The main story of the floating men was boring. There wasn’t much interesting about it at all, so I’m going to focus on what was awesome: everything else. Peter and Olivia; Walter; Nina; William Bell. All awesome! And, of course, there is Astrid. The whole hour was a set-up for the shocking last few seconds.
Peter and Olivia were so darn adorable. I wanted to turn away and be disgusted by the teenage love, but I couldn’t. It was perfect. Olivia smiled more in this episode than she has in all the previous episodes combined. OK, that might not be accurate, but pretty close. It was all so perfect, until Peter and Olivia were playing their game of truth. The look of deceit and pain on Peter’s face broke the perfection.
In the end, Peter came clean to Olivia. The big reveal of Peter as the killer of the shapeshifters didn’t happen as I expected. I assumed the reveal would be done in a huge way, but I preferred the subtle acknowledgement from Olivia that it was Peter. It fit their relationship so much better than a big blow out. Olivia understands Peter so well that she accepted why he was keeping the research a secret. She also understood that him sharing it with her was a sign of trust, rather than him withholding it being a betrayal. The Fringe writers didn’t take the normal, stereotypical route with this situation and that is why I love this show.
Fringe wouldn’t be Fringe if you didn’t have to suspend your sense of reality when watching. This was evident from the main story of the floating men and definitely with the idea of Walter pursuing of souls, and the possibility of William Bell’s soul returning to them; I dismissed this idea from the beginning. I figured it would be something that Walter would continue to work on over the next few episodes. I definitely didn’t see it happening tonight and not with Olivia.
That moment tonight when Olivia was taken over by William Bell rivals the reveal of young Olivia speaking to Walternate in the last episode as the most shocking Fringe moment. What the frak? Really? Woah!
What did Olivia … William Bell say?
“That’s because the decoder key is in my office.” – Olivia (William Bell)
“What? At the FBI?” – Peter
“No. At Massive Dynamic. Hello, Peter. It’s nice to see you again.” – Olivia (William Bell)
Bang. This show takes turns that you don’t see coming. Well, at least I don’t see coming. How will this put a damper in the Peter and Olivia story? How long will William stay? Can he come and go from his host or will he be there continually until he leaves? I don’t have any of the answers, what do you think or want to happen? Share in the comments.
Other stuff:
Clacked by Carla Day 
on Mar 11, 2011 @ 23:24 EST5EDT
well indeed the last couple of seconds made this an awsome episode :) i was actually waiting for this/some kind of fringe-reviving since belli got desintegrated
Liked the episode alot. For some it might have been a little slow, but imo it suited the start of Peter and Olivia’s relationship.
The end of the episode is the reason why I love Fringe. Not only the storylines, but also the actors are fantastic.
If you think about it, it is incredible. Noble is playing Walter, Walternate and himself in the past. Torv is playing Fauxlivia, pretending to be Olivia, also Olivia, pretending to be Fauxlivia and now William Bell (what a sentence!).
And when you watch these episodes, you see the differences. It is a shame that the show needed a season to find itself. Otherwise we might still watch Fringe on Thursdays
Awesome episode, a little slow first, but the ending saves the day!!!
*POST AUTHOR*
Isn’t it amazing how a few seconds at the end can turn the whole episode around?
The acting on this show is amazing. Anna Torv deserves awards for what she has done on Fringe. The first season, I didn’t really dig her, but wow … a complete turnaround. Love her and amazed by what she is able to do each episode.
Noble is great as well, but he has been recognized for his work.