Happy Easter, “Fringe” fans. It’s that time of year when lapsed Christians like myself dig up the Google Map directions to that church we went to for Christmas. Then home for chocolate and ham.

“Fringe” is here to help get you in the Easter spirit with the most religious episode to date. There’s always been some Christian themes in “Fringe.” Mostly the looming reality that Peter, the son, may have to sacrifice himself for mankind. “6:02 AM EST” also gives a swarm of locusts, shepherds and Walter’s conversation with God. More religion than you can shake a stick at. A stick that will fall to the ground and become a snake.

6:02 AM EST refers to the moment Walternate activated the other universe’s version of the device. With the chromosomes AlterBrandon and Department of Defense scientists over there managed to pull from Fauxlivia and Peter’s child, they’ve started up the machine that will supposedly destroy one universe to save the other. This is what we’ve been building to all through Season Three. The wheels are in motion. Sure they’re taking a little time to get warmed up, but they’re moving.

Walternate starts the device with a heavy heart. AlterBrandon is all but giddy to be doing his part to help annihilate our universe to end the war we don’t know we’re having. Walternate thinks more of Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb who lived with the nightmares of those he killed in order to stop a war. Walternate even points out that Oppenheimer compared himself to the destroyer of worlds, but he’s going to actually do it.

Back in this universe, our device also clicks on when Walternate starts his. At the same time, weak points in the fabric of reality are starting to tear. Entire flocks of sheep and the men tending them are wiped out in a flash, vegetation is destroyed, Walter’s talking about mushrooms while naked. Well, that last one might not be a product of the device, but it is just as scary.

As the machine builds up steam to do whatever it is that it does, the characters move into their places to charge into this season’s finale.

Walter begins to understand why the Observer tested him earlier this year. “Give him the keys. Let him save the girl.” The Observer’s cryptic words weren’t simply instructions for the moment, they were telling Walter a larger truth. All the problems between the two universes sprung from Walter’s inability to let Peter go. He couldn’t allow the alternate universe Peter die like his son had, so he stepped over and kidnapped him. In order to undo the mess, Peter might have to get into the device and try to stop it. Whatever it does, the drawings of Peter with light bursting out of his eyes and mouth don’t make it look like it plays out very well for him.

While Peter and Walter bond over a drink, Olivia takes charge of the investigation. First thing she does is pick her brain for alternate universe Fringe Division info to put together early warning signals for potential, then she jumps on the train for anyone who knows about the device. Luckily she’s already met the man who seems to know more than anyone else: Sam Weiss. Sam got a haircut since we last saw him and he explained to Nina that whichever Olivia Peter loved would determine which universe got saved. Though now he’s vanished, because Nina Sharp spilled the beans on his connection to William Bell and because his executive desk toy started hammering out a funky rhythm. While Olivia searches through his apartment and the one bottle of cologne sitting on the fireplace, Sam’s out where the universe is falling apart, taking notes.

Even Fauxlivia is gearing up for the finale. It’s now been three weeks since she gave birth to the speedily developed Henry Bishop, named after the kind taxi driver who helped deliver him and helped the real Olivia escape their universe. When their Fringe Division gets a Level 10 Fringe alert, they go running to the source at the Department of Defense. The Department of Defense turns them away, which only makes Olivia more suspicious that they started their device, which she confirms in a face-to-face with Walternate.

Fauxlivia decides she needs to bring Peter back and show Walternate that neither universe needs to be destroyed. She makes a strong attempt to break on through to the other side, only to end up locked up through all the festivities. Somehow I doubt she’ll stay there long.

This was a movement episode. “Lost” used to have them every season right before the finale. They give an opportunity to get everyone into place for the big climax. In true “Fringe” fashion, they managed to slip in a little extra emotion as well. Now that everyone is where they need to be, we’re ready to charge in to the last two episodes. Show runner Jeff Pinkner let slip in a conference call last week that before the season ends, somebody we love deeply is going to die. With “Fringe,” that could be any of a bunch of great characters.

Misdirection -– Twice Friday night “Fringe” got me with a little sleight of hand. The first was Fauxlivia’s siege on the Department of Defense. She broke in, took AlterBrandon hostage and stole two cylinders that could transport people between universes (or rip their atoms apart). Then, right when she’s about to be captured, she activates the cylinder and … nothing. A dud.

The second, of course, was the beautifully executed moment when Peter touches the device. There had been such an emotional buildup to the moment. Peter had said goodbye to everyone, like Dorothy about to fly away with the Wizard of Oz. Then he climbs on the rising/extending platform that takes him right up to this frightening machine. (Do you think they built that just for the device, or do they have those sitting around for all their rising/extending needs?) When he reaches out to touch it, zap. Peter goes flying. “Fringe” got me there. I never would have expected that.

Astrid Action –- Astrid got to give one of those all-time great action movie likes. Right up there with “I’m getting to old for this [expletive]” or “that’s just crazy enough to work.” When Peter tried to give her a message to pass on to Olivia, Astrid said he could tell her himself when he gets back. She also got a good emotional moment, too, when she dove in for the hug. That’s how versatile Astrid is.

Spot the Observer – Did you see the Observer stroll by in the background while Fauxlivia pushed Henry in the park? For a second I thought he was walking on the edge of the fountain, goofing off. At this point, I could see if the Observer isn’t as concerned with hiding. There’s so much going on in both universes, no one is going to notice him. Maybe next week he’ll ride past on one of those penny-farthing bicycles with the big front wheel they still ride in the other universe (and they think they’re so advanced).

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Sorry I couldn’t post recaps earlier.

How much you enjoyed this week’s Fringe depended on how much you’re enjoying watching Anna Torv do her Leonard Nimoy impersonation. Me, I think her act is aces, very wry and amusing. But you may feel as Peter did when the William Bell inside Olivia said he might be using her body as a host for weeks. “Weeks!” yelped Peter. “Not a chance!”

Josh Jackson did a fine job of conveying — through averted glances and various facial expressions of distaste — how creepy it is that his true love’s body has been taken over by the consciousness of a wizened male genius.

The Fringe Division case involved a woman (Paula Malcolmson, from Deadwood, Caprica, and Sons of Anarchy) who seemingly could not die, even as she desperately wanted to do so. All around her, deaths were occurring while she remained unscathed. The investigation brought in the Lincoln Lee of our universe: Seth Gabel as a horn-rimmed FBI nerd.

It was a night for novel pairings: Peter and Lincoln working together on the case, enjoying each other’s theories; Walter thoroughly enjoying the time he was spending with the Bellivia mash-up, as they shared a joint and competed to solve word puzzles.

It’s become increasingly clear that one of the things that will distinguish Fringe in the annals of first-rate sci-fi TV is that, unlike every such show, from The Twilight Zone to The X-Files, every single one of its “cases” will prove to have been related: They all end up being examples of the our-universe-is-unraveling theme. Thus once again this week, when Malcolmson’s Dana Gray told Peter, “I’m stuck here,” and Peter told her, hey, believe me, I know what you mean — it wasn’t a metaphor for Peter’s dual citizenship in the universes; she was a variation on the magnetism theory currently running through the show. In this case, her magnetized molecules (hit by lightning twice and survived) were super-bonded, sealing in her life force.

And it would be a mistake to separate out the talk of the life-force that held the woman’s body together from the philosophical jaw-boning Peter and Bellivia engaged in about fate, destiny, and synchronicity. “She needed to be here to save those people,” it was said of Dana. Just so, perhaps, Peter needs to be where he is to save the universe(s?), his dilemma called to our attention when Bellivia spotted the doomsday machine drawing in Walter’s lab. And both Dana Gray and Bellivia are, in Lincoln Lee’s phrase, “soul vampires,” albeit in different ways.

At the end, church bells rang and for a second, Olivia reentered — er, herself. But only for a second; the mini-cliffhanger was when Bell quickly re-gained control of Dunham’s body and said this finding-a-new-host thing was going to take longer than he’d thought.

Fringe benefits:

• Broyles’ authoritative bark was used for rare comic effect when he said to the Bell inhabiting Dunham: “I want you out of my agent!”

• It was Gene the cow’s biggest episode ever, as Bellivia contemplated transferring himself into a bovine host… in the horny hope that Astrid would milk him. Icky ha-ha.

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On Fringe this week, Alan Ruck joined the succession of initially-well-intentioned scientists in this series who end up breaking the law or causing a tragedy. Aside from Walter Bishop and William Bell, the original Fringe outlaw-science-guys, foremost among them was Peter Weller’s Alistair Peck in the all-time top-10 episode “White Tulip.” In this episode, titled “Os” — it referred to the chemical element osmium, twice as dense as lead — Ruck sported a soup-strainer moustache and hoped to find a way to enable his paralyzed son to rise from his wheelchair.

But first a word from our cameo-role sponsor: Jorge Garcia got himself sprung from Mr. Sunshine long enough to appear as Kevin the Massive Dynamic security guard, alternating bong-hits with Walter, Cream’s “Strange Brew” playing in the background. The latter man was depressed: Since becoming the boss, the most Walter has accomplished, he confided to Hurley — I mean, Kevin — was a new cupcake-frosting flavor, bacon-berry. But gazing at the bank of security cameras, he discovered William Bell’s old office (naughty Nina had never shown him this, of course). This set the episode spinning off, away from Garcia. (His character, we were told, had worked for Bell for “a long time,” and as of this episode, he’s still working there, so we can’t rule out more appearances. I also wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for them, either.)

Ruck’s plot involved him injecting young men paralyzed from the waist down with a hybrid of osmium and lutetium, heavy metals that produced an unbearable lightness of being: So unbearable his patients were dying, only to serve as cadavers to be further experimented upon. The parallels to the scientist and his son, and to Walter and Peter, may have been heavy-handed, but Ruck played everything with a sustained, understated touch.

Peter and Olivia spent a lot of time billing and cooing. It was sweet, they’ve earned it, but even better-earned was Peter’s “full disclosure” to her that he’d been fibbing and keeping secrets. He revealed a little office crammed with all his research into the perhaps-not-doomsday machine, as well as everything he knows about the shape-shifters, the Observers, and doubtless numerous dog-eared copies of The First People and the ZFT manifesto.

The pinch-me moment of the night was saved for last. After much howling from Walter about “soul magnets” and his needing to be in contact with Bell, whose soul was “energy” that needed a “vessel” to manifest itself, who did Bell choose to speak through but Olivia. This was a clever development, to be sure; the even more clever decision on the part of everyone involved was to have Anna Torv imitate the voice of Leonard Nimoy, instead of doing the obvious thing and have her lip-synch Nimoy reading the lines. It’s no wonder Torv’s name went a-Twitter trending sky-high after the episode concluded: This was the internet version of an instant Emmy.
What did you think of “Os,” Jorge Garcia’s cameo, and the final Olivia/Bell twist? Do we call the new hybrid Bellivia?

Fringe benefits:
• Walter was in bed with Yoko, and John didn’t object: “It was the ’70s; what could he say?” Where was Annie Liebovitz when we needed her? Next thing you know, we’ll hear that Walter was the one who handed Lennon the Kotex pad at the Troubadour the night John and Harry Nilsson raised such a ruckus…

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“Fringe” has always been about the science. Sure, it might be crazy, out-there science, but it’s based on reality. Whether it’s genetic engineering or transferring memories, the science fiction of “Fringe” comes from real-world science fact that’s probably much more advanced than you think. That’s why they have the Science of Fringe to teach along with the stories.

“6B” ditches science for emotion. There’s no insane technology or miracle drug causing havoc in this week’s episode. This time the treat comes from two people whose grief is so strong that it rips apart the universe. Olivia’s big turning point on the case is when she realizes “it’s not about physics, it’s about people,” which feels like “Fringe” turning its back on the science that made it great.

Everything starts with a party in a Brooklyn apartment building. Young, attractive people chat about their young, attractive relationship problems, until the balcony momentarily vanishes, dropping a bunch of the partygoers onto the concrete below. The residents of the building believe the place is haunted, but really it’s just a hole torn between the two universes by an older couple’s grief.
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Fringe was almost all about feelings, wo-o-o-feelings, in the hour titled “6B,” in one of the most Twilight Zone-ish episodes of the series. The storytelling gave equal weight to the lurching romance between Olivia and Peter, and the romance between an elderly couple separated by death and the vagaries of the universes. The hour began with a scene set in Park Slope, Brooklyn — an apartment building seemed to expel some party-goers against their will out a seventh-story balcony. (There was an exaggeratedly comic moment early on, when we saw a woman dragging her suitcase out of the building, acting as though the place was haunted — very Rod Serling; very un-Fringe-like.) An occupant in apartment 6B, played by Phyllis Somerville (The Big C), was glimpsed reminiscing about her deceased husband, yearning and sadness creasing her face.

This was then contrasted with a scene in which Walter prepared a romantic breakfast-by-candle-light for Peter and Olivia, hoping their love would be warmed by his blueberry pancakes. Never subtle about these things, Walter even had a crooning version of “Feelings” streaming out of his record player to set the mood. But as much as Peter and Olivia want each other, Olivia’s feelings of betrayal surfaced once again.

The two scenes were brought together by the Fringe Division case, as Walter theorized that the Brooklyn phenomena had to do with “the energy after death.” Walter said William Bell used to think this energy might be harnessed if he could create “soul magnets.” Trying to make a connection with the dead, Walter asked for the files from an earlier case — the one we know as the third episode of the series’ first season, called “The Ghost Network,” although in “6B” Walter seemed not to detect the mysterious radio frequency that broadcast the emanations of death as they did in that episode.
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Since the moment that Olivia stepped into William Bell’s office at the end of season one, and toward the alternate universe, the Twin Towers looming on the cityscape, I have been smitten with that alternate universe on Fringe.

Needless to say, “Immortality” definitely blew my skirt up.

I feel almost guilty saying this, but I love Fauxlivia. Her openness, ability to express emotion, laugh and feel is so much richer than Olivia’s that I can’t help but fall under her spell. As Olivia said last week, she really is (to me) a better version of herself.

I can’t help but wonder if Anna Torv auditioned for both roles. During the first season, the one thing that kept me from being head over heels in love with Fringe was how droll a character was our Olivia. The difference in the characters is so complete that they must have known just how well she could pull this off, or she would never have been cast.

With alternate Broyles lost and considered dead, Lincoln Lee is promoted in his place.

That the promotion was from within such a tight knit group brings them even closer, as if there is nothing they can’t accomplish together. I’m wondering if Lincoln was promoted because he doesn’t have an alternate in our universe, and if this promotion means we might be running into him some time soon as I would love to see what he is up to over here.

Now that I think of it, I wonder if Olivia has had any desire to look up the names of the people she met over there to see their “over here” counterparts. I would, but maybe she’s trying so hard not to be reminded of her ordeal it hasn’t crossed her mind.
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Back in the alternate universe, Fauxlivia reunites with her boyfriend Frank at the airport. Meanwhile, a grey-haired scientist, Dr Anton Silva, sits at the airport bar and switches his drink with a fellow patron. Having ingested Silva’s concoction, the seriously-ill patron stumbles to the toilet, but is eaten from the inside-out by flesh-eating bugs. Meanwhile, as she arrives home with Frank, Fauxlivia explains that Lincoln has been placed in charge of Fringe division in Colonel Broyles’s absence.

The next day, the Fringe team discover the airport victim’s corpse and recover one of the bugs. Fauxlivia and Charlie visit Foster, a female scientist with a crush on Charlie, and she identifies the bug as a skelter beetle, a parasitic creature that lives exclusively in sheep. Since sheep died out ten years ago in the alternate world, the beetles were believed to have died out with them. Elsewhere, Dr Silva conducts an experiment on one of the beetles he recovered from the airport victim’s corpse and is frustrated when he cannot synthesise a particular enzyme from the bug.

At Fringe headquarters, Lincoln recruits Frank to help out with the case. Frank confesses in confidence that he is planning to propose to Fauxlivia, but the loud-mouthed Lincoln instantly relays the news to her. Meanwhile, Fringe division puts out a public appeal for information on the bugs and receives a tip from an old colleague of Dr Silva, who reveals that the scientist was an expert on skelter beetles and has conducted experiments on them in the past. At a local café, Silva infects another innocent victim with the parasites and later collects the bugs from his corpse. When the Fringe team examine the remaining bugs sometime later, they notice that the beetles look different and have become larger.
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Fringe spent this week in the Other Universe, in various ways trying to achieve, as the episode title had it, “Immortality.” It was a non-stop Faulivia-fest, and not one for anyone suffering from entomophobia. The hour confirmed — or perhaps I should say seemed to confirm — a few things many of you readers have been commenting upon. One thing’s for sure: Those Twin Peaks references you’ve been picking up on were certainly validated this week.

For the purposes of this recap, I’m going to refer to the Other Universe Olivia not as Faux-, Bo- or Alt- but just “Olivia,” since that what she is in this episode’s world. Her boyfriend’s back, she greeted him, home from Texas, at the Empire Docking Station. Pretty soon, the two of them, plus Lincoln Lee (put in charge because of the “missing” [we know "dead"] Broyles) and Charlie Francis, were plunged into a case involving corpses from which swarms of beetles had emerged. Yet another in the long line of Fringe‘s many dedicated but doomed scientists, this one Dr. Anton Silva (Alon Aboutboul) turned innocent citizens into hosts that would provide samples of the beetles he needed to complete an experiment that would bring him the glory he sought. Too bad that the human hosts died dreadful deaths (“spontaneous bug eruptions,” as Lincoln put it). Fringe Division had to figure out what was going on, as Charlie pulled a nice juicy beetle from the nostril of a corpse.
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***SPOILERS***

FRINGE “Immortality” Season 3 Episode 13 Advance Review – We’ve seen how Olivia has been handling her return to our universe, but what’s been happening with Bolivia since she went back to the alter-verse? We find out in tonight’s episode of FRINGE, “Immortality”, and, after seeing an early screener from FOX, you will be sorry if you miss this great episode.

For tonight’s episode we are back in the alter-verse, and the Fringe team investigates a series of deaths involving bugs (yech!). With help from a close friend of Bolivia and enthusiastic fan of Agent Charlie Francis the team gets a lead on the bad guy. Unfortunately, when Bolivia and Lincoln check in on the bad guy’s lair, they may not check out.

We also get to see what Walternate and his team have been up to with the synthetic cortexiphan they created after experimenting on Olivia. The results of their experiments are surprising, but not as surpising as how Walternate decides to proceed and who he discusses his secrets with.

It is great to revisit Bolivia and the Fringe division from the alter-verse, as it’s a wonderful contrast to the characters from our universe. While I always enjoy Anna Torv, Seth Gabel (Lincoln Lee) is excellent tonight as we see how his character deals with new job responsibilities. The two of them have some great scenes in this episode, and you get a real sense of the friendship between them.

Can the Fringe team solve the case before it’s too late? Will Walternate try and take his experiments to the next level? Make sure that you stay for the whole episode; something happens that will change everything about the two universes.

Watch Fringe tonight at 9 PM on FOX, then come back here and let me know what you thought of “Immortality” in the comments section.

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For “Fringe’s” first episode in its new Friday timeslot, you know they have to do something big. Not only do the mysterious Observers return, but the legendary Christopher Lloyd joins the cast as a rock musician idolized by John Noble’s Walter Bishop.

Lloyd’s character finds out the real reason his band broke up, and since this is “Fringe,” you know there’s going to be a very bizarre reason for it. “I was very excited for this role. My character is going through an experience he never expected to happen to him, and he’s adjusting to that,” he told reporters on Thursday, adding that he felt that he was welcomed in as a part of the ensemble cast.

For Noble’s part, he was excited to have Lloyd as his musical hero. ““He’s one of my heroes anyway, so when Christopher came on, it was a dream come true,” he said. “We had an amazing time together these two old guys, just reminiscing.”

Noble teased the fact that we haven’t seen the last of “Walter-nate” or the alternate world. “We’ll give you a little more background as to why [Walter-nate] is like he is. We spend a few more episodes back in the alternate universe,” he said.

It also turns out that Noble is as fascinated by the Observers as the fans are: “It’s really interesting to have them back in trying to repair the damage and put things right. At the end of the episode, the Observer says something incredibly telling, that just shows how much danger and drama there is ahead.”

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