Fringe's Multiple-Universes'-Worth-Of-Stars-Crossed Lovers Hit Another Snag

Okay, I give. They did it. They made me care about Peter and Olivia as a couple. And all they had to do was erase Peter from the universe to do it!

I don't know how they did it. Maybe it was the hiatus between Season 3 and 4 -- plus the three episodes apart -- that gave Joshua Jackson and Anna Torv a less sibling-like energy. But when Peter comes back in "Subject 9" and looks at Olivia, I buy in.

Peter doesn't know how he got from the machine to the lake, but when he sees Olivia, he figures he's in the right place and everything's going to be okay. But then she doesn't know him, and it's legitimately awful! It's like The Vow plus Capgras syndrome x 1000.

In addition to that, this run of episodes hints around about Lincoln forming the third side of a love triangle, and honestly, I'm into the Lincoln/Olivia pairing too! But I also appreciate that this hasn't really blown up into anything (...yet?). It's clear Lincoln likes Olivia from his solicitousness about her migraines -- which, I can tell you from experience as someone who had one come and go for five straight days this week and was very nicely treated by Dave, is a sign of a good partner -- and how butch he gets with Nina when he thinks she's been giving Olivia Cortexifan. But Lincoln is also such a fun addition to the cast. By this point, Astrid and Olivia have both been exposed to so much crazy shit that it doesn't even register anymore, so it gives the show different chemistry to have a character who'll be like, "Wait, WHAT?!" but is still game to dress up like his Over There counterpart (minus the bluetooth ear cuff? Clumsy, Lincoln!) for a caper.

I've also enjoyed the ways the show unveils the differences, big and small, between this timeline and the one that always had Peter in it. Nina, for instance, makes a reference to Olivia's prom date at least an episode before we learn that she became Olivia and Rachel's foster mother after their mother's death. And this Walter is even weirder and sadder than the one we've known, shut up in the lab and scared of the world, even more badly scarred by his past mistakes because he lost two Peters instead of one. And Walternate is apparently not the villain we've gotten to know over the two seasons before this one.

I'm leaving off at Episode 14 of Season 4: "The End Of All Things," when a dying September blinks off a gurney in Walter's lab, and Peter decides that this Olivia isn't his Olivia after all. But David Robert Jones and Meana (hee hee) are still alive and presumably still plotting to fuck up more shit -- possibly including whatever Peter has planned to reinsert him into his timeline and reunite with the right Olivia, which, against all odds, is now something I care about and hope happens. Provided that nothing bad happens to any Lincoln.

Most Horrifying Indignity Visited Upon A Human Body Part: "I wish I never walked anywhere near the I-beam." - This Guy.

Favourite Character Actor From The HITG! Pantheon: It's nice that the monster-of-the-week episode that underlines the season arc -- a man fighting time to reunite with the woman he loves -- lets the Peter role be played by the great Stephen Root.

Jimmy has fear? A thousand times no!

Heartbreakingest Walter Moment: When the phantom Walter thinks he's been hallucinating comes to life and announces that he's Walter's son, Walter won't let himself believe it, even though he dearly wants to. For just one moment, he lets himself try out a version of his existence in which he successfully saved Peter's life...

...but then refuses to help another boy who looks like his son, but isn't, because he thinks he's being cosmically tempted to repeat his past mistakes and doesn't deserve another chance to know his child as an adult, or believe that he didn't ruin everything all those years ago. But really, this agoraphobic Walter is heartbreaking all the time, including when all he's trying to do is order a nice piece of pie.