Fringe 3x05 Review
Nov. 7th, 2010 02:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
iariaAmber 31422
It feels so weird to be watching Fringe again. It feels like a ridiculously long time since the last episode. Anyway I loved this episode.
• Olivia was awesome. I love her hearing the bomb, to her figuring out the switch, to basically figuring out where Joshua would stick and her final confrontation of Matthew and letting him get away with it. She is just so amazing. Olivia, for the first time really, using her powers to jump between realities was unexpected and completely awesome. I actually made a happy seal noise when she did it. Then she did it a second time – and figured out that who she really is. Awesome! I keep saying the same word but it’s just so true. I’ve wanted her to learn to use her Cortexiphan powers since the first season and that she’s actually doing it makes me gleeful. That she knows the truth now and is going to be working as basically a double agent from the inside, the same as Red Olivia, makes me even happier.
• “The only difference is that nobody’s going to save you. Only you can save yourself.” – ‘Peter’ That is exactly what I want. I want Olivia to save herself. Her Peter hallucination was there a lot this episode and I have to say I’m pretty impressed she held out so long against him. It makes sense that her mind would chose to give her real memories Peter’s form. I also like that it’s on Ella’s birthday and that it’s that knowledge that pushes her to try to cross again and learn the truth. Olivia loves Ella so much that of course she would.
• So Olivia now knows that she is Blue Olivia – but what does she remember? Does she still have all of Red Olivia’s memories and none of Blue Olivia’s? Did this last trip the her reality bring back some or all of her real memories?
• Two nitpicky points:
1) Since when is Rachel married? I do not remember that. I mean wasn’t Rachel divorcing her husband, who was a complete asshole, and that was why she was living with Olivia? I do not remember Rachel saying she was getting back together with him and while she’s a minor character that is something we should have known before this.
2) Wouldn’t it have been better for Olivia to have told Walter that she simply went back to the exact same place as before, and didn’t see anything different? That pretty much leaves him and the experiment at the exact same place it was before she did the second tank test whereas by telling him that she only saw black it adds another variable. There are going to be questions about why it didn’t work (and wouldn’t they have noticed her disappearing) and I think it will cause Walter to have more interest in it which Olivia doesn’t want.
• I loved the hints of Blue Olivia that are coming through. The most subtle was her hearing the bomb which points towards Blue Olivia’s super-hearing ability in early season 2. The big one was her going off on her own thing. When Boyles confronted her about it she acknowledged that she broke protocol and was ready to accept whatever he said. Because Blue Olivia may seem more of the straight-laced agent and Red Olivia the rebel but that’s not who they are. Blue Olivia does her own thing and always has and she gets things done. Meanwhile Red Olivia follows orders and gets things done that way.
• I think Boyles found himself seeing Olivia as the ‘other Olivia’ as always but actually seeing the good in that. This episode is the turning point for Red Boyles and his opinion of her. He’s been worried since this began about her being a threat to his people and here she saves her team from the bomb, and then she does something Red Olivia wouldn’t have done (breaking those protocols) and was right. I think in that last scene Olivia shifted from ‘unpredictable and maybe dangerous enemy soldier’ to ‘unpredictable but good agent’ in Boyles view. I so want him to end up being on her side.
• I love Lee and Charlie’s love for Olivia.
• I find everything we learn about this alternate world fascinating and I always want to know more. This episode was about the ‘amber process’ used to contain areas of instability.
- One part was about the facts of the process – that Walter created it, that the people caught within are still alive and aware, that they can be saved once removed. I wonder if with this new information Walter, or any of his scientists, will be working on a way to seal rifts without using amber? I do want to know more of how it works. I mean they managed to free Matthew pretty easily and the amber came off in convenient chucks (and didn’t take pieces of him with it.) Then there’s how it poor Mark got caught in the amber – it became mist and then spread out to fill in the gap where the amber was taken from. Does this mean that there is no way to get rid of it now? Was Mark caught only because he stood too close to the amber? Or would the gas amber have continued until it hit something solid?
I find the idea that every living thing caught in the amber being completely aware really, really horrifying. It’s possibly even more horrifying than our Olivia being overwritten by Blue Olivia’s memories. It freaks me out. It wasn’t clear to me though if they’re only aware of those last moments before being trapped or if they’re aware they’re trapped and of time passing. Again, it’s a situation of two horrible possibilities. Oh, and then there’s those ‘micro-black holes’ that were mentioned – how are those related to breaches between the walls of reality?
- The other part gave us an emotional connection, just as the last one did with the shape-shifters, and it worked really well for me. I found myself feeling so sorry for both brothers. Matthew who spent four years trapped in amber and completely aware the whole time, and all because of his brother. Joshua wracked with guilt, living his brother’s life and always reminded what he caused. Even though he apparently had no guilt even after the consequences of his first robbery and it took his brother being a victim to cause him to grow a conscious, when he looked out at the two boys he’d basically raised I felt for him. They looked really young and he clearly loved them. I just found the whole storyline very affecting. I wish that we had gotten more between the brothers building their relationship.
• I found Danielle’s anger towards Joshua understandable but at the same time just a bit too uncomplicated. I mean she’s spent the last four years with Joshua day in and day out – pretending to be married, raising her sons together, pretending that he was Matthew. There is no way she could have spent those four years that angry at him all the time. I would have expected them to have a lot more complicated a relationship than that. I find the whole situation tragic for everyone.
• I wonder if how things played out for Joshua and Matthew could be foreshadowing for how things play out for the two Olivia’s in some way?
• I was expecting Olivia to be trapped in a place being ambered and then having to use her new reality jumping abilities to escape. I suppose that wouldn’t have worked yet since she doesn’t really have complete control.
• This episode also gave us a bit more insight into this Walter mainly through two pieces of dialogue that basically catalogue the ways he justifies the horrible things he does. First to Broyles: “Nature doesn’t recognise good and evil. Nature only recognises balance and imbalance. I intend to restore balance to our world. Whatever it takes.” and then to Brandon: “Only those who risk going too far find out how far they can go.” I think that gives a pretty good view into his head.
But we also get a short moment, a visual not verbal hint at Walter having emotions and pain, when we see him looking at a scrapbook of articles about Peter’s kidnapping. In the moment before Broyles arrived he looked vulnerable and sad. I’m really glad we got that moment. I want to see more of the human side of Walter. I thought it was interesting, and maybe even significant, that he was sitting alone looking at that scrapbook before ‘going home’. Going home to his wife who seemed to blame him for Peter’s disappearance the first time and I think very likely blames him for the second one as well. I image their house must be pretty tense right now. And if she isn’t blaming him then he still has to go home to her and her sadness over the loss of their son again.
It feels so weird to be watching Fringe again. It feels like a ridiculously long time since the last episode. Anyway I loved this episode.
• Olivia was awesome. I love her hearing the bomb, to her figuring out the switch, to basically figuring out where Joshua would stick and her final confrontation of Matthew and letting him get away with it. She is just so amazing. Olivia, for the first time really, using her powers to jump between realities was unexpected and completely awesome. I actually made a happy seal noise when she did it. Then she did it a second time – and figured out that who she really is. Awesome! I keep saying the same word but it’s just so true. I’ve wanted her to learn to use her Cortexiphan powers since the first season and that she’s actually doing it makes me gleeful. That she knows the truth now and is going to be working as basically a double agent from the inside, the same as Red Olivia, makes me even happier.
• “The only difference is that nobody’s going to save you. Only you can save yourself.” – ‘Peter’ That is exactly what I want. I want Olivia to save herself. Her Peter hallucination was there a lot this episode and I have to say I’m pretty impressed she held out so long against him. It makes sense that her mind would chose to give her real memories Peter’s form. I also like that it’s on Ella’s birthday and that it’s that knowledge that pushes her to try to cross again and learn the truth. Olivia loves Ella so much that of course she would.
• So Olivia now knows that she is Blue Olivia – but what does she remember? Does she still have all of Red Olivia’s memories and none of Blue Olivia’s? Did this last trip the her reality bring back some or all of her real memories?
• Two nitpicky points:
1) Since when is Rachel married? I do not remember that. I mean wasn’t Rachel divorcing her husband, who was a complete asshole, and that was why she was living with Olivia? I do not remember Rachel saying she was getting back together with him and while she’s a minor character that is something we should have known before this.
2) Wouldn’t it have been better for Olivia to have told Walter that she simply went back to the exact same place as before, and didn’t see anything different? That pretty much leaves him and the experiment at the exact same place it was before she did the second tank test whereas by telling him that she only saw black it adds another variable. There are going to be questions about why it didn’t work (and wouldn’t they have noticed her disappearing) and I think it will cause Walter to have more interest in it which Olivia doesn’t want.
• I loved the hints of Blue Olivia that are coming through. The most subtle was her hearing the bomb which points towards Blue Olivia’s super-hearing ability in early season 2. The big one was her going off on her own thing. When Boyles confronted her about it she acknowledged that she broke protocol and was ready to accept whatever he said. Because Blue Olivia may seem more of the straight-laced agent and Red Olivia the rebel but that’s not who they are. Blue Olivia does her own thing and always has and she gets things done. Meanwhile Red Olivia follows orders and gets things done that way.
• I think Boyles found himself seeing Olivia as the ‘other Olivia’ as always but actually seeing the good in that. This episode is the turning point for Red Boyles and his opinion of her. He’s been worried since this began about her being a threat to his people and here she saves her team from the bomb, and then she does something Red Olivia wouldn’t have done (breaking those protocols) and was right. I think in that last scene Olivia shifted from ‘unpredictable and maybe dangerous enemy soldier’ to ‘unpredictable but good agent’ in Boyles view. I so want him to end up being on her side.
• I love Lee and Charlie’s love for Olivia.
• I find everything we learn about this alternate world fascinating and I always want to know more. This episode was about the ‘amber process’ used to contain areas of instability.
- One part was about the facts of the process – that Walter created it, that the people caught within are still alive and aware, that they can be saved once removed. I wonder if with this new information Walter, or any of his scientists, will be working on a way to seal rifts without using amber? I do want to know more of how it works. I mean they managed to free Matthew pretty easily and the amber came off in convenient chucks (and didn’t take pieces of him with it.) Then there’s how it poor Mark got caught in the amber – it became mist and then spread out to fill in the gap where the amber was taken from. Does this mean that there is no way to get rid of it now? Was Mark caught only because he stood too close to the amber? Or would the gas amber have continued until it hit something solid?
I find the idea that every living thing caught in the amber being completely aware really, really horrifying. It’s possibly even more horrifying than our Olivia being overwritten by Blue Olivia’s memories. It freaks me out. It wasn’t clear to me though if they’re only aware of those last moments before being trapped or if they’re aware they’re trapped and of time passing. Again, it’s a situation of two horrible possibilities. Oh, and then there’s those ‘micro-black holes’ that were mentioned – how are those related to breaches between the walls of reality?
- The other part gave us an emotional connection, just as the last one did with the shape-shifters, and it worked really well for me. I found myself feeling so sorry for both brothers. Matthew who spent four years trapped in amber and completely aware the whole time, and all because of his brother. Joshua wracked with guilt, living his brother’s life and always reminded what he caused. Even though he apparently had no guilt even after the consequences of his first robbery and it took his brother being a victim to cause him to grow a conscious, when he looked out at the two boys he’d basically raised I felt for him. They looked really young and he clearly loved them. I just found the whole storyline very affecting. I wish that we had gotten more between the brothers building their relationship.
• I found Danielle’s anger towards Joshua understandable but at the same time just a bit too uncomplicated. I mean she’s spent the last four years with Joshua day in and day out – pretending to be married, raising her sons together, pretending that he was Matthew. There is no way she could have spent those four years that angry at him all the time. I would have expected them to have a lot more complicated a relationship than that. I find the whole situation tragic for everyone.
• I wonder if how things played out for Joshua and Matthew could be foreshadowing for how things play out for the two Olivia’s in some way?
• I was expecting Olivia to be trapped in a place being ambered and then having to use her new reality jumping abilities to escape. I suppose that wouldn’t have worked yet since she doesn’t really have complete control.
• This episode also gave us a bit more insight into this Walter mainly through two pieces of dialogue that basically catalogue the ways he justifies the horrible things he does. First to Broyles: “Nature doesn’t recognise good and evil. Nature only recognises balance and imbalance. I intend to restore balance to our world. Whatever it takes.” and then to Brandon: “Only those who risk going too far find out how far they can go.” I think that gives a pretty good view into his head.
But we also get a short moment, a visual not verbal hint at Walter having emotions and pain, when we see him looking at a scrapbook of articles about Peter’s kidnapping. In the moment before Broyles arrived he looked vulnerable and sad. I’m really glad we got that moment. I want to see more of the human side of Walter. I thought it was interesting, and maybe even significant, that he was sitting alone looking at that scrapbook before ‘going home’. Going home to his wife who seemed to blame him for Peter’s disappearance the first time and I think very likely blames him for the second one as well. I image their house must be pretty tense right now. And if she isn’t blaming him then he still has to go home to her and her sadness over the loss of their son again.
