Fringe 2x23 Review
May. 22nd, 2010 11:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
iariaThe Other Side, Part 2
• The biggest surprise of the episode was not William Bell’s death, which I figured would happen and knew for sure when he told Walter to let him worry about the power source (and I’d even figured out how it would play out, go me!), nor was it Olivia being switched with NOlivia (Olivinate? Alivia?) which I knew was what would happen as soon as we got the scene of the two Olivia’s and Bell before the grenade explosion. No, the biggest surprise for me was definitely Olivia/Peter becoming canon which I was definitely not expecting to happen so soon. There was the flirt of it a couple episodes back but then it was basically dropped and I figured that was the end until at least late next season. I don’t even know where to start with what we got. So here:
“You have to come back... because you belong with me.” – Olivia. Wow. ... That was some declaration. I mean these two have never kissed, never even gone on a date, and now we get this... and I don’t know what to think. I’ve always loved their closeness, how they’ve bonded and come to care for each other. But they never did make a move, except that once, and didn’t even appear to think about it until the mid/latter half of this season. That is a hell of a step there. It’s emphatic and emotional (Olivia being emotional!), and it surprised the hell out of me. Talk about coming out of nowhere. I mean when Alternate Olivia said “This isn’t just an assignment is it?” I was like ‘obviously’ but then she followed it with ‘you’re a couple’ and I just shook my head at her misunderstanding of the situation... except she didn’t! The kiss was lovely though Peter not putting his arms around her was awkward.
- It’ll be interesting to see how Olivia/Peter plays out next season since they’ve only just had their first kiss, and the first time (for Olivia at least) to speak her feelings, but it’s Alternate Olivia in the A Universe with Peter, not Olivia.
• Next season better bring us Olivia coming into her powers and kicking some serious ass to escape her confinement. (And not say her being helpless and needing to be saved. This is Olivia!) It will be the perfect time for it. She’s got some time away from work, in a high stress situation with nothing urgent to think about – easy! At the end she was clearly very afraid and freaked out – and when she’s scared her powers seem to work best. When she was a kid she ended up setting a room on fire. She can totally escape if she thinks about it.
• The Olivia/Alternate Olivia fight was pretty well done, if a bit confusing, though I wish that Olivia had gotten the upper hand a bit more during it.
• “She’s a lot like you.” – Peter. Well, that was a spectacular non-answer there. Especially since Peter just met this Olivia and he has no idea what she’s like. And is so wrong.
• “Darker in the eyes. She’s always trying to make up for something... right some imaginary bits of wrong. Haunted, I guess. (long pause) Maybe she’s nothing like you at all.” – Peter. Oh, Peter. He misses his Olivia.
• “Olivia can still open the door. That’s her gift isn’t it?” – Bell. Hmm. Interesting. They can’t be trying to say it’s her only ability though right? Because we have proof that she does or did have pyrokinesis like Sally (via the tape from the experiments), we knows she’s got some sort of extra-sensory perception that allows her to see things from the other universe, and she has, possibly, telekinesis (the bomb test from season one). That’s three others there, two at least that Bell knows about, so I don’t quite get what he was going for with that. Especially since it doesn’t actually ever seem to come into play.
- My biggest issue with the episode actually hinges on the above line – according to how I understand it they were planning on re-opening the door they’d originally come through using Olivia’s innate power and then, as Bell reveals, he’d use his own life to keep it powered enough so they could all get through safely. But of course as it happened Olivia wasn’t there – it was Alternate Olivia who does not have Olivia’s abilities – so how did they re-open the door? Perhaps I mistook something somewhere and they didn’t need Olivia to open the door but just power/lead the way through and Bell ended up doing all that himself?
• “We’ve accomplished a lot together, Walter. But she may be our greatest achievement.” – Bell, Walter nods. Awww. Now I want to see more of why exactly she is their greatest achievement.
• It’s occurred to me that Lee survived the end of the last episode, and now Olivia is stuck in the other universe, so we will probably get to see them interact next season. That makes me happy. Maybe they could even work together. Unfortunately with the Olivia/Peter of this episode I guess we won’t be getting any Olivia/Lee – or at least I’m now hoping not because it would be... wrong, I guess for her to hook up with someone after we saw the emotion she directed at Peter and that he responded in turn.
• I liked that after she knocked Charlie out Olivia immediately checked his pulse to make sure he was okay.
• I find myself a bit sceptical about Alternate Olivia managing to impersonate Olivia for any length of time. They are very different and while Alternate Olivia does know Olivia more now than she did after her talk with Peter I don’t know that it would be enough to withstand weeks or months of constant scrutiny.
• “It was about destroying yours.” – Peter. Interesting that Peter doesn’t considering our main show universe his own anymore. And yet he doesn’t really belong in his original one either. Poor Peter.
Also I have to wonder if that really is the purpose of the machine. Walter had to know that Peter would have attachments to the other world, so why would he show him plans for destroying it? That doesn’t make sense to me. Same with the idea that the machine would kill Peter – first, why would he give it to Peter to look at if that’s what it did, and second, when Walter told Olivia that he was ‘my son, Peter’ he had this little smile and seemed both pleased and happy and it really made me feel like this Walter does love his son. I want to know more about this machine, including where the hell it came from (since it doesn’t appear to have been created by Walter or Bell). Why does it specifically run in a symbiotic relationship with Peter?
• I was sad that we didn’t get to see Elizabeth again but I guess since we’re clearly going to be seeing a lot more of that universe next season she’ll be back. I feel horrible for her – to once again lose her son. I wish we’d see Peter say something about her or leave her a message or call her or something to show that he was thinking about her (since she would have to be the biggest draw to stay in that universe).
• You know, it would be nice if the various people in charge would actually do something novel for a change – like work together to save both realities.
• The biggest surprise of the episode was not William Bell’s death, which I figured would happen and knew for sure when he told Walter to let him worry about the power source (and I’d even figured out how it would play out, go me!), nor was it Olivia being switched with NOlivia (Olivinate? Alivia?) which I knew was what would happen as soon as we got the scene of the two Olivia’s and Bell before the grenade explosion. No, the biggest surprise for me was definitely Olivia/Peter becoming canon which I was definitely not expecting to happen so soon. There was the flirt of it a couple episodes back but then it was basically dropped and I figured that was the end until at least late next season. I don’t even know where to start with what we got. So here:
“You have to come back... because you belong with me.” – Olivia. Wow. ... That was some declaration. I mean these two have never kissed, never even gone on a date, and now we get this... and I don’t know what to think. I’ve always loved their closeness, how they’ve bonded and come to care for each other. But they never did make a move, except that once, and didn’t even appear to think about it until the mid/latter half of this season. That is a hell of a step there. It’s emphatic and emotional (Olivia being emotional!), and it surprised the hell out of me. Talk about coming out of nowhere. I mean when Alternate Olivia said “This isn’t just an assignment is it?” I was like ‘obviously’ but then she followed it with ‘you’re a couple’ and I just shook my head at her misunderstanding of the situation... except she didn’t! The kiss was lovely though Peter not putting his arms around her was awkward.
- It’ll be interesting to see how Olivia/Peter plays out next season since they’ve only just had their first kiss, and the first time (for Olivia at least) to speak her feelings, but it’s Alternate Olivia in the A Universe with Peter, not Olivia.
• Next season better bring us Olivia coming into her powers and kicking some serious ass to escape her confinement. (And not say her being helpless and needing to be saved. This is Olivia!) It will be the perfect time for it. She’s got some time away from work, in a high stress situation with nothing urgent to think about – easy! At the end she was clearly very afraid and freaked out – and when she’s scared her powers seem to work best. When she was a kid she ended up setting a room on fire. She can totally escape if she thinks about it.
• The Olivia/Alternate Olivia fight was pretty well done, if a bit confusing, though I wish that Olivia had gotten the upper hand a bit more during it.
• “She’s a lot like you.” – Peter. Well, that was a spectacular non-answer there. Especially since Peter just met this Olivia and he has no idea what she’s like. And is so wrong.
• “Darker in the eyes. She’s always trying to make up for something... right some imaginary bits of wrong. Haunted, I guess. (long pause) Maybe she’s nothing like you at all.” – Peter. Oh, Peter. He misses his Olivia.
• “Olivia can still open the door. That’s her gift isn’t it?” – Bell. Hmm. Interesting. They can’t be trying to say it’s her only ability though right? Because we have proof that she does or did have pyrokinesis like Sally (via the tape from the experiments), we knows she’s got some sort of extra-sensory perception that allows her to see things from the other universe, and she has, possibly, telekinesis (the bomb test from season one). That’s three others there, two at least that Bell knows about, so I don’t quite get what he was going for with that. Especially since it doesn’t actually ever seem to come into play.
- My biggest issue with the episode actually hinges on the above line – according to how I understand it they were planning on re-opening the door they’d originally come through using Olivia’s innate power and then, as Bell reveals, he’d use his own life to keep it powered enough so they could all get through safely. But of course as it happened Olivia wasn’t there – it was Alternate Olivia who does not have Olivia’s abilities – so how did they re-open the door? Perhaps I mistook something somewhere and they didn’t need Olivia to open the door but just power/lead the way through and Bell ended up doing all that himself?
• “We’ve accomplished a lot together, Walter. But she may be our greatest achievement.” – Bell, Walter nods. Awww. Now I want to see more of why exactly she is their greatest achievement.
• It’s occurred to me that Lee survived the end of the last episode, and now Olivia is stuck in the other universe, so we will probably get to see them interact next season. That makes me happy. Maybe they could even work together. Unfortunately with the Olivia/Peter of this episode I guess we won’t be getting any Olivia/Lee – or at least I’m now hoping not because it would be... wrong, I guess for her to hook up with someone after we saw the emotion she directed at Peter and that he responded in turn.
• I liked that after she knocked Charlie out Olivia immediately checked his pulse to make sure he was okay.
• I find myself a bit sceptical about Alternate Olivia managing to impersonate Olivia for any length of time. They are very different and while Alternate Olivia does know Olivia more now than she did after her talk with Peter I don’t know that it would be enough to withstand weeks or months of constant scrutiny.
• “It was about destroying yours.” – Peter. Interesting that Peter doesn’t considering our main show universe his own anymore. And yet he doesn’t really belong in his original one either. Poor Peter.
Also I have to wonder if that really is the purpose of the machine. Walter had to know that Peter would have attachments to the other world, so why would he show him plans for destroying it? That doesn’t make sense to me. Same with the idea that the machine would kill Peter – first, why would he give it to Peter to look at if that’s what it did, and second, when Walter told Olivia that he was ‘my son, Peter’ he had this little smile and seemed both pleased and happy and it really made me feel like this Walter does love his son. I want to know more about this machine, including where the hell it came from (since it doesn’t appear to have been created by Walter or Bell). Why does it specifically run in a symbiotic relationship with Peter?
• I was sad that we didn’t get to see Elizabeth again but I guess since we’re clearly going to be seeing a lot more of that universe next season she’ll be back. I feel horrible for her – to once again lose her son. I wish we’d see Peter say something about her or leave her a message or call her or something to show that he was thinking about her (since she would have to be the biggest draw to stay in that universe).
• You know, it would be nice if the various people in charge would actually do something novel for a change – like work together to save both realities.
