Fringe: Concentrate & Ask Again
Feb. 5th, 2011 05:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccatoriaOkay, I have a Lot Of Thoughts about this. Basically, haters may wish to bookmark this post so that when the show goes totally off the rails and fails worse than BSG, Lost, and that Dallas Shower Thing combined, they can come back and mock me mercilessly.
However. I honestly think they're setting up these pins to knock them down. Here is why:
Okay, so yes, I will put this out there off the bat. If the central conflict of the show is "But which Olivia will Peter choooooose? THE FATE OF THE WORLD DEPENDS ON IT!", I will storm off in a huff and fight![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
chaila43 for custody of Olivia.
However, I think that despite the blunt statements in the last few minutes of the show, the reality of the show's trajectory is much less clear.
To start with, there's the simple fact that we should consider the source. The S2 finale featured the (confirmed by the executive producers to be genuine) easter egg anagram that revealed, "Don't Trust Sam Weiss". This is the first time we've seen him since then and the first piece of information he's imparted to us. Why should we trust it?
However, I don't actually believe he's just out and out lying. I think there's a lot, or even total (as he sees it) truth to his statements. I'm inclined to believe - given the messages of reciprocity in the last episode - that the machine and Peter will work together to create an effect and what that effect will be will depend on what frame of mind Peter's in - his desires, conscious or otherwise - the "frequency" he's vibrating at. I would also note in passing that while mentioning that it's a machine of creation and destruction, Weiss only details the destructive option which I find suspicious in itself.
It's scientific bullshit, but that's fine, Fringe has always been scientifically bullshit.
Now, again, I'm not a fan of the way Peter was helicoptered in to be so SUPER SPECIAL that the doomsday device responds only to him, nor am I a fan of the more centralised romance between him and Olivia. But what Sam Weiss says about the machine destroying the universe with the Olivia Peter doesn't choose in it, while rather grossly blunt, isn't anything the show hasn't already implied.
As soon as you have Peter being the only one who can control a universe destroying doomsday device, it's going to come down to his choice about which universe, if any, he destroys. As soon as you introduce a love triangle with a girl in each universe, that's going to affect his decision.
The scene between Nina and Weiss simply vocalised the gross thing Fringe had already done.
So the obvious reason that that's a bad thing is that by vocalising it, it removes ambiguity, the possibility of alternate readings, and the hope of a change in narrative direction.
But I think those are only issues if we accept the vocalisation as the voice of the show, and quite aside from our instruction not to trust Sam Weiss, there are a number of other reasons I think everything other than that scene sent quite a different message.
A comparable scene would be the end of Firefly with two Observers discussing the fact that Walter will be able to allow Peter to die when it ultimately becomes necessary. The Observers, like Weiss, represent quasi-trustworthy help/hindering mystical characters with their own agendas who seem to have a lot more knowledge of the past and future than we do. Speaking among themselves, they had no reason to lie - this is obviously what they believe must happen. And yet, whether one is against the idea of Peter's death or for it, I doubt many of us assumed the show was confirming to us what would happen. Rather it struck a note of destiny versus choice - about whether this was inevitable or another way was possible.
I see no reason to take Weiss statement as anything other than a similar piece of information. We now know that if Peter uses the machine, he will save the universe with the person he loves most in it, and it will kill him. Frankly I think all this was fairly evident thematically if not in the nuts and bolts of the plot, in the S2 finale.
But okay, the next question is why I'm so convinced that this scenario is unlikely to play out this way.
Bluntly, I think that resolving the story by simply destroying the "other" universe (whichever one that is), isn't where this tale is headed. It's simplistic and goes against all the efforts to humanise the other side and define the position of wanting to save both - denying that they need to be at war in the first place. I do think that there's some narrative gold to be mined from the notion that they can't find another solution, that what Walter did was irreparable, etc. I don't want some wonderful solution to appear because they tried and so deserved a break. But ultimately I think that given the way the story has unfolded so far, simply letting Peter get into that machine and let rip and then yay, good, we managed to convince him to fall in love with the right girl, isn't it nice that she wears skirts these days, etc., etc., is spectacularly unimpressive. Like on a level I really think would represent a basic misunderstanding of everything they've been writing so far. One of the reasons I fear the Peter/Olivia ship so much is that I feel the writers HAVE been trying to push it in places, and I simply haven't been convinced. But I don't feel they've pushed anything like, "and then sadly, Peter's gonna have to destroy the Altverse after all..." on us, in fact, the opposite.
So okay, that establishes why I don't think the actual resolution will be making sure Peter Loves Our Olivia, because I don't believe the solution will be Peter destroying a universe.
So, fine, the NEXT thing to talk about is that even if that's not what happens in the end, if that's what everyone THINKS will happen, might it not still be super icky and awkward?
Well, yes, it might. Given that the most dramatic narrative thing they can do having given this dilemma is have Peter choose Fauxlivia, I can't promise that they won't then have the big dramatic endgame be Olivia Winning Him Back From That Skanky Ho.
But...I don't actually think that's how it's gonna go down. For the following reasons:
If Peter chooses Olivia then...that's that, where does the narrative go except to "OH GOOD, HE WILL USE THE WEAPON THE RIGHT WAY". If he chooses Fauxlivia then obviously the show isn't ACTUALLY going to blow up our world, so there MUST be a workaround/alternate choice available. For reasons already stated, I think this is how it's going to go down. Which in itself proves Weiss wrong, and it's not all about Peter's Dick.
But the main reason I think it's not about Peter's Dick is the way the show still, so clearly, views Olivia as the main character, and I think it was the way they foregrounded her in this episode that really helped assure me of that and convince me that whereever the show's going, even if it has more shippiness than I'd like, they aren't going to take away Olivia's agency.
Because that's the really gross part of this, right? The idea that it's down to Peter to choose her and nothing at all to do with her?
I find it continually interesting that on the face of it, this "twist" is all about taking power from Olivia and giving it to Peter, but in execution, Peter's the one who's been reduced to a reactive ingredient.
Weiss' terminology made it sound much more like the machine would respond to Peter's state of mind and subconscious desires rather than his conscious choices - this episode also posited Olivia as his conscious choice and Fauxlivia as his subconscious choice. The machine causes Peter to change personality, to relinquish a certain amount of control over his own actions, and now, apparently, is going to take his life to enact a result he doesn't even have the ability to effect on a conscious level.
We can, perhaps, parallel Fauxlivia/Peter with Olivia/John Scott, in that he thought she was tricking him and later it turned out to be more than a trick. In doing so, the lack of Peter's POV in this storyline is startling. We see him only through Olivia. And we continue to be invited to take her side.
I continue to be disappointed that there's quite so much romance at stake in the story of Olivia returning to her own world, though to a degree that makes sense given what Fauxlivia got up to, but I do believe that it's simply the biggest example of what she's lost because it's most currently prominent, not the only thing. She speaks about her own experiences being the other her to Nina, and good lord, that was heartbreaking, to hear her speak with experience about how the other her is better. She knows that the other her had an easier smile not just because Peter told her, but because she had that once and now it's gone. Olivia knows, now, what Walter took from her, and it was THAT part of her storyline that was front and centre this week too with her storyline with the Simon the Cortexikid.
Since her return, Olivia has remained the action heroine, has remained the primary POV character (with Walter second), and has had an expansive exploration of her own feelings. Peter got an episode where crazy space tech took over his brain and the reveal and nature of the story meant we STILL didn't get a chance to see what he was thinking.
Now, I'm wary of saying that because she's still the POV character the show can't fail. I mean, fuck, Twilight is written from Bella's perspective.
I'm also aware that sometimes there's this pressure to make excuses for female characters not having agency, like, to say that if we can put in effort and see it, it still "counts"? That we shouldn't criticise until there's a critical mass of fail? And I don't want to do that here.
But also, for all Sam Weiss saying, THE FATE OF THE UNIVERSE DEPENDS ON PETER'S DICK!, sounds like it's going to be all about Peter's Dick and not about what Olivia(s) want(s) at all, that statement is bizarrely at odds with what's actually happening on screen.
Which is to say that, aside from the fact that the metaplot may be less about her with the introduction of the doomsday device, Olivia's personal agency hasn't been reduced at all. Similarly, I've been waiting for two years for the show to give Peter more agency instead of having him function as a reactive object, and while they've made him a much more (and annoyingly) important reactive object, he still doesn't have any control over his own destiny or choices or fate or anything, really.
What this episode did was show us that yeah, actually, Peter really did fall for Fauxlivia, even if he's trying to convince himself otherwise.
That final shot of Olivia, reading the note from Simon, understanding that he still has feelings for Fauxlivia...
Call me a hopeless optimist, but as of right now, I really am of the opinion that this isn't going to be the story of which girl Peter chooses: we already know who he's trying to choose, and consciously it's Olivia; there's no real tension if Olivia turns around and agrees to this. I think this is going to be the story of Olivia not consenting to be chosen. And the story of Olivia finding another way when Peter chooses the other side.
It's tricky because what I'm basically saying is, I believe they're setting up this horrible cliche in order to knock it down, but if they don't, OH GOD WHAT A HORRIBLE CLICHE. I don't really blame anyone for not agreeing with me either. But for whatever reason, it's where I'm at right now.
I think that by vocalising the gross thing they'd already implied, they're now in a position to address it, and subvert it.
Like I said, bookmark this post for future mocking. ;)
IN OTHER NEWS, Nina, once again, proves she can work out ANYTHING if given five minutes alone with it in her office. Plus, that CIA dude? "And we both know that what Nina Sharp wants, she gets." SHOT OF BROYLES. SHOT OF TOTALLY SELF-SATISIFED NINA. Oh yeah. You go girl.
ALSO, they have a mindreader read Peter's mind and tell Olivia and the note DOESN'T include a, "P.S. he also totally murdered a bunch of shapeshifters!"?!!
PLUS, okay a lot of my enjoyment of this episode probably stemmed from the fact that before the last five minutes it was A WHOLE EPISODE OF OLIVIA HAVING MANPAIN and being all, allied with the other Cortexikid and speaking about them as a group she was a part of, and being an action hero, and having sharpshooting skillz, and generally being awesome and Olivia-ish. Because while I'm glad she's never done it before, and I'm not looking for her to do it again, by season three, show, you have earned the right to put your leading lady in a SUPERFANCY DRESS with 1950S KILLER LIPSTICK and a PISTOL WITH A SILENCER. AND THEN HAVE HER TAKE BITCHES DOWN LIKE A GODDAMN HERO.
However. I honestly think they're setting up these pins to knock them down. Here is why:
Okay, so yes, I will put this out there off the bat. If the central conflict of the show is "But which Olivia will Peter choooooose? THE FATE OF THE WORLD DEPENDS ON IT!", I will storm off in a huff and fight
chaila43 for custody of Olivia. However, I think that despite the blunt statements in the last few minutes of the show, the reality of the show's trajectory is much less clear.
To start with, there's the simple fact that we should consider the source. The S2 finale featured the (confirmed by the executive producers to be genuine) easter egg anagram that revealed, "Don't Trust Sam Weiss". This is the first time we've seen him since then and the first piece of information he's imparted to us. Why should we trust it?
However, I don't actually believe he's just out and out lying. I think there's a lot, or even total (as he sees it) truth to his statements. I'm inclined to believe - given the messages of reciprocity in the last episode - that the machine and Peter will work together to create an effect and what that effect will be will depend on what frame of mind Peter's in - his desires, conscious or otherwise - the "frequency" he's vibrating at. I would also note in passing that while mentioning that it's a machine of creation and destruction, Weiss only details the destructive option which I find suspicious in itself.
It's scientific bullshit, but that's fine, Fringe has always been scientifically bullshit.
Now, again, I'm not a fan of the way Peter was helicoptered in to be so SUPER SPECIAL that the doomsday device responds only to him, nor am I a fan of the more centralised romance between him and Olivia. But what Sam Weiss says about the machine destroying the universe with the Olivia Peter doesn't choose in it, while rather grossly blunt, isn't anything the show hasn't already implied.
As soon as you have Peter being the only one who can control a universe destroying doomsday device, it's going to come down to his choice about which universe, if any, he destroys. As soon as you introduce a love triangle with a girl in each universe, that's going to affect his decision.
The scene between Nina and Weiss simply vocalised the gross thing Fringe had already done.
So the obvious reason that that's a bad thing is that by vocalising it, it removes ambiguity, the possibility of alternate readings, and the hope of a change in narrative direction.
But I think those are only issues if we accept the vocalisation as the voice of the show, and quite aside from our instruction not to trust Sam Weiss, there are a number of other reasons I think everything other than that scene sent quite a different message.
A comparable scene would be the end of Firefly with two Observers discussing the fact that Walter will be able to allow Peter to die when it ultimately becomes necessary. The Observers, like Weiss, represent quasi-trustworthy help/hindering mystical characters with their own agendas who seem to have a lot more knowledge of the past and future than we do. Speaking among themselves, they had no reason to lie - this is obviously what they believe must happen. And yet, whether one is against the idea of Peter's death or for it, I doubt many of us assumed the show was confirming to us what would happen. Rather it struck a note of destiny versus choice - about whether this was inevitable or another way was possible.
I see no reason to take Weiss statement as anything other than a similar piece of information. We now know that if Peter uses the machine, he will save the universe with the person he loves most in it, and it will kill him. Frankly I think all this was fairly evident thematically if not in the nuts and bolts of the plot, in the S2 finale.
But okay, the next question is why I'm so convinced that this scenario is unlikely to play out this way.
Bluntly, I think that resolving the story by simply destroying the "other" universe (whichever one that is), isn't where this tale is headed. It's simplistic and goes against all the efforts to humanise the other side and define the position of wanting to save both - denying that they need to be at war in the first place. I do think that there's some narrative gold to be mined from the notion that they can't find another solution, that what Walter did was irreparable, etc. I don't want some wonderful solution to appear because they tried and so deserved a break. But ultimately I think that given the way the story has unfolded so far, simply letting Peter get into that machine and let rip and then yay, good, we managed to convince him to fall in love with the right girl, isn't it nice that she wears skirts these days, etc., etc., is spectacularly unimpressive. Like on a level I really think would represent a basic misunderstanding of everything they've been writing so far. One of the reasons I fear the Peter/Olivia ship so much is that I feel the writers HAVE been trying to push it in places, and I simply haven't been convinced. But I don't feel they've pushed anything like, "and then sadly, Peter's gonna have to destroy the Altverse after all..." on us, in fact, the opposite.
So okay, that establishes why I don't think the actual resolution will be making sure Peter Loves Our Olivia, because I don't believe the solution will be Peter destroying a universe.
So, fine, the NEXT thing to talk about is that even if that's not what happens in the end, if that's what everyone THINKS will happen, might it not still be super icky and awkward?
Well, yes, it might. Given that the most dramatic narrative thing they can do having given this dilemma is have Peter choose Fauxlivia, I can't promise that they won't then have the big dramatic endgame be Olivia Winning Him Back From That Skanky Ho.
But...I don't actually think that's how it's gonna go down. For the following reasons:
If Peter chooses Olivia then...that's that, where does the narrative go except to "OH GOOD, HE WILL USE THE WEAPON THE RIGHT WAY". If he chooses Fauxlivia then obviously the show isn't ACTUALLY going to blow up our world, so there MUST be a workaround/alternate choice available. For reasons already stated, I think this is how it's going to go down. Which in itself proves Weiss wrong, and it's not all about Peter's Dick.
But the main reason I think it's not about Peter's Dick is the way the show still, so clearly, views Olivia as the main character, and I think it was the way they foregrounded her in this episode that really helped assure me of that and convince me that whereever the show's going, even if it has more shippiness than I'd like, they aren't going to take away Olivia's agency.
Because that's the really gross part of this, right? The idea that it's down to Peter to choose her and nothing at all to do with her?
I find it continually interesting that on the face of it, this "twist" is all about taking power from Olivia and giving it to Peter, but in execution, Peter's the one who's been reduced to a reactive ingredient.
Weiss' terminology made it sound much more like the machine would respond to Peter's state of mind and subconscious desires rather than his conscious choices - this episode also posited Olivia as his conscious choice and Fauxlivia as his subconscious choice. The machine causes Peter to change personality, to relinquish a certain amount of control over his own actions, and now, apparently, is going to take his life to enact a result he doesn't even have the ability to effect on a conscious level.
We can, perhaps, parallel Fauxlivia/Peter with Olivia/John Scott, in that he thought she was tricking him and later it turned out to be more than a trick. In doing so, the lack of Peter's POV in this storyline is startling. We see him only through Olivia. And we continue to be invited to take her side.
I continue to be disappointed that there's quite so much romance at stake in the story of Olivia returning to her own world, though to a degree that makes sense given what Fauxlivia got up to, but I do believe that it's simply the biggest example of what she's lost because it's most currently prominent, not the only thing. She speaks about her own experiences being the other her to Nina, and good lord, that was heartbreaking, to hear her speak with experience about how the other her is better. She knows that the other her had an easier smile not just because Peter told her, but because she had that once and now it's gone. Olivia knows, now, what Walter took from her, and it was THAT part of her storyline that was front and centre this week too with her storyline with the Simon the Cortexikid.
Since her return, Olivia has remained the action heroine, has remained the primary POV character (with Walter second), and has had an expansive exploration of her own feelings. Peter got an episode where crazy space tech took over his brain and the reveal and nature of the story meant we STILL didn't get a chance to see what he was thinking.
Now, I'm wary of saying that because she's still the POV character the show can't fail. I mean, fuck, Twilight is written from Bella's perspective.
I'm also aware that sometimes there's this pressure to make excuses for female characters not having agency, like, to say that if we can put in effort and see it, it still "counts"? That we shouldn't criticise until there's a critical mass of fail? And I don't want to do that here.
But also, for all Sam Weiss saying, THE FATE OF THE UNIVERSE DEPENDS ON PETER'S DICK!, sounds like it's going to be all about Peter's Dick and not about what Olivia(s) want(s) at all, that statement is bizarrely at odds with what's actually happening on screen.
Which is to say that, aside from the fact that the metaplot may be less about her with the introduction of the doomsday device, Olivia's personal agency hasn't been reduced at all. Similarly, I've been waiting for two years for the show to give Peter more agency instead of having him function as a reactive object, and while they've made him a much more (and annoyingly) important reactive object, he still doesn't have any control over his own destiny or choices or fate or anything, really.
What this episode did was show us that yeah, actually, Peter really did fall for Fauxlivia, even if he's trying to convince himself otherwise.
That final shot of Olivia, reading the note from Simon, understanding that he still has feelings for Fauxlivia...
Call me a hopeless optimist, but as of right now, I really am of the opinion that this isn't going to be the story of which girl Peter chooses: we already know who he's trying to choose, and consciously it's Olivia; there's no real tension if Olivia turns around and agrees to this. I think this is going to be the story of Olivia not consenting to be chosen. And the story of Olivia finding another way when Peter chooses the other side.
It's tricky because what I'm basically saying is, I believe they're setting up this horrible cliche in order to knock it down, but if they don't, OH GOD WHAT A HORRIBLE CLICHE. I don't really blame anyone for not agreeing with me either. But for whatever reason, it's where I'm at right now.
I think that by vocalising the gross thing they'd already implied, they're now in a position to address it, and subvert it.
Like I said, bookmark this post for future mocking. ;)
IN OTHER NEWS, Nina, once again, proves she can work out ANYTHING if given five minutes alone with it in her office. Plus, that CIA dude? "And we both know that what Nina Sharp wants, she gets." SHOT OF BROYLES. SHOT OF TOTALLY SELF-SATISIFED NINA. Oh yeah. You go girl.
ALSO, they have a mindreader read Peter's mind and tell Olivia and the note DOESN'T include a, "P.S. he also totally murdered a bunch of shapeshifters!"?!!
PLUS, okay a lot of my enjoyment of this episode probably stemmed from the fact that before the last five minutes it was A WHOLE EPISODE OF OLIVIA HAVING MANPAIN and being all, allied with the other Cortexikid and speaking about them as a group she was a part of, and being an action hero, and having sharpshooting skillz, and generally being awesome and Olivia-ish. Because while I'm glad she's never done it before, and I'm not looking for her to do it again, by season three, show, you have earned the right to put your leading lady in a SUPERFANCY DRESS with 1950S KILLER LIPSTICK and a PISTOL WITH A SILENCER. AND THEN HAVE HER TAKE BITCHES DOWN LIKE A GODDAMN HERO.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2011-02-05 06:53 pm (UTC)As I start season 2, I will just consider this a preview. :-)
And I like that tag even though I don't know what it means! I know, I know one shouldn't be mean to Peter. But the tag amuses me nonetheless. :-)
*bookmarks post*
no subject
Date: 2011-02-06 11:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-24 03:35 pm (UTC)Wow, I hadn't thought of the episode from the perspective of Peter's dick, but I suppose you're right. I didn't think much about it because in DVD/Hulu watching you just move right to the next episode.
I think this is going to be the story of Olivia not consenting to be chosen.
That would be amazing. This is why the show is interesting to watch now. Forget Peter's dick, it's about Olivia owning her own vagina, and thank you show if the narrative goes there. I don't like alt!Livia very much but she should own her own too.
What I remember most is the end of this episode. She looked so gorgeous! Gorgeous and took them all DOWN. And didn't lose a single civilian because she's awesome like that. :-D
no subject
Date: 2011-02-05 06:59 pm (UTC)WHAT.
...................
I think I'm glad I didn't watch much at all of the Peter-powered weapon episodes so I don't understand how it work and didn't have to see that coming.
Clearly what will actually happen is Peter will choose Olivia and Olivia will refuse to be chosen. Then she'll call Sarah Connor and be like, destruction of the world is afoot! Again! And Sarah will be like, it's okay, honey, you can fix it, let me help you load your gun. And then Olivia will save the world. And then Olivia and Sarah will do laundry and make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in the kitchen and be domestic lesbians. And make out. And snuggle in bed.
This will be our case when we go to court for custody of Olivia. No judge would turn us down.
no subject
Date: 2011-02-07 12:13 am (UTC)I LOVE YOUR CASE. I COMPLETELY TRUST YOUR LEGAL OPINION AND INSIST YOU FILE THE PAPERWORK IMMEDIATELY!
no subject
Date: 2011-02-24 03:38 pm (UTC)HEE. I like the show in your brain. ;-)
no subject
Date: 2011-02-24 11:23 pm (UTC)More people should watch it. :D
COMPLETELY OFF TOPIC
Date: 2011-02-05 07:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-05 08:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-07 12:20 am (UTC)So yeah, I don't think that Weiss' declaration is so much ooc for Fringe, because it often spouts out a random idea that may or may not be creepy, but I think it's ooc for Fringe for it to go down in that actual way rather than getting...weird.
*hopes with you*
no subject
Date: 2011-02-07 01:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-05 09:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-07 12:29 am (UTC)Honestly, as I said above, I don't really think it's a plot twist that's Sekritly Awesome or something, I think the show is trying to milk drahmah out of a cliche I'd rather it not touch with a ten foot pole. I just think it's...a slightly cheesy plot twist that isn't going to actually inform the Entire Rest of the Show and in not being the end game, whether they intended it or not, the show may end up rather entertainingly accidentally knocking down its own inadvertent sexism? Or something?
I know you only recently started watching the show, so I don't know what you're experience of it was, but I've been watching since season one, and pretty much since they blew me away with the one-two punch of her self-rescue in 1x11 and then superpowers in 1x14, I've been constantly confused by how this show mixes the awesome, awesome agency and power of Olivia and the incredibly complex treatment of Walter and his culpability in the current situations, with a feeling like it's always on this...hair thin wire where it's going to fall down into Fail.
Like, the reveal of where Peter came from was amazing, but then I was worried that he'd take over the show, but then he didn't and it was all about Olivia and Walter angsting about where he came from.
And then he was the Chosen Weapon Boy, and I thought he'd take over the show, but then he didn't and it was all about Olivia and Fauxlivia.
And now he's the one who has to Choose A Girl...and at this point I'm like...eh, I will just wait and see what the hell happens.
It's done it with other stuff too, like pulling the cliche of the damaged magic girl, when they revealed what Walter did to her, away from the cliche and into interesting territory with the way Olivia handled it.
Or the way I was totally DNW when they brainwashed Olivia at the end of 3x01 and was like, WTF, I don't want two Fauxlivias! But then it turned into this amazing tale of her own resilience and power and she rescued herself and now is in a unique position to understand just how much Walter did take from her.
It's all very confusing and I am Throwing My Hands Up and just enjoying the Good Bits until that's not possible anymore. SO THERE! ;)
no subject
Date: 2011-02-07 03:17 am (UTC)I love this reading. I was forewarned, but I'm much less ragey if we can have a storyline where Peter may be a world-destroying serial killer, but NO ONE IS SURPRISED WHEN OLIVIA SAVES THE WHOLE DAMN WORLD(S) BY HERSELF. Because they've always been so good at Olivia herself, and otherwise that shit with Sam Weiss is even more bananas.
The Simon stuff was fantastic, I hope we find out in the future Olivia visits him occasionally for a Cortexikids support group.
And OMG, NINA. I love her so. <3
(You know in your moodtheme it sort of looks like River is so SMOKING HOT she's on fire, right? :D)
no subject
Date: 2011-02-08 12:32 am (UTC)I love that you're talking about Peter's (lack of) agency, because that's an oddity that has always fascinated me about Fringe. For a character who is so objectively central, who the plot turns on, Peter is generally this complete void of what usually makes a character. He has no agency; nothing he does moves the plot (well, we'll see what happens in the future). He's also defined almost entirely through his relationships with other people -- Olivia, Walter, and now Alt!Olivia. There is no Peter-as-Peter; we never get to see inside of his head. Even if the writers go in the direction that no one wants it to go, and make the rest of S3 a competition for Peter's affections, it's still based on the conceit of Peter as an object being manipulated by subjects (who have been developed much more richly than he has). It's all just very ... strange, and it amuses me.
no subject
Date: 2011-02-13 04:51 pm (UTC)Can't tell you how disconcerting it was not to have Fringe in my Top Three Shows in flashing lights, but the past couple of episodes put such a dampener on the show due to the Great Big Looming Romance with Bonus Peter's Penis Is The Pillar Of Creation. First off, I've enjoyed how Peter and Olivia's relationship has evolved in such an organic and slow pace, but lately it's felt like they're pushing it through, and it's just not working for me.
I do feel Sam was pulling stuff out of his ass, or just telling Nina what he needed to tell her. Why would he go through such efforts concealing he's the author and everything that he knows, only to blurt it out the second he's mildly confronted. (yeah, ok it's Nina, but still :p)
I can't see the show wiping away the alterverse. Looking past the fact that killing Charlie twice is nothing short of asking for death threats, the connections they've set up with the people over there stand in the way. The writer's couldn't have planned to just sweep Broyles' sacrifice under the rug, and Lincoln, Astrid and Henry are all dear to us by now(as well as Bolivia to some of us). I'm just hoping they manage to turn this around in a way that's satisfactory, and that keeps Olivia at the center and in charge.
I keep trying not to worry, but TV has conditioned me! Thanks for writing this post and giving my gloom some much needed light. *clings some more*