I'm posting about Fringe, what else would it be?
So some thoughts on this episode and where this season is going.
4.07 was a bit disappointing, underwhelming. It wasn't bad per se, but perhaps the weakest episode thus far.
Still, it's left me with some food for thought. Like:
stargater noted all the BLUE in this episode. I didn't realize it at the time consciously, but yes, there was a ton of blue in this episode, particularly when Olivia goes to find Eugene. Eugene himself is blue. This makes me feel that BlueVerse, remnants of the BlueVerse, are hopefully going to re-emerge soon. Made "visible" in one sense, like Eugene.
Note that Peter first came to Olivia as this blue ball of energy as well. Note that in 4.06 we learn that Peter didn't know he was appearing to Walter in the lab or to Olivia in her dreams. It's still unclear where the heck Peter was (if anywhere?), but I think it's Olivia that called him back. Olivia is still the crowbar, the link, the "fail-safe" as Walter called her in the S3 finale.
But something is keeping Olivia from properly functioning as the "fail-safe" and the revelation about Nina and whatever drugs she's pumping into Olivia (simply more Cortexiphan or something else?) perhaps might answer that question somewhat. At the very least, I just realized that one of the key differences that I believed separated AmberOlivia from BlueOlivia was that AmberOlivia grew up knowing about the Cortexiphan trials without any loss of those memories. Hence, allowing AmberOlivia to seem to be able to better "cope" with the reality of Fringe events. As Lincoln says, "nothing seems to phase her."
Now we know two things from this episode: 1) AmberOlivia is "troubled" in the sense that she finds that she isn't troubled like her colleagues are about Fringe events & thus feels isolated, different, and as she puts it, "not normal." 2) There are things that AmberOlivia doesn't remember or know, since she's still being treated with drugs (freakin' Nina betraying her trust)
For me, this is a very big deal because these two things REALLY make AmberOlivia so much like BlueOlivia and hence our Olivia (and Peter's?)
I understand Peter's insistence that this Olivia is not his. This Olivia does not recognize him. As Eugene put it, existence is all about recognition and connection. Peter perceives that there is no connection between him and Olivia, meaning she's not the "right" one and goodness knows he was duped by Altlivia, so he doesn't want to make the same mistake. More than that, he WANTS the woman he'd left behind whether that was in the future timeline that didn't happen or the timeline that was reset; basically he wants the woman who was IN LOVE with him as he is with her.
So Olivia in 4.06 calls him a "stranger" and he is separating the two of them in his head now, just like Olivia is as well calling Peter's Olivia the "other version of me."
BUT the question we've all been pondering is, of course...IS THAT REALLY THE CASE?
Now, if you've been following my entries, you'll know that I've gone back and forth on this. I mean, AmberOlivia to me MUST be an offshoot of BlueOlivia and there cannot be a "home" for Peter to go back to because he reset the timeline and we know that he's in the right universe now, because the visions plaguing Walter and Olivia started when he did the reset. But there are times where Olivia does feel like an entirely different person than BlueOlivia and there are times where she seems like our Olivia all over again (in 4.06 she felt like an entirely different person to me for the first time; in 4.07 -- after getting insight into her emotions and her concerns -- she reminded me of the haunted and vulnerable Olivia I know and love from the first 3 seasons)
But evidence (excuse if this is just a recap) that AmberOlivia is an offshoot of BlueOlivia and hence still Peter's Olivia despite both Peter and Olivia's insistences to the contrary:
1) the "hole" in Olivia's life and the fact that she still doesn't know where her "place" is in the world as she told Nina in this latest episode --> Peter doesn't really know where his "place" is either at this point -- perhaps these two need to find their way back to each other --> emotionally and in terms of remembering and whatnot, clearly they are in the same universe/timeline now but there's the lack of RECOGNITION that is crucial
2) All of the Lincoln/Olivia pairing attempts have come off as awkward or fallen short. Previously, Olivia has reached out to Lincoln like in 4.03 or whatever and been brushed off. Now, Lincoln is reaching back out to Olivia, but then she is prevented from meeting for their little diner date. Of course, I could be wrong, but the Lincoln/Olivia has come off as too blatant and somewhat off and I don't know...it doesn't feel right not even in comparison to the way that Peter and Olivia are right but even in terms of the way that Alt!Linc and Alt!liv feel right (obviously they're going to have a different chemistry than their alternates but still)
3) Olivia insists that she felt nothing towards Peter in her dreams, but she shut him down very quickly, which really begs the question of what she is hiding or trying to deny.
4) In 4.06, they had good partner chemistry until Olivia pulled away.
5) The similarities I mentioned above that this Olivia doesn't feel normal and she has lost memories.
6) The big one is that PETER IS BACK. That can't have happened without Olivia's interference.
But yes, repeating myself, but just trying to work this out in my head...Olivia is the "fail-safe" but there's a trigger that is missing, needed. Given the previews, I believe September is going to give Olivia some crucial information that may help her remember Peter. And, in doing so, Peter will find himself "home" again.
It's a call-back to everything we've been told about Peter and Olivia:
1) "You belong with me" --> somehow these two give to each other a sense of PLACE and TIME in the world; without the other their "existence" is hollow whether that be the "hole" that Olivia feels or the fact that Peter rewrote time just to get her back
2) "Reality is just a matter of perception. You can't forget who you are. You can't forget this." --> Something is currently clouding Olivia's perception and hence memory I believe. So many things about the rewritten timeline are OFF which at first was quite thrilling but now is unsettling.
3) "She wasn't me. How could you not see that?" Wouldn't it be ironic if Peter ONCE AGAIN couldn't recognize his own Olivia? Then again, she's not making it easy because she is in many ways different but Peter does not have a good track record with "seeing" what's right in front of him, don't you think?
4) "I remember you" --> he's been in her mind; I'm convinced that the reason she was having these dreams (if he wasn't sending them to her) is because part of her does remember him whether she's willing to admit it to herself or him or not
Gah, I don't know. But to me, Olivia is once again the KEY and she just needs to remember, just like she has in all the other seasons: Season 1 - she had to try and go back through all her cases with John and remember what she'd missed; Season 2 - she had to try and go back to that little girl in Jacksonville and remember what it felt like to be afraid; Season 3 - she had to remember who SHE is and get back home and now Season 4 --> she needs to remember who PETER is and get back "home" again in a sense.
5) "How'd you find me?" --> It's like Peter and Olivia's "FIRST" meeting is happening all over again. If time is not linear, and everything kind of happens all at once or whatever, then it's like Peter and Olivia are always finding their way back to one another, and are fated in one sense. As children, he found her in that field of tulips. As adults, she found him in Baghdad. Then, she found him again in the AU and she found him somewhere deep inside herself when she was stuck Over There and he found her in her own mind behind that red door. And then, without meaning to, Olivia once again found him and brought him back to Reiden Lake and into existence in this timeline.
In all of these cases, all of these "first" meetings or finding what was lost, there's kind of a LACK of CONSCIOUS RE-COGNITION involved even as there is a SENSE of EMOTIONAL RE-COGNITION. They're two lost children with confused memories, lost memories, who -- every time they meet again -- can't help but feel "connected" to one another although sometimes it takes time.
When they first met in Baghdad in S1, they had no memory of each other even though they'd met before. I would not be surprised at all to discover that the same thing is happening again. They've met each other for the "first" time not knowing it isn't the first time for different reasons on both their parts.
Goodness, I hope that makes sense and I'm just even the taddest bit right.
Now, I'm just going to end with the fact that Fringe still has me really excited despite this season having some things I really love and things I really am just confused about which make me frustrated or ambivalent. But, I have faith that -- just like in S3 where I was like 'what the hell is up with this alt universe let's just get Olivia home' and now I'm like 'what the hell is up with this rewritten timeline let's just get Peter "home"' -- the foundation that has been laid in the first seven episodes is going to really start making sense when Fringe returns in January. 3.08 was "Entrada" which was an AMAZING episode, one of Fringe's best I'd say, and it got the ball rolling for the rest of the season. 2.08 didn't get the ball rolling in the same way but was "August" which is one of my personal favorites and was so emotionally resonant and shed more light on the Observers.
September is back and is interfering (like August, he feels something akin to love or affection/attachment), so I'm sure we're going to discover even more about the Observers and Peter is going to the AU which I'm sure will set so much into motion just like "Entrada" did when Olivia returned home.
I'm PSYCHED for AltElizabeth to be back (some emotional payoff finally from the S2 finale meeting?) and for David Robert Jones to be back (my favorite "villain" and a nice callback to S1 -- note that DRJ was CRUCIAL in "activating" Olivia in a sense in S1 --> I said that Olivia needed a trigger, perhaps this DRJ is once again going to "activate" her abilities or cause her to question her memory or SOMETHING)
Okay, clearly Fringe has got me thinking. Thoughts anyone?
4.07 was a bit disappointing, underwhelming. It wasn't bad per se, but perhaps the weakest episode thus far.
Still, it's left me with some food for thought. Like:
stargater noted all the BLUE in this episode. I didn't realize it at the time consciously, but yes, there was a ton of blue in this episode, particularly when Olivia goes to find Eugene. Eugene himself is blue. This makes me feel that BlueVerse, remnants of the BlueVerse, are hopefully going to re-emerge soon. Made "visible" in one sense, like Eugene.
Note that Peter first came to Olivia as this blue ball of energy as well. Note that in 4.06 we learn that Peter didn't know he was appearing to Walter in the lab or to Olivia in her dreams. It's still unclear where the heck Peter was (if anywhere?), but I think it's Olivia that called him back. Olivia is still the crowbar, the link, the "fail-safe" as Walter called her in the S3 finale.
But something is keeping Olivia from properly functioning as the "fail-safe" and the revelation about Nina and whatever drugs she's pumping into Olivia (simply more Cortexiphan or something else?) perhaps might answer that question somewhat. At the very least, I just realized that one of the key differences that I believed separated AmberOlivia from BlueOlivia was that AmberOlivia grew up knowing about the Cortexiphan trials without any loss of those memories. Hence, allowing AmberOlivia to seem to be able to better "cope" with the reality of Fringe events. As Lincoln says, "nothing seems to phase her."
Now we know two things from this episode: 1) AmberOlivia is "troubled" in the sense that she finds that she isn't troubled like her colleagues are about Fringe events & thus feels isolated, different, and as she puts it, "not normal." 2) There are things that AmberOlivia doesn't remember or know, since she's still being treated with drugs (freakin' Nina betraying her trust)
For me, this is a very big deal because these two things REALLY make AmberOlivia so much like BlueOlivia and hence our Olivia (and Peter's?)
I understand Peter's insistence that this Olivia is not his. This Olivia does not recognize him. As Eugene put it, existence is all about recognition and connection. Peter perceives that there is no connection between him and Olivia, meaning she's not the "right" one and goodness knows he was duped by Altlivia, so he doesn't want to make the same mistake. More than that, he WANTS the woman he'd left behind whether that was in the future timeline that didn't happen or the timeline that was reset; basically he wants the woman who was IN LOVE with him as he is with her.
So Olivia in 4.06 calls him a "stranger" and he is separating the two of them in his head now, just like Olivia is as well calling Peter's Olivia the "other version of me."
BUT the question we've all been pondering is, of course...IS THAT REALLY THE CASE?
Now, if you've been following my entries, you'll know that I've gone back and forth on this. I mean, AmberOlivia to me MUST be an offshoot of BlueOlivia and there cannot be a "home" for Peter to go back to because he reset the timeline and we know that he's in the right universe now, because the visions plaguing Walter and Olivia started when he did the reset. But there are times where Olivia does feel like an entirely different person than BlueOlivia and there are times where she seems like our Olivia all over again (in 4.06 she felt like an entirely different person to me for the first time; in 4.07 -- after getting insight into her emotions and her concerns -- she reminded me of the haunted and vulnerable Olivia I know and love from the first 3 seasons)
But evidence (excuse if this is just a recap) that AmberOlivia is an offshoot of BlueOlivia and hence still Peter's Olivia despite both Peter and Olivia's insistences to the contrary:
1) the "hole" in Olivia's life and the fact that she still doesn't know where her "place" is in the world as she told Nina in this latest episode --> Peter doesn't really know where his "place" is either at this point -- perhaps these two need to find their way back to each other --> emotionally and in terms of remembering and whatnot, clearly they are in the same universe/timeline now but there's the lack of RECOGNITION that is crucial
2) All of the Lincoln/Olivia pairing attempts have come off as awkward or fallen short. Previously, Olivia has reached out to Lincoln like in 4.03 or whatever and been brushed off. Now, Lincoln is reaching back out to Olivia, but then she is prevented from meeting for their little diner date. Of course, I could be wrong, but the Lincoln/Olivia has come off as too blatant and somewhat off and I don't know...it doesn't feel right not even in comparison to the way that Peter and Olivia are right but even in terms of the way that Alt!Linc and Alt!liv feel right (obviously they're going to have a different chemistry than their alternates but still)
3) Olivia insists that she felt nothing towards Peter in her dreams, but she shut him down very quickly, which really begs the question of what she is hiding or trying to deny.
4) In 4.06, they had good partner chemistry until Olivia pulled away.
5) The similarities I mentioned above that this Olivia doesn't feel normal and she has lost memories.
6) The big one is that PETER IS BACK. That can't have happened without Olivia's interference.
But yes, repeating myself, but just trying to work this out in my head...Olivia is the "fail-safe" but there's a trigger that is missing, needed. Given the previews, I believe September is going to give Olivia some crucial information that may help her remember Peter. And, in doing so, Peter will find himself "home" again.
It's a call-back to everything we've been told about Peter and Olivia:
1) "You belong with me" --> somehow these two give to each other a sense of PLACE and TIME in the world; without the other their "existence" is hollow whether that be the "hole" that Olivia feels or the fact that Peter rewrote time just to get her back
2) "Reality is just a matter of perception. You can't forget who you are. You can't forget this." --> Something is currently clouding Olivia's perception and hence memory I believe. So many things about the rewritten timeline are OFF which at first was quite thrilling but now is unsettling.
3) "She wasn't me. How could you not see that?" Wouldn't it be ironic if Peter ONCE AGAIN couldn't recognize his own Olivia? Then again, she's not making it easy because she is in many ways different but Peter does not have a good track record with "seeing" what's right in front of him, don't you think?
4) "I remember you" --> he's been in her mind; I'm convinced that the reason she was having these dreams (if he wasn't sending them to her) is because part of her does remember him whether she's willing to admit it to herself or him or not
Gah, I don't know. But to me, Olivia is once again the KEY and she just needs to remember, just like she has in all the other seasons: Season 1 - she had to try and go back through all her cases with John and remember what she'd missed; Season 2 - she had to try and go back to that little girl in Jacksonville and remember what it felt like to be afraid; Season 3 - she had to remember who SHE is and get back home and now Season 4 --> she needs to remember who PETER is and get back "home" again in a sense.
5) "How'd you find me?" --> It's like Peter and Olivia's "FIRST" meeting is happening all over again. If time is not linear, and everything kind of happens all at once or whatever, then it's like Peter and Olivia are always finding their way back to one another, and are fated in one sense. As children, he found her in that field of tulips. As adults, she found him in Baghdad. Then, she found him again in the AU and she found him somewhere deep inside herself when she was stuck Over There and he found her in her own mind behind that red door. And then, without meaning to, Olivia once again found him and brought him back to Reiden Lake and into existence in this timeline.
In all of these cases, all of these "first" meetings or finding what was lost, there's kind of a LACK of CONSCIOUS RE-COGNITION involved even as there is a SENSE of EMOTIONAL RE-COGNITION. They're two lost children with confused memories, lost memories, who -- every time they meet again -- can't help but feel "connected" to one another although sometimes it takes time.
When they first met in Baghdad in S1, they had no memory of each other even though they'd met before. I would not be surprised at all to discover that the same thing is happening again. They've met each other for the "first" time not knowing it isn't the first time for different reasons on both their parts.
Goodness, I hope that makes sense and I'm just even the taddest bit right.
Now, I'm just going to end with the fact that Fringe still has me really excited despite this season having some things I really love and things I really am just confused about which make me frustrated or ambivalent. But, I have faith that -- just like in S3 where I was like 'what the hell is up with this alt universe let's just get Olivia home' and now I'm like 'what the hell is up with this rewritten timeline let's just get Peter "home"' -- the foundation that has been laid in the first seven episodes is going to really start making sense when Fringe returns in January. 3.08 was "Entrada" which was an AMAZING episode, one of Fringe's best I'd say, and it got the ball rolling for the rest of the season. 2.08 didn't get the ball rolling in the same way but was "August" which is one of my personal favorites and was so emotionally resonant and shed more light on the Observers.
September is back and is interfering (like August, he feels something akin to love or affection/attachment), so I'm sure we're going to discover even more about the Observers and Peter is going to the AU which I'm sure will set so much into motion just like "Entrada" did when Olivia returned home.
I'm PSYCHED for AltElizabeth to be back (some emotional payoff finally from the S2 finale meeting?) and for David Robert Jones to be back (my favorite "villain" and a nice callback to S1 -- note that DRJ was CRUCIAL in "activating" Olivia in a sense in S1 --> I said that Olivia needed a trigger, perhaps this DRJ is once again going to "activate" her abilities or cause her to question her memory or SOMETHING)
Okay, clearly Fringe has got me thinking. Thoughts anyone?