Fringe 4.21: "Brave New World Part 1"
May. 4th, 2012 10:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
icepixieEeee, that was just like the really, really mindbendingly awesome episodes from years past that I loved! *cough which suggests this year was largely a failure since ultimately nothing changed, but anyway cough* In fact, in some ways, it was like one of the old, good episodes from the ends of S2 and S3, but with extra wonderful things sprinkled on top.
I think it was awesome mainly because OLIVIA'S POWERS ARE JUST THAT COOL OMG. I love that she can do so many things with them, from keeping someone from combusting to...controlling Peter's arms in order to punch out RDJ? That scene was dark and I couldn't really tell what was going on there. Possibly she was just punching RDJ herself from a distance. (The fighting the air thing she was doing was a little cheesy, though. I think that would've worked better had she just looked really intently at Jones.) From what she did for Jessica, it seemed like she no longer needs the love + fear trigger anymore...right? Peter wasn't really integral to that one, it didn't seem. Interesting.
Speaking of Peter and Olivia...FINALLY WE GET SOME SNUGGLETIEMS, YAY! Also we get them looking at buying a house and planning to have a baby!! For about half the episode, I was thinking the first scene with them, when they were in bed, was Olivia's super oblique way of saying she was pregnant (since timelinewise, for Etta to be the age she was in "Letters of Transit" she's going to have to be born pretty soon), but then she was drinking during their next snuggly scene, so I guess not. Anyway, I liked the visual callback to "6:02 AM" in the first scene, when both their phones rang and then the camera switched to an overhead shot, though of course this time they were in Olivia's apartment instead of the Bishop house.
The conversation before dinner was adorable and perfect as well. Of course Olivia would be worried not only about their dangerous life, but about what her abilities would do to a fetus. And of course Peter would be absolutely sure they can figure out a way to make it work. Nothing must imperil the Tribe! And then be broke the mood because he was starving. Hee.
Was the "personal guarantee" bit a callback to something earlier in the show, or to some kind of pop culture thing? It felt very familiar, but I couldn't place it.
Another reason this episode was above and beyond awesome: ASTRID GOT TO KICK SOME ASS! I've only been waiting four years for this! Not only did she get to judo a bad guy, but she got to fire her gun! I didn't even know she carried a gun! Hehehe, and she even got to try smoothing things over with diplomacy before resorting to kneeing the guy in the stomach. You go, Astrid. Competence always looks good on you. Although I am VERY WORRIED about the fact that she got shot in the chest. Presumably with William Bell there (!!! more later), she's not going to be in danger long, and she was still around to get ambered in 2014, but still. *clings*
Other fun things:
Awww, it's John Noble's daughter!
Culturing pig brain inside lemon cake. Oh, I've missed the lab hijinks in all the recent seriousness. (Though having cortexiphan allow the cake to grow itself back together after being cut was maybe a little far-out even for you, Fringe. This might rival the "slowing down 24 FPS film to see individual photons" magic from several episodes ago. I'm pretty sure cake does not have a nervous system! P.S. Satellites directing a beam of sunlight so powerful it blows up a building also strains credibility.)
Walter: [I'm going to find Bell, I'll be fine, you don't have to come, righteous anger, etc.] Peace out! *sweeps out* *slinks back* I don't...
Astrid: ...drive.
Walter: ...Right.
Astrid: "Alex"?
Walter: I was on a roll.
BFFs forever! Awwwww!
Awww, Olivia doesn't get Ghostbusters references? Really? Even I get Ghostbusters references!
Bell's "Hello, old friend," was verrrry reminiscent of Jeffrey Sinclair.
Questions and concerns:
Why does no one remember that RDJ has (well, had) the hole-in-the-univers-ripping device Walter invented and can move between them with impunity? Olivia's memory of those months is borked, but surely Peter remembers!
Also, why didn't they mention that in Blueverse, Bell was hiding out in Redverse? Nina obviously didn't see a real body when he "died," since he showed up quite alive. (Ah, Leonard Nimoy, I see you were being tricksy with that "retirement" thing.) And did he still take out pieces of Walter's brain in this timeline? I can't remember.
So...is Bell evil in this timeline? My speculation was that he was working with RDJ in order to trick him into failing, but maybe not. He did off RDJ (in a rather weird way...did he send him there specifically because he knew Olivia would kill him, and him turning to dust was a side effect of being telekinetically beaten up? Or was the disintegration due to some other factor?), but he doesn't seem to be all on the up and up. He does, after all, have new hair. Never trust a man in such an obvious toupee.
Why can we not have part two right noooooow??
I think it was awesome mainly because OLIVIA'S POWERS ARE JUST THAT COOL OMG. I love that she can do so many things with them, from keeping someone from combusting to...controlling Peter's arms in order to punch out RDJ? That scene was dark and I couldn't really tell what was going on there. Possibly she was just punching RDJ herself from a distance. (The fighting the air thing she was doing was a little cheesy, though. I think that would've worked better had she just looked really intently at Jones.) From what she did for Jessica, it seemed like she no longer needs the love + fear trigger anymore...right? Peter wasn't really integral to that one, it didn't seem. Interesting.
Speaking of Peter and Olivia...FINALLY WE GET SOME SNUGGLETIEMS, YAY! Also we get them looking at buying a house and planning to have a baby!! For about half the episode, I was thinking the first scene with them, when they were in bed, was Olivia's super oblique way of saying she was pregnant (since timelinewise, for Etta to be the age she was in "Letters of Transit" she's going to have to be born pretty soon), but then she was drinking during their next snuggly scene, so I guess not. Anyway, I liked the visual callback to "6:02 AM" in the first scene, when both their phones rang and then the camera switched to an overhead shot, though of course this time they were in Olivia's apartment instead of the Bishop house.
The conversation before dinner was adorable and perfect as well. Of course Olivia would be worried not only about their dangerous life, but about what her abilities would do to a fetus. And of course Peter would be absolutely sure they can figure out a way to make it work. Nothing must imperil the Tribe! And then be broke the mood because he was starving. Hee.
Was the "personal guarantee" bit a callback to something earlier in the show, or to some kind of pop culture thing? It felt very familiar, but I couldn't place it.
Another reason this episode was above and beyond awesome: ASTRID GOT TO KICK SOME ASS! I've only been waiting four years for this! Not only did she get to judo a bad guy, but she got to fire her gun! I didn't even know she carried a gun! Hehehe, and she even got to try smoothing things over with diplomacy before resorting to kneeing the guy in the stomach. You go, Astrid. Competence always looks good on you. Although I am VERY WORRIED about the fact that she got shot in the chest. Presumably with William Bell there (!!! more later), she's not going to be in danger long, and she was still around to get ambered in 2014, but still. *clings*
Other fun things:
Awww, it's John Noble's daughter!
Culturing pig brain inside lemon cake. Oh, I've missed the lab hijinks in all the recent seriousness. (Though having cortexiphan allow the cake to grow itself back together after being cut was maybe a little far-out even for you, Fringe. This might rival the "slowing down 24 FPS film to see individual photons" magic from several episodes ago. I'm pretty sure cake does not have a nervous system! P.S. Satellites directing a beam of sunlight so powerful it blows up a building also strains credibility.)
Walter: [I'm going to find Bell, I'll be fine, you don't have to come, righteous anger, etc.] Peace out! *sweeps out* *slinks back* I don't...
Astrid: ...drive.
Walter: ...Right.
Astrid: "Alex"?
Walter: I was on a roll.
BFFs forever! Awwwww!
Awww, Olivia doesn't get Ghostbusters references? Really? Even I get Ghostbusters references!
Bell's "Hello, old friend," was verrrry reminiscent of Jeffrey Sinclair.
Questions and concerns:
Why does no one remember that RDJ has (well, had) the hole-in-the-univers-ripping device Walter invented and can move between them with impunity? Olivia's memory of those months is borked, but surely Peter remembers!
Also, why didn't they mention that in Blueverse, Bell was hiding out in Redverse? Nina obviously didn't see a real body when he "died," since he showed up quite alive. (Ah, Leonard Nimoy, I see you were being tricksy with that "retirement" thing.) And did he still take out pieces of Walter's brain in this timeline? I can't remember.
So...is Bell evil in this timeline? My speculation was that he was working with RDJ in order to trick him into failing, but maybe not. He did off RDJ (in a rather weird way...did he send him there specifically because he knew Olivia would kill him, and him turning to dust was a side effect of being telekinetically beaten up? Or was the disintegration due to some other factor?), but he doesn't seem to be all on the up and up. He does, after all, have new hair. Never trust a man in such an obvious toupee.
Why can we not have part two right noooooow??
no subject
Date: 2012-05-07 02:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-05-07 02:48 am (UTC)