“Did I mention there’s excitement?” ~ Olivia
Fringe’s “winter finale” was an episode exploring the show’s mythology. When a building from the other side (the parallel universe where William Bell hangs out) is brought to our side things don’t work out so well for the building’s inhabitants. Two objects attempting to occupy the same space resulted in people being fused together with their other selves. There are no survivors. Walter realizes that he has seen this before. He gives an example of when he and Belly sent a car to the other side, only to have a car from their side appear fused together with a statue a short while later. The universes require balance. When one object is taken from the other side, something of equal mass must replace it. So in 35 hours or less a building from somewhere in New York City is going to disappear, but there is no way to tell what building it will be!
As it turns out Olivia is the only one who will be able to spot this mystery building. When Olivia was part of Walter and William Bell’s drug trials as a child she was treated with Cortexiphan which gave her all sorts of special abilities that we have seen in past episodes (little Olive started a fire with her mind; she was psychically linked with another person from the trial; turning lights on and off with her mind; etc.). The most important result from this is her ability to be in tune with the other side. When she was a child she was able to identity objects from the other side because they give off a “glimmer”. Walter theorizes that the building that is going to be pulled to the other side will begin to emit this glimmer just before it disappears. Olivia is the only one with this ability, but it no longer works.
Off to Jacksonville! Walter, Olivia, and Peter head off to the site of the original experiments, which Olivia has no memory off. Olivia wasn’t able to see the glimmer of any of the objects in the classroom which were from the other side. So Walter hooked her up to a machine and shot her full of Cortexiphan, which sent her on a terrifying trippy dream where she chased a scared little girl through a dark forest. Olivia, meet Olive (aka, little Olivia who was so freaking adorable that I wanted to eat her). When Olivia woke up she was bitch pissed at Walter.
Dunham: What the hell is wrong with you? You did this to little children?
Walter: We should get to work.
She still wasn’t able to see the glimmer off any objects, and she was still furious at Walter. She found him watching the video of little Olive sitting in the corner of room, every inch of which had been incinerated except for the spot she was sitting (we saw this video last season, but it was a first for Olivia). According to Walter this was when she first saw the other side. She was so frightened that she started a fire with her mind. Walter tells Olivia that he is no longer the same man in the video, and realizes that she is no longer that little girl. It was fear that triggered little Olive’s power, but grown up Olivia is so brave and angry that she can no longer sense that type of fear. Which makes her great at her job, but not so great at spotting glimmering objects. Moral of the story: Olivia is the fiercest HBIC of them all. She goes and sits in the same burnt up room from her childhood and has a tender moment with Peter before they rush back to New York.
They meet up with Broyles and his secret lovah Nina Sharp at Massive Dynamics where everyone is working to narrow down possible buildings based on their approximated mass. Olivia is freaking out because she is supposed to be able to stop this, but she can’t. Peter quietly comforts her and they come agonizingly close to kissing, only to have Olivia realize that she is scared, which is exactly how she will be able to help! She runs to a window and looks out over the cityscape. Tada! Glowing building! Olivia quickly drives to in the direction of the building (why is she alone?) while everyone works with her over the phone to narrow down the possibilities, figure out which building it is, and call in an emergency evacuation. Olivia gets there just in time. Everyone makes it safely out of the building (we think) and it disappears, coming close to sucking Olivia and a doorman along with it.
Olivia: I guess it's safe to say you have the rest of the night off work.
At the end of the episode we see Peter and Olivia getting ready for a
Important Sidenotes:
- The combination that Walter uses to unlock the Jacksonville facility, which he says is the combination that William Bell always used (but he can’t remember why) was 5-20-10. The season finale will air May 20th, 2010. Translation – some major stuff is going down in the finale.
- If whenever you take something from the other side, it must be replaced with something of equal mass from this side – what happened when Walter took Peter? Did someone else get sucked away to the other side in his place?
- Peter and Olivia’s phone scene in the beginning of the episode was hilarious and made us squee with fangirl glee. (Okay, that one was mostly just important to us.)
Quotes:
Astrid: Richard Nixon on a silver dollar.
Walter: That's disturbing.
Olivia: You abused us, Walter. Me and those other children.
Walter: No, we were trying to help you ... I was a different man then.
Olivia: I was a defenseless child.
Olivia: I have a freakishly good memory. I remember everything. Not this. There's just nothing I remember.
Peter: Maybe that's a good thing.
Walter: You're not that frightened child anymore. I thought all we needed was a heightened emotional response from you, but I was wrong. We needed a specific one. Fear. And you're not capable of that anymore.
Olivia: It's too late. I failed, I failed and I'm supposed to be the one who can stop things like this.
Peter: I've never met anyone who can do the things that you do.
Olivia: Peter, I'm scared.
Observer Sighting:
Outside the first building’s crime scene just before Olivia and Co. arrive.
Glyph Decipher:
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