tvdinner&amovie

Previously on Fringe: Brave New World, Part Two

However, last season’s episode 19, Letters of Transit,  is much more relevant to this season

My beloved show is back– and I am so, so, so, so excited! I can’t believe that this is the last season, but it makes me feel a little bit better to know that we’re getting a proper ending. I don’t really know what else to say. I do know that my Fringe posts are really fangirl-esque, so I will keep my squealing to a minimum, especially in the recap part of this post. We shall see how this goes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

What Happened

Letters of Transit is crucial to this season. It served as the introduction and background, and a thrilling and exciting episode to watch. The last season premiere of Fringe started out with Walter with his fully-functioning brain, trying to locate Olivia. Twenty years ago, Walter sent Olivia out to look for a device that would help them stop the Observers. However, on her way back to Walter she disappeared. They get to the amber where Walter last heard from her and see that the amber gypsies have been there!

“Who are the amber gypsies?” you may be asking. The amber gypsies cut people out of the amber to sell or blackmail to family members. With a little bribery– a few walnuts equal almost $3,000. Which is strange, because walnuts aren’t that great.–they find out that someone bought Olivia. It’s Edward Markham, the glasses-wearing man from our universe who owns the bookstore! Only… he’s gone a little bit crazy. Using Olivia’s ambered body as a coffee table in the apartment he never leaves. When they are leaving with Olivia’s body, the Observers come, having been warned by the walnut-owner amber gypsy. Walter is kidnapped, but everyone else gets away.

Olivia is freed from the amber and meets her daughter. We learn that because Etta’s body went missing as a three-year-old, Peter and Olivia’s marriage shattered. Olivia was much stronger than Peter, as Peter became obsessed with finding his daughter and Olivia wanted to help stop the Observers. Olivia has the device that Walter wanted. It takes jumbled up thoughts and puts them together. Before September died, he jumbled Walter’s thoughts so no other Observers could learn what his plan was.

Walter is mentally tortured by the Observers. With a little help, Etta, Peter and Olivia sneak Walter out of the testing center. After a touching reunion between Olivia and Walter, they test out the transilience thought unifier model-11, made uniquely for Walter. Unfortunately since Walter blocked the Observer from learning what his plan was, somehow also destroyed his mind.

Welcome back, our Walter, with a partly working brain and love for music. Which is how the the episode ends: Walter in a car listening to music.

Thoughts 

• I love how the writers have taken something familiar, like the Observers, and completely twisted it. While they were previously disregarded as non-threatening, and turned it into the villains.
• On that matter, I miss September. And August! The good Observers. It will be interesting to see if any other Observers are good.
•  Peter and Olivia’s marriage shattered because of their child. It seemed a bit odd that after all the things they’ve been through (parallel worlds, sleeping with the wrong Olivias), this is what ruins their relationship. But it makes sense; because of Peter’s tumultuous past with his parents, he wanted his relationship with Etta to be perfect. And when it was less than perfect, he went slightly-crazy.
• I am so glad that Olivia is back! She has only been gone from one episode (Letters of transit), and her absence was obvious. Just as obvious– if not more– than Peter’s the first few episodes last season. On that note, it seems like the parallel world will never be revisited. So no more Lincoln, Walternate, or Bolivia. That makes me sad.
• Besides wanting to deny it because it makes me sad, I want it to be wrong for the plot. After building up to the parallel universes for the past four seasons, it seems a little bit odd to completely dismiss them. It almost seems like this season isn’t really relevant to the other ones. But that might be because we’ve jumped 20 years into the future.
• Back to Olivia: I was so, so excited when she was freed from the amber. But then we went back to being stoic Olivia almost immediately. Which made sense because she lost her husband and daughter, but it’s always a little sad– especially when compared to Bolivia.
• My favorite scene was Walter and Olivia’s reunion. It’s clear to see how close they are– and how much they genuinely love each other.
• Although both Olivia and Peter had pretty rough childhoods, it’s interesting to see that their reaction and coping mechanisms to losing their child were completely different; Olivia immersed herself into her work, and Peter drove himself crazy looking for Etta.
• As much as I like Etta, it’s going to take a while to get used to her. It makes sense that she’s the protagonist right now, especially since she’s the Fringe agent, but it’s weird to see the “original Fringe agents” being put on the back burner.
• Actually, now that I think about it, I don’t know how I feel about Etta. She’s this completely new character whose past is unknown. I’m not sure if I really like her. What I think would be a huge plot-twist and make her slightly-boring character a little more interesting is if there were an “Angelina Jolie/Evelyn Salt” twist where she was brainwashed as a child. 
  
• It genuinely hurt me when Walter was tortured. I am proud of him that he kept all his thoughts –except for a young Etta — from the Observers, but to see him tortured and in pain was hard.
• And poor John Noble– they had to postpone filming for 10 days because Noble had to get treatment for his sleeping disorder. I think he is better now, though!
• This might be over-simplifying things, but if Walter’s mind has deteriorated can’t he fix it with a little Cortexiphan? I mean, it worked on healing a freaking bullet going through Olivia’s brain.
• Whenever I watch a new Fringe episode, it’s become instinctual to read what other people have to say and to check how they did on the Neilsen Ratings. Although they did not win their hour, I am happy to announce they were not the lowest; they were only a few million behind the other shows. And it doesn’t even matter–which is very bittersweet.

• Here’s a fun list of “bests” that Fringe fans voted on!
• Here’s the promo for next week’s episode, entitled “In Absentia.” Bring it on, Fringe! I’m ready for awesomeness.

Quotes: 

Astrid: I found these in the fridge. They’re called Egg Sticks.

Peter: My god. What is that — punishment food?

***

Walter:  Good god. What’s that?

Etta: It’s an Egg Stick.

Walter: What a miserable future. Aspen, help me find my shoes. There’s no time to waste.

***

Walter: I still can’t believe my eyes — what you’ve grown into. Of course, you must understand for me it’s only two months ago that I took you to the pier. You loved the horses.

Etta: Carousel.

Walter: You remember?

Etta: No. I wish I did. It’s just what they call them, right — carousels? They used to anyway.

Walter: To me, you will forever be a little girl.

***

Olivia: We didn’t save the world.

Peter: Not even by half. She’s still trying, though.  I never thought I’d see you again, Olivia. I know what you thought of me… when I wouldn’t leave Boston to come to New York with you… when I left you alone.

Olivia:  No, Peter, we lost our child. And… in the grief, we just… weren’t able or were incapable of — of being what we needed to be for each other. And that was all it was.

Peter: You were stronger than me. You could do something that I couldn’t do. You saw that the world needed us, and you went to help. And I just — I didn’t have the will to give up searching for this — this perfect little soul that we made. Out here for all these years… fighting for these people, defending them. And at the moment that she needed her father to protect her, I couldn’t do it. And I wanted more than anything for that not to be true. And in the state-of-mind that I was in… that meant at all costs… including us.

***

Captain Windmark: We have been looking for you… and your friends. I am very interested in you. I don’t know why you’re alive. Ah, you’re trying to think of music. You miss music.

Walter: There’s not a lot of it here.

Captain Windmark: We tolerate it. But it’s merely tones, rhythms, and harmonic vibrations. I don’t understand.

Walter: Mostly it amazes me. Music helps you shift perspective, to see things differently if you need to.

Captain Windmark: See things? Like hope?

Walter: Yeah. Very much like that.

Captain Windmark: But there is no hope… for you. Nothing grows from scorched Earth. You seem much more interesting as a human being – than as a vegetable. But, quite frankly, all things being equal, I don’t mind which one you end up. The choice is yours.

***

Peter: What happened to him?

Etta: Occupational hazard.

Peter: That’s my girl.

***

Peter: It’s always the red wire. Unless it’s the white wire. That did it. Let’s go.

***

Walter: I don’t remember it. I don’t remember any of it. I’ve failed myself, and I’ve failed the world. What is wrong with me? What has happened to —

Olivia: — Walter.

Walter: I can’t do it. I can’t even recognize myself.

Emily enjoys all mediums of speculative fiction, fantasy, and sci-fi–especially reading, writing, and watching them. A Fringe fanatic, she is convinced that one day she will meet her parallel self, aptly nicknamed Femily (Fake Emily), and save both worlds from their inevitable destruction.