Fringe season 3 thread (1 Viewer)

[Citizen87645]

So...where did the machine come from? Peter, Walter, et al from the future actually built it?


I'm confused by the whole time paradox thing.

 

[Josh Dial]

Originally Posted by Cameron Yee

So...where did the machine come from? Peter, Walter, et al from the future actually built it?


I'm confused by the whole time paradox thing.

I assume there is another layer we haven't been introduced to yet.

 

[NeilO]

It does look like it has the possibility of one of those funky paradoxes - they get the buried machine that had been sent to the past, they assemble it and then later take it apart and send it to the past. No one has actually built the pieces in the first place. Same with the drawing of Olivia that was the key to open the machine. Who drew that?

Obviously, the way out is for someone in that future to build it and draw the Olivia drawing. It doesn't matter who, it just has to happen. I wouldn't be surprised if we don't see happen as it would appear to just be an incidental detail to our story at the moment. Though it could be that it might be a key to restoring Peter for all we know.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

What I really love (even if in the immediate, it's frustrating because of my desire for instant gratification) is that I have no idea what's gonna happen on Fringe when it comes back in the fall. Same thing with the previous season; the way season two ended, I had no idea what season 3 was going to be like. Some shows are great because they stick to a well-established formula and are reliably good; a show like Fringe, in my opinion, is even more enjoyable because it's really hard to predict what's going to happen so far in advance.

 

[SWFF]

Okay, I re-thought some shit, and I have come to the conclusion that I will remain invested in the show when it comes on again. I have to know what the hell is gonna happen. That cliff-hanger had me asking too many questions. And, I'd love to finally get some answers on who, or what, the Observers are. They obviously "stand outside of time," so-to-speak, and can see farther down the road than any average human being. Are they us in some far flung future? Are they from another alternate universe, or alternate time line? Aliens? What?

 

[Citizen87645]

My vote is Rambaldi.

Obviously, the way out is for someone in that future to build it and draw the Olivia drawing. It doesn't matter who, it just has to happen. I wouldn't be surprised if we don't see happen as it would appear to just be an incidental detail to our story at the moment. Though it could be that it might be a key to restoring Peter for all we know.

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

My guess is that the machine itself comes from "elsewhere" - another planet, another time or another universe. I think it "arrived" (or was invented in) a Ur-Universe that we've never seen, and that its use split that universe into the two we have been watching for the past three years. I think this may have played out in one of two ways.


1) The Walter Bishop of that universe invented the machine - he was trying to invent time travel or hoping to cross dimensions or something else. The machine created some very bad side effects. In an attempt to undo what he had done, Walter disassembled the device and sent it back in time. (But if the machine is the time travel device, what did he use to get rid of it? I think they have followed the machine here and are trying to nudge reatilty into the shape it needs to have, but they cannot make "big" changes or simply prevent the machine from coming into being. (Or being discovered, as the case may be.)

Well, I didn't call any of what happened in this one, and I love being surprised. I'm also in the camp that thinks we haven't seen the last of Peter by any means.

Two notes:


Yes, Walter definitely called Astrid "Ostrich"


The style of Olivia's funeral was more Viking than Buddhist. Not sure about the significance of this. (My first thought was that it was a nod to Anna Torv's heritage - which I took to be vaguely Scandinvian - but her father is from Estonia. That's a country that lies close to the Scandinavian pennisula, and there are doubtless cultural similarities and intermarriage going back centuries, so there may be a Viking connection, but it isn't obviously the case. Similarly Olivia Dunham's name is solidly Anglo-Saxon, made up of the elements dun ("hill") and ham ("home"), and traces back to the county of Norfolk, England. Here, too, there could be a Viking connection, as Norfolk was invaded and later settled by Viking raiders, but unlike many other "English" names, "Dunham" is not of Scandinavian origin.


Regards,


Joe

 

[Josh Dial]

Originally Posted by Joseph DeMartino


In either case the Observers must have some connection with the machine.

There's also the option that the Observers literally made the machine, and it is extra-dimensional like them.

 

[Sean Bryan]

If things have changed so that Peter "never existed", I wonder how history has been re-written to still lead up to the same conflict between the two Universes?


The story we have so far is that is was all about Peter. Walter crossed over because his Peter died and their Peter was dieing. That act lead to the problems in the other Universe, and Walternate's realization of what happened lead to that Universe's attacks against ours.


If Peter never existed, then why are the two Universes still in conflict? There would have to be an alternate history with a different reason leading to the same outcome, no? But if that is the case, then what benefit is there to Peter being wiped from existence? Unless it really is just an unpredictable consequence of Peter and Walter's decision to change history (in 2026) and not something controlled/influence by the Observers. It'll be interesting to see how that is explained. Still, I'm hoping Peter's erasure from existence is only temporary. I like the character, and his interactions with Walter are a great part of the charm of the show.

 

[JoeBond]

Originally Posted by Sean Bryan

If things have changed so that Peter "never existed", I wonder how history has been re-written to still lead up to the same conflict between the two Universes?


The story we have so far is that is was all about Peter. Walter crossed over because his Peter died and their Peter was dieing. That act lead to the problems in the other Universe, and Walternate's realization of what happened lead to that Universe's attacks against ours.


If Peter never existed, then why are the two Universes still in conflict? There would have to be an alternate history with a different reason leading to the same outcome, no? But if that is the case, then what benefit is there to Peter being wiped from existence? Unless it really is just an unpredictable consequence of Peter and Walter's decision to change history (in 2026) and not something controlled/influence by the Observers. It'll be interesting to see how that is explained. Still, I'm hoping Peter's erasure from existence is only temporary. I like the character, and his interactions with Walter are a great part of the charm of the show.

I agree that Peter has been a big part of the show and I can't see how the show can move on successfully without him which is I am sure its temporary. I suspect the 2026 world will come back in Season 4 which I hope since I found it pretty interesting.

 

[Kurt Lang]

There are some answers at these two links:


http://www.tvline.com/2011/05/fringe-season-3-finale-review-answers/


http://www.tvline.com/2011/05/matts-inside-line-scoop-ncis-fringe-cougar-town-community/

 

[Kurt Lang]

Some answers about Peter at these links:


http://www.tvline.com/2011/05/fringe-season-3-finale-review-answers/


http://www.tvline.com/2011/05/matts-inside-line-scoop-ncis-fringe-cougar-town-community/

 

[SWFF]

Originally Posted by Kurt Lang

Very good news. Okay, I'm OFFICIALLY on for season 4. Funny, though, I was never a Joshua Jackson fan until I started watching FRINGE. Never paid any attention to him since I couldn't stand that DAWSON'S CREEK show, and most movies I saw him, well, he just never impressed me as an actor. He has now, though.

 

[Greg_S_H]

Same thing with Brian Austin Green. Back in the '90s, I was all, "That guy from Beverly Hills 90210? Bah!" Then, he turns up as a badass on Terminator. I also didn't like Dawson's Creek, and I saw Jackson in The Skulls, and thought, "I'll never be a fan of this guy." Now, he's definitely one of my favorites on the air right now. James Van Der Beek and Luke Perry, it's not too late. Make me believe.

 

[JoeBond]

Originally Posted by SWFF



Very good news. Okay, I'm OFFICIALLY on for season 4. Funny, though, I was never a Joshua Jackson fan until I started watching FRINGE. Never paid any attention to him since I couldn't stand that DAWSON'S CREEK show, and most movies I saw him, well, he just never impressed me as an actor. He has now, though.

I did like Jackson's cameo in Soderbergh's Ocean's Eleven though. I never bothered wathcing Dawson's Creek but I agree that he is very impressive in Fringe.

 

[TravisR]

The only things that I remember Joshua Jackson being in are a pair of Wes Craven movies (Cursed and he's got one scene in Scream 2) but he's definitely doing good work in Fringe.

 

[Will_B]

I did not like the reduction of Walternate into a 1-dimensional villain -- that kind of threw off the suspension of disbelief for me. But I'll forgive. I just don't think Walternate would want to eliminate the entire human race. If he had been shown to have gone insane, that would have allowed for his desire. But they did not show that. Actually they also did not show him coming over to this side (he says he did, but that was the first the viewers had heard of it) -- maybe there was a lot of content that couldn't fit into the episode? If there's an expanded version of the last two episodes on DVD next year, maybe those missing bits about Walternate will be filled in.


Not worried about Peter. Of course he'll be back. It will be Fringe IV: The Search for Peter.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Originally Posted by Will_B

I did not like the reduction of Walternate into a 1-dimensional villain -- that kind of threw off the suspension of disbelief for me. But I'll forgive. I just don't think Walternate would want to eliminate the entire human race. If he had been shown to have gone insane, that would have allowed for his desire. But they did not show that. Actually they also did not show him coming over to this side (he says he did, but that was the first the viewers had heard of it)

Didn't they cover that with a line where he said he escaped his world to come over on a mercy mission, and failed?


Are you referring to Walternate as a one-dimensional villain in the future glimpse, or in this season as a whole? Because at least in this season, I didn't find him to be one-dimensional. I was actually really impressed with John Noble's portrayal of the two versions; after seeing Walter on our side, to see what he was like over there was startling. And I think one thing worth keeping in mind is that Walternate's discovery of an alternate universe came as he found out his son was kidnapped by someone who looked just like him. Isn't that one of the ultimate nightmare scenarios, that someone who looked like you could come into your home and just walk out with what was most precious to you? Also, from earlier episodes this season, I got the impression that Walternate genuinely believed that our side was actively waging a war against his side, when we (the viewing audience) know that our side didn't intentionally start a war.


As for Walternate wanting the destruction of our world many years in the future, who knows what the horror of seeing your whole universe collapsing would do to you? That's destruction on a level we can't fathom; even a nuclear attack wouldn't come close to time and space and physics literally coming apart at the seams.

 

[Will_B]

Originally Posted by Josh Steinberg




Didn't they cover that with a line where he said he escaped his world to come over on a mercy mission, and failed?


Are you referring to Walternate as a one-dimensional villain in the future glimpse, or in this season as a whole? Because at least in this season, I didn't find him to be one-dimensional. I was actually really impressed with John Noble's portrayal of the two versions; after seeing Walter on our side, to see what he was like over there was startling. And I think one thing worth keeping in mind is that Walternate's discovery of an alternate universe came as he found out his son was kidnapped by someone who looked just like him. Isn't that one of the ultimate nightmare scenarios, that someone who looked like you could come into your home and just walk out with what was most precious to you? Also, from earlier episodes this season, I got the impression that Walternate genuinely believed that our side was actively waging a war against his side, when we (the viewing audience) know that our side didn't intentionally start a war.


As for Walternate wanting the destruction of our world many years in the future, who knows what the horror of seeing your whole universe collapsing would do to you? That's destruction on a level we can't fathom; even a nuclear attack wouldn't come close to time and space and physics literally coming apart at the seams.

Yes, there was that line of dialogue about him having come over, but we never saw that happen.


I felt Walternate was a rich 3-dimensional character until this last episode.

Did anyone else recognize the hospital Peter was in as the same hospital that Starbuck was in? Starbuck approached the same nurses station as she too wandered from her room...

 

[TravisR]

Did anyone else recognize the hospital Peter was in as the same hospital that Starbuck was in? Starbuck approached the same nurses station as she too wandered from her room...

I think it's the only hospital in Vancouver. I've seen it on The X-Files and Supernatural about 50 times each. I've also seen it in Millennium, The Killing and probably every show that has ever shot a hospital scene in British Columbia.