Today I will share with you my favorite thing for this week. I am a fickle one, much worse than love’s fickleness as Shakespeare penned it. Well, maybe not that fickle.

But I digress. To my point. I love Fringe.

Deeply.

Disturbingly.

Obsessively.

And they are moving the TV series to Friday nights.

For the non-tv-pop-culture-obsessive; one would think that this means the ratings challenged sci-fi show on Fox is most likely being abandoned to die in quiet pain and agony.

Booooo!

But Fox wants all of us fans to understand that it is not true, Fox wants to ‘re-animate’ Friday night. The clever Fox is using the mythology that was created by Fringe to speak to its fans in a ‘secret code’.

And they also created a nice little commercial for it that touches upon the humor, beauty, and drama of this show.

Watch it here and tell me you aren’t impressed by Fox’s understanding of its fan base and using that to marketing brilliance.

On this week’s episode, entitled “Amber 31422”, we head back to the alternate universe where Fringe Division is investigating a particularly unique sort of robbery; someone has broken into a quarantined area and has taken someone out of the amber he had been stuck in for four years.

It soon turns out that one of my previous hunches, shared with many Fringe fans and discussed a couple of times on The Fringe Report, was right: people stuck in amber are still alive, disturbingly enough. As Walternate explains it, they are stuck in a form of suspended animation and unfortunately, cutting them out would affect its structural integrity.

It’s information like this, sprinkled throughout the episode, that delighted me, what with the extra layers of sophistication added to both the alternate universe and, most importantly, to the character of Walternate. This season really seems to be about exploring shades of grey.

Another constant source of delight are the various cute little things sprinkled throughout the episode that made me smile, including Lee’s reference to the Nixon Parkway. The Glyphs are always intriguing, and this episodes’ spelled “EVENT”. Finding the Observer has become something of an automatic reflex; he was this time behind Lee and Scarlie when they notice Olivia’s car parked behind the bank, near the end of the episode.

While as always, there are those who complain that the storyline is advancing way too slowly, there is a growing number of Fringe fans who are starting to appreciate the storytelling technique used. The plot was an intricate mix of monster-of-the-week (even though there really wasn’t a monster involved this time) and mythology.

Four years ago, Joshua Rose’s twin brother got caught in amber while breaking into a bank vault. A professional bank robber, Joshua had developed a technique to get into these bank vaults that would create an instability in the fabric between the two universes; and so, any place he’d hit would get quarantined.

It’s now four years later, and Joshua removes his brother from the amber, setting off an alarm at Fringe Division. Investigating the case, Olivia figures out that Matthew and Joshua had swapped places; somehow, Matthew had been caught in the amber and Joshua had taken his place beside his wife, Danielle, and their sons.

The fact that the twins had been swapped was a little bit of an obvious plot twist but was really well delivered. It also underlined some very interesting concepts, as their story is, in essence, one of regret and redemption. Four years ago, Matthew had tried to stop Joshua from condemning another group of innocent souls from being caught in amber, and got caught in it instead. For the next four years, Joshua did everything he could to save his twin, the guilt at having stolen so many years of his life gnawing at him. But when Joshua got Matthew out, he also got Fringe Division on their tails. The only way Joshua could ensure that his twin, his sister-in-law and his nephews could lead a normal life was to either die, or be caught in amber, for if he were captured, Fringe Division would conduct numerous tests on Matthew. Knowing the nature of the military government that leads the United States in the alternate universe, one can only imagine what would happen to him.

It’s interesting to note the parallel between Matthew and Joshua’s story with that of Peter and Walter; who can forget Peter’s accusations, in Season 2’s “The Man from the Other Side”, that Walter had stolen him from the other universe, thus keeping him from his rightful place.

A recurring scientific concept in this episode is, of course, that of passing through solid objects by loosening their atomic structure through the use of high frequency vibrations. Of course, hard core Fringe fans immediately remembered Season 1’s Mitchell Loeb, who used a very similar technique in two episodes, “The Equation” and “Safe” (eight and tenth episode of the season, respectively).

I know it’s a bit of a huge stretch, but the similarities between the technique used by Loeb and that used by Joshua triggers two sets of questions. First off, did Joshua work with Loeb or his team at some point to figure out the equation, since he himself had already figured out a way of going through solid walls? And secondly, could the banks in which Walter hid the pieces of his device have anything in common with those Joshua hit?

The negative matter ring that Joshua used on the wall of the bank was akin to that Walter used in Season 2’s episode “Peter”. This could make sense in that Walter was also then manipulating the molecular structure of the fabric between the two universes while Joshua was manipulating the molecular structure of the wall. Mayhap we are going to find out more about this technique at a later date.

There is also the recurring scientific concept of the sensory deprivation tank. Walternate’s sensory deprivation tank is a lot more sophisticated than Walter; by the same token, Walternate’s working habits are also quite different from Walters’.  The former gives Brandon orders and watched, the latter is quite hands on. It’s almost as if Walternate is taking a step back from the very science he developed. Maybe he is doing so to be able to shut off his morality and be able to do what’s needed?

I found it very interesting that it is only through the use of such a tank, combined with injection of drugs, that enables Olivia to tap into her ability. Just like meditation and focusing techniques can help us rid ourselves of our veils, I’m certain that Olivia could learn to access her ability in a more natural way. She needs to put the time and effort to acquire the mental discipline to jump between universes. Let us not forget the fact that Olivia’s perception is very acute, which implies that she could probably learn to tap into any part of her brain; let us also not forget that she doesn’t seem to always embrace that side of her personality, what with the use of alcohol in our universe and the use of what is probably an anti-hallucinogenic drug in the alternate universe.

Which makes me wonder at the characteristic in Olivia’s personality that makes her prone to addictions.

And of course, there is the heart-stopping fact that Walternate and Alter-Brandon have found that there is an artificial compound that is bound to Olivia’s brain, and that it has been there since she was a child. I shudder to think of what would happen were Walternate to find out about Cortexiphan.

Some recurring philosophical concepts include that of manipulating the truth; I am becoming more and more convince that Walternate’s true power lies in his ability to manipulate people to see things in a specific light – i.e. the light that suits Walternate best. The way he manipulated Olivia at the beginning of the episode to agree to subject herself to the tests was a reminder of how often this power is used.

Nowhere is this as obvious as when Walternate tells Al!Philip: “Nature doesn’t recognise evil, Philip; nature only recognizes balance. I intend to restore balance in our world, whatever it takes”. These are the words of a man so intent on achieving a goal that he has set for himself that he doesn’t care about collateral damage, be it his own son, or all the people trapped in the amber that he himself developed, the fate of whom he is able to yet again count as necessary collateral damage. It is shocking when one realises that, although Walternate has known for a long while that people caught in amber are not dead, and that research and development poured into figuring out how to get them out would have perhaps benefited not only the lives of those affected, but also the government’s reputation.

Another recurring philosophical concept is that of how far one can and should go in the name of science. In Season 3’s “The Box”, we find out that William Bell left a letter to Walter in his will and testament which reads, in part: “Don’t be afraid to cross the line”. Walter further elucidates by sharing with Astrid one of Bell’s much used quotes: “Only those that risk going too far can possibly know how far they can go” – which happens to be almost exactly what Walternate tells Alt!Broyles: “Only those who risk going too far find out how far they can go.” I have already discussed the concepts behind this statement in my review of “The Box”, so I will only point out here that it’s interesting that both Bell and Walternate, who have a past working relationship, live by the same motto. It’s also intriguing to think that Bell might have used those words in his will and testament to somehow jostle Walter into doing what is needed to win the war against the alternate universe because he knew this was Walternate’s motto.

I noticed that although she carries Altivia’s memories, Olivia seems, in a weird way, to remain true to herself. One sign was the fact that Olivia’s clothes seem sharper than Altivia’s outfits we saw her wearing in the alternate universe. Another was the way she asked Alt!Bradon to get back in the tank was very reminiscent of the way she asked Walter the same thing back in Season 1. And the fact that it seems to be the memory of Ella’s birthday that seems to have been the drop of water that made the glass of Olivia’s memories overflow and take their rightful place.

A mysterious metal cylinder is discovered and Olivia notices a bald man hanging around all of the incident sites.

“Fringe” adds a new factor to “The Pattern” cases in the form of “The Observer” this week.  Perhaps he’ll be able to give some answers to the strange situations going on in the future.

A metal cylinder rises up from the ground at a construction site causing the collapse of a crane and the death of several workers.  Broyles claims this is not the first time something of this nature has happened and he sends Olivia to talk to an old friend of hers who was the lead agent on the previous case.  Henry Jacobson (Nestor Serrano) tells Olivia that after a few days of studying the cylinder it exploded downwards.  Olivia notices a man standing in the background of one of the photos from the previous cylinder case and recognizes that she saw him at the hospital two weeks earlier.  Broyles shows her a room filled with pictures of the man they call “The Observer” (Michael Cerveris); present at almost all the “pattern” cases they’ve worked.  Someone else (John Mosley played by Michael Kelly) is after the cylinder and he attacks Jacobson to find out who had spoken to him recently.  Before the FBI can get the cylinder out of Walter’s lab he steals it and hides it on his own.  Walter meets with “The Observer” who thanks him for hiding the cylinder as he can’t touch it himself.  John captures Peter and uses his brain to determine where Walter hid the cylinder.  They go to the cemetery to retrieve it when Olivia shows up and shoots John.  Peter meets “The Observer” who appears to have psychic abilities.  Upon his return, Walter tells Peter that the observer saved both of them in a car crash years earlier and he had told Walter that one day he would need Walter to do something for him; get him the cylinder.

“The Arrival” certainly provides us with more questions than answers.  What is the purpose of the cylinder?  Who is “The Observer”?  How did he know he would need Walter’s help?  Who was John Mosley working for?  And even more than those.  I wasn’t sure when “Fringe” began whether it would be a show where each week featured a completely different story or whether it would be more focused on an overarching plot but it seems as though they’ve decided to focus quite heavily on the “conspiracy” going on.  Not only do they have the big evil corporation, Massive Dynamic, and “The Pattern”, now they have a bald man with no eyebrows who never ages showing up at every incident site.

I began noticing this week that Broyles isn’t really the most helpful boss to Olivia.  You’d expect that if you had the clearance to be investigating things like “The Pattern”, you’d also be given access to what had already been found out by the previous investigators so that you don’t spend large amounts of time and tax payer dollars researching things the government already knew.  But, even with that logic, Broyles doesn’t see fit to tell Olivia about “The Observer” until she discovers him on her own and he’s been doing similar things to her since the beginning.  Frankly I’m surprised she’s not annoyed at him yet.  It seems as though he’s hiding something and the interactions we’ve seen him have with Massive Dynamic don’t make him appear any more trustworthy.

The father son relationship between Walter and Peter is a major focus of “The Arrival”.  Peter threatens to leave as he feels he’s nothing more than a babysitter to his father and his time can be better spent elsewhere.  It’s not until he meets “The Observer” that he decides he wants to find out what is behind “The Pattern”.  Truthfully I’m not entirely sure I understand why Peter changed his mind at all as he had already seen some remarkably strange things before this episode.  If he became interested because of the incident with “The Observer” I’m surprised he wasn’t interested after those previous episodes.  There’s been a lot of tension between Walter and Peter from the start and it’s obvious that Peter isn’t the biggest fan of his father.  So far we can’t be sure about all the mistakes Walter has made in Peter’s life but he does care about his son.

It seems to me that, according to “Fringe”, the world revolves around Walter Bishop.  We’re four episodes in and so far he’s had some sort of connection to every case.  At least this time it’s not because he researched this field 20 years ago but his prior meetings with “The Observer” are again rather convenient.  Maybe the world does revolve around him.

The Walter quotes were a bit sparse this episode so instead I’ll include a Peter quote about Walter: “He was awake until five in the morning reciting the chemical compositions of his favourite beverages to me. That was right after he finished lecturing me on how I’d squandered my above-average intellect and my substantial education. All while he was standing there naked, because he prefers the breeze.”

Andrea

A group of passengers on a bus are found dead, suspended in a gel like substance.  The team comes across a man who can predict these disasters.

Conspiracies, conspiracies everywhere!

On a bus, one man puts on his gas mask and gasses the other passengers with a mysterious substance.  He escapes with the backpack of a woman on board leaving everyone else to be killed and suspended in a gel.  Using footage from one passenger’s video camera, Olivia notices the missing backpack and they discover that the owner worked for the DEA as an undercover drug enforcement agent.  She brings in his handler who IDs the body and insists on being allowed to say goodbye.  Charlie finds drawings of several of the incidents (Flight 627 and the bus plus many more) in the house of a man named Roy McComb (Zak Orth) all dated before the incidents.  Walter suggests that he is psychic and is hearing the thoughts of someone involved.  They detect metal in his blood which may be allowing him to tap into transmissions being sent over a “ghost network”.  They tune him into the network again and find that there is going to be an exchange.  Olivia realizes that what the man who perpetrated the bus incident was looking for in the backpack was actually embedded in the dead woman’s hand; later stolen by her handler.  They trace him down at the exchange site and manage to retrieve the small disk but have no idea what it is used for.  Broyles turns it over to Massive Dynamic where they begin using it in their quest to get information out of John Scott.

Massive Dynamic gets less and less trustworthy with each passing week and “The Ghost Network” is no exception.  Again they are related to the case when the substance used to suffocate and suspend the people inside the bus is discovered to have been manufactured by them.  They must be the only evil technology company on the block.  It’s clear they have their connections at the FBI as well, often knowing more classified information than the Olivia and her fellow FBI agents know.  Even more suspicious is the handover of the mysterious disk between Broyles and Sharp.  Whether Broyles is paying Sharp off for her cooperation with past cases or whether something deeper and more sinister is occurring isn’t yet clear though.

Thankfully this week Olivia isn’t connected to the case through some strange “I worked on a case just like this.” coincidence but again Walter is.  He is the one who made it possible for Roy to inadvertently tap into the signals of people using the ghost network by running experiments on him 20 years in the past.  Are there really so few scientists working covert government projects that Walter seems to have had his hand in all of them?  Particularly considering he’s been off the job for 17 years, it isn’t unreasonable to assume that the government might have done some new research since then with different scientists that Walter has no knowledge of.  It’s only been three episodes but if Walter continues to have an old connection to every case things are going to become very unrealistic very quickly.

Also on the subject of Walter, how is it he can work every computer perfectly, even though he should be 17 years out of date, but the cell phone is a complete mystery?

With Peter, more questions are posed each episode.  Last week questions were raised about his mysterious medical history that only Walter knows about and this week he’s forced to go after a man taking his picture in the coffee shop.  His past might be the most interesting of all three characters so hopefully it will start coming to light soon.

Astrid Farnsworth (Jasika Nicole) is quickly moving up in the world of “Fringe”.  She had little more than a couple lines in the pilot but already by this episode she’s being given a personality and important contributions to make.  Maybe this will help Walter remember her name.  Either way she seems like she’ll be a good background addition to the team.

And finally, Walter Bishop’s quote of the week:  “I believe with the proper demodulation you could receive satellite television for free.”

Andrea

Only four hours after birth a man dies from natural causes appearing to have aged more than 80 years.

“Fringe” uses its second week to set up the ongoing stories we’ll likely see for at least the entire season while still giving an interesting, if overly convenient, story about rapid aging.

After spending the night in a hotel with a man a woman finds herself going through pregnancy at incredible speed.  Upon reaching the hospital the baby must be removed and only four hours later it has grown into an old man and died.  Olivia and the team investigate and, at the crime scene, Olivia is reminded of an old case she worked involving a serial killer who removed the pituitary glands from his victims.  Walter points them in the direction of a former colleague, Dr. Penrose (Mark Blum), who used to do this kind of research but he is unwilling to give up any information.  Another body is found and, with the help of equipment from Massive Dynamic, the team manages to display the last image she saw before death.  They travel to a warehouse where they find Dr. Penrose and his “son” Christopher (Derek Cecil) who was created by Penrose in his research.  In order to stop his rapid aging he must take pituitary glands from others.  He dies in front of Olivia’s eyes when they prevent him from killing his final victim.

For the second episode of a series, “The Same Old Story” certainly isn’t the name you’d expect to get.  More like “new and exciting things are going to happen here, we swear!”  Thankfully the story isn’t that overused (I don’t see a lot of TV shows about rapidly aging people) despite what the title might lead you to believe.  It’s major failing though comes in the need for everything to be connected.  A rapidly aging man is found at a hospital which happens to be related to a serial killer case Olivia worked and also happens to be related to research Walter and his buddies did back in the day.  Everything is just a little too convenient.

Another odd convenience comes with Peter’s character.  I could accept the FBI trusting him as a scientist or babysitter to his father but he almost plays the part of a field agent like Olivia here.  His history isn’t the most reliable and he’s only really proven himself to them once so why are Broyles and the rest of the board so willing to take him at his word?

Conspiracies are circling all over the place seemingly centering on the company Massive Dynamics.  They aren’t hesitant to give up their electronic pulse camera and, though Olivia expects them to ask for something in return, they don’t.  It seems they’re trying to build up a good reputation with the government so then if any of their deep dark secrets are revealed they might be able to get away with them.  “The Pattern” as well is likely to be an ongoing plot for “Fringe” with a good chance that it’s also related to Massive Dynamics.

Something I forgot to mention last week, but gives a unique look to “Fringe” is the location signs.  They get even better this week complete with reflections and sideways positions next to buildings making it immediately obvious that the show you are watching is “Fringe”.  With so many shows looking similar these days, this isn’t always so obvious.

And now for the Walter Bishop quote of the episode: “I’ve never seen a feature like this before.  It warms your ass.  It’s wonderful.  Have you tried it?”

Andrea

This week’s episode of Fringe was the culmination of weeks of taunting and tormenting. The cat is finally out of the bag as Peter found out about his otherworldly origins. It was in a simple and rather undramatic way that he found out, but it made for a great scene. This episode marks an important point in the Fringe mythology, as the events of the Pattern are bound to accelerate now that the alternate universe has made its first attempt to cross over to our side.

The glyphs in this episode spelled out “bridge” (kudos to Ksiquot for guessing the word after only one letter!). This word probably was chosen because of its double entendre. First, of course, is the fact that Newton and The Secretary chose a bridge as a location for their experiment. Second is the fact that, were the alternate universe planning a war on us, having a stable bridge between the two universes over which they can send troops is an incredible advantage, as they would be able to send not only the mercury-shape-shifting soldiers, but also human soldiers and strategists. There is also the fact that during wars, control of bridges can often make or break a battle, which makes me wonder what the narrative about the bridge between the two universes is going to be.

The Observer was really hard to spot this week; no one mentioned him during the Twitter Fringe Party, and I only saw him the third time I watched the episode. I finally spotted him by accident; I turned my head away for a split second to pick up my drink and turned back to the television just as Newton was walking into Pinetree Savings and there he was, on the far right of the screen.

I was looking forward to meeting the character David Wu, since our very own Fringemunks creator shares the same name. The Fringe Report issued The David Wu Challenge last week, and both Aaron and David Wu himself predicted the character’s death (Olivia shoots him), the latter with surprising accuracy. I wonder if there is something going on there…

The only glyph-like objects I spotted were the same butterfly montage at the Bishops’, above their mantle, and a bowl of red apples in their kitchen. Speaking of the Bishops’ mantle, there was also a metronome there, the same that Brandon used to explain synchronisation between the universes. And speaking of Brandon (whose appearance totally made Lola’s night), is it normal to have two metronomes just sitting around in a sophisticated lab like the ones at Massive Dynamic?

Did anyone else think of slowing down the electrical interference as captured on the TVs within a half-mile radius of the Worcester warehouse? Unfortunately, I couldn’t get good screencaps but Dennis over at Fringe Television was able to. Check it out; it might surprise you.

And did anyone figure out yet what “Call Lea and Robert” refers to? The Post-It on which it was scribbled was displayed quite prominently on a computer screen in Walter’s lab.

The code used by the two shape-shifting soldiers when they entered the camera store was to ask for an Argus A2B 35mm, which according to Levi, is a real camera, and a beautiful, old-school one at that. I wonder if the Observers ever used it in previous episodes?

Both Star Trek and Star Wars references were made in this week’s episode. The Star Trek reference was pretty obvious; while looking over a list of events happening in the city during the next couple of days, Peter remembers that he promised Walter to take him to the Star Trek convention. The Star Wars reference was a little more discreet, and came in the form of the plates on both Olivia and Broyles’ cars.

The episode opens up in Worcester, which immediately makes me think about the conversation between Broyles and Nina at the end of “Olivia. In the Lab. With the Revolver.” Does this decrepit, abandoned warehouse of sorts have anything to do with the 30 or so individuals who have been tested on with Cortexiphan in “the Worcester trial”? Most probably, yes – this warehouse could be the place where the trial was held, and, just like Jacksonville’s kindergarten, was purchased by Bell as soon as he could afford it.

Unfortunately, I didn’t find any hints (yet) as to Massive Dynamic owning the place (no logos or Easter eggs). Another interesting thing is that Walter didn’t seem to recognise the warehouse at all. He didn’t display any sign of recognition, not even a song or a rhyme.

Which leads to an interesting question: why would the shape-shifting mercury soldiers cross over at this place, of all places? It can’t be coincidence. A theory made over at The Fringe Report suggests that Walter has been led to believe that he was the first one to tear the fabric between the universes, but in reality, Bell was the first one to do so. The events in this episode would imply that Bell had a second trial in Worcester he never told Walter about. Most probably, he was also trying to open up a gateway between the two universes at Worcester too, and perhaps he succeeded.

Why then aren’t the events of the Pattern centered around Worcester, the real first contact between the two universes? It might have to do with the methodology used; that while Walter’s haphazard, last minute gate tore the fabric between the two universes, Bell’s more thought out process made for a more delicate opening of a door between the universes. And so perhaps the crack made in Worcester is smaller than that of Reiden Lake, and we are going to now start seeing events of the Pattern centered around it.

There is also another possibility: that while at Reiden Lake, Walter went through to the alternate universe and came back at Worcester; Bell only went through and never came back, which would somehow explain why the tear at Lake Reiden is much more important than that at Worcester. Or perhaps the answer is a little bit of both.

And by the way, I would like to take the time to make a public service announcement. Kids, remember: there is no such thing as “just” checking it out. When you are in a supposedly abandoned place and suddenly something happens, it’s simple: you run.

While we have known for awhile about these shape-shifting, mercury-based soldiers, and while most of us still hold a huge grudge against them for killing FBI Agent Charlie Francis (let me tell you, those soldiers wouldn’t stand a chance again the army of angry Fringies), this is the first time we see how they come to our universe and also what they look like before ‘moulding’ into someone else. Bastian reminded us that in season one’s “The Same Old Story,” Walter had mentioned rapid aging as something he and Bell had looked into for the U.S. army, as it would allow them to clone, harvest, and bring to term a full army within months, if not weeks – wouldn’t that be the strategic advantage.

These soldiers intrigue me for another reason. Why does the person they are moulding into have to be dead? Is it only of strategic value (i.e. having two bank managers come into work in the morning might raise some flags) or is it something more? I have been wondering if the soldiers not only mould their bodies into that of their victim’s, but also their identity; they would absorb the person’s memories and mannerisms so as to appear as natural as possible.

Another intriguing question regarding these soldiers has to do with Broyles. When, at the Worcester warehouse, they discover the shape-shifting soldier embryo (adorable, as Peter would say), Broyles’ expression is very, very interesting. To me, he didn’t look surprised at the existence of such a thing; his face reflected horror, the kind of horror your face might reflect were we to see something straight out of our nightmares suddenly in front of us. Then there is the tone with which Broyles asked Walter, “You think that’s a good idea?” which led me to believe that, as always, Broyles knows a lot more about these embryos than he admits.

Another person who might know more than she is letting on is Olivia. She told Peter that she knew the police officers were shape shifters because you wouldn’t call your superior on a cell phone. Plausible enough to raise suspicion, definitely, but I’m thinking that Olivia wouldn’t shoot someone in the head because of that. Which makes me wonder: did she become suspicious because of the cell phone, focus on the officer in front of her, saw him glimmer and then shot him? But then why wouldn’t she tell Peter about seeing them glimmer?

I think we can assume that these shape-shifting soldiers are as trained as money can make them. Then how come they made the rather ridiculous mistake of leaving an embryo behind? Is it because they don’t have free will and thus can’t do anything that isn’t a direct order? I somehow don’t think so, since up to now, shape-shifters have demonstrated the ability to think independently. Which brings me back to reality, guys. Time is short, I know, but did you have to make such a rookie mistake? And to add insult to injury, did you really think that covering it with cardboard was going to help? I would have guessed that at the very least they would have torched the place. Or, if they really wanted to be efficient, they should have placed the embryo and the dead guy in the car with the girl and torched the whole thing, thus delaying the inevitable investigation. It scares me sometimes how great a criminal strategist I can be.

And just because I’m all about making X-Files comparisons, I just have to ask: is it me, but when he is moulding himself into the teenage guy at the beginning of the episode, does the first shape-shifting soldier look a little like Jeffrey Spender after he was burned?

In the last couple of months, we watched Walter struggling to become more like his former, independent self (“A well ordered house is a sign of a well ordered mind”). And while he has come a long way, he remains fragile. It felt like him telling Peter the truth was going to be his final act of emancipation from his broken self. Taking responsibility for what he had done rather than continuing to avoid it would have done him wonders no doubt, and perhaps even helped him deal with Peter’s inevitable anger.

However, Walter waited too long and lost this opportunity. Now on top of carrying the burden of guilt for taking Peter from Walternate, as well as carrying the burden of guilt for indirectly enabling Elizabeth’s suicide, Walter now has to carry yet another burden: that of hurting Peter by not being the one to tell him the truth.

The human tragedy of the situation (the heartbreak of a father whose son rejects him, the anguish of a son whose world is toppled) makes up for the anticlimactic way Peter found out about it. Because, let’s be honest: we were looking forward to an epic Walter/Olivia telling Peter with Astrid calming everyone down and (hopefully) Gene mooing woefully at the back of the lab.  It kind of felt like when you’re trying to pop a plastic bag but, instead of a satisfyingly loud noise, you get a little whistle of air leaking out.

The acting also makes up for it, too, as both John Noble and Joshua Jackson delivered amazing performances. I still demand an Emmy for John Noble, and will add this scene to the ever increasing portfolio backing up my demand.

Oh, the heartbreak of that last scene, with Walter running up in giddy exaltation to the hospital room and his joyous cry of “Peter!”, only to be met with a face that would shatter their newfound little “family thing,” that “they didn’t kill the man from the other side… and they didn’t kill me.” The mixture of horror, sadness, and hurt that flitted across Walter’s face, and then, the line that killed us all: “I am not your son.”

It’s going to be extremely interesting to watch Peter wrestle with his emotions in the coming weeks and in the next season, as they are probably as complex as the situation that triggered it. His anger alone is so multi-layered. There is anger directed at Walter for kidnapping him and lying to him. Whereas the first reason is quite easily explainable, the latter isn’t. I’m guessing that even after Peter finds out the truth, he will still be angry that Walter didn’t tell him.

Then there is the anger related to his mother’s death. A month or so after he went to Europe, he received a call from his father. Walter told him his mother died in a car crash; but Peter found out it was suicide (although we don’t know how he figured it out). To make this even more poignant, it’s the only time the two spoke in the 17 years Walter was at St. Claire’s.

The fact that Elizabeth committed suicide probably burdened Peter, since it happened only a month after he left her alone in the US. But now, he finds out that his guilt was unwarranted, as Elizabeth committed suicide because of her inability to shoulder her own guilt, and not because she was alone. This gives Peter another reason to be angry at Walter.

For fans who are despairing that the relationship between Peter and Walter is forever ruined, remember: as Peter tells the story of his mother’s suicide to Olivia, he doesn’t seem angry; quite the contrary actually. It seems like Peter took the time to digest the information and not only realizes but appreciates the fact that Walter lied to him to protect him. If he did it once, he could do it again; with time, Peter and Walter’s relationship can return to that of a “little family thing.” It will change, of course, because Walter isn’t Peter’s biological father. But we know Peter has the capacity to overcome his anger and understand that everything his father did, however misguided, was for his well-being. What more can a child ask for?

Peter is also going to have to deal with the fact that after all these years of pushing everyone away, his one attempt at a “family thing” blew up in his face. He even called Walter “Dad,” for the first time in a long time (at least when he wasn’t high on experimental drugs, which doesn’t really count). He knows Walter loves him “very much,” and yet here he is, hurting; why would he want to stay?

It’s going to be even worse once Peter thinks about the events of the last couple of weeks and realizes that Olivia lied to him as well. I’m certain he is going to figure it out; after all, he’s no idiot, and Olivia had a major slip of the tongue in this episode (about the water under the bridge absorbing all the excess energy). Even if Peter doesn’t clue in on this slip, certainly he is going to remember the awkwardness between him and Olivia following the events of “Jacksonville.”

Which places Astrid in quite a unique position, and an important one at that. The fact that she and Walter have been spending so much time together – so much so that she has begun parroting him just like Peter does – makes her a possible source of strength as he deals with Peter’s disappearance. By the same token, Astrid being kept in the dark makes her a possible negotiator between Walter and Peter. And because she is friends with everyone, perhaps she will be the one to get Fringe Division’s “little family thing” back together.

By the same token, perhaps Walter’s relationship with Olivia, battered by the events that happened in the episode “Jacksonville,” will heal and even strengthen.

Perhaps Broyles and Nina will have their roles to play as well. The former has earned Peter’s grudging respect in the last two years, and the latter has a history Peter might want to take advantage of to learn the truth. I wouldn’t be surprised if Peter gets in touch with Nina to learn more about his past, since she told him they spent a lot of time together when he was a child. Maybe even that’s why she made sure Peter was aware of their history.

Who is the man on the bridge? Many clues hint to the fact that it’s Walternate himself that was trying to cross over to our universe.

When the shape-shifting soldier embryo was ‘jump-started’ at the lab, it grabbed Walter’s hand, then looked up towards Olivia, asking for help. When she pushed him for information, he told her to contact Newton, then spoke of Daniel Verona (even giving her what I think is his blood type, AB negative, and was going to also give his cellular polarity). Olivia then asks him what was going to happen at 3h31 the next day; the soldier looks up at Walter, reaches for his hand and says “I’m sorry” before dying.

First of all, a well-trained soldier (I think we can agree that only an extremely capable and well-trained soldier would have been chosen for this mission) wouldn’t give away information to persons he would consider his enemy. This would imply that he doesn’t consider the people around him at the lab as such. Walter was the first person he saw, after which he felt safe enough to ask for help and give information. And it does make sense that the soldier would have known Walternate, since he’s probably behind it all in the first place. Perhaps the soldier was hoping that by giving the information relative to the mission, another soldier could take his place on time?

Does it imply that the soldier also knows Olivinate, since he looked up at her and then started talking? I’m not convinced of this, since everything else points to the fact that Olivinate and Walternate do not work together. Think about it. We know that Olivinate works with the FBI, and that there is a Fringe Division asking people to report supernatural sightings (well, we are going to know this) which would imply that they are working against one another. I have the impression that the relationship between Olivinate and Walternate is similar to the one between Olivia and Bell.

Of course, it could also be argued that, quite simply, the soldier was so damaged that he instinctively asked for help, then repeated the last thing that he remembered, i.e. his instructions: to find Newton, hunt Daniel Verona and assume his identity. But since this is Fringe we’re talking about, I highly doubt it’s that simple.

Some more clues indicating that the man on the bridge is Walternate include:

• knowing that Walternate would share some of the same traits of character with Walter, it doesn’t come as a surprise that he would want to be the first one to try this new method of crossing over, especially if he is doing it to recuperate his son;
• the shape on the bridge seem to move somewhat like Walter, albeit a more confident Walter;
• and finally, there is the nose in the Hazmat suit at the end of the episode, which strangely resembles that of Walter, as well as the hand of an older man reaching for Newton’s hand.

Speaking of which, there was something both victorious and emotional about that handshake and the answering smile from Newton, no?

Just because I haven’t written enough yet, here are a couple of random observations.

Did anyone else notice how Olivia’s voice wavered when she spoke of Charlie? Which makes me wonder how she is going to react when she meets Alter-Charlie (Charlnate?).

When the triangulation rod was taken out of the case and turned on, did anyone else think of the neuralizers in Men in Black?

Because of the importance of the colour red in last week’s “White Tulip,” I just about developed a nervous tic from jumping every single time I saw red in this episode. Seriously, it’s getting on my nerves. But hey, you never know – maybe they do mean something. Or maybe I’m starting to sound paranoid – just like Mulder. Who knows? Despite all this, there was only one red object I found particularly striking: the molecule of water sitting on top of a pile of books at Olivia’s elbow while she was working in the back room.

Did anyone else cringe at the thought of Walter downing the chopped up “memory worms” Olivia had to down earlier the season?

And for the X-Philes reading this review, did any of you chuckle as the gel burned through the concrete floor in the bank vault, reminiscent of alien blood burning in quite similar fashion?

Who else is trying to figure out if anything else happened seven months ago in the Fringeverse after Newton mentioned that they haven’t had a chance like this in seven months?

And for those of you who are medically oriented, did anyone else frown when Newton, who supposedly had a heart attack, sat up in his body bag without any signs that CPR was performed on him? I’m thinking his shirt should have been open and the pads still in place until the ME had time to examine him. Thoughts?

It’s a normal evening; harried workers are heading home from work, when the lights start flickering inside a moving commuter train; as they go out, a mysterious trench coat-wearing man – no, not Castiel – appears. He seems horrified by what he sees in the train and leaves in a hurry. The time: 5h48. A young man enters the train and realises that everyone inside is dead.

Walter is at home, writing a letter to Peter. He ignores a call from Peter, who implies that Walter has been a little down lately, and that the new case they have been assigned might cheer him up, since Walter loves trains.

Walter’s first theory concerns a shared heart attack, which makes Peter roll his eyes. The train car’s lights are all out and none of the electronic devices belonging to the dead commuters work. Back at the lab, Astrid runs tests and finds out that all the energy in the train car has disappeared.

The FBI is eventually able to track Alistair Peck back to his apartment, where they find formulas on blackboards and large sheets of paper all over the walls that Peter refers to as “numerical wallpapering”. Walter tells the team that he used to work with mathematical formulas such as these when he was trying to figure out how subatomic particles behaved.

Alistair Peck comes home. Surrounded, he emits what looks like a force field and is back on the train where, ever the gentleman, he apologizes to the young man who is about to embark to discover, again, the dead people. What’s with this show and its impeccably polite baddies? Jones, Newton, and now Peck?

Once again, we see Walter writing a letter, we hear Peter leaving him a voicemail about the new case, and we follow Olivia, Walter, and Peter as they investigate the same crime scene. Most of the details are similar, except for one thing: this time, Peck talks to the young man, telling him, “Sorry you have to go through this again”. This time, the team traces Peck to his house via a fingerprint that NASA had on file.

This time around, Peck doesn’t come back to his apartment; also, the team finds handmade gear-like objects which we soon find out were invented and made by Peck as part of his time traveling method. In an Ironman-meets-Frankenstein moment, we are shown that these ‘gears’ are in fact part of an elaborate subcutaneous system created by Peck for time traveling.

This obsession with time travel is confirmed during an interview with Peck’s colleague, who identifies the woman as Arlette, Peck’s fiancée, pictures of whom Peter found in Peck’s apartment. Walter figures out that Peck has made time travel a reality and that the tremendous energy required to time travel is what killed the people in the train. When Astrid finds out that Arlette died a year ago (May 18 at 2:18PM to be exact), the team realises why Peck has been so intent on achieving this feat. Walter estimates that the energy required for Peck to get back to the day of his fiancée’s death would kill hundreds of people.

The team tracks Peck down at his old lab, number 107, on the MIT campus. Walter, keenly aware of the parallels between his situation and Peck’s, talks his way into being an ambassador, and sits with Peck for a chat over a cup of tea.

The chat centers on the burden of the responsibility an act as drastic as returning in time puts on the individual, a burden Walter parallels with the one he carries for tearing open the fabric between the two universes. But while Walter believes in God and has been seeking a sign of forgiveness from Him, whom he’s convinced has been punishing him since 1985 for what he did, Peck believes that God is science. And so, the all-important and omnipresent God versus science discussion, beautifully done in true Fringe style, continues. Unfortunately, the talk is interrupted when Broyles sends in his agents out of concern for Walter’s safety, since the latter disabled the wiretap and can’t be heard by the team anymore. And so, Peck jumps again.

This time, the dead are not in a train car, but rather right outside Peck’s apartment, where he is frantically reworking his formula for time traveling according to specifications given to him by Walter. The FBI arrives at his place; they work at opening the barricaded door while Peck quickly writes a letter addressed to Carol Bryce.

Before the FBI can get to him, Peck jumps back to a field where a hot air balloon is moored. He races to Arlette’s side, but instead of pulling her out of the car, he gets in with her. He tells her he loves her seconds before the truck hits the car, killing them both.

A year later, Carol Bryce takes out Peck’s letter, within which is a letter to Walter Bishop and instructions to deliver it to him on March 18, 2010.

We find Walter at the Bishops’ place, writing, again, a letter to Peter. But this time, no phone call interrupts him. And, after he seals the letter, Walter reflects for a little while, then drops it in the fireplace. Peter comes home with Walter’s turntable, which he fixed: “I thought you’d like some music to cheer you up.” Walter responds to Peter’s concern: “Something was weighing on me. A decision. But I’m fine.”

The mail arrives and with it, the letter from Peck. It’s a simple tulip, drawn in black ink on white paper. It’s the sign Walter was looking for, a gift from Peck, meant to bring the same peace to Walter that Peck’s death gave him.

“White Tulip” is storytelling at its best. It took the best of the episode “Peter” in relation to storytelling and the best in science fiction in episodes such as “Grey Matters” and “What Lies Below” to create a fantastic narrative that captivated for a full hour and took the Fringe mythology one solid step forward. As a writer, it is my hope that one day I will be able to weave as spellbinding a tale as this one.

The quality of the filming served to enhance the writing. The director managed to make the scene in the train car and in Peck’s apartment seem very different by using different camera angles. I find that this technique made the second viewing of those scenes feel not only non-repetitious, but gave it a feeling of déjà vu. It really felt like something we had kind of seen before, but not quite, and not quite in the same way.

Of course the stellar performance of the cast added another dollop of awesomeness to this episode. On top of our usual suspects – John Noble, Anna Torv, Joshua Jackson, and Jasika Nicole – we were treated to a guest appearance by Peter Weller. His portrayal of Alistair Peck, a sympathetic antagonist, blurred the line between good and bad so well that all the subsequent discussions I have had around the topic of scientific responsibility were all the more interesting because of it.

The episode’s name made an appearance in the form of the sign Walter was waiting for, a white tulip (a symbol of forgiveness). This had been pointed out in the chat room during last week’s The Fringe Report show by none other than Allan.

As pointed out by Ian and Levi, this episode had a heavy comic-like feel. I found it particularly striking in one of the last sequences, i.e. when Peck travels to May 28 to die at Arlette’s side. The rapid firing of images really made it feel like we were reading a comic strip.

The glyphs spelled “secret”, a word with many layers of meaning in the Fringe mythology. It is a reference to the secret Walter is withholding from his son, one he shares with Olivia; it could be a reference to the Bishop family secret Peter will be telling Olivia about in the next episode; it could be the secrets surrounding the events of the Pattern, held by people like Nina and Broyles. It was a well chosen word that seeps into all layers of the mythology.

I didn’t spot the Observer at first, and was only able to do so thanks to Fringe Insider who directed me to the end of the episode, right before the truck struck Arlette’s car. No wonder I missed it – and kudos to whoever managed to see that!

Nadine pointed out a great Easter egg: a little seahorse-shaped object (soap, perhaps?) in Peck’s bathroom cabinet the second time they are investigating the train car deaths. She also pointed out that the train car had, on its side, a Massive Dynamic logo. Did anyone else smile a little at the irony of the tagline on that poster, “Be there in no time”?

The Bishops’ answering machine message in this episode, while recorded by Peter, isn’t the same as the one in the recently released series of Walter’s phone logs. I wonder why – production mistake, or something that was done on purpose?

Walter still hadn’t told Peter about his alter-worldly origins despite the latter’s multiple urgings to share what has lately been burdening the former. I was worried, not that Peter would find the letter (it seemed too obvious a course of action for a show like Fringe, to be honest), but rather that Walter would actually give him the letter instead of telling him the truth.

The letter could have been for a totally different reason. While it was addressed to Peter, it might never have been intended to be read by him. After all, Walter is keenly aware that he isn’t what he used to be. In this case, he isn’t quite the speaker he was in 1985, a glimpse of which we caught in the episode “Peter.” I am of the opinion that the letter was only a way for Walter to prepare himself for the big reveal, and only a plan B should Peter react angrily, a way for Walter to give something to Peter should he decide to walk away.

Because however angry Peter might initially be, the last year and a half won’t be without importance when it comes to his future relationship with his father – or the alternate version of his father. And what a difference a year and a half has made; the impatient and short-tempered son from 2008 has made way for a loving, encouraging one: “Whatever it is, I’m sure you’re going to make sense of it, Walter.”

Too bad he burned it.

The parallel between Walter’s and Peck’s stories are, of course, obvious to everyone. But other that the fact that they both are scientific geniuses pushing the boundaries of science to save the lives of people they love, their stories are quite different: Walter was going to lose his son, Peck already lost his fiancée; Walter knowingly tore the fabric between two universes despite knowing of the disastrous consequences of such an action, Peck is travelling responsibly through time, doing everything he can to avoid negative consequences.

The weight of the emotional grief each man has to bear is what brings them together, acting as a powerful push for a newly empathic Walter to reach out to Peck. It also makes of Peck one the most, if not the most sympathetic villain we have yet encountered in Fringe.

I found it fascinating how the change that has occurred in Walter between 1985 and his discharge from St. Claire in 2008 is shown to us – again, storytelling at its best. In “Peter,” Carla played the role of Walter’s conscience when she confronted him in the lab about the consequences of tearing the fabric between the two universes. In “White Tulip” Walter is now playing that very same role to Peck’s traveling through time. And so, Walter has become to Peck the conscience Carla was trying to be to him then.

Another major difference between what Walter went through in 1985 and what Peck is trying to do is that while the former was expecting Peter 1.0 to die, the former has no reason to think that his fiancée will die. For most, death comes unheralded, and like Peck, we are never quite ready for it. For those who, like Peck, lose someone after leaving them on a sour note, the process of healing can’t always include jumping backwards to save their lives or even to made amends. It really makes me wonder how the balance between being honest – i.e. telling people how you really feel about things, even if negative – and leaving things on good terms is meant to be struck.

I also find it interesting how Walter equates tearing the fabric between the two universes and starting off the events of the Pattern with jumping through time in a well thought-out manner. I’m assuming that if there were even a theoretical backfiring to time travel, the two men would have discussed it (like Carla and Walter did). Could this mean that Walter is seeking redemption from God by keeping Peck on the straight and narrow? And if this is the case, however well-meaning he might be, isn’t it rather hypocritical of Walter to be doing so?

Walter: I’m going to tell you something that I have never told another soul. Until I took my son from the other side, I had never believed in God. But it occurred to me that my actions had betrayed him and that everything that had happened to me since was God punishing me.

The question of the real meaning of faith has been the focus of many of my Supernatural reviews, and I think it could become the focus of a future Fringe review. Everyone has their own path to tread in life, and it seems that Walter’s rather arduous one has brought him closer to acquiring faith. One only has to think of the conversation he had with the priest in “Unearthed” to realize that Walter is seeking the truth about a higher power.

And perhaps it’s a great time to admit that I feel anything but Fringe-deprived at the moment.

In any case, the other reason I’m kind of glad for the hiatus is that it has given me extra time to get to know some of the other people out there who have been blogging/podcasting about Fringe. Last week, I referred to The Fringe Report (and I have a feeling it will be happening more often than not). This week, I finally had the time to catch up on the podcast from The Sci-Fi Party Line, which, if you love sci-fi and follow any of the episodes covered, you should definitely add to your list of blogs to follow. In any case, both the Sci-Fi Party Line and The Fringe Report have greatly contributed – be it unintentionally – to the soup of thoughts that had been slowly cooking in my brain, and here are some thoughts for you guys to mull on this week.

Another site I finally had the chance to check out was Wormhole Riders, and, more specifically, Naddy’s latest post about Fringe. She has some great insights into the promo to Peter (seriously, you’ll be pleasantly surprised at the amount of information she managed to glean albeit mildly frustrated at the questions she raises; so if you haven’t had the time to overanalyze the promo, don’t check out her post!), some of which has spurred my own reflections below.

Topic 1: The Observers

Theories abound on said characters, all the more that we now have proof that they are biological entities that eat and can die (although it’s rather difficult to do so by shooting at them, as August clearly demonstrated à la Matrix). However, they do seem to lack in emotional range, and can be puzzled at feelings such as love (again, thanks to August, this time because of his puzzlement over his feelings for Christine).

The question remains: where do they come from? Many seem convinced that The Observers come from alt-universe, but I’m not convinced of this. I have the impression that they are within a realm of their own, à la Star Trek’s Q (albeit in a much more serious and purposeful kind of way), and that they follow their own version of the Prime Directive. I don’t know if this realm is necessarily a higher one though. Perhaps the realm of The Observers has reached the peak of technological advancement but, since their senses and emotions are somehow limited, they are now observing humans in order to overcome this obstacle in their growth.

I also am not convinced that they time-travel. The details that I remember are that September has been spotted in various works of art throughout history. But perhaps his people don’t grow old as fast as we do, and so, he has been going through time normally, observing humanity?

The other vague indication of time traveling was in the episode ‘August’, when, while watching Olivia and Ella at the amusement park, December mentions how hard things are going to become for Olivia. While this hints that December can see the future, it doesn’t mean in itself that he can either time travel or actually see the future. He should be making a very educated guess as to what is going to happen.

I also wonder if their names are clues in themselves, or just something random. I think it’s most probably the former. Ideas?

I have the inkling that they are probably observing both universes, perhaps studying the different ways that different emotions in different social settings affect the decision making process and the outcome of these decisions, so as to learn how to develop emotions and, eventually, to use them most wisely. That would mean that they have to keep jumping in and out because of the whole ‘mass between universes balancing out’ thing. Although if The Observers are in a realm of their own, I suspect that their mass has to be balanced in a parallel yet unique way. Perhaps they have more time during each crossover? And weird question perhaps, but when they eat in our world, does it mean they have to, erm, defecate in our world too, so that they don’t carry too much mass with them in their own world?

I know, I’m taking this pretty far, especially since I’m not basing this theory on much. It’s only the one that makes the most sense to me at the moment, based on the details that I remember. I’d love to hear some thoughts on this!

Topic 2: Peter

I was listening to Podcast #42 of the Sci-Fi party line and Eric mentioned a theory of his which I love, and which I think makes perfect sense (Eric, does this mean you see the future, too? Or –gasp – that you are an Observer?).

Let’s look back at one of Walter’s main obsessions: Peter. It really is an obsession, as everything in Walter’s life grinds to a halt when Peter is in danger. While in large part is has to do with the fact that Walter is a father, that he has already lost Peter once and went through a lot to get him back, and that Walter is totally dependent on Peter at this moment in time, it could also mean that this particular obsessiveness is a character trait. This could mean that alt-Walter would also have such a character trait. And we don’t know if alt-Walter also had ‘brain surgery’ – somehow I don’t think so – therefore alt-Walter is still an arrogant man that can’t accept defeat.

So if we have an alt-Walter who is as obsessed with his son as Walter is, and who hasn’t had brain surgery (consequently still being his previous, arrogant self), and whose son mysteriously disappeared when he was a child and whose world is suffering because of The Blight, could it be possible then that alt-Walter turned to ‘the dark side’ after Peter 2.0’s disappearance, and that Newton has been working all this time for alt-Walter Bishop?

This would mean that alt-Walter’s main motivation to opening the door would be the survival of his world, while the loss of his son might have made him turn to ‘the dark side’. And this would have happened in part because alt-Walter comes from a world where it seems ethics are even less respected than here, so while the emotional anguish that Walter felt at Peter 1.0’s death was enough to unlock the mystery of the door, alt-Walter could not feel it and it took him longer to figure it out.

Let me tell you something: this is a lot easier to talk about than to write about!

Eric goes on to write Season 3 of Fringe, and I have to say that it would make for some awesome albeit really frustrating TV. Everything in Fringe seems so deliberate, that we have to be looking out for double entendres all the time. One of them would be when Peter tells Olivia that she doesn’t have to fight alone, that he will always be there for her. Remember that? Well why is that line there? Is it an omen as to what it to come, that once Peter finds out, he is going to choose to go ‘home’, i.e. in alternate universe? Wouldn’t this be the hardest of ‘hard times’ the Observers were referring to when they were watching Olivia with her niece at the amusement park?

This means that next episode, entitled “Peter”, is going to be quite a hinge episode, and that it’s probably going to define the second half of the season, which could end with Peter choosing the alternate universe.

Topic 3: The doorway between our universe and alt-universe

There seems to be various ways of getting to and from the other universe, ranging from the crude to the sophisticated. The variety of words used to describe the connection between the two universes is a reflection of this variety of travel methods: ‘rip’, ‘tear’, ‘door’, ‘portal’ and ‘wormhole’ can all be related to various degrees of sophistication. Perhaps also it can have to do with the number of people that can come through said method; one that ensures that a big number of people can come through at the same time and for a certain period of time would be of obvious strategic importance in a war between our universe and alt-universe.

Since Olive and the other children were experimented on in the early 1980s, it implies that just before then (in the late 1970s or the early 1980s), Bishop and Bell managed to get some objects from alt-universe into ours. Maybe the fact that they only brought over objects implies that, at that point, they had only figured out a crude way of traveling between universes.

Which makes me wonder: had Bell and Bishop managed to get in touch with alt-Bell and alt-Bishop, who were working on the same thing (albeit for different reason)? And did Bell and Bishop communicate with alt-Bell and alt-Bishop using the typewriter method that possessed-Charlie did in “A New Day In the Old Town”? Perhaps it’s while they were doing this that they clued in on an upcoming war because of The Blight? Did the ZFT manifesto, typed on Walter’s typewriter, have anything to do with it? Was it written by alt-Walter and shared with Walter through the typewriter-communication method?

So Walter and William had been working on a way of passing from one world to the other, but because it was still so crude, they never took the risk of sending people in and out – until Peter 1.0 died in 1985. And so, while Peter 1.0 wouldn’t be the impetus for the project, he could definitely have been the impetus for Walter pouring everything he had into developing a safe traveling method to go from our universe to alt-universe to get Peter 2.0.

Walter succeeded, we don’t quite know when (yet), only that it happened somewhere between 1985 and 1991. I would take a guess that it was earlier on, in 1985 or 1986, when Peter was 7 or 8; had it been later, Peter might have better memories of what happened, and also would have been far more suspicious of coming into a world so different from his own (and, namely, where no one speaks of The Blight).

We do know however that in 1991, Walter was charged with manslaughter after an assistant was killed in his lab. What we don’t know is when Walter’s brain tissue removal operation happened. Is it that before 1991, Walter had been ‘normal’, and only after he was charged with manslaughter, Bell and Bishop decided to take the information out of Bishop’s brain for safekeeping while he was under trial and most probably in jail? Or is it that, right after Peter 2.0 was brought over, Bishop and Bell decided to remove the information out of Bishop’s brain and after that, never having fully recovered, Bishop accidentally killed the lab assistant?

It could also be that in 1985, Walter, for the abovementioned reasons, figured out how to open the portal safely for people to pass through. Because Walter managed to go through the portal ahead of time because of Peter, our universe was nowhere near ready to deal with a possible invasion. So to give them enough time to figure things out, William had to remove the information from Walter and store it in a safe place, to make sure that the information about how to do so wouldn’t get into the hands of alt-universe.

I have a couple more theories, but I’ll stop, since we won’t know until we figure out why the information was removed from Walter’s brain. Or until I rewatch Season 2.

Topic 4: Olivia’s Cortexiphan Dream

Walter explained to Olivia that the ‘dream’ she was going to have while under the influence of cortexiphan was something that was unique to her, that would heighten her emotions and make her able to see the glimmer of objects from alt-universe. Therefore the dream itself is quite a source of information on the psyche of Olivia.

So I couldn’t help but check out the symbolic meaning of some of the things she saw in her dream.

The first and most obvious symbol is that of the forest. The most interesting things I found were:

• To dream of being in a dense forest denotes unhappy home influences and quarrels among families (any link to Olivia’s abused mother and her shooting her stepfather?).
• To dream that one is in or walking through a forest can signifies a transitional phase, and one must follow their instincts to figure the transition out (a link perhaps to the transition Olivia is trying to make from being ‘normal’ to having abilities?).
• To dream that one is in or walking through a forest can also mean the dreamer’s desire to escape to a simpler way of life, as he or she is feeling weighed down by the demands of their life (this one speaks for itself).
• To dream that one is walking through a forest could also mean that the dreamer wishes to return to an aspect of himself or herself that is innocent and spiritual (a link to the fact that Olivia doesn’t remember anything from Jacksonville, during the years she was the most innocent?).
• To dream of being lost in a forest signifies a search through one’s unconscious for a better understanding of oneself (this fits in perfectly with Olivia’s struggle, throughout this season, with her emotions, especially with fear).
• To dream of being lost in a forest can also be an expression of anxiety at the thought of leaving behind the familiar and stepping into unknown territory (again, a link to the fact that Olivia is stepping into ‘special ability’ territory?).
• Woods can symbolize the unknown and unconscious, and might imply that the dreamer needs to be more open-minded to discovering his or her potential and instinctual nature (this one also speaks for itself).

It’s interesting that Olivia didn’t recognize herself as a child, which is an oddity in itself, and which also could affect the usual interpretation of what it means to dream of oneself as a child. But it’s still worth mentioning what it means:

• a wish to return to one’s childhood innocence (which Olivia doesn’t even recognize, thus making it even harder);
• certain aspects of one’s childhood are not integrated into one’s adulthood (Olive could feel fear, and Olivia doesn’t);
• a retreat to a childlike state (like Olivia must have felt like she was doing when she first woke up from her coma and couldn’t even put her gun back together), where the dreamer is longing for the chance to satisfy repressed desires and unfulfilled hopes (perhaps related to Peter?);

Interestingly enough, it’s symbolic to save a child in one’s dream, as it represents an attempt to save a part of oneself from being destroyed.

What does it imply, that Olivia didn’t recognize herself in the dream? Does it have to do with the unusual fact that she remembers nothing about Jacksonville and, by association, who she was and what she looked like while she was there? Or was it so unexpected that she didn’t have time to process that this child was, in fact, her?

The final symbolic presence in the dream is that of the flying creatures in the forest, of which we see only the shadows:

• Monsters represent things that are totally out of control in the dreamer’s life, either related to the dreamer’s own behaviour, someone else’s behaviour, or a situation that is out of control;
• To dream of being chased or followed by a monster represents aspects of the dreamer that he or she finds repulsive or ugly; it might indicate that the dreamer possesses fears or repressed emotions (you don’t say).

Going back to the way Walter explained the experiment to her, I can’t help but wonder if the entire dream sequence is symbolic of something relatively simple: what if Olivia being with little Olive in a cold, dark forest simply symbolizes the way she feels about the cortexiphan experiments? A dark demon in a distant past that she can’t seem to remember, despite her amazing memory?

Could the image of Little Olive with the freaky eyes be a symbol of Olivia’s fear of being ‘infected’ because of the cortexiphan experiments she underwent as a child?

One last thought on the subject: Walter knew from the beginning that were the experiment to work, Olivia would be able to see Peter glimmer. And yet, he did nothing to prevent Olivia from saying anything to Peter were she to open her eyes from her dream and be able to ‘see’. Why? Was Walter so doubtful that the experiment would work that he didn’t consider the risk of blowing Peter’s cover? Or is it something he didn’t think about until he saw the look in Olivia’s eyes at the end of the episode?

How many days left until the end of the hiatus?

The only clue we have as to the identity of the perpetrator of the crime is a young man, somewhere in his late 30s, whom an old woman recognizes. And her reaction is less than welcoming; she stands up, frightened, shouting, “It’s him! It’s him!” Almost immediately, she turns grey and falls dead to the ground. Thirteen other people in the crowd pressing around her to help also turn grey in the matter of seconds and die. Lovely.

Of course Fringe Division is on the scene within hours. While Olivia arrives on her own, Walter Bishop continues his quest for emancipation by driving the family station wagon over, with Peter in the passenger seat, clinging for dear life. As the latter tells Olivia, it was either let him drive or let him have flying lessons, which is obviously a frightening idea. God only knows what ideas Walter has for his plane!

Fortunately enough, Walter’s mind remains keen as always when it comes to working a case, as are Olivia’s, Peter’s, and Astrid’s. Soon, enough salient facts are known to help the investigation take off. First off, the victims all died of asphyxiation. Second, the victims are all on the groom’s side.

The groom himself is found alive in a back room by Olivia and Peter, in the midst of an asthma attack. Interestingly enough, right after they open the door to the room, he also turns grey and passes away in a matter of seconds. And so the total number of victims becomes 15 blood relatives. The first victim, the old woman, was a Holocaust survivor.

Walter being Walter, even the most gruesome of deaths doesn’t take his mind off the fact that they are working a case involving a wedding. He must first reminisce about his own. Then, in a typical father-son moment, he tells Peter that he kept his tuxedo in the hopes that one day he would have a son to wear it at his own wedding. Peter points out that tuxedo styles change, only to have Walter retort, “Nonsense. Purple never goes out of style.”

Walter Bishop got married in a purple tuxedo? I love him even more now, especially after his rumination regarding his future daughter-in-law:

Walter: Do you think she’ll call me dad?
Peter: Who?
Walter: Agent Dunham.
Peter [laughing]: My guess would be no.

I would be really interested to know how many other viewers’ eyes popped open and jaws dropped at what seemed like a tacit admission of feelings for Olivia. I know it could have also just been Peter’s easygoing personality at work too, but hey, it’s worth a shot.

Back at the lavender-scented wedding, Peter finds a candle smelling like cinnamon, which turns out to include hydrogen cyanide in its composition. (I always knew it was Colonel Mustard in the Hall with the Candle!) Fringe Division realises that it has the murder weapon in its possession, one that makes perfect sense considering that the blood of the victims had turned blue.

And so the question becomes: how did the candle fumes only kill some people  and not  everyone who had been exposed? Was there a form of genetic tag on the toxin that made it only target the groom’s family? And if so, why had this family been targeted? Who had a vendetta against them?

Walter comes to recognise the signs of a scientific experiment that had been run on an unwilling public. An absolutely terrifying and horrible concept that quite unfortunately has already been used many times in our collective history — governments and corporations using an unknowing public as test subjects. Walter can’t help but wonder at the irony of the fact that the elderly woman survived the Holocaust and Nazi experiments, only to fall victim to the same type of experimentation.

The talk of Nazi experimentation always makes me think of the ethics of using groundbreaking data obtained in such a horrific manner. Many people don’t realise that we have been doing this for years. For example, most of the information clinicians have on treating extreme hypothermia comes from the Nazi experiments at the Dachau concentration camp.

I will spare both you and myself the details of these experiments. Rather, I’m curious about points of view regarding the use of the data. On the one hand, it was obtained in the most horrific and thus unethical of conditions. On the other hand, not using this data makes the deaths even more tragic. While using the data doesn’t condone the experiments, it may serve to remember the Holocaust victims, while at the same time honouring their deaths.

Whatever our history, it doesn’t change the fact that you would expect humanity in the 21st century to have learned its lesson and refrain from using an unknowing public for such reasons. Don’t we wish; unfortunately, Walter is right, and someone is running a scientific experiment. Soon enough, the Mad Scientist (and I don’t mean Walter) releases the toxin using a hot cup of tea in a street café, killing more innocent people.

But this time, there is no blood relation between those who died, be it those who died at the café or between those who died at the café and those who died at the wedding. However, there is another genetic connection between all those who have been killed: they all have brown eyes.

Another lead turns up — the molecular structure of the toxin turns out to have the signature of the scientist who developed it. Walter Bishop recognizes the signature, shaped like a seahorse, immediately: it was that of his father, the late Robert Bishop. Peter is relieved to find out that his grandfather worked in Berlin as a spy for the allies, leaking them information on the scientific advancements of the Nazi scientists (again, ethical dilemma on the use of unethically produced data) as well as a saboteur of said Nazi experiments.

Walter: Whoever created this was apparently proud of his work although I don’t know why he should be. I mean, apart from the genetic targeting, the toxin itself is quite rudimentary.

The best way of finding out how to stop a toxin is figuring out how it’s made, so Walter turns to his father’s German fiction books, in which he would write down the formulas to smuggle them out of Germany. Unfortunately, the books are not there anymore. Peter sold them about a decade ago when he needed money, infuriating his father, who accused him of putting back into the world what Robert Bishop had risked his life to keep safely away.

It would be interesting to see how Walter would have reacted had Olivia asked Peter in front of him if the real reason for selling the books was only for money. Since she has the decency to respect his privacy, Walter doesn’t hear Peter admit that he did it to hurt his father, knowing how much the books meant to him.

Peter and Olivia manage to trace some of the books back to an artist who used one to make a collage of Hitler. I have to admit that I really liked this artist’s concept of “the banality of evil”, particularly the Hitler collage made from a book filled with formulas developed for the unethical Nazi agenda, as well as the collage of puppy pictures that form a swastika flag. I would even take this further; we tend to think that ‘evil’ is necessarily as big and as bad as Hitler and the Nazis. However, evil can be banal, and its accumulation can tip the scale in the wrong direction. While this makes every single one of us responsible for not letting it accumulate, it also makes it a lot more difficult to face, as its banal nature makes it rather unnoticeable.

A couple of rather obvious clues were left as to the identity of the Mad Scientist which surprisingly enough, Fringe Division didn’t even seem to attempt to follow. One of them is that the Mad Scientist found the formula in a place other than Robert Bishop’s books; I don’t think the formula would have been copied in very many places, and that perhaps only high officials and the original lab members could have a copy of it. The second clue is that the DNA from the fingerprint on the Mad Scientist’s cup had a high telomere degradation, indicating that the person was more than 100 years old.

Fringe Division finally is able to link the Mad Scientist to an address where he has left a gift for Walter. On a previous, unannounced nighttime visit to the Bishop household, he had stolen a sweater, from which he retrieved some of Walter’s DNA to create a toxin for him. Thankfully, Olivia and Peter react fast enough, getting him out of there in a nick of time.

Ever the awesome team (hint, hint), Olivia and Peter also figure out, with the help of a plastic ID case left behind, where the Mad Scientist is heading: to the annual World Tolerance Initiative, which of course would have upset any Nazi scientist brainwashed to believe in a superior race.

His plan is deviously simple. He concocts toxins targeting people with ‘lesser’ genetic traits, placing them in the candles used to keep buffet food warm. Thankfully, Peter stopped the waiters from lighting even one.

The ending poses an ethical dilemma of its own. Walter’s use of the very same toxin to kill the Mad Scientist seems like poetic justice. Yet it also has a whiff of vigilantism. It isn’t for an individual to seek justice, but rather for all individuals to act with justice and for the institutions of society to reinforce it. Hopefully, Broyles’ decision to let Walter Bishop off without any consequence to his murder of the Mad Scientist will not make Walter do something in the same vein anytime soon. And I have the impression that, had Walter not killed the Mad Scientist, Fringe Division would have been able to get their hands on something that could have helped them in their upcoming face-to-face with parallel earth.

There is something else at the end of the episode that tickled my brain a little. After bringing his father what’s left of his books, Peter and Walter sift through some of the stuff while reflecting on the case. Peter is still wondering how the Mad Scientist got his hands on the toxin’s formula, but Walter tells him that some things are not meant to be discovered, right before the camera pans to one of the pictures and we see, in a picture of Robert Bishop’s lab sometime during the second World War — the Mad Scientist, looking exactly as he had during the entire episode. Had Walter seen this picture but never told Peter? Or has he really no clue? It’s a question worth asking, since the least Walter would do for his family is to lie.

Walter: Family is important to me. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do [for them].

I have to say that I am quite impressed yet again with this week’s episode of Fringe. The proof is in the review: I usually only talk very briefly about the plot, but this week, I couldn’t stop myself from almost breathlessly recounting it all. I have been reviewing this show since it first aired last year, and although many people I know have stopped watching it, I did hope it would rise up to its potential. And, if the last two episodes and the preview to next week’s show are any indication, it has.

Unfortunately, next week’s episode is going to be the last one before the show goes on winter break. I would like to take the opportunity to remind FOX that “winter” ends on March 21, and not on April 1, which is the date of Fringe’s return (and no April Fool’s jokes, I promise). It seems like we are going to have to wait a little longer for Fringe to confirm its commitment to awesomeness.

The Fringe team investigate bodies with creatures attached to it. Olivia, Peter and Broyles discover that the case is linked to a dangerous organization.

My first piece of advice is: don’t start watching this episode while you’re eating. My girlfriend and I made that mistake and we had to stop watching after about 7 minutes. You’ve been warned.

Snakehead is a done-in-one episode which has a fringe-type creature being smuggled into the United States inside human cargo. It’s the removal process that can make someone a little queasy. When a few of these creature-carrying people wash up on the shores of Boston dead, well who else are you going to call in but the Fringe Division? They find that while the first ship might have had a mishap but there is another coming in just two short weeks.

While this episode may be gross to some, it could be awesome to others. I stand firmly in the awesome category (naturally). The creatures being hosted inside people is reminiscent of ‘Alien’ but doesn’t at all seem derivative.

The best part of this episode is just the fact that Fringe is finally opening up to the world again. Aside from one trip to Germany last season and a quick visit to the Washington State, Fringe hasn’t much left the comfort of the north eastern United States. It isn’t too much of a bad thing but if weird crap is happening there at this frequency, you can just imagine the things that are happening all over the world. This episode doesn’t leave the country per se, but the creatures’ hosts are Chinese nationals.

This episode also frames a tight focus on Walter Bishop as he practises a bit of ‘self-actualization’. In fact both Bishops practically eclipse for the whole episode Agent Dunham. Even Astrid, the elder bishop’s assigned lab aid, plays a bigger role in the story than the star does. Dunham does have a couple character moments but they feel a bit tacked on.

I give this episode a good grade. Not much in the twists and turns department that previous episodes have had but it was solid. The gateway to the rest of the world awaits in following up this episode because no one messes with the Triads (Chinese organized crime) and doesn’t feel the repercussions.

Walter Bishop’s quote of the episode: “In fact my white cell count is through the roof, I have several new antibodies in my blood, and even the gas I had is gone.”

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The Fringe team closes in on the mysterious Observer after they investigate a bizarre abduction case in Boston, MA.

Here we go, this is more like it. This week’s episode features the mysterious bald headed Observers. They remind me of the Watchers from Fantastic Four. I keep calling their guns the “Ultimate Nullifiers” and nobody but me thinks it’s funny.

The big revelation right off the top of the episode (and is not a spoiler) is that there are more than one Observer. In this episode we see four of them. One of the guys reminds me of the Cro-Mags from the crappy Sliders years. His head is misshaped and is proof that not everyone can pull off the Mr. Clean look. I know, I used to do it, and I looked good. One Observer, August, comes off the sideline and gets into the reaction by participating in a kidnapping that’s more than it appears (damn, that’s two episodes in a row).

This episode had me salivating because the Observers are present to watch a significant event in history so you know they are strongly connected to the primary story arc of the show. That being said I was a little let down by the execution in parts of this episode. We learn a few new things about the Observers but nothing really ground shaking, and I was really hoping for an earthquake.

My qualms with the episode are actually very few. The first is the nature of Peter’s origin. It’s been teased at since mid season 1 so I’m sure if you’ve watched the episodes up until now it’s plain as day for you too. I’m just going to say it: The Peter of this dimension died and Walter stole a Peter from another dimension to replace him. It’s obvious, we’ve even seen little Peter’s grave. My headache is that no one will come out and say it. There better be another big twist to that story or I’ll be annoyed for them dragging it out.

One of the handful of things that we learned about the Observers is that they also act as guardians of the timeline, putting things right if they somehow go wrong. If someone survives when they are supposed to be dead, the Observers call in their assassin… DONALD! WTF?! That was weird. Not the kind of awesome I was expecting. Also the way that the kidnapped girl becomes historically significant was kinda lame.

The number one thing that pissed me off in this episode was the scientist guy from Massive Dynamic. I absolutely hate then a sciency-type character is brought in to explain the multiple interpretations for the flow of time, especially when they do it with incredibly stupid visual aids. If that guy got my shoes wet during his crappy explanation, I would have punched him.

All and all, this was a good episode. Some lame execution pulls thing down but the insight into the Observers was great and I can see that paying off more in the future. The ending has a wonderfully foreboding message that spells trouble, and I like the sounds of that.

Walter Bishop’s quote of the episode: “The flatulence was horrible.”

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The Fringe Division investigates an unusual kidnapping with connections to Massive Dynamic.

Since this is my first review of Fringe I’m going to put up a little disclaimer. It’ll probably be moved back to the first episode when I get around to the back-reviewing. I never watched the X-Files. There I said it. It’s out in the open. We can all move on. The X-Files was on TV at the right time for me, and my best friend was an absolute fanatic, but it just didn’t grab me. So when Fringe was reviewed as (to quote the Wikipedia article) “a cross between The X-Files, Altered States, The Twilight Zone, and Dark Angel.” I thought this was a perfect way for me to get The X-Files-type experience without have to go back and watch 9 seasons and 2 movies.

My last attempt to fill this X-Files void didn’t pan out so well. I don’t know if any of you saw Threshold, but I was one of the few viewers and that was taken from me before I wanted to let go. I’m pleased to see Fringe in it’s second season and going strong.

Of Human Action is a good episode. So good that it diverts me away from the fact that the show continues to tease us with tiny elements of the overall storyline highlighted in the season one finale and season 2 opener. I want more of the William Bell storyline, but as long as they keep making good episodes I’ll stay distracted.

This episode starts with a basic kidnapping storyline with a mind control twist. Fringe division has been called in because well… mind control is weird, yes, but the victim’s father also happens to work for Massive Dynamic. Yes that’s everyone’s favourite giant technology corporation with a heart and a metal hand. They do a good job of keeping you guessing in this show as to whether Massive Dynamic is actually be helpful and this entire episode I had a feeling like they were hiding something.

Half way through the episode the twist is turned on its head and we come out with a whole new kidnapping scenario. I saw the twist coming at the last second but I was actually disappointed in myself that I didn’t figure it out sooner. The writers themselves even squeezed in some dialogue to make fun of the viewers that didn’t see it coming. Touché Robert Chiapetta & Glen Whitman, touché.

I really liked this episode and am pleased that Fringe is doing so well. With so much going downhill for Sci-Fi on TV, I’m clinging to Fringe for dear life. Couple last notes 1) If I knew that it was that easy to get mind control powers I would have experimented with certain pharmaceuticals years ago. 2) The scene in the strip club could have been SO much better, but then we would be watching this on HBO, alas. 3) That ending made me giddy over the future possibilities for this storyline.

Walter Bishop quote of the episode: “… if you do, you may die a gruesome and horrible death. Thank you for your attention and have a nice day.”

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