Fringe - Everything In It's Right Place Recap (4x17)

My apologies for the lateness of this recap.


Everything In Its Right Place ... Season 4 Episode 17 ... Fringe ... Original Airdate Friday April 6, 2012

This week on Fringe we learn that Gene has S.A.D. which is Seasonal Affective Disorder. Sort of a depression-like state due to not being outside in the sunshine. Gene shouldn't be depressed though because she is the bovine who's the most fine as she rocks her FBI blanket, hat and sweet ass combat boots. Peter Walter, and Olivia talk in hushed tones as they explain to Lincoln that it's "Grazing Day" and they are taking Gene to her favorite pasture out in Warwick.
　
Olivia presents Lincoln with something she found in her apartment and is unsure of why she had it in the first place. It's a Native American token that Lincoln's now deceased partner, Robert Danzig, gave him a long time ago. It has a round quarter sized object attached to a piece of braided leather. Engraved on the object are swirls that symbolize a maze with a person at the edge. The maze itself is representative of the trials and tribulations of life's journey, illustrating that if you make the right choices you will eventually find your way to the center of the maze, and the center of the maze is symbolic of being home.
　
Robert had given this to Lincoln after they became partners because as Lincoln says, "Danzig knew I was never much for putting down roots. I never really stayed in the same place too long. He used to joke that if I kept living like that that one day I would float off into space." So in order to let Lincoln know that he would always belong and be accepted by Robert and his family Robert gave him the token. Robert referred to it as Lincoln's tether.
　
After one of Lincoln's early cases with the Fringe Division, after Olivia had saved his life, Lincoln passed the charm on to her as a thank you and a reminder of their friendship. However, Olivia remembers none of that now, which is yet another kick in the head to poor Lincoln's inner stability.
　
The somber moment is broken (for Olivia anyway) when Walter calls her over to tell her that Gene's anxiously waiting.
　
Lincoln is thankfully distracted when Astrid comes in lugging two boxes of case files and he goes to help her with them. The Other Side wants to be debriefed on all the information This Side has on David Robert Jones. Astrid has been picked to go since not all of Olivia's memory cylinders are functioning. The unexpected foray Over There is causing Astrid to have to postpone some plans she had made with her father.
　
Lincoln, disheartened at the prospect of getting a blow by blow recount of Grazing Day later offers to go in Astrid's place. At first Broyles resists, but after realizing that Lincoln needs some away he decides to let him go.
　
Next we universe hop and are in Belmont, New York. This has been confusing me a little the entire season. In all the other seasons when we universe jumped the little flash would help to distinguish where our destination was. This season it seems like when we go Over There there is a blue flash, and now honestly I'm not sure what it does when we come back here. But I wonder why it flashes blue for the other side? This being Fringe I'm sure there is a reason.
　
It's night, it's been raining., a woman exits an elevator into a nearly deserted open parking area. Anyone want to place bets on something bad about to go down because this is the perfect recipe for trouble. The woman walks over to her vehicle and just as she gets to it she drops her keys. She retrieves them and a voice behind her says, "Hi." It's a man and they stare each other down for a moment before she tries to run. He grabs her and hauls her back to him. She manages to sock him in the face and split his lip. He's not happy now. She's on the ground and he pulls out a knife and approaches her. He gets a fist full of hair and leans over her but she sees something over his shoulder that scares her worse than her present situation.
　
He turns and silhouetted by the light behind it is a being about the height of a human with white scraggly hair. It grabs the man by his shirt front and lifts him into the air. My mind works in mysterious ways and this reminded me so much of the scene in Scrooged when Frank Cross's dead boss holds him out the window. However, this time our villain (meaning the would-be woman attacker) doesn't get dropped off a skyscraper. The unknown thing tosses him to the ground before leaning threateningly over him as the woman escapes.
　
Perfect time for the Fringe credits, don't you think?


Lincoln heads through to the bridge room toting the boxes of files. AltLiv enters the conference room that he's in and they greet each other and Liv jokes with him he should've brought her coffee instead of paperwork. Then she scurries him off with her telling him he can brief her "on the way."
　
In the car he fills her in David Robert Jones dosing Olivia with Cortexiphan. When Liv wants to know what the outcome was, wondering if Olivia got blessed with heat vision or maybe the ability to communicate with fish? Although Lincoln doesn't tell her exactly what happened he says it did work, but "there were some unforeseen side effects ... long story." Liv guesses correctly that some of those side effects are the reason why Olivia is not the one who made the trip over.
　
Lincoln sees an Amberized section of the city and Liv explains this area, Parkside, is about to be reopened because the air quality has improved. Her in-dash computer tells Lincoln that it was originally closed on November 12, 2004. Then at Lincoln's prompting it plays a video of Walternate talking about how many quarantined areas have been restored and there will be more to come in the future.
　
The bridge between the universes has helped the Amberized areas to stabilize. Liv changes the subject and asks Lincoln what his middle name is, saying it's to help settle a bet. He tells her it's Tyrone, after his grandfather.
　
When they exit the car at the crime scene Liv cheerfully calls out, "What's up, Tyrone?" causing AltLincoln to turn and say, "How the hell did you --" but when he sees his doppelganger he has his answer. Apparently he's been keeping this little secret from Liv for six years.
　
This new case that's landed in the Fringe Division's lap is the one we witnessed the night before. The woman who was attacked had called in to report what had happened, including that she was saved by a mysterious stranger. Apparently, this has been a running theme recently and it's starting to look like maybe the cases are linked. AmberLincoln makes a joke, "Maybe Batman's moved to the Bronx." After a bit of back and forth it appears that the comic book hero OverThere is someone called Mantis. To Lincoln's, "Seriously, your superhero's an insect?" Liv quips, "Oh, what? 'Cause nothing says badass like a flying rat?"
　
I have to admit, I do enjoy Liv's witty snarkiness when it's not tinged with hateful venom. AltLinc unzips the body bag to show the man from the night before, except that his face is distorted, to the point it looked like it melted mostly off, then hardened again in the shape of where it slid.
　
Then ... there's a guy loading stuff into the back of a van. Now, he looks exactly like the man from the night before, only normal. This reeks of shapeshifters or evil twins, um or alternates, or clones. This is Fringe, the possibilities are endless. The man pulls a wallet from his pocket and flips it open to a picture of a young boy. Then he hears people talking nearby and sees people walking around in hazmat suits near the about-to-be-reopened Ambered area.
　
One of the men picks up a newspaper and it's like Harry Potter abra cadabraed. The newspaper has moving images on the front of it depicting a boxing match. So, when I was watching this I started thinking ... maybe someday it will really be like that in the future. Then I realized, it is sort of like that now. Maybe we can't pick up a real newspaper and have the images move like they are lifelike but we have iPads, iPhones, iWhatevers that can do nearly anything. It was just weird, one of those thoughts that make me sit back for a second and be surprised about all the stuff that goes on that is not even a big deal anymore. It's just so commonplace, nobody thinks twice.
　
The men deem the area clear and remove their gas masks. The air quality is okay now but their tester doohickies are telling them there is a high readout of tissue organics. When the man overhears this he decides it's time to go, pausing only long enough to retrieve the wallet from the ground after he accidentally drops it.
　
The men follow their radars to the basement of a church. They find bodies strewn everywhere, all of them twisted and melty beyond recognition.
　
The Fringe Division is called in to check out the church which is going to put a hitch in the debriefing on David Robert Jones. Lincoln doesn't really want to go back home yet and he gets the Okay to stay and help this team. When on the way into the church Lincoln is stopped and thanked by a guy wearing a Fringe Division cap and fatigues, Liv explains that even though Fringe on Lincoln's side is all hush-hush over here they are heroes because they have helped to heal the universe.
　
In a soup kitchen our crime-fighting shapeshifter is greeted by a woman who asks his name. He calls himself Canaan. She welcomes him, asking if he has a place to stay. He says, "I did, it's gone now." He helps her with a box and says she will help him find a place to stay tonight. He takes an offered plate of food and sits down and begins to eat hungrily. A person at a table across from him calls out to him and tells him he has something on his neck. Canaan reaches up and touches a red,, raw mark on his neck. He panics and gets up, dashing out of the shelter.
　
The Lincolns and Liv are inspecting the mess in the basement. AmberLincoln says that he counted 18 bodies and 19 heads. He and AltLincoln talk a bit about how it took awhile to build up a tolerance to having to deal with these kind of horrific situations. AltLincoln says that Liv is the "tough one," having never seen her "barf or shed a tear" in the entire time he's worked with her.
　
Liv yells out, "Hey Lincoln!" causing the Lincolns to wonder which one she is talking to. "Mine," she clarifies. While he's talking with her, AmberLincoln squats down to inspect one of the bodies a little more closely. He takes his pen and uses it to lift up a necklace that the person was wearing. Although he barely pulls it, it slides straight through the neck, decapitating the body. Ugh, Fringe finds new and interesting ways to disgust me on a regular basis, but that right there is going on the list of big all-time eeewwws. When the head settles back onto the ground Lincoln can see into its open mouth. In the roof of the mouth are holes.
　
He takes the necklace over to Liv, who plucks it off his pen without hesitation and looks at it. It's a heart locket and she opens it to show that the picture inside is of a smiling woman hugging a dog. She says they will run facial recognition on the photo.
　
Lincoln wants to see if they will be able to pinpoint a time of death and says he would also like to take a look at the area's surveillance feeds.
　
At Fringe Division, New York AltAstrid is reluctant to search the surveillance footage for what Lincoln has asked. He wants to know if the victim was seen in any footage AFTER she disappeared. Lincoln asks AltAstrid to humor him and gets an unusually full-on AltAstrid stare (although she was looking at him from the side, so maybe it wasn‘t full on because we know she‘s not comfortable with that).
　
AltLincoln provides Lincoln with the time of death of the victim, but until Lincoln finds out if his hunch is going to pan out he doesn't want to go into details of why he wanted that information yet. AltLincoln has caught on to Lincoln not wanting to go home. By way of explanation Lincoln says that his side "can handle things fine without me." AltLincoln knows that this side would be lost without him, and he makes no apologies for his high self confidence.
　
Lincoln starts to ask him some questions, trying to find out what made them turn out so different. All the major details of their lives seem the same up to the end of high school.
　
AltAstrid calls them over because she has gotten a hit on the cameras. The timestamps on the videos are showing that the victim was walking around town 2 days after her death. Her face bears the same red markings that were on Canaan's neck. AltLincoln is perplexed by this, but Lincoln understands what is going on.
　
He, Liv and AltLincoln go to Broyles to discuss the possibility of a shapeshifter being responsible for the carnage they found in the church. Broyles is having none of it. Even when his two top agents seem to be in agreement with Lincoln and Lincoln even has some evidence to back up his claims. Broyles dismisses Lincoln's theories and in a polite but brusque fashion with, "Agent Lee, we appreciate the assistance you've given us, but as you were here for a simple sharing of intel it may be in the interest of both our agencies if you returned home." He then squares up his shoulders and strides out of his office telling Liv and AltLinc, for them to let him know when they have something more concrete.
　
The Broyles' are intimidating in all situations, even when they are trying not to be. But AltBroyles has a much harder edge to him. It was very sketchy that Broyles did not even want to consider the notion that maybe another breed of shapeshifters were involved. The Lincolns and Altliv are notably rebuffed by the cold shoulder Broyles just gave them.
　
In a park there is a boy playing soccer. It is the boy from the picture in the wallet from earlier. Then we see that Canaan is sitting on a bench watching as the kid kicks the ball around. The ball is kicked over in the direction of where Canaan is sitting and rolls to a stop at his feet. The boy runs over and Canaan hands him the ball, telling him "You know, you're really good." The kid thanks him and takes the ball back over to play with his friends.
　
In a dilapidated and graffiti covered house two men are sitting around getting stoned. One of them jabs a syringe of some kind into his wrist while the other one tells him he shouldn't have taken so much. Then he goes to pee. He leaves while the other guy is basking in his buzz. It's short-lived though because suddenly Canaan is there and flinging him around.
　
He throws him on the floor and holds his mouth open. The look of terror on the dude's face in no way encapsulates the nasty shit that's about to go down. Yes, I mentioned earlier about Fringe coming up with new gross stuff. This next scene was absolutely disgusting. I don't know if I can describe it ... but I'm gonna try.
　
Canaan reaches into his own mouth and starts to pull something from it. He pulls and pulls and it just keeps coming. It looks like a freaking umbilical cord. The man that had to go pee-pee is watching this from around the corner as it happens. Canaan jams the end of the whatever it is into the other guys mouth as he gags and chokes. So this my friends, is another version of the of shapeshifters. Actually that wasn't as bad the second time around. Maybe it was just the sheer OMG factor at first. I still won't be re-watching that scene anytime in the near future. One day I might make a list of the Fringe gross-outs. This one reminded me of Snakehead (Season 2 Episode 9) when the parasitic worm thing crawled out of the guys mouth. Literally gag inducing.
　
Astrid gets a ping letting them know that another bad guy has been taken out. Broyles gets a lockdown put on a 5 mile radius of the area. The new victim's name is Antonio Dawes and his rap sheet includes drug related charges, car theft and burglary. He’s the junkie that we just watched Canaan slip the death tongue to.
　
Lincoln suggests that they circulate the photo of Dawes because if they are dealing with shapeshifters then he'll be a dead-man walking. Broyles looks none too happy that Lincoln is still around and tangled in his non-existent hair but grudgingly tells Astrid to upload the picture.
　
Liv and Lincoln ride together while AltLincoln goes to secure the area. In the car Liv tells Lincoln they need to take the shapeshifter alive if they want to get info about David Robert Jones. Lincoln is determined to make sure that the shifter doesn't kill again. There is a sighting of Dawes and Lincoln and Liv detour there and meet up with AltLinc and the team he has set up.
　
AltLincoln splits up his team members into three separate groups with him, Lincoln and Liv each in one of the groups. Astrid radios through to say that the suspect is no longer in sight. The direction she thinks he was heading in would put him near the area AmberLincoln is checking out.
　
AltLincoln commends his alternate for helping to figure out that there was a shapeshifter involved in this case. He tells him he is a good agent but when Lincoln questions him if he’s as “good as you?” AltLincoln says, “Let’s not get crazy. I‘ve been doing this alot longer than you.”
　
They then return to their earlier conversation about how although their lives were similar in the earlier years they diverged onto different paths later in life. AltLincoln figures it has to do with free will and “maybe I just made a choice to become the man I wanted to be.” I am still pondering whether this comment was insulting when Liv cuts in on their conversation calling them girls and points out they are tying up the line with their jibber-jabber. AltLincoln retorts, “Sorry, Mother.”
　
AmberLincoln sees the suspect and Astrid is able to confirm a visual back at Headquarters. He is 50 meters from Lincoln. Lincoln follows him and into one of the buildings nearby. The shapeshifter appears to have given him the slip but he was only waiting for an opportune moment to attack Lincoln. He finds it and in the process grabs Lincoln’s gun and turns it on him. Lincoln has a look of terror and seems to be pleading with him, although no sound is coming out. The shifter runs away instead and leaps down a flight of stairs trying to make his escape.
　
Doors burst open on opposite sides of the room with AltLincoln and Liv coming through one and a member of the SWAT team coming through the other trapping the shifter between them. Lincoln stands in the middle of the stairway that the shifter had jumped down and watches the events unfold.
　
The shapeshifter drops the gun and surrenders. The Lincolns share a look that is hard to interpret. Is AltLinc concerned about his identical-but-not-related twin? Is he pissed because Lincoln got his gun taken away? I’m going to go with concerned.
The contrast between the two Lincolns is always glaringly obvious but especially in scenes like this. Culminating with this episode, probably because the Lincolns spent so much screen time together Lincoln seems almost (and I hate to use this word) wussified compared to AltLinc. I know there are many factors that figure into that, some that were just discussed in the conversation that they had with each other moments ago, and Lincoln has been facing down some horrible, unfathomable stuff since he joined Fringe so he has his reasons. Hats off to Seth Gabel by the way, great job with the Lincoln switcheroos.
　
While the Fringe Team busies themselves with securing the suspect at the location Broyles busies himself making a call to Nina Sharp and telling her what just happened. He gives the location of where the takedown took place and how the team will be leaving the area. Broyles, how could you? You’re breaking my heart here.
　
At the warehouse Lincoln tells Liv that he wants five minutes to talk to the shapeshifter before they transport him out of there. He needs answers from someone and he is hoping to get some from this “thing.” Liv is a little leery about it but let’s him have his time.
　
In another building a man ascends some flights of stairs until he reaches a large room. Once there he begins to unpack and put together a rifle.
　
Lincoln shuts himself in with the shapeshifter. Canaan-turned-Dawes remains quiet until Lincoln finds the picture of the boy in his wallet. Finally he tells Lincoln that the boy’s name is Daniel and although he is not his father he was a part of his life long ago. He had been involved with Daniel’s mother but at some point she left him and he is bitter about the fact that they continued on with their lives, acting as though he was never a part of them. He says this happened before he ever became involved with Jones.
　
He goes on to say, “There are these people you come across, these bright, bright lights. They drift through life effortlessly, unforgettable. I’m not one of them. I wanted to be needed, or at least to be missed. Do you understand?”
Oh yes, Lincoln does indeed understand. This puts into words everything that he has been struggling with for probably his whole life.
　
This is where Jones enters the picture. He promised to make Canaan/Dawes (or whoever he was originally) unique, different, memorable. He was to be the first of a new breed of human beings but says he was disappointed. Lincoln finishes for him “because you didn’t turn out the way you planned.” (Epiphany moment for Lincoln.)
　
Lincoln tries to convince him that he is just a disposable commodity to Jones but Dawes will have none of that. He believes Jones’s promise that he would “come for me, to fix me.” Lincoln gives up in frustration and leaves, letting Liv know he’s done and didn’t get anything useful.
　
AltLinc walks Dawes from the building towards the paddy wagon. On the rooftop adjacent to their location the secret shooter gets the two men in his sights. He fires off some rounds and pandemonium erupts. Liv is able to use the side view mirror of the police van to get an angle on the shooter. Lincoln covers her while she gets a weapon out of the back of one of the vehicles. She tracks the man as he runs across the roof using the semi-solid railing as cover. Liv times her shot so that as he passes one of the small openings she is able to fire through it. There is no more movement from the roof.
　
Lincoln suddenly shouts out “Officer down!” and it is a horrible realization that AltLinc has taken a bullet to the chest. While Lincoln tries to help him AltLinc questions who else knew that they were transporting Dawes.

Liv comes running over giving him a pep talk that he’s going to be okay. He pep talks her as well, saying “Liv, I’ve been blown up before. This is nothing.” He flashes her a small smile at the end and compliments her shooting prowess.
　
Lincoln loses his cool and slams Dawes up against a fence, trying to make him understand that he was the one that was supposed to be on the receiving end of that shot and that Jones is not his savior. When Dawes says “I don’t know what to do.” Lincoln responds, “Yes you do! You can keep waiting for somebody else to define you, to give you your place in the world or you can decide that you’re not just somebody’s broken puppet anymore. Choose!” Again, although Lincoln is talking about Dawes I believe he is also talking about himself.
　
Nina is at Fort Lee, New Jersey and in a room filled with see-through cylinders that have creepy-looking things inside that seem to be just masses of floating tentacles. Then the shooter from the roof enters the room with her and tells her that the loose ends have been tied up. The only resistance being when Liv nearly decapitated him with her uncanny marksmanship.
　
Alarms start going off and a panel flashes the words Security Override. Nina realizes it must be their captured shapeshifter who ratted them out. Liv and AmberLinc come into the room with a SWAT team but Nina has already pulled a Houdini. She’s made her way out to the roof but once there she’s spotlighted by helicopters and she puts her hands up.
　
Astrid comes into Broyles’s office as he is disconnecting from a conversation on his ear cuff. She tells him she has something to report, but he tells her he already knows that they have taken Nina Sharp into custody. She stares at him until he asks her if there is something else.
　
The scene changes to Lincoln and Liv who are going through what they have found during their raid. The piece de resistance is a program that shows where the shapeshifters are according to their lo-jack trackers. If they can crack the intel they will hopefully have a list of all the people working for Jones. Liv is pleased with this and smiles widely.
　
She is called over by another team member and as they talk to her in hushed tones her smile disappears. Lincoln is concerned by her change in attitude and asks another person what happened. The man replies, “Captain Lee, he didn’t make it.” Lincoln watches as Liv covers her mouth and quickly leaves the room.
　
At Liberty Island Lincoln brings Dawes/Canaan over to the Amber Side. He introduces him to Peter and Walter because apparently part of Canaan giving up the goods on Jones meant that Lincoln promised him he would get him assistance to get better. Walter says, “It’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m really looking forward to studying--” Here, Peter interrupts him with a small noise and Walter rephrases, “--helping you.”
　
Then Lincoln pulls out his charm token that Olivia had returned and gives it to Canaan, saying, “here, to keep you from floating away.” Canaan goes off with Peter and Walter.
　
Liv opens up her Lincoln’s locker and starts removing things from it. She finds a picture stuck to the door of them together with her arms around him from behind and they are both smiling. Later she looks through some more pictures of them together with them in fatigues and her holding up a medal.
　
AmberLincoln comes to see her but them realizes how painful it must be for Liv to have him standing in front of her, a mirage of someone she once knew. Liv shakily tells him that it’s okay and has him sit with her. He tells her there is still much work to be done now that they’ve found this information on Jones’s setup and says he would like to stay in her universe for awhile to help. She says, “Thanks, that’d be nice.”
　
Yes, Wo-Bot you are very bad! This episode was so sad. I liked AltLinc and I certainly wasn’t expecting him to die. I know Liv’s heart must be broken, I was sure she and her Linc would enter coupledom at some point.

Next Fringe recap:  Episode 4x18 - "The Consultant"