{"id":922,"date":"2012-02-04T10:37:00","date_gmt":"2012-02-04T18:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=922"},"modified":"2012-02-04T10:37:00","modified_gmt":"2012-02-04T18:37:00","slug":"mark-watches-fringe-s04e11-making-angels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2012\/02\/mark-watches-fringe-s04e11-making-angels\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Fringe’: S04E11 – Making Angels"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the eleventh episode of the fourth season of Fringe<\/em>, we are all trapped in a glass case of emotion. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Fringe<\/em>.<\/p>\n

You know, I’ve tried to step back and remember it took the show seventy-five episodes (I counted) to tell us any<\/em> sort of story on a character who is in nearly every<\/em> episode. It took this show an incredibly long time to focus on Astrid Farnsworth, and I’m sure that some of you have been just as shrill and irritating about this as I have. I think I found a way to yell at the writers in at least half of the Fringe<\/em> reviews I’ve written. I think it’s one of the show’s great flaws, and something I wish they’d done so much sooner than they have.<\/p>\n

And even thinking of this now, I still can’t help but feel like the wait was so worth it.<\/p>\n

The first Astrid-centric episode of Fringe<\/em> could have been a lot of things. It simply could have been her solving the case. It could have been a story about us following her around for a day. Either one of those would have been pleasant, and I’m sure I would have enjoyed it a whole lot. Instead, though, the writers use the alternate universe as a chance for us to get to know both<\/em> versions of Astrid, and to build those characters’ back story through their conversations. Not only that, but we get a heartbreaking story in Neil Chung, and an Observers plot that made me fall off my couch. THERE’S JUST SO MUCH TO BE EMOTIONAL ABOUT, OKAY?<\/p>\n

The impetus for alt-Astrid to come to our side is the death of her father, and there’s a direct parallel for what happens here and what tormented Neil Chung. This is about the complicated and sometimes irrational relationships we have with our parents, about feeling worthless or ignored, and it’s why an episode that isn’t really action-packed is just so entertaining. Alt-Astrid seeks out her own self in our universe as a way to sort of compare notes, a coping mechanism of her own. As someone on the autism spectrum, alt-Astrid worries that she couldn’t express how much she loved her father. It’s a familiar trope, to be honest, one I sort of wish the show didn’t do, but Jasika Nicole takes this idea and gives such a beautiful, haunting performance that my reservations about it are pretty much swept away.<\/p>\n

One of the things I love so dearly about this show is how the writers created these complex alternate worlds and gave their actors such an immense challenge: play a version of yourself that’s easily distinguishable from the other. And so far, they’ve all done it brilliantly<\/em>. “Making Angels” also gives us both Olivias as well, and it’s just amazing to me to see Anna Torv give the dual performances that she does here. I never thought we would see a story that explored what Fauxlivia did to Walter, and suddenly, Fauxlivia is my favorite person? She’s so feisty and in-your-face about having tricked Walter in the past, but it’s done in a way that actually moves both of them towards reconciling. Sort of? I mean, he offered her Red Vines. That’s about as explicit of an act of forgiveness that Fauxlivia is going to get.<\/p>\n

It’s interesting, then, to see that forgiveness because two other characters in this episode are seeking that in a way as well. Alt-Astrid’s guilt is slowly alleviated as she sees how this universe treats the version of herself. I was particularly fascinated by the fact that Alt-Astrid noticed that our universe speaks to Astrid with respect and is friendly with her. What we’ve seen of the alternate universe has given us the impression that Astrid is treated mostly like a repository of information. No one is all that personable with her, and even when Fauxlivia tells alt-Broyles that she’ll go fetch Astrid, it’s not with a sad or wistful tone. It’s like she’s retrieving a wandering child. At the same time, alt-Astrid is so much more direct and penetrating. It’s why she’s able to dismantle Walter’s reasoning for treating his “son” terribly, and why she’s able to piece together the seemingly random details of Neil Chung’s case. She is a woman obsessed with details, but we do get to see how that isn’t some sort of detached existence for her. Who knew that watching a character drink coffee for the first time could be so emotional???<\/p>\n

The story that we get of Neil Chung isn’t terribly developed, to be honest, but I’m largely pleased with what we see. The episode’s title is in reference to what Neil irrationally believed of himself, that because his mother made an error in a moment of grief, he resolved to prove her wrong. Like alt-Astrid, he’s a man obsessed with details and mathematics, but his ultimate interpretation of these details is based on a skewed and flawed view of mercy. He believes that angels save people from harm, and that means that killing people destined for suffering is an act of holiness. I’m glad, then, that the story doesn’t make Neil’s mother, Anne Chung, out to be a villain here. She’s not. Grief makes people do or say things that they might not actually mean, and it’s Neil’s fault that he chose to pursue what he did.<\/p>\n

What Neil’s story is also<\/em> about is random chance, and that bit of luck concerns September. I imagine that the reason Olivia saw September shot in that theater is due to the realizations at the end of “Making Angels.” When the Observers retrieve the weapon that September dropped in Reidan Lake in 1985, March reveals that Peter Bishop is still alive, meaning that September did not do as he was supposed to. So what does this mean? Why is it so integral that Peter not ever<\/em> exist in any universe or any timeline? I can tell that we are finally approaching some huge<\/em> answers regarding this alternate set of timelines, Peter’s existence, and what the hell<\/em> the Observers are. AHHHH I JUST WANT MORE PLEASE GIVE ME MORE<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Really, though, this episode is so fantastic to me because of Astrid. She holds it together. She is the purpose<\/em> of this all. It only made me want more Astrid-centric episodes in the future. And maybe one about Broyles. Or Nina. UGH NINA WHAT ARE YOU DOING. Anyway, Astrid’s final scene in “Making Angels” is one that just made me want to crumble and hide under my table for hours. We finally \u00e2\u20ac\u201c FINALLY \u00e2\u20ac\u201c meet Astrid’s father, and we learn that she lied to alt-Astrid. Her father is not the distant, preoccupied man like alt-Astrid’s was, and she did this just so that alt-Astrid could begin to heal and feel better about herself.<\/p>\n

Help me. My heart is going to burst.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the eleventh episode of the fourth season of Fringe, we are all trapped in a glass case of emotion. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Fringe.<\/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":[32,41,39,38,208,9,25],"class_list":["post-922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fringe","tag-anna-torv","tag-jasika-nicole","tag-john-noble","tag-joshua-jackson","tag-lance-reddick","tag-mark-watches","tag-mark-watches-fringe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=922"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/922\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}