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‘Fringe’: End of the beginning

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Over the course of this first season, ‘Fringe’ has had to explain a lot of things. Flesh-dissolving chemical on an airplane, ‘Fringe’ can explain it. A woman’s brain explodes in a diner, ‘Fringe’ can explain it. Killing people in your dreams, ‘Fringe’ can explain it. In the season finale, ‘Fringe’ had a doozy to explain. It took most of the episode to explain it. Heck, there was even a part where they were cutting back and forth between Walter and Nina explaining it. It’s almost as if all the explaining all season long was just to get us ready for the explaining they were going to do tonight, and what they were explaining I am dubbing the déjà vuniverse.

That’s right. I’m making this call. Some people might call it an alternate reality or the other place or Earth Two, but they, of course, are wrong. It’s called the déjà vuniverse. I thought of it, that’s what we’re going with. Got it?

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Up to this point, ‘Fringe’ referred to the déjà vuniverse as “out of the country.” As in Walter Bell is “out of the country.” After a while, you could almost hear the finger quotes when Nina Sharp said it. It’s basically the equivalent of when your dog went to “live on a farm.” That means your dog is dead. Hate to be the one that breaks this to you, but yeah, your dog didn’t go to any farm. Sorry.

Tonight, ‘Fringe’ confirmed that the déjà vuniverse is a parallel world. A copy of everything we know with some slight changes. Walter and William Bell used to visit there by taking large amounts of LSD, but evil German and Invisible Man wannabe David Robert Jones attempted to travel by stealing a power cell from Nina “Terminator” Sharp and put his laptop on a tripod in the middle of the street. Personally, I think I’d enjoy Walter and William’s route better. But whatever works.

David Robert Jones needs to learn my “Apple Theory” on technology. Very simple. For every advancement in technology, you want to make sure and get the Generation Two version. Brand new iPod? Yeah, I’ll hang on for the Generation Two version. iPhone? That’s OK, I don’t need to stand in line. Why? To avoid bugs. In a couple months they’ll figure out how to prevent any crashing or memory issues or being sliced in half. Jones used Walter’s original teleporter and it melted his face. I don’t know why he was jumping at the opportunity to try out the déjà vuniverse door. Serves him right to get halved.

Now that the door between the two universes is open, it leads to a wealth of possibilities. I thought it was pretty well spelled out that Peter is actually from the déjà vuniverse. Walter again referenced that Peter got very sick at one point as a child. We first heard that when Water was trying to explain why he built the transporter. So if Peter got sick and died in 1985 and Walter went into the déjà vuniverse to get that Peter to replace him, what does that mean for the déjà vuniverse’s Walter? What caused all the destruction in the déjà vuniverse and why did the Obamas have to move into a “new” white house? And if the déjà vuniverse version of me is a woman, is it legally wrong for me to date her or just morally wrong?

The déjà vuniverse was a bold move. I can’t wait to see what our friends at ‘Fringe’ do with it. I’m genuinely sad that there won’t be a Fringe next week. Can’t wait for next fall.

Fun Bits and Pieces – So Massive Dynamic can tap into any camera they manufacture? I hope that doesn’t include the webcam built into my laptop. I’d just hate for my family to find out how much time I waste on World of Warcraft. What about Peter wiping the dust off his family portrait? Just him and dad. Couldn’t wipe off mom. They haven’t cast her yet. Catch the blue flicker when Olivia switched universes? That’s popped up before. Oh, notice how well they lit Leonard Nimoy’s ears? Guess they wanted us to know for sure they aren’t naturally pointy.

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Astrid Action – There wasn’t much action in the lab this week other than people asking where to find Walter, but Astrid was there to tell everyone she didn’t know. What would we do without her?

Spot the Observer – Baldy crossed the line from observer to participant tonight. Though all he really did was take Walter to where he needed to be. It’s nice to see the Observer as a character more than a prop, but I couldn’t help but feel like him walking away was a little under-dramatic. He should at least have a smoke bomb or something. I’ll give him the summer to think about it.

-- Andrew Hanson

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