Fringe, S4 Ep5 – Novation

At a gas station, Truss gets out and tells “Nadine” that she’s going to have to do the buying. Her nose is bleeding, and he adds that she should go wash up and he’ll take care of the transaction. When she doesn’t seem eager to go, he insists that he will help her. She nods and takes out her wallet. As she takes out some cash, we see a picture of a little girl. Truss asks if she’s Nadine’s, and the shape-shifter says yes. Truss prattles on about how his wife wanted kids but he was too busy, but maybe someday they’ll get back together and have a family. “Nadine” is like, “Yeah, maybe not, dude, since I killed her” (but in her head). As Truss goes inside to pay, a police car rolls up. Officer Doomed calls in that he’s spotted the car that has a BOLO out for it, and the dispatcher tells him to wait for backup. But “Nadine” has already seen him. When Truss comes out and they drive off, Doomed’s body can be seen behind the squad car.

Peter’s working on the memory disk in his cell while Lincoln updates Olivia on this fact. Olivia: “Do you think that he’s confident he can do something with it?” Linc: “He… seems pretty confident in general.” Yes. Lincoln then gently points out that it seems like this guy is really getting to Olivia. She leans forward and says that he [Peter] was in her dreams and now he’s here, and while she may be able to wrap her mind around him appearing to Walter because he’s some version of his son, what is he to her? Peter/Olivia shippers sigh in unison around the world. Before they can continue, Lincoln and Olivia are told they’ve got a hit on Truss’s car, and surveillance footage of him. They note that he doesn’t seem to be acting against his will. Maybe he doesn’t know he’s with a shape-shifter. Well, gee, that is kind of the point of shape-shifters, isn’t it?

Science!

Truss and “Nadine” arrive at a warehouse. She tells him that the lab inside was built to the specifications Truss described, with the equipment he should need. She sits in an examination chair and Truss takes a sample of the see-through skin, murmuring in amazement at how well it’s adapted. He says that it’s a miracle she’s alive, which, yes, we’ve already heard that. “Nadine” agrees and says he’s the miracle-worker, since this was based on his research. Truss does something with the sample, then muses about how he wishes William Bell were alive to see “Nadine” and see how much good Truss’s work could do. He’s still bitter about Bell shutting down this project. He says Bell just told him, “Some things are not ours to tamper with. Some things are God’s.” So in this timeline, Bell’s the one touting that idea that we know as Walter’s. Weird. Then something beeps and Truss goes and sees that the DNA isn’t fully propagating through all the new cells. But he’ll be able to fix that, he adds, pleased.

Harvard. Walter is beating some eggs. He freezes at the voice of Nina, who’s come up behind him. She says when she heard about the stranger claiming to be Peter, she thought it was time they tried to move past their differences. Walter says he’s fine — the man is a scientific anomaly, nothing more. An unconvinced Nina points out that he’s making Peter’s favorite dessert. Walter says making custard calms him. And to give him his due, he is a lot calmer than the last time he interacted with Nina this season. Walter says the man has been bringing up memories he would rather forget, including how he’s blamed Nina for Peter’s death. If she hadn’t been there at the lake, the vial wouldn’t have broken and he could have healed Peter on the other side without issue. Nina looks pained. Walter’s not done, though. He says it’s himself he couldn’t live with, because Nina was right to try to stop him. “For the sake of one life, I destroyed two worlds,” he says, and he deserves punishment for that.

White tulip

Nina tells him he’s not that same man anymore — she’s watched him work with Fringe, trying to undo the damage he wrought. Walter ignores this, just telling her that he saw him — his son, grown up to a man. The look in the man’s eyes was like the look in the boy’s as he floated away that night under the ice. To see his son in that man’s face, Walter says, filled him with indescribable joy. Awwww, I do so love the Bishop Boys. And then Walter says he doesn’t deserve joy. He understands that this is a chance no one gets, but he doesn’t deserve it. Nina steps closer, insisting that Walter has suffered enough. She doesn’t have an explanation for where Peter came from, but she thinks Walter’s been given a second chance. Watching this for the first time, I yelled at the screen, “Yeah, it’s your white tulip, Walter!”