FRINGE: Amber 31422 (S3E5)

Back to the awesomeness that is FRINGE, Season 3. Olivia is still trapped in the alternate universe and she's carrying on her duty at Fringe Division brilliantly.

So, a bank robber Joshua whose twin brother Matthew was mistakenly trapped in amber in place of him succeeds in releasing said twin brother from amber quarantine but since the rest of the world doesn't know that the people trapped in amber are in suspended animation and can be resurrected, Fringe Division has the job of catching the escapee, Matthew, and burying the truth once again.

While trying to figure out the puzzle of the case, once again Peter's illusion haunts Olivia and gives her clues as how to crack the case. Olivia suspects that the twin brothers switch themselves but the crew can't act on hunch and by Olivia's mum's advise, Olivia is dismissed from the case, infuriating her. Alternate Walter's experiment for Olivia, however, proves to be fruitful this time around. She manages to cross over to our side of the world for a minute but it was enough to give Olivia ideas that maybe she isn't from the alternate world otherwise she wouldn't have known all those things about the other world, isn't it? Confusing, confusing, I KNOW, which is exactly why you have to watch this amazing series yourself.

Anyway, Joshua figures out that even if he turns himself in, the authorities would find out that the one trapped in amber four years ago is Matthew and not Joshua, so Matthew would be experimented on afterwards for the rest of his life and that is one chance Joshua isn't willing to take. Therefore, he stages another bank robbery at a remote location in hope of getting trapped during the quarantine alarm and all will be as before, except this time it's the real Joshua that is trap. It's sort of an atonement for 'stealing' his brother's life for four years. Olivia knows this and goes to visit Matthew at his house but tells him that she isn't going to pursue the matter.

Peter's illusion tells her, in her mind, that she lets Matthew go because she's experiencing the exact same thing as him, trapped in a world she doesn't belong to and no one is going to save her. In her panic, she rushes back to the lab and asks to be transported over to the other side to confirm her suspicions. They do this by putting her in a water tank, then suppressing her senses with a cocktail of drugs which sens her body into shock and voila, transports her to our/her world back.

When she returns from the short experience, alternate Walter asks what happened to her this time but she said nothing. Judging by alternate Walter's expression, he does not buy Olivia's lie. I'm afraid Olivia's days in the alternate side is numbered now and seriously, Peter needs to come to the rescue already.

Olivia has managed to get on so well with her team in the alternate side, it's sad to know that it's not gonna last and she will have to escape from there somehow sometime.

FRINGE: Do Shapeshifters Dream of Electric Sheep? (S3E4)

"Unless you can put yourself in another man's shoes, I don't think you can really judge these situations." - Peter Bishop.

Senator Van Horn's car is hit by a truck and his body shot to death by Newton when Newton fails to steal it away, revealing that Van Horn was a shapeshifter. Walter is entrusted with the task of repairing and attempting to extract whatever data is left in the shapeshifter's body. This alarms the Alternate Olivia (Olivia from alternate universe who's currently roaming Boston as FBI agent) because Van Horn knows everything about Alternate Olivia's identity. Van Horn's data chip has to be retrieved asap at any cost if Alternate Olivia is to keep her cover safe.

This time, instead of taking the chip himself and risking his life again, Newton calls on one of his minion shapeshifters who has stayed dormant for the past five years. To carry out the task, this shapeshifter has to leave his current life and takes on another shape again. All remnants of his old life has to be discarded but it turns out that during the five years he acts as normal person, the shapeshifter develops emotional attachments for real so he decides that he'll complete his mission without shapeshifting again which is bad move, really, but I guess he can't help it. He loves his family. 

Newton ends this shapeshifter's 'shift' (lol, can't resist saying that) but en route of escaping with Van Horn's chip, Peter gives a hell of a chase so Newton has no choice but to crash his car and turns himself in, but not before he passes Van Horn's chip to Olivia, to Olivia's relief.

Once behind bars, there's nothing he can do but to perish. Olivia slips Newton a self-destructive thin film and with that, Newton is gone. Olivia's voice of ugly conscience is gone :( 

What Newton says about Olivia's true feelings and doubts scare her - that somewhere deep in Peter's mind, he knows this Alternate Olivia is not His Olivia - so Alternate Olivia makes plans to sleep with Peter to convince both Peter..and herself. I don't know how sleeping with him would be a step towards convincing either of them that they are the real them or how it would help to drive her mission forward, but then again I don't have Olivia Dunham's mind, you see. Enlighten me please.

This episode feels like a feeler to me even though it drives the plot forward...

It does reveal some things about shapeshifters though -

that they can develop sincere feelings and attachments, that their brains are located in the lower base of the spine (or what Walter calls "ass") and that their blood is made of mercury. 

My favorite part of this episode is when the shapeshifter police who has to carry out Newton's order goes into his son's room to say goodbye but his son says he's afraid of monsters, so the police who's a shapeshifter/monster but loves this son immensely, tells him:

"You know, sometimes, monsters aren't all that bad. Sometimes, if you get to spend some time with them, they can be very surprising. They can be, uh, incredibly sweet and pure, and capable of great, great love. And then, one of them might actually become your very, very best friend."

and his son answered, "But you're my best friend."

It's such a heartbreaking moment.

FRINGE: The Plateau (S3E3)

In the alternate world, a man who has been turned from a human vegetable into a calculation genius through clinical experiment tries to resist regression of his newfound intelligence by killing anyone who sabotages this plan. Statistical anomaly has suddenly turned into probable reality that results in fatal outcome.

Under the watchful eyes of Broyles and Walternate (alternate, more powerful and sane Walter in the other world), Olivia is sent to the field with agent Francis and agent Lee, and her sharp observation puts her in the top of the genius' NEXT-TO-KILL list. rahhhh. Danger danger.

Olivia feels at home and in charge and no one knows better about who she really is except for Walternate and Broyles. She feels empowered in the field. hallelujah. And we discovers that in this new world, ballpoint pens are sort of a novelty. Nobody uses them anymore except for a handful of hospitals which uses the pens as a tool to help patients with severe cognitive disability. This detail helps them find leads to the murderer but put their lives in danger as the genius plans his murder.

However, Milo - that's the name of the murderer/genius, doesn't know that Olivia is not from this world and thus fails to factor in that she might not act as predicted and that's her saving grace, really. She manages to dodge her calculated death because she doesn't follow the protocols but the reason she doesn't follow protocols is that she doesn't know these protocols. Genius is caught and now only talks to computers because mere humans can no longer keep up with his complex thoughts. Bummer for his sister :(

In this episode, Olivia obviously lost her original identity already and thinks that she has been in this world all her life BUT she also starts to hallucinate - seeing Peter in the field and Walter at the hospital. She knows these images are in her mind, they are not real, but they keep on recurring so something must be amiss. She knows it.

The image of Peter reminds her again why she did not die earlier that day and he tells her that she can't forget who she is, where she comes from and she can't forget Peter's kiss. whoa. way to charm a woman.  This is all Olivia's original mind's doing, of course, but I can't wait till she 'wakes' up and finds a way back to the real Peter!

FRINGE: The Box (S3E2)

Welcome back to all things fringe science! and the plot just gets better and better - a little gory, yes, but horrible things happen in our world every now and then.

As the first episode covers mostly about the original Olivia who is trapped 'Over There" (parallel universe for those of you who doesn't follow Fringe religiously), this time the story tells mostly about Peter and the other Olivia in our world.

A bizarre incident has taken place in Maine once again and this time victims and villains both died mysteriously with the exception of someone who escapes the tragedy with a machine that may be the cause of the mass killing.

The main ones:

Walter: Walter is named sole shareholder of Massive Dynamic in Bell's will (his BFF who died at the end of Season 2), thus inheriting a whole new set of state-of-the-art labs. wooohoo!!! Now he can experiment with fringe science much more easily and never worry about money. That lucky madman. But I have a soft spot for Walter, because he has such enormous love for Peter :)

Peter Bishop: Peter starts noticing that the Olivia next to him has changed somewhat. Lovely changes, he thinks, but still changes nonetheless and at times, these changes seem to make this Olivia a whole different person from who she used to be. Hmmms. I can't wait till he discovers the truth! Come on already.

The other Olivia: still orders Newton, the leader of the shapeshifters, around. She almost screws up her cover when Peter comes by her place, so she distracts him by kissing him and leading him on (work like a charm. Men are SO easy to fool) until Broyles calls her for duty. Ooops! Sorry Peter!

So, Peter manages to deactivate the ultrasonic box that's killing people right and left. There are some gory scenes but for the most part, everything is fine. The box seems to be a part of a larger machine as revealed by the other Olivia at the end of this episode when she types a message to the alternate world that "Peter has found first piece." I wonder what this larger plan is.

In the next episode, the plot would definitely go back to the original Olivia in the alternate world, coping with a new life...unknowingly? Stay tuned.

FRINGE: Olivia (S3E1)

This episode of the brand new season of J.J Abrams' project didn't cover much at all except revealing what "Over There" is like and how Olivia is losing means of finding her way back home.

"Over There":

• Olivia is withheld against her will at a facility; the staff injecting the other Olivia's lymphocytes/DNA/memory into her but Olivia's mind is steadfast and strong - She knows who she is. So she escapes the facility and with some luck, takes a kind taxi driver hostage and uses him to navigate her way in NYC. Not our NYC but the NYC "Over There" where ..everything is just that slightly more sophisticated than ours.
• Bad news is, her adrenaline from the escape triggers the DNA injected into her and she slowly confuses herself with the other Olivia, even acquiring the other Olivia's incredible marksmanship. At this point, I really don't know if she still knows who she really is but playing along with FRINGE division team so she can stay safe until she finds a way back to the real world.
• IF she really loses herself, returning home would be a HUGE problem. I'm scared. Poor Olivia. However, it seems like a sliver of hope is still alive in the form of Henry the kind taxi driver who notices that Olivia's memory seems to have changed. Hopefully Henry will be her right hand "Over There". 

In THIS WORLD:

• The other Olivia has managed to infiltrate our world. Walter is too mentally-disturbed to notice and Peter is too in love to realize that she isn't the Olivia Dunham he knew! AHHHHHHH. Troubles, troubles. While the real Olivia is struggling "Over There" with herself/mind and the world, Peter and the new Olivia head on to a lovey-dovey future. DO NOT WANT. Let's keep our fingers crossed that Peter is smart enough to notice that the woman next to him is NOT OLIVIA very very very soon.