Before you delve into this, bear in mind it is me thinking out loud on a page, to see what people think about something I found intriguing.
We are now four episodes into Fringe's third season, and it's about time we started looking forward at what is to come for the season ahead. After all, four episodes into season two, we were given our real sign into where we where headed (literally), as Newton was un-decapitated, William Bell showed up to fill in some of the blanks about the alternate universe and Charlie Francis' imposter was exposed and killed in the corker of an episode that was 'Momentum Deferred.'
It felt kind of poetic that precisely one season after he was introduced, Sebastian Roche's villain, Newton was killed off, despite an outcry in my head that I didn't feel we had had the full potential of, in my opinion, the shows best villain. How eerie was his warning to Alt-Olivia, that she will fail.
[You're very good]at continuing to try to convince yourself that you don't care. But you do care, don't you? Every night when your head hits the pillow, in the last moments before you go to sleep, your emotions betray you, and you question your ability to pull this off. Words like, integrity, self-respect - they haunt you. They form a line that you're unwilling to cross and that will lead to your undoing. But I suppose that's not my problem anymore.
One nice thing I didn't realise, was Senator Van Horn was first introduced way back in the season two episode 'Earthling,' some nice continuity for you continuity nuts that largely went unnoticed to most people I'm sure.
Do we know much about the alternate universe than we did before the season started. Not really, we know they can take trips to the moon, they watch dogs rather than cats, and that they sent Alt-Olivia over to our side to firstly find 'The Box,' and for some other, as yet unknown mission, a mission that even stout Alt-server all his life Newton believe she will fail in. The Shape-Shifters have no faith in her, and their mission seems very different to the principal goal that Walternate and Alt-Olivia have. They seem to just lie in wait, Ray Duffy marrying and living a human life before Newton came calling. It's all fascinating stuff, but the clever part about the four stunning episodes we have had so far, is we know very little else about what the hell is going on, so crafted is the story telling, we believe we have learnt something but in fact are no closer to understanding what Fringe is all about.
It's a similar tactic that LOST employed, it was only in the final season that the true meaning for what LOST was about was established.
We have been very Observer-lite so far this season, that is assuming that our friend Milo Stanfield in 'The Plateau' was only deceptively appearing very Observer-esque, his calculating people's next words and understanding on what was to come in the world though, being surely a little set up for when we get our Observer explanation. Maybe I'm looking into this too much but the past two seasons have followed very similar structures perhaps so far.
I implore you not to forget one of the best endings to an episode in season two, when Broyles had Raymond Gordon in an interrogation room in episode three of season two, 'Fracture'.
They told you I was crazy, didn't they? The Pentagon. They said I'd had a psychiatric break. I told them what I'm telling you. That they are here. Collecting data. Making observations. That's what's in the briefcase. They've been planning for war. And they've been passing the information via courier right under our noses.
An episode we initially believed had nothing to do with the grand mythology fell under our noses for 55 minutes, only when Gordon explains his grand plan do we really care about the episode.
Then the end of this season's third episode, 'The Plateau, we see a man in a room very similar to an interrogation room, our Olivia talking to Milo's sister:
OLIVIA: The drugs have been in his system too long, so the doctors weren't able to reverse the affects. According to the doctors, the patterns that he sees are too complex to put into words. His thoughts now can only be interpreted by a machine.
MADELINE STANFIELD: So... so the machine is talking to him?
OLIVIA: Madeline, your brother... he no longer thinks in terms that you or I would be able to comprehend. I'm sorry.
MILO STANFIELD: Is equal value of six. Six is the solution. What is a solution? Derives a gradient of 'Y'. Evaluate a 'Y4' and proceed. Isolate discontinuities and recalibrate. There's a forty-two percent chance that the King will take the Queen.
I know it's a long shot, but in a series so involved in patterns and science, I wouldn't put it past the writers to follow a similar structure, much like one season after we see Newton reborn, we see him decease, one season after we see the Mercury for the first time, we are given another dose, one season after we see Bell substantially for the first time, we see Walter in charge of Bell's legacy for the first time.
Don't forget how Olivia centric 'A New Day in a New Town' was, it was all about finding out if our Olivia would survive. Sound familiar. :P
Whether I'm barking up the wrong tree or not, most of the fun of a show like this is throwing out some crazy theories, like we did with LOST, most wrong but still incredibly fun at the time. So please, throw at me some theories and ideas that I can write about and get people speculating.
I figured this unusual take was a good way to get people having some friendly discussions.
So as I wait for episode five, in terms of predicting what could be next to come, I probably would be focusing on this:
YOUNG PETER: Dad, what's wrong? (screams)
Follow the Pattern.
Adam
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