Fringe - "Night of Desirable Objects" (2.02)

The second episode of the new season is a major letdown after the premiere which really disappoints me. I don't understand why, considering the fact that this is only the second episode into the new season, it was decided to air a "stand-alone" episode like this that has absolutely nothing to do with the overarching story, but at the same time, it is an incredibly entertaining episode, and I do have to give it some credit for that. Admittedly, however, throughout some of the episode, I thought that it was doing the big "no-no" in my book and recycling anX-Files idea, but, as I was happy to see, it goes in a much different direction, which I will discuss later in this entry. As I always do, though, I warn you that if you have not seen this episode yet but would like to see it, then please, don't read any further, as this entry does contain a fair amount of spoilers.

"Night of Desirable Objects" opens in a much similar fashion as typical "monster-of-the-week" shows do, such as The X-Files (not that I'm drawing comparisons, because trust me, if you're trying to tell me that the two are very different shows and to therefore stop reaching for comparisons, then you're preaching to the choir) or even House (except a House episode can't exactly be given the title "monster-of-the-week" unless you want to consider whatever the bacteria, virus, etc. of the episode is as a "monster"). It opens with people that we don't know, people that we've never seen before on the show. We don't see Olivia or Peter or Walter or anyone else, just these people, and after the show's title sequence ends, then we see how our beloved team becomes involved in what we see happen before the title sequence began. Like I said, I was very disappointed. There are no shape-shifters (except for a little bit of Charlie's doppelganger), and there is almost nothing relating to the Other Side (again, except for a little bit of Charlie's doppelganger, and also for us seeing a little bit of Olivia's side effects of having crossed over).

Again, this is something that I don't quite appreciate, because after the mythology-infested premiere that we got last week, this didn't give us much to follow up on, and for that reason, I'm not going to talk much about the episode's primary plot line, which involves a man who fused scorpion DNA with the DNA of his unborn son in order to protect it from the mother's Lupus, which would have otherwise attacked the child and killed it. Ultimately, what happened is the baby clawed its way out of its casket and lived underground, attacking and thereby killing its "prey" with a blue liquid which paralyzes it. What I was referring to earlier in regards to my initial fear is that when the paralyzing substance is mentioned, I immediately thought of The X-Files episode 6.21 titled "Field Trip," in which some sort of underground plant life poisons and paralyzes its prey and then devours them while they are in a dream state. Fortunately, it doesn't go down that road, not even close. The road that it does go down involves some pretty interesting stuff, but there are two reasons why it disappointed me, one of which I already talked about.

The other reason why it disappointed me is because it kind of reminded me of "The No-Brainer" last season, because in "The No-Brainer," Paul Dempsey seemingly has no affiliation with ZFT; the computer "virus" which he develops which basically hypnotizes people and then turns their brains into liquid goo is developed, because Dempsey feels that he was wronged when he was fired from his job, so he therefore kills his former boss's loved ones. It was personal and had nothing to do with the show's mythology. However, I forgave that episode, because it needed to be shown that science and technology has become so "out of control" that you don't need to be some criminal mastermind such as a member of ZFT in order to develop something like this; virtually anyone can. Dempsey was able to exact revenge on those close to the man who fired him by using a very technologically advanced weapon, a computer virus that kills, and although it cannot be ruled out, there is no evidence to support a theory that he was affiliated with ZFT.

However, with this episode, even though I suppose you could make that same argument, that argument is going to get old after a while if there are too many episodes like that, but since I'm pretty sure that this was the only one besides "The No-Brainer," I suppose that I can forgive it one more time. I suppose that there does need to be episodes like this occasionally not only to show what I just talked about but also to show that as FBI agents (which I suppose Peter technically is now), the Fringe Division isn't only going to be investigating matters that pertain to ZFT and William Bell, etc. As I just said, science and technology has progressed to a point where it cannot be stopped, and the show does need to show that this applies in the "real world," as well, that your average but smart criminal can accomplish a great deal with science and technology since it is so monstrously out of control.

I do think that the episode delivers some mythology, though. I was really happy to see that Olivia is not out of the hospital, all better for now with what happened to her seemingly off her mind until it's convenient for the writers to have it bother her again like X so frequently did. The fact that she can't remember what happened to her is still weighing her down, and I really like how we see her check out of the hospital, and then at the end, see her seemingly desperate to hunt down answers. This is what I don't understand, though. Why can't she remember meeting William Bell? Now, obviously, that's part of the mythology, and we're not supposed to know at the moment, but that's not what I mean. I might have this wrong, but I seem to recall her remembering going to visit someone before she switched realities, so you would think that she would remember the few days before it happened and therefore remember her obsession with trying to find William Bell and thus put two and two together.

This question goes along with the scene in which Olivia and Nina meet for the first time since her "accident," as Nina suspiciously calls it with a slight hesitation. I was expecting Olivia to say something to the effect of, "What happened to me? You know! You were supposed to be at that restaurant, and you weren't there!" but she didn't, which leads me to believe that she doesn't even remember Nina making the appointment with her, but again, as I said, I could have sworn that she said that she remembers up to when the car "almost" hit her (even though it really did in "our" universe), but maybe that's what I'm getting wrong. Maybe I should watch the scene in the premiere episode during which she first wakes up again, just to make sure. It seems to me like Olivia would remember Nina setting up that meeting and would therefore be suspicious of her.

What really bothers me about Nina in this episode is that she obviously knows who Olivia went to see. She's the one who fulfilled her promise to arrange the meeting, so why isn't she telling her this? Why is she keeping her in the dark, arranging for her to see this Sam Weiss guy when she could just fill her in herself, and who exactly is not a psychologist," which makes me wonder who exactly he is, what he did for Nina ("put me back together" is what Nina says, potentially loosely paraphrased) and what he plans to do for Olivia. What does Nina's cancer have to do with Olivia's "condition," and most importantly, what is Olivia's "condition," and what does Weiss mean when he tells her that she will eventually be experiencing headaches? I wish I had theories for all of these questions to help make this entry a bit more interesting, but I really don't; nothing comes to mind, and this is one of the reasons why Fringe is so amazing; it consistently keeps you guessing.

Walter is behaving a bit suspiciously too. Well, he's behaving a bit more suspiciously than usual, shall we say? He knows something about Olivia, as well, something that he's not telling her. When he tells her that sometimes moving from one reality to another has its consequences, she instantly shows concern, and Walter moves on to another subject, almost as if he feels that he has already said too much, telling her that he is sure that she will be fine, but the look on his face is unmistakable; he is drastically worried, and I would imagine that his worry has something to do with Olivia's strange new "ability" to hear things with extreme precision and volume. I am wondering whether or not he knows that she is experiencing this. That scene near the end in which Olivia is taking a bath, and she hears arguing, traffic outside, a fly in the room and the bubbles in the tub popping, I was starting to become vehemently annoyed and was wondering how she isn't screaming to make it stop; that has to get under your skin.

I don't know if anyone else noticed this either, but even though we see Olivia trying to find answers, she seems a lot more cheery than usual in this episode. She smiles a lot more often, seems a lot more friendlier and warmer with Walter, cracks jokes (such as the "What's your name?" line when the doctor asks her how her short term memory is), etc. She just seems a lot happier, and I'm not sure what to make of it, but I do have one theory. I think that the "real" Olivia is the Olivia that we see at the beginning of the pilot episode when she is all smiles and laughs with John Scott, and then after he "betrays" her and dies, she is crushed, and we see the effects of that trauma for quite some time. I think that she is slowly coming out of that shell and learning that in Peter and Walter, she has friends that will help her pull through when she needs them, especially Peter. I am just so worried, though, because she is going to be torn apart when she finds out about Charlie. He is her partner and ultimately her best friend, and she won't even have a body to mourn.

Next week's episode is called "Fracture," but I can't really say too much about it, because to be completely honest, I don't really know that much about it. The week after "Fracture," however, we will be seeing an episode titled "Momentum Deferred," which was either originally titled "This Is the Night Mail" or "This Is the Night Mail" is the name of the fifth episode, since the first eight episodes have been given titles except for that one, which is strange. All I have to say about "Momentum Deferred" is that I am really looking forward to that episode; it looks like it's going to be mythology-heavy with possibly some real, concrete answers. It really does look like it's going to be epic. It won't be a seemingly unnecessary (but admittedly entertaining) "stand-alone" like this one, to which I give 6 naked mole-babies.

Fringe - "A New Day in the Old Town" (2.01) - Season Premiere

Fringe opens its new season with an amazing premiere, and I honestly think that it is better than the finale last spring, and that's saying a lot because the finale really left a mark on me, despite my utter disappointment that Jones was killed off so dismissively (he had better be back; there is still an alter-Jones, after all). As much as I may love this episode, though, and as epic as it may be, there are definitely problems that I have with it, as well. For starters, when I read a vague synopsis a while back, I was immediately fearful that this would not be very original, but I will discuss more at a later point in regards to that. Like I said, though, for the most part, this really impressed me. I was expecting an excellent season premiere because it's Fringe, but this is even better than I was expecting. Anyway, before I begin discussing the episode, I do warn you that this entry does contain spoilers, so if you haven't seen this yet but would like to see it, then please, do not read any further.

What I mainly like about this episode is the development that we get out of Olivia's character. Anna Torv's acting in this episode is beyond superb; in my opinion, she is right up there with John Noble in this episode. She really impressed me. There are a lot of emotional scenes between her and Peter, and there is a lot of hinting that there will most likely eventually be a bit more than a friendship between them, at least from my perspective, anyway. For example, when Peter and Rachel are talking in the hallway of the hospital when they're under the impression that they're losing Olivia, Rachel tells Peter that "she always liked you," and my interpretation of that was that she meant as more than just a friend. These scenes would definitely not be as emotional, though, without Anna's stunning acting ability. Needless to say, I think that if there were ever anyone saying that Olivia's bland, one-dimensional character throughout the first season is due to Anna Torv's acting, I think that Anna definitely disproved them. She even had the best line of the episode ("Go get that bitch!"), in my opinion, even in comparison to Walter's "I want to see the look on her face when she eats my pudding," and I don't think that that is ever the case in the first season.

There are two scenes that really surprised me in this episode. Firstly, there is the kiss between Nina and Broyles, and I was not expecting that, not even in the slightest. I never, in a million years, would have seen that coming, and I don't think that anyone could have. I don't really know what to think of it, but Nina does say something rather mysterious. After she kisses him, she says, "Do what you always used to do, Phillip; save the day." This was obviously mysterious, because what is she talking about? In what way did he "save the day" for her? I am really hoping that that is explored further later in the season. You see, my theory regarding Nina is that she had a prior relationship with Walter and that she is Peter's mother, and if I turn out to be right about that and she also has had a prior relationship with Broyles, then I suppose that that really complicates things, especially since we don't know if anything happened between her and Bell, either.

The other scene that really surprised me is obviously the ending. Then again, I really shouldn't say obviously, because when I talked about this with some fellow Fringe fans in The Fringe Podcast chat last night, some people said that they found it to be relatively predictable, which surprised me, because it shocked me. Obviously, what I'm talking about is the scene in which it is revealed that the shapeshifting soldier has killed Charlie and is now impersonating him, consequently throwing his body into a furnace. This scene is extremely dark and even disturbing in a way, because I still can't believe Charlie is dead. What is it with J.J.'s shows being condemned to their Charlies dying? Then again, I don't think that Alias's Charlie died. Anyway, Charlie was Olivia's best friend; she trusted him and told him everything, and I am not looking forward to the scene in which she finds out about this. It's really going to break her, which is definitely not what she needs right now.
 

As I said previously, I do have some complaints about the episode, as amazing as I thought it was. For starters, I feel that on some levels, it really did lack a bit of originality, which is something that I feared when I first found out that it would involve a man who could shapeshift. To me, the whole idea of a shapeshifting soldier seems to be a combination of the two primary conflicts in The X-Files, but I'm not sure what to think, because first of all, according to what someone said in The Fringe Podcast chat last night, this is commonly used in science fiction, the concept of the "bad guy" being able to mold his body into any appearance he chooses, and plus, the concept is a bit different from X. With The X-Files, the shapeshifters are alien bounty hunters, and they can willingly become anyone they want to at any time they want to. Apparently, the guy in Fringe needs a victim, so he is more like a "body snatcher," if you will. Still, the similarity kind of bothers me. Then again, it could have been intentional. Jeff Pinkner said shortly before the episode premiered that there would be an X homage, possibly two, in the premiere episode and that it would be "obvious." Obviously, there is the scene near the beginning of the episode in which we see Mulder and Scully on the television, but perhaps, he was talking about this, too.

Something else that disappointed me about this episode is that I was under the impression that Bell was going to be in it. I recently saw a promo in which Olivia asks him for answers, and he says something to the effect of, "It's too late for that, my child." I had a theory very early on in the show that Bell is her biological father or possibly even the stepfather that she shot twice, but I don't think it's the latter, because it seems to me that when she sees him in the season one finale, she would recognize him, even considering that it has been quite a few years. There is definitely, however, some sort of relationship between the two of them, even if it's not biological. Don't forget what he says to her when she visits him in the finale. He says something like, "I have been waiting a very long time for this." Anyway, I really like Bell, even though we only see him for a few seconds in the finale. I'm assuming that what I saw in the clip will be in an episode in the very near future, but I thought that the deal was that Bell was going to be in the finale and the first few episodes of the second season (hopefully more, eventually).

Lastly, I'm not so sure how I feel about this Amy Jessup character. As David Wu (the Fringemunks) said, it seems like her role in the show could be filled by Astrid's character, and I agree with him. Astrid desperately needs some character development, so why push her to the side and bring in a new female character? It just doesn't make any sense to me. My guess is that she was brought in to replace Charlie when the mole is compromised, and this is actually hinted at near the beginning of the episode when Peter is expecting to talk to Charlie and instead gets her, as if she has replaced him. I just feel as if her purpose on the show needs to be made clear quickly, or else I'm honestly not going to feel anything for her anytime soon. One question I still have in my mind even after watching the episode twice is what is going on in the scene at the end where she is seemingly leafing through Fringe Division files on the computer while consulting the Bible; that didn't make any sense to me, and I feel as if I must have missed something. Maybe it's something that wasn't supposed to make any sense?

It is quite obvious to me that Walter is feeling guilty about something. He knows something, quite possibly a lot of somethings, that he's hiding. One way in which I know this is that at the beginning of the episode, it seems as if he knows how to bring Olivia back. He fools with the car a little bit and then voila, Olivia comes flying out of the front window, and while he is fooling with the car, he awkwardly says, "Oh, my" to himself. Additionally, he sees her while she is in the hospital and apologizes to her for something. Plus, we already know that he most likely had something to do with Peter's death at a young age and then either cloned him or brought alter-Peter over to his reality, and he's expressing guilt about that. There is the scene at the beginning when he tells Peter that he is going to make him custard, and when Peter says something like, "I don't like custard; I have never liked custard," Walter responds by saying that he did when he was a young boy but that he had forgotten, and the look on his face after saying that is quite obviously an expression of guilty knowledge. Finally, there is the scene in which Walter is about to present the video of the blonde woman talking about the soldiers who "can look like any one of us," when beforehand, Peter says that Walter has been looking at pictures of Peter as a young boy a lot lately and that he has also been frequently making sure that he's not dead when he's asleep, which is "creepy," and Walter then immediately changes the subject.

All right, so I do have some hopes and expectations for this season, and firstly, I want more Jones. I still can't believe that they killed him off in the season one finale, so I am really hoping that we get to at least see alter-Jones this season. I'm sorry, but Jones is a very cool bad guy, and I'm hoping that we haven't seen the end of him. There is also someone in The Fringe Podcast chat who speculated that these super-soldiers are ZFT, but I really doubt this, and this is why; unless this one particular soldier is rogue (which I doubt, because as Peter and Jessup discuss, soldiers have a mission that they need to carry out, which gives me the impression of a collective motivation), their goals don't add up. If you recall, in episode 1.14, "Ability," Jones tells Olivia that she is very important, and he actually seems somewhat protective of her, which leads me to believe that ZFT's goal is not to kill Olivia but instead to possibly recruit her, unless, of course, Jones is the one who is rogue, which is a lot more plausible.

Secondly, as stated previously, I would really like for Peter's past to be explored further, because I would really like to know exactly what happened to him. He obviously died, and even though I'm sure it was at Walter's hands, we don't know what happened yet. My guess is that he was experimenting on him, since it is heavily hinted at throughout the first season, and the experiment went very terribly wrong. However, something else tells me that it seems as if the writers would be more likely to come up with something more elaborate and more shocking than that, because at this point, I don't think that I'm really discussing anything profound here because I'm pretty sure that this is what just about everyone is thinking. For now, however, I think I have covered just about everything that I wanted to cover. As I said, this episode blows me away, and it gets a well-deserved score of 10 flying olives. Be sure to watch the second episode of the new season next Thursday at the same time, "Night of Desirable Objects."

"The Visitor" (Fringe #6)

Before discussion of this comic begins, I would like to advise those who have not read the Fringe comics but would like to read them that they shouldn't read any further, as this does contain spoilers. This comic takes us closer to the current Fringe time period and, in fact, leads us directly into it, ending with Olivia introducing herself to Walter at St. Claire's. Since the conclusion of the last Walter and Bell story, the two of them have parted ways, Carla Warren has died in the lab fire, and Walter is residing at St. Claire's. This is my favorite comic out of the first comic book series, because we really do learn quite a lot about Walter and his past at St. Claire's, and unlike the other five comics, this comic consists only of this story and does not include a "stand-alone" story. I think that this comic offers insight into "Grey Matters" (2.10) (or the other way around, for that matter, since the comic came first), since someone is trying very hard to get Walter to explain what happened the night that Peter was taken from the Other Side, which, of course, we previously understood as the night that September saved Walter and Peter from the ice water after the two of them ran off the road, only half of which is true, as we now know thanks to "Peter" (2.15).

 

In this comic, Walter is seeing himself at St. Claire's, which is one of two references to "The Equation" (1.08). The question, which is a question that has been asked before, is, is he seeing Walternate, or is his guilty conscience manifesting itself? If it is Walternate, why would he want Walter to resist? Why would he want Walter to fight the procedure being conducted by the unidentified visitor pretending to be an FBI agent? If the visitor is from the Other Side, then it would be logical to assume that Walternate would want Walter to tell the visitor everything that he knows. It would, in fact, be logical to assume that Walternate is the one who sent him here. It could be, however, that the visitor is from this side and that he is trying to find out what Walter did to ensure that it doesn't happen again, or, on the contrary, so that he can do it, in which case it would make perfect sense that Walternate would not want Walter to crack. In this case, it would also be logical to assume that the visitor is ZFT. The other reference to "The Equation" (1.08), of course, is the appearance of Dashiell Kim, who tells Walter that he is still trying to solve his [Dashiell's] equation. 

 

Walter says that he is sixty years old, which means that this comic (most of it, anyway) takes place in 2006, three years before Walter returns to St. Claire's to see Kim about the equation. What is really interesting about the way that the scene in which Walter recalls what happened the night that Peter was taken is that what Walter tells the visitor and what we see happen are not one and the same. Walter tells him that he was able to save himself and Peter, but what we see is September saving them. Therefore, when Walter receives an electrical charge, we assume that he is simply lying about that, but we now know that he was not, that a car didn't go off the road. Walter stole Peter from the Other Side and fell through the ice on foot, because the water sucked up the energy that was required to take Peter. The visitor decides to use a much more invasive, painful procedure, and right before Walter is rescued from being tortured, he sings his usual "lion's den" song, which we typically see him sing when he is under a great amount of duress and is afraid. He is rescued, however, by someone that realizes that the visitor is not an FBI agent, that he is alternate motives (possibly rooted in an alternate reality), but the visitor is able to escape somehow, inexplicably using sunblock lotion in the process. Chances are good that he either somehow returned to the Other Side or he teleported elsewhere, although I haven't a clue what sunblock lotion has to do with either.

 

What I really love about this comic is that it is very heavily rooted in mythology and asks a great deal of questions. Who is the man who visited Walter at St. Claire's, and where does his allegiance lie? Is he from the Other Side, and if not, what does he want, exactly? What does he hope to achieve by knowing what happened that night? Is he ZFT? Do his actions have anything to do with Bell having visited Walter posing as Dr. Simon Paris? Perhaps, this man was working for Bell? What about Walter seeing himself? Is he seeing Walternate, or is he hallucinating due to his guilt? In "The Equation" (1.08), he sees himself (on the other side of the institution, mind you) after reminding Kim that a young boy's life is at stake. Will this ever be explained in the TV series, or are fans simply supposed to be split between the two theories? Lastly, what about the sunblock lotion? Does what the visitor does have anything to do with what Jones does in the first season? Does he teleport, and if so, what does sunblock lotion have to do with it? If he instead returns to the Other Side, how does he do this, and again, what does sunblock lotion have to do with it? There have already been questions asked in the comics that have been touched upon in the TV series (such as, for example, Walter's father having been a Nazi spy), so hopefully, other ones will be, as well. As previously stated, this is the best comic out of the first six, and I give it ten electrical charges.

"It Runs in the Family / Hard Copy" (Fringe #5)

Before discussion of this comic, I would like to warn those who have not read the Fringe comics but would like to read them to not read any further, as this does contain spoilers. The first half of this comic is titled "It Runs in the Family" and picks up precisely where the first half of the third comic, "Best-Laid Plans," leaves off. Walter and Bell have been transported to Germany on April 29, 1945, a mere few days before Hitler's suicide. Walter is trying to explain to his father that he is his son and that he and Bell have been transported back in time, and his father actually believes him, showing him that he has been working on a time machine for Hitler, because Hitler has been intending to alter the course of history. It definitely does make me wonder if the comics take place in the alternate universe, because a time machine having existed in this universe in the 1940s? That is even difficult to believe as far as the Other Side is concerned, but then again, in the sixth comic, Walter is in the mental institution, and I sincerely doubt that we are suddenly switched back to this universe in the last comic. It's just very strange, but it wouldn't be Fringe if it weren't strange. I guess that in the Fringeverse, Hitler's endgame was a time machine, even in this universe. If Hitler was the same person with the same motives on the Other Side, I can't even imagine what he was capable of.

 

Walter says to his father that "I know I can't prove I'm your son." This is odd, because Walter's father's name is Robert Bischoff, so wouldn't Walter assume that the similarity between their last names would suggest something? Hans Froelich was not Bischoff's real last name, and then, of course, when he moved to the U.S., he changed his last name to Bishop. What is odd, though, is that Bischoff doesn't reveal his real name to Walter, and Walter doesn't question the difference between their last names. Perhaps, Bischoff is simply being extra careful with what he said so that he wouldn't blow his cover. This is not to suggest that he doesn't trust Walter or Bell; instead, I think that it is much more likely that he simply doesn't want the wrong person to hear. Walter later asks his father to see to it that a man that helped him and Bell, a man named Levi Berger, survives, but Bischoff says that "I can't do anything that will alter the future, Walter. You know that as well as I do. If I change anything, it could tear the fabric of space-time." In other words, don't steal an alternate version of your son from a parallel universe. It definitely reminds me a lot of LOST, because Bischoff most likely named his son Walter because he already knew that his name was Walter, which means that technically, Walter named himself. You could get a headache trying to decide which came first; it's like a vicious circle.

 

I wonder what Walter's relationship with his father was like. This comic suggests that it was good, and so does the way that Walter usually talks about his father. In "The Bishop Revival" (2.13) (an episode that has a lot of connections to this comic), Walter speaks very highly of him in a tone that strongly suggests that he very much admired him. He seems to be very proud of him. After Walter and Bell make it back to the Boston lab back to their present day, they discover, much to their glee, that Berger survived and now has a dog named Walter, which I find funny and adorable. What I also find funny, hilarious, even, is that Walter is responsible for having sent Hitler back in time to 65 million years ago, where he most likely became lunch for a dinosaur. According to Fringe (assuming that the comics do indeed take place in this universe), Hitler did not commit suicide; that was a cover up, and he was really eaten by dinosaurs. I wonder if Walter will ever tell this story to someone who will believe it on the TV series. I'd really like to see the look on his face as he tells the story as whoever he tells it to most likely thinks that he's crazy, which, for the most part, he is. I really like the first half of this comic. It's entertaining, exciting, funny and action-packed, and the ending definitely provides some laughs.

 

In the second half of this comic (titled "Hard Copy"), a reporter named Michelle (who kind of looks like Jessup) asks if she can investigate Massive Dynamic, since she has done some research of her own and has discovered that the Pattern has a connection to Massive Dynamic. Her boss doesn't allow it, but she receives a call and is asked to come to Massive Dynamic's farm. The polite and sophisticated vocabulary used on the phone sounds very much like Nina, and I definitely did think that it was Nina until we meet who it really is, a woman that looks nothing like Nina who identifies herself as Dr. Crisafi. She identifies herself as the executive director, which means that she must be the executive director of that particular branch. "Most people hear 'Massive Dynamic,' and they think jet engines and computer chips," she says, which I find funny, because based on what we have seen of Massive Dynamic thus far on the TV series, that is what it is. I really like how Crisafi refers to Nina, saying that the cloned meat is perfectly healthy and that Nina Sharp has it flown out to her office in New York regularly; I guess that we know that Nina is not a vegetarian. Massive Dynamic ends up killing Michelle (which I had a feeling it would) and replacing her with a clone, so I guess they really are evil. I enjoyed this half of the comic, as well. I like how it is about Massive Dynamic, and I like the reference to Nina. Overall, I give this comic eight shipments of cloned meat to Nina Sharp.

Fringe - "There's More than One of Everything" (1.20) - Season Finale

I will start off by saying that this finale wasn't quite as good as I was expecting it to be. I remember first seeing "The Road Not Taken" (1.19) and being left absolutely breathless, thinking that that was absolutely amazing, and I remember thinking that the finale was going to be even better, but in my opinion, it isn't. Although I still give it a decent score of 8.5 mysterious coins, a season finale probably isn't as good as it could have been if it doesn't get a perfect score. I will discuss the faults that I had with it, but first, I want to warn those who have never seen Fringe but would like to see it to not read any further, as this does contain spoilers. Anyway, one of the first thoughts that crosses my mind when I watch this episode is why it is that Olivia doesn't understand why Jones' face is bandaged. She should know why it's bandaged. In "Ability" (1.14), she learns that he is massively suffering physically from having teleported out of prison, so it doesn't take a genius to figure out why his face is bandaged, yet she questions as to why his face is bandaged. I don't think that this is a reflection on Olivia's intelligence because we have seen time and time again that she is incredibly smart; I just think that it's inconsistent writing, something that we have unfortunately seen a few times throughout this series. That is one problem that I have with this episode, and I will get into all of the problems that I have with it.

Another problem that I have with this episode is that we discover that Jones simply wants to cross over to exact revenge on Bell because he was an employee of Massive Dynamic, now disgruntled at having been fired. Jones was clever. He was very smart, in fact, so it doesn't seem the least bit believable to me that that's all he wanted. It seems to me like he would have had some sort of darker or more complex agenda. The first season builds up to Jones wanting revenge for having been fired? I can't believe that, and I don't believe that. Speaking of Massive Dynamic, though, I do have quite a bit of speculation to share regarding Nina Sharp. First of all, why does she have such bad teeth in this episode? I just find it odd, because if you look at photographs of Nina Sharp, even recent ones, she has very beautiful teeth, yet in this episode, her teeth seem to be rotting out of her skull. More importantly, though, a question is raised in this episode that to date has yet to be answered. Nina promises Olivia that she will arrange for Olivia and Bell to meet, even after telling Olivia that Bell is in the other universe, so did she talk to Bell with her dinosaur computer and tell him to pull Olivia out of this universe? She had to have been involved somehow, and I am very disappointed with the fact that Olivia never mentions this to Nina throughout the second season.

There is quite a bit about this episode that confuses me, too. I am assuming that Massive Dynamic is not standing where the World Trade Center once stood, so how is it that Olivia moves back and forth between realities in the elevator, with the elevator looking exactly the same? Olivia obviously did not knowingly enter the World Trade Center, since she couldn't have; it doesn't exist on our side anymore, so how did Bell yank her into the World Trade Center? Obviously, she didn't just dimension-hop; she teleported, but why did the elevator look the same? It should have been a completely different elevator. Another aspect of this episode that still confuses me is what exactly happens to someone who uses Walter's teleportation device. In "Ability," Walter tells Astrid that "it does something unthinkable, but it doesn't kill you," yet in this episode, it definitely seems to be killing Jones. He even confirms as much when he says to Olivia that "the teleporter, it may be killing me, but in the meantime, it's made me something rather special." So, his statement raises two questions. First of all, why is it killing him if Walter says that it doesn't kill, and secondly, how has it made him "special"? What exactly had he been capable of? How was he able to blast through his hospital room in "Ability"? Most importantly, how did he acquire the technology to cross dimensions?

Assuming that we will never see him again (since I am keeping in mind that alter-Jones is a possibility), Jones will be missed. Sure, he was a son of a bitch (pardon my French), but he was crafty, and right along with John Noble, I think that Jared Harris deserves an Emmy nomination for his performance as Jones. He brought a lot of charisma to the screen, and I really miss him. I really hope that we haven't seen the last of him, but I have a very unwelcome feeling that we unfortunately have. I am enraged that he was killed off because questions were left unanswered, and he had such potential. Now, this episode leaves us with two major cliffhangers. The first is that Peter Bishop died in 1985, and the second is that Olivia is in the other universe, where the World Trade Center is still standing. I think that the first cliffhanger that was left was much more drastic, and at first, I didn't immediately register the fact that he is from the other universe. My jaw dropped, but I didn't say, "He is from the parallel universe!" I now find that odd, since there are so many clues. For example, in this episode, Walter explains to Peter why he built the door to the Other Side, and he tells him that he figured that he "could take from there what I lost here." I, however, somehow allowed that to pass me by, and while I did consider the possibility that Peter was from the Other Side, I also considered the possibility that he had been cloned, using the fact that Walter had conducted experiments on Peter as a child as supporting evidence.

Walter is really struggling with knowing that Peter is from the Other Side, but this raises questions, too, questions that are still not clear and may never be clear. In this episode, he seems to be just now remembering what happened, so if his memory was so fuzzy, then how is it that he knows everything in such vivid detail in "Peter" (2.15)? Granted, I don't think that what we see in that episode is precisely what he tells Olivia. For example, in the account that we see, Walter identifies alter-Walter as Walternate, but when Bell identifies him as Walternate in "Over There, Part 2" (2.22), Olivia is confused. Also, we see a scene between Nina and Carla Warren, and that obviously isn't Walter's memory, since he wasn't there. However, Walter still seems to remember quite a bit, and I wonder what sparks his memory. I don't really think that he was hiding his knowledge throughout the first season; I think that he sincerely didn't remember. For example, in "The Road Not Taken," he definitely would have recalled what he knew considering the way that Olivia was grilling him, but, in tears, he says that he doesn't remember, and I believe him. Is that why September, despite his saying that he isn't supposed to, got involved and did something to spark Walter's memory? Did taking him to Peter's grave help him remember, and if so, then why was Walter so worried about Peter's medical history at the end of "The Same Old Story" (1.02)? Peter says that he remembers being at the lake house with his mother while Walter worked in the city, but that most likely didn't happen on this side, because otherwise, he probably wouldn't remember that; plus, Walter working in the city while Peter stays at home with his mother sounds more like the Other Side.

Walter tells Peter that the Other Side contains "slightly different versions of ourselves," but from what we have seen in the second season finale, they are very different versions. They have led very different lives and are therefore very different people, but maybe Walter doesn't realize this, or didn't, anyway. Anyway, I find it funny how Peter recognizes that Walter is hiding something, so he asks him what else Walter is hiding, and Walter says, "Lots, I'm sure, but none of it is relevant." That could go one of two ways; either he is outwardly lying, since it is important, or he is implying that he had food or something unimportant like it on his mind. Then, not too long after, is one of my all-time favorite Fringe quotes. At Reiden Lake, Olivia runs into Walter and Peter and asks them what they're doing there, and Walter replies by saying, "We're trying to plug a hole in the universe. What are you doing here?" I find that line so funny because he says it as if plugging a hole in the universe is your everyday, mundane task. Another aspect of this episode that initially bothered me (although I now love Nimoy as Bell and am going to miss him, too) is that although the one and only episode of the official podcast stated about halfway through the first season that an actor was already playing Bell but didn't know it, Nimoy had obviously never been on the series before, which makes me think it was most likely a ploy to draw attention to the wrong place. However, at the time, I was disappointed because I was expecting some major revelation involving a character having hidden his identity. Anyway, I do enjoy this episode, but it simply has some points about which I am not happy, and the first season as a whole, although I think that the second season is much better, is excellent.

Fringe - "The Road Not Taken" (1.19)

What better time to review this episode than shortly after the season 2 finale, "Over There," a two-part epic show? Before I begin discussing this episode, though, I will warn those who have never seen Fringe but would like to see it to not read any further, as this does contain spoilers. I really like the first scene of the episode, since it pays tribute to earlier episodes in the season, such as "In Which We Meet Mr. Jones," "Ability" and "Midnight." A major question that this episode asks is who removed the Ethics Chapter from the ZFT Manual. My theory is that when Walter and Bell wrote the ZFT Manuscript, their intention was for it to exist for good, but someone removed the Ethics Chapter in order to use it for evil, to experiment the effectiveness of science and technology on this side. Anyway, Walter is seen in this episode drinking Slusho, and whenever I see Slusho in this series, I feel the need to say so because for those of you who don't know, Slusho is a fictional drink created by J.J. that is featured in many of his works, including Alias, LOST, Cloverfield, Fringe and Star Trek. There is something that I think poses an even bigger question than who removed the Ethics Chapter from the ZFT Manual. Olivia sees into the Other Side and sees that both of the "twins" (we also have to consider the possibility that they're clones) died instead of one, and here, Susan Pratt's death was due to her having been given Cortexiphan, and Nancy Lewis was a Cortexiphan subject, as well, so since they died on the Other Side from the same cause, does that or does that not confirm that Cortexiphan trials occurred on the Other Side, as well? That is definitely worth thinking about, I think.

As far as Olivia seeing into the Other Side is concerned, many questions are now raised after "Over There" has aired. First of all, in this episode, Olivia sees a Boston building in flames, and back then, we had no idea what that meant. I theorized that since the Other Side is more technologically advanced than this side, perhaps, their technology is destroying their world. Then, I brought up the possibility that efforts on this side to destroy the Other Side were proving fruitful, a theory that I developed after we learn of the Blight in "Grey Matters" (2.10). However, in the finale, we learn that the burning building in this episode as well as the Blight are caused by Quarantines, efforts made by Fringe Division to stop the spread of Soft Spots in the Universe, if I am not mistaken. This doesn't answer everything, though. What causes a Breach? Is a Breach caused by someone trying to cross over, and if so, who was crossing over in this episode when Olivia sees the building on fire? Is it Bell? Is this side using technology against the Other Side like the Other Side is doing with Shapeshifters? In "The Ghost Network" (1.03), we see people on a bus frozen in an amber encasing much like we see outside the Harvard Lab on the Other Side in "Over There," so was what happened on the bus an experiment, and when it worked, it was used against the Other Side?

Secondly, in this episode, alter-Broyles is seen dressed in a white shirt and a tie, much like this Broyles wears, yet in "Over There," he is seen dressed in a short sleeve black shirt and dark pants, much more casual but, at the same time, more militant. Also, the Fringe Division that we see on the Other Side in this episode is very similar to ours, even though in "Over There," we see that Fringe Division ismuch more technologically advanced than Fringe Division on this side. Lastly, we see Scarlie in this episode (why does he have that scar?), and not only does he not question Olivia as to why she has blonde hair instead of red, he isn't bald. I don't know if I should see these observations as continuity errors, though. As far as Fringe Division is concerned, it could be that after the Boston Quarantine, the government supplied Fringe Division with further funding, which led to it being more technological and militant, which could explain alter-Broyles' difference in attire. As far as Scarlie is concerned, it's possible that whatever the reason is for him having to inject himself is also the reason why he shaved his head, or maybe he shaved his head when Fringe Division became more militant. Lastly is Olivia's hair, for which there are a couple of possible explanations. The first is a rather simple one; some people do tend to dye their hair frequently, so perhaps either Altlivia's hair was blonde at the time or Scarlie didn't question her hair being blonde, since he just assumed that she dyed it. The second possibility is that Olivia had actually transferred over as Altlivia, yet we see her as Olivia, kind of like the situation with Nick Lane in "Bad Dreams" (1.17).

I find it odd how Walter just now reveals knowledge of the alternate universe. In "Ability" (1.14), he reads from the ZFT Manual, the part about the alternate universes, as if it is news to him, as if before that moment, he didn't know that the Other Side existed. That begs a question; was he hiding his knowledge all that time, or had he forgotten? In episode 1.10, "Safe," when Walter tells Peter that he nearly died when he was a boy and that he became obsessed with saving him, does he think that he was telling him the truth when he tells him that he miraculously recovered? Did he sincerely not remember until September reminded him by taking him to Peter's grave, or was he simply hiding what he knew? If he had forgotten, then how is it that he seems to remember what happened in such detail in "Peter" (2.15)? Did September seriously help him remember that well? I linked Cortexiphan to this episode very early on, as I did in "Bad Dreams" (1.17), knowing that Olivia had to be experiencing the "dreams" due to her having been exposed to Cortexiphan. In this episode, I had a feeling that her "visions" had something to do with the Cortexiphan trials, and, of course, I turned out to be right. Lewis says to Winters in her voicemail message left to him that she took the tests, which is interesting because when Olivia rescues her from captivity, we see a lightbox in the room, one that is not unlike the one that Olivia is given in "Ability" (1.14).

Speaking of Nancy Lewis, does she have the same ability as Sally Clark, I wonder, the pyro from "Over There, Part 1" (2.21)? I definitely feel the need to mention the cultural references in this episode. Emmanuel Grayson makes a Star Trek reference (which is funny because this episode, if I remember correctly, originally aired the same week that J.J.'s Star Trek film premiered), and Peter mentions "little green men," an X-Files reference. I do find Grayson interesting, though, despite the fact that he thinks that he's Spock (does anyone, I wonder, question the extreme resemblance between Spock and William Bell?). He says that "Massive Dynamic is a cover for all manner of unethical behavior." His sentiments are very similar to those of Hicks in episode 1.09, "The Dreamscape," who says that Massive Dynamic is Hell and that William Bell is the Devil. Anyway, I love Peter's sarcasm directed toward Harris ("Always a pleasure seeing you, sir."), and I am so happy that Harris dies in this episode, which is part of the reason why I rank this episode so high. Olivia tells Lewis to focus on anything, which I find so hilarious, because if she has free reign on anything, then why not Harris? That scene is so epic, when Harris stumbles backward, knowing what is about to happen, and then bursts into flames and explodes. I have never been so happy to see someone die.

How the team discovers that Harris is a member of ZFT annoys me, though. Peter uses a disc of glass from the window, claiming that the glass would have recorded the last sound that was made in the room, which just seems a little bit too far-fetched to me, even for Fringe. Then, after the team successfully captures Lewis screaming and the sound of a number being dialed, Olivia conveniently has an app on her phone which allows the phone to automatically dial a number based on dial tones that the phone hears, an app that she uses. It just seems way too bogus for me for a number of reasons. First of all, does that kind of application even exist, and if it does, who would need that? I suppose that in the rare situation, an FBI Agent could use it, and perhaps, if such an app were to exist, the FBI would supply Olivia with the app, but that's assuming that it could even work; I'm pretty sure that some dial tones make the same sound. Just because of that scene, I want to lower my appreciation for this episode, but I can't because between the heavy investment in the show's mythology, Harris dying, and the scene between Olivia and Walter at the diner near the end of the episode, this episode is one of my favorites, my second favorite of season one (my first being "Ability"). Besides, during this scene, Peter giving Walter the turntable that he made him is very sweet and is memorable. Walter, obviously heartened by Peter's kindness, says, "Thank you, son," and, of course, he then goes on to talk about a napkin holder that Peter made out of popsicle sticks when he was a child, which was "utterly useless," which he finds amusing. The question is, was it this Peter who made it?

As has been previously mentioned, the scene near the end of the episode between Olivia and Walter is so good. That scene is probably the most intense drama that we see during season 1, and even though I totally understand Olivia's frustration, I feel so sorry for and want to hug Walter when he begins to cry, insisting that he can't remember. He tells Olivia that something terrible is coming but that he can't remember what, which we now know is a war that involves shape-shifting soldiers from an alternate universe. What could possibly be more terrible than that? Peter, after Olivia gives up and leaves, comes back from the bathroom and holds Walter's hand, trying to comfort him after seeing him in tears, which is so adorable but heartbreaking. Shortly afterward, Nina makes a trip to Broyles' house and shows him photographs of September, reminding Broyles of what happened the last time that he showed up so often, which, of course, in classic J.J. style, has still not been explained. Walter, when he sees September (after assuming that it was Astrid who walked into the lab, actually calling her Astrid for once) says, "Is it time?" which obviously means that he was expecting September to remind him of something at one point or at least pay him a visit, something into which, at this point, we have gotten a little bit of insight. The episode's final scene is of Nina being shot which is quickly resolved in the finale. I honestly think that this episode is better than the finale, and despite the "window scene," I remember having chills for a good half-hour after it was over, and I give it 9.5 boxes of artificial sugary sweetness.

"Best-Laid Plans / Space Cowboy" (Fringe #4)

To those who have not read the Fringe comic series but would like to read it, please, don't read any further, as this does contain spoilers. The first half of this comic (titled "Best-Laid Plans") is the fourth part of the Walter and Bell series. At the end of the third part in the series, the two of them escaped from the "soap company," and I am assuming that some time has passed since then. Bell is out on a date with a woman named Jill, and he is interrupted by Walter telling him that he needs to get back to the lab as soon as possible, and by the way, I would like to make an observation about the phone with the video feed. In "Peter" (2.15), Walter shows a cell phone to the government in 1985, saying that the technology is from the Other Side, and this comic takes place in the 70s, so is the phone with the video feed from the Other Side? Anyway, much to Bell's dismay, he returns to the lab, only to discover that the U.S. Air Force is there to blackmail the two of them into assisting them with a project; they want them to figure out what this strange machine is, a machine that was located in Argentina six months prior, and finish constructing it. We see that Walter has a cow (which I find hilarious), and we also see Rufus, seemingly a very happy dog who enjoys spending time at the lab. Unfortunately for Walter and Bell, however, Rufus sees donuts, and while they are inside of the machine, Rufus accidentally turns the machine on, leading them to discover that the machine is a time machine and that they have been sent to Germany in the 1940s.

 

This is the comic in which it is discovered that Walter's father was a Nazi, but it is not discovered until the fifth comic that he wasn't a Nazi in the traditional sense but was instead a spy. This is touched upon in "The Bishop Revival" (2.13) which is kind of neat because the glyph on the cover of this comic is the seahorse, Robert Bishop's nickname. I remember being really excited at the end of "What Lies Below" (2.12) seeing the promo for "The Bishop Revival" because I knew that the main purpose of the episode was to reward those who had read the comics. I don't care much for the episode, but I do really appreciate the tie-in to the comics. "Fracture" (2.03) ties into the comics, as well, tying into the second half of comic 1.2, "Strangers on a Train." Anyway, Walter is being his usual self and is introducing himself to people that he doesn't know, saying, "Hello, I am Dr. Walter Bishop." I do find it odd, however, because in this comic, Walter seems to be a little bit more like the Walter that we know and love now, but about ten years after this comic, when we see him in "Peter" (2.15) in 1985, he is almost nothing like the Walter that we now know. The final observation that I would like to make, though, is that there is a gold bird on Hans Froelich (Walter's father)'s desk, which ties into the first half of the first comic, "Like Minds." I can't believe that I didn't notice that bird the first time that I read the comic, but I've noticed it now, so obviously, it is Walter's father that Bell sees in the first comic. 

 

The second half of this comic is titled "Space Cowboy" and is about the death of an astronaut named Raymond Chester. I personally think that he is stupid to agree to anything and sign paperwork before knowing what he is getting himself into; I would never do such a thing, but I am assuming that he trusted his government, which I suppose is honorable, honorable but stupid. In this story, Chester is basically asked to take a drug which he is told will make him more durable in space, doubling his ability to retain oxygen. What happens, however, is that the drugs cause him to be completely out of control. His heart rate and his testosterone level spike, which ultimately cause him to have a heart attack. A couple of months later, a trial is held, but the court can't seem to get any answers out of anyone, and it's not too long before it becomes obvious to us that a cover-up is at work, a conspiracy, especially when, at the end of the story, we see another man signing on to do the same thing. Now, why is the U.S. government giving drugs to astronauts that they know will kill them? That is beyond me, but at any rate, I really don't like this story; it has no connection to the Fringe mythology at all and is not very interesting as far as I'm concerned. I like the Walter and Bell story a lot better (as I usually do), but overall, I give this comic six phones with video feed.

Fringe - "Midnight" (1.18)

Before I begin, I would like to warn those who have never seen Fringe but would like to see it to not read any further because this blog entry does contain spoilers. This is one of the most difficult episodes for me to rate. Sometimes, I'll watch it and really like it, but other times, I'll watch it and won't be so fond of it. Ultimately, I have to give it 7.5 spinal fluid vampires. During my first viewing of this episode, I think that I was wondering if perhaps Valerie Boone was a Cortexiphan subject, but, of course, she is not. Once again, the Observer is very easy to spot. During the club scene near the beginning of the episode, the Observer can be seen at the club. Sometimes, he is really easy to spot, and other times, he is next to impossible to spot. I am unsure, however, as to what the purpose of the Singles Together scene is. It takes up quite a bit of screen-time, yet it doesn't seem to have much of a purpose to move the story along, and it kind of annoys me. I do like the fact that the episode ties into the mythology, since this case is clearly a ZFT case and the ending reveals that Bell has been funding ZFT, but I am not too fond of the whole "spinal fluid vampire" story. This episode is really like a "mythalone," in that a "stand-alone" story ends up tying into the mythology, sort of like "Of Human Action" (2.07) and "White Tulip" (2.17), except "Of Human Action" is an episode that I really like.

I have such a love/hate relationship with this episode. As usual, Walter has a food obsession, and this time, it's shrimp cocktail. Walter relates the image of the exposed spine to shrimp cocktail, and Peter, disgusted, says that shrimp cocktail is one more food that he can add to his list of foods that he will never eat again. Also, Peter notices that something is up with Olivia, and he says that she isn't behaving in her normal chipper self. I posit that this is not the case at all, that Olivia is behaving no differently than she normally does, since she is rarely ever "chipper." I think that Olivia and Peter share some sort of connection that allows for a heightened ability to read each other's emotions. Granted, it could be that Peter is just being sarcastic, but then, how does he determine that something is wrong? Anyway, there is an incredibly memorable quote that comes from Broyles, which is that he can "just about remember when a suspect's being human was a given, not an option," which he says in reference to "Unleashed" (1.16). I also love the scene during which Olivia asks Broyles about his divorce attorney, and just to be a wiseguy, he tells her that he hopes everything works out for Rachel, and when she looks at him as if to ask how he knows, he says, "I pay attention, too, Agent Dunham," which he says in reference to Olivia having noticed that Broyles talks on the phone to his kids but never to his wife.

Astrid also says something pretty memorable in this episode. She tells Peter, "When you finally meet a nice girl, I would avoid bringing her home for as long as possible," which is obviously in reference to the fact that he lives with Walter. Speaking of Walter, though, his conversation with Boone is rather memorable, as well, and sort of reminds me of the conversation that he has with Peck in "White Tulip" (2.17) because both scenes involve conversations between two very intelligent scientists. Boone really confuses me to a great extent, though. What is he doing to that poor dog when he is apprehended, and why? Is it something that ZFT instructed him to do? I also suspect that ZFT told him nothing because first of all, he apparently had never even heard of Jones, and second of all, he obviously didn't know what ZFT's mission was/is. He says that it just tries to show off to other scientists with its scientific knowledge, to create a human nightmare, and based on what we have seen at this point in this series (after the end of the second season), I would say that it's more like ZFT is using this world as a testing ground, seeing those killed as unfortunate but necessary casualties. I think that what we have seen are experiments, ways to ensure the effectiveness of efforts to seriously destabilize the Other Side.

Something that I wonder about Valerie, though, is if she is into English men, because she really seems to be. First, there is the man that picks her up at the bar who clearly has an English accent, and then, there is Nick Boone, her husband, who also has an English accent. I'm just making that probably pointless observation. Anyway, I love how Olivia tells Rachel on the phone that she's going to have to talk to her about Greg a little later since she has to go to a meeting, at which point the camera shows us that she is in an FBI van, a scenario in which she is the only woman; that's quite a meeting. Walter, as usual, is excited to be exposed to such gruesome material. When Olivia and Peter return to the lab with the body that they had just found, Walter says, "Marvelous! You can bring the bodies right this way, gentlemen! We've been expecting you; right over here is fine." He then offers one of the coroners a cookie, which he silently accepts. Then, a bit later, we see Walter very excited about clapping his hands which results in the lights going out, something that he says he ordered from the television (which I find odd, because although he seems able to afford this, he never has money to take a bus). However, something that bothers me about this episode is the dog and the rat, since I strongly believe in animal rights, and I can't stand watching that poor dog, obviously dead, enduring scientific experiments and that poor rat being injected with the substance and then later dying.

The club scene involving Olivia and Peter is great. Peter sort of flirts with a girl that he meets there but then tells her that he is looking for someone with Syphilis, which he is, but obviously, in the context of the scene, his statement is hilarious. This scene is also dominated by "Discipline" by Nine Inch Nails, and I find it funny how whenever I hear Nine Inch Nails, I always know that it's Nine Inch Nails even if I don't know the song. Before I even hear Trent's voice, I identify the beat as Nine Inch Nails; they definitely have a unique sound. Anyway, Peter is totally flirting with Olivia when he is showing off in the car by flashing its lights, and he would look like a complete idiot if we didn't know better. He says to Olivia that it stands to reason that "beneath every cynic, there is a frustrated romantic," which is also a very memorable quote, and, of course, at this point in the series, Olivia has finally confessed her feelings for Peter to Peter. Yet another is Boone's rhetorical question directed toward Walter, "How far would you go for someone you love?" This is obviously foreshadowing Walter having taken Peter from the Other Side, and that is made rather obvious by the look on Walter's face, even though we were not aware of it at the time. Peck, also a very intelligent scientist, goes above and beyond to do something for someone that he loves, and in Boone's case, I can only imagine how badly having spinal fluid removed has to hurt; I am hoping that I will never have to find out.

I remember being shocked by Valerie's ear-piercing scream and thinking, "Was that really necessary?" That has to be the loudest, most intense scream on television ever. Anyway, Boone stays true to his word and tells Olivia everything that he knows (we assume) about ZFT by recording a video, and it is frustrating but not the least bit surprising that we don't see everything that he says in the recording, but it couldn't have been too much more besides what we learn, which is that Bell funds ZFT, because, otherwise, Olivia would have mentioned it to Broyles. I am very surprised, though, that Nina is not directly implicated, since it's looking a lot like Massive Dynamic is involved. As it was just stated, though, Bell is implicated, yet at this point in the series, Bell doesn't come off as the type to cause such terror. I think that ZFT was Walter and Bell's idea, and I think that Walter is the one who wrote the ZFT, a prediction that I make based on the fact that Walternate wrote the ZFT Manuscript on the Other Side, a much more successful, publicized publication. However, I think that ZFT was intended to be used for good, but people like Jones have abused it by ignoring the chapter on Ethics. Anyway, as I said, I'm still not sure what to make of this episode.