Trama

Walter retrieves another video tape from the amber and it leads the team into a pocket universe.

While Peter and Olivia grieve the loss of Etta, Walter retrieves tape #7 and alone heads to an apartment building in a derelict zone to find an essential component of the plan to defeat The Observers. The apartment is the entrance to a "pocket universe' where the laws of time and physics do not work. Walter finds a man called Cecil that accidentally fell into this universe twenty years ago, but only five days have passed in the pocket universe. Meanwhile, Astrid finds the tape and goes with Peter and Olivia to the apartment. Peter and Olivia use the entrance to the pocket universe to seek out Walter, while Astrid waits for them. But, The Observers have seen and identified Walter and are heading to the area. What will happen next?—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Walter works to unearth more objects from his ambered-over lab. He pulls out a Betamax cassette and enjoys a red vine. It's tape seven, Walter is walking and talking as he films, saying he'll show the viewer how to get the next piece of the plan.

At Etta's, Peter watches a hologram message from her. He grabs his gun when he hears a noise, but it's just Olivia. She came looking for him after he didn't come home and wasn't answering his phone. She sees the hologram of Etta. She understands why he came. They watch the recording together as she snuggles into him. "Peter, when you feel like this, I just want you to include me," she tells him. He kisses her and she caresses his neck and feels the wound there. She asks about it and he says it's a scratch. (It's where he inserted the Observer tech.)

On the tape, Walter reaches 167 Cedar Street, apartment 413. A woman confronts Walter on the tape for being a nuisance in the building.

Walter goes to Boston and is spotted on the street by a surveillance camera. Chunks of the building are missing, blown out. The same woman is on the ground floor with a motorized eye. She tells him the fourth floor has been "red tagged" for years.

He starts up the stairs, which are next to a gaping hole in the wall. He enters 413, which is split like a mirror image of itself down the middle. He takes the prescribed number of steps forward, back and to the side, then turns around and steps cleanly through to a parallel universe.

On the other side, he comes out in what looks like a totally different apartment building, with hallways designed by MC Escher.

Back at Harvard, Astrid, Peter and Olivia find Walter gone. They watch the tape, which explains a "unique and efficient hiding place for a piece of the plan to defeat the Observers." It's a parallel "pocket" universe, where many of the usual laws of psychics don't apply. They see him reach 413 and meet a man named Donald, who isn't shown. Walter promises everything will be clear "once we're safely inside." He explains the steps and pivots that we just saw him perform, but it cuts short and the tape goes black. They don't understand why he'd go alone. "It's not like him," Peter says.

On the other side, Walter wanders through unfamiliar hallways, including one that takes a 90 degree drop straight down. As he walks he turns around and sees someone behind him. He hides, but the person walks away, then appears right next to him with a knife on him. Walter asks if he's Donald, but he's Cecil. The man wants to know how to get out of there. He was in one of the apartments and there was a light bomb explosion thrown by the resistance and he woke up there. Walter explains that the blast pushed him through. Cecil found water and Walter demands he show him.

Astrid, Peter and Olivia reach the building.

Inside, upside down walking on the ceiling, Cecil shows Walter a drip he's been gathering water from. Walter thinks there's something behind the wall causing the condensation. Cecil says he's checked and there's nothing there, but Walter wants to look.

Cecil thought he was in purgatory because he was stealing something when the blast happened. The apartment wasn't bombed out before he was there. Cecil thinks it's 2016. It's 2036. Walter explains the pocket universe.

On the other side, they reach the apartment. Peter tries retracing the steps and turns, watching the tape. Olivia joins him and they step through to the other side. Peter notices the tape, which was black in the lab, is still playing. Walter narrates where to go in the pocket universe. They follow his directions.

Back on the other side, Captain Winmark gets word that Walter Bishop has been sighted.

Following Walter's directions, they reach the dead end that isn't a dead end and keep walking. They realize Walter is talking to one other person besides Donald on the tape.

They hear a noise and see Walter down the hall. Peter reminds him he's not supposed to leave the lab. Walter gets angry, saying he was just focused on finding the next piece of the plan. Walter briefs them on Cecil. Walter assures someone on the tape that they'll be safe and comfortable and only staying there for a short time. They see a young bald boy. Olivia and Peter remind Walter that he was from a case they worked and he had empathic abilities. ("Inner Child", episode 15, season 1.)

They go looking for the door with an apple on it (the symbols, like the sea horse and six fingered hand, are from the old opening credits). They find it and the hidden key. There's a made bed inside, but no boy.

On the tape, Walter explains to the boy that the room was designed just for him and he has to stay put and wait for them to come back for him. On tape Walter finishes by saying: "To understand his purpose, refer to tape 8."

There's a portable air degradation unit in the room, they think he was an Observer. Walter is angry that another part of the plan is missing. He rages that everything they've done is for nothing. Peter goes to talk to him.

On the other side, Astrid sees Observers and Loyalists pulling up outside, including Captain Winmark. They start going door-to-door.

Peter explains to Walter that Donald was the only other person who knew the pocket existed. But they don't know why he would have moved the boy. They have to find Donald. Olivia shows them a radio from the night table that isn't on the tape. It isn't working, but she suggests it might on the other side. They're ready to go.

Astrid watches from the window as the search begins. She turns around only to come face to face with an Observer, who knocks her out. Another appears and they easily pass through to the other universe. They shoot Cecil. Peter leads Olivia and Walter back, easily and confidently retracing their steps to 413. Peter shoves Walter through and shows Olivia where to cross, but after they're gone and before she can follow, an Observer grabs her around the neck.

She tries her gun, but it doesn't work on that side. She grabs him and yanks him through while firing. They appear on the other side and shoot their way past Observers into the alley. Peter tells Olivia to take everyone else and he'll fight the Observers off. She runs off and an Observer rounds the corner and fires at Peter, knocking him to his feet with a kind of sonic blast. The Observer teleports next to Peter, but he's able to anticipate his moves as they fight. Peter shoves the Observer easily against a wall and draws blood. "I know what you have done. You have made a grave mistake. You do not realize what is happening to you," the Observer tells him. In response, Peter teleports behind the Observer and easily snaps his neck. He picks up the Observer's gun and teleports away. Captain Winmark sees him and almost seems pleased.

On the monorail, Olivia gets nervous but Peter joins them. She asks how he found his way out of the portal. "I don't know, but I'll take it," he says. Olivia turns on the radio, which has been jammed to one frequency. Nothing is being transmitted. "Not yet," Olivia says.

Walter can't stop thinking about Cecil and how he failed him, he was more focused on saving the world. "Walter, you are not responsible for that man's death. He died 20 years ago in that apartment when the light bomb went off. If it wasn't for your 'pocket' he would have died right there," Peter says. "Perhaps. I saw a man half-starved and I used him because it suited me. He was nothing more than an acceptable loss as long as I got what I needed. Is that who I am, Peter? Is that something you can see coming from my mind, my heart?" Walter says. The hubris of leaving the lab in the middle of the night on his own is "him," Walter says. "I'm not safe. It's my mind. Ever since the pieces of my brain were reimplanted it's been changing me back into the man I was before. Bit by bit, I'm losing myself Peter. I'm losing the man that you helped me become." "Listen to me, I'm not going to let that happen. We need you. You are our only hope to defeat the Observers and I'm going to be here with you every step of the way," Peter says. "Please son, whatever happens, don't let me go." "I won't, Dad. I promise."

Peter looks up at the monorail car and sees it in the same blue grid an Observer would.