Fringe Summer Rewatch: #202 "Night of Desirable Objects" ~ Fringe Television - Fan Site for the FOX TV Series Fringe

Fringe Summer Rewatch: #202 "Night of Desirable Objects"

      Email Post       8/08/2011 12:01:00 AM      


Join us for our Fringe Summer re-watch, where we review every episode of Fringe during the summer hiatus. Comments are welcome as we dig into the connections made over three seasons.

Every time I watch this episode I get flashes of The X-Files, my favourite show at the time. I like to say it was because of familiar Vancouver locations and seeing John Savage in the show. It really was the monster of the week that interests me most about Fringe. We get that fully when the science team gets back to work on a case. I was just as excited as Walter.


It's a fresh mystery, pregnant with possibilities. Who knows where it may lead?

Olivia is released from the hospital. She’s not one hundred percent recovered, needing a cane for support and doesn’t remember what happened to her yet. There is light banter between Olivia and Peter not seen since "Safe", where she lets him help by carrying her suitcase. She remembered to say the Greek. Might she also remember William Bell’s advice to keep Peter close as well?

Not long after Olivia is out, Peter gets Broyles’ permission to investigate a series of recent sudden disappearances in Lansdale, Pennsylvania. It might begin to help figure out what happened to Olivia.

Walter, in his own way, is trying to figure out how Olivia disappeared. It has become a tradition to demonstrate with toy cars, just like he would do later again and again.

Peter assures Broyles that Olivia will be fine, even after she discharged her weapon in his direction, narrowly missing his head. Walter also assures Olivia that she’ll be fine. It seemed the only person not convinced was Olivia, especially when she noticed her heightened sensitivity to sounds. She does not confide in anyone until the end, perhaps because it is not normal for her. Without this ability, would they have cracked the case?

Andre Hughes, the only suspect they have in custody, was a former doctor. His specialty was reproductive biology and gene replacement. He is not the most cooperative person. He claims to only wanting to help people. He is a person of interest because of his background in science and his wife died during childbirth seventeen years ago. With the help of Agent Amy Jessup, the investigation led them to the discovery of another mystery. Despite having lupus, Mrs. Hughes was able to carry their infant son to term. As we find out, it was no ordinary baby. Walter learned that Hughes managed to inject the fetus with a mix scorpion and mole rat DNA so it would survive in its mother’s womb. That too reminded me how the other Olivia’s pregnancy was manipulated so both could survive the delivery in "Bloodline".

It was super-baby Hughes that had been terrorizing the Lansdale community for months. His father was simply covering up the crime. The stress got to him and he could not live with himself any more.



The shapeshifter pretending to be Charlie cannot hold his form for long and has to ingest mercury to hold his shape. When ersatz Charlie drives Olivia home, there is still a rapport that is not unlike that of shifter Ray Duffy with the son of the real Ray in "Do Shapeshifterse Dream of Electric Sheep?". It shows me how much of the donor identity remains upon transference. So I did find it odd that Peter was able to figure out the shapeshifter at the train station in "Entrada". Shifter Charlie is ordered to help Olivia remember what happened on the other side.

This is also the first time Olivia meets Sam Weiss, Nina’s healing guru.

Notable moments:

Olivia sums it up best.


Could you imagine living with a burden like that... when all you wanted was a son?

Agent Jessup finds a note from Andre Huges’s pastor, saying his loss is God's will



If Peter Bishop Never Existed...

William Bell did travel to the other side.
Walter still experimented on Olivia when she was three-years-old.
Olivia still had an abusive step-father.
Walter seemed like a father figure to her in "Subject 13". He might have cultivated a relationship with Olivia.
It showed in the touching moment, where Walter admits to feeling sad, when he thought Olivia was dead.

5 Comments:

cortexifan said...

-Olivia says: “I’m no good at sitting around.” In 3.21 Walter says to her as she is trying to work the typewriter: “And be patient.” I’m surprised she sat still that long in front of the typewriter.
-First time I saw “molebaby” I thought of Golem from Lord of the Rings.
-Peter asked Broyles if he got him everything on his list. “Peter secured funding” is what Broyles told Olivia in 2.21 Over There part 1 (Mission Impossible like office) Broyles’s office from 3.09 Marionette, 3.12 Concentrate and ask again, when the wife comes in and talks with Olivia and it also looks like Fringe HQ from the alternate universe.
-love Walter’s experiments.
-I think Walter cares deeply about Olivia.
-There might be consequences for crossing over. For her the consequences transform into special powers because of cortexiphan. My opinion.
-favorite line: Walter: “We’re all victims of our own gene pool. Someone must have peed in yours.”
-scarecrows. References to Wizard of Oz are all over the series. Just to name a few: 1.20 There is more than one of everything, as Charlie tries to understand alternate universe: “Like Dorothy going to Oz.” 2.03 Fracture: Project Tin Man. 2.11 Walter doesn’t want to get out of the car and refers to the cowardly lion and later talks about flying monkeys and talking lions. 2.14 Jacksonville: the wall painted with yellow brick road. 3.04 DSDOES Walter refers to the shapeshifter Van Horn as a Tin Man. And he does the same in 3.09 Marionette referring to the heartless man. At the end of 3.10 The Firefly a record is playing with the song: If I only had a brain. And the Violet Sedan Chair cover also shows a yellow brick road.
-Why did Olivia’s super hearing kick in right where it did in the sheriff’s office?
-The graffiti behind Charlie is the same as in 3.04 Momentum Deferred.
-“Oh Hell” shows up again in 2.19 Brown Betty, Peter says it as the beacon comes through the wall. Also Brandonate uses it in 3.05 Amber 31422 when Olivia is in the tank crossing over the first time.
-Hughes and his house creep me out.
-This is the only time she missed her mark. And it’s a good thing or Peter would be dead.
-Peter protected her by lying to Broyles about her gun going off.
-Hughes fashioning his noose creeped me out and just as Olivia, I want to know why no one was watching. Why did he kill himself?
-What happened to Olivia’s powers in the rest of the series?
-Ha, every time I hear a crow now, I have to think of this episode.
-Olivia: “You’ve come a long way, Charlie Francis.” Yeah Olivia, first it’s not Charlie anymore and he came from another universe.
-When Olivia is in the tub, her face changes. One image has drips on her face, the other doesn’t and it goes back and forth for a while. Did she cross over? It freaked her out I think and if she wouldn’t have had this experience in the tub, I don’t think she would have gone to see Sam.
-Sam knows Olivia’s number: 8

If Peter never existed in this episode…
-would they have known about this case and how many more people would have died?
-would Sheriff Golightly have given up the case files, since it was Peter who rescued the situation?
-would molebaby have killed Olivia?

Xindilini said...

@Cortexifan

"-When Olivia is in the tub, her face changes. One image has drips on her face, the other doesn’t and it goes back and forth for a while. Did she cross over?"

This is most likely a result from shooting at different angles. There are always differences.

They also flipped the image of Olivia in the lab, when she was telling Walter she went somewhere, met with someone. The scars were painted in post-production.

cortexifan said...

@xindilini
thanks, I didn't notice the flipped image, but now I got to go back and check :)
They also flipped images in 3.10 The Firefly when Peter is on the roof. And 3.11 Reciprocity when Olivia talks to Broyles about the mole.

fringeobsessed said...

Nice job, Xindilini.
Welcome aboard. :)

Xindilini said...

Thanks.

I had fun with this one. It was very memorable. I didn't have to dig too deep to highlight stuff. So much of the connections were on the surface.

I already can spot post-production editing. Since I am currently editing images for a side job, it's even more obvious. It might be fun to point it out what was done to change something on screen for future episodes.

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