The return of Peter Bishop in the previous episode of Fringe and Peter’s inclusion into this reality wasn’t an instant reboot of everyone’s memories of him. Seeing his direct interaction with the Fringe team and his face to face with Walter in ‘Novation’ really hammered that home. I found it interesting that, after hearing about the death of both Peter’s in Walter’s reality, he labeled himself as a paradox. I had hoped that when Walter came to see him the second time towards the end of the episode, he would have brought some of Peter’s favorite dessert that Nina saw him making earlier.
We also saw the return of the shapeshifters in this episode and were given a glimpse into their overall plot. There’s ton to love with the typewriter communicator, the shapeshifter GPS that Peter hacked into, and the Jackie Chan/Jet Li-esque parkour wall jump that the shapeshifter did to evade capture.
Beyond all of that, the best part was seeing Arye Gross on screen. I’m a sucker for a little Arye Gross and always get a little giddy whenever I see him on a show. ‘Novation’ really gave us some depth to the first episode this season with the shapeshifters, and I see that episode in a different light now. They are way more than just a monster of the week like I took them for and now with the stabilizer serum, this all makes for the possibility of some very intricate plot threads in episodes to come.
I can’t tell what exactly is going on with Olivia and the glitches. We see an assistant hand her some files, she sets them on her desk, converses, then the assistant comes up to hand her the exact same files which are no longer on her desk.
At first I thought maybe it was one of the now stable shapeshifters infiltrating the Fringe Division, but that would have been an awfully quick plot progression. Either Olivia is having some serious cortexiphan flashes, or there is something grander and more reality warping going on which would fit in with Peter’s existence in this reality now being that of a paradox.
As Season 4 forges on, I am still wanting to see more of the Observers. They’ve got to start popping up more, especially now that Peter has broken through. Apparently that Home Depot created time/space device either hasn’t been completed yet or just didn’t work at all.
I expected a little more when Nina came into Walter’s lab for a visit. There’s such a background between the characters and we got a pretty good back-and-forth, but the overall interaction wasn’t as intriguing as it could have been.
One thing that has been bugging me since first watching ‘Novation’ is how quickly Olivia accepted that all of the wounded FBI agents on the roof were in fact FBI agents and not the shapeshifter. The second we see the only agent still conscious telling Olivia where the perpetrator went, bells were ringing Vincent. She definitely should have seen it coming.
– James Zappie
