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TV REVIEW Fringe 4.17

THE ONE WHERE Our Lincoln helps the other universe hunt a vigilante shapeshifter. It does not end well for Other Lincoln.

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UNIVERSE Mostly over there – orange credits.

VERDICT What a wonderful, emotional, action-packed yet character-driven episode. A superb example of what Fringe does best - playing with its own mythology, weaving the arc plot into a case-of-the-week story and giving us authentic people to root for. The excellent actors once again play multiple versions of themselves, and in Seth Gabel 's case, in the same scene.

It's unusual to have an episode where both Peter and Walter are completely absent, but this enables us to focus on Lincoln. He's become such a key part of the series that you recall almost with a start that there were two seasons of Fringe before he showed up and this current season is the first time he's been a regular! Both versions are great characters and the heavy handed lovesick portrayal of our guy in the recent couple of episodes finally gets its payoff here. Although the episode starts with a light touch ("grazing day"? Really?) it soon becomes intense.

Our Lincoln is not merely sad because of unrequited love - at the start of the episode he completely doubts his purpose and value. The pursuit of the rogue shapeshifter provides a routine procedural backdrop to a story which is really about Lincoln finding his place. He is the latest person from one world to discover that their doppleganger is "better". It's fascinating that the two Lincolns had such a similar upbringing, yet one ended up much more confident and admired. At the end, with the bolder Lincoln killed (he dies off screen, conspiracy fans - is he really gone?) our Lincoln chooses to replace him in the other universe, a neat reversal of our Olivia's decision to succumb to her alternate memories. It's a shame that Captain Lee carks it because I liked him too, but 'shippers can now begin hoping for a Lincoln-Fauxlivia pairing. Will everybody get the romance they deserve thanks to the parallel universes?

Fun as well as moving, possible only because of the show's sci-fi premise, well acted with plenty of genuine character progression, delivering some gory deaths and a gunfight in the street - you can't ask for better TV.

LMAO There really was no need to put an FBI coat and hat on the cow.

THEIR KIT IS COOLER Their voice operated, in-car computers with sat-nav and streaming media don't actually seem that farfetched in 2012! But it is neat that newspapers have animated pictures in them.

WE COULD BE HEROES It's an understated but powerful twist that over there, the Fringe team aren't secret but celebrated as "heroes".

GROSS As Lincoln tries to retrieve a dead body's necklace, its goo-covered head falls off.

NUMBERS Surely a coincidence, but interesting nonetheless: Captain Lee's locker code is 3570*. Document 3570 is a famous urban legend, a hoax that claims NASA astronauts tested zero-G sexual positions.

TITLE "Everything In Its Right Place" is of course the title of a song from Radiohead 's 2000 album Kid A , featuring many abstract lyrics drawn out of a hat by the band. The song was used as the opening to Vanilla Sky . The line "there are two colours in my head" seems particularly appropriate for Fringe 's parallel universes...

FAN NAMES Just as it was fans online who started calling Alternate Olivia "Fauxlivia", I notice folk are calling the nasty Alternate Nina "Meana".

OBSERVING THE OBSERVER At 33:36, the Observer is in the town square right before the sniper attack.

SPECULATION Now they have GPS trackers for all the shapeshifters, surely the exposure of the dodgy Colonial Broyles is only an episode or so away?

BEST LINE
Fauxlivia [interrupting the two Lincolns comparing life stories]: "Girls? You might want to get off the line. Some of us are trying to work here."

Dave Bradley twitter.com/SFXDaveB

See all Fringe season four reviews

Fringe airs in the UK at 10pm on Wednesday nights on Sky 1 . It's repeated on Sky2 on Thursday evenings if you miss it!

Dave was once the Group Editor-in-Chief for Future's film group, but now he's the COO of Pocket Gamer and Pocket Gamer Biz. He also freelances for SFX Magazine and hosts the Robby The Robot's Waiting podcast with a couple of friends.