Reciprocity
Season 3, Episode 11

Reciprocity

Aired January 28th, 2011 · Written by Josh Singer · Directed by Jeannot Szwarc

SYNOPSIS

When the Fringe team visits Massive Dynamic's assembly of the doomsday device Walter becomes greatly concerned for Peter's well-being, so he turns to Nina for added brain power to understand the relationship between Peter and the superweapon. Meanwhile, the discovery of a dead shapeshifter body triggers an intense investigation.

Synopsis provided by the Fandom Wiki, Fringepedia, and Wikipedia.

THE GLYPHS

This episode's glyphs spell:

A-L-T-E-R

Walter theorized that Peter's proximity to The Machine, an object of destruction, altered Peter to be similarly dangerous and destructive.

Glyph symbol A Glyph symbol L Glyph symbol T Glyph symbol E Glyph symbol R
Glyph symbol A
Glyph symbol L
Glyph symbol T
Glyph symbol E
Glyph symbol R


THE OBSERVER

The Observer can be seen in the crowd near the crime scene at the koi pond.

Observer 12:37

EPISODE CLUES

Previous Episode Clue

The album cover artwork from The Police's 1981 album Ghost in the Machine can be seen painted on a wall in 'The Firefly'. This foreshadows 'Reciprocity' where The Machine seemingly turns on for no reason.

Previous episode clue 36:01

Next Episode Clue

ITEMS OF INTEREST

  • The Machine powered on just by Peter being close to it.

VIDEOS

Featurettes
Commentary

FRINGE DIVISION CASE FILE

U.S. Department of Justice
Federal Bureau of Investigation
121 105th Street • Washington, DC 20735
Phone: (202) 555-2100 • Fax: (202) 555-2101
E-mail: washington.fbi@fbi.com

FRINGE DIVISION CASE FILE #311-12811

FRINGE EVENT: Shapeshifters being systematically executed

CLASSIFIED CASE CONNECTION(S): Shapeshifters

AGENTS ASSIGNED: Dunham

SUPERVISING AGENT: Broyles

FILE ARCHIVED BY: Grant Pollard, Lee Varner

WITNESSES/CONTACTS: Lieutenant Pike, Dr. Grant

LOCATION: Revere, MA

VICTIM(S): Dr. James Falcon, Jackie Bermudez, Zach Alpert

CASE REPORT SUMMARY:

The Machine was built on Liberty Island, but no one was able to activate it. A dozen different power sources were tried, along with multiple diagnostics, but it remained unresponsive. NASA, the CIA, the NIH, and the government's top people had no idea how to operate it. Peter Bishop turned out to be the key when his mere presence created an electromagnetic spike that triggered the Machine.
 A colleague found Shapeshifter Michael Baird dead in a fountain with his data storage disk removed. Baird was on a long list of Port Authority employees on Special Agent (B)Olivia Dunham's hard drive, and his death tipped the agency to a mole placed by Secretary Walter(nate) Bishop.

GLYPH SIGHTINGS

  • A seahorse can be seen on Peter's luggage.
Glyph Sighting: Seahorse 05:40 Seahorse

WALTER'S FOOD

Walter asked for grape chewing gum, asked Peter to make him a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, had a sudden craving for bananas (typically his least favorite fruit), made a banana split, and had some whipped cream.
Walter's Food: Peanut butter and jelly sandwich 07:07 Peanut butter and jelly sandwich
Walter's Food: Banana split 29:49 Banana split
Walter's Food: Whipped cream 30:17 Whipped cream

NOTABLE QUOTES

Walter (after assembling a banana split, he answers his phone):
"Hello?"
Nina:
"Walter, it's Nina."
Walter:
"Nina. I was just thinking about you! (licks whipped cream from his finger.)"
Peter (after killing shapeshifters):
"They're soldiers, Walter. They're here to kill us. Besides, they're not even human. And I'm not doing anything wrong."
Walter:
"Then why didn't you tell us? If you weren't doing anything wrong, why didn't you tell us? I don't know what's happened, but this is not you."
Nina:
"I understand you have news on the device."
Brandon:
"Not exactly, but we found these three copies of The First People's book."
Nina:
"Where did we find them?"
Brandon:
"One was in a museum. The others, private collections. The owners did not want to part with them. But it kind of helps when you have unlimited funds."
Nina:
"And did they all say the same thing?"
Brandon:
"It's in three different languages written by three different authors. They're all published within two years of each other. So forgiving for the translations, they're almost literally word for word."
Nina:
"And - what do you make of it? A civilization that existed millions of years before the dinosaurs?"
Brandon:
"The planet has been spinning for five billion years. We've only been around for the past 250,000. There were six major extinction events before we even crawled out of the slime. So who's to say that one of them didn't wipe out a great civilization?"
Nina:
"Hmm."
Brandon:
"There's another thing. When we put the word out that we were looking for copies of the book, we found out we weren't the only ones. A few years ago, somebody started a similar search."
Nina:
"Who?"
Brandon:
"William Bell."

EPISODE CONNECTIONS

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Setups & payoffs (1 later episode)

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