Okay, Fringe-o-philes, the midseason break is over! And the only reason that sentence gets an exclamation point is that the cliffhanger in the last episode actually left me wanting to see more. So here we go…

We start with Peter, who finds Walter looking stunning in a little green apron that’s just a touch revealing, considering that he’s not wearing a shirt. He wasn’t able to get the waffle maker to work, so he made chocolate chip and banana pancakes. Meanwhile, Peter is baffled by the fact that Walter is speaking to him. (I smell a dream sequence, or something of a less plausible nature.)

Olivia enters, wishing Peter a good morning with a smile and a kiss. Then she shows sympathy for Peter, who had been looking forward to waffles. Yeah, this is definitely a dream. Olivia doesn’t smile. And her affectionate banter is a Fringe event all its own.

And of course, Walter drops the waffle iron, and Peter wakes with a start.

We next see Walter testing pinwheels. Apparently one is spinning against the flow of air, and he can’t wait to show Astrid. (He got her name right. Maybe it’s still a dream…) A box of pastries is placed in front of him. Walter is initially delighted, until he realizes that it’s Peter who put them there. Peter begs Walter to help him reset the machine to return him home. …Right, because using the machine worked out so well for him last time.

Walter begins recounting the story of how he found his wife’s body. The point of Walter’s story is that helping another Peter caused unspeakable damage last time. Obviously, he is not inclined to offer his services.

Peter next appeals to Olivia, who is on leave due to a migraine. Peter wants to get Broyles’ permission to cross to the other side and persuade Walternate to send him home. Olivia launches into the naysayer routine, but then is interrupted by another knock at the door. It’s Lincoln, who has brought chicken soup. He is just in time to hear that he is a part of Peter’s plan to get to Walternate.

Olivia confesses then that in that reality, Massive Dynamic recovered the portal Walter used back in the 80s. She has been thinking of using it to do some reconnoitering herself. Peter wonders why she needs the device when she can cross over on her own, but she has no idea what he’s talking about. Olivia and Lincoln want to use this as an opportunity to bust Walternate as the mastermind behind the shape shifters, but Peter insists that such a course would throw off his plans to get home.

On the other side, a child enters a restroom and sees two pairs of feet in a stall scuffling around. The woman appeals to a policeman to break it up. The policeman opens the stall, finding not a public display of affection but rather a shape shifter and his victim. The killer bolts, running up the side of a bus, flying over it, and then… landing on the street and getting hit by another bus.

We next see Walternate pacing in his office. Evil Brandon shows up with a progress report on shape shifter tech. Apparently he is as baffled as to the source of the shape shifter prototypes as everyone else. Walternate volunteers to handle the trace on his own, sending Brandon away.

Olivi-ain’t and other-Lincoln, meanwhile, are prowling the crime scene. As usual, my favorite is missing. (Where are you, Charlie?!) But they are interrupted by the Department of Defense, who kicks them out. Folivia’s definitely not happy about that one, but Lincoln waves the white flag, and they leave.

Back on our side, once they have the machine, Peter takes Olivia and Lincoln to the theater used as a soft spot on the last crossover. Lincoln is dressed up as his counterpart. It’s such a good disguise that I almost didn’t recognize him. He worries about getting cut in half on his way through, but then dawdles anyway.

Other-Astrid detects the breach immediately and reports it to super Broyles. Broyles tells her to redirect their Olivia and Lincoln there and to send back up.

During this time, Walternate is examining the body from the bus accident earlier. He extracts another shape shifter disk with that same scary frown that looks like it was ironed onto his face.

While this goes on, Lincoln and Peter are playing the old captured Wookie routine. They tell the guard that Walternated to keep the “prison transfer” up the books. The guard reluctantly agrees. He asks for Lincoln’s Show Me, but he claims to have lost it catching Peter. The guard obligingly reports it lost for him.

Back at the opera house, Olivia and Lincoln find that all traces of a breach are gone. Olivia is meanwhile starting to think that her blonde counterpart might be right, and that Walternate is involved in the great shape shifter conspiracy. Lincoln calls her paranoid and tries to start the car with his Show Me, but the car will not accept it. He calls the guard who reported it, who still has Peter and the imposter in his sights.

Lincoln begins probing to see if Peter can get into the secure room he used to work on the machine back in the day. Realizing Lincoln still wants to investigate Walternate while there, Peter becomes agitated. Just as they start bickering like little girls, Fringe Division shows up to arrest them.

When Walternate gets the report, he is still working on the disk. Walternate says not to contact the other side until the prisoners have been interrogated. He has an oddly Walter-like look in his eye. (The loveable Walter, not the current version.)

We next see the trasnport carrying the prisoners. The driver, after receiving a mysterious directive, suddenly breaks from the convoy and takes off on his own. The driver also shoots the agent in the passenger seat. Jerk.

He stops and lets Peter and Lincoln loose, telling them to uncuff themselves. Just as he gets ready to do them in, the other agent (barely alive) shoots at him. The distraction compromises the traitor, and a scuffle ensues, ending with Lincoln shooting the bad guy. They take his gun and flee.

Astrid tracks them as they flee, and soon they are stopped by more Fringe Division agents. Or at least, Lincoln is. Apparently Peter has taken off on his own. Lincoln insists that they trace the call made to the agent who was driving. Lincoln says that, according to Peter, Folivia will do the right thing. She answers by putting him back in the transport.

Peter’s mother, still living on that side, comes home to realize there’s been a break-in. She trips an alarm and tries to run, but Peter steps out and explains that he needs to speak with her husband. She immediately recognizes him. She reveals that what got her through the tragedy of his loss was knowing that there was a Peter who survived somewhere.

Just then, DOD soldiers show up in response to the alarm. Peter draws a gun, but she takes it so that he won’t be perceived as a threat. She stops them from firing and makes them take her and Peter to see Walternate.

We learn next that Lincoln is to be held in a maintenance closet while the other Lincoln and Olivia look into the phone call the driver received.

When Peter and Elizabeth reach Walternate’s office, Walternate commands the soldiers to set Peter free and get lost. Walternate asks Elizabeth to give them a moment. Of course, once she’s gone there’s an entirely different tone. Walternate is not really surprised to see Peter, as he has been monitoring the other universe.

Peter tells Walter that he doesn’t care about the fight between those universes. He just wants to go home. He makes the oh-so-convincing argument: “if you want me out of the way, then help me.” Or something like that. Of course Walter could always kill him, too…

Evil Brandon then interrupts. He testifies that Walternate could not possibly have anything to do with the shape shifters. Walternate then shoots Brandon in the face with a specialized pulse gun. As it turns out, Brandon is also a shape shifter.

Apparently Walternate had been suspicious of Brandon for some time. The shape shifter is not dead, so they will interrogate him when he wakes. What Walternate does know is that the shape shifters are targeting elected officials and authorities. Walternate then tells Peter that he will help him get home, but only if Peter conveys a message to the other side: that Walternate is not their enemy.

Could it be that this Walternate isn’t so bad? Coming from the writers behind Benjamin Linus, I’m not so convinced… Peter is, however.

Meanwhile, Olivia reports that the call to the treacherous agent came from an abandoned industrial park. Lincoln says it is time to talk to Broyles. Broyles already knows about the trace, and he grants them some leeway. Once they leave, he makes a call, saying: “They are on their way to you now.”

And… holy cow! It’s David Robert Jones, the creepy British guy from season one! I must say, I did not see that coming. (Though I should have, as Peter happened to recall the time he used a portal to cut the guy in half at the beginning of the episode.) Jones is busily manufacturing more shape shifters.

Back on our side, Olivia is still waiting for Peter and Lincoln when Buddy the Observer shows up. He pulls the whole speaking in unison routine, which never gets old, apparently. Buddy has come to tell Olivia something. (It seems that he’s been shot.) He has looked at all possible futures and seen the same result: Olivia has to die.

Olivia turns to go for her keys so she can take Buddy to a hospital, but by the time she turns back he has disappeared. The audience is left wondering about her fate. (I have to say, I don’t care nearly as much as I did when this happened on Lost, in the season where Desmond predicted Charlie would die.) Well, I guess we’ll find out how things turn out in this show soon enough…