Fringe Recap: Worlds Apart

It's back to the present on Fringe once again after last week's game-changing "Letters of Transit". This week's outing, "Worlds Apart," put us right back in the middle of the David-Robert-Jones-is-bent-on-annihilation action. We started with Walter briefing both sides on his theory that DRJones is trying to collapse both worlds with some adorable slides of two hand-drawn planet Earths converging. Aw, Walter. Never change. Broyles & co were pretty skeptical when Walter said he got the idea in a 'dream' (code for LSD, I'm sure) but Walternate knew his own intelligence and back Walter up. Almost on cue, everyone's phones started going off because there was some serious earthquakage happening on both sides.

DRJones had recruited Olivia's fellow Cortexiphan kids to cause earthquakes Over Here, so much so that their doppelgangers felt them Over There. Jones' objective appeared to be convergence of the two sides, so each would vibrate in the same key (the key of E – halfway between middle C and the G at which Over There vibrates). One Cortexiphan kid, Nick Lane, sought out Lincoln Lee Over There, who remembered him even though Lane was really looking for the deceased Captain Lee. He mind-melded with Olivia in the lab so they could take his earthquake-causing counterpart into custody.  Troublemaker Lane had been fed a whole bunch of crap by Jones, about making things better and being integral to the war effort between the sides, even though there isn't a war, but Olivia finally convinced this fool to help them out. I mean, really. The fate of TWO WHOLE UNIVERSES, LIFE AS WE KNOW IT was at stake.  Jack Bauer would not have reasoned with him. There would have been thigh-shooting and kneecap-breaking.  I was slightly losing patience with the Fringe team for dawdling about, pleading and being reasonable. Bust some skulls!

Lane eventually led them to a warehouse where he said he'd met Jones, but it was clearly a ruse.  He caused the officer charged with his custody to shoot himself and escaped. Idiot. This left Fringe Division with no choice – they had to shut down the Machine and sever the connection between the two worlds, stopping the healing process Over There and introducing the possibility that Peter could disappear. With less than an hour left until the next series of universe-crunching quakes, Peter prepared to step into the machine and people said their goodbyes.  Walter, not knowing how to cope with all this, went and plopped himself down in the hallway, hugging his knees. Walternate followed, joining him on the floor.  They had an extremely touching conversation about Peter, and seemed to reach a place of closure.  John Noble was fantastic as usual, and still deserves an Emmy award.

Lincoln then said goodbye to Peter, and Olivia. He elected to stay Over There with Fauxlivia, who looked pretty pleased. The Astrids gave each other a sad little wave and the clock counted down. Our team from Over There disappeared – and Peter stayed where he was. As Walter said, "I think I shall miss them, more than I imagined." Me too, Walter!  I will miss Fauxlivia the most, because she's a cool chick, and Lincoln, with his big sad eyes. Hopefully we haven't seen the last of them.

My thoughts: Solid episode, lots of set-up for the two-part finale. Sad and emotionally resonant for sure.  At least we know that there isn't a horde of evildoers out there – Jones has actually been feeding people/Cortexiphan subjects the idea that there's a war on, and we need to save our side and let Over There collapse, even though he's actually merging the two. It was a more character-focused hour, especially for Walter, and I appreciated that a great deal.

Glyph Code: ALIVE. William Bell, from the looks of the preview. Excellent!

Episode Rating: 7 out of 10 Red Vines. They lose points for the lack of skull-busting and use of the obvious – I knew Jones wasn't in that warehouse before they pulled up.

Part one of the two part finale is next!  It's cruel they are making us wait a week in between episodes. A two-hour event would have been more exciting.  But I will not complain, since we are getting a whole fifth season!  YAY! Words cannot express the joy!

Happy Fringe Friday - FRINGE IS RENEWED!

Hey there, my lovely Fringe fans!  Last night, the interwebs were abuzz with the news that, at long last, Fringe has been renewed by Fox for a final, 13-episode season. And there was much rejoicing!!!!!!!!!! These fine actors will be coming to you for what will hopefully be a wonderful season 5!

I give this news one millionty Red Vines!!!  Thanks for not sucking, Fox!  I'm so glad we'll get to see the characters we've come to know and love save the universe one more time. Cheers to all!!

Fringe Recap: "Letters of Transit"

They promised us insanity, and they gave us insanity!  Friday's game-changing episode, "Letters of Transit," was one hell of an outing and one of the best Fringe episodes to date. Are you renewing this show yet, Fox???!!??  It's damn awesome!  But we know this. Now, onward to recap!

Welcome to the few-cha, brotha! (insert Desmond's Scottish accent here.) It's the year 2036, and the Observers are our supreme overlords. They apparently landed in 2016, four years from our current timeline, and proceeded to take over the world because they'd destroyed their own (bye-bye oceans…). Humans were either summarily executed or forced to submit.  The Fringe Division still exists, but it's to police the Natives (what human survivors are called) and it's run by Broyles wearing old makeup! He's pretty grumpy about the whole thing, and I don't blame him – as the new and exciting credits tell us, in this society, fringe concepts are joy, freedom, imagination, community, free will…sounds like a super fun place. There are also Loyalists, who are basically the Third Reich, policing their own people in military uniforms with Observer symbols tattooed on their cheeks.  We first meet Etta, a young, blonde Fringe agent, as she makes contact in an Observer club with a black market dealer named Rick.  Rick has found one Walter Bishop, frozen in amber – seemingly at his own hand.  Etta hops into his van to check out this discovery, and Rick is gunned down before he can tell her where the rest of Walter's team (a man and a woman) are located. Etta thinks that finding them is the key to the resistance – she is not fond of her supreme overlords.

Fringe team partners Etta and Simon

Hit the jump for the full recap of this fantastic episode!

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Fringe Double Recap: "Everything In Its Right Place" & "The Consultant"

Sup, Fringe lovers! After watching the Lincoln Lee exclusive outing, I knew last week's recap was gonna be a short one, so I decided to give you one big happy recap. And good thing too, since Friday's "The Consultant" dovetailed right in to "Everything In Its Right Place". Some crazy stuff went down, so settle in and hang on!

Lincoln's episode, "Everything In Its Right Place" saw our lost and wandering Agent Lee traversing the universes, looking for his rightful place. He decided to spend some time Over There, because his Olivia, now Peter's Olivia, didn't remember anything about their friendship and that made his sad, sad eyes even sadder. He got caught up finding a vigilante shape-shifter taking down the bad guys of Gotham…ahem, Manhatan (one T!), and we found out that Batman is called Mantis on the Other Side.  Really, that is sad. Anyway, said vigilante shape-shifter was one of Jones' first, named Canaan (how Biblical). When the two Lincolns and Fauxlivia finally captured his ass, DRJones was hip to the prisoner transport thanks to turncoat Broyles. Jones sent an assassin, and Captain Lincoln Lee got caught in the crosshairs. Poor thing didn't even get to die on screen!  A shame, too, because I liked Captain Lee and his cocky 'tude. Our Lincoln wondered how the two turned out so different if they grew up in the same environment, to which the dear departed Captain Lee responded that his universe needed him, and couldn’t get along without him. He found confidence in being needed. Well, good thing there are two Lincolns to go around, because Captain Lee won't be joining us any longer. Poor Fauxlivia. I think she loved him. Lincoln decided to stay Over There, because red hair is just as good as blonde, and Fauxlivia might need some comforting. Wink wink. Anyway, Canaan decided to turn on his creator and led us straight to nasty Nina Sharp, who was subsequently arrested.  One bad guy in lockdown!

Hit the jump for the full super-sized Fringe recap of "Everything in its Right Place" and "The Consultant!"

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Fringe Recap: Nothing As It Seems

Fringe opened up a whole new pool of possibility with this week's episode, "Nothing As It Seems". I think the title is a very obvious warning that things are about to get crazier than a couple of mutated porcupine men!  Which is what we saw in this revisit to an old case from the old timeline, the season one episode "The Transformation". In that timeline, a scientist couldn't control his Hulk-esque transformation on a plane and went berserk in the bathroom, busting out and causing the plane to crash.  Here, we got even more information on what said scientist, Marshall Bowman, was really up to and how he is just one part of a larger, scarier group of rogue scientists playing God via biogenetic manipulation.

This time around, Bowman controlled himself on the plane but transformed on the ground instead, taking on the two TSA agents interrogating him over his weird behavior on the plane. Bowman, transformed into a scary-ass porcupine monster, writhed in pain and died on his own. The Fringe team arrived to collect his body, with Peter providing some more stats on the case at large. One person not supposed to be involved was Olivia – she was giving incorrect information at her psych evaluations and not cleared to return to duty following her memory replacement disorder (didn't that sound legit, and not like I made it up? Memory replacement disorder is a thing now!). Peter briefed her on the case anyway, since he couldn't recall Bowman's scientist partner's name (Hicks) but Olivia has that darn photographic memory and she flaunted orders and joined them anyway. Olivia then met up with Peter and Lincoln at Hicks' house, where I had the living daylights scared out of me when Hicks jumped out and attacked Lincoln. I knew it was coming, but it was very sudden and you saw a lot of the creature Hicks had become, and I screamed. I am very, very impressed that Fringe was able to elicit that sort of reaction from me, a veteran of scary scifi!  Mad props, Fringe!

Lincoln, Walter, and Astrid are on the trail

Welp, Hicks got Lincoln and he was all infected. Gross. While Walter worked towards a cure, Lincoln's overwhelming need for bacon (from Walter's bacon and peanut butter sandwiches…double gross!) led Walter to realize that these scientists were able to hulk out was because they were using human fat to give them a boost. Nasty. This was not an episode to eat dinner to.  Walter also discovered a tattoo on Bowman's corpse, which a Peter-and-Olivia trip to see our old bookshop expert, Ed, revealed was an ancient Sumerian cuneiform mark denoting rebirth. Ed, ever the knowledgeable conspiracy theorist, said that there was an underground group out there posting on tiny little corners of the Interwebs about the 'guided evolution of man,' basically people wanting to create a newer, better species. Astrid (her only function this week was to use the Google) found the group's motto online: "Each generation of gods is overthrown by its children who become new gods with new tools." Fun times!

We saw some of these improvements when the transformed Hicks showed up at his girlfriend's apartment to take her on a little jaunt across Boston…in the sky! He picked her up, Lois Lane style, spread his huge wings and they flew off to get some more fat from a cosmetic surgery office. Aw, how romantic. The Fringe team figured this out and met them there, with Peter shooting and killing the transformed Hicks as his girlfriend wept. We then cut to another couple, ready to inject themselves and become part the 'new world,' setting us up for future mutants. And the man in this couple was played by none other than Alessandro Juliani, aka Felix Gaeta from Battlestar Galactica!  Maybe we'll see more of him in the future. Oh, and Walter saves Lincoln from having to enroll in Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, but Lincoln did look rather hilariously disturbed by all this crazy. Everyone else was like, meh. Must be Tuesday. Also, Broyles forgave Olivia's disobedience and let her back on the team, like we all knew he would. Broyles, you old softie.

The last scene of the episode found us onboard a freighter of horrors (akin to the Lost freighter of doom, yes?). We caught glimpses of many animals in cages and boxes, none of them normal, including two more porcupine men. A lone caretaker stomped through, checking on his charges. Because this isn't a recipe for disaster or anything, a bunch of deadly mutant animals all stuffed into one cargo hold!

Gee, what could possibly go wrong?

It's the Little Things

-Walter loves Peter now, it's official.  He busted out a big box full of presents he bought for Peter's birthday each year as a way to remember him. The porn magazine for his 16th was pretty amusing – Hump. Lol. Peter was very touched by this gesture, and gave Walter a big ol' hug…all together now "awwwwww!"

-I saw the Observer!  He was in the background when Peter got out of the car at Hicks' house.

-Lincoln might be close to becoming a supervillain himself, as his little "Yeah, I'm a good guy" reply to Peter's car chat about their relationships with Olivia was a tad too sarcastic for my taste. She doesn't even remember their late-night diner chats! Poor Lincoln. Doc Jensen over at EW thinks he's gonna go out in a self-sacrificing blaze of glory. That would be depressing. I like Lincoln Lee and his big sad eyes. Maybe he and Astrid should date?

Glyph Code: FUTURE. Uh-oh. Make way for mutants!

Episode Rating: a solid outing, and it set up the rest of the season very well. 8 out of 10 Red Vines (it was lacking in Peter/Olivia kissy face)

Next week: Everything in Its Right Place…loving the title, and can't wait!

The Story So Far: The World According to Fringe

Welcome to my entire series summary of Fringe, for the new, the uninitiated, and those in need of a refresher. There's a new episode tonight (that you should watch!), but it can be intimidating to jump into it this late in the game. This series summary will give you the entire story so far over the past four seasons - and, trust me, there's a lot of ground to cover.  Grab a Walter-approved snack of your choice (pastries or fudgsicles will do nicely), sit back and immerse yourself in the crazy world of Fringe!

What

The FBI's Fringe Division exists to track instances of The Pattern, aka Weird Science and Technology That Shouldn't Be Running Amok But Is.  If you watch the opening credits, there are all sorts of words flying around like 'teleportation', 'psychokinesis', 'nanotechnology', 'cybernetics' and the like. There are also shapeshifters, let's keep those in the back of our minds. It's all very X-Files minus the aliens.  Fringe eventually abandons The Pattern when the Fringe Division realizes that The Pattern = instances of another universe breaking through (which we discover at the end of season 1) and the problems that arise because the proverbial 'wall' between the universes is breaking down, creating all sorts of havoc in space, time, and physical matter.  This leads to Over Here (the universe we currently inhabit) and Over There (which is similar but still very different in new and interesting ways). [Note: everyone we see Over Here has a counterpart Over There, whether they are living or dead. This is very important to grasp.]

Fringe cast, L-R: Astrid, Broyles, Walter Bishop, Olivia Dunham, Peter Bishop, Nina Sharp, Lincoln Lee

PS: A very special welcome to Open the Fridge for all my Sistahs from my Henry Ian Cusick fan group!  Ian's upcoming guest spot on the show will be introducing some very lovely ladies to Fringe, and I'm happy to catch everyone up. Cheers!

Are you ready to run head first Over There? Hit the jump below for the full series summary of this crazy world!

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Fringe Recap: A Short Story About Love

On Friday, Fringe returned from its winter hiatus with 10% awesome and 90% lame.  Are we really reverting back to freak-of-the-week when there is SO MUCH GOING ON???  I have to say, I was pretty displeased with "A Short Story About Love," which had a burned/disfigured dude melting down husbands for pheromones and then killing their wives after getting one kiss out of them.  This sicko was just someone I couldn't even look at whenever he was on screen, plus his preferred method of plastic wrap smothering was also ghoulish and I had to look away.  This case mostly provided Lincoln with an opportunity to make eyes at Olivia and ask if she was ok, since her memories are being replaced and all.  Olivia and Lincoln caught our little freak of the week, and he said he could smell the stench of love on Olivia. Gross, man.

Thankfully, Walter was around to save the day – he set things in motion as he caught Peter on the way to the bus, stopping him from leaving Boston and Olivia, who he believed he was hurting just by being in her presence.  Walter realized that a teddy bear cam he'd gotten from 'the interwebs' to spy on the cleaning crew caught the entire Observer interlude in the lab!  Pretty awesome!  We saw the Observer just disappearing into thin air from the gurney, but the fact that a table was knocked over led Water to investigate further.  He requisitioned a bit of tech that slows down video to the extreme, and we were able to get a glimpse of the other Observers popping out from space-time to rescue September.

Before they could spirit him away entirely, he flashed Peter in the eye with some device. Not really sure how Peter could miss something in his EYE (sooo uncomfortable) for over a week or whatever, but it had 28 1/2 Morrow Street written on it. And Peter was off and running to the Observer bachelor pad of the now!  Interesting clues awaited us, along with spare hats, umbrellas, and trench coats.  Peter's discovery of some Observer tech led him to the forest, where another cylinder awaited him.

Hit the jump for the full recap!

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Fringe: Breaking News!!

Holy strawberry-flavored poptarts, Fringe fans!  Michael Ausiello's TVLine just upgraded Fringe from 'could go either way' to 'a safe bet' on the renewal front!  OH HAPPY DAY! Season five, here we come!

Can you tell that I'm just a little EXCITED BEYOND ALL REASON?  I was all set to launch into my diatribe against Fox and it's abuse of the scifi genre and its fans, but perhaps I can hold off for just a little while.  Hopefully I'll be coming at ya with news of official renewal in the coming weeks, but for now, keep those milkshakes and Red Vines on standby!

Beyond the Fringe: Digital Comics Series

Hey, Fringe fans!  Have you been reading 'Beyond the Fringe'? DC Comics has been releasing these digital-download bad boys since September, and they are just the thing to tide you over during this winter break. Plus so far, three have even been written by Fringe star Joshua Jackson!  I find it super exciting that he loves the show he's on so much that he's willing to sit down and pen these comics, including a very thoughtful and badass what-if exploring where Peter was between the time he stepped into the machine and the time he popped back out in Reiden Lake. And that's all I'm telling you about Beyond the Fringe #1A!  Head on over to Comixology and check out that issue and the rest for yourself.  I pretty much devoured them all in one sitting, and at $1 per issue, it's a much cheaper addiction than my penchant for shoe shopping.

The comics divide each chapter into A and B storylines - A storylines are written within the known and established Fringe canon, and B storylines are 'what if' imaginative adventures!  These totally fun concepts take on alternate scenarios like what if Peter never died as a young boy, what if Astrid was double-agent-ing it up as a sassy spy, or what would Peter and Fauxlivia's son be like as he navigates school with his special abilities. The art by Jorge Jimenez is top-notch and the storylines are alternately dramatic and fun, allowing the authors to play with these deeply complex and layered characters in ways we don't get to see on screen. The best part is that the series is not yet complete, so there is much awesomeness to come.

What are you waiting for?  Make like a Cortexiphan kid and pop on over to Comixology for your Fringe fix!

From the Fringe Set: What Have We Here??

The cast and crew of Fringe are busy filming the last eight episodes of the seasons, and a crazy photo from the set made its way to the internet.  Check it out:

What in the name of Bavarian pastries is going on here?! First of all, we have Walter (and not Walternate) walking away from a totally Professor-X'ed out gray-haired NINA! Henry Ian Cusick (Lost's Desmond) is talking to Nina, but he is reportedly cast as an 'Over There' Fringe agent. Which makes us realize: if we are indeed 'Over There,' then that is not Fauxlivia, unless she has dyed and cut her hair and grown out her bangs.  And what is up with all the Observers?  Not only are photos of them floating around, but they are also sitting on the benches to Walter's left and walking in the background!

WHAT IS ALL THIS??? An Observer convention? Is something insanely huge and momentous about to happen?  Why is our Walter Over There?  Your guess is as good as mine. Crazy-sauce! I can't wait for March 23!

Stay tuned for an extra-special review of last week's winter finale, "The End of All Things"!