The Man from the Other Side (22 Apr. 2010)

When two teenagers on a date turn up "dead" at an abandoned warehouse with the three puncture wounds to the soft palate - a trademark of the shape-shifters - the Fringe team investigates ... See full summary »

Director:

Jeffrey G. Hunt

Writers:

J.J. Abrams (creator), Alex Kurtzman (creator),

Stars:

Anna Torv, Joshua Jackson, Lance Reddick

Cast

Episode cast overview, first billed only:
Anna Torv	...	Olivia Dunham
Joshua Jackson	...	Peter Bishop
Lance Reddick	...	Phillip Broyles
Blair Brown	...	Nina Sharp (credit only)
Jasika Nicole	...	Astrid Farnsworth
John Noble	...	Dr. Walter Bishop
Sebastian Roché	...	Thomas Jerome Newton
Ryan McDonald	...	Brandon Fayette
Peter Bryant	...	Ben McCalister
Katie Findlay	...	Jill
Fraser Aitcheson	...	Cop #1
Morris Chapdelaine	...	Delbrook / Shapeshifter Embryo
Viviana Cruise	...	Bank Teller (as Viviana Dal Cengio)
Silver Kim	...	FBI Agent #3
Shawn Macdonald	...	Daniel Verona (as Shawn MacDonald)

Storyline

When two teenagers on a date turn up "dead" at an abandoned warehouse with the three puncture wounds to the soft palate - a trademark of the shape-shifters - the Fringe team investigates the evidence as well as the motives of mastermind Newton. Upon discovering a shape-shifting embryo, Walter returns to the lab to conduct further analysis, and Olivia and Peter head to Massive Dynamic for answers. Meanwhile, Peter reveals a family secret to Olivia as Walter struggles to recall what Newton knows about "building a door."

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Plot Keywords:

analogy | neck breaking | worcester massachusetts | transformation | mercury | 

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Genres:

Drama | Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Details

Country:

USA Canada

Language:

English

Release Date:

22 April 2010 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Bad Robot, Warner Bros. Television

Technical Specs

Runtime:

44 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

In this episode, one pivotal character is named "Verona" and another character takes a drug that makes him appear to be dead but which really only knocks him out for awhile. Both of these are references to William Shakespeare's play "Romeo and Juliet": the play takes place in Verona, and Juliet takes an apothecary's drug that makes her only appear to be dead.

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Goofs

Peter mentions a Star Trek convention at the Worcester Centrum. This venue's name was changed to the DCU (Digital Federal Credit Union) Center several years ago.

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Connections

References Star Trek (1966)

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Soundtracks

"End Title Theme (Composed by Michael Giacchino)"
(uncredited)
Written by Michael Giacchino

User Reviews

Walter's Greatest Fear Realised

This is the focal point of the whole series: This Episode is what Walter feared the most: And also what September feared as well.

Three Shapeshifters arrive on "our" side: But one of them is still in embryonic form. Two Teenagers outside smoking "Red Zinger" marijuana see the odd lights, the boy goes in and is instantly absorbed: The Girl, shortly after.

This Leaves one unformed Shapeshifter for Walter to dissect.

What is important here, is that the relationship between Peter and Walter has reached a new height: Peter starts calling Walter "Dad" which he had never done. This pleases Walter: But what neither of them know, is that this new connection is in dire danger from the moment these shape-shifters arrived.

As Walter and Peter and Olivia and Astrid race to figure out what Newton is up to this time, Newton is setting up for the a major event: The arrival of "The Secretary" and at this juncture, we do not know the identity of this person.

Walter, with the help of "Brandon-Nerd," remembers something about sending material to the other side: And Brandon shows them something they had not taken into account: That the universes must be in Time-Sync. This was hinted at in S2e1 and S2e4 - Belly called them "Time Shifts" but in actuality, it was just Olivia's clock getting adjusted to the timing of the other side.

The "Instructions" which were in a transmission at the time the shape- shifters arrived, Walter partially decodes. They include a time: 3:31pm. So Something is gonna happen at that time, it is up to Fringe Division to find out where.

Using basic detective work, they do find out where: It is a partially disassembled Bridge across a river.

Walter had remembered that in sending the objects over, they had to have three tuning forks of the same pitch vibrating at the same time, and the area in the middle would be the place where the crossing over would occur.

So with all these things in place, they find the Bridge where it will happen. Walter had created a pneumatic hammer that would vibrate with a cancellation frequency: But things simply happen too fast, Peter is left on the Bridge: Exposed to the frequency of Newton's Machine: Which Walter had told him would rip him apart. But in fact, it does not. But an FBI agent on the bridge is vaporised! And it does not affect "the Man from the Other Side."

With just these clues, Peter figures it all out: He's not from this side, thus realizing Walter's Greatest Secret and Fear.

This is what Walter and The Observers feared the most: Because Peter leaves the protective covering of Fringe Division, leaving Newton free to pursue him... Across the "Northwest Passage."