Season 3, episode 17: Stowaway
"...a little more complicated than I originally thought."
yeah, Bell, I'd say so, too.
Issue A: so Bell's soul has taken over Olivia's soul. sort of. Because they're less "souls" and more consciousnesses. right? and at the end of the episode, Bel-Livia noted that, after Olivia's consciousness/soul wrestled its way to the top again, this was going to be a little more complicated than he anticipated.
you're overlapping souls and it's only a little more complicated? holy shit, Bell. and you planned this MONTHS ago?! are you seriously the most super-creepy good guy that's ever existed in ANY universe?
the potion was in her tea. okay, what? so this isn't like the rods that Alt!Livia needed to travel - which, btws, writers- ARE STILL IN HER CAUSE YOU NEVER TOOK THEM OUT- and this isn't like the floating osmium or the metal elements that turn people into radio-wave receptors that had to be dissolved and injected into the blood. no. this, like flatworms and strawberry-flavoured death, you may take with your tea.
to continue, fringe is making me re-evalutate what i understand of the human condition. and on top of that, how we can cope with our very biological, very physical, very human, very alive bodies. and how we cope when they stop being any particular one of those things.
"human" is usually the first option to go.
speaking of these conditions, let's go to issue B: how does this woman survive? i get the "she can't die" part, but how does she heal?
cause that's just not normal.
here's my deal with it: i understand not dying. your soul is being held into your body because you've been strike by lightening, twice, and now you're so magnetized that you get stuck to the fridge. okay. but now do you fix all of your breaks and hurties? how do you get shot twice in the head, and then run away from the morgue?! sure, you can't die, but how were those wounds healed without taking so much time? and for that matter, why isn't it like this for everyone who has been repeatedly struck by lightening?
i just don't like this Diana Grey person.
what would have been really, really, really cool, though? if she had hugged the bomb as it exploded, and then her physical molecules could have been blasted apart. AND THEN as they were still flinging outward, as the vacuum occurred, all her pieces be sucked back together and she remain standing!
muahahah. that would have been fucking cool. and honestly? a little more believeable.
Issue C: Believeable? Let's talk about Bel-Livia. because holy fucking fly-balls, can Anna Torv act.
let me raise my eyebrow a little higher, and then we'll talk about you kicking me out of her body.
Cause holy flaming balls of deep-fried shit. She is nuts! Who else can conceivably play Leonard Nimoy playing William Bell inside a woman's body? This chick. That's just what kind amazing she is. and she's australian to boot, so she's compensating for her own accent to start with! what makes this acting so remarkable, though, is the fact that she also has to portray all of the emotions that Bell feels towards everyone else he's working with.
Belly and Doctor Walter have the strongest friendship you may ever come across. except that they didn't speak to each other for seventeen years. and Bell took out parts of Walter's brain. and Walter broke the rules of the universes. in fact, listening to Bel-Livia makes Bell seem like a bit of a crusty bastard. i mean, c'mon, he "young man"ed Broyles!
this is not the kind of person that you "young man" - even if you did invent his clearance levels!
And then, he goes and makes Astrid feel all awkward and shit!
now we're going to talk about Olivia's sexuality, and how the writers percieve as a plot device of some cluster-fuck kind.
THE BOLDFACE ISSUE OF THE EPISODE: ISSUE D: IS OLIVIA STILL GOING TO BE STRAIGHT AT THE END OF THIS? cause i really don't think so. but that just may be me. she's flirting with Astrid hardcore. and Astrid is quite discomforted by it. it's the kind of thing that makes me wonder if A: Astrid is gay, because she's never had a man-friend character play any importance (ever), and B: if Liv is still going to be straight at the end of this, because this is the second time in the show's history that she's been involved with other female characters. both times, of course, she wasn't herself, but still. the writers seem to ignore that fact and insist that she can woo anything with human fun-parts.
though i have to say, what on earth would happen if Bel-Livia decided a wonderful experience would be to have sex from a woman's perspective. because that's the creepy/kinky kind of mind-fuck he'd enjoy. and everyone who's been shipping astrid/olivia in a femslash kind of way would get what they're waiting for. and peter would sit there and fume. and there'd be nothing he could do about it, because it's not actually Olivia. it's Bel-Livia. and peter could sit there and image some hot ladysex.
because we all know it would be really fucking hot. and pissed peter is just as hot as that. and you know who's equally hot?
lincoln fucking lee. that's who.
oh, and, Lincoln has a holy-shit-is-that-a-cow,-yes-that's-Gene moment.
everyone has one of those moments.
. so, issue i-don't-give-a-fuck-cause-lincoln's-here: LINCOLN'S HERE! and, negl, i thought upon seeing him that he was alter-lincoln and he was invading This Side because.. idk, he's got the hots for liv. something like that. and it's true, too. alt-lincoln does have the hots for blondie. he kissed her once, too.
but this all raises a couple of points, and anyone who loved the this-liv/that-lincoln friendship from Over There will pine in the same way that i did that it wasn't actually Olivia who he met. because that could have been a very good tihng, or a very bad thing. it would have been a very thing in either case. right now, i guess, it's a good thing. because being friendly and doing something out of character would've caused Peter to raise more questions about what Olivia underwent on the Other Side. but for now, crisis has been averted.
BUT.
in examining how Lincoln feels about Olivia (actually, how Alt-Lincoln feels about either of them) makes me wonder how he's going to react when he finds out about Alt-Livia carrying Peter's baby. will he step up? will she let him?
another good one- how fast is time going? does it go the same speed in both universes? because from the preview, she's showing already. and it's not been very long. maybe three months since the Olivias returned to their rightful universes? i can't remember how far along Alt-Liv is, but i think we need a serious time-gage before we go much further.
and one more thing about Lincoln: compassionate soul-sucking vampires.
lolololololololol. that is all.
Issue-I've-lost-count-maybe-F: pissed peter is concerned peter. which means two things. A: he really, really cares about her. a lot. B: he's so hot when he's pissed. kind of dark and brooding and all things evil-genius/angsty-teenager that he should be.
broody peter is your spoiler/theory warning.
SO. WELCOME TO FARTHERFASTER'S THEORY TIME.
much a greater mind-fuck than traditional story-time.
the idea of The Machine, The Baby, and The Drugs have been circling around in my head for a while. and this what i've come to:
- peter will choose This Olivia
- peter (and The Machine) will destroy the Other Side (even if it is defensive, not offensive. probably more likely so the former.)
- Alt-Liv with birth The Baby
- The Baby will end up on This Side
- This Olivia won't be able to concieve because of all the drugs that have been shoved into her body.
- Weird family unit will form.
OR. None of this will happen. This Olivia will get pregnant, too, and it'll be an arms-race and a baby-race and everything will go to hell.
OR. the creation of a baby that crosses universes and theoretically belongs in either universe (this liv and peter) will completely change the way things work and balance will be struck because two will become one and all of this shit.
idk.
i love this show.
i also love this eyebrow business. really truly.
credit to www.ladymanson.com for the screencaps