Fringe Review: Season 2 – Jacksonville

10

Fellow Fringe Fans,

Click to visit Fringe on FOXThere is always a danger with much-hyped episodes – such as Jacksonville – that the engendered high expectations are let down; this was most assuredly not the case with this episode of Fringe.

Even though I expected the big reveal at the end, though had had no official confirmation beforeClick to visit Fringe on 20th Century Fox Studios! the episode, the episode certainly ended the “winter” season on one hell of a bang.

However, given that the writing team – Ashley Edward Miller and Zack Stentz – responsible for Momentum Deferred and Grey Matters brought us this episode, I was hardly surprised that I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Recap

The expectedly-weird opening scene of this episode involved a glimpse at the Other Side. Various hints included that they apparently spell “Manhattan” as “Manhatan”, it is extremely difficult to get fresh coffee (perhaps due to the blight that Newton has mentioned), and that they are building a “New Pentagon Annex”. The weirdness, however, came following an “earthquake” after which the inhabitants of the building were fused together and otherwise deformed.

The Aftermath

The Aftermath


Did you see the Observer?

The Observer

The Observer


Fringe Division, obviously, was called in to investigate the disturbance with the building – the cause of which Walter suggested was likelier a comet than an earthquake in Manhattan – and, after a brief conversation with the one survivor, were able to determine that a building from the Alternate Universe (the one which Olivia visited when she met William Bell) had been pulled into “our” universe.

As Bell had warned Olivia, two objects cannot occupy the same space at the same time (as in accordance with the Pauli Exclusion Principle) and the results of attempting to open a corridor to the Other Side had these horrific consequences. Olivia, convinced that Newton was behind the event, was proven right when they discovered photographs of him at the building just hours before the event occurred. Walter, who was studying the bodies back at his lab, came to the realization that he had seen this sort of event before and he knew what was going to happen next: sometime within the next 35 hour, a building from our side would be pulled over to the Other Side. The universe requires Balance, and mass can be neither created nor destroyed; thus, since a building was pulled from the Other side into ours, the reverse must also occur.

I already know how this happened

“I already know how this happened… Two universes colliding? This is what William Bell warned me about” – Olivia


Walter revealed that they couldn’t predict where the next event would occur and the only warning they would have would be tremors similar to and earthquake and dogs barking, but that Olivia could. During the Cortexiphan drug trials, Bell and Walter discovered that Olivia could distinguish objects from the Other Side because they have a different energy than those from “this” side – she called it the “glimmer”. Walter posited that if they went back to Jacksonville, Florida – where Olivia’s drug trial took place – he may be able to activate the abilities which she blocked out after there were bad consequences when she was a little girl.

Saw it before

“Because you saw it once before!” – Walter


Walter seemed to have hoped that simply returning to Jacksonville would prove enough of a stimulus to trigger Olivia’s ability, but that was not the case. This necessitated dosing Olivia with more Cortexiphan and putting her in a drug-induced state designed to remove the blocks on her abilities: it was in this “dream” that she met the little girl Olive. Unfortunately, when Olivia came out of the experiment she was still unable to see the glimmer and was incredibly angry with Walter. Olivia, after receiving notification from Broyles that the warning signs of the impending event were starting up, came upon Walter watching the tape (which we first saw in the season 1 episode Bad Dreams) of her as a little girl after some sort of lab incident.

Walter reveals that the incident occurred after she first saw the glimmer: she was so scared that it triggered emotional pyrokinesis and she started a fire. After a fight with Olivia which was a long time coming, Walter realizes that the reason she can’t see the glimmer anymore is because she channels fear into anger as a defense mechanism and, as such, she is no longer capable of feeling that mindless fear like she would have as a child.

Anger

“What the hell is wrong with you? You did this to little children?” –  Olivia


The team, failing to trigger Olivia’s abilities in Jacksonville, return to New York to try and do anything they can, with the resources of Massive Dynamic and Nina Sharp, to predict the building from Our Side which will disappear. Peter realizes that the only way to predict the building is to look at which building in New York has the exact same mass as the building which came from the Other Side as the universe is seeking balance and thus the buildings must have the same mass. Unfortunately, their time runs out and Broyles tells Olivia that they may just have to let the building – and all the inhabitants – disappear. Olivia, distraught, seeks out Peter and in the course of a conversation rather fraught with emotion she realizes that she is actually scared. This seems to trigger the ability to see the glimmer and the team is able to successfully identify and evacuate the building which then disappears into nothingness.

Bad Choices

“There are times when the only choices you have left are bad ones” – Broyles


Following their success, Olivia and Peter have plans to go out for drinks on a “it’s not a date” date, much to Walter’s elation. However, upon arriving at the Bishops’, Olivia sees the glimmer around Peter. Peter, oblivious, goes to fetch his coat so that they can leave and Walter beseeches Olivia to keep her silence on the matter – thus setting us up with something of a cliffhanger preceding the hiatus.

Don't tell him

“Olivia, please don’t tell him” – Walter

Thoughts and Impressions

Before I start going into the numerous character developments in this episode, I believe that what we learned about alternate universes may begin to explain why the First Wave from the Other Side is so hell-bent on getting into our side. Within a given universe, the laws of physics must hold; however, it appears as though they must also hold between universes, hence the “mass for mass” rule which we saw in this episode. And I believe this may be the crux of the issue: when Walter stole Peter from the Other Side, he created an imbalance, the results of which have caused any number of problems in the other Universe. My assumption is that Walter somehow managed to create a device to stabilize the corridor between worlds long enough for him to steal the Peter from the Other Side as, from what we have seen so far, there doesn’t seem to be a way to target an object from the other side, so it seems likely that Walter would have had to go to the other side himself to get Peter.

Walter explains that in 1986 he and William Bell were trying one of their “experiments” which involved sending a car to the Other Side, and several minutes later, a car appeared on this side (fused to a statue on Harvard grounds) – obviously from the Other Side as, technologically, it was slightly more ahead of “our” side. Walter also states that this “wasn’t the first time” that they’d opened a doorway which makes me very curious about the timeline of events: the Cortexiphan trials ran from 1981 to 1983, Peter died in 1985, and Walter “stole” Peter in 1986 (note that this last date is more of a supposition on my part, given various hints along the way). And yet, during the Cortexiphan trials Bell and Walter apparently had access to objects from the Other Side because Olivia (Olive) could see them. Which begs the question: why did Bell and Walter open a doorway between worlds in the first place? Had they already opened a doorway and realized that a war would come, hence the impetus for the Cortexiphan trials and “preparing” the children in the first place?


Olivia had some fairly significant interactions with both Bishops in this episode, but I think that her confrontations with Walter were certainly a long time coming. When Olivia first met Walter she really had no other choice but to trust him, despite the fact that he was clearly insane, and after he saved John Scott that trust seemed to persist, and Olivia was often far more willing than Peter to go along with Walter’s crazy experiments. And then Olivia found out about the Cortexiphan drug trails, and the fact that she had likely been experimented on as a child. However, Olivia didn’t really get angry about it until the season 1 episode The Road Not Taken, when she was faced with more consequences of the drug trials: namely, more individuals who had been experimented on in the trials. And while she took Walter to task about it, Walter disappeared with the Observer soon after, Fringe Division was racing to prevent David Robert Jones from opening a doorway to get to Bell, and then Olivia was pulled through to the Other Side. And with all the insanity that followed: Olivia’s accident and memory loss, losing Charlie, and trying to stop the First Wave, I think the issue of what Bell and Walter had done to her was put on the back-burner.


Then everything came to a boil when Olivia was personally involved on a much more direct level than before: namely, being faced with the testing facility, “Olive”, and finding out what really happened when she was 3 years old. It was also interesting to find out that more likely than not, Olivia’s parents didn’t know what was happening: the drug trials were disguised as a day care which raises even more ethical concerns given that drug trials on children require parental consent. I find it interesting that what really seemed to trigger Olivia’s anger was being face-to-face with little Olive – like being faced with a terrified child was enough to trigger the fury Olivia should have been feeling all along.

Olive

Olive (played by Ada Breker)


When Olivia finds out about her pyrokinesis as a child, she is faced, once again, with Walter’s justifications. He believes that he and Bell were making the children “more than they were” and that that somehow justifies what they did. For Olivia, it seems as though the encounter with “Olive” triggered her protective instincts and made her realize how wrong Bell and Walter’s actions were – how wrong they were in experimenting on defenseless children.

Answers to questions

“Is that what you were doing? Or were you searching for answers to questions you shouldn’t have been asking in the first place?!” – Olivia


One thing I really noticed throughout the episode, throughout most of the series, is that Peter – even if he disagrees with her decisions – tends to stand by Olivia no matter what; this episode was no exception. Although he clearly disagrees with Walter experimenting (again) on Olivia, he goes along with it nonetheless and just supports Olivia who, for her part, seems to be confiding in Peter much more willingly. It is during one such conversation that we learn that Olivia has absolutely no recollection of the day care which, given her perceptive skills, is another indicator of how thoroughly she seems to have blocked the experience out of her memory.

Memory

“I have a freakishly good memory. I remember everything. Not this. There’s just nothing that’s familiar” – Olivia


Following the failed experiment, Peter comes across Olivia in the burnt out room where the pyrokinetic accident occurred when she was a child. To my recollection, this is the first time that Olivia actually out-right admits that she’s not “fine” without any further prompting. When she was in the hospital, Charlie practically had to drag the answer out of her, but Peter simply had to ask – I take this as another piece of evidence that she has come to trust him more, to let her guard down. When Olivia first met the Bishops, I think she trusted Walter more quickly because she had no choice, but that trusting Peter came more slowly because she always half-expected that he would leave at the soonest opportunity.

Are you ok

“Are you alright?” – Peter


Upon considering Olivia’s reactions in the past (for example, pulling a gun on Sam Weiss), credence is given to Walter’s hypothesis about her defense mechanism of turning fear into anger; it also makes sense that this, combined with her perceptive skills, is part of what makes her such an effective FBI agent.


I presume that the reason Peter almost seemed to trigger Olivia’s ability back in New York was that she finally let her guard down, consciously or not. That is, she trusted Peter enough to bypass the automatic defense of turning fear into anger so she was actually able to be scared. Given this, I wonder why Olivia didn’t see the glimmer around Peter then, but I figure maybe she had to be actively looking for the glimmer the first time – that is, looking for a glimmering building – and then the ability was “activated” and that is why she saw the glimmer around Peter at the end.

Scared

“Peter, I’m scared” – Olivia


I would certainly be remiss if I didn’t mention the rather significant shift in Peter and Olivia’s relationship. They seemed to be moving towards dating, or something, throughout the episode: from the banter at the beginning, to the “date” at the end. I know that relationships between main characters tend to be something of a hot button among fans, and I myself am not entirely sure yet where I stand on this one. On the one hand, they seem quite well-suited for one another, and who else is going to understand the craziness of Fringe Division; on the other, they’re partners, and that didn’t exactly work out well for Olivia last time. Not to mention, she just discovered that Peter is from another universe. But they both seemed pretty happy to be going on a “it’s not a date” date, so maybe we’ll see more progress in the episodes to come. However, I can’t help but think that the issue of Peter’s origins needs to be dealt with first – especially given Walter’s plea that Olivia not tell Peter, and the look she had at the end.

Discovery

Discovery


This was one of those episodes where the cast – all of them – were phenomenal. Olivia and Walter’s confrontations in the episode didn’t feel overdone or forced, but the emotions were clearly conveyed. And the look on Olivia’s face at the end really said it all. I am continually impressed with the cast’s ability to say so much without really saying anything at all.

Ever since John Scott’s last words to Olivia in the pilot episode, I have always wondered at the back of my mind whether there is indeed more to Broyles than we have been made aware: Scott as good as told Olivia that there was a reason that Broyles chose her for the assignments. Given Broyles’ connection to Nina Sharp, it would not be out of the question to presume that he also had access to the Cortexiphan information. I like to think that Broyles simply cares about his agents and wants to protect them, and he seems to be particularly protective of Olivia, but in the world of Fringe nothing is ever really as it seems. In this episode, one thing that piqued my curiousity was when Broyles inquired as to what triggered her ability. It was probably just a simple question on his part, but like I said, it makes me wonder. At the same time, Broyles has more than demonstrated his willingness to stand behind his team at Fringe Division, and if his actions so far are the most important consideration, he has more than proven himself loyal to his people.

Activated

“Dunham: this ability you’ve demonstrated, what finally activated it?” – Broyles


The episode was, as usual, packed with subtext and clues. For example, the glyphs (that spell out a word over the commercial breaks) seemed to be rather prominent in this episode: there were lots of butterflies and frogs in the daycare centre. Also, a wall in the centre had the Yellow Brick Road (i.e. from The Wizard of Oz), which seems to tie back to Walter’s obsession with the movie in Johari Window. An interesting tie back to Olivia’s past in the trials was a giraffe on a wall on which they appeared to measure the children’s heights: if you look closely, you can read “Nick L.” (Nick Lane), “Susan” (Susan Pratt), and “Nancy L.” (Nancy Lewis), which were the names of the other people Olivia has met who were also involved in the Cortexiphan trials. I am also curious as to the significance of the number sequence “5-20-10” which Walter states is the combination Bell always uses, but he cannot remember the significance himself. It could simply be the date of the season finale (May 20, 2010), but I wonder if there is more to it.

The Giraffe

The Giraffe


A specific moment – one of many – where Walter alludes to Peter’s origins occurs before the experiment when he asks Olivia if she “sees” anything, as there are several objects in the room that are from the other side: if you watch Walter as he says this, he shoots a look directly at Peter. I could, of course, be reading far too much into it, but it seemed significant to me; although, that could be because I was watching for it.

From the other side

“Sixteen items in this room are from the other side” – Walter

One more thing I believe deserves mention is the scoring of this episode by Michael Giacchino. There is the theme that we often hear throughout the episodes, which was indeed present, but there was also a new piece in this episode (at least, I don’t recall hearing it in other episodes). I found it most noticeable when Olivia is in the “forest” during the experiment; the violins and string instruments were beautiful, and the melody was haunting and complex and suited the occasion perfectly.


Even though I wasn’t entirely surprised by most of the revelations of this episode – for example, I figured that Peter had to be from the Other Side – this was the first “official” confirmation we had of many theories. It was also great to see Nina and Brandon (from Massive Dynamic) again as it has been a while since we have actually seen them in an episode.


As you can probably tell, I really, really liked this episode; although, that doesn’t quite seem adequate enough. The episode has definitely become one of my favourites – right up there with Momentum Deferred and Grey Matters. Much as I love the stand-alone episodes, as we often get some very fun character moments and developments, and in Fringe even the stand-alones aren’t really separate entities as they usually build on the overall storyline, the episodes like this one which explore the “mythology” of the show are, in a lot of ways, the most intriguing.

Click to visit and follow WormholeRiders News Agency on Twitter!I truly enjoy the continuing hints as to what has happened before and what is happening now and attempting to put together the disparate pieces we have been given and predict where the story will go next. As always, the episode seemed to leave me with more questions than answers, and I can’t help but think that it will be a long 7 weeks until the next episode airs on the first of April.

If you ever want to chat about Fringe, science, or anything at all, come check out my Twitter page (click on the picture to follow the link), or feel free to email me at the link below:NRheadshot

NaddyCat

Thanks for reading and visiting Wormholeriders News Agency!

Naddy

 

Nadine

10 thoughts on “Fringe Review: Season 2 – Jacksonville

  1. So I read most of your recaps, and I love them! I tried to keep my answer short, but as you will soon see, it’s a post-worthy answer. However, since I sense that you are just like me, I’m sure you are going to like it 😉 Ha ha ha ha

    I agree that Walter had to go himself to the other side for many reasons; first off, although Bell was able to pull Olivia to alt-universe, it seems to be the most sophisticated method of travelling, and probably not the first one they developed. Second, the nightmare Peter keeps having has to do with his father appearing in a mirror, all dressed up – the same type of mirror that, in the preview to ‘Peter’, Walter is seen to be showing Olivia while calling it a window to the other side. Could that have been said corridor you mentioned?

    I’m working on a timeline too, and I agree that Peter probably was taken back in 1986 or 1987 at the latest. I forgot about the date of the car experiment – thanks for reminding me!

    I think you’re right about Olivia’s seeming lack of anger towards Walter throughout Season 1 and the beginning of Season 2, but I would add on top of the insanity that made her put it on the backburner was the simple fact that she keeps her emotions in check, especially while working. So that was just another ingredient to the cocktail you described that kept Olivia’s anger at bay until now. I wonder how she’s going to react to Walter’s story in ‘Peter’.

    I also agree when you say that the trigger to Olivia’s anger is seeing herself as a frightened little Olive. I would add on to it, that it might have to do with the fact that she is seeing herself as helpless, which someone who shot her stepfather at the age of 9, who became a FBI agent and who already went, at the beginning of Season 2, through a period of vulnerability (namely, when she couldn’t put her gun back together) created a perfect storm to make this dream a trigger.

    Ah, psychology.

    Excellent point about how Peter always stands by Olivia, even when he doesn’t agree with her. It’s going to be rough on Olivia when (and not if, in my opinion) Peter finds out about coming from the other side and pushes her and Walter away.

    Another excellent point about how Olivia so easily admitted to Peter that she wasn’t fine, whereas Charlie had to drag it out of her. I think that on the one hand, you’re right, it reflects the fact that she trusts Peter, but also (again) that all the events from the beginning of the Season have basically put her in a corner (ha!) and she is learning to accept that side of her.

    I think you’re absolutely right about how Olivia’s defence mechanism is to turn fear immediately and subconsciously into anger, whereas with Peter in ‘Jacksonville’, she trusts him so much that she doesn’t have access to that defence mechanism, giving her the time to process the fact that she’s actually scared.

    But I still don’t know what’s with her not seeing Peter glimmer immediately, or even right after she evacuated the building (she probably first went back to Massive Dynamic for a debriefing with the team, no?). And why didn’t she it right after she came into the Bishops’ house? The only thing I can think of is that the glimmer has to do with a specific energy signature. Either Peter has been here for so long that his alt-energy signature has somewhat been altered to reflect the energy signatures of both universes, or that in general, the energy signature fluctuates, a little like when a light bulb’s intensity goes up and down when electricity’s output is uneven. Or perhaps it’s a mixture of both.

    As for the relationship between Olivia and Peter, you have to go check out Eric’s theories in podcast 42 of The Sci-Fi party line. Seriously, he has some awesome theories.

    Excellent catch re: names on the giraffe that measured the children!

    I also noticed the look Walter shot towards Peter. I won’t go into it again, I wrote enough about it in my last post 😛

    Agreed that the music during the dream sequence was amazing.

    Great recap!!!! Looking forward to reading more from you during the hiatus (hint hint)

  2. In Season 2 were a lots of more references to “The Wizard of Oz”. (Still working on detailed explanation XD.) For Example: in one episode Peter calls someone “Glinda the good.” or the scarecrow in 2×02.

    I think that Walter has compared himself with “Cowardly Lion” because he simply is. He is the coward lion because he hasn’t courage for telling Peter the truth. But in the end of the yellow brick road (which was very clear shown in 2×14) the lion shows courage. And I believe that is a hint – that he will tell Peter the truth at the end of season 2.

    The Yellow brick road stands for the journey and I don’t say the journey have begun in 2×14 but it was a important milestone on the way to Emerald city. XD

  3. Wow, thank you for the questions, RedViking4! I always love discussing Fringe…

    My thoughts:

    1) If you recall, in Johari Window, Walter (traumatized from his kidnapping by Newton) holed up in the house and watched old movies for over a week. One of the movies he watched was The Wizard of Oz, and he references it several times in the episode.
    Peter is trying to convince him to get out of the car and come into a store with him when Walter tells him that the “Cowardly Lion” had a point and that he will stay in the car.
    Walter also alludes to it later in the State Trooper station when he makes a reference to “flying monkeys”.
    I think that there is a comparison which can perhaps be drawn between certain elements of Fringe – for example, Olivia’s experiences with the Other Side – and elements within the Wizard of Oz – i.e. Dorothy’s experiences.
    I also think that the idea of a “man behind the curtain”, or the “Wizard”, may apply to William Bell given that he seems to have most of the answers; and I think that Bell knows far more about what is going on than he had time to tell Olivia.

    2) I believe that Olivia mentioned that her (biological) father was military – which would explain why they were living on a Military Base in Jacksonville – and I assume he died sometime between when she was 3 years old and in the trials and when she was 9 years old since she never mentions him.

    The reason Olivia hates her stepfather is because he abused her mother and Olivia was powerless to stop it. At least until she was 9 years old and shot him with a gun he kept in the house. He didn’t die, but he disappeared from their lives – except for the birthday card that he sends Olivia each year.
    (We learned this backstory in the season 1 episode “The Cure”)
    He was also an alcoholic and it was as if he had “two personalities” – or so Olivia tells Peter in the Season 2 episode “Dream Logic” (2×05).

    I discussed some of Olivia’s character/backstory in my Season 2 “recap” (or at least, my take on some of the facts that we’ve learned).

    3) I think Walter’s implication in “Jacksonville” may have alluded to the fact that they brought objects over. If you recall, when he was explaining the car incident on Harvard in 1986, he told Peter that it “wasn’t their first time”.

    My tentative hypothesis is that at some point Walter and Bell figured out a way to cross over – or at least, to pull objects over – and that whatever they discovered my have been an impetus for the Cortexiphan trials in the first place.
    Bell and Walter keep saying that they were “preparing” the children for what is coming, and I think that it may have something to do with their prior knowledge of the other side.

    I had initially assumed that Walter created the crossing over technology to steal Peter, but now I think that is only partially true: I think that they had some sort of mechanism for bridging the gap between the two Universes, but it is likely that in order for a person to actually *travel* between the two that some sort of mechanism – a stable wormhole, if you will – must be created. Which is why Bell stated that most people without Olivia’s “natural talents” are ripped apart. (Also why the Other Side built the hybrids as the First Wave).

    4) I think I’ve mostly answered this one already tied up in my response to question #3…

    Thank you so much for the comments! Do let me know if you have any more queries you’d like to discuss? This was fun!

    Nadine

  4. A good review. My thoughts and questions:

    1. When you reference “[…]Yellow Brick Road (i.e. from The Wizard of Oz), which seems to tie back to Walter’s obsession with the movie in Johari Window[…]” to what are you referring to exactly ?

    2. You got a point by pointing at the parents. Maybe the reason Olivia do not like (Unconsciously) her stepfather is because he put her in the “cortexiphan tests” situation ? We definitely don’t know much about her family (with the exception of her sister).

    3. If the Cortexiphan trials ran from 1981 to 1983 and we can suppose that the 15 objects from the other side in the classroom where there during that time. How did they obtain those object?

    4. How did they knew about the other side and the danger of it if they did not took a trip “to the other side” ?

    Someone need to clarify some dates about William and Walter discoveries…

    Have a good day.

  5. Excellent review 🙂 and as a fan of the mythology eps myself-wot an excellent ep! That look from Olivia at the end was something wasnt it? Wot a great bunch of actors the Fringe peeps are and wot a great bunch of writers and producers they have that they continue to put out such QUALITY TV! Am very passionate about my telly and Fringe is deffo one of my top two shows at the mo (the other is Bones btw)just consitently awesome week after week and yes is gonna be a long 7 weeks without it! Sorry for going on there but i did say I was passionate about telly:D

  6. The one point I would like to add is my strong conviction that Wormholes do exist in the FRINGE series. The promo trailer for the next confirmed my theory! *buffs finger nails*

  7. Excellent work, as always, Naddy! You are right on about Walter looking at Peter when he first asks Olivia to identify items from the alternate universe. I like your observation about why Broyles wants to know what triggered the ability. Think that was what he was aiming at when he sent her to the warehouse with John Scott? I loved the episode, but my heart is still broken from the almost-kiss, almost-date. Poor Peter, he never gets a break!

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