Fringe: S04 Ep14 – The End Of All Things

 

What happened?

While Peter and Fringe team struggled to find out exactly what had happened to Olivia, hauling in Nina for interrogation, they are interrupted by an appearance from a dying September. Realising he doesn’t have long, Peter forces to Walter to let him get inside his head. There September informs Peter The Observers are scientists from far in the future, and that it was his intervention when he prevented Walter from realising he had a cure for his son that created a rift in the universe he has since been trying to correct.

Olivia meanwhile discovers that she is being held by Mr. Jones, and a fake Nina. They want her to prove she has the skills to turn on the light in the box test, but as she recalls her experiences from the other universe she is able to complete the task once she sees Peter has, too, been captured and threatened. Mr. Jones is pleased and escapes when Olivia turns the tables on them, forewarning her that she is capable of doing a whole lot more.

Thoughts

There are certain episodes in any mytholigy-based serial drama that are going to deliver the required deluge of answers and revelations. Sometimes those episodes don't go over as powerfully as you'd hope, like how Lost sometimes felt towards the end. And then there are other examples, like this one, where it pretty much gets ir right and delivers the wow factor. I say "pretty much" because I wasn't massively blown away by what went on. Maybe it was the expectation, since I had been clued in that this was a fan-pleasing, whopper of an episode. Mostly, however, I think the reveals about The Observers didn't really bowl me over as much as I wanted. Fact is, when September dolefully spelled out what they were it didn't really feel like that big of a surprise at all. It felt more like how I'd pretty much figured it was.

So The Observers are scientists from the future who have technology so advanced they can travel through time and universes and see how things were. It begs the question about what the world they come from is like, and what it is they do with the information they have gathered, though I suspect that this isn't something Fringe is interested in getting bogged down with.The other revelation concerning Peter and Olivia's child rather confused me. Since the start of this season I've actually forgotten what the deal was with their child that was born in a hurry during the last season. It kind of disappeared out of the plot and hasn't had a mention since. If Peter had, for example, this season mentioned that not only had he lost his Olivia but he had also lost his child then that might have kept that plot line going (and also made his urge to go back much more imperative).

Now I am dredging my memory banks, it was Alt-Olivia that was pregnant, right? Peter was the father, and the child was born, and Walternate took an interest in it. . . And after that my memory gets hazy. As far as I can recall Alt-Olivia continued to be a mother to it, though I can't even remember if Peter was aware of it. It's not been a very well maintained plot, to be honest, and that it appears to be pivotal to how The Observers have taken such an interest in what is happening doesn't lend itself well to that.

The Observers themselves, however, have only just realised that September wasn't true to his command and had allowed Peter to remain in the world. So they might yet want to intervene further to re-correct that, though since I am now thinking of them as scientists they have lost some of their potency! How are they to know that further interventions won't create further rifts that will make even more rifts that ripple through time and cause untold problems? It's a big bite that Fringe has decided to try and make the audience swallow and, honestly, I don't thnk they've quite given the due care and attention to the viewer's watching and their retention of all that is going on to make things as clear as possible.

Like, what was the deal with all that First People stuff that seemed to take up a lot of last season's finale? Where's Sam Weiss in this universe? There was the insinuation that Olivia and Peter and Walter might somehow be part of the world's history, a civilisation that pre-dated other known civilisations. . . Now that was a massive concept to grapple with, and I fear that Fringe might have just turned their back on it entirely and gone off in this new direction. I hope not. I hope it all comes together, but when the show is just taken on the principles and large-scale notions it feels compelled to involve itself in it's hard to follow - only the characters keep things in perspective but when even they change, switch and crop up in multiple guises then keeping track of that is tricky.

Wow. I seem really heavy-going on an episode that delivered a bucket load of revelation! I suppose the problem is that answers just bring about more questions, and when that happens it isn't overly-satisfactory.

I did like the surprise that Mr. Jones, having been assembled at a molecular level, was near-indestructable. I mostly expected him to get cut in two in the gate between worlds in a case of alternate history repeating itself. Instead he got shot and barely felt the hit, parting whilst leaving Olivia and Peter with a further headache about how the heck they even stop this guy once they've figured out what it is they need to stop him from doing!

The one surprise I did see coming was that Nina who was captured was actually the bad one, just pretending. It took a few scenes but once my mind tripped onto that idea then it seemed surely to be the case, and so it was. The real Nina's reaction when she was being interrogated was a really good performance from the actress. Possibly it was that which made me think she had to be the real Nina. Whatever, I saw that surprise coming, but it was delicious none-the-less, and her and Mr. Jones retreating to the other side at the end of the episode pretty much confirms for me that she is Alt-Nina. Until I know different that's what I am sticking with.

With all this going on there wasn't a lot to do for everyone else involved. And Over There Alt-Fringe team hasn't had a look-in for a couple of episodes so we are probably due a vist to see what's going on with them. Will this world's Fringe confide in all that has happened? Unlikely. I still get the indication that a war between worlds is in the balance, and I expect Mr. Jones and Nina are inclinded to see that happen. I am confused about what side they are on, though. Perhaps Olivia's power isn't going to be about one side winning, maybe it'll be about merging them both as harmlessly as possible?

With all this talk of powers and wars between worlds, however, the episode did end on the relationship between Peter and Olivia. Namely that Peter had reached the decision that Olivia wasn't really his Olivia no matter what she felt or remembered. He vowed to steer clear of her from this point on - and exiling himself when the emotions get tough is something Peter is prone to doing so this is very much his style. How that will play out I don't know. But the fact the episode ended on that note does suggest the emotional relationship between the pair is being pushed as the driving force in Fringe and, most likely, it will be their relationship where the show will find its resolution.

What was the best part?

Of course it has to be the scene where Peter stepped inside The Observer's head. When the idea was announced it had me nodding along, wanting this, and there's no getting away from the fact that my attention was wrapped and my eyes glued to the screen during the entirety of it. Whilst, as stated, the ultimate revelations generated some confusion (exactly what was the deal with Peter's kid again?) mostly it just felt like a BIG Fringe scene. I mean any scene that starts out with the birth of the universe on show has got to be classed as balls out amazing, right?

What do I think will happen next?

 
Following the kind of revelations this episode presented, it's hard to imagine Fringe going back to another case of the week episode. Surely Mr. Jones, and Alt-Nina, have to be a priority and the issue of what they have done to Olivia and what they think she can do next has to be addressed. Mr. Jones saying she is capable of doing more than just crossing between universes or turning on lights by mental will paves the way for a dazzling potential of powers yet to be unlocked. What are they? Don't ask me! I haven't the foggiest!

The Walking Dead: S02 Ep12 – Better Angels

What happened?

Randall was kept interred in the barn whilst a decision continued to be deliberated over how much of a threat he represented. Shane, however, secretly released him into the woods. Leading him far out on the pretence of cutting him loose, Shane broke his neck and feigned injuries before returning to claim Randall had broken loose.

Daryl and Glenn traced the tracks to where Randall was killed, then encounter his reanimated corpse. Shane, meanwhile, took Rick out to an isolated area where it was apparent Shane intended to murder him. Rick pleaded with Shane to find another way before he managed to turn the tables and stab Shane, killing him. Carl arrived on the scene and to see Shane reanimated and shot him. However the danger had not passed as out of the woods could be seen a horde of walkers charging towards them. . .

Thoughts

So the crunch that was inevitable finally came. Shane decided to once and for all eradicate Rick from his life little realising that Rick is the leading man in this show and Shane ain’t! It marked the conclusion to a tension that has been simmering to the boil over the past few episodes, although Shane’s downfall really occurred, I think, after he killed Otis. The moment he committed that atrocity he lost a portion of his humanity that he just could not get back, not to mention his hair. Maybe he thought Lori would be the one person that could make him feel right, but she was well and truly with Rick. You can see why Shane’s twisted mentality had it that Rick had to go. With his slack-jawed expression and unfeeling eyes, however, it looked to me like Shane had really slipped into insanity and there was no helping him.

Almost perverse how it was that Lori for once offered up a friendly front towards Shane. I wasn’t entirely sure what her play was. I figured she had sided with Rick’s view that Shane was a part o the group and he wasn’t going anywhere so she ought to make the best of it. Maybe she thought her saying thanks for saving their lives was going to be enough to bring him back to how things were, without her actually being with him. Ultimately in retrospect I think the scene was there to remind us that Shane wasn’t always bad or unhinged and that there was a certain tragedy in what would happen to him, I also think the scene helped generate a sense that Shane was being accepted back a little and so wasn’t going to be going anywhere, to help the surprise of the ending.

Shane was, also, a good man to Carl. Even at this late stage Carl would still come to Shane when he was in a fix about what to do with Daryl’s gun. Again, in retrospect, this played into the gruelling ending since it was Carl that would show up and kill Shane (who, I suspect, simply believed had been bitten and turned into a walker). Of course, we now learned for absolute certain that a person doesn’t have to be bitten to become one of the undead.

As has been hinted at over the last few episodes with the discovery of bodies that have not been bitten, it appears that if anyone dies of just natural causes they will resurrect as a walker. This certainly caps off a grim picture with a horrible surprise ending. Even if Rick were the last man on Earth and managed to see to it that he killed every last walker in the end he too would become one, unless he blew his own brains out before he died. Not exactly a hopeful future for anyone. I am figuring that perhaps Lori’s unborn child might be a hope if it is somehow immune, because the next logical question is how it is that everyone has become infected in this way. I mean, I have to presume this is how the dead began to walk, that this virus had been released amongst the living and so the moment they started dying that was when zombies were all over the place.

Is this a worldwide thing? Has everyone all over the world been exposed to the same virus? I find it hard to imagine how this could be, but maybe it was something that got released into the air and maybe other people could pass it on to other people and that was how it spread around. . .? A lot of guesswork, though I don’t suppose I’ll have anything else to go off for this season at least.

Daryl and Glenn would appear to be just a little behind Rick in figuring out that the dead will rise again regardless of the circumstances, though I don’t blame them for not reaching that conclusion immediately. They were still trying to get their heads around the fact that Shane had done what he did in luring Randall away and killing him. I liked that Daryl figured it out. Though he perhaps just a little too readily stepped up to Rick’s right hand side (not so long back he had isolated himself away from the group entirely!) it’s a good match up. I could happily see Rick and Daryl buddy up and taken down the zombie hordes if not just for their skills in the field but also for how they get along during downtime. Daryl remains a fascinating character and I hope that continues and he doesn’t just suddenly start toeing the lime and being a cookie cutter good guy.

Rick walking through the woods with Shane, being lead to a quiet spot to do a dastardly deed, was really good stuff. The final location, in the wide open field with thick mist under a large full moon all around them, gave the scene as epic a feel as could be managed. Rick was a tad fortunate to get out of it, though. For a man who had clearly figured out what Shane was intending before he did it, Rick allowed things to be taken to the last point where Shane could have easily killed him quickly had they not had to stall and drag out the agony of the deed.

So Rick managed to get in close and take Shane down, and then he sat and waited for him to turn. Must have happened quickly, but it did allow Carl time to arrive on the scene. Again, my exasperation for how it is that boy just won’t stay put and stay safe totally blows my mind, and also how it is the likes of Lori just obliviously allow him to wander away from their sight and go off on his own considering the world they live in. It must be some kind of running joke the show writer’s are having, about how often and how annoying they can make Carl’s solo forays because I just don’t buy into a kid of his age being that carefree given the horrors and terrors he has witnessed and experienced.

The episode could have ended on that oblique moment, with Carl having shot zombie Shane and Rick reeling from what he had done. If The Walking Dead had closed out on that sombre note it would have been more than considered another first rate episode. But it wasn’t done. Because there at the end, out of nowhere, leaving Rick and Carl scarcely time to draw breath, there was a massive horde of zombies streaming out of the woods. Just after the show has made you go whoa it then lays on something to make you go WHOA! I am not sure where this horde has come from but they looked numerous and they looked rapid and it all paves the way for a heck of a season finale.

What was the best part?

Easily the final showdown between Rick and Shane. Even when Rick was imploring with Shane that nothing had been done that could not be fixed I just knew it was way past that point. They both knew it, really. They were just desperate cries from a man unwilling to kill his best friend. It’s hard enough for Rick to just kill another human being, but Shane was a whole new level. I have to wonder if this won’t forge a watershed in Rick, similar to how Shane cracked after killing Otis. There’s simply no way such an act will slide off him, I’m sure of that. Great scene, though. Absolutely worth the build-up.

What do I think will happen next?

I am fully expecting the siege of the farmhouse that I have been anticipating for ages to finally happen. Rick and Carl, and Daryl and Glenn, will probably have to make a run back to the farmhouse and warn the rest. And maybe it’ll go a bit Night Of The Living Dead and they’ll board up the doors and windows and try and hold out as the zombies hordes try and get in. I don’t foresee it lasting, though. I fully expect that they will have to abandon the farm, and I expect one or two fringe characters to find their way to being devoured rather than escaping. Mostly, from this next episode, I am simply expecting a whole lotta zombie action to be letting rip and running wild.

Fringe: S04 Ep13 – A Better Human Being

What happened?

Fringe team investigate why it is that Olivia is experiencing the memories and feelings of the Olivia that Peter knew, to the extent that the ‘old’ Olivia appears to have merged with the current Olivia permanently. Cortexiphan is discovered in her blood, and Walter and Lincoln discover the supplies of it at Massive Dynamic have been taken.

Olivia and Peter also investigate the case of a schizophrenic named Sean who was actually the product of an experiment after which he was able to hear the thoughts of his genetically-produced brothers. With the case resolved, and Peter coming around to the idea of succumbing to the attraction he feels for Olivia, suddenly she is snatched away. Olivia awakes trapped in a dingy room and, opposite her, a kidnapped and bound Nina.

Thoughts

Fringe is certainly stepping things up a notch, layering in confusion and mystery with giddy aplomb. Honestly, I’m not sure if the full extent of my lack of understanding about what’s going on is because I’ve not been keeping up with everything ir because the answers to the riddles have not been revealed yet and thus I am supposed to be as in the dark as I feel I am.

Let’s get the boring stuff out of the way first. The boring stuff here was the case of the week that Fringe felt indebted to include when, really, everyone viewing couldn’t care less about the boy Sean and his schizophrenia that turned out to not be schizophrenia. It felt tired, the whole issue of another deranged man of science having concocted some experiment and used it on people to terrible and tragic effect. We’ve seen it countless times and, yes, it does land heavily in the theme of the show but the fact of the matter is: we get it. This plot didn’t feel like it was bringing anything new to the debate.

I did like the scene with Astrid and Sean in the cafeteria. The show did something incredibly clever with the sound. Beginning with the ambient noise of conversation in the cafeteria we closed in on Astrid and Sean talking and so were unaware that the cafeteria was emptying and yet the sound of people talking was remaining, slowly putting us in Sean’s position and hearing the voices he was hearing. It was a clever, sophisticated little moment when the camera pulled back to reveal Astrid and Sean were alone with the voices he could hear.

Olivia and Peter’s relationship was the core of the matter here. Contrary to what I thought might happen, not only did Olivia retain memories of her ‘other self’ she pretty much assumed them into her personality and ran with them like it was a new outfit. I’m not sure I completely accepted that this was a person suddenly becoming imbued with an entire lifetime of feelings and memories that were not her own since, surely, that kind of mental foreign invader would crack a person up. Olivia is hardy, though, so I guess we just have to admire our leading lady for the courage and strength she possesses. She did get the scene where she told Peter that the situation was just as difficult for her as it was for him, which was important and I’m glad got aired. Peter was being understandably distant and self-centred over what was happening. From his point of view he had not only once betrayed his real Olivia by confusing her with a false one, but he was also wary of fully believing she was his Olivia just in case she disappeared again.

As it turned out, she did disappear, in a style very reminiscent of that book/movie The Vanishing. She goes into a gas station and doesn’t emerge. I figured the episode was going to end on that note, leaving us with a gaping hole of a mystery about where she had gone. Instead Fringe went and showed us where she was, but then threw another curveball into the mix by having a captured Nina stuck with her as well.

OK, so now I am confused. I am figuring that the Nina who has dosing Olivia up with cortexiphan is, surely, Alt-Nina? And that Alt-Nina came across to Over Here and supplanted the existing Nina a bit like how Alt-Olivia once did something similar to Olivia. Fact of the matter is I can’t recall if there even is an Alt-Nina; I’ve totally lost track of that. But I can’t believe that fake Nina is a shapeshifter because wouldn’t that mean that the original Nina would have to be dead? So on the basis that shapeshifters kill the form they inhabit, I am assuming that the fake Nina is Alt-Nina.

However, we also saw that Mr. Jones was working with this fake Nina, so does that mean that Mr. Jones is on the side of ‘over there’? Oh, it really is all too confusing! The point of the matter is there’s a bad Nina in charge and phase two, capturing their cortexiphan’d Olivia, seems to have taken effect. Quite what their intentions are really aren’t worth me guessing at because I am absolutely sure to be way off the mark. The one thing I have been consistent about when it comes to Fringe is being totally out of tune with where it’s going. That isn’t a criticism of the show either. It means I get to watch and be surprised.

Last point to address, however, before I completely wave the white flag, is the matter of Peter being at fault for what is happening to Olivia. Walter seemed to lay the blame at his door, but it’s a curious truth that Walter is also becoming more like the Walter that Peter knew. He’s certainly a different man from the one that was a shadow of a man, living in the lab and far more incomprehensible to most people. Since Peter has been around they have fallen more into step with the relationship we saw Peter have with ‘his’ Walter, so I can’t help but feel that there’s a similar dynamic occurring there as there is with Olivia and Peter. The difference for Walter is that he isn’t getting the memories like Olivia is, and the important thing about Olivia’s memory recall is that she is getting stuff that Peter didn’t know about and, as such, it can’t be entirely down to him.

Whilst Peter might have opened a kind of door between his old world and this one that the old Olivia is bleeding through into, Olivia herself, with the aid of Cortexiphan, is surely just as much a player in it. Both of them are unwittingly creating this effect but it’s happening none-the-less. I did predict in a previous post that the natural progression of Peter’s presence in this universe may be a subtle merging of sorts with the universe he knew. It still sounds crazy, just not as crazy as it did previously!

What was the best part?

The scene just before things took a turn for the worse was my favourite here, where Olivia and Peter talked in the car and laid their cards out. They admitted they were scared, but I also liked Olivia not willing to just put up with these feelings she had for Peter and deny herself speaking out about them. For the first time I think I can really believe in Olivia’s feelings for Peter being strong and meaningful – previously it’s felt like a relationship that came out of nowhere and was more explained to be loving and tender rather than actually being shown to be so on-screen. Olivia, here, pulled a lot of that back around. And, then, of course, the moment she left the car you just knew it wasn’t going to be a happy ending. No happy endings come easy on this show!

What do I think will happen next?

As expressed above, I really don’t know what the large-scale arc of things is. In the immediate next episode is has to be about Peter trying to find Olivia. Walter and Lincoln certainly had their suspicions about Nina, too, so perhaps they may close in on discovering she is not the person they think she is. However, I reckon their chances of finding Olivia are rather slim. I expect Alt-Nina and Mr. Jones will get to deploy the next stages of their plan, using Olivia, and it might be down to her to get herself saved and stop whatever it is they are up to.

The Walking Dead: S02 Ep11 – Judge, Jury, Executioner

What happened?

The group keep their prisoner, Randall, locked up whilst they debate whether to execute him. Dale is at first a lone voice crying out for civilised understanding and tolerance but eventually finds an ally only in Andrea, who also agrees it would be wrong to execute the prisoner. Majority rules, however, and Rick, Shane and Daryl go to end things. Rick is stopped when he sees Carl appear to watch, to urge him to kill.

Dale’s screaming alerts the group. Caught alone in a field he is attacked by a zombie, that Carl had earlier provoked, and is subsequently killed.

Thoughts

Well, Lori can take a backseat for an episode as the most irritating character on The Walking Dead. No, for this episode, that honour goes to her son, Carl. Now I’m not going to outright blame him for killing Dale (on balance Carl’s inadvertent encouragement to kill Randall saved his life so if he’s to blame for one he saved another!) but his rank stupidity with the zombie in the swamp got on my nerves in a way that only Lori or Andrea usually manages!

Of course, the question should be asked about how it is a kid like that gets to wander off unnoticed and unattended to by the adults, least of all his mother and father, considering the situation the world is in. You would have thought that the loss of Sofia would have embedded in Lori and Rick a near-paranoid, overbearing necessity to never let their boy out of sight. And yet there he is wandering off alone, stealing Daryl’s gun and taunting a stuck zombie that turned out to be not quite so stuck.

The main issue of this episode was the matter of justice within the farm – and mostly it came down to a matter of moral imperative rather than anything to do with legality. Legality is a foundation of a fully-functioning society. The world of The Walking Dead has had to backstep to a more primitive means of existence but, in the likes of Dale, there is still a sense of requirement that they not also allow their morals and sense of right and wrong to fall away as well. Whilst at first Dale’s crusading appeal for the hearts and minds of the people was irksome he did eventually win me around to see that the fundamental things he was battling for actually did matter.

I honestly didn’t think I’d believe that, too. Whilst I recognised it was brutal I did, like the majority of the people on the farm, figure that Randall was too much of a liability to be left alive. Especially in consideration of the fact that he’d been taking sniper killshots at Rick, Glenn and Hershal then this wasn’t a pure as the driven snow innocent we were dealing with. They saved him, and gave him a chance at being cut loose – but then he went and announced that he knew Maggie and suddenly he retained his potential to crop up as a threat in the future. When the world has gone to hell and danger lurks at the end of every minute then inviting in new potential dangers isn’t a wise move.

So I did fall down on the idea that killing Randall was, for practical purposes, the smartest move. That thinking does put me in the Shane mentality, of course. And that’s a mentality that forgoes the moral and humanitarian aspects of such a ruthless decision. Dale was there to counter the argument that there were worse things they could become, and new precedents they could set for themselves, if they went down the route of cold-blooded murder just to eliminate a potential problem. Ironically it was Shane that was one of the few people willing to go along with Dale’s ideas if he could convince other people. Andrea was the sole voice in agreement with Dale, another unlikely ally. At least she, out of everyone, won’t have a sense of guilt to go along with their grief following Dale’s death.

Dale’s death did feel untimely. I didn’t get the sense that his character was one that had run its course. In fact it was that very fact that he was really a lone voice of moral righteousness that will really open up the biggest hole in the group. Without his dissenting voice, who will step up to argue the alternative reasoning?

Dale’s death was also a tad annoying in how one solitary walker managed to completely take him by surprise in a wide open field. Sure, it was dark, but Dale was stood in a quiet, open field and had just encountered an eviscerated cow. Once more I’m surprised by how the characters that really ought to be on high alert are so easily taken down. In a world infested by the walking dead and having just come across a freshly killed cow I’d like to think I’d have had my eyes everywhere, and every sense keen. Not so Dale, who not only got physically bested by a walker but then had his guts torn open (in a feat of very improbable strength – a regular person would struggle to do such a thing to another person, let alone a rotting, muscle-atrophied walking corpse perform such an horrific act!).

Certainly a death that won’t be forgotten easily, though, and for a character of Dale’s standing in the show then that’s only right and proper.

So by the episode’s end the matter of what to do with Randall was still unresolved. His chances of being executed are surely a lot less now, however. Not only did Rick change his mind but killing Randall would surely be an affront to the memory of Dale and what he stood for. They might just choose to risk keeping Randall alive as a legacy of Dale’s life. Naturally I don’t expect Shane to see it that way. Whilst he was willing to go along with keeping Randall alive if the group wanted it there’s no question he wanted Randall dead and, since that was what the group decided I imagine he’s going to push Rick to see it through.

Friction between those two is surely set to continue – although I suspect if it wasn’t about Randall then Shane would find a bone of contention over something else to beef with Rick over. Hostilities might have been abated for a while at present, but it’s a situation that cannot last.

Another great episode of The Walking Dead. It was one that featured a whole lot of talking and, briefly, threatened to be one where not a lot happened. But the great thing about this show is that every episode delivers something defining or remarkable or shocking to make it worth tuning in for. It has definitely confirmed itself as one of the best shows around at the moment, and is easily the one I am most excited about seeing the next episode of. It’s a shame that this season is nearly over, but I’ll happily take these shorter season runs for the quality I’ve been treated to.

What was the best part?

Really it ought to have been Dale’s death scene, but the manner by which he got caught out rather got on my nerves. So the best scene for me was that escalation in events when Rick, Shane and Daryl set about performing the execution of Randall. As it was playing out I couldn’t see there being anything that was going to stop the grisly act from occurring and I thought I was simply going to be confronted by the horrible reality of what it is to kill a man in cold blood. As it turned out Carl arrived, urging the kill, and Rick instantly realised what he was in danger of becoming himself and what his son was already at risk of turning into. Execution aborted.

What do I think will happen next?

Well, I’ve been banging on for episode after episode about how certain I am that the group are going to have to hit the road soon and leave the farm behind. And episode after episode that has continued to not happen. Yet I see no reason to not keep talking about how that surely must happen soon since, otherwise, The Walking Dead is just going to become like some kind of undead version of The Waltons! Realistically, the matter of what to do with Randall still hangs over the group and, as mentioned, I just don’t see Shane letting that slide without it going his way. Conflict will ensue.

Fringe: S04 Ep12 – Welcome To Westfield

What happened?

Fringe division were called out to investigate an aeroplane crash as a result of electromagnetic phenomenon. Olivia, Peter and Walter found themselves trapped in a nearby town that had become locked in a merger with the alternate universe. They managed to find shelter in the ‘eye of the storm’ as the whole town was devastated. Investigation pointed towards it being the work of Mr. Jones.

Having had dreams and strange memories that ought not to belong to her, Olivia seemingly reverted to the behaviour of her erased timeline persona when Peter came over, greeting him with a kiss and plans for their regular nights in.

Thoughts

Now this is how you do a standalone episode: a self-contained story that is formed from the overarching serial plot and feeds into the wider mythology. It's probably as perfect an episode as Fringe could ever get to that sweet spot between hooking in casual viewers and pleasing longterm fans. Aside from a bit of a weak resolution (I reckon Fringe could have really strung out the predicament and drama and done its first two-parter ‘to be continued’ episode here!) this was great stuff.

The episode opened with Olivia caught in a dream about Peter that would turn out to have wider ramifications at the episode’s conclusion. Quite a lot of Fringe episodes lately have started out as dreams, and I think it’s actually having a bit of fun posing the question of the savvy audience about whose dream it is before it’s revealed. Olivia dreaming about being in a relationship with Peter and it being the first signs that her ‘alternate reality’ self was bleeding through into this reality was very subtle stuff.

The matter of one reality merging with another was at the very crux of what was happening in the main plot of this episode, but here *Fringe* excelled in subtly interweaving the main plot with the subtext of how it related to a main character. They’ve not always been successful for me when doing that, but this episode was a masterclass in getting it right. They got it so right that it actually came as a surprise ending!

More on that later.

Walter, Olivia and Peter’s diversion into Westfield was, again, subtly introduced. Walter was, as usual, thinking with his stomach and fancied trying out a local diner’s pie and so off they went. Nothing seemed amiss until the diner scene had concluded. And what a great scene it was. Nicely weighted, deliberately paced. The cook had an uncertain quality about him that kept things edgy, only for Peter to go and make a grim discovery. In the meantime Walter was chatting amicably, amusingly, and for a while we were of the belief that Walter was the one that was to be considered odd in the eyes of the cook. Until it turned out he was serving at a counter with an unseen body at his feet and his short term memory kept disappearing!

It transpired that the whole town of Westfield had been caught up in a kind of snowglobe effect that merged it with its equivalent town in the alternate universe. It’s unclear why this meant Olivia and co could drive into the town but were then unable to drive out of it, mind. The insinuation from the townsfolk was that this had been going on for some time, days, so the only ‘rational’ explanation is that Olivia and co in the car just happened to drive into the town during a downtime in the electromagnetic effect and then got themselves stuck there.

Probably best not to get too bogged down in the details of that one.

Mr. Jones was behind the whole enterprise. I have to wonder if the same effect wasn’t also occurring for Alt-Westfield. Did that town, too, eventually get wiped out and erased at the end? If so, what did Mr. Jones prove? That he had the power to locally harness this power and destroy worlds? What’s the point in that? Unless Alt-Westfield wasn’t destroyed at all, and Mr. Jones was actually demonstrating a way in which the universes could be merged and one of them emerge victorious over the other. Perhaps this was a display of power to demonstrate how a war with Over There could be won.

Olivia’s memory aberrations were, naturally, put down to exposure to the town’s strange events. Only when it transpired that the townsfolk were only going a little loopy on account of being merged with their counterparts in the alternate universe then it probably should have dawned on me earlier that Olivia’s behaviour didn’t fit that. Such a revelation didn’t occur to me whilst watching, though, since I was just enjoying the episode for what it was. And, like I said, the ending felt a little rushed (impossible situation quickly resolved with a quick trip to the eye of the storm following some rapid theorising!) but it still held my attention enough to make me unaware of the misdirection.

So Olivia at the finish was acting and behaving just like the Olivia that Peter knew. I have to assume this has something to do with the cortexiphan Nina has been injecting into Olivia without her knowing about it. I wonder if perhaps a side effect of it is that she has become more attuned to the world that Peter came from to the extent that she is pulling over attributes of her other self from it. I can’t imagine that Nina’s plan was for this to occur, since this Nina really ought to have no clue about the universe that Peter came from (I have assumed that Nina’s cortexiphan dosing is to enable Olivia to cross over between universes that they currently know about!).

I don’t expect this change in Olivia to be permanent – probably, like the residents of Westfield, she’ll have no memory of her change in character. I do expect the bleed through effects to continue, though, and probably become more pronounced, until the source of the issue is found (or it’s discovered that Olivia has once again been exposed to cortexiphan and this is what is allowing the changes to take effect). There is the farfetched notion that Peter is the one ‘dragging through’ the Olivia he knew and, possibly, this could become a stronger and more widespread effect. Peter’s appearance in this universe may cause it to become filled with the consciousness of the universe he left behind. . .

OK, now I just wrote that, I agree: it sounds absolutely dumb!

What was the best part?

The diner scene was the best moment for me. Fringe took it’s time with it, and let the atmosphere blend from innocuous and lighthearted to a horror movie style build in tension. It worked so well because it had the measured pacing and took the time to deliver the goods patiently for better effect. The guy who was playing the cook was an inspired piece of casting, too – he totally nailed it.

What do I think will happen next?

I expect Peter’s alarm at how ‘his’ Olivia has emerged in the Olivia of this world has to drive events in the next episode. I simply cannot imagine a situation where the next episode picks up a new story of the week and everyone just allows all of what has gone on here to temporarily rest on the back burner. Mr. Jones and his schemes may take a backseat, but I have to have faith that the immediate matters with Olivia are going to be picked up. To what end? As stated, they’ll either figure out that Peter is the one creating the anomaly (which may hurry them to complete the machine (even though Walter no longer seems keen to give up his son)) or they’ll discover cortexiphan in Olivia and that’ll open a whole other can of worms. I don’t imagine Olivia and Nina are going to be the loving, mother-daughter relationship once that secret is out!

The Walking Dead: S02 Ep10 – 18 Miles Out

What happened?

Rick and Shane transport their prisoner to a remote location to leave him there, but he reveals that he knows Maggie. Rick and Shane fight over what is to be done but before a decision can be made walkers attack them. The trio eventually escape, with no clear decision reached about what to do with the prisoner.

At the farmhouse, Maggie and Lori tend to Maggie's suicidal sister but feel that Andrea’s intervention almost ruins their efforts.

Thoughts

Heavy symbolism heralded the head to head between Rick and Shane. The episode began with them driving to a crossroads and there Rick confronted Shane directly. A crossroads meeting point for this crucial tipping point in their relationship. The symbolism certainly wasn't subtle!

Well, actually, the episode really opened with a 'flashforward' teaser of full-on zombie mayhem. It's become a bit of a tired trope for me, for shows to lead in with a teaser of an exciting event that will then be got to later on. It’s like sticking a promotional advert at the start! I’m already watching – there’s no need to dangle the promise of excitement to keep me there! (I realise the same is not true for all television audiences and, naturally, it is those potential floating, casual watchers they are trying to ensnare.) The Walking Dead did eventually live up to the prospect of zombie mayhem, of course, which was just as well!

But back to Rick and Shane, in the crossroads discussion that saw them air everything and yet really resolve nothing. By the close of the episode there was the sense that, rather than becoming clearer and united, they had forged an impasse between them. Shane, in particular, was just flat out unwilling to back down in his head to anything Rick was saying. He can’t. He just cannot get past the idea that Rick is the man making wrong decisions and, furthermore, that Lori and he had something special and the child she is carrying is his. In a sense, Shane’s attitude towards Rick’s leadership is his most easily fixable problem, and he ought to recognise that whatever there was with Lori disappeared the moment Rick returned. Telling Shane outright to forget the notion that the child she is carrying isn’t his, though, that’s a much harder thing to ask of him. If he deep down suspect it’s his then he’s never going to get over that.

If zombies hadn’t turned up when they did then it’s hard to say how the fight between Rick and Shane would have been resolved. Most likely inevitable outcome appeared to be that one of them would have been killed – only the thing is Rick, being Rick, would have had to be pushed right up to that point to go through with it. Shane, being Shane, would have probably killed Rick more readily. And even after the zombies had attacked – if their roles had been reversed and Rick had been in the bus and Shane was getting away in the car – I don’t believe that Shane would have returned to save Rick the way Rick saved Shane.

Will the act of saving his life be enough to force a change in Shane? I don’t see it. I just don’t see there being anything that will stop Shane in the long run other than him completely parting from the group or being killed. The way things are going, there’s a good chance that Shane and Andrea may find themselves exiled and choose to depart together.

The farmhouse subplot didn’t quite work for me, this episode. Andrea and Lori were being paralleled as the female equivalent of Rick and Shane, but this felt forced. Andrea simply had to be more uncompassionate and single-mindedly bent on Maggie’s sister in a way that didn’t feel natural. Andrea’s most natural reaction would have been apathy not direct intervention. Yet it transpired that she managed to ‘prove’ the girl wanted to live after all, but the net result was that she was no longer welcome in the house, same as if the girl had killed herself!

For all the unsubtle symbolism of the crossroads scene, I was confused by the seemingly important shots of Shane staring out of the car window at the walker in the field. The episode even ended on this view so it had to be meaningful but I didn’t quite get the point being inferred. Was it futility? Was it to highlight the isolation? Was the fact that Shane kept quiet about it somehow suggesting that there was a clear and present threat he wasn’t willing to share? I don’t know. It felt profound but I couldn’t get the measure of why.

The episode also ended undecided about what to do with the kidnapped kid. He was presented as a likable innocent, although there was a certain zealous quality about his killing of the walker as he repeatedly stabbed it to death. I liked that. Painting him as a complete innocent, caught up with the wrong crowd, would allow us to side with Rick’s view that he might be worth allowing to live and join them. Let’s not forget that he was on a roof taking shots at them with a rifle. Shane’s view that killing him to make sure there was no risk to the safety of the group does have a grim logic backing it up.

Final point to end on was another small, almost innocuous moment that might prove to be extremely significant. I refer to the moment where Shane found the two walker bodies and noticed that they didn’t have any bite marks. He didn’t conduct a massively thorough search of the bodies, but his observations were noted by me all the same. Fact is, why would The Walking Dead highlight this if it were irrelevant? Answer is they wouldn’t. And, furthermore, Rick’s reaction felt just a tad like he was brushing it over quickly so it didn’t linger.

My conclusion is that this ties into what Jenner, the CDC man, whispered into his ear. Up until now I really had no firm kind of idea what Jenner may have said. Now I believe that Jenner told Rick a rather terrible prospect: that the virus which makes the dead walk has either become airborne or is, somehow, already present in everyone.

The airborne one feels too ghastly to contemplate. (Our heroes can all become zombies just by breathing the wrong air!?) So I am plunging more on the idea that Rick has learned that everyone, most likely, has the virus in them, laying dormant, and that when they die, no matter what, they will become a zombie. I do believe that Rick shot dead the two people in the bar, and shot them in the head. If he hadn’t done that would they have eventually reanimated as walking corpses? As far as I can remember we have never seen anyone die of anything other than a zombie attack so this principle has never been shown on screen to be disproved.

If true then it presents a dire situation indeed. It means that, unless a cure is found, no matter what Rick does to lead his people to safety they will all die eventually and, as such, become walkers. If humanity survives, walker’s survive with them. Unless, as in Lori’s unborn child, perhaps those born into this world will somehow have escaped the contamination. . .

What was the best part?

As ever with The Walking Dead the most exciting parts are often to do with the walkers. As much as the character drama really, and rightly, drives the show (and special mention has to go to the crossroads scene and the fight itself between Rick and Shane) the moment those zombies poured through the broken window the entertainment level went up several notches. This episode’s unique zombie killing moment came when Rick found himself pinned down by a couple of slain walkers whilst a third walker that he couldn’t get a clear shot of tried to take a big bite out of him. Solution: shoot the attacking zombie through the mouth of one of the dead ones. Works every time!

What do I think will happen next?

Aside from my hunch that humans are already walkers-in-waiting, the crunch decision concerns Rick and Shane and the kidnapped boy. Unless there’s some convenient escape clause (like the boy escapes, or Rick and Shane kill him when he makes an attack) I expect Rick is going to have to make a straight call on it. And whilst it’s been totally in keeping with his character to imagine he will try and make him a new member of the group I am actually going to predict Rick will kill him, perhaps also to gain more of Shane’s loyalty. I doubt Shane will be pacified for very long no matter what.

Fringe: S04 Ep11 – Making Angels

What happened?

Alt-Astrid travelled to the other side without approval to meet with her counterpart following the death of her father. Alt-Olivia goes to retrieve her, but not before the pair linger with the Fringe Team over here as they resolve a case concerning a customs worker that had discovered Observer technology which allowed to him to see people's terrible futures and kill them.

Observers reclaim the item following the man's suicide and also discuss the fact that September had disobeyed orders and allowed Peter to remain.

Thoughts

A rather offbeat episode with a rather refreshing switch in focus to one of the generally overlooked characters. It’s a strange time for Fringe to suddenly switch up into being lighthearted (well, as closed to lighthearted as it’s ever likely to be – aside from that ghastly musical episode they did!) and quite interesting that they’d devote an episode to a minor character. Don’t get me wrong, I liked it: it’s just that in a fourth season (when, at time of writing, there’s question marks about whether this will be the last) it’s not what you’d expect. This kind of episode bears more of the hallmarks of an earlier season filler tone.

It definitely was good to see Astrid getting some time, though. Too often she’s basically the fourth person in the room to make things happen, do oddjobs, or just simple be there to ask the question or provide a reaction. Fundamentally she’s there to humanise Walter and keep him relatively likeable despite his more shady qualities. But now I’m talking about a different Walter from another universe. . .!

Alt-Astrid is perhaps nearly as far removed from her counterpart as Walternate is from his Walter. Most of the other characters might have different emotional outlooks and dispositions but they are, generally, the same person. Alt-Astrid, however, is so mentally different and distant due to her phenomenal mental prowess that it has affected her relationship with her recently-deceased father. I do find Alt-Astrid just a tad too unhuman to completely buy but this episode went some way to addressing that. It didn’t quite land at an explanation as to why Alt-Astrid is a near-robotic person but it did provide emotional bewilderment peering out from behind the statistics and factors.

Astrid is the one that possesses a less ferocious intellect, but her emotional awareness is far superior to her counterpart. The excellent ending surprise that showed Astrid had delivered a compassionate lie to Alt-Astrid was really nicely done. Astrid remarked that her own relationship with her father was not too far removed from Alt-Astrid’s strained, oblique one. To then show that Astrid and her father were the epitome of unconditional love and understanding really credited her as heroic in her own small way.

The episode had a lot of fun with the relationships, squabbles and petty jealousies between the counterparts. I expect it was Fringe getting into these matters which was what made it so enjoyable for me. From the moment Astrid shrieked at seeing Alt-Astrid and Olivia remarked about how she found it odd that no one normally did that (a very arch piece of dialogue more for the audience’s benefit than something the character would say) the episode was setting itself out as one that had a little bit more self-referential knowing.

Alt-Astrid was there to voice opinion and reflections on the nature of Walter and Astrid’s relationship, for example. She made the good observation about how Walter basically spoke through Astrid at crime scenes. I thought she was going to make an acute criticism of how used Astrid was, but that didn’t quite transpire. I got the impression that was what the scene was hinting at but neither Alt-Astrid nor the show really wanted to go there.

There was jealousy from Astrid at how people were so impressed at Alt-Astrid’s calculations, and there was jealousy from Walter at how Peter was stepping into the middle of the action and calling the shots. The jealousies, particularly Walter’s towards Peter’s, felt a little manufactured for the purposes of what the episode was trying to achieve. It does seem somewhat incredulous that Peter has become the main man about the place, though. A few episodes ago he wasn’t allowed to wander free without a guard present!

Walter’s near-hissing at Altlivia was a lot of fun, and whilst she was perhaps freer and more flirty than I might have expected I didn’t mind. They pretty much kissed and made up by the episode’s end, which was more than can be said for Olivia and Altlivia. Olivia maintained a cold distance, viewing her counterpart with caution and, I detected, a touch of fascination.

Yes, I did like all of these elements in the mix. I’ve said it before but there’s a good show to be made and mined out of seeing how all these characters mix, react and interact with one another and Fringe tends to want to push that aside and get on with plot. This episode did it the other way around and whilst it might not make revelation-hungry, thrillseeking fans happy I found it very entertaining and eminently watchable.

The plot itself with the mathematician that had found the piece of Observer equipment was an interesting story that ultimately flopped for an tidy finish. The guy’s belief in God didn’t ring true with me, although Fringe has quietly maintained a curious attachment to the notion of God that may turn out to be something more meaningful. What was interesting was pursuing the concept of how The Observers see and experience time. It’s become accepted knowledge that they are able to see time happening all at once, and yet here we had some clarity to suggest they managed it via technology rather than something biologically intrinsic to them.

I’m not sure if this is what the episode was truly laying out, but that seemed to be the way of it for me. They have a device that allows for them to have such vision that would explain how they do what they do (like speaking words as someone else says them, as shown here). And if they can do these things without that device then it begs the question: why have it?

So if The Observers have, in some part, derived their abilities from technology then that paves the way for better explanation about their origins. The suggestion is that they can see all events happening at once, but only where they focus on it. This would explain why they were not aware that September had disobeyed the order to allow Peter to bleed through. And the fact that we saw an Observer appears and disappear through a kind of portal also suggests that, whilst they can see everything happening at once, they can’t be everywhere all at once!

Suddenly these mysterious beings are looking a whole lot less omniscient! But this is a good thing. The less God-like they become the better, and will make their previous behaviours far more comprehensible.

What was the best part?

Quick and simple one this, and purely because it made me gasp: seeing the Observer step into the world via some kind of invisible portal and then disappear back into it. We’ve seen Observers every episode, but we’ve never seen them do that!

What do I think will happen next?

Fringe being Fringe I find it hard to believe we’ll get immediate payoff to what will become of September at the behest of his colleagues now they know he has disobeyed them. And since this episode pretty much delivered some interesting character views and repaired some relationships, there really wasn’t a great deal of progression. So my prediction for how the next episode will play out hasn’t really changed: construction must continue on the machine from Peter, and the two sides ought to be working in earnest to find Mr. Smith and foil what he’s all about. My gut tells me they can’t let that plot thread left unaddressed for another episode, so hopefully we’ll be back on his trail next time out!