[Picspam] Fringe - A New Day in the Old Town (You're Gonna Be Fine)
The season 2 opener had quite a smashing opening. Literally. And most people even cite Olivia hurtling through the windshield as one of the highlights of the episode (because it was so unexpected and surprising, not that they want to see Olivia hurt) but for me the two stand outs of this episode was the scene between Charlie and Olivia in the hospital, I can say with all honesty that I don't ship them (barring a few amused thoughts in the first season before learning Charlie was married) and the part where Olivia is slowly coming back to herself.
I love Olivia and Charlie's friendship. He's such a solid friend and second-in-command and it was such a refreshing change for the guy in the partnership to be the one supportive the way Charlie was with Olivia. A large part of this was, unlike other TV partnerships where a partnership is only formed during the first episode of the series. There's a real history between them one that even supercedes John Scott's relationship with Olivia.
(My brother observed that Charlie reminded him of Maes Hughes from Fullmetal Alchemist and I had a lightbulb moment because he is! Roy Mustang's solid second-in-command (Riza Hawkeye being the other very solid second-in-command) and, oh, wow... its like Fringe is what would happen if Hawkeye was the hero of the story!)
A Good Friend
Charlie: I got here as fast as I could.
Olivia: I'm alright. You didn't have to come all this way.
Charlie: You're not all right.
Olivia: Charlie, I'm fine
Charlie: My second year with Brooklyn P.D., one night we get a domestic disturbance call. Partner and I go over to his house. I'm with the guy, right? And he's, uh... saying it's nothing, you know, just a little argument. My partner calls from the other room and says that we need an ambulance for the girl. And I just know the guy beat the crap out of his girlfriend, so I go for my gun, I get him on the ground, and I'm cuffing him. And I hear a gunshot from the other room. I turn around, and this, uh, bloody girl-- brutalized, brutalized girl-- is, um... aiming a gun at me. What I didn't know at the time was she had just killed my partner. She fires. Hits me in my chest.
Olivia attempts to brush aside what happened to her and pretend she's fine but Charlie doesn't buy it. I love the way he tells Olivia he knows she isn't fine, he's known Olivia long enough to understand she won't admit that she isn't fine, instead he decides to share something about himself. The story memory he shares is the one about his former partner (in a way, I suppose this foreshadows the upcoming storyline; both Charlie and Olivia realize too late that their respective partners have died), for such a gruff man he has such a gentle way about him and despite what the girl did to him you could still hear the empathy and regret in his voice.
Charlie: Anyway, um... I'm in I.C.U. for six days. You know, and, um, hospital for two weeks. Kept on telling my wife, 'I'm fine'. I was shaken, and I was scared. Now, if you're like me, you got a gun underneath your pillow... Peter called me. (smiles) Hey. You can fool the doctors, kiddo. You can't fool me.
Olivia: I don't know what happened to me. I'm so scared. I can't even load it. My hands won't stop shaking. Charlie, I can't. I can't even load it.
Charlie: Hey. You're gonna be alright. It'll be alright.
They share a moment of humor and warmth and Olivia finally breaks down and admits that she isn't fine and that she is afraid. I love how gentle Charlie is, reaching for her and reassuring her that everything will be alright.
In this moment you can see how much history is between them and despite Olivia's claims that she didn't have a best friend, she certainly had one in Charlie. Charlie's always been the one she could confide in and lean on the most.
I love how the scene ends mirroring how it began.
This was one of the few television friendships I really enjoyed and to have to lose Charlie in the same episode that affirmed their friendship and history was devastating.
I feel the showrunners took Charlie far too early from Olivia, especially since the showrunners are now determined to pair up Peter and Olivia together. Olivia's lost an important support system in Charlie.
Olivia's always tried to take the whole world on her shoulders but whenever she faltered, Charlie was there to help her carry the load or assure her that everything would work out fine. I suppose one of the reasons why I've been very lukewarm about Olivia/Peter was because I suspected part of the reason they took away Charlie from Olivia was because it would make Olivia closer to Peter, effectively making him the person she could lean on whenever she falters. This really doesn't sit well with me.
I might be a little more receptive of the romance between Peter and Olivia if they didn't take Charlie away from her.
There are so few people Olivia can trust and confide in and its just cruel to have her go through losing a close friend just to service the pairing.
Getting back
I've mentioned it before but I wanted to mention it again, for me, apart from the above scene, this was the whole point of the episode. Olivia's been shaken in a way that being abducted never shook her, in that situation she managed to take control of the situation and rescue herself. Waking-up injured in a hospital is a whole other story.
It was heartbreaking to see Olivia struggle to load her gun and seeing the frustration and desperation in her eyes as she did so. Since she was nine years old Olivia's associated guns with safety and protection and to be unable to use it must have shook the certainty she had.
Fortunately by episode's end Olivia was slowly getting back to herself and it shows as she tries another pass at loading her gun and this time she was doing so much better and each motion seemed to returned a piece of Olivia Dunham back to Olivia.
I love the little smile that curves her mouth as she pulls back the slide and aims. It felt very much like she was saying: 'Ah. There I am.'
Olivia Dunham joins Aeryn Sun as another character who finds happiness in a warm gun. :)
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I has a new Fringe icon! I haven't uploaded it in my LJ yet but you can see it in my dreamwidth account in
grimorie.