Quick Take: Fringe, "Immortality"
"If you had asked me a week ago, I would have told you I would do anything to save our world, when in fact, there are lines I simply cannot cross." - Walternate
Review: Fringe, "Immortality"
(S0313) In the Redniverse, Broyles is still missing and if Fauxlivia knows that she's the reason for it, she's not letting on. Add that to the secrets she's keeping from everyone. A totally-healed and scarless Lincoln gets promoted to head of the team. They all go out to investigate a case of a guy getting eaten alive from the inside out by lots of supposedly-extinct beetles. They croudsource the tip that a certain scientist named Silva is into those particular beetles, then figure out what equipment he'd need and tace that to where he's most likely to be, and viola! Mad scientist lair. Silva separates Fauxlivia and Lincoln and then goes all monologue-y and tells her that he only needs one more generation of gross bugs to create the vaccine for Avian Flu he's been working on since the beetles supposedly went extinct with their host species (sheep) ten years ago. The only thing that works as a replacement host is people. Fauxlivia gets sick to her stomach and assumes it's because he infected her. She's rescued and rished to the hospital--and along the way, they discover that she's not infected: he infected himself, and she's just run-of-the-mill pregnant.
Dun dun DUN!
Because meanwhile, she's been reunited with Frank, who came back from trying to help people not die with a purpose. He proposes and she accepts, and now that she's pregnant from a time obviously during the time he was missing, he's more than a little ticked, and he leaves her. But Walternate is thrilled. This is exactly what he needs to get Peter back, the best leverage ever.
I've missed the Redniverse, where everyone is a little different and more comfortable in their jobs that aren't secret. This episode was okay, but not the best one we've gotten from the Other side, but it wasn't exactly bad. It just felt a little contrived. Like they started with the idea that at the end of the episode, Fauxlivia had to be pregnant, then asked how you know someone's preggers (morning sickness), then what else could make someone sick (something non-baby incubating inside them--> gross bugs), then just figured out who would do that. The villain was kind of flat, and they missed the chance to get Frank, who is all about saving people from sickness, involved in the man himself. They should have been foils for each other, but the show stopped short of actually making that comparison. It felt like a pulled punch.
But it did a really good job of highlighting how different Fauxlivia and Walternate's relationship is to Olivia and Walter's. In our universe, they're pretty close, almost a family; in the Redniverse, she works for him, and, apparently, her uterus belongs to him since the father is his son (I wonder if there's a clause in her contract about that), but she's never been more than a tool to him, and his interest in her baby is creepy, at best. Ooh--I hope he has to cross his no-testing-on-kids line with his own grandbaby, which will add to his monsterhood, alienate Peter once and for all, cause Fauxlivia to rebel and maybe defect, and, if we're lucky, create a super-powered infant that they're all responsible for. That'd be a season ender to write home about, right there!
More thoughts:
Video for Fringe, "Immortality"
Catch the sneak peek of this episode:
Man, there's a lot going on up in the Fringe! I have a lengthy catch up sesh planned at some point to see what all the alternate universe buzz is about !
This episode was so good and it will be interesting to see where they take this pregnancy plot. I saw that the ratings dipped a little and will be very sad if this show is not renewed! Stupid Fox for moving it to Fridays.
Eric-- definitely catch up! And then tell all your friends to so it can stay on!
Erin-- I hate the move too! Partly because I haven't quite remembered it permanently that it's not on Thurs, even though I'm also reviewing it's replacement, and partly because it's the Death Spot. My only solace is that the writers have seemed to be aware of what Friday night means, and hopefully they have some resolution in mind if they aren't renewed.
~:)