"Paul Levinson's It's Real Life is a page-turning exploration into that multiverse known as rock and roll. But it is much more than a marvelous adventure narrated by a master storyteller...it is also an exquisite meditation on the very nature of alternate history." -- Jack Dann, The Fiction Writer's Guide to Alternate History

Friday, February 3, 2012

Fringe 4.11: Alternate Astrid

Another excellent Fringe - 4.11 - tonight, which features Fauxlivia and Alternate Astrid on our side, good Eternal Bald Observer action, and some kind of hint about the origin of the EBOs, or what they are ...

Alternate Astrid was a delight to see - from her first meeting our Astrid in Walter's lab, and throughout the episode.  She's a high-level mathematical genius autistic on the other side, and she's here to learn something more about her life from our Astrid.  Alt-Astrid lost not only her mother as a teenager, as our Astrid did, but just lost her father.  She's conflicted about her condition.  She wonders if the reason her father was emotionally distant from her was because of her and her condition. Our Astrid assures her that her father - our Astrid's father, who is still alive - is cold and distant, so alt-Astrid shouldn't blame herself for her distance from her father.  It's a touching, compassionate gesture - brought home when we meet our Astrid's father at the end of the episode, and see how warm and loving he actually is to his daughter.  Fine acting by Jasika Nicole in both roles, and a touching standalone story.

And on another track, we get an interesting piece of the continuing story, too.   We meet a man - a savior, or an angel - who can see past, present, and future, and makes it his business to euthanize people who will soon against all odds die terrible deaths.  Sound a little familiar?  Well, not too long ago, we heard Peter explaining the EBOs to Olivia - that they inhabit past, present, and future - and they're like some sort of guardian angels, too, aren't they ...

And, sure enough, this new angel lives (and dies) by Reiden Lake - the very lake that Walter and young Peter once crossed, from which Peter emerged when he came back this season, etc.  And sure enough, the EBOs are on hand - two of them, the head guy and another one, not September.  And they recover something that September lost, and the other EBO tells the head EBO that September did not follow orders regarding Peter, and let him return to this world ...

Interesting stuff ... a few more pieces moved slightly forward ... and I loved that Nissan Leaf that Olivia and Peter were driving.  It may well be my next car, after I finished with my Prius...

Hey, check out my essay The Return of 1950s Science Fiction in Fringe in this new anthology






audio podcast: review of Fringe 4.11


See also Fringe Returns for Season 4: Almost with Peter
... Fringe 4.2: Better and Worse Selves ... Fringe 4.3: Sanity and Son ... Fringe 4.4: Peter's Back, Ectoplasm, and McLuhan ... Fringe 4.5: Double Return ... Fringe 4.6: Time Slips ... Fringe 4.7: The Invisible Man ... Fringe 4.8: The Ramifications of Transformed Alternate Realities ... Fringe 4.9: Elizabeth ... Fringe 4.10: Deceit and Future Vision

See also Fringe 3.1: The Other Olivia ... Fringe 3.2: Bad Olivia and Peter ... Fringe 3.3: Our/Their Olivia on the Other Side ... Fringe 3.5: Back from Hiatus, Back from the Amber ... Fringe 3.7: Two Universes Still Nearing Collision ... Fringe 3.8: Long Voyages Home ... Fringe 3.10: The Return of the Eternal Bald Observers ... Flowers for Fringenon in Fringe 3.11 ... Fringe 3.12: The Wrong Coffee  ... Fringe 3.13: Alternate Fringe ... Fringe 3.14: Amber Here ... Fringe 3.15: Young Peter and Olivia ... Fringe 3.16: Walter and Yoko ... Fringe 3.17: Bell, Olivia, Lee, and the Cow ... Fringe 3.18: Clever Walternate ... Fringe 3.19 meets Inception, The Walking Dead, Tron ... Fringe 3.20: Countdown to Season 3 Finale 1 of 3 ... Fringe 3.21:  Ben Frankin, Rimbaldi, and the Future ... Fringe Season 3 Finale: Here's What Happened ... Death Not Death in Fringe 
 
See also reviews of Season 2: Top Notch Return of Fringe Second Season ... Fringe 2.2 and The Mole People ... Fringe 2.3 and the Human Body as Bomb ... Fringe 2.4 Unfolds and Takes Wing ... Fringe 2.5: Peter in Alternate Reality and Wi-Fi for the Mind ... A Different Stripe of Fringe in 2.6 ... The Kid Who Changed Minds in Fringe 2.7 ... Fringe 2.8: The Eternal Bald Observers ... Fringe 2.9: Walter's Journey ... Fringe 2.10: Walter's Brain, Harry Potter, and Flowers for Algernon ...  New Fringe on Monday Night: In Alternate Universe? ... Fringe 2.12: Classic Science Fiction Chiante ... Fringe 2.13: "I Can't Let Peter Die Again" ... Fringe 2.14: Walter's Health, Books, and Father ... Fringe 2.15: I'll Take 'Manhatan' ... Fringe 2.16: Peter's Story ... Fringe 2.17: Will Olivia Tell Peter? ... Fringe 2.18: Strangeness on a Train ... Fringe 2.19: Two Plus Infinity ... Fringe the Noir Musical ... Fringe 2.21: Bring on the Alternates ... Fringe 2.22:  Tin Soldiers and Nixon Coming ... Fringe Season 2 Finale: The Switch

See also reviews of Season One Fringe Begins ... Fringe 2 and 3: The Anthology Tightrope ... 4: The Eternal Bald Observer ... 7: A Bullet Can Scramble a Dead Brain's Transmission ... 8. Heroic Walter and Apple Through Steel ... 9. Razor-Tipped Butterflies of the Mind ... 10. Shattered Pieces Come Together Through Space and Times ... 11. A Traitor, a Crimimal, and a Lunatic ... 12, 13, 14: Fringe and Teleportation ... 15: Fringe is Back with Feral Child, Pheromones, and Bald Men ... 17. Fringe in New York, with Oliva as Her Suspect ... 18. Heroes and Villains across Fringe ... Stephen King, Arthur C. Clarke, and Star Trek in Penultimate Fringe ... Fringe Alternate Reality Finale: Science Fiction At Its Best


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The Plot to Save Socrates

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1 comment:

giantsizegeek said...

It was a very good episode. I can't wait to watch Fringe each Friday night. I thought the Guardian Angel serial killer was an ingenious idea. I got a chill everytime he quoted what would happen to the person he targeted.

"The doctor said my cancer is 95% treatable."

"You are one of the 5%."

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