(S02E03) "Get my portable chemistry set ... this means bodies!" - Walter to Astrid
This episode of Fringe sort of went along without too many shocker moments -- until the last few minutes, that is. I wasn't all that surprised about the serum that turned people into human explosives, or even that it might be part of a top-secret military experiment. But I was wondering when our friend The Observer would turn up again in a big way and dump something spicy all over his plate of food.
But the fact that he had pictures of Walter in his briefcase is intriguing. I mean, we know that Walter has a relationship with The Observer -- or possibly more than one Observer -- but what exactly that relationship is, it's hard to tell for sure. Are they an army that Walter has helped to build? Are they, as the Colonel told Broyles, collecting data and making observations? "They've been planning a war," he said. "They've been passing info under our noses."
And yet more ominous: "Whatever is in those cases is going to destroy us all." And that's where we see the pictures of Walter.
The bowling alley guy is driving both me and Olivia a little crazy. ("Can you just cut the Yoda crap, and tell me what's happening to me?") I feel like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, always looking around going, "Who ARE those guys?"
Clearly, he's not just some bowling alley guy who does physical therapy on the side for Nina Sharp. He knows more than he's saying. He somehow got Olivia walking without her cane. He knows about the headaches, which must mean he knows that Olivia is having flashbacks about her time on "the other side." He knows that part of her brain is still asleep.
I wonder why she didn't want to tell Peter, though, about the headache incident at the house. By this point, you'd think that things are pretty much an open book between the Fringe group -- at least she, Walter and Peter.
Fringe Notes:
- Peter's observation that Walter sings opera while doing jumping jacks naked.
- Astrid and Walter's nice moment about breaking out of their habits, eating apple fritters, and trying new things.
- Walter examining the
crystalear at the scene of the explosion, and finding it "salty." - Walter seeing how upset Jean is and telling Peter, "If you're going to eat that cheeseburger, you could at least be a little discreet."
- The Fringe team sure gets around, don't they?
- Nice to get a little more of Peter's backstory with the guy in Baghdad.
Your thoughts on this episode?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
10-02-2009 @ 6:30AM
Picviewer said...
"And yet more ominous: "Whatever is in those cases is going to destroy us all." And that's where we see the pictures of Walter. "
Well the pictures are of one of the men who discovered a way to open a portal to parallel universes. So in someway a bit like 2001 doing so popped this earth up the observers monitor, or taking it from comics Marvel the Watcher or DC the Monitors, that one or more earths are opened to each other.
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10-02-2009 @ 7:52AM
the dude said...
mmmmmmm........ i said here a couple weeks ago... when someone told olivia last season...... you don't know what you've done..... all she did was bring walter and peter together, either again or for the first time..... do we really know why peter and walter have a fractured relationship that now seems to be healing itself? that has got to be a big cog on the wheel. we still need to find out more about nina and what she is all about. does it seems like those that crossed over are really big players in the game? how did that german dude that tried to crossover fit into all of this? was he just trying to return home?
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10-02-2009 @ 8:03AM
Jason said...
Nicely played, the scene where Peter DID remember the puzzle with his dad when he was young. For a moment, we were all thinking, "Nope, don't remember because you weren't in this world." Great twist, albeit subtle.
So which world is Walter from? Perhaps Peter IS from this one, and it's Walter that's from another one? What if he was sent to our world to develop the science necessary to bring his "army" across the divide, and had his memory erased much like Olivia's was, due to excessive interworld traveling? Trying to figure this stuff out gives me a headache.
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10-02-2009 @ 8:23AM
comctrl6 said...
Colonel Phillip Broyles: "What was in the briefcase?"
Colonel Raymond Gordon: "They told you I was crazy, didn't they? The Pentagon? They said I had a Psychiatric break. I told them what I'm telling you that they are here. Collecting data. Making observations. That's what's in the briefcase. They've been planning for war."
---
Special Agent Fox Mulder: "They're here aren't they?"
"Deep Throat": "'They' have been here for a long time."
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10-02-2009 @ 1:18PM
Eludium-Q36 said...
First one to predict -- "Flash Forward" is going to kill Fringe. FF moves their plot and mystery along at a much more keep-your-interest pace than does the X-Files-ish pacing of Fringe. Fringe is soon to be in real ratings trouble. Watch for them to move it to another night at some point this season, prolly in January.
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10-02-2009 @ 2:19PM
XDXJX said...
First off, go Philly!
Second, a serum that turns people into bombs is straight out of Venture Bros. Awesome.
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10-02-2009 @ 4:49PM
johngaltx said...
Glad the producers and writers have done away with the time conceit concerning the trips that the group undertake. One minute they are in the lab discussing the latest bizarre incident, the next the are on the scene poking around the bodies. I find it tediously boring having the writers account for the travel in dramas of this type. Last week they flitted between that small town in PA and Boston like they had a wormhole or a transporter. Keep up the good work Fringe writers!
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10-02-2009 @ 7:24PM
The1337 said...
It was a pretty average episode, but the twist in the end was very well-made and intriguing. It wasn't too groundbreaking, but Walter being in imminent danger sounds like fun. The problem is that we're now in typical J.J. Abrams territory where there are lots of pieces and no clear direction. I guess he thought Alias and Lost were good examples to base off of... Full review of the episode.
http://th3tvobsessed.blogspot.com/2009/10/review-fringe-season-2-episode-3.html
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