4x16: Nothing As It Seems

[wendelah1]

The great thing about rebooting your series timeline is that you can go back and recycle some of your old episodes. All you have to do is tweak the plots a bit. You can even save a little money and reuse some of your old footage from season one. Yeah, okay, so it might be tough to get your audience to believe that the exact same crew is working for the same airline on the same flight four years later. It's going to be even harder for us to swallow that the virus that was being marketed as a bio-weapon to terrorists in the original timeline is now being sold as the opportunity of a lifetime to young couples.

"We'll be like Adam and Eve! We'll be born anew--as hideous, fat-craving, winged human/porcupine hybrids who no longer possess the power of language!"

What? What?

Yep. Just when you thought this season couldn't get any worse, it does. Thanks, guys.



Writer: Jeff Pinkner, Akiva Goldsman
Director: Frederick E. O. Toye
Originally aired: 30 Mar 12

Synopsis:
While Olivia is deemed unfit for FBI duty due to her memories being out of alignment with reality, Agent Lee and Peter investigate the mysterious aftermath of VertusAir Flt 718. Peter's half-recollection and Olivia's memories of a similar case from four years earlier send the Fringe Task Force after a cult whose goal is to direct human evolution--and control our future.

Most Memorable Quote:
EDWARD MARKHAM: Yep, I was right. Here it is. I remember reading it means "renewal" or "rebirth." There's been some rumblings lately about a group out there—a cult, really.
OLIVIA: Okay, whereabouts were these rumblings?
EDWARD MARKHAM: You know, the usual places. Obscure corners of the Internet, conspiracy boards, sub-subterranean chat rooms. Far as I can see, they're just whack jobs. They're obsessed with the guided evolution of man. They want to create a new species...a better species...mutation by design.

Links:
Transcript
The A.V. Club
Entertainment Weekly Recap
Polite Dissent

Fanfiction:
Here's one from the Fringe Kinkmeme:
The Thoughts Your Actions Entertain by Monanotlisa.
Summary: A fix-it for 4x16 "Nothing As It Seems". Goes AU before 4x17. Basically? This is a love song to Lincoln Lee, Blueverse boy (who shouldn't be so blue).

Since I don't ship these pairings or the OT3, it doesn't fix it for me--but it's a popular story by an excellent writer. If there's anything else, let me know, I'll edit it in...

Comments

Winged Porcupine Man

[(Anonymous)]

I probably had my biggest laugh when Winged Porcupine Man jumped off the building. "Oh, man," I said, wiping my eyes, "...they just don't care anymore!"

Re: Winged Porcupine Man

[wendelah1]

It was a very special moment.

Re: Winged Porcupine Man

[sprocket]

It was glorious. And by "glorious" I mean "no, they don't, do they."

[sprocket]

If this were tumblr, I'd be reblogging with additional "I WANT TO BELIEVE" giftset content. "Nothing As It Seems" was not a bad idea, but the execution was... not that brilliant.

Fringe loves iterative stuff! It comes back and circles around to poke at the same themes from different angles! "Nothing As It Seems" should be taking advantage of the wacky fractal-chaos-theory-handwavey nature of the show when it revisits the porcupine case!

This is not what we got.

The show continues to give the Writer Stamp Of Gooey Warm-Hearted Approval to Olivia losing her memories. As much as I like Broyles sticking up for Olivia, the people questioning her choice to toss her memories of the amberverse timeline over the side have some really good points about Olivia's memory loss compromising her effectiveness in the field. And the show continues to steamroll over those in blatant and less than entertaining ways.

The Lincoln B-plot was... frustrating. The AV Club review seems prescient, in light of 4x17, when the reviewer comments, "so while everyone else around him is changing, Lincoln stays the same." But change isn't the only way to judge characterization, and by this point in the season, it feels like the viewers had been shortchanged on Lincoln development. Or maybe I'm just wistful, because slightly bitter not-fitting-in Lincoln was surprisingly entertaining, and I wouldn't have minded Fringe doing more along those lines.

Is there any point in mentioning the silliness of the science? I could mention several things about the wacky human-mutating virus, and Walter's lab tests, which pretty much boil down to "science and medical advisors: use 'em."

Skience!

[corwinofamber]

It really is frustrating, isn't it? Although I don't have more than a layman's grasp, it feels like we're on the verge of several breakthroughs in several areas - fusion energy, nanotechnology, genetics, quantum computing...the seeds for great stories are in the actual science, you don't have to bullshit your way through it.