Fringe: "Neither Here Nor There"

Hello everyone, I can't believe it's taken me two days to actually watch this week's Fringe episode! And this will be short, because it's after 11 and I'm super tired yadda yadda... but here were a few observations.

Overall, I really liked it, and they've created a mystery for us as viewers -- what really happened in this world and what didn't? Olivia began talking about her former partner who died, but didn't mention the double-cross. Does she know that he double-crossed her? DID he double-cross her in this timeline?

I'm happy about Lincoln playing a more prominent role; I love the actor who plays him. He was great all last season in the alt-verse, but I've loved him since he was the effed-up Jeremy Darling in Dirty Sexy Money. It'll be interesting to see him step up now. New love interest for Olivia? (Part of me kind of hopes he's not, but we'll see what happens.)

Things I noticed:
- The credits were yellow, which is the new urine-coloured in-between state of the worlds. Interesting: I thought if you mixed blue and red you'd get purple, but apparently it's sunshiny instead.
- It's nice to see Astrid working in the field, and seeing her working with Walter through a bluetooth was very funny.
- I thought the people actually looked a lot like Olivia's partner's skin had looked -- I remember it being very translucent, where you could see the blood moving through his veins. I thought they were going to link it back to that, and it's interesting Olivia actually mentioned it within that context but then added, "But different."
- The glyphs at the commercial breaks spelled out APPEAR.
- Strange that Olivia meets another girl named Olivia. Until about 10 years ago, that name was practically obsolete. It would be more realistic to have women in their mid to late-30s named Jennifer, since you can't throw a rock without hitting one of those.
- I loved that Walter keeps seeing Peter in things that show a reflection that would be the opposite -- much like the Looking-Glass world of Lewis Carroll, an allusion that's been made several times on the show.

Questions:
- As mentioned, how much of this world will be rewritten? I liked the Observers almost acting as narrators, helping us through our transition.
- One of the big questions hanging over the show at the end of last season was, if Peter never existed, then Walter couldn't have stolen him from Walternate, so why is Walternate so pissed at him? But now, the Observers have altered what they're saying: instead of saying he never existed, they're saying he didn't become a man and time was rewritten because of August pulling the two of them out of the water. Does this mean that Peter DID exist, Walter DID take him from Walternate, but Peter drowned in the water coming over to this world? If that's the case, Walternate would still have a reason to be angry, and Walter would have a reason to be loony, because that would have certainly sent him over the edge. However, it turns the "never existed" comment from the end of season 3 into a big cheat.

Before I finish, I just wanted to remind you all of the Fringe book that I worked on over the past year with author Sarah Clarke Stuart, as her editor. I've mentioned it a few times, but it's officially out now (even though the pub date wasn't until October, it's available and is shipping) and you can go here to order it from Amazon. It's a great look at the show's first three seasons, from a thematic point of view rather than episode-by-episode, and Sarah's done an amazing job. She's got a Lost background; on the blu-rays, she taught one of the Lost University courses, and she's the author of Literary Lost. Be sure to pick up a copy!

What did you think of the season 4 return?