FRINGE: Momentum Deferred

I’m going to be honest and admit that it was hard for me to make the decision to watch Fringe at its regularly scheduled time tonight. If it weren’t for this blog, I would have been glued to The Office for the big JAM wedding extravaganza. It’s not that I don’t consider Fringe to be must watch TV – I definitely do — but my Thursday night TV line-up is way too crowded! Please, Fox, move Fringe back to Tuesday nights so that I (and the other viewers who are dropping off like flies) can give it the time and attention that it deserves!! That being said, I now don’t regret my decision to postpone the Jim/Pam love fest one little bit since “Momentum Deferred” was completely AWESOME!!! So many questions were answered, that I hardly even know where to begin!

He’s Baaaaaaaaack!!!!!!!!!
Last week I was wondering when we would get to see good old William Bell again and I am happy to report that we did not have to wait all that long. He was back tonight, albeit just in Olivia’s memories, but on screen long enough for the big reveal of what it was that he told Olivia during their time together “over there”.

Here are the facts, as I understand them:

• Walter and William had been trying to create a “guardian” — someone who could protect the gate between universes.

• It is difficult for humans to cross from one side to the other/not many can do it successfully.

• Bell is unable to leave the alternate universe for reasons yet to be disclosed.

• Those “over there” who are waging the war have created hybrids (part organic material/part machine), i.e. the shape shifter soldiers, which can cross over more successfully than humans.

• The hybrids have already crossed over and are referred to as “The First Wave”. They are searching for someone, a leader, who can open the door between universes.

• The leader’s body has a symbol on it (looks kind of like the Greek letter omega or a pair of headphones, depending on your perspective). Olivia needs to find it before the hybrid/soldier shifters or a “storm” will be coming. Bell doesn’t elaborate on what the “storm” is, but Nina later explains to Olivia that it is Bell’s theory of what will happen if the gate is opened – the two worlds will collide and only one will survive.

Mission Not So Much Accomplished

Thanks to a worm drinking experiment that Walter concocted (which, btw, was completely nasty – borderline close to watching an episode of Fear Factor!) and the ringing of a bell, Olivia is able to remember what William Bell had instructed her to do. He had written down the name of the storage facility where the cryogenically frozen head of the leader (the one who could open the door between universes) was being stored. Olivia eventually remembers the storage facility name, but makes the mistake of telling it to Bad!Charlie. When the FBI reaches the facility, they find that it has already been raided.

So Bad!Charlie successfully gets the information that he needs from Olivia but he fails in the second part of his mission – killing her. As I suspected, he has been in the same body for too long and, without his shape-shifting device, he is not able to vacate it. Even a serious serving of straight-up mercury doesn’t help much. To make matters worse for Bad!Charlie, an undamaged shape shifter device is found at one of the Cryo storage facility crime scenes and Peter discovers that it contains data. Olivia takes it to Nina and a Massive Dynamic genius figures out a way to use it to recreate the image of the shifter (that part was way too techie for me, but that is the basic gist of it). Once Olivia learns the identity of the shifter, she and Bad!Charlie get into a serious smack-down. Olivia is ultimately able to shoot and kill Bad!Charlie thanks to his failing body.

Walter’s Deli

Back at the lab, Walter brings in Rebecca (remember the seriously drugged out chick from Walter’s home videos in the season premier?) for what turns out to be a completely unnecessary experiment. The original plan, I believe, is for her to be able to identify the shifter, but what mostly ends up happening is that she:
(1) Gets shot up with a very large dose of LSD.
(2) Makes some serious time with Walter – a love interest for the loony but lovable doc, perhaps?
(3) Sees silver when she looks at Peter, reminding us of what we already know – that he doesn’t quite belong here.
(4) Causes me to once again have a Sesame Street tune stuck in my head…as if that doesn’t happen to me enough already with two children under the age of 5 running around my house, controlling the remote. One of these things is not like the other…

Speaking in Tongues

Remember when Olivia woke up after her accident and spoke Greek to Peter? He told Olivia that what she said was something that his mother used to say to him after Walter was gone. It translated to “be a better man than your father” which meant to keep your people close/take care of the people that you care about. Olivia didn’t just come up with this phrase out of the blue – William Bell told her to say it to Peter! He told her that she would need Peter to be by her side. BUT WHY????!!!!

Let the Speculation Begin

Although a lot of questions were answered, there is still a heck of a lot to speculate about. For starters, how about the final scene??!!! The head with the omega/headphones symbol is reattached to a body and it starts to look alive…kind of, sort of. Who is it? I felt like I should know, like it was someone we’ve already met, but I was mostly just confused. It didn’t really look like anyone…except maybe Voldemort…. Am I missing something? Comment away below!!

For all you code crackers – tonight’s word was MEMORY.

Gretchen is a stay-at-home mom of two awesome little girls who has the good fortune of being married to a husband who is completely cool with her slightly out of control television addiction. During her precious few sleeping hours, Gretchen frequently finds herself ridding the world of pesky vampires and demons, as well as taking down fake secret branches of the CIA.