Through the Looking Glass and What Walter Found There

Fringe Through the Looking Glass and What Walter Found There
Season 5, Episode 6

Air date	November 9, 2012
Written by	David Fury
Directed by	Jon Cassar
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Cast \| Transcript

"Through the Looking Glass and What Walter Found There" is the sixth episode of the fifth season of Fringe.

Synopsis[]

A Fringe team member takes on a new role, and Walter follows leads to a key piece needed in the battle against the Observers.

Plot[]

Peter, after injecting the Observer implant in his own body, returns to Etta's safe-house to mourn her loss. Olivia is worried about Peter becoming distant; she finds Peter and reminds him they should deal with their loss of Etta together.

Meanwhile, Walter continues to work at extracting video tapes from the ambered part of the lab. One tape directs him to an apartment building in Worcester, with one specific apartment being an entrance to a pocket universe he had created to hide this element of the plan to defeat the Observers. He decides to travel there alone, finding that the building and much of the surrounding area has been shelled by an Observer attack in the past. In the appropriate apartment, Walter follows instructions on the tape that let him enter the pocket universe where the normal rules of physics do not apply, with hallways running upside down or in vertical directions. Walter tries to remember where to look, but while trying to come up with this, he encounters a man named Cecil who was blown into the pocket universe during the Observer bombing. Walter realizes that to the man only about five days have passed but in reality he has been in the pocket universe for more than 20 years.

Meanwhile, Peter, Olivia, and Astrid discover the latest video tape and Walter's absence. They are curious that the tape simply goes black after showing Walter crossing over. They travel together to Boston, and Peter and Olivia follow the tape's instructions to cross over, finding that in the pocket universe the tape now shows additional instructions directing the viewer to a specific room. They meet up with Walter and Cecil; Walter is agonizing over forgetting what he left here. Peter realizes someone else had helped Walter record the video in the past, whom Walter on the tape identifies as "Donald", the man previously captured by the Observers while trying to recover rocks from a mine (as seen in "The Recordist"). They continue to review the tape, and find that, in the past, Walter had recovered the young Observer-like boy (as seen in "Inner Child"), and used the pocket universe to stow the child away in the designated room (Walter does not remember meeting the child since "Inner Child" did not occur for him in the altered timeline).

The group finds the room, but it is empty, save a radio that is fused to a certain frequency. The radio is not visible on the video, indicating that whoever took the child left the radio. Walter fears that the Observers had found this pocket universe and have the child. Peter notes that only Walter and Donald appeared to know about this pocket universe, and that if it was the Observers they would have sealed off the entire building.

Meanwhile, Walter's travel to Boston does not go unnoticed by the Observers and they take a contingent to the building. Some Observers can see the opening to the pocket universe and cross over. They fire upon the group and kill Cecil. The others manage to escape from the pocket universe by Peter somehow able to lead them back to the entry point. Peter implores Walter, Olivia, and Astrid to escape while he hangs back. When an Observer approaches, the implant in Peter's body allows him to counter the Observer's physical moves several times. The Observer warns that Peter does not realize the effects the the implant will have on him; Peter then uses the teleport-like ability of the implant to appear behind the Observer and kill him. He teleports away, observed by Windmark.

Peter arrives safely at the monorail with Walter and Olivia. Walter worries that he sees Cecil's death as an acceptable loss, an attitude that his former self used to have and worries that he is reverted to this colder personality. Peter gently reassures him that he will not let that happen, as he holds Walter's hands between his. Olivia, seated further down the aisle, looks at them and smiles tenderly; Peter gives a slight smile then returns his attention to Walter. A few seconds later, he looks back up down the aisle and sees that the world does not look the same to him anymore; it has the same blue cast as seen by the Observers (shown earlier when they entered the room containing the portal to the pocket universe). His eyes widen in surprise as the episode ends.

Notable Quotes[]

Observer: I know what you have done. You have made a grave mistake. You do not realize what is happening to you.

Walter: Don't you see? I'm not safe. It's my mind. Ever since the pieces of my brain were re-implanted, it's been changing me. Back into the man I was before, bit by bit. I'm losing myself, Peter. I'm losing the man that you helped me become.

Peter: Listen to me. I'm not going to let that happen. We need you. You are our only hope to defeat the Observers. And I'm going to be here with you every step of the way.

Walter: Please, son...whatever happens... don't let me go.

Peter: I won't, Dad.

Notes[]

The title is an allusion to the Lewis Carroll novel "Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There" (often shortened to simply "Through the Looking-Glass")
Apartment 413 is, in itself a mirror, with the window, the painting on the floor, the fireplace, the mantle and the chair on the left side of the room all being mirrored on the right side. Even the damage on the back wall is symmetrical.
The bald and mute child from Inner Child appears in video footage in tape 7 (the tape retrieved in this episode); he is vital to the plan but isn't found where the tape said he should be.
Instead of numbers, glyphs appear marked on residential doors on one floor of the building in the pocket universe. Walter makes it apparent that he is looking for the door with an apple on it. This is the room where the The Child should be waiting.
The Child is confirmed to be a child Observer.
Peter's "Observer abilities" begin to kick in. First, his super-vision helps Walter and Olivia find their way out of the pocket universe. When they escape the building after leaving the pocket, Peter lands himself in a fight with an Observer, during which his fighting ability improves, his speed increases, and he gains the ability to teleport. The Observer (before Peter kills him) tells him that he has made a "grave mistake."
Peter is seen using his "Observer abilities" by Windmark, when he "zaps" himself to the train station.