This week, our assignment was to watch the episode “Over There (Part One)” from Season Two of Fringe. (You can read the Television Without Pity Recap here, while the AV Club has their recap of the episode here. The post dedicated to the Season Two season premiere episode is here and the subsequent bookclub posts are here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.)
As always, here are the ground rules: nothing that we have seen so far is considered a spoiler, anything that we have not yet seen should be considered a spoiler. Crazy nutbar speculation is *NOT* a spoiler, but confirming or denying said confirmation would be.
Here’s my idea for spoilers: please rot13 them. That’s a simple encryption that will allow the folks who want to avoid spoilers to avoid them and allow the people who want to argue them to argue them. We good? We good! Everybody who has seen the episode, see you after the cut!
Is this the first time we’ve spent a good chunk of time over in the other universe? I mean, sure, there was the time we spent with HOLY CRAP IT’S THE OBSERVERS after they watched Back To The Future (starring Eric Stolz… with, I presume, Michael J. Fox in The Prophecy? Could work) but I don’t think we’ve ever actually sat down and spent a good deal of time in the other universe.
We should rectify that.
The big news: Charlie is still alive in the other universe! (And, apparently, he has arachnids in his system… AWESOME!) Alt-universe Olivia (henceforth: Fauxlivia!) has red hair in the other universe! There’s a guy named Lincoln Lee in the other universe!
The bigger news: Fringe in this other universe is devoted to such things as “tears in the universe”… which seem to happen often enough that there’s a government task force assigned to it. And these tears seem to do enough damage to warrant a government task force.
The biggest news: Fauxlivia has a sense of humor. (Also: she’s dating a dude named “Frank” which indicates, at least, a dating life. Presumably, one healthy enough to allow a sense of humor. Or, maybe, Fauxlivia was never tested upon by Walternate. Which might allow for some mainstreaming unavailable to our universe’s model.)
Sadly, Lee’s name is not “Marshall”. If it were, it would allow me to, when Lee takes the $20 out of the guy’s wallet and says “who the hell is Jackson?”, yell “MARSHALL HAS HIS OPINION!!!”
Anyway, I don’t want to do a scene by scene breakdown. The high notes are that Peter was re-Peternapped back to his original universe (we can call him “re-Peter”!), Walter put together a crack team of X-Men together (Cancer Man has learned how to use his powers to heal people instead of syphoning their lifeforce away, the firestarter chick has learned to master it somewhat, and the empathy guy has learned to focus somewhat (a little)), and Walter’s crack team of X-Men are all dead to have our focus on Alternate Fringe Team. I wish there were a Fringy-synonym (Fringonym?) for the other universe’s team.
In an alternate universe, the show is about Walter and Fringe and his Fringe X-Men and how they all fight crime. Man, I would SOOOOOO watch that show.
Apparently, the other universe is tearing itself apart because of (and if you’ve read Walternate’s ZFT (THE ZFT GOT MENTIONED AGAIN!!!!) you’d know this), “the Zero Event at Reiden Lake”.
So Other Universe is slowly dying because of Walter’s breaking everything, Walternate knows exactly what’s going on, nobody else in the universe (well, except for Fringonym) knows about the real cause of the universe breaking, and Walternate is *PISSED*. And, more terrifyingly, intact.
Did I forget anything? Oh, Peter got to have a conversation with his bio mom. Which was surprisingly moving.
Oh, and the Observers gave Olivia and Walter a plot voucher with a drawing of Peter on it as well as specs for a machine on it.
Oh yeah, and we saw Walter getting shot in the stomach right before we cut to William Bell showing up.
Oh, and Walternate has already built the machine that the Observers told Walter about.
Oh, and it’s TO BE CONTINUED. But we knew that would happen beforehand.
Seriously, if you can keep from watching Part 2 until next week, you’ve more fortitude than I. Or less free time.
So… what thinks did you thunk?
I didn’t like that I knew that most of the team was gonna die as soon as they were assembled. It was kind of a waste of good characters with forward potential.
I did dig the real introduction to the other side, howevermuch it contradicted the previous introduction.
Some of the things, like the DoD being on the statue of liberty, I find vaguely annoying for some reason. Others, like the minor alterations, I liked more.
Gur jubyr guvat yrnirf zr jvgu na naablnapr ng gur ab-Crgre erobbg jurerva ernyvgl vf rfgnoyvfurq sbe n guveq gvzr. Vg znxrf guvatf gung unccra n yvggyr yrff fnyvrag orpnhfr fb znal bs gurz ner haqbar yngre ba.
I think that telling me “the team’s going to die” was their attempt to reconcile people to the idea that the storyline going forward was going to be *THIS* rather than *THAT*.
Because, seriously, *THAT* storyline is one that is cool enough that I can see the cliff hanger before Season 3 being “What’s going to happen to Walter and the Cortexiphan Kids?” with Season 3 being “Walter and the Cortexiphan Kids!”
They just put the kibosh on that early.
As for your hidden code: I get the feeling that the writers don’t start actually writing any given show for any given Season beyond the broadest outlines until a few minutes before shooting is scheduled to start. There’s a short list on the wall of things that need to be touched upon but nothing more concrete than that. That’s the only thing that makes sense to me.
As for your hidden code
I quite think this is true, and is the Achilles Heel of the show, if there is one. Not to trash the show, but it is my lingering complaint.
Good point about the utility of killing off the characters, or at least the leaning in that direction.
V jvyy pbasrff gung bar hcfvqr gb gur “erobbg” vf frrvat Avpx Ynar nyy bire ntnva. Onpx gb orvat fbzrbar’f tbbq-angherq fgbbtr.
Ze. Wbarf naq gur Pbegrkvcuna Xvqf jbhyq or na rira ZBER njrfbzr fubj.
And a terrific bandname, almost as good as The Spiders From Mars. 😉