March/October Report: Geeks Discuss ‘Fringe’

You nerds asked for more “Fringe” coverage, so here it is. In order to get you excited for tonight’s episode, I recruited a couple of big-time “Fringe” geeks to talk about their favorite (and least favorite) moments from the first three episodes this season.

October: Hello. We are the observers. I am October and this is my collaborator, March. While we do have similar haircuts, we often see the events that unfold in “Fringe” completely differently. We hope you enjoy our combined report. Here are some of our favorite moments from the first three episodes. More reports to follow.

Episode 401: ‘Neither Here Nor There’

Rectum? Damn near killed him!

October: Fringe sure requires a lot of attention to detail for a show that airs during prime weed smoking time. There are now four versions of every character of whom we have to keep track. You have regular-verse vs. alt-verse and pre-Peter vs. post-Peter. This show is going to end up with more split time-lines than Lost, Sliding Doors and this Wednesday’s episode of Community combined.

Here we are seeing the new Walter. He is a little crazier than our old Walter, and a little bit more dickish. But he still loves anuses. Some things never change.

March: I like Fringe episodes when they are filled with good quotes. While the anus quote was easily tops for that episode, the third ep had few good ones (probably not verbatim since I typed while watching):

Walter (about his drug regimen): ”With my own modifications, of course.”

Lincoln: ”Couple of these bad boys are going down the sink” and ”There’s our perp.”

Walter: “…turn you into a popsicle.” (looks up) “Grape.”

Astrid: ”Walter,  I’ll get you one later.”

Walter: ”You’ll take him, he’ll be safer with you, and I’ve seen the movie with the talking toys, it was disturbing…”

Episode 402: ‘One Night in October’

...worth two Olivias in a bush.

October: Is anyone thinking what I am thinking? Oh yeah. Olivia sandwich!

March: I’m slightly bothered by the constant tonal shifts in our Olivia, who is oddly warm and weird with Lincoln at the start of the third episode. She is more open in general in even physical body language throughout e3. Is this supposed to be an effect of working with the free-spirited Alt-Olivia in week two?  Is she nicer to Lincoln (ours) because of her relationship with Alt-Agent Lee?

Broyles believes in souls?

March: “Fringe” has never hid themes from its viewers, but we are really getting slammed with the expository dialogue this season. If the goal was to show the characters as they would exist without Peter, then the writers have to stop talking about the “connections” to him so blatantly and stop having him glimmer and whisper around.  Explore the missing connection by not having other characters help Olivia solve cases the way Peter did. Or show that Walter becomes less effective in the lab without Peter– and let the audience see the differences. The Fringe audience is smart enough to get by without the Cliffsnotes.

October: Yuck. Just yuck. Yes, the idea of a person leaving an indelible mark on your soul clarifies why Peter is able to transcend time and space and Tyler Durden into the current Fringe-verse. And yes, a little spirituality offsets the hard science of the show and makes you wonder about bigger questions. But did it really have to Broyles? My tall dark tower of strength? The Fringe Obama? I don’t want Lt. Cedric Daniels getting all touchy feely in the hallway. Leave that sh*t to… well I don’t know who. I didn’t think any of these characters believed in God. Except maybe Gus. He seemed really spiritual.