Fringe Summer Rewatch: #110 "Safe"

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.

If there were an award for the Fringe Season 1 episode that starts out swinging, episode 110, "Safe,"would surely win it. Written by Jason Cahill and David H. Goodman, this episode has tons of energy.

"Safe" picks up where "The Equation" leaves off, for Double Agent Mitchell Loeb and his "Chess Club" of hirees take the magical formula for making boundaries penetrable and use it to steal the last pieces of Walter Bishop's hidden transporter machine. In safety deposit theft Number 3, one of the magnets gets stuck and Raul Lugo takes time to free it, but he gets stuck in the wall on the way out. Leader Mitchell Leob takes only a second to be distressed, in the next he shoots the poor man in the head, and the remaining men take their leave.

Sometime later the Fringe Division arrives, and if you like great Peter/Olivia banter(with classic Walter Bishop interruptions) some of the best in the series occurs when they enter the crime scene at the bank in Philadelphia. (You can read the transcript here: http://www.fringepedia.net/wiki/Safe/Transcript.)

As the team stares at the poor man in the wall, Peter delivers the phrase, "Just when you think things couldn't get any weirder." If that sounds familiar, it's a slightly different form of what Olivia says from her hospital bed in 201, after Peter tells her she spoke the Greek phrase his mom used to tell him every night.

Olivia suddenly realizes that she knows the victim. Peter thinks she's joking, but Liv proceeds to tell them his name, where he lives, his wife's name, and even that she's been to his New Jersey home. Peter gives her that look, and we get a squirmy feeling in our belly, or at least we should.

About a third of the way into this episode we see the familiar site of Wissenschaft Prison in Hamburg, Germany, and suddenly this plot spins a whole new direction. What in the world does incarcerated Daivd Robert Jones have to do with anything, we ask ourselves.

"Safe" has some lovely humorous spots, and Peter and Walter trying to buy a saw at a tool store in greater Philly is one of them. Walter snarks about Peter's lack of roots and Peter verbally retaliates, as a doe-eyed associate asks if she can help them. Walter tells the innocent what they need, and trying to be helpful, she asks what they are cutting. In true Walter Bishop style he tells it like it is. "Human tissue. Flesh and bone. It's more sinuous than you may expect."
The girl's eyes go wide as Peter flashes her his con-man smile anad tries to minimize the blow, but Walter's no help. The girl gives them blunt directions and dashes up the stairs. Peter does damage control by yelling "No need to call the police," as the girl speeds away up the stairs.

Jones talks condescendingly to his attorney in his cell, paying seemingly no attention to his appeal info. Instead he makes a written list of things for his attorney bring him, including dramamine and suntan lotion, which leaves us scratching our heads.

Olivia Dunham goes to interview Raul Lugo's widow in New Jersey, and that knot in the belly from earlier starts to expand. Olivia tells Mrs. Lugo she hadn't seen Raul in years, adding that they served together in the Marines. She goes on to tell Susan Lugo that they have met before when she had dinner at that very house, the night Raul became First Lieutenant. Susan gets defiant and says "No, you weren't here." Olivia insists she was, and proceeds to describe the events of that evening and the arrangement of the furniture. Susan acknowledges but insists it was just her, Raul, and his friend John(Major squirmies now! Remember Walter's words about complications from the tank?) Olivia asks "John who," but I'm sure she already knows the answer, which is "John Scott."

One thing I look forward to in the series is a front-row seat to some of Walter Bishop's science discussions/experiments. This time it's making a plastic figure disappear into a beaker full of dry rice, on top of a vibrating football table. It's epecially fun when Walter tells Astrid he's gonna repeat it and asks if she'd like to watch, to which she gives a swift "Nope." Peter does not interpret the scientific Walter-speak. This time around Walter explains everything to us, that the robbers were able to weaken the atomic structure of the vault wall and pass through it, but not without the possible consequence of becoming radioactive.

Olivia informs the team the safety deposit boxes were purchased annonymously 23 years ago. If you've watched through Season 3, you know that goes back to the magic year of 1985 and the enormous Peter-related events of that year. Peter keeps the momentum flowing by asking Olivia, "Okay...so what's our next move?" Olivia tells him she got some names from the widow, including Raul's best friend who happens to work at a bar in Cambridge. This makes a great segue into one of my very favorite Season 1, P/O scenes, that just happens to take place in "Safe."

Olivia and Peter enter the bar in Cambridge to interview Raul's best friend. Always in charge, Olivia tells Peter to "Just go along with this, okay?" to which he responds "Sure thing, boss."
She introduces Peter as her brother, Rick( the bartender doesn't seem convinced of his sibling status. )What ensues is another great batch of P/O banter with two especially enlightening double-meanings-if you're caught up through 3.15, "Subject 13.":

Olivia:Drew, I gotta tell you, I never forget a face.
Peter:It's true, she doesn't. It's kind of creepy actually.(Foreshadowing of seeing "Peter" in S4 or S5?)

Olivia tells Drew the bartender she remembers him being best man at Susan and Raul's wedding. Drew seems impressed. Peter's response:"It's incredible, right? She's been able to do that since we were kids. Remember that?" If you've watched "Subject 13" you know it's a fun and ironic answer, since the two of them don't seem to remember their meeting and interaction as children.

Olivia is throwing down the double whiskeys so fast Peter can barely keep up as she pumps Drew for information. She does learn Raul spent time at a VA hospital before her source gets back to tending the bar. Olivia calls Broyles and recruits his help, and tells Peter they should go. Peter tries to get her to slow down and tosses the gauntlet:"...what's the rush? Two is your limit?"

Olivia gives Peter Bishop a look we've never seen before(her nonverbal reply to provocation?) and one-ups him, "Is that a dare?" Two scenes later finds Peter performing card tricks for her, and it's obvious both of their defenses are down. Peter tells her "so top that," and not missing a beat Olivia grabs the deck and launches into a demonstration of her ability to count cards. Our conman is truly impressed, and you can almost hear the cogs in his head as he's probably thinking about how to exploit that talent. Olivia tells Peter once she sees numbers she can remember them for the rest of her life. After a couple of examples she tells him the 3 safety deposit numbers that were burglarized and a realization sobers Peter's alcohol-laden brain.
He tells her in a serious tone "I know those numbers."

If you read my commentary on "The Dreamscape," you may remember I mentioned that Walter misunderstood that Olivia wanted to get to Peter's bed when she came to wake Walter late at night. After the bar scene in "Safe," Peter and Olivia go quickly to a sleeping Walter, and Peter shouts him awake. Walter sees the two of them as he comes awake and says, "Do you two want to use the room?" Peter is all business and lets it go, but there is this adorable smirk on Olivia's face and possibly a little blush. Peter asks Walter about the pattern of numbers that includes 233, 377, and 610. Walter chastises Peter for not staying in college, saying that everyone knows it's the Fibonacci Sequence. Peter keeps Walter focused, telling him they also the numbers of the safety deposit boxes that were stolen. After some outloud thinking Walter has an epiphany-the safety deposit boxes are his!

Peter and Olivia drag Walter to the Federal Building where Charlie Francis has learned that Walter lectured in 1985 at Syracuse University. Charlie hands him pictures of banks near the university to see if any look familiar and asks, "Does any of this trigger anything in your mind?"
Walter's answer is a big foreshadowing of the events of 322:

Yes, but not about banks. Think back 20 years-imagine yourself then, imagining yourself now-20 years into the future. In your wildest imagination, could you ever think you'd be here?!

OK, so in 322 we moved ahead 15 years instead of 20, but it's close. Charlie's expression is priceless as he whispers to Liv, "Is he stoned?" Olivia tells Charlie to be patient with him as Walter proceeds to lick the photos. Broyles pops in and tells Olivia that Lugo was an inpatient at a VA hospital for 6 months after he split with his wife, and the plot moves on.

As the Feds hunt down the members of The Chess Club they discover 3 of them bought tickets from DC to T.F. Green Airport(yup, a real place) in Providence. Liv's dialing in a blink and asks Peter if he can ask Walter what bank he might have used in Providence. Peter tries the direct approach and gets nowhere. Then he gets a thought and asks Walter in a different way, and Walter very quickly tells Peter the name of the bank he used and its location.

This time Charlie and Olivia get lucky, catching the burglars leaving the bank, and Liv shoots one in the leg as he tries to catch up to the getaway vehicle. But Olivia gets frustrated because she can't make him talk in interrogation, as Peter watches in the two-way mirror. Peter tells Charlie to call Olivia out, that he wants to try something. A little alpha male contest ensues on Charlie's part, but Peter keeps his cool, and Charlie obliges him.

The scene of Peter Bishop interrogating Ryan Eastwick is reminiscent of his lovely interrogation of Richard Steig in the pilot episode, and you wonder what body parts he's gonna crush this time around. Peter asks to see his hands, and Eastwick places his shackled, shaking hands on the table. Peter says "Let me see if any of this rings a bell for you," and Peter proceeds to list the symptoms of the first phase of radiation poisoning. He's gotten Eastwick's attention now, and Ryan starts talking as Charlie and Olivia look incredulously at each other. Eatwick tells Peter he overheard their unnamed leader say he was going to Westford. The lightbulb pops on for Olivia. She tells them there's an abandoned airfield called "Little Hill Field," and reminds them "Little Hill" was the codename Mr. Smith gave to Mr. Jones(via Peter) in "In Which We Meet Mr. Jones."

While Charlie and Liv approach Westford, MA from different directions, Walter's in the lab desperately trying to remember what was in his hidden safe deposit boxes. Peter does his first coin trick of the series which triggers Walter to remember Peter's "near death" from a rare form of bird flu and his making of a machine to cross the space-time continuum to retrieve a bird flu expert who dies in 1936. Walter tells Peter he thinks the machine was what was in the safety deposit boxes, adding, "In theory, it could retrieve anyone from anywhere."

David Robert Jones gets ready to transport out as Charlie approaches Westford from the South and Olivia from the west, but she never makes it. A black SUV comes from nowhere and cuts her off. When she tries to make a run for it she gets tranqued in the back and goes down. It's funny, sometimes news takes a ridiculous amount of time to travel in the Fringe universe, but here, it seems like only second later when Phillip Broyles contacs Nina Sharp on her private phone to tell her that Olivia Dunham's missing. He is accusatory in tone, and Nina resents it whether she should or not. (We are purposely misled in a tiny earlier scene, when one of Mina's scientists tells Nina they think John Scott shared consciousness with Olivia before he died. They hypothesize that some of John's memories that they need are stored in Olivia's brain.) But by the end of the episode we realize Liv's abduction is Jones's doing.
Jones:"Do you have her? Agent Dunham?
Loeb:She didn't even put up a fight.
Jones:Well then. Let's not keep her waiting.

Interesting Things About "Safe"
The conversations. There are several conversations in this episode that are very smooth, and you give you further insight into the main characters' relationships and personality quirks.

Walter's speech about Peter being severely ill as a child, etc. while not only being huge foreshadowing of the "Peter" episode(in Season 2), propels us further ahead into Season 1, towards that moment in 1.20, "There's More Than One Of Everything."

If Peter Bishop Never Existed....
I doubt that they ever would have figured out which bank in Providence Loeb's men were hitting. Therefore, Charlie and Olivia probably wouldn't have had a chance to catch Ryan Eastwick, and learn of Loeb's plan to go to a field in Westford.
Following this progression, the Feds may not have discovered that David Robert Jones was transported to Massachusetts.

Interestingly, Olivia Dunham may have still been abducted.

Jones gets zapped from Hamburg to Westford in the blink of an eye as we marvel at the scene. Loeb in awe, greets his boss.

Fringe Summer Rewatch: #109 "The Dreamscape"

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.

"The Dreamscape" is the second Season 1 episode written by Julia Cho. This time she teams up with Zack Whedon(his first time writing for this series)and the result is another busy, yet well-done episode.

There are really 3 sub-plots in this one. Olivia and the Fringe team try to solve the murder of an up and coming Massive Dynamic scientist(Mark Young), Olivia continues to be haunted by her dead partner and lover, John Scott, and Peter Bishop gets a blast from his past. The great thing, like most Fringe episodes, is that the lines between these subplots get deliciously blurred, and you hardly notice you're going back and forth.

Mark Young appears to have committed suicide by jumping out a window at the Massive Dynamic building in New York, but we learn his internal injuries came from the inside out!(How's that for gross?)The question remains how and why? In a twist very reminiscent of 105, "Power Hungry"(which Cho also co-wrote) John Scott supplies the answers. He sends Olivia an email with a basement(yes, again) address. Apparently, like Walter Bishop, John Scott has more than one storage place around Boston. But there's no hands in jars at his, only frogs, or more correctly, toads. Going with her gut Olivia turns them over to a very lucid Walter who informs her the venom under their skin contains a highly potent hallucinogen. Since Peter's busy with sub-plot number three, Olivia simplifies it for us: "So you're saying that Mark Young hallucinated being cut on his body, and then his mind made it actually happen." If you've already seen Season 3, this should smack of Olivia as Bolivia getting herself home in "Entrada", and Peter actually making a bridge between universes in 322. But again, I can see this being taken a step farther in Season 4 or 5, such that Liv hallucinates Peter is there, and then he is. (Wouldn't that be fun?! )

Olivia gets Walter alone and tells him John Scott led her to the toads. She asks him how long his memories will be in her head. He tells her it could be years. A conversation about possible therapy ensues and Olivia guesses correctly it would involve her going back into the tank to purge Johns' memories. She pushes Walter to do it. As she's getting cozy in the brine with just Walter and Astrid in attendance(Peter's still preoccupied) Astrid asks her if she's OK about doing this. Olivia tells her she wants the memories to stop, but if John's memories can help then she hasn't been deceived for nothing.

They hit paydirt with Olivia's dreamscape(except she's screaming her lungs out when John Scott turns and murders one of his accomplices). Fortunately Peter returns to the lab in the middle of the action and throws the tank doors open.

Olivia gives Broyles the details on suspect George Morales and the dangerous Massive Dynamic-developed drug. Broyles tells her to keep going. Nina Sharp actually cooperates and gives the Feds Mark Young's project folders. Olivia stares at his Masssive Dynamic business card(more on that later) and gets the idea that M-O-N-A-R-C-H in Mark Young's appointment book might represent a phone number. She matches letters to numbers and dials. Olivia recognizes the voice, and in a real plot stretch, the location is able to be traced long after the call has ended.

By pinging Morales's cell Charlie Francis and Olivia are able to track Morales down. He gets hit by a cab and ends up in the hospital. In what is one of the most important scenes in the episode Morales tells Liv he'll give her all the information he has on William Bell and Massive Dynamic in exchange for physical protection. Straight out, Morales tells Olivia "Massive Dynamic is Hell, and its founder, William Bell, is the devil." She accuses him of telling her what she wants to hear.
In an effort to get her attention, the words start pouring ouf of Morales's mouth:

"Really? Did I invent ZFT? Flight 627? The Northwoods Group? John Scott? The Pattern? The whole thing is a hoax. It's all a smoke screen so Massive Dynamic can do whatever it wants to whoever it wants. Do you understand that?"

We get the idea that Olivia gives into Morales's demand. But while she goes to confront Nina Sharp, again, Morales hallucinates that John Scott cuts his throat, and in an interesting special effect, a poor nurse actually witnesses Morales's throat cutting itself.

Earlier in the episode Peter gets a phone call that makes him wrinkle his brow and go into a private room. We get some well-earned backstory in this episode, and meet one of his former flames, Tess Amaral. She tells him she has to meet him. After a pause, he tells her he can't get away right now, but Tess pursues with, "Then when?"

Two scenes later Peter and Tess greet each other in a coffee shop with a kiss. He tells her she looks good, she tells him he looks older. Peter makes a joke about it, pointing out that Walter's first words when he saw him were that he looked 'fat.' Tess gets serious and tells him if she can find him then they can too. Peter shrugs it off and asks if he can get her something to eat. Tess responds with "Nothing changes with you huh? It's the same old Peter, you just play it fast and loose until it's too late." But Tess is wrong. Peter Bishop is a bit more grounded now. He's got a dysfunctional little family keeping him in Boston. We learn from Tess that Peter just upped and left her. She sarcastically points out that leaving a second time shouldn't be any harder than the first. The following dialogue ensues:

Peter:I know you think that, Tessa, but you have to trust me, it was harder than you think.
Tess:Trust you? I'm not sure I ever even knew you.
(Needless to say, that last line is great irony if you're caught up all the way through 322.)

Peter's agenda changes when he grabs her wrist and she winces. He pulls back her sleeve and sees the heavy bruising on his wrist. "Michael?" is all Peter asks. Tess tells him things have changed and that they'll do worse to him if he doesn't leave.

Peter catches up to Michael on the street a bit later and roughs him up. With an angry face we're not accustomed to(but that foreshadows "Dark Peter" in "Reciprocity,") he tells Michael that if
he touches Tess again he'll kill him. Near the end of the episode Michael approaches another thug who comments on his injuries. Michael tells him that Peter Bishop is back in town.
This leaves the door wide open in the future for some organized crime retaliation against our favorite dumb, smart guy. Or does it?

The episode ends with a hyper Olivia waking Walter Bishop in his hotel room. Our Liv likes closure, and she wants Walter to put her back in the tank again to get more answers.
She says to him, "Can you come out? Um, I need to go back in." In a Walter moment reminiscent of the scene in "Safe" where Peter and Olivia hurriedly try to rouse him, Walter misunderstands, thinking she's trying to get to Peter's bed. She explains that she needs more answers. But gently, Walter refuses to encourage her into the tank again, telling her repeated use of the tank is too dangerous. Olivia counters that lives could be lost if she doesn't get the answers, but Walter returns that if she keeps going into the tank the life that could be lost is her own. He tells her there are no guarantees she'll get the answers she wants, and that she can't interact with John, can't just ask him questions.
Olivia reminds him that John saw her in the restaurant and again, Walter denies this, saying it's not possible.

A tired and defeated Olivia returns home. She turns off her computer and climbs into her bed, as her computer clicks back on. Out of curiosity she goes back over to it. There is an email from John Scott that reads "I saw you in the restaurant."

Interesting Things About "The Dreamscape"

1)The second "benchwarmers" scene of the series happens after the tank incident. Peter is sitting on the lab bench looking at Olivia worriedly. Olivia, standing, wringing her wet hair out, looks unrealistically calm. Peter asks, "You OK?" which is one of his trademark questions to her in the series. She tells him they have a lead and she needs to see Broyles. He asks if she'd like any company. In true Dunham fashion she turns him down with a smile. Peter replies with, "Olivia, if you need me, I'm here." This is more than just a trivial statement. This is a promise. And I have a feeling Peter Bishop hasn't made too many promises in his life. I'm hoping this is also foreshadowing, that even if Peter Bishop never existed, that our Olivia somehow knows in her head that if she needs "him," he's there.

2)The phone number on Mark Young's business card 1-877-8-MSSDYN, used to really work!
If you dialed that after this episode first aired, you'd get a recording that you have reached Massive Dynamic! But now if you dial you get, "The subscirber you have dialed is not available,
or has traveled outside the calling area." Don't believe me? Try it. Click on the link to hear one of the former phone messages: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZfa2Y02-5s

3)Isn't it unnerving when Walter laughs at his test subject under hypnosis on the tape?That smacks of foreshadowing of Walternate's sadistic nature that we see in "Over There:Part 2", and also in "Olivia," and "Entrada." Equally unnerving are Walter's words as the subject develops second-degree burns from an ice cube: "Cruel probably, but very enlightening."

4)There really is an airport in Massachusetts called the Marlborough Airport, but in actuality it has only 1 runway, and it's the shortest runway in the state!

5)This is the first episode in which Walter Bishop discusses religion. He talks about 'the spirit' again in "Midnight," and of course there is the huge topic of religion/forgiveness in "Peter," and "White Tulip." But here the words "and a new spirit I will put within thee," foreshadow William Bell's spirit intruding upon Olivia's body in "Os," "The Stowaway," and "Lysergic Acid Diethylamide."

6)Nina Sharp's reaction and words when Olivia goes to confront her near the end imply that she knows the FBI's witness, George Morales, is already dead. We have always sensed a cold power about Nina, but in this episode it seems she does have control over whether some people live or die.


As Yet Unanswered Questions That Arise From "The Dreamscape":
George Morales mentions 'The Northwoods Group?' Is this the group Broyles is addressing at the beginning of 102?

Why does Olivia visualize the butterflies moving in the display cases in Mark Young's home?

Walter denies at least twice Olivia's admission that John Scott could see her in her dreamscape while in the tank? Why is he so adamant that John cannot see her, and that she cannot intereact with him?

Why did John Scott kill the African-American man that seemed to be working with him?

If Peter Bishop Never Existed....
No one would have warned Michael not to further hurt Tess Amaral. She could be dead by now.

I think Walter still would have figured out about the Massive Dynamic drug compounded from the toad venom, and that Mark Young was murdered. Interestingly, most of this episode unfolded without Peter Bishop's interaction. (Keep that in mind as you watch Season 4.)

Fringe Summer Rewatch: #108 "The Equation"

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.

The Equation is an episode I didn’t think would link too much across episodes but I was pleasantly surprised to see quite a few concepts span throughout the series. The episode starts off with a boy named Ben riding home with his father in the pouring rain. Ben is busy in the backseat writing sheet music when he asks his dad not to be upset and if he could slow the wipers down because it’s messing with his tempo. Ben’s father is distracted when he sees a woman along the side of the road who seems to be having troubles with her car. He pulls over to help in any way he can and when he goes to check the engine, flashing green and red lights put him into a “hypnogogic state” where everything around him drops out. This episode becomes a race to rescue young Ben who the Fringe team as determined is being used to solve and equation that many before him had been used to try and solve. We see the first real fight between Peter and Olivia when Olivia is given ultimatum of finding a new lead or having Walter help them by going back into St. Claire’s to try and talk information out of an old friend at the institute. In an act of incredible bravery, Walter agrees, going against Peter’s wishes for him to not go back. Walter survives his short stay at St. Claire’s and seems unsettled after his stay and requests distance from Peter and to have some of his own space. In the end Walter’s adventure back into his nightmare pays off and Olivia gets the information she needs to save Ben, but not in time before the final equation falls into the wrong hands. At the end we learn this equation is used to help sold objects back through other solid objects when Loeb demonstrates the success by pulling an apple from a solid vault. We don’t learn until the episode Safe later on in season one.

I have to say one of my favorite parts of this episode is when Peter discovers the link between music and math since I am a huge music/math geek myself. It was great to see something that most of us can relate to (music) in a case and put into sciencey talk (thank you Peter). Ben's song ends up being a larger part of the Fringe theme song that every episode begins with and that we've all grown to love. It certainly makes me dance in my seat in anticipation.

Highlighted themes I saw in this episode were:

• What a son would do to save his mother. This made me think of what Peter might've done to save his own mother had he been given a better opportunity.


• Minds coming together on one thing having never met or talked. Much like the two different universes coming to similar ideas and concepts.


• Walter goes back into his worst nightmare to save a boy. Sound familiar? It definitely should since we all know the great lengths Walter went to save Walternate's son.


• “The easiest lie to remember is the one closest to the truth.” This seems to be like the Pre-Fringe team Peter theme, but also a theme we see with Fauxlivia. Definitely something they have in common. Makes you wonder if before the "Fringe team" had ever been created, would Peter have still chosen our Olivia over fauxlivia?


• Driven to insanity to find a solution. Insanity seems to be a very common thread throughout the series, but what can you expect with a show like Fringe?


• “It was just a dream. A bad dream.” –Dashiel. How many times have various characters thought they were dreaming, whether they were or not?


• Peter stands up for Walter finally, showing that he’s willing to show he cares. The beginning of a truly beautiful relationship that only builds.


• The apple used in the experiment is also a fringe symbol.


• “Numbers make everything work.” So true!

Questions that came up in this episode are:

• What does the St. Claire’s director, Dr. Summer, want with Walter now that he is gone? Why is he so upset over him being gone? (Significance in his name, Summer?)


• When Walter sees “himself”, is it really him or Walternate he thinks he sees.


• Who put the equation into all of the people’s heads?

If Peter Bishop never existed in The Equation episode…

• They might never have discovered the true link between Ben’s music and the equation by Dr. Dashiel.


• Astrid might’ve been driven crazy by Walter’s obsession with Christmas music.


• Walter may not have gone back to St. Claire’s in order to get the information from Dashiel and Ben would likely not have been saved from the same fate as the other kidnap victims.

Fringe Summer Rewatch: #107 "In Which We Meet Mr. Jones"

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.

Meeting Mr. Jones is another key moment in the Fringe mythology. So important, that J.J. Abrams co-wrote the episode with Jeff Pinkner. There is a slight monster-of-the-week plot humming in the background, but when a viewer takes a serious look, it is amazing at how this episode sets up future developments for plot and characters.

My Observations:

Walter asks Peter for gum or mints… Then when that fails, he asks a surprised Broyles. After looking at Mitchell Loeb‘s strange heart problem, Walter says his breath is atrocious, so he can‘t study him at the hospital. Even back at the lab, Walter is fixated on gum, which Peter provides. By Season 3, Walter hasn’t lost his ease at asking people for gum. (Reciprocity - Walter asks MP for gum, preferably grape.)

Peter comes up with a solution to stop the organism from constricting Loeb’s heart. Walter is impressed, “You may have found your true calling - working with me.” Peter at this point in time won’t have any of that as he states loudly, “I certainly hope not!” As the series progresses, Peter embraces his place as one of The Bishop Boys. Both of them work together in the hope of saving their universe.

One thing that stuck out to me was Walter talking about the perfect DNA code sequence embedded among the organism’s genetic profile. Kind of like a signature of sorts. Walter mentioned another such signature in The Bishop Revival. I also can’t help but think that Peter’s DNA is not all natural either, but that could be discussed at another time.

Astrid finally starts to develop character-wise, although Walter refers to her as Olivia’s “friend” at this point. Astrid reveals her love for cracking codes. Astrid’s not the only one. Olivia knows what a “Caesar shift” entails.

This skill comes back into play in Season 3. In 6955 kHz, Astrid cracks the code for the meaning of the numbers transmitted by the number stations, and she learns the locations of the machine parts. In Reciprocity, Olivia figures out who the shapeshifters are by figuring out the OLIVE code used by Fauxlivia.

In this case, the code sequence is ZFT. Olivia mentions this name to Broyles, and he tells her about David Robert Jones, a scientist with a specialization in genetic weaponry, that had recently been arrested in Germany for the possession of state secrets.

Olivia shows her tenacity with Broyles when she demands more information about ZFT. When Broyles tells Olivia that Germany is denying the U.S. access to Jones, Olivia says she may be able to get to him. This amuses Broyles who asks:

“Do you have super-powers that you’re not telling me about?

Wow, the power of such a seemingly unimportant statement placed in context with the rest of the series! The Day We Died showed that Olivia had honed her telepathic abilities.

Also, it struck me that Olivia would not accept Broyles’ taunting her that she could not get in to see Jones. Of great interest is her insistence that she made a promise to Loeb’s wife. Olivia always keeps her promises, to the best of her ability. The most important promise of all in my opinion? It is when Olivia promised Alternate Broyles that she would find another way to save both universes. Although, it went wrong the first time, I have no doubt that Olivia will keep that promise in Season 4.

One silly connection? Broyles tells Walter that he appreciates his work. Walter goes off on a tangent about once having had a fruit cocktail in Atlantic City. Even though he isn’t a fruit cocktail kind of guy. In The Last Sam Weiss, Walter complains to Astrid about no one having a classic fruit cocktail anymore…

When Broyles was concerned about Walter’s fruit cocktail rambling, he brings his concern to Peter. Peter takes the opportunity to let out all of frustration about taking care of Walter.

When Olivia was with Lucas, I couldn’t help but grin at her cell phone ringing. Seems every time she gets romantic, she’s interrupted by a darned cell phone. Season 3 is a prime example of this.

When Olivia meets Jones, he tells her that she and he are basically pawns for someone else. He taunts her: “The people that I work with are loyal to the end. Can you say the same?” I can’t help but wonder if this was about someone other than Loeb.

One interesting moment at the end between Olivia and Peter. As Samantha Loeb is reunited with her husband, Peter tells Olivia, “Look at that,” and they both smile. In The Firefly, they both glance at an older couple enjoying each other in a retirement home and Peter remarks to her, “That's sweet…” To me, these observations show that both of them admire and desire a strong love.

Lies Told to Peter:

As the team prepares Joseph Smith for a procedure, it dawns on Peter that Walter had hooked him up to car batteries as a child. Peter is very upset that Walter side-steps the issue, that he is almost to the point of tears. What was the real reason Walter did this? Was it to cause a memory wipe for Peter, who does not remember the events depicted in Subject 13? When Peter is drugged and hooked up to the apparatus, he momentarily calls Walter, “Daddy.” Was Walter’s glances at him out of affection for the term, or disgust with himself for what he did to Peter as a child?

Unanswered Questions:

This is an incredible long shot, but I wonder if Jones didn’t have something to do with the machine, since his specialization was genetic weaponry. Nina Sharp had said that the machine had William Bell’s design signature. Jones was a protégé of Bell. But in The Day We Died, Future Walter says he sent the machine back through through the worm-hole in Central Park.

Who wanted Jones to meet with Olivia?

If Jones did not infect Loeb, who did? And how to Jones know how to kill the parasite?

If Peter Does Not Exist?

Would there be a ZFT, even if Peter was not in the picture? Jones had no interest at all in Peter, but was highly interested in Olivia… Would Olivia have possibly continued rekindling her relationship with Lucas if Peter had not interrupted them? Peter saved Loeb’s life at one point; could Walter have done the same thing that Peter did, or would Loeb have died? Peter was able to figure out Little Hill. Maybe someone else in his place could not do so, causing Jones to withhold the treatment form Loeb.

Fringe Summer Rewatch: #106 "The Cure"

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.

Before I get into "The Cure," let me refresh your memory of the episode via my parody project, "The Fringemunks." Back in Fall 2008, I produced a song recap of the episode that parodied "Friday I'm in Love" by (of course) The Cure:

We, the early devotees of Fringe, enjoyed "Fringe Tuesdays." We also enjoyed the ratings. "The Cure" was watched by almost 9 million people in its first broadcast - a number that the series likely won't ever reach again.

With a light and airy editing style, in which Mr. Papaya went ka-boom and actors' smirks (especially those of Josh Jackson) were not left on the cutting room floor, there was an engaging factor to a mass audience: spontaneity. This factor is still existent as of the pre-Season 4 hiatus, but not to the same extent. Fringe, while retaining humor and wit, has lost some of its engagement to a mass audience in recent months due to the complexity of the plot, lesser emphasis on standalones, and limited room for spontaneity… which falls into the category of, "be careful what you wish for": Good for the show's credibility, bad for the ratings.

The writers and showrunners, who I'm sure were pleased at their huge audience at the time, probably didn't know exactly where their story was going to end up at the end of Season 1. Thus, they used a Pattern-related plot involving a fictional lymphatic disease and a shady pharmaceutical company, and threw in a few mythological seeds - some of which would be watered through the years, one of which died on the spot. ("We'll figure this out later," it seems they were saying to each other.)

Let's examine these seeds now:

• Olivia's abusive stepdad - we didn't hear much more about him until Season 3 episode "Subject 13," and it was indeed a seed that was shelved away for awhile. Just how crucial is his character in the overall Fringe storyline, and where is he now?
  
  
• Nina's deal with Peter - as far as I know, Peter never returned Nina's favor, and probably never will. Unless he gives her a backrub in Season 6 and says: "I owed you one."
  
  
• Humans as guinea pigs - it seems that the experiments were conducted so people could be made "special," as in soldiers for an upcoming conflict… but - besides the Cortexiphan subjects - where are all these other people now, and will they ever be utilized? Where are the fellow clones of Chris Penrose? Will Mr. Meegar be called into action?
  

At the time this episode aired, the series was different in another key fashion: the episodes were longer, due to FOX's experimental limited-commercial format. Whereas later episodes (in Season 2 and 3) lasted about 44 minutes each, "The Cure" clocks out at over 50 minutes.

This length, in retrospect, is vitally refreshing. It allowed the characters to breathe and reflect, and it allowed plotlines to have more detail and garner more intensity. This plays out in two scenes that I will emphasize here:

• The opening scene at Holly's Diner - the Fringe title sequence doesn't start until the 5:25 mark. Basically, 4 minutes elapse (to us) between the time Emily enters the diner, and the time her head blows up. The conversation between the cop and Emily lasts a while during this time, increasing suspense and curiosity.
  


• The long pauses between Peter and Olivia near the end - watch in particular the scene spanning 47:00 through 48:43. Lots of pauses, lots of staring - little details that wouldn't see the light of day if the episode had to be truncated to 44 minutes. Look at how much the pauses add to the scene. This was part of the charm of Season 1.
  

William Bell later explained Jung's concept of synchronicity as having "the interconnectedness of apparently unrelated events" in the Season 3 episode "Stowaway." Synchronicity can also be explained as the Fringe writers' "excuse" for certain standalone episodes to take place. In "The Cure," it is Charlie Francis who notices that it is "one hell of a coincidence" that they were tackling a case involving an abused young woman, on Olivia's birthday ("today of all days...").

IF PETER BISHOP NEVER EXISTED...

... then there would have had to be another trigger or deal that compelled Nina to help the Fringe Division solve the case. Olivia would have been flirting with some imaginary dude at the end - not a charming idea at all. Also, Walter would have been guaranteed to use the right toothbrush, one would hope.

Fringe Summer Rewatch: #105 "Power Hungry"

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.

I chose to comment on "Power Hungry" because there are just some episodes of Fringe that crawl into your brain and make a home there(well, most of them do for me, actually)and this is one of those.

"Power Hungry" was written by Jason Cahill and Julia Cho, and correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe this is the only Fringe episode they've written together to date, and it's a shame. Even though the feel of this one is different from the Pinkner/Abrams or Pinkner/Goldsman/Wyman episodes I've come to adore in this series, 105 is smooth and fits right in flawlessly after "The Arrival," which is a tough episode to follow.

On the surface this is the story of a common man trying to do the right thing every day, but feeling as though he falls short. There are things lacking in his life, like in Roy's in 103.
Our man Joseph answers a newspaper ad that promises to unlock his brain's hidden potential, and give him confidence. He gets alot more than he bargained for, as afterwards he can effect electric machinery of many types, from the simple alarm clock on his stand, to the fancy elevator generator in the Worcester parking garage. But apparently Joseph can't control his effects on said equipment, especially when he gets emotional, like when the apple of his eye, a cute office secretary flirts with a coworker in front of him, and her computer mainframe goes haywire.

Such is the fate of all those in the elevator car when the secretary picks up Joseph's phone that has fallen on the floor and sees dozens of pictures of herself on it. She's scared and repulsed, Joseph gets emotional, and the elevator car does the unthinkable and drives itself into the ground killing all the passengers except Joseph, who can apparently levitate due to his abilities.

Like a good Season 1 episode, the layers unwrap as the Fringe Division attempts to solve the mystery and find Mr. Meager, and thanks to a very livid Walter Bishop, we learn that again, Walter is reminded of a project he did for the US government. This time involving enhancing a person's electromagnetic signature, exposing homing pigeons to it, and finding said person. Peter and Olivia noodling move things along. As they look for little events rather than big ones, they find Joseph Meager's apartment, and his poor deceased mother.

In a brilliant plot addition, John Scott appears twice to Liv in this episode, the first time as a scary ghost in the dark of her FBI building. Amongst other things he tells her she's on the right track looking for a person. He also mentions Jacob Fischer but doesn't elaborate. Olivia, of course, has to race down to the lobby to see if John Scott really was on that elevator. And of course, it's empty. But Liv sees the maximum capacity is 2000 pounds. That gives her an epiphany and she wakes Peter and Walter in their hotel room in the middle of the night for the second time in the series. John Scott also appears to Olivia in the hallway at Harvard while she's trying to get a soda. He sneaks right up behind her, and tells her he didn't betray her. "You know that. In your heart. You know I wasn't the one." Now I find that wording very obscure, whether you've watched 105 before or after Season 3, it's still strange wording. (More on that later.)

At the end of the episode Olivia spots John Scott again on the sidewalk as she drives down a street in the Boston area. He leads her to a door in an alleyway. Liv parks and follows. She discovers many, many file boxes in a basement that looks like a makeshift office. Broyles explains to her that John Scott seemed to be leading his own investigations, and knew about "The Pattern."

Broyles tells us John Scott knew of 7 other "Josephs" being manipulated by Dr. Fischer. Broyles says fortunately none of them had been activated yet, and that all 7 have been rounded up. (It's nice to see some Pattern-related people tidyed-up. If you've watched through Season 3 you know there are many subjects still unaccounted for, like the almost 80 people with the brain chip implants from 205, and the other cortexiphan folks running around out there, to name just a few.)
Broyles hands Olivia a metal box and tells her they found some of John Scott's personal effects, and that "it would seem some of them were intended for you." With that Broyles scoots quickly out of the room, and you just know it's something personal. After Olivia looks at pictures of children that are probably John and his siblings, she spots what looks like a ring box in the bottom. She opens it and there's a beautiful diamond solitaire engagement ring. Olivia lifts it up and the word "ALWAYS" is inscribed inside in captial letters, as John's voice-over says "I will prove it Liv-that I love you-always."

There are 4 things, in my opinion, that make this episode memorable:
1) Peter's appearance and demeanor in the beginning. It may be the second time in the series the writers give Joshua Jackson some real meat. Peter appears freshly tortured by John Mosley, and this is vocalized by Walter near the beginning. Peter's bruises on his face and ligature marks on his wrists look fresh and believable. He tells us he hasn't slept well, and he looks totured. By the second half he's able to focus, thanks mostly to Olivia's presence by his side, and he gets some of his snark back. I love the way Peter stops Joseph Meager with a crowbar as he tries to run away from Olivia and the other authorities.

2)Walter steals the show in the second half. He seems 2 steps ahead of everyone on this case, and most likely is. He posited that the situation was pretty much identical to the electromagnetic/pigeon studies he had done, and knew what direction to head. Walter loves saying "Meee-gar," which while the young man's situation is pathetic, it is amusing to hear Walter and the gang banter his name about, and it would probably make a good drinking game!(Let us know if you try it.)
Walter also forgets Astrid's name a couple of times, which is par for the course. I honestly think he didn't forget it that last time, but just wanted to get a rise out of her.

3) The scenes with John Scott reappearing:I believe this was the real focus of this episode, and I believe this is all foreshadowing of Season 4 or even 5, that Olivia will "see Peter" in the exact same way. Walter explains in this episode that he has a theory that when Liv and John shared consciousness in the tank that some of his consciousness, memories, etc. crossed over into hers, which is foreshadowing of the episode "Lysergic Acid Diethylamide," and Liv's forced body-sharing with William Bell.
I have a theory that when our Olivia and Peter Bishop consummated their love, they shared consciousness, and that despite Peter Bishop's total disappearance at the end of Season 3, there will be pieces of Peter in our Olivia's consciousness that will come to light in the future.

4)Charlie Francis is catching on to the "P/O" element:There are 2 glorious scenes that prove this point. In the first, Peter glides right past Charlie with two cups of coffee, giving him a comfortable "Hey, Charlie," and scoots into the passenger seat of Olivia's SUV as though he's always been there, as Charlie looks on.

In the second scene, as the feds close in on the whereabouts of Joseph Meager, thanks to the magnetized homing pigeons, Charlie pulls up next to the SUV containing Peter and Olivia. Everyone's windows are rolled down. As Olivia Dunham kills the engine she turns to Peter and says in a very comfortable voice, "Hey, you stay here."
Less than thrilled with her direct order, Peter replies, "Whatever you say, Boss." Liv gets out of the SUV and falls into step alongside Charlie who stares at her and says, "I'm not gonna ask," to which Olivia snaps, "Good." Go watch that little scene again and you'll notice that Charlie knows the dynamic is changing with those two, and it's very amusing to see.

Unanswered Questions That Arise in "Power Hungry"
1) Walter's words on John Mosely:"I was thinking about that man. The one who tortured you. Something about him. So familiar."

How does our Walter Bishop know "The Rogue," AKA John Mosely?

2)Walter tells Peter it should be possible that people like Joseph Meager could deliberately control electronic devices. Did Joseph deliberately get his boss's arm stuck in that machine?

3)John Scott to Olivia:"Liv, I didn't betray you. You know that. In your heart. You know I wasn't the one." What does that mean exactly? John Scott appeared to try to run his lover off the road and put her in harm's way! If John Scott wasn't the one who betrayed Olivia, who was?
Following this strange line of thought, is this foreshadowing that someone else did or will betray Olivia in the future? Like who? Broyles? Walter? Lincoln? Peter?

If Peter Bishop Never Existed...
Interestingly, Walter might have figured this one out all by himself, BUT, if Peter never existed no one would have stopped Joseph Meager in his attempt to flee the authorites, and he might still be out there, causing electronic mayhem, injury, and death all over the globe.

Fringe Summer Rewatch: #104 "The Arrival"

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.

The Arrival is an episode of key importance to the Fringe mythology. It is here that viewers have their first look at one of the more enigmatic characters on Fringe, The Observer.

(Of course, we later learn there are several Observers and that they appear in both universes.)

It is interesting that although the audience knows the name of the Observer, September, his name is never mentioned on the show.

The first scene takes place at a diner. Fringe sure loves diners and bars...

The Observer (September) is quite the contrast to the other diner patrons. As chaos unfolds in the construction site next door, he calmly finishes his water, leaves $20 for payment, and he proceeds to leave. As he exits the door, a blue flash of light happens.The camera lenses get covered with dirt and debris as people scatter everywhere. He comes up to a large crater created at the site, makes a call to an unknown party, and announces, “It has arrived.” In the words of rock band Faith No More, viewers are left to wonder, “What is It?” And we still wonder about the exact nature of the cylinder object.

When the Fringe team arrives at the warehouse housing the cylinder, everyone but Walter is dire and ready to get to work. However, Walter is more interested in talking with other agents involved in the investigation. He engages them with "Hellos" and “Good Mornings." Peter tried to herd him away to focus. I found this really sad for Walter, a man that has been denied most human contact for 17 years. He was desperate to connect with other people. It makes his future fate of life imprisonment for his "crimes against nature" so terrible to fathom.

When Walter first sees the cylinder, he has a look of concern, not just amazement. Like his memory had been jogged. He does tell Olivia that he has an idea of what it might be, but he won’t tell because “it’s too early.” Peter cracks a joke about it being “a can of magic soup from outer space” which sends Walter right on the defensive; “Who says it came from space?” What exactly did Walter know? And the words "too early" make me wonder, too early for what?

Peter tells Olivia that he’s leaving after this case. He's feeling the burden of taking care of his mentally unstable father and feels fairly useless. In other words, he doesn't belong. As the series progresses, Peter wants to feel that he knows who he is, and where he belongs. In the third season finale, he has that. But with the world falling apart, it must have been very bittersweet.

When Broyles doesn’t want to transfer the object to the lab, Walter becomes very indignant and angry. Basically his attitude is "it’s my way or the highway." (Walter reminds me very much of Walternate in this scene.)

I find it worth noting that the Iridium element that allowed Roy McComb's ability in The Ghost Network, is the same material used in the cylinder's construction. Also, the Observer can seemingly read thoughts just like Roy McComb was said to do.

The cylinder is said to vibrate at frequencies of 2 mHz and 4 mHz. Do this happen to have anything to do with Peter's frequency as mentioned by Sam Weiss in Concentrate and Ask Again?

Walter mentions working on a project for the Defense Department called "Project Thor." Peter finds the notion of a missile able to penetrate from one side of the Earth to the other, "ridiculous." Walter replies:

"Open your mind, Son, before someone else opens it for you."

Once again, one of Walter's statements lends so much. Not only does Peter get his mind opened in this episode, but it also occurs in The Day We Died. Walter opened the current Peter's mind to the consequences of his actions in the future.

Walter shows some interesting character development in protecting the cylinder. First, he lies to Peter about needing aluminum foil, then he sedates Astrid. Later, he apologizes to Astrid, the start of an interesting dynamic over three seasons. Astrid may be considered a minor character, but I find her place in this odd family unit very endearing.

There are some interesting observations in the scene where Walter has been arrested, and Peter and Olivia are trying to find out where he hid the cylinder. Peter believes in Walter’s "friend" (The Observer) as much as Harvey the Rabbit. After the third season, I'm questioning who is "real" and who is not. Peter is tired of Walter's stalling and angrily tells Walter that the cylinder had nothing to do with him. A very stern Walter looks at Peter and makes the statement, "Maybe it does, Peter." Peter looks concerned at this outburst.

When Walter says that his "friend" could not be found, Peter quips, "Of course not, because he's in the seventh dimension." From what little we do know of the Observers, this seems to more than just Peter being snarky.

Walter is also very aggravated at Peter "treating him like a child," and alludes to him acting like his mother, which thoroughly angers Peter. He leaves the building and goes back to the lab, where he is abducted by the so-called rogue Observer, John Mosely. It is interesting that Mosley wears a knit watch cap with green, green, green, red dots. He has to use some sort of technology to torture Peter into a state of emotion to reveal thoughts concerning the cylinder location - thoughts Walter never told him. The device seemed to be a memory-thought inducing machine. Did the Vacuum machine serve a similar purpose, but on a larger, time-hopping scale?

One other thought: The Cylinder appears in Brown Betty as one of Walter's inventions.

Peter and Olivia

Peter confides in Olivia. She says it was wrong of her to make him feel beholden to her. Peter assures her that he isn't going anywhere until he finds answers.

When Olivia hands Peter his credentials as Civilian Consultant to Homeland Security, there is almost a spark in his eyes. As much as the man wants to run, he is drawn to this thing bigger than himself. He seems to see that he can be useful as his own person and not just as Walter’s son. This is a big step for nomadic Peter, the first root to his father and to Olivia. The first bonds of their “odd little family unit.” The first step on his journey with Olivia as a partner first - leading to friendship, love and marriage.


The first promotion was recently released for Season 4. The spot shows this scene with Peter telling Olivia:

"I'm a fairly open-minded guy, but there are things happening here that I can't even begin to explain. And I am not going anywhere until I can."

It is time to find out about the Observers, the cylinder, and who is Peter Bishop, really?

My crazy fan theories? Peter may really be Robert Bishop. At this point, it seems anything is a possibility when time-lines and paradoxes are involved.

I also feel that the "4" found in the promo resembles a graph.

"4" = quad = quadrants = coordinates

X and Y are standard variables. Add Z for a third dimension. W is a variable for... the Fourth Dimension? Time is considered a type of fourth dimension.

Is the purpose of the beacon cylinder to map or locate coordinates? When lines cross at a certain point, they are said to intersect. Peter has been shown making many such intersections on maps in order to find a location. Somehow, I think that the #WhereIsPeterBishop promo may possibly be a big clue about the beacon cylinder. Or not...

Walter and Peter's Relationship

This episode really delves into the meat and potatoes of one of the driving forces in Fringe: The relationship between Walter and Peter. There is incredible tension between the reluctant son and his until-recently-estranged father. It is said that this relationship was considered of prime importance to show creator J.J. Abrams. Jackson and Noble sell it well.

Peter is very irritated with Walter. He can’t sleep, and he looks terrible. Walter always reminds him of his disappointment that Peter has “squandered his intellect and substantial education.”

Peter insists there is nothing “special” about him. That anyone can “babysit” and “decipher” Walter. Peter insists that he can’t stay, but Olivia tells him that Walter will refuse to cooperate if Peter leaves. The viewer gets a good taste of Peter’s dry wit: “Was he wearing clothes at the time?”

After being tortured by Mosley, and also shot by the Observer with an air-gun, Peter talks with Walter. Walter tells him that thoughts can be shared by proximity. He also recounts the story of how the Observer saved both of their lives - except it is only a half-truth. Peter shows some understanding with Walter: “You must think me insane.” Peter replies, “Not nearly as much as you think.”

(And that air-gun makes another appearance in The Firefly.)



Memory

Both Walter and Peter have fuzzy memories of the past. All of this messing with time-lines that was revealed in the third season just might have something to do with it.

Unsolved Mysteries

• What is the significance of the observations that the Observer makes? Do they have a purpose?

• Why was Walter asked to keep the cylinder safe?

• Who are the Observers, and why do they even care about Walter and Peter? Or any other events for that matter?

• How did Peter know that Walter buried the Cylinder in his grandfather’s grave? Is Robert Bishop's body even in that grave? Why did Robert die young - at age 32?

• Did John Mosley know Robert, and how, because Mosely was not old.

• Why did Walter recognize Mosley?

• Who is John Mosely? Why did he want the cylinder, and why were the Observers concerned about it?

• What papers were Peter digging through as he was arranging for work and getting ready to leave Boston?

• What is the significance of the fact that the cylinder was constructed from Iridium? It was the metal used in Roy McComb's blood in The Ghost Network. Fringe has mentioned a close cousin to this element, Osmium (Os.)

• Why did it vibrate at 2Mhz and then 4MhZ?

• Is there significance to it arriving at Quantico in 1987?

• Why did the cylinder just go away once retrieved by Mosley, and why was he smiling when he died?

• Is there any significance to the words Peter spoke to the Observer when he came face-to-face with him for the first time? Beatles lyrics?

If Peter Does Not Exist?

Keep in mind that Olivia expressed that Peter was needed to keep Walter working with Fringe Division.

• If there was no Peter, what circumstances led to Walter working with Fringe Division in the first place?
• 
  

• Who got him out of St Claire’s, if he was even sent there at all?

• What drove Walter to cooperate?

• Will there be a cylinder in the new time-line if there is no Peter?

• If there is a cylinder, will there be a Mosley to obtain it for whatever purpose his employer wanted? Who was that employer?

• Are the roots of Peter's "purpose" found in this episode?

Fringe Summer Rewatch: #103 "The Ghost Network"

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.

The Ghost Network continues the building of the Fringe universe. There is a lot more to this episode than one can see at first glance. Placed in the perspective of three seasons, I'm amazed at all the things that I can pick out and make connections for.

The first thing that I took note of when re-watching this episode was the tolling church bells as Roy McComb goes to confession. Ringing bells are a common Fringe theme.

Fringe may be a show mainly about science, but the show is not afraid to explore religious themes. Here, Roy McComb asked if the priest believes that God speaks to people. In Season 2, Walter thought that God sent him the sign he was looking for; “a white tulip.” In Season 3, Astrid told Walter that God helps those who help themselves. One of the most powerful scenes took place when Walter begged God to spare the world.

The priest told Roy McComb that “God speaks to those that are willing to listen.”

In the Season 3 episode Stowaway, Bellivia told Peter, “Now as a scientist, I like to believe that nothing just happens, that every event has some meaning. Some sort of message. You just have to be able to listen closely enough to hear it. (church bells ring) See?”

Ever the cynic, Peter said, “It's a church bell. So tell me, what's the meaning?”

I’m really not certain if this connection is going anywhere, but I found it interesting.

However, Roy was concerned that if God can talk to a person, then maybe so can the Devil.

Roy saw disturbing things that made him question being a good man. Being a “good man” is another theme found often in Fringe.

“Be a better man than your father.”

“Peter, you’re a good man, Olivia knows this.”

“He wasn't that unlike you. He was honorable, committed. He feared for his family, for their future.”

Several more examples are present.

But even good men can do bad things given the right circumstances. For instance, Walter eventually saw that Walternate was not just an evil man bent on power, but a man forced to make hard choices. Walter came to grips with accepting that he is not evil for saving Peter's life. Also, Peter went rogue in frustration and fear, when he killed shape-shifters and didn't tell Olivia or Walter.

Roy left behind a drawing in the church, a call for help, because he didn’t like what he had become. Walter had parts of his brain removed because he didn’t like what he was becoming. Peter was frightened in Reciprocity because of Walter's insistence that he was not being himself, that the machine was changing him.

Given the idea of multiple time-lines occurring at once, a viewer can take on a whole new perspective of Roy’s visions and drawings. Roy may have been able to “hear” plans over the Ghost Network, but I think that his visions and drawings were way too detailed for that to have been all there was to it. I wonder if Roy had a perceptive skill to see events that may have occurred in a simultaneous time-line.

While the case unfolded, Olivia attended John Scott’s funeral, which happened to be closed-casket. Olivia tried to remain calm and stoic, a difficult feat considering the circumstances of John's betrayal and the FBI's reluctance to make it public. Plus, she had to deal with looking at Agent Scott's mother. Charlie tries his hand at making her laugh, and she does. But Olivia has always been good at pretending to be "fine." However, her line to Charlie concerning John's mother looking at her like Olivia was responsible for John's death makes me wonder, is she? In Subject 13, it was revealed that Olivia flashed over to Walternate's office in the other universe, and that she left the picture that she had drawn of herself and Peter. This alerted him to his son's location and set many things into motion.

This episode also shows the first occurrence of Peter being stalked by someone. Just what did Peter do, and who was he running from? Why was this made such a big deal, and then it was dropped? I know the producers say it isn't important to the story now, but why bother telling us at all. A simple explanation from Peter would have been nice at some point, maybe showing a moment of vulnerability with Olivia. It would be interesting to contemplate how Peter's past shady business dealings affected others.

Of the most importance to the Fringe mythology is the introduction of the substance, Amber. In this episode, Amber kills those that are trapped in it. However, in S3’s Amber 31422, a man rescued his twin brother alive.

Roy was shown drawing the events that he saw in his mind. In Lysergic Acid Diethylamide, Olivia drew “the man that is going to kill her.”

Olivia/Peter

Olivia asked Peter about his mother, and Peter told her "that’s a story for another time.” Knowing what we now know, Peter’s fake smile is so sad.

Peter delved into why Olivia chose law enforcement as a career. He was surprised that she has wanted to do it since she was nine years old. Of course, we later find out Olivia’s story about her step-father.

Walter/Peter

Walter told Peter that his “lack of commitment was always his problem,” and that is probably why he hadn’t chosen a profession. However, when Peter committed himself to finding out more about the Machine in Season 3, Walter tried to discourage Peter and refused to help him at first.

Peter sarcastically told Walter that maybe he should have followed in his footsteps, because Walter’s work had “brought such joy to the world.” Of course at this point, Peter doesn’t know the half of it. By S3, Walter had come to grips with the damage of his hubris.


In 6955kHz:

Walter: I came in this morning and found your little project.

Peter: And what project would that be?

Walter: You know very well what project. You are continuing to work on this infernal device-- The one depicted in the blueprints.

Peter: That's correct. I'm running diagnostics.

Walter: I thought I made my -- You have no idea what it does. You might as well be building a nuclear bomb in my lab.

Peter: I don't think that's entirely fair.

Walter: Do you? Well, fine. If you end up breaking the universe, this time, it's on your head!

Walter's last line is one of my favorites, but it does have a sad double-edge to what seems to be a hilarious outburst. Peter does follow in his footsteps in a way. Walter sent back the machine and set the process of destroying the alternate universe into reality. But then Peter had a second chance... an opportunity to "fix" the damage done. Peter chose to find a way to heal both worlds; to repair the broken universes.

Other Small Matters

Peter also became disgusted with the fact the Roy McComb was one of Walter’s test subjects. Little did he know that Walter experimented on children, including himself and Olivia.

The metallic element iridium makes an appearance in The Arrival, as the material used to construct the beacon.


The Pattern

Nina Sharp suggested to Olivia that because so many of the Fringe incidents occur “right in her own backyard,” that Olivia might have something to do with them. Once again, it was young Olive that alerted Walternate to his son's location, which led to efforts to infiltrate this world.

Nina showed personal interest in Olivia, more than just wanting her for an employee, it seems. I’ve always wondered why Nina was so personally interested in both Olivia AND Peter.

The discs found in the hands of John Scott and the DEA agent have a season three parallel in the shape-shifter discs. Nina looked for a way to crack the data encryption. In Os, Peter goes through similar trials with the shape-shifter discs.

Unanswered Questions:

• Who was really after Peter, and why?

• What information was on the discs?

• Where is John Scott’s body now

• What exactly is/was the relationship between Nina Sharp and Philip Broyles?

• Did Nina know that Olivia was a former Cortexiphan subject?

• Even if Nina did not know of Olivia’s status, why was she so interested in having her work for Massive Dynamic, and why did she say that she “only wants the best for her.”

• Was the Amber a test by Walternate's minions or another faction? Was John Scott and the DA agent aware of them? Why did they want the discs?

If Peter Bishop Never Existed:

• Would The Pattern still take place?

• Would Amber even exist at all?

• Would Walter still own the house in Cambridge and still be with Elizabeth?

• Since Olivia shot her step-father after Peter encouraged her to step up for herself in Subject 13, would she have still have found the courage to have done so

• If not, what was her motivation for becoming a law-enforcement agent?

Fringe Summer Rewatch: #102 "The Same Old Story"

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.

I've never written for television, but I think there would be incredible pressure on television writers to create something that follows a strong pilot episode. In essence, a second episode of a TV series either keeps you sticking around, or sends you away.

Fortunately, for us episode 102, titled "The Same Old Story," is a very strong episode from start to finish. Written by 'Fringe' creators Abrams, Kurtzman, and Orci(Roberto, not his brother JR) this is the first of many episodes co-written by current showrunner Jeff Pinkner.

This episode feels like a continuation of the pilot, and views as smoothly as a John Grisham novel reads. Every single time I rewatch it I am amazed at all the writers cover in this episode. Patterns are revealed, including the one with a captial "P," but more importantly we see the birth of the "little family unit" consisting of Walter, Peter, and Olivia, that Peter refers to later in 216.

The beginning minutes of the episode are important, and gruesome. While relaxing after a tryst, a prostitute suddenly gets terrible pain and appears as if very pregnant. Her john dumps her outside a hospital. Minutes later the poor woman dies while giving birth to something that makes the ER nurse scream and look away. (If you're watching this after having watched all of Season 3 you'll view this as foreshadowing of FauxLivia's accelerated pregnancy in "Bloodline.")
The "new" Fringe team(see below) is called to investigate.

In my opinion, the second scene of this episode is one of the most puzzling of the series thus far. Broyles is thanking 8 people in an affluent location for coming out at a late hour so he can introduce "my new team." He gives them a slight overview of the case at the hospital, using some colorfully-vague wording:"it appears to be another anomaly whose mysteries and origins remains the sole purpose of this committee." Of his new team Broyles adds, "hopefully they'll have more success than our last." Broyles attempts to describe Walter Bishop but Nina Sharp vehemnently interrupts adding that Walter was committed to St. Claire's Hospital for manslaughter. They go back and forth and Nina's demeanor is driven, like a dog fighting for a bone.

Broyles calls Olivia after 3am and tells her to assemble the Bishops and meet at the hospital. Olivia can't contact them by phone, so she wakes a scantily-clad Peter in person(it's only the second episode in the series and already he's partially naked!) and it's fun to watch her eyes drift south for a beat while she tells him to wake his father. And that isn't a problem as Walter is sitting uncomfortably awake in the bottom of their hotel closet in the wee hours.

They get to the crime scene 27 minutes later but Walter is the last to get out of the car. In a very hallmark scene Broyles attempts to introduce himself to the elder Bishop, who rebuffs his welcome and continues to marvel at the seat warmer that "warms your ass." This is the very first scene(of many) in which someone other than caretaker Peter and Olivia, gets to view and question Walter Bishop's sanity and lucidity. Broyles questions that for a second time when Walter tells him he'll need a lab and Broyles reminds him they opened his old lab in the Harvard basement. He asks if Walter remembers that. Walter replies,"No, but that's fantastic news!"
By the expression on Walter's face you can tell he's questionning his own sanity.

Broyles starts to explain "The Pattern" to Peter with Olivia seated next to him when Astrid informs them of a lead on the hotel. Olivia tries to get Walter's attention to come with her and take samples. Walter snaps at her in a very forceful way and tells her he's busy. Peter speaks up and tells Olivia he'll accompany her to take the samples, and thus we begin the pattern of the Peter/Olivia("P/O," for short) investigative approach to Fringe case investigations that continues through Season 1, Season 2, and up through episode 3.16 of Season 3.

There's another great Peter/Walter scene in the lab in which Walter tells Peter he's completed the cellular testing on the "man/baby" and there's "good news all around." Read Walter's reply:

"DNA results confirm my suspicions that the woman was impregnated by a man who is the result of experiments identical to those conducted by me in this very lab around 30 years ago."

That doesn't cause much of a reaction if you've only watched the pilot, but if you're watching this again after having seen Season 3, especially the episode "Bloodline," perhaps alarms are going off in your head? What I have come to call "Fringe Doublespeak" continues from the pilot into 102.
I really don't think Walter is just talking about Loraine and "Christopher Penrose" here. This is foreshadowing of Season 3's "Bloodline" in which FauxLivia delievers a baby fathered by the Peter Bishop we know, and I think there's even more doublespeak here. I think Walter is foreshadowing that some form of Peter Bishop(perhaps the one Over Here that dies at age 8) was the result of experiments Walter Bishop did in his lab. Why do I think this? I'll answer at a later time.

Walter also tells Peter he remembers where he parked his car 17 years ago before he was placed in St. Claire's. This leads them to the garage where Walter easily recalls the combination to his lock aloud which Peter points out as the very fitting first six digits of "pi." If you haven't already noticed, some numbers are very important in this series. Peter's reaction to Walter's 1970's Vista Cruiser station wagon leads into more very important Walter Doublespeak:
Peter:"So what? You got cars stuffed with papers all over town?"
Walter: "Not just cars. You have no idea where I've hidden things."

Walter's response is foreshadowing for his safe deposit boxes in "Safe," the video of little Olive in "Bad Dreams," 'the plug' in "There's More Than One Of Everything," Peter's white noise teddy in "Of Human Action," the metal box in "Johira Window," and the machine parts in "6955kHz" and "The Day We Died." (Whew! That's alot of hidden things. Forgive me if I missed any others.)
Walter's files from his garage lead to Dr. Claud Penrose who Walter remembers worked with him on a government project to create human soldiers within 3 years via excellerated growth hormone use. P/O visits Dr. Penrose who says of Walter,"No one in power should know what he knows," which is foreshadowing for his doppelganger, Walternate, in Season 3.

A body Charlie Francis finds for the team confirms that something is out there killing women for their pituitaries to stay young. In the turning point of this episode, Walter has an epiphany from Jules Verne's book The Kip Brothers. In Walter's words,"in which he posited that the last image seen in life, right at the moment of death, is permanently imprinted on the retina of the eye."

This leads to healthy Walter/Peter brainstorming, and into one of my very favorite Fringe scenes. Peter approaches Olivia sitting on a bench in a park. She apologizes for snapping at him in the lab earlier. He tells her she's not alone in all this and touches her hand. To some, it may not seem significant, but a group who call themselves "the benchwarmers" was born from that moment and continue to identify themselves as such on one of the Fringe internet forums. Peter tells Liv they need a fancy piece of equipment and only 1 company owns the patent. Doesn't take a 190 IQ to figure out who that is!

Olivia sits with Broyles in a waiting area of Massive Dynamic to retrieve the camera they need. She tells him John Scott suggested it was more than coincidence that he picked her for her current assignment. Broyles doesn't answer her. Instead hs asks her if the last time she and John Scott were intimate if they were safe. "You weren't were you?" he asks firmly and there is a bizarre scene of a very pregnant Olivia in the same predicament as poor Loraine Daisy. If you've already seen Season 3 you know this is foreshadowing of FauxLivia's accelerated pregnancy in "Bloodline." The receptionist approaches Olivia and she snaps out of the moment to realize it didn't happen. She is alone and safe in the waiting area.

Nina gives Liv the electronic pulse camera without grief. Many people don't like this episode because of the gruesome scene of Walter extracting the second victim's eyeball to retrieve the images. But the team sees the bridge, Astrid recognizes it, Olivia sees the same van at the triangulation area from the eye's perspective, and she's racing out the door to the warehouse site, with Peter quick on her heels. This is the beginning of Peter watching over Olivia while on the job (when he can get away with it.)

They find Penrose and son in the process of extracting yet another woman's pituitary. Olivia chases after the running son, and leaves Peter with her gun and cell phone. In a last ditch effort Penrose overdoses the victim with anesthesia and sends her into cardiac arrest as he makes a run for it.

With a little help from Walter via the phone, Peter proves that it's not only things mechanical he can bring back from the dead. He modifies a piece of electrical equipment into a defribrillator and successfully restarts the woman's heart. We get the sense he is thrilled to have done this good, unselfish deed.

Olivia catches up with the creature who's rapidly aging and dying. He tells her that they should have let him die a long time ago. That that was Penrose's mistake. "He was blinded because he loved me." (That could easily be foreshadowing of Walter letting Peter get away with something very bad in the future of the series, and I hope that is not the case.)

Olivia returns the electronic pulse camera to Nina. This time Nina's in one of her talkative moods telling Liv how big and powerful massive Dynamic is in the US and abroad. If you've watched through Season 3 one part of Nina's narrative should stick out:"to manage global affairs into stable equilibrium." Hm. Isn't that what Peter said the two universes had to get to just before he vanished in 322?

Nina offers Olivia a job at MD, adding "I believe a position here would speed your effort to find answers." "You're referring to The Pattern?" Olivia questions. "Among other things," Nina evasively finishes. By the end of 102 you get a strong sense that Ms. Sharp knows alot more than she's telling, about The Pattern, and our Olivia.

Olivia gets debriefed in Broyles' office. He asks her if Nina said anything. She tells him that Nina said he is a good man to which Broyles looks away almost coyly, and you have to wonder for a beat what exactly kind of relationship Phillip Broyles and Nina Sharp have. If you've watched through Season 2, you know she kisses him on the steps of the Capitol building.

Olivia goes back to the lab and tries to get both Walter and Peter to sign government documents "waiving their constitutional righs against unreasonable search and seizure," which Walter's happy to do but Peter adamantly refuses to do so. He throws the document and storms out.

Walter is totally unfazed by Peter's actions. Apparently he needs to get something off his chest with Olivia and launches into a little lecture about his former colleague Dr. Penrose and his 'son,' and the inherent pitfall of a scientist not maintaining distance bewtween God's domain and his own. He tells Olivia he often forgets that himself. Olivia asks him what he means. Walter answers, "If you've read my file, then you know the truth about Peter's medical history."

Olivia tells him there was no mention of any medical history, just his birthday. So already, in the second episode of this series, you start to wonder what exactly is special about Peter Bishop's medical history? (If you've watched through Seasons 2 and 3 you already know-some of it anyway. I, myself, think there's quite a bit more to learn.

The episode ends with Walter having trouble sleeping in the Bishop's hotel room. Peter is surprisingly gentle with Walter in this scene, probably remembering that a fellow patient at St. Claire's used to calm Walter by singing "Row, Row, Row Your Boat." And so Peter tells Walter to close his eyes and relax, as Peter sings "Life is but a dream," which is especially eerie if you've watched through Season 3 and know that Peter Bishop never existed!(Boy, that feels weird to type!) As Peter sings, someone wheels a gurney with a body on it that looks like Penrose's Christopher to rest in between two other gurneys with men that also look like him.

New Questions Raised In This Episode That Remain Unanswered:
Who is the group Broyles is addressing in the second scene?
Who is in the group mentioned above, besides Nina Sharp?
Who was in Broyles' last Fringe group, and what happened to them?
Did Olivia actually have a moment of deja vu in the Massive Dynamic waiting area?

If Peter Bishop Never Existed...
Walter Bishop might not be on the Fringe Team. Olivia Dunham might be working for Broyles on "Fringe' cases with totally different fellow agents.

Olivia might be feeling very alone in her new position in the Fringe Division.
She might be taking the loss of her partner and lover, John Scott, much harder than if Peter was there to help her keep focused.

If Olivia Dunham herself had had Walter Bishop released into her custody, she might have had an especially difficult time calming him down at night by herself, which would subsequently mean he wouldn't be very useful on cases during the day.

Walter might not have remembered where he parked his car, thus he wouldn't have found his files and made the jump to his former college, Dr. Penrose. Therefore, Christopher Penrose and his 'father' might still be out there killing, and stealing pituitaries.

Fringe Summer Rewatch: #101 "Pilot"

Welcome to the first of many installments of a new feature we'll run here over the summer hiatus titled "Fringe Summer Rewatch."

Check out our introduction to this new feature here: http://www.fringetelevision.com/2011/07/fringe-summer-rewatching-fringe-seasons.html

Sam Spade, Aimee Long, Dani, David Wu, Dennis, oranfly, and I will rewatch and review all 65 episodes of Fringe and pen our thoughts.

What will make this fun is for all of you to comment on these episodes as well.

So sit back and relax, and enjoy "Fringe Summer" here at FringeTelevision.


THE PILOT EPISODE, or Fringe 101

Do you remember the first time you watched the pilot? I do. I remember being totally engrossed in it, especially being grossed out by the co-pilot's jaw falling off on Flight 627. Those poor people!
I also remember a strong sense of wanting to know more about these incredibly dysfunctional people named Walter Bishop, Peter Bishop, and Olivia Dunham, and where they were headed.
I wanted to know why any woman would agree to have a nasty-looking probe shoved into her neck, and a cocktail of drugs shoved into her vein, and lie naked in a rusty deprivation tank.
Peter told Olivia, "I hope your guy is worth it," and I was thinking the same thing.

This is where our endless list of Fringe-related questions started, such as:

How did Walter end up in St. Claire's?
Why is Walter so worried about Peter's physical state?
What in the world did John Scott's last words mean?
Why did John Scott murder Richard Steig?
Who else is John Scott work for?
And why did John Scott try to run Olivia off the road for Pete's sake?
Was that Morse Code the streelight was flashing? Don't they know Morse Code works best as audio?
What is The Pattern that Nina Sharp refers to?
Broyles tells Olivia "We're impressed." Who's "we"?
How can Nina Sharp's Massive Dynamic people question John Scott who's been dead for 5 hours?
What does the man's voice say while Olivia is staring at her uncle's kyak that reads "Zeno?"
It sounds like "Zeno sink." Definitely not "heat sink." But still...could be a reference to the heat sink machine we see for the first time in "Over There:Part 2."

And as Peter Bishop says, "What happened on that plane is just the beginning."
This episode, written by JJ Arams, Alex Kurtzman, and Roberto Orci, is extremely well-written, and got me immediately and hopelessly hooked on 'Fringe.'

Other Notable Stuff From The Pilot:
John Scott tells Liv he loves her but she doesn't reply, but for different reasons than Peter's not replying in 'The Day We Died."

Did you notice Olivia's cut on her forehead is similar to Peter's when he wakes up in 3.21, "The Last Sam Weiss?"

"So you're saying my father was Dr. Frankenstein?" Well, Peter does look like Frankenstein's monster when he wakes up in 3.21!

"Excellent. Let's make some LSD!" We learn quickly that Walter Bishop is fond of his homemade drugs. And of course, LSD takes on a much bigger role in 2.04 and 3.19. (I hope 4.19 will be another hallucinogenic episode-mushrooms maybe?)

"I still think that this is deeply irresponsible. And believe me, I would know." The scene where Peter is putting the electrodes on Olivia's chest, these words, and his voice? The very first of many sexy P/O scenes in Fringe.

Walter to Olivia: "You lose being trusted. Strange how important that is once it's gone."
Now that we've seen 3.22 it gives a new perspective to these words.

There's a tombstone in the graveyard of Liv's mind that reads "He's not dead."
We learned in Season 2 that probably meant Peter. Now it probably has a double meaning, that the Peter we've known through all 3 seasons, is not dead. I often wonder if it also means AlternateBell is not dead(and our Dr. Bell, for that matter!). Bell told us in "Over There:Part 2" that Alternate Bell died in a car accident as a young man, but can we believe that?

We get our first look at Nina Sharp here, in charge of Massive Dynamic. She's blunt, cocky, and obviously withholding information.

I am still fascinated today with the Peter Bishop job bio Olivia reads on the way to Iraq:
wildland fireman, congo pilot, college professor. We learn in "Inner Child" that he also swept the floor in a meat-packing plant. Like Massive Dynamic, what didn't he do? I really hope we get to see him pilot a big plane, like the C-130 transport plane he requisitioned but was refused in 2.02, later in this series.



We will end each of the 65 commentaries with "If Peter Bishop Never Existed."
Hopefully this will get our brains moving to understand the massive fall-out of a Fringe world(or worlds) sans Peter.


If Peter Bishop Never Existed in the pilot episode...
It's likely Olivia couldn't have gotten Walter out of St. Claire's. Or if she did manage to, she didn't speak "Walterese"-Peter did that, so it is likely that Walter would not have been able to save John Scott, and John Scott probably would have died in the lab. That means he did not kill the Brazilian guy and he did not try to run Olivia off the road. And if it happened that way, that means John Scott, whether he was a double agent or not, died a hero in the line of duty.

If Peter never existed, I can't imagine Olivia would have agreed to caretake Walter Bishop, but she might have, in a last ditch effort to save the man she loved. Can you imagine it?