Ep 1. Neither Here Nor There

In season 4 of Fringe, the episode titled "Neither Here Nor There" opens on the heels of the alternate-universe plotline that dominated the show's third season. Things have been reset, but not entirely. The episode starts by introducing us to a new FBI agent named Lincoln Lee, who is investigating a mysterious case involving a man who blinks out of existence on a crowded sidewalk. It's an eerie little set piece, full of people disappearing without a trace that conjures up memories of the Sudden Departure in The Leftovers.

Meanwhile, back at the lab, Olivia Dunham is still struggling to cope with memories that belong to her alternate-universe doppelgänger. We get little glimpses of what happened in the "over there" universe before there's a knock on the door — and it's Lincoln Lee, arriving in our universe to help solve the case. Lee is an interesting addition to the show. He's a bit of a loose cannon, and he's got the same kind of dogged determination to solve mysteries that Olivia has.

The show quickly starts teasing some more mysteries — for instance, we learn that the Fringe team now has a direct line to a mysterious group called "The Observers," which I won't spoil here. But it does set the tone for an episode that's really all about piecing together the clues. Soon enough, Lee and Dunham are off investigating the case together. They explore the idea that the man who disappeared was an "electric man," who has somehow been overloaded with energy and sent into a timelike state. It's just the kind of pseudoscientific mumbo-jumbo that Fringe is so good at.

As they dig deeper, they learn that the electric man is not the real mystery here, but rather the people who made him disappear. Lee also has his own emotional journey to go on. He's dealing with some stuff in his personal life that intersects with the case in a really interesting way. It's not a spoiler to say that the case gets solved; what's really interesting about "Neither Here Nor There" is the way it teases at the fabric of the show's reality, and sets up the mysteries that will keep us hooked for the rest of the season.