Fringe 5x04

[opusculasedfera]

The most watchable ep of the season in some ways. This was the first time it actually seemed like they were fighting a telepathic, teleporting enemy in a totalitarian system, so semi-well done, though everything except that final fight scene still seemed too easy. I don't understand how it's not obvious that the dust in the lab was disturbed and that people had been in there. For one thing, what the hell are they eating and where are they shitting? For that matter, why on earth wouldn't the Observers stick a camera in the lab when they leave? It would be the least they could do with their unimaginable tech and why wouldn't they consider the possibility that the Fringe team hadn't gotten to the lab yet?

I still feel like the writers never quite worked out exactly how the Observer's totalitarian system works, which always does disastrous things for the writing.

Also I'm pissy that they killed off Etta just as I was coming around to her character. I did actually like that she spent her adolescence grasping at straws re: her parents, and she's fairly aware of that, even if the reality is living up to some of her dreams.

I agree with all the people who think it's going to be a reboot. After all those callbacks to previous Fringe cases, I'm pretty sure that the page of complicated physics that Walter can't decipher is supposed to evoke the one with the dead physics prof whose husband kept bringing her back.

Speaking of the callbacks, I was sort of pleased with them at first because it seemed like they were having to do some thinking beyond "watch tape, obey tape, fetch thing" and actually strategising using their limited resources, but then they inexplicably met Broyles (who, frankly, I thought was smarter than to meet with fugitives when he's already concerned that he's under suspicion) and he gave them other things! So now we're back to the story of the implausibly well-prepared guerilla fugitives from the totalitarian system.

This ep was better, in as much as I was a lot more drawn into it than I have been this season, but it's still not quite as well thought out as this show has been in the past. I'm hoping the rest of the season can at least capitalise on this brief moment of actual tension though.

Speaking of Fringe though, fringe_exchange is still open for sign-ups! Hint, hint. :D

Comments

[wendelah1]

This was the best episode so far for dramatic tension and pacing. I'm really mad they killed Etta off, too; I'm also feeling guilty for disliking her so much and relieved the effing writers didn't kill off anyone else. She's a plot device. And now she's going to be an excuse for Peter to go off the deep end. I actually love Peter, but this looks like it could become tiresome quickly.

I don't think the writers thought they were getting another season. So far, the writing is really half-baked. I'm underwhelmed and emotionally distant.

Yes, fringe_exchange is still open for business. Hint, hint.

[opusculasedfera]

True, I would have been even more upset if anyone else had died. I like Peter too, but I will find him *less* interesting if he goes off the deep end because it's more extreme, but doesn't really tread any new ground, characterisation-wise: fathers going mad over the death of a child is pretty well trodden by this show and all the other media out there. I like the characters on this show because they are so often allowed to have less extreme emotional responses: they're upset, but they get shit done too. I really hope the writers don't decide that all emotional subtlety is gone this seasons.

I think they only thought out this season in as much as they decided what emotional beats they wanted to hit, which doesn't work when they've just changed all the world-building.

I know, I know. But I haven't managed to post fic in *years* (and it wasn't any good at the time), so I just don't know if I could do it.

[wendelah1]

Sending an email.

[monanotlisa]

"first time it actually seemed like they were fighting a telepathic, teleporting enemy in a totalitarian system"

Agreed: tense and horrifying; the omniscience angle really played out in the smaller and larger picture.

"what the hell are they eating and where are they shitting?"

*g* Like that is -- actually, Fringe is the only show on tv where urination and defecation is acknowledged explicitly (and I will never not love Olivia's breathless little laugh of, 'I need to pee" there in the car). At the same time, I feel this is easily fanwanked: they did so into containers in the part of the lab that they re-ambered, or they did so in the airvents or sewers we've seen them use. If I wrote a fic now, I'd claim sewers, since we already talked about them and crawled through them in the course of Season Five.

"For that matter, why on earth wouldn't the Observers stick a camera in the lab when they leave? It would be the least they could do with their unimaginable tech and why wouldn't they consider the possibility that the Fringe team hadn't gotten to the lab yet?"

These are better questions...but I think we are to think of the Observers as very near-sighted: Imagination is precisely what they are lacking; it's all very inside-the-box.

That said --

"I still feel like the writers never quite worked out exactly how the Observer's totalitarian system works, which always does disastrous things for the writing."

You are completely right.

"Also I'm pissy that they killed off Etta just as I was coming around to her character. I did actually like that she spent her adolescence grasping at straws re: her parents, and she's fairly aware of that, even if the reality is living up to some of her dreams."

I hear you. I'm still sad and angry at once.

"evoke the one with the dead physics prof whose husband kept bringing her back."

You mean the prof with Alzheimer in Season Four? I agree the dictation theory of Walter's must have been brought up as a reason.

"back to the story of the implausibly well-prepared guerilla fugitives from the totalitarian system."

Alas, yeah...but Broyles! Broyles! Oh my God, Anna Torv: The way she smiled and reached out and said, "Phillip." That scene made my throat close up (but in a good way). Not overly great amounts of sense, either...but perhaps Broyles knew better; he just wanted, wanted, wanted so badly to see his friends again.

[opusculasedfera]

You are so much more charitable than I am, it's lovely. *g*

I think I mostly care because there are so *many* things to fanwank. I wouldn't care so much about the bathroom issue if they at least showed some concern about where their food and water were coming from or had any supply concerns at all except from electricity.

I think the Observers are supposed to be unimaginative, but the writers haven't really done a good enough job explaining how they managed to set up their totalitarian system despite that. Plus they do actually seem to have cameras or some kind of similar device in most places, so I want explanations! (If nothing else, having to disable or loop Observer cameras would at least have provided Astrid with more of a plot than "melt Amber, watch videotapes." Plus it could be easily tied into future Astrid plots in which she is actually given something to do re:defeating the Observers.)

I also want to know more about the relationship of the Loyalists with the Observers, because humans certainly know about cameras, etc. so did they somehow not pass this info on? Are the Observers so arrogant that they never inquired into human tech? If they are, then why have the Loyalist army at all?

the prof with Alzheimer in Season Four?
That's it. I kept thinking she was dead (and clearly actually going to check would have been far too much work. ;) )

The meeting of Broyles and the team was beautiful, yes. I do love him, I just want things to be harder for them! I'd probably have accepted it if there had been the least hint that now Broyles will have to be extra-careful, or if they team had actually said something about covering his escape, or even if he'd just mentioned that the Observers are too unimaginative/incurious to look for him too after spotting the rest of the team. Come on, writers, give me the smallest possible hint and I will fanwank with the best of them! Just give me something to work from!