Fringe 4x22 Thoughts
Jul. 20th, 2012 01:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
iariaBrave New World, Part 2
There was a large stretch of time between me watching the beginning of the season and the latter half and so when I found it a bit difficult to get back into the show I blamed it on that. But I don't think it was. More than anything I think it's the way the show has been portraying Olivia and Olivia/Peter (though certainly there are other things.)
It's not one thing but a lot of little ones. They're subtle little moments that nevertheless stick out to me - like Peter taking change when they found the antennas and telling Olivia which way to go, or Peter entering the warehouse before Olivia and staying in front of her, or Peter with the gun on the ship - it all just bugs me. It feels like Olivia has become increasingly more.... passive.
And then - she's a power source. All those fantastic abilities and all those seasons hinting about her potential and it's all about her being a power source for a megalomaniac man? And then Walter shoots her, and Peter grieves, and Walter saves her life and through all of this Olivia - Olivia fucking Dunham - is passive and an object basically for everyone else to react around. Ugh. So much ugh. What happened to this show? This makes me pretty upset.
Definitely the biggest 'show' of this change in how Olivia is being written is the scene on the ship when they find Bell. Peter, who's injured, has a gun and seemingly Olivia doesn't (wtf?). It's Peter who confronts Bell while Olivia hovers in the background with Walter (seriously did the show fall into an alternate universe? WTF?!) How does that sentence make any sense for this show?
But biggest 'show' of all is the fact that Walter shot Olivia to save the universes. Walter. ...*hands* It was certainly a shocking moment but it was wrong. That is not how it should have happened. They took away Olivia's control over her choices and gave them to others. Olivia wouldn't have just stood there, watching. Olivia would have shot herself.
What should have happened: Olivia confronted Bell with the gun (because that's how it should be, not Peter as her stand-in, this isn't Peter's story, he has no connection to Bell), Bell went off on his monologue, Olivia shot herself to save the universes (because that is what she would have done!) and then Walter saved her afterward.
Then the show threw in one last ugh moment: apparently Olivia has burnt herself out (?) and will likely have no more powers. What?! After all this she doesn't even get to keep her powers? I wouldn't mind if they temporarily powered her down a bit as far as abilities go because she's been getting wildly powerful in the last couple episodes but to take those abilities completely away (while still leaving it open for to have remnants when plot demands) really annoys me. We're really not going to get to watch her develop them and use them to fight crime? Fine, whatever, it's not like it's the most disappointing thing in this episode.
Good
+ I loved Olivia's little smile when September caught all the bullets.
+ The questioning of Jessica's corpse was pretty creepy.
+ The Nina/Olivia exchange in the plane was nice and I loved how Nina reached out and touched the side of Olivia's head before Olivia jumped.
+ Walter slapping a grieving Peter to force him to listen and let go of Olivia amused me. hands
+ I loved that final Astrid/Walter scene with the liquorice and Walter getting her name right and the smiles... I love them.
Other
+ September was caught in runes? I'm sorry but what? How is that even marginally scientific?
+ Why wouldn't a whole team of agents be sent to the warehouse with Olivia and Peter, regardless of the men being gone?
+ Yikes, Olivia didn't have to throw the bullets back at Jessica. Was it simply instinct?
+ Okay, why is September so attached to Olivia and Peter? Are we going to get a answer to that or is the answer simply that he has an emotional connection to them? I always though he was more connected to Peter and the Bishops but Jessica seems to think his connection is to Olivia which is interesting.
+ "... as the Olivia from the original timeline." - Nina Wait, so everyone does know that amber!verse is basically blue!verse not a completely alternate one? When did that happen? Walter didn't seem aware of it two episodes ago when he shut down the machine.
+ So Bell is simply just a megalomaniac? That's... disappointing. I was really hoping that my theory that he was planning against the Observers would be true. Or something more than what we got. Was this all amber!Bell or was blue!Bell thinking along the same lines?
There was a large stretch of time between me watching the beginning of the season and the latter half and so when I found it a bit difficult to get back into the show I blamed it on that. But I don't think it was. More than anything I think it's the way the show has been portraying Olivia and Olivia/Peter (though certainly there are other things.)
It's not one thing but a lot of little ones. They're subtle little moments that nevertheless stick out to me - like Peter taking change when they found the antennas and telling Olivia which way to go, or Peter entering the warehouse before Olivia and staying in front of her, or Peter with the gun on the ship - it all just bugs me. It feels like Olivia has become increasingly more.... passive.
And then - she's a power source. All those fantastic abilities and all those seasons hinting about her potential and it's all about her being a power source for a megalomaniac man? And then Walter shoots her, and Peter grieves, and Walter saves her life and through all of this Olivia - Olivia fucking Dunham - is passive and an object basically for everyone else to react around. Ugh. So much ugh. What happened to this show? This makes me pretty upset.
Definitely the biggest 'show' of this change in how Olivia is being written is the scene on the ship when they find Bell. Peter, who's injured, has a gun and seemingly Olivia doesn't (wtf?). It's Peter who confronts Bell while Olivia hovers in the background with Walter (seriously did the show fall into an alternate universe? WTF?!) How does that sentence make any sense for this show?
But biggest 'show' of all is the fact that Walter shot Olivia to save the universes. Walter. ...*hands* It was certainly a shocking moment but it was wrong. That is not how it should have happened. They took away Olivia's control over her choices and gave them to others. Olivia wouldn't have just stood there, watching. Olivia would have shot herself.
What should have happened: Olivia confronted Bell with the gun (because that's how it should be, not Peter as her stand-in, this isn't Peter's story, he has no connection to Bell), Bell went off on his monologue, Olivia shot herself to save the universes (because that is what she would have done!) and then Walter saved her afterward.
Then the show threw in one last ugh moment: apparently Olivia has burnt herself out (?) and will likely have no more powers. What?! After all this she doesn't even get to keep her powers? I wouldn't mind if they temporarily powered her down a bit as far as abilities go because she's been getting wildly powerful in the last couple episodes but to take those abilities completely away (while still leaving it open for to have remnants when plot demands) really annoys me. We're really not going to get to watch her develop them and use them to fight crime? Fine, whatever, it's not like it's the most disappointing thing in this episode.
Good
+ I loved Olivia's little smile when September caught all the bullets.
+ The questioning of Jessica's corpse was pretty creepy.
+ The Nina/Olivia exchange in the plane was nice and I loved how Nina reached out and touched the side of Olivia's head before Olivia jumped.
+ Walter slapping a grieving Peter to force him to listen and let go of Olivia amused me. hands
+ I loved that final Astrid/Walter scene with the liquorice and Walter getting her name right and the smiles... I love them.
Other
+ September was caught in runes? I'm sorry but what? How is that even marginally scientific?
+ Why wouldn't a whole team of agents be sent to the warehouse with Olivia and Peter, regardless of the men being gone?
+ Yikes, Olivia didn't have to throw the bullets back at Jessica. Was it simply instinct?
+ Okay, why is September so attached to Olivia and Peter? Are we going to get a answer to that or is the answer simply that he has an emotional connection to them? I always though he was more connected to Peter and the Bishops but Jessica seems to think his connection is to Olivia which is interesting.
+ "... as the Olivia from the original timeline." - Nina Wait, so everyone does know that amber!verse is basically blue!verse not a completely alternate one? When did that happen? Walter didn't seem aware of it two episodes ago when he shut down the machine.
+ So Bell is simply just a megalomaniac? That's... disappointing. I was really hoping that my theory that he was planning against the Observers would be true. Or something more than what we got. Was this all amber!Bell or was blue!Bell thinking along the same lines?
