Fringe: S05 Ep10 – XB-6783746

 What happened?

The Fringe Team turn to Nina for help in communicating with the Observer Boy, Michael, since he seems unresponsive. Windmark finds out Nina is helping the resistance and is with Michael, but she manages to hide him away before facing Windmark, ultimately taking her own life before he can interrogate her. The Fringe team discover what has happened and find Michael, also making the discovery that the mysterious Donald is September!

Thoughts

So Nina is the first big longstanding character casualty before the curtain closes on Fringe. She’s moved from being a villainous presence in Season One to a more motherly ally throughout her various incarnations, and this episode made sure her last scene was a fitting and dignified send off – and, of course, came complete with an unresolved mystery. Outside of that major event, and the reveal at the end, this was something of a slender episode. Not much happened outside of the orchestrations of getting Nina alone to face her fate and having the surprise that Donald was actually September.

I can take a modicum of self-satisfied credit in having predicted this would occur after seeing the previous episode. Sometimes my thoughts about what will happen next do turn out right!

So Donald turning out to be September means we can certainly expect to see him appear, perhaps in the next episode. Why does he now have hair? It could have been a wig, of course, but I am leaning towards the idea that he has managed to rid himself of his neck-tech and become more human – somehow reversing the changes in his brain. Quite how he has managed to be around at all is, of course, a matter of mystery since he was effectively killed off by a bullet and then disappeared from the operating table. I’m sure Fringe has a good explanation for that but it’s not something I am going to bother trying to fathom out beforehand! I’ll just wait and see.

I anticipate that further communication with Michael, using that strange mind-reading contraption, will lead the gang to September. I did think the contraption was a bit of technology overkill. Michael seemed able to communicate with Olivia in the previous episode, nodding when she asked if he knew her. So having to have this mind-reading piece of kit seemed overtly unnecessary. I suspect it was more a product of plot necessity; a reason to get the Fringe gang out of the lab so leaving Nina alone to face Windmark.

Before Nina killed herself she was treated to a moment of revelation from Michael when he touched her and she apparently experienced or witnessed something amazing (and, unless I grossly misinterpreted, something very good). I wonder if it wasn’t a glimpse into many alternate worlds, versions of herself in all of these different universes. Or perhaps it was just a vision of the future that was taking shape. . . I fully expect that Michael will pull the same trick with one of our main characters and we will actually get to see for ourselves what he shows them, so it ought to be something that translates.

I’ll be over the moon if it’s a leftfield, game-changing shift – but I’d rather not set my expectations too high for the finale. A satisfactory conclusion will suffice – anything more seems improbable (when you consider how much is left to do to reach a satisfactory conclusion!).

As stated there wasn’t much else occurring during this episode outside of those two major revelations aside from the slow crank of cantankerous Walter slowly dripping away his compassion that we all ought to keep out eye on. But I can’t complain when an episode can kill of a major character and find time to drop a whopper of a reveal just before the closing credits. There still feels like a lot to do before the end but, strangely, I am assured by the measured pacing of events in this episode that things are in good order.

What was the best part?

Nina’s final scene was a fine farewell to this stalwart of the show. She was defiant to the end, and whilst suicide could be considered a cowardly act it was actually a moment of heroism. If Nina hadn’t taken her own life then Windmark would have done so, but not before he had interrogated and broken her mind to find out where Michael was and who knows what else. Indeed, Windmark may have discovered what it was that Michael showed to Nina when he touched her, and that was certainly something he had no business knowing about! So Nina turning the gun on herself was a noble act that gives our Fringe team the grace to continue the fight.

What do I think will happen next?

I now expect Walter’s plan to really take shape so we can see what it is the gang are intending to accomplish to defeat the Observers. September may be the final piece of the puzzle, and I would expect that further mind-reading communications with Michael ought to get them there (or, perhaps, Walter has now remembered enough to be able to figure it out for himself). There’s still time travel wormholes in play, that could lead to a massive leap back in time and the creation of the First People. . .?

An outlandish theory: Walter’s grand plan involves generating a machine or device that is capable of harnessing the power of one of those wormholes and is used to cast the Observers way, way back into history. In effect they become the First People – an advanced civilisation that died out and were forgotten – leaving the future clear for humanity to continue without them. Now that’s what I call a far-reaching prediction! (And I actually rather like it!)

Fringe: S05 Ep09 – Black Blotter

What happened?

Walter took some LSD which prompted visitations from his past, with hallucinatory demons taunting him with the idea that his more egotistical self, the personality he tried to bury, is coming to the fore and taking control of his actions and eventually his psyche to become dominant. Meanwhile the team track down the radio signal to a house where the Observer boy is living and he is given over to their custody to continue the plan.

Thoughts

It’s hard to say that I’ve been a big fan of Fringe when it’s gone down it’s more fantastical route. I shudder to think of the Brown Betty singing episode, for example, which is better left forgotten. But then there have been other episodes that have fared better and, since they are something of a feature of the show then I can’t begrudge it giving Walter one last hurrah with his drugs. And, truth was, aside from the Monty Python-inspired animation sequence (the purpose of which I don’t particularly appreciate other than it seemed to inspire Walter to remember the password was “black umbrella”) the hallucinations were either startling imagery (I am thinking of the emerald castle on the island) or entertaining (the little fairies flitting about the place).

The moment where Walter tranced out and saw key moments of his life projected onto the walls were also the episode’s best moment; seeing the scenes again where he proclaimed to be a God in the laboratory, and the moment he went through the gateway on Lake Reiden and set in motion the events we have seen over the course of many seasons. It was a nice way of reviewing some of the big moments that have occurred in Fringe and a reminder of how we got to this point. I think it also served to generate the sense of monstrosity about the man Walter was and so earn that climactic end of his hallucinated doppelganger leering back at him.

I don’t fully believe that Walter will become that man, though if Fringe does want to go down the route of having Walter answer to his demon, and his crimes, and have him pay the ultimate price for it then it’s a plot idea that would be a brave and powerful move.  For now, however, I am more expectant that Walter may prove to be an obstacle to himself and the group that will have to be overcome if the plan is to succeed.

I am still none-the-wiser as to what that plan actually is, though they now have Observer boy in their custody to help with it!

Observer boy doesn’t say much, mind. I am not sure exactly what he is. It’s been established that the Observers are what they are due to the tech that’s in the back of their necks. Unless Observer boy also has this tech (which I am reasonably sure he doesn’t) then he does present something of a head scratch about what exactly he is. I am sure there’ll be some kind of unifying answer to that presented in due course - Fringe wouldn’t have brought him back if they didn’t have a good purpose for him, right?

Peter seems to be pretty much back to himself with only a bit of a headache as the side-effect of his radical Observification over the past few episodes. He rightly thanked Olivia for sticking by him, though that moment of reconciliation was really the only bit of character interplay the episode had time for. The episode shoehorned in a bit of action at the docks, with some guards showing up so our heroes could get their gunplay on, but whilst it was mildly entertaining it didn’t add much value. No, time was better spent indulging in Walter’s psyche and setting up him as a ticking timebomb that may just turn betrayer before the end. . .

There was a little bit more business concerning the identity of Don and the appearance (in skeletal form) of Sam Weiss. Both of these are interesting and I am kind of glad they didn’t just dip out and introduce Don as just some guy – I am still holding out hope that there is a good reason why he has been kept as something of an enigma so that when he is eventually introduced it will amaze us. My most recent idea has it that Don is September, but with his tech removed. I rather like the idea, and I will be surprised if Fringe gets to the very end without bringing September back into things at some point.

The business of Sam Weiss being reintroduced also makes me hold out hope that the grand ideas about the ‘first people’ that he was a big driver of over a season ago may yet be brought back into the thick of things. A couple of years have passed since those shows and those discussions so the true nature of what it was about is a little lost on me. As I remember it, the first people were an advanced civilisation that existed on Earth a long time before this civilisation – a people that lived and were lost. And the suggestion was that Olivia, Peter and Walter were a part of that civilisation. It was always a beguiling and complex concept Fringe seemed to be on the cusp of delving into and, in the last season, seemed to have ducked away from entirely. Maybe Sam Weiss’ skeleton is an indication that it’s making a comeback for the finale.

What was the best part?

I liked Walter’s hallucination of being in the car, having apparently gone off by himself and done the very thing he vowed he never would. As Observers approached the car things looked dire only for it to transpire it was a mental flight of fancy. However the better part was in the laboratory, with Walter remembering the things he had done projected onto the walls. Lovely bit of remembrance for Fringe fans, all set to dramatic music, and serving as a little refresher on gloriously strong moments in the show’s history as it looks set to head into the final stretch. The last few episodes are upon us. . .

What do I think will happen next?

Walter will have to wrestle with his alter-ego whilst he tries to put into motion the final touches to this mysterious grand plan of his. Observer boy is obviously going to have a big say in it, and I’ve still not seen a better idea than the ridiculous Magneto machine notion that I was discussing in the previous Fringe post. Really this feels like one of those moments where the show has put itself into a position where it can show its hand about where it intends to go next and, for me, that means I’m just strapping myself in for the ride ahead.

Fringe: S05 Ep08 - The Human Kind

What happened?

Whilst Peter has gone solo in his quest to kill Windmark, Olivia ventures out to continue Walter’s plan and procure a large magnet. She is captured but manages to escape her captors whilst they wait to turn her in for the bounty on her head. Peter’s plans to kill Windmark hit a snag when he is caught in a fight. Undeterred, he sets about putting Windmark back on the path that will lead to his death and it’s only Olivia seeking him out and pleading with him to remove the tech before he loses his humanity that wins out. Peter cuts the tech out of his head and Windmark survives.

Thoughts

I have to say that was rather more shortlived than I expected! Peter’s removal of the tech that could have been him change into more of an Observer happened far sooner than I would have predicted. Perhaps it’s purely because this final season is shorter than the others and, of course, since it is the final season then there’s an awful lot that needs to get resolved. It could be taken, however, that these past few episodes which have seen Peter change into the enemy only to abruptly stop after a few episodes have been a bit of a non-event.

I’d disagree. I think they have been very illuminating. Firstly, for the sake of dramatic television, they’ve been really entertaining and intriguing. In terms of action, the fight scenes have been totally cool (this episode, in particular, being really special). And watching Peter’s transformation has been a disturbing, captivating one. For that alone Fringe can be forgiven for taking this plot route.

Perhaps more importantly seeing what happened to Peter when he used the tech has allowed us to better understand what The Observers actually are, and I have found this most beneficial. To have it explained and shown about how it is they can predict future events, for example, has been great. Without the explanation The Observers could have been perceived as these all-knowing beings, with limitless capability. Having it shown that they can calculate the trajectory of events by knowing key events that have taken place is a lot more grounded. (Oh, don’t get me wrong, it’s not particularly believable but in the context of the Fringe universe it’s acceptable.)

Their ability to teleport is a little more woolly, but it’s OK. We can appreciate that it’s another skill that comes along with the tech that Peter put into his head and quite what the limitations and boundaries of that are perhaps just depends on the individual. What has been most pertinent about Peter’s minor foray into becoming an Observer is in allowing us to comprehend what they are and where they came from. Previously I considered them to be a version of the human race from many centuries into the future, a version of us that had evolved into the bald, super-intelligent yet emotionally distant beings. Now I have learned that they are not particularly far removed from us at all and it’s fundamentally technology that has transformed and, curiously, enslaved them.

As has often been the case with Fringe it’s true love that trumps technology – specifically Olivia and Peter. When universes collapse and Peter steps into the breach to forge an entirely new one that erases him from existence, Olivia is there to sustain the love and bring him back. And here again, just as Peter is on the verge of losing himself forever, Olivia is there with nothing but love to bring him back. As she stated, the key difference between humans and The Observers is their capacity to feel. Far from being their Achilles heel it’s their greatest strength.

The matter of whether or not the Fringe team, in their battle against The Observers, are doing anything that can avert the future entirely is another matter. Can The Observers somehow be thwarted so that they never exist at all? And what does that mean for the space-time continuum if they do? Will Etta ever be able to come back or will she truly be memorialised as a figurehead of the resistance once humanity frees itself? I am expecting some form of happy resolution to all of this once the very last credits rolls, so I can’t help but wonder what shape that will take. I still feel unable to comprehend the idea that Peter and Olivia will have inherit a future without their daughter. . .

It was good to see Olivia being pushed back into the fray. She had become a little sidelined during the past couple of episodes but, as I expected, she didn’t crumple. She got on with the task of continuing the plan without Peter and, at the same time, keeping her busy mind whirring on how she was going to get him back. The actual mission to go and get the magnet from the people at the small farm commune felt like an odd foray. I am not quite sure what the significance of the woman who had some kind of spiritual gift was supposed to be about, but it did get me a little worried. Olivia listened to what she had to say, and took in the astonishing truth that the woman knew she had a bullet on her (and wouldn’t that come in useful later!), and then she hit the woman with her version of the truth: no matter how mystical and wondrous it may all seem, it basically just comes down to anomalies and numbers.

The woman wasn’t particularly perturbed by what she heard, and this made me wonder if Fringe was sowing the seeds for a more spiritual end to its science-heavy journey. That the solution to the future of mankind, which leads to The Observers and their tech, could be averted by a more new-age path.. . That idea worries me. It would feel like a cheap cop-out. I really liked Olivia’s clinical answer and her convictions that the world is full of many strange and inexplicable things that don’t need a spiritual rationale applied. Fringe has been blessedly free of such things, and to take that leftfield turn now wouldn’t sit right. Lost and Battlestar Galactica all saw out their finales in that manner, but the pair of them had those notions rooted in their core from their inception. Fringe hasn’t been made that way and I’ll take a lot of convincing if it tries to twist itself into that shape of things to come.

Now that Olivia has the big magnet it does make me wonder what on Earth Walter’s plan actually is. I must confess that I have rather lost track of what materials they have picked up over their scavenger hunts during these episodes, though I recall there is still the small Observer boy to be tracked down and surely he is a part of the plan. So we have a big magnet, which presumably will be fashioned as part of some large device, and the Observer boy potentially to be a key part of it. Call me crazy, but I can’t help thinking of X-Men and Professor X and his machine that allows him to telepathically connect to all mutants. I wonder if Walter might just build something like that, which would allow Observer boy to connect to all the other Observers. . .

OK, sure, you can call me crazy – that does sound pretty nuts.

What was the best part?

Peter’s scrap with Windmark was the highlight. I didn’t realise it at the time but this was surely Peter’s last bit of action with Observer powers, so at least they made it a good one. The choreography and coolness of teleporting and grappling and fighting were ingeniously put to use – good enough to have been a part of a blockbuster fight sequence for sure. Windmark wasn’t taken down easily, of course – he’s going to be around right up to the finale, no doubt about it. . .

What do I think will happen next?

OK, so barring the idea that Walter’s plan isn’t to build a big ‘Magneto machine’ for Observers, I would get myself back down to more basic next steps. With Peter back on the team Walter’s plan is their major course of advancement so I should hope the radio they found in the pocket universe will be put to use in tracking down the mysterious Donald and Observer boy. I suppose there ought to be a reason why Donald's identity has been kept secret, too – and potentially that truth could lead to something further. Right now I’ll hazard a guess that Donald is either from a different time or a different universe, and his existence is proof that there’s a way to get rid of The Observers without wrecking the space-time continuum.

Fringe: S05 Ep07 – Five-Twenty-Ten

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!

Fringe: S05 Ep06 - Through The Looking Glass And Walter Found There

What happened?

Walter followed a video clue to a pocket universe where his old self had secreted a young Observer boy. However, all Walter found there was a man who was trapped in the strange place and only when Olivia and Peter arrived did they discover a curious radio before they had to escape from Observers. Peter unleashed new-found powers to battle and kill one Observer before suddenly realising his vision had been transformed into a weird, blue view of the world.

Thoughts

Fringe seems to be hitting quite the good run with these last few episodes, this one in particular being hugely enjoyable. For me personally it's been the most absorbing and entertaining episode of the season and only a slightly disappointing conclusion to the mysterious pocket universe let it down. Luckily it had Peter on hand to turn on his inner Observer to pick up the slack and end things with a flourish.

There were a great deal of sci-fi references scattered throughout the episode, and I am sure they were deliberate. Peter and Olivia viewing the hologram of Etta was very reminiscent of Star Wars, the Princess Leia distress hologram planted in R2-D2. Walter was also later referred to as an only hope, too. Elsewhere there was a clear The Matrix vibe with the Through The Looking Glass exploits (Neo in The Matrix is compared to Alice) and Peter's sudden new vision of the world paralleled with the moment a reborn Neo was able to see the world of the matrix in its true green-coded truth. I suspect there were also other nods here and there (the old woman in the apartment block with the red eye reminded me of The Terminator, for example) though I can't profess to have spotted anymore.

Fringe has made these obvious references before; rather than being subtle about doffing its cap to sci-fi references it shouts them loud and proud. What do they mean? Well, I think they're a way of Fringe and its creators keeping themselves honest (if you acknowledge references you can't be accused of underhandedly stealing from them!) and also aligning the show with the genre family it belongs to. This season more than any is the most sci-fi Fringe has ever known. If previously it was dipping its toe and sifting its hands in the pool of science fiction, this season its gone and took a high dive right in.

This episode wasn't completely devoid of self-referencing, though. In terms of plot there was a recall of the Observer Boy from Season One. Hands up anyone who had kept him in their thoughts over the years and had been awaiting his return. Even if you had been such an ardent fan you must have surely assumed that it was one of those characters once-considered to have potential future plotlines which had since gone by the wayside. I won't go so far as to say that Fringe always intended to have him return in this manner but, whether it was planned or dredged up fortuitously, it's great to have him reintroduced.

Although, of course, we didn't actually get to meet him yet! But I am sure that since he was introduced here then he will form a part of the future direction of the show. A curious thought has occurred to me that the boy may grow up to be September - and I'm not discounting it quickly. I've no more to say about that possibility!

Other Fringe self-references appeared when the glyphs were on the doors within the pocket universe. Here was a hair-raising moment that, alas, fed into my disappointment when it was a revelation that was nothing more than a superficial thing. Glyphs that have appeared throughout Fringe (and filled the screen during what ought to be commercial breaks!) suddenly featured as icons on different doors. Wow! What could it all mean? Well, in this episode at least, we weren't told. It was, as I said, just one of those nice self-referential things.

That disappointment did bleed through my enjoyment of the episode. Walter's initial trip to the pocket universe, following his old self (with the mysterious Donald along for the ride) generated an intriguing premise. Then when he ran into the man that had been trapped in this world for apparently a few days, Cecil, I felt certain that there was going to be a surprise or two to come. I thought Cecil would turn out to be more than he first appeared - that he may have even turned out to be Donald himself. The episode and how creepy the pocket universe was just felt designed to be a neat little box of tricks that was harbouring a surprise.

You could argue the surprise was delivered in terms of the Observer Boy being revealed, but for me I was just expecting to be taken by surprise by a real-time revelation in the plot. Instead Cecil was simply killed off quickly and rendered near-obsolete. It transpired by the episode's end that his function was to serve as a barometer of Walter's conscience, and the dissipation of it. Here, to be fair, was a very interesting idea. That since the Observer Windmark disassembled Walter's psyche it had reconstructed itself as it was before Walter had a breakdown and spent time in a mental institute. We've already seen what this version of Walter is like, with Alt-Walter as encountered Over There.

It's not that this is necessarily an evil Walter, but what he may become is a far more ruthless and unsympathetic version of himself. Ironically this may be exactly the man they need to win their war against The Observers, but the cost to Walter and the people around him may be great. And, of course, this is merely a minor parallel to what's going on with Peter. . .

As expected, Peter's transition into 'ObserPeter' is a slow one, though from the evidence here he's a quick learner. His throwdown fight with an Observer was the episode's high point yet served as a precursor to his awakening to a new vision. Quite what this level of sight will allow him to perceive is, indeed, unclear. I can only assume it will allow him to see the world how the Observers do, perhaps on a more multi-layered temporal level (as in he can see the future, or alternatives of it). 

On a final note, there was another huge poster of Etta in this episode carrying the message 'Resist'. A whole slew of these same posters were all over a street in the previous episode. I'm not sure if I am reading too much into it because I suspect it is purely to state that, in death, she is becoming a symbol of the resistance movement. Yet there's something really quite strange about them. Who is putting them up? The smaller posters I could live with, but the huge one? Simply left untouched and unchecked by The Observers? It seems odd. I like them, mind - and I do hope they are the small beginnings of a larger movement taking shape.

What was the best part?

The moment The Observers launched their assault and pursuit the episode delivered a powerhouse sequence. Olivia got her moment of kick-ass cool when, accosted by an Observer, she had the presence of mind to drag him through the portal when she realised her gun didn't work in the pocket universe. Blam blam, down he went. (I do have a mild issue with how easily The Observers are getting taken down by super-speed bullets but, for now, I'll let it slide.) This then segued into Peter's fist fight with an Observer, which served to see him develop the speed and reactions Observers possess to take down his enemy. As he told the captured Observer in the previous episode, if he had their tech he would be far greater than they ever were. On the evidence here he's proving himself true to his belief.

What do I think will happen next?

The quest to track down the radio signal is afoot, which ought to lead the group to either Donald, the Observer boy, or the pair of them. Walter will perhaps have to come to terms with his more mercenary conscience, and Peter will have to develop the skills he is harbouring. What will be interesting is whether Peter tells Olivia about what he has done before she figures out something is wrong with him. I suspect she'll confront him about how he has been able to do something impossible and he will come clean about it. I also suspect she won't be happy about it - but whether she considers it too much to continue with or a necessary evil for a greater good is a tough call. I suspect Peter won't easily relinquish this neck-tech, though, whatever her reaction.

Fringe: S05 Ep05 - An Origin Story

What happened?

Fuelled by a desire for revenge, Peter spearheads a plan to use the wormholes The Observers send packages from the future through. Interrogating a captured Observer, Peter believes he builds a device he can use but the plan fails. In frustration he removes the tech from the captured Observer's neck and inserts it into himself.

Thoughts

Another good episode, which perhaps came as a surprise since it was always going to be tricky following up the devastation of Etta's death. Straddling the difficult problem of having the main characters grieve whilst also keeping the plot and action pushing forward was always going to be challenging. I did sort of assume that Peter would most likely respond with focused rage, though what I didn't expect was that it would take over and pretty much supplant Olivia and Walter's effectiveness. The episode very much painted Olivia and Walter as weaker, more ineffectual, and thus created the need for Peter to take the drastic action that was needed.

They all failed - only Peter took a step to create the opportunity to level the playing field in their war against The Observers.

Olivia was the heart of the story. Seen at the beginning lying in Etta's bed, symbolically laid out by her grief. Only towards the end did she find the courage to face the video made years ago (though much more recent in her memory) of Etta's birthday. She voiced the pointlessness of it all - that they had survived their encasement in amber and found their daughter after such a long time only to then lose her all over again. Why?

Well, of course, there is no real reason why. Death is often as pointless as it is arbitrary. Though this episode did introduce the concept of wormholes that can allow time travel so, you know, I haven't entirely abandoned the notion that Peter and Olivia won't find a way back to their daughter after all. (Quite how they would manage such a thing and avoid a paradox could be overcome by travelling back in time to another universe. . .! Hey, this is Fringe, nothing is really off the table for this show!) I would be surprised if these wormholes are not used as a plot device in a future episode - possibly even to fulfill the 'First People' concept. It's an interesting card ready to be used, whatever the way of it.

Altogether far more interesting is Peter and what he is going to become. The episode title of 'an origin story' does suggest that we really have witnessed the birth of a whole new persona, which does have powerful connotations. There was a sense that Peter and Olivia's greatest threat now was in losing each other, and that Peter was risking his life. Walter certainly feared it, though like him we were all supposed to think that meant in the literal sense of losing his life. I didn't expect that he would just upgrade himself into more of a machine and therefore erase the old Peter. Although, of course, the erasure of Peter is also something that has occurred before. He is consistently conjured up as a wildcard element in the mix and here he is once more behaving as such.

I'm definitely fascinated to see what he becomes and what he does next, although I know it's going to have a terrible wrench on both Olivia and Walter as, I predict, they see his humanity slip away as he becomes more 'Observer-like'.

There's no question he could be extremely useful. As I said, the episode painted Walter and Olivia has more ineffectual than usual. Walter was baffled by why his plan to use the wormhole to create a blackhole on The Observer's side failed, and Olivia (save for a little bit of ass-kicking action) confessed to hanging on by a thread (even Astrid indicated she didn't need her around) and, by the end, was pleading for Peter to return when the Peter she knew had sacrificed himself for a greater vengeance. I believe it was deliberate, to facilitate that sense of need Peter was feeling justified his drastic action.

The captured Observer was quite the convenient deus ex machina but it was a welcome one. I liked the revelation that they are mostly 'tech', allowing us to imagine how it is the human race eventually developed into these near-omniscient, omnipresent, unfeeling beings. If they didn't behave so dastardly (ruthlessly porting back oxygen-stealing machinery for their own benefit) then there would be something tragic about what became of them (and, by extension, us).

I'm not quite sure how it is The Observers are avoiding creating their own paradox by going back in time and changing the world to suit them - unless they come from a future where this always happened. . .

An odd kind of question is that since the Fringe team are ostensibly battling against what it is human beings eventually become, is there a fight the future kind of plot being put into play where they twist humanity away from that fate? Again, once time travel gets involved and the notion of changing anything gets introduced, paradoxes constantly become a real problem. I have major doubts that Fringe will manage to outwit the same plot entanglements so many other time travel shows and movies have runaground on.

What isn't a real problem is how Fringe has gone from strength to strength in two episodes. Last episode took the bold step of killing off a character you would have probably considered as safe as anyone, and this episode took a main character and has effectively paved the way for having the person they were be overtaken by something else entirely. Brave moves and, with Peter's latest conversion, highly enticing ones. What Peter does next will be fascinating and how Olivia and Walter react to it equally so.

What was the best part?

I really enjoyed the mental skirmishes between The Observer and Peter, particularly the speech about how The Observer considered human activity no more than we would consider the comings and goings of an ant colony. That speech did a lot to explain the level The Observers pitch themselves at and gave me a better grasp of how it is the Fringe team exist in their frame of reference. Peter did remark that The Observer was a liar and I suspect he probably was bluffing a little about humans' unimportance, but still I liked the interplay between the two of them and the payoff towards the end, when it transpired Peter's confidence had been misplaced, was a nice touch.

What do I think will happen next?

It very much pivots on Peter and what kind of capabilities he gets. I still believe that the team will actively pursue the fulfillment of Walter's plan and I also believe that whatever transformation Peter experiences won't be a rapid, sudden shift. In a perfect world Peter will retain his mental faculties and simply become augmented with new skills and abilities that will aid Olivia and Walter in their plan. Indeed, I wouldn't be surprised if that was what happened for the next episode or two. But then I fear that Peter's humanity will become eroded, dulled - and whether that slide is preventable or reversible could become a key question.

The Walking Dead: S03 Ep08 - Made To Suffer

What happened?

Rick lead an infiltration of Woodbury to rescue Glenn and Maggie, which proved successful though came at the cost of one of their number and Daryl getting captured. Michonne went alone and encountered The Governor in a fight after she killed his 'walker daughter' - only Andrea appearing stopped the fight.

The Governor lost an eye, and apologised publicly to his people. But then he surprised Merle by naming him as the traitor, and then presented him with his brother. In front of the baying crowd the two estranged brothers were left to an uncertain fate.

Thoughts

There were quite a few elements of this episode that I didn't particularly take to. Overall, of course, I thoroughly enjoyed it - but I thought by The Walking Dead's own high standards it wasn't quite attaining its own precedent. And for an installment that served as a kind of mini-cliffhanger before the break I was hoping it would raise its game a tad.

The scenes at the prison were a case in point, feeling like they were were shoehorned in to dangle new people and problems for our heroes that would tide over for the second half of the season. The episode opened with a small gang of unknowns hacking their way through the woods, clearly desperate, and stumbling upon the crumbled wall of the prison for an easy access point. I got the impression that this glaring break in the perimeter could pave the way for a serious problem in terms of the prison's fortitude against outsiders. Not so much from walkers but from the likes of The Governor and his men, deciding to take their revenge.

So the new people meeting up with Carl didn't really capture my interest, aside from one of them being that guy from The Wire who I liked. That they came lumbering in already encumbered with a person bitten that they weren't instantly killing just made them look weak, and problematic. Carl, as with his group, was well-versed in the need to put a bullet through the head of anyone bitten or dead, but these new guys aren't quite there.

It's not that I have a particular problem with the new people, but The Walking Dead is starting to feel slightly cluttered with many faces and not enough in-depth characterisations. Splitting the action between Woodbury and the prison has already shortened that feel of really living with these characters and getting to know them, so further populating their ranks is not going to alleviate things. It's a small complaint, really and, I suppose, if the reverse was the case and the cast was smaller I may find the show less fast-paced and interesting.

Carl has certainly grown into a mini-Rick, which feels a tad unbelievable but is still interesting to see. As we've already seen how much Rick himself can mentally unravel then there could be a terrible price for a small boy to undergo the same burdens and responsibilities. So there's that going on. And otherwise, at the prison, the new convict guy wasn't exactly charming the group by making sleazy overtures towards the females in the group. You'd think a guy would be smarter than that. Barely a day with the new group and the moment all of the alpha males have left he is sniffing around the girls. I suspect he's not going to last long.

The other new convict sure didn't last long, shot on the exit out of Woodbury. To be fair, the odds of them all getting out of there unscathed with that much gunfire being laid down wasn't great. Smoke bombs or not, the chance of not getting shot on that street with bullets being sprayed all over the show had to be minimal. Credit to the music during the shootout sequences. Rather than going down the route of trying to make the action more rousing, the music opted for a repeated, minimalist tune that created a real sense of dread. With the smoke suffusing the street in a white haze there was a surreal, otherworldly quality to proceedings. It was stylish. It didn't feel real, which might have affected my reaction to it. But it was definitely enthralling and that sense of dread really gripped tight.

You just knew something, with someone, was going to go bad. And the moment Daryl elected to stay behind you knew he was going to be at the centre of it, especially after Rick took some moments to make it absolutely clear how much he needed him. Yeah, the moment anyone becomes essential on this show is the time when you can bank on them being rendered powerless. Or dead.

It did feel a little contrived that Daryl got captured after he and Rick and the rest had near-effortlessly (too conveniently, if you ask me) managed to infiltrate Woodbury and locate Glenn and Maggie and - just in time, no less - get to them and get them free. Not that I am complaining that Glenn and Maggie did escape; I would have been totally devastated if either one had them had been executed. Yet, you know, I still like my much-wanted rescues to feel well-earned. Rick to the rescue just didn't quite feel authentic. Again, another minor quibble in an episode of minor quibbles.

Michonne is another of those quibbles. I could have used just a little more explanation about why she chose to go rogue and investigate The Governor's room. Oh, I realise it's because she got a whiff of something rotten about the place the last time she was there and was fuelled by a feel of unfinished business. I get that. But why not tell Rick? If she was rocking a totally independent woman vibe I'd buy into it, but at the end of the episode she was back at Rick's side and making a clear plea for why she was still a necessary part of his group and deserved a place. She's sending out mixed signals, which does complicate her as a person but, for me, it wasn't a good kind of complex character shading. It was just confusing.

Nothing to quibble about when it came to Michonne's dust up with The Governor, though, in what was the standout scene of the episode. I definitely feared for her survival the moment she hit him where it hurt and killed his 'walker daughter' (still not sure what the deal is with her, either - I assume she was his real daughter all along). I didn't see The Governor being killed off at this stage so I was glad to see Michonne managed to just about get out of there, and even had a face off with Andrea to boot.

Andrea has certainly nailed her colours to the mast. I felt for sure the moment she saw the fucked up world of The Governor, with his walker daughter and the tanks of heads she'd realise this guy wasn't anything like how he portrayed himself. And yet she stayed. I think she stayed because she wanted to believe in him, in Woodbury. He tells her that he set up the walker heads in tanks to make him face the atrocities of the outside world (I don't believe that - I think that's the product of a sadistic monster, pure and simple) and that he couldn't bear to part with his daughter and it's good enough. Quite how she'll react when she learns that the people she had been shooting at were Rick and the rest, and that Maggie and Glenn had been captured and kept secret from her. . . Well, time will tell. That all depends on if that particular secret ever reaches her - and right now the only person likely to spill those beans was standing with his brother, surrounded by an angry mob all cheering for his death.

Daryl, at the episode's end, certainly looked to be in a bad spot. One possible out could come from Andrea, who might plead with The Governor to not go ahead and have him killed. Otherwise it could be that Rick may return to help him, though that seems even less likely. I actually thought that the episode was going to end with the two brothers being pitted against each other, made to fight. But The Governor (seeing even less now down to just one eye) has decided that Merle had to have been the traitor. Again, that's a curious one. It's an explanation that would make sense to everyone else, but The Governor is no fool and he knows Michonne was part of Rick's gang so it ought to have occurred to him that she was the one that got the group in unseen. . .

Maybe. Maybe this set-up of accusing Merle houses a few more twists as part of The Governor's design. The one thing I find impossible to believe is that the next episode will start with either Daryl or Merle or both of them getting killed off. Somehow, some way, they'll survive and then have to deal with each other and the rest of Woodbury. The prospect of having yet another person captured and tortured has been well-covered now, so hopefully the resolution will be as refreshing as it is unexpected.

A final hint at where the second half of the season may go reared itself in the shape of Shane. Rick imagining his one-time friend appearing to shoot at him clearly displayed that the mental strain isn't gone. Rick was a man that had a conversation on a telephone with figments of his guilty conscience just days earlier - now he's seeing dead friends attacking him. This paves the way for his mental state to be questionable going forward. And with an enraged, one-eyed Governor no doubt seeking payback he's going to need all the faculties he can muster.

What was the best part?

As I mentioned, Michonne and The Governor scrapping was the clear highlight. The brutality of the well-choreographed fight was blunt and brutal. The savage grunts and growls as the two of them worked to gain the upper hand totally sold it for me, and I liked the extra layer of black humour as rolling heads of snapping-mouthed walkers littered the floor for added peril. With these two big characters it would have been tough to have either one of them taken down, but Michonne won on the technicality of jabbing The Governor's eye out. Credit to him, though, he took it like a man and could still sob about his dead walker daughter. He's not the type of guy to let a gouged out cornea get in the way of his emotional turmoil.

What do I think will happen next?

Daryl and Merle surely won't be killed. Andrea is perhaps their best chance at some salvation, having made a connection with both of them, so she may plead for a more fair trial. Beyond that I can't see an obviously easy exit, but then it wouldn't be much of a cliffhanger if I could, would it?

Rick's return to the prison will have him discover the new people who will tell him about the gaping break in the fence at the rear of the prison that will certainly get his concern. Will he leave Daryl in Woodbury? I don't see that he has much of a choice, but there's no question he can bank on The Governor coming after him now he's got his attention. . .

The Walking Dead: S03 Ep07 - When The Dead Come Knocking

What happened?

Michonne tells Rick about how Glenn and Maggie have been taken, and so they and a few others venture to scope out Woodbury and see about reclaiming their people. Meanwhile in Woodbury, Merle and The Governor employ interrogation methods to eventually learn that Rick's people are holed up at the prison. Andrea also oversees an experiment to try and determine if the walkers retain any semblance of their former consciousness after they have turned - the results seem to conclude that they do not!

Thoughts

Season 3 is shaping up to be, by a clear margin, the strong outing yet for The Walking Dead. Whilst I thought the first season felt a little tame in places it served as a strong introduction. Season 2, carried the sense that it dragged a little too long at the farm and had a little too much moral debating but still, for me, kicked ass. But this season has taken things up another notch. Every episode has something cool and the lulls in the action are usually timing devices before a surprise or action beat kicks in. And what has really been good is that all the tension has slowly been winding us up to the point where this episode ended - with Rick and The Governor at the threshold of crossing swords.

Merle's torture techniques opened the episode, and right from the get-go it was clear we were supposed to hate the guts of the man for hurting our lovely Glenn! Having Maggie able to hear her love getting the snot pounded out of him only generated further anger. But if The Walking Dead has been toying with the idea of presenting The Governor as a horribly flawed but righteous man then that was tugged loose when he decided to take a crack at breaking Maggie for himself. Rather than go for violence, as Merle did with Glenn, he went for something altogether worse.

Making Maggie undress and threatening to rape her showed us that there is a distinct lack of compassion in his heart and a ruthlessness to do whatever it takes to get what he wants. In truth this wasn't anything that came as a surprise - his assault on the soldiers, or sending Merle and his men to get Michonne after she had left already indicated he was a nasty, untrustworthy piece of work. But I did get the feeling that The Walking Dead has been making some efforts to get us, the audience, on his side, identifying with him. However, by the end of this episode, I don't believe we're supposed to feel any kind of conflict about who we're rooting for.

When it comes to the showdown between Rick and The Governor, we're with Rick all the way. When Glenn told Merle that his people would be coming for him we wanted it to be true, and to result i  Merle getting his ass handed to him by a Rick-shaped size 10 boot.

Getting Glenn and Maggie out of Woodbury won't be easy, yet there are one or two uneasy alliances in The Governor's ranks. He did check that Merle was still to be counted on despite the fact that Daryl, his brother, is effectively the enemy. Whilst Daryl has come a long way in proving his loyalty to Rick ("It's what we do," he remarked, when Rick thanked him for getting baby supplies whilst he was going out of his mind) I didn't get a matching sense of allegiance from Merle to The Governor. Mind, I don't see Merle ever finding a warm welcome from Rick's group, either, so he'd be just as well to stay true to Woodbury.

Quite how the two brothers will react when they meet is just as interesting as to how Rick and The Governor will square up. Fingers crossed Daryl doesn't do something stupid, but with Carol back in the fold then it's hard to imagine him turning his back on Rick and the rest now. No, I suspect it's going to come down to a more straight out piece of brotherly squabbling with deadly results. If Merle is going to be taken down by anyone then, yeah, I'd say Daryl will be the one. 

Meanwhile there's Andrea, who I figured would become queen to The Governor's king, and there's little here to dissuade me from that view. Only Michonne could really be the one that might be able to bring Andrea around to Rick's side of things, but then Michonne is hardly a fully paid up, card carrying member of Rick's clan either.Yet. There were small beats that suggested Michonne would be converted. Like how she witnessed the group's joy at finding Carol was still alive, and also how she watched Rick's well-drilled group take out the walkers in the woods. There was admiration in her expression. Probably he didn't realise it, but Rick telling her they would patch her up and send her on her way was precisely the kind of reception she could trust (as opposed to The Governor's false warm welcome).

As the fun scene in the cabin showed, she's an able and dependable asset and she slotted right in with the group. She took down the gibbering man with the shotgun in the cabin and didn't flinch when Rick came up with the bright idea of feeding the fresh cadaver to 'the alamo' of walkers at the front door so they could escape out of the back. Michonne fit right in, no question.

The small subplot with the terminal patient- Mr. Coleman - willing to die under controlled conditions and try to replicate the behaviour he had been taught after he turned did make me think there would be some evidence to support the theory. I didn't like the idea, however. But I thought that since the show was taking time out to present this, and doing so in some detail, I didn't feel like it was possible that it would just go without some new revelation. I'm glad it didn't. I'm glad that Andrea simply had to step in and put the walker down, proving her opinion that the moment they turned they become monsters.

It's not that I wouldn't have found it believable - the personality and memory of a person is all found in the brain, and it's fundamentally brain functionality that powers a walker, so it would make a certain sense that the same brain, re-activated after death, could retain some trace personality and memories. I do just prefer the walkers to be these instinct-driven 'monsters'. Going down the route of the walkers retaining humanity is never going to be a good move - other zombie movies have done similar things (Day Of The Dead with the 'Bub' character and rather a lot of Land Of The Dead, for anyone interested in my source references) and it is always, always a weakening of the premise.

No, keep the walkers as the mindless, ever-hungry, ceasless horde, thank you very much.

What was the best part?

Showing just how far he has come, and how much the winter has shaped him, Glenn's battle against the walker unleashedin the room whilst he was strapped to a chair was gripping stuff. Merle scarcely gave Glenn much of a fighting chance, which is what made the scene work even better. The zombie was let loose and Glenn had to think and act fast to get out of it alive. Dodging its lunges, using a bare mattress as a shield and then eventually shattering his chair to use as a weapon. Boom. One chair leg through the skull later and a bloodied, animalistic Glenn was a fully-fledged zombie-slaying hero. A superbly choreographed and shot scene with a satisfyingly enjoyable end. A small triumph in a rather grim episode.

What do I think will happen next?

Here's an interesting concern. Whilst The Governor sends people out to the prison to see what's what, Rick and the gang may have their best chance yet to get in to Woodbury and get back Glenn and Maggie. Will it be a totally stealthy, clean in and out swipe? Maybe. But probably not. A worst case scenario could be, however, that whilst Rick and the rest are away then the prison is infiltrated and The Governor's gang get their hands on Rick's baby daughter. In trying to imagine the most awful thing that could be done, my mind latches on to that. And I also fear for Maggie's safe return. Whilst the two new convicts are the most likely to get killed (on account of being new and barely known) if any more of the core group are at risk, she's the one I think. I really hope I am wrong on that. As well being a major blow to the group, it would be just about the cruellest thing to hit Hershal and Glenn. Even for The Walking Dead that would be a step too far, right?

Fringe:S05 Ep04 - The Bullet That Saved The World

What happened?

Whilst Olivia and the team attempt to track down the next piece of Walter's puzzle plan, Broyles tries to prevent The Observer Windmark from finding them but all he can do is send warning, through Etta, that they have been discovered and need to move. Whilst the team manage to amber the lab, when they are reunited with Broyles The Observers find them and give chase. Etta is captured and killed by Windmark, and a devastated Olivia and Peter are forced to leave her and escape.

Thoughts

Anyone who thought Fringe might play things safe and go for a crowdpleasing finish have had their beliefs stomped on. I, for one, was one such person that had lost a little faith that the show had the guts and the edge that it used to have. With the gang all back together, and in particular Peter and Olivia becoming parents to Etta, I thought Fringe was basking in its most cosy set-up yet. And then they went and did this. Pulled the rug right out. Never mind the bullet that saved the world - this episode was the bullet that pierced the heart.

This was an episode that had actually done enough of interest already to qualify as a good one before it sprang the cruel surprise. Walter's reveal of the Fringe investigation relics from yesteryear buried beneath the lab was, sure, perhaps a little hard to swallow (the question of what did happen to all the stuff was never actually addressed in the show, to be fair, but it was just one of those things you assumed got taken care of after the credits rolled!) but it did pave the way for the show to revisit itself with a callback to incidents from previous episodes getting a second airing. Indeed, I was a bit surprised that the lab got ambered so quickly afterwards and sealed up the treasure trove of Fringe experiments - I thought that was a pot of gold the show could keep dipping into for a good few episodes here and there, using these strange events, creatures and effects to combat The Observers.

Since the show is in its final season that would have been a nice way to tip the hat to episodes past, but it seems it's not to be. All we got here was a return of the gas that seals up a person's orifices and some cool weaponry, and that was about all. Oh well. It transpired that the action sequence itself, when the team laid down an assault on the station to get at the clue, was absolutely awesome though.If this was the one and only time we got to see our heroes wreak havoc with Fringe experiments against their enemy then at least it was done with style. Most other episodes, this would have been the climactic showdown and marked the highpoint. Fringe had other tricks up its sleeve. . .

The return of Broyles was nicely handled. His make-up still looks weird, but it was heartening to see that he was still fighting the good fight in his usual poker-faced, ambiguous way. He's certainly a good match for The Observers, managing to keep his thoughts scrambled and unreadable. Etta herself could also do the same trick and she did promise that she would teach Peter, Olivia, Walter and Astrid how to do it, too. When she said it you just felt like, sure, that would happen: Olivia and the rest would learn how to do such a thing and then they would be able to handle themselves amidst The Observers. Not for one second did it cross my mind that Etta wouldn't be around to do such a thing and this was just one such subtle way the episode was plotting its big surprise.

The reunion scene with Broyles and Olivia was moving and heartwarming. Whilst it had probably been mere months since Olivia last saw him, she only had to see all the lines on his face to be able to read the toil of years he had experienced of the world without her. They hugged and, for a very brief moment, with the gang all back together, you had that belief that this small resistance band would be the ones that could take on and beat The Observers. That brief moment ended the moment The Observer showed up.

Even the scene where Etta eventually met her fate felt like one she would get out of, in the grand tradition of many a close call our Fringe heroes have narrowly escaped. Her pushing the thoughts of love on show for The Observer to be confronted by - of unconditional devotion from Peter and Olivia that is alien to these aliens - felt custom-built for her to lower his defences so that she could make a telling strike with the knife in her hands. Fringe wanted me to think that. It was set up and played to be exactly like that kind of moment - and then Windmark grabbed her wrist before the knife found his throat. Not so fast.

Just when you thought Fringe was playing it safe for the final season. . .

The show was aware that the audience had come to take certain things for granted. I was guilty, as a viewer, of being so blase. And Fringe used that against me. Far from feeling cheated I actually smile and give credit where credit is due. Like when a magician pulls a trick under your nose that leaves you baffled. When you get genuinely hoodwinked and surprised there's no sense bitching about it.

Etta's death is sure to have a devastating effect on Peter and Olivia. They fought the good fight before they were ambered because they were not giving up on their daughter; it drove them on and kept them focused. If she is absolutely, definitely gone (and in Fringe we must always leave the door open for the extraordinary and unthinkable to be possible) then only pure revenge will be the fuel to sustain the shattered parents. What I think could be more interesting is that, like Walter before him, Peter becomes a father that is willing to do extreme and damaging things for the sake of returning what he lost. This could mean a literal opening of the door to an alternate universe all over again, or maybe straight out time travel? Like I said, you can't close the door on the extraordinary for this show.

This episode was a neatly constructed spring trap. From Peter at the beginning risking everything purely for the sake of jewelry for his daughter, to Olivia reminding us that she only went and saved a universe or two with the bullet that killed her that she survived, we have been lulled into thinking everything works out for our heroes and their plans rarely go wrong - at least not in such a way as to be really, permanently awful. If Etta really is dead and gone and never coming back then this episode will mark a cold, brutal moment in Fringe - and for a show in its final run, that could easily coast to a finale where everything works out for the best, it's really great to see that it's got the stones to storm down the hard and sharp plot directions.

For the first time this season Fringe has pulled back my respect and gained my serious interest. 

What was the best part?

Tough call, because the infiltration and escape from the station was a well-sustained and well-directed action sequence. Plenty of thrills and energy, and grisly deaths thanks to the gas that blocks all holes. However, little did I know that the episode was going to spring the death of Etta on me - and the scene itself was terrific. Etta seemingly allowing Windmark to get a glimpse of what it is to be human and have love, almost like a taunt, and also that moment where you thought that blade would find its way to the target and Etta would escape - only it wasn't to be. 

Full credit to Fringe on this one. I didn't think it had the cojones to pull something like this, but it's only gone and done it. . .

What do I think will happen next?

Interesting dilemma this, as I feel that Olivia and Peter are going to have to try and overcome this major hit and fight even harder. The only way I see them gathering themselves together and continuing the battle is if there is some chance they can change what has happened, can alter history and get Etta back. Otherwise what are they fighting for? The only other motive left to them is pure revenge - but seeing how the group handles this blow and pulls together will be fascinating stuff.

The Walking Dead: S03 Ep06 - Hounded

What happened?

Rick maintains a close vigil by the phone when he believes he is being contacted by people who may have a safe place for the group to go to. However, it turns out he is imagining the conversation and the realisation brings him back to the group, and to hold his new baby. Meanwhile Maggie and Glenn are captured by Merle, during his hunt for Michonne, and taken back to Woodbury (where Andrea has been getting very close to The Governor). An injured Michonne makes her way to the prison, carrying baby supplies. . .

Thoughts

Well, from the last episode, I did have my suspicions that something was up with the ringing telephone.  I did mostly think it was going to be Carol (turned out what happened to her was less interesting than anticipated) but I was also drawn to the idea that it was going to be in Rick's mind. And the moment Hershal came down to see Rick and listened to the phone himself (almost certainly hearing no dial tone) and was then told to leave, and did so, I knew something was definitely, as they say, up.

I liked how the 'surprise' was handled, though. It was important that Rick realised it for himself during the conversation, that he was talking to the ex-members of his flock. Fundamentally he was talking to his conscience, and only then could he face up to 'speaking' with Lori. It was interesting that his sub-conscious had considered them all in a safe place, that part of the way he was coping with the guilt of their deaths was in a deep-rooted belief that they had gone to a place where they could no longer be hurt. You can call that heaven, or just simply a release from the horrible real world - net result is the same.

It did cross my mind that The Walking Dead was going to pull a cheap trick by having Rick perhaps discover that the telephone wire wasn't connected and that would be how he, and us, would have it confirmed he was talking to voices in his head. I'm glad that didn't happen. As stated, it was more important that Rick found this out for himself. It was vital really in accepting that he could, quite literally, have gone quite mad and then get back to sanity. Let's just stop and take a second and acknowledge that Rick was basically having a minor schizophrenic episode, so to have it snatched away with a little surprise twist and then have him shrug and carry on wouldn't have felt believable.

No, it was much better that they pulled the surprise that these were the voices of characters that have been and gone, and that they interrogated him (which, let's not forget, was him interrogating himself!) on the mental burdens he carries, like how many people he has killed. Lori asked him what happened, and he had to admit that he loved her and he always did, but he just couldn't put it back together. The mystery surrounding what happened between them turned out to be a decision Rick had made, where he had to push Lori away whilst he committed to keeping her alive. He couldn't let sentimentality cloud his clear-eyed plan to get her somewhere safe.

The tragedy was he thought there would be time afterwards to put everything right. The lesson is that there is never as much time as you think, and you can't rely on tomorrow.

So Rick returned to the fold and cradled his new baby girl and, whilst it is perhaps a tad implausible, I'll happily forgive it because it's a relief to see him back. God knows it looks like they're all going to need him, not least of all Maggie and Glenn. Michonne's arrival at the prison, for once herself looking extremely vulnerable but having the good sense to bring provisions to get her sanctity. No doubt she will relay to Rick and the rest what happened to their friends and, for sure, they're going to want to know about Woodbury and where it is and how it is they are going to get Maggie and Glenn back. However, the idea that they could stage a rescue attempts feels quite unlikely. What I think is more likely is that either Maggie or Glenn, at the hands of Merle, will give up the information about the prison and Rick and his group may have to face the unwelcome prospect of The Governor and co dropping by. . .

It's fair to say that the chance of them forging an uneasy friendship seem highly unlikely. With Maggie and Glenn kidnapped they have shown their hand about what kind of people they are. Rick and the rest are suspicious of people that offer them friendship, so they aren't going to be duped by those that attacked and took their people. Hopefully Rick will trust Michonne, take her in and get her patched up. Fact is they could definitely use her on their side for when things get rough!

Andrea has literally got into bed with the enemy, and I thought it was interesting how her character had a less savoury aspect revealed. She's always had an unsympathetic quality about her and whilst that has occasionally been tiresome and annoying, to see it come to the potential fruition it may lead to here is pretty cool. The possibility is that she could become the queen to the The Governor's king, and whilst he is keeping her in the dark and keeping a happy front I suspect she might be inclined to go with him on his more despicable actions. As he knows, and she admitted, she likes the killing. He observed that despite her protests she remained at the staged zombie brawl. Just a tip in the right direction and she could be quite the menacing force all of her own. She's the type that couldn't be counted on to do the right thing when put in a position of power.

The acid test will be in how she reacts to Maggie and Glenn. Will she consider them friends that she lost and still wants to help, or outsiders that once abandoned her who no longer have her loyalty? I rather fancy it will be the first, when it comes down to it. She may wrestle with her conscience for a while and make all the noises about wanting them treated right, but when it is expressed that they may present a threat to Woodbury she could easily change her tune.

Merle is back to his snarling, hatable character of old and it's nothing less than fun. In the best way he's a great villain; tough, nasty and eminently detestable. The measure of a good villain is in how much you want to see them get their comeuppance. I absolutely want Merle to meet a miserable end. . . but not quite yet. I still want him to encounter Daryl, for one thing, but the show needs him. Whilst The Governor contains all the growl it's Merle that provides the bite. Without Merle then The Governor is a dog with no teeth.

Daryl was on fine form this episode. His conversation with Carl about losing their mothers was candid and touching due to its lack of sentimentality. He said it how it was. And Carl admitted that he had been the one to finish Lori off, to which Daryl was sympathetic in his matter of fact way. For once there was some happiness in his life, when it turned out that Carol was alive after all and had just shut herself away in a cell. Thankfully he didn't put a bullet in her skull when he finally went to check out what was making the noise. . . Daryl scooped her up in his arms and carried her away in a nice parallel to how Rick held his own child for the first time. Strong bonds confirmed, clearly drawn lines about who is important. This decimated group can scarcely take any more loss, which is precisely why the kidnap of Glenn and Maggie will be a heavy blow and, more importantly, the new threats and dangers The Governor and Woodbury hold seem even more intimidating.

It's getting closer and closer to the two sides meeting. . . Oh I can't wait!

What was the best part?

You have to enjoy Michonne's ambush and battle with Merle and his men, rudely interrupted by a posse of walkers entering the fray to mix things up even more. That was terrific stuff. But Rick's emotional acceptance of the weight of his conscience, talking on the phone with Lori, was satisfying mostly because The Walking Dead didn't cheapen it by making it into a telegraphed 'surprise' twist. Instead the surprise that all the previous voices had been characters we'd known and lost was a startling turn and laid out the truth that these phone calls had been all about Rick confronting himself and, most importantly, forgiving himself. He's been carrying these guilt ghouls in his conscience and there has to be a point where he can let himself off the hook. Perhaps with a new baby in his arms he can try and face a new dawn with a clean slate.

What do I think will happen next?

I think Merle and The Governor are going to go to torture town with Maggie and Glenn, perhaps getting the information out of one by threatening the other. Individually they might possess the will to keep their secrets (although Glenn is notoriously bad at keeping his mouth shut!) but if, say, Maggie had a gun put to her head and would be shot unless Glenn spoke up then I don't see him keeping schtum. How will The Governor play it? Go straight out on a prison assault? Or try and offer Rick the false hand of friendship? 

I don't really see what Rick and his group have that The Governor might want, except perhaps the baby. The Governor lost one daughter and there's Rick with a fresh baby girl, days old. . . It's a chilling thought, but exactly the kind of terrible direction The Walking Dead has the audacity to make us face.