Welcome to the Observiews for Season 4 of Fringe. I call them Observiews because they are more visual observations than deep thinking reviews, if that makes sense.
Screen caps from this episode are taken from fringefiles.com. Dialog is from fringepedia.net/transcripts.
All observations are mine and therefore could be totally off the wall and/or wrong. I have not read or looked at any recaps or reviews. I could also have missed a few things, oh well…
This is a plaque I have in my Fringe case and it is what I thought of and looked at when Alt-Lincoln said (4.17 Everything In Its Right Place):
“Maybe it's free will. I don't buy that we're all just defined by our circumstances. Maybe I just made a choice to become the man I wanted to be.”
Glyphs spelled: DREAM
Who’s? Or what dream?
Observer can be seen here
I’m so happy to see Gene that I had to put at least two shots of her in here.
Olivia found something in her apartment that belonged to Lincoln, or so she thought.
AGENT LEE: “Actually, I gave it to you. A few months back, when you came to see me at the hospital. It was a thank you for saving my life. You don't remember me telling you what this symbolizes?”
This came to mind from 1.17 Bad Dreams
PETER: “Must be a terrible thing to not be able to trust your own mind.”
AGENT LEE: “It's Native American." (for some reason the Native American display from 3.21 The Lat Sam Weiss came to mind where the key to the box was hidden)
"The maze represents the journey of life. The obstacles, making the right choices." (1.19 The Road Not Taken came to mind)
"Until we find ourselves in the center.”
OLIVIA: “What's in the center?”
AGENT LEE: “Home. A place to belong. Danzig knew I was never much for putting down roots. I never really stayed in the same place too long.”
That sounds so much like Peter’s story. Here are a few examples
1.01The Pilot
OLIVIA: “His name is Peter Bishop. He's a high-school drop-out, IQ at 190, just 50 points north of genius. Misfit, nomad. Hasn't kept a job longer than two months.”
1.04 The Arrival
PETER: “That's not the only thing. I don't do well staying in one place. You know that. This isn't the job for me.”
1.10 Safe
PETER: “No, you were implying that I haven't stayed still much in the last 15 years. You were implying, and you've been implying with increasing frequency, that you don't approve of my admittedly nomadic existence. In short, Walter, you're saying that you're disappointed I haven't made more out of my life. That's what you're implying.”
2.16 Olivia. In The Lab. With The Revolver
PETER: “Right. You know, this past year, this is the longest I've ever stayed in one place. So this thing that we have, you, me, Walter, this... this... uh, little family unit that we've got going... I don't want to do anything to jeopardize that.”
AGENT LEE: “He used to joke that if I kept living like that, that one day I would just float off into space. So he gave me this as a reminder that I always had a home. With him, with his family. This, he said, was my tether.”
That reminded me of the conversation Olivia had with Lincoln about Walter in
4.01 Neither Here Nor There
AGENT LEE: “Is he alright?”
OLIVIA: “Well, that depends on your definition of "alright". He's functional. Except when he's not. But he is often quite brilliant. He just never had anything to tether him to the world.”
Astrid was tasked to go to the other side to share all the information they have on David Robert Jones but she had promised her dad to take him to Castle Island.
So Lincoln offers to go. Nothing going on over here and he could use the time away. I think now it’s him who’s trying to get away from Olivia.
Meanwhile on the other side.
The flyer on the light pole says USSR. I guess it still exists over there.
A woman gets attacked but her attacker gets killed by one of these.
Looks like one of Jones’s creatures.
After convincing Broyles Lincoln goes to the bridge-room and crosses over.
He really looks like he’s happy to do this (for lack of a better word).
Lincoln thought he was briefing the other side in the bridge-room but the plans have changed. Fauxlivia wanted a “cafĂ© latte” instead of paperwork.
In 3.06 6955kHz Peter went back to get a different coffee because he forgot the milk.
Which is funny because in 3.08 Entrada she drinks it black and no sugar.
FAUXLIVIA: “Okay, so, Jones is responsible for dosing Agent Dunham with Cortexiphan. For what purpose?”
AGENT LEE: “Peter Bishop believes he was trying to activate some kind of latent ability.”
FAUXLIVIA: “What, are we talking heat vision, or communicating with fish?”
AGENT LEE: “Your guess is as good as mine.”
FAUXLIVIA: “Well, did it work?”
AGENT LEE: “Yes. And no. There were some unforeseen side effects. Long story.”
I could be wrong but I always thought that Olivia was the only one who didn’t have side effects from Cortexiphan. Why should this Olivia be any different? I think her memory issues are something else.
Or as Lincoln says: “Your guess is as good as mine”.
On the way they pass an “Ambered Zone” that is reopening.
Fauxlivia plays a video file.
SECRETARY BISHOP: “This is a turning point in our history. In the last week alone, eleven previously uninhabitable zones have been reopened. Our cities are healing. Our world is being restored. But the process will take time. So, as we celebrate this recovery, let us never forget those we've lost. Thank you, everyone.”
Apparently the bridge is stabilizing the spatial rifts. Fauxlivia doesn’t care how it works. She’s just happy that it does.
3.20 6:02 AM EST
SECRETARY BISHOP: “Damn it. No measurable improvement”?
BRANDON FAYETTE: “Environmental degradation levels haven't changed since the device was activated.”
SECRETARY BISHOP: “Reversing this many years of damage will take longer than a few hours.”
I always wondered if this conversation was just fake and for those who were listening in. I still think that Walternate’s main goal in that timeline really was to destroy the other side. And as Peter said in 3.22 The Day We Died: “Our two worlds are inextricable. If one side dies, we all die.”
And would something have changed the other side if Peter wouldn’t have created the bridge.
Fauxlivia asks Lincoln for his middle name.
Alt-Lincoln and she have been partners for six years but she never knew that. Alt-Lincoln isn’t too happy about it and Lincoln thinks Tyrone is a strong name.
I guess if you have a doppelganger, be careful what you reveal to others, lol.
Okay, so on to the case.
ALT-LINCOLN: “Local police received a dozen similar reports in the last few months. Criminals going missing, junkies mysteriously vanishing, victims calling in, claiming that their assailants were attacked mid-crime.”
AGENT LEE: “Maybe Batman's moved to the Bronx.”
FAUXLIVIA: “What's a Batman?”
I thought of the comic books that were hanging up in the safe house for Peter in 2.21 Over There Part 2.
The one on the left is “The Death of Batman” which the alternate version to “The Death of Superman”.
AGENT LEE: “The Caped Crusader, the Dark Knight. Billionaire playboy puts on a cape to clean up the streets of Gotham.”
ALT-LINCOLN: “Oh, you mean Mantis.”
Well which one is it? This one? Or this one?
AGENT LEE: “Seriously? Your superhero is an insect?”
FAUXLIVIA: “Oh, what, 'cause nothing says badass like a flying rat?”
Anyway, this time they actually have a body.
This is pretty much the next scene.
Wait, what? Or as Peter said in 1.19 The Road Not Taken: “Are you thinking what I'm thinking?”
I know Lincoln was thinking it might be a shapeshifter.
Then we have two agents walking through a former ambered zone that has been reopened.
And if you've seen the episode than you know that the picture in the newspaper was actually moving.
Pretty cool, I say.
When I saw the newspaper stand I thought of 1.14 Ability.
At one point DOC TECHNICIAN #1 says: “Four parts per million. I think we're all clear here.”
We had that measurement before. 2.12 What Lies Below
OLIVIA: “Sulfide diluted to four parts per million.”
Walter was giving Olivia instructions for the cure.
The technicians find something else. “Tissue organics detected”.
Gross!
Because of this case the David Robert Jones Briefing has to wait. Lincoln offers to help.
One of the agents thanks our Lincoln.
AGENT LEE: “Um... You're welcome. What was that about? Does he think I'm him?”
FAUXLIVIA: “No, he knows who you are. He's just thanking you, because our world, in part, is healing because our two sides are working together.
I mean, your team may toil away in secret over there, but over here, you're heroes.”
AGENT LEE: “Hmm.”
I wonder if this conversation came back to his mind when he decided to stay over there for a bit.
AGENT LEE: “I count eighteen bodies and nineteen heads. A few months ago, I'd have a much harder time stomaching something like this.”
ALT-LINCOLN: “Took me a while too. Not 'Liv, though. Things like this never faze her. She's the tough one. All our years working together, never once seen her barf, or shed a tear.”
Well, she did barf in 3.13 Immortality. But that was because she had morning sickness and Lincoln actually didn’t see it. And one of these days she might just have to shed a tear…
Lincoln finds something inside the mouth of one of the bodies, 3 prongs.
I thought of 2.01 A New Day In The Old Town
WALTER: “Look inside the mouth. Look at the soft palate. What do you see?”
PETER: “There are three markings. Indents like stab wounds. What are they?”
Lincoln needs to proof for his theory. So he asks Alt-Astrid for a favor.
AGENT FARNSWORTH: “I'm confused. Why are we doing this, exactly? The likelihood of finding surveillance of the victim after she disappeared has a probability rate of, at best, one in eighty-six point seven thousand.”
AGENT LEE: “Humor me. So to speak.”
I just love the look on Alt-Astrid’s face.
So then the two Lincolns’ are having a conversation.
ALT-LINCOLN: “Maybe you'll also tell me why it is you don't want to go back home.”
AGENT LEE: “What're you talking about?”
ALT-LINCOLN: “Back at the church, Olivia tried to arrange for your return trip to the other side, but you weren't having any. There a problem?”
AGENT LEE: “No problem, just... they can handle things fine without me.”
ALT-LINCOLN: “Well, that's the difference between us. My world wouldn't survive without me.”
Hm. That sentence should have made me wonder why he said that, along with his statement that Fauxlivia never sheds a tear. Something’s going to happen, isn’t it?
AGENT LEE: “Yeah. I noticed that about you. Your unwavering confidence.”
ALT-LINCOLN: “Thanks.”
AGENT LEE: “Bordering on self-aggrandizing narcissism. Don't get me wrong, I could use some of that myself. We're not much alike, you and me.”
Then they go through their life and find that it was very much alike except somewhere they must have veered off. Because our Lincoln thinks he is not like Alt-Lincoln. Is he?
So Lincoln wants to present his theory to Broyles.
COLONEL BROYLES: “Granted. But I'm still not convinced, with apologies, Captain Lee, that an error wasn't somehow made in the lab. I just don't see anything in this case that correlates at all with what we know about shapeshifters.”
Red Flag!
COLONEL BROYLES: “Well, I've read these files too, Agent Lee. And the unique state in which we found those bodies in the church bears no resemblance to corpses left by the earlier shapeshifter prototypes. Now, how do you explain that?”
Red Flag!
COLONEL BROYLES: “And further, how would you reconcile this version's M.O. with David Robert Jones' agenda? Why would Jones be targeting criminals? I'm sorry, but I suspect in your desire to avenge your partner, you may be unconsciously perverting the evidence to fit the profile of a shapeshifter.”
Red Flag!
COLONEL BROYLES: “Agent Lee, we appreciate the assistance you've given us. But as you were here for a simple sharing of Intel, it may be in the interest of both our agencies if you returned home. As for you two, alert me when you have something more - concrete.”
Ding, ding, ding!
Red Flags all over now.
And maybe it’s just me or because we know he is a mole. And maybe it’s not so much what he said but how it said it.
So then “Canaan” needs a new body. He finds some junkies.
Grosser! Yuck!
Again the note from 4.16 Nothing As It Seems says it’s exciting and appealing.
I don’t think so!
As the team goes on the stake out/raid both Lincolns’ continue talking about their lives.
And as I said in the beginning Alt-Lincoln’s line stood out to me.
ALT-LINCOLN: “Maybe it's free will. I don't buy that we're all just defined by our circumstances. Maybe I just made a choice to become the man I wanted to be.”
If I may disagree with Alt-Lincoln. I think some of our circumstances do define who we are. But then it’s our choice to deal with it or not. And the choices we make will have an effect on our lives and those around us.
One of my favorite lines.
FAUXLIVIA: “Girls, you might want to get off the line, 'cause some of us are actually trying to work here.”
ALT-LINCOLN: “Sorry, Mother.”
I had to think of 3.05 Amber 31422 where Alt-Lincoln was concerned whether Faxulivia (actually our Olivia thinking she is Fauxlivia) was ready for the tests Walternate had designed to find out how our Olivia could cross universes safely. Liv’s answer was: “Yeah. I can handle it. But thank you... Mom.”
The team is able to take Antonio Dawes into custody.
Alt-Broyles is asking Alt-Astrid to relay congratulations to the team.
Here is another red flag, at least to me it sounded odd, since he is standing right there, that he wouldn’t do it himself. But as we find out he had more important things to do.
COLONEL BROYLES: “We have him in custody. 148th Street warehouse, just west of Amsterdam. They'll be moving him at the rear.”
NINA SHARP (let’s call her “Meana”): “Thank you, Colonel. We'll take it from here.”
As Lincoln asks permission to question Antonio for about 5 minutes a sharp shooter gets in position. Meana passed on the information she received from Broyles.
The sharp shooter goes up a “spiral” staircase, one of recurring images in Fringe.
It even has some gold on it.
Lincoln talks with Canaan. He had a picture of a boy who was his girlfriend’s I assume.
CANAAN: “No. He came later. She left me on her own. Took Daniel with her. They just went on living their lives as though I were never there. As if I meant nothing to them. I've never really been a... there are these people you come across. These bright, bright lights. They drift through life effortlessly. Unforgettable. I'm not one of them. I wanted to be needed. Or at least to be missed. Do you understand?”
Two things came to mind during this.
4.02 One Night In October.
BROYLES: “At the risk of sounding sentimental...I've always thought there were people who leave an indelible mark on your soul. An imprint that can never be erased.”
4.07 Wallflower
EUGENE BRYANT: “All my life... I've been watching them live theirs. Watching them... fall in love. To be looked upon by the right person... to connect... and to see in their eyes kindness. Happiness. And... recognition. That's when you exist.”
Canaan also thought he would be the first of a new breed of human beings but he was a disappointment.
As they bring him out the sharp shooter aims for his target and pulls the trigger.
Fauxlivia spots him on the roof.
She makes a nearly impossible shot and the sharp shooter goes down.
She is probably the only one who could have made that. After all she won an Olympic medal for marksmanship (3.01 Olivia).
And our Olivia had inherited a bit of that as well when she was infused with Fauxlivia’s memories, killing the agents at the gas station (3.01 Olivia).
The sharp shooter didn't hit Canaan/Antonio though.
AGENT LEE: “Officer down! Officer down!”
ALT-LINCOLN: “Who knew?”
AGENT LEE: “What?”
ALT-LINCOLN: “Who else knew we were transporting him? We gotta find out.’
You are asking all the right questions. Will our Lincoln and Fauxlivia follow up on that? Only a few episodes left to find out.
Our Lincoln is furious.
AGENT LEE: “Hey! This was meant for you! Do you understand that? Jones! The man that you are protecting just tried to have you killed! It's time to wake up. He is never gonna welcome you back into the fold.”
CANAAN: “But he has to. I don't know what to do.”
AGENT LEE: “Yes, you do. You can keep waiting for somebody else to define you, to give you your place in the world, or you can decide that you're not just somebody's broken puppet anymore. Choose!”
2.19 Brown Betty
Peter to Olivia: “Must be nice to know who you are, to know your place in the world.”
3.07 Wallflower
Nina to Olivia: “Oh, Olive, you can't let what happened to you as a child, define you… Life is an experiment. You have to find out where you belong, find your own place in this world.”
Here we’ve got some nice green and red action going. It’s garnered with just a streak of yellow.
“Meana” and the tanks.
We have seen those before in 3.08 Back To Where You’ve Never Been.
How long has Meana been working with Jones already?
CANAAN: “It's done. We've tied up our loose end.”
NINA SHARP: “Nice job. Was there any resistance?”
CANAAN: “The Redhead almost took my head off with a nearly impossible shot.”
NINA SHARP: “That girl always amazes me. She and the one from the other side.”
Rule No. 1: Don’t ever underestimate a Dunhamnator!
Rule No. 2: No matter what version!
I have to say. This version of Canaan had me fooled. I totally believed that Fauxlivia missed her shot (although I saw her hit the target) and that he just came back to report to Meana.
But after watching it again I realized that he was tricking Meana. Phew!
And I’m glad Meana got caught.
I’m not sure how cooperative she’ll be. I guess we will find out soon enough.
Back at Fringe HQ
Alt-Astrid has news for Alt-Broyles.
I appreciated the emotions she showed.
And the play with her hand.
I will always think of Milo from 3.03 The Plateau.
The news is not good.
Lincoln and Fauxlivia found a map of every shapeshifter. Each point represents one.
So if Alt-Broyles is one he should be in this database as well, right? Well, can we go look?
But I guess before they can investigate more Fauxlivia is being pulled aside.
And the news is not good at all.
Alt-Lincoln didn’t make it.
Lincoln brings Canaan over to our side.
And of course Walter can’t wait to study…uh, help him.
And as a reminder Lincoln passes on the pendant to Canaan.
I’m not sure if it means anything but Lincoln’s locker combination is 3570.
Fauxlivia goes through the locker and pulls out a few pictures.
3.20 6:02 AM EST
ALT-LINCOLN: “Remember this?”
FAUXLIVIA: “Yeah. That was my first commendation.”
ALT-LINCOLN: “Yeah, for dragging my ass out of a Class Four vortex.”
Now she has another thing in common with Olivia who has lost a partner as well (John Scott) and in the old timeline actually two partners, John Scott and Charlie Francis.
As she is looking at these, Lincoln walks in. I mean our Lincoln.
He apologizes because his face might be the last one she needs to see right now.
That must be so weird. And he offers to stay and help.
And Fauxlivia has no objection.
This was another excellent episode.
I really thought that whenever Alt-Lincoln was going to die, it would be in Fauxlivia's arms. Hm.
I’m gonna throw a theory out that is probably wrong, but that’s ok.
What if Alt-Lincoln isn’t really dead? He knows there is a mole. If everyone believes he’s dead maybe he will be able to catch whoever the mole is.
Just a thought.
I guess we will find out soon.
I’m so excited for Friday I want it now.
Keep watching Fringies!
“In the end I have to believe in HOPE”
7 Comments:
I have a theory of what was different between both Lincolns: Olivia. Alt-Lincoln met Olivia much earlier, and we all know that they both had/have a thing for her. So perhaps he became "the man he wanted to be" because of her. Just a thought...
Irene,
that is a very good thought, I like it.
Alt-Lincoln and Lincoln may be exactly the same person (sans the confidence level), but Fauxlivia and Olivia are very different. I can totally see Fauxlivia falling for Lincoln (who wouldn't?), but will Lincoln just as easily fall for Fauxlivia? Either way, he deserves to be happy. :)
When Alt-Astrid talks to Broyles did you notice that she used the wrong title ?
She says "Agent Broyles I have something...."
Made even odder by the underlining earlier in the episode that it was Colonel Broyles when Blue Lincoln said the same thing when he was talking about shape shifters.
I also thought it might be possible that Alt Lincoln faked his death to catch the mole. Like how Commissioner Gordon faked his death in The Dark Knight to catch The Joker. Especially since they specifically mentioned The Dark Knight in this episode. But I think i saw a tweet from JH Wyman yesterday that we shouldn't get our hopes up thinking Alt Lincoln is alive.
I think they killed Alt Lincon just to give our Lincon a chance to be with Olivia, enven if its the alternate version of her. My point is that as the story is much more about our side, it is an obvious consequence that the audience would fall for our characters. while Peter was vanished we had a taste of an olivia/Lincon relationship and many of us fell for that plot. In order not to disappoint any of us, they are going to give both lincon and peter a happy ending with each versions of Olive.
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