Surfing SF: Fringe – “Os”
You don’t think aliens are involved in these Fringe spoilers, do you?
This week’s Fringe was all about the laws of nature breaking down due to our own good intentions. Somehow Walter puzzling over the chemical properties of Osmium has gotten all mixed up in my head over the past few days with a lot of CNN coverage of the Japanese earthquake. Just now they had Bill Nye the Science Guy on there explaining the properties of Cesium with a much graver face than usual. Thus it is hard for me to separate my feelings about this week’s Fringe out from my feelings about other things, especially when I’m not totally sure what my feelings are about those other things. So let’s see how this goes.
“Os” was a bit less concerned with series continuity than the last few episodes, centering around a scientist (Alan Ruck) doing some extreme research in an atttempt to allow his disabled son to walk again. His research involves injecting other disabled people with a substance that quite literally makes them lighter than air, allowing them to walk on walls. Walter figures out how he’s doing it… except it shouldn’t work based on the laws of physics. Those laws are apparently breaking down as the universe starts to deteriorate… and Walter thinks it’s all his fault.
The main plots haven’t gone away, of course. Olivia and Peter are together and she in particular seems much happier than usual. Walter finds William Bell’s office (with help from Jorge Garcia in a very fun cameo) and looks into his “Soul Magnets” idea. This leads to the ending that I’m sure everyone will be talking about, and I’m just as sure it will drive those people who don’t like any form of mysticism in their science fiction absolutely crazy. William Bell, it seems, has returned… in Olivia’s body. I will reserve judgement, if only because I am eager to see more of Anna Torv’s Leonard Nimoy impersonation.
Bits:
-I really liked that action beat where Peter jumped onto a weightless guy and drove him down onto the ground, if only because I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything quite like that before. Only on Fringe.
-Right before she became possessed or whatever, Peter basically admitted to, among other things, murdering a bunch of shapeshifters in cold blood. I’ll be interested to see what the resolution is to that.
-Some very good put-upon Astrid bits were sprinkled in here.
-Does anyone know enough about Osmium to know if this episode actually made sense, or did not make sense on purpose, as the case may be?
-Walter slept with Yoko Ono, and John Lennon couldn’t say anything because it was the ’70s.
-I feel like I had something else to say, but I can’t remember at this point. I do want to send the best wishes and positive thoughts of everybody here at Geek Life to the people in Japan right now.
Affiliates
