Fringe Episode "6B" Reaction Post
So, I just re-watched the episode just now and I have lots of thoughts.
There are so many reasons to love this episode, and that's beyond the obvious of Peter/Olivia.
So, first I want to start off with Walter. I really enjoyed the characterization of him in this episode. This is a man who is now truly being confronted with how similar he is to Walternate, this is a man confronted even more with the reality of what his impulsive, in-the-midst-of-grief decision so many years ago means for our universe. He's seen it already, with the Cortexiphan children and that piano player whose son died but this is the first time there's really been the threat of something so overwhelming as a vortex in our world.
And so his hysteria, his lack of patience and his frustration really makes sense. I really loved the, "Is this second-guess everything I do day?!" comment. It was just very him.
But then, I guess it's good that they're second-guessing him? That Peter and Olivia were able to discover and find a solution to this one incident that didn't involve using the amber. On the Other Side, Walternate is in charge and he doesn't allow people to question his judgments and it seems the Fringe Division over there -- especially given the fact that for so long they were kept in the dark about there being other universes -- mostly goes in line with the orders that they're given because to them it has become protocol, the sacrifice they have to make and they really weren't able to question it because it's what they've known and what the ZFT has told them and it's not until recently that they've even been allowed to know the full picture (and they still don't know, really).
But on our side, it's different. Peter and Olivia know about the two universes; they are children of two different universes. When they work together, when they solve these cases, they're not just using their smarts and special abilities and skills but they are using their own personal experience and knowledge of what it means to be from two different universes -- what it means to be invested in both universes. Peter is invested in the Other Side because he is from there originally and so even if he doesn't belong there, he has seen the damage done and his birth mother is from there and he knows there are so many other people in the other universe who are suffering all because of him (even if it wasn't his fault). And he's invested in our universe because it is where he grew up, and he has emotional ties to so many more people in our universe -- Walter, Olivia, and Astrid.
And Olivia is invested in our side naturally, but she's invested in the Other Side too because she lived there for a time thinking she was one of them (thinking she was Fauxlivia) for at least a portion of her time there. And because she made a PROMISE. A promise to Alt-Broyles, to a man who sacrificed his life and his career and everything to make sure she made it back home.
So this is why, even though I do enjoy the Fringe team Over There, I will always love our side more and why I think our side is stronger and better. Because Peter and Olivia are emotionally invested in these cases, personally invested, in a way that the other Fringe team is just not. Sure Fauxlivia has certain emotional investments now having gone to our side and fallen somewhat for Peter, but Lincoln Lee and Alt!Charlie don't know or understand our side.
And so yes, this episode comes down to "feelings." Fringe, as a show, comes down to "feelings." These are the feelings that change our perception. And perception changes your reality. Perception is reality. These are the things the show tells us episode after episode and that's why it's such a compelling show. Because amidst all the creepy, crazy, cool things that happens in this science fiction show, it comes down to "people" as Olivia said. Not just physics.
It's really really cool the way Fringe shows how scientific phenomena and progress can be prompted by emotion, by the emotional intensity of passion, fear, anxiety, and grief. It's how the two universes came together in the first place. The heartbreak of a man losing his son.
And so, at first, I found the whole quantum entanglement thing a bit ridiculous or iffy, but this is what Fringe has always been about. People who love each other and how that has affected the fate of our two universes. So the Merchants made sense. The grief causing these two old people to see one another made sense.
"Feelings" have been at the core of everything cool that happens in Fringe. Cortexiphan works on Olivia's emotions. It allows her to see the glimmer, to see into the Other Side. It allows her to cross over. It was Peter's "feelings" for Olivia that led him to make the decision on his own, and return to his adopted universe when he'd finally been taken back to his home universe.
So it was just really interesting in this episode to see what TPTB are doing, how they showed us why our team was able to solve the problem without resorting to amber. And they definitely wanted us to make that parallel or they wouldn't have switched over to the Other Side at the end to show us how the quarantine amber procedure was going to have been instituted had a vortex happened.
I was really thrilled to see how well Peter and Olivia were working together, asking the questions that Walter wasn't. Peter's question of "Why can Mrs. Merchant see into the other universe?" being the key one that Walter was dismissing, in his focus on solving how to seal up the vortex rather than considering that there would be a means to prevent it in the first place. This is why Peter and Olivia are so awesome together, "there's gotta be another way."
It's something they so strongly believe in. Peter said it to Fauxlivia once, at that dig site, and it was a great conversation but Fauxlivia was manipulatively appealing to his loyalty to his birth universe -- to their shared universe. When Peter is with OUR Olivia, she's appealing not only to saving her universe (his adopted universe) but to saving his universe too. As Olivia told Alt-Broyles, she has to believe there's another way. That it's not just either-or.
And so them coming together romantically, just as they came together to solve this case, these children of two different universes coming together to save both their universes...was just so fitting. A most beautiful parallel.
It's their love for one another, truly, that I think will make the "impossible possible" as Mrs. Merchant was saying. And why not? When it was love, even for this child that wasn't his own, that made Walter save Peter. There was selfishness involved in Walter's decision too, of course though.
And I think it's the selfishness aspect that we might have to see Peter and Olivia rid themselves of...if that makes sense. Like the whole Merchant storyline with her letting him go, letting this man from another universe go does seem to be a bit of a tragic parallel for Peter and Olivia, these two star-crossed lovers from two different universes. (it should be a cliche, but mostly it's really cool and beautifully written) "Aren't all great love stories tragedies?" Fauxlivia said it, but I have a feeling it'll be Peter and our Olivia's love story that's going to be the real tragedy (and they've been hit with tragedy after tragedy every time they get close to one another)
Then again, I could be wrong. Maybe they won't have to let each other go. but anyways Mrs. Merchant lets go of a man who wasn't her husband, who she had never had children with...Olivia and Peter will probably not have children in comparison to him and Fauxlivia, and that makes me feel that our Olivia and Peter...well, there's is the true love story. (there are "feelings" between Peter and Fauxlivia still, and it makes sense. I'm not convinced those "feelings" are love though)
Anyways, so to the Peter/Olivia. I haven't read much of what others have said, but I just want to say that I AM happy that they got together in this episode because I do believe it makes sense for where the two of them are right now. Obviously, the writers wanted the two to fix things before the Fauxlivia pregnancy bombshell comes out, but the way they did it makes sense.
And the parallels between 1x14 and 2x14 have already been mentioned. And it really is just SO cool, because Olivia and Peter at the lightbox. Him unable to let her die on her own, and her powers somehow averting the disaster but with Peter at her back. Then in Jacksonville, him helping her feel vulnerable and her being able to see the glimmer to save that building.
Then, now again. It's Peter and Olivia, the love between them building and building. Even as the universe is breaking apart, they are growing stronger together, more capable together. It gives me hope.
But no, seriously, I feel like it makes sense. In Marionette, Olivia wasn't ready. She'd learned about his unwitting betrayal and didn't want to be with him. And I was wary of this episode knowing that a kiss was going to happen, because I wasn't sure she was ready and really did want to be with him again. I wanted her to make Peter pay a little longer, suffer a little longer because I was defensive of her and was mad at the whole 'It matters whose frequency Peter is tuned into' storyline and I didn't want Olivia to feel like she had to compete with her double.
But Olivia does want to be with Peter. At first, she was angry and mad at him and didn't want to be with him. But then she realized he'd been hurt and conned and she forgave him. She forgave him and said they could move past it. So she saw a future for them. But then she was uncertain about his feelings and if he wanted to be with her over her double. She thought her double was better, thought Peter still had feelings for her and had him say that he didn't want to be with the other Olivia more even as she found out thanks to the note that Peter did still have feelings for her double. So then, we get to this episode, and she's hurting from the revelation that Peter does still have feelings for her double. So she confronts Peter about it, and learns that yeah he hasn't been completely honest but that the overwhelming and dominant feelings he has are of wanting to be with her and not her double. The feelings he has are of thinking that he'd finally gotten to be with her, learning that he hadn't, and then having her actually there with him now but NOT being able to be with her because of what he'd done. but then she'd forgiven him, and so yeah, he told her what was true even if it was somewhat brutally honest (but honesty is what she'd asked for): She was the one stopping them from being together now.
So she takes that to heart, and when they're getting off the balcony in that apartment where the people fell from and Peter is kind of smiling/laughing, we see Olivia kind of look at him and smile because his happiness is her happiness. And she DOES want to be with him. And he's owned up to his mistakes, given her space and time, and now the ball is in her court. So she makes her move in the bar, so fitting them in a bar. "For Once in My Life" is his mystery song selection (yes, Brown Betty!) It was also a bit of a weird parallel to the Peter/Fauxlivia scene in the bar in 3x02 where she expresses an interest in music and he's like 'you've never done that before' and then Olivia finally expresses an interest in music in this episode (Barry White) and it is actually HER expressing an interest in music and not a fake her. And so Peter gets to sort of relive that moment and Olivia gets to have that moment that should've been theirs, if she had been able to return back with him at the end of S2 like she should've. And these are real "feelings," this is the real them. No master plan, no double secret infiltrating agent manipulating Peter and making him feel that she is "real" (as he told Fauxlivia how she felt real). Now Peter does get the real her. And Olivia gets to have something beautiful. Even if it is terrifying. LOVE that the glimmer came back.
Too cool. LOVED the conversation they had outside, where Olivia realized that it wasn't even about her double anymore but it came down to her own fears about being able to be vulnerable, all the brokenness of her childhood coming back. It was a nice mirror to "Peter, I'm scared." "Don't be." (also her pulling away after their kiss and his "What?" and her going out also paralleled that almost-kiss scene) This is Peter, always telling her not to be scared, always reassuring her that she is strong and not completely broken and capable of love and deserving of it (take two episodes ago when he told her that she wasn't like that Simon guy).
Then OH. At the end, in another parallel to 1x14 and 2x14. DRINKS. She turned him down in "Ability" when he wanted to go out for drinks. In "Jacksonville," they go out for drinks. In this episode, she comes to him with drinks and they STAY IN. There is no more fear, no more bombshells (although the pregnancy one is on the way). Another disaster has been averted or "postponed" as Olivia said and she's not scared anymore even knowing that another disaster will most likely come. She's not scared because she wants what he wants, she wants a lifetime together if they get to have it, and if not, she wants whatever time left they have before the end of the world. And she's not going to wait any longer, she's not going to let Walter or Walternate, or the other her, or Peter, or even herself stop her from going after what she truly wants.
YOU GO OLIVIA! AH! And YAY for Peter too. He might not have been completely honest about the shapeshifter thing, but right now I just can't care about that. He loves her, he has imagined going down that road with her so many times and thought he had it, realized he hadn't, owned up to his mistakes when she came back even though he knew it would change how Olivia felt about him, and waited as she sorted through all of what happened, waited for her to decide she wanted to be with him again if that's what she wanted. "You belong with me," she said and it's not really something either of them can take back. They've acknowledged they belong together, for a short while Olivia didn't want to be with him because of what happened but that never -- to me -- nullified what she'd said over there. They've always belonged together (the flashback episode might cement that) in a star-crossed lovers kind of way, but it's taken them up to this point for both of them to be on the same page in knowing that and wanting it.
So yes, I want Peter to be happy too and Walter -- astute as he is -- knows that means being with the woman he came back for. So HAH!
I AM SO HAPPY THAT THEY HAVE BOTH REALIZED THEY WANT THE SAME THING AND HAVE ACTED ON THAT WANT.
And, thank the Lord, it happened in the Bishop household -- a place untainted by Fauxlivia. That and it's fitting because it's where she found out that Peter was from the Other Side in the first place. Gosh, the writers really have taken them on quite a journey since a season ago.
I CANNOT WAIT UNTIL NEXT WEEK WITH SO MANY NEW REVELATIONS.
I was wondering if they'd met when they were younger, the image of them on the swings in "Jacksonville" was a definite possible foreshadowing but I hadn't been sure. we will see!
There are so many reasons to love this episode, and that's beyond the obvious of Peter/Olivia.
So, first I want to start off with Walter. I really enjoyed the characterization of him in this episode. This is a man who is now truly being confronted with how similar he is to Walternate, this is a man confronted even more with the reality of what his impulsive, in-the-midst-of-grief decision so many years ago means for our universe. He's seen it already, with the Cortexiphan children and that piano player whose son died but this is the first time there's really been the threat of something so overwhelming as a vortex in our world.
And so his hysteria, his lack of patience and his frustration really makes sense. I really loved the, "Is this second-guess everything I do day?!" comment. It was just very him.
But then, I guess it's good that they're second-guessing him? That Peter and Olivia were able to discover and find a solution to this one incident that didn't involve using the amber. On the Other Side, Walternate is in charge and he doesn't allow people to question his judgments and it seems the Fringe Division over there -- especially given the fact that for so long they were kept in the dark about there being other universes -- mostly goes in line with the orders that they're given because to them it has become protocol, the sacrifice they have to make and they really weren't able to question it because it's what they've known and what the ZFT has told them and it's not until recently that they've even been allowed to know the full picture (and they still don't know, really).
But on our side, it's different. Peter and Olivia know about the two universes; they are children of two different universes. When they work together, when they solve these cases, they're not just using their smarts and special abilities and skills but they are using their own personal experience and knowledge of what it means to be from two different universes -- what it means to be invested in both universes. Peter is invested in the Other Side because he is from there originally and so even if he doesn't belong there, he has seen the damage done and his birth mother is from there and he knows there are so many other people in the other universe who are suffering all because of him (even if it wasn't his fault). And he's invested in our universe because it is where he grew up, and he has emotional ties to so many more people in our universe -- Walter, Olivia, and Astrid.
And Olivia is invested in our side naturally, but she's invested in the Other Side too because she lived there for a time thinking she was one of them (thinking she was Fauxlivia) for at least a portion of her time there. And because she made a PROMISE. A promise to Alt-Broyles, to a man who sacrificed his life and his career and everything to make sure she made it back home.
So this is why, even though I do enjoy the Fringe team Over There, I will always love our side more and why I think our side is stronger and better. Because Peter and Olivia are emotionally invested in these cases, personally invested, in a way that the other Fringe team is just not. Sure Fauxlivia has certain emotional investments now having gone to our side and fallen somewhat for Peter, but Lincoln Lee and Alt!Charlie don't know or understand our side.
And so yes, this episode comes down to "feelings." Fringe, as a show, comes down to "feelings." These are the feelings that change our perception. And perception changes your reality. Perception is reality. These are the things the show tells us episode after episode and that's why it's such a compelling show. Because amidst all the creepy, crazy, cool things that happens in this science fiction show, it comes down to "people" as Olivia said. Not just physics.
It's really really cool the way Fringe shows how scientific phenomena and progress can be prompted by emotion, by the emotional intensity of passion, fear, anxiety, and grief. It's how the two universes came together in the first place. The heartbreak of a man losing his son.
And so, at first, I found the whole quantum entanglement thing a bit ridiculous or iffy, but this is what Fringe has always been about. People who love each other and how that has affected the fate of our two universes. So the Merchants made sense. The grief causing these two old people to see one another made sense.
"Feelings" have been at the core of everything cool that happens in Fringe. Cortexiphan works on Olivia's emotions. It allows her to see the glimmer, to see into the Other Side. It allows her to cross over. It was Peter's "feelings" for Olivia that led him to make the decision on his own, and return to his adopted universe when he'd finally been taken back to his home universe.
So it was just really interesting in this episode to see what TPTB are doing, how they showed us why our team was able to solve the problem without resorting to amber. And they definitely wanted us to make that parallel or they wouldn't have switched over to the Other Side at the end to show us how the quarantine amber procedure was going to have been instituted had a vortex happened.
I was really thrilled to see how well Peter and Olivia were working together, asking the questions that Walter wasn't. Peter's question of "Why can Mrs. Merchant see into the other universe?" being the key one that Walter was dismissing, in his focus on solving how to seal up the vortex rather than considering that there would be a means to prevent it in the first place. This is why Peter and Olivia are so awesome together, "there's gotta be another way."
It's something they so strongly believe in. Peter said it to Fauxlivia once, at that dig site, and it was a great conversation but Fauxlivia was manipulatively appealing to his loyalty to his birth universe -- to their shared universe. When Peter is with OUR Olivia, she's appealing not only to saving her universe (his adopted universe) but to saving his universe too. As Olivia told Alt-Broyles, she has to believe there's another way. That it's not just either-or.
And so them coming together romantically, just as they came together to solve this case, these children of two different universes coming together to save both their universes...was just so fitting. A most beautiful parallel.
It's their love for one another, truly, that I think will make the "impossible possible" as Mrs. Merchant was saying. And why not? When it was love, even for this child that wasn't his own, that made Walter save Peter. There was selfishness involved in Walter's decision too, of course though.
And I think it's the selfishness aspect that we might have to see Peter and Olivia rid themselves of...if that makes sense. Like the whole Merchant storyline with her letting him go, letting this man from another universe go does seem to be a bit of a tragic parallel for Peter and Olivia, these two star-crossed lovers from two different universes. (it should be a cliche, but mostly it's really cool and beautifully written) "Aren't all great love stories tragedies?" Fauxlivia said it, but I have a feeling it'll be Peter and our Olivia's love story that's going to be the real tragedy (and they've been hit with tragedy after tragedy every time they get close to one another)
Then again, I could be wrong. Maybe they won't have to let each other go. but anyways Mrs. Merchant lets go of a man who wasn't her husband, who she had never had children with...Olivia and Peter will probably not have children in comparison to him and Fauxlivia, and that makes me feel that our Olivia and Peter...well, there's is the true love story. (there are "feelings" between Peter and Fauxlivia still, and it makes sense. I'm not convinced those "feelings" are love though)
Anyways, so to the Peter/Olivia. I haven't read much of what others have said, but I just want to say that I AM happy that they got together in this episode because I do believe it makes sense for where the two of them are right now. Obviously, the writers wanted the two to fix things before the Fauxlivia pregnancy bombshell comes out, but the way they did it makes sense.
And the parallels between 1x14 and 2x14 have already been mentioned. And it really is just SO cool, because Olivia and Peter at the lightbox. Him unable to let her die on her own, and her powers somehow averting the disaster but with Peter at her back. Then in Jacksonville, him helping her feel vulnerable and her being able to see the glimmer to save that building.
Then, now again. It's Peter and Olivia, the love between them building and building. Even as the universe is breaking apart, they are growing stronger together, more capable together. It gives me hope.
But no, seriously, I feel like it makes sense. In Marionette, Olivia wasn't ready. She'd learned about his unwitting betrayal and didn't want to be with him. And I was wary of this episode knowing that a kiss was going to happen, because I wasn't sure she was ready and really did want to be with him again. I wanted her to make Peter pay a little longer, suffer a little longer because I was defensive of her and was mad at the whole 'It matters whose frequency Peter is tuned into' storyline and I didn't want Olivia to feel like she had to compete with her double.
But Olivia does want to be with Peter. At first, she was angry and mad at him and didn't want to be with him. But then she realized he'd been hurt and conned and she forgave him. She forgave him and said they could move past it. So she saw a future for them. But then she was uncertain about his feelings and if he wanted to be with her over her double. She thought her double was better, thought Peter still had feelings for her and had him say that he didn't want to be with the other Olivia more even as she found out thanks to the note that Peter did still have feelings for her double. So then, we get to this episode, and she's hurting from the revelation that Peter does still have feelings for her double. So she confronts Peter about it, and learns that yeah he hasn't been completely honest but that the overwhelming and dominant feelings he has are of wanting to be with her and not her double. The feelings he has are of thinking that he'd finally gotten to be with her, learning that he hadn't, and then having her actually there with him now but NOT being able to be with her because of what he'd done. but then she'd forgiven him, and so yeah, he told her what was true even if it was somewhat brutally honest (but honesty is what she'd asked for): She was the one stopping them from being together now.
So she takes that to heart, and when they're getting off the balcony in that apartment where the people fell from and Peter is kind of smiling/laughing, we see Olivia kind of look at him and smile because his happiness is her happiness. And she DOES want to be with him. And he's owned up to his mistakes, given her space and time, and now the ball is in her court. So she makes her move in the bar, so fitting them in a bar. "For Once in My Life" is his mystery song selection (yes, Brown Betty!) It was also a bit of a weird parallel to the Peter/Fauxlivia scene in the bar in 3x02 where she expresses an interest in music and he's like 'you've never done that before' and then Olivia finally expresses an interest in music in this episode (Barry White) and it is actually HER expressing an interest in music and not a fake her. And so Peter gets to sort of relive that moment and Olivia gets to have that moment that should've been theirs, if she had been able to return back with him at the end of S2 like she should've. And these are real "feelings," this is the real them. No master plan, no double secret infiltrating agent manipulating Peter and making him feel that she is "real" (as he told Fauxlivia how she felt real). Now Peter does get the real her. And Olivia gets to have something beautiful. Even if it is terrifying. LOVE that the glimmer came back.
Too cool. LOVED the conversation they had outside, where Olivia realized that it wasn't even about her double anymore but it came down to her own fears about being able to be vulnerable, all the brokenness of her childhood coming back. It was a nice mirror to "Peter, I'm scared." "Don't be." (also her pulling away after their kiss and his "What?" and her going out also paralleled that almost-kiss scene) This is Peter, always telling her not to be scared, always reassuring her that she is strong and not completely broken and capable of love and deserving of it (take two episodes ago when he told her that she wasn't like that Simon guy).
Then OH. At the end, in another parallel to 1x14 and 2x14. DRINKS. She turned him down in "Ability" when he wanted to go out for drinks. In "Jacksonville," they go out for drinks. In this episode, she comes to him with drinks and they STAY IN. There is no more fear, no more bombshells (although the pregnancy one is on the way). Another disaster has been averted or "postponed" as Olivia said and she's not scared anymore even knowing that another disaster will most likely come. She's not scared because she wants what he wants, she wants a lifetime together if they get to have it, and if not, she wants whatever time left they have before the end of the world. And she's not going to wait any longer, she's not going to let Walter or Walternate, or the other her, or Peter, or even herself stop her from going after what she truly wants.
YOU GO OLIVIA! AH! And YAY for Peter too. He might not have been completely honest about the shapeshifter thing, but right now I just can't care about that. He loves her, he has imagined going down that road with her so many times and thought he had it, realized he hadn't, owned up to his mistakes when she came back even though he knew it would change how Olivia felt about him, and waited as she sorted through all of what happened, waited for her to decide she wanted to be with him again if that's what she wanted. "You belong with me," she said and it's not really something either of them can take back. They've acknowledged they belong together, for a short while Olivia didn't want to be with him because of what happened but that never -- to me -- nullified what she'd said over there. They've always belonged together (the flashback episode might cement that) in a star-crossed lovers kind of way, but it's taken them up to this point for both of them to be on the same page in knowing that and wanting it.
So yes, I want Peter to be happy too and Walter -- astute as he is -- knows that means being with the woman he came back for. So HAH!
I AM SO HAPPY THAT THEY HAVE BOTH REALIZED THEY WANT THE SAME THING AND HAVE ACTED ON THAT WANT.
And, thank the Lord, it happened in the Bishop household -- a place untainted by Fauxlivia. That and it's fitting because it's where she found out that Peter was from the Other Side in the first place. Gosh, the writers really have taken them on quite a journey since a season ago.
I CANNOT WAIT UNTIL NEXT WEEK WITH SO MANY NEW REVELATIONS.
I was wondering if they'd met when they were younger, the image of them on the swings in "Jacksonville" was a definite possible foreshadowing but I hadn't been sure. we will see!