FringeSeason 2, Episode 19 - The Man from the Other Side

Another episode that returns to the furtive dealings of the alternate universe, after two shows that X-Files fans would have called MOTW or Monster of the Week.

To briefly recap, one of Olivia's former "classmates" from the Jacksonville cortexiphan trials was spreading sarcomas among others from the Florida facility, and a week later Robocop (Peter Weller) was time traveling to save his wife from a car crash by creepily building part of the time machine into his own body. Once a Robocop, always a Robocop?

The Man from the Other Side could have been The Men from the Other Side -- Thomas Jerome Newton and Peter Bishop were important to the episode. The man also might be the third alt-verse guy who shows up at the end. A terrible rift also has developed that is going to have an important effect on the relations/war between the two universes. It's a sad and devastating divide that was inevitable.

Another question is also answered of what became of Mrs. Elizabeth Bishop -- she committed suicide after Peter left home and moved to Europe, and not in a car accident, as Peter originally believed.

This was supposed to be about alternate universes, and at first sight I wondered if time travel was back again too, as it seemed two teens from 1980 rolled up to an abandoned warehouse in Worchester, Massachusetts in a mint Dodge Challenger, the radio playing Rush's "Tom Sawyer."

A modern day warrior
Mean mean stride,
Today's Tom Sawyer
Mean mean pride...

Today's Tom Sawyer
He gets high on you
And the space he invades
He gets by on you

The driver is a leather jacket clad stoner with a well-burned doobie. As he's about to offer a hit to his girl, a bright light flares in a warehouse window, and the glass blows out.

"I though this place was supposed to be abandoned," the girl says.

And, still with that early '80s vibe -- this time, low budget slasher movie from those days of my youth -- the stoner foolishly decides to venture into the warehouse to see what's going on.

What he finds is a pulsating mass of flesh or tissue on the floor. He picks up a pole to prod the thing, and an alt-verse shapeshifter sneaks up, knocks him out and takes his form. Returning to the Dodge, the substitute boy is now stern and hurried, all vestiges of highness gone. The shapeshifter reaches toward the girl, and there's a quick cut to opening credits.

Walter is at home, obsessively rearranging old Bishop family photos. After the letter Walter tried to write to Peter last week, he is still stewing over how to tell his son about his true origins.

Peter is worried, as his dad has not slept for two days. It's okay that Walter wants to personalize and organize his own space, down to obsessing over a laundry hamper, but he needs his rest.

Until the phone summons them to the warehouse. Olivia lets them know about the two dead teens. Both adolescents have three puncture holes in their soft palates, which indicates shapeshifters are at large, along with alt-verse leader Thomas Jerome Newton.

Walter shows his age first by identifying exactly the marijuana in the boy's joint as Lemon Zinger. It's good, he opines, but not as great as his homegrown. Inside the warehouse, near the boy's body, is the puffy mass of tissue, which Walter says looks like a beanbag chair he once had circa 1974.

He takes a scalpel and slices the specimen, which oozes mercury. He quickly identifies it as a shapeshifter, one of the alt-verse's humanoid creatures that can withstand transfer between worlds, and it failed to develop. Of course it's off to his lab at Harvard.

During the last couple weeks, Walter's assistant, Astrid, has reminded me of Radar O'Reilly from MASH, especially the way she locks in on his mental wavelengths and often repeats exactly what he is thinking or saying. This week they remembered that old Finnish saying: "There's more than one way to roast a reindeer!"

The fringe unit has learned from the labs of Massive Dynamic that at times the harmonies between our universe and the altverse sometimes match up, and this will happen 3:31 p.m. the next day.

Walter thinks he knows how reanimate the undeveloped embryo, so in true mad scientist fashion he orders up six car batteries, 10 yards of 10-gauge wire and one corpse, not dead for more than two days. His rationale is to "jump start" the embryo, much like a car.

Eighty amps isn't enough, so the juice goes up to 110, and the power in the lab is blown out. The embryo begins to gasp for air and emerge as partially human -- head, heck, arms and chest. A most grisly "birth."

It grabs Walter's hand and in halting voice spews out random facts -- contact Newton, Daniel Verona, type AB negative, cellular polarity.

Olivia asks it, "What is happening at 3:31?"

The embryo looks at Walter, says "I'm sorry," and dies, due mainly to Walter cutting it at the warehsoue. Did it recognize him, perhaps thinking he was "Walternate" from the "Peter" episode?

The shapeshifters have changed identities again, appearing as a bank branch manager and a medical examiner affiliated with Boston General Hospital -- and his name is Daniel Verona. Newton makes a 911 call that a man is having a heart attack and takes a black capsule that simulates that condition. After his "body" is left in morgue, Newton gets out and sets up a flashing cylinder in the room.

At a bank, the shapeshifter pretending to be manager Ben McCalister is in the vault with Newton. They drill a hole in the vault floor, and Newton gives the shapeshifter another cylinder to insert into it.

At Walter's house, he's still not sleeping and restlessly making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Peter gives him a reassuring pat on the shoulder and says, "Don't worry, Dad. We'll figure it out like we always do."

Walter is bowled over at being called "Dad." They finally seem to have set aside differences and all that old baggage.

Walter shows Peter and Olivia how the alt-verse gang is using geometry and harmonics to transport into our universe. Three harmonic rods -- much like three large tuning forks -- would have to be set up in exactly the same places in both universes. Whatever is within the triangle exchanges places with its counterpart in the other universe.

Using a map of Beantown, they quickly identify the points of the triangle in the neighborhood, at Boston General and the third is McCalister's bank. Olivia asks if there are any bridges over the Charles River, and there is one, a condemned railroad bridge. Just as Walter used Reiden Lake to absorb the energy of his crossover in 1985, so the alt-verse people could use the Charles in the same manner.

Walter's plan is to send out counter waves to cancel Newton's harmonics. Walter says that Newton's wave could be so devastating that it could tear a man apart.

Newton and the shapeshifters are already at the bridge. He orders the two of them to go "take care" of a couple cops who show up in a patrol car.

Olivia and Peter arrive at the bridge, where the two cops are blocking entry. Olivia flashes her FBI badge, and an officer says he'll have to contact his sergeant, which he tries to do so on a cell phone. Olivia shoots his partner -- noting that no cop would use a cell to call his precinct! -- and a gun battle begins with Cell Phone Cop.

Walter takes off in their Navigator and goes to the bridge, which has no center section anymore. Peter yells at Olivia to cover him as he runs to his dad on the bridge Newton is watching everything and tells Cell Phone Cop to shoot Peter and Walter. Olivia finally takes him out, just as Broyles and a couple of red shirts arrive.

On the bridge, Peter finds Walter trying to properly calibrate their counter wave against Newton, on, weirdly enough, a Macintosh laptop. (Well, one of those saved the world from aliens 14 years ago in Independence Day, so I was not totally surprised, but being a big Apple hater, was not pleased. How about an HP or something instead? Personal biases here.)

Peter sends Walter away as an FBI agent comes on the bridge. A flickering image appears on the gap between the bridge ends -- it is the center span, which is not missing in the alt-verse. And there is a man walking on it, moving toward Peter, the agent, and Walter's anti-transfer rig.

Peter frantically works on the laptop to get the counter wave properly set up. A high pitched whine causes the agent to grab his ears, and then he simply is vaporized into nothingness. Peter is totally unaffected. Newton watches as Peter manages to successfully block the transport from the alt-verse, but is knocked unconscious by the force of energy.

Later Peter wakes up in a hospital, where Olivia tells him he's been out for a day and a half. His diagnosis is for a complete recovery. She adds that Walter has been there the whole time and won't go home until he sees his son. Peter wants to speak to Walter alone.

Peter tells his father how he saw the person walking toward them on the bridge, and he knew the effect of the vibration would destroy a person. He saw a man next to him vanish as if he had never been there.

Peter says he also knows that the waves do not affect people from the other side.

"I'm not from here, am I? You didn't just open a hole from the other side, you went through and brought me back. That's why I survived Newton's device. That's why I can't remember my childhood and why mom committed suicide. ... And when I left, the guilt was too much for her!"

Walter stammers and tries to explain, to tell Peter that eventually he would have told him the truth, but he is cut off.

"I understand, Walter, I understand everything now," he says. "I am not your son! I'd like to be alone now!"

Walter, crushed, leaves the room. The fragile reconciliation between the two is over.

Finally, it appears Peter was not as successful as thought, as Newton is at a hidden facility, where he is tending to someone inside some kind of treatment chamber. He calls the unseen man "Mr. Secretary" and gives him medicine, telling him that when he wakes up again, he will be stabilized.

Walter is at home and restlessly getting ready to return to the hospital and check on Peter. Olivia arrives and stops him. Peter checked out three hours earlier and is not answering his phone. He is gone and adrift once more.

Next week is a product of Fox's over-enthusiasm for Glee and its ilk, because the network has declared it "Musical Week." Yeesh! Previews suggest a film noir detective story type thing called "Brown Betty," with everyone in their finest late 1940s-early '50s garb.

--World of the week spelled out by the Fringe glyphs: BRIDGE.

--The Observer sighting of the week is at Ben McCalister's bank, in the scene where Newton comes to see how the fake Ben is doing to install the harmonic transmitter.

--Who's the Secretary? I have a feeling it is Walternate, the other alt-verse's Walter Bishop.

Lost Season 6, Episode 13: The Last Recruit

Double dealing or long con on the Master of Cons. A long awaited reunion put abruptly asunder. A man of science is now a man of faith, but his final fate is uncertain as he nearly gets his brains scrambled. Increasingly, the Sideways World pulls our important players together, as the point when they will merge is very near.

When my nieces were younger, they used to play with K'Nex, a bunch of plastic rods and corner joints, which, like LEGO blocks, could be snapped together into intricate designs. I still remember the 4 foot tall motorized Ferris wheel made entirely of K'Nex that used to be at a local store. It was fun, complicated machine, much like the Lost world. Our main players are like those pieces now, snapping into place in the Great and Terrible Lindelof-Cuse Machine that is ten times more terrifying than a simple rotating amusement park ride.

I think I know what this show's final scene will be. It's a mirror of the first scene of the Season 5 finale. Two people are on a beach, a fire blazing between them. They gaze out to sea at some kind vehicle passing by -- an ocean liner, maybe, or a jet overhead. These two successors to Jacob and Smokey debate the same things, of free will and determinism, or if man is basically good or can be corrupted every time. One of these people, I now strongly believe, will be Jack. He has no connections now or a "constant" like the others seem to have found. He would be perfect to become one of the Island's guardians in their eternal debate. And it may not necessarily be in the place of Jacob.

At Camp Smokey, Jack asked for a private audience with the staff-carving beast. They go off into the jungle, where the Smoke Man drives his torch into the ground, as if to hold a mini Tribal Council. Jack is amazed how Smokey resembles Locke, and wants to know, why the creature particularly chose to look like John when he took human form.

"Because he was stupid enough to believe he had been brought here for a reason," the Smoke Man says. "Because he pursued that belief until it got him killed, and because you were kind enough to bring his body back here in a nice wooden box."

Smokey also reveals other Lost Questions. He can only appear as people who have died. On the day of the Oceanic crash, when Jack was looking for water and saw his father's ghost, that was actually MIB, and all Christian embodiments were him. He says all he ever wanted to do was help the Losties, because he needed all of them to leave the Island.

"John Locke was the only one of us who believed in this place," Jack says.

"John Locke was not a believer, Jack," Smokey says. "He was a sucker."

In Sideways L.A., Ben accompanies Locke in the ambulance going to the hospital. When the paramedic asks Ben if he knows who should be contacted on behalf of Locke, he doesn't know.

There had been online speculation by fans about why Desmond ran him down. Some like me thought it was to trigger John's Island memories, which I thought had not returned until he spoke up to the paramedic and Ben to contact Helen Norwood ... "I was supposed to marry her."

Supposed to. In the Island timeline, the kinder, gentler Peg Bundy had rejected Locke's marriage proposal because he could not stop his obsession with Anthony Cooper and his decision to participate in a con with his biological father. Helen eventually died of a brain aneurysm. In Sideways L.A., John and Helen were living together and were planning their wedding. They were going to marry, not supposed to get married. So maybe in that addled mind his Island memories have been downloaded?

Sun's Island memories also may have been further unlocked -- a process I thought started when her Island self hit that tree and lost her English -- because she just happened to be wheeled into the hospital at the same time as Locke. She looked at him, cringed in recognition and shouted to Jin, "It's him! It's him!" Granted, Sun had seen Locke on the Oceanic jet, but why now does he stand out so much to her?

Jack and Smokey discover that Feral Claire has been sneaking after them. When Smoke Man wants to know why she followed him, Claire says because Jack is her brother. Smokey leaves them alone because they "have a lot of catching up to do." Claire reminds Jack that like it or not, he's with Team Smokey now.

Des' hit and run may have affected Locke, but it did not seem to affect Smokey. After his torchlit coffee klatch with Jack, they return to camp, just as Jungle Liz Lemon marches into their midst with a walkie talkie, an ultimatum and the backing of superior firepower. Team Widmore fires near the camp with what is probably a mortar or howitzer round, which causes some people to flinch. Smokey is totally unfazed and stands like a rock.

Return "what is ours" by sundown, says Jungle Liz, or face the consequences. "And next time, we won't miss."

Smokey takes the walkie talkie from Jungle Liz, and after she leaves, he grinds it into little pieces beneath the staff he was shown carving in the last episode. "Well, here we go," is the biggest understatement of the night.

In Sideways L.A., Kate is handcuffed to a chair in James Ford's precinct station. He reads off her rap sheet -- arson, assaulting a federal officer, murder in the first degree. Kate vehemently denies the murder charge several times. There is also some flirting, an undeniable attraction, sparks, high sexual tension.

James wonders again about fate and coincidence, their meeting in the elevator at LAX. "A week later, boom! Of all the cars in L.A., you smash into mine," James says. "It's almost like someone wanted us to be together."

Kate also theorizes the reason James did not arrest her, even though he saw her handcuffs (which he denies ever seeing), was because he wanted no one to know that he went to Sydney and why he went there.

Miles calls James' attention to a security camera feed of Sayid leaving Keamy's restaurant. The report indicates Keamy and three of his goons were shot, and one Korean female with a GSW and a husband who can't speak English.

Claire goes to an office building for an appointment with an adoption agency, which (Lost Numbers Alert) is on the 15th floor. Desmond shows up, and you almost expect him to do something drastic to her. But instead he simply persuades Claire to come to his attorney's office, because she could help her with the legalese of any adoption contract she might sign.

Claire agrees to accompany him to the law firm, where Des' "excellent" (as he puts it) attorney is -- Ilana Verdansky! And she is very much in one piece here in Sideways L.A., one of the advantages of choosing law over bounty hunting. A nice safe practice in a big city law firm, instead of juggling unstable 140-year-old dynamite on a tropical isle.

More coincidence heaped on coincidence, as Ilana says her firm's been looking for Claire Littleton for some time now. Good job, Des!

At Camp Smokey, that Fearless Leader plots their move against Team Widmore. He's fuming over things happening sooner than expected, of accusations that he took something that belonged to him, so the solution is -- go to Hydra, defeat the opposing team, and get on that Ajira jet!

Smokey commands Sawyer go to to Desmond's sailboat, which is anchored further down the beach, and meet the rest of the team on the other side of the bluffs. They need to split up, the Smoke Man rationalizes, because a bigger group moves more slowly.

Sawyer in turn recruits Jack and tells him of his secret deal with Widmore. Kate is welcome, but not Sayid, because he's a Zombie, and not Claire, because she's crazy and "she gave up her ticket when she tried to kill Kate. I'm not going to let that happen again."

His plan is simple. Take the sailboat to an old dock on the Island. Get Sun, Hurley and Frank, the "pilot who looks like he stepped off the set of a Burt Reynolds movie," and go straight to Widmore. Get a place on the sub and get off the Island.

Smokey sends Sayid out to the well to kill Desmond, reminding him that he will get what the Zombie Man asked for if he carries out his orders.

Deep in the well, Des also petitions Sayid, as he points his handgun at the Scot with some hesitation, "If you've got to shoot me in cold blood, brother, I should at least be able to know."

Sayid says that if he obeys, Smokey will give him back the woman he loved. It is manipulative, a deceit built upon lost love and a promise that will not be kept. Just because Sayid was brought back, does not guarantee the return of Nadia. It was like Palpatine's whole scheme to recruit Anakin Skywater to the Sith. The future Imperial Emperor claimed that with proper training, Anakin could bring back Padme from the dead.

Desmond has one final question: if Smokey does bring Nadia back, what would he say to her? How would he explain her return?

Another example of Smokey's deviousness, of his ability to exploit the Losties' neediness, (and echoes Ben Linus' own machinations in previous seasons) is seen as Jack and Claire walk with Team Smokey through the jungle. Jack wants to know why she trusts the Smoke Man so much, and she claims he is the only one who did not abandon her.

Smokey is also unapologetic about his actions. For one who "always cared" about the castaways, he does not act like it. He asks Sun if she has seen Sayid, and she shakes her head. He asks why she is so silent, so she writes "You did this to me!" on her notepad.

"I'm sorry, I didn't do anything to you," he says casually and callously.

In Sideways L.A., Sayid runs to his beloved's house, frantically packing things. Nadia wants to know what he did. Sayid bluntly declares that he can never come back.

The doorbell rings, and Miles and James are on hand to do their best Starsky and Hutch. Miles interrogates Nadia, and at the same time Sayid tries to flee out the back way, but James uses a garden hose as a tripwire and brings Sayid down. Handcuffs are slapped on, and the shout of "You're under arrest!"

On the Island, Sayid finally wanders back, claiming he "just needed a moment" because he just shot an unarmed man. He tells Smokey he did kill Desmond, and suggests he go check if he wants. Smokey shakes his head. "Come on, we have a plane to catch." (Struck me as a funny and crazy line to say in the middle of a jungle, but then again Smokey seems to also lapse into comedian mode. And Desmond really dead? Don't think so.)

As the new Team Sawyer prepares to pick Hurley, Sun and Frank, Claire emerges from the jungle with his rifle. In the second best scene of the night, Kate carefully persuades Claire to set aside her rifle and come with them. She reminds him that the creature is not John Locke, that her goal to return to the Island was to reunite Claire with Aaron, and that she should never have been the one to raise him. "Let's go home," Kate says.

And Claire lowers her rifle, boards the boat, and gives the gun to Kate. Hers is the second understatement of the night: "When he (Smokey) finds out we're gone, he's gonna be mad."

In Sideways L.A., Jack and his teen son David show up at the same office building where Claire and Desmond met. Jack talks to David's yet unrevealed mother. He explains that the reading of Christian's will is not a happy experience but something that has to be done. David says he understands and feels sad for his dad and the loss of his own dad.

His attorney naturally is Ilana, who introduces him, the first time ever, to his half sister, Ms. Claire Littleton. Jack is perturbed by the introduction of this long lost sibling. His phone rings again, ad there's a surgical emergency. Can you guess who's going to be on Dr. Jack's operating table at St. Sebastian? Will reading canceled, and the good doctor and his son are off to the hospital.

Jack and another doctor look at an MRI scan from a patient who already is a paraplegic. The look on Jack's face when he sees the anesthetized Locke is priceless. He has got to be wondering about all those coincidences!

In the Island world, Jack keeps looking out to sea, which Sawyer quickly recognizes. Frank wants to know the game plan. Addressing Frank as "Jesse," (probably as in bearded Uncle Jesse from The Dukes of Hazzard), Sawyer restates his goal to "get cuddly" with Widmore and get a place on the submarine, even with guns or violence if needed.

(REVISION: Sawyer really called Frank "chesty," not "Jesse," according to other recappers, but Uncle Jesse would have been funnier. Chesty just wasn't one of the more clever nicknames Sawyer has handed out these last six seasons. And I think Frank's more of a Grizzly Adams than an Uncle Jesse. But neither of those is from a Burt Reynolds movie, so I'm really digressing.)

Sawyer goes to Jack, who's still contemplating the sea. He congratulates Jack on finally learning to take orders. Jack said he does not feel right about leaving the Island. In full Man of Faith mode, Jack says they were brought to the Island to do something. "If that thing wants us to leave, maybe it's afraid of what will happen if we stay." And again that line about how the Island isn't done with them.

Sawyer gets very pissed. Jack must go if he's not for the plan. "If you want to take a leap of faith, take it! Get off my damn boat!"

And Jack does, jumping, backpack and all, into the ocean. Kate discovers Jack is overboard and tries to steer the boat back to him. Sawyer grabs the helm and tells her that he is done going back.

In Sideways L.A., Sun wakes up in a bed at the hospital, where she sees an exhausted Jin. He informs her of wonderful news -- she, and the baby, are all fine. "It's over," Jin says, probably referring to conclusion of the dark days under Mr. Paik. "We're all going to be okay."

Jack staggers back onto the beach in Island World, where his welcoming party is the Smoke Man and his armed red shirts. "Nice day for a swim!" says the Smoke Man, offering Jack a hand. He confirms to the creature that Sawyer took the boat.

In Island World, Team Sawyer comes ashore on Hydra Island, only for Jungle Liz and Widmore goons to show up with plenty of guns. More rifle pointing, until Sun and Jin notice each other...

... And it's reunited, and it feels so good, reunited, and it's understood. ... Much hugging, crying and kissing, and ...

Sun says aloud, in English, "I love you." Speech back! Influence from her Sideways self upon this world? Or maybe just the power of love?

Jin says in the same language, "I love you too. ... We'll never be apart again. I promise you."

Frank's Captain Obvious comment of the night: "Looks like someone got their voice back."

But Jungle Liz Lemon can't leave a tender moment alone (I couldn't resist quoting some more song lyrics). She gets some orders over her walkie talkie, orders Team Sawyer to their knees and tells the goons to put their rifles to the new arrivals.

"We had a deal!" Sawyer cries out.

"The deal's off."

The end of Widmore's own long con?

Simultaneously Team Widmore sends a couple missile strikes back on the main Island, and true to Jungle Liz's word, they don't miss. Team Smokey's red shirts fly everywhere, and Jack is sent airborne too. Knocked to the ground, he hears echoing of voices. Are they the people on the beach, or is he hearing sounds from Sideways World?

Smokey scoops Jack up, throws him over his shoulder and starts back into the jungle. "It's going to be okay," he tells Jack. "You're with me now."

And fade to black.

Jack, the last recruit? Whose side will he eventually choose?

In Sideways World, Jack and John have the opposite position and opportunity to help each other. Jack holds the scalpel, and Smokey Locke holds the Jack. How will this affect the two time tracks?

We are stuck with this mini cliffhanger for two full weeks, with only a few publicity photos from ABC and a preview showing that Smokey did get onto Hydra Island, as we see him waste a member of Team Widmore standing guard by the Ajira jet. War is coming to this Island, and we're about to have front row seats for it. As they always say in TV Land, stay tuned!

Breaking Bad Season 3, Episode 5 - Mas

One-third of the way into the season, and our Cookin' Couple are still bickering and seem to be headed toward divorce, much as the White marriage has pretty much hit the rocks. Dissolved relationships, clashing partners and literal shoegazing -- actually barefoot gazing -- were in this episode bearing the Spanish word for "more."

The same leisurely, low-key pace resumed, as established in the first four shows, where the only violence was Episode 1 -- the truck blasted to oblivion by the twin cousins of psychotic Season 2 dealer Tuco Salamanca, whom the Mexican cartel has hired to assassinate Heisenberg.

Another flashback opened the episode, quickly identified by a Walter White who has a full head of hair. He gives Jesse his life savings to get an RV.

Jesse's reactions are typical of his pre-rehab self: all night wine ("Dom Pering-Don," the stuff James Bond drinks, yo!), women and song, total debauchery at a strip club. He and his homies are chuckling over the fact that they're blowing the money of a sorry middle aged fella who trusted Jesse to spend it wisely. (It is appropriate that the strip joint's name has something to do with atomic bombs, not only reflecting new Mexico's connection to A-bomb history, but tying in with the explosive lives of Jesse and Walter.)

With dawn's arrival, Jesse finds he has only $1,400. His pal, Christian "Combo" Ortega, knows where he can get an RV right away, despite it being 6 a.m. Off they go to a house marked with a terra cotta sun with a creepy smiling face, money is exchanged, and Jesse is told to get out of there fast. Easy to extrapolate that Jesse has just bought himself a stolen vehicle, which he then proceeds to crash into several garbage cans along the way.

Chicken baron and secret drug lord Gus Frings (Giancarlo Esposito) continued his "gentle persuasion" to bring Walter back. In Episode 4 it was a Los Pollos Hermanos bag full of cash casually tossed into the window of his Pontiac Aztek. In this show, it was an entire state of the art lab in the basement of Gus' commercial laundry, coupled with a job quota of 200 pounds of meth a week. The pay's fantastic, and Walt can set his own hours.

Walter said "no," again, even after admiring that veritable chemist's wet dream of a lab: spacious, airy and stocked with the sleek coolness and sheen of stainless steel that spins the wonders of science, even the illegal ones.

Gus asks him why Walt got into cooking in the first place. He says it was for his family.

Family is everything, Gus agrees. Family is the most important thing of life, bar none. Walt can cook for them, for their future. A man's gotta do what he's gotta do. He is the provider, and he always will be for family. Cook, if not for himself, then again for them. But Walter is adamant -- no more sky blue meth! He's done!

Later Walter is shown cradling Holly, in one of the tense breakfast scenes with Skyler and Walter Jr. (Flynn). Family is the only thing, the best thing, embodied in a tiny infant unaware of her dad's nefarious turn.

Skyler continues her relationship with Ted Beneke, who invites her to move in with him. Her attorney, tired of her wishy washy attitude about Walter, seconds the idea of getting out of her old house, as staying at there would make her an accessory after the fact for Walter's illegal enterprise.

There were a couple shots of Skyler staring down at her well manicured, painted toenails, in a thick terry bathrobe in Ted's bathroom. She could resolutely declare that Ted's thermostat regulated, specially heated bathroom floor is the "best invention ever," but could not decide what to do about living arrangements or ending things with Walter. The next scene in both cases was Skyler setting the table for breakfast, down to proper flatware placement and cloth napkins, a gesture more associated with suburban stability.

Skyler snoops into the room Walter shares with baby Holly. She hauls down Walter's Big Gym Bag of Cash and gazes at it, her mind in turmoil over what to do. In a later trip to the room, she finds Walter's stuff gone and his signature on the divorce papers.

There was another kind of divorce, as the partnership of Hank and Agent Steve Gomez ended. Hank rejected the promotion to the "Super Bowl" of the drug wars, DEA El Paso, in order to follow his obsession with the blue meth and Heisenberg.

Marie's dreams of a Georgetown townhouse melted away. She phoned Skyler and cried on her shoulder, so to speak, about Hank's emotional volatility and her own marriage's problems.

Gomie is now headed to El Paso, as Hank later finds out abruptly, and certainly he is a better fit than Hank, as the guy speaks the Spanish that Hank lacked and earned him a razzing last season. At least, until Danny Trejo's Head-on-a-Tortoise blew a few of them up.

Hank's task of tracking down the 29 early 1980s RVs like the one our Cookin' Couple used begins disastrously, much as his career path has been going this season, what with the panic attack and an unnecessary brawl with a couple bikers in a local bar a couple episodes ago.

Hank and Steve are staking out a doppelganger of Walt and Jesse's lab that is set up in a placid campground. Steve checks out the RV but cannot see inside. Leave it to Hank to climb up the luggage rack ladder to the top, stealthily slide along the roof, peer in -- and spot a portly middle aged couple in their underwear playing cards. The guy spots Hank, who then has a lot of 'splaining to do as sunrise comes. Not a great start to the Great RV Hunt.

Walter hides in the closet in Holly's room, having a nasty argument with Jesse, who wants the other half of the money. The argument over rights to the blue meth recipe rages, and again there is no resolution.

Later Jesse is at Saul Goodman's Statue of Liberty Office of Legal Larceny, again screeching for the money.

Walter shows up to give Jesse the other half of the moola. He also mentions Gus' offer was $3 million for three months. He is now ready to cook!

Saul is happy to take 15 percent. A pissed yet empowered Walter -- the stronger man we are seeing emerge this season -- bargains him down to 5 percent. He rubs salt in Jesse's wounds with the fact that Gus wants only him, and the younger man was only a pawn to achieve that goal.

Jesse is upset that "his" attorney is now dickering with Walter, to which Saul says he only backs winners.

Jesse storms out to the parking lot, grabs a loose chunk of concrete that just happened to be there, and throws it at Walter's car windshield, making it a twin of the shattered window Walter received from the debris of Wayfarer Airlines Flight 515 at the season's beginning.

Saul is better at making money than in reconciling couples. I wish that our Odd Couple of Narcotics could be reunited. Because what we need from them is -- more. However, DEA Agent Hank Schrader could change things...

Finally, the Great RV Hunt takes a much better turn when Hank visits the house with the creepy sun decoration. It's Combo's family home, and Mrs. Ortega tells Hank that her RV was stolen some time ago. She gives the agent permission to search Combo's old bedroom, which has marijuana curtains and and just happens to have a photo of the dead guy with Jesse taken the night of the strip club craziness. One step closer to Heisenberg, and unknowingly, one more closer to his own brother-in-law.

Lost Season 6, Episode 12 -- Everybody Loves Hugo

Desmond is now the enlightened ambassador for the Island universe or time track, determined to bring the attention all those from Flight 815 to their "real" lives, even by violent means similar to Charlie's Dunk-the-Mercedes-into-the-Ocean maneuver last week.

On the Island, Hurley took initially uncertain but eventually resolute steps toward leadership, a move that is either going to be fatal or absolutely brilliant, as he has ushered almost all of Jacob's candidates into the camp of Team Smokey, where said creature is closer to getting all those he needs to get off the Island.

"Everybody Loves Hugo" intermixed absolutely tender moments, especially as Hurley meets Libby Smith again, with sudden eruptions of death and injury, more in the style of something on The Sopranos.

I still remember J.K. Rowling saying, as her Harry Potter series drew to an end, that readers should expect more deaths, including fan favorites, as the final good versus evil match approached. The death last night wasn't one of the core people, but I am guessing it is the beginning of a string of bucket kicks that may upset viewers, ending with whoever wins and takes possession of the Island.

Death and destruction were constantly in the shadows, both figuratively and literally, with the return of Michael Dawson (Harold Perrineau).

Hurley, enjoying a tender moment alone with Libby, lays a bromeliad cutting on her grave. He tells his girl that he can talk to the dead and wishes she would appear. He hears those whispers that have echoed in castaway ears since Season 1. Instead he gets Michael.

When Hurley demands to know why Michael is there, he says, "I'm here to stop you from getting everyone killed!"

Hurley asks why should he trust the murderer of Libby, his beloved, and Ana-Lucia.

Michael: "People listen to you now."

In Sideways Los Angeles, Hurley is better known as Hugo and, like the others in this time track, has everything he had wanted -- wealth, good luck, esteem from the community.

Or so it seems. Even as he opens the Hugo Reyes Paleontology Wing of the Golden State Museum of Natural History and gets a nifty acrylic T-rex award -- from Dr. Pierre Chang! -- his mom scolds him later: "Another trophy. Every loves Hugo -- except women!"

Her solution? A blind date with Rosalita, the girl next door. Hurley consents and later waits and waits not at a Mr. Cluck's, but at a Mexican place called Spanish Johnny's. Rosalita never shows. Instead, Libby(Cynthia Watros) sits down at his table and introduces herself. It is obvious they feel a connection. She asks Hugo if she tells him something, will he think she's crazy. He gives her a chance, and Libby asks if he believes that two people could be connected, like soul mates.

"I guess," is his simple answer.

She looks at him strongly with recognition, which only puzzles him further. "You don't remember me, do you?" Libby says. And Hugo does not.

Dr. Brooks (Bruce Davidson), the psychiatrist from Santa Rosa Mental Institute, tells Hugo that Libby "just wandered off" and needs to go now.

"Everything I said, I meant it," she stresses. He watches as Libby is loaded with other patients into the Santa Rosa van to go back to the "bin."

Back on the Island at Camp Jacob, Richard and Ilana get organized to go to Hydra Island by nightfall, along with four sticks of dynamite Ilana fetched from the Black Rock. To Hurley, dynamite just is not a good idea.

"I have been training my entire life for this!" Ilana says.

"To blow stuff up?" says Hurley.

"To protect you."

"How is blowing up the plane protecting us?"

"With that plane gone, that thing won't be able to leave the Island."

Hurley logic back at her: "Neither will we, and we won't be able to leave, and we'll be stuck here with it, and it'll be mad at us."

Ilana repeats that she would follow Richard's counsel, and he said to blow up the plane. Just as she's ready to go, it's an abrupt exit that conjures up the last moments of Dr. Leslie Arzt in Season 1. With a bang and boom, Ilana is blown to bits by her backpack. Setback #1 of the night for Team Jacob.

(Later there is a Book Moment when Hurley rummages through Ilana's bag. I couldn't read the title, but other recaps indicate it was Fyodor Dostoyevsky's Notes from Underground, which is basically a rant or monologue by a retired Russian civil servant against western philosophy, and a look at free will versus determinism, which are exactly the two opposing views Jacob and the Man in Black have debated.)

At Camp Smokey, said monster in John Locke form carves a stick. An edgy Sawyer demands to know if the Smoke Man is going to do anything about getting Jin away from Team Widmore. Smokey brushes him aside and tells Kate and anyone else nearby that Priority One is to wait for Hugo, Sun and Jack to come.

Sayid returns to camp and asks for Smokey's ear in private. He takes him a short way into the jungle and to a tree, to which is tied one Desmond David Hume.

Back at Camp Jacob, Jack speculates that maybe Ilana died to teach everyone "to stay the hell away from dynamite." He repeats his vow to get Sun off the Island. Hurley seems to concede, and that right now Richard is right, going to Hydra is the only option they have.

In Sideways L.A., Hugo is at one of his own Mr. Cluck's and is customer number 38 (Lost Numbers 15 + 23 = 38). Though the cashier (Samm Levine of Freaks and Geeks) is exicited by the CEO himself showing up, Hugo is blase and asks for a family bucket to go and munch alone, as he eats when he is depressed.

Desmond shows up and and asks Hugo, "Have I seen you before?"

"Yeah, I own the place. ... Want a Cluckateer keychain?"

Desmond says he knows him from Flight 815 and joins him at the table. Hugo confesses that he met a girl on a blind date and "she's totally awesome, except for one thing -- she's crazy."

Desmond asks if he believes that, to which Hugo says, "Kind of." Desmond's advice: "Go with your gut. Try to find where you think you knew her from."

Desmond's number is called. "Number 42. That's me, brother. Nice bumping into you." (Another Lost Number, of course.)

Near Camp Smokey, the Man Monster apologizes to Desmond for tying him up, but they feared he might flee. "I have nowhere to run to, brother," the mellow Scot says.

"Well, if that's not the best argument against captivity I've ever heard, I don't know what is," says Smokey, cutting the man loose. He asks why Widmore brought him back to the Island.

Desmond recounts the kidnapping and the electromagnetic blasting in a shack between two doughnut coils. Smokey asks if he knows who he is, and Des says, "Of course, you're John Locke." Smokey orders Sayid back to camp and tells Desmond he wants to show him something.

Team Jacob is hiking along to the Black Rock to get more boom gear. Ben muses about Ilana: "There she was, hand picked by Jacob, trained to come and protect you candidates. No sooner does she tell you who you are, she was blown up. The Island was done with her. Makes me wonder what's going to happen when it's done with us."

As the high and dry slave ship comes into view, Richard says he will go alone, and only he will handle the dynamite. The others in Team Jacob notice that Hurley is missing, and originally he was at the front of the group.

"Go! Run! Run! Run!" screams the fastest moving full figured man you'll see on TV for some time, as he reappears. And for the second time in the episode, something blows up real good, as the aged ship goes up in a massive fireball and rains timbers down on all the fleeing folk. Setback #2 of the day for Team Jacob.

"Why the hell did you do that!" Richard cries at Hurley.

"I'm protecting you," he answers.

Richard is still stewing after the commercial break. Miles adds his own two cents: "A warning would have been nice, Hugo!"

"I did say, 'Run,' " he points out.

Miles wants to know for himself why Hurley destroyed the Black Rock. He explains that "dead people yell at him," and Michael yelled at him to get rid of the dynamite. At times he finds the dead more reliable than the living.

In Sideways L.A., Hugo goes to Santa Rosa, where Dr. Brooks thinks it is not a good idea for him to visit Libby, due to her delusions. What about visits from family, asks Hurley. Or maybe a generous donation?

He opens his checkbook. "The rec room looked pretty gnarly when I came in. I wonder what 100K might buy."

In the same gnarly rec room, patients are wandering about, and one is playing with a Connect Four game (which was Leonard the inmate's favorite in the Island timeline). Libby tells Hugo when she saw him in a Mr. Cluck's TV commercial, it "was like I was hit over the head, all these memories came back." They were memories from another life, one involving a plane crash and an Island, and Hugo was there too. She also remembered being at Santa Rosa, and Hugo was a patient.

He still can't remember her, but he concedes, "We all got something, right? I mean, it takes a lot of guts to go up to a total stranger and tell them you know them from some bizarro alternate universe. I'm too shy to even go up and talk to a girl."

Libby is voluntarily committed, so Hugo asks her to get a day pass, so they can go on a date.

Back on the Island, Team Jacob is about to fracture. Ben and Miles decide to join Richard and go to Dharmaville to get more explosives. Hurley is resolute they must go and talk to the Smoke Man, and that Jacob told him he must do so. Richard challenges him -- if Jacob is there, ask him and repeat the answer to "Why are we on the Island?"

"I don't have to prove anything to you, Richard," Hurley says. "Either you can come with me, or you can keep trying to blow stuff up. Your call, dude."

Jack, Frank and Sun decide to go with Hurley to parley with the Smoke Man. While traipsing through the jungle, Jack says he chose the new Team Hurley, because he has been trying to fix things since Juiet died. He realizes now that he cannot fix things and wonders if maybe he should let go. Hugo says, what if letting go would get them all killed. Hurley confesses that was bluffing with Richard, and Jacob wasn't really there, but he needed to get everyone's attention and support to get to Smokey.

The whisper of voices echo again through the greenery. Michael appears and answers another Lost Question for fans: the whispers are ghosts of people on the Island who can't move on. He points out the firelight at Camp Smokey.

"Is there anything I can do to help you?" Hurley says.

"Don't get yourself killed ... If you ever see Libby again, tell her I'm very sorry."

"I'll be sure and do that, dude."

In Sideways L.A. Hugo has a beachfront picnic with Libby, along with six different kinds of cheese. Libby confesses that being with him is like the date they never had. (Indeed it was: had not Michael shot Ana-Lucia and her, they were supposed to go have lunch on the Island beach.) She wants to know why he wants to be with her, and to Hugo it's simple -- he likes her.

Libby kisses Hugo, and -- flashes of them having good times on the Island together, his Moment of Revelation. Hugo's eyes go all wide. "I think I'm remembering stuff," he says, genuinely amazed. He tells Libby that he doesn't think she is crazy after all.

Desmond has been watching the entire time from his car and quietly drives away. Mission accomplished -- Hugo knows about his Island life...

As the Smoke Man and Des hike through the jungle, young Kenton Duty reappears as the mysterious Boy of the Jungle (alias Jacob Junior?). Desmond wants to know who he is, and Smokey gruffly says to just ignore him. As the Scot and the disgruntled monster turn to go, the Boy grins widely at them.

On the Island, Smokey takes Desmond to a well and asks him how deep it is. He tosses a torch in to show that it goes quite far down into the earth. He next asks Des how old he thinks the well is, to which the Scot says, "Very old."

Smokey says that is correct, and the well is so old that it had to be excavated entirely by hand. The ancient people weren't digging for water, but for answers. The Island was one of a number of places on earth where compass needles spin, so they dug to find out why.

In contrast, says the Smoke Man, Charles Widmore is not after answers but power. The well is not the only one on the Island.

"Why aren't you afraid?" Smokey demands. "You're out here in the middle of the jungle with me, and not a person on earth knows you're here. Why aren't you afraid?"

"What is the point of being afraid?" Desmond says.

Smokey responds by grabbing Desmond and hurling him down the the Deep Well of Answers, a move as sudden as when poor John Locke was grasped and tossed out a penthouse apartment window by his own father.

Smokey returns to camp, where Sayid asks how Desmond is. The Man Monster says they won't have to worry about him anymore. Sawyer wants to know the creature's whereabouts, to which he says, "I went for a walk, James."

Sawyer starts to question him again, only interrupt himself with his characteristic "Son of a bitch!" to a startling new situation.

Hurley strolls into Camp Smokey with a torch. "Um, hey."

"Hello, Hugo," greets the Smoke Man.

"I don't know who you are or what you want, but we have to talk to you." Hurley says he comes in peace, nothing wanting anyone to do anything, and suggests a setting aside of weapons to avoid anyone getting hurt or killed.

Smokey hands his knife to Hurley and says, "You have my word." A quick shot of Team Smokey shows just about everyone with a gun.

Frank, Sun and Jack are invited into the camp, and Smokey particularly addresses his greeting to a stunned Jack.

In Sideways L.A., Desmond is parked and watching John Locke wheel himself across the parking lot at the high school where he's a substitute. Ben Linus knocks on the car window and wants to know why he's been sitting there for so long watching the kids. Desmond claims he just moved to the neighborhood and was checking out schools for his kid.

When Ben wants to know the child's name, Des says "Charlie." The bespectacled European history teacher says he can vouch for the excellence of the the school and walks away.

Desmond again looks at Locke's labors to get to his van. He puts the sedan into gear, speeds up -- and plows right into Locke, who flies out of his wheelchair and clear over the top of Desmond's car and onto the pavement. The Scot takes off and leaves the bloodied Locke.

Ben cries out for someone to call 911. He asks Locke if he can hear him, but the substitute looks oddly dreamy eyed and happy ... as if he is in another world.

Boom sound, fade to black with white LOST title.

End notes...

--Well, it looks as if in Sideways Los Angeles that the St. Sebastian Hospital is going to be a hotbed of characters' lives intersecting, probably in the next couple weeks. Claire is getting care for her pregnancy. Kate was hurt in her flight from Sawyer and the other cops and needs treatment. Sun was gut shot, and Jin has rushed her there. John is a hit and run victim via Desmond and will probably be accompanied by Ben as he is sent there. Not to mention that Jack will attend to John, Evan Goodspeed and possibly Juliet Burke, are assigned to Claire. Interesting to find out how other characters may end up at the place.

The Golden State Museum will mean other character connections as Charlotte Lewis and Pierre Chang work there, and Daniel has a crush on Charlotte. Also Sawyer will be there, for some reason.

Rose already has shown up as a job counselor to John, and Bernard will be back in a dental way

--In previews for Episode 13, "The Last Recruit," there seems to be evidence that Desmond did not die in that tumble down the well. At least two shots showed him sitting up and looking at people.

The accompanying music was familiar, and at first I couldn't identify it, but then memories of 1972 came flooding back of a 10-year-old me and my mom at a second-run movie theater watching Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, released a year earlier. I plugged the song lyrics into Google, and found out the preview music was "The Wondrous Boat Song," sung by Gene Wilder, as the Golden Ticket owners and guardians enter a psychedelic tunnel on Wonka's little boat, powered by Oopma Loompas:

There's no earthly way of knowing
Which direction we are going
There's no knowing where we're rowing
Or which way the river's flowing

Is it raining, is it snowing
Is a hurricane a-blowing

Not a speck of light is showing
So the danger must be growing
Are the fires of Hell a-glowing
Is the grisly reaper mowing

Yes, the danger must be growing
For the rowers keep on rowing
And they're certainly not showing
Any signs that they are slowing

--I don't normally notice the ads, but one had Evangeline Lilly, that sometimes reviled-by-fans Kate, hawking L'Oreal Everstrong shampoo.

Also, comic book legend Stan Lee (Spider-Man, X-Men, etc.) is known to have cameos in movies based on his characters, or in films by comic fanboys like Kevin Smith. Old Stan did it again, but on the little screen in a Dr Pepper tie-in for Iron Man 2. He and a younger guy are janitors at Stark Industries and are cleaning Tony's office. The corporate computer thinks the young man is Tony, and asks what he desires. "Suit me up?" the boys says, and Lee watches without a word as the kid gets encased not in an Iron Man suit, but a Dr Pepper vending machine. At first the kid is upset, but then opens a can inside and says, "I'm good." Stan quietly dusts Iron Man suits in the background.

Lost Season 6, Episode 11 -- Happily Ever After

The life and times of Desmond David Hume have been so intriguing and varied, that episodes of Lost centered around him tend to be some of the show's best. "Happily Ever After" is the best episode so far of this final season, far surpassing Richard Alpert's backstory a couple weeks ago.

With the major theme of lost at first sight -- not only Desmond, but Charlie Pace and Daniel Faraday (or Widmore?) -- characters in 2004 Los Angeles are seeing not only their soulmates but the threads that bind them to the 2007 Island time track. And with the increasing frequency of characters crossing paths and popping up as supporting players, we are very soon going to have a case of When Worlds Collide, of the two time tracks merging. Objects -- such as a certain leather journal or a brand of fine scotch -- as well as situations and locations that are familiar to fans, are appearing in 2004 with breakneck speed now.

The episode opens with the Lost Patented Eyeball Closeup® -- it is Desmond's. In 2007, as he gets a shot from Jungle Liz Lemon (or Zoe) to counteract the sedatives he's been under while on the sub, we learn that it has been two days since Ben shot him him at the marina, and he attacked the Others leader. He is in a room in the Hydra Island infirmary, when he demands to see Penny.

Charles Widmore enters and tells him it is not possible, but Penny and Charlie are "perfectly safe." He adds that Desmond has been brought back to the Island under sedation, because there was no other way to do it.

As Widmore tries to explain, Desmond explodes and begins to whack him with an IV pole, yelling, "Take me back! Take me back!"

As the guards pull Desmond off Widmore, he says, "I can't take you back. The Island isn't done with you yet."

Jin asks Widmore why Desmond has been brought back. "It's easier to show you than to tell you, Mr. Kwon," the leader says.

Widmore orders Zoe to move up the electromagnetic testing. Zoe is surprised, as she notes that the generator has not been run for 20 years. Seamus seems to be in charge of the control room.

Desmond is to be moved immediately to a structure outside the control building that resembles a wooden shack (shades of Jacob's cabin?) with two huge electromagnetic coils on either end.

In seeing photos of the coils, I thought of three things -- Lifesaver candies, doughnuts and a cervix. Maybe that third one sounds gross, but the idea of the womb, of birth and rebirth, of second chances and redemption, have been repeatedly given through the Island's trials and demands. From Widmore's claims, Desmond is also the Lifesaver for the Island, and perhaps the world, from Smokey's ambitions to leave. Doughnuts, though? I don't know how that fits in.

As the EM generator starts up, it immediately breaks down. Seamus turns to a cage containing an animal seen repeatedly on Lost -- a white rabbit -- and says, "Guess what, Angstrom. You're going in there next." (An angstrom is a metric unit equivalent to 0.1 nanometer and is named after Anders Jonas Angstrom [1814-1874], Swedish physicist and a founder of the science of spectroscopy.)

A red shirt from Team Widmore is running a Geiger counter over one of the big doughnut coils in the shack. (In publicity photos for the episode, this technician is actually bathed in a red glow!) At the same time, another tech in the control room says he found a bad breaker. He turns on the generator without permission, and a great light blazes out of the shack. Zoe yells to shut the thing off. Later and the red shirt is found dead and severely toasted.

Desmond is muscled into the shack and tied to a chair. Widmore asks him to make a sacrifice, to which Desmond asks, "What the bloody hell do you know about sacrifice?"

"My son died here for the sake of this Island," Widmore says, and he gave up Penny to Desmond for the Island. He adds that if Desmond won't help, Penny, Charlie, and everyone else will be gone forever. Widmore seems to be consistent here -- he also warned Jin that everything they knew would cease to exist forever if Smokey leaves the Island.

Widmore says Desmond is the only person he knows who survived an electromagnetic event. Leaving Desmond in the shack, he orders the generator turned to full power, while an insanely enraged Desmond rants and smashes apart the chair to which he was tied. The EM readings go off the dial, and...

...Sideways Los Angeles, 2004. Desmond is standing in a section of the LAX terminal. Strange, as Desmond was on the jet in "LA X" and talked to Jack, but then he mysteriously disappeared. Now he is back, probably due to the EM generator in 2007, and his own powers to bridge time.

A voice says, "Carousel four." It's Hurley, who recognizes Desmond from the jet. (And there was one of the Numbers thrown out there.) Just after that, he sees a pregnant Claire struggling with her bag and helps her get it off the carousel. He offers her a ride, but she says she is set. He looks at her and says that her baby will be a boy. Being Desmond, he definitely knows that.

Desmond meets his chauffeur, and a more fitting driver could not be found, considering the time shifts and anomalies here. Fisher Stevens returns as George Minkowski, the communications officer from Widmore's freighter in Season 4 who lost his mind due the Island's magnetism and found his mind drifting through time. George says he can get Desmond anything he needs -- reservations at a fine restaurant, "lovely ladies," etc.

George takes him to his employer -- who is Charles Widmore. He is on the phone with someone from the L.A. prosecutor's office or police department and is demanding a fast arraignment and release for Charlie.

Widmore welcomes Desmond very warmly and gives him a big embrace. Desmond is unattached, with no family or other obligations, and is, as a familiar character will say later, Widmore's "main fixit man." They enjoy a toast of MacCutcheon scotch, a reference to back to "Flashes Before Your Eyes," when their talk over the same liquor was tense and confrontational, and Desmond had gone directly to Charles to ask for Penny in marriage. Where Desmond was not even worth one glass of the scotch in the Island timeline, here in 2004 L.A. he is one of Widmore's greatest assets.

Widmore tells Desmond that his wife has planned a huge charity event and decided to mix classical music and "modern rock." Desmond's assignment is to pick up the bass player of Drive Shaft from the police department and bring him to the charity event.

Desmond gets Charlie, who casually strolls away from him, across a street of busy cars without regard to life and limb, and straight to a stool inside a bar. Desmond also joins him in the tavern. Charlie wants to know if Desmond is happy, to which he says yes -- the pay is great, and he gets to travel the world.

"Ever been in love?" Charlie says.

"Thousands of times."

"That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about spectacular, consciousness altering love. You know what that looks like?"

"I wasn't aware that love looked like anything."

Charlie recounts his decision to go into the jet bathroom and swallow the bag of heroin, after he saw Marshal Mars with Kate and thought the cop had figured out he had drugs. As the bag got caught in his throat, Charlie says he saw a vision of a "rapturously beautiful" blonde woman -- Claire Littleton! -- and they were together. Charlie was about to be engulfed by an amazing feeling of love, but a "sodding idiot" -- Jack -- revived him and asked if he was okay.

Desmond offers him a choice -- either keep on drinking or go on with him to the benefit, give a 20-minute performance and get a stay in a five star hotel, courtesy one of the most powerful men in town. Or he can stay at the bar and face the "extermination of your musical career."

"Doesn't seem like a choice," says Charlie.

"There's always a choice, brother."

Desmond is driving Charlie to the benefit while Drive Shaft's first single, "You All Everybody," plays on CD. It is Charlie's turn to give a choice -- either he can show Desmond what he's talking about (the vision of overwhelming love), or Desmond can get out of the car. When Desmond says he doesn't know what he's talking about, Charlie suddenly grabs for the wheel of the Mercedes sedan. A struggle ensues, and the car goes speeding out of control, right off a landing in a marina and down into the water.

Desmond tries to rouse Charlie, who has been knocked unconscious, but he doesn't respond. He swims to the surface, gets another breath and goes down, and Charlie is now awake and rather casually staring out the car window at him, his left hand against the glass. Desmond gets a flash of another Charlie in another time at the Looking Glass station ("Through the Looking Glass, Part 2"), his hand against the glass, and NOT PENNY'S BOAT written on his palm. Desmond flashes back to 2004 L.A. and pulls Charlie to the surface as the emergency vehicles arrive.

At the hospital Desmond undergoes a checkup but is more concerned with finding Charlie. The doctor insists on sending Desmond for an MRI. Just as a Widmore worker asked him if he had anything metal on or inside of him just before the EM generator was turned on, the MRI tech goes through the same kind of questions. While inside the MRI chamber and enduring its loud noises, Desmond sees flashes of Penny, baby Charlie's hand, Penny kissing him, and the couple with their son. He pushes the panic button to get out.

Desmond tries to get information on Charlie, but a nurse won't help him, citing confidentiality. He sees a familiar face -- Jack -- and asks for his help to locate him. (The hospital is of course is St. Sebastian. Somewhere Juliet and Ethan are also probably making rounds.) Suddenly the very errant rocker he seeks appears, fleeing down the hallway in a hospital gown. Desmond chases him down a stairwell and into another floor, where Desmond finally corners him.

Charlie says he wasn't trying to kill him but was "trying to show you something." Desmond demands to see Charlie's hand, which is blank.

Desmond wants to know who Penny is. Charlie says he doesn't know but adds, "Ah, You felt it, didn't you?"

"I didn't feel anything."

"Then why are you accosting a man in a dressing gown?"

Desmond tries to take him with him. Charlie pulls away and says, "You think I can play a rock concert after all this? Nothing matters. This doesn't matter. All that matters is that we felt it."

He dares Desmond to stop him, and Charlie again rebuffs Desmond's attempt to take him with him. "Stop worrying about me and start looking for Penny."

Desmond is back with Widmore, complaining about the "junkie" who forced his car into the ocean. Widmore is upset, reminding him that when he gives Desmond a job, he expects it done. He tells Desmond he must now go to Mrs. Widmore himself with the news.

Naturally Mrs. Charles Widmore is Eloise, who is lecturing a catering employee on proper silverware placement when Desmond arrives. (The first establishing shot of the catering tent, a man can be seen sitting at a grand piano and playing. Guess who?) She is not upset at all when Desmond tells her Charlie has bailed out. With resignation she says a familiar line: "What happened, happened."

After their brief conversation, Desmond thinks he hears the name "Penny Milton" mentioned by two employees who are going over the guest list. The staff won't let Desmond see the list, and soon Eloise is involved. She tells him to stop, because someone has affected the way he sees things. "Whatever you're looking for, you need to stop looking for it."

Desmond wants to know why he can't look at the list, and Eloise says simply that he is not ready yet to look at it. The man who was playing the piano is observing all of this.

Desmond goes back to the limo for some scotch and some cool-down time. A man confronts Desmond as he sips some more MacCutcheon in the back seat. It's Daniel, dressed much as he was in Season 4, with the skinny dark tie and light shirt, with a snappy little hat added. "We need to talk," Daniel says.

Faraday asks Desmond if he ever experienced love at first sight. He recalls walking in a museum and seeing a woman with bright blue eyes and red hair -- Charlotte Staples! -- and falling instantly in love. Later that same night, he woke up and wrote in his journal. He shows Desmond the same leather journal he had in the Island timeline (it was a birthday gift from Eloise).

There are complex math formulas and diagrams on a page. Daniel says he doesn't understand them, he is a musician, not a scientist, but he himself wrote them down. Daniel showed the equations to a friend who was a Cal Tech math whiz, who told him they represented quantum physics, and were so advanced, that only someone who had spent his entire life studying physics was capable of producing them. Basically they stated that in order to prevent a terrible event, a catastrophe, a great amount of energy must be expended, such as a nuclear bomb blast.

Daniel gets existential, wondering what if these were not the lives they were to be leading, and instead were supposed to have others, in which they must change things. He does not want to set off a nuke, but he feels as if he already did. He asks Desmond why he asked Eloise about Penny.

"It happened to you too, didn't it?" Daniel says. "You felt it."

"I don't know what I felt."

"Yes, you do. You felt love."

"That's impossible, because I don't know anything about this woman. I don't know where she is. I don't even know if she exists. She's ... an idea."

"No, Mr. Hume, she is my half sister. And I can tell you exactly where and when you can find her."

Late that night, Desmond is at a stadium, the same one where he and Jack met while the doctor was running up and down the rows of seats (Season 2, "Man of Science, Man of Faith"). Now it is Penny who is doing the endless training up and down the rows. He stops her and offers his hand in introduction...

...And back to the Island in 2007, Desmond is lying on the floor of the EM shack, staring at his hand. He asks Widmore how long he has been unconscious, and it has been only a few seconds. Widmore apologizes for subjecting him to the generator, but surprisingly Desmond rises and tells Widmore he understands that he was brought back to the Island for a reason. "When do we start?" he asks Charles.

Zoe and a couple guards are escorting Desmond. She demands to know what happened -- only 20 minutes earlier he was beating the crap out of Widmore, and now he's "Mr. Cooperative."

"A lot can happen in 20 minutes."

And a lot can happen in seconds, as Sayid suddenly shows up and takes out the red shirt guards. He levels a handgun and Zoe and tells her simply to "run," which she wisely and immediately does. Sayid tells Desmond that there's no time to explain, except Team Widmore is a bunch of "very dangerous people," and they must leave at once.

"Why, of course," Desmond says. "Lead the way."

Desmond flashes back to the stadium. Penny asks him if he is okay, as he fainted once she took his hand. She also wants to know if they have met before, and he says he would remember if they did. They arrange to meet in one hour -- Penny has to get cleaned up -- for coffee at a shop at Melrose and Sweetzer, a Los Angeles intersection (any significance here?)

Back at the limo, Desmond asks George to get him the manifest for Oceanic Flight 815, more specifically the names of the passengers. When George asks why Desmond needs that, he says, "I want to show them something."

Boom. Fade to black.

Next week the sideways world will shift to Hurley, and I suspect the two time tracks/universes will continue even more to intersect and affect each other.

Notes and thoughts:

--Viewers are not the only ones who will have deja vu with the Sideways world -- Desmond asks Penny if he's met her before. Characters keep feeling this deja vu with each other.

--Desmond is the only main character in the Sideways world not to look into a mirror in an episode, unless you count him looking into the window of his submerged car as he looks at Charlie.

--In check other fan posts, mention was made a painting in Widmore's office, showing a balance scale with black and white stones on it, and a model of a sailing ship. Back in "Flashes Before Your Eyes," Widmore's office had a large painting of a polar bear on the wall. Other mention was made of Eloise's pendant, which I could not see well on my little TV. Her double pins on her jacket looked like lines with stars upon them. Stars represent navigation, which was one of her concerns in 2007 while working at the Lamppost Station in the church.

--The bunny was named Angstrom, which is a measuring unit, but also is the last name of John Updike's Rabbit character in multiple novels, as noted by other recappers. Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom, a star basketball player in high school, struggles through the books to be more than just husband, father and businessman, while stuck in the small Pennsylvania town of his youth. There are also incidents of drowning and near drowning in the books.

Fringe Season 2, Episode 15 -- Peter

It's 1985, and you're off to see one the year's biggest blockbusters, Back to the Future. It stars Christopher Lloyd, that crazy, brain-fried cabbie from Taxi as a crazy genius professor, and one of the year's promising actors, red-headed Eric Stoltz, as his teen sidekick and time traveler, Marty McFly.

At least, that is the version of BOTF you would have seen in the alt-verse where Peter Bishop lived up until the age of 7, when he was brought over to our world by the version of his father who lives here. Young Peter would never have seen the movie, as he was too sick to do anything -- go to a regular school, make friends, even play outside.

"Peter" is a critical mythology episode for Fringe, which refers back to "Jacksonville," the most recent episode from February, and "There's More than One of Everything," the Season 1 finale, that had Walter Bishop in tears before his son's grave. That simple, tense scene let all know that somehow he had pulled the alt-verse version of his son to this side.

In 1985, Walter, sporting big fluffy Rick Springfield hair, makes a presentation to three generals in the U.S. Army Research Center in New York City. He shows them a Motorola Razr phone with PROTOTYPE on its screen, telling them it's a smaller, leaner mobile phone because it is digital, not analog. One of the generals wants to know if it's Russian technology, and Walter says no, it is from an alternative universe that in some ways is more technologically advanced than ours.

The phone was reverse engineered and copied in our world by watching people in the alt-verse with a special Magic Window that Walter and William Bell created. It allows people in our universe to watch those in the other world.

Walter and his associate, Dr. Carla Warren, a physicist, are on the rooftop of the Army center with more generals. With some science talk of "errant photons" and "stretching the membrane between our world and theirs," Walter presents the Empire State Building through the Magic Window, noting that originally the observation deck was also to be used as a docking point for dirigibles. As the generals look into the mirror, they see just that activity in the alt-verse -- a zeppelin approaching the skyscraper, bathed in searchlights. (Blimp travel still in 1985? I am guessing there was no Hindenburg disaster in the alt-verse, or any other big dirigible accident there?)

The Fringe opening credits were'80s style. The credits and titles for scenes set in 1985 used a mod computer font, along with wire-frame/TRON style graphics and synth pop remake of the theme song. (I should note, though, that the computer font used was even older than the '80s -- as a kid I saw ones like it in articles, TV shows, etc. about computers and technology in the late 1960s and early '70s.)

In 2010, Walter comes to Olivia's house in the night, toting the Magic Window that he created after he realized there were doubles of most people in the alt-verse. He begins to tell Olivia how Peter ended up over here.

In 1985 at Walter's Harvard lab, he and Carla watch on the Magic Window as his alt-verse double, whom he's dubbed "Walternate," is laboring over his equipment to find a cure for Peter's illness. As Walter watches Walternate, he marks atoms on a chemical chart of the compound that could cure Peter. He gets a call from his wife, Elizabeth, who says Peter is worse and wants to see his dad. She adds that she can't bear being alone all the time. Walter says that she knows where he is -- 24-7, he's in the lab, trying to find that cure.

Walter comes home to see wife and son. He shows Peter how to do a trick his adult version has done earlier in the show, of flipping a silver dollar over and over the fingers in succession. Peter says he is not scared of dying. He wants to leave the silver dollar to his dad if he does die. Walter tells him not to worry, and that the boy will be fine...

...And the next scene is the cemetery at young Peter's funeral. Besides his parents and a minister, Nina Sharp and Carla are present. Nina tells Walter that William Bell offers his sympathies, that he is tied up with meetings in Berlin.

Later at home, Walter and Elizabeth think back about how Peter never had much of a normal life because of his illness. "We did did the best we could ... he knew he was loved. Didn't he?" Walter says.

Even later Walter asks Elizabeth to come to Peter's room, where he has set up the Magic Window. Elizabeth is shocked to see Peter sitting in his bed, reading, and demands to know why Walter is subjecting her to this. He explains the alt-verse technology to her and says that somewhere else Peter will grow and have a full life. He tells her that in their world that they must now move on.

At Walter's lab the next day, he and Carla are again watching Walternate in the Magic Window. Walter is sure that his double is close to completing the chemical compound that holds the cure for Peter's ailment. However, Walternate is startled when September the Observer walks into his lab. He does not see the compound change color. But Walter does see the chemical reaction and realizes Walternate missed the completion of the cure!

"All you have to do is stabilize the compound, and you can save him!" Walter yells, and he throws an object at the Magic Window, shattering it. (That is a Hollywood cliche -- an outburst of temper that leads to smashing of machinery or small device, as a cell phone, without regard to how much it cost to replace the stuff.)

In the alt-verse in 1985, September, who distracted Walternate, comes out of a movie theater with an associate and the senior Observer. They've just seen the Stoltz version of Back to the Future. Another one of those zeppelins flies lazily overhead.

September says he couldn't help when Walternate noticed him in the lab. The Chief Observer tells him that he changed the future, and the boy is important to the Grand Scheme of Things, and action must be taken to restore balance.

Back at Walter's lab, he tells Carla he is working on the cure for Peter -- not his son but Alt Peter. He references the Casimir Effect, which could produce a thinness in space and time. He cannot let the other Peter die.

Carla, furious, tells him that if Walter tries to cross over to the alt-verse, and speaking through her three degrees in theoretical physics, declares that the energy expended in a crossover would seriously damage both universes. That is why they deliberately lied to the Army about the ability to travel back and forth. This is much like the conflict of man of science/man of faith in Lost, with Carla more like John Locke when he was alive, with her belief in God, and Walter as Jack Shephard, deeply rooted in the science.

"Now I become Death, destroyer of worlds," Carla says, quoting J. Robert Oppeheimer, physicist who headed the Manhattan Project, in turn quoting the Bhagavad Gita, a famous Hindu scripture.

Determined to do the crossover, he bitterly tells Carla, "There's only room for one god in this lab, and it's not yours."

Walter realizes a lake would absorb the high energy output of a crossover, so he sets up his equipment at Reiden Lake in eastern New York State, which in succeeding years is to be used for other crossovers. Carla has ratted him out, and she arrives with Nina (and in that scene, you see her cell phone, one of those brick-like gray things with a keypad).

Nina tells Walter not to do the crossover. He reminds her that if William were present, he would be applauding at the chance he is taking -- why peek into the alt-verse, when you can actually go there? Nina refuses to believe Bell would support Walter's recklessness. He responds: "You don't understand him! All William cares about is increasing the power and the legend of William Bell!"

Just as Walter starts to cross over, Nina grabs him and tries to prevent his entry into the alt-verse, but Walter goes to the other side -- along with Nina's forearm and hand. As Walter vanishes, Nina pulls back her arm, stunned as it seems to blur and flicker before her and Carla. And this is why in the present she has a bionic arm.

In the alt-verse, Walter discovers that the bottle containing the cure has broken and soaked his shirt and coat. Determined, he still continues toward his double's home, hoping to get Alt Peter, cure him in our world, and then sneak him back to the alt-verse.

At the Alt Bishop house, Elizabeth shows Peter how to do the silver dollar trick. He finally learns the trick and tells his mother that if he dies, he wants her to have the coin. As Walter told his Peter, nothing will happen to him, and he'll be fine.

Walter comes to the house and convinces Alt Elizabeth that he has the cure, and Peter should come with him to the lab. He tells her that it could take days, and that she should stay home and rest so that she can care for a recovering Peter later. Elizabeth gives him the silver dollar and tells Walter to bring Peter back, and he promises to return home. But it was a big promise Walter did not keep.

Walter takes Alt Peter to Reiden Lake. Peter wants to know why they are not taking a car, to which Walter says, "You can't get to where we're going in a car." (Professor Brown in Back to the Future said a similar line to Marty and his girlfriend at the end of the movie: "Where we're going, we don't need roads.")

"You aren't my father, are you?" Alt Peter says.

"Of course I am, and I'm going to make you all better."

Walter takes Alt Peter back to our side, only for the two of them to fall into the icy lake, but September is there to rescue them. When Walter asks September why they were saved, he repeats what his boss said to him: "The boy is important. He has to live."

Elizabeth comes to Walter's lab and is shocked to see a living Peter. Walter tells her that this Peter was dying too, and he could not let him suffer the same fate as their son. He tries to get Elizabeth to stop hugging him, that Alt Peter must be sent back once he is cured.

In 2010, Walter says he could not take Alt Peter back, because he saw in Elizabeth what he feared most in himself: he could not lose the boy again. That was the first crack between the universes, that has led to a series of others, and it is all his fault. "You can't imagine what it's like to lose a child," he tells Olivia.

Thoughts and footnotes:

-- Once Peter was brought home, how did he forget his passage into our universe and the dip into that icy Lake Reiden? All he can remember is he fell into a lake, and a strange man rescued him. Are these suppressed memories, or did Walter do something to make him forget?

--What happened to Elizabeth in succeeding years -- did she die herself, or leave Walter after he was put in the mental institution?

--What has happened to Alt Water and Elizabeth in the years that have passed since their son was abducted? Will there eventually be a showdown between the two different Walters?

--Peter eventually will learn the truth about himself. How will he react, and what will be the impact on the conflict of the two universes?

--Peter is important to the Observers and the balance of the universes (like Anakin?) -- in what way?

--One odd moment for me was in the second establishing shot of the opening scene at the Army Research Center, which showed a corridor and Walter's voice heard off-camera. I saw a picture of George Bush Sr. on the wall, but no Ronald Reagan. At first it made me wonder if the world in Fringe is not ours after all, until I rewound and found that Reagan's portrait was to the left of Bush and mostly in shadow. But that brings up an interesting premise, or possible plot twist. What if the world shown on Fringe is really not ours, but yet another that is virtually identical, and we're seeing a battle between two alt-verses?

--As fans have discovered, the little images of butterflies, frogs, hands, etc. that appear before each commercial break are actually glyphs or code symbols that spell out a word relevant to each episode. This week the word was, appropriately, "PETERS." As we now know from the show, there is more than one of everything!

--Michael J. Fox had always been the producers' and Robert Zemeckis' first choice for the Marty role, but his schedule was filled with work on the sitcom Family Ties. Stoltz and C. Thomas Howell also were considered for Marty. Stoltz had impressed them with his role in Mask as Rocky Dennis, a real-life boy with a highly deformed face but who was extremely intelligent and artistic. Stoltz finally was cast as Marty, but a month into filming, the producers just did not feel he was right for the role, because he was too much a dramatic actor, and he had trouble with the skateboarding. Zemeckis and company decided to start over, this time with Fox. Even Stoltz did not feel right as Marty and confessed this to his Mask director, Peter Bogdanovich. Funny to see his name again, as he loomed large in the sci-fi genre recently as "father of the Cylons," Daniel Graystone, in Caprica.

--In our world, Back to the Future was a 1985 summer season blockbuster, while it was on screens in the alt-verse in winter. It might have been a late 1985 release for the holiday season. A poster for Clue, which was a late '85 release, suggests this was quite possible. I like when the producers do these subtle things, such as the contrast between the slim Razr phone Walter showed the generals, and then the shot of Nina's monstrous Motorola DynaTAC later in the program.