Fringe 4.05: "Novation"

[icepixie]

OH MY GOD, SHOW, RIP OUT MY HEART AND SHATTER IT, WHY DON'T YOU.

Oh, Peter. Oh, Walter. Oh, EVERYONE. I am woman enough to admit that the last scene between Peter and Walter reduced me to tears for two entirely separate reasons. Walter touching Peter's face and calling him "my son" was joyful and full of hope! And then Walter insisted Peter was sent to tempt him and see if he'd repeat his mistakes, and then the most horrible words ever: "You can't be here...that boy was never my son--and neither are you."

MY HEART, YOU ARE BREAKING IT.

Other insanely sad scenes: Walter drugging himself so he can sleep. :( Also, his first scene with Peter in the interrogation room/prison cell, Walter looking through dead!Peter's BSG lunchbox full of memorabilia, and his conversation with Nina where he said that he "saw my boy in that man's eyes," and it was the same boy he lost under the ice. (So technically Red!Peter rather than his own son, but Walter seems to have somewhat conflated the two up until the final scene of this episode where he decided to think of them as different kids.)

I'm also quite sad that they don't seem to have heard of the Observers. Wasn't that Bluelivia's pet project back in S1? I'm not sure why it would've been affected by Peter's nonexistence...unless they've been hanging around this universe because Peter lived and they wanted to keep an eye on that.

Intriguing things: So, wait, is that dropped storyline from "Reciprocity" about Peter killing the shapeshifters actually coming back? AMAZING! I hadn't quite given up on them finally doing something with that, but they seemed to give up on it so entirely last season that I did wonder.

Peter is...remarkably sanguine about the fact that no one remembers him. I mean, it obviously upsets him and he's trying to figure out what's going on, but I was sort of expecting more shouting, you know? Maybe there was shouting we just didn't see. I mean, something had to happen at his and Olivia's first meeting, right? (Given her line to Lincoln about how it bothers her that she dreamed about this man who has no obvious connection to her, I...am getting the impression that Peter didn't tell her they were together in the other timeline, which baffles me a bit. I would think that's the thing to lead with, you know? But maybe he realized it would freak her out too much and she would trust him even less than she does...)

TIME SLIPS, OMG. Does this mean the Blueverse and the Amberverse are trying to inhabit the same space-time continuum, but one is a ninety seconds ahead of the other? Whatever is actually happening, I hope it means Blueverse is trying to make its way into Amberverse!

Why didn't Peter get deleted when the timeline reset itself, anyway? The universe knows Amber isn't quite right? Though that goes more into fate rather than the free will the show generally seems to champion otherwise. Hmmm.

Other things:

Shapeshifters can now pick between any of their previous bodies and are genetically identical to said body (no mercury-based bloodstreams). They can't be distinguished from humans without surgery. Please tell me that when that last bit was being explained, someone besides me went, "They're frakking Cylons!"

Look, it's Pearlmutter!

Yaaaaay, more on Olivia&Nina! Awww, Nina got Olivia into horseback riding. (And she even has a picture of her in her office! *feels prophetic*) I guess if Nina "pulled strings" once Olivia and Rachel's mom died, she must have known Olivia from before. Did Olivia "run away" to her from the Cortexiphan trials?

Hee, I enjoyed Peter being sneaky and rewiring the intercom so he could listen and speak to the people in the office.

I finally realized who Amber!Lincoln reminds me of: MULDER. Remember how Mulder was so unfazed by weirdness and willing to go along with anything that got him answers about his quest? Lincoln was totally doing that with Peter here. He wants to figure out what killed his old partner, and the moment Peter mentions that he knows about shapeshifters he's all, "I don't care how mysterious this guy is, LET'S DO THIS."

Hmmm, I wonder if Bell is really dead in this timeline or still hanging out in the other universe. Olivia, Walter, and the Cortexiphan kids wouldn't have gone over there to rescue Peter in S2, so they wouldn't have needed Bell's help to get them back, and he wouldn't have died then.

...Wait, Bell said that some things weren't meant to be tampered with? REALLY? Damn, he's like a whole different person. Did he actually mean it, or was that a cover story to get Pearlmutter off the cell rejuvenation (or whatever it was) project for some unknown purpose?

Heh, after that conversation betwen Walter and Nina, I sort of got the feeling that they were divorced parents who were trying to be civil for the sake of the kid (Olivia). I was thinking before this episode that Walter might have been angry at Nina for keeping Olivia away from the trials when she ran away, but I guess it was more blaming her for breaking the vial of medicine for Red!Peter.

Speaking of that conversation, did it feel familiar to anyone else? Am I just imagining it, or did Nina give Walter a speech about how he had changed and wasn't evil anymore back in S2 or S3?

Wait, did the shapeshifter just fly?

Whoa, is Olivia actually walking around the office without her jacket?

Awww, overture of friendship: REJECTED.

Another quantum-entangled typewriter! And here I thought the mirror was mandatory. But is she talking to Walternate, or someone else?

Anyway, this was fun. I was a little jumpy during the first half because there were all these scenes with Pearlmutter and the shapeshifter when I wanted MOAR PETER, DAMMIT, but they did tie it all together by the end and introduce some cool new stuff (time slips!), so yay. Next week looks excellent as well!

Comments

[rowdycamels.livejournal.com]

FLAILFLAILFLAILFLAIL

There may have been some lip-wibble over here. That last scene between Walter and Peter was a neat reversal of Peter disowning Walter after he discovered the 1987 switcheroo, but, but... STOP DISOWNING EACH OTHER, GUYS. I CAN'T DEAL WITH THIS.

Walter drugging himself so he can sleep.

"Who sleeps like this???" Aww, Olivia's turned into Peter!

Walter seems to have somewhat conflated the two up until the final scene of this episode

I think when a kid who looks just like your kid is begging you to save him, conflation tends to happen. And Walter had to force himself to... disconflate? disflate? unflate? differentiate the two at the end in a conscious effort to deny adult!Peter. End result: awwwwwwww! John Noble is just amazing.

unless they've been hanging around this universe because Peter lived and they wanted to keep an eye on that.

I'm thinking that. Since Peter survived because of an Observer not-just-Observing, they had to watch for consequences.

that dropped storyline from "Reciprocity" about Peter killing the shapeshifters actually coming back?

Yay!! I half-expected Peter to slip into that conversation, "They bleed mercury when you shoot them in the head. Oh, and would you like me to murder them for you? Because I've gotten pretty good at that!"

Peter is...remarkably sanguine

I think after his initial shock at the hospital, he's switched into Con Man/Emotional Shut-Down Mode. He's had practice dealing with Olivias and Walters who are not His Olivia And Walter, after all. He definitely flinched a couple times when he looked at Olivia, though.

I...am getting the impression that Peter didn't tell her

Yeah, telling her that would not have helped things at all. Probably once he established that she didn't remember him, he shifted his focus onto "WHERE'S WALTER I NEED WALTER HE WILL FIX OLIVIA'S BRAIN FOR ME!!"

TIME SLIPS, OMG.

Bwuh?? Is that what the Agent Jill thing was about?? Or did I miss something while pondering Nina's classy, classy camo jacket?? I assumed that one of the Jills was a shifter, although there didn't seem to be a point to infiltrating her. ...And now that you mention it, the first Jill was my bet to be the more likely shifter, and that would mean that real!Jill wouldn't have been alive to come in a minute later... I prefer melding universes!

They can't be distinguished from humans without surgery.

If they're just copying DNA, though, you'd think they'd lack various scars and damages picked up over the years that wouldn't be copied along with DNA...

Yaaaaay, more on Olivia&Nina!

The look on Lincoln's face after Olivia's exposition was pretty great, too.

Hee, I enjoyed Peter being sneaky and rewiring the intercom so he could listen and speak to the people in the office.

Peter is almost as bad at being held captive as Olivia!

I finally realized who Amber!Lincoln reminds me of: MULDER.

Bwah! Mulder would also have immediately referred to a giant killer brain-creature as Gus!

...Wait, Bell said that some things weren't meant to be tampered with? REALLY?

Maybe both Peters' deaths made Walter AND Bell more cautious and self-doubtful?

Am I just imagining it, or did Nina give Walter a speech about how he had changed and wasn't evil anymore back in S2 or S3?

Yeah, when he was comparing himself to Walternate? Maybe back when he was reinventing amber? I forget exactly which episode.

Wait, did the shapeshifter just fly?

SHE'S SPIDERMAN!

Whoa, is Olivia actually walking around the office without her jacket?

At one point she was walking around with her jacket unbuttoned! It's like we don't even know her anymore!!

Awww, overture of friendship: REJECTED.

I read that as more awkward flirting! (Has Olivia ever had an unmarried partner she hasn't slept with? Geez.) And possibly Nerd!Lincoln moving ever closer to CANON!GAY!

Another quantum-entangled typewriter!

Really? You're gonna stab away at a giant retro typewriter in the middle of a busy station, and you think nobody's gonna notice the oddity? Come on!

when I wanted MOAR PETER, DAMMIT

I know! I was all, "THERE IS NO ROOM FOR B PLOTS THIS WEEK, GUYS."

[thespatz.livejournal.com]

then the most horrible words ever: "You can't be here...that boy was never my son--and neither are you."

I was too busy crying forever, but my sister pointed out that was a gorgeously brutal inversion of Peter's reaction when he figured out he was from Redverse.

But maybe he realized it would freak her out too much and she would trust him even less than she does...

LOL, would *you* want to explain their complicated, epic friendship-turned-romance? Because you just know Olivia would start asking questions if he simplified it, and he'd have to be all, "Well, then I thought you were you but you were actually alt!Livia, and *you* were actually brainwashed in an alternate dimension - but we got through it eventually!" ♥