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| Monday, February 21, 2011 01:43 PM |
| On the Viewer - Fringe (Season 3, Episode 12 - "Concentrate and Ask Again") |
 by Fëanor |
Beware the spoilers contained herein, for they are legion!
Intriguing episode title. Isn't that one of the things a Magic 8 Ball can say to you?
Seen amongst William Bell's possessions: a copy of Dr. Spock's childcare book. Ha! Nice reference.
Olivia on Faux-livia: "She's like me, but better." Ouch! How do you live with feeling upstaged by another version of yourself?
Nina's giving Olivia relationship advice now? Oy.
And the Magic 8 Ball quickly makes its appearance, as a gag birthday gift for an executive dude - who swiftly dies in a strange and horrible way! I see we've returned to the traditional Fringe opening.
In fact, this opening reminds me of a previous episode, as it involves an unknown biological agent fatally poisoning someone in a high-rise, and the building being consequently quarantined. Thankfully it proceeds in a different direction from there.
Walter: "Why would anyone kill a scientist? What did we ever do?"
Peter: "Really?"
The culprit appears to be someone named Madison. Olivia is assuming it's a man, so I'm betting it will turn out to be a young girl, for the extra surprise/creep factor.
Peter gets Olivia coffee, which is a nice gesture - but Olivia notes it has milk, which she apparently doesn't like in her coffee. I'm guessing this is another Faux-livia/Olivia mix up. Oh, Peter.
Astrid: "You used to work for President Nixon?"
Walter: "It was uncomfortable. His wife kept coming onto me."
Damn, our suspect is a guy. Well, maybe he's a red herring.
An agent scans the suspect's house and claims there are "no chem or bio-agents." Says you! Given the stuff they've dealt with in the past, I'd keep my mask on.
Olivia confirms my guess about the coffee. Another uncomfortable moment between her and Peter!
Peter runs after the fleeing suspect yelling, "Freeze, FBI!" But of course, he's not really an agent, and doesn't have a gun, so...
Our suspect is randomly hit by a car and put into a coma - but that doesn't mean Walter can't question him!
Ah ha! I was sort of right about Madison being a little girl. It was the unborn child of the killer. He blamed the doctor for the death of his baby.
Walter runs out of gas driving to find another kid from the Cortexiphan trials: Simon. This one never completed the program - they kicked him out because he started to develop the ability to read minds, which understandably freaked them out.
I can't help but feel this is another rather clumsy retcon. How could Walter have never brought this up before? In previous episodes they were frantically searching for anything and anyone connected to the Cortexiphan trials. Why would he not have thought to visit this guy at that time? Sigh. Also, why would Walter need a guy who can read minds just to question an unconscious suspect? I mean, c'mon - Walter has questioned dead people before with just some machines he hacked together in his lab.
Heh. Walter's brain is poison to mind-readers!
Peter: "How many more, Walter? How many more are gonna come crawling out of the woodwork?"
Good question! As many as they can retcon in, I guess.
Olivia is immune to Simon's mind-reading powers, due to her exposure to Cortexiphan.
Simon: "It's refreshing, not being able to read your mind. It's the first real conversation I've had in 20 years."
That's deep.
They're going over all the stuff Simon picked out of the suspect's mind.
Walter: "What about the plate of vegetables?"
Peter: "Let's just assume for right now that the vegetables are inconsequential."
Heh.
Are they going to make poor mind-reader guy go into a building full of hundreds of people? That ain't right. They're going to give this guy a stroke or something.
CIA Agent: "How good a shot are you?"
Olivia: "Uh, I'm okay. Why?"
Way to bring up a sensitive subject! We all know Faux-livia is a much better shot!
Olivia: "Without Simon we can't identify the suspects."
Uh, seriously? We couldn't scrounge up even one photo of these guys anywhere? That's a little hard to believe.
Simon, to Olivia: "Someone thinks you're hot."
Heh.
All right, Simon identified both suspects. Can somebody get the poor guy out of there before his head blows up? Jeez.
Holy crap, Olivia! Nice shot! You still got some Faux-livia left in you after all?
Great scene with Walter and Simon. Walter looks like he wants to say something to him - probably an apology - and Simon just looks at him. They exchange glances, and Walter remains silent.
Olivia tries to convince Simon he could go out and have a life, and he tries to convince her she's wrong by showing her what's it like to be him. He gives her a piece of paper that reveals what's in Peter's mind.
The bowling alley guru wrote The First People?!?
Nina gets right to the point for once and asks about Peter and the machine.
Bowling alley guy: "Whatever frequency Peter's vibrating at will determine how the machine reacts.... It depends on his state of mind, which in turn will depend on who he ends up with: Olivia from over here, or Olivia from over there. Whichever one he chooses, it'll be her universe that survives."
Wow, they just came right out and said that, huh? That sounds like something they were throwing around in script meetings that ended up in the dialog by mistake. I would have preferred a little more subtlety! That being said, it's good to know where we stand.
So, what does the paper say that Simon gave to Olivia? "He still has feelings for her." Ouch! That's pretty brutal.
I enjoyed this one, even if there was some poor plotting and some questionable dialog. I've seen characters like Simon before, but I like him anyway and I hope they bring him back into the story again at some point. |
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