Jasika Nicole is a great actress. I like her portrayal of both Astrids. And I liked the bits of red in alt-Astrid’s hair.
It was nice when our Astrid lied to her counterpart, but sad when it turned out that she was lying (as in, I really felt bad for alt-Astrid). And also kind of strange that she still lives with her father.
One minor complaint. Last episode Peter tells Olivia that the Observers don’t experience time the same way we do. They exist simultaneously in all times, so they don’t predict the future, instead they’ve already experienced it.
This episode we find out they have a device that lets them see all times simultaneously. So it is a prediction. Kind of contradicts what was said last week, no?
Meh, not that strange. And maybe he lives with her, it happens.
I didn’t like that it was two weeks in a row of the Fringe event of the week involving a character who can foresee how someone will die. Granted they were two different takes on it, but it still would’ve been nice if there’d been a few episodes in between two similar events.
Experiencing time differently and having a device to see all times simultaneously is not mutually exclusive.
Here is an analogy: A movie plays in a theatre only once. To those watching in the theatre, it can only be experienced sequentially. But for a person with a copy of the movie at home, they can already know the outcome during subsequent viewings. They know what happens at all times simultaneously.
If someone in the theatre had a handheld device that lets them fast forward to any point in the movie, they can also know the outcome before anyone else in the theatre.
However, the Fringe world is not a single sequence of events. When Peter was edited out of the universe, a different timeline unfolded without him. And September told Olivia a few episodes ago that in all the versions of events, it only turns out good if Olivia dies.
So I think the Fringe universe is like a computer simulation that can be run over and over with slightly different input variables. And the Observers have a device to fast-forward the simulation to see what happens at any point in time.
I loved this episode and it’s what I’d hoped this whole season would be: interaction between the two universes. I really liked the Fauxlivia/Walter interaction and all the interactions with Astrid[sup]2[/sup].
The Controvert, I’m a little confused at what you’re trying to say.
My point is that, although seeing the future and having experienced it produce the same results, they’re different methods. Force Perspective Transcript
Maybe a minor nitpick, but experiencing the future and seeing it are two different things. But it’s not a biggie, just a minor slip in the writing.
This part at the end of Making Angels seems interesting.
I’m wondering if Peter setting off the machine somehow caused September to lose his time viewing device back in 1985 which in turn means that he didn’t save Peter. Which means that his not being saved was more of an accident than anything intentional on the part of the Observers.
I think it was heavily implied that both are connected – the girl in the last episode also referred to a ‘lake house’, the same way the guy (damn, I’m crappy with names lately) from this one did. And of course it’s all connected to Peter, so essentially, it’s just plot development.
I bet that the guy with the Observer tech didn’t really know how to use the thing properly. I bet he thought the first reading that he got was the only possible future, so he didn’t consider trying to change the future. Of course, knowing wouldn’t have made much of a difference with the cancer patient and the woman who was an alcoholic, but he might have thought about alternatives with the guy destined for the car accident. Stealing his cell phone or just delaying him long enough to miss the other car might have been sufficient to generate a more positive outcome.
The Observers seem to be able to look into multiple possible futures. The guy was probably only able to see one possible future.
I thought it was kind of funny when he did the Observer thing of saying the same thing his mother was saying after, during, and then before she said it. But really, what’s the point of doing that? I guess it’s for the audiences sake to show that he (and the observers) are sometimes out of synch with our time.
Was something wrong at my end? When Niel Chung entered the living room, his mother asks where he was going. Then, she replied what he meant that it was time to say good-bye. The problem is, I didn’t hear him say anything. I just saw it again and it seems his mouth is closed the entire time.
Oh, I meant to ask, is this the first time an Observer has been called by name/month on the actual show itself? I know they’ve been called as such for quite a while in other material, but don’t remember it on the show.
Sometimes re-watching past episodes can help give a glimpse into present ones.
One of my Christmas gifts was Season 1 of Fringe. Last night I watched one episode I liked, “The Road Not taken”. In one scene Walter explains what Déjà vu is. The explanation is silly of course, but the theory of time, if the writers stick to it, proves that Peter’s old timeline still exists. And actually so do a million others.
Anyway, it’s similar but the difference is that in the movies you create a new timeline by going back and changing things in a time machine. In this theory you create a new timeline simply by what you do, or don’t do.