FRINGE REWATCH: 3.03 The Plateau — Real Distraction

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Our Fringe Rewatch continues as we search for new perspectives ahead of the fourth season. Up next: The Plateau - or what we’re calling: “Real Distraction.”

Please note: these rewatches may contain references to later episodes.

In case you didn’t manage to rewatch this episode, here’s a promo to give you a sense of where the story was:

This retrospective is focused around two main areas: NEW PERSPECTIVES, where I look at the episode with new eyes. And FINDING PETER, where I share my speculations and thoughts in relation to Peter ‘ceasing to exist’ and the new timeline.

As mentioned previously, I’ll be making an effort to avoid going over old ground, but there will be links at the end to my previous rewatch articles should you wish to drill down on my previous thoughts.

NEW PERSPECTIVES / FINDING PETER

Charlnate, Lincolnate and Olivia trace Milo’s chain-reaction.

• The episode opens with Milo standing on the sidewalk, facing the two streams of traffic. A nice representation of two universes within the same timeline.

• As has been said before, Milo shares several parallels with the Observers. He’s able to perceive probability on a high-level and manipulate people’s decisions to his own ends. The opening scene with the pen is a great example of how he is able to shape events without having ‘direct’ involvement in the ensuing dance.

• We’ve seen this quite a few times with the Observers. Indeed, Peter’s final act in saving both universes, therefore activating the new timeline and ceasing to exist, was the result of the Observers perceiving and manipulating his (and others) choices through a series of overarching events.

• Milo snares his targets by creating a distraction. Again, we see the Observers employ similar techniques — memorably in The Firefly, when testing whether Walter was capable of sacrificing Peter.

• The representation of Milo’s perception is also useful. At certain key moments we see the world through his eyes, as he captures snapshots of his targets, perceiving their likely actions. Presumably this is similar to how the Observers see time.

• Milo, like the Observers, is prone to mistakes. Ultimately, he fails to snare Olivia because his perspective was limited — he didn’t factor in the possibility that she was not from his world, and therefore wouldn’t necessarily respond in way he predicted.

Olivia and Lincolnate investigate the chain reaction.

• You could say that Milo had a blind spot — an absence of emotions and knowledge crucial to the bigger picture. This is something we’ve discussed in relation the Observers, when September caused the Peter “irregularity” — confusing the importance of the boy over the moment.

•  Such blind spots are also evident in their diminished understanding of human empathy and love. Something made clearer to them at the fall of August.

• In Milo’s case, he forgot what it’s like “to feel emotions.” The Observers? It’s up for debate as to whether they have evolved to the point where they’ve lost their emotional attributes, or whether they never had them in the first place, and now have to understand the important role they play in matters of human action.

• Within all of this is the concept of chain reactions — culminating events leading up to a bigger event. We can look at this in terms of Peter activating the new timeline — many smaller, connected, events led up to this dramatic shift.

• Interesting that Lincolnate was less willing than Charlnate to believe that Olivia wasn’t their Olivia, given that he’d later confess his love for her. Earlier, he claimed she was “good at disguises,” which perhaps tells us something about his capacity to distinguish.

Broylnate and Walternate discuss matters of the Dunham-kind.

• TP sees the beginnings of the Broylnate/Olivia thread that would play an important role in this eight-episode arc. It’s interesting to look back at his conversation with Walternate and to trace where his lines are.

• Three things are instantly clear: He’s concerned about his agent Dunham over here. He’s committed to defending his world. He’s curious about Olivia. These elements come together to present him with some interesting challenges along the way.

• We also get more on the pen arc. Over there, pens are pretty much obsolete. A couple of episodes earlier Peter wanted to save the dying pen. But the question remains, will he be able to find his way back through the cracks of his loved ones memories?

• In a key scene we see Milo orchestrating events from a bridge. Thematically interesting at the time, even more so in light of Peter doing something similar in the season 3 finale.

• It’s not often you see someone getting carried away on top of a motor vehicle, so it’s worth considering whether Milo’s bridge escape scene and Walter’s arrival inside Olivia’s subconscious (LSD) share an intentional parallel.

Projection Peter AKA Olivia’s subconscious

• Enter the overarching theme of Projection Peter, which is still, for me, one of the most compelling aspects of season 3. Even more so in relation to the ongoing themes and story.

• Her polished representation of Peter allowed Olivia to stay afloat in the AU. She could have projected a heroic representation of herself, but she didn’t. She chose Peter. It’s almost fairytale stuff really, the knight in shining armor and all that.

• But far from being a damsel in distress, I think it says a lot about the fact that she was finally allowing someone else in. That took courage when she needed it most. There’s something telling about the fact that ‘Peter’ emerged through Olivia — a theme that we’ve seen before.

• Projection Peter also foreshadowed later events in LSD, where Peter would become a projection to help Olivia find herself.

• Why couldn’t projection Peter have done the job? Well, it’s storytelling. But it also makes logical sense in that Olivia’s mind was all at sea (thanks Bellie), so she needed the real thing to come get her this time.

• Given the parallels between Milo and the Observers, I find it interesting that by the end of the episode only a machine was able to interpret Milo’s thoughts.

• Finally, in my original review for this episode last year, I said:

It also emphasizes how much Peter and Walter have shaped Olivia. In the two or so years that they’ve known her (technically it’s been longer for Walter), they’ve left their imprint on her subconscious. She’s retained these fragments even though she’s been flooded with the memories and traits of someone else. It illustrates that the people who mean the most to us are always with us. It’s not just about memory though, in my opinion, it’s something deeper.

• We stand on the brink of further exploration into such matters in season 4. It goes to show that the plot point of Peter ceasing to exist is very much inline with the story DNA.

Retrospective Rating: 9/10 Seriable Stars

Want more? Check out my previous The Plateau write-ups:

• 3.03 The Plateau: Review | Observations

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Tagged as: chain-reactions, Fringe, fringe rewatch, probability, the observers, the plateau