Fringe Season 4 Episode 1 ‘Neither Here Nor There’ Review

In comic books, specifically DC, they will occasionally do what is known as a reboot. This is where you have pretty much the same characters, but certain aspects are changed and history is basically rewritten.

Last season on Fringe, Peter fused the two universes together and seemingly phased himself out of existence in the process. This caused a Fringe-reboot and gave us a pretty interesting season 4 opener in ‘Neither Here Nor There.’


The DC comparison is a pretty solid one; in fact, Fringe seems to be mirroring the DC standard of the Crisis (On Infinite Earths, Identity, Final). The Observers are the Monitors, and the whole concept of what was once a split Multiverse fused into a single Universe with no one aside from the Observers having any recollection of the split Universes is such classic Crisis material that I was expecting Psycho Pirate to pop up any second.

Walt is one of the best characters ever on a Sci-Fi TV show. Very few can utter the line “I need to check her anus” and actually make it work.

In fact, Walt is the best part of the season premiere, like he has been for many episodes of Fringe before. While it was interesting seeing how lives were changed without Peter existing, including Seth Gabel as Lincoln Lee essentially taking Peter’s place, Walt’s was the most jarring. His frantic yet keen scientific mind has been replaced with one that, while still brilliant, is interspersed with paranoia and manic episodes with a complete and total disconnect to the outside world.

I am really curious to see how common household items are going to come together to become some sort of paradox-time-travel-multiverse-erasing-device thing. At any rate, I really do enjoy the Observers and their search for the remnants of Peter. I think is going to help drive this season even through moments where the plots may wane a bit, as it did in the premiere. While I found the effect of Peter’s actions on the two Universes intriguing and was fascinated by the Observers, the plot of shapeshifters sucking the essence and vitals from commuters is kind of drab. It feels like a monster-of-the-week flimsy premise.

Overall ‘Neither Here Nor There’ has its moments and I am definitely intrigued enough to come back for episode 2. I do hope that the plots get a little more focused on the Multiverse and less on creatures run amok. I’m pretty sure we’ll be seeing Peter again soon, and I do wish we had seen more of Walternate.

– James Zappie

TheHDRoom may be paid a small commission for any services or products ordered through select links on this page.

TheHDRoom