Fringe 4.06 and 4.07
Dec. 11th, 2011 02:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakOn the train again, and hence able to write the promised Fringe thoughts not relating to Walter and his mice. And his romantic past.
4.06 didn't make much of an impression on me, possibly because 4.07 was so good but also because there was too much Peter and not enough everyone else. Also you could see the solution miles away, with the emotional pay off - Kate realising her husband will keep on risking everyone for her sake if she doesn't sabotage her own invention, sacrificing herself - resembling both last season's episode with the husband and wife from different verses and Peter's own big gesture in last season's finale. Damaging the universe and killing other people because you're unable to accept the death of a loved one is something of a theme ever since Walter's original sin, and to the show's credit, it has never presented this as okay, no matter how understandable, has always made the people paying the price real, and it's a criteria whether or not a character is redeemable: can he or she realise this is wrong and put the sake of the many BEFORE, not after, the sake of the few or the one?
Kate's poignant doom by Alzheimer aside, the episode is otherwise noteworthy because by the end Peter comes to the conclusion that people haven't forgotten him, he simply ended up in the wrong universe and needs to get back to his own. Given his Redverse past, it's an understandable assumption for him to make, but the audience also knows it's the wrong one, so I have a sinking sensation that Peter's attempt to "return" will damage the 'verse even further.
Now, Wallflower: how so fabulous, show? Not only in the light of the ending was it interesting to me that raised-by-Nina Olivia is less openly indignant about children as experiments than original Blueverse Liv was, and more willing to believe Nina's assurances, but no less horrified by the results and empathic to the (now adult) children in question. Eugene the Invisible Man was suitably tragic; I had a queasy moment wondering whether we were supposed to see his stalking of Julie as romantic, but in the end felt reassured again, with the pay off being not a kiss or sex but the fact she sees him in both senses and tells him her name, as he names himself. It also felt right he dies instead of being killed or captured, and in a quiet way. The earlier scene between him and Olivia, the conversation between them was staged in a way that reminded me of the climactic showdown in "Blade Runner"; Olivia is hanging on by the tips of her fingers, literally, got there in pursuit of a man dying of his own limited lifespan who is the treasured experiment of the industrial military complex gone rogue, and after a few pointed remarks, he yanks her away from danger. Roy Batty and Deckard could relate. And just as there is, at least in the director's cut, the uncertainty whether or not Deckard himself isn't also a replicant, here we and Olivia already know she's like Eugene a child experimented on. But what we and she don't know yet is that when Eugene cynically says if she's sent after him it's not because he has killed but because the military wants to keep their experiment, the truth is that it's Olivia who in this version of the timeline was never truly let go. As the final scene makes clear, Nina is still performing experiments on her. (Whether this is a recent development or something long term we will undoubtedly find out.)
While this is shocking, it's not unprepared. Nina's first scene this season emphasized that in this timeline, she's still in "only results count, and we're not responsible for colleteral damage" mode. And while there is a lot you can say about Abrams and gender, one mistake he can't be accused of is creating universes where being a parent automatically makes you a better person. Sometimes it does. Sometimes it makes you worse, and/or damaging to people not your offspring. Or to them AND to your child. And nobody can betray you like your parent/parental figure. (Olivia, get a drink with Sydney and most of the Lost cast.) Mind you, I don't think Nina is doing this for kicks or for a higher profit; I'm pretty sure she hasRambaldi a greater purpose in mind, could even be world saving. It's still a dastardly betrayal, and if you didn't expect something like this the moment Nina was made into Olivia's parent figure, you haven't watched a JJ show before.
Lastly: Olivia and Lincoln are exceedingly cute in their bonding and tentative maybe arranging for a date, Peter, working on the assumption he is in the wrong verse, makes a good matchmaker and is in for a rude awakening, and why do I fear Amberverse Lincoln's days are numbered? Also, the fact that Olivia doesn't feel magically drawn to Peter but continues to treat him politely as a stranger paradoxically makes me feel better about the inevitable Peter/Olivia resurgence which you know will happen sooner or later. As long as it's not case of destiny (tm), and she can care about other people in her life, I can deal.
4.06 didn't make much of an impression on me, possibly because 4.07 was so good but also because there was too much Peter and not enough everyone else. Also you could see the solution miles away, with the emotional pay off - Kate realising her husband will keep on risking everyone for her sake if she doesn't sabotage her own invention, sacrificing herself - resembling both last season's episode with the husband and wife from different verses and Peter's own big gesture in last season's finale. Damaging the universe and killing other people because you're unable to accept the death of a loved one is something of a theme ever since Walter's original sin, and to the show's credit, it has never presented this as okay, no matter how understandable, has always made the people paying the price real, and it's a criteria whether or not a character is redeemable: can he or she realise this is wrong and put the sake of the many BEFORE, not after, the sake of the few or the one?
Kate's poignant doom by Alzheimer aside, the episode is otherwise noteworthy because by the end Peter comes to the conclusion that people haven't forgotten him, he simply ended up in the wrong universe and needs to get back to his own. Given his Redverse past, it's an understandable assumption for him to make, but the audience also knows it's the wrong one, so I have a sinking sensation that Peter's attempt to "return" will damage the 'verse even further.
Now, Wallflower: how so fabulous, show? Not only in the light of the ending was it interesting to me that raised-by-Nina Olivia is less openly indignant about children as experiments than original Blueverse Liv was, and more willing to believe Nina's assurances, but no less horrified by the results and empathic to the (now adult) children in question. Eugene the Invisible Man was suitably tragic; I had a queasy moment wondering whether we were supposed to see his stalking of Julie as romantic, but in the end felt reassured again, with the pay off being not a kiss or sex but the fact she sees him in both senses and tells him her name, as he names himself. It also felt right he dies instead of being killed or captured, and in a quiet way. The earlier scene between him and Olivia, the conversation between them was staged in a way that reminded me of the climactic showdown in "Blade Runner"; Olivia is hanging on by the tips of her fingers, literally, got there in pursuit of a man dying of his own limited lifespan who is the treasured experiment of the industrial military complex gone rogue, and after a few pointed remarks, he yanks her away from danger. Roy Batty and Deckard could relate. And just as there is, at least in the director's cut, the uncertainty whether or not Deckard himself isn't also a replicant, here we and Olivia already know she's like Eugene a child experimented on. But what we and she don't know yet is that when Eugene cynically says if she's sent after him it's not because he has killed but because the military wants to keep their experiment, the truth is that it's Olivia who in this version of the timeline was never truly let go. As the final scene makes clear, Nina is still performing experiments on her. (Whether this is a recent development or something long term we will undoubtedly find out.)
While this is shocking, it's not unprepared. Nina's first scene this season emphasized that in this timeline, she's still in "only results count, and we're not responsible for colleteral damage" mode. And while there is a lot you can say about Abrams and gender, one mistake he can't be accused of is creating universes where being a parent automatically makes you a better person. Sometimes it does. Sometimes it makes you worse, and/or damaging to people not your offspring. Or to them AND to your child. And nobody can betray you like your parent/parental figure. (Olivia, get a drink with Sydney and most of the Lost cast.) Mind you, I don't think Nina is doing this for kicks or for a higher profit; I'm pretty sure she has
Lastly: Olivia and Lincoln are exceedingly cute in their bonding and tentative maybe arranging for a date, Peter, working on the assumption he is in the wrong verse, makes a good matchmaker and is in for a rude awakening, and why do I fear Amberverse Lincoln's days are numbered? Also, the fact that Olivia doesn't feel magically drawn to Peter but continues to treat him politely as a stranger paradoxically makes me feel better about the inevitable Peter/Olivia resurgence which you know will happen sooner or later. As long as it's not case of destiny (tm), and she can care about other people in her life, I can deal.
no subject
Date: 2011-12-11 04:49 pm (UTC)Right there with you. (Also, the story was...well. Hard for me.)
That too -- I'm not good at predicting, in general, but this wasn't hard.
This, exactly. Can't wait to see how it plays out; I do love what other -- fanfic -- writers have done with this so far. You'll see. ;)
He is in the medium run; I feel the fans of the Amber!verse are in that for the long run, though.
As jotted down in my blog weeks ago, I've trembled in fear of Blue!Lincoln being killed ever since Peter's return; in an amber or, I guess, green timeline, I can't see the writers going the much more sensible fanfic route and doing a threesome story -- much more likely tha they'll kill him, or do away with him in some other fashion. I've resigned myself to the fact that Olivia and Lincoln are not to be, of course, but it would still break my little heart if any harm were to come to him.
no subject
Date: 2011-12-12 12:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-12 05:13 am (UTC)And I can't wait to see the Nina plot play out, either.
no subject
Date: 2011-12-12 05:14 am (UTC)