Season 2, Episode 23:
Over There, part 2
The Fringe Division responds when Walter Bishop is admitted to a hospital, despite the fact that Walternate is at the DOD headquarters. Fauxlivia and Scarlie almost capture Walter, but he escapes with the help of Olivia and Bell. When Fauxlivia checks the hospital surveillance cameras, she discovers that the team from the prime universe consists of her and Walternate's counterparts. Meanwhile, Peter is brought to the DOD headquarters, where Walternate wants him to help with a project that can heal the alternate universe. He gives Peter the component that he took from the doomsday device — a control unit — and asks him to see what he can learn from it. When Peter takes the control unit apart and starts examining its workings, he realises that it's keyed to respond to only his own genetic makeup, and that Walternate lied about his motives for bringing Peter back to the alternate universe. During this time, Peter also meets Fauxlivia, who is assigned to take Peter to his own apartment in New York as well as to guard him from the prime universe team. They talk about the differences between the two universes and the two Olivias: even though they look identical (except for Fauxlivia's ginger hair), Fauxlivia is freer with her emotions, less repressed and not carrying as much baggage.
Olivia, Walter and Bell come up with a plan to collect Peter and return to the prime universe, but it involves returning to the Harvard lab to use some of the equipment Walternate has stored there. Walter and Bell travel to Boston, which has been almost entirely "quarantined": they're in amber, a rapidly expanding substance that goes from gas to solid in seconds and can be used to seal breaches and vortexes. Along the way, Walter witnesses first-hand the destruction that has been visited on the alternate universe as a result of his actions. Once they reach the lab, the pair get to work on a device capable of reopening the breach that Olivia first opened. Without the cortexiphan subjects to provide extra power, they can't keep the breach open long enough to cross over, but Bell believes he has a solution to that problem. As they work, the points of conflict between the two rise to the surface: Bell believes that he's been acting in the best interest of both universes, but Walter resents Bell's success and accuses him of war profiteering. He demands to know why Bell removed parts of his brain, but Bell claims he can't tell Walter.
Meanwhile, Olivia goes to Fauxlivia's apartment, hoping to get her counterpart's help in getting access to Peter by convincing her that the prime universe isn't as evil as Walternate claims. For a moment, they bond over family: in the prime universe, Olivia's mother died while she was young, but in the alternate universe, her sister Rachel died in childbirth and Fauxlivia never got to meet Ella. Fauxlivia realises that Olivia's mission is motivated by her feelings for Peter. Despite all this, they still comes to blows: Olivia knocks Fauxlivia out and ties her up, then dyes her hair red so that she can impersonate Fauxlivia. Scarlie arrives soon after with orders that he and Fauxlivia should check on Peter, so they go over to his apartment. Olivia knocks Scarlie out and tells Peter what she and Walter know about the doomsday machine: they realise that Walternate wants Peter to destroy the prime universe. As a result, Peter doesn't believe he belongs in either universe anymore, but Olivia tries to convince him to return to the prime universe with her. She confesses her romantic feelings for Peter, and they kiss.
As Walter, Bell, Olivia and Peter all return to the theatre in Brooklyn, Fauxlivia gets free and informs Colonel Broyles that Olivia is impersonating her. Fringe Division tracks the team to the theatre, and while Peter and Walter work on using the device they retrieved from the Harvard lab to open the breach, Bell and Olivia hold off the Fringe agents using some of Bell's prototype weapons technology. Fauxlivia and Broyles arrive on the scene, ready to try and storm the theatre, but at the last moment they receive new instructions from Walternate. Bell uses an advanced phosphorus grenade that destroys half a dozen vehicles and knocks him out: Olivia revives him and carries Bell to the breach. Once there, Bell reveals his plan to keep the breach open long enough for a crossing: as a result of his frequent and unsafe crossing between universes, Bell's atomic structure has become unstable, and the device will cause him atoms to explode with more than enough power to sustain the breach. As Fringe agents storm the theatre, the device is activated and Bell sacrifices himself to send Olivia, Peter and Walter back to the prime universe.
As the group settles back into their routines, Peter tells Walter that though he'll never understand or condone Walter's actions, he appreciates that Walter crossed universes to save his life twice, and forgives him. Olivia visits the typewriter shop, and is revealed to be Fauxlivia when she contacts Walternate and reports a successful infiltration. The real Olivia is still in the alternate universe, imprisoned in a solitary confinement cell by Walternate.
Tropes:
- Alternate History:
- The United States in the Alternate Universe has California's southern border significantly further East.
- The Transamerica building located in San Francisco, is seen in NYC.
- Kentucky Fried Chicken is Kentucky Grilled Chicken.
- The Lindbergh baby is not well known in the Alternate Universe.
- Call-Back: The people trapped in amber at the quarantine sites recall the bus attack in "Ghost Network".
- Chekhov's Gun: The phrase "A DEMON'S TWIST RUSTS" is printed on a chalkboard in Walternate's abandoned lab. An anagram for the phrase is "DON'T TRUST SAM WEISS".
- Continuity Nod: William Bell is eating red licorice like the Red Vine labeled by Walter in the episode Brown Betty.
- Dead Alternate Counterpart: Olivia is stunned to learn that Fauxlivia's mother is still alive, as hers died when she was young. Fauxlivia's version of Rachel died in childbirth, along with baby Ella, while both are still alive in Olivia's universe.
- Different World, Different Movies: Many DC Comics properties are slightly different.
- Green Lantern and Green Arrow are Red Lantern and Red Arrow
. - Jonah Hex is a member of Justice League International instead of Guy Gardner.
- Superman died in Crisis on Infinite Earths instead of Supergirl.
- Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and The Death of Superman have switched their main stars, becoming ''The Man of Steel Returns'' And ''The Death of Batman''.
- Green Lantern and Green Arrow are Red Lantern and Red Arrow
- Impersonating the Evil Twin: Walter, briefly in the hospital. Then Olivia.
- Mirror Match: Olivia vs. Fauxlivia
- Shout-Out:
- Fauxlivia wakes up to Science Fiction/Double Feature, the opening song from The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
- In one scene, several framed comics can been seen hanging on a wall in the background, including a Crisis on Infinite Earths #7 variant where Superman and Supergirl have swapped positions.
- Someone Has to Die: William Bell realizes that in order to have enough power to return the group to their own universe, he will need to create a nuclear reaction using the instability of his body's molecular state.
