Saturday 15 October 2011

Fringe-Subject 9-My Thoughts


Finally, with Subject 9, we're back to the Fringe I know and love! The best episode so far this season.

We open in Olivia's bedroom, where she wakes to find a big blue ball of energy hovering over her bed. As she points her gun at it, it disappears. She finds that all the metal in the room is in the middle of the floor.

At the lab, Walter is conducting an experiment with a peanut (and Astrid mentions shrimp, which was a great Buffy nod!) and mentions watching the Matrix, which was another great shout out.

Olivia tells Walter about the energy ball and she shows a burned spot on her arm where the energy touched her and asks Walter if it's possible she's causing it.
Walter avoids the question and walks away. Finding a letter from St. Claire's in the pocket of Olivia's jacket, he steals a peek and realizes they want Olivia to make the decision to commit him again. He quickly hides the letter back in her jacket before she can see him.

Back at Olivia's apartment, Astrid and Olivia are taking readings. On his monitor, Walter sees Olivia get trapped in the bathroom a minute before it actually happens.
Again, the large ball of energy appears in front of her before it poofs away.

Many differences come out in this episode, a big one being that apparently Olivia has always remembered the cortexiphan trials and she's never met any of the other cortexiphan children.
Walter tells Olivia of a boy who had an astral projection ability (remember that from the title sequence?), but the ability had a side effect that created a distortion in the magnetic field that would attract metal objects to himself.
Walter explains that maybe, because of the deep bond the cortexiphan children shared, this boy may now be targeting Olivia because she was the favourite child.

Olivia and Astrid head to Massive Dynamic to see what Nina knows about 'Subject 9'. Finally, we get to see Nina again, and it appears that she's a very different Nina.


Walter has a great one-sided exchange with Nina in Astrid's ear full of venom and anger. I laughed!
In this reality, Nina and Olivia appear to be VERY close, with Nina being a mother-figure to Olivia, even mentioning being a part of Olivia's teen years.
Weeeeird.

While searching through Massive Dynamics files, Olivia tells Astrid about the cortexiphan trials and that she got out when she ran away.
They find Subject 9's file, who is a boy named Cameron James.

They head back to the lab, where they find Walter waiting by the door with a suitcase. After being confined to the lab (by choice) for three years, he now wants to go help Olivia talk to Cameron.
He tells Astrid, "Claire, would you please man the cameras in my absence."
Astrid replies, "Really? Claire? That doesn't even start with an 'A'"
Yes, that made me laugh out loud.

Walter and Olivia arrive at Cameron James' apartment and find it empty. Walter notices there' s no metal at all in the apartment and it appears Cameron has changed his name to Mark Little.
After a weird bit of flirting from Walter, the neighbour tells them Mark will be back in the morning.

Olivia and Walter find a hotel where Walter promptly has a major freak out, screaming, smashing lamps and overturning furniture because of his germophobia.
Olivia calms him down and Walter apologizes, saying Elizabeth, his wife, used to say he was a man of contradictions. He then tells Olivia that she killed herself after Peter died as a child.

Olivia decides that maybe going out for root beer floats is a better idea than staying at the hotel.

I love the exchange between Olivia and Walter at the cafe. Their relationship is so loving and so caring and it's a real joy to watch.

Walter tells Olivia that he read the letter from St. Claire's. Olivia tells him that whatever she decides to do, she's only trying to do what's best.
Suddenly, the big blue ball appears in the cafe.


Olivia and Walter escape through the broken window and the energy ball follows Olivia, disappearing when it's hit by a car.



Olivia pulls rank on the local PD, showing the lieutenant a paper with Broyles name and Broyles boss's name on it.
Whoever Broyles boss is, he must be pretty powerful because the cop backed right off.

Olivia and Walter head back to Little's apartment. As they talk along the way, we find out that in this reality, none of the cortexiphan children's abilities lasted any longer than 24 hours.

Olivia goes inside, leaving Walter outside on a bench. Little tries to run when Olivia mentions the name Cameron James.
As he's running, he bumps into Walter who's come inside and recognizes him. Olivia catches up and tries to shake the truth out of him, asking him why he's doing this to her.
Walter tells Olivia not to kill the guy and Little recognizes Olivia's name. He tells her it's not him that's doing anything.
He can no longer astral project but he still has the awful side effects.
As he's talking, the energy ball appears and then disappears when Subject 9 gets upset and shouts, stopping it.

Walter thinks Little may be able to neutralize the energy with some amplification from a power sub-station.
Little tells Olivia that when his powers first came back, he thought something was attacking him and he wonders if it's Olivia bringing on the energy balls. Olivia says she never had side effects from the trials as an adult.

The energy ball once again appears after they arrive at the power station and Little tries to neutralize it. Olivia sees a man inside the energy ball and fires her gun into the air to break Little's concentration and the energy ball disappears.

At Reiden Lake, in an awesome display of symbolism, a naked Peter comes up from the bottom of the lake he once went down in.
A man and his son in a fishing boat rescue him as the Observer watches on.


Olivia tells Walter that she can feel the man didn't want to hurt her and that he needed her help.
Broyles calls Olivia to tell her about a man that was found in a lake. The man apparently knows more than he should about Fringe Division and he's asking for Olivia by name.

At the hospital, Walter notices that the letter in Olivia's jacket pocket has been filled out and the look of relief on his face when he sees that she won't be committing him is just wonderful.

Olivia walks into the hospital room and we get our first glimpse of Peter this season, and may I say he's a sight for sore eyes.
"Olivia, thank God you're here", he says.
His face drops when Olivia replies, "Who are you?"

Of course, that's where it ended, in classic Fringe fashion. And then we find out that we have to wait TWO WHOLE WEEKS for the next episode because of the stupid baseball playoffs. Argh.


Questions:
-Where was Peter?
-Who is Broyles boss?
-Why does Peter remember?
-How will he make everyone else remember?
-How did Peter get through?

The Glyphs spelled RESET.






2 comments:

  1. I agree, the Fringe episodes are getting better and better! Of course, we all have many questions, but right now I’m especially intrigued by your Buffy/shrimp reference. I’m drawing a complete blank on that, and I wish you would spell it out for me, IF it’s not a spoiler for the back half of season 6 or season 7. Thanks bunches!

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  2. I'll do better than that...I'll post a link! ;)

    http://buffy.wikia.com/wiki/Shrimp_Worlds

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