Fringe: "The Last Sam Weiss"

So, is anyone else suddenly terrified that they might kill Peter off the show? I don’t think I’ve felt that kind of adrenaline while watching a TV show in a really long time. As Peter was mounting the stairs and we saw the flashbacks of his life, my husband was convinced that was the end of him. “I mean, they have Leonard Nimoy in the show,” he says. “Isn’t that a hint that, like Spock, he’s going to sacrifice himself to save everyone?” “OMG, and Spock did that at the end of the third movie, didn’t he, and this is the end of the third season?” I said. Zoiks.

But with the very end of the episode, with Peter being zapped 10 years into the future, I’m thinking nope, he’s still vitally important. I’m really REALLY hoping they think he’s vitally important because I can’t bear for him to go. On the one hand, I’ve become very attached to him, and even at the beginning of the series when I was still unsure of it, I thought Walter was a caricature, Olivia was a bit wooden, but Peter had a lot of charisma and I loved the way Joshua Jackson played off the other characters.

But on the other hand, imagine how gutting that would be for everyone. The reason the worlds are shattering is because of Peter and Walter’s love for him. So if Peter were to die, what would happen to the worlds then? What would Walter and Olivia do? They’d both be as broken as the worlds around them, and how would they piece those lives back together? Peter is significant in that there’s only one of him, and I’m curious to see in the fourth season if they ever suggest that will have an effect on the other half. Broyles now has only one version of himself, whereas we have two Olivias and Walters. Interestingly, there’s only ever been one William Bell, something that’s never really been explained. Did alt-Bell die in childhood? Or was he never born? If the latter, how is that possible? I’ve always wondered if there’s some link between Bell and Peter, like a Sam Weiss kind of thing. Hm.

This week’s episode was AWESOME, and I cannot wait for next week’s season finale. My favourite scene was when Walter was talking to Olivia, and told her that if she could see herself the way he does, she’d realize her amazing potential. In this scene we look into Olivia’s eyes as she looks back at Walter, and we see the same little girl that he does, and everything she’s been through and how she’s been able to contain her powers, rather than having them take her over the way the other cortexiphan subjects did.

Highlights:
• I loved the multiple Sam Weiss explanations that Olivia got in the crypt. Robyn Hitchcock should write a song called “My Sam Weiss and My Dead Sam Weiss.”
• Those lightning special effects were awesome, especially when we looked out from that balcony and saw them all over the hill and the town. Did you notice that when they hit something it turned black and smouldered? Brilliant.
• Olivia showing her badge to get into the museum, followed by Sam showing his, “Sam Weiss. Patron member since ’82.” (Anyone else wonder what century he meant? Perhaps 1882, and the membership belonged to several Sam Weisses before him.)
• Sam tossing the vase and saying, “I work in a bowling alley.”
• Olivia in the drawing! GASP!!!
• Peter to Walter: “I know you’re not the Secretary of Defense. The sweater is a dead giveaway.”

Did You Notice?:
• The glyphs spelled MULTI.
• Someone asked me last week if I noticed that the guy playing Sam Weiss was the same guy playing Sean Garrity, the drama instructor on Community. Kevin Corrigan is one of those actors who has been around for ages, despite his relatively young age. The first movie he was in where he really made an impression on me was Buffalo 66, where he played the put-upon friend of Vincent Gallo’s character, being called at all hours of the night. He was in Living with Oblivion with Steve Buscemi, and more recently starred in The Fan with Patton Oswalt. In between he’s probably been in over 100 indie films. He was in the TV show Grounded for Life with Donal Logue, another indie fixture, and was in The Departed and Superbad. He’s one of those actors who, if you see enough indie films, you begin saying, ‘Hey, it’s THAT guy!’ I think he’s amazing, and when he first appeared as Sam Weiss a couple of years ago, I was very happy to see him (and he’s brilliant on Community, by the way).
• In the car that the family was driving at the beginning, if you look at the license plate it has 4s and a 23 in it. Lost numbers!
• Poor sweet wonderful Astrid, she’s always at the mercy of Walter and his whims, but also acts like a mother figure to him. I loved that she had that giant set-up with the kite and the key, and when he figured things out he simply said, “Pack it up, Astrid!” Oh, OK. I’ll just “pack up” this giant table and equipment.... It’s probably an hour-long job to do so, and he’s acting like she can just toss it into the trunk.
• When Sam says “Good luck, Olivia,” it sounded more final and less casual than she took it.

Any Questions?:
• Why 2021? What has happened to Peter in that reality? He’s definitely in our world – in the other world, September 11 didn’t happen and the Twin Towers still stand. If it’s a certain future, then it means he won’t die with the machine and instead lives another 10 years, but is he being given a glimpse of it or has he actually been zapped a decade into the future?
• Will there be any connection between Peter’s momentary lapse of memory and this? There had to have been a reason for him to have lost his memory of this world and be convinced that his dad was Walternate... why was that? Was it just a writer’s ploy to get him to NY?
• What is happening to our world in 2021? Is it a result of the machine? The two worlds collapsing?

And also...
I mentioned a few days ago on my Facebook page that I'm working on a new book on Fringe as the editor, and so far it's amazing and has changed the way I watch the show. People have been asking me to let them know when a good Fringe book comes along, and this one is it. Amazon is taking pre-orders now, and the book will be out in October.