Fringe season 3 thread

It was an interesting episode and it should be an interesting season.  Apparently they will be rotating between the Red and Blue openings indicating what universe most of the episode will deal with.  I wonder how long it will take Walter and Peter to figure out Olivia is BOlivia.  Did she get the tattoo removed before going over?  There must be loads of incidental things that if they add them together will get them suspicious.  Of course, if they aren't looking for them, they probably won't find them.  With Olivia having her memories adjusted and no known way to communicate with them anyway if she realized who she was again, it will be a hard road. 

It was nice to see Charlie being mostly himself even if he is an alternate version.

I don't think Olivia has changed...she's putting on an act.  However, she has gained some (if not all) of alternate-Olivia's memories as well.  Her best move was to do what she did.  She's stuck there for now...so, learn as much as she can from the inside.

Unfortunately, she will have to deal with the boyfriend (as alternate Olivia will have to deal with Peter's love).  And, now that she has the tattoo it's going to be hard to tell which Olivia is which once she gets back.

I love that this show is back!

I got addicted to this show the moment I saw the premiere way back in season one. I'd love to know what's with MASSIVE DYNAMICS in the alternatverse. Was it built elsewhere? It must have been.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SWFF 

I got addicted to this show the moment I saw the premiere way back in season one. I'd love to know what's with MASSIVE DYNAMICS in the alternatverse. Was it built elsewhere? It must have been.

Yeah, that didn't make much sense to me. Olivia has visited William Bell at the alt-MD, correct? It was in a massive office tower with a good view of the still-standing WT Center.

Wasn't really that into the show last night, though I've always been more interested in the stand-alone case file eps rather than the inter-dimensional mythology.

I hope the mythology arc doesn't get as convoluted as the X-Files did. I mean, did we ever resolve what ever happened to Mulder's sister who was kidnapped by them aliens? And, I still have trouble remembering how the hell Scully got pregnant.

Well, so far, I'm still with the mythology they've set up here. Yeah, I will agree those stand-alones are pretty damn sweet, and insanely creepy.

So, what's the consensus on Olivia's personality switch to Evil Olivia? Is she faking it? If not, what the hell could Evil Walter want in making her one of them? And, I'm curious as to how coldblooded Evil Olivia really is. The commercial they aired of next week's episode looked like she just killed someone without nary a blink.

Olivia did visit William Bell and his office was actually in the WTC. I dont remember however that there was any indication that Bell was working with Massive Dynamic in the alternate universe or that there was one.

I loved last night's episode and am pleased that this is going to be part of an ongoing arc rather than trying to wrap up the threads from last season really quickly. I expect we will get stand-alone case files in both universes for a while which should be interesting. How about a few standalones that both sides are investigating at the same time ?? Should prove interesting

Evil Walter said in the episode they want to use Olivia to find out how she crosses to the other side. I don't think she is faking it either - she was forgetting Peter's name in the taxi and she had no reason to fake it with the driver.

SWFF = yes we did find out what happend to Mulder's sister but it wasn;t to everyone'e liking Think it was Season 7.

    Quote:

Originally Posted by Simon Massey 

SWFF = yes we did find out what happend to Mulder's sister but it wasn;t to everyone'e liking Think it was Season 7.

I don't remember it. I just remember being somewhat confused after that final episode of the series, and being kind of disappointed. So, far, I have yet to see a bad FRINGE episode. There have been some of that have obviously been really, really good, but I don't ever recall seeing what I would call a bad episode, which is good.

 

I do recall William Bell saying in the alternate universe that Bell and Bishop never had occasion to meet, so I extrapolated that to mean Bell never was inspired / motivated to create Massive Dynamic.

Loved the episode and Anna Torv knocked it out of the park.  Fantastic!  Much prefer mythology episodes to the stand alones.

It was a decent episode, but honestly, I'm much more interested in what's happening with alternate Olivia on the 'normal' side, than vice versa.

See Im hooked on both sides. Looking forward to seeing how the alternate Olivia is dealt with but I also want episodes which explore the other side too. They could go all season with this if they wanted

I like Peter's little trick with the pen in his attempt to call that guy's bluff. Worked, too, 'cause the guy wouldn't hand the pen over. Have to remember that one. I'n hooked on every damn aspect of the show. It's still brand new and hasn't gone off the rails yet. Hope that never happens. The X-Files should have called it quits the instant David Duchovney decided he wanted to leave the show, but they kept it going for another season. I prefer shows that actually have a limited run, but you generally don't get that. The only one I can think of that went down that route is Six Feet Under; didn't that one go only five seasons? And, wasn't Babylon 5 limited in its run, too? Don't remember . . .

Quote:

Originally Posted by SWFF 

The X-Files should have called it quits the instant David Duchovney decided he wanted to leave the show, but they kept it going for another season.

Actually, The X-Files went another two years after Duchovny left. And for what it's worth, I'll put the seventh season (Duchovny's last year) against the eighth season any day of the week. Season Eight added Robert Patrick to the cast and the writers had to pick it up since they had lost Duchovny and those two things made for a much better year than Season Seven.

Wow, it went another 2 years?! I used to be addicted to that show, but it's been so long, the damn thing has faded from my memory. And, since you reminded me of Robert Patrick, I now do remember the last season, and I recall liking him and that other chick he had as his partner. I used to love Buffy The Vampire Slayer, unfortunately, that one, too, has fallen off my "memory radar." Thanks for the memory jog.

Babylon 5 was designed from the beginning as a 5 year story.  When it became clear that the netlet it aired on (PTEN) was going under as season 4 got underway, the producers dropped some stand-alone episodes and omitted starting some threads that would have carried over into S5, in order to conclude the series early.  Then the TNT cable network picked the show up for a fifth season at the eleventh hour and it finished pretty much at planned.  (The concluding episode, shot for the fourth season, aired at the end of S5 instead.  Since it was a sort of coda, set 20 years after the events of season 4, it worked either way.  This, too, was by design.)

TNT actually expressed an interest in a sixth season, as did many of the actors, but the producers held firm.  (In fact, by signing everybody to contracts for five years, instead of the industry-standard seven, they basically made it impossible for there to be a sixth season.  If the show was doing well enough for anyone to want one, the raises everyone demanded would be too costly.  That's why the Trek shows all lasted seven seasons and then overlapped with the show that would replace them.  Paramount was fiscally rebooting their franchise every seven.  B5 creator J. Michael Straczynski has said that he designed his show to fiscally self-destruct after five.)

But yeah, all "arc" shows work better when they have a definite end-point in time as well as in story.  Imagine a publisher telling Agatha Christie, "We like your mystery novel, but we need to add some more pages before you get to the end.  We're not sure how many.  Just write in a few extra chapters.  We'll let you know when you have enough."  One reason Lost got off track for awhile is that the creators had some story landmarks they knew they needed to hit and a conclusion they were aiming at, but they had no idea how many episodes they had to spread those across.  Once they settled on a set number of seasons and episodes with ABC, they could actually tell a coherent story.  I hope the Fringe folks have a definite idea of where they're going with all this and how the war ends, etc.  (And don't forget, shows can change.  In the first season of Lost everybody assumed the end point of the series would be the survivors getting off the island.  At the start of Babylon 5 the big mysteries were the reason the Mibari surrendered on the verge of victory in the Earth-Minbar War and the 24 hours at the end of that war that Commander Sinclair couldn't remember, and B5 itself was still the U.N. in space, keeping the peace.  There was barely a hint of the underlying conflicts that would drive the next four seasons.) 

Regards,

Joe

SPOILERS COMING . . .

So, Walter is in charge of MASSIVE DYNAMIC?! This should be interesting. And, well, now we all know exactly what lengths Evil Olivia will go. Jesus, she just executed that man without a second thought. And what was with the "I'm sorry," before pulling the trigger? What was she sorry about? Certainly not the execution. Probably, that she had other plans, like a shower, more intel on her doppelganger, and this poor deaf dude was distracting her from it. Man, that was cold.

Peter must have some idea she's not the "normal" Olivia.

This episode creeped me out. Why you may ask? Those discolored eyes and bleeding noses reminded me of a movie that traumatized me as a kid -- HORROR EXPRESS.

The "explosion" actually made me jump!  I knew something might happen but damn.

I'm having a hard time trying to figure out exactly why they wanted Peter to have the box.

I'm thinking they actually want Peter to figure the device out, put it together and destroy our world. That's the only scenario at the moment that makes sense to me. Yeah, the head explosion took me back, too.

Did anyone catch the almost Star Trek like transporter thing-a-ma-jig  in the room in Massive Dynamics when Walter walked by and looked in?

Is that what that thing was? I just remember thinking how strange it was.

My question about last night's (10/7/10) episode is that is pens are so rare, why would there be a USPS mailbox there? unless people send around flash drives (or their equivalent). I would imagine that if people stopped writing, we'd just live on email, etc.. etc.  :-)

Jay

Gotta have a place to drop you Netflix envelopes!

Actually, I would believe that in any universe, that a postal service would be a requirement for any government.  It is on this planet.  And I can't imagine that the alternate universe's government would act more quickly than ours in trimming unneeded dross.

And yes, I know that the USPS is theoretically a private company,  But it isn't really, any more than Fanny or Freddie. Postmaster General used to be a cabinet level position.

Olivia's a dead shot. When the guy jumped on the bus to escape and raised his hands to mock her, if I was her, I would have pulled my gun and blown off one of his fingers, or put a hole in his hand, but, he probably would have predicted that, and taken measures to ensure she would have missed. That dude creeped me out. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by SWFF 

Olivia's a dead shot. When the guy jumped on the bus to escape and raised his hands to mock her, if I was her, I would have pulled my gun and blown off one of his fingers, or put a hole in his hand, but, he probably would have predicted that, and taken measures to ensure she would have missed. That dude creeped me out. 

Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)

Ironic isn't it, if she had stopped to save her life, with the oxygen canister, she would have ended up getting killed.

The guy was extremely creepy.  I wonder if in a later episode he will figure out why it was that Olivia acted differently than predicted.  He obviously hadn't figured that she had come from another 'verse.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SWFF 

Olivia's a dead shot. When the guy jumped on the bus to escape and raised his hands to mock her, if I was her, I would have pulled my gun and blown off one of his fingers, or put a hole in his hand, but, he probably would have predicted that, and taken measures to ensure she would have missed. That dude creeped me out. 

Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)

Ironic isn't it, if she had stopped to save her life, with the oxygen canister, she would have ended up getting killed.

The way I saw it, the fringe events are of supreme importance in this universe.  It seems virtually the entire force of the government is behind solving fringe events and trying them to the bigger picture of the war and the threat to their Earth/universe.  I would assume the protocol is to shoot last, as you never know when you might be literally killing your best hope at ending the war.  Who knows, that just might be the case here.

If I were OIivia, well, "Evil Olivia," I stilI would have blown that mother's pinky off; it's not like he would have died from it.

One of the interesting things of seeing things in the alternate universe is not only seeing the effects of what Walter did, but also humanizing the people from that universe.  

This ep seemed slightly off to me.

I hope they don't drag out the fake Olivia stuff for too long. That sort of stuff is the domain of cheap daytime soap.

Yeah, I don't like these kinds of storylines.  It'll be a bummer if the switch stays in place until the season finale.  Especially if there are a lot of close call, "they almost found me out" moments throughout.  Or, heaven forbid, the old, "Bolivia was given the drug, and now she is for all intents and purposes the real Olivia, while the real Olivia is for all intents and purposes Bolivia and they will never switch back."