What happened?
Peter tests his
newfound powers of prediction to lay a trap for a couple of Observers. After
some trial and error he manages to position two Observers in a room with a
suitcase bomb that he detonates. In the meantime Olivia and Walter reunite with
Nina to acquire the tech to follow more clues for Walter’s grand plan. Their
quest leads them to one of William Bell’s lockers, wherein is found a picture
of Nina that confounds Walter’s view that Belly was an uncaring man. As
Walter’s own sense of personality is slipping away he confides that he is
scared about what he will become and asks Nina to remove pieces of his brain.
The team do, however, manage to procure two beacons for themselves to help
continue their plan, but Peter has plans of his own to kill more high level
Observers, including Windmark.
Thoughts
After such an
outstanding run of episodes it was inevitable that Fringe was going to reach
a dip in form. Not that this episode was particularly bad at all – it just felt
like less of a zinger than the previous few. The kind of episode that keeps
things moving, setting up the next big hit, rather than delivering the knockout
blow. Definitely no slouch, though, and further validation that Fringe is in
rude health and seeing its final season out in fine, fine style.
As I sort of expected
from the previous episodes, Peter’s new vision attributes (or upgrades, if you
prefer) allow him to see permutations of future events. As seems to be the case
by how Peter explained it, he generates his understanding of what will happen
by observing and recording things that are happening and seeing patterns that
allow him to read the most probable future. I rather like this explanation of
how The Observers themselves are able to predict what is happening next, as it
makes them a little more fallible and, also, gives more explanation about what
the original Observers were doing before the invasion occurred.
Something that did
bother me towards the end of the last season was the matter of why Walter had
just taken William Bell’s arm and remarked that he had done something terrible
to deserve such treatment. That particular plot beat was left unanswered, and I
feared that it was basically left to be established that William’s plans to
merge universes, and shooting Olivia, were the justification. Not so, and it
just goes to show I ought to have had more faith. (Ironically, so should
Walter.) It transpired that Walter assumed William must have been working with
The Observers for them to have been discovered, prompting them to amber
themselves.
I get the impression
Fringe is paving the way for William Bell to, somehow, make one last
appearance in the show and he won’t be going out on villainous terms. Just like
the photo of Nina in the locker proved, he was not an unfeeling monster despite
what outward perceptions may have indicated. If William did genuinely sell out
his friends then I can only imagine he had a reason for doing so (or Fringe will engineer one). More likely is the prospect that Walter’s assumptions about
Belly’s treachery is wrong, just like he was wrong in crushing Nina’s heart
when he told her William never loved her.
Much of the episode
concerned Peter’s mission to kill Observers, and what a gloriously gruesome
death it was when the bomb that first appeared all the way back in the first
ever Fringe episode was used against them. The cold-blooded killing of the
Observers was, when relayed to Olivia, treated as a terrible act. But The
Observers have been merrily killing in cold blood for years and years,
decimating the human race (and, with their oxygen depleting plans, set to kill
more). I also have to assume that Walter’s grand plan involves mass
extermination of them (but on that I could be wrong). I suppose what really hit
Olivia was the ruthless, unfeeling qualities Peter possessed when telling of
what he had done.
Joshua Jackson’s
performance in this episode was very interesting to watch as he slowly
developed the mannerisms of The Observers. He’s captured the odd tilt of the
head and the over-focused stare very well, and the more monotone delivery of
his speech is gently slipping into place – and it seems all the more uncanny
when he does it as opposed to when The Observers do it. As I ought to have
predicted but just completely didn’t, the episode ended on the sharp moment of
Peter losing his hair. Of course he will go bald! They are called the “baldies”
and if Peter is morphing into one then the hair has got to go. . .
What the longterm cost
for Peter will be seems ominous. There was the moment in this episode when he
was in pain, surrounded by white light to indicate the sharp pain in his head
that he was experiencing. I anticipate there will be more and more of these
and, ultimately, it will get to the point where the tech has to be extracted in
order to save Peter’s life.If I were to predict the endgame for that, I’d say
that Peter will survive such an extraction and that will see him return to the
Peter he once was. Unless Fringe has designs for a bleak, unhappy end for
everyone!
Olivia has been a
little bit marginalised these last few episodes, and if I have criticisms about
the show it’s in how the leading lady has been sidelined and weakened. Clearly
there’s a lot of interesting stuff going on with Peter, and to a lesser extent
with Walter, but their being centre stage has pushed Olivia aside and made her
seem a bit lame. This is not the kick-ass Olivia Dunham we’ve enjoyed over the
years. Yes, she is crippled by grief, it’s true – but I’d rather see it bring
out the fighter in her than one who leans on others and crumples when their
support is found wanting. Olivia is someone to lean on, not someone that leans
on others. I’m sure she’ll be back before long. . .
What was the best
part?
The scene where Peter
finally revealed to Olivia what he had done to himself was a deliciously candid
one. Peter had become even more Observer-like, in stark contrast to Olivia’s
very humane concerned wariness. Peter delivered the truth without much hint of
compassion or, importantly, regret. There was little room for negotiation when
Peter spelled out what he had done – committing a terrorist act of cold murder
against the Observers and showing absolute intention to continue further. The
moment Olivia actually tried to speak to him he then committed that most
Observer-like of acts and spoke the same words she was saying at the same time.
Just a few sentences of that and Olivia knew her Peter had gone a long, long
way down the road from where she could reach him. All she could do was leave
to, perhaps, try and gather her own thoughts as well as, most likely, turn to
Walter and request his support.
What do I think will
happen next?
I can’t imagine Olivia
just standing by and allowing Peter to become more and more like the enemy, so
she’s going to be pushing for him to become the person he was and remove the
tech. Naturally, he won’t want to do that until their war is over. In the
meantime it seems that Walter is set to go under the knife to have pieces of
his brain removed, so if he is having that done he’s not going to be much help.
And amongst all that internal struggling there is still the ongoing grand plan
to put into action. The Fringe gang really need to sort themselves out and
become a unified unit if they want to take down the baldies!
No comments:
Post a Comment