The Walking Dead: S03 Ep03 - Walk With Me

What happened?

Andrea and Michonne are captured by The Governor and taken to his small town of survivors. Whilst Andrea is taken in by the amenities and apparent decency of this tiny civilisation, Michonne keeps a wary mistrust. It's a mistrust that may not be groundless, as The Governor slaughters a military unit in an ambush to take their weapons and is seen in his private room, staring at a wall full of severed heads in jars.

Thoughts

This, friends, was the first episode of The Walking Dead that didn't feature Rick. It was a rather bold departure for the show, particularly when it was ostensibly resting on Andrea's shoulder to take the leading role when she hasn't really been always a favourable or central character. What the episode did have in its locker, to spread the burden, was a couple of other big hitting characters and scenarios to make us forget about Rick and Lori and the prison they were setting up home in.

The return of Merle was one such big moment. Bringing him back properly, not just as an hallucination (which was not-so-subtly referenced in his first appearance), was a smart move. It also typified on a smaller scale what this episode was doing. With the introduction of Merle what our thoughts naturally turn to is the character not present - Daryl - who we know will one day come into contact with his brother.

I did like that Andrea spoke up and informed Merle that Daryl and Rick had gone back to look for him. And whilst it was in keeping with his character that he wasn't going to rejoice and be eternally grateful for their efforts, he did at least keep a measure of composure in his reaction to hearing about it. Quite how calm and collected he would be should he actually meet either of them in person is another matter. He considers Daryl to be the soft-hearted one, but maybe he's in for a surprise when he sees what a skilled and ruthless survivor Daryl has become. Yes, Daryl has developed a measure of compassion and loyalty but give the man a weapon and he's as deadly as can be.

A straight out fist-fight between the two brothers? Hard to call, but I'd say Merle's brute force (not to mention his false 'hand'!) give him the edge.

So the appearance of Merle did bring about thoughts of Daryl, off-screen. Likewise the introduction of The Governor and his small town, false utopia only makes us think about Rick and his little clutch of civilisation and what may happen when the two worlds eventually collide. In response to that I find it hard to imagine Rick and co abandoning their weapons and independence to be a part of The Governor's community. Whilst the place does present a powerful draw in terms of its amenities and security, I just don't see Rick letting his guard down as easily as Andrea has done.

The differences between Andrea and Michonne were interesting to see. The only thing I am missing between the two of them is a sense of what they mean to each other. Andrea complained that conversations between them had been somewhat one-sided, which does serve to maintain the mystique around Michonne. Yet they have gone through an entire winter together, evidently through some tough scrapes and close calls, but there was little feeling of that between the two of them. The most prominent question to emerge out of this episode was the identity of the two zombies Michonne walked around with (which, it transpired, served the purposes of masking her from other walkers - which I predicted last week, and to carry around her bags - which was an obvious practical purpose that never occurred to me!).

Michonne cut their heads off without blinking when she thought they would be the difference between getting caught or not. Only later did it emerge that these two walkers meant something to Michonne. She said otherwise, but I didn't buy it and I don't believe I was supposed to. What it highlighted was that Michonne has her own survival instinct. She spent pretty much the entire episode looking wary, which wasn't exactly much of a stretch for the actress but, in that town, a precautionary attitude seemed to be a more sensible approach than Andrea's fast acceptance into this potential paradise.

What to make of The Governor and his small town. Well, as a viewer, you'd have to be massively naive not to figure that things were going to be wrong on some level. I think this episode only scratched the surface about what messed up things are waiting to be exposed. But before picking things apart The Governor, for all of his faults, ought to also be credited for clearly marshalling together quite the feat. A secure town, with hot running water and fresh sheets. It may be a facade based on horrors unknown but, never-the-less, if the residents mostly live in ignorance about the atrocities that are committed to keep their way of life then The Governor has still pulled off something special.

And if you want to get symbolic about it, can't this town be considered a microcosm about much of the privileged Western world? We live in a society of peace and civilisation, but it is propped up and founded upon violent acts that got it in place and keep it that way.If this is the message The Walking Dead is mining here then I think it's very fertile ground and will be very interesting to see the show wrestle with this sort of morality.

The Governor himself is the lynchpin of the morality, and it's clear that he is a man that has a darkness at his centre that will make him a formidable presence on the show. The moment he crushed the  banter when Andrea was asking him his real name. . . "Never say never," she joked when he said he wouldn't tell her. He leaned in, meaningfully, and just said, "Never." It was like slapping her across the face. It begs the question of who he was before the outbreak, but perhaps the reason he doesn't want anyone to know his real name is because he doesn't want anyone to know about the man he once was because that man no longer exists.

Or it could be that he believes he is no longer the man he once was, and the only way he has managed to mentally cope with the things he has seen and done was to bury it behind this 'Governor' persona, like a mask, so that he doesn't have to live with it fully.

Me, I just think he maintains the name 'The Governor' and nothing else because it generates that extra element of dictatorial control over his people. He isn't just a regular man with a regular name - he is 'The Governor' and what he says goes. The implicit dominance of the name 'Governor' renders all under his jurisdiction as 'the governed', subjugated by virtue of his title.

He's certainly a fascinating character, and I absolutely cannot wait for the moment when he and Rick come face to face. We haven't really got much of an idea of geography, so we don't know how close or far the small town is from the prison. I am going to go with the belief that they are relatively close together, fundamentally because it makes the most sense that they are reasonably close together in order to get the two factions interacting. The Governor will surely try to question Andrea more to try and work out more about the people she was with, where they came from and where they may have gone. But if he tries to take the approach against Rick that he did with the soldiers then he will surely discover he is not a man so easily taken. However, I suspect when the time comes for confrontation, The Governor might try to play the nice guy approach to lure Rick and his group in. . .

Still, no matter. I don't ever see Rick becoming a head in one of The Governor's jars!

What was the best part?

This wasn't an episode that was particularly littered with big standout moments - it was more of a slow build, cranking the tension handle, before the curtain came down to reveal The Governor in his private room. The opening scene with the helicopter crash was probably the best part - with Andrea and Michonne hiding in the trees and this unseen group picking through the wreckage. Between Michonne hacking down her zombies and the return of Merle it was a scene that totally pulled all Walking Dead fans into the episode and, as was crucial to the success of this instalment, made the absence of Rick and the rest of the lead characters a matter that was temporarily acceptable.

What do I think will happen next?

The Governor will want to know more about Rick's group, mainly because they could have things he wants to take for himself but, also, because he wants to keep his place secure and eliminate all other threats. He took Andrea and Michonne in as he perhaps perceived that they were people he could weave into his society. He took the military men out because they would be less likely to take orders from him and thus undermine his authority. And they had lots of guns. Now he knows that Rick is likely still out there, this potentially dominant outsider, he won't just sit back and let that pass by on the chance they may never encounter one another.

Michonne remains an interesting wildcard, though. I don't think she's going to be an easy sell on settling into this place, which may mean she wants to leave, and perhaps wants to persuade Andrea to go with her, and will encounter resistance to doing so from Andrea and other members of the community. Or The Governor may see that she is a possible rotten apple and he will want rid of her without letting Andrea go.

The preview for next week did show that Rick and the gang are back in the mix, and butting heads with the other prisoners they allowed to keep to their side, but all of that drama is but a sideshow to the main event of what happens when Rick and The Governor learn of each others' whereabouts and  meet up. I don't really think that will happen very soon, but it'll happen sooner rather than later.

Fringe: S05 Ep02 - In Absentia

What happened?

The quest to recover Walter's forgotten plan leads the group back to his old laboratory where they discover a camera has been ambered. Whilst Etta and Peter infiltrate secret areas of The Observers base, Olivia gets to know one of the human loyalists. Etta takes him away but releases him due to the pity she saw in her mother's eyes - he in turn vows to join the resistance.

Walter recovers the camera and watches a video of himself explaining that the clues revealing the masterplan to take down The Observers have been scattered around and that whoever is watching the video must find the courage and resolve to find them and complete the scheme.

Thoughts


I said last week that the first episode of this new season felt like it was rushed and cut corners to get through what it needed to do. I also said that it felt like Fringe used its first episode to put down a marker about where things where at now and to give the new season a platform to build from. Well, if this episode is any indication, my feelings have borne out because this felt like a far better, more confident return to form for the show. The characters had room to breathe and develop, there was no high-octane action tension to rush events through – it just felt like an altogether more assured outing.

The episode started with a similar dream sequence like Peter’s from last week, concerning the arrival of The Observers, only this time depicted from Olivia’s point of view. The scene showed that some kind of explosion must have immediately followed that rendered both Olivia and Peter injured and, during that time, they must have lost Etta. I am getting the impression that this may have been the very last time they saw her, thus why the recurring dream is so strong for both Peter and Olivia.

Peter also remarked that it had been just a few months for them, but years for Etta – suggesting that the resistance movement Olivia and Peter and Walter mounted before they ambered themselves was quickly started and quickly over. The world has endured The Observers for a long, long time compared to the brief period of oppression our heroes experienced. This disparity between Olivia and Peter as parents, particularly Olivia as a mother to Etta, and the fact that Etta had fundamentally grown up into a tough world and had barely known them, was primarily what the episode began to explore.

Olivia had the more pivotal encounter with Etta, which I shall get to, but it’s worth mentioning that Peter had his moment where he saw the rage that existed in his daughter as they walked through The Observer laboratory and glimpsed various experiments in progress. When she saw her friend (who I can only think of as Desmond!) as just a head she lost her cool and wanted to blow everything to get some payback. Only Peter there to hold her down and promise her that their time would come stopped her, and a good thing it was too. I did particularly like that moment, though, as not only did it show us the difference between Etta and a traditional heroine but it really made me buy the idea of Peter as father and steadying hand. It’s taken a while but he’s grown into himself. Strangely, I buy the idea of Peter and Olivia as parents more easily than I did them as a profoundly in love couple. The notion that they are together and in love as a trio, and that it’s essential they remain together for each other, feels much more vital. The stakes are higher now than they ever felt like when it was just about Olivia and Peter getting and staying together.

The main plot of the episode has, ultimately, made Fringe feel a bit like Harry Potter in search of Horcruxes! They are now in the hunt for pieces of video (possibly, or maybe it’ll be other clues) that will allow them to piece together Walter’s masterplan. There didn’t seem to be much of an indication from the video that was recovered about where the next clue could be found – but possibly there’ll be something embedded subliminally, or in slow-motion, or there’ll be something cryptic in the words Walter used. Obviously he’s not going to film himself spelling out where to go for the next clue in case the film were to fall into the wrong hands!

Fringe has been down this route before, during the third season, when the gang were set on trying to find all the different bits and pieces that would make the machine that Peter eventually climbed into to connect the universes. So a treasure hunt isn’t breaking new ground, and as a quest to give this new season structure I am quite happy about how it will play out. It may become particularly fraught should The Observers get wind of the fact that there is a plan scattered about the place that could defeat them – then it will turn into a more competitive race so I can well see that becoming a factor. There’s no doubt that The Observers would make formidable opponents in such a competition!

The emotional heft of the episode was found in the interrogation of the security guard. Etta’s no-nonsense approach to interrogation was against Olivia’s softly-softly approach, but I feel Etta made a fair point about how the world had changed and that this man was not worth her pity. The fact that he did turn out to be lying about the family he had told Olivia about was a particularly lovely touch. I liked that he had been wily enough to lie, and I liked that Olivia had fallen for it. She has a lot to learn about how people in this new world work, but the very fact that she isn’t so tainted the way an entire generation has been was the very thing the security guard saw in her eyes that made him want to fight on her side.

Likewise, Etta seeing the pity for her reflected in Olivia’s eyes, caused her to show pity of her own and it worked out to be a good move. So whilst it was a relatively quiet return to the action for Olivia, and she misread her subject, she still came out of it looking like the best hope for mankind in the fight against their enslavement. These kinds of reactions just pave the way for Olivia to really step up and become a true saviour that will vanquish oppression. Whilst I do hope Fringe is going to pursue a more interesting and convoluted path before it finishes forever I certainly won’t mind seeing a bit of good old-fashioned, good guys beat bad guys action. It can’t be too long before we see Olivia go into kick ass mode and start showing the future how she can rock it old-school. It may certainly cause Etta to look at her in a totally different light!

What was the best part?

I really enjoyed seeing Peter and Etta go beyond enemy lines and give us a glimpse into the twisted world of The Observers and their experiments. Presumably they have some kind of agenda, some reason to be conducting the things they are doing, but God only knows what it is. All I know is I liked the extra sense of tension it added to things – and then Etta seeing Desmond’s (I know, I know!) head in a jar and getting ready to open up a can of inappropriate whoop ass was an extra nudge towards everything turning to shit that loaned the episode an extra injection of high drama.

What do I think will happen next?

Well, the treasure hunt is afoot. So now the gang will be following Walter’s videotape breadcrumbs and try to track down more pieces of the plan. I fully expect there to have been some kind of cryptic clue within the videotape that Walter, or someone, will decipher and they will figure out where they have to go next. I also expect this breadcrumb clue-hunting to occupy the next few episodes at least, before things get to move onto the next phase. The drama will come from how long it takes for The Observers to get wise to what our heroes are up to and either try to stop them, or beat them to it.

Misfits: S04 Ep01

What happened?

A man with a stolen briefcase, possessing the power to infect anyone who touches him with a desperate need to take the case for themselves, wanders into the community centre and into the midst of existing probationers Rudy and Curtis, and the two new ones, Finn and Jess. With Seth also amongst them, the group trick and attack each other until only the man's death ends their ruthless lust.

On returning to the community centre they are greeted by their new probation worker, who sets a stern and threatening tone.

Thoughts

This new series perhaps had a harder place to start from than the previous series, which set the trend for how the show could continue after losing major characters. With this fourth series the show lost three out of the five original cast members (only Curtis remains as the veteran!) so it was up to the likes of Rudy and Seth to pick up the mantle, but they have been aided quickly by the intriguing newcomers.

However, what most helped this new series get off to a great start and wipe away the memories of the old gang was a cracking script. Having the episode start at the climactic end point isn't a particularly novel concept, but then further peeling back the layers as various characters relayed their views of what was going on to drip-feed us the truth was clever stuff without, as is Misfits way, not being conceited about it. A wry line from Rudy as he tentatively brushed against the fourth wall with his remark about being an "unreliable narrator" was where the script gave the audience a knowing wink. And at the end, as the gang stood at yet another burial site (has every first episode of Misfits featured a person being buried?) Rudy ticked off the checklist about how the episode had featured action and violence and humour. Even at the very end he cheekily said that the new probation worker was unlikely to see out the end of the week, paying respect to the longstanding joke within Misfits that probation workers arrive and die with unrealistic frequency.

The new probation worker looks like he has rather more formidable qualities about him that suggest he is going to be around for longer than other probation workers, and is going to feature as more of an antagonist. But he's for the future. This episode gave us a couple of new misfits to get to know: Jess and Finn.

Jess, by  the episode's end, had the least interest about her (though she was lovely to look at and had a nice straight to the point attitude - I enjoyed her on both levels!). She possesses the power to see through walls. Usually a person's power reflects something that already exists in their character. Like the guy with the briefcase, he was filled with greed and thus, when the storm hit, he developed the power to infect other people with his same unquenchable greed. I don't quite see (no pun intended) how Jess being able to see through walls feeds into her character, but then there's not really enough known about her full stop so I'll give that a few more episodes to percolate.

Finn was deliberately played for laughs, as a fool, and even his power was used for comedy effect. Given the build-up to suggest his telekinetic powers would be enough to send an object flying across the room, the plant pot instead shuddered and then toppled over ineffectually. I am sure it's something he may get more adept at using. But what was most interesting about him was saved to the end, where it transpired he had a girl tied up in his bedroom, clearly being kept captive. The previews for the next episode looked like it was going to tackle that plotline head on, which is fine with me.

Rudy has taken over the reins as leading man (mainly by virtue of him having the biggest mouth). Joseph Gilgun has a brilliantly improvised feel to his performance (the moment he was caught watching porn at his computer was a minor masterclass in making a scripted comedy staple look fresh and ad libbed). I particularly liked the moment where the fact that he has a twin was held back until it could be used to spring the surprise that 'Rudy' hadn't been rendered completely incapacitated after Seth knocked his counterpart out. That was just one of a number of clever touches the episode employed. As stated, its real smarts came out of its enveloping of narratives, shifting chronologies, perspectives and even false threads. 

Seth is a bit of a dull character. He was most interesting when he was a literal power broker with a murky past, and then in his romance with Kelly. As a little bit of exposition detailed here, Kelly was overseas (read: had left the show) so the only interesting counterpoint to him has been taken away. A bit like Curtis, his is a character that needs something else more purposeful otherwise he will become a tad dull. Curtis himself is now most interesting on account of being around the longest. I must confess that since he had the power to transform into a girl taken away from him I can't remember what his current power actually is. Whatever it is, he didn't use it here.

Unless, of course, he still has the power to change into a girl!

It was good to see Misfits back and, most importantly, back and strong despite the cast losses. I was actually surprised as I didn't expect to enjoy the show as much as I did. I watched it again more out of a sense of curiosity than of genuine excitement. But now it's back and in fine form I'm right back bang into the swing of it. There's nothing else like it on television and, so long as it can maintain this kind of form, anything else even trying to be would never fit the bill.

What was the best part?

I really enjoyed seeing the interplay between Finn and Jess when they were locked in the freezer. Finn's propensity to tell porky pies (hinting at the big lie revealed at the end without ever making it apparent a twist was coming - another clever riff in a tight script) reached its peak with the horrible untrue story of being repeatedly raped by his uncle. I liked that the show found time to just stay locked inside the freezer with the pair of them bickering and talking and, excellently, pissing themselves in unison. The show needed space to allow these two to breathe and, ironically, that space was afforded in the cramped confines of the freezer.

What do I think will happen next?

As the previews suggests, we're likely to see what the deal is with Finn and the girl he has tied up. I'd have to figure she's either a girlfriend who cheated on him or, perhaps, an object of his affection that he was never able to obtain until he took her prisoner. The latter one seems more likely but, to be honest, both ideas sound tired so I hope my predictions are both wrong and the truth is something more refreshing.

Meanwhile the matter of whether the new probation worker has a power is worth considering. I am going to predict that he doesn't have a power and his strict qualities are purely his natural nature. We'll see.

The Walking Dead: S03 Ep02 - Sick

What happened?

Whilst Hershal recovers from his bite and amputated leg, Rick negotiates a truce with the inmates to help them clear out a cell block of walkers for half of their food and the promise they will never trespass Rick's part of the prison. The operation sees Rick have to take action against some of the more threatening members of the inmate group, ultimately leaving just a couple of them remaining to fend for themselves.

Whilst Carol attempts to get practice on operating on walkers for the moment she may be called on to assist Lori's pregnancy she is observed from someone, or someones, unknown. Hershal does eventually awaken, thankful to be alive. Whilst Rick is quick to praise Lori for her help the emotional fracture that exists between them seems wider than ever with little chance of repair.

Thoughts

Oh if Shane could see Rick now. You may imagine him gazing down from heaven at the irony of it. Only, of course, The Walking Dead has very much posited itself as a world where heaven definitely does not exist. Yet Shane's devilish behaviour in the past season, so castigated and maligned by so many, has now become the kind of action Rick will take without debate and the rest of the group will accept as necessity. Anyone threatens the group - walker or man - they are killed.

That Rick slaughtered the prisoner in the white vest who was clearly becoming a liability to his own people as well as Rick came as little surprise. I did think, however, that he would be considered the one rotten apple in the group and that maybe Rick, once he had removed him, would consider the others as potential new people to join them. But then my thinking is not as merciless as Rick's. Perhaps all he sees are more mouths to feed, more potential dissenting voices, more possible people that may challenge for his crown. So they either step aside or they have to go.

If ever proof were needed about how far Rick has gone, the moment he chased the escaping convict only to shut him out to be fed to the walkers was it. Don't get me wrong, I am not saying Rick was too cruel. What I am remarking upon is the change he has been through. Shane once tried to escape with Otis to return medical supplies to the critically ill Carl; the tough decision he made on the spot was to shoot Otis so the walkers would eat him and let Shane escape so he could save the boy.

Rick shut a man out he thought presented a threat to his people in cold blood. Is there a difference? Maybe, but not much. Only the matter of Shane's dwindling sanity towards the end is the distinction. Rick, for now at least, retains a hold of his senses even though it is evidently taking a toll on his emotional wellbeing.

Last episode I discussed how Hershal's injuries ought to surely see him turn into a walker, if the disease is a virus transmitted through the blood. This episode dwelled on Hershal's injuries and, I think, tried to establish some form of general rule about how the infection spreads through a bite. There was the very pointed difference made with the big man who was injured down his neck and shoulder, areas of his body that could not be removed, which made it clear he was unable to be saved from becoming one of the undead. So, what have we learned?

Well, it was clarified for any latecomers that the infection to become a walker exists in everyone. How that was spread is unknown, and also irrelevant. It's a fact. If a person dies they will become a walker, unless their brain is destroyed. That's that. It's usually the case in zombie-lore that if a person is bitten by a zombie anywhere they will, eventually, become a zombie. I believe The Walking Dead sticks to that principal; if a person is bitten they will, if left untreated, become a walker.

Hershal, however, was not left untreated. He was bitten in the lower leg and, minutes later, that lower leg was cut off. As we eventually saw, this was enough to prevent him from being turned. So the idea that a bite somehow contains a contaminant that is transmitted via the bloodstream seems improbable (since the speed at which blood is propelled around the body is far quicker than any impromptu amputation can head off). I discussed the issue with a friend who has a better grasp of medical matters than I do and he suggested the most likely explanation would be to consider a bite from a walker to create an infection akin to gangrene; a disease of the flesh. If gangrene is left untreated it eventually spreads and kills the host, and this principal would hold true to being bitten by a walker.

At first I didn't like this idea, but as it has stayed with me I actually think I prefer it (and I think it makes more sense). For a zombie bite to infect a person's blood there would have to be some kind of fluid exchange - like saliva. Can we be entirely convinced that every rotten, dried-out carcass zombie that ever bit anyone contained saliva? That a bite from something dead against something alive would create an infected, gangrenous effect in the flesh is actually more agreeable. And so cutting off Hershal's lower limb and thus saving him has, after a week of rumination, become something I find preferable!

I am also glad that Hershal survived, mind. And I particularly liked how he reached his hand up upon waking and Rick was there to clasp it. I believe that whilst Rick makes all the hard decisions and bears the brunt of moral dilemma he will need Hershal more and more to anchor his conscience. Rick ought to, of course, be reliant on Lori for that kind of support but, as I shall speak more of further on, their relationship simply does not exist in that manner at the present time.

Carol had a subplot this episode that served two purposes. The first was to generally create the possibility that Hershal wouldn't survive. Her going out and learning how to perform a cesarean section on walkers was potentially generating a strand of drama that could see an amateur Carol attempt to see Lori and her unborn child safely through childbirth. That turned out to be something of a red herring, though did at least inform us that Carol has been groomed as the group's nurse and doctor no matter what - importantly giving her a role to play.

The moment where it appeared she was being observed was perhaps the most crucial occurrence overall, though. It's tricky to figure out what to make of it as we were given absolutely no idea as to the identity of the observer. I did wonder if they wouldn't have seen Carol performing her bizarre operations on the walkers and think that the people in the prison were serious twisted! If they were benevolent, potentially friendly allies to Rick's group then they certainly wouldn't have been given a good impression. However, the nature of them skulking in the trees and watching from afar and staying that way suggests they are up to no good. I expect them, whoever they are, to represent yet another problem when they reveal themselves!

There's only one small thing marring my enjoyment of this new season, and that's the grey area surrounding the rift between Rick and Lori. I am still unsure if it's due to an event we are not yet completely aware of or whether it's been a gradual drifting apart as a consequence of what happened between those two and Shane. I really want it to be due to something we have not yet seen; some event that occurred during the winter between seasons (ha!) two and three. My trouble is I don't know if I am reading too much into it or whether I am missing something very obvious.

I don't know if the show has created this mystery, or I've created a mystery for myself by not paying the right attention.

It would be a minor bugbear but the episode ended on this very matter and is clearly crucial to the drama. Never-the-less, the reason for the rift felt negligible during the emotional brutality of the final scene. Lori's quiet need felt like a whimper against the hurricane of Rick's adamant refusal to deal with the issue between them. He could tell her she had done a good job with the group but that was the extent of it, and how doubly cruel it was for him to reach out a hand only to give her a basic complimentary touch and then move on. She was left stroking the shoulder where his hand had been, alone, silently devastated.

Lori has never been a particular favourite of mine, quite the opposite really. But even my heart wanted to reach out for her. As I've said, the matter of what went on between them feels pertinent (is there someone particularly in the wrong out of the two of them?) and also irrelevant - it's just a minor annoyance that I might be reading the show wrong about what I am supposed to be expecting. Until I know better, however, I'll stick with the idea that Rick and Lori's fallout is due to something that happened which we are not aware of, and I hope I am right.

What was the best part?

The Walking Dead knows how to eke out tense beats better than any other show I can think of right now. This episode contained one such beat. When the long-haired prisoner, who was clearly displaying psychotic tendencies, wide-eyed and covered in the blood of his former prisonmate, opened two doors instead of one and let a torrent of walkers in the scene was loaded with one inevitability: something was going to go wrong. As it transpired the walkers were dispatched, but one close shave for Rick was all the justification he needed. One protracted Walking Dead dramatic beat of tension ensued as Rick and the man faced off, and then wham! Rick slams a machete down into the man's brainbox and splits it in two. Well, you gotta destroy the brain otherwise they just come back. . .

What do I think will happen next?

I saw the preview for the next episode looked like it was filled with all manner of excitement. Andrea and her enigmatic partner seem to feature prominently, but more eye-catching was the apparent return of Merle. If he is back then it cannot be too long before the long-awaited brotherly reunion between Merle and Daryl occurs. I'd like to believe that Daryl has now become 100% loyal to Rick and the group, so Merle couldn't just show up and rock the boat in that way. However, how Daryl would react to his brother is a fascinating prospect.

Prediction, long shot as it is, is that the person who observed Carol is also a part of the group that Andrea and her partner encountered. This would get all the key cast members within the same area, within the same plot, which would probably suit The Walking Dead better. The fact that Andrea was completely omitted from this episode shows that it is not a show that is well-suited to cutting away to different characters in different areas. It exists better when it keeps things localised, focused, so I do hope we see all major protagonists and antagonists all together before too long.

Fringe: S05 Ep01 - Transilience Thought Unifier Model-11

What happened?

It's 2036, and Etta continues the resistance against The Observers with Peter, Walter and Astrid. Their first course of action is to return to the point where Walter last heard from Olivia, and they realise she must have ambered herself when she was collecting a vital component of Walter's plan to win the war.

Whilst Olivia is found and removed from Amber, Walter is captured by The Observers and his scattered mind is probed and broken down before Peter and Olivia can rescue him; whatever plans he had are now seemingly lost and they may have to hope for an alternative scheme to present itself to save the world.

Thoughts

So this first episode of the new (and final) season kicked off where the episode Letters Of Transit left things before last season headed into its present day finale. We were thrust back into 2036, with Peter dreaming of the moment he was with his baby daughter when The Observers made their brutal assault on the planet. Great way to start the episode, that was for sure (and very important in helping us understand just how The Observers took control; turns out it was with overwhelming force). The end of last season seemingly resolved the matter of there being a parallel universe with the link to 'Over There' being severed, Olivia was apparently now free of Cortexiphan, and pregnant, so a little beat like Peter's dream filling us in on how The Observers took over it seems like there's little reason to 'go back' to the present day timeline since there's not a lot of exposition there to uncover.

Of course we have learned from Walter that he worked with September to devise plans to take back the planet from The Observer shortly after they arrived, but since Walter has already discussed what happened there seems little need to show it. Point I am making is that, with this season starting in the year 2036, whilst the door is still open for the next episode to go back to the 'present day' and pick up plot threads, there's actually very little point.

There are one or two things hanging around unanswered, mind. Like Walter, in Letters Of Transit, only took William Bell's hand because of what he had done. We don't know what heinous act that was, unless it was what we saw in the season finale and the things Belly did in his manipulation of Olivia. If we never hear anything else about it then we can assume that was Walter's motivation - so I suppose that base has been covered.

It didn't take long for this episode to get Olivia back into the show (unsurprising, she already spent the entirety of Letters Of Transit out of the picture so they couldn't very well let another episode go by without the leading lady!), which made up the first half of what turned out to be an episode of two rescues. First they rescued Olivia from the amber thieves, and then they had to rescue Walter from the clutches of The Observers. The upshot at the end of the episode was that the gang were all back together, albeit Walter was 'back' to his more mentally unstable self that we're used to seeing (I suppose that'll put Astrid back on carer duties!) and, more threateningly, Etta had been revealed as a double agent to The Observers so she is sure to be high on their hit list.

I liked Etta, even though she wasn't given very much to do this episode. I said it about her when she appeared in Letters Of Transit and I still stand by the idea that she has been very well cast, and puts on a great performance. Her capturing of mannerisms and expressions that echo Olivia are subtle yet perfectly on point. You can totally believe she is Olivia's daughter, 100%. The scene where Olivia and Etta first met was about as a touching as it could be, but the episode didn't really have the space to stretch out that reunion. Mother-daughter bonding will surely be developed over the course of the season.

If I had a complaint it's that the episode did feel a little rushed into having things to do. Fair enough it wanted to show some hustle to get Olivia back, but then needing to hurry once more to get Walter back meant there was scarcely chance for the characters to establish themselves and their reactions to this horrible new world. Save for Astrid playing some advanced word game, or the apparently unpleasant "eggsticks", we weren't given much of a feel for what life in 2036 is like. Credit to the production design with its graffitti and Observer posters lending this future dystopia a sharp Orwellian feel. All we know for certain is that The Observers' practice of leeching away oxygen from the atmosphere is going to have dire consequences for all mankind so time is not on their side.

The Observers themselves make for a bit of a strange adversary. I am not quite sure what their powers are, and what their limitations are. Evidently they can read minds, fair enough. But then I think of how September was able to predict what people would say before they said it, and happen to be at the right place and time to witness something strange occurring, and it was clear he was capable of a lot more prescience and awareness than just reading minds. And also the matter of them being able to appear and disappear (like how they showed up out of nowhere to capture Walter) wherever they want begs the question of just what kind of measures can our heroes put in place to stop them just finding them and appearing where they are in great numbers and putting their resistance to an end.

I realise that they clearly need the help of humans (enlisting them as part of their army, like Nazis enlisting Jews to run concentration camps) so they are not all-powerful beings - I'd just like to have their boundaries clarified. I want to know the enemy.

The Observers do also rock a very distinct resemblance to Agents from The Matrix with the way they are dressed, their robotic speech patterns and how they operate to enslave mankind. I also thought the scene where The Observer interrogated Walter, trying to break his mind, was very reminiscent of the scene where Agent Smith tried to break Morpheus in The Matrix (and in that movie Neo and the gang infiltrated a large building to rescue him, akin to Olivia and Peter this episode!); with the blood leaking out of Walter's nose and the way the scene played I believe Fringe was paralleling that entirely deliberately.

I can't say I was blown away by the episode, in all honesty. Writing about it, curiously enough, makes it seem slightly more interesting than how it all felt when watching it play out. The rescue operations lacked tension, the reunions lacked emotion and the confounding plot about Walter's memories having been broken up like a jigsaw and apparently unable to be put back together wasn't exactly a tangible mechanic to get on side with.

If I look at the episode as one that's just laying down a marker for where the season is going to go then it's done it's job. The gang are all back in one place. With Walter's original plan apparently lost then there's a clean slate for Olivia and Peter and Walter and Etta to re-gather their strategies and come up with a new scheme that we can be on board with on the ground floor. And there's still the matter of Broyles and Nina hanging around, waiting to be brought back into the fold. Not to mention September, too, who we don't yet know the fate of. So, lots to look forward to - it was just the execution here felt a bit flat.

I really liked the last scene, though. It was totally bizarre. Walter attracted by a strange decoration of compact discs to play an old 80s cover of 'Only You' (by Alison Moyet, I think it was) and then sit in a rusted yellow taxi, spotting a solitary yellow flower. Symbolically the suggestion was that the same way the little flower was growing in unlikely circumstances (an Observer did make a remark earlier on about how nothing can grow in dead earth) it meant hope could find a way. Walter, in the yellow taxi, half-dressed and mind broken, was like the delicate yellow flower: a small chance of hope, but hope none-the-less.

What was the best part?

Peter's dream sequence was hard to top. Nicely edited out of sequence and jarring enough to make an impact. I think it was also the element of Olivia and Peter actually at peace, happy, and not on their guard that made the devastating arrival of The Observers all the more shocking. Clearly Olivia and Peter thought they had saved the world - they, like the rest of the world, just didn't see it coming.

What do I think will happen next?

Viva la resistance! I have to now assume the 2036 timeline is going to be the dominant timeline and we're going to stick with Olivia, Peter, Walter and Etta as they formulate a new plan to try and overthrow their oppressors. I have no idea where that may take us yet, but I hold out hope that the talk of the 'first people' that was present in the earlier seasons may yet become a part of things and that Fringe has more twists and turns beyond a straight rebellion conflict against Fringe Division and The Observers.

The Walking Dead: S03 Ep01 - Seeds

What happened?

After a winter of on the run survival, Rick and his group find a prison that would be a perfect safe refuge for Lori to deliver her child - if they can clear out all of the walkers roaming the grounds and interiors. . . Rick manages to co-ordinate the group into one cell block, but a further exploration deeper in leaves half the group trapped by walkers, with Hershal bitten and amputated in an attempt to save his life. They have also inadvertently stumbled into a small number of other prisoner survivors, who seem surprised to see they made it.

Meanwhile Andrea has contracted a nasty illness but refuses to allow it to be the end of her and so journeys on with her new companion - the mysterious, samurai sword-wielding, zombie-slaver.

Thoughts

The new series of The Walking Dead began with a pre-credits sequence that told us everything we needed to know about what Rick and the group had been doing over a long, tough winter. They moved as a well-worked unit, infiltrating a house and quickly picking through room by room. Even Carl has developed the skills to be left unattended and not flinch about taking down a walker. Note how no one spoke - not a word. This tells us that a) they've done this enough to know what to do without speaking and, b) most importantly, they know speaking out can only alert their enemy to their presence. Make no mistake, Rick and the gang have become a survival force to be reckoned with. Free of Shane's vying for dominance, and Dale's moral debates, this is a group with focus borne out of necessity. Great opening scene. We don't need to have seen the tough winter to know they've been through a lot - but tellingly Rick won't allow them to eat dog food. They're desperate and they do what it takes - but there's still a line of humanity he won't allow them to go beyond.

So, firstly, I suppose the facility we glimpsed at the end of Season 2 must have been something they didn't actually manage to find? (I am assuming it wasn't the prison they have stumbled upon!) I'm not cancelling out the idea that they found it, not yet, because there were a few bits and pieces in this episode that suggested there is a story about what happened in between Season 2 and Season 3 that we may yet be shown. I am speaking mainly about Lori and Rick. Clearly there was a major rift between them, with Lori remarking that Rick hated her and was just too decent to say it, and she also mentioned something about being the one that put the knife in his hand. . .

Now, maybe I am being an idiot here and totally missing the obvious. But I don't think Lori was talking about  anything we have already seen in Season 2. So my opinion is that she is talking about something that happened during the winter and maybe, further in to this season, we'll be shown a flashback moment that explains exactly what went on between Rick and Lori to have generated this hostility between them. Whatever it is, Rick is clearly torn between doing the right thing and coping with the burden of it, as indicated by his breaking away from the group to sit alone for a little while and collect himself.

Aside from Lori and her obvious concerns about impending childbirth the rest of the group have become quite nicely balanced. I enjoyed the interplay between Carol and Daryl, with her showing a more relaxed and even playful side of her character. No surprise we've never seen that before; Season 1 she was a downtrodden wife to an abusive husband and Season 2 she was the mother of a missing girl that turned up dead (to be shot in the head right in front of her). To have come through all that and crack wise about wanting to fool around with Daryl (and even get a smile out of him) shows she's a woman of tremendous inner resourcefulness. Her remarks of praise about how far Rick had got them should also, I hope, quash that horrible possibility of her trying to push Daryl into challenging for the leader role as was hinted at in last season's finale.

Glenn and Maggie also have a much more relaxed relationship, with him no longer a jittery clutz around her and stepping up as a man of action. Fair play as well that Maggie is considered as an equal to the guys, joining them on their ill-fated descent into the prison. She still looks great in a vest, too! Meanwhile Carl and Hershal's daughter look to be striking up a bit of a growing fondness - I suppose at the end of the world in such a small group then both of them have to take what fate has provided. At least Hershal has less of a Victorian dad attitude towards his daughter as well. Indeed, all round (Rick and Lori aside) the group has never looked better. It was only inevitable that something was going to go wrong, though I was surprised that Hershal was the man that got taken down.

Yes, about that moment. Hershal gets a seriously nasty bite to the lower leg and within a minute Rick is hacking his leg off in a bid to save it. (Compare and contrast with Season Two, where this kind of action took a debate to decide what to do.) Now I don't have any actual medical education but I am fairly sure that any virus that is carried through the bloodstream (as the bite of a zombie and subsequent infection must surely be) then I don't believe that hacking the bitten limb off ought to be enough to prevent it. Blood gets pumped from your heart and round your body and back again way quicker than that! So what I am saying is that I don't think Rick's amputation should, realistically, be enough to prevent Hershal from turning walker. In the show? Well, I'd like to see him stick around, and I am certain Lori and everyone else would definitely benefit from his medical expertise, which all the more makes it seem like there's every chance he won't make it because The Walking Dead likes nothing more than making bad situations worse.

The situation was left pretty bad at the end of the episode, of course. Rick and the small band are holed up with a badly-wounded Hershal, stacks of walkers penning them in, and they've only gone and run into more survivors (seemingly prisoners, judging by their clothes). Getting stuck in a prison with prisoners is never a good situation for anyone, really, but when the shit has hit the fan and the world has gone to hell then it's an extremely bad spot!

I am not quite sure what to make of the prison. I don't know if these prisoners were entombed within the walls of the building and stuck there because they couldn't get through all the walkers outside the door, but that's my first impression. The alternative is that they are part of a larger group that exist within the prison walls and Rick and his group have inadvertently come up against them surviving in there. That option seems less likely, purely by how surprised the prisoners were and how the prison had been, up until Rick and everyone else clearing the path, completely surrounded by walkers. No, I'll go with them being the few survivors after the prison and inmates got taken down and they've been stuck there ever since. I guess they'll have been helping themselves to all those lovely food rations Rick's group were hoping to find untouched!

Elsewhere Andrea has had a winter of survival with the cool and mysterious samurai sword black woman (if we learned her name during this episode I didn't catch it). There wasn't much revealed about what they have been doing or what their plan is, and even less information about who this woman is and what she's all about. Seemingly they've survived the winter together as desperately as Rick's group, though possibly they have a destination in mind that only Andrea's illness had put on hold.

What is the function of the armless, jawless zombies the woman likes to drag around with her? Do they serve as some kind of deterrent to the walkers, masking them somehow? Or is it purely as a signal of power to other people they may encounter? Or is it to serve as a kind of symbol the woman lives by - that she won't be enslaved by these walkers but instead intends to be their master? Maybe it's all three. I am certainly looking forward to finding out more about this woman, whatever the case may be!

This first episode of Season 3 was a strong return of the show. I got the impression that it was also responding to criticism from certain quarters regarding the previous Season, about how there wasn't quite enough zombie action and too much melodrama down on the farm (leading to the dismissive monicker of 'the talking dead' the show garnered by overly-critical fanboys). I personally thought the show had got the balance between character drama and zombie horror perfectly acceptable, but I still enjoyed this opening episode that was jam-packed with zombie slaying. The opening shot, a pull back from an extreme close up of a walker's iris to reveal it standing in a room only to be then taken out by Rick storming through the door set the tone for an episode that saw zombies shot and stabbed through the brain more times than could be counted. It got to the extent that they cut away from such things as the episode drew on purely to avoid repetition! Once you've seen one zombie get poked through the eye and stabbed through the skull you've seen 'em all!

What was the best part?

Whilst the climactic exploration of the dark corridors to a fateful end was tense stuff, I thought the scenes where Rick and co headed into the prison yard to try and access the cell block was even better. I particularly liked the moment zombie prison guards entered the fray, bedecked in body armour that made them even harder to kill! Cue Maggie's delight as she jabbed a skewer up a guard walkers chin into its brain, killing it. With a broad excitable grin she turned to her comrades and exclaimed, "Did you see that!?" Yes, Maggie, I did. And yes, Maggie, I was very impressed.

What do I think will happen next?

The matter of Hershal's survival is in the balance. Whilst I don't believe he should manage to survive I am not writing him off. I fully expect Rick and co to get out of the sticky spot they are in, but they may have to enlist the help of the prisoners they have encountered. I don't imagine that Rick will be willing to take them under his wing, mind, which raises the ugly problem of how he handles it if they decide that they don't want to venture out into the wide world beyond the prison walls. We've been down this problem before, and it always results in more dead bodies.

Prediction? OK. Hershal dies. Lori could therefore use some assistance with delivering her baby (particularly if there are complications in childbirth). The prisoners, or at least one of them, will either have some expertise or know someone or some place that does, thus creating leverage to work alongside them. So Rick will have to co-operate with the prisoners in an uneasy alliance and, well, drama will ensue!

American Horror Story: S01 Ep06 – Piggy Piggy

What happened?

A flashback to 1994 details how Tate stalked his school, shooting classmates. Many asked why he did it, including the armed police officer that was forced to shoot him dead at his home when he reached for his gun. Violet learns about this incident, and is then confronted by Constance who explains that Tate is a spirit that does not know he is dead and she hoped his counselling sessions would help him arrive at that truth himself.

Constance and Moira are also both involved in feeding Vivien various meats, to the extent of her eating raw brains. Vivien does go to see the nurse that saw her baby scan, and the nurse is terrified and warns she is pregnant with an evil beast. Meanwhile Vivien and Ben have split, but Ben is working at the house and still holding on for a reconciliation.

Violet struggles to handle being around Tate now she knows what he is. But he tells her he loves her and, eventually, she seems to relent after he saves her from a suicide attempt and they lie down together.

Thoughts

By this show’s regular standards, this was a more sedate episode in terms of pacing and frantic editing, but probably the most out there in terms of concept. I mean six episodes in and I am perfectly accepting of ghosts and living people interacting normally, and even how the leading lady can sit down and tuck into a bowl of raw brain!

There’s definitely a Rosemary’s Baby vibe being channelled with Vivien’s pregnancy, and whatever it is she is giving birth to, Constance and Moira are both aware of what it is and very keen on it to go ahead. Evidently they are feeding the thing raw meat because that’s what the beast wants – Mrs. Comet watching with me was very explicitly informing me that this kind of food was absolutely not what pregnant women are advised to eat. The nurse remarked that she had seen a cloven hoof in the pregnancy scan, but until the ‘baby’ emerges it’s impossible to know what it will be.

I actually expect it to come out looking normal. Vivien did have another scan after all, and that one appeared to occur without alarm, so in that respect it’ll probably be like The Omen. I anticipate references to that to be forthcoming!

Ben and his treatment of the man with a fear of Piggyman was a relative sideline this episode. Indeed, I was surprised to see that he had moved out already given how adamantly he was willing to fight for his family at the end of the last episode. There was that moment where Vivien held his hand during the pregnancy scan, however, so all isn’t lost for those two. Vivien has definitely turned her attentions to the hunky security man, of course. The way Ben was viewing him, too, made me think he might be next in line when the killing happens! Indeed, if Ben is demanded by the house (or whatever) to father the baby then security man might be considered a threat to that needing to removed.

The big story here was about Tate. The opening scene, showing the frightened students getting picked off one by one, was a standout and terrifyingly all-too-real moment. The lack of music and coldness to it all made it so tense and stark it showed that American Horror Story has the capacity to deliver pure horror free of frills and gimmicks and weirdness.

I liked that Constance had the conversation with Violet early in the episode to clarify that Tate was a ghost that didn’t know he was dead, and that it was the fact he died in the house that was the important element that kept him around. As Addy, from beyond, would apparently state she was pleased her mother had failed to get her onto the grounds of the house when she was dying so she could avoid the same fate. Constance also showed more dimensions to her very complicated character in her heartfelt declaration of love and affection for Addy. It’s good that she had a little more humanising, though I wouldn’t want her to lose the vicious edge and sharp tongue we first saw in the Pilot episode.

Whilst neither Ben nor Vivien have yet to be convinced there are really ghosts in the world, Violet saw all the phantoms in the basement and, of course, has the all-too-vivid spirit of Tate madly in love with her. Emphasis on the ‘madly’. His arc, it seems, is to come to terms with what he is. I suspect he’s not going to take that well, and his unpredictable quality makes him impossible to gauge. Indeed, the central question about why he went on a killing spree remains a huge question mark. As the teacher said, maybe he just wasn’t a good person and that’s all the reason there is.

Violet had her strongest performance here. I didn’t really buy that she would attempt suicide as she did – that seemed to come out of nowhere. But then the nature of a suicidal disposition is perhaps best summed up as an out of the blue psychological break. And the scars on her arm show she is prone to self-harming. I guess it’s just the act didn’t seem like something that was being built to – it just suddenly started happening.

Where do the two of them go from here? Well, Violet will either fall for Tate and then have to deal with the fact that he’s unpredictable, never going to age and not able to leave the house (apart from on Halloween). More likely she’ll be on hand to help him figure out what he is, but even when that happens I don’t think that necessarily means he will vanish and move on. Like Moira and the other ghosts, he might just be a part of the fixtures and fittings now!

What was the best part?

Without doubt the opening flashback showing the kids in the library getting picked off one by one by Tate. There was a stillness about the scene in terms of the lack of music, and how we never saw Tate’s face until the end. And the differing reactions of the kids before they all met their fate just kept the whole thing feeling shocking. In light of actual incidents of this kind of killing spree being true to life that made it all the more harrowing. Definitely American Horror Story’s most intense scene so far.

What do I think will happen next?

I expect this season is going to have a lot of focus on just what exactly is gestating inside Vivien. It’s surely going to be some form of devil-child, though maybe it will take the form of a regular-looking baby. Obviously they should call it Damien. Otherwise the weird romance between Tate and Violet will develop. Either she’ll help him discover what he is so he can ‘move on’ (if that’s possible), or their feelings for each other will grow stronger and the pair of them will actually be in love with each other. The latter seems more likely as it’s the one with more plot mileage.

Fringe: S04 Ep22 – Brave New World – Part 2

What happened?

Olivia and Peter had a run-in with Jessica, who it turned out was working for William Bell. She shot September, but was then killed by Olivia who once again exhibited developing powers. With an injured Astrid pointing them in the direction of where Walter was taken, they tried to locate where William Bell had taken him.

William Bell had taken Walter to the safe spot for his continued intention to collapse the universes into one new whole – a brave new world where he can play God. He states that this was once Walter’s ambition. Olivia and Peter arrive to thwart the plan, though Walter has to kill Olivia and then rely on her regeneration in order for it to succeed.

Olivia tells Peter that she is pregnant, whilst September appears to Walter to grimly inform him that “they” are coming.

Thoughts

No way around it, really. I was disappointed. The messy first half I was willing to forgive if this second part came along and delivered the goods. Well, it delivered goods. I just didn’t particularly like them. In all honesty, and maybe this is just me, but I thought Fringe had gone a little bit too stupid.

It’s a fairly crazy thing to say, really. To remark that Fringe has gone too far when it’s a show that has basically plied its trade on the principle of going too far and selling it, but I definitely felt that way. The tipping point for me was when Walter put a bullet in Olivia’s head and then he and Peter stuck a big pipe through her brain, got the bullet out and then watched as she healed in seconds and returned to consciousness.

That, for me, that was just one step too far.

I didn’t believe that such a level of self-healing power ought to have been possible (serious, what is Cortexiphan because the stuff appears to be able to do anything!), and furthermore I don’t believe that Walter could have been so absolutely certain it would turn out that way. I wondered if it was perhaps the only way the writers could make good on September’s warning about how Olivia was destined to die in every single version of future events he had ever seen, so she had to die but Fringe also had to have her come back to life as well.

If that dire warning had never existed then perhaps there were other things that could have happened – like Olivia being plunged into a coma or removed to another dimension or something! Sure, they’re kind of ludicrous, but somehow an outlandish solution wouldn’t have felt as much like a cheat as just shooting her in the head and then having her heal back to life.

Furthermore, how come William Bell didn’t do anything about it? He plainly watched Walter load the gun and surely it must have occurred to him what he intended. He knew as much, if not more, about what Olivia’s capabilities allowed for since he had engineered her to generate the energy sufficient to collapse two universes (as you do). So this masterplan of precision, this act of new world creation he has strived for years towards, he allows it to fall apart in the final moments and then disappears with a bit of a heavy sigh and  ring of his bell.

Good grief.

Where did he go? Well, that was actually one of the more interesting possibilities, with the only logical explanation being that he went back to the other universe. Is it possible that this William Bell is actually the one from the alternate universe? There’s no reason to believe an alternate version doesn’t exist in some capacity, and if Nina was convinced she saw her William Bell die then that makes it all the more reasonable to figure this Belly is the duplicate alternate.

There’s no way of knowing, but it’s a possibility. I suppose I am leaning towards it not being the alternate William Bell purely because Fringe seems to want to streamline itself and no longer be concerned about the alternate universe. I know the fifth and final season has been confirmed but is going to be a shorter run of episodes so it would make sense to leave the alternate universe alone.

I really liked the detail from William that the notion of creating a new world, a world where they could become God-like due to feeling like their current world was Godforsaken, had been originally spawned from Walter’s grieving, pained mind. Having cruelly lost his own son, and caused the death of the Alternate Peter, with the guilt at the disaster his crossing over had created he had turned his back on God and coldly contrived plans to form this brave new world. That he had to have William take away pieces of his brain to remove the notion feeds well into the narrative we already know, but I particularly liked it because I’ve noticed Walter has had a curiously religious faith for a man of science that has, up until this episode, been left unaddressed. Now we know that the part of his mind that rejected God had been removed entirely, and so the incongruence of Walter being a believer now makes more sense.

The most successful scene centred on September trapped in the warehouse by that strange glyph. His remarks about how such technology was not supposed to be known alluded surely to William Bell knowing a lot more about them than they even realised. He had figured September was a potential loose cannon who might interfere with his plans to collapse the universe (the one Observer who has a history of doing more than observe!). Such foresight and planning only undermines how easily his plan was thwarted by Walter and his gun, but I’ve already said my piece about that!

Jessica proving to be working for William Bell was a nice surprise (though she certainly put herself in extreme risk for the cause – running the risk of spontaneous combustion all on the principle that she would be saved by Olivia’s healing  powers). As calculated gambles go, William Bell is more than a little prescient. Not only was Jessica taught enough to trap an Observer she also had the high-powered faster-firing gun to put a bullet in one. Pretty cool.

Not sure how I felt about the resolution to the mystery of how September came to be shot. I mean, I’m glad it was addressed in a satisfactory manner. It quickly became apparent that the incident of meeting Olivia, of ‘dying’, was all something that was part of his future. For once Peter and Olivia were in a position where they knew what was going to happen when September didn’t. Presumably the September that appeared at the end of the episode was the one that had been renewed, saved by Peter – and it appears he is very much taking a stand against his own people.

The last scene did have something of an anticlimactic feel to it, though given the nature of what has been going on behind the scenes of Fringe, with question marks about whether it would ever get a fifth season, I suspect this last part was added on and the preceding scenes about Olivia being pregnant, and Broyles becoming a general and giving Nina a new job, all of that was like a closing coda of happy endings that may have actually been designed to finish off the entire show. I’m glad they weren’t. It would have felt like a bit of a happy whimper rather than a rousing climax.

Olivia’s declaration of pregnancy was a weird moment. For some seconds I was wondering if the fact that she had died and been brought back had somehow changed her perspective, or imbued her with some knowledge she was about to impart. That this scene was coming right at the end of the episode made it seem all the more loaded with a bombshell – but there just wasn’t one. Maybe when the scene was conceived (ha!) and filmed it was with the view that the ‘future episode’ wouldn’t have appeared and so we, as an audience, wouldn’t already know that Henrietta existed.

I suppose that future episode did dilute much of the drama. We knew that Olivia couldn’t really die, or even that Astrid wouldn’t die. We knew that William Bell’s mental plan of forming a brave new world could not come to fruition, either. I imagine the original Fringe design may have been never to have the ‘future episode’, that way the show could have wrapped up the story of William Bell (presumably by having him die rather than just disappear) and had Olivia rid of Cortexiphan and the universes severed and pretty much all of the plot threads would have found resolution.

The end of the episode briefly mentioned that Olivia’s Cortexiphan powers were set to wane and she would become a regular person (although we know that Henrietta will be born with innate powers that, at least, allow her mind not to be read – surely a by-product of her in utero Cortexiphan exposure). I do wonder how the fifth season will push through the story of Olivia and Peter and the rest becoming entombed in Amber and balance that with the jump to 2036. Perhaps a flipping back and forth, episode by episode, similar to how the show used to cross from one universe to another. I could see that working well, though I’d be amazed if Olivia doesn’t appear somehow in the future, alive, probably encased in Amber somewhere else!

Getting ahead of myself now, though. This finale did end on a low, oddly anti-climactic note, that has to be as a direct consequence to the pressures on the show production that really left the writers in a tricky spot between tying the show up whilst leaving enough scope for continuation. In that respect they did well. I still require resolution over the matter of the First People that Sam Weiss used to be so intent on, that suggested Olivia, Peter and Walter were destined to somehow become. The show has its fifth and final season to address these matters, of course, which is good and welcome news. For all my niggles here I still enjoyed the episode, and I still really like the show, and I hope now they have an endgame set in stone all concerned can rally everything together and give us fans the send off we’ve been waiting for.

What was the best part?

I’m torn between two scenes. For sheer freakish oddity the scene where Jessica was brought back from the dead and her eyeballs were rolling around and blinking independently was just so weird I loved it. No pun intended, but I couldn’t take my eyes off it. And the very nature of what exactly was going on – what aspect of Jessica had been revived to communicate – is really quite creepy. It was certainly a memorable scene.

However, surely the best scene had to be where Olivia and Peter happened upon the constrained September, and then Jessica showed up to reveal her true colours. The strange symbol that kept September locked in place, the origin of the bullet wound, and Olivia flipping out some swift hand deflections to take down Jessica – it was a short scene that packed in a lot of good stuff. Shame the rest of the episode couldn’t measure up, really.

What do I think will happen next?

I can well envisage Fringe splitting plotlines between the ‘present’ day (dealing with Olivia and Peter and their pregnancy/new baby and, with Walter, collaborating with September about actions to be taken against the upcoming invasion). Either by switching timelines every other episode, or perhaps even during episodes, the future plot in 2036 can also be continued up to the point where it becomes the dominant story and concludes the Fringe storyline.

I fully expect Olivia will emerge alive, somehow, in 2036 (otherwise how will she continue to be the star of the show!?). I also imagine that thwarting The Observers may result in Olivia and Peter and Walter becoming the ‘first people’ and altering history, or becoming a part of ancient history. . . OK, my thoughts are running aground, but mostly I am hopeful that all of these big ideas the show has ushered in and left on the sidelines will get pulled back into the narrative in a meaningful way.

If Fringe can do that, and make the resolution satisfactory, I’ll be a happy fan. Not asking much, am I?

Fringe: S04 Ep21 – Brave New World – Part 1

What happened?

Instances of spontaneous combustion are investigated by Fringe Division where it transpires they are perpetrated by Mr. Jones, working for William Bell. Walter and Astrid go to check out some leads and find themselves held at gunpoint, captured by Belly and his men. Meanwhile Olivia is developing new powers - healing and physical control of other people - when she and Peter track down Mr. Jones. Only too late does Jones realise William has sacrificed him when he is bested and killed by Peter and Olivia.

Thoughts

I think it was intentional, how this episode began almost as though the series had hit the reset switch. Like with the severing of the two universes we had been cut back to the way things were back in season one. The episode began with a suitable strange occurrence that resulted in the unpleasant death of a person and before you knew it Olivia and Peter and Walter were on the scene checking out what happened and drawing potential conclusions.

Really? I was thinking. A case of the week episode just before a season finale? Really?

Turned out no, not really, though that slip and dodge of expectations was really one of the only positive things to emerge out of an episode that I otherwise thought was a bit of a mess. The matter of the spontaneous combustion was a case in point. It was discovered to be an act of violence perpetrated by Mr. Jones, using nanobots. Further investigation yielded the truth that these nanobots were in fact designed by William Bell. So, Mr, Jones is working for William Bell. OK.

How long has that been the case? When Mr. Jones was intent on reducing two universes into one new whole was that really under the design and bidding of William Bell all along? Was William Bell also tucked away in the safe zone, waiting for the universes to collapse so he could be a part of this new world of bat monsters? It sounds a little ridiculous but I have to assume it’s the case. Unless William Bell is playing an even longer game, and he actually knew that Mr. Jones would fail in his merging universe plans and all Belly was after was for the bridge to be closed.

There’s mileage in the idea that William Bell has been playing Mr. Jones for the longterm gain, especially considering how he became unstuck here. It seemed to be the case that Belly had sent Mr. Jones to release the nanobots primarily so Walter would find them and realise who designed them. After that, Mr. Jones was then directed to ambush Olivia and Peter following the concentrated sunbeam attack whereupon it appeared to be a set-up, because William figured that Mr. Jones’ attack would fail and he would be taken out of the picture.

I have to say I was a little dismayed to see Mr. Jones taken down the way he was. Considering how much of a calculating and controlling person he has been so far, to be caught out so untidily felt disingenuous. Sure, he probably couldn’t have factored in Olivia having the power to assume control of Peter’s body and fight through him but, never-the-less, it still felt a bit cheap to me. Mr. Jones deserved a more sound finishing off. Pleasing parallel that his demise resulted in a splitting apart of his face, mirroring him being split in two during season one.

The two attacks – nanobots and sunbeam – didn’t seem to serve any other purpose, which is what informs my view that the episode felt like a bit of a mess. It’s my implied understanding that the two attacks were orchestrated purely to manipulate proceedings but that wasn’t entirely clear, and it raises the question of what purpose it was Mr. Jones himself thought he was doing it for! I mean, if someone asked you to go and plant spontaneously combustible nanobots in a public place, or direct a sunbeam into a city you’d surely have some pause to consider what you were doing it for, no?

There’s potential that this whole piece of business has been left deliberately vague because it’ll get tied up in the finale. I’m not banking on it but this is a "Part 1" so the episode does get some grace. Of course, the other result William Bell gained from all of his machinations was Walter (and Astrid, in rare action girl mode!) being delivered into his hands. This I am certain was his intention all along, and ultimately what he needs is Walter’s brilliant mind to assist him with whatever his next move is.

My guess is that those good old Cortexiphan trials they began so long ago are reaching new developments. Olivia herself is rapidly discovering new powers. Not sure how useful she will find the capacity to physically control other people, though it did make me think that perhaps she will one day force Walter and Peter and the rest to encase themselves in amber at the crucial moment. . .

Back to Belly, though. Nina’s assertion that she saw him dead certainly carried no weight, not just with Walter’s statement that he had seen him when he was in the mental hospital days after he was deceased but, of course, with the fact that he showed up alive and well during the episode! Curiously, however, Walter made a few remarks that point towards this William not being the same man he knew due to the atrocities he was committing. I’m not sure where Fringe is leading with that angle but I like to think it’s pertinent, that William either underwent some drastic change or he’s not really the William Bell of old at all (for whatever far-flung reason!). Visiting Walter in hospital certainly suggests he was saying goodbye in some fashion, though where he was leaving to is a mystery.

For now I’ll stick with the idea that he’s had a radical ideological and moral shift to serve the purpose of some perceived higher goal rather than his body being taken over by some other nefarious entity.

Despite the discussion the episode generated out of this post my impression of the episode was not a favourable one. I think I may have muttered a remark to myself about how it had been something of a mess when I was confronted by the closing credits. It lacked focus and momentum. Possibly that’s because it’s feeding into the finale and so is all about set-up, but because there’s such a veil over what exactly is being set-up I don’t feel any kind of anticipating excitement about what the next episode may hold.

I’m hoping it’s all set to blow me away with a whopping surprise. Fringe finales have all been pretty special over the course of the years but I don’t recall ever going into onto with the sense of shoulder shrugging, nonplussed feelings this precursor has filled me with. Like I said, I’m hoping it’s just going to blow me away.

What was the best part?

Despite it ultimately not making much sense of having any great purpose, the moment the sunbeam was blazed into the night was a thrilling moment. Olivia and Peter stared out of their window at the source of this brightness, and then Broyles was caught agape looking at what was in front of him. Before it was revealed I wondered if there was some kind of alien invasion event occurring (which would have been nicely foreshadowed in that throwaway remark Walter made to the ginger one out of Lost, enquiring if she was extra-terrestrial!).

For some dizzying moments I thought Fringe had just started out like a run-of-the-mill episode purely to deliver this leftfield, knockout surprise of an alien invasion raining from the skies! In all likelihood that would have been stupid for the show, but for those few moments it was actually a rather exhilarating notion.

What do I think will happen next?

As with previous mysteries lately, it's all about what a certain man intends to do next. It used to be the question of what Mr. Jones was up to, and now it's about what William Bell is up to (although presumably Mr. Jones has always been working for William). I interpreted the episode as William drawing Walter to him and getting rid of Mr. Jones, but quite what he intends beyond that I don't know.

I'm hazarding a guess that William isn't planning on the impending arrival of The Observers at this moment and is certainly not in league with them - that's something that's going to take the whole world by surprise. So I can only figure that William wants Walter with him to complete the Cortexiphan experiments they began together, now potentially coalescing in some form of good result with Olivia's recent power developments. Walter will resist it, for sure, but we saw in the 'future episode' that Walter will be very angry with what William ultimately did to Olivia. However, before such unpleasantness, Peter and Olivia have to have little Henrietta so whatever does happen to Olivia can't happen in the very near future.

Unless one of her new powers is to have an immaculate conception with an accelerated pregnancy period. And considering Fringe has once before had Olivia go through an accelerated pregnancy it's not too wild to figure the immaculate conception part isn't completely off the cards!