Fringe December 2 2010 "Entrada" (spoilers as it airs)

[Nobody]

Winston Bongo, the method Walter used is what is causing the alternate universe to fall apart. That’s why he doesn’t want to use it again.

[Winston_Bongo]

So when Olivia, or any of the other drugged kids, travel to and fro, it doesn’t damage the other side, because that’s an entirely different process? Okay, that makes (sci-fi) sense, I guess. If cortexiphan is the secret to safe travel, though, you’d think Walter would have figured out how to use it on more than a handful of people. But I guess that’s where Olivia being “special” comes in.

Still unclear about the mass-exchange business, though. And have we ever actually seen the method Walternate uses to send things/shape-shifters back and forth? Peter must know something about it, because he was brought over there that way when he was in pouty “you’re not my real Daddy” mode.

[Nobody]

@Winston_Bongo

So when Olivia, or any of the other drugged kids, travel to and fro, it doesn’t damage the other side, because that’s an entirely different process? Okay, that makes (sci-fi) sense, I guess. If cortexiphan is the secret to safe travel, though, you’d think Walter would have figured out how to use it on more than a handful of people. But I guess that’s where Olivia being “special” comes in.

As a child she was injected with Corexiphan

@Fringepedia

Cortexiphan is a drug created by Doctor William Bell in 1981. According to Nina Sharp (Ability), Bell theorized that at birth, the human mind is infinitely capable, but each force that it encounters (social, physical, intellectual) begins a process he called “limitation” - a diminishing of that potential. Cortexiphan was designed in hopes of limiting this “limitation”, preventing the natural shrinking of brainpower, resulting in people with increased mental ability. Due to the fact that Cortexiphan only prevented the limitation of the mind’s potential rather than reversing it, it had to be administered to young children (whose potential had not yet been limited) in order to produce any results.

So the method he used for Oliva, he couldn’t use for anybody else now, because they’re too old. Also, the drug released different abilities in different people.

Still unclear about the mass-exchange business, though. And have we ever actually seen the method Walternate uses to send things/shape-shifters back and forth? Peter must know something about it, because he was brought over there that way when he was in pouty “you’re not my real Daddy” mode.

The shape-shifters use the dangerous method of transporting back and forth. The method that would be dangerous for a normal human and the method that caused William Bell to explode, powering Walter’s, Peter’s, and FauxLivia’s trip back to our universe. For some reason, their mercury blood keeps them molecularly stable when crossing universes.
When Peter went to the alternate universe with Walternate, I’m guessing they teleported two people or objects of equal mass to this universe.

[Nobody]

Something I just thought of. Olivia plus a power supply was used to get the gang over to the other side.

When they went back, Bell provided the power, but Fauxlivia doesn’t have the ability to move between worlds. How did they get back without her?

[AlsoNamedBort]

@Nobody

Something I just thought of. Olivia plus a power supply was used to get the gang over to the other side.

When they went back, Bell provided the power, but Fauxlivia doesn’t have the ability to move between worlds. How did they get back without her?

Olivia and the Cortexiphan kids opened the portal that allowed them to cross over. This left open basically a small crack between the universes. Bell was the power supply to hold the crack open to let them through.

[Nobody]

Oh. For some reason I thought that they didn’t make a crack between words and somehow went over differently, like maybe somehow phasing through.

I wonder if Oliva’s method of traveling between words also does damage to the other universe? Although if Walternate is trying to use the method then maybe not, as he doesn’t want to do any more damage to his own universe.

[EllisDee]

I’m pretty sure they ambered up the museum where our interpid heros transferred over, meaning it was a destructive crossing.

Only Olivia can travel between universes without causing damage.

@Nobody

The shape-shifters use the dangerous method of transporting back and forth. The method that would be dangerous for a normal human and the method that caused William Bell to explode, powering Walter’s, Peter’s, and FauxLivia’s trip back to our universe. For some reason, their mercury blood keeps them molecularly stable when crossing universes.

No particular need to keep them molecularly stable. The transfer could kill them 90% of the time and nobody would care, they’d just send 10 times as many. They are viewed as disposable machines.

[Nobody]

Right, but I remember hearing in one of the episodes that they’re unique makeup allowed them to cross over unharmed, whereas their method of crossing over would kill a normal human.

[EllisDee]

Oh, gotcha. I thought you were speculating. Yeah, if you heard it on the show, that settles it. Makes perfect sense, too, especially with their cocoons.

[Nobody]

I’m searching for the episode where it was mentioned. I might have found it, but I’ll have to check later as it’s 4:11am and I need to go to sleep.

One interesting thing I found, and forgot about from here

Scenario: The two universes vibrate at different frequencies. Every seven months, however, they vibrate in sync and you can create a portal between them. All you have to do is arrange three rods in an equilateral triangle and cause those rods to vibrate, and, when the right frequency is reached, whatever is in the center will be swapped between universes.

So that’s the method, or one of the methods Walternate uses for traveling between worlds.