Okay! This week, our assignment was to watch the episode “Immortality” 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, 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!
You know how I used to make references to how you shouldn’t eat during Fringe? Bit by bit, those warnings haven’t occurred to me. The Shapeshifters, after all, weren’t *GROSS*, they were just creepy. Well, I’m pleased to say once again: DUDE DO NOT EAT DURING FRINGE. SCIENCE IS DISGUSTING.
Previously on Fringe: Peter and Fauxlivia Got It On. (Oh, and Olivia was in the other universe with Fauxlivia’s hunky boyfriend and they did *NOT* get it on… but that was probably only because he went on a trip.)
Currently on Fringe: Fauxlivia welcomes hunky Frank back from the trip he went on. She met him at the gate! Dude! They have more liberal security proceedures than we do! Well, they also have “Show Me” cards for freakin’ everybody and she works for the government so… well, maybe we can’t reach a conclusion. Anyway, no politics. As we watch the happy couple leave the airport, we see a couple of guys at the bar. Some small talk takes place, the guy switches drinks with the other guy…
Cut to Frank and Fauxlivia having a touchy-feely relationship discussion. “You weren’t acting like yourself”, Frank says. This is why Fauxlivia and Peter did so well in their short time together: There was none of this “let’s talk about our relationship” crap. Anyway, Fauxlivia says something to the effect of “Let’s Get It On” and they do.
Cut back to the airport and one of the two guys at the bar is staggering into one of the men’s room stalls and puking (EW!) and the other guy from the bar walks into the stall and takes out an empty jar… and leaves with a full one. What’s in the jar? Well, there’s now all kinds of BROWN BUGS OH MY GOSH GROSS coming out from under the stall door.
(shudder)
You’re watching Fringe. (Red Credits)
So now Fauxlivia is back in her old apartment with her old boyfriend and everything is back to normal… until, of course, she gets the phone call. “That place you were at yesterday? BARF BLARG BUGS!!!” Might as well go there and establish that her old dead boss has been replaced by Lincoln, her old partner Charlie is still infested with arachnids, and OH MY GOSH THE GUY HAS A BUG IN HIS NOSE.
Anyway, Walternate explains to Evil Brandon that he will *NOT* experiment upon children. Sure, he might freeze a city within amber, but no experimentation on kids. Heck, he might even destroy another universe, but no experimentation on kids. Hey, he even has a mistress! But no childhood experiments, dangit! Evil Brandon is, as are we all, disappointed.
Anyway, we learn that there is a scientist chick who has a crush on Charlie who, apparently, treated him for his arachnid infestation, sheep are extinct, and these beetles lived either parasitically or symbotically or something with the sheep that are, once again, now extinct.
So we hammer out with Astrid that this isn’t a beetle outbreak, we hammer out with Lincoln that he has a crush on Fauxlivia, and we hammer out with the beetle attack guy that the enzyme is not present in the beetles that came out of the poor guy’s nose.
So it’s time to infest another guy with some beetles… we find out the beetle attack guy’s name is Silva, he’s a scientist, he considers himself on the same level as Salk and Watson and Crick (who all existed in that universe too, I guess), and that Fringe has the stroke to interrupt television shows with pictures of a beetle asking the public if they’ve seen one. So back to Lincoln. Frank tells Linc that he’s going to propose to Fauxlivia (and it’s a surprise). Linc tells Fauxlivia that Frank’s going to propose and her face falls telling Linc that, yep, he’s still got an in.
So we jump to Fringe following a lead. Silva’s old colleagues remember that bug. They rememember Silva and promptly rat him out… speaking of Silva, he’s collecting beetles from the guy he infested earlier. Oh, that gives me goosebumps all over.
Anyway, we see Frank propose to Fauxlivia (she says yes!) right before she runs off to investigate Silva’s mailing address. Linc’s there and she tells him “I said yes!” and Linc is that “darn it!” version of cheerful that you have when the person you’re in love with is happily in love with someone else. Anyway, he’s quickly dumped into a freezer, Fauxlivia is quickly captured, and we’re treated to a scene where we see the scientist offer her a glass of water… AND SHE DRINKS IT AUGH. And she coughs. How long between the drink and the fully grown beetles? Less than a day, we know that much… anyway, he gives a pretty decent mad scientist monologue until, of course, an escaped Lincoln interrupts him. Fauxlivia tells him what we all know: “I’ve been infected.”
So the tactical team shows up, Frank shows up with an ambulance and takes Fauxlivia away, and Silva is telling Lincoln to get all kinds of stuff ready for the antidote… until, Silva says that he didn’t infect Fauxlivia… cut to them finding out that Fauxlivia is pregnant with a human being… cut back to OH GROSS A BEETLE CRAWLING OUT OF SILVA’S NECK.
And we see Fauxlivia and Frank hammer out that the gestation is six weeks along right smack dab in the middle of Frank saving the crap out of North Texas. I guess the wedding is off. The lesson: if you have sex with someone as part of your spy job, you might fall in love with them but you *WILL* get pregnant.
You’re watching FOX.
Anyway, we get back to the apartment which is full of boxes full of Frank’s stuff. He’s moving out. Somebody’s at the door and it’s Walternate and he tells Fauxlivia that he’s heard about the pregnancy… and he’s thrilled. That’s his grandchild, after all.
And I get goosebumps again.
What a great episode.
So… what thinks did you thunk?
Good episode. I do find it interesting the lines Walternate will not cross, but what he is perfectly fine doing otherwise. I am sure there are kids in Amber. But purposely testing on them…. NO!!! Yet Walter had no problem with it. Who is the evil one again?
The child definitely adds a new wrinkle to this after learning that Peter will make a choice on which universe lives and dies. Now there is a very real attachment to the other universe. It will be very interesting to see when he learns about this. Walternate needs to set in motion an advertising campaign to get Peter’s attention. I wonder how that will happen.
Our Walter isn’t exactly evil (and, quite honestly, I don’t get the feeling that he was even back then). He’s more Beyond Good and Evil. (No Philosophy.) He’s just so smart and so knowledgeable and so abstract that he’s past that sort of thing.
Until, of course, he cracks the universe or something… but even then, he’s not *EVIL*.
He’s just a destroyer of universes.
He was evil in the sense that pride is a sin (no religion either). He thought he knew best and could foresee or handle any consequences; he wanted to see the universe from a god’s view.
He’s a “mad scientist” who, contrary to the usual trope, was evil when he was sane and full of pride; but now that he is mad, is (usually) more humble, and so no longer evil.
I agree that he is not “evil” now, but I feel like he was walking to that destination when his brain was whole.
Not evil. Just destroyer of universes.
So, Walter is Cthulhu.
My issue for this episode is…seriously, your assignment as a spy is to seduce someone and you don’t, y’know, maybe research birth control methods first?
I feel sorry for Frank, because he really is the Perfect Boyfriend.
I like the bit with Walternate having a line he won’t cross, and it being one “our” Walter has crossed, even if the show’s a bit blatant about it (as your review mocks). I can completely understand the distinction between it and amber – the amber is there in order to prevent his entire universe from imploding, he really doesn’t have much of a choice about it despite knowing how terrible the damage it causes it (and how nightmarish it is that the people trapped there are conscious).
Ick, bugs. My science-y objection of the week is that once you’ve got a couple beetles you can just work on culturing beetle cells rather than needing to create a self-propogating population, but ah well.
V nz bapr ntnva naablrq ng gur ynpx bs sbyybj-hc. Frevbhfyl, V qba’g guvax Crgre rire rira svaqf bhg gung ur unq n xvq.
Ur qbrf. Frnfba Sbhe, rcvfbqr sbhegrra. Vg’f gur bar jurer gur Bofreiref svanyyl rkcynva gung gurl’er fpvragvfgf sebz gur shgher. Gur onol vf ersreraprq.
(Naq gung’f jurer V fgbccrq jngpuvat. V unira’g zbirq ba sebz gurer naq cebonoyl jba’g hagvy V unir Frnfba Svir va zl unaq.)
I’d also say that I was more mocking the writers than Walternate.
Seriously, if you’re giving a speech about the difficulty of the moral choices before you, you shouldn’t be giving it to your mistress. That’s a tight line to tread and it is very difficult to come across with half the impact it would have if you were, say, giving it to your wife.
I agree. It would have been much better if he was speaking to his wife. My best guess is that the actress wasn’t available.
I think they were doing it on purpose to show yet another difference between the Walters. Again it shows the difference in the lines that the two will and won’t cross.