FRINGE Season 4 Teaser: 'Where Is Peter Bishop?' Part 3

FRINGE Season 4 Teaser: ‘Where Is Peter Bishop?’ Part 3

August 12, 2011 by Marisa Roffman

(AKA Fox wants in on the network-endorsed shipper videos!)

Another Friday, another glorious FRINGE season 4 teaser. Can we please get a new one of these every Friday, powers that be?

While past promos have centered more on the overall disappearance of Peter versus a specific aspect of what his absence will mean, this 30-second spot focused in on Peter and Olivia’s convoluted romance. The teaser showed a scene from “The Plateau,” where Peter “appeared” to Olivia (as she was trapped in the alt-universe and brainwashed to believe she was Fauxlivia) and told her, “Real is just a matter of perception. I am here. And I’m a part of you that you have to hold on to. You can’t forget who you are, Olivia. You can’t forget where you’re from. You can’t forget this.”

Pretty fitting, given that in season four, it certainly appears Olivia will have no memory of Peter ever existing. Will we have a repeat of Peter trying to remind Olivia of his place in her life?

Take a look at the promo and then read on for my speculation on one of the season four tidbits in the spot…

(Note:The video is the same one J. Dunham posted in the previous post)

“I don’t think there is anything sadder than when two people are meant to be together and something else intervenes.” – Walter

Walter Bishop, you kill me a little. I don’t think this is specifically about Peter and Olivia (since as far as our characters know, Peter probably died when he was a kid), but I wonder if Walter is reflecting on his own life? A case they’re working on? A movie he’s watching? With Walter, it could be practically anything.

Share your theories below! Source:givememyremote.com

Fringe Teaser 3: "Where is Peter Bishop?"

Here's the third Where is Peter? teaser.

Here's Teaser 1 and Teaser 2

Fringe Summer Rewatch: #206 "Earthling"

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.

We open with a guy on the phone with his wife. He's telling her he's about to board his plane, but we can see that he's actually at home, getting ready to surprise her for their anniversary. She's sweetly understanding as he apologizes for not being there, and he casually asks if she's on her way home.

The television comes on by itself.

Suddenly uneasy, Romantic Guy tells her he needs to go. The lights are acting strangely as well. Trying to disregard the crawling in his skin, he's tucking a card into some roses near the door, when the lights go out again. He flips them back on to reveal a man-shaped shadow, horrifying in it's sudden proximity. Terrified, he stumbles backward...

A few minutes later, Wife enters and comes face to face with the flowers. Smiling, she reads the card, and enters the living room to find him sitting perfectly still in a chair. When he doesn't respond to her banter she becomes alarmed, reaching to snap him out of it. The place where she touched him crumbles into a fine ash, followed rapidly by most of the rest of him. Powdery remains and her screams swirl through the apartment, and the credits roll.

Early the next morning, Phillip Broyles breakfasts alone in a cafe. Tall, handsome, and intimidating, he is enthralling to the young boy at the next table. The boy is playing copycat, imitating Broyles' every gesture, and Phillip plays along, watching the boy out of the corner of his eye until he catches the kid in the act, giving him a rare and beautiful grin. The boy grins back delightedly before resuming the game, hiding behind his menu. Broyles' phone rings, and when the kid peeks back around, his silent playmate is gone.

Fringe Division is already at the residence of the victim, Randy Dancik. Walter examines the ashes as FBI agents mill in the background. There are no signs of struggle, no forced entry. Lack of scorch marks on the chair indicate that there was no combustion. Walter is asking for a vacuum cleaner to transport the remains when Broyles arrives, looking grimmer than usual and asking questions about the victim visiting hospitals. Olivia is taken aback, and Broyles explains that it's not the first time he's seen this kind of murder.

Peter and Olivia accompany Broyles to a storage unit, where he elucidates as he digs through some boxes. It's clearly personal storage; there's an old suitcase, a bicycle, other odds and ends indicative of a man who's not as settled as he might seem. Signs of an interrupted life that nicely foreshadow his later confession to Olivia.

Broyles tells Peter and Olivia that this incident is identical to a case he worked four years ago. He's tight, almost angry, as he tells them about five previous victims, all of whom worked at or had visited the same hospital. After the third death, Broyles was contacted by a man who had specific details about the case, a man who offered to turn himself in if they could decipher his formula. Government agencies could make no sense of it, and after two more deaths the killings stopped. Broyles hands over a copy for their perusal, and Peter recognizes it as a molecular model.

While Peter heads to the lab with the formula, Olivia receives a call confirming that Randy had visited his mother at Latchmere General the day he was killed. While she's on the phone, Broyles finds an old micro-cassette recorder. He stuffs it grimly into his pocket as he and Olivia head for the hospital. When they arrive, Broyles has a warrant at the ready, employee records - now.

At the lab, Peter, Walter, and Astrid are examining Randy's remains. To Walter's surprise, they hold no traces of radiation whatsoever. The equation describes something highly radioactive, the ashes should be clicking merrily if the formula had anything to do with his death. When Olivia calls to check on their progress, Peter informs her that so far all they have is a total lack of radiation, and Walter's theory that the formula describes an organism. Walter takes the phone, starting to tell her something, when an idea strikes him. He sets the phone down muttering, and moves back to the whiteboard, lost in thought. Bemused, Peter rescues the abandoned phone to tell Olivia that Walter's on it, and they'll let her know when they come up with something.

At Latchmere, Broyles is brooding and edgy, refusing to take a break while the records are being searched. Cautiously, Olivia tries to draw him out, asking why the killer called him. Broyles says the man seemed distraught by the killings, unable to control them, wanting them to end. A sudden flurry of activity amongst the hospital staff alerts Broyles and Olivia to another killing - this time right under their noses. Broyles is fuming when an agent reports that they've found an employee who worked at both hospitals - and he didn't show up for work tonight.

Back at his office, Broyles has opened up all his old case files. His whiteboard is covered with information on the previous victims as he listens to a recorded conversation between himself and Koslov. He is visibly upset, listening to himself tell the man his team needs more time... This case clearly means more to him than he's telling, but his reverie is interrupted by a message - Senator Van Horn is on the line.

Broyles meets the senator in a Washington park. The fingerprint they found at Koslov's apartment raised several flags, and Broyles is ordered to cease and desist as other agencies squabble over the case. The CIA wants Koslov, so do the Russians. According to the Russians, Koslov stole some property belonging to the them. Van Horn tells Broyles he knows what this case means to him, but there's nothing he can do, Phillip is losing the case to the CIA. Both men know that Broyles has no intention of letting it go.

Back at Latchmere, Olivia is reviewing the hospital security footage when Broyles calls to tell her they're off the case - except that they're not. Stop documenting, he says, write nothing down, but keep on it. Olivia demurs, concerned for his job if they're caught. Behind her, the security tech calls for her attention; the cameras caught something. Just before the second victim was discovered, a man's shadow is seen on film. Another angle shows that a shadow is all it is, there is no face.

Back at the lab, the whole team watches as Walter examines the footage. There's no translucency, no reflection - Walter is certain this thing is it's own entity, possibly the result of a Russian Experiment. Broyles watches the footage silently, avidly.

Heading back to his office, Broyles receives a delivery from the senator's. Opening it, he finds a top secret file on Timur Vasiliev, aka "Tomas Koslov," and his brother - Aleks Vasiliev the cosmonaut. It was Aleks that Koslov stole six years ago. Officially Aleks is dead, but he actually returned from his last mission in a coma. Timur took him from the quarantined facility where he was being studied, and has apparently been bouncing him from coma ward to coma ward ever since. And since no one has been removed from the coma ward in two weeks, Aleks must still be at Latchmere. Broyles has a team ready to go, and Olivia can only follow.

At the lab, Walter has deduced that the creature is seeking out radiation, absorbing all there is in it's victims, leaving not even normal traces behind. All five previous victims were undergoing radiation therapy at the time of their deaths, and Dancik had taken a long flight the day he was killed, getting a nice dose of UV from the window seat.

At Latchmere, our team bursts into the coma ward looking for Timur, but he's nowhere to be found. All beds are accounted for, but one of the nurses is missing - she's been sedated and switched for Aleks. The brothers have escaped, but while making their getaway in an unmarked van, Timur doesn't look exactly triumphant.

Back at the Lab, Walter is aiding his concentration by blasting Donizetti at ear-splitting levels, with Peter watching in open amusement and Astrid valiantly concealing her frustration, when Olivia and Broyles arrive. Quelling his disappointment at being interrupted, Walter theorizes that the cosmonaut picked up a hitchhiker of some kind, a parasite capable of projecting itself without ever actually leaving the host. Distractedly, he moves back to the chalk board, not responding to Broyles' question about solving the formula, but Olivia steps in front of him, her impatience fueled by worry for Broyles. The momentary derailment of his focus gives him the inspiration he needs. Grinning, he says that he can do it, but he needs something from home. Wryly, Peter follows his Dad out the door.

In his motel room, Timur is listening to voice mail while he prepares to move his brother once again. Timur jots down some notes, crooning to Aleks in Russian about the new home they'll have soon. The second voice mail is from Broyles - he has information on the formula. Sponging his brother's forehead, Timur's hands go still, but before he can think about it, the TV fuzzes out and the lights flicker. Timur quickly hooks his brother up to the batteries with a pair of jumper cables, and gives Aleks a brutal jolt, begging forgiveness as he forces the emerging shadow back into his brother's body. This is clearly very stressful on the comatose man, and when Timur is forced to jolt him again to keep the thing inside, Aleks flatlines. He comes back after a moment though, leaving Timur half weeping with relief.

Astrid has set up a trace system for if Timur calls back. Broyles is still brooding fiercely, and Olivia has finally worked up the courage to take the plunge. "Why this one?" she asks, "Why is this case so important to you?" And astonishingly, he tells her: by the time this case happened four years ago, he'd stopped caring about professional advancement, he'd seen too much, and only wanted to protect people. He became obsessed with the case, and it destroyed his marriage. In the most poignant line of the episode he tells her "I took this job to make the world a safer place for my family. Instead I lost them."

At home, Walter and Peter have built a model of the formula out of Tinker Toys - a physical representation to give Walter new perspective on the molecules. He peers thoughtfully at it for a moment, and then carefully he and Peter pull two similar halves apart as far as they'll go, but they catch, fundamentally linked, just before they fully disentangle. Oh no. The child's toys have eloquently demonstrated that there is no hope for Aleks, the man and his uninvited passenger have become one.

Meanwhile, Timur has his brother back in the van, preparing to run again. He heads back into the motel room to call Broyles and ask if they've solved the formula. On the line with Olivia, Walter says sadly that they have, but it's bad news. The two have become linked on a molecular level. Killing one will kill them both. Broyles tells Timur that they have the answer, but it's not the one he wants to hear. As Broyles explains, Timur is overwhelmed, legs buckling in despair as he sinks into a seat. Swallowing his grief, he tells Broyles that he doesn't want his brother harmed. Broyles attempts to reassure him long enough to get a trace, but Timur is gone. An oscillating fan rotates, blowing his ashes gently along the light breeze. And The shadow walks out the door.

The Fringe team got the trace, but they arrive at the motel to find Aleks in the back of the van, and Timur's crumbling remains in the motel room. Walter and Peter rush to the van, finding it full of batteries, wires, and one comatose cosmonaut. Walter surmises the equipment must have been used to keep the entity too weak to leave Aleks' body. When Broyles asks how the shadow can be contained without Timur, Walter responds that a body sized lead case would be a good place to start, but they'll have to wait until it gets back.

Wait, what?

There's no radiation coming from Aleks' body. The shadow is gone. Urgently, Peter asks if the shadow can be drawn back by distressing the host. Walter is uncertain, but it's out there right now, and time is of the essence, it's worth a try.

In a nearby room, a young girl is watching cartoons when the TV fuzzes out. Her attention disrupted, she suddenly notices the half-closed closet door a few feet away. It looks darker and scarier in there than it ever has before. 

Walter is having trouble with Timur's primitive equipment. As he fumbles with foreign knobs, a child's shrill screams pierce the air. Everyone jerks up in horror, but Broyles never hesitates. Roughly ordering Peter out of the way,  he shoots Aleks in the head. Tara's mother comes running out of the bathroom, dripping in a hastily donned bathrobe. The child sits perfectly still, staring blankly at the snowy TV. She doesn't respond to her mother's frantic questioning. With a trembling hand, Tara's mom reaches out to touch her daughter, and at last the child turns her head. "There was a man," she says solemnly, "a shadow man. He disappeared."

Later that evening, Broyles pays a visit to his ex wife. From the moment she opens the door it's clear from both their faces that the sight of each other brings up old wounds. The kids aren't home, she tells him, but it's her he wants to talk to. As she stares at him uncertainly, her new husband pokes his head out long enough let us know he's in her life - Diane has moved on. He withdraws gracefully, leaving them to talk. "I closed that case," he tells her "the one four years ago." Closing her eyes against memory, she's happy for him, truly, but it's not enough to fill the gulf that yawns between them. Nothing ever will be. He declines her invitation to stay for dinner, and says goodnight. He's able to not look back until after she closes the door.

When he reaches his car, there's a CIA agent waiting in the street. The man reminds him that the CIA kinda means it when they say butt out, and tells Phillip that he should be very grateful for his friend, Senator Van Horne. When Broyles asks what happened to the cosmonaut, the man looks meaningfully up at the stars, and replies "We had no choice, once he started breathing again." Broyles follows his gaze, seeking the place between the stars where the shadows live.

To me, this episode is really a character study for Broyles. Until this point he's been an enigma. He's been The Boss, distant, in charge, even abrasive at times when testing the limits of his team, but here we find that:

•      He's surprisingly good with kids, even ones he's never met.

•     Ultimately, he was faced with an impossible choice - the job or the family. Broyles chose the job, despite all it cost him, because it was the best way he knew to protect his family.

•     He regrets having to make that choice still.

•     And yes, there are still feelings between Phillip and Diane, as this last scene illustrates with such heartbreaking clarity. And Broyles is later keenly interested in the fact that the two are still married on the other side.

This is the first real glimpse we've had into Phillip Broyles the man. He's a sad man, isolated by the weight of his knowledge, but he cares deeply for those around him, as he'll prove in What Lies Beneath, as well as many other episodes. His job is all he has left, and he performs it with courage and conviction, because he believes that he can help defend people from some of the freaky things they don't report in the news. But the cost can be hard to bear, and I think it was not without compassion or regret that, in the Pilot episode when Olivia insisted that she just wanted to go back to how it was before, he told her "Dunham, I don't think you can."

Interesting tidbits:

•     There's a poster on the wall behind the hospital administrator lady with a familiar person shaped shadow on it.

•      Both Peter and Olivia unconsciously smile when they're on the phone together (awwww).

•     This episode establishes the relationship between Van Horne and Broyles that will come back into play in 3x04. As we know now, Van Horne is already dead here, and has been for years.

•      The Observer cruises Broyles while he's on the phone with Olivia at the airport.

•     Speaking of which, Broyles is in an airport - because he flew to Washington? Is this a glimpse of all that off screen travel they must do?

•      Interestingly, this episode establishes the undoubted existence of Extraterrestrial life in the Fringeverse, with very little fanfare.

 And finally, What if Peter Bishop didn't exist?

Sadly, Peter really didn't have much to do in this episode. His role here was mostly sarcasm and charming comic relief, with a little bit of pointing the team down avenues they would eventually have explored anyway. However, it must be remembered that without Peter, it's highly unlikely that Walter would have ever been freed from St. Claire's, and Walter was instrumental in solving the formula. I think that if Peter (and by extension Walter) hadn't been present, the case might have turned out very differently, with more casualties, almost certainly including an innocent child. And Broyles might still be spending his nights staring at the ceiling, waiting for sleep to take him, and wondering if he'd ever solve the mystery that destroyed his family.

Fringe Summer Rewatch: #205 "Dream Logic"

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.

"Dream Logic" was written by Josh Singer. It's a stand-alone episode with what I think is a smidgen of foreshadowing of Season 4 or 5. Another interesting thing to me is it seems to have 3 different beginnings, Sam's discussion with Olivia, the poor worker in the office in Seattle, and Peter and Walter moving into their new home.

There's a smooth transition from the previous episode, 204, into this one. Olivia returns her bowling shoes to Sam Weiss, telling him she got her memories back. Sam looks into her eyes for not even 3 seconds and says, "Who died?" In the next scene we see them sitting together on his therapy couch, the plastic bowling lane chairs. Apparently Olivia has told Sam something about how her partner Charlie Francis died. Sam tells Olivia she needs something to make sense of it all(where's he been through all the Pattern-related stuff, hmm?) She says "Like bowling?" and they both laugh at her joke. He tells her he's giving her a project.Sam's next words are very interesting, because really, how much has he really discussed with her:

"You're gonna think I'm full of it, but here's the thing, Olivia, whether you admit it or not, your life is something of a nightmare."

That's a pretty bold statement from a man that doesn't know her that well, or does he? Then Sam pushes a slip of paper her way and says,"I hope you don't have anything against the color red."

In this episode there are 3 incidences where normal people commit horrific crimes, killing people, and die themselves in the process. Their hair turns solid gray. Peter and Olivia follow the trails. In performing Greg Leiter's(the first victim) autopsy back in Boston, Walter finds a suture line on the back of his neck(If you've watched Season 2 you may be thinking of "Gray Matters.")During the autopsy of Leiter's brain, Walter pulls a filament out of his midbrain attached to a computer chip. While talking with Peter about it on the phone, Peter finds an incision at the base of the second victim's head.

In a not surprising scene Nina fills Phillip Broyles in on the fact that the computer thingies in the two victim's brain are B.C.I.'s , brain-computer interfaces. She tells him they act like a pacemaker, monitoring sleep, and stimulating the thalamus when necessary. She also tells him there's a brilliant researcher in Seattle working with them that Massive Dynamic has been tracking for years, and hands him a file on a Dr. Nayak.

Peter and Olivia pay Dr. Nayak a visit, and he tells them both victims were part of an 82-patient clinical trial of the brain chips. Olivia collects the doctor's business card, and Peter makes the leap as to a possible motive:

"The bio chip plugs directly into the thalamus which not only regulates sleep, it works as a relay tower to the cerebral cortex, which also controls motor function."

Walter enlightens Peter further via phone saying "Mind control." He reminds Peter of his work on the famous MK Ultra project. Walter says at that time they thought they could do it with LSD and hypnotic suggestion, which should make you think of the "Lysergic Acid Diethylamide" episode from Season 3, and eerily enough, of Olivia's 4 experiences in the tank in Season 1.
"Mind control" is also the first example of fringe science Olivia gave Peter on their ride back from Iraq in episode 101. And if you've watched through all of Season 2, "Of Human Action" should be entering your mind about now as well.

Peter asks Walter if he could test the chip Nina gave him if he sent him the schematic of it. Walter tells Peter he'd prefer a live subject. Peter jumps in and makes Walter promise not to experiment on any students. Little does Peter know Agent Kashner, a non-student, has just walked into the lab!

Peter and Olivia noodle over the fact that Dr. Nayak could only list 26 patients. Peter sees her glance at a picture of her and Charlie and watches her expression change. He changes topic and tries to reassure her she didn't kill her partner. Olivia launches into a memory of the first time she met Charlie on a mission. Her voice cracks and she gets teary. Peter starts swallowing which means he's getting affected. Quickly Olivia gets up and says she's gonna go help the clinic staff round up more of Nayak's patients. That moment where Peter finds himself sitting there alone saying "Ok," very softly, is foreshadowing of the depressing scene in "Marionette," where an upset Olivia leaves Peter sitting alone in the garden saying "Sorry."

We learn about halfway through this episode that Dr. Nayak sits in front of a console wearing a cap with electrodes. He dials up a patient from the sleep clinic files. His assistant asks him if he really wants to increase the dose.

In a strange moment Sam Weiss calls Olivia on her cell phone. When she answers he says in an extremely casual manner, "What's shakin', Bacon?" Strangely, Olivia doesn't seemed shocked by his call and gives him a cocky answer. Sam gives her the rest of the instructions of his assignment. She asks him what to do with the letters on her paper and he answers, "Jumble. Anagram. Word Puzzle. Find the phrase," which is foreshadowing of the phrase on the blackboard Over There in episode 223.

Peter informs Olivia during her investigation of a third case. When they confront Dr. Nayak he admits she was also one of his patients. He tells them his lab assistant, Zach Miller skipped work today. Peter and Olivia investigate Zach's apartment, and Peter finds him dead in his entertainment center. After they leave, Dr. Nayak picks up his phone and leaves a message,"I told them. I showed them your damned note. So you might as well stop."

Walter pretty much figures out in his lab with the help of an unconscious Agent Kashner how Dr. Nayak's B.C.I.'s work. He tells Peter it's not mind control, but that the biochips are transmitting large amounts of data. Walter tells Peter the chips are accessing all the data that runs through a person's thalamus.
Olivia gets right to the point, "Walter, are you saying the Doctor Nayak's bio-chips are stealing dreams?" And again, if you've watched through all of Season 2 "Brown Betty" should be popping into your head right now.

Peter points out to Walter that Leiter slept for hours but never dreamed. Walter points out that the dreams were siphoned off before they reached his consciousness and that by not allowing the brain to recharge it could put a person into death by exhaustion. Walter gets to the heart of the matter by telling Peter he believes the bio-chips could turn on while a patient was awake, and that could lead to what they are witnessing in the three victims. Peter asks Walter why someone would want to steal dreams, and Walter tells him for the rush. Walter goes so far as to say he thinks the person who comes in contact with that rush could become its slave. Olivia get an idea and she and Peter go back to the hotel. Olivia brings up her drunk stepfather, saying he had two personalities, like Jekyll and Hyde. (If you're starting to think of "Dark Peter" in "Reciprocity," you're not alone.) She compares Dr. Nayak's handwriting to the note he found on his clinic door, and she determines the two are from the same person.

In an interesting moment, Dr. Nayak checks the messages on his answering machine, and hears his own voice telling him he showed them "your damed note. So you might as well stop. Please." Mystery solved. Nice that Olivia's nasty stepfather was useful for something.

Then we see Dr. Nayak enter his home lab and don his EEG skull cap. He dials up another patient from the sleep center files, a seaplane pilot who's in the process of taking off from a lake in the Seattle area. As Dr. Nayak get high off the pilot's thoughts Peter, Olivia, and the detective they've been working with hurriedly enter Dr. Nayak's house. They find him hooked up and Peter tries in vain to shut down the computer program. Peter can't disable the server. Olivia gets impatient and warns Peter to stand back as she shoots the computer mainframe 6 times.


As Peter and Olivia exit Dr. Nayak's house they discuss what they think happened.
Peter has a theory, anad here's how that P/O conversation goes:

Peter:"You remember how horrified Nayak was when we told him his patients were dying? I don't think that he was fully aware of what his darker side was up to...until tonight."

Olivia: "So this was his way of trying to put a stop to things."

Peter:"I guess that's the irony. His addiction to dreams became his nightmare, one that he couldn't wake up from. Maybe that was his only way of ending the nightmare."
Hmm. Is this foreshadowing of something to come with one of our 3 main characters in Season 4? The episode could have ended right there, but this is the first of 3 endings.

In the second to last scene Olivia is at Charlie Francis's grave paying her respects. She gets back into her SUV and pulls out the letters Sam Weiss had her write down and jumbles them. After a few tries You're gonna be fine shows up on her notepad, and she wipes the tears from her eyes. The episode could have ended here, but there is one remaining scene.

The episode ends with Walter watching as Peter sleeps. A young Peter dreams of his father in the mirror and he screams. Peter wakes up and sees Walter sitting there watching him. Walter tells him he was talking in his sleep. Peter tells him he thinks he was having a bad dream about being a kid in his room and Walter being there. Walter asks if he can remember anything else and Peter shakes his head "no."

Interesting Things About This Episode
The MK Ultra Project-This is very heady stuff! According to sources, the CIA director in the 1950's ordered a program to start called MKULTRA(it had other acronyms) as a result of alleged Soviet(Russian), North Korean, and Chinese use of mind control techniques on US prisoners of war in Korea. The CIA wanted to exert mind control techniques on its own subjects. Apparently there were several sub-projects also involved and studies on unknowing subjects who did not give consent were conducted by the CIA from the 50's into the 70's. Around 1973 the then CIA director ordered the related documents to be destroyed.
Interestingly, over 20,000 were reported found after that time. Sometimes the studies involved giving LSD to unkowing subjects.


Unanswered Questions That Arose From "Dream Logic"
Sam Weiss tells Olivia her life is pretty much a nightmare. How much does Sam Weiss really know about Olivia Dunham, and how does he know it?

Peter says from the age of eight to almost nineteen he doesn't remember a single dream.

Did Walter exert mind control on Peter after they returned from Over There? Did Walter steal Peter's dreams? If so, why didn't Peter die from exhaustion like the bio-chip victims did? Isn't it too bad no one checked Peter's neck for a healed suture line?

Why has Massvie Dynamic been tracking Dr. Nayak and his work for years?

Dr. Nayak only gave the feds 26 of the 82 bio-chip patient names. Was he selfishly keeping the others a secret to use them to get high? Did anyone ever get the rest of the patient names before Dr. Nayak died, or are all these people still walking around with the bio-chips in their brains? If so, can anyone else, like say Massive Dynamic, dial them up like Dr. Nayak did?

Walter tells Peter they thought they could do mind control back in the time of the MK Ultra project with just LSD and hypnotic suggestion. Olivia had LSD and hypnotic suggestion 4 times when she went into the tank. Did Walter exert mind control on Olivia? Did Walter and William Bell practice mind control on all the cortexiphan kids?

Did the machine in "Reciprocity" exert mind control over Peter (sans the LSD)?

Walter is fishing for information after Peter awakens from his bad dream.
Again, did Walter exert mind control over Peter for several years to get him to forget being kidnapped from Over There?


If Peter Bishop Never Existed
Walter Bishop would probably never wear his shorts to bed. Actually, Walter probably would not be living in that big house in Cambridge either. But wherever he would be living, you can bet it faces east.

Walter probably would have begged Olivia to go home to Boston. Would she have let him?
Would Olivia have stayed in Seattle by herself to work on the case? Or would Broyles have sent her some help? Or, would both Astrid and Olivia have accompanied Walter to Seattle to work on the case?

If Agent Kashner had to accompany Walter back to Boston, no one would have given him any nuggets of advice on how to deal with Walter on the flight home.

If Olivia had to interview Mrs. Leiter herself, she may have missed the significance of the sleep disorder books on their bookshelf, and wouldn't have thought to ask about a sleep journal, let alone request to see it. Therefore, Olivia might have missed the link to Dr, Nayak and his bio-chips. Following this line of reasoning, Dr. Nayak may still be alive, tuning into his research patients and getting high, while killing them off one by one. And of course, there would be much collateral damage.

There would be no matching gray P/O shirts(How sad).

Walter may have implanted the bio-chip into Agent Kashner's brain.

He wouldn't have given us that great bit of foreshadowing of "Reciprocity":
"I don't think that he was fully aware of what his darker side was up to...until tonight."

Fringe Summer Rewatch: #204 "Momentum Deferred"

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.

Momentum Deferred is an important episode in the overall story of the show. It's importance stems from the fact that previously Agent Charlie Francis had become a shape-shifter and no-one is the wiser on the Fringe team.

The episode centers around Olivia trying to recover her memories from crossing over to the other side. Her attempt in doing so in the beginning of the episode involves her drinking flatworms to help trigger her memory. Meanwhile multiple cryogenics facilities have been robbed and someone seems to be targeting frozen heads across the country. One of the corpses found at the scene bleeds silver (mercury) and left behind one of the devices used to help him shape-shift. Charlie begins to suffer the effects of his previous shape-shifting, having been in the body too long and in an attempt to heal himself, drinks mercury to recompose himself. It seems to be a temporary fix.

Olivia takes the shape-shifting device to Massive Dynamic where they work at rendering the image of the last shape-shifter and promise to have it on a public server for Olivia the minute they figure out who it is. Meanwhile Peter takes Walter to visit Rebecca Kibner, a previous test subject that had the ability to recognize people from the other side. Rebecca eagerly agrees to come back with them to the lab to undergo tests once again in order to help.

While in the lab, they ring the bell while Rebecca is under. The sound immediately affects Olivia as she passes out onto the floor and is unresponsive. During this time, we get a flashback of Olivia and William Bell from the otherside. Olivia is told that she is the gatekeeper, the strongest of all the children protected. She is informed that very few can cross over and that her ability makes her special and that she is just now coming into it. She must also remember the symbol on the back of the shape-shifters neck and show it to Nina Sharp . Peter revives Olivia painfully with a needle filled with adrenaline straight to the heart. Jolting up, she gasps that she needs to speak with Nina Sharp. Olivia remembered her time crossing over.

Nina breaks it down to Olivia, telling her about the Pauli Exclusion Principle and the last great storm. Olivia is interrupted by her phone and sees Charlie is calling. He tells her that Nina is the shapeshifter and to get out. Olivia quickly excuses herself, confessing to Charlie that she almost gave the information to Nina, that the body is at “Laston-Hennings Cryonics.” Just as she tells him, she sees another message on her phone and looks down to see the reconstruction of Charlie as the shape-shifter. Charlie manages to make the call, assaulting Olivia and attempting to kill her. She has no choice but to defend herself and finds that she has to shoot him in the head to kill him. In the end, the facility had already been cleaned out and presumably had taken whatever it was they were looking for. We see a head being strangely reattached in the final seconds of the episode.

New questions raised in this episode that remain unanswered:

Charlie is dying in his body and needs a new device to survive. How long is a typical shape-shifter in their body? Do they use the device for anything other than changing bodies?

The frozen head that the shape-shifters are after – where was the body prior to being frozen? What led him to this state?

What does the symbol mean on the back of the shape-shifters head? Why does he have it?

Bell tells Olivia that most people are torn apart that try to cross over. How many others have tried to cross over? We know Olivia has a natural ability to cross over but how was Walter and Peter able to cross over? What about William Bell? Is that why he needs the oxygen mask?

Did William Bell know that by ringing the bell it would later help jog Olivia’s memory?

How does William Bell know the phrase “Einai kalytero... Anthropo apo toy... Patera toy” Did he know Peter’s mother more intimately than we’ve been told?

If Peter Bishop never existed:

This episode is not heavily Peter centered. His lack of existence in this episode doesn't change the major story. It is after all Olivia that finds out Charlie is a shape-shifter and Olivia that is forced to kill him. Peter does give the shot of adrenaline to Olivia but presumably Astrid or Walter could have assisted.

The only major Peter element is what William Bell tells Olivia to say to Peter because she will need him by her side. "Einai kalytero... Anthropo apo toy... Patera toy."

Fringe Summer Rewatch: #203 "Fractured"

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.

“And you say the headaches haven’t started? Let me know when they do.” – Sam Weiss

Fractured is one of those episodes that includes more arc information and yet you learn so much more about a few of the key characters that you're not sure what hit you when you've finished watching the episode. The opening scene is a cop, Gillespi, receiving a call from the "colonel" and he is given orders to meet a man dressed in black with a briefcase at a train station. We aren't given any more information other than what Gillespi is given and when he confronts the man in question he begins to crystallize and then explodes, killing everyone around him. Wicked, right? What other show out there can expand on an exploding crystallized man?

We then pan to Olivia at the bowling alley with Sam Weiss relearning how to tie her shoes. As she fumbles with the laces, Sam is evasive in his answers to her questions and Olivia only grows more frustrated. We learn through Sam though that the link between him and Nina Sharp is that he helped her learn how to use her fancy hand replacement. Sam makes the quick assumption that Olivia isn't sleeping very much and that the lingering from the accident is eating away at her quickly fading sanity and she doesn't argue his accusation. He sends her home after he helps her finish tying her shoe and is instructed to come back once the headaches have hit.

Next scene is Peter reading off apartment listings while Walter is doing a side task and Astrid is browsing through the FBI case data frame. Walter is obstinate that he likes where they are staying regardless of how uncomfortable it is for Peter, but before the tension between father and son can grow too much Astrid speaks up about an odd case involving an explosion without any bomb residue. The Fringe team is on the case.

On site they make the conclusion that the fragmented crystals they keep finding are actually bits of a man and that was the cause of the many deaths around them. Walter and Astrid return to the lab to put back together the man that was Gillespi while Olivia and Peter go to meet with Gillespi's wife to ask her some questions. This is of course when Olivia's headaches kick in, causing her to see bits of what happened on the other side while she manages to escape to the bathroom to be sick. On that stroke of luck she discovers a loose tile in the bathroom wall under the sink and finds a stash of injectable drugs that Gillespi's wife knows nothing about.

This marks the second time the Fringe team gets proactive on a case in an attempt to save more lives and beat the bad guys to the punch. Peter is now stepping up more in helping with the detective work more than the science. Unfortunately, Olivia is more stubborn then ever at keeping everyone, and especially Peter, from seeing the toll the accident is still having on her body.

Meanwhile Astrid strikes up conversation with Walter about finding a new apartment and he expresses his fondness of the area he lives in currently and the apple fritter he discovered while taking a wrong turn on a street while on a walk.

“You never would’ve discovered the apple fritter if you hadn’t turned the wrong way down the street, would you?” – Astrid

This sentence speaks more than for apple fritters, I think. The theme of what if's is simply stated in this scenario and just a simple switch of words and you've got a lot deeper of a question.

The first man we meet from Peter’s past, “Joe” a computer tech who plays with the security videos and helps them figure out that high radio frequencies can sometimes interrupt video feeds and that the disturbance happened before the bomb went off.

Peter eventually gets the idea to go to Iraq in search for more information on what happened to Gillespi there and mentions it to Broyles with Olivia there. I have to say of all the patented Olivia-looks, this was one of my favorites and clearly says "dangitall". They fly out and find another man from Peter's past and one who isn't as excited as the first to see him. We learn that Big Eddie isn’t the only person out there that hates him. Peter seems to truly regret his past as it is revealed to Olivia. I like to think the man Peter approaches sees this, but chances are it’s the thought of his refusal costing lives that gets him to cave. Olivia, to her credit, doesn’t press him too hard for answers. A few shots of a questionable drink choice later and they're meeting with a doctor who was part of "Project Tin Man" and experiment that saved few and condemned many. He was able to tell them three other names that gave them the final lead they needed.

Peter and Olivia race back and they're able to catch enough lead time to set up a hidden reception for Burgess, one of the tin man test subjects, with hopes of also catching the colonel. Walter and Peter convince Broyles to leave open the frequency so they can use it to triangulate the location of the colonel. Unfortunately, the triangulating program is locked when the frequency starts and it’s up to Olivia and Peter to counteract the attack from the inside. We learn that Peter kind of fights like a girl and Olivia get’s to take out her frustration on technology by beating the remote with her cane and team Fringe saves the day yet again.

In the end Olivia finally snaps at Sam Weiss due to her lack of patience in the progress they aren't making and she unwittingly helps heal herself when she walks to him without her cane.

We end the episode with Broyles interviewing the colonel about his "mission". We find out the colonel is against the observers. He claims the observers are starting a war using our own science against us and that they are learning what they need to know until they can kill us all. Seems pretty futile to me, but if anyone is going to decode those guys it’s going to be team Fringe and not this guy.

Interesting things we learned from "Fractured":

• Not surprising, Peter speaks Arabic, but Olivia does as well





• Mr. Watermelon, Mr. Papaya’s friend bites the crystal.





• Gene is apparently sensitive to people eating her fellow species in the lab.





• Lesson #1 for Olivia, per Sam Weiss seems to be “patience”.

And finally, if Peter Bishop didn't exist...
This was a very heavy Peter episode in that he played a part in almost every new discovery from the what the bomb was made of, the video surveillance work, and his networking with his contact in Iraq to to get the lead required to save the next unwitting bomb and many other lives. I think it's safe to say that many more lives would be lost in the delay of solving this case without Peter.

New Interview with Josh Jackson

Here's a new  interview with Joshua Jackson where he talks about season 4 and Pacey Con.

Fringe Season 3 Finale - Part 2 of 2

Will Season 4 Ignore Or Explore?

Season 3 Finale - ‘The Day We Died’*
* - all dialogue quotes are from this episode.

Walternate(2011): ‘You shattered my universe! Do you have any idea of how many deaths you caused?’

Walter(2011): ‘That was an accident!  What you have tried to do, you have done on purpose!’

Season 4 starts out with the two universes still in peril but now with a chance for both sides to avert the impending disaster, thanks to Peter.  But the price of creating that chance has removed Peter from the playing board.  So much of what Walter and Olivia have become is intertwined with Peter’s presence.  Without him in the mix how can this new opportunity in the form of the Universe Bridge between the two universes have a chance of success?  How well will Olivia and Walter and by extension, Walternate and Fauxlivia, be equipped to deal with this new crisis?

Have the writers have written themselves into a corner?

It is clear from the SDCC Fringe press room interviews that the show runners mulled over using Peter’s nonexistence as a story point. Part of the examination must have been how it could be used within the constraints of a serialized TV show.  How can a story be carried out without the involvement of one of the three prinicipals?  While Fringe demonstrated last season that it is willing to sit out characters for entire episodes to tell a story, sitting one out for half a season is not doable.  It must be concluded that the show runners were able to come up with a story that requires Peter’s return but in a manner that does not void the setup from the Season 3 Finale.  What possible story could that be?

Walter(2026): ‘It’s a paradox. I can’t change what happens because it already has happened.’

My expectations for S4 are that, much like it was revealed in Season 3 that the two universes need each other to co-exist; so will it be found that Peter’s presence is also essential.  The Observers are able to foresee cause and affect but what they cannot foresee is the human element. What Walter and Olivia are missing from the original timeline are those human qualities for love and compassion that Peter enabled in both of them. Without those qualities they will be unable to arrive at a solution to save the two universes. Something that the Observers seem incapable of comprehending.  

Peter's absence should manifest itself in ways that will make him 'Important,' to borrow an Observerism.

Once this Importance is realized by the Observers, they will have to find a way to reinsert Peter into the timeline to preserve all those growth moments the three principal characters have gone through. And that, I suspect, is where the drama will lie. How to do that AND preserve the Universe Bridge that Peter has built? The ripple affects of timeline changes are enormous as seen in last season’s ‘The Firefly’ episode.

How can a successful scenario play out without Peter in the mix?  Try to imagine how The Lord Of The Rings would play out if there was no Samwise Gamgee!  Or no Spock in The Wrath of Khan!  The mind boggles!  And, to me, in good and exciting ways.

Walter(2026): ‘But you can make a different choice within what happened.  I simply need to find a way to bring your consciousness forward to now so that you can witness what will happen if you make the same choice.’

That does not mean that Peter's re-integration into the Prime Timeline has to be without some changes to the previously established history of the first three seasons.  There are several inter-related viewpoints by fans and TV critics that by introducing worm holes and time travel into the mix that the show is bypassing  the main storyline.  There is the belief that all the hard won character battles and growth will be lost.  The side stepping of the main storyline has been addressed in Part 1. The two universes are still on a course of Existence Extinguishment. Nothing has been circumvented. Peter has given the two realities a chance for redemption. Nothing more.

As to the negation of all previous events for the main cast, that could happen, but I have faith in the show runners that they will not let that come to pass.  If anything they will expand and deepen those previous moments.  Especially if Peter has to be involved in them in some surreptitious manner. There are many hard won moments in the previous three seasons that the show runners are sure to want to preserve both for their impact and integrity in relation to the journey the characters have taken to this point.

Walter(2026): Don’t you see?  We could fix everything! We could cheat the rules of time!’

Season 3 was very much about fleshing out Olivia's character.  She underwent a journey that allowed her to gain mastery of her inner doubts and make emotional connections with Peter. Season 4 seems poised to do the same for Peter.   It could very well end up being a Fringian version of, 'It's A Wonderful Life.'  

And like in the Season 3 Finale when Peter needed Olivia's help in order to access the Machine, it would only be fitting that Olivia once again steps up and brings Peter from the 'other' side - whatever that 'other' existence/nonexistence may be - in Season 4 and back into the Prime Timeline we have been watching for the past three seasons.

It could very well come to pass that as Season 4 plays out, the events set in motion by the finale of Season 3 will be looked back at in a more appreciative light.  The removal of Peter from the established story line should turn out to be the launching pad for some amazing and touching future episodes.

Peter (2026/2011?): 'Imagine the repercussions.'

Walter (2026): ‘There's no way of telling what the cost may be but it can’t be worse than this.  Can't be worse than this.’

The Season 3 Finale may have been more of an intellectual exercise, leaving viewers cold, but it could be the seed from which many emotional character moments spring up from. Much like the introduction of the alternate universe was used to show us more about the characters, it is almost a certainty the Fringe show runners will use the erasure of Peter to do the same thing again.  

My prediction is that Season 4 will follow the structure of Season 3. The first handful of episodes will show the impact of Peter’s removal – some by revisiting past moments, others by showing conflict in the present with their counterparts ie Walternate & Fauxlivia – and demonstrating why Peter’s return is vital. The next bunch will deal with reintegrating Peter back in the timeline with minimal changes to the original one we know as the past 3 Seasons and keeping the Universe Bridge intact.

Peter (2026/2011?): ‘What would I need to do?’

Season 4 - will It ignore or Explore?  Will it ignore or explore what has happened in the first 3 seasons and how it impacts events going forward?  Even before the SanDiego ComicCon(SDCC) the answer seemed clear.  Now after the SDCC it is a certainty.

The Question has been answered.  Season 4 will explore.

 

  Pass the Red Vines and color me excited.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Notable moments:

Olivia sums it up best.

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

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

If Peter Bishop Never Existed...

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

Fringe Summer Rewatch: #201 "A New Day in the Old Town"

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


Last season’s finale left viewers in awe as the camera panned away from Olivia looking out the window of William Bell’s office, revealing that she was standing in one of the Twin Towers.

The second season premiere of Fringe, opened with an unexpected bang. Or more like a crash. My first thoughts watching this scene unfold were, “Who the heck is this guy, and why do I care?”

It turns out that the introduction of the shape-shifters would prove to be more than just adding an enemy. Over the course of series, viewers see another instance of humanizing those that we would normally consider the “bad guys.” But for this episode, there is nothing to love about these organo-mechanical beings that kill others and steal their identities in order to infiltrate our world and fool those closest to the deceased.

The vehicle that crashed and that was supposedly driven by Olivia makes me think of a few considerations. Did the SUV get pulled over from the other side, sending another equal mass object over? Or was it quantum-entangled with a similar vehicle on the other side with Olivia as the driver?

Speaking of quantum-entanglement, this episode is where the vintage typewriter store was introduced, and it plays a continuous role in the series.

Mortality

When the doctor at the hospital told Walter and Peter about Olivia’s terminal prognosis, Walter’s statement concerning life and death has a new interpretation.

Simple. Reductive. Absurd. Life and death, these are relative terms. Contextually defined, dependent on cultural specifics.

He is undoubtedly indulging in primitive diagnostics. Agent Dunham is not dead. She's not dead. She's not dead.

The matter of life and death was touched upon heavily in the third season. William Bell sacrificed his corporeal self in order to return the Fringe team back to their universe. But Bell "came back" using soul magnets. Roland Barrett tried to bring back the girl that he loved in Marionette, and almost succeeded, except for the lack of a “soul.“ Dana Gray wanted to die in Stowaway, but could not no matter how she tried. Walter and Peter “died” in Olivia’s mind in LSD. Peter took the gamble to go back and make a different choice in The Day We Died, because he wanted Olivia to live in the future.

Walter and Peter

Walter and Peter have become much closer this season, with Peter taking his father to the grocery store, and playing the ‘I don’t want a big deal made of my birthday’ game. Last season, Walter seemed to come to understand that the adult Peter that he now calls his son, is the alternate of the boy he buried. Yet, he still gets confused as he asserts that Peter loved custard as a boy, and Peter insists that he doesn’t like it and never has. Walter’s innocent statement about wanting to see Olivia eat his pudding, and Peter’s reaction was a great laugh. (Sorry, I love innuendo.) But on Fringe, the other shoe often drops whenever anyone is happy, and Peter’s look over the phone call he received sets the stage for an emotional and frantic roller-coaster of an episode.


Olivia and Peter

It always amazed me when some people thought that Peter and Olivia’s kiss in Over There, came out of nowhere. I always got the vibe that Peter felt a spark for Olivia, but was staying “at arms’s length” because of what happened between her and Agent John Scott.

There is a monumental importance to this series found in the hospital scene in which Walter examined “Olive” and broke down into tears, as Peter looked through the window, obviously about to breakdown himself. This is where the “epic” love story began, in my opinion. It only gets more obvious when Peter nearly choked up when Olivia's sister Rachel told him, “You know she liked you, Peter. Did you know that?” The grief on his face when he went to tell Olivia good-bye just… hurt.

Also, Olivia told Peter that he is good at taking care of the people that he cares about. Little did she know that in the future, he’d risk himself for the people that he loved.

From here on out, there was no doubt in my mind that Peter felt more for Olivia than just friendship. But like all good love stories - I won’t call it mere romance, because it is much more than that - it took a lot of time for these two broken people to come together.

The Greek Phrase

Einai kalytero anthropo apo ton patera toy.

This line has come into play so much in the series

During season three, I speculated that it would be used to let Peter know that the Olivia with him, was not the Olivia Dunham he knew. So, I was pleasantly surprised when finally, the phrase was brought up, and Oh! Alt-Livia failed the test.

But curiously, that was not the end of the line's importance. It would be the line that was typed on the quantum-entangled typewriter in The Last Sam Weiss, letting Olivia know that she could manipulate objects in the other universe.

Peter Shows Commitment

Walter had previously told Peter that his biggest problem was a lack of commitment. Episode 2:01 shows that Peter had deviated from that early character assessment. The man that wanted to run in The Arrival grew to become one that started to become accepting of caring for his father and working with the FBI while trying to make a difference.

Peter’s character has never been one to go over-the-top with emotion. When he breaks, he breaks silently. The bar scene with Broyles showed the determined but frustrated Peter that wanted to get answers, and who was tired of roadblocks and being jerked around.

Who would have guessed that this scene of frustration and mourning would come back to have a deeper significance after season three? Peter tells Broyles:

They're shutting you down? What were we even doing, anyway? We'd sit around and wait for somebody to die some grisly, macabre death, or for the entire fabric of the universe to come shredding apart. We were the clean-up crew, sent in to mop it up and make sure it was all neat and tidy for the file. We were always too late anyway.

In The Day We Died, Broyles tells Peter of his frustration, mirroring their 17 year old conversation in the bar, except this time, they knew that the fabric of the universe was literally shredding apart.

We're running around putting on band-aids, and every day more people are lost because of it, and Walter was responsible. I know him. And I know his intentions weren't this. But there's not a single person out there who hasn't lost someone they love because of him. You can't begrudge the anger they feel towards him.

Peter also lamented being “too late for Olivia” in 2:01, and he decided to not be too late in TDWD.

Peter took it upon himself to save Fringe Division. The shape-shifter device that he gave to Broyles was proof that there was a real threat to the country - and the world. In Over There, Broyles explained that the snazzy new Fringe Division headquarters was part of Peter’s demands. This could have been the basis for the Fringe Division in TDWD.

Peter’s line to Broyles:

From now on, we're calling the shots. We're done reacting. We're not gonna be too late anymore. After all, somebody's got to save their asses, right?

Does part of calling the shots and no longer being too late involve time-line alteration? It is interesting as well that Peter is the one that ends up trying to save everyone.

Biblical Imagery

Jessup was seen near the ending of the episode making connections between Fringe cases and the Biblical Book of Revelations. This plot seemed to drop into whatever vortex Jessup was sucked into. Or did it? Our Fringe team of Walter, Peter and Olivia has often been referred to as a Trinity, much like the Christian concept. The name Peter Bishop has definite religious significance as it was the Apostle Peter that Jesus referred to as “the rock” upon which he’d build his church, and Bishops are religious leaders. Interestingly, The Day We Died had this line from Astrid:

The End of Days. Ha. That's one of my father's favorite sermons. When the world dies and a savior arrives to end the suffering and usher all the worthy into Heaven.

Despite the disappearing Agent Amy Jessup, and the death of Charlie Francis, this is one of my favorite episodes. I always describe it to people as where Fringe Division, and especially Peter Bishop, got teeth.

Unanswered Questions

Of course, everyone wants to know what happened to Agent Jessup, and what was the deal with her Fringe cases versus the Book of Revelations?

Who gave Agent Jessup the password to access the Fringe team’s files?

Who set-up Olivia’s accident?

What did the other side (Walternate?) know about Olivia’s meeting with William Bell?

Why did Peter’s mother tell him a phrase that was also known by William Bell?

Who is the typewriter store owner? He’s not a shape shifter. Is he a human subject sent to our universe, or what?

If Peter Bishop Never Existed?

I think that Bell would still pull Olivia over to the other side, and her accident would still take place.

Fringe Division may have been shut-down without his resolve and tenacity.

If the theory about Peter and Olivia having a metaphysical type of connection is true, then Olivia may have never woke up from her coma.

Joshua Jackson Cheers Fringe's Vanishing Act-and How It Will Save the Peter/Olivia Romance

Joshua Jackson Cheers Fringe's Vanishing Act – and How It Will Save the Peter/Olivia Romance by Matt Webb Mitovich

Joshua Jackson is sorry if you fretted over his fate (as well as that of Peter Bishop’s) after his Fringe alter ego literally flickered out of existence in the Season 3 finale. But he assures you it was in the name of several greater goods — including boosting the Peter/Olivia romance.
Reflecting on early this spring, at which time he first got word that Peter might cease to exist, Jackson tells TVLine, “They brought me in as part of the [creative] process at the end, because there was a lot of debate internally about whether to finish [the season] with that or not, because it is such a big thing to do. And I was very much on the pro side.”

Why would an actor vote in favor of his character disappearing? Jackson’s rationale was two-fold. “One, it was the right ending for that season’s story – it almost had to be,” he says of the story arc in which Peter confronted his destiny as the “trigger” for a doomsday machine.

Jackson’s second reason for validating Peter’s vanishing: “I was never a real huge fan of the Peter/Olivia storyline,” he concedes. “All of Fringe is on this epic scale, and that seemed kind of banal to me at the center of it.”

But now, in the wake of Peter’s season-ending act and its dire ramifications, his connection to Olivia (played by Anna Torv) “is on an epic scale as well,” Jackson notes. “This guy sacrificed himself for the woman that he loves, which made that relationship more interesting and it launched us into the off-season with this ‘Holy s—t!’ moment.”

Getting back to those fretting Fringe fans, I asked Jackson if he had words of reassurance, any sort of promise that they will get their fill of Peter (and thus him) despite a season-opening storyline that would seem to limit his presence. The gist of his missive: the show, and I, would never betray you.

“Part of the reason they ended up making the decision to go with that cliff-hanger is because there’s a belief, given how passionate our fans are, that there is a level of trust in us — and we are all keenly aware of not violating that trust,” he shares. “So as much as there was a freak-out and panic, it was done with the hope that everyone understands that we’d never [mess] with our audience, which has been so faithful to us and kept us on the air.

“It was just a case of stealing a page out of [executive producer] J.J. Abrams’ playbook,” he continues, “and keeping people on their toes with anticipation… and then hopefully satisfying their desire.”

Fox’s Fringe premieres its new season on Friday, Sept. 23, at 9/8c.
Source:tvline.com

Fringe Summer Rewatch: #120 "There is More Than One of Everything"

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.

Each of Fringe’s season finales have been fast paced and leaving the audience ready for more. The third season finale has left me and many other fans dumbfounded. Just where can the show go from there? How will the past three seasons end up not being negated? I think the key is in understanding these very past episodes; that the history in them already has some of the answers.

Last summer, I anxiously awaited to find out what happened to Olivia and our Fringe team with a dupe in their midst. But it is this first season finale that truly altered the fabric of Fringe, weaving a rich story tapestry that made me feel that this show, allowed to play out, would be something special.

General Observations

Nina Sharp was shot in the last episode. Her robotic arm was discovered and was going haywire. Part of me wonders why Jones let her live. I also find it amusing that Nina has Kevlar parts in her ribcage. Nina seems to be very paranoid. Instead of telling Broyles outright what Jones wanted, she asked for Olivia.

When Nina came to Walter’s Harvard basement lab, her reaction to seeing Peter was interesting. Still wondering why she is so unusually interested in Peter.

Nina said that Jones always felt he was special. Once again, the theme of special people was introduced.

The confusion surrounding William Bell continued. Olivia was under the impression that Jones works for Bell.

Olivia lost her normally cool and calm composure. This matter became personal for her. However, Broyles let her know that she cut him off before he could tell her that he was on her side, and that he agreed about what needed to be done. Nina Sharp noticed that Olivia’s drive to meet Bell was more than a professional desire.

I love how Broyles evolved from disparagingly calling Olivia ‘Liaison,’ to respecting her and doing whatever he could to assist her investigations.


Origins of The Pattern Emerge

Olivia has been shown to have amazing connective capabilities, and she used her smarts and tenacity to find a usable pattern to ‘The Pattern.’ However, in Brown Betty, it is Peter that shows her the map of all the incidences of Walter “stealing the dreams of children.”

As Olivia investigated she wondered why these events were increasing in number. Nina explained:

We happened, Agent Dunham. Scientific progress, advancing technologies... by meddling with the laws of nature, has hastened the decay of these constant fundamentals and increased the number of soft spots.

When Nina first said this, it seemed to me to be a remark about humanity in general. But now I’m convinced that the “We” she referred to was herself, Walter, William, Peter, Olivia, Broyles, Astrid, etc. But part of me also wonders if my first assumption was true, because the more technologically advanced society of the other universe was suffering anomalies at a much higher rate than our prime universe. The show had established the “zero event” as Peter’s abduction, caused by Walter crossing over. Did the other universe have more soft spots to begin with, and Walter’s intrusion just started the stacked dominoes to fall faster?

The constant laws of physics were really turned upside down in the S3 episode Os, as two of the most dense elements, Osmium and Lutetium, combined to form a molecule lighter than air.

As I watched the scene here in 1X20, I noticed something I had not picked up on before. Olivia asks:

Which of these events are the oldest? Do you remember? I mean, these events are somehow consequences of ‘soft spots’ --

Nina looked right over to Broyles who also gave her a knowing glance. What was that about? Also, when Olivia surmised the location as Reiden Lake, I’m surprised that Nina Sharp didn’t have a heart attack, considering that is where she lost her arm.


Olivia/ Peter

When Walter went missing and Peter was worried, Olivia wondered if he left because of the incident that Peter says Walter referred to as “the assault in the pastry shop.” Olivia was genuinely upset about hurting Walter, but it seemed that she saw how it also hurt Peter, as he was responsible for the old man. Plus, Peter had to live with what his father did to Olivia.


The Coin

Any Fringe fan knows how coins keep showing up. It is a continuous prop throughout the series. In this episode, September showed Walter a Walking Liberty coin, just like the one he later finds in the lake house and later lays on top of his Peter’s gravestone.

Walter asked September, “How did you get that?

Peter once again exhibited lapsed memories concerning his childhood. Walter told him about the way Peter loved coins when he was very sick, but Peter didn't remember. Walter replied, "I do." Was Walter still confusing the two Peters? Did this Peter continue to collect coins when he came to this universe? In the episode Peter, the Peter we now know showed his mother the coin trick that Walter's Peter had showed him before he died. In The Last Sam Weiss, confused Peter went through a lot of effort to obtain a Walking Liberty coin in order to show it to his father, "Walter Bishop. The Secretary of Defense."

Later, Walter was confused when Peter played with such a coin after he was examined.

He quickly asked Peter, “Where'd you get this?”

Walter apparently never gave the coin back to Peter. Peter told the pawn shop owner when he bought it that it “always brings him luck.” We can be sure that this seemingly mundane prop has a significance that will extend into season four.

Walter/Peter

This episode shows a great transition in the relationship between Father and Son. At the start of the series, Peter did not want anything to do with Walter and was prepared to leave as soon as possible. By this time, Peter was offering to go and gently retrieve his wayward father himself.

As Walter broke down into an angry rant-filled search in front of Peter, he said that he started something long ago, and now he has to finish it.

There is significance to the scene in which Peter told Walter about his memories of him making pancakes on Saturday mornings at the beach house. Walter remembered that they were whale-shaped, and Peter concurred. This is one of the first of this Peter’s childhood memories shared with Walter. Previously, Walter would talk about Peter’s childhood, and Peter could not remember what Walter was talking about. We find out later that this is because Walter was mixing up his Peter with the boy he stole from the other universe. In this episode, it appears Peter jarred Walter’s memory. When Walter found his son’s coin in the trunk, it really hit home that he was remembering what he did.

As Walter and Peter traveled to Reiden Lake, Peter said something striking:

After all these years, what's going to happen if we're not on time?

Clocks were very prevalent in Season 3, specifically notable were the digital clocks in The Box, The Plateau, Entrada, 6:02 AM EST, The Last Sam Weiss, and The Day We Died.

Another exchange of interest:

PETER: What else aren't you telling me, Walter?

WALTER: Lots, I'm sure, but none of it's relevant.

Oh Walter, everything you’ve kept from Peter is relevant. Or would it be if the boy would be blinked from existence eventually?

Walter loves leaving notes, it seems. Peter was happy because Walter left him a note concerning his absence. Walter also wrote a letter for Peter explaining his real origin in White Tulip, but burned it. The pictures of Peter in the machine and of Olivia turning it off telepathically were kind of a version of a note from Walter, I guess.


When this episode first aired, the scene with Walter in the graveyard was quite curious to me. I figured that it had something to do with Peter’s mother, because I assumed she was dead. The lab assistant killed in the fire that had Walter committed to St. Claire’s also came to mind. There are hints dropped throughout the previous episodes that suggest something was not quite right about Peter. My suspicions grew when Walter told Peter at the lake house:

WALTER: Yes. He theorized that properly nurtured, these abilities could be heightened, intensified, and that in time his subjects may be able to travel from here to there.

PETER: Over there? You mean an alternate world?

WALTER: Around this time, something was lost to me, Peter. Something precious. I became convinced that if only I could cross over myself, then I could take from there what I had lost here.

But I never expected the later scene that caused viewers everywhere to gasp: the gravestone inscribed with ‘Peter Bishop 1978-1985.’


The Momentous Moment

Nina Sharply rudely stood-up Olivia, after promising her a visit with William Bell. As she tried to leave the building, Olivia perceived another slip in either time or place. As she looked around the office that she was led to, she saw things that had to have been confusing. An oxygen mask. A New York Post with headlines consisting of “Obamas Move into New White House,” and a living John F. Kennedy.

William Bell’s answer to Olivia’s question asking about their location was odd. He had to have known that Olivia knew about other universes by now. I’m just not so sure their location was the red universe that would be introduced later.

But Olivia looking out from a window in the standing Twin Towers against a yellow-lit New York skyline did answer the question in a way.

We’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto.


Unanswered Questions

Why did the Observer take Walter to visit his Peter’s grave?

If Observers are not supposed to get involved, why did September take Walter to the lake house?

How could Walter know at what point what he had to find at the lake house and why?

What is the true significance of the coin?

What did Walter start ‘a long time ago’ that he has to finish?

Was Walter aware prior to this episode that Peter was not ‘his’ Peter? I assume not.

Why didn’t Peter get any inkling suspicion about Walter’s explanation concerning other realities and the fact the Walter knew exactly where this soft spot was located? Subject 13 showed a very distraught young Peter, desperate to ‘go home.” But nothing jarred his memory concerning his initial few months Over Here?

What was so "special" about David Robert Jones?

Who was protecting William Bell from inquiry?

If Peter Bishop Never Existed

It is pretty safe to assume that a lot of this episode would not exist either. Although Jones did not seem the slightest interested in Peter (almost like he didn’t exist) and would have tried to get to Bell anyway. But the hole surely would not be at Reiden Lake, because this is the scene of the first crossing over, as far as the audience knows. If Walter did not cross over to cure Peter, then the “zero event” most likely would have occurred elsewhere. Then again, Walter said that he had purchased the lake house because of proximity. So maybe the lake would have been the first point of crossing over anyway.

If Peter was not there to help Walter, maybe Walter would have never found the plug at all.

If Peter had not plugged the hole ‘in time,’ Jones may have made it to the other side. Walter made it clear in several episodes (Over There, Subject 13, Entrada) that crossing back over using that method may have shattered the universes.