#fringe meta

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“6B” thoughts:

Peter finally elaborates on why his lingering feelings about Fauxlivia: because Fauxlivia gave him being with Olivia, and he can’t stop thinking about it. Fauxlivia baited the trap with how much Peter wanted to be with his Olivia.

Olivia’s hurt and the reasons she can’t trust Peter again easily and her insecurities about being the lesser, broken Olivia are all valid fears, she needs time.

Walter’s meddling may be overbearing but all he wants is for his son to be happy, and for Olivia, who he is also very fond of, to be happy. Walter has seen them together, a lot. He’s seen how Olivia cares for his son, and he’s seen how his son feels about Olivia, and Walter, who has done so much damage in his life…he wants something good for them. Walter should probably mind his own business but his reasons for rooting for them as a couple are pure.

I too want to see my them sit down and have blueberry pancakes and talk about feelings. Same, Walter. Same.

The actual main champion at this point for Peter/Olivia is Peter: “I have seen what the two of us together looks like, and it’s beautiful.”

I think Olivia fell for Peter first, but now Peter, having fallen for Olivia, is all in and he’s not going to give up trying to get past the walls Olivia has had to keep around her heart, including that he himself made her lower the portcullis.

While Olivia wants this just as much as Peter, but she is scared. And she has been through a lot, it’s not going to be simple or easy to melt those walls. “Maybe I’m just incapable of being vulnerable. I’m terrified. That I can’t fix this. That this is just who I am.”

She can’t see herself how Peter sees her—as someone deeply loving and heroic and strong, and her fears and traumas are just another part of her, they don’t make her broken, it’s all part of the Olivia package. Imma cry now.

Walter realizing he’s more like Walternate that he wants to admit. But instead of realizing that maybe Walternate isn’t made of evil as he thought, Walter goes right to the thought that he himself must be more evil than he wants to admit. Instead of realizing, neither of them is all evil or all good. They’ve both done some terrible things, but both also had motives that were good. To save their son, to help humanity, to save their worlds. Fringe is about a lot of things. Generational trauma is a big one. Ethics in science is another.

I love that this show actually has a case that’s caused by “emotional quantum entanglement.” Two people grieving for each other in the “exact same spot.”

While Peter and Olivia, despite having each other right there in front of them, are grieving for the relationship they want together but can’t have yet.

Alice is Peter. Yearning for someone who looks exactly like the person he actually wants so much he let himself be fooled, and there were harmful consequences. Alice is also Olivia. Alice’s grief and fear eating her to the point where she loses sight of what she had, and for Olivia, it’s about what she could have. Both having trouble letting go, to take that leap. Alice finally lets go, to acceptance and appreciation of the long, long love she had and now has lost, and she will go on living, Olivia finally lets go of her fears, so she can have what she wants.

“Am I glowing?”

“No.”

[disregardcanon]

i don’t know if i’ve mentioned this before, but i absolutely love stories where there’s a timeline that just doesn’t exist anymore. it’s a sacrificial lamb that had to be offed in order to create the timeline that we live in now. 

the flash? the only reason that we’re watching this is because there was a different barry allen who lived an entirely different life that eobard thawne decided he wanted to destroy. what was original barry and his life like? we don’t know but it’s sure interesting to speculate

young justice? there was the whole timeline that lead up to bart’s future where we can only make guesses about what occurred. 

i think that it’s pretty interesting when you get to view the original timeline that gets rewritten too. like in fringe there’s a complete timeline rewrite and everything’s almost the same but not quite and it’s interesting in a similar vein.

[samaritanpoledancing]

i was thinking and like, Person of Interest is very much the heir to Fringe. the two shows have so much in common. they both started out with an interesting premis yet pretty simple procedural format, yet after the first few episodes of the first season you could already see that they were really going to do something different with them. though their run they were filled with memorable quotes and lessons about morality. the seasons were filled with very small hints that all came together seamlessly in the finales. they both took risks and took their storylines further into less traditional storytelling and storylines knowing that they were taking a risk. they were both cancelled and given shortened fifth seasons, set in dystopian societies, and completely abandoned their procedural roots. these seasons divided fans and left those who stuck there till the end forever wishing for more.

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S3 ep 9 “Marionette”

The first ep after Olivia returns home has a cold open about a dude who steals someone’s heart. How very on point. That grisly corpse with the gaping hole in the chest where his heart should be.

This part of the Peter/Olivia arc is pain. Nothing but pain.

Warm fuzzies for Olivia and Broyles friendship.

“This friend you’re talking about, what was he like?”

“He wasn’t that unlike you. He was honorable, committed. He feared for his family, for their future.”

“You understand better than most the pain a lie can inflict.”

When Walter. Walter, of all people, is warning Peter with red flags about the emotional harm of not being honest, Peter should heed that. And I’m glad that Peter, of all people, who suffered from lies, does have every intention of telling Olivia everything. Even if it’ll hurt her, being lied to, having Peter hide that from her, would be far far worse. And Peter says he’ll tell her despite knowing it will change things between them. Because he’s rather do right by Olivia than hurt her further in order to keep her. Be a better man than your father.

Whole essays could be written on the way Peter looks at Olivia in this episode.

When Peter tells her, Olivia trying to be logical about it and telling him it’s fine, it’s understandable how that could happen but her eyes, her voice. It’s the exact moment Peter rips out her heart and she’s still alive, like that corpse in the cold open, but he took her heart.

Olivia acting like she’s fine and then breaking down when she’s alone. So very Olivia.

Astrid being sensitive to Olivia’s emotions and being reluctant to answer Olivia’s questions about how Peter was with the other Olivia, acknowledging to Olivia that it’s not fine, when Olivia again tries to say it’s fine, and trying to reassure Olivia because perceptive, observant Astrid knows. Peter’s feelings were about the real Olivia and that’s why he was so quick to latch onto the false one, because he wanted her, the real Olivia and his feelings are real. Astrid’s right, which isn’t going to make this hurt less for Olivia, but Astrid’s empathy and kindness shows. She cares about both of them, and being witness to this drama and to her friend being in so much pain because of her other friend must hurt. (Astrid appreciation blog, always).

This show sure does like its body horror symbolism. The puppet. That part specifically is about Walternate and how he moves his pawns on the board, how he uses altivia. Other parts of this…it’s a canvas to reflect on the damage to Peter and Olivia’s relationship.

The consequences of Walternate’s plans—one woman has her heart figuratively ripped out, the other used as a pawn (puppet).

Then the ep goes full Frankenstein. This show has LAYERS.

“When I looked into her eyes, it wasn’t Amanda.” This guy, twisted as he is, knew. And Peter didn’t. And that’s what Olivia can’t get over and move past. She can apply all the logic and be fair and say it’s understandable but Peter didn’t know. They were not as close as they thought they were and that’s something both Olivia and Peter have to face, for the relationship to have any chance to repair first, and then grow to what they both want.

Peter and Olivia at night in the garden of the big creepy mansion of a Dr. Frankenstein having a talk about feelings is peak Fringe.

“She wasn’t me. How could you not see that. She’s taken everything.”

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Nina and Walter and Belly. Walter’s grief for Belly and the part of his brain he lost, that Belly took from him, Nina comforting Walter that it wasn’t just his intellect, it was his boundless imagination, that made him unique. (If they ever do a Fringe spinoff, a prequel about young Nina and William and Walter seems to be just…hanging there, waiting to be plucked from the story tree).

I was so so happy Peter was being completely honest with Olivia. Atta boy!!!

AND THEN WILLIAM BELL.

This show. Is utterly unhinged.

And Anna Torv is a genius. She hits it out of the park with every curveball they asked of her.

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3.10 Firefly.

Olivia very understandably wants nothing to do with getting close to Peter right now but she still worries about him and watches out for him.

Among legendary Fringe moments, Christopher Lloyd and John Noble, in an episode where an aging rock and roller and an aging mad scientist talk about strawberry milkshakes and demonstrate the butterfly effect in action.

Because Peter caught a firefly when he was a child.

Nobody does it like Fringe did it.

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Season 3 finale.

This show is utterly off the walls bonkers bananas. It’s not just that it does [insert tv trope here]. It’s the frequency that it does something wild, like they’re trying to outdo themselves, and they do whatever story trope every time with some twist that does it like it hasn’t been done a zillion times before. And escalates higher and higher with the main overarching plot each time.

I can’t think of many shows whose mytharc worked quite like Fringe’s.

This show really puts Peter/Olivia shippers through it, while also giving things like…morning cuddles are canon. Or letting us see them as a middle aged married couple who worked together. And then horrible terrible things happen, and with every horrifying thing that happens, they come back stronger and even more loving. It’s an excellent demonstration on why conflict is good for fictional romances, actually. Especially slow burn ones. This ship needs a safe word. It’s soooo good.

Joshua Jackson, who doesn’t get to play multiple roles on the show, keeps proving his range and solidity as an actor. In a way, Peter, despite being sort of the key lynchpin figure, is the least flashy role on the show. He’s got darkness in him and is also so good and empathetic and kind, he knows how to fight, but he not a big physical fighter like Olivia, he’s a genius, but not a mad scientist like Walter. Josh Jackson plays Peter and a very real, grounded person and with skilled subtleties of emotion. Peter has to be especially lovable for the show to go, and Josh Jackson pulls it off and makes Peter so real, and so heartful, with dark edges.

And Walter, in the future, is in deep disgrace, as the one who tipped off the world-breaking in the first place but Peter says he got into the machine, and tries to take the culpability on himself. Walter hasn’t lost Peter or Olivia’s affections, or Broyle’s respect. He is responsible for what he’s responsible for, nevertheless, he’s not a bad person, and he did his best to save people, and to make amends for his initial mistake. The attempt to fix it, and Peter’s decision to step into the machine, turned out to be world-destroying.

“That was the day we died.”

There’s a big theme here about the interconnectedness of things. Symbiosis. The butterfly effect or how ecosystems work. Each action has a ripple. One world dies, it dooms the other.

Walternate has a point about what was done to him, and to his world. But what he did in response is a choice. His choices.

Walternate is “father.” Walter is “dad.”

This ep is Walternate deciding to go full supervillain. Where the ambiguity of Walter and Walternate, them not being all that different when it comes down to it, breaks down into a more simple dichotomy—Walter is the good Walter and Walternate is entirely off the rails and cares only for revenge. Becoming the mad evil scientist potentiality that’s in both of them.

Oh no, time paradox.

PETER!

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3.11 “Reciprocity” — with some thoughts about Walter and Peter’s past sins haunting them, parents and chidren, Peter/Olivia, Astrid being amazing, Broyles being a great boss, and how the alt world doubles work emotionally.

Peter making Walter a pb&j sandwich and telling him “you can’t protect me from everything” is a really poignant moment about parents and adult children. The child will always be the parent’s child, but as children grow and parents grow older, the dynamics shift.

After all the experiments Walter did using people, his anger and indignation about Massive Dynamic wanting to run tests on Peter has some layers. It’s not just hypocrisy arising from his love of his son. He regrets the past. We’ve seen his regrets about his past practices. The prospect of Peter being the “lab rat” at Massive Dynamic is one more way Walter’s past sins as a scientist are coming to haunt him.

If you need an encryption expert to go through 300 pages of encrypted data, in a personally sensitive and discreet way—you go to Astrid Farnsworth. Broyles has immense respect for the agents he’s responsible for and their unique strengths. He knows what they’re best at, and their weaknesses, and how to deploy the team to the best advantage.

Except Walter. With Walter, Broyles endures with immense long-suffering stoicism and patience, he’s the wild card they have to use. Broyles respects Walter’s intellect, but he relies on Olivia and Astrid, and I suspect Broyles believes Peter would be a great asset if he decided to become more than a consultant—that Peter has a lot of potential as an agent, but the way Peter’s brain works anyway, he’s able to be great at any number of jobs he has no actual qualifications for yet carries it off competently.

Peter’s past sins are coming for him too. After being a con artist, and thinking his marks were stupid or gullible—he gets conned by Fauxlivia and he’s convinced Fauxlivia’s diaries will see him the way Peter saw his former marks, and he’s ashamed, of himself and his past, and of being seen that way himself. He tells Olivia “I don’t want you to see me that way.”

Olivia, who needed time for her own pain and hurt, realizing that Fauxlivia didn’t just rip out her heart, steal everything that’s hers, she preyed on Peter too. Tricked him, used him, played on his love for Olivia.

But when Olivia reads the journals, she finds out that’s not how Fauxlivia saw Peter. That Fauxlivia saw his goodness, that she kept forgetting why she was there, getting swept up in Peter. We saw Fauxlivia struggling. Newton called her out on her hesitancy about doing what has to be done. She didn’t see Peter as the gullible mark. She was genuinely falling for him.

That must hurt Olivia on a different level than Peter not realizing it wasn’t really her. Olivia however is also discovering how much like her Fauxlivia is. Maybe that’s helping it to click for her how much Fauxlivia was using Peter’s love for her, that it was what Astrid said, it was actually about Peter wanting to be with her. And so he welcomed the small changes and he thought it was finally him and Olivia being able to get closer. If he had been less in love with Olivia, Fauxlivia might not have been able to pull it off.

There’s been parallels. A shapeshifter replacing a husband and the wife, after decades of marriage, where they have grandkids, doesn’t catch on, because the shapeshifter so thoroughly imitated that person and mimicked their feelings and had feelings. Fauxlivia became Olivia, willfully, to such a degree it fooled Peter, while Olivia trapped on the other side, got brainwashed into believing she was Fauxlivia against her will.

They share DNA. They are identical physically. They aren’t the same in personality all the way through but Olivia says they process things in similar ways, use similar phrases. Olivia says that of course Fauxlivia fell for Peter, because she would have seen Peter the way she sees Peter, noticed what she notices. The alt world doubles are the same person, in some ways, placed into difference circumstances. Not twins. The same person, on different worlds.

It’s how Walter and Walternate are too. There are differences. But before Belly removed part of Walter’s brain, he was more like Walternate. And they have their shared love of Peter. Their selfishness mixed with altruism. Their intellect. And a bunch of other things in common. Walter is Walternate, Walternate is Walter, in different circumstances.