Is Fringe’s Olivia Hallucinating in ‘Dreamscape’?

FRINGE: Olivia (Anna Torv, L) interrogates Nina Sharp (Blair Brown, R) at Massive Dynamic headquarters in the FRINGE episode "The Dreamscape." ©2008 Fox Broadcasting Co. Cr: Barbara Nitke/FOX

In “Dreamscape,” the Fringe team must solve the mystery of the killer butterflies.  But the case is secondary to what is really going on in the lives of the team.

The case itself was pretty easily solved Mark, the Massive Dynamics exec, actually hallucinated the attack of the butterflies which led to his fall.  And since he was selling MD secrets and his accomplice is also killed by a hallucination, it is easy to see who is behind the murders.  However, proving it – especially since Broyles seemed to be protecting Massive Dynamics – is another thing entirely.

I’m really glad that they brought Massive Dynamics back into the mix.  I was beginning to wonder if I hallucinated their involvement.

Ironically, Walter seemed very lucid – except for his obsession with coffee yogurt – in this episode while Olivia seems to be losing her grip on reality.

I’m really glad that when she came to Walter demanding to go into the tank a second time in this episode that Walter said no.  I think it shows 1) how desperate she has become and 2) how far Walter has come to recognize that it wasn’t safe.

But in Olivia’s defense, I would be freaked out if my computer started turning itself on and sending me email from dead people.

I’m failing miserably at the Where’s The Observer game.  I didn’t seem him last night.  But if my theory from last week is correct and he can glamour to look like others, I wonder if the John Scotts that Olivia keeps seeing are him.

And I have a feeling that Peter is about to be in a lot of trouble soon. He obviously has quite a temper – at least when it comes to men beating up on his exes.  And I’m right there with him.  But unfortunately he tipped his hand to what looks like some really bad dudes.

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Fringe’s Walter Faces His Fears in ‘Equation’

In last night’s Fringe, “The Equation,” Walter Bishop had to face one of his greatest fears – returning to the mental hospital where he was locked up for 17 years.  But just what was he afraid of?

Walter tries to find a clue to help find the kidnapped boy from Dashiell.

When a musical prodigy boy (Charlie Tahan) is kidnapped after his father is hypnotized with green and red lights, Walter must return to the mental hospital to visit Dashiell (Randall Duk Kim), a patient who was also abducted by the same woman.

The kidnap story about Ben was very interesting.  I mean who knew that a musical composition would result in being able to allow someone to reach through solid objects, like a safe, and pull out things like an apple.  An apple very much like the one we see introducing the commercial breaks.

Not to mention, who was Joanne Ostler/Ritz and the man who later shot her?  Did she use hypnosis to show her abductees what they wanted most?  Why did she fake her own death?  And why did she still look 20 years old when she should be 30?  And most importantly who were they working for?

But the real heart of the episode this week was Walter.  I don’t know that if I ever spent that much time in a mental institute and then got out if I’d ever be willing to return.  But Walter proved that despite is ethically questionable experiments, he really does have a heart of gold and willingly faced his fear.

But what was he afraid of?  Well Dr. Summer (Bill Sadler) would definitely top my creepy scale.  Anyone else wonder just how far involved he is?  Did he know about the kidnappings?  Or does he play a bigger role in the Pattern?

Dashiell, himself, was a bit scary too.  Or rather whatever was done to him to make him that way freaked me out.  Did they make him forget about the kidnapping because they were afraid someone would believe him?  Or did they know that Olivia and team were getting close?

And the freakiest thing of the night – two Walters.  And what’s worse is that the Walter we know and love didn’t seem surprised to see his other self.  Is he hallucinating?  Is he really crazy?  Or is it more?

Did anyone see The Observer in this episode?  I didn’t.  Or at least I didn’t see him as we usually do.  I think – now this is just a theory – that the other Walter is actually The Observer in disguise.  Not sure yet if it was a great disguise or if The Observer actually metamorphosized his looks. But if I’m right, our weird game of Where’s Waldo just got harder.

And lastly how sweet was it how defense Peter got about his father.  A few weeks ago he was ready to send him back to the institution and now he’s fighting to keep him out.  And my heart just signed when Walter, after expression exasperation from trying to talk to Dashiell, asked Peter if that’s what it’s like to talk to him.  Peter response was sweet.

I really can’t wait until next week.  This series just keeps getting better and it looks like the stakes are getting raised again in the next episode.

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Does Fringe’s Broyles Trust Olivia in ‘Meet Mr. Jones’

In the latest episode of Fringe, ”In Which We Meet Mr. Jones,” Olivia is working on another Pattern case when she comes across a connection to past cases.  When she asks Broyles about it, he tells her that there’s a lot about the Pattern that she doesn’t know.  So tell her already!

Peter must become part of the experiement to help Olivia

For weeks, Broyles has kept Olivia on a need to know basis regarding the Pattern.  Why?  Does he not trust her?  Wouldn’t she be able to work better if she had all the facts?

I can understand him not inundating her with lots of past cases to sift through when she should be working on current cases.  But if he knows there’s a connection between her current case and a past incident, why not tell her?  Why let her waste time figuring it out herself?

And, while we’re on the subject, just how many people are working on Pattern cases?  I thought Olivia and the Bishops were the only ones working Pattern cases.  But in this episode we meet Mitchell Loeb (Chance Kelly), another agent and a friend of Broyles, who was working a case in Frankfurt recently and another one in Weymouth, Massachusetts in the beginning of the episode.

And judging from what we saw at the end of the episode, I’d say Broyles is putting his faith in the wrong agent. 

Or do you think Broyles is on to Loeb?  If he is, why did he bring Loeb’s wife (Trini Alvarado) to Walter’s lab? 

But those questions are just the tip of the iceberg.  What the heck is “Little Hill?”  Who is the gentleman?  Could it be The Observer?  Or is it someone behind the Pattern? 

Did Loeb (or his wife) infect himself with the parasite?  If not, who did?  And who is Loeb working for?

Maybe if Broyles opened up a little to Olivia we’d know a little more.

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What Drives Fringe’s Agent Olivia Dunham in ‘The Cure’?

Most days on Fringe start out as bad days for the agents given the nature of the cases they investigate.  But on “The Cure,” Agent Olivia Dunham is having a particularly bad day.

Broyles, Olivia, Walter and Peter must find what killed a diner full of people.

It starts with a crime scene with a diner full of dead people – all exposed to a high level of radiation that actually cooked their brains thanks to human lab rat Emily Kramer (Maria Dizzia).  It seems going into remission for a fatal disease really is too good to be true.

To make matters worse, Olivia gets word that another woman – Claire Williams (Marjan Neshat) – also in remission for the same fatal disease, is missing.  Not a coincidence.  Add the fact that Claire’s husband Ken (Robert Eli) and Dr. Patel (Alok Tewari), the doctor that treated both girls, lied to her, and you can understand Olivia’s bad mood.

But that bad mood makes Olivia public question Intrepus main R&D guy, David Esterbrook (Chris Eigeman) in public and later march him in handcuffs in front of the press (that she tipped off) for questioning.   But her desire to get the bad guy ruffles a few feathers and gets her in trouble with Broyles.

But job troubles are the least of Olivia’s worries.  You see today is Olivia’s birthday.  Now lots of people hate their birthday, but Olivia’s got real issues.

When Little Olivia was only nine, she had to shoot her step-father twice in self defense to prevent him from beating her mom again!  To top it off, the bastard lived.

To remind her of his existence he sends her a card every year on her birthday “just to let me know he’s out there.”  She spends the whole episode searching the office mail for this year’s letter. 

Well that explains her obsession with closing a case.  One creepy card a birthday is enough.  But the creepy factor goes up a notch this year because the letter doesn’t arrive at the office, but it still arrived.

The one bright light in Olivia’s day was Peter and Walter.  Peter was willing to sell his soul to the devil – okay, make a deal with Massive Dynamics’ Nina, but hey same difference – just to get her a lead on the case.  Why?  Because she’s always looking out for him and Walter and he wanted to return the favor.  I think it’s more than that.  I think Peter has a thing for Olivia.

Walter helps her out be being obsessed with blue.  Blue flowers, blue cotton candy, blue medicine – eventually it all leads to him developing a cure that Olivia uses to save Claire.

Definitely not a birthday, I’d like to have, but with friends/coworkers like Peter, Walter and Charlie, Olivia’s day could definitely have been worse.  And hey, no appearances by any dead boyfriends!

Now we know what drives Olivia, but how far will it take her.

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John Scott Returns to Guide Fringe’s Olivia in ‘Power Hungry’

In “Power Hungry,” Olivia is guided by her dead boyfriend – turn traitor – in her quest to find a man with serious electricity issues.  It makes you wonder if anyone is really dead on Fringe.

FRINGE: Olivia (Anna Torv, L) encounters her former partner John Scott (Mark Valley, R) in the FRINGE episode

Olivia tells her FBI co-worker Charlie that she’s seen John Scott in her kitchen.  He tells her that it’s her subconscious trying to deal with his death, his betrayal and everything she’s seen since then.

What Charlie doesn’t know is that Olivia and John were psychically linked in the pilot episode when she went into the tank to tap into his subconscious to find a cure for him (only to be betrayed by him later).

Well it seems that a bit of his subconscious stayed with her, according to Walter.  But what has it been doing?  Was it really guiding her?  He obviously knew about The Pattern and Jacob Fischer (Max Baker).

Or was it as Walter said, her mind trying to exorcise him?  Or is the connection still valid because someone over at Massive Dynamic is messing with his brain?  Or is Massive Dynamic using John to get to Olivia?

Speaking of Massive Dynamic, we’ve gone two episodes without a mention of the company or their creepy COO Nina Sharp.  But I have to wonder if they are behind the events of the last couple weeks.  Or maybe involved in some way involved?  At the very least they must be keeping taps on what’s going on?

This week’s bad guy was Jacob Fischer, a biotechnology guru who’s been using people with self esteem issues as human guinea pigs.  He recruits his unknowing victims through self help ads.  And poor Joseph Meeger (Ebon Moss-Bacchrach) became his walking electric current.

Unfortunately, Joseph didn’t understand what was done to him and had even less control over it, leaving in his wake death and destruction.

But thanks to helpful hints from subconscious John and a gamble by Walter on “rodents with wings,” Olivia and company are able to wrap up the case.  But not before dead John leads her to his hideaway cellar with all his files and a big fat engagement ring (presumably for Olivia).

So was that closer for the John issue?  Or will we be seeing him again?

Will Fischer rot in prison now or are we going to learn more about his experiments?  What part is he playing in The Pattern?  Does he have a connection to Massive Dynamics?

And exactly what happens to Meeger?  Does he stay sedated?  Does he go to a mental institute?  Jail?  Or does he become an experiment for Walter?

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‘The Arrival’ of the Observer Brings New Mysteries on Fringe

As if Walter isn’t enough of a character, we meet someone even more unusual than him on tonight’s episode of Fringe.  “The Arrival” marks the arrival of two mysteries – the metal cylinder and The Observer (Michael Cerveris).

FRINGE: Walter (John Noble, L) and Peter (Joshua Jackson, R) examine a mysterious cylinder found among the debris of a construction site explosion in the FRINGE episode "The Arrival" airing Tuesday, Sept. 30 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. ©2008 Fox Broadcasting Co. Cr: Craig Blankenhorn/FOX

We meet The Observer in the opening sequence where he’s watching a construction site.  Aside from his unusual eating habits, – he ordered a raw roast beef sandwich with exactly 11 jalapeños on the side and added an entire shaker of pepper and Tabasco – The Observer has a few other unique characteristics. 

For one, he’s completely bald – he doesn’t even have eyebrows.  And he writes in a different language from right to left.  Furthermore, he’s been waiting for the arrival of the cylinder.  When it shows up at the construction site, he makes one call and says “It has arrived.”

But the cylinder isn’t the only Pattern incident that our bald friend has been at.  Olivia notices that he was at the hospital two weeks ago only to be told by Broyles that it took him a year to make the connection.  They have photos of The Observer at some three dozen Pattern incidents.

But they aren’t the only ones familiar with The Observer.  The Bishops have met him before.  It seems that The Observer saved Walter and Peter from a chilly death when their car broke through some ice on a Thanksgiving when Peter was a child.

The Observer communicated through “osmosis” that he would need Walter one day.  When the cylinder appeared, Walter knew it was time to return the favor. 

Walter sends Peter on an aluminum foil run, sedates Astrid, steals and hides the cylinder and meets with The Observer at a dinner where he can have a root beer float and confide that the cylinder is safe.

The Observer thanks him, adding that he can’t touch the beacon himself.  He tells Walter that “I know you have questions.  Soon you’ll have answers.”

Unfortunately, John Mosley (Michael Kelly) – this week’s bad guy – also has the ability to read people’s thoughts with the help of a machine and works his way through the minds of people – including Peter – until he finds the cylinder. 

But Olivia stops him from stealing the beacon (and possibly killing Peter).  But the beacon gets away – exploding into the Earth.

The Observer is on site, makes another call – “departure on schedule.”

Just who is he talking to?  What is the beacon/cylinder thing?  Why can’t he touch it?  How is The Observer tied to The Pattern?  Who or what is he?  Why does he apparently not taste anything?

What is The Observer’s connection to Walter (and possibly Peter)?  How is he communicating with them?  What was he writing in the diner?  What language is that?

The questions around The Observer are endless, but I think the answers are going to be critical to understanding The Pattern and the implications of it in the big picture.

Mostly, I’m wondering when and where we are going to see The Observer next.

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What is the Mystery Behind Fringe’s Peter Bishop?

On the outside Fringe’s Peter Bishop seems like a nice guy pitching in to help solve the mystery behind The Pattern.  But there’s a lot about him that we don’t know and I think he’s hiding a mystery of his own – or maybe two.

 

Let’s start with what we know about Peter.

 

He didn’t have the best of childhoods.  When his father Walter was playing “mad scientist” his moods were erratic at best and after Walter was institutionalize, Peter severed all ties with his father.

 

In fact, he wanted to separate himself from his father so much that he dropped out of school.  But with an IQ as high as Peter’s, picking up skills is pretty easy.  He even posed as a college chemistry professor once.

 

Peter is a jack of all trades with a healthy dose of common sense too.  He’s the only one who “speaks Walter.”  And after last night’s episode, we know that Peter can play the piano and can read people (a skill acquired at the poker table).

 

When Olivia finds Peter, he’s in Bagdad setting up another temporary job and hiding from the gambling debts he’s acquired.

 

It takes blackmail to get him to help at first, but Peter willingly stays to babysit his father and help Olivia pursue The Pattern.  Is Peter really all that altruistic or does he have another motivation?

 

In “The Ghost Network” we saw Peter confront a guy in the diner that had been following Peter and Walter and taking pictures.  The man tells Peter “You were supposed to check in when you got home.”

 

Check in?  With whom?  Why?

 

Peter asks if the others know he’s there and threatens the guy.

 

Just who is Peter hiding from?  Is it the mob over his gambling debts or is it someone else?  Speaking of his gambling debts, just how did a street-wise math wiz lose that badly at the casinos?  And didn’t he just tell us in this episode how well he could read people?

 

I think Peter is hiding something and it has absolutely nothing to do with poker.  I don’t know what Peter’s gotten himself into, but I’m wondering if it is somehow (probably unbeknownst to him) going to turn out to be connected to The Pattern.

 

Then there’s Peter’s other mystery – the one I’m not even sure he knows about himself.

 

In the pilot, when Olivia first came to see Walter he knew that Peter had come with her and requested to see him.  Walter immediately inquired about Peter’s health and how he was doing.  I had originally chalked these questions up to some deeply buried fatherly concerned.  Now I’m not so sure.

 

Maybe it is fatherly concern, but not in the way you think.  In “The Same Old Story,” an episode about human cloning, Walter corners Olivia, asks her about Peter’s health and then asks her to keep what she read in Peter’s file about his medical history a secret.  A very confused Olivia tells Walter that the only thing in Peter’s file is his birth date.  Walter is relieved and then refuses to tell her anymore.

 

While I think that part of this scene is misdirection to let us think that maybe Peter is a clone, I think it does have some key clues.  I do not think Peter is a clone.  But once again, Walter is concerned about Peter’s health.  And there is something about that birth date that is going to come back again.  I wish they had given us the date.

 

Also, notice that we know absolutely nothing about Peter’s mom – not even her name.  And when Olivia asks Peter about her in “The Ghost Network” he tells Olivia “that’s a story for a different time” and quickly redirects the conversation.  It makes you really wonder who she is.

 

While I don’t think Peter is a clone, I do think that in some way Walter has experimented on him.  I’m just not sure how and why yet.  But I’m very sure it’s going to come into play at some time.

 

Also I can’t figure out if Walter’s inquiries are genuine concern about Peter because of his experiments or if it’s curiosity about the success/progress of the experiment.

 

So what do you think?  Is Peter hiding from someone?  Who?  Why is Walter so concerned about Peter’s health?  What did Walter think was in Peter’s file?

 

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Is Nina Fringe’s Cigarette Smoking Man?

It’s a good thing I’ve already had my children because the opening scene of Fringe’s “The Same Old Story” was freaky enough for me to never want to be pregnant again.

FRINGE airing Tuesdays (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) this fall on FOX. Pictured: Blair Brown as Nina Sharp ©2008 Fox Broadcasting Co. Cr: Michael Lavine/FOX

But that scene wasn’t nearly as unexpected as seeing the creepy Nina Sharp among the suits Broyles is updating with the latest case and bios of his new team in the second episode of J.J. Abram’s latest thriller.

We are only two weeks into this new series, but it’s already clear that Nina isn’t someone to be trusted.  Last week the Chief Operating Officer of Massive Dynamics was almost threatening towards Olivia.  The two met when Olivia was looking for the man who released the nasty toxin.  That man turned out to be a former MD employee.

Anyone else wonder how Nina defines “former?”

Add the fact that the yet unseen founder of MD, William Bell, is Walter’s former lab partner and you have to admit that Nina is pretty suspicious.  So why on earth is Broyles briefing her?

All I could think of was the X-Files’ Cigarette Smoking Man.  He appeared to work with Mulder and Scully while secretly getting briefs on their work and himself working for the force that is behind much of the phenomenon the agents were investigating.

Sounds like Nina.  But instead of chain smoking, she’s got that creepy robotic arm.  We’ve yet to see who she works for and she’s suddenly very helpful to Olivia.

Interesting that Nina is so helpful when she was so verbal in that briefing that she didn’t think that Olivia, Walter and Peter were the appropriate people for Broyles’ new team.

Also, pretty fascinating that Massive Dynamics just happens to hold the patent on the experimental piece of equipment that Walter and Peter need to identify the killer in this week’s mystery.  Exactly what does Massive Dynamics do?  And what are they using this equipment for?

And when Olivia returns the equipment, Nina tries to insert herself as a confidant, pumping Olivia for information about the case, even offering her a job.  Now that’s one way to get Olivia to stop pursuing the Pattern.

But Olivia saw through the ruse.  And apparently Broyles isn’t all that taken in by Nina either, offering Olivia a warning about the MD executive.

Still I’m left wondering who that committee was that Broyles is briefing and why Nina has a seat on it.

What do you think?

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Fringe Premiere Promises New Hit, Lots of Intrigue

Fringe Premiere Promises New Hit, Lots of Intrigue

If I only watch one new show this fall, it’ll have to be J.J. Abram’s Fringe.  Last night’s premiere just happened to be my first glimpse into the new fall season and judging from Fringe‘s debut this season should be a good one.

FRINGE: An unlikely trio uncovers a deadly mystery involving a series of unbelievable events and realizes they may be part of a larger, more disturbing pattern that blurs the line between the possible and the impossible on FRINGE premiering Tuesday, Sept. 9 (8:00-9:35 PM ET/PT) this fall on FOX. Pictured L-R: John Noble, Anna Torv, Jasika Nicole and Joshua Jackson ©2008 Fox Broadcasting Co. Cr: Mark Ben Holzberg/FOX

Fox’s new series reminded me of an updated X-Files with a dash of Alias‘ science, Lost‘s intrigue and 24‘s terrorists.  And like the X-files, fans will find that the “truth is out there” and I for one am looking for to the adventure to find it.

But unlike our friends Scully and Mulder, this team isn’t looking for aliens.  Instead they are looking for those behind “The Pattern” – a series of mysterious events that are a result of experiments by ethically challenged scientists dabbling in “fringe” science – science dealing with topics on the fringe of science like genetic mutation, reanimation, mind control, invisibility teleportation and astral projection.

In the opening episode, we see just one of these events when all the passengers and flight crew of Glatterflug Flight 627 (so glad they didn’t use Oceanic, but what is it that Abrams has against planes) mysteriously die after a bioterrorism agent is released leaving nothing more than skeletons and piles of body fluids and tissues.  (yes, it was a little gruesome to watch.)

In the search for the scientist responsible for releasing the toxin, FBI agent Olivia Dunham’s partner and lover John Scott (Mark Valley) is exposed to the raw ingredients of the toxin in an explosion leaving him to a slowed version of the same fate dealt to the Flight 627 passengers.

Now Olivia (Anna Torv) must not only solve the mystery behind Flight 627, she must find a cure for John.  Her research leads her to Walter Bishop (John Noble), a brilliant scientist who did research in fringe science for the government in the 70s and 80s.  In fact, his work turns out to be the basis for the contagion used in Flight 627.

But Walter isn’t a suspect.  For the last 17 years he has been incarcerated in a mental hospital following the death of one of his lab assistants and speculation that he was conducting tests on humans.  Now he is allowed no visitors outside of family.

Since Walter might hold the key to not only Flight 627, but treatment for John, Olivia seeks out Walter’s only son, Peter (Joshua Jackson), to gain access to Walter.  A genius in his own right, Peter has refused to follow in the footsteps of the “mad scientist” father he’s separated himself from for so many years, choosing instead to wander from job to job and place to place getting himself into his own trouble in the process.

Together the trio – Olivia, Walter and Peter – work to solve the case and save John from the toxin.  But what they discover changes their perspectives forever.  The threesome then signs up to work for Homeland Security Agent Phillip Broyles (Lance Reddick, The Wire and Lost) to investigate The Pattern.

I originally tuned in because I like J.J. Abrams and I’m a big Pacey – I mean Joshua Jackson – fan, but I’ll be returning for the intrigue.  There were a few predictable moments like how the team came to work for Broyles, but for the most part, I was on the edge of my seat throughout the show.

The show is also laced with a nice blend of humor.  The cow in the first episode was my favorite especially when they are all eating lunch with it. 

Joshua Jackson does a great job of showing his character’s conflict between his interest (and knack) for the science with his distrust of his father.  Peter acts as Walter’s conscious preventing him from becoming Dr. Frankenstein.  As Olivia says, Peter is the only one who can “speak Walter.”

It’s also easy to see that there will be some chemistry between Peter and Olivia in future episodes.  For being such a loner, Peter really seems to care about people.

I’m also very intrigued by the mysterious Massive Dynamics and the yet-unseen William Bell, who just happened to be Walter’s former lab partner.  It’ll be no mystery to learn that Massive Dynamics is behind The Pattern.  What will be surprising is to learn why and how far Bell and company have gone with the technology.

Nina Sharp (Blair Brown) – and her robotic arm – is very creepy as the Massive Dynamics Chief Operating Officer who warns Olivia that science has already gone too far to be controlled.

I, for one, am looking forward to the next episode.  This show has definitely earned a spot on the DVR this season.  Let’s just hope Fox doesn’t screw it up.

If you missed the premiere episode, Fox is re-airing it on Sunday, Sept. 14 at 8 p.m. or you can watch it online at Fox.com.

Anyone else catch this premiere? What did you think? Does the show have potential? What was your favorite part?

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