Mark Watches ‘Fringe’: S03E17 – Stowaway

In the seventeenth episode of the third season of Fringe, the team deals with the newfound appearance of William Bell via Olivia while trying to solve a case concerning a woman who seemingly cannot die, but wants to. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Fringe.

“Well, destiny, fate. Jung called it synchronicity. The interconnectedness of apparently unrelated events. I mean, don’t you think it’s curious we meet a woman who is unable to die at the exact moment my consciousness seemingly returns from the grave? Now as a scientist, I like to believe that nothing just happens, that every even has some meaning. Some sort of message. You just have to be able to listen closely enough to hear it.”

The return of William Bell could never have been predicted this way. Seeded two seasons ago (!!!!!!!), I often wonder if, at any point. Anna Torv was told, “Hey, so, we know we signed you on to this show to play a character, but could you play six more? Oh, and we’re going to need you to mimic Leonard Nimoy’s intonation for a few episodes. You ok with that?”

It needs to be said: Anna Torv is one of the best actresses on television right now. The idea is absurd, to have a woman imitate one of the most recognizable voices in all of pop culture, but Torv pulls it off with both a dedication of a talented woman and the humor necessary for it to work. At times eerie and always surreal, it’s one of the best “twists” this show has ever given us, and it opens up a whole new road of storytelling for Fringe.

I wondered if Dana Gray’s story is tied at all to the events of “Os,” in the sense that our world is beginning to erode and decay. (ERODE was this episode’s glyph code, by the way.) I buy the concept of a double lightning strike providing the necessary weirdness to create the molecular magnetism that prevented her from literally tearing apart, but I think that we’re beginning to see more subtle parallels between the alternate world and ours. How much more radical will the side effects become?

But more importantly, I think that “Stowaway” is a sign of what is to come from the end of season three. Why are these events so connected? I believe that Bellivia’s quote, which I used above, is far more prophetic than most people might think. Why is Peter tied to the machine, and why is Olivia also tied to him? So many things about this show in the past year or two are about seemingly unexplainable coincidences. Is it fate or destiny or synchronicity? Who cares what we call it: something is happening.

Of course, I haven’t figured that out. I won’t pretend to. It’s really excited to be so utterly unsure about how these two universes will come together again, or which will survive. So, for the moment, I’m enjoying the ride a great deal.

And what a ride it is! We’ve got the return of Lincoln Lee, but it’s OUR SIDE’S VERSION OF HIM! And good fucking lord he is so dapper in those glasses and that suit. I have decided to ship him with myself and there is no one to stop me. The writers have also gotten good at mixing this weekly one-off story with the greater narrative and I’ve come to expect that at least until the end of this season. (Or maybe next week, according to that ridiculous preview of “Bloodline,” but I WILL NOT TALK ABOUT THAT FOR THOSE WHO DON’T WANT TO KNOW.)

Despite that, I did want to spend more time on the epic bromance between Walter and Bellivia. I found that story to be a tad more intriguing to me than Dana Gray. Watching Bellivia and Walter interact with each other was pure joy. I love that for Walter, it’s not at all weird that his partner and best friend is in the body of Olivia. Plus, we get to watch Olivia hit on Astrid, which is everything I could ask for on this planet earth. It’s truly a beautiful thing. I felt that this episode was leading us into one of two possible directions: either Dana Gray would become William’s new host, or Lincoln would. I only wanted the latter to happen so that Lincoln could be around more, but it seemed pretty obvious that Dana would be the one to take William’s soul.

So when the bomb went off at the end, tearing the magnetic bonds that held Dana together, I was confused. I mean, Gene wasn’t really going to be William’s new host, as hilarious as that concept was. So what were William and Walter planning? William had very little time to get out of Olivia’s body, and there was still no answer proposed as to how that was going to happen.

The final couple minutes of this episode are ELECTRIFYING. We’d seen Peter’s growing anger and frustration at losing Olivia for a day, and when the church bell went off, we saw Olivia return. But not in a flurry of excitement, but a rush of utter terror and confusion. Something was wrong. Something went wrong with where she went to. And then William returns and our worst fears are confirmed: This is not going to be easy at all.

Love this show. LOVE THIS GODDAMN SHOW.

THOUGHTS

• I’ll keep saying it until it happens. More Astrid. Please more Astrid.
• Did William Bell give Peter more soul magnets in his cup of tea? OH GOD WOULDN’T THAT BE WILD.
• So…where does Olivia’s consciousness go while William is in her body? WHAT IF IT IS ON THE OTHER SIDE.
• A lot of people fall from buildings on this show.
• NEXT WEEK. NEXT WEEK!!!!!!