4x04: Subject 9
Jan. 30th, 2015 09:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wendelah1 posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
fringe_rewatchThe part of the plot for Subject 9 which concerns the fate of subject 9 himself, Cameron James, is deeply unsatisfying to me. We don't find out much about the Cortexiphan trials themselves. We don't learn why they were being conducted in the first place. This is the first Astrid has even heard of them. We do learn that Olivia set fire to the lab, just as she did in the other timeline. Subsequently she ran away and never went back. Is this because she'd already killed her stepfather? Or is it because she didn't meet up with Peter in the tulip field?
The Cortexiphan experiments were shut down a few years after that, but we don't learn why. We know why Walter pushed Olivia so hard in the other timeline--he believed that if the children learned to crossover, they would be able to return Peter to his own universe. It's still not moral--nothing about the Cortexiphan trials was--but at least with the stakes being so high, Walter's actions make some kind of sense. But without Peter's fate on the line, why was Walter subjecting Olivia to psychological torture so extreme that it resulted in her nearly burning down the lab? Because he's just that big of a bastard? And while we're on the subject, can someone explain why he and William Bell are never held accountable--in any timeline--for their illegal and unethical experiments on children?
Once it's determined that Cameron isn't the source of the electromagnetic fields, Walter theorizes that Cameron should be able to control them and destroy the entity. Walter is right. Though his abilities are tied to his emotions, Cameron can move metal and control electromagnetic fields. That ability reminds me of a character from a certain comic book series--remember a guy named Magneto? This seems like a pretty big deal to me but the characters aren't interested in the slightest.
They have the records for the Cortexiphan trials but no one tries to contact the subjects to see how they've fared. Don't you think Olivia would, especially after meeting Cameron? You'd at least think Massive Dynamic might be interested in a guy with Cameron's abilities, or maybe the US military. Nope. Not in this timeline. Walter says he's sorry, Cameron is understandably disgusted, and that's the end of that...for now.
This is mostly an important episode because ***spoiler alert*** near the end of the story, Peter Bishop inexplicably reappears in Reiden Lake, at the same location where he drowned in this timeline, following his abduction from the alternate universe. Strangely, Walter doesn't seem to recall that incident, and Olivia has never heard of Reiden Lake. This means there's another change in the timeline, this one having to do with David Robert Jones. Why Peter's early death would have caused that ripple effect may yet be explained, but I'm not counting on it.
One last question and then I'll shut up. Did the episode mean to imply that Olivia was creating the electro-magnetic fields herself and that she's responsible for pulling Peter out of limbo? This honestly never occurred to me until I read the transcript.
OLIVIA: This isn't me. I am not doing this. (inadvertently creating the anomaly with her latent Cortexiphan abilities)
Was this the fandom's consensus? If her abilities were latent until being triggered by Jones later in the season, how could she do anything with them this early?
Writer: Akiva Goldsman, Joel Wyman, and Jeff Pinkner
Director: Joe Chappelle
Originally aired: 14 Oct 2011
Synopsis: Olivia is being pursued by an entity that turns out to be an electromagnetic field. That field was somehow being generated by Peter's disappearance and reappearance in the timeline. Also, Olivia decides Walter isn't crazy enough to send back to the mental institution. We also meet one of the Cortexiphan subjects, Cameron James.
Most Memorable Quote:
CAMERON JAMES: When I had my first experience, I thought something was coming after me, too... until I realized I was doing it to myself.
OLIVIA: You think I'm doing this... that I'm bringing this on myself?
Links:
Transcript
The A.V. Club
Den of Geek
Ken Tucker (of EW)
Polite Dissent
Sarah Stegall
Critical opinion was divided on this one.
Fanfiction:
Double Exposure by Icepixie
Triptych by Monanotlisa
I'm sure there's more out there but there's no time! Leave suggestions in comments--especially if you wrote something. I want to read it.
The Cortexiphan experiments were shut down a few years after that, but we don't learn why. We know why Walter pushed Olivia so hard in the other timeline--he believed that if the children learned to crossover, they would be able to return Peter to his own universe. It's still not moral--nothing about the Cortexiphan trials was--but at least with the stakes being so high, Walter's actions make some kind of sense. But without Peter's fate on the line, why was Walter subjecting Olivia to psychological torture so extreme that it resulted in her nearly burning down the lab? Because he's just that big of a bastard? And while we're on the subject, can someone explain why he and William Bell are never held accountable--in any timeline--for their illegal and unethical experiments on children?
Once it's determined that Cameron isn't the source of the electromagnetic fields, Walter theorizes that Cameron should be able to control them and destroy the entity. Walter is right. Though his abilities are tied to his emotions, Cameron can move metal and control electromagnetic fields. That ability reminds me of a character from a certain comic book series--remember a guy named Magneto? This seems like a pretty big deal to me but the characters aren't interested in the slightest.
They have the records for the Cortexiphan trials but no one tries to contact the subjects to see how they've fared. Don't you think Olivia would, especially after meeting Cameron? You'd at least think Massive Dynamic might be interested in a guy with Cameron's abilities, or maybe the US military. Nope. Not in this timeline. Walter says he's sorry, Cameron is understandably disgusted, and that's the end of that...for now.
This is mostly an important episode because ***spoiler alert*** near the end of the story, Peter Bishop inexplicably reappears in Reiden Lake, at the same location where he drowned in this timeline, following his abduction from the alternate universe. Strangely, Walter doesn't seem to recall that incident, and Olivia has never heard of Reiden Lake. This means there's another change in the timeline, this one having to do with David Robert Jones. Why Peter's early death would have caused that ripple effect may yet be explained, but I'm not counting on it.
One last question and then I'll shut up. Did the episode mean to imply that Olivia was creating the electro-magnetic fields herself and that she's responsible for pulling Peter out of limbo? This honestly never occurred to me until I read the transcript.
OLIVIA: This isn't me. I am not doing this. (inadvertently creating the anomaly with her latent Cortexiphan abilities)
Was this the fandom's consensus? If her abilities were latent until being triggered by Jones later in the season, how could she do anything with them this early?
Writer: Akiva Goldsman, Joel Wyman, and Jeff Pinkner
Director: Joe Chappelle
Originally aired: 14 Oct 2011
Synopsis: Olivia is being pursued by an entity that turns out to be an electromagnetic field. That field was somehow being generated by Peter's disappearance and reappearance in the timeline. Also, Olivia decides Walter isn't crazy enough to send back to the mental institution. We also meet one of the Cortexiphan subjects, Cameron James.
Most Memorable Quote:
CAMERON JAMES: When I had my first experience, I thought something was coming after me, too... until I realized I was doing it to myself.
OLIVIA: You think I'm doing this... that I'm bringing this on myself?
Links:
Transcript
The A.V. Club
Den of Geek
Ken Tucker (of EW)
Polite Dissent
Sarah Stegall
Critical opinion was divided on this one.
Fanfiction:
Double Exposure by Icepixie
Triptych by Monanotlisa
I'm sure there's more out there but there's no time! Leave suggestions in comments--especially if you wrote something. I want to read it.
no subject
Date: 2015-02-01 01:46 am (UTC)Did Astrid get involved in the Cortexiphan discussions in the S1 timeline? I am spacing out on that point.
Though his abilities are tied to his emotions, Cameron can move metal and control electromagnetic fields. That ability reminds me of a character from a certain comic book series--remember a guy named Magneto?
I never thought of that! Magneto's powers have fewer, or much less dramatic, side effects, lucky for him. What's notable about the Cortexikids from where I sit is that the guys tend to have some fairly "girly" powers - empathy, telepathy, healing, astral projection - while the girls trend toward pyrokinetics. This amuses me.
What's less amusing is the recurring theme of the destruction these powers leave in their wake. Cameron's social isolation isn't the first time we've seen cortexiphan subjects whose powers constrain their interactions with other people.
And while we're on the subject, can someone explain why he and William Bell are never held accountable--in any timeline--for their illegal and unethical experiments on children?
A flippant answer might be "Massive Dynamic's money". A serious answer... once Walter was institutionalized, he was pretty untouchable by reason of insanity. In Belly's case, he may well have used the profits from entrepreneurship to settle out of court, or intimidate possible litigants.
One last question and then I'll shut up. Did the episode mean to imply that Olivia was creating the electro-magnetic fields herself and that she's responsible for pulling Peter out of limbo? This honestly never occurred to me until I read the transcript.
I'm having internet issues at home, when Netflix comes back I'll rewatch and comment.
no subject
Date: 2015-02-12 06:47 am (UTC)I bet Cameron James didn't have anything to do with this Fringe event; it was Peter being drawn to Walter and Olivia, in line with the previous episodes of the season.
no subject
Date: 2015-02-04 12:13 pm (UTC)I'd always assumed Olivia ran away due to never being convinced by Peter in tulip field and that subsequently when her step-father went too far she didn't feel like she had anyone on her side, so that's why she ended up shooting him further and killed him in this time line.
With Walter still incarcerated in this timeline I assume the lab fire with Carla dying still happened (that wasn't what stopped the trials in original timeline was it? I forget). Could it have been that with Peter being lost twice that Walter and Elizabeth's relationship faltered faster. I'm trying to remember if we get any idea of if Elizabeth still committed suicide in this timeline - originally it seemed to be guilt that eventually got to her about stealing Peter but maybe she did so earlier due to his loss in this and that affected Walter and stopped his involvement in the trial?
Part of me wonders if, with Nina's attachment to Olivia here, if perhaps Nina might've been protecting the other kids from the trials and hiding the files from prying eyes.
Certainly if none of them had heard of the trials before now, casewise, then Nick Lane encounter never happened - I do wonder what went differently for him. Did RDJ wake up abilities of Nick and Sally etc but actually do so with training provided so they never got onto the radar of Massive Dynamic or Fringe with accidental misfiring of abilities?
Re: Reiden Lake. I was expecting Peter came back there as it was a weak spot between universes, somewhere he could be pulled back into existence from what ever out of phase place he'd been banished but not eliminated from entirely. As for RDJ and Olivia not knowing to Reiden Lake, previously she'd figured that out as a spot due to pattern recognition but I am supposing that without Peter or the Observers involved in the new timeline for her that many cases went differently enough they didn't encounter RDJ or the whole related tangent?
I had thought before on first watch it was Olivia pulling Peter into existence. I reckon they're going for unconsciously she can use powers here, that only later she knowingly does so after they are triggered. As for how she gets Peter back, that seemed like they might be going for the hole in their lives, reaching for what is missing because Peter/Olivia destiny, but that doesn't feel like it explains enough to me. Sure, Olivia and Walter see/dream about him, which I can make sense of if he was out of phase but as to why she would be pulling him through when she doesn't know who he is/remember him much at all...
A bit of the writing relating to that felt off to me personally. She stops Mark Little from fully banishing the electromagnetic disturbance, presumably as she realises it is the guy from her dreams/that Walter's been seeing (or maybe just sees the face and that it's a person). But when she and Walter then have a discussion about this by the car she doesn't mention her thoughts or why she wanted to stop that, they keep talking about the disturbance as it/a thing happening. That struck me as decidedly odd, not tying up her actions with her thoughts/what she said.
Also, pet irk of this episodes was about them calling him Cameron James (his fathers names, who he hates for signing him up for trial and stealing the money paid for it) but I recognise I'm probably extra sensitive to people being called names they do not want/identify with. They just keep calling him Cameron even after he explained that's not his name anyhow. Walter I could understand still doing so as his memory isn't great/remember Cameron from trials but Olivia didn't remember the guy (still blocking out those memories from her childhood?)and so I'd have thought at least wouldn't have trouble amending his name to the actual one he uses as she deals with so many names per day and has a good memory .