Momentum Deferred

"Momentum Deferred"
Fringe episode
The formerly detached head of Thomas Jerome Newton (Sebastian Roché) is reattached to a body.
Episode no.	Season 2 Episode 4
Directed by	Joe Chappelle
Written by	Zack Stentz Ashley Edward Miller
Production code	3X5104
Original air date	October 8, 2009
Guest appearance(s)
Sebastian Roché as Thomas Jerome Newton Theresa Russell as Rebecca Kibner Ryan McDonald as Brandon Aaron Craven as Kurt Larsen Anna Van Hooft as Nina's Assistant Leonard Nimoy as William Bell Roger R. Cross as Smith Michael Cerveris as the Observer
Episode chronology
← Previous "Fracture" Next → "Dream Logic"
Fringe (season 2) List of Fringe episodes

"Momentum Deferred" is the fourth episode of the second season of the American science fiction drama television series Fringe. Screenwriters Zack Stentz and Ashley Edward Miller wrote the episode, and co-executive producer Joe Chappelle directed it.

The episode followed the theft of cryogenically-frozen heads by shapeshifters from the parallel universe in their search for a specific head, while the Fringe team attempts to prevent this. Meanwhile, Olivia struggles to remember her conversation with William Bell (guest actor Leonard Nimoy) that took place in the season one finale. "Momentum Deferred" marked the first appearances of guest actors Theresa Russell, Sebastian Roché, and Ryan McDonald.

It first aired on October 8, 2009 in the United States, and was watched by more than 6.02 million viewers. The episode received generally positive reviews, with many critics praising the new revelations about the shapeshifters, the parallel universe, as well as the much-anticipated conversation between Olivia and William Bell. In January 2013, IGN ranked it as the third best episode of the series.

A shipment of heads stored in cryogenic storage is hijacked, though one of the hijackers is killed by a guard, and bleeds a mix of blood and mercury, identifying him as a shapeshifter from the parallel universe. The Fringe division discovers an undamaged device they believe is used by the shapeshifters to take another's identity. Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv) gives the device to Nina Sharp (Blair Brown) at Massive Dynamic; with the intact device, they can use it to examine the device of the first shapeshifter that tried to kill Olivia in the episode "A New Day in the Old Town". They are unaware that this shapeshifter has taken the form of Olivia's partner, Charlie (Kirk Acevedo), ordered to find out what she learned from William Bell (Leonard Nimoy) when she was temporarily taken to the parallel universe.