A New Day in the Old Town
The episode followed the aftermath of Olivia's journey to the parallel universe in the last season's finale, while also introducing the idea of shapeshifters.
Peter (Joshua Jackson) and Walter (John Noble) arrive and investigate the scene while being accosted by a new junior agent, Amy Jessup (Meghan Markle), who wonders what they do for the FBI.
However, Olivia suddenly wakes up, crying the Greek phrase Na einai kalytero anthropo apo ton patera tou.
The shapeshifted man makes contact with his group via typewriter (an allegedly nonexistent model of IBM Selectric, controlled by its image in a mirror), and is told his mission to prevent a "meeting" was unsuccessful, as Olivia is still alive.
Meanwhile, Peter introduces Jessup to their lab at Harvard, and upon performing an autopsy on the man found in the apartment, they find three holes in the roof of his mouth.
Walter shows them archived footage of one of his 1970s experiments of a drugged up girl who says she sees shapechanging soldiers from a parallel universe that can "look like any of us".
After being visited by her partner, Agent Charlie Francis (Kirk Acevedo) and given a gun, Olivia is unsuccessfully questioned by the shapeshifter, who has adopted the appearance of a female nurse.
In a separate scene, Agent Jessup is shown working at a computer, annotating an image of the creature from "The Transformation" with biblical verses, notably from the Book of Revelation.
The final scene reveals that Charlie is actually the shapeshifter, who disposes of the real agent's body in a furnace beneath the hospital.
[9] The production team used new technology called a "breakaway windshield," as well as air cannons to eject the stuntwoman, Melissa Stubbs, from the vehicle.
[12] Actor Luke Goss was cast in the role after episode writer Akiva Goldsman personally called his house and asked him to join the show.
[14][15] The producers considered screening the first part of the season premiere at Comic-Con in San Diego, but ultimately decided against it because they thought the scene "ends in such an exciting way that we were afraid to let it out".
[16] As a promotion, Fox did send out a DVD "screener" package of the premiere to certain journalists, which included a copy of The New York Times article shown in the first-season finale as well as a piece of paper with a list of typed phrases.
[17] The paper was a copy of the instructions one of the shapeshifters received on the typewriter, which included phrases like "Mission Accomplished" and "Target Terminated".
[20][21] Fox's entertainment president, Kevin Reilly, explained the move, "The door is more open on this night than it has been in a long time.
These lower ratings have been attributed to a lower-rated lead-in (Bones, instead of the previous season's American Idol and House), and tough competition from CBS's CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and NBC's The Office.
Hilary Rothing from UGO Networks enjoyed the perceived parallels to The Wire and praised the further development of Anna Torv's character Olivia; "With tonight's premiere, the writing feels tighter, the pace is fast but not so much so that the story begins to trip over itself - and if that's any indication of how the rest of the season shapes up, then Fox will have my full attention every Thursday from 9-10pm".
Club graded the episode an A-, writing that he enjoyed how the writers made the show "new-viewer-friendly without making existing fans too impatient".
Isler thought newcomer Meghan Markle was "cute, and spunky, but... not quite a good fit here", and praised the cliffhanger as "surprising in a special way".
[28] MTV's Josh Wigler praised all the main actors' performances, and thought the episode gave the second season a "strong start".
"[29] Writing for the Los Angeles Times, critic Andrew Hanson heralded the return of the series, declaring "Fringe comes crashing headlong back onto television.
What a way to return: an accident in which one driver is nowhere to be found and the other flees into a nearby apartment, smooches his face and then uses a strange device to rearrange his appearance.
[32] Writers J. J. Abrams and Akiva Goldsman submitted "A New Day in the Old Town" for consideration in the Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series category at the 62nd Primetime Emmy Awards.
