dead son. Why should I be rewarded for what I’ve done?”

Crazy theory of the week: We’ve seen Peter go to the future, which led to the solution of how to save both universes. What if to save his existence, he has to go back to the 80s and save himself (or have the Observer save him) from drowning in the lake to right the wrongs of this timeline? (Hey, I SAID it was crazy.)

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What did you think of “Novation”?

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