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inmyriadbitsSo, I was responding to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ignipes's recent reaction post to the end of Fringe S2, and apparently I had so much to say that I exceeded the comment character limit three times over. So I thought I'd roughly edit it into a post of its own, to share with the rest of you. (And maybe also because the more coherent formatting is good for my soul.)
Spoilers for EVERYTHING. :)
[On Olivia-stuck-in-a-cage-in-another-universe at the end of the finale]
In all seriousness, though, that little dark room she was in was toe-curlingly horrifying to me, which I think is partly because I read a long, intense article recently about the effects of solitary confinement (thanks, Charlie Crews). So now, it's not just an lizard brain "small-dark-space" kind of fear, but a "oh god I now know all these statistics about why this is horrible" kind of fear. *shudder*
That said, I'm holding the memory of the time she breaks out by asking her captors pathetically for a glass of water firmly in my mind, along with the image of bb!Olivia huddled safely in the corner of a pyro-blasted room. (If her powers don't play some role in busting her out, I'll eat my hat, especially considering how scared she was at the end of the finale.)
What I'm really interested in is what she does when she gets out, because she doesn't really understand the mechanics of the universe-crossing, and she doesn't have any allies. I actually think it would be interesting if she met up with Peter's mom; I don't think Elizabeth knew about Walternate's plan, and she clearly loves Peter madly – enough, even, to help the woman who loves him, despite Olivia being the enemy. Plus, it'd be another nice continuation of the "parents doing anything for their children," IMO. Regardless, I'm just very excited about next season, because aside from knowing that Olivia will eventually get back and alt!Olivia will be discovered, I have absolutely no clue how that will happen. :D
[On alt!Olivia's inevitable discovery]
I am SO EXCITED about how they'll discover the alt!Olivia. Who will it be? What character trait will be the straw that breaks the suspicious camel's back? (Er.) Will she be mean to Ella? Will Peter be upset by alt!Olivia doing things that make it seem to him she's blowing hot-and-cold and/or was lying just to get him back? WILL SHE TRY TO ASSASSINATE WALTER???
OMG I can't wait.
[On the writers room pwning everyone ever with Fringe's daddy issues, and cackling manaically while they do so]
Neither Walter does anything small, does he? It kinda says something that I never once questioned that the Walternate could be capable of using Peter as an exploding battery to power a universe-destroying machine. Possibly this is because they're both mad scientists with god-complexes, possessed of alarmingly flexible morality, ruthless determination, and the competence to make their plans come to fruition.
I think this may help the writers in their evil plans of father-issues world domination.
[On how Olivia Dunham is THE BEST EVER]
Olivia is SO AWESOME, isn't she? It's kind of funny, honestly, because I think most people I know who've watched this show started off all "I...don't really know what to make of this main character, and I'm not certain whether I like her," and/or "Ugh, I hate how wooden this actress is, but I'll stick around for Joshua Jackson." And then they all come out the other side leading the Olivia Dunham Is Awesome! parade, with pom-poms and a megaphone and giant banners. She's just that cool.
I think one of my favorite minor scenes of hers is the first time they go to that guy in the bookstore and he guesses at her bedside reading material in a kind of insulting generic female-Boston-liberal-in-her-early-30s way. And then she's all "Actually, it's an advanced forensics textbook. I keep it next to my gun. *smirk*" ♥♥♥♥♥
[On William Bell's cryptic remark to Peter, and how Peter is a distressed damsel]
That comment William made was odd, wasn't it? I wonder when it will come back; they're really sneaky about dropping hints and then circling back when you least expect it.
but then I remembered that Peter gets sick with a horrible disease about every three episodes because he's the show's real damsel in distress
HE SO IS. :D I keep making comments to Katie along these lines. And I totally love that he has the utmost faith that Olivia will save him, every time. She even crossed universes to rescue him, how great is that? Peter is very willing to save her, too, but she usually doesn't need it. :)
[On how family makes broken people less broken]
Found-family is one of my bulletproof narrative kinks, and I love how this show blends blood-relations with an extended found-family. The musical episode (which I prefer to think of as the noir!AU episode instead, because the singing was bizarre but the noir stuff was AWESOME, and we got EVERYONE IN FEDORAS, which is my favorite thing ever) was a great one for that, because you have Astrid taking care of Walter while he's babysitting Ella who is getting the world's craziest story from her weird uncle Walter. And then she fixes the sad ending of his story for him. (I ADORE Ella, for the record. The image of her holding that bucket with all her might while Gene eats will never stop being funny.) ♥ Even Peter refers to it as the "odd little family unit we're building" when he thinks Olivia's freaking out about the almost-kiss.
There's this theme about family and caretaking in the show, which you see most explicitly in Peter and Walter's relationship, because he's quite literally in Peter's care. That scene you mentioned with the tracking device punchline in an earlier post is a nice example of the way they walk the line between care, dependence, and independence; family is there to help you, but they can't keep you from making your own mistakes, or it becomes unfair to both sides. You see it in Astrid, who so quietly takes care of the lab and Walter and keeps the trains running on time. You see it in Peter and Olivia's interactions, too; she takes responsibility for the whole world on her shoulders, and generally doesn't need help, but Peter is always careful to be there when she does. She'll never ask for it, but she'll accept it when he offers. It's the kind of family realtionship I have, where you know they're always there for you, but they don't interfere "for your own good," which would piss me right the hell off.
Another note on Ella: I love that they've never gone the predictable and insulting route with Olivia, where in a show like Grey's Anatomy, her relationship with Ella would be all "OMG NOES MAI BILOGICAL CLAWCK IZ TICKIN" and angst about not being married/preggers. Instead, she's totally cool being the World's Best Aunt, and isn't planning to marry for any reason other than love.
[On other random topics :D]
ANYWAY. One of the other things I loved about the finale was the way they framed the conflict between universes with such moral ambiguity. The alternate versions aren't evil alternates in the usual cliched way (well, Walternate is kind of evil for planning to kill his own son, lying to his face about it, and putting Olivia in a cage, but I meant the others moreso); they want to survive just like our universe. They're more desperate, and thus more ruthless, but they're not evil. In fact, it's Walter's fault that their world is ending. He's already paid for his sin almost as much as anyone can without dying – with his sanity and his family – but does that really absolve him? What really makes our universe the more worth saving, aside from the fact that it's ours? It's a fantastically sneaky look at war, and I love that they're sliding the moral dilemma in so nicely under the radar. They even do subtle things like paralleling Olivia's black lingerie from the pilot with alt!Olivia's white. I love it.
My big remaining question from the finale is, WTF is up with the Observers? How the heck did they know about the plan for Peter, and what was with the crazy manuscript? I mean, I know from my time watching Alias that JJ has a Thing for prophetic manuscripts, but still. My current, undeveloped theory is that they're time-traveling aliens (albeit more along the lines of the Tralfamadorians than the Timelords *g*) Bear with me here... Walter made that throwaway joke-that-wasn't about human development being altered and said "My guess is aliens!"; cue everyone looking at each other all "Oh god he's crazy." But it got me thinking – if the entire dimension is threatened, then it's not just Earth that would go down, but the whole universe. So if there are technologically-advanced sentient lifeforms out there, they would surely be invested in the outcome, right? This is about as far as I've come, but I think there's something to it. :)
Thoughts? Counter-theories? Squee about how awesome are Olivia and/or Peter and/or Walter, Astrid, Nina Sharpe, Charlie, etc? :)
ignipes's recent reaction post to the end of Fringe S2, and apparently I had so much to say that I exceeded the comment character limit three times over. So I thought I'd roughly edit it into a post of its own, to share with the rest of you. (And maybe also because the more coherent formatting is good for my soul.)Spoilers for EVERYTHING. :)
[On Olivia-stuck-in-a-cage-in-another-universe at the end of the finale]
In all seriousness, though, that little dark room she was in was toe-curlingly horrifying to me, which I think is partly because I read a long, intense article recently about the effects of solitary confinement (thanks, Charlie Crews). So now, it's not just an lizard brain "small-dark-space" kind of fear, but a "oh god I now know all these statistics about why this is horrible" kind of fear. *shudder*
That said, I'm holding the memory of the time she breaks out by asking her captors pathetically for a glass of water firmly in my mind, along with the image of bb!Olivia huddled safely in the corner of a pyro-blasted room. (If her powers don't play some role in busting her out, I'll eat my hat, especially considering how scared she was at the end of the finale.)
What I'm really interested in is what she does when she gets out, because she doesn't really understand the mechanics of the universe-crossing, and she doesn't have any allies. I actually think it would be interesting if she met up with Peter's mom; I don't think Elizabeth knew about Walternate's plan, and she clearly loves Peter madly – enough, even, to help the woman who loves him, despite Olivia being the enemy. Plus, it'd be another nice continuation of the "parents doing anything for their children," IMO. Regardless, I'm just very excited about next season, because aside from knowing that Olivia will eventually get back and alt!Olivia will be discovered, I have absolutely no clue how that will happen. :D
[On alt!Olivia's inevitable discovery]
I am SO EXCITED about how they'll discover the alt!Olivia. Who will it be? What character trait will be the straw that breaks the suspicious camel's back? (Er.) Will she be mean to Ella? Will Peter be upset by alt!Olivia doing things that make it seem to him she's blowing hot-and-cold and/or was lying just to get him back? WILL SHE TRY TO ASSASSINATE WALTER???
OMG I can't wait.
[On the writers room pwning everyone ever with Fringe's daddy issues, and cackling manaically while they do so]
Neither Walter does anything small, does he? It kinda says something that I never once questioned that the Walternate could be capable of using Peter as an exploding battery to power a universe-destroying machine. Possibly this is because they're both mad scientists with god-complexes, possessed of alarmingly flexible morality, ruthless determination, and the competence to make their plans come to fruition.
I think this may help the writers in their evil plans of father-issues world domination.
[On how Olivia Dunham is THE BEST EVER]
Olivia is SO AWESOME, isn't she? It's kind of funny, honestly, because I think most people I know who've watched this show started off all "I...don't really know what to make of this main character, and I'm not certain whether I like her," and/or "Ugh, I hate how wooden this actress is, but I'll stick around for Joshua Jackson." And then they all come out the other side leading the Olivia Dunham Is Awesome! parade, with pom-poms and a megaphone and giant banners. She's just that cool.
I think one of my favorite minor scenes of hers is the first time they go to that guy in the bookstore and he guesses at her bedside reading material in a kind of insulting generic female-Boston-liberal-in-her-early-30s way. And then she's all "Actually, it's an advanced forensics textbook. I keep it next to my gun. *smirk*" ♥♥♥♥♥
[On William Bell's cryptic remark to Peter, and how Peter is a distressed damsel]
That comment William made was odd, wasn't it? I wonder when it will come back; they're really sneaky about dropping hints and then circling back when you least expect it.
but then I remembered that Peter gets sick with a horrible disease about every three episodes because he's the show's real damsel in distress
HE SO IS. :D I keep making comments to Katie along these lines. And I totally love that he has the utmost faith that Olivia will save him, every time. She even crossed universes to rescue him, how great is that? Peter is very willing to save her, too, but she usually doesn't need it. :)
[On how family makes broken people less broken]
Found-family is one of my bulletproof narrative kinks, and I love how this show blends blood-relations with an extended found-family. The musical episode (which I prefer to think of as the noir!AU episode instead, because the singing was bizarre but the noir stuff was AWESOME, and we got EVERYONE IN FEDORAS, which is my favorite thing ever) was a great one for that, because you have Astrid taking care of Walter while he's babysitting Ella who is getting the world's craziest story from her weird uncle Walter. And then she fixes the sad ending of his story for him. (I ADORE Ella, for the record. The image of her holding that bucket with all her might while Gene eats will never stop being funny.) ♥ Even Peter refers to it as the "odd little family unit we're building" when he thinks Olivia's freaking out about the almost-kiss.
There's this theme about family and caretaking in the show, which you see most explicitly in Peter and Walter's relationship, because he's quite literally in Peter's care. That scene you mentioned with the tracking device punchline in an earlier post is a nice example of the way they walk the line between care, dependence, and independence; family is there to help you, but they can't keep you from making your own mistakes, or it becomes unfair to both sides. You see it in Astrid, who so quietly takes care of the lab and Walter and keeps the trains running on time. You see it in Peter and Olivia's interactions, too; she takes responsibility for the whole world on her shoulders, and generally doesn't need help, but Peter is always careful to be there when she does. She'll never ask for it, but she'll accept it when he offers. It's the kind of family realtionship I have, where you know they're always there for you, but they don't interfere "for your own good," which would piss me right the hell off.
Another note on Ella: I love that they've never gone the predictable and insulting route with Olivia, where in a show like Grey's Anatomy, her relationship with Ella would be all "OMG NOES MAI BILOGICAL CLAWCK IZ TICKIN" and angst about not being married/preggers. Instead, she's totally cool being the World's Best Aunt, and isn't planning to marry for any reason other than love.
[On other random topics :D]
ANYWAY. One of the other things I loved about the finale was the way they framed the conflict between universes with such moral ambiguity. The alternate versions aren't evil alternates in the usual cliched way (well, Walternate is kind of evil for planning to kill his own son, lying to his face about it, and putting Olivia in a cage, but I meant the others moreso); they want to survive just like our universe. They're more desperate, and thus more ruthless, but they're not evil. In fact, it's Walter's fault that their world is ending. He's already paid for his sin almost as much as anyone can without dying – with his sanity and his family – but does that really absolve him? What really makes our universe the more worth saving, aside from the fact that it's ours? It's a fantastically sneaky look at war, and I love that they're sliding the moral dilemma in so nicely under the radar. They even do subtle things like paralleling Olivia's black lingerie from the pilot with alt!Olivia's white. I love it.
My big remaining question from the finale is, WTF is up with the Observers? How the heck did they know about the plan for Peter, and what was with the crazy manuscript? I mean, I know from my time watching Alias that JJ has a Thing for prophetic manuscripts, but still. My current, undeveloped theory is that they're time-traveling aliens (albeit more along the lines of the Tralfamadorians than the Timelords *g*) Bear with me here... Walter made that throwaway joke-that-wasn't about human development being altered and said "My guess is aliens!"; cue everyone looking at each other all "Oh god he's crazy." But it got me thinking – if the entire dimension is threatened, then it's not just Earth that would go down, but the whole universe. So if there are technologically-advanced sentient lifeforms out there, they would surely be invested in the outcome, right? This is about as far as I've come, but I think there's something to it. :)
Thoughts? Counter-theories? Squee about how awesome are Olivia and/or Peter and/or Walter, Astrid, Nina Sharpe, Charlie, etc? :)