{"id":164,"date":"2011-02-19T16:18:42","date_gmt":"2011-02-20T00:18:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=164"},"modified":"2011-05-05T16:44:53","modified_gmt":"2011-05-05T23:44:53","slug":"mark-watches-fringe-s03e14-6b","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2011\/02\/mark-watches-fringe-s03e14-6b\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Fringe’: S03E14 – 6B"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the fourteenth episode of Fringe<\/em>, a building in Brooklyn becomes the site of a terrifying reality: our world is beginning to fall apart. Meanwhile, Peter and Olivia do their best to try to mend their relationship. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time to watch for Mark to watch Fringe<\/em>.<\/p>\n

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for me to be a bit of a broken record, but I really enjoy the opportunity to talk about this sort of thing, especially with the positive feedback I got from some of you who could relate. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m developed a pretty wonderful affinity for Olivia Dunham, both because she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s such a fierce and fascinating female character, and because there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a large part of her character that I can relate to. There are not many characters on television who open up about feeling \u00e2\u20ac\u0153wrong\u00e2\u20ac\u009d inside, to feel that something inside them was either made so irrevocably different from the people around them that many social situations provide a sense of dissonance or even terror.<\/p>\n

Building heavily on the character developments of all of the episodes since Olivia\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s return in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Entrada,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d we watched Olivia take the steps to finally begin to repair the pain and loss she experienced as she realized Fauxlivia stole her life during the switch in universes. I was really happy to finally see both her and Peter experience something we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d not seen in a while: hope.<\/p>\n

The X-Files<\/em> did this a lot, but we get yet another episode that helps to possibly explain a paranormal phenomenon in terms of the show\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mythology. Like \u00e2\u20ac\u01536955 kHz\u00e2\u20ac\u009d earlier in this season, which tackled the infamous existence of number stations, \u00e2\u20ac\u01536B\u00e2\u20ac\u009d suggested an interesting explanation for ghosts. (I recognized this might have been a singular explanation just for this episode, but I have a feeling that the concept of an emotional quantum entanglement will return in a future episode.)<\/p>\n

It was inevitable, really, that the effects of what happened when the Fringe Division traveled between universes began to appear in our world. Once I realized that was what was going on in the building in Brooklyn, an unbearable dread set in to me. Even giving that nothing but a cursory thought, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a terrifying reality: how much of our universe is going to crumble? Will there be more and more destruction on our side, like what we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen in the parallel world, and will it force Walter and the Fringe team to make more and more drastic decisions to save people?<\/p>\n

I guess I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m jumping ahead of myself at this point. This episode opens with a heartwarming (and then heart-wrenching) scene as Walter attempts to force Peter and Olivia to deal with their stilted relationship. I wonder: Has Nina Sharp shared the information Sam provided her about Peter\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s disposition affecting the doomsday device? I feel like we got a sense that she had when she asked him how he was doing in the middle of this episode, but I think she has. It seems to be something to important not<\/em> to share with Walter. But I also know that Walter just wants his son to be genuinely happy as well.<\/p>\n

I cringed a lot during Peter and Olivia\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s conversations, not because there was anything wrong with them, but because a lot of really difficult things needed to be said if these two were going to be honest with each other. I have to admit that the relationship aspect of these two does feel rushed in a way, but I suspect it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s because the writers are moving the story forward without stalling because they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re leading to a much grander, terrifying reality at the end of this season. Maybe they know there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a chance that this show might not make a fourth season and they need to push the story to a certain part just in case. Essentially, though, I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t expect Olivia to outright tell Peter that she knows he still has feelings for Fauxlivia. On the inverse of that, I also didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t anticipate Peter confirming he did, but to add a twist to it: he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s only thinking of her because he imagined <\/em>the two of them together for so long. There is nothing he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s wanted more than for him and Olivia to be together.<\/p>\n

The story in apartment 6B is a great, if not too subtle, parallel to Olivia and Peter. Alice Merchant, played wonderfully by Phyllis Somerville, has been seeing a vision of her dead husband, believing it to be a ghost. We don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know that she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the reason for the opening events at the building, which seriously was one of the most terrifying cold opens this show has ever given us. We know that people are leaving that particular building in Brooklyn because of, frankly, the weird shit going on. We get a peak of that when the blender mysteriously comes on during a party, but WHAT THE FUCK HOLY SHIT a bunch of people appear to jump to their deaths below. WHAT<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Turns out this building is the source of a spot where our world is beginning to break apart, soon to become a vortex that could swallow half of Brooklyn whole. I found it fascinating how this situation affected Walter so differently from Peter\/Olivia. Walter knows that what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s happening in the alternate universe, what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s become a reality of their life, is beginning to happen here. I loved the call back to the third episode in season one, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Ghost Network,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d with the mysterious amber in the bus that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d completely forgotten about. When Walter begins to realize exactly what that amber may have been used for and what he may have to do in this case, he tells Nina Sharp that perhaps his alternate in the parallel world is not quite as sinister as he suspected.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153For a long time, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been willing to think the worst of Walternate. That he was an evil man. Willing to use any means necessary to get what he needed. I suppose it made it easy to justify what I did. Now we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re faced with the same decision. And I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m arguing that we do exactly what he did. What sort of person does that make me?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

This is not terrifying because Walter might become \u00e2\u20ac\u0153evil\u00e2\u20ac\u009d himself. He wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s terrifying because it gives a new context to Walternate\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s actions, a justification we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d never considered before, and because it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s possibly the most ominous sign Walter could get. What awful, terrible decisions is he going to have to make in the future?<\/p>\n

For Peter and Olivia, Alice Merchant\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s role in the growing vortex in apartment 6B provide that parallel to their lives. Because Alice refuses to let go of her husband, she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s risking to destroy everything. Olivia has no idea that Peter must choose her over Fauxlivia in order to save her world, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still great that she takes the steps towards repairing the chances of a real relationship with Peter. I know I wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t the only one whose heart nearly exploded when they kissed in the bar and then was immediately saddened that Olivia wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t quite ready to move in this direction. But I think her reaction (which wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t based on Peter glimmering, I think) was completely natural. How could she not think of Fauxlivia doing the same thing with Peter?<\/p>\n

But as she and Peter moved into 6B to confront Alice and try to get her to let go of her husband, I feared the worst. The device to release the amber inside the building was already set up and Walter had already resigned himself to the terrible fate of damning anyone left. (Honestly, this show has a lot of tragic and depressing scenes, but watching Walter relinquish the device to activate the amber to Broyles, knowing his son and Olivia were still inside, was SOUL CRUSHING.)<\/p>\n

Honestly, though, I was so surprised and amazed that it was Peter who stepped up to deliver the knowledge that Alice needed to let go, and I loved that it was partially a message to Olivia: I love you and I am going to fight for you.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153But you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve already had what most of us only dream of. A lifetime with the person you love. Look around you. Your entire house is filled with mementos\u00e2\u20ac\u201dphotographs, ticket stubs. Evidence of a life shared with somebody. Proof that what you and Derek had was true and real. And I know that when you have something so real, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll do anything to keep from losing it. But please, you have to let him go.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

For Olivia, however, this message meant something entirely different. I was hesitant to accept the idea the writers gave us, that it was Olivia holding things back. I think it was completely fair of her to accuse Peter of not being over Fauxlivia. That<\/em> is something holding them back as well. But they chose not to take a really unbelievable route with Olivia by instead having her accept that Olivia was merely holding back the attempt<\/em> at a chance for them to be together.<\/p>\n

Thankfully, Alice\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s husband tells her that the kids miss her, which are kids they never had in this world, and the emotional quantum entanglement is dissolved. Seriously, though, can you imagine an experience like that? After spending months thinking you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re seeing a ghost, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re actually looking at a parallel universe? Pretty sure that my brain would have pulled a Scanners<\/em> at that point.<\/p>\n

Even though the disaster is avoided, for Walter, he knows this is just the beginning of something awful. Their world is going to continue to fall apart from here on out. The upcoming episodes are going to be full of a lot of uncomfortable realities, I think, so I appreciate that this episode moves in a direction that gave me some of that hope I spoke about earlier. I can relate to the sensation Olivia describes, of feeling so different inside that you feel wrong, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m glad that the writers don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t erase that experience for her, to suggest that what she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d lived up to that point was wrong or a lie. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s very, very real for her and it made me happy that they didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t discard that. Instead, the final moments of \u00e2\u20ac\u01536B\u00e2\u20ac\u009d show us that Olivia is going to give this a chance. Reluctantly at first, with trepidation, but knowing that, ultimately, Peter\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s heart wants her<\/em>. And she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to give that a chance.<\/p>\n

THOUGHTS<\/strong><\/p>\n