Friday, January 13, 2012

Fringe: Back to Where You've Never Been

I only just got to watch this week's return to season 4 of Fringe, and it's midnight, so I'm going to make this very quick. What a great return to the show! It was fast-paced, pulled in a lot of the mythology of not only this season, but all of them that preceded it, and ended on a whopper.

I'd actually been tracking the glyphs throughout the show, so when it got to JONE I turned to my husband and said, "Oh my god, it's going to be JONES." "So?" "You know, that guy from season 1 that Jared Harris played?" Sure enough... I haven't watched it closely enough to catch little things (other than did you notice in the bus terminal the mom was reading a copy of American Geographic?) but I'm sure lots were there.

But back to the ep. Great storyline, and it's been hard to juggle some of the mythology. We have World 1, which we watched in the first couple of seasons, and that led to World 2, the alternate world. But Peter was erased from those and plopped into a World 3 of sorts, which is actually a World 1 where he doesn't exist, and now he's back in the alternate world (World 2) but it's not quite the same World 2 because Peter was erased from it, so it's kind of like a World 4. Yeesh. And yet... it makes perfect sense. Peter doesn't need to necessarily get back to a place, per se, but an ontology... a world in which he exists and always did exist, where he's something more than a bad memory or someone who's not supposed to be there. I loved the scene this week where his mother looked into his eyes and immediately saw that it was him. Beautiful.

And then... that ending. First, we see David Robert Jones, who we last saw being chopped in half when he was going to the other universe (he's the guy Peter was referring to when he told Lincoln that he once saw a guy get chopped in half, "But he was a bad guy." He had connections to ZFT and had been trying to get to the other side.

And then we see the Observer, who has been shot (can you shoot an Observer?!) telling Olivia that no matter how many different outcomes he's seen in the future, it all ends the same: Olivia has to die.

Who shot the Observer? What did he mean? How is Jones still alive?

Well, I don't know about you, but I can't wait for next week!

9 comments:

Andy said...

Good post, it was pretty awesome.
Some observations/reflections:

I think Jones is trying to destroy all universes/worlds and times, thus adhering to the ZTF ideology. How he survived, I don't know but clearly he's the same Jones from World 1/our world/the place where we first encountered these incredible characters/the place and time where Peter belongs.

Could the other point of this alternate timeline where Peter didn't exist, i.e. World 3/4 be for Peter to not only stop Jones but also pick up some clues about how to change things in World 1/2 when he returns, i.e. learn how to stop the doomsday machine and destruction of both universes; discover Nina has been doing stuff to Olivia in World 1/2 as well as World 3 as we saw earlier this season, i.e. the cause of Olivia's migraines.

I'm guessing Jones or his goons shot the friendly Observer (is the name August? I think it's interesting they are named after months on the calendar. One of the older observers is December).

Very shocking to see him on the brink of death since he's existed throughout space and time for centuries. I think his words to Olivia refer to the future scenario that Peter saw while in the doomsday machine, where Olivia dies. The Observe has looked at all possible futures in all of the universes and timelines and Olivia dies tragically in every one.

But once again, I think Peter is going to throw a wrench in it all.

I'm still waiting for them to eventually bring us back to the guy who is going to kill Olivia, the one she saw in the trippy cartoon episode that was on the glyph...where Peter, Walter and Bell had to go inside Olivia's mind when she was being host to Bell's spirit.

I though Walternate's humanity in his relationship to Peter really shined in this one.

Such a great show, I hope it gets renewed.

Beachgirl5835 said...

If Fringe doesn't get renewed, as I heard some rumors that that fact, I did hear other rumors that the show runners will tie up all loose ends.

Marebabe said...

"Ya gonna die, Chah-lie."

Page48 said...

Since Peter is the Jones-killer in the original timeline, a world without Peter means Jones never died. Peter might have to kill him again.

We've seen Observers catch bullets in mid-flight, haven't we, so somebody musta snuck up on September. Maybe Olivia shot him in one of those future scenarios he was exploring.

Why are the alternate characters always so snarky with each other? I'd be more curious about my double (like "did you ever get to first base with Angela back in 4th year home room?").

Andy said...

I'm not sure Jones died but rather was transported to the other World 3 and 4. In the commercial for next week, it seems as if he knows Peter pretty well. I could be wrong...

The Question Mark said...

Yeah, this episode was insane. It seems like every new episode of Season 4 makes it more & more confusing, but in a GOOD way. It feels very much like watching all of those flash-sideways scenes in LOSt Season 6 befoe we finally figured out what was going on there.

I wonder if we will ever again see the Olivia, Walter, Nina & Astrid from the "real" world of the first few seasons?

Anonymous said...

Hey Nikki are you going to be following and posting about Alcatraz?

yourblindspot said...

Andy: My thoughts exactly regarding Mr. X -- Olivia's declaration that "I think that's the man who's gonna kill me" in the acid trip episode was the first thing that came to my mind when the Observer offered his warning.

I also have to wonder, however, if her abusive stepfather will come into play somehow. I know he's supposed to be dead in the current timeline, but it's one of those big dangling threads that I keep waiting for them to pick up again and weave back into the story.

And besides, being dead doesn't exactly hamper Fringe characters in the usual narrative way.

yourblindspot said...

Addendum to the previous: just wanted to acknowledge the possibility that Olivia's stepfather and Mr. X are one and the same, which is quite obvious but somehow hadn't occurred to me until just now. My mind works more slowly in the cold, I suppose.