Before I get into the recapping and theoretical malarkey that ran rampant throughout my LOST recaps and will undoubtedly continue here, I’d like to start off by laying down my ground rules for these recaps, much as I did for LOST.
#1, I will not spoil any future episodes with information I may have heard about it, I will only speculate and theorize.
#2, Though not every title will contain some form of the word “graph,” I will try to make every title just as entertaining, and this season’s theme will begin with the title shown below, and I honestly don’t think it’ll be that hard to guess.
#3, MOST IMPORTANTLY, if you don’t watch FRINGE, don’t read these. I highly recommend the show, and think you should watch all of the Seasons so far (there’s only 2!), but don’t read if you’re not into it yet, because if at some point down the road you do begin to watch, I’d hate for you to have ruined everything for yourself.
#4, Deal with the terms, Walternate = Walter from Alt. Univ., Over There = Alt Univ., Folivia = Alt. Olivia (more to come later)
FRINGE RECAP 1
Season 3: Episode 3 “The Plateau”
I BEAT THE SMART KID(S), I BEAT THE SMART KID(S)!
Welcome to the FRINGE recaps, and welcome to Season 3, which has already shown itself to be incredibly involved and full of the mythology that was usually doled out so sparsely in the previous seasons.
First of all, I’d like to say that it’s great seeing Charlie working with Olivia again, and makes me all the more nostalgic for Season 1 episodes where he was her loyal sidekick. And of all the alternate universe characters, I think he seems to be the most human, and the most concerned about the well-being of Olivia, which just makes him all the more valuable a character for getting her home. Am I the only one who thinks Charlie is figuring it all out? I thought for sure we’d see a scene at the end where Charlie would be connecting the dots about why THIS Olivia didn’t follow the oxygen protocol, although maybe that’s a scene for a future episode. Is there any chance that he’ll come back to our side with Olivia, and take up where his counterpart left off?
While we’re on the subject of Olivia, where is her mind at right now? Does she think she’s crazy? Is there a chance she’s just going along with everything until she finally sees a way to go home? Is she maintaining her old identity (even if she’s only doing it subconsciously) because of the cortexiphan in her brain? Once she and Walternate learn how to use her abilities to travel between the worlds, will she revert to her old self and flee?
Now let’s talk about the villain of the week, who I’d like to call “The ‘Special’ Equation.” (think about it for a second) I bought into the whole leaving a pen and it would start a chain reaction leading to all those deaths, and I was even willing to buy into the whole he threw a bike off the bridge so the truck would slow and swerve for his escape. But in all honestly, no matter how much math and equations the guy had figured out, how would he know EXACTLY what Olivia’s death would look like if he’d never been down that alleyway? It was more of a vision to me, and THAT is what I think made it more of a FRINGE case, in that somehow his equations ability got merged with something a little more supernatural, which is how it would get accelerated to the point where he can only communicate with computers now.
Now maybe it is just me, but should we be rooting for Walternate because of the destruction of his world and the loss of his son? I mean Over There is pretty messed up, the need for personal oxygen tanks just the latest sign in a long list of how much the world is decaying because of Walter’s crossing over to save Peter’s life all those years ago. And while I do think Walter’s crossing over can be rationalized to the point where he’s not a monster because he didn’t know what would happen and he did manage to save Peter’s life, the fact remains that he ruined Walternate’s life, and potentially, Walternate’s world. Seeing this, I honestly hope Walternate gets humanized a bit this season so he doesn’t seem so genuinely evil, I mean after all, he is a grieving father who’s world is crumbling, I think he deserves a bit of sympathy.
Oh, and while we’re talking about the various Over There characters, is Astrid some kind of genius Over There? She was pretty amazing with the math equations herself, and they seemed to always be calling her about percentages and statistics, and I wonder if MAYBE she was dosed with the Over There equivalent of cortexiphan, implemented by Walternate in some early attempt to create his own Olivia.
On the Mythology front, it is great to see Walternate explain his plan concerning Olivia to alt. Broyles, though I cannot help but feel even Walternate knows that Olivia’s mind can never be fully brainwashed, not with her unique abilities. But it does make sense that he wants to learn how to cross between worlds safely, as once that occurs the real war between the two worlds will undoubtedly begin. I do wonder though, how exactly Walternate managed to cross into our world to take Peter back last season without it causing as much damage to our world as Walter’s crossing did to theirs, or whether the fall-out from that crossing on the alt. world is what forced Walternate to seek out an alternate route for traveling between the two worlds. I’m moving on now, I’m sick of typing ‘Walternate’ and ‘worlds.’
And I like how Olivia’s mind is conjuring images of the Fringe team from her own world, as it keeps Peter and Walter in the show despite these episodes being set Over there, and it subtly keeps the Peter romance going despite the fact that they are so separate and he is currently sleeping with Folivia (though he doesn’t know it.)
Ok, that’s it for this week, looking forward to next week’s episode set back in our own world, and for (hopefully) Folivia to be found out soon, so Peter and Walter can mount a rescue effort to get the real Olivia back. Stay tuned!
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