Fringe 3x14: In Which Walter Makes Pancakes and Everyone Has FEELINGS.
Feelings, nothing more than feelings…
Fringe’s Valentine’s Day instalment delivered a hellava lotta feelings this week. Grief, fear, love, loss - this episode pretty much covered them all. We got the grieving widow and widower whose heartache was so strong that it literally tore through the fabric of reality, the continuation of the Peter & Olivia Love Saga and the unsettling news that we may be expecting a vortex or two in the near-future. Yeah, this episode kicked all kinds of inter-dimensional ass. 
THINGS THAT MADE ME HAPPY:
Breakfast at Bishop’s – Walter’s attempt at matchmaking was adorable and hilarious, as was his attempt to sneak out after ‘setting the mood.’ Walter has been trying to get these two crazy kids to hook up since season one, so at this point he was really pulling out all the stops with the Bishop family recipe. And in a roundabout way, his ambush-breakfast did get them talking which got them drinking, which got them kissing so if I was Peter, I’d think about getting the old man a big 'ole bag of Red Vines. 
We Need To Talk – We see the fallout from Simon’s note quite early on in this episode. We infer that Olivia’s been distant, she’s been harbouring feelings of resentment towards Peter for not telling her the whole truth about the feelings he had/has for Altlivia. She calls him out on it and Peter admits that yeah, he does still think about her alternate and no, he didn’t tell her because he didn’t want to damage the already fractured relationship between them. And then something happened that made me remember why Fringe is one of the best shows on TV at the moment: THEY KEPT TALKING.
What’s that? Two leads actually engaged in a three-minute long scene that did not consist of pun-ny one-liners or indie-music accompanied monologues, but an honest, mature conversation about feelings? Is this network television? Here, Fringe succeeds where other shows have failed (I’m lookin’ at you Lost and your godforsaken quadrangle). Instead of telling us what characters are supposed to be feeling, we’re allowed three minute long dialogue scenes where minimal interpretation is required. Sure, we can debate whether Peter is looking for an idealised version of Olivia or whether Olivia is indeed the one “stopping them” from moving forward, but that Peter has those feelings is undeniable because he said so. So props to the writers for going the long way and not reducing the show to cheap slow-motion montages where emotions are manipulated, but rather giving us these moments where these relationships are earned and honest.
The Worst of Walternate – Walter seemed not so cautiously pessimistic in this one. While everyone else was having feelings about each other, Walter was mostly freaking out about the little things like you know the impending destruction of our universe. Much of his turmoil seemed centred around the guilt of his actions and the realisation that perhaps he and Walternate are not so different after all. Now I’m inclined to disagree with Walter’s tentative absolution of his doppelganger, who when last we saw him, was still experimenting on human beings with fatal results, but it was interesting to see Walter grapple with the dilemma of whether he too would be forced to make the choices Walternate made to save his world. This is evident as he debated the use of Amber with Olivia who is obviously still haunted by its effects from “Over There”. Olivia and Peter, even Astrid still act as his moral conscience. Without these figures in his life, Walter is dangerously close to being merely Walternate missing chunks of his brain. 
Seeing the initiation of the Amber in our universe was rather chilling as well and great continuity making reference to the substance used in “The Ghost Network”, which of course, was immediately what we thought of when first encountering the Amber. It was also great to see Olivia’s “Over There” knowledge being utilised as she went over Fringe Division protocol somewhat reluctantly.
I follow my heart and it leads me right to Jackson – So many great ‘Jacksonville’ parallels in this episode. We had Walter mention putting Olivia in a heightened state of fear as precursor to the scene where she sees Peter ‘glimmer’ as they kiss in the bar. I thought that scene itself had a really nice season one type feel to it. Her post-kiss freak out mirrors the scene in Jacksonville where, just before Peter and Olivia are about to kiss, she realises that she’s scared and is able to identify the building which is about to be sucked into the alternate universe.
Of course this time, she sees the glimmer coming out of 6B. In another parallel, both episodes, find Olivia struggling with feelings of vulnerability and ultimately allowing herself to be open to fear, although “Jacksonville” ends with her distancing herself from Peter, “6B” ends with her getting closer to him. And by close, I mean…
Peter and Olivia like totally did it – In the best possible way, Fringe managed to not only redeem Peter and Olivia’s relationship, but also give Olivia her groove back by having her initiate the sexytiemz. It was on her terms. She takes what Peter says to heart and makes the decision to take their relationship to that next level. So in true Olivia style, she gets some alcohol, 
arrives at his door, says some words and makes a vulnerable face. She’s realising that she doesn’t have to be Fauxlivia to be liked/wanted by Peter, but she does have to be Olivia - completely and fully, without holding back. The Olivia leading Peter up that staircase is the Olivia Dunham reclaiming what is hers. BAMF.
Spooky action at a distance – So after the tantalising fade to black which closed upon our two young lovers ascending the stairs, 
the story crosses over and we see a glimpse of Altlivia and Lincoln investigating the same case on the other side. Only on that side, the destruction has not reached epic proportions because we were able to stop it on our side. We see how the universes are beginning to affect and impinge on one another. After the later scene with Walter and Nina, I’m curious to see if and how she’s going to help him become who he needs to be to stop the impending collision.
Other nuggets worth mentioning – Broyles’: You think all of this is because of feelings? Ha. Ha. Ha. Also, Broyles kicks Obama’s ass at golf. Of course he does. 
Things That Did Not Make Me Happy:
Lab Withdrawal – Apart from Walter verbally abusing Astrid and his rather violent demonstrations, we didn’t really see the lab this week, which sucked, as did the general lack of Astrid, who I always enjoy as a side-dish. She played quite a substantial role in the first half of the season, so I’m hoping we get to see a bit more of Agent Farnsworth as this season progresses. 
End Notes:
This episode really stood out as one of my favourites of the season, because it reminded us what the core focus of the show is about: not physics, but people. Straight outta the mouth of J.H. Wyman:
“Ultimately, we’ve said from the beginning that FRINGE is a family show. It’s masquerading against the backdrop of this crazy science-fiction backdrop where the fates of two universes — at least two universes — are at risk. But ultimately, it’s about how this family — who in their own way are fringe characters themselves or are on the fringe of society for different reasons — have found themselves and how they deal with this larger canvas. And we’re never going to forget that.”
If this is the season of self-actualisation as the writers have so often told us, then this episode did a good job of getting the characters, specifically Walter and Olivia to a place where they were forced to look deeper and acknowledge certain things about themselves in order to move on and evolve.
RATING:
9.2 Glimmering Glyph Hearts
