Fringe returned after a lengthy break, but did the winter premiere get the show back to where it needs to be?
THE GOOD
- After a couple of standalone episodes, it was good to get back to the overarching, central storyline where the stakes and momentum reside. I also appreciated the continuity effort regarding Olivia’s Cortexiphan dosing.
- The involvement of the parallel universe in the central storyline (FINALLY) was very welcome and has interesting possibilities going forward.
- The contextualizing of Peter’s journey was more apparent. His scenes with Eliznate and Walternate were enjoyable and full of rewarding parallels and notable differences.
- The return of a Fringe favorite, David Robert Jones *swoon* as the man seemingly behind the Human Shapeshifters. A badly kept secret, but I’m intrigued by his return. The shapeshifter infiltration is also a neat twist.
- Hints that Olivia’s journey is finding its legs again, following September’s harrowing message in the theatre of dreams.
- The episode zipped along at a brisk pace. Often a sign of an enjoyable installment.
THE BAD
- I found Olivia and Lincoln’s motivation for helping Peter to be somewhat contrived. Their ‘reasons’ for doing so felt forced to serve the plot rather than stemming from an organic place. It was also weird that Peter would even think they’d help him, given the way he’s been treated until now.
- The idea that Peter is suddenly allowed to roam around unsupervised was weird, given his ‘Fringe Event’ status. Was Timmy on holiday? Peter’s mythology porn get too much for him?? The lack of continual exploration of the overarching story is one of the reasons that this (and other) aspects of the episode felt out of sync.
- The use of the highly dangerous portal device (without the presence of the guy who built and understands the thing) was so blase and matter-of-fact, it was — in story terms — shocking. They’ve shown more concern using the bridge room, which is at least stable. It was a shame to see the weight and significance removed from such an important mythology concept — it makes the timeline feel less tangible.
- I would still like to explore Peter’s perspective more than we have. Perhaps it’s coming up, but I do find it strange that we still haven’t heard his take on where he was before Olivia plopped him back into existence (etc, etc).
THE OVEREVIEW
Peter’s dream was a suitably surreal place to kick off the episode, informing his state of mind — and heart. We know that he wants to get home, but the dream takes us a bit deeper into that internalization — which is important for a character like Peter who is often sub-level when it comes to emotions.
As for the dream itself, I like to look at it in two distinct ways — on the one hand, Peter finds it “fine” being back with “the two of you” — pointing towards the possibility that he may eventually come to make the best of this timeline. Deep down this has to be a consideration. While on the other hand, this scenario, filled with characters he shares an emotional history with, is where he feels he belongs. What dreams may come?
Interesting to note that whereas his previous dream told him he was the problem, this latest construct led to an answer. It might be interesting to look at what processes Peter has navigated since. Certainly there’s another narrative taking place in his unconscious mind. He might not be the point-of-view character many of us crave, but he’s beginning to dimensionalize.
Also interesting is that Peter is following the clues. We’re used to Olivia — consciously or otherwise — following her internal GPS, now we’re getting more of that on the Peter front.
Peter and Walter: While Walter’s affections are tempted by Peter, he’s learned the hard way. Not having a tangible Peter, or the ‘hope’ of Peter one day returning to free him from his chains, has locked him in a guarded state. He risked it all and lost everything, gaining ‘only’ wisdom, caution and resentment.
This version of Walter hasn’t traveled the exact same path as the one Peter knows, his experiences are different, so he is more distant. But that distance is helping to address the balance in Peter’s flawed perception of love and circumstance. This is why Walter’s rejection of Peter is so important on a larger-level.
His recollection of the events that led to Elizabeth’s tragic death are terribly poignant and further contextualizes his resistance. If Walter is holding on to specific memories, then it offers an explanation for why Peter might be doing the same in his own way. After all, he has more positive memories to get back to.
I would still like Peter to consider that maybe a sacrifice has to be a sacrifice — and that he should take comfort from having saved ‘his people,’ but the eternal optimist’s desire to have the best of both worlds now has a thread that can be picked at.
Just when Olivia thought her headache coldn’t get any worse, a problem lands at her doorstep.
She squarely blames Walternate for the human shapeshifters, and while two wrongs don’t make a right, she might want to remember that the man is an off-shoot of the one who abused her as a child, yet who she has a lot of time for.
He might be an SOB, but I find her contempt a bit short-sighted. If a parallel universe means anything, I’d think the characters at the center would have a bit more understanding of one another. Of course there needs to be conflict, and hopefully we’ll experience that in its fullest, but I find this Olivia a touch inconsistent with the ‘let’s fix this, y’all’ one at the end of last season.
As mentioned earlier, her willingness to help Peter comes out of nowhere. It’s contrived by her equally sudden motivation to ‘do a little recon’. This is the same Olivia who hasn’t expressed such desire until now, and was chasing down a relatively trivial case a day or so earlier.
So yeah, it’s a bit limp, but not as limp as Lincoln and his ‘chicken soup’.
How about you bring us a box of chocolates next time, Linc?
Moving on..
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PERSON OF INTEREST Renewed For Season 2
TERRA NOVA: Season 2 Decision Delayed Until 2012
ONCE UPON A TIME: The Comprehensive Character Guide
BREAKING BAD: Bryan Cranston Confirms Season 5 Will Premiere In July
FRINGE OBSERVATIONS: 4.22 Brave New World: Part 2
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ONCE UPON A TIME OBSERVATIONS: 1.22 A Land Without Magic
ONCE UPON A TIME OBSERVATIONS: 1.21 An Apple Red As Blood
FRINGE OBSERVATIONS: 4.21 Brave New World: Part 1
ONCE UPON A TIME OBSERVATIONS: 1.20 The Stranger
{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
Something I think deserves to be in the answers section: Linking the two universes stopped the degradation. I don’t think we had heard that before, and I found it interesting.
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Thanks for this review. Very interesting read!
I had one thought though on the last line September utters: “You have to die!”
Couldnt it be possible that he is actually warning her? Something like: “I have looked at all the possible futures [...]. You will die! (and I do not see a possibilty to stop it)”
And then he thought by telling her, she herself might prevent it? That at least would be perfectly ambigious. Also that part might be possible with all his time stuff, since he might not be able to see the possible future after telling her, because he intervened to some extent.
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A parallel that I think is being missed, or maybe just is minorly mentioned: the human shapeshifters have infiltrated the Over There gov’t in this timeline, whereas the Walternate shapeshifters infiltrated the Over Here gov’t in the other timeline.
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Great review Roco!
Also I get the impression from the previews to next week that Jones is from “our” timeline like Peter. Did something happen when he was cut in half when Peter turned off the portal?
I am so happy Fringe is back!
Here’s my theory for what September said to Olivia. He was saying “this” Olivia would have to die. I think he was only referring to her futures. She will have to die. And that will pop Peter back to “our” timeline. That would be her sacrifice. In a way that kinda works with her feeling she hadn’t found her place in the world and Nina’s assurances that she eventually would. Poor Linc!
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I’m jonesing for Jones as well, but will he be half the man he use to be !
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“Further confirmation that Olivia isn’t aware that she can cross over to the other side using her abilities.”
hm, I’m not so sure that she isn’t aware that she has crossed over in the past.
In subject 9, the video of subject 13 was playing in the background of Astrid’s and Olivia’s scene. It showed the scene of the betamax tape where Olivia was running on the treadmill. At this point in the story the only influence Peter would not have had on Olivia was looking at her through a window. Not much.
So we know this universe’s story got to the point where she was running on the treadmill, and hit by her stepfather which is the first time she crossed over.
In this timeline she runs away, but its in the original timeline that Olivia confesses that yes she crossed over to the other universe to Walternate and that’s where she saw the Zeppelin she drew. So Olivia knew she crossed over the whole time, but never got to a point in the story where she confessed it to anybody.
What do you mean by “this is further proof she doesn’t know”. I took her “what?!” reaction to be one of shock that he knew something about her that she probably never told anyone and I’m betting Lincoln didn’t know about the experiments if Astrid was only told about them in Subject 9. I don’t know what other initial proof you had either.
This point totally confuses me that people don’t think she crossed over, I thought it was totally explained when they included the subject 13 test footage in the “previously on fringe” portion of a subsequent episode. (wallflower?)
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I agree with you g33k. I think she is aware she crossed over as a child. But remember she ran away I’m assuming after she shot her father. She doesn’t know she has still been dosed with cortexifan. So she doesn’t think she has any abilities now. Thus her being shocked by Peter’s statement. Because yes how would he know these things about her.
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I understand that this days in the day care didn’t happen in the new timeline. Walter only re-opened the trails because he wanna send Peter back, after he receives the cure. But as he died in the lake, he didn’t need more tests nor find a way to send him back. And because of that, Peter never looked at Olivia through a window, Olivia never came back to the daycare, she wasn’t exposed to more cortexiphan and never crossover because of her father.
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Olivia is under the impression that the cortexiphan effects last only 24 hours, & I think, she believes that it would only work on children. She, of course, isn’t aware that dear Ninakins is dosing her with the stuff currently. In that case, she does not realize that she could probably cross over on her own now.
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I’d love to take credit for this theory, but over on EW, Jeff Jensen suggested that the person warning Olivia about her impending doom could be future September; and the reason that he has been shot is because he has just taken a bullet that was meant for Olivia. Discuss…
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I was thinkin the same thing. He tried to intervene and take a bullet for her but it hit him and went through and killed her. So even with him tryin to change the future she still dies.
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Yes, there were a lot of inconsistencies and illogicalities in this episode, sadly. The quality of the writing has definitely declined, which is very depressing.
Peter knew about the massive damage that Walter’s portal device did – as you say Roco, it’s central to the past three seasons. Yet he doesn’t even seem to consider for an instant what he’s doing. What was disturbing was that the reset characters, especially Olivia, had to know its dangers too, yet used it like catching a cab.
It was truly absurd that they could just ‘requisition’ the device without any eyebrows in the government being raised. While yes, it’s in Massive Dynamics’ possession, there is no way on earth the government wouldn’t keep a very tight rein on it. So we’re asked to believe nobody would say, “wait, what? What do you want a universe-destroying toy for?”
That’s like pulling up outside a missile silo in a pick-up truck, waving a requisition form for an ICBM. So the silo crew just shrug and say, “help yourself, y’all”?
We were just expected to swallow this. It was so frustrating, because this rather serious plot flaw could easily have been avoided if they’d just stolen the portal. Just rewrite a couple of lines in the script and presto!
While this episode was the most interesting of season 4 so far, that, I’m afraid, isn’t saying much.
And yes, you’re right, suddenly Peter has freedom of movement, not escort and no explanation as to why there isn’t anymore? Say what? Not good, Mr Fury, not good at all. Apparently the showrunners are no longer monitoring continuity.
I’ve been a Fringe fan for three years. But I’ll never be an unquestioning fanboy. So far, in terms of the absence continuity, consistency, characterisation and sheer logicality, this season has jumped the shark for me.
Really sad. I’m pretty depressed right now. Please, Pinkner & Wyman, prove me wrong!
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Peter might know or think, that due to the bridge he build its safe to use the portal now, since both universes are already linked and no breaches happened so far.
Also, the breach registered at Fringe Div headquarters, but dissipated instantly without damage.
As for the requisition form: Yes, that sounds a bit easy and stupid, but I guess it was mainly due time constraints for this episode. Sure they could think of something to get that stuff. You could argue, that they both jumped to Peter’s “help” quite easily without much talk.
The part about Peter’s freedom of movement was something I didnt understand as well though.
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Yes, I did notice that the breach vanished, but none of them knew in advance whether or not that would happen. So to say it was irresponsible is an understatement.
If you remember in a previous episode, Peter had an FBI agent accompany him everywhere, to keep an eye on him, even including when he was shopping. Now suddenly there’s no agent?
So suddenly Broyles trusts Peter? If that had happened, you’d have to show it – or at least have one of the characters say that Broyles has had a change of heart towards a person he referred to as a ‘Fringe Event”.
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@Maranar: Regarding the portal device, you raised a really good point. I think that since the two universes are connected now, I don’t think that Peter saw the harm in using the portal device. But, I think that Peter should have said that or some explanation should have been provided.
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So far, I haven’t seen any evidence that Peter has anymore freedom than he did last episode. He would only need FBI “babysitters” when not helping/interacting with FBI fringe division agents, because when he is, they are responsible for making sure he doesn’t go all fringe event. The escort could simply have been sitting outside Olivia’s apartment and the orpheum (which is what I assumed). As for after they crossed over, when you’re on a rogue mission, normal protocols go out the window.
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So much happened in this episode, I needed a Roco review to take it all in.
David Robert Jones returns—hello, you!
Roco, regarding Olivia & Lincoln manipulating Peter for their own purposes—investigating the human shapeshifters. Remember that she does not have the relationship with Peter that she had in the original timeline so is willing to exploit his quest to get back to where (he thinks) that he belongs. Olivia is relentless when she is motivated—such as the lengths that she went to in the pilot to get Walter (& Peter—remember that she originally lied to him) involved in saving John Scott. (On the other hand, Alt-Liv is not quite as ruthless because she seemed shocked when she found out that Olivia, as a child, had killed her abusive stepfather.) The other person who also possesses this characteristic is Walternate, & it’s interesting that they are in opposing universes.
Olivia was kidnapped by Walternate so that he could get the part for the doohickey of doom. She did not participate in this timeline’s Over There team so did not develop the empathy that her original (?) counterpart did.
Yeah, Roco, the team does seem to get sidetracked, all too often, into working on some relatively minor case.
Is one reason that September failed to erase Peter from the timeline because he has the potential to save Olivia from her projected fate? As you say, Roco, Peter might have to choose to let Olivia die to save the universes.
Peter tells Linc & Olivia that Olivia doesn’t need the diz ray (however you spell it) to cross over, & the two agents don’t follow up with questions (lots of them!)?
Shapeshifter Brandonate dies, & we all cheer.
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So I know this response is a bit delayed, but better late than never, right? (maybe not…) Anyway, just a few comments on a couple of things Roco said:
“I find her contempt a bit short-sighted… Of course there needs to be conflict, and hopefully we’ll experience that in its fullest, but I find this Olivia a touch inconsistent with the ‘let’s fix this, y’all’ one at the end of last season.”
I think her contempt and distrust of Walternate works very well. I don’t think she has seen any reason to trust him. Yes, she would be willing to encourage everyone to work together to fix this, but if she believes that the other side isn’t holding up to their end of the bargain, that’s going to limit her belief that they can trust each other and work together. One member of the team doing everything in their power to make things work while the other side not only doesn’t help, but they appear to be working against that alliance, isn’t going to work. Right now, as far as Olivia is concerned, Walternate is the most likely candidate behind the shapeshifters. And they’ve had shaky dealings with the other side in the past. She has reason to be suspicious of him. To ignore that would be naiive. And if she believes the other side isn’t willing to cooperate and work towards a common goal, then I think it is perfectly reasonable for her to regard Walternate as an enemy and someone not worth trusting.
Peter’s initial opinion of Walternate:
First off, I think there needs to be a distinction between this new timeline Walternate and the original timeline Walternate. I can believe that this timeline Walternate has a softer, more peaceful side to him that Peter was able to reach. I can believe that he’s not the evil bad guy that he appeared to be. And I do still think he has done evil things. But they are more understandable in context of what he felt he was fighting for and fighting against. Original timeline Walternate, in my opinion, crossed the line between fighting for a cause within understandable reason, and fighting for a cause at all costs, giving up any sort of moral limitations to keep him grounded. I do not feel like original timeline Walternate can be trusted, despite the fact that both Walternates come from similar backgrounds and perspectives. I think he has taken his desire for revenge too far.
One large difference in my opinion, is the presence of Elizabeth. In the original timeline, Walternate essentially pushed her away. Without her companionship and her steadying influence, he became more fixated on revenge at all costs. He became willing to do whatever it took to fight back against the side he perceived as the enemy. But with this new timeline, for whatever reason, he and Elizabeth managed to work things out. And I think that she brings out the best in him. She keeps him stable and seeing things at a better perspective.
Therefore, while he still went to questionable lengths against the over here side, I can see how this Walternate is not as far gone as he appeared to be. But I don’t think Peter should be criticized for having expected this Walternate to be just as hardened, stubborn, prideful, and “evil” as the Walternate he has interacted with in the past.
And, let me also add, that I think it’s unfair for you to criticize the over here characters for their prejudice against the other side, when the over there characters are just as guilty of the same thing. If the over here characters need to be willing to give the others the benefit of the doubt, and realize that they’re not the evil counterparts that they appear to be, then I think the same should be said for the over there characters. Just saying… They all have the same reasons to be suspicious of each other and to regard the other with contempt, and moving past that is going to take some time and common experiences to allow them to earn that trust and to see that their initial impressions of each other were not necessarily accurate.
Regarding the Observer’s warning to Olivia:
I know a lot of people didn’t like this moment because they thought it was too predictable. While that may be true, that doesn’t change the fact that it’s still a very bold statement from the observer. It’s a prediction that has drastic potential consequences for our beloved Dunhamnator. Combine that with her oddly calm prediction about Man-X, and it looks like they’re planting the seeds for a black future for Olivia. While I don’t think it likely that every version of our Olivia will die in the course of the series, there is a very real threat and I’m interested to see where they go with that and how (if) she manages to avoid that fate. I do think it’s worth pointing out that there are some futures the Observers seem unable to predict. In August, the observers could not see how Christine could be important, thus they concluded that she must die as she was meant to. Even August was unable to think of a scenario in which they would allow her to live. It was only after his meeting with Walter that he found a loophole. I think there may be a similar loophole that the Observer overlooked when it comes to Olivia’s fate.
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