Fringe - "Nothing as It Seems" (4.16)


I can't say that I'm absolutely crazy about this episode because while it does have its redeeming qualities, all of which I will discuss, it just didn't make the headway that I was expecting it would make, and it wasn't as good as I had expected it to be. When I saw from the promo that Porcuman was back, I was immensely excited because first of all, I really love "The Transformation" (1.13), and secondly, it meant that even more effort was being made to pay off those who had been sticking with the series since the beginning, and don't get me wrong; I do feel that there was a lot of resolution. We now have confirmation (even though I think that I more or less already knew) that Porcuman from season 1 was Jones' doing, and we have a much better understanding of why. I can't fully explain it, but there were just aspects of the episode that were off, and I thought that Porcuman having wings was a bit silly, even though I do fully understand its purpose within the storyline, especially now that the season is over and we have seen the finale, but I won't really talk about that until I review the finale. I do know some people that immensely enjoyed this episode, and although I can't say that I'm one of them, I don't hate it, either. I ultimately gave it 7 Jeepers Creepers, so I guess that I would ultimately consider it an average episode.

The very beginning of the episode is nearly identical. Some shots are slightly different, and there is dialogue that is cut out, but it is nearly identical. People are wearing the same clothing and everything, and it looks like a lot of the footage was directly lifted from "The Transformation" (1.13), which I'm sure saved a little bit of money. However, it doesn't happen the same way. Marshall Bowman (which, I reiterate, is a combination of Marshall Flinkman and Carrie Bowman, an Alias couple) doesn't transform on the plane and instead transforms in a bathroom near an air marshal's office. Peter says that it stands to reason that some of what happened during his timeline would also happen in this timeline, but why didn't it happen three years ago in this timeline? How did Peter affect that change? I hate that no asks that, and it isn't even addressed. I have a theory that it could have to do with who we now know was working with Jones, but I'll hold off and talk about that when I review the finale. I wonder if Olivia remembers the woman that she speaks to near the beginning of the episode? We know her from "Olivia" (3.01), the season 3 premiere, because the Redverse version of her tried to convince Olivia that her believing that she was from another universe was delusional. She doesn't tell the woman that she remembers a different version of her, and she doesn't mention her to anyone else, but then, Olivia might not.

We learn from the scene between Olivia and Broyles that follows the scene between her and the psychiatrist that Rachel and Greg never divorced and proceeded to have a second child named Eddy, and Olivia says that Eddy was their grandfather's name. A lot of people seemed to be troubled by this because they couldn't see where Peter would have had anything to do with this, but I totally disagree, and with all due respect, people who can't make that connection weren't paying close enough attention to season 1. During Rachel's struggles with Greg, she was spending a lot of time with Peter. They were talking on the phone and what not, and you could easily see that it was making Olivia jealous. There was also the scene during which Peter held Ella on his lap, and Rachel said something to the effect of, "You would be really good at throwing parties." To me, it's obvious that she saw a good man in Peter and saw that she could do better, so she didn't make any effort to work through whatever problems existed between her and Greg. In this timeline, she didn't have Peter, and so, she probably didn't feel like she had an alternative, an option. That's my opinion, but as I said, it's fairly obvious to me. Speaking of parties, we see Walter give a whole bunch of gifts that he had collected for Peter over the years, pretending that he was still alive, and although I would have preferred that it had actually been Peter's birthday, that is a really touching scene, and you can tell that Peter is deeply heart-warmed. I love how there is a porn magazine and an old bottle of beer; you just have to love Walter, honestly, and I say that like a broken record.

In Walter's usual manner, he tells Lincoln that he may be infected by the "Porcuman" virus so nonchalantly, and the food of choice, which he makes for Lincoln, for this episode is peanut butter and bacon sandwiches, which sounds utterly revolting in my opinion. First of all, I don't eat bacon, anyway, because I'm vegetarian, but with peanut butter? That is disgusting. I feel so sorry for Lincoln during this episode. He doesn't feel like he belongs, and that's obvious that that's why he has been a little cold toward Peter lately. Peter suddenly showed up out of nowhere and stole his spotlight, in more ways than one, and we see just how rejected Lincoln feels when Walter sees Olivia, Peter, and Astrid working together happily and comments how much he loves having a family while Lincoln sits in the sidelines. Walter tries to comfort him, telling him that he has never met a better match for chess, but Lincoln doesn't seem to feel too comforted, and of course, this all plays out in later episodes, but again, I will refrain from jumping ahead. The following episode, "Everything in Its Right Place" (4.17), is a great Lincoln-centric episode, and I'm looking forward to reviewing it. When I showed the episode to my brother Cody, he really loved that episode, and yeah, I have to give it credit. It has a lot of action, shows us somewhat of a relatable shapeshifter that we're more apt to like, and, of course, like I said, we get insight into Lincoln, and it's interesting how the two Lincolns don't really come to any conclusion as to why they're so different. I know that some people said that Redverse Lincoln had Redverse Olivia in his life, and I think that that might be hitting the nail directly on the head.

Seeing Markham in this episode (as pictured in the photo included with this post) was really nice, since, unless I'm mistaken, we haven't seen him since "6995 kHz" (3.06). It's so funny how even though he has never met Peter or Olivia before, he is still hitting on Olivia, and, as Olivia says, Olivia is still taken. I love how when we first encounter him, she tells him what she's reading (he is the book expert, after all) in response to his attempt to guess what's on her nightside, and she says, "I keep it next to my gun." We learn a lot from this scene, such as more about what Jones' endgame is. It would appear that part of what he's trying to do is create an advanced breed of life; he certainly has a God complex much worse than Walter's ever was, and this is foreshadowed in "A Better Human Being" (4.13), something that I didn't fully notice until my second time watching that episode. Of course, again, we now have a clear understanding of how that fits with the Westfield incident and what not, but again. I will wait. Again, I thought that Porcuman having wings was kind of silly, but at the same time, it was definitely unexpected, and my jaw did drop. That was definitely insane. I love how when Olivia finally fills Broyles in on the fact that she disobeyed orders and assisted in the case even though she was told not to, she says that Broyles told her that he would deal with her later, and I love that because I can actually hear him saying that in his deep, stern voice, but I'm happy that he changed his mind about her and decided to allow her to stay on board. The very ending of the episode, the very last scene, that is, was really cool because it made sense of episodes that we had previously regarded as "stand-alone" episodes, such as "Unleashed" (1.16) and "Snakehead" (2.09), and the ship sailing away with the creatures on board really reminded me of the "Vienen" (8.18) episode of The X-Files. Again, "Nothing as It Seems" is not a terrible episode, but it's nothing special either; it's average.

Fringe - "A Short Story About Love" (4.15)


"A Short Story About Love" is an episode for which I was really excited because I (like most everyone, I'd imagine) have been itching to find out what the Beacon is since the fourth episode of the first season ("The Arrival"), and finally, we find out what it is. Those of us who saw the promo at the end of "The End of All Things" (4.14) knew that the Beacon would make an appearance, and I was really excited. I can't say that I'm wholly satisfied, and that is for a number of reasons; firstly, I'm guessing I was expecting a bit more of an expansive answer. For example, if the Beacon was now used to trap September outside of the universe, what was its purpose back during the first season? If it had the same purpose, who were the Observers locking outside the universe? What does it mean to be locked outside the universe? Does that mean outside of all universes, or just the Blueverse? I would think all universes, because they don't seem to have any problem crossing between universes, at least not the Blueverse and the Redverse. Does it mean back to when the Observers come from? Where was September during his entrapment? Was he out of phase? Who is Mosley, and why did he have an interest in the Beacon? What is the science behind the Beacon? There are so many unanswered questions still remaining.

To some extent, I'm not sure why I hadn't seen that coming because as much as I love Fringe (obviously), that does tend to be the case; if and when we get answers, they are through foggy glass, not an open doorway through which we can easily walk. The answers are a bit unclear and don't always explain everything, and I don't know if that's because they want us to make some inferences on our own, but at any rate, I'd be glad to give a couple of examples other than the Beacon. We had been wondering who Sam Weiss for a very long time, and when we finally did, it was disappointing; the explanation doesn't explain why he and Nina had a strange connection or how Bell knew him, and it certainly doesn't explain what he meant when he told Olivia that he's older and taller than he appears (and it's annoying that she never questioned him about that). Unfortunately, I don't think that we're ever going to see him again, either, but we'll have to wait to see; it's plausible. Another example, of course, is the Observers, but I went into pretty detailed discussion regarding that during my last review ("The End of All Things"), so I won't bore you again. Is it possible that "The Arrival" is directly linked to this episode, that Mosley was hired by the Observers to prevent September from freeing himself? I don't think so, but I'm just throwing it out there.

I love how at the beginning of the episode, Nina refers t0 Meana as "that woman" as if she is a stranger. Don't get me wrong; she essentially is, but I still find it funny, as it's certainly not that often that we have the opportunity to refer to different versions of ourselves as strangers, and, of course, as is reasonable, Olivia hasn't always been too warm and fuzzy with her double, either. I love how, during this scene, Olivia says that she just wishes that time would move a little bit faster, and Nina says, "Well, that's a coincidence because we just found a patent on that last week." It's unclear as to whether or not that's true or if she just said it as a joke, but either way, it's pretty clear that she was trying to be funny, which isn't like the Nina that we used to know. It is now that Nina realizes that Olivia is losing her memories of what she and Nina used to have, and she seems to be scared, unwilling to let Olivia go; I'm still not sure if there is an ulterior motive, but if so, she's definitely doing a good job of concealing the truth because she seems to genuinely love and care about Olivia. On a somewhat similar note, we're definitely seeing Walter becoming more like his old self, as it is clear that he is developing fatherly feelings for Peter. "All I care about is what he [September]'s done to you," he says to Peter. A few months ago, that wouldn't have mattered as much to him; he'd be more invested in the mystery.

That leads me into a question, one that I'm wondering if anyone else has asked. Why does Walter seem to trust that September isn't leading Peter into some sort of trap? Peter is a grown man and doesn't need Walter's permission to go to the address afforded him, anyway, but Walter doesn't even voice any protest, and it was my understanding that Walter didn't know the Observers in this timeline. Are his memories starting to resurface, too, and he's not telling anyone? The character Tommy/Timmy (I can't remember which is correct) makes a comeback from the premiere episode, and since I can't remember if it's Tommy or Timmy (I think that it's Timmy), I'm not sure if Walter gets his name wrong (but I think that he does, since he calls him Tommy). We also see Walter watching Scooby-Doo, which is a really neat reference to our beloved Fringe team investigating "weird" cases. I love the scene during which Walter has Astrid smell the scent of roadkill, especially because of Astrid's response; then, it gets even better when, later, Peter wonders whether he should smell, and Astrid says, "Uh-uh." My last observation directly involving Walter is whether or not he and Walternate gave up on the Machine because that seems to be the case; Peter tells September that there is nothing that anyone can do for him and consequently begs him for help, so if they gave up on trying, why didn't we see them tell him that?

When Lincoln says to Olivia that if she needs anything, he's there and she says that she knows, I was totally reminded of the scene from "The Dreamscape" (1.09) during which there is nearly identical dialogue between Peter and Olivia, and I'm willing to bet that that is identical. We've all seen what road Peter and Olivia have gone down, so maybe, the writers are trying to show us that Lincoln truly loves Olivia in a way similar to the way that Peter loved her then, meaning that had Olivia and Lincoln been allowed to pursue a relationship without the interference of Peter, they would have had something special, too. Near the end of the episode, Olivia waits at the wrong woman's house for the killer, and she listens as the woman explains that she and her husband didn't love each other, that they were ultimately just best friends, and this seems to awaken Olivia. Initially, I was wondering what she learned from this, but she tells Nina that she doesn't want to be like that, doesn't want to give up on love, which makes perfect sense to me. "I could see myself in her," she says. "I didn't like who I was." It's kind of funny because when she started by saying that she met a woman today, I thought that she was going to say that she had fallen in love with a woman; that's totally how it sounds. Nina looks like she is going to cry, and it's actually kind of heartbreaking.

I'm not sure if I totally understand the "case of the week" of the episode, though. Michael Massee (whom I know best from FlashForward and Rizzoli & Isles) guest stars as Anson Carr, a serial killer who seems to be severely burned, due to his appearance. He targets straight couples, seemingly in an effort to secure the love of the woman by using the pheromones of the man, ultimately killing both, but I don't understand why. We can infer that he lost a woman to whom he was very close (due to the photograph at which he looks), but why does he kill the woman? Is it because he wants to end the pain that is undoubtedly similar to what he feels? At first, I was wondering how he wasn't scaring the living daylights out of his female victims, especially since he is so disfigured, but then realized that it was probably because the pheromones of their loved ones being on him. When I first discovered that Michael Massee was going to be on the series, the article that informed me said that he would be a very compelling baddie of the week, but I can't say that I agree, as I'm not very invested in him and don't care about him at all, which is another reason why this episode didn't live up to everything that I was expecting. When I saw that Beacon in the promo, I was expecting a killer of an episode, but it's just a letdown in a lot of ways.

I'm also annoyed because this episode would have been the perfect opportunity to feature a LGBT character, and that kind of opportunity was once again wasted; this episode is about love, and it only focuses on heterosexual love, doesn't even mention homosexuality; in fact, Walter speaks of attraction as if only male-female attraction exists, and no one cares to ask how homosexuality factors into his explanation. A lot of people were creeped out when Carr tells Olivia that he can smell that she's in love, and yes, Massee was really creepy on Rizzoli & Isles, too. "We're not meant to be alone," he says to her. "It's every human being's right to know love." I love this quote, but I can't understand why he would tear couples apart if he values love so much. He says that he didn't just do it for himself, and I can't make sense of that, and I fear that maybe it's because I don't fully understand just what he was doing. The very last two scenes are absolutely beautiful, when Peter frees September, they talk, and Peter then reunites with Olivia as they run toward each other and embrace after September ensures Peter that "she is your Olivia," that he has been home all along, which is pretty much what I have been saying all season. September tells Peter that he suspects that the people that he loves couldn't let go of him and he couldn't let go of them and that that's why he wasn't erased, but I'm wondering why he doesn't seem to be considering the fact that he didn't hit the switch on that machine near the beginning of the season; that is why he was locked away, after all. At any rate, I'm very happy to have heard the "Man in the Mirror" theme, and I've said it before, and I'll say it again - Chris Tilton is a genius. Overall, I give this short story about love 7.5 love-stricken Hoyts.

"Ghost Writer" (Part 1) (Beyond the Fringe Chapter #5A)


I was really excited about this two-part comic because it was designed by Jhonen Vasquez, and to those of you who don't know who he is, he created one of the best animated series of all time - Invader Zim, something that becomes rather apparent when you take a look at some of the artwork (see example below). I was very excited by the fact that Vasquez is apparently a cortexifan. Perhaps, we will see more Fringe comics by him in the future? In this comic, Nina's arm is writing messages beyond her control, and she therefore consults Walter for help solving the problem. Walter theorizes that deja-vu is caused by neural messages being sent out by people that are alive and also says that this is also to account for why some people claim to see and hear ghosts. This is quite interesting, considering the fact that on the TV series, he explains deja-vu by saying that when we think that we've been somewhere before, it's because we actually have in another universe (an explanation that, in my opinion, makes a lot more sense). However, as becomes apparent by part 2 of this comic, this is not the Blueverse, so I digress. I thought that since the title doesn't start with something such as "Imagine If…" or "What If…" that maybe, this is the Blueverse, but it's not; it can't be. With that being said, however, I am curious to know how much of what happens in this universe also happened in the Blueverse on the TV series.

For example, we learn from this comic that Bell built Nina's arm with his own genetic material, not Nina's, which is why she is receiving messages through it, and this is quite interesting to me because it makes me wonder if the same is true in the Blueverse. Did Blueverse Bell also equip Blueverse Nina's arm with his genetic material? If so, has this kind of situation, Nina's arm sending her messages, happened in the Blueverse, too? Walter, more or less, seems to be his normal self, unaffected by anything that most human beings would deem as disgusting. In fact, after conducting something incredibly gruesome, he has his mind on food, wanting yogurt-covered pretzels, which he secures from a vending machine. It's interesting to see the apparently closely-knit relationship between Walter and Nina, and I think that on some levels, we have seen that on the TV series, as well. For example, during the episode titled "The Cure" (1.06), Nina tells Peter that she and Peter used to spend a great deal of time together when he was a child. Then, during "Of Human Action" (2.07), Nina, simply by touching him, calms a very nervous, worried Walter, so we know that they have history. Near the very end of this comic, Nina says, "It's William texting me through my arm?" which is a funny analogy but, as we learn from part 2, not quite accurate. This is a somewhat decent, not overly exciting, and I give it 6.5 yogurt-covered pretzels.

Fringe: "Brown Betty" [theLOSTpassenger TV Soundtrack]


[Thanks to @frozenaura on Twitter for the cover art.]
  1. J.J. Abrams Fringe Main Title Theme
  2. Chris Tilton Brown Betty Suite
  3. Yes Roundabout
  4. Frank Sinatra For Once in My Life
  5. Tears for Fears Head over Heels
  6. Rachel Luttrell Let's Do It
  7. Kerli The Creationist
  8. Brian Minshew The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys
  9. Lady Gaga Brown Eyes
  10. The Cranberries Dreams
  11. Marilyn Monroe I'm Gonna File My Claim
  12. Django Reinhardt Blue Moon
  13. Alanis Morissette Let's Do It (Let's Fall in Love)
  14. New Found Glory Head over Heels
  15. Frank Sinatra Two Hearts Are Better than One
  16. The Fringemunks Epis. 2.19: Brown Betty
*Download links are no longer being provided; please contact me via thelostpassenger@live.com if you wish to secure a download.*
DISCLAIMER: I do not own rights to ANY of the music that is featured on this compilation, and I do not claim to. I am not profiting from this compilation by any means and am using this music merely to represent Fringe, episode 2.19, titled "Brown Betty." No copyright infringement intended. All rights are reserved.

SPECIAL THANKS TO (You all know what for): @frozenaura on Twitter, David Wu, Darrell and Clint of the Fringe Podcast, FOX and J.J. Abrams, as well as everyone else who is responsible for providing us with this masterpiece of a TV series. This list is not in any particular order, as this project would not be possible without any one of your contributions.