{"id":641,"date":"2011-10-01T15:28:06","date_gmt":"2011-10-01T22:28:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=641"},"modified":"2011-10-01T15:28:06","modified_gmt":"2011-10-01T22:28:06","slug":"mark-watches-fringe-s04e02-one-night-in-october","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2011\/10\/mark-watches-fringe-s04e02-one-night-in-october\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches &#8216;Fringe&#8217;: S04E02 &#8211; One Night In October"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In the second episode of the fourth season of <em>Fringe<\/em>, Olivia must travel over There to assist in a case involving a serial killer, and she does so by bringing the killer&#8217;s version of himself in her world with her. Intrigued? Then it&#8217;s time for Mark to watch <em>Fringe<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><!--more-->What would my like have been like if I had chosen to go to a university that would have sunk me into debt? What would have happened it I had never run away from home? Or if I&#8217;d never answered that Craigslist ad that got me the job at Buzznet? Or chosen that guy to be my first boyfriend? Or decided to write about <em>Twilight?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I think it&#8217;s fairly common to think about altering our past. It&#8217;s not even really an issue of <em>regret<\/em>. In hindsight, it&#8217;s easier to see how a single decision drastically came to change a person&#8217;s life, and I often wonder what would have happened if I had chosen different. I do like where I am these days, but there are always small things I wish were different than they are. But it&#8217;s never something I&#8217;m obsessed with because I&#8217;m also aware that the slightest change could have pushed me off into such a different path that I could be\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6.I don&#8217;t know, <em>in prison<\/em> right now.<\/p>\n<p>The introduction of the concept of parallel universes in <em>Fringe<\/em> has not only heightened the sense of <em>shit-getting-realness<\/em> in the show, but it has allowed the various writers to explore the small (or massive) differences between lives that are composed of different choices and different environments. Like the role-switching did in season three, the timeline reset, due to the disappearance of Peter, has created another opportunity for this show to explore something no other show has. As we adjust to characters who have new backstories and, in the case of Fauxlivia, a new attitude\/behavior, &#8220;One Night In October&#8221; manages to give us one of the strongest non-mythology stories of the entire show.<\/p>\n<p>The story of Jon McClennan is disturbing, emotional, and provides us with a chilling parallel to the disappearance of Peter. We are learning more and more about a Peter-less world and the way the two universes operate in comparison to one another. I was very excited to return to over There this week, and I was not disappointed. The brief moments we got with Fauxlivia in &#8220;Neither Here Nor There&#8221; didn&#8217;t give us much of her new persona, but looking back, I can see how much more abrasive and intimidating she is. Seriously, Anna Torv deserves <em>all the awards<\/em> and then <em>all the awards <\/em><strong><em>again<\/em><\/strong>. She is able to play Olivia in our world as one haunted by loneliness and abuse. (Oh god, fictional characters, <em>why do I find so much to relate with in you.<\/em>) The new Fauxlivia is almost arrogant in her self-confidence. She&#8217;s stubborn, brash, and almost seems like she wants to be the center of attention all of the time.<\/p>\n<p>And given the discovery of a new shapeshifter device, Olivia has a whole lot that she distrusts about her alternate universe&#8217;s version of herself. Holy god, that must be so awkward, not being able to trust\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6yourself? I guess that term doesn&#8217;t even work in this case, but I think you get what I mean. She is staring at <em>herself<\/em> and not trusting her. THAT IS WEIRD.<\/p>\n<p>But even if you strip away the dynamic between the Olivias, if you take away the stuff with Walter hearing his non-existent son, if you take away all of the subtext with Peter desperately trying to be remembered, I was so satisfied and pleasantly surprised by how strong the main plot was. The premise itself showed a lot of promise: Olivia takes her universe&#8217;s version of John McClennan, a forensic psychologist, to the other universe to investigate <em>his<\/em> double, who is A SERIAL KILLER. Holy irony, THIS IS SO CLEVER AND I LOVE IT. And the best part? <em>The execution is just as good as the promise of the set-up<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>This idea naturally sets itself up for a whole lot of tension, and from the moment they unload John in the parallel world and wheel him into his alternate&#8217;s house, I knew that there were way too many factors that might prevent this from being a smooth operation. They were smart enough to remove all photos of FauxJohn, but after John wakes up from his sedative and begins to do his job on trying to determine who the serial killer is (SPOILER: IT&#8217;S YOU. <em>oh my god i love this show<\/em>), every second was UNBEARABLE. There are too many things similar to his own life. He recognizes the chair in the office. A CHAIR PROVIDES TENSION IN THIS SHOW. And, of course, it all erupts into chaos when he finds a photo of his own father in the killer&#8217;s photo array.<\/p>\n<p>There is not a show on the planet that has ever given us a moment like the one when John runs outside in anger to find another version of Olivia staring him in the face, a block of amber looming in the distance. Bless this show for it&#8217;s weirdness, and bless this show for how entertaining it is.<\/p>\n<p>Actually\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6yes, it is quite entertaining. And I&#8217;m happy to <em>be<\/em> entertained by this show. But seriously. <em>Seriously<\/em>. That monologue that John gives on the couch? Where he tells Olivia about Margery and how he is now in the house of who he <em>could<\/em> have been had she not helped him? And then Olivia opens up to him by admitting she was abused by her step-father? And then in just five minutes this episode and <em>season<\/em> becomes painfully tragic and beautiful? And we are all reminded <em>why<\/em> we watch this show and <em>why<\/em> we are all attached to these characters, and <em>why <\/em>we never want this to end? Yeah. <em>Yeah<\/em>. Oh, <em>Fringe<\/em>, the things you do to me.<\/p>\n<p>Even on that note, this episode fucks with our perception. I said before that there&#8217;s an obvious contrast between Fauxlivia and Olivia, but when the two are alone in that car and Olivia casually drops that she killed her abusive step-father. <em>JESUS CHRIST<\/em>. But it&#8217;s a sign that it&#8217;s not easy to categorize these two characters, even more so in the post-Peter storyline. We know almost nothing about how their histories have changed. We have no idea what the <em>show&#8217;s<\/em> history is either. How was the other universe disrupted in a way to require amber without Peter? Why was the bridge even built without Peter? THERE ARE SO MANY QUESTIONS THAT I HAVE THAT ARE NOT BEING ANSWERED.<\/p>\n<p>But this episode is not really about those questions. The story of John McClennan is about someone who was abused, and the two paths his life took in each of the universes. In one world, his father beat him and out of revenge for his past, he <em>literally<\/em> steals happy memories from people. In the other, though, a woman named Margery took him in after he ran away, and she helped him &#8220;step into the light.&#8221; Again: young boy is abused by his parent, he runs away, and is taken in by a stranger who shows him that life isn&#8217;t meant to be like that. Seriously, <em>HOW DOES MY LIFE END UP IN THIS SHOW<\/em>. So sure, I&#8217;m a bit biased by this, but I think that even regardless of this, the fact that John McClennan eventually tries to steal <em>HIS OWN HAPPY MEMORIES<\/em> is one of the most tragic things this show has ever given us. Even worse, the story has another meaning, and it&#8217;s one that Broyles vocalizes to Olivia after the whole thing is over:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;At the risk of sounding sentimental\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6I&#8217;ve always though there were people who leave an indelible mark on your soul. An imprint that can never be erased.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>AHHHHHHHHHH WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO ME, BROYLES. It&#8217;s a touching statement all by itself, a way to explain how McClennan could still have memories of Margery, but it&#8217;s meant to hint towards <em>why<\/em> Peter is making more frequent appearances to his father. I am loving the fact that the writers have decided to have Peter to show up to his father first. I think the Peter\/Olivia relationship is incredibly important, but I think he was always far more connected to Walter. More so than any other person, Walter has marks on <em>his<\/em> soul where Peter remains. Why else would September have focused on only Walter when building the device to fully erase Walter&#8217;s son from time?<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;One Night in October&#8221; was a breathtaking example of how this show continues to impress us and make us feel for the people on screen, even if they&#8217;re merely side characters. I love the way they use these alternate universes to tell deeply touching stories, and I imagine it will only get better as the show eventually deals with the story of Peter. And judging by the final minutes of the episode, I don&#8217;t think we&#8217;ll have to wait long.<\/p>\n<p>PS: Oh god, the Astrid\/Walter scene in this episode. SO PERFECT.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the second episode of the fourth season of Fringe, Olivia must travel over There to assist in a case involving a serial killer, and she does so by bringing the killer&#8217;s version of himself in her world with her. &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2011\/10\/mark-watches-fringe-s04e02-one-night-in-october\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[32,41,39,38,9,25],"class_list":["post-641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fringe","tag-anna-torv","tag-jasika-nicole","tag-john-noble","tag-joshua-jackson","tag-mark-watches","tag-mark-watches-fringe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<!-- WP Super Cache is installed but broken. 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