Fringe Season 3 Episode 13

Can not pass by anything that happens outside. On Fridays, the hearings the cancellation. A series in limbo is always a series in limbo: no space for error, no time to experiment. Thus, any error is always taken amplified, increased crucified.



Yes, "Immortality" is the weakest episode this season and more like the forgotten past of the series. Yes, it is a pretext for an order that appears at the end and that (almost) everyone knew or foresaw. But no, it does not take any merit to the marathon brilliant "Fringe" has done and said that it is not more or less spectators. This is not what dictates the ax.



And saying this, but back there: the other Olivia (Anna Torv) is pregnant. 13 And this episode was completely dedicated to her. From start to finish. Generic red, and bang, we're over there. At the airport, where the protagonist gets back her boyfriend. The same place where a stranger defile another stranger that oddly dies expelling beetles. Many beetles. Nothing pointing to a beginning balance so that the narrative must always known with the new oddity.



Then, despite some interesting elements like the new head of Lincoln (Seth Gabel) or entomloga geek to seduce Charlie (Kirk Acevedo), the plot rolled on autopilot without much fire or intensity. The interpretation of Torv is blameless, but was attached to the sole purpose of making known their pregnancy. Hook a triangle that complicates the already very complicated. Although I tolerate well the history of choosing between the two Olivias - like the fact that they are two to three but it is complex, strange, difficult - can not fail to mention that this addition to the plot is hank something that not too much needed to be wound up.



There are other ways to maintain in the other game world, for example, a villain common to both worlds. Or something like that. Something we do not take the path of predictability: time that Walter (John Noble) uses this child to bring Peter (Joshua Jackson) back - ever - and Peter will discover that being a parent at a time will already be well with our Olivia - to see in the near future. Or so this is not anything we are waiting, is a great move that we do not anticipate and we'll all be very surprised. Who knows.



It is too early to conclude whatever. We knew that once untied the knot of the exchange would have to be chosen a new direction and while this does not seem as exciting and interesting as its predecessor. But "Fringe" is an incredible series, as a huge mythology, and that will be able to prevail.



The Best: Anna Torv.

The worst: "Anatomy of Fringe" is not.

This is getting weird and weird. The situation was going on Fauxliva, Walternate turning into to Mr. Morals. What is this, what would they make Peter have feeling for someone he just met what a little while. I don't know and the way I'm feeling It seems we know what side Peter will choose. It feels like their redoing the quest so they can switch personalities lol. I gave it a high rating because I liked the case about the bugs it was very different and gross and it was good to see Charlie again. Already tired of Fauxliva. My 2 cents is that they create Fauxlivia b/c they can't give Peter and Olivia a real relationship so they'll make a fake one with a fake Olivia. Other than that good episode.

In the emotional rollercoaster ride that has become Alt-Olivia's life, the causalites keep filling up as the Alt-Fringe Division deals with their latest case.





The most obvious victim, Colonel Broyles, has already been replaced with emotional victim number 1 Agent Lincoln Lee, as uncapable to deal with Frank's secret as he is with his crush on Olivia and the impending proposal that might take away the only part of Olivia he can share with.





Emotional victim number 2, Charlie, is unaware of the changes in his long time partner but the worst hit its on emotional victim number 3, Olivia's would be fiance Frank, who dumps her by the end of the episode when he finds out the emotional victim yet to come turns out to be none other than Peter's baby: the child Alt-Olivia has been expecting for the past 6 weeks.

If it wasn't for the last five minutes of the episode, this could have been a great pretender for the worse "Fringe" episode ever. First of all it was dull as hell. No real action. All we had seen was extremely predictable. The storyline was completely out of place. The bugs idea was the most trivial way to show some of Bolivia's bowel movement indicating she might have been pregnant.

I didn't like this episode at all. The information given at the end could be easily presented in more convinient, unpredictable way. This was just stupid and hilarious.

I came to the conclusion that episodes showing the alternative view of the world are completely "not so Fringe". Sometimes I have a feeling of watching different show which is so weak.

Round four for Fringe on Friday nights and it was another good episode, but right now, it is not as great as it once was, and the show really needs greatness to evade cancellation at this stage. This is not a Floyd Mayweather fight where you are guaranteed 12 rounds either, Fringe could have the plug pulled on it, but I doubt FOX would do that.





They had an interesting plot here with the skelter beetles. A very eerie thing to think about, especially for me as bugs always freak me out, but I think they dropped the ball by making it not nearly as dramatic as it could have been.





I actually did not mind the episode being entirely in the other world. Usually I don't care for that dimension, but I did not mind it here. What I did mind was Faux-livia being pregnant. Come on JJ Abrams, you're one of the most creative minds in Hollywood and you pull a stunt like this for ratings?

Even with the revelations of the previous episode, placing equal importance on both versions of Olivia in terms of Peter's fate (and the fate of both universes), I wasn't expecting a return to Alt-Fringe any time soon. So a look into the post-return life of Fauxlivia was a nice treat, especially since it helps to further explain why Peter might be tempted to choose Fauxlivia over his current situation.





In some ways, this episode reminded me of "Leonard Betts", the classic "X-Files" episode in which Scully learns (in the harshest possible way) that she has cancer. In that episode, a seemingly standard "monster of the week" episode delivers a final act revelation that ties into the series' mythology in a far more intriguing way. In this case, one man's obsession with scientific immortality ends up revealing Fauxlivia's pregnancy. And of course, the father is Peter Bishop.





I mentioned once or twice that one thing that gave the story added weight was the fair treatment of the Alt-Fringe characters. Considering what Fauxlivia was doing to Peter and our favorite heroes, and the damage that she inflicted on their relationships, it's shocking to discover that we can sympathize with her. Much credit goes to Anna Torv in making this character accessible, but it's also the writing that makes it work.





It leads the audience to want Fauxlivia to survive, even though a part of us understands that it might be better if she were to die and end the threat that she represents. After all, if Sam the Bowling Alley Guy is right, it all comes down to Peter's personal choices. Each Olivia represents either salvation or destruction. Setting aside the fact that we can only assume which Olivia corresponds to which fate (since we really have very little information on the subject), it would seem better if Fauxlivia were to die in the line of duty.





But now, while it leaves her personal life in a shambles (despite Walternate's vested interest in her protection), it also places her in the perfect position to offer something Olivia is not currently ready to give. Fauxlivia may have been willing to marry Frank, but she was still having feelings for Peter. With Olivia unable to get over her internal conflicts (thanks, in part, to her experiences in the first season), the door is opened for Peter to find what he seeks elsewhere.





Fauxlivia is not the only one drawing sympathy. Walternate displays a surprising level of morality by refusing to use children in what would logically be Alt-Fringe's version of the Cortexiphan trials. Given his cold calculated efforts to destroy another universe, it's surprising to see that this is a line he won't cross. It serves as a reminder that both sides of the conflict have their crosses to bear.





All of these factors help to outweigh my concerns over that most overused of plot devices: the "baby plot". Let's face it: as human beings with a limited life span, pregnancy will always be a standard element of dramatic fiction. It raises the stakes in a way almost nothing else can. That's why writers constantly mine that fertile ground (no pun intended). But unless it ends in bitter tragedy, it must inevitably result in a baby. And within the genre, babies tend to drag stories down. They become a narrative burden.





For that reason alone, concerns over the ratings and a fourth season aside, I can only hope that Fauxlivia and her pregnancy are only present in the story long enough to present Peter with temptation. It renders Fauxlivia and her unborn child a plot device, which is unfortunate, but any potential fourth season needs to progress without a baby in the mix. The series has challenges enough without that!

Sure, we already knew there were decent people on the red side, like the ever likable Charlie and Lincoln, but this episode makes it very clear there isn't a "good" or a "bad" side. Walternate, who appeared so far as a ruthless, revenge-driven villain, is, surprisingly enough, not willing to cross the very same line our beloved Walter crossed so long ago - I thought, by the way, that the writers didn't give this story enough screen time, but let's hope they come back to it later. I still hate Fauxlivia, who remains in my eyes the cold-blooded spy who murdered an helpless deaf guy just to protect her mission, but seeing her joking with her teamates, I could see why Peter would fall for her instead of Olivia, and I felt quite bad for her during her final talk with Frank. Even our "villain-of-the-week", thanks to an unexpected final twist, maybe was not THAT villainous. By the way, the case of the week was pretty standard fare, but it played quite well with the specificities of the red universe ( no more sheeps ! how sad is that ? ), so it didn't feel as generic as, say, the "Abducted" case, which could have as well occured in the blue universe. As for THE bomb ... soapy, yes, but it opens a whole lot of new possibilities for some Bishop family drama, so it might turn out to be a good thing ...

... to pick sides. This episode was somehow very enlightening and really has complicated a few things. I'm not into storylines that only paint in black and white and "Fringe" does a wonderful job in avoiding them. Whenever there is a "red" episode, the show is building up a lot of sympathy for the people living in the AlterUniverse. To start with, IMHO Charlie and especially Lincoln are wonderful and very likeable characters and while the writers could totally make you hate Bolivia who has brought so much pain on Olivia and cheated on Peter -- in what first seemed to be a completely reckless way -- the oposite is true. Bolivia has such a lightness about her and so much humour and charm, it's incresingly difficult not to like her and not to see, what Peter found in her. It's painful to witness how Olivia has lost so much of these characteristics that somewhere along the way must have been hers as well and how much of that might actually have been Walter's doing.





While I had had no sympathies whatsoever for Walternate first, what we found out about him in this episode made me reconsider the way I feel about him. I was surprised about and moved by how he would refuse to do experiments on children. Who knows how things between the two universes would have developed, if Walter had had the same scruples back in the days and seeing how happy Walternate was about becoming a grandfather made him even less of the "monster" he could have been mistaken for when we first met him.

There is something about Fringe that makes me turn all my attention to the tv set. And when the intro turns crimson, there is an added excitement. It might be the atmosphere created by little but clever details on the characters: Lincoln with his behavior and strapped gun a la space-western, Charlie with his down-to-earth attitude, Astrid with those eyes shying away and the mathematical approach to things, and Fauxlivia who seems so stronger and nastier than our Olivia while harboring insecurities of her own. Plus there is that slightly more advanced tech they have: I love seeing them pick up the phone for example...





This episode, although set Over There for the first time since Fauxlivia returned, did not seem to escape the recent pattern with Fringe. It is the third one since "Marionette" where a seemingly stand-alone story is used to advance the season arc by allowing a character to make a discovery or to come to term with something. I suppose having Fauxlivia notice she was late and get a test kit from the drugstore next door would have been too easy...


My aha moment on where this was going came in the ambulance when I saw the ultrasound equipment.





I liked that they killed two birds with one stone: beside informing us - and apparently Fauxlivia, of the upcoming blessed event, they got rid of Frank who for me always stuck out like a sore thumb. Not at all influenced by the Olivia/Peter/Fauxlivia love triangle drama, and being a hopeless romantic, I am rooting for Lincoln.





I very much liked Alt-Astrid very short scenes. She definitely has a presence our Astrid doesn't.





What I liked the most was Fauxlivia's grin at the end when the grandfather of her child presented himself as such, effectively ruling out any idea of abortion or some other form of freedom from interference. I can't for the life of me understand how they knew the baby was Peter's but that's beside the point. What I liked was the fact that Fauxlivia who was a dedicated soldier while Over Here (killing all those people and shapeshifters without questioning the motive) might now be on a collision course with Walternate. Their two interests or wishes on the baby's future might not quite overlap...





One vain complaint I have with the episode is the fact that it is now clear the wonderful score playing while Fauxlivia was "talking" to Peter and Newton was committing assisted-suicide (Do Shapeshifters Dream of Electric Sheep?) is now officially hers.





Olivia is currently my favorite character on tv but I do not dislike Fauxlivia, and I think the screenwriters will use her pregnancy to soften her image among viewers. About the pregnancy, having it happen is one thing, using it badly is another. So for now I can't wait to see more of the crimson Fringe.

So creepy bug main plot story aside. Folivia is pregnant...With Peter's baby, and her fiance left her for a secret she can't share with anyone...suddenly the situation isn't so cut and dried anymore. All in all this episode accomplished one very important thing: it added some very necessary life into the alternate universe, since it was obvious from the episodes where Peter talks about it that they're not the enemy, but rather a possible casualty. And with all the drama between the main characters recently it was easy to forget that. So now we care a little, we don't want these characters to die or to lose, we want them to succeed...but we someone (or someplace) will have to fail and such elements are what make Fringe great.





Fox better not cancel this, because I can't wait to see where all this buildup leads!

What can I say – another great episode of Fringe!


This episode of Fringe certainly isn't the best, but it's good in the way that it starts a new chapter in the Fringe story that may cause problems between certain people.


I must admit though, I was a bit skeptical at the beginning. The promos had been advertising that this was the episode you cannot miss, etc, but at first, it just seemed like a bug-themed case episode. Cool, bugs that eat through people's flesh. But where's Olivia and Peter, or Walter? But, I know how Fringe delivers, and I knew that they didn't just make this episode for nothing. Occasionally, Fringe does have filler episodes, but they would reveal something, one way or another for the ongoing story. And it certainly did.


For those who haven't seen it yet, I'm not going to spoil it, but one of the major theories floating around the Fringe fans for awhile has finally been confirmed. One of the things that amazes me about Fringe is that they can throw stuff at you without you even suspecting. They crafted the whole bug storyline into the episode to interweave with the shock at the end. Heck – after what happened to her, I almost feel sorry for Bolivia. But I don't need to re-watch "Entrada" to know what she did to our Olivia. So, I'm not giving condolences to her anytime soon.


But, in conclusion, this was another great episode of Fringe. Next week's episode, "6B", looks really interesting (I heard someone say it would be Jacksonville 2.0. Haha.) and I'm looking really forward to seeing and reviewing it.


See ya.

I'm invincible ! You know you've seen way too much movies when you can't help quoting GoldenEye and are able to list at least 10 productions featuring bugs, Starship Troopers being your very first reference. Immortality was in the same vein as the good old The X-Files episodes starring creeping crawling creatures and other less than human beings. Do your part, squash a bug ! What's wrong with you people ? Before watching this installment I felt like drinking a refreshing glass of water but now I think I'll wait at least 24 hours before doing so. Indeed some disgusting scenes were featured and the last should definitely appeal Zerg players. Still they could have made things even more disturbing and scary. Do they censor their gore creativity on purpose ? How disappointing ! I hate when a show is shy on horror elements when there's the potential to frighten the audience. A naked woman trapped in a giant spider web ? A man mutating into a mantis ? I'm no teacher's pet but I have learned my lesson and consider Fringe should take things to the upper level. The writing was just too conventional and only the surprising format made it more interesting. However there's no doubt that the character development was unexpected and unlike before you'll have to wait for the very last minute to comprehend what the writers had staged for us. It's not a lot but it's our life. The mere viewers we are can only be entertained but when it comes to Fringe I expect much more ! And as a good bug is a dead bug I think it's time for your devoted servitor to sign out.

Talk about yer waker-uppers! I NEVER saw that coming, and yet how perfect for Walternate to get Peter by the proverbial short hairs, as it were. Puts Peter in the same position as Walter put Walternate himself.





I wanted to scream "NOOOOO" at my TV in a fit of anguish for our side and the real Olivia, until I realized it would be fruitless. The writers wouldn't hear me, and it would make me something of a lame freak. Not necessarily in that order...





So instead, I'm praying for the writers to script 9 months of hyperemesis gravidarum! And then we can all watch pregnant Fauxlivia puke through next season! HA! Would serve her right for jerking Frank's chain that way, too. OK, there. I'm feeling much better now...





So tonight's paradox boys and girls, lies with Walternate and his initial seeming reluctance to "use" children in his testing; unlike his counterpart. All of that goes out the window when he hears of Olivia's pregnancy and then shows up on her doorstep all but claiming his unborn grandchild for those self-same ends. "Use" by any other name is still...creepy. But it does make Nina Sharp's assertions that Peter will choose "our" Olivia, less than a given.





Yep. War is coming. In season four!

The entire plot of this episode served essentially as a way to get Olivia to have an ultrasound. If you ignore the ending reveal and look at it as a stand alone episode, it wasn't one of the stronger 40 minute mysteries that Fringe has done, but was still a nice piece of television. Taking into account what was obviously supposed to be some kind of major reveal about Olivia's pregnancy, I feel just about the same about it. It was by no means bad, in fact it was rather entertaining, but it also didn't quite match up to the level that Fringe has been at, at points this season. Obviously there was some indication that the child is of great significance being Peter's and all, but I am a little worried they might massively rush it being born given the fair chance of cancellation and the writers likely wanting to give a great finale. I really hope this show is picked up for at LEAST one more full season (not one of those 12 episode writers strike type of seasons where there is not enough time to get anything serious done) and that they really get to play this story out. Right now Fringe is one of the best shows on TV, probably the best on network TV and it really looks like it could have a great finish to this arc that it's on right now. Let us just hope that the loyal audience stays that way and this show carries on.

Immortality was a perfect episode of Fringe because it was full of drama, intrigue, action, suspense, character and plot development. The story of this episode was amazing and it was cool to see the other universe again. Faux Olivia had some life changing scenes in this episode. The Beatles were interesting and I wonder if the scientist's research into them was no longer for a vaccine, but an Immortality enzyme perhaps. There was more than one way to interpret the title however, as Walternate received some news that may change the war forever. I look forward to watching the next episode!!!!!!!

Not only have we learned recently how Peter feels about her, yesterday we learn that Fauxlivia loves Peter. And we know that Walternate won't experiment on children - which makes him seem more human. I think it would be only fair if Peter's baby stays in the alternate universe - then Walternate will have a grandchild to replace the child stolen from him. I really enjoy seeing operations in the alternate universe - the characters are so much cooler (even Astrid). The plot was very reminiscent of The War of the Coprophages from the X-Files (substitute roaches for beetles). But even that was o.k.