This Friday, Fringe boldly goes where no episode of the Fox thriller has gone before: inside the mind of Astrid.

Yep, producers are finally giving Walter’s tireless lab assistant (played by the underrated Jasika Nicole) an episode all her own, and word is the long-anticipated hour is out of this freakin’ world.

“I cried like five times when I was reading the script,” confesses an emotional Nicole in the following behind the scenes video. “It would be easy for the writers to say, ‘Oh, there’s an Astrid episode; she solves a case.’ But it’s not that simple. It’s a really lovely story about Astrid [and alt-Astrid] meeting each other.”

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Nicole’s onscreen boss, John Noble, takes it a step further, heralding the episode “possibly the season’s highlight” and Nicole’s dual performance nothing short of “breathtaking.” (Nicole has said that she takes some cues in playing Alt-Astrid from her sister who lives with Autism.)

For an exclusive first look Friday’s Astrid/alt-Astrid showdown, as well interviews with Joshua Jackson and Anna Torv about their co-star’s long overdue moment in the spotlight, press play below!

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