Fringe 4x18
Apr. 14th, 2012 02:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
opusculasedferaThat was pleasingly solid. I am sort of coming to terms with the fact that the writers seem largely uninterested in dealing with the discomfiting bits of the Peter/Olivia storyline (especially after watching that interview with Josh Jackson that someone linked where he pretty much said that that was not going to happen, though at least he also thought it was sketch.) Aside from that, the plot of this ep moved things along and the rest of the character stuff was ok.
We're actually getting to see more of Jones' plan, which is interesting. Plus he's actually doing things that seem connected to his plot rather than running around taunting people. We still don't know why he wants to merge the two universes, but I guess I'm at least confident that he has a reason, even if it seems unlikely that merging the universes will go well for him. We don't know what red!Nina's trying to get out of this, but it's pretty interesting that she's so collected about having been caught (until she saw they actually had Broyles, which is fascinating! Though I'm not sure what it actually means. Did she recognise that Olivia was bluffing? Does she think that this means he's been moved for some reason?)
Broyles' whole plot is pretty good really. It's not exactly shocking that he was swayed by danger to his kid because that's pretty much all we ever see of Broyles' personal life, plus saving your kids in stupid ways is a bit of a theme with this show. It works though and he does conflicted really well. I really enjoyed watching his internal turmoil over the ethical issues. Great conversation with Walter, though I feel like he missed a trick in not getting him to do science on whatever the medicine for his son was because it's not like Walter wouldn't understand, and it would mean he could turn himself in. I hope, frankly, that that's why he turned himself in to blue!Broyles, so he could negotiate for that kind of thing. I can't really see why else he would bother to come all the way to the bridge and call up blue!verse rather than to tell red!Olivia straight off. Unless this is part of Jones' plan somehow and Jones actually wanted Walter to have the device in blue!verse so that he could activate it remotely or something like that? Which might explain why red!Nina reacted so strongly to his arrest? Because it means that something is happening?
This ep was also pretty good on characters. I like red!Olivia and blue!Lincoln's awkward friendship and the writers seem like they've taken a step back on the whole him replacing red!Lincoln thing. I think it's still going to happen, but I like that he's not trying to step into that role so much as he's helping Liv out because he understands being in that position.
The two Astrids were also pretty excellent. I like that they're becoming friends, and I love that they're not showing this by having Altstrid become more like Astrid. She IS still happy to see Astrid, she just shows this by continuing to not make eye-contact and by being awkward! And Astrid is slightly put off by this, but perseveres, though without trying to change anything. They're so great. Jasika Nicole for all the awards.
Also Walter just wants to parent all the Olivias! I enjoy him being Peter's embarassing dad who is so happy about his almost daughter, and he was very sweet with Liv. The other interesting thing about that scene with Walter and red!Olivia was the way they played the alcohol thing. I've always loved how they played blue!Olivia's casual comfort with drinking in a more masculinised way, and it's fascinating to me that red!Olivia doesn't have that, despite being otherwise brasher and more outgoing. I'm not sure if it's meant to be a character note, or a world-building note, but I'm intrigued.
Overall, a happier ep than last week's, though the plot is still at that stage where I just want all of it to be DONE so I can mainline the fuck out of it because I NEED TO KNOW. Though I don't want the fandom to die so... Oh, the woes of my life, eh?
We're actually getting to see more of Jones' plan, which is interesting. Plus he's actually doing things that seem connected to his plot rather than running around taunting people. We still don't know why he wants to merge the two universes, but I guess I'm at least confident that he has a reason, even if it seems unlikely that merging the universes will go well for him. We don't know what red!Nina's trying to get out of this, but it's pretty interesting that she's so collected about having been caught (until she saw they actually had Broyles, which is fascinating! Though I'm not sure what it actually means. Did she recognise that Olivia was bluffing? Does she think that this means he's been moved for some reason?)
Broyles' whole plot is pretty good really. It's not exactly shocking that he was swayed by danger to his kid because that's pretty much all we ever see of Broyles' personal life, plus saving your kids in stupid ways is a bit of a theme with this show. It works though and he does conflicted really well. I really enjoyed watching his internal turmoil over the ethical issues. Great conversation with Walter, though I feel like he missed a trick in not getting him to do science on whatever the medicine for his son was because it's not like Walter wouldn't understand, and it would mean he could turn himself in. I hope, frankly, that that's why he turned himself in to blue!Broyles, so he could negotiate for that kind of thing. I can't really see why else he would bother to come all the way to the bridge and call up blue!verse rather than to tell red!Olivia straight off. Unless this is part of Jones' plan somehow and Jones actually wanted Walter to have the device in blue!verse so that he could activate it remotely or something like that? Which might explain why red!Nina reacted so strongly to his arrest? Because it means that something is happening?
This ep was also pretty good on characters. I like red!Olivia and blue!Lincoln's awkward friendship and the writers seem like they've taken a step back on the whole him replacing red!Lincoln thing. I think it's still going to happen, but I like that he's not trying to step into that role so much as he's helping Liv out because he understands being in that position.
The two Astrids were also pretty excellent. I like that they're becoming friends, and I love that they're not showing this by having Altstrid become more like Astrid. She IS still happy to see Astrid, she just shows this by continuing to not make eye-contact and by being awkward! And Astrid is slightly put off by this, but perseveres, though without trying to change anything. They're so great. Jasika Nicole for all the awards.
Also Walter just wants to parent all the Olivias! I enjoy him being Peter's embarassing dad who is so happy about his almost daughter, and he was very sweet with Liv. The other interesting thing about that scene with Walter and red!Olivia was the way they played the alcohol thing. I've always loved how they played blue!Olivia's casual comfort with drinking in a more masculinised way, and it's fascinating to me that red!Olivia doesn't have that, despite being otherwise brasher and more outgoing. I'm not sure if it's meant to be a character note, or a world-building note, but I'm intrigued.
Overall, a happier ep than last week's, though the plot is still at that stage where I just want all of it to be DONE so I can mainline the fuck out of it because I NEED TO KNOW. Though I don't want the fandom to die so... Oh, the woes of my life, eh?
