Fringe Episode 5.05: An Origin Story - Notes, Asides and the Dark Side

Peter started this episode by keeping things from his wife, Olivia. He did not tell Olivia about Etta’s secret compartment and weapons. He also embarked on the interrogation of the captured Observer without involving Olivia. At the conclusion of the interrogation, Peter had killed the Observer and inserted the device removed from the Observer into his own body. Just a few episodes ago, Olivia came down on the side of not torturing prisoners to death and now Peter has done just that. I get the impression that Peter isn’t going to tell Olivia about the tech in his neck either. It’s just like that time he went all dark side and slaughtered a whole tribe of sand people, all of them, not just the men, but the women and children, too a whole bunch shapeshifters. Keeping secrets from his wife is not going to end well – and his hair might fall out as a side effect of the Observer neck-tech.



Anikin, you are breaking my heart!

This was an excellent episode. The back and forth between Peter and the captive was intense, Olivia dealt with her grief and Walter got to do a lab demonstration.

Random notes:

• Etta’s apartment had a picture of a weird Thanksgiving parade balloon on the wall. Also note that there was a mirror to the left of the picture. The mirror is a reference to the next Fringe episode, Through the Looking Glass (And What Walter Found There), which will air around Thanksgiving 2012. It would also be a reference to the New York and alternate universe New York from the previous seasons.
• Etta kept her items in a Bluebell Soap box. This notable because it has both blue (as in blue universe) and Bell as in William Bell.
• There was a mirror in Etta’s apartment with “No. 6” written beneath it. This is another Looking Glass reference. The Looking Glass episode will be episode number six of the fifth season.
• There is red paint on the walls in Etta’s apartment. In fact there is a lot of red in this episode. Previously the color red has indicated the “red” alternate universe.
• Etta had a miniature Statue of Liberty, which is a symbol of freedom. It is also a symbol of the double universe, with the green statue here and the gold one “over there”. There was also a Buddha statue; Peter’s favorite book is If You Meet the Buddha on the Road, Kill Him. You can pick up a copy in our gift shop.
• The graffiti on the wall said “Go Ask Alice”, as in Alice in Wonderland. This is a reference to the song White Rabbit by Jefferson Airplane and if we follow the trail, leads us to the next episode title. Also, it’s a drug reference.
• In Walter’s demonstration, a toy car got sucked into the time hole on the future end. When the time tunnel collapsed, it sucked in a full size car from our end. This is an echo of Walter sending a car to the alternate universe in one of his early experiments.
• The Observer binoculars have returned! I used to have a pair of collapsing binoculars like that when I was a kid.
• Most importantly, we learned that the Observers are not completely hairless. They have eyelashes.

It might seem strange to have all these obscure references and foreshadowing pop up in the lives our Fringe characters. But it makes sense to me. As Walter has said, significant events echo backward in time. What we are seeing are these subtle echoes, barely noticeable if you are not watching for them. Also, all the universes and all the timelines are focused around our characters at this point in time. These are the most important people in existence (and sometimes the most important people in non-existence). It is not surprising that "God, time, fate or whatever" puts these little Easter eggs in the world.