What happened?
A strange fungus appears to have formed a psychic connection with a small boy. However, this rapidly-growing fungus is killing those that come into contact with it and so it’s down to Walter to break the psychic link between the boy and the organism before Broyles orders it to be destroyed. Walter eventually realises that it is the boy that is in control and, clearly confused by thoughts of the young Peter he lost, he endeavours to save his life and does so.
Still seeing visions and hearing voices of Peter, although he doesn’t know who he is, Walter believes he is going crazy and to prevent being sent back to the asylum he attempts a lobotomy on himself. Olivia arrives and stops him and then reveals that she too has been dreaming about this same person, placating Walter’s fears for his sanity and forging a resolve in him to find out who he is.
Thoughts
Apart from the terrific last scene (Fringe is rather good at producing last scene kickers to sign off its episodes with) this wasn’t the kind of episode to write home about. The main plot of the boy and the fungus brain thing was bizarre, even by Fringe standards. It started out well, I thought. The intrigue surrounding the organism and the boy was good, mainly because the boy had a slightly otherworldly feel about him that created a sense of mystery. And when Lincoln and Olivia were shining a light on the fungus, and getting ready to burn it, and the kid was freaking out, there were moments where I was rather excited about what the eventual explanation would be.
Turned out there wasn’t much of an explanation at all. A rather boring story of a miserable child finding an emotional connection that needed to be broken wasn’t particularly inspiring. But more baffling was how this strange organism thing even came to exist in the first place. Broyles and everyone else were quick to want to get rid of it without questioning where on Earth it had come from!
If, indeed, it did come from Earth!
Really it was just a bit of a lame Macguffin to get Walter in cahoots with a little boy so he could peel back some layers and confirm this universe’s history of Peter and the tragedy in his life that had damaged him so. It was detailed that Walter did lose his original son, and then crossed over to the other universe and snatched Peter. The different with this universe, and what was supposed to happen without Observer September’s intervention, was that Peter fell under the ice and drowned at Reiden Lake.
It’s straightforward enough, and as I had figured it (although for some reason I had it in my head that Peter must have died in a car crash into the icy lake – which I seem to recall now was actually the cover story fed to Peter to explain his dim memory of nearly drowning).
I think I said this from the last episode, too, but I don’t see anything to suggest that when Peter is eventually recalled there will be a fundamental change to the universe as it is shown now. This world is here to stay, it’s just that Peter is likely to be dragged into it as a strange ‘foreign’ object that really ought not to be there but exists anyway. A living paradox. It’ll be interesting to see if what he has to say prompts the likes of Olivia and Walter to have better memories of their former lives, though. . .
The ramifications of what might occur should Olivia and Walter and others realise this universe wasn’t the ‘original’ version remains to be seen – potentially this is a dynamic that could form the arc for this season. Potentially Peter’s return could make this universe unstable so that it becomes essential for things to be ‘reset’.
I hope not. I’d much rather prefer Peter was brought back, fully aware of his former life, and this universe and people had to try and wrap their heads around it and then move forward. The question then is: move forward to what? Where is the next dramatic conflict coming from? Potentially it could be from The Observers themselves who would seek to eradicate Peter themselves, and thus it would be our heroes versus these strange bald people!
Outlandish stuff, I know, but then you have to figure The Observers will have to be brought into the fold more at some point. I haven’t yet got any kind of idea about how the ‘first people’ thing from last season will be integrated into the grand scheme of Fringe. Let’s just take one big idea at a time and see where it gets us.
So Walter’s crisis with the kid making him relive his fight to save Peter in this episode felt a little heavy-handed, though it at least served the purpose of making it clear to everyone exactly what the situation with Peter’s history was. Fringe does sometimes feel clumsy in how it always needs to link in the current case story as a parallel to ongoing character drama – I know it helps forge the line between standalone episodes and continuing the serial drama but it does sometimes clunk like dropping bricks.
Credit to John Noble as Walter, though, who at least helped sell how bereft and undone he is compared to the man that we once knew – the man that had saved Peter and had him to help rehabilitate him. This Walter had no such solace in his past, and no crutch in his present, and it really comes across at how he clutches to a sane reality by his fingertips with only Astrid and Olivia there as his safety net to keep him in check. Whilst this universe may remain the same with Peter’s return I have to wonder if perhaps the ‘old’ characters that Walter and Olivia used to be might re-surface along with their awareness and, perhaps, memories of Peter.
For all of its clunking plot beats the episode served a purpose. It’s got Walter and Olivia united in a common cause of trying to find Peter. I kicked myself at the end for not being more suspicious of Olivia at the beginning. I knew she had been searching for Peter’s face on the computer and yet for some reason I just rationalised it as her having been given the description by Walter and she was just checking it out for herself. It didn’t occur to me that she was searching for her own purposes, even though she blatantly kept it a secret from Lincoln!
That’s just sloppy attention from yours truly, but it at least meant the end scene held a little more impact when she revealed she’d been dreaming of Peter so Walter could quit drilling into his brain and get on with figuring out who this ‘ghost’ really is!
What was the best part?
The best parts were really all about Olivia’s revelation that she too was sharing visions of Peter. I particularly liked the little scene where she was searching the facial recognition database for his image, a moment that registered with more impact only at the end (at least for me) when she revealed that she had been dreaming about this man and drawn his image so that she might figure out who he is.
What do I think will happen next?
Hopefully the search for Peter will now begin in earnest. With Walter dispensing with the paranoia that he is going insane, and with Olivia also on board now, I can well envisage the next episode really focusing on getting to the bottom of this mystery. I did predict that Peter would return within about four or five episodes so it seems about the right time for Fringe to cut the foreplay and get on with the main event!
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