'Fringe': An Observer in love
Tonight on "Fringe," the Observer kidnaps a girl. Except he's not THE Observer, he's AN Observer.The Observers
This new Observer (August) kidnaps a girl (Christine), takes her to a motel and binds and gags her. (I thought "CSI" was on CBS.) Other Observers get together and realize August kidnapped a girl who was supposed to be on flight 821, which has now left already. This "irregularity" must be repaired, so they contact hitman Donald to kill her.
Back in the motel, August shows Christine that her plane has crashed and that he saved her. He says she isn't safe yet and goes to see the other Observers. He argues that she is special, that he sees that she is important. They say they only act when they are correcting a mistake of their own making and tell him they've already "seen to it" that Christine is taken care of.
Peter, Walter, Olivia & Walter
They have a book found near the kidnapping to analyze. It's full of weird symbols, none of which ever repeat, and also a blood splatter. The blood has a tint that indicates a hemophiliac and the symbols have been recently investigated by Massive Dynamic.
The scientist from Massive Dynamic can't crack the symbols, but he does show all these famous paintings where a figure who looks like the Observer is there (Boston massacre, Marie Antoinette's beheading, the assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand). He hypothesizes that they show up at important moments in time, maybe two dozen in the past 5,000 years, but recently he's tracked 26 sightings in the last three months.
Christine's subleasor says Christine was going to study ceramics in Rome for a semester, she was supposed to leave today. The roommate also relays that Christine's parents were killed when the bridge collapsed in the 1989 earthquake.* In the background of the last picture Christine has with her parents, hours before they died, is an Observer. When they hear about the panae crash, they realize the Observer saved her on purpose.
The blood sample comes back as not blood but chile pepper juice. One of the hottest in the world, the King Cobra chile. The team tracks the Observers by who is importing those peppers locally (three restaurants and one private citizen).
Walter gives Astrid the slip to go meet with the Observer. He cracked the code by noticing a nitrogen molecule among the symbols. August wants Walter's help, though Walter thought August was going to take Peter back. Walter advises that since the other Observers won't believe that Christine is special, he must MAKE her special.
Donald the Hitman
Donald is surprised at August's place by Olivia and Peter. He shoots at them and runs for it. He then tracks August to the motel and shoots August three times in the chest. Olivia and Peter arrive and the dying August gives Peter his gun. Peter uses it to save Olivia from Donald and when they get back to where August was, he's gone. Olivia finds Christine hidden in the room.
August is picked up by another Observer and explains that he saw Christine as a little girl, who was brave when her parents had just been killed. She never left August's mind. He thinks he loves her. And then he dies. Now she's safe because she's important. Because she's responsible for August's death. Back at Christine's apartment, Walter returns a teddy bear to Christine that she was holding when the bridge collapsed.
Peter presses Walter for information about the Observers and why one saved them so many years ago but Walter won't budge. At the very end of the episode, two Observers watch Olivia and lament that things are about to get so hard for her.
Thoughts & Tidbits
- *The 1989 earthquake is known as the World Series earthquake because it happened during warmups for game 3 of the WS. Weirdly, the two teams in that WS were the two San Francisco-area teams, the Giants and Athletics. Since so many people had left work early that day for the game, traffic was especially light. If it had been normal rush hour, the death toll probably would've been much higher than 63. Just a bit of trivia for you, we're a full-service blog around here.
- Observer: "Look how happy she is. It's a shame things are about to get so hard for her."
- Interesting episode tonight. I liked the information we got about the Observers and where/why they appear, though the actual plot with August and Christine wasn't fleshed out enough to grab me.
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I remember feeling that earthquake in the desert outside of Yuma, Arizona. I was in the Army and we were in the middle of a 44 day exercise with the Marines from Yuma Marine Corps Air Station and their Harriers.
I don't think we can assume the Observers were talking about Olivia in the end with the "Look how happy she is" line. What if they are talking about Ella?? Just a thought. Overall though, great episode.
I thought the same thing....Ella! Considering Olivia stated that her happiest Mother memory was going to the movies for the first time(I have same memory Star Wars Return of the Jedi I was 5). I think they may try to add Ella to the storyline......maybe an important character in the future?????
I think Ella may be who The Observer #1 (as in the original shown last season chugging Tabasco sauce and black pepper) was referring to as she and Olivia were riding the roller coaster. Otherwise, it would have been a little superfluous for him to say that Olivia was going to be facing tough times, since she's been doing that since episode one. I get the feeling Ella may be either from the parallel universe, or is somehow important to The Observers in a way yet to be revealed. Either way, at least the actress who plays her is decent enough that she won't drag down what might end up being an important role in the series.
As for The Observer Pervert, I realize their outlook on things is slightly different from the rest of us, but him saying that he pretty much started loving Christine from the time she was a little girl led me to just say...ewwww. Then again, if they exist outside of time, perhaps he had already seen her as a young woman and loved that incarnation of her. Either way, the whole thing was just a wee bit creepy. Good episode, anyway.
Oh, yeah, and Zap2It's new platform still sucks.
The Observers:
Time Lords...The Doctors!!!
and yes I did try to look in the background for the TARDIS
I'm just saying!!!
Aaron R
I saw his love for her as a father would love a daughter.
I think you're right, Tomas, but the way it was presented was still a little creepy. He did clarify his mini-obsession with her by stating that he had begun to have feelings (in general, but towards her specifically), which probably surprised him so much that he overdid. In any case, maybe his death will bring about a change in the others as well. Be interesting to see, either way.
Was the girl who played "Christine" the same girl that played Bruce Willis' daughter in The Last Boy Scout? It sure looked like her, grown up.
Great episode.
I didn't see the Observer's love for Christine as being perverted or sexual. Not at all. It seemed more like the love of a father for a child or the loyal, unconditional love that someone has for a very beloved pet.
Weird, but good episode. And I was so hoping that Peter would be the only one able to fire the disruptor gun and would actually be able to keep it. You would think that by now, they would have given him some official status/badge and a gun seeing as the situations they see themselves in again and again. After all he seems completely qualified to use one too.
I agree with IggyPop, loving somebody doesn't necessarily imply a sexual aspect, just like sex doesn't necessarily imply love in the truest sense of the word. He just grew to care about her over time that started with him helping her or whatever during the earthquake. I guess to see someone so alone and in such a fragile state, evoked an emotional response.
But about the storyline - couldn't this girl living when she should have died, drastically alter the timeline? Or are we to just assume like the Doctor says, she's just a minor unimportant player.
And I loved the whole conversation where Walter was able to get the slip on Astrid. "If I go to the market for you, I will no longer be your taste tester" - ice cream and cough syrup? yuk!