Be still our Pacey-loving, sci-fi nerd hearts, Fringe is finally back! In “Back to Where You’ve Never Been,” Peter is desperate to get home and returns to the alt-universe (except it’s an alt-alt-universe, so he’s actually never been there, get it?) hoping for Walternate’s help. There is plenty of action and character insight and, as always, we are left with many burning questions. Dear Show: you kind of hurt my brain a little, but please don’t stop.

"This is fine. This is very, very fine." - Peter

The episode meanly opens with a dream sequence that makes us as nostalgic for Peter’s universe as Peter is. Walter is in his kitchen, wearing an apron and making chocolate chip banana pancakes. Olivia walks in and greets Peter with a kiss. Sigh. It is so nice to see them properly together. Oh how I miss the quirky family dynamic between the three of them!

Anyway. The dream comes to a sudden end and Peter wakes up in the universe where no one knows who he is and he does things like try to set Olivia up with Lincoln Lee (hot but NO).

Cut to Walter being just generally as wonderful as ever. He’s experimenting with colorful pinwheels when Peter shows up. Peter is there to beg for help with the machine to get home. When Walter says it’s too dangerous, Peter tries to pull the “wouldn’t you do anything to be with your family” card, which fully backfires on him in the most tragic way possible. Walter gets really quiet and says, “the water was running in the sink.” What? He goes on to describe how the water was still running when he found his wife’s body…she didn’t bother turning it off when she decided to kill herself. He blames himself for her suicide because he was so focused on saving another Peter, he didn’t mourn with her.

It is this really, really tragic look into how Walter’s life is different when he fails to save Peter. Yes, in Our Universe Walter loses his sanity, but at least he can hang onto the fact that he saved Peter’s life. In this world, he is so overcome with guilt because he lost everything and accomplished nothing…and tore a hole in the fabric of reality while he was at it. It leaves him so feeble and sad. Oh my god I love this show. The different things that they can do and explore with the same basic character. They really dig in to each iteration of Olivia and Walter especially.

"Please, I need to go home. I've been separated from my family far too long." - Peter

Peter has no luck with Walter so he shows up at Olivia’s. Olivia is home from work resting because of these terrible (read: significant) migraines she’s been getting lately. He wants to cross over to the other universe to ask Walternate for help. Olivia has access to a doorway but doesn’t know how he’s going to get to the DOD when he gets there. Then Lincoln shows up (SO adorable, bringing Olivia soup) and it occurs to Peter that Glasses Lincoln can pose as Earring Lincoln to get him into the DOD. Also, when Peter mentions Olivia’s ability to cross over independently, she seems confused, so I guess this Olivia doesn’t do universe jumping.

This is sad because there are some chemistry moments between Peter and Olivia or moments when he is looking at her because she in many ways is the woman he loves. But he learned his lesson with Fauxlivia. She is not the woman he has a relationship with. Except that part of me is paranoid that what if she is and we’re never going to see the Olivia that loves him again? Stressful show is stressful.

Fringe crime of the week: It’s kind of funny, this little boy goes into a public bathroom to see two sets of legs, um…for lack of a better word….banging? around in the stall. Sadly, the two men aren’t having as much fun as it appears and when the police go to investigate, they find one dead while the other’s face is changing. These damn shape-shifters! So he runs away and gets hit by a bus and dies.

This happens in the alt-universe. We see Walternate talking to his head scientist and they are examining some shape-shifter tech they’ve been working on. Walternate tells him to leave the technology for him to work on and seems generally suspicious. Then we go to the crime scene. The alt-universe Fringe team is there but they’re being cock blocked by the DOD. Walternate has ordered them off the case even though it is clearly a Fringe event and Fauxlivia finds this super suspicious.

In our universe, Olivia, Peter, and Lincoln all head to the opera house soft spot between universes to cross over. Ok, Lincoln and Olivia are kind of cute. He’s dressed as Earring Lincoln (minus the earring I think) and she ruffles his hair a little and tells him good luck. Meanwhile Peter and Olivia are still sharing some looks and it just makes me want HIS Olivia back. Please?

Wow, I really am pretty.

So they cross over. Glasses Lincoln does a pretty good job of convincing a guard that he is Earring Lincoln taking a prisoner to the DOD and just missing his identification until the guard reports the supposed missing ID. Real Earring Lincoln is informed of this, their ruse is exposed, and the Fringe team arrests them, the two Lincolns meeting for the first time.

As they’re being transported, the agent driving their car gets a phone call, shoots the other agent in the car, and pulls over. Before he gets a chance to shoot Peter the not yet dead agent shoots him. So what we end up with are two dead Fringe agents and Peter and Lincoln looking pretty bad. Lincoln takes the car until he is chased down by the Fringe team, giving Peter a chance to slip away.

Fauxlivia has already started to suspect that there’s more to the shape-shifter situation than Secretary Bishop is letting on. When Glasses Lincoln tells her that he believes Walternate tried to have them killed and explains what happened in the car she wants to investigate. Instead of really arresting him they lock him in a closet and check his story.

"I told myself that if another universe exists, and there's got to be more, then somewhere you will grow up and be happy and fall in love. Just not here." - Elizabeth

Meanwhile, Peter goes to his mother’s house for help. When she gets home and sees Peter, somehow she knows exactly who he is. It is such a sweet non-reunion, each of them with memories of some not-too-far-off version of each other. When Peter explains his plight, Elizabeth is sure that Walternate will do anything he can to help.

With Elizabeth’s help, Peter finally comes face to face with Walternate, who seems touched to see him. As soon as Elizabeth leaves the room, however, Peter accuses him of trying to kill him and sending the shape-shifters to the other side.

Walternate calls in his chief scientist, asking him to tell Peter that there’s no way he had anything to do with the shape-shifters. As soon as he starts to speak, however, Walternate zaps him with the tech they were looking at earlier, revealing him as a shape-shifter. Walternate has suspected that the government has been infiltrated by shape-shifters, but he isn’t responsible for them. He seems willing to help Peter out, but first, he needs Peter to let the other side know that he can be trusted. Peter is truly neutral, belonging to neither universe. Although Peter has grumbled a couple of times that this isn’t his fight, it looks like he’s getting involved. So Walternate isn’t as bad as we thought. Are there differences between the two Walternates? Would Peter dying affect this version of Walter?

Back at Fringe Division, Fauxlivia has traced the call the agent received in the car. They get Col. Broyles’ go ahead to investigate the warehouse it came from without giving him any details. He seems to know what they’re up to, however, as he makes a mysterious phone call right after they leave. “They’re on their way to you now.” What’s that about? We see some kind of scientific lab with people in glass cases…maybe this is where the shape shifters are coming from?

In the other universe, Olivia has fallen asleep. She wakes up to find an Observer sitting in the opera house. He has been shot, but he has something to tell her.
“I have looked at all possible futures…and in every one, the result is the same. You have to die.” Whaaat? She grabs her keys to take him to the hospital, but when she turns back around he’s gone.

Just like an Observer to leave a cryptic message of doom and disappear.

Great ep but I am just so distracted wondering where Peter’s Olivia and Peter’s Walter are. What is the state of that universe? Where was Peter when he was appearing to Walter in the TV asking for help? SO MANY MORE QUESTIONS. I’ll definitely be tuning in for the answers. What do you guys think? Any theories? What are you dying to know?