Bookclub!

This week, our assignment was to watch the episode “Entrada” from Season Three 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 Three season premiere episode is here and the posts dedicated to the following episodes are 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!

First off, I thought we should just hammer out that “entrada” is Spanish for “entrance”. I’d also like to point out that “entrada” has one meaning but “entrance” can also mean “to put into a trance”.

Which is interesting to me, with regards to this episode here.

Anyway, remember that HOLY CRAP ending we had last week with the phone call from the cleaning lady to Peter about how Ourlivia is in another universe? Well, if you didn’t, it doesn’t matter because we get to watch it again… but, this time, instead of wondering how long Peter/Fauxlivia will keep up the charade, we get there lickety split. Huh. That surprised me. I honestly thought we’d have an episode devoted to Peter trying to figure *SOMETHING* out with Faulivia none the wiser… nope. Stick ’em up, kid. While you’re at it, shoot ’em up. This is where we learn that Brad Renfro was originally going to be Pacey on Dawson’s Creek. Wait, too soon? Anyway, Peter blacks out after making a handful of hollow threats and we see Olivia tell the evil typewriter that her cover is blown. AND WE HAVEN’T EVEN SEEN THE CREDITS YET.

Oh, there they are. Blue *AND* Red Credits? I have goosebumps.

Well, the nice touches that follow include: nobody knowing that Peter and Fauxlivia were getting it on. C’mon, Broyles! Peter pointing out that while he wasn’t able to keep the fact that she failed a test hidden, he *DID* convince Fauxlivia that the computer he was using was his own. This is why you need to put a sticker from your favorite band on the laptop cover, folks. Not only is it the case that you’ll know which is yours if you have to leave in a hurry, if you see someone at the “Creed” laptop, you’ll know that they’re looking at *YOUR* email and not *THEIR* email. Anyway, Brandon’s “Alive or Dead?” question was spectacularly creepy… to have this culiminate in Broyles seeing Ourlivia dragged, screaming? The main thing we knew at this point was “dang, the clock is ticking”.

Keep in mind: my main thought walking into this episode was that Peter/Fauxlivia would be playing an intricate game of “I know that you know that I don’t know”. Now I’m freaking out.

Anyway, it turns out that she stole a piece of The Doomsday Device before she left. Now, we know that she and Newton were busting their behinds to make sure that those over here would put such a machine together… and now we’re left to wonder if this were a particularly important piece of the machine, or if she’s doubling down on that particular gambit… but she didn’t count on Astrid.

Now, an aside. Let’s say that your team in a particular universe is made up of some pretty sharp people when it comes to putting two and two together. Now let’s assume that there’s an alternate universe with copies of your team on it. Are you going to assume that if you buy pastries in the Bronx, that they won’t be knocking on your favorite retro typewriter sales door the minute after they decide that they need to find you? Well, then. You may be overqualified for Fringe Division in the Other Universe. Dunno if you’re “just qualified enough” for this one’s, because they find our favorite retro typewriter sales door the minute after they look at the address of Fauxlivia’s favorite gift pastries and then find that Fauxlivia has been ordered to Penn Station.

Speaking of the limits of Fringe Division over there, we jump just in time to see Broyles-2 go to talk to Ourlivia and try to get her to let him off the hook and she shows him all of the dotted lines drawn on her face and comes out and tells him: 1) hey, how’s your kid doing? If he’s doing better, it’s because of me and 2) AUGH THEY’RE GOING TO CUT OUT MY BRAIN

Which does not, in fact, let Broyles-2 off the hook.

Anyway, over the next period we figure out that Broyles has an exceptionally strong moral center, to the point where he’s willing to lose his job (and more) over freeing Olivia (in a spectacular “just in time” sequence that had me grateful that I remembered the “don’t eat during Fringe” rule… not that the word “bonesaw” doesn’t immediately provide a reminder), we get another reminder that shapeshifters are over here in force and do things like “date”, and we see, in a *WONDERFUL* piece of symmetry, Peter test someone from over there and watch them fail the test. Except, this time, we get to see Peter have a gun in his hand when the other person fails. He shoots the person in the head. This is one of those things that, seriously, would be messed up if it were not television and he were not right (which, seriously, is only 75% likely? That’s not a great ROI for “shooting people in the head”).

There’s a nice little discussion about Harmonic Rods and the E-minor chord. Let’s take a break and listen to it:

And it’s this chord that swaps Fauxlivia (alive) with 80% of Broyles-2 (dead). I am glad that I didn’t try to come up with a nickname for him.

Anyway Fauxlivia is back to work in her universe, and Ourlivia is recovering from quite the month or two but is doing so back in our universe, and Broyles is thinking about mortality and possibly symmetry as he stares at the body of his dead double. Which makes *ME* think: would ours have done that for Fauxlivia? What would Fauxlivia have had to successfully accomplished to get Broyles to do the same? Speaking of Fauxlivia, we see Peter and Ourlivia in the hospital as Ourlivia wakes up. “Hey, you were the only thing that got me through, over there”, she says. “Yeah, well… your double helped me deal with your absence”, Peter does *NOT* say.

One nice thing: the folks from the other universe gave the typewriter guy a shot that, apparently, fixed what ailed him. This is a pretty interesting development because it’d be just as easy to imagine the other universe just up’n shooting him… but what does this tell us? They, for lack of a better phrase, pay their debts. Also: they have the tech to fix in one shot, in less than a minute, everything that our tech over here could not do anything with and needed to use crutches for. Whoa.

Anyway, this is yet another great episode that leaves me saying “I thought they’d go a different direction” as well as “I HAVE TO WATCH THE NEXT ONE!!!!”

So… what thinks did you thunk?