swimming upstream
Nov. 5th, 2012 09:26 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ziparumpazooGot my Fringe Exchange recipient and breathed a huge sigh of relief - pretty much carte blanche with whatever I want to write within the bounds of the request. Because sometimes the 'Ohgodwhatiftheydon'tlikeit?!' can be pretty intimidating.
Speaking of... I think I'm one maybe three people who loves where Fringe is going this season...
I've been trying to watch this final season as more of a single final chapter than a series of episodes, and so while I'm sad that Etta's been killed off (and please don't say 'fridge' because that's one of those words that rubs me the wrong way for all ways it removes any possible dignity), I think it was necessary at this point in the season's arc. Fringe has always been a show that tears the characters down so they can build them back up again, over and over each season. Marionette was arguably the lowest point for Olivia of season three, Subject 13 showed both Walters at their most desperate. It's also always been a show about parallels and cycles and making the choice to be better.
An Origin Story reminded me very much of Walternate and Elizabeth in Subject 13 with their desperate search for their missing Peter pulling them apart. And sure, while the amber'verse's Walternate and Elizabeth knew their Peter had been killed, they'd had some measure of closure that the original version hadn't, and so appeared to have weathered their loss and gone on. In this timeline, Peter and Olivia are pulled apart by the uncertainty of Etta's abduction, but they get that second chance, and then, as heartbreaking as it is to watch her die, this time they have that certainty of her fate, that closure that's possible when all the big questions have been answered. This time though, Olivia's numb at first, dissociating from her grief and shutting down. It's like we're watching their hinted-at post-abduction life play out all over again. Until Walter steps in and painfully nudges her into dealing with that grief instead of walling it up this time around. As usual, those Olivia and Walter moments are a thing of beauty to watch.
It was Peter who surprised me most though - I'd fully expected him to go more extreme in his first meeting with the captured Observer. But no, he's calm, calculating, and the antithesis of our original grieving Walter who stole his counterpart's son from another universe. But like Walter, once his plan backfires, he proves that deep down, he is in fact his father's son, despite all his efforts to the contrary. He goes to the potentially universe-breaking extreme of implanting Observer tech into himself. Whether his motives are revenge, or the first moves in a desperate act to set the universe right and bring his daughter back (he did help Walter build the machine to set things right when Olivia was killed the first time), I don't know yet, but the fact is that he's also grieving and is also just as capable of setting off the inadvertent destruction of the universe as Walter was. Did Elizabeth know something when she told Peter to be a better man than his father? Did she know how exactly history repeats itself? I found myself yelling 'Oh Peter, don't do it!' to the tv as he was holding the scalpel to his neck, because it was Walter stepping through the doorway to the other universe all over again.
Is Olivia too passive this season? Maybe. But like rainer76 mentioned, we see that she'd been conflicted about motherhood, about passing on that history of violence. She admits that she'd felt like she didn't deserve the happiness that Peter'd found in their daughter and that she'd felt like Etta going missing had been some sort of payback. She's wary when she first wakes up. Cautious about the gifthorse, because having Etta back, having her daughter not only back, but seeing her as this grown, strong, undamaged young woman is everything she'd always hoped her daughter would be. So then she does take that leap and embrace that second chance, only to have it snatched away again as soon as she'd gotten comfortable with the idea and opened herself to it. Even the most badass superhero in the universe can only get kicked in the teeth so many times before they stumble. If Olivia had just shrugged it all off, or hardened her heart and went on a revenge spree, I wouldn't have bought it. That's not her character. Olivia feels things. She feels them deeply. And Etta's death is a huge betrayal to process.
Besides, we see that her spark is still there, albeit, damped, when she tells the Observer "Yeah, it's that type of gun".
As for the Observers, or resets, or what the effect of the implant will have on Peter, I don't know. I don't think Peter will become an Observer. I think too many people have been expecting that since Peter was erased at the end of season 3 and it's too obvious. I could be wrong. I often am. I don't have a problem with whatever 'superpowers' he gains from them - it's part of the cautionary tale. At the moment he's Lex Luthor, he's desperate and foolish, and he wasn't paying attention the first time when the Machine spit him out onto the floor when he thought he could fix things on his own. He needed Olivia then as a partner to disarm the Machine so he could use it. He needs Olivia again now as his partner, as his confidence, as his home. Just as she'd needed him after Jacksonville to have faith in her so she could see the glimmer, and all the other times he's been her touchstone. At his point in the season, they're still working on finding their way back to each other.
I just hope it doesn't take too long. Because omg, how can this show be almost over!?
In other news... just finished reading Connie Willis' Blackout/All Clear. Highly recommend if you like stories about time travel and causality with a little bit of mystery and drama and humor thrown in. I may leave a better review later, once I'm recovered from it. This was one of those book universes I was sad to put down.
Speaking of... I think I'm one maybe three people who loves where Fringe is going this season...
I've been trying to watch this final season as more of a single final chapter than a series of episodes, and so while I'm sad that Etta's been killed off (and please don't say 'fridge' because that's one of those words that rubs me the wrong way for all ways it removes any possible dignity), I think it was necessary at this point in the season's arc. Fringe has always been a show that tears the characters down so they can build them back up again, over and over each season. Marionette was arguably the lowest point for Olivia of season three, Subject 13 showed both Walters at their most desperate. It's also always been a show about parallels and cycles and making the choice to be better.
An Origin Story reminded me very much of Walternate and Elizabeth in Subject 13 with their desperate search for their missing Peter pulling them apart. And sure, while the amber'verse's Walternate and Elizabeth knew their Peter had been killed, they'd had some measure of closure that the original version hadn't, and so appeared to have weathered their loss and gone on. In this timeline, Peter and Olivia are pulled apart by the uncertainty of Etta's abduction, but they get that second chance, and then, as heartbreaking as it is to watch her die, this time they have that certainty of her fate, that closure that's possible when all the big questions have been answered. This time though, Olivia's numb at first, dissociating from her grief and shutting down. It's like we're watching their hinted-at post-abduction life play out all over again. Until Walter steps in and painfully nudges her into dealing with that grief instead of walling it up this time around. As usual, those Olivia and Walter moments are a thing of beauty to watch.
It was Peter who surprised me most though - I'd fully expected him to go more extreme in his first meeting with the captured Observer. But no, he's calm, calculating, and the antithesis of our original grieving Walter who stole his counterpart's son from another universe. But like Walter, once his plan backfires, he proves that deep down, he is in fact his father's son, despite all his efforts to the contrary. He goes to the potentially universe-breaking extreme of implanting Observer tech into himself. Whether his motives are revenge, or the first moves in a desperate act to set the universe right and bring his daughter back (he did help Walter build the machine to set things right when Olivia was killed the first time), I don't know yet, but the fact is that he's also grieving and is also just as capable of setting off the inadvertent destruction of the universe as Walter was. Did Elizabeth know something when she told Peter to be a better man than his father? Did she know how exactly history repeats itself? I found myself yelling 'Oh Peter, don't do it!' to the tv as he was holding the scalpel to his neck, because it was Walter stepping through the doorway to the other universe all over again.
Is Olivia too passive this season? Maybe. But like rainer76 mentioned, we see that she'd been conflicted about motherhood, about passing on that history of violence. She admits that she'd felt like she didn't deserve the happiness that Peter'd found in their daughter and that she'd felt like Etta going missing had been some sort of payback. She's wary when she first wakes up. Cautious about the gifthorse, because having Etta back, having her daughter not only back, but seeing her as this grown, strong, undamaged young woman is everything she'd always hoped her daughter would be. So then she does take that leap and embrace that second chance, only to have it snatched away again as soon as she'd gotten comfortable with the idea and opened herself to it. Even the most badass superhero in the universe can only get kicked in the teeth so many times before they stumble. If Olivia had just shrugged it all off, or hardened her heart and went on a revenge spree, I wouldn't have bought it. That's not her character. Olivia feels things. She feels them deeply. And Etta's death is a huge betrayal to process.
Besides, we see that her spark is still there, albeit, damped, when she tells the Observer "Yeah, it's that type of gun".
As for the Observers, or resets, or what the effect of the implant will have on Peter, I don't know. I don't think Peter will become an Observer. I think too many people have been expecting that since Peter was erased at the end of season 3 and it's too obvious. I could be wrong. I often am. I don't have a problem with whatever 'superpowers' he gains from them - it's part of the cautionary tale. At the moment he's Lex Luthor, he's desperate and foolish, and he wasn't paying attention the first time when the Machine spit him out onto the floor when he thought he could fix things on his own. He needed Olivia then as a partner to disarm the Machine so he could use it. He needs Olivia again now as his partner, as his confidence, as his home. Just as she'd needed him after Jacksonville to have faith in her so she could see the glimmer, and all the other times he's been her touchstone. At his point in the season, they're still working on finding their way back to each other.
I just hope it doesn't take too long. Because omg, how can this show be almost over!?
In other news... just finished reading Connie Willis' Blackout/All Clear. Highly recommend if you like stories about time travel and causality with a little bit of mystery and drama and humor thrown in. I may leave a better review later, once I'm recovered from it. This was one of those book universes I was sad to put down.
