It's time to accept no substitutes, as rifts begin to show up in our universe...

"6B"

As I've observed throughout the S3 reviews, Fringe has developed a pretty adroit skill at echoing the main plot via sub-plots since the Other Universe became really critical to the season story arc. With so many of the main characters still possessing doppelgangers over in Zeppellin-world, it's not too hard to achieve, but '6B' accomplishes the echo with more savvy than usual.

Damn Ghostbusters - it's a building in Brooklyn that's looking to become 'spook central', as the same sort of reality-tear that has caused thousands to become encased in the militarized 'Fringe Division's' aspic-gas finally seems to be taking hold on our side of the fence. A whole bunch of party goers fall to their deaths when the balcony they are standing on momentarily winks out of existence under the influence of the reality-tear, and our Walter is racking his conscience because he can't find any better solution to impede the pending chasm of disaster except for...exactly the same 'pickle-em'-all' solution that Walternate came up with (and in the process reminds us of something Fringe seems determined to get across right now - that Walternate isn't necessarily just a pathological sadist).

In the meantime it's time to revisit the thorny subject of Peter's cuckoldry with Fauxlivia. Our Olivia seems to be getting used to the idea, and Peter The Player's tacit admission of some episodes back that he still has feelings for 'Cheerful' Olivia doesn't get in the way of our heroes finally getting their own kiss. Thing is, is Peter working out his love for Fauxlivia with Olivia by 'settling' - or was Fauxlivia, as Peter claims, really just a hiccup in his long-standing affection for 'the real thing'?

Unsurprisingly the main 'spook of the week' is clearing its throat at this point; turns out that a recent widow in Spook Central is seeing spectral visions of her dead husband. But it's not looking to be a 'blast from the past', but actually the same kind of 'window on the other universe' that Olivia is capable of under heightened emotional conditions. The grieving widow is in fact looking into a window on the alternate version of her own apartment - a version where the husband won the coin-toss to avoid an ultimately deadly domestic task, and is in fact grieving for the loss of his wife (i.e. the 'other' version of the widow).

[ Guys, this is why you have to watch the show, because it's unbelievably easy to follow if you do, and just sounds nuts in a recap. Will anyone ever just 'dip in' to Fringe, which, despite its apparent efforts to stay notionally episodic, is now among the most arc-driven shows on TV? ]

Of course, the key to sealing this dimensional 'rift' without setting loose the aspic-gas is for the widow to let go emotionally of the 'other husband' (in a manner - by way of a third echo - that Walter couldn't when he kidnapped Peter from the Other Universe and started this whole mess rolling). To 'accept no substitutes'. To not 'settle for the appearance'. Are you listening, Peter?

This was a pretty damn good episode of Fringe, and one of the few that managed to tie together all the themes and plots of S3 without making you feel that the writers are kind of 'making it up as they go along', or developing the season in response to Nielson score-cards on a per-episode basis. Makes sense, really, since we're advanced enough along in the season as to really be set on a definite course by now: Peter must decide between the Olivias, one universe has to go and some real important characters are being threatened with the axe...

...along, of course, with Fringe itself. We know it, and Joshua Jackson knows it, and not all the anti-intelligence in the world can make us unsee it. Perhaps Fringe is to join the illustrious ranks of Star Trek (TOS) and Deadwood as a 'three season cult'. I hope not, even if S3 has been terribly patchy and confusing (as a last season so often is), since a last-minute reprieve promises years of interesting possibilities for the characters, even if the sexual tension between Olivia and Peter has to be forsaken in a way it never was with Mulder and Scully.

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