FRINGE RECAP 4
Season 3: Episode 6 “6955 kHz”
“Why don’t we listen to the radio?” “Well put something on, I’m starting to think!!”
Anyone else remember when FRINGE first started and we had a weekly “case” the team was investigating and at the end of the episode we’d get like 30 seconds of some of the show’s mythology, information that tied everything together but really had very little to do with the plot of that particular episode? Looking back, didn’t that suck, especially when compared to this season where the “case” is secondary to the mythological implications seen through the episode? Nowadays, we see that all the cases are tied into Walternate’s plans, which just makes everything mesh so much better in the show, and makes me wonder if perhaps every case thus far had tied into Walternate’s plan, meaning there is not nearly as much randomness in FRINGE as it initially seemed.
BOLIVIA
So, just to be clear, I am now firmly a believer that Bolivia will rebel against Walternate’s plan in the near future, as she now realizes that the people in our world (which I shall refer to from now on as “Over Here”) are not the monsters that Walternate made them out to be, as evidenced tonight by her questions to Peter about whether he would destroy the “Over There” world to save his own, and his response that there must be another way. Not to mention her killing of the shape-shifter to prevent more “innocent” people from being killed (her exact words, which meant in my mind that she recognizes that there are innocents in both worlds now).
Based on a lot of her reactions though, I do wonder what Walternate and the people “Over There” know about the FIRST PEOPLE, and how exactly they came to know it. I’ve heard one theory floated out that the First People might have survived a little longer Over There, sharing some of their technology with their replacements, which might explain why the technology is a little more advanced Over There.
FIRST PEOPLE
First of all I’m going to pat myself on the back for including a mention of the First People in my last recap, and swear that I had NO IDEA that they would play so heavily into the plot and mythology of this week’s episode.
If you’re an anagram fan like I am (and yes, I’m a nerd, deal with it), you’ll already have undoubtedly noticed that Seamus Wiles (the author of the First People book) is an anagram for Samuel Weiss (Bowling Alley Yoda himself.) My guess is that we will most definitely be seeing more of that character this season, and that he is one of the First People.
The real question is the motives of the First People, whether they will side with Over Here or Over There, or whether they have their own secret agenda that will not benefit either side. Perhaps the doomsday device, or Vacuum, is a trap they set for humanity itself, in both worlds, which will destroy both universes and create a new one for The First People to inhabit by themselves.
Or if they are indeed the Observers, perhaps they will end up being some kind of wise and helpful organization that will shepherd humanity through the technological age and help humans to avoid the mistakes they made in the past. Which kinda makes sense considering that the Observers are obsessed with being there for every human technological innovation.
ASTRID KICKS ASS
First of all, I love how Walter toward the end of the episode was basically Astrid’s assistant as she went to work to solve the code. It was a great moment for the character, yet again proving her worth to the team, but also a great moment to see how much Walter respects her intelligence and skill, and is willing to defer to her insights on a subject that is her specialty.
Did anyone else notice the weird look from Nina Sharp toward Astrid when Nina visited the lab? Does Nina even know Astrid? I mean, based on that look it certainly seemed so, but to my conspiracy and theory shrouded mind, I couldn’t help but wonder: Could Astrid have been involved in cortexiphan trials? Is that why she’s so sharp with numbers? And is that why she was assigned to the FRINGE team? Or is she some kind of other FRINGE anomaly, like a super-powered brain math genius type thing, a trait that was found in both Astrid and her Over There counterpart. I hope I’m not just grasping at straws here, but I can’t help but feel there was a reason they put Astrid front and center in this episode, and I hope it’s because they want to go into her back-story, and not for something like setting up her death.
FINAL THOUGHTS
LOST numbers anyone? I saw an 8, a 15, and a 42 when the woman was typing into her computer in the opening, and those numbers were definitely confirmed as being part of the First People’s numerical code.
Other than that, I can’t wait for next week’s episode, feel free to comment or theorize below, I would really love to hear what someone else thinks.
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