Mark Watches ‘Fringe’: S03E011 – Reciprocity

In the eleventh episode of the third season of Fringe, the Massive Dynamic team works with the Fringe division to determine what on earth they’re supposed to do with the assembled doomsday machine. Meanwhile, someone is killing shapeshifters and the revelation of who that is will make you fall over. The end. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Fringe.

What an unbelievably exciting episode of television that was. I do love the challenge that writers are forced to work against in the medium, especially being constrained to just over 40 minutes. In “Reciprocity,” we’re given a script that is emotionally, creepy, and ends with a transformative final fifteen minutes, showing us an upsetting new character twist and adding more to the mythology of the First People.

I think the writers are aware of the delicate line they’re on with the Peter/Olivia relationship, and ever since she came back in “Entrada,” they’ve dealt with it in a way that isn’t insulting to us, the viewers, and never fully overshadows anything else on the show. I know a lot of people are losing their shit over the possibility of Fauxlivia being pregnant on the basis of September’s words to Peter in “The Firefly,” but to those naysayers, I submit the last three episodes as proof. It’s proof that this show is able to delicately weave an emotional, dramatic narrative with a heavy dose of experimental physics and a complex mythology. And the only time they went straight for the emotional jugular? We get episodes like “Peter.” AND I AM PERFECTLY ALL RIGHT WITH THAT.

“Reciprocity” deals with two parts of the show’s mythology: the doomsday machine and the shapeshifters. We begin the episode with a focus mostly on the machine, which has now been assembled inside a military hanger somewhere on the east coast. I don’t think any of us were surprised when the machine suddenly came to life when Peter walked into the room. The nosebleed? That was new. And that was creepy.

There’s no real answer given in this episode as to WHY Peter is so special, why the Observers want him alive, and how this ties in to the First People, which finally made a resurrection in the story line last night. But we do know that Walter is experiencing an increase in the terror of realization that he stands to lose his son yet again. There’s nothing irrational about Walter’s feelings during “Reciprocity” and I’m happy that the writers didn’t pursue that idea throughout the story. Walter’s dedication and love for his son may be misguided at times, but I think they’ve abandoned the quirkiness of his behavior. I worried during the first season that the writers would simply continue to make Walter seem like the odd man out, othering him because of his mental illness. But it’s been a beautiful journey to where we are now, where the writers don’t seem to be poking fun at Walter’s behavior and his life. They don’t diminish his mental illness and it’s not the butt of jokes.

Here, now, in this point of the show, Walter just might be the best character on Fringe.

It seems inevitable that the relationship between Peter and Olivia would have to be addressed, but I don’t say that begrudgingly. It’s probably one of the more fascinating character developments I’ve seen on modern television. I mean, I can’t even think of a show that dealt with romance by having a DUPLICATE WOMAN COURT THE MAN THE ORIGINAL WOMAN LOVES. I mean. COME ON. SO AMAZING. And sad. It’s so sad. Oh god, SOOOO SAD.

I feel that throughout “Reciprocity,” we’re getting much closer to Olivia being able to heal and get past what happened in the first half of this season. We got a couple of great moments in this episode (OMG PETER AND OLIVIA TOUCHED HANDS FOR LIKE A SECOND), though I’m worried that these moments of joy are going to be utterly crushed forever and ever in the coming weeks. But for now, it’s nice to appreciate the growth we see.

The murder of shapeshifters in this episode not only pushes the plot forward, but forces an awkward situation: Olivia reading Fauxlivia’s notes on Peter. Peter, in a particularly depressing scene, admitted previously that he was embarrassed that Fauxlivia would say that he was a fool, that she played him despite him being known for being able to con people. (This is a nice way of dealing with that previous plot hole of how Peter never saw that Fauxlivia was…well, fake.)

Watching Olivia read those reports was heartbreaking, especially when we realized that Fauxlivia really wasn’t lying to Peter before she drugged him in “Entrada.” She really was starting to fall for him. So where does that leave Olivia? She decides that maybe it’s time for her to think of how this situation has also affected Peter as well. I think it’s entirely reasonable for her to feel as if her life has been essentially invaded, since it pretty much was, and the past two episodes explored that in subtle ways. For her to give Peter a chance by putting aside her own concerns to tell him that she knows it must hurt for him too is a huge moment for the two characters. IS A PETER/OLIVIA SHIP ON HAND?

Oh, but wait, the rest of this episode goes in an entirely surprising direction, as we shockingly learn that Peter is the one killing shapeshifters. WHAT. WHAT. WHAT!!!! He says that he is killing them in order to gain more information about what the machine is, but Walter’s speech about reciprocity scares me: is it possible that the machine is actually changing him? If we think about it, what Peter does in this episode is absolutely out of character in the context of his past. We’ve never seen him so violent and ruthless. (The scene where Walter walks in on him made me yelp at the television.)

So what the fuck is the doomsday device? Why were the First People so obsessed with it? Why was William Bell also interested in it? I don’t think the Observers are the first people, and one of the writers has publicly stated that we’ve already seen one of the First People in the run of the show. So what does it all mean?

THOUGHTS

• FUCK YEAH, MORE ASTRID. God, I love her forever. But I wish she would have been the one to crack the code because MORE ASTRID.
• Did anyone spot the Observer in this episode? I swear I never see him.
• The cleaver and the fingers. GOOD GOD.
• Olivia? In a dress and lipstick next week? EXCITE.