Fringe - "Subject 9"

Season 4, Episode 4

RIP, EWOP

“There is nothing here that can hurt you;

this is all in your mind.”

-Olivia

“Crazy’s a lot more complicated than people think.”

-Walter

Today, Twitter blew up with conversations about last night’s awesome episode of Community, as nerds everywhere sought out to dissect all the possible interpretations of what the episode meant, including the possibility that the show would seriously entertain the idea of including alternate realities as part of its narrative structure. But the similarities with Fringe don’t end there. Not only will “Subject 9” likely be hailed as a return to form in much the same way that “Remedial Chaos Theory” was, but both of these episodes hint at each shows’ tendency to be broken down into “types” of episodes.

Community, for example, it generally broken down into three categories, the “normal” episodes, the “high-concept” ones, and the “emotional” ones, while Fringe could best be broken into “Freak of the Week”, “Mythology”, “Flashback” and “Emotionally Resonant Freak of the Week” episodes. And where “Chaos” was a nice cross section of Community’s high-concept and emotional sides, “Subject 9” was both a FOTW episode and a mythology episode, with some unrelated-to-the-Freak pathos thrown into the mix. It’s a different kind of episode than the ones that we’ve seen before, because the FOTW aspect for once really only had implications for Olivia and the rest of the Fringe Division, and less to do with outside characters or the world at large (at least not yet). It’s also a semi-powerful episode, which helps the episode ride out until the end, but also raises some questions for the series’ future.

Now, over the past few weeks it’s become clear to me – and probably to you – that I was quickly running out of things to say about Fringe’s newest status quo, and so it’s probably fortuitous that Peter’s return came around when it did. It’s the big twist that we’ve all been waiting for, and while I won’t say I’m surprised at Peter’s return, I was quite happy that it occurred. (Peter’s return was also given away early in the episode when you could hear him faintly call her name through the astral projection when it occurred at the café.) Part of that happiness may have been fueled by my feelings for the character and the fact that I’m glad that he’s back on the screen, but I think mostly I was just happy to be back into the show’s “normal” territory.

Or at least that’s what I thought Peter’s return was going to signify. Last week, I talked at some length about what Peter’s return should mean vis-à-vis the erasure of a timeline or two, as according to the generally accepted rules of temporal properties. Now, I’m not going to begrudge the show for breaking those rules – this is sci-fi after all, a genre which has a long tradition of breaking the real world’s rules, and more importantly, this move doesn’t seem to go against the show’s own internal logic. But what I can’t understand just yet is why the show wants Peter to exist in this new reality while still holding onto his memories from the old one.

(It also means that I technically can’t call this reality EWOP anymore since Peter’s now around. Yet the fact is that this is still technically the same universe, so I don’t know what I’m going to call it.)

This is important because up until that point, “Subject 9” was cracking along at an acceptable pace and using the time to further expand our worldview of the Reality Formerly Known as EWOP (RFKEWOP? That’s too long.) There have been some complaints about this, as some critics have found it this to be something akin to the forced exposition one would find in the first episodes of new shows, not something one expects to find in a seasoned, highly serialized genre show. And while I can concede on this point, it honestly doesn’t bother me that much because of all the time we spent last year learning about Earth-2 in much the same manner. I liked learning about all those differences, and I liked learning about what changed in EWOP, and teasing out the effect one man can have on a whole universe.

But now that Peter has returned, all of those changes take on a lot more agency, and it’s now the show’s job to show us just why these changes are important enough to devote so much screen time, in addition to still solving that pesky problem of why Peter had to go away in the first place. I’m sure that there’s a link between these two questions, and no doubt they will meet up with the Observers larger plans at some point, seeing as how they were the ones to banish Peter in the first place, but that still doesn’t answer why the Amber Universe must still exist. (No, I’m not happy with that one either. It’s too obvious and has nothing to do with the actual plot.)

And I bring this up because I’m not quite sure that Fringe can deliver the powerful stand alone hours anymore, not like it could back in the simpler times of warring alternate realities. While “One Night in October” was a powerful episode that played off of Peter’s disappearance, “Subject 9” played right back into familiar territory.  While I liked seeing Walter conquer (or attempt to conquer) his fears about the outside world, especially germs, in an attempt to avoid being sent back to the asylum (like that was ever really going to happen), the episode quickly turned to Walter’s guilt over the medical testing he did on the children, and while that may be a new revelation for this version of the character, it’s a beat the audience has already seen. John Noble and Anna Torv are good enough actors that all this played okay, and I enjoyed seeing Olivia and Walter bond over root beer floats, but watching this episode I always felt like it was three steps short of really getting to me. And considering that nobody remembers/knows Peter, this is a setup that feels rife for more retreads of old beats, and that worries me.

Don’t get me wrong, on a base level, I’m really jazzed about Peter’s return, and I’m glad we’re at a point where the next arc of the overall mythology can really start to be told. And while I recognize the long game that the show has played over these past four episodes, having done a good deal of world-building so that Peter’s return actually means something, I’m no sure what the next step is. The fourth season of Fringe has worked itself into a Lost-like corner, where there are more questions than answers or even ways forward, and as much as I adored Lost, I don’t feel like Fringe is the kind of show that can handle the former’s scope and penchant for dragging out mysteries.

In Two Weeks: Peter’s back, and now we get to find out….something, hopefully.

Quotes, Questions, Musings, and Other Thoughts:

More differences in Earth-1, Mach-2: Olivia and Nina have a warmer relationship that dates back to Olivia’s teenage years, while Walter utterly hates her. Astrid had no idea about the trials until tonight. Olivia doesn’t care about getting the proper warrants. And Walter apparently never had a breakdown over the “strawberry-flavored death” located inside toaster pastries. (That last one became really weird when an actual ad for Pop-Tarts, featuring an image of the strawberry variety, appeared in one of the commercial breaks.)

Seriously, I cannot come up with a good name for this new version of reality. If you’ve got a better one, please sound off below.

Apparently Broyles’ boss is someone powerful enough that Olivia can get away with a lot more now. The president is an obvious answer, but the way that piece of information was introduced, it seems like they’re hinting at a soon-to-be-(re?)introduced key player. So, who is it?

There’s two ideas brought up about Olivia tonight: First, that she doesn’t have any recognizable powers brought on by the Cortexifan trials – which she ran away from as a child, presumably because Peter wasn’t there to bring her back. Second, that maybe she does have powers, and she’s partially responsible for Peter being brought back into existence. I’m not sure I care about which one of those is true at this point, but the latter does seem like it could make for some interesting stories down the road.

New theory on why Peter can exist in EWOP without changing the timelines: He still exists in the memories of the Observers, and it’s this paradox that allowed him to exist once more. And the fact that he reappeared in Reiden Lake, the sire where he died all those years ago certainly can’t be a coincidence….

I don’t know about anybody else, but I was sure going in that “Subject 9” was going to be a companion piece to “Subject 13”. Thank goodness that didn’t happen; that would have been all kinds of strained.

“Did I just step on a peanut?” “You’re lucky I convinced him not to use shrimp.”

“Yes, her voice goes right into my inner ear and rambles around like razor blades.”

“Really? Claire? That doesn’t even start with an ‘A’.”

“I think I should urinate before we leave. Don’t worry, I packed us sandwiches.”

“Once as a boy you blew up a toaster over based on your irrational hatred or raisin toast.”