Fringe: 6995 kHz

My only problem with this episode is that the numbers were not, 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42. While I did notice an 8 and a 42 it was not the full Abrams connection I was looking for! That said, I am now positive that this show is by far the best “Lost” replacement I am going to get!

This episode marked a serious turning point for the series in a couple of key places. Folivia is slowly realizing that people (namely Peter and Walter) on this side may not be a blood thirsty as she has been led to believe. The success of Folivia in our world has led to Olivia’s expandability in the other universe. Astrid has come into her own as a character and a valuable part of the team.

With Folivia actively working against Fringe division, Astrid has transformed from Walter’s assistant to the person who cracked the most important mystery in the history of this series. It is an impressive journey for a character who I theorized was a figment of Walter’s imagination back in the days when she it seemed only existed as conscience for his crazier schemes. I find it interesting that her strength as a character is codes/patterns in both universes, did we have any indication of that before we saw her alternate?

Walternate’s machine is not his at all, it is a creation of people that evolved millions of years ago? It is another interesting twist on storytelling convention. Most shows would make the ancient technology alien in nature or placed their by time travelers. But Fringe is proposing that human beings lived before the dinosaurs and erased themselves from the fossil record because they created a vacuum that sucked their existence into a veritable black hole.

After discovering cortexaphan last week, I am disappointed with Walternate’s decision to discard Olivia so quickly. I guess that is the difference between he and Walter. Walternate creates to pursue goals while Walter creates because he is interested in what is possible.

Peter gets the “big dumb nincompoop” award this week. Olivia did not know the book store owner and could barely recall the string of numbers. She has a photographic memory Peter, why have no red flags been raised? More importantly, the Olivia he knows would never advocate the destruction of an entire universe of people.

I cannot wait to see how Olivia gets home. Her reunion with Peter will be... well bittersweet does not even come close to summing that up. The only good thing about Peter not figuring out that he is literally sleeping with the enemy is that Olivia as a character will become possibly the most bad ass female in the history of television. She is in another universe and may find her way home without the assistance of a single person. Even Buffy had to significantly on her friends when the going got tough.