Fringe 3x22 Review

[iaria]

The Day We Died

- This was a very Peter focused episode and while I really enjoyed it and it was a good episode that kept me entertained from beginning to end there just wasn’t enough Olivia. There definitely wasn’t enough of Olivia doing stuff (even with her being in charge). That’s been one of the huge issues of the latter half of this season. Once the Olivias’ returned to their respective universes her being the focus of every episode started decreasing. Next season looks to have two Olivia’s leading the charge to save the universes while Peter enjoys non-existence for awhile so hopefully it will be a more Olivia focused/heavy season.

Astrid quotes in the episode, and it’s used as a voiceover in the trailer, “the end of days when the world dies and a saviour arrives to end the suffering” and there’s this implication, or actually assertion, that Peter is the saviour of the worlds, which is something that has been increasingly in the show this season, but it’s just wrong. Peter isn’t supposed to be the saviour of everything that’s OLIVIA’s job. Olivia is the saviour, the hero, the superhero, the one who is going to save everything. If next season doesn’t show that and Peter continues to take over that role from her I am going to be super pissed.

- “He never existed. He served his purpose.” Peter never existed, what now??! How does that even work? Why would it work that way? Peter, and his illness and death, were the motivation behind everything that has happened. He is why Walter crossed over and thus why the cracks formed so if he never existed then how exactly did things end up playing out the same way? I very much doubt Peter is gone for good, like 100% sure thankfully (because I want an Olivia focused show not a Peter-less one), and I have NO idea how they’re going to bring him back into existence. Will it be an accident? Will they have pieces of memory about him? I mean if they can’t even remember him how are they supposed to try and get him back?

- The biggest moment of excitement/squee for me was when Olivia used her telekinesis so easily and without any thought about it. She just did it automatically. ♥ If she has full control over that power does that mean she has control over all her abilities (the hearing, the fire etc)? She’s like a superhero!

- “Whatever you have both done we’re here now so maybe it’s time we start to fix it.” The second moment of squee was Olivia and Olivia face to face once again and apparently on the verge of working together to save their universes. This is exactly what I’ve wanted for so long and it has me so excited for next season. Something I didn’t think about but find myself liking the idea of as well are the two Walter’s forced to work together despite deep disdain and hatred for each other and the two Olivia’s acting as wranglers for them. Oh, oh – we could get a team of Red Olivia, Lincoln, Charlie, Blue Astrid and Blue Olivia working together. That would be so cool.

- Oh, idea: with the universes now connected perhaps Mary could cross over and meet Walter and they could get together?

- The fact that the two universes are linked and can only survive as long as the other one does is different but it makes me wonder if that means they’re the only universes out there, or are there more connected to them (but then wouldn’t they be affected as well?), or if there are more universes but not connected to red and blue? Or maybe there are an unlimited number of universes that are all unconnected but Walter, by taking and keeping Peter, ended up connecting the Red and Blue Universes and forcing them to be linked? I like that latter idea.

- I adored the scene where Olivia and Walter saw each other again after years. I loved the smiles on their faces, and how he got teary-eyed and ran into her arms, and they hugged each other so close and tightly and spun around and it was just really beautiful. And then he welcomed her into the family. The whole scene was just so aww inducing.

- “No matter who’s at fault you’re my dad.” – Peter to Walter Awww. Walter’s face...

Then compare that to Peter’s interactions with Walternate: “But you are going to come with me now father.” and Walternate’s cold response. Walter is ‘dad’ and Walternate is ‘father’ though both are mostly ‘Walter’ and I can understand that but I’m really hoping that next season, when Peter returns to existence, his relationship with Walternate will be able to grow in its own right. I do feel for him – his son stolen and when he next sees him Peter considers the thief his real father – how painful is that? I want them to have a relationship. Peter was old enough when he was taken that it would be nice if being returned to existence meant that he got back all his memories.

- I was really disappointed that Astrid and Walter didn’t get a reunion. Their relationship is so wonderful and close that it felt weird and wrong that they didn’t get any scenes. What was that about? I mean I love that she’d become an active agent but I think she would have liked to return for a couple days to be Walter’s guard/assistant, and as boss Olivia could have assured it. Whatever, show. I did love that Walter asked about her and the way he asked “Will Astrid be here?” so softly, and longingly with this little smile and the fact that he said her name right was all wonderful.

- I was not happy with Astrid’s role. Everyone else moved up – Broyles a senator, Olivia in charge of Fringe, and while we don’t get any exact confirmation on Peter’s position it does seem as if he is Olivia’s 2IC or otherwise taken over her role – and yet Astrid was just yet another Fringe Agent? I suppose she ‘moved up’ from being Walter’s keeper to being an active Fringe agent but then you get that completely random scene where she goes to her desk, finds garbage on it and wonders why people keep doing that and gets the reply that she’s too nice. I wondered if we were supposed to know the male agent but apparently not so... what? Who the hell leaves garbage on their co-workers desks? At the very least she should have been 3IC and I could almost believe that except for that stupid garbage scene. Ugh. It’s even stupider because even if Astrid wasn’t high up in the Fringe hierarchy for some reason the fact is she is one of the original agents and is very close to the boss and 2IC which should be enough reason for people to try for her approval or at the very least show her respect. Also the fact that she didn’t get a reunion scene with Walter felt like she was being cut out of the Fringe ‘family’ as if her place in their group wasn’t that important and that made me even more unhappy.

- I loved grown-up Ella and though it’s unlikely I would love to see her again. I love that she became a Fringe agent. I loved her interactions with Olivia and Peter (though I wanted more of the former) but I especially loved the Ella/Walter scene after Olivia’s funeral. It was very well done. It was emotional and tense, and Walter telling her that she used to call him “uncle Walter” and apologising for her losses made me teary-eyed and then they reminisced about Gene and it was just a lovely little scene. I especially liked how much it revealed about Ella – she was upset and angry at Walter but when she saw how upset and hurt he was so she offered an olive branch by bringing up Gene – and it made me love her.

I don’t know if we were meant to come to this conclusion but I got the idea that Rachel had been killed in some event and that for a time at least Ella had lived with Olivia and Peter. I wonder for how long? I like that idea.

- I loved that Olivia took over from Broyles and is now head of the much expanded Fringe Division. That was so awesome and perfect and made me really happy. “You can just call me boss like everybody else.” I did find it a little weird that she spent so much time in the field and continued to act as Peter’s partner than his boss but I’m fanwanking it as a) her worry for him and deciding to keep a personal eye on him, b) the sensitivity of the case and the release of Walter, and c) Broyles also went out into the field so she’s just following his lead.

- I liked the Peter/Olivia scene in their home. It felt very natural. However the talk about them having a child just made me wonder if Peter ever learned that he had a son with Red Olivia? It’s never mentioned but you’d think Walternate would have brought it up at some point in his efforts to torment Peter.

- Walter says that it all began because of his ‘hubris’ but that’s not what we saw. I mean that was certainly a part of it but Walter went to the other side out of love – to save his other world son after his had died – and he took him out of love when the vial broke. It was hubris of him to think he was in control, that there wouldn’t be consequences but everything he did he did out of love.

- I was not expecting Olivia to be killed so that was a shock but it didn’t really get to me because I knew that that future wasn’t going to happen. I actually really liked the funeral and that we didn’t get to hear what Peter said (or maybe something was wrong with my copy?). Him saying her name and then saying “my wife” and the way that was emphasised annoyed me though because it made her funeral about him and not her. I loved Astrid sitting in the front with Ella and how upset she was. I loved the moment when Ella accepted the flag and then clutched it tightly. And them giving Olivia a Viking funeral by sending her casket out into the water on a burning platform was excellent.

- I was happy to see Nina at Olivia’s funeral. I had been wondering where she was and was really happy that she was alive and close enough to Olivia still to be at her funeral and upset by her death. I wish though that she had been sitting beside Broyles (and standing beside him at the end) because then it would have been left open as to whether they were together as a couple or not.

- So it was a future-that-is-no-longer, and the Walter in it, that sent the machine pieces into the past... how does that work? Especially considering that the red universe had a machine of their own? Where did the machine come from the first time? Who made it? The Observers?

- The way Olivia so easily used her telekinesis makes it clear that she is in the open about having them. The Fringe person looked startled when she used them but was that because of her having them or because he’d never seen them before? And if she is so open about her power it makes me wonder if those higher in power haven’t restarted the Cortexiphan trials.

- I found it strange that in order for them to get in to see Walter Peter needed Olivia to call in some markers but when they needed him released Peter just went to Broyles. That doesn’t make much sense to me.

- I love that the opening credits were yet another colour – this time a neutral look, sort of grey – and that they use the credits to tell you what is happening in the show. The main universe is blue, the alternate is red, the bad future is grey and the past is in neat old fashion style. I also love that the words in the credits change depending on where they’re about.