Home Featured TV Shows All TV Shows Movie Reviews Book Reviews Articles Frequently Asked Questions About Us

Fringe: A Better Human Being

“I remember everything.”

There are two ways to approach this episode: as a vital part of the overarching mythology of Fringe and a turning point in the more controversial aspects of this season’s story that happens to have a freak-of-the-week, or as a freak-of-the-week that happens to contain a few short minutes of vitally important material. How satisfying you found this episode likely depends on your perspective.

First time ‘round, I got antsy. I got antsier when it became clear that the Sean plot was going to just disappear: as Sean lost access to the voices of his half-brothers, the story shut down. Completely. Weird as that was, it made some sense: we only met the half-brothers through Sean’s mind and through Olivia’s and Peter’s experience at the storage facility. That is, we only saw what the rules of limited omniscience allowed us to see.

[Questions of perspective and our limited access to full knowledge are one of the most important themes on Fringe. Think of Jones, and how confusing it was when we first met him—for the most part, we only knew what our characters could know. Indeed, this show started off as an inquiry into the unknown and possibly unknowable. The conflict between Over Here and Over There was, for a long while, one of perception: Over There thought Over Here was attacking them. Over Here was, except for Walter and Bell, ignorant of Over There’s existence. Those misapprehensions caused an awful lot of conflict.]

And Sean’s struggle to incorporate (and disincorporate) his mysterious connection to people he has never met has thematic resonance, as well. It evoked Olivia’s struggles in past seasons with other Cortexiphan kids, as well as the tension in this episode between Olivia and Peter. Olivia was certain her new/old memories were true; Peter was worried they were false. Sean was convinced the voices were real; the mental health industry, and his parents, disagreed. They had an understandably limited perspective.

By the end of the episode, most of that antsiness has dissipated. Olivia has regained her memories—I’m willing to accept that idea at face value. Of course, Peter and Olivia are more star-crossed than any other people in the history of existence, so it seemed obvious that Olivia would die, be kidnapped, or get turned into a zombie. Luckily, the one reversible scenario is what occurred: kidnapped. Specifically, kidnapped with Nina somewhere, either somehere or somethere. Jones, perhaps?

But now a new antsiness has occurred. How much does Olivia remember—she remembered Walter, so does she remember that other version of her childhood? How will that affect her relationship with Nina? Will Walter regain his memories? Will Astrid? What about the barista who knows Peter’s drink at his local coffee house, or the FBI accountant who processed his hiring paperwork? Will everyone regain their memories of Peter? And what else will they regain? I’m thinking specifically of baby Henry. Will he bloop back into existence?

At the beginning of this season, I was waiting for everyone to “remember” Peter. The past is only alive in memories, after all. But as I became acclimated to the idea of a new timeline, I started to see the merit in that choice, however much it made me feel like we were wasting our time with strangers. Now, I’ve gotten what I thought I wanted, at least in part—and all I can think of are the potential problems this will create, both Over Here and Over There. And I mean “problems” in terms of plot holes (boo!), but mostly I mean “problems” in terms of fringy-sciency goodness (hooray!).

And, we can’t forget about the Machine. As Chekov famously said, a time-traveling, world-altering piece of tech that appears in numerous episodes simply can’t be forgotten (that’s a rough translation from the Russian). Surely it will be important, but how?

Bees:

• Walter: “That’s a lovely planet.”

• Walter’s recipe for a cuppa seems to include half of a honey-bear.

• Genetic engineering. It’s always creepy, isn’t it?

• I loved Lincoln Lee and Walter working as partners in nearly-perfect sync.

• I assume bound-Nina is the real Nina, and the Nina we’ve spent time with, who has been Cortexiphaning Olivia, is a shape-shifter.

I’m going to beg off rating this episode. Too much is too up in the air, and I don’t quite feel like I have a solid perspective on any of it yet. So I’m tossing the ball into your court:

How many cases of psychological symbiosis out of four?

Josie Kafka is a full-time cat servant and part-time rogue demon hunter. (What's a rogue demon?)

4 comments:

  1. I'm not sure how I feel about Fringe right now. I'm still enjoying it, and I like the possibility that the new versions of our cast are slowly becoming the old and more beloved versions, but even though the episodes are strong, I'm just not connecting the way I did last season. I thought this was a pretty good episode -- they're nearly all good -- but I wasn't blown away. Does that make it a three?

    I was actually relieved that Nina hasn't been Nina. I didn't want her to be evil.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm going for a 2.5. After seeing the previews of the upcoming show, I have a feeling that I'll be flabbergasted big time.

    To be continued.....

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm getting quite attached to this Olivia and Walter. And I'm so sad for Peter. Hopefully it'll all work out.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Is it wrong that, on re-watching this episode, my over-riding concern was, 'did Olivia ever get to go pee?!'

    ReplyDelete

We love comments! We moderate because of spam and trolls, but don't let that stop you! It’s never too late to comment on an old show, but please don’t spoil future episodes for newbies.