Mark Watches ‘Fringe’: S03E15 – Subject 13

In the fifteenth episode of the third season of Fringe, we learn what happened directly after Walter stole Peter from the parallel universe. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Fringe.

I’m not so sure anymore what I expected from this episode, but it unfolded in a lot more subtle way than I anticipated this late into the season. This is not to say we didn’t learn a lot from “Subject 13,” as a bunch of crucial gaps in the early story were filled. But the writers chose to go a much more subtle route of character development instead, and I am initially feeling just a bit deflated. I think that, later on, this episode will prove to be very, very pivotal to the entire series, but the commercial hypes felt so misleading to what actually happened.

This entire episode was one giant, fuzzy flashback, and it was yet another chance for the writers to toy with our idea of which Walter was “good” and which was “bad.” (Answer: neither of them, but jesus, our Walter is looking less and less desirable with every episode.) More importantly, though, was that we discovered how intrinsically tied together Olivia and Peter were. I couldn’t help but be reminded of LOST during this episode, which had the tendency to rely on flashbacks for a few seasons to give us context to the present, but in the process, they’d create 40 new questions to be answered. I mean….right??? I have a whole new set of questions I’m dying to know the answer to because of “Subject 13.”

I had always assumed that Walter and his wife made no attempt to return Peter to the alternate world, but this episode certainly destroys that notion. Bringing Peter to our side didn’t seem to solve anything, aside from keeping him alive. The portrait we’re given here (and in both worlds) shows that this act has not only disrupted a universe, but it’s disrupted two families as well. Unless I’m reading things wrong, it seems the Cortexiphan trials were uniquely aimed at getting these children, particularly Olivia Dunham, to cross over on to the other side. Did they exist before Peter was brought over? If not, does “Subject 13” suggest that Olivia’s sole purpose in those days was to return Peter to his rightful universe?

Disturbingly so, we get to watch exactly what Walter did to Olivia all those years ago and I can’t ignore the fact that it was incredibly, incredibly hard to watch. I have always had a difficult time watching child abuse (BECAUSE DUH), and in this episode, we get a much fuller picture as to what the experiments on Olivia actually were. I don’t think Karley Collins, who played Olivia, particularly looked like the adult Olivia, but she sure acted like her. In that sense, it gave a sense of clarity to our adult version of the character. If we ever wondered why she was so sealed off, why she didn’t seem to trust people, then this episode certainly begins to provide those answers.

For Peter, too, the story is evolved in unexpected ways. It’s very apparent that Peter knows he is not from this world, given the cold open (sorry for the pun I DON’T KNOW ANOTHER WAY TO SAY THAT) and his constant fighting with his mother. This episode never answers the question it presents: If Peter knew he was from a different world, how did he come to forget that for so long? Until the end of the second season, Peter doesn’t once suspect that he’s from the other side.

Actually, on that note, how does he not remember Olivia? Now I’m interested to see what device or method caused him to lose his memories of this time for over twenty years.

We also spent a whole lot of time with Walter and Elizabeth Bishop, more so than we ever have before. We’ve already seen how Walter and Walternate are sometimes the inverse of one another (Walter will experiment on kids and Walternate won’t); the Elizabeths also seem to be having inverse responses to these events. I can’t imagine the terror and rejection our Elizabeth experiences  through Peter. In both worlds, Elizabeth has to deal with her husband constantly leaving her to deal with the real-world consequences of Peter being brought to our side. I found it interesting that our Elizabeth turned to alcohol, whereas Walternate was the one who started drinking in the alternate universe. That also makes me wonder: is it possible the concept of an emotional quantam entanglement comes up again before the end of the season, especially in relation to what’s happening with the Bishop family?

There was a lot of talking in “Subject 13,” especially on Elizabeth’s part, but the real excitement for me came from Olivia’s time on screen. We watch in terror as Walter continues to subject her to varying emotional states in order to try and trigger her over to the other side, like she did when her father attacked her. And man, that moment when she discovers Nick on the ground and flashes over in a blast of fire was AMAZING. One of the coolest moments on the whole show.

It wasn’t all that surprising that Olivia and Peter headed to the field of white tulips at the end of the episode, but man…their conversation was SO LOADED with subtext. I think a problem (well, one of them) with “Subject 13” is that NO ONE TALKS THIS WAY EVER. I understand that this episode was written rather poetically and with a specific goal in mine, but the dialogue was a bit too unrealistic for my taste. THAT BEING SAID. The scene in the tulips field is still one of the best moments of the episode. Here are two kids completely damaged and harmed by one man: Walter Bishop. Does Walter have the best of intentions? Sure, I’m willing to admit that. But it doesn’t ameliorate the pain these two feel and, if anything, the scene in the tulip field was one of comfort and acceptance.

But let’s just talk about the real mindfuck of “Subject 13.” After Peter insists that Olivia should tell Walter about the abuse she is experiencing at the hands of her father, they head back to the lab in Jacksonville. And I can’t believe I didn’t catch Olivia becoming upset as she raced into Walter’s office and admitted she could move between worlds when her father hit her. Because then Walter was behind her and a huge question was answered: How does Walternate find out where Peter disappeared to?

Because fucking OLIVIA DUNHAM FUCKING TOLD HIM.

HEAD. EXPLODED. FOREVER.

THOUGHTS

• Sorry, but Elizabeth is SO IRRITATING inside the toy store. STOP HOVERING. STOP IT. STOP IT. Oh my god, that was so annoying.
• Seriously, what happens to make Peter and Olivia forget all of this?
• Again, I did not see the Observer. WTF.
• So is William Bell still in our world at this point? I ask because Walter made a video for him.
• TWO WEEKS UNTIL A NEW EPISODE? BLASPHEMY.