Mark Watches ‘Fringe’: S03E18 – Bloodline

In the eighteenth episode of the third season of Fringe, Fauxlivia’s pregnancy is put at risk when a strange group kidnaps her and accelerates the birth of her child. Which leads to basically one of the best scenes of THE WHOLE SERIES. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Fringe.

So I was in New York when this episode aired, so I actually missed a live episode for once. THE HORROR. I am glad the show is back on the air after a break that seemed like an eternity, but I felt I should review this episode first before episode 3×19, “Lysergic Acid Diethylamide.” The review for that will go up tomorrow morning, Sunday April 17! YAY FOR WEEKEND REVIEWS.

Let’s move on to “Bloodline,” which takes us back to the alternate universe. This is one of those episodes that isn’t a slow build to a shocking ending, as the action accelerates to a pretty horrific pace right off of the bat. I don’t know why Fauxlivia could sense that someone was watching her or following her; did she know subconsciously that there was an Observer watching her apartment, waiting for the kidnappers to come take her away? (Here’s a scary thought: We are now seeing the Observers show up in the alternate universe with an alarming frequency. Something is about to happen, and with just four episodes left in the entire season, I know that the something is about to happen soon.)

This story allows the writers to spend a bit of time focusing on Lincoln and Scarlie more than usual, which I welcome with open arms. I was sad when Charlie was killed off of the show, and the way in which he was brought back also made it possible for his character to be explored in new ways as well. “Bloodline” is also the moment when these two begin to figure out the weirdness behind what’s happened to them over the course of the past few months, acknowledging out loud what we, the audience already know. What’s fascinating to me is that I imagine we’ll see similar character arcs as alternate-Broyles by the end of season three. They both know that Walternate is outright lying to them, possibly even endangering them for his own purpose.

And it’s not that Walternate isn’t a developed, three-dimensional character, and I’m glad the show has strayed far away from making him some sort of cookie-cutter villain. Hell, there was an entire period where I completely sympathized with his decisions and what had happened to him. Suffice to say, those days are over, as the past two times we’ve seen him, I am seriously driven to a bitter rage over what he’s doing to Fauxlivia. HE IS SO CREEPY. But that is something we’ll discuss at the end of this review. STOP GETTING AHEAD OF YOURSELF, MARK.

Fauxlivia’s pregnancy itself is also not as clear cut as it could have been, and I appreciate the many layers, both emotional and physical, that the writers wrap around the situation. She cheated on her husband, she loves a man in an alternate universe, Walternate is creepily interested in her child, and NOW, she also has to deal with the chance that she is a carrier of VPE, a disease that killed her sister and her unborn child. The sheer complexity of her pregnancy isn’t ever ignored in this episode, either. I don’t think Walternate new about the VPE aspect of Fauxlivia, and I’m glad he doesn’t know everything. That seemed far too easy for me.

But really, this is all about Fauxlivia, and this episode does a fantastic job showing us her struggle with her health, the difficult decisions surrounding a dangerous childbirth, and the new challenges that might be present if she ends up being a mother. Anna Torv…jesus, WHERE IS YOUR GODDAMN EMMY. Seriously, her character is played so convincingly, from the terror she displays at the thought that she’s going to lose her baby, to the anguish in the Chinatown scenes later when she believes she’s going to die, to the confused joy of motherhood when she’s in the hospital. I think we all know that the reason Torv is so great at portraying the various versions of Olivia is, in part, due to her growing repertoire of facial expressions that are just so genuine and believable.

“Bloodline” also brings back a much-needed character when alternate-Astrid detects an anomaly in the odds that a specific taxi would pass by Olivia’s house six times in the past week. Scarlie and Lincoln end up picking up Henry Higgins, believing him to have some part in Fauxlivia’s kidnapping. Instead, as Henry begins to say things that make no sense to anyone but the Fringe division, the story that Scarlie and Lincoln had been fed about Fauxlivia begins to unravel. It’s actually really exciting to watch because these two have needed to start asking the right questions for some time now. The last time either of them brought up the issue, in “The Plateau,” it was dismissed as foolish speculation, but Lincoln quickly realizes that maybe Scarlie was right back then.

Truthfully, I think Henry’s character played such an emotionally important role in the beginning of season three that I’m just overjoyed to see him back again. He was the only person who accepted Olivia’s ramblings and nonsensical statements about her life back when she was in the wrong universe, and I can’t imagine what it feels like to see someone you helped in such a specific way not recognize you again. Actually, thinking about the events of “Bloodline” in regards to Henry….holy cow, this has to be one of the most awkward things ever. HELLO WOMAN I HELPED ESCAPE, YOU DON’T RECOGNIZE ME ANYMORE, PLEASE SPREAD YOUR LEGS AND DELIVER A BABY INTO MY HANDS. Oh, Henry!

As the episode begins to fall into its collision course of awful, Lincoln confronts Walternate about the inaccuracies in the case, and, surprisingly, Walternate comes clean: Fauxlivia was on assignment in the parallel universe, and she is pregnant with his grandson. I know that Lincoln is far too emotionally involved in the case to see it, but the act, while honest, struck me as really, really suspicious. Why would Walternate tell Lincoln all of this, especially in an upfront manners? So while I figured out that the episode would eventually turn towards what happens at the end, I still couldn’t figure out the mechanisms of it all. Why was Walternate acting this way, and what was his purpose?

Meanwhile, back in the warehouse where Fauxlivia is being kept, we’re given one of two UNBELIEVABLE scenes during the course of “Bloodline” that prove the talent of the writers, the director, and of the actors on this show. Despite being unable to escape herself because of her condition, Fauxlivia tries a new method of getting out of her predicament, knowing that violence might not work with a BABY MOVING AROUND AND GROWING IN HER STOMACH. When the nurse takes Fauxlivia to empty her bladder before the final part of the experiment, Fauxlivia simply tries to appeal to the woman’s empathy, in a gut-wrenching monologue about understanding:

“You’re an obstetric nurse. You must feel some kind of calling to do something so selfless. You know, to help women bring babies into the world. I think I may have VPE. In fact, I probably do. My sister and her baby didn’t make it through labor. Both their hearts gave out. You cannot be okay with what they’re doing to me. If you don’t make them stop, they’re gonna kill me and they’re gonna kill the child that I’m carrying. You don’t have to do anything. You just have to leave me alone just for a minute. Please. Okay?”

The plea is not just an attempt to escape; Fauxlivia means every word. She is concerned for the well-being of her child and herself. She knows that she is facing her own mortality here, that this is more than just the theft of her own baby. This is literally life or death. And her plea honestly looks like it’s going to work, until the nurse simply tells her to empty her bladder and stop wasting time. DRAT.

And this is when it feels like a few hundred things all happen at once, as Lincoln finds out from Fauxlivia’s mom that she cannot give birth, and Fauxlivia takes the opportunity to attack her nurse and escape. Really, what I’ve been wanting to talk about this entire review is the birth scene in the store in Chinatown. I’m hoping that far into the future, when this show is over (WHICH I DON’T WANT TO THINK ABOUT), we’ll be able to look back at the whole picture, and this particular moment will still be one of the most amazing things the show has ever produced. From the lighting, to the set, to the way that the cameras grip the three faces of the people in that store, to the heart-wrenching declaration of love by Lincoln, to the reminder that they’re all being watched by the passers-by in Chinatown…it’s honestly so powerful and touching to me. In a moment of pure panic and terror, you can see that Fauxlivia is realizing that her final seconds of life are upon her, as she’s accepted the silent news given by Lincoln that she has VPE. It’s so quick and so gut-punchingly sad, and Fauxlivia just moves on in that moment, knowing that if anything should come of this, at least she will have given birth to a child. As Lincoln tells her that he loves her, she makes him promise to save the child and he agrees, heartbroken that this is how it all will end, yet honored to share this moment with her regardless.

I mean, I guess in hindsight they probably couldn’t have killed off Fauxlivia, but if they had, this would have been the most unbelievable way for her to go, in the sense that it would have been something I would never think the show could actually do. I suppose that I’m actually glad that she’s still around, but HOW FUCKED UP WOULD THAT HAVE BEEN????

But that’s ok. It is! I’m ok with the writers going the direction they choose to go and not kill off Fauxlivia because, instead of doing that, they make her birth SUPER FUCKED UP ANYWAY. I suspected that something was up with Walternate when he decided to be too honest with Lincoln, but I could never have guessed just how orchestrated this all was. That final scene of Brandon and Walternate looking upon Fauxlivia’s room…CHILLS. It’s made even worse by the SECOND appearance of the Observer in a single episode, who communicates one sentence: “It is happening.”

But what is happening? Was Walternate lying about his willingness to experiment on children? Was this child given an accelerated birth specifically to activate the Doomsday device? WHY IS WALTERNATE SO GODDAMN EVIL?

I just can’t. It’s so bleak and I’m so happy (strangely) that the show is willing to do things like this, despite how uncomfortable they are. THIS SHOW, Y’ALL.

THOUGHTS

• Man, I don’t often talk about shipping or even really feel the need to, but good god, I ship Lincoln/Fauxlivia SO FUCKING HARD after this episode.
• I don’t know why, but I’m guessing that Henry is going to die by the end of season three. Which would make me sad, but he’s almost the stereotype of the Man Who Knew To Much. I hope it doesn’t happen!
• FOUR MORE EPISODES. UGH. Tomorrow morning, the review for “Lysergic Acid Diethylamide” will go up. MORE FRINGE YAY!