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| Wednesday, February 9, 2011 12:53 PM |
| On the Viewer - Fringe (Season 3, Episode 10 - "The Firefly") |
 by Fëanor |
As always, beware spoilers, for there are many!
"Oh, my pizza!" Walter says, as he shuffles off to answer the door at two in the morning, his pants around his legs, having just injected himself with an experimental concoction that he designed to make himself smarter. This is after we opened with the "manamana" song.
I love Fringe.
Next up is a creepy scene at a hospital - with Christopher Lloyd! Yay, Doc Brown! Appropriately enough, time travel is involved - looks like an Observer grabbed this guy's son out of the past to tell him something.
Somebody sent Olivia a book called If You Meet the Buddha on the Road, Kill Him! Heh. Did this come from her Dad? If so, that's creepy.
Lloyd is playing Roscoe Joyce, the keyboardist in Walter's favorite band, Violet Sedan Chair! Peter says, "He's a hero of Walter's, right up there with Einstein and Tesla."
Ugh! Peter ordered the book for alt-Olivia! That's even creepier than the Dad possibility.
An Observer just stopped a jewelry heist and saved the hostage's life. He caught the bullets they shot at him! Awesome. But why? For guys who are supposed to watch and never interfere, the Observers sure interfere a lot.
Peter tries to make the book (his favorite book) into a present for this Olivia, but he might actually be making things worse, if that's possible.
The story about Roscoe meeting his dead son is pretty moving, especially in the context of Walter and Peter's relationship.
Roscoe's son told him he would meet Walter, and that he was supposed to help him.
Walter: "Help me? How?"
Roscoe: "I don't know. Don't you?"
The Observers are setting something in motion that they hope will end with Walter doing something, something they disagree about whether he's changed enough to do. Hmm. Also, they can open locked car doors by touching them. They are pretty much superheroes.
Roscoe and Walter are going to share strawberry milkshake recipes! Awesome.
The Observer tells a horrific story: because he and Walter saved Peter, Peter was there to catch a firefly, a firefly which a little girl therefore did not catch, and so she stayed out trying to catch another, so her father went out looking for her, his car skidded in the rain at a stoplight, and he killed a pedestrian. The Observer tells Walter they've upset the balance of things, and now must set them right. How? "When the time comes, give him the keys and save the girl." Intriguing! I'll be waiting for that moment!
Oh God, it gets worse. The pedestrian killed because Peter lived was Roscoe's son. That's why Roscoe fell apart, why his band fell apart. So brutal. Walter: "That man has lost a son because I was not willing to lose mine."
The Observer uses the car he stole to crash into the police car carrying the woman he saved in the jewelry store. Why save her only to attack her later?
Peter: "Give me the keys and save the girl!"
Here we go! This is the moment, but Walter's fighting it. He doesn't want to lose Peter and is afraid that's what will happen if he lets Peter go now. But ultimately he gives in. The Observer then deliberately leads Olivia and Peter away from Walter.
Observer: "It must be very difficult."
Peter: "What?"
Observer: "Being a father."
He shoots Peter.
But Peter's alive and the Observer is now gone. So what was that all about? Walter is also confused.
But now we have our answer. It looks like all of this distraction was created just so that Peter would mistakenly drink Walter's magic smart milk, which causes him to have a seizure. Walter talks Olivia through how to stabilize him. Walter realizes that he would have died had he drank the milk, like he planned to. Peter only survived because he's young and healthy. So did the Observer do all this to save Walter's life? Peter points out that if all he wanted was to keep Walter from drinking the milk there must have been easier ways. Good point.
Later, the Observers are outside the Bishops' house talking, and we learn that all of this was actually engineered as an experiment to see if Walter would be willing to let his son die - so they can determine if he will be willing to do it again when the time comes. Well, that's ominous.
Very good episode! Exciting plot and effective emotional moments. I also love Lloyd's character and hope he'll be back again in future episodes. |
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