“If I’m willing to do that to someone I love daily, imagine what I’d do to someone I don’t care about.” – David Robert Jones
It’s such a misleading phrase, isn’t it? In an ideal world, the enemy of my enemy would be my friend. But in the Fringe worlds, things are far from ideal, and the enemy of my enemy turns out to be an even worse enemy.
The return of David Robert Jones doesn’t excite Peter as much as the rest of us, but he keeps a cool demeanor in the interrogation room when Jones once again gives himself up to Fringe agents, this time orchestrated by his man on the inside, Colonel Broyles.
Peter and Lincoln are still stuck “over there,” having made their way to the other side in pursuit of answers to the shapeshifters, and Peter’s bizarre reappearance in the altered timeline/universe. Even though Olivia and Broyles are investigating their disappearance, they’ve decided to extend their stay in order to assist Fauxlivia and Alt-Lincoln with Jones and the shapeshifters. Without Peter and his developing chemistry with Walter and Olivia, Jones was able to survive his teleportation from a German prison “over here,” and his subsequent crossing over between universes. On multiple occasions.
When Walternate gives the order to release Jones and keep teams of Fringe agents within the radius of the tracker in his tea, they don’t anticipate Broyles’ treachery and lose him in a crowd. Even though Peter knows where Jones is going, he only has a map of the area from “over here,” where there’s a clear road to the clearing where Jones plans to cross over. Peter and Lincoln race back to their own side of the universe, leading Olivia and Broyles to the site of David Robert Jones’ original demise. Although Peter’s reappearance hinders his plans slightly, Jones acquires his mysterious universe-shreadding substance and crosses over again, back to Walternate’s universe.
Throughout all of Fringe’s sci-fi craziness and escapades to other universes, it has still managed to weave intimate personal storylines for its key characters. As of yet, the Walter whose wife took her own life following Peter’s demise hasn’t met her counterpart from the other side. But when Walternate hits a roadblock in his investigation into how to help Peter, he allows Elizabeth to cross-over to convince Walter to assist Peter as well. This heartfelt reunion leads to another string tugging encounter between the constant son and the third iteration of his father, but not before a quorum of both Fringe Divisions on their new alliance against David Robert Jones.
If you made it through the journey of dimensional border-hopping unscathed, prepared for some good news in the fight against the shapeshifters, then you weren’t quite prepared for the final loop before the hour’s end. Not only does David Robert Jones have Colonel Broyles from over there under his employ, he also has Nina Sharpe from over here on the typewriter’s ghost network. For those that need the refresher, it was revealed that Nina was Olivia’s mother-figure before the hiatus, giving her and Jones an edge perhaps an entire lifetime in preparation. Though Peter believes he has the upper hand against Jones, Jones has the upper hand against Olivia, who seems to be slowly digesting the Observer’s news that she dies in every timeline’s outcome. Although it isn’t clear whether Peter’s universe is still out there, or whether he’s stuck in a total reset, these early resolutions will make for some further developments throughout the rest of the season.
Some stats and info about Fringe, “Enemy of my Enemy”
TV SHOW – Fringe
SEASON/EPISODE – Season 4, Episode 9
AIRED ON – January 20th, 2012
NETWORK/STREAMING SERVICE – FOX
GENRE – Science Fiction, Drama
CREATED BY – J.J. Abrams, Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci
CAST – Anna Torv, Joshua Jackson, Jasika Nicole, John Noble, Lance Reddick, Blair Brown
This review originally appeared on TV Geek Army.