Is it wrong that I think I prefer life over there?
What's it about?
In the alternate universe, Walternate informs Colonel Broyles of his plan to use Olivia to discover how to safely traverse universes while the alternate Astrid reports a statistical anomaly to the Fringe team: two pedestrians being killed by distracted bus drivers in as many days. At the scene of the second accident, the Fringe team finds a ballpoint pen - unusual as nearly all writing has been done on digital devices for years. The pen was used by a man named Milo with an incredible ability to calculate cause and effect to an unimaginable degree, and thus to set off chain reactions (in these cases, using a pen to initiate the chain). The Fringe team discovers that Milo previously suffered from low-functioning autism and was given experimental nootropic drugs which enabled the ability. The conclusion of the test would have involved restoring him to his original state (to evaluate potential side effects), which Milo perceived and then sought to avoid by killing those involved. At the scene of a third accident, Olivia spots Milo and gives chase, but he escapes by jumping off the bridge onto a truck that he has directed there using his ability. They later track him down through his sister, and while fleeing he attempts to have Olivia killed with a chain reaction. His attempt fails because she does not react according to his predictions - as an unknown variable was present in the equation (the fact that she is from the prime universe). During the episode, Olivia has several hallucinations, first seeing Peter at the scene of the accident, then Walter (prime) at the medical laboratory, and finally talks to Peter at the end of the episode who informs her she does not belong in the alternate universe offering her unpredictable actions while pursuing Milo as evidence.
Review
Please note this week we are over there not here.
I think I want to move over there... I know, I know they have it tough with all their incursions and their buildings encased in amber etc... but it just seems so cool. I think I'd probably be dead in some awesome weird accident but I don't think life would be dull.
This week we continue to pine for the Dunham of old who is still trapped in the alternate universe although she doesn't know it, or does she?
There's a scary innocence to our Olivia as she is trapped and suffering with a serious case of Altlivia's memories and it must be a serious pain in the arse for Anna Torv as she is kind of playing four Olivia's instead of two. You've got Olivia trapped in to be Altlivia with her memories and Altivia hiding in our universe pretending to be Olivia. Confusing but she pulls it off with absolute ease.
It's heart wrenching to see flashes of the true Olivia showing through, this show really misses her being her true self and I think that although it's a big plot point for this season the show is suffering a little without her and I think this lack of a lead might be a factor in the lower viewer numbers so far.
Despite all the drama surrounding the character of Olivia there is a lot to see in the alternate universe and if you can see past the body switching story then you can easily find yourself lost in the environment that has been created by the writers.
As I've said previously we are clearly being duped in to caring for the characters living over there so that when the eventual clash of universes comes we will feel torn between who to side with and I have to admit that I'm being completely caught up in it.
Firstly I have to say WTF to the fact that the alternate universe doesn't have pens! I will be spending the rest of the episodes over there checking to see if I see anybody holding a pen because I flat out refuse to believe that they can clear every scene of pens. It just seems absurd, but I love that the universe has been so well thought out that it's even understood what their preferred method of writing is.
The alternate Fringe Division characters are an obvious draw in this world, there's no way you can fault having Charlie back on our screens and I'm glad that the writers decided that even though this world is totally different to ours the relationship between Charlie and Olivia is relatively the same. Their partnership in season one was a big plus point of the series as it grounded the characters in humanity which can easily get lost in all the science fiction surroundings.
The other characters in the alterna-verse are continuing to be rounded out in the same way in which their counterparts were in our universe at the beginning of the series and that is a testament to the talent of the writing staff currently working on the show. Other shows could easily have pulled off the alternate universe theme without putting anywhere near as much thought in to how the universe would be constructed.
I must note that being a fan of Star Trek which JJ Abrams clearly is it's hard not to notice the similarities in story between this show and the alternative universe first seen back in the original Trek show which followed through right to the DS9 era.
The general audience is clearly having some issues with this season as the viewing figures have not been great and I think that it i down to the factors which are missing from both sides of the universe. True Olivia aside the alternate universe episodes suffer from a lack of Peter and Walter in the same way that over here episodes suffer from the lack of the chemistry between the three leads.
It's not that 'Fringe' totally falls apart without the core relationships but without that the show tends to slip towards a more generic science fiction show whereas with those core three in place the show soars towards a far more clever level of entertainment.
I've not even found time to mention the villain of the week, Milo, who's ability is sheer genius. I loved watching the way he calculated what was going to happen and how he could manipulate the world around him. It made for a very entertaining story and at one point I genuinely thought Dunham was going to disappear under a pile of rubble.
Some of the monster-of-the-week characters haven't really felt as though they could carry a whole episode to themselves but it's never mattered before as there has always been far much more going on for it to become noticeable, but with the above lack of the core trio the story has needed to be far stronger and thankfully this week it was.
I only hope that the remaining episodes over there will maintain this level of creativeness.
Next week...
The shape shifters are back!
Overall
Character 3.0
Story 4.0
Science 4.0
Overall 4.0
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