Fringe got to show off its coolest device yet in Friday’s “The Enemy of My Enemy,” a fun episode that established a major new arc for the season’s new universes in a new timeline. Back in September, Season 4 began with the promise of the two universes working together, but unfounded suspicions—like assuming Walternate is sending super-shapeshifters over to “our” side to kill everyone—have prevented the two worlds from fully cooperating with each other throughout most of the first half of the season.

But thanks to the reintroduction of one Mr. David Robert Jones, the two sides have a mutual problem. There has been a lot of gray area within the two universes’ characters, and as Walternate reminded us, “Not everything is as it seems.” We assumed Walternate was bad because we knew him as a jerk before. Nina Sharp is up to something, but what? And “their side” Broyles isn’t anything like the other three Broyles we’ve met. Everything is riding on an air of paranoia and incorrect accusations. But there’s little doubt about Jones, who I feel confident in saying is a dick no matter what universe, timeline, or timeline-iverse you’re in.

With Jones stepping in as mutual enemy, Season 4 has its first clear bad guy, and we’re finally getting to see what we’ve been waiting for: Olivias, Lincolns, Broyleses, Walternate, and a Peter all sitting around a conference table trying to figure out how to stop a madman who can jump back and forth between universes! It’s the League of Extraordinary Universes, ladies and gentlemen, and it’s what Fringe has been working toward since the idea of multiple universes was introduced.

Or is it? Through the use of multiple timelines (multiple universes weren’t enough), Fringe can have its cake, eat it, sit on it, smash it with its face, or just leave it out in the rain. In this timeline, producers can create a story where everyone works together. In the Seasons 1-3 timeline, they can keep things bitter between the universes. And if they want to create a situation where Olivia and Fauxlivia have a lesbian marriage, all they have to do is create a third timeline. For a television writer, it must be a blast to explore all your options and ideas with a built-in easy way out.

For a viewer, however, it can be a little weird. One of the most-voiced complaints about Season 4 has been the lack of emotional connectedness to these new characters; though they’re different versions of characters we grew to love in the first three seasons, they aren’t those characters and they don’t share the same experiences those characters were built on. While I don’t harbor the same complaint, I get it. And I can only imagine what some people think of anchoring this season further in Season 4’s timeline by introducing a compelling bad guy. If things go how I think they will go, Peter isn’t getting back to his Olivia and Walter and Astrid anytime soon. Not with Jones messing things up. I had wondered if Peter would be heading home around the midseason point, but now my money is on the Season 4 finale.

Like I said, it’s not my complaint, but I get it. I still think all this new timeline stuff is interesting because Fringe continues to add neat wrinkles. It’s kind of like backtracking in a Choose Your Own Adventure book and taking a left instead of a right early on to see how things play out differently.

Plus, interesting things are happening in this timeline that are making it seem more like the Fringe of old. The more time people spend with Peter, the more they’re connecting with him. Walter, thanks to urging from Walternate’s wife Elizabeth (Orla Brady), has agreed to help Peter. It’s a big change from running away and screaming like a little girl every time he sees this alternate version of his dead son. Olivia continues to thaw out before Peter’s eyes (that smile was more than just a “happy we’re working together” smile), and even Broyles is down with having Peter take the field with his agents. It could be the producers’ way of appeasing those who’ve felt disconnected from this season, but I think it was their plan all along. Season 4’s biggest task has been to tackle the idea of how a Peter-free universe would react to Peter being plopped in. It touches on themes of fate, destiny, and interconnectedness, and I think it’s doing so in a very fun way.

Notes from the Other Side:

– The dissolving hand on the glass was awesome. Really, really, awesome. And gross. Really, really gross. Fringe continues to look great on a shoestring budget, as opposed to my animated GIFs. I can’t seem to fix these color issues!

– The final scene: Oh Nina, you’ve been a bad girl. I presume the “her” you’re talking about in “we’re working on her” is Olivia. What exactly are you doing with Olivia?

– “I lost a universe!” Peter, don’t be so dramatic.

– David Robert Jones’ tactic of throwing the Fringe Division’s tail by distributing money tagged with the same tracking device to a crowd of people was a bit cornball. But who was that on the $100 bill?

– Can we talk about how awesome and hot Orla Brady is? She’s fifty years old. Fifty! If I look that good when I’m fifty I’m definitely attending all my high school reunions.

– “Our” Lincoln seems to be the only character who’s really interested and blown away by the whole alternate universe and alternate versions of people thing, and how what’s going on in the other universe could affect his life in his own universe. When he asked Olivia if she and her Lincoln were getting it on, he was really clinging to the idea that he could make it work with his Olivia. Poor guy was crushed when Alt-livia said “Not like that!”

via Fringe: The League of Extraordinary Universes – News – TV.com.