In tonight’s second third season premiere, we see what the Fringe team of our universe is up to and find that there is still a lot of uneasy feelings between Peter and Walter since they’ve been back.
As noted in last week’s episode, the alternative Olivia, Altlivia, has fully infiltrated the Fringe team and has taken up the role of our Olivia. Unlike our brainwashed Olivia on the other side though, Altlivia is acting as a double agent for the other side with some yet to be completely understood orders from Walternate. We know for sure that the other side has several agents on our side, and they are attempting to collect parts for another doomsday machine in our universe.
Tonight’s freaky story revolves around the first of these parts, a box containing a device that emits an ultrasonic sound that flattens brainwaves. Upon hearing this device, their brain moves into a vegetative state until the person just dies. The only way you survive it is to be deaf. It’s just another example of the show writers taking a simple scientific concept (harmonic music smooths out neural activity) or scientific history and expanding it well beyond the realms of imagination (music so harmonic that it smooths out the brain’s activity completely). It’s by far the show’s strong suit, and to me, it’s what keeps the viewers engaged and coming back week to week.
Altlivia being on our side allows for some interesting play in the character. There are several subtle differences between the two, but most importantly is the fact that Olivia has a perfect photographic memory whereas Altlivia does not and definitely cannot fake it. The genius concept of the whole season will be to see how Altlivia, as good of a spy as she may be, hides the fact she is not from their universe and how will the revelation occur. Of course all the little mistakes, such as her memory, her knowledge of pop culture, and her aggressive personality might all be individually explained away at the time, but over time, Peter, Walter, and Astrid are surely going to notice all the differences as a whole and that will be her undoing.
As a final note, once again I think Fringe’s special effects department staff are a special kind of insane. This week involves Walter pulling a brain out of someone’s head in all it’s gory detail and an exploding head. They even include a small hint that they used raspberry jelly to make the brain matter itself. If you are one of the effects builders on Fringe, I applaud you.
Other Thoughts
- Altlivia had her tattoo erased like was a magic marker. I do envy the other side technology.
- Walter is trying to make Jane the cow create chocolate milk directly, something every kid thinks about.
- Massive Dynamics uses iPads encased with a white plastic cover.
- Massive Dynamics appeared to teleport something StarTrek style, including the glittered water overlay effect.
- Where did this ancient device come from? Those seem a lot like alien type markings.
- How did the homeless man move the box down the tunnel?
- William Bell leaves Walter with the majority stake of Massive Dynamics, and as such Walter is now the primary owner.
