Fringe

[shipperx]

Ooh! nice.

I mean, not nice. Of all MOTW, serial killers are the ones I cannot handle very well (there's a reason I don't watch Dexter. Vampires, werewolves, witches, dragons, Medieval douchebags, I can take, because they don't exist. Serial killers freak me out.) But.... you knew there was a but.

But, I really liked the fact that this episode took advantage of Fringe's current situation and let us enjoy it, see the deeper implications of it, and drop a thematic hint about the season along the way.

So back to the age old question of nature or nurture. What makes you what you are? Is it what is in you? What you experience? Your history? What you learn along the way? What if you'd zigged left instead of right. Would you be someone different from who you are? And what if someone who was important in your life hadn't been there. Would you be different then?

Thinky-thoughts! I love it when shows provoke those.

Taking advantage of the merged dual universes, Fringe must help Alt_Fringe, and Olivia must help Alt_Livia in an investigation 'on the other side' (Where gas is apparently $.99 a gallon. Man, I guess two wars really did drive up the gas price in this world).

There's a serial killer on the loose on the other side and Alt_Livia wants to use Olivia's world version of the guy to find the killer. In this world, the guy is a guy who studies serial killers rather than having become one. So as Olivia deals with Alt_Livia. Serial killer studier meets his serial killer doppleganger. Alt_Livia discovers Olivia's abused past (and gets a head up about Olivia's eidetic memory) while Serial Killer and Non-Serial killer discover that they share the same past... up to a point. Only non-serial killer had someone in his childhood connect to him, love him, and teach him to empathize. Non-serial killer is hardly the picture of mental health but unlike serial killer... he has empathy.

Neat way to explore the shows premise about the near-identical worlds where different choices were made along the way. Olivia and Alt_Livia have been resenting the hell out of one another (Alt_Livia clearly thinks that Olivia is a tight-ass and Olivia must resent the hell out of Alt_Livia's ability to be flippant about things. Oh, and poor Alt_Lincoln Lee. Alt_livia still has her fiance. :( But, heh with Walter calling blue-verse's Lincoln "Kennedy.")

At any rate, by the end, non-Serial killer has his memory erased of the woman who helped him as a child. He no longer remembers her. He no longer remembers the compassion he was shown. Will he now become a serial killer?

This is where clearly the season arc chose what the answer would be, because though non-serial killer no longer remembers the woman, he remembers what she taught him. Peter? Is that you?

Peter still has influence on these people... even though they never knew he was there.

Speaking of Peter, looks like he got erased from the timeline but quite possibly not erased in all timelines because the voice speaking to Walter seemed like it was in the here and now (and elsewhere). I wonder if he's like three seconds into the future or something. He's there... but it's like he's a ghost.

Next week looks more Walter-centric.

Comments

[nutmeg3.livejournal.com]

I loved this episode. I thought it was incredibly sad, both for the professor and what he lost, but also for the killer, whose motivation was so sad.

Love your icon, btw. It's so perfect for this show.

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

I thought it was a cool episode that worked in itself and also told us some stuff about the direction of the season. Love it when that stuff comes together.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Skipping the spoilers on Fringe, because I haven't finished S2 yet, so am DVRing S4.

Of all MOTW, serial killers are the ones I cannot handle very well (there's a reason I don't watch Dexter. Vampires, werewolves, witches, dragons, Medieval douchebags, I can take, because they don't exist. Serial killers freak me out.) But.... you knew there was a but.

Am oddly becoming somewhat the same way. Although Dexter doesn't bug me, mostly because it doesn't seem real to me - very satirical, basically a serial killer of serial killers - feels a bit like Angel or Batman, but without the metaphor and a better sense of humor. Even the violence has a sort of satirical over the top edge in that show.

But the police procedurals - like Criminal Minds, Luthor, CSI, etc - I just can't watch any more. Criminal Minds gave me nightmares.

Starting to get used to Fringe's creepy Monsters of the Week...but it is the one thing about the show that I keep struggling with.

So back to the age old question of nature or nurture. What makes you what you are? Is it what is in you? What you experience? Your history? What you learn along the way? What if you'd zigged left instead of right. Would you be someone different from who you are? And what if someone who was important in your life hadn't been there. Would you be different then?

I've come to the conclusion it's both or all of the above. Not one or the other. I think that's the flaw in human thinking, we think it's either/or instead of all of the above too much of the time. ;-)

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

The answer in the story is somewhat unclear (other than the general acceptance that sociopathy is often linked with abuse).

But then it's also tied into the larger theme of where the big story arc is going (they've been doing that a lot in the dialog in last week and this week. They have characters mention something and the characters think they're talking about what's going on to them right then and the viewers know more of the story and can connect it to other things. So when an answer to one question is provided at the end of the episode, it's hard to escape that the answer is being dictated by the seasonal arc. :)

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Hard to tell at this point, only five-six episodes into season 2. ;-)
(Please don't spoil me.) ;-)