The king has returned. Or at least Peter Bishop has. ‘Subject 9’ saw the return of the man who has been trying to break on through all season on Fringe in all his Jon Osterman-like glory.
The episode first sees Olivia waking up to being grazed by the said blue ball of plasmic Peter Bishop. Of course she doesn’t know that it’s Peter so she grabs her gun and aims. Bye bye Mr. Bishop.
Back at Harvard, Walter is trying to find a way to prove the existence of the person he’s been hearing and seeing by photographing peanuts being thrown in the air. Olivia enters wondering if maybe it was her own powers that conjured the energy she saw (Olivia has retained all of her Cortexiphan filled youth). When she leaves the room, Walter accidentally finds a letter from St. Claire’s Hospital in Olivia’s coat which basically is asking whether or not Olivia feels Walter is fit for life outside the institution.
At Olivia’s apartment, she has another incident with Dr. Manhattan-lite. Walter actually sees the incident prior to it happening to Olivia which sparks a memory in Walter about another Cotrexiphan subject and the hunt for Subject 9.
There’s some bits of business about nanotechnology which I’m pretty sure is going to pop later in the season (works nicely with Walter’s germaphobia), and we do see Astrid snip a little at Walter (possibly some building tension between the two that may explode at some point soon). Olivia finds the name of Subject 9 (currently called Cameron James now, I would have preferred Scott Ridley myself, but then again I was always a sucker for Blade Runner).
Back to Walter’s fear of germs, or rather microbes in general. Walter actually leaves the lab in this episode, so where is the BEST place for someone creeped out by germs? That’s right; a hotel. Walter has an early-90’s Johnny Depp flip out in the room and rants about all manner of things you see about on CBS News Special Reports. It’s not exactly behavior that would be helping his case as he is trying to convince Olivia that he sane and safe outside the confines of a rubber room.
After Olivia and Walter finally come face to face with Cameron James and find out his past and current situations, they discover he has the distinct power of energy manipulation. Handy thing to have as here comes Hazy Shade of Blue Bishop. Cameron James screams at it and suddenly the energy is gone.
Later, when the energy appears again, it starts to take a human shape and Olivia does her best to keep Cameron from fulfilling his duty, but to no avail as the energy dissipates yet again…kind of. We’re taken to Reiden Lake, the same lake where Walter bridged the two Universes and the “other” Peter drowned. The blue ball appears, almost skims the surface, and out of the water comes Peter Bishop, fully formed and human. Looking on from the shore is an Observer.
When Walter and Olivia are instructed to go to a hospital near Reiden Lake, there is Peter. He has retained everything, but his appearance has not sparked any kind of recognition in neither Walter nor Olivia. Nothing has been restored.
‘Subject 9’ is a wonderful episode that sets in motion a new chapter in Season 4. I like that they continued with the Dr. Manhattan theme (intended or not) in regards to Peter breaking through, but what really stands out is his return not altering the current reality.
It seems that while Peter was the catalyst to bridging the two Universes and his removal has had such an impact on that reality, it may be Olivia who holds the key to restoring things back to the way they were. The earlier scene where the blue ball came at her in her apartment and Walter watched from the lab lends itself to this theory. It is nice to see Walter outside of the lab and I did learn a new interesting way to drink Root Beer, so overall this latest installment of Fringe is a success.
– James Zappie
