Fringe / Season 3 - Episode 2

I'm throwing Fringe into the following category, "Television shows that know how to follow up a premiere episode". For the past few years I've found that that doesn't happen all that often. I really thought that this episode delivered. So far this fall, Dexter, The Event, and now Fringe have kept my interest right out of the gate. I believe that Fringe could go any direction at the moment and it would still be interesting and quite thought provoking.




First off, Altlivia (Alternate Olivia) is so screwed. There's no way she'll be able to keep up appearances and fool Water, Broyles, and especially Peter, for very long. She's constantly making little mistakes here and there and Peter and company are aware that there was a second Olivia. It's not like the thought of a fake spy Olivia isn't something they could conceive. Again, she's so very screwed. I mean, come on... no photographic memory like our Olivia? No knowledge of previous cases or personal history? What about her sister or niece? Oh okay, even if she did master all of that. I think we're forgetting something, oh right, Cortexaphan. Totally screwed.

Newton was even trying to get Altlivia familiar with pop culture. I have to say though, I love how they didn't just drop the whole Newton storyline. Nice seeing him back. Although they need to give the fans some information on this guy. We find out that he's been there for a lot of years, gathering research. Although Altlivia is still his superior, as she states. I just want to see some history on the guy, give me some substance and a real reason to hate him, if there is one. Maybe by the end of this season we'll start to feel for the other side. I know I'm already starting to after what our Walter has caused over there, and for personal gain might I add.

So, Walter now completely owns Massive Dymanics. I saw that coming when the scene began with the man reading out Bell's wishes. I love it. Didn't even theorize about that during the hiatus this summer, but it was a nice surprise. I hope this takes center stage this season. I want Walter to take control of Massive Dynamic and use the technology and money to do even greater things to protect the people he cares about. I think it would be pretty sweet if, perhaps next season, we shed the Boston Harvard lab and start working solely at Massive Dymanic. Change is good. That's why I enjoyed the premiere of Dexter so much. It's nice to see a show evolve and not be afraid of taking risks. Lost did excellent because of that reason.

I haven't even begun to discuss the actual storyline of the episode. A freaky machine is dug up out of the ground, which is strange in itself that it was buried under a house. It generates some type of super-sonic sound that leaves anyone near in a catatonic state, and eventually kills them, apparently sometimes with a little exploding head action. Oh, also, just want to throw this out there, if anyone wasn't sure if Altlivia was truly bad, she murders a deaf dude to keep her cover just to prove that she still is an evil bitch. Just wanted to point that out. Kinda blows up my previous theory that maybe Altlivia would go to our side and our Olivia to theirs. Anyways, this machine ends up being related to the crazy machine from last seasons finale episode. I guess I forgot that there were pieces missing, had no idea they were in our dimension though. I believe someone asked this in the episode already, but how did those pieces end up in our dimension, and why?

Lots of mysteries still yet to solve, which is exactly what I love about Fringe. I am also pretty confident that a lot of those mysteries will be solved as this season progresses. Unlike previous seasons where there are a lot of unrelated freak-of-the-week episodes, I have a strange feeling we won't see all that many of those. I think the writers are going to try to tie it all together, it can't be that hard, Lost did it just fine. Previous seasons have had episodes that, for me at least, didn't fit in with the overall story, but were still entertaining in their own right. I can understand though that for the first season where you're still getting to know everyone and what they do. This season however, I hope they keep it straight on course with whatever the writers plans are for this year. I'm excited to see what happens next though! So far so great. Anyone else out in internet-land have any thoughts on this episode? Or the show in general? Please comment below, I'd really appreciate it.