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Date Posted: Saturday, December 08, 04:11:21am
Author: Lij (FRINGE)
Author Host/IP: adsl-108-67-91-218.dsl.bltnin.sbcglobal.net / 108.67.91.218
Subject: Father in Parallel: Choice for the Better

I believe that what this episode showed us that despite the tech, it is our innate humanity which will be that which overcomes the Observers. Our faith & hope that we can do so. Despite the science which may eventually work, why strive to complete it? Despite what Olivia told Simone - "things that humans shouldn't see," what she expressed to Peter at the end was not in that vein. I think she had to be reminded of that when she MacGyvered the reuse of the bullet; because despite Walter's knowledge as to the possibilities, it was a leap of faith when he shot Olivia. "You can't know everything," Simone said. And even September has expressed that sentiment.

FRINGE (in all timelines) has been for Peter a path to "be a better man than your father." First, choosing for balance over the destruction willed by his Redverse father. And now Peter's path has been an almost direct parallel of that of his chosen (S1-3) Bluverse father (the father he remembers, which Walter now represents).

In Walter journey, he loses his son, Peter, and cannot bear see him lost again in the alternate universe. So, Walter crosses over to the Redverse and kidnaps that Peter intent on saving him and returning him. However, Walter begins to withdraw from his familial duties in favor of his science. His inattention perhaps leads to his wife's suicide, and most certainly to alienation with his son, Peter. In the end after the lab fire, committed to St Claires, Walter, in touch perhaps with his last bit of humanity, begs William Bell to remove part of his brain to supposedly halt his hubris, his arrogant, if not megalomaniacal bent. In the end it is only the sense of loss which holds true for Walter and that loss he cannot then fathom, the loss of Peter, who he has paradoxically pushed away. Such loss becomes even more apparent with the rewritten timeline.

And then comes the son. His senses of loss are almost incalcuable. Peter has lost any family he has ever known as a child. He has lost a son he never knew along with his paradoxical existence only to regain a semblance of it back in a version of the one woman he ever loved and then he nearly lost her. Yet in the end Peter gains a loving family and was certainly on that road to 'being a better man than his father.' But, of course, that was not to be, for it is often only in adversary that one can prove that worth. And thusly the loss of his young daughter tears at the fabric of his family and his shared love with Olivia.

Even fate seems to mock Peter when the same adversity which has ripped his life asunder then reunites his family - only to rend it again in Henrietta's death. This is his true test. But again he choses a path which will lead him away from facing that pain together with Olivia; the pain which is the legacy to them both, and the proof that Etta was there. And so like Walter, Peter begins a walk down a path of hubris and self-important arrogance.

Peter's decision to assimilate the Observer tech is one quite in parallel with that of Walter in the years leading up to the lab fire. Peter believes he can be ten-times that of an Observer with their tech in his head. But can he be so, when with it comes the eventual loss of the emotional rememberance of Etta? Also, Peter choice threatens his promise to Walter to keep him grounded in his humanity. How could that promise be fulfilled when Peter choses that science and hard logic afforded by the Observer tech which in reorganizing his brain via accelerated evolution would eventually result in the loss of Peter's humanity and Peter's emotional sense of loss for Etta which now motivates him. Peter in on the verge of passing beyond even that point which Walter faced, and yet from which stepped away. "If you could see what I see, Walter, if you could experience what it feels like to fully harness the untapped potential of the human brain, you of all people should know that there is no reason to be afraid."


The only answer to it it all is the scene between Olivia and Peter at the end of The Human Kind (watch it again if you have it recorded). Olivia's rekindling of the dwindling emotions that Peter has for herself, Etta, Walter and perhaps every human he has ever touched. And just as Walter was lobotomized, Peter cuts out the newly assimilated tech part of his brain which is condemning him to his arrogant path. His path is thus preserved.

I believe that what the episode showed to us was that despite the tech, it is our innate humanity which will be that which overcomes the Observers. In striving, holding to hope, when none would seem to be there, believing may not make is so, but it is the power which motivates us. The pen is mightier than the sword.... the faith and hope represented by the bullet is mightier than the Observer implant.

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Replies:

[> I have mixed feelings about "The Human Kind" (but you could guess that, couldn't you?) -- Chani, Saturday, December 08, 07:56:56am (87-231-7-227.rev.numericable.fr/87.231.7.227)

On the one hand I enjoy the callbacks to the "Plateau" (Peter using that drink the same way Milo used a pen!), the winks at The Matrix (the observers' tech kinda looks like the tracker Smith put into Neo at the beginning of the film; Peter seeing the matrix of time as he looks at the world around him; the fight with Widmark; Olivia visiting a black oracle...) and above all I love the parallels between father and son – including how past-Walter is manipulating things with his video tapes which echoes how Peter manipulated time to put Windmark on a certain trajectory! And Olivia in McGyver mode was super cool!
I also enjoyed Noble's performance and how he subtly kept bouncing from ambitious/cold Walter to emotional/scared Walter back and forth during the episode. And I'm intrigued by the concept of "Truth Church".

On the other hand, some things make me cringe: the possibility that they go all mystical on us, LOST-style, eventually, which the character of Simone seemed to be hinting at (the episode obviously stressed out that Olivia had to be wrong about her view of things), or the dialogues that make the "love is the key of our humanity and stronger than anything" even more schmaltzy when said than as a concept on paper. Besides it's an overused trope, and it tends to make me roll my eyes instead of being touched, especially if it's used too explicitly.

That said, the last shot of Peter falling in Olivia's arms and her hand petting his back was a beautiful one. It was simple and filmed from afar. Well done!

The thing is, I could bear the message/trope (it's FRINGE I don't expect the show to give up on its Power of Love mantra and there's a certain audience that craves that stuff)if only the writers handled it more subtlely and didn't feel that they have to write those heavy dialogues that voice out loud what should be only suggested (although I admit that Olviai's speech to Peter could have been worse).

In other words: show not tell – the golden rule of good television (which they actually followed with Olivia's adventure with the highway men or with the exchange tech/bullet during the Peter/Olivia scene)!– and trust the audience, damnit!

But I'm used now to have FRINGE give me great moments and nice little touches but also bad dialogues, contrived stuff and corny messages.


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[> Fathers in Parallel: Choice for the Better -- Lij, Saturday, December 08, 06:40:46pm (adsl-99-42-49-218.dsl.bltnin.sbcglobal.net/99.42.49.218)

Well, I've never minded a little mysticism in my Sci-Fi. The human factor of emotions and irrationality is always a part of any story. Expanding the human mind in some way has always been a segment of sci-fi.

Indeed if Simone is just an anomoly as suggested by Olivia, perhaps she is the daughter of a former cortexikid. Then the mysticism, you deride, may have a scientific background.

As to the dialogue. With Peter in Observer-mode, I doubt that without a persuasive verbal argument Olivia could have elicited the latent 'human' memories that caused Peter to "self-lobotomize." In such a manner the dialogue was quite scientifically necessary.


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[> [> Re: Fathers in Parallel: Choice for the Better -- Chani, Sunday, December 09, 05:00:17am (87-231-7-227.rev.numericable.fr/87.231.7.227)

I didn't mean that Olivia shouldn't have talk to him, and as I said her speech could have been much worse, but that dialogues in FRINGE tend to be endless exposition and "on the nose" and this episode was another case of that. Dilaogues are just not their strongest suit.

One could say that Peter gave in a bit too easily too while he seemed already so Observer-like in his behaviour...

You really should watch BSG!


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[> [> [> If some channel ever replays it (some channel I get, that is). -- Lij, Sunday, December 09, 05:56:15am (adsl-108-67-95-113.dsl.bltnin.sbcglobal.net/108.67.95.113)


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