Fringe 4.15: "A Short Story About Love"
Mar. 23rd, 2012 09:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
icepixieI...um... Okay, correct me if I'm wrong, but Olivia basically just said, "Well, Bluelivia's a lot cooler than me, she knows how to love and has a boyfriend and all, so my doppelganger inferiority complex and I are just gonna let her take over my identity and wipe my memory of my own life even though right now it looks like that boyfriend and I are never actually going to be together, because he still thinks I'm not his Olivia. Ciao!" And the show said this was a good and noble idea.
Not that I mind where we ended up--because FRICKIN' FINALLY, AMBER PEOPLE START TO REALIZE THEY'RE REALLY BLUE, AS I'VE SUSPECTED ALL ALONG--but I don't think I'm okay with how we got there. Dammit, Fringe! You're better than this! Like, I totally get Olivia wanting to be better at emotions, and wanting Peter, but this, really? I never cared much for Amberlivia, but have some pride, woman! I mean, I would've been so, so much more okay with how this went down if, like Peter, she had realized that Amberverse was an aberration and she really was Bluelivia underneath, instead of things kind of boiling down to "she has a boyfriend, she must be a better person than me!"
(On the other hand...she basically did change from Amber to Blue almost entirely through the power of belief. I feel absurdly proud to have predicted that.)
So that was disappointing, and made my squee at the ending marginally less ear-piercing. (Although spinny hugs = always a win.) The case of the week was also disappointing, because it didn't tie into the rest of the plot as thoroughly and heart-rendingly as I expected. (Granted, I had heard rumors that this was going to be an important, emotional episode, so I may have had expectations that were too high.) Perhaps there were some cut scenes that filled it out more? Because the villain's motivation was weaksauce as it stood, but I can imagine it getting much better with a little more explanation.
Argh. Maybe any episode that confirmed my long-held theory was going to feel anti-climactic, and I'm being unreasonably harsh on this one.
Not that I really care, but it sucks to be Lincoln in this universe. All that awkward flirting in the middle of the episode, only to be shot down by spinny hugs of realizing-you're-who-you-say-you-are.
Is there a reason only Peter could unlock the beacon? Some kind of DNA thing where he's the progenitor of all Observerkind, as they suggested last time, and so he can unlock Observer tech?
The Olivia&Nina scenes were nice, but man, I keep waiting for Nina to reveal she's still evil and do something horrible to Olivia. SHE IS SO CREEPY. I also figured she would surely do more than just be like, "Well, have a nice time becoming another person so that you can pine!" But no. It was sweet that Olivia asked her to remind her about their relationship if she should forget, at least.
I also liked Walter being so protective of Peter at the beginning--not wanting him to go to New York, trying to figure out what the Observer had done to his eye--and admiring him for doing what he believed was the ethical thing. (Even if I never understood how he could believe that, because he and Olivia both sounded pretty certain that she was remembering things that he could never have telepathically impressed on her. But I guess I can give it a pass, since they've done a few things in the past with people convincing themselves to believe an obvious lie when confronted with things beyond their understanding.)
That scene in particular led up nicely to the Observer's comment that Peter couldn't be fully erased because the people who cared about him simply couldn't forget him and vice versa, although "I think you call it love" was a little eyerolly. I mean, there is a whole trope at TVTropes about that, it's hard to use it unironically anymore. But I am totally on board with that as the explanation for why Peter came back. Of course he did! You cannot fight TWU WUV AND DESTINY! What Olivia wants, Olivia gets!
Tehehehe, Walter ordered a camera!bear from "the interweb"! And he has smellnoculars! He and Futurama's Dr. Farnsworth really should meet some day.
But oh, Walter, your thing with slowing down the film to see individual light particles? COME ON. Not on a 24ish FPS video camera you're not.
Not that I mind where we ended up--because FRICKIN' FINALLY, AMBER PEOPLE START TO REALIZE THEY'RE REALLY BLUE, AS I'VE SUSPECTED ALL ALONG--but I don't think I'm okay with how we got there. Dammit, Fringe! You're better than this! Like, I totally get Olivia wanting to be better at emotions, and wanting Peter, but this, really? I never cared much for Amberlivia, but have some pride, woman! I mean, I would've been so, so much more okay with how this went down if, like Peter, she had realized that Amberverse was an aberration and she really was Bluelivia underneath, instead of things kind of boiling down to "she has a boyfriend, she must be a better person than me!"
(On the other hand...she basically did change from Amber to Blue almost entirely through the power of belief. I feel absurdly proud to have predicted that.)
So that was disappointing, and made my squee at the ending marginally less ear-piercing. (Although spinny hugs = always a win.) The case of the week was also disappointing, because it didn't tie into the rest of the plot as thoroughly and heart-rendingly as I expected. (Granted, I had heard rumors that this was going to be an important, emotional episode, so I may have had expectations that were too high.) Perhaps there were some cut scenes that filled it out more? Because the villain's motivation was weaksauce as it stood, but I can imagine it getting much better with a little more explanation.
Argh. Maybe any episode that confirmed my long-held theory was going to feel anti-climactic, and I'm being unreasonably harsh on this one.
Not that I really care, but it sucks to be Lincoln in this universe. All that awkward flirting in the middle of the episode, only to be shot down by spinny hugs of realizing-you're-who-you-say-you-are.
Is there a reason only Peter could unlock the beacon? Some kind of DNA thing where he's the progenitor of all Observerkind, as they suggested last time, and so he can unlock Observer tech?
The Olivia&Nina scenes were nice, but man, I keep waiting for Nina to reveal she's still evil and do something horrible to Olivia. SHE IS SO CREEPY. I also figured she would surely do more than just be like, "Well, have a nice time becoming another person so that you can pine!" But no. It was sweet that Olivia asked her to remind her about their relationship if she should forget, at least.
I also liked Walter being so protective of Peter at the beginning--not wanting him to go to New York, trying to figure out what the Observer had done to his eye--and admiring him for doing what he believed was the ethical thing. (Even if I never understood how he could believe that, because he and Olivia both sounded pretty certain that she was remembering things that he could never have telepathically impressed on her. But I guess I can give it a pass, since they've done a few things in the past with people convincing themselves to believe an obvious lie when confronted with things beyond their understanding.)
That scene in particular led up nicely to the Observer's comment that Peter couldn't be fully erased because the people who cared about him simply couldn't forget him and vice versa, although "I think you call it love" was a little eyerolly. I mean, there is a whole trope at TVTropes about that, it's hard to use it unironically anymore. But I am totally on board with that as the explanation for why Peter came back. Of course he did! You cannot fight TWU WUV AND DESTINY! What Olivia wants, Olivia gets!
Tehehehe, Walter ordered a camera!bear from "the interweb"! And he has smellnoculars! He and Futurama's Dr. Farnsworth really should meet some day.
But oh, Walter, your thing with slowing down the film to see individual light particles? COME ON. Not on a 24ish FPS video camera you're not.
via musesfool's comments
Date: 2012-03-24 03:45 am (UTC)PERFECTLY PUT. "Doppelganger inferiority complex," ugh, yes. I just want Olivia to love herself, whoever she is. :(
Re: via musesfool's comments
Date: 2012-03-24 04:22 am (UTC)