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Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Previews #1 and #2 for Fringe 4x16 Nothing Is As It Seems




Video: Joshua Jackson Talks About Pecoln

Alright Peter and Lincoln shippers, here's Josh answering the question you most want to know:  Is there a future for these two?



Sunday, March 25, 2012

Videos for Fringe Cast & Producer Panel at Wondercon 2012

Thankfully a nice individual uploaded the video they took of the Fringe Panel at Wondercon this year.  The cast and producers are hilarious and insightful (well as insightful as they are allowed to be) and as always it's great to watch them talk about the show.  Josh Jackson, John Noble, Blair Brown, Seth Gable, Joel Wyman and Jeff Pinkner were in attendance.  Unfortunately Anna Torv, Jasika Nicole and Lance Reddick were not.




Saturday, March 24, 2012

A Video With Some of the Funniest Walter Moments

Fringe Recap - A Short Story About Love (Season 4 Episode 15) Recap

Fringe ... 4x15 ... A Short Story About Love ... Original Airdate Fri. March 23, 2012

This episode begins with Olivia and Nina having breakfast together at a restaurant. Olivia tells Nina that despite everyone telling her it is impossible she has realized that she is in love with Peter. She doesn't buy into Walter's theory that it's her channeling Peter's thoughts via Cortexiphan related abilities since she has memories of things that Peter never knew.
 
Nina assures Olivia that in time she will feel better. When Olivia quips that she wishes time would move faster, Nina says, "Well, that's a coincidence because we just filed a patent on that last week." Oh Massive Dynamic, how you never cease to amaze me.
 
When Olivia remarks to Nina that they should meet like this more often, Nina's smile fades into a look of concern as she informs Olivia that they normally get together for breakfast like this every Saturday and that they were in fact at this very location last week, but Olivia doesn't remember. She tells Nina she will talk to Walter about it.
 
Elsewhere, a woman enters her apartment and plays the message that is on her answering machine. The disembodied voice tells her that the funeral service was nice and to call if she needs anything. While the message plays the scene changes to a man who is dabbing some liquid from a cologne tube onto his neck. As we get a better view of him his face looks to be badly scarred, almost as if he were in a fire.
 
The message ends and the woman turns on the light. As she turns around she comes face to face with the man who had been in her apartment the whole time, lurking in the shadows. When he doesn't answer her inquiries about who he is and what he wants, she bolts but he catches her. After he grabs her he gently caresses her face and she starts to calm down. As she looks at him it's almost as if a sense of recognition comes over her. When he leans in and kisses her, she returns the kiss willingly. Then just as quickly the moment passes and she starts to struggle again.
 
He pulls out some plastic wrap and quickly covers her face with it, passing it around her head a time or two until he's effectively cut off her air supply. She suffocates and falls to the floor with her eyes still open and staring ahead. Death by Saran Wrap always bothers me. Death by any kind of loss of air bothers me but I think Saran Wrap might be up there on my list of want-to-look-away-from-the-screen death scenes. Maybe something about it being clear and you can see through it, ugh, I don't know.
 
The man then bends down and takes swabs of the side of her neck and palms of her hands with Q-tips before slipping them into a vial labeled "Jane Hall Sample." He stands up and walks away and the Fringe credits roll.
 
Olivia greets Walter at the lab where he gives her a warm hug telling her that he is glad she has arrived. Olivia questions him to see if everything is okay, to which he responds, "I've run out of M&Ms." He shows her a device he had ordered online that is basically a surveillance camera under the guise of a cuddly little teddy bear. Like a Nanny-cam. He originally got it to keep an eye on the cleaning crew but it turns out that his nosy little friend captured September's adventure and subsequent disappearing act that occurred in the lab.
 
Astrid arrives with a highly classified machine in tow that will allow Walter to slow down the recording enough that even light particles will be detectable. He says to the agent that accompanied Astrid, "Now come on Tommy, let's see what we can find on that tape." This, I believe, is the same agent from episode Neither Here Nor There that was posted outside of the door whose name is actually Tim, but Walter has a tendency to call him Tommy.
 
Astrid checks on Olivia to make sure she is doing okay and Olivia says that although she came in to talk with Walter she will wait because he is currently otherwise engaged. From the back Walter hits two for two and yells for "Astro," and she dutifully goes off to assist him.
 
Olivia gets a call from Broyles and she, Astrid and Lincoln go meet him at Jane Hall's apartment. It turns out this is the second homicide within a month where the common denominators were the victims having bruise-like marks on their necks and having been recent widowers of husbands whose bodies were found completely dehydrated in fields. The dark smudges on their necks are not contusions at all, but a skin reaction to a substance that the killer had on their hands. As if that wasn't weird enough, both the murder victims had traces of their dead husbands DNA on them, making it seem as if their spouses rose from beyond to carry out the killings.
 
Back at the lab Walter is watching the Teddy Bear Tape in super-duper-duper slo-mo. In the background there is a television with an episode of Scooby Doo on. He sees something in the video that prompts him to breathe out an "Oh my."
 
He gets Peter on the phone, who informs him he is taking Walter's advice and getting the hell out of Dodge and more so the hell away from Olivia. He is headed to a bus station to motor off to New York. Walter sadly, with a tinge of indignation says, "Well, you didn't tell me." I love the 180 of Walter since Peter arrived. He went from absolutely not giving a damn - which quite honestly I believe was more about self-preservation than anything else - to actual care and concern. Walter informs Peter that he needs to come back to the lab because it is possible the Observer did a vague "something" to Peter's eye.
 
Peter goes back to the lab and he and Walter watch the video together. Peter remarks "Whatever he did, it wasn't seen by the other Observers." Walter looks quickly at Peter and says, "All I care about is what he's done to you." I knew there was more evidence to my earlier rambling about Walter caring about Peter, that's it right there.
 
Peter is leaned back in a chair as Walter puts together some things that will help him check out Peter's eye. While Walter works he and Peter talk about his interrupted trip to New York. Walter says he admires Peter for doing the right thing and confesses that he doesn't think that he would've been able to follow the same path had their roles been reversed. Peter asks him, "Is that your way of thanking me for taking your advice?" Walter replies, "It's a particularly obtuse way to admit that you are a better man than I." He turns away as Peter says "na eínai kalýtero ánthropo apó ton patéra sou." Walter recognizes it as Greek and Peter translates it to its English equivalent, "Be a better man than your father." He says it's something that he was told long ago, but in the here and now it is strange for him to hear Walter voice it.
 
Walter then carefully plucks something off of Peter's pupil with tweezers. Tweezers, pluck off of and pupil should never be included in the same sentence. Walter notices that the small parcel has writing on it. Upon closer examination the wording on the object says 228 ½ Morrow Street. Walter believes by a process called Organic Ocular Suggestion the chip would've eventually dissolved and carried its message into Peter's brain, drawing him to visit this address, although he did not have a foundation for wanting to do so.
 
Some men arrive with Jane Hall's body so Walter can begin examining her to see if he can come up with any clues to the reason for her demise.
 
The scene changes to the killer, now clad in a white outfit with a shower cap on his head. He climbs into a circular chamber and begins to squeegee goo from the bottom and side walls of the capsule. He collects it and shortly thereafter applies some of it to what looks like a perfume aroma tester stick. He takes a deep whiff and cranes his head back contentedly as though the scent is pure heaven.
 
In the lab Walter has the bodies of Jane and Mark Hall laid out on gurneys side by side. Mark's corpse is shriveled down to near skin and bone and it is explained that he died of severe dehydration. The substance that caused the marks on his widow's neck turned out to be a highly concentrated amount of Mark's own pheromones. The group hypothesizes that perhaps the killer is using the dead husbands' pheromones to attempt to make a love potion of sorts. During these observations, Walter snacks on a potato chip, completely disregarding the fact that he is using the same hand with which he had just uprooted a dried organ from Mr. Hall's withered form. Upon Walter's request Lincoln goes off to get the bodies of the first victims exhumed. On his way out, he trips over Peter's bag.
 
Walter explains that he had made Peter come back when he was leaving for New York. At Olivia's blank expression he realizes that she did not know that Peter was intending on leaving. She wants to know where Peter is at the moment.
 
Right on cue, we see Peter walking down a row of apartments along the street. He comes to the one marked 228 and after a moment of hesitancy, enters. He finds the appropriate door and the knob twists easily in his hand. Inside, there are stacks of newspapers along with clippings fixed to the wall. There is an individual place setting on the table in the kitchen nook area. He opens a closet to reveal a small collection of Observer hats on its inside shelf. At this point, I really don't want Peter to become an Observer, and I'm hoping that's not where these little clues are leading.
 
While Olivia and Walter are alone together back at the lab, she finally tells Walter that she is losing the memories of her former life. At first she was okay with it because she was willing to sacrifice the past she once knew if it meant that she and Peter would have a future together. But now, since it looks like that train derailed she is becoming concerned and wants to return to the way she was before the new, old memories began crowding out the existing ones. Confused yet? A simpler version is: The Olivia of episode 4x15 wants to go back to the Olivia of episode 4x01 or at least 4x05 - ish. Walter assures her he will think of something.
 
Our killer is now sitting on a bench people-watching. Particularly couple-watching. He has a pug on his lap, you know - the typical, I'm-not-a-crazy-pheromone-sucking-psychopath-because-I-have-a-cute-dog routine. He offers to take a picture of one of the couples by the lake. As he snaps the picture he remarks, "Oh, you two look so in love." The couple calls a small child over to them and the man looks a little disoriented. He tells them Goodbye and walks away. A few moments later he stops his journey and says, "I can take that picture for you if you want," undoubtedly finding a new focus of interest.
 
At the lab Walter is subjecting poor Astrid to sniffing the concoction he has clamped between his forceps. She inhales and then nearly gags at the stench. (Note to self: Never, under any circumstances, sniff anything Walter Bishop is offering between forceps.) He gleefully advises her it is road kill, more specifically a beaver and more specifically than that excretions that were used mostly for marking and mating. In a trip down Walter's memory lane he says, "I went beaver hunting in Eastern Canada in the '70s. Of course in those days, beaver meant something else entirely." I love Walter, that made me laugh so hard.
 
Lincoln and Olivia are in her office discussing the case. Olivia's theory is that since the killer seems to be targeting happy couples that he is picking people who display the kind of love that he wants for himself. The contemplation is obvious on Lincoln's face but when Olivia asks him what he's thinking about he doesn't say. Although, a few seconds later he tells Olivia that he knows she's been through a lot recently and if she ever needs anything he will be there for her.
 
Astrid comes in, more than ready to relinquish her post as Walter's smell-tester and says to them, "Walter wants to know which of you has fearless nasal passages." Out in the lab Walter explains that all fragrances are offset with just enough scent of something rancid to balance out the sweet or floral smells. The offending smell he has discerned from the sample on Jane Hall's neck happens to be Castoreum. He offers the specimen soaked gauze pad for Lincoln to take a sniff of, but Astrid warns him off with a small shake of her head. It's not very commonly used and Astrid has found only five perfume manufacturers that use it.
 
Back at 228½ Morrow Street Peter is still looking around when he hears a beeping sound. He traces the sound to a covered turntable that happens to be hiding a briefcase full of Observer goodies, like the binoculars with the funny number readout and a small device that is the actual source of the beeping.
 
Astrid calls Olivia while she and Lincoln are in-between perfume makers and lets her know that a certain company, Empire World Fragrance recently fired an employee for stealing none other than that elusive Castoreum. The picture ID on Astrid's screen matches the man we know as the killer.
 
In Chelsea, Massachusetts, a man lies screaming in the dehydration chamber we saw being scraped out earlier. There are circles of glowing red coils down the sides of the tube. Vaguely makes me think that could be what it looked like trapped in the core of Mars. Why I think this, I don't know, because of the red probably. Dr. McDeadly walks around outside the chamber adjusting knobs and then puts on some music and sets a timer. He empties some gel-like liquid into a jar marked Andrew. So, for anyone who cares the song that is playing during this time is called  The Friends of Mr. Cairo by Jon and Vangelis and actually the words (at least for the part chosen for this scene) really do go quite well with what is going on in this episode.
 
Olivia, Lincoln and their back-up arrive just a little too late to save Andrew and find him dried up like yesterdays beef jerky. The killer has disappeared and when Olivia sees a wedding ring on the deceased's hand her and Lincoln take off to try to get to the wife before the killer does.
 
Peter has now left the apartment and with briefcase in hand is following the beeping over the river and through the woods to Grandma's house. He is in Foxboro Massachusetts. The beeping becomes more frequent until it suddenly clicks one last time. Peter also stops and the ground rumbles under his feet. A cone shaped object burrows out of the ground beside Peter.
 
Now, in Milton Massachusetts, a lady is unpacking grocery bags in her kitchen. As she goes to take the garbage out she hears a noise outside and when she opens the door is startled by the presence of Olivia and a team of FBI agents on her doorstep. Once she has confirmed that the woman is Diana Sutter, Olivia breaks the news of her husband's death.
 
Olivia and Lincoln get their team in position and wait for the killer to come so they can ambush him. As they wait, Diana starts to talk about her relationship with her husband, and it becomes apparent that although they were approaching 15 years of marriage, there was not much left between them. When they continue to wait for the assumed attack Olivia makes the connection that possibly it isn't the wife that the murderer might be after this time. She speaks to Diana and finds out Andrew was having an affair. They are able to get the address of the other woman from her.
 
In her home, said "other women" finds one of her doors ajar and shuts it. Naturally when she turns around McStink is there and the inevitable running away then capture ensues. Again, this one calms after she recognizes the scent of her dead love on this imposter. The moment is short-lived before she realizes he is not who he smells he is. He apologizes and then starts to choke her. Before he can stranglehold her not so gently into that good night, Olivia arrives and saves the day.
 
When Olivia puts him in the squad car they have a little conversation, during which he says what he did wasn't just for him, he pretty much did it for all of humanity. He says, "We're not meant to be alone. It's every human being's right to know love and had I succeeded, had I found the right chemicals, just the right balance, I could've given the world what you have." He informs Olivia that he can smell that she is in love, which is creepy and icky on a whole new level. Off the immediate topic -- in this scene the different camera angles of the man's face seem to show that his left side does not look scarred, when it is in the straight on shots.
 
Olivia meets up with Nina at what I'm guessing is Nina's apartment in New York. She tells Nina that while she was listening to Diana Sutter talk about her marriage it made Olivia realize that she had given up on the possibility of love in her own life. She has decided that she is going to let these feelings and memories she has in instead of trying to get rid of them. Olivia believes that those memories are from a better version of her. Poor Olivia, she's always thinking there's a better version of her somewhere.

Although she tries, Nina cannot talk her out of it. They come to the realization that Olivia's life with Nina may disappear completely, and Nina resignedly says, "Well, my mother used to say, 'Encourage the quest for happiness in your children, even if it takes them very far away from you.'" Olivia asks that if it does turn out that her memories of their shared time together fades away that Nina doesn't give up on her and tries to build a relationship with her again. This was a very touching scene and now my damn Nina-o-Meter is back in the like zone for her.
 
Peter is back at the apartment with the cone-like object. He has it wired up to some of the Observers toys. He spins a dial then steps back to watch while he chomps on a snack of some kind. The object has some blue lights circle its outside and when Peter leans forward and reaches for it he has to jump back when he is shocked as it then emits a beam of blue overhead.
 
Peter bounds up the stairs to the next floor and finds September, swathed in blue light, standing in the hallway. Between head tilts, September explains that the blue light he had Peter activate was a beacon that enabled him to find his way back. The other Observers had locked him out of the universe. Peter pulls the I-scratched-your-back-now-you-scratch-mine card and asks September to tell him how to get home. And in some of the most beautiful words ever uttered in this series, September says, "You have been home all along." Peter needs clarification, seeing as how he was erased and all, so September says, "There is no scientific explanation, but I have a theory based on an uniquely human principle. I believe you could not be fully erased because the people who care about you would not let you go and you would not let them go. I believe you call it ... love. " Peter quietly asks, "And Olivia?" With a small nod September says, "She is your Olivia." I squealed "YYYYYYEEEEESSSSSS!!!!" at the television when these two facts came out. This is what I have been hoping for all along.
 
The area starts to shake and Peter turns away for a moment, when he looks back September has vanished. As he gets downstairs the beacon has also disappeared, although unlike September it left a huge hole in the floor that's going to be hell to fix. Olivia arrives at just about the time Peter is exiting the apartment and perhaps it's the pheromones in the air, but they both seem to know that something has now changed (or would it be remained the same?) and they start to quicken their progress towards each other, until he grabs her up and spins her around, sealing the end of the episode with a kiss.

I don't even mind that there wasn't a big WTF Fringe ending for this episode. Unless that was supposed to be it. But in my mind, since that's the path I wanted the show to take it was more validation than WTF. I know there will be more trials and turmoil coming up for the dynamic duo and the rest of the Fringe team, but it's nice to have one end on a happy note.

I do have some advice for Peter though.  If Olivia says that she has to pee after they finish their re-reuniting kiss, for God's sake go with her!!!!
 
So ... now that it is the same timeline, I wonder how the past events will settle themselves?

I hope we can an announcement soon that there will be a Season 5 of this magnificent show.

Any comments, questions, observations, corrections or what-have-yous are welcome. What did you think of this episode? Love it, hate it?


Next Fringe recap:  Episode 4x16 - "Nothing As It Seems"

Friday, March 2, 2012

Fringe Video: John Noble Talks About 4x14 The End of All Things


See what John Noble has to say about last week's Fringe episode, The End of All Things (Season 4, Episode 14).  Check out what he thinks about people going into other people's minds.