Not that she was ever exactly in Kansas in the first place. The Fringe Division is largely confined to the NE United States, it seems.
It seems that there's a reason for that too.
Nina Sharp survives... because she's partly cybernetic with an impressive robotic arm and Kevlar in her chest. It also turns out, by some frankly unbelievable voice-matching off poor-quality audio from the lift, that Mr Jones is involved. And he's not exactly looking too good...
(Nor, apparently, is Olivia, but Anna Torv is better-looking on a bad day than most humans, so it doesn't really resonate)
Mr Jones, whose face is wrapped in bandages that have absorbed a bit of pus, is using some weird gadget in the middle of the street that brings half a lorry over from somewhere. A lorry that isn't registered anywhere.
Meanwhile, Walter is looking for something important in his hitherto unseen beach house. Peter, who really should be less of a sceptic by now, helps him to do that.
This is an ending and also a section break in some ways. We get quite a lot of questions answered as Olivia, who has a problem doing her shirt up fully at times, manages to acquire a load of old case files at rather short notice from the archives. We discover that there's a parallel universe, and in some places the barrier between it and ours is quite thin. Like the geographical version of Halloween in a way. Mr Jones wants to go there.
I will say Jared Harris does a great job with just his voice - covering everything as his face is covered in bandages.
In one of the more disturbing bits of the episode, Mr Jones' attempts to gain access merely result in a kid being severed in two - with all the wounds cauterised, so there's no bleeding from from the half we see. Or maybe there is, but we just don't see it.
Olivia and the Bishops find out where he's trying to go next. Olivia ignores FBI use of force guidelines by shooting an unarmed man in the back... but the bullets go through Mr Jones anyway. But in a bit of karma, Peter manages to close the portal as he steps through it, adding an entry to the Cinemorgue page of Jared Harris as he's severed in twain.
In the first of the two big twists at the end, Walter goes to visit a grave... for Peter Bishop, who died when he was 9! So, who is this guy claiming benefit of clergy?
Olivia is told to leave Walter Bell along by her boss... but then gets invited to lunch by Nina Sharp. Nina stands up her up, but as she goes down the lift, the lights go off briefly. She then finds herself being greeted by a woman who takes her to see a mysterious man in the shadows - at which point, I am thinking of "Almost Thirty Years" from Alias. He comes out and reveals himself to be... Leonard Nimoy! Who is playing Walter Bell.
Now Nimoy's appearance is revealed in the opening credits instead of kept as a surprise, because there's a bigger Dun-Dun-Dunham moment to come. Olivia looks out of the window and we pan out... to reveal an intact World Trade Center! She's not in her own universe anymore!
In any event, one wonders what travel expenses she'll be able to claim as we go into Season 2.
Conclusion
A good finale with excellent performances and an intriguing ending. I'll definitely carry on with this.
8/10
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