"I went to a place to eat. It said 'breakfast at any time.' So I ordered french toast during the Renaissance". --Steven Wright ... If you are a devotee of time travel, check out this song...

Friday, January 27, 2012

Fringe 4.10: Deceit and Future Vision

One of the things I'm really enjoying about this 4th season of Fringe is how every episode in some significant way moves along the central story.  Tonight in 4.10 we get a tender, sad story about a girl who can see bad things slightly or  a little more into the future.  She thinks her visions are unalterable. But Olivia and Peter et al stop a courthouse from blowing up as per her vision, just in time.  They're unable to stop, however, her own death via a stroke, but -

An Eternal Bald Observer told Olivia, at the end of the episode before last, that he saw her death, which will be unavoidable in all time lines.   What does the future-seeing girl see about Olivia?  Not clear, but -

At very least, she has been looked into by Massive Dynamics aka Nina Sharp, whom we last saw at the end of last week's episode, knocking Olivia out, and planning to do something to her unconscious body, which will leave her with a headache.  My guess is install some kind of tracking device.

This week, Olivia is indeed suffering from headaches, and goes to Nina for advice about the girl who can see the future.  She provides none, but shows up to Olivia's place to make her some soup (Nina is the closest person to a mother for Olivia in this reality), and order some medicine for Olivia's headaches.  Likely the last thing that Olivia needs.

Broyles is doing the best he can to look out for Olivia, and so is Peter. but unfortunately Olivia doesn't (yet) feel comfortable enough to be completely truthful with him.  He sees her looking at photos of the EBOs - earlier, she was looking at them with Broyles - and he tries to explain to her what the EBOs do.  Of special interest to Olivia, or course, is can they see the future, like the young doomed heroine in this episode.  Peter explains that they experience all times simultaneously, rather than time travel or see the future and past. (Great nonverbal acting by Joshua Jackson in this scene, by the way, where his body language and facial expressions convey as much as his words.)  But when Peter asks Olivia if one of the Observers has "reached out" to her, she says no.

Peter no doubt sees through that.  It's heart warming to see these two working together.   Olivia's best chance at survival will be Peter.    Her and Peter's ability to stop the girl's visions from coming true is no comfort to her about being able to do anything to stop what the EBO saw from coming true - since he didn't really see it, he experienced it ...

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




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

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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"a Da Vinci-esque thriller" - New York Daily News

"Sierra Waters is sexy as hell" - curled up with a good book




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2 comments:

Mary K. Williams said...

I'm really enjoying this season.

Paul Levinson said...

Me too - it's my favorite season so far.

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