Ease Down, FRINGE! You’re Breaking My Transaxle!
Episode 505 “An Origin Story”
THERE ARE MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD!
[Photos: Liane Hentscher/FOX]
Have I mentioned there are spoilers ahead? Like, major spoilers? Pretty please with sugar on top, do not read ahead unless you have already watched the fifth episode of this season’s Fringe. Right now, all I’m saying to myself is, “Peter, what have you done!?” If you don’t know what Peter hath done, I do NOT want to ruin it for you. So seriously, this is your last warning before secrets are revealed.
The episode begins with Peter, and ends with Peter. I love Peter, and have only just realized how I’ve latently obsessed more over his fate than over that of the other characters. I care for him, and worry about how his crazy sacrifice may save the world, but ultimately doom him.
Peter packs Etta’s effects in her apartment while Olivia dozes. He stumbles across an old ID card of Etta, and poignantly compares the ID picture of Etta to Olivia’s sleeping face. He also discovers a drawer that doesn’t open quite right, and further investigation reveals a button which opens a secret stash of C4 and other weapons. Peter mumbles, “That’s my girl,” and reminds us all how much he identified with this grown woman who was his daughter.
As Peter packs up the weapons, he wakes Olivia, who wonders aloud, “Why did we get her back just to lose her again?” I can’t imagine the anguish of a parent who loses a child not once but twice. Of all characters we’ve ever encountered in all our TV-, movie-, and book-consuming hours, we believe that these characters could survive it. But God, the soul-sucking pain they must feel. Peter holds Olivia as they ache together. During this part of the episode, silence is used to great effect. Sometimes, the best gift a writer can give to a show is simply to know when to shut up. Peter and Olivia are so quiet and still in their pain during this part of the show, and the lack of words says more than lots of words would have.
Anil manages to contact our trio as they evacuate Etta’s place; he informs them that the Baldies have transported equipment from the future to Manhattan, Egypt and France to complete the air degradation systems. Anil also manages to slip in his sorrow for Etta’s loss and that Etta was, “…special, not just me, but to the movement. I hope someday you’ll understand how much.” Prophetic side comments like this often lead to great reveals, so keep observing (yes, pun intended).
Peter’s approach to the shipments from the future is what you’d expect from a grieving father bent on revenge: destroy it all. Anil and Walter warn him that the technology used to open the corridor from the future isn’t understood well enough to control it. Walter is an expert in meddling in poorly understood technology, but Peter’s mind is made up. Anil cautions Peter, “Before you go on a journey of revenge, dig two graves.” Peter has no interest in his own life any longer, nor by extension, Olivia’s feelings for him. Walter begrudgingly confirms that Peter’s theory holds, and that an interruption of the corridor between now and the future will convert the wormhole to a black hole on the future side if antimatter is employed.
Back at the Harvard lab, Peter tries to re-construct the Observer’s cube, but the cube burns him when he does so improperly. Astrid and Olivia simultaneously attempt a translation of what they assume is an shipping manifest from a captured Observor, but an exhausted and wan Olivia fades in and out of participation. Astrid encourages rest, but staunch Olivia requests engagement, at least to the extent that she’s capable.
Peter needs input from the captured Observer to correctly assemble the cube technology that opens the time corridor. Olivia protests, but Peter counters that he’s not doubting Walter’s plan, but questions what they have: a scroll with physics they can’t decipher, a thought unifier that doesn’t work, and a bunch of rocks, and that that’s what Etta died for.
When Liv admits that she’s afraid of losing Peter, he says that, “…our daughter dedicated her life to freeing us, and now we’re going to dedicate ours to making sure that means something.” As a grieving mother, how do you argue with that? You don’t, you just accept that you’re going to lose your soul mate, too, and Olivia’s face completely reflects the anguish of that decision. How I love thee, Anna Torv. Your face is amazing, not just for how beautiful you are, but how you convey so much emotion with such small changes in your visage. Your face was made for TV.
Peter meets up with Anil to interrogate the captured Observor. Anil reveals a special implant in the back of the Baldie’s neck before waking Baldie up. Peter rigs B up so as to monitor his pupil dilation response as he assembles the cube. B scoffs that Peter doesn’t even know what he doesn’t know. Personally, I hate that, not knowing what I don’t know, and it infuriates me when the Observer baits Peter. I can relate to Peter’s cold, hard fury. Despite the O’s lack of cooperation, Peter successfully completes the cube.
Walter brings a tape to Olivia of an Etta birthday party from Etta’s toddlerhood. In it, there are no friends, just Etta, Olivia and Peter. Walter instructs Olivia to watch it, and “…to remember what you both had, what you still are, and to hold onto that…to face this pain together…that [Etta’s] pain is a legacy to you both. It’s proof that she was here.” He beseeches her to remember that she and Peter lost each other once, but that they have another chance.
With the shipping manifest now decoded and the next shipment expected within thirty minutes, the team arrives at the expected destination with antimatter detonators in hand. All seems to go as planned, but as the team leaves, a backwards glance in their rearview mirror reveals that shipments are rolling out of the corridor as though no disruptions had taken place. Walter can’t provide an explanation, and while Peter storms off to get answers, Liv realizes that all around them, plastered on the walls of the alley where they stopped, are pasted-up posters of Etta’s face with the word “RESIST.”
Peter returns to where the captured Observor is being held, and begins his descent into hell. SPOILER MAJORUM: Peter extricates the brain implant from the back of the captured Observor’s neck, and in a moment of “What the f— just happened?!?!?!?” Peter inserts the nasty little device into the back of his own neck. The detestable technology happily burrows itself into Peter’s brain stem as he shudders. On the one hand, we wonder, “Wow, ok, what groovy new insights will Peter have?” But, hellfire, didn’t he ever see any episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation about the Borg Collective? What information is he going to unwittingly transmit back to the collective!? Stupid, stupid, stupid!
Maybe things all turn out ok in the end, because previews from next week show Peter beginning to exhibit Neo-like powers (as in , The Matrix, The Matrix Reloaded, and The Matrix Revolutions) when fighting Observors. In good drama, gifts never are solely beneficial, so we can expect that Peter’s brain augmentation is going to betray him in some way. Please, oh please, don’t make Olivia or Walter be the one to have to take him out. I’m not sure I could take it. Please stay with me for next time, because at this point, I need all the emotional support I can get!
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[Official Show Site on FOX] [Previous Recap: “The Bullet That Saved the World”]
