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kerithwynFinally started the rewatch. Notes following aren't any kind of synopsis or review, but what I randomly scribbled on my notepad while watching, and random quotes that are interesting/might be fic-useful.
In general, these first episodes are perfectly good procedurals; the series really ramps up about halfway through the season. (This post does an excellent job of pimpery and also describes the first arc as "not so much Fringe as a prequel to Fringe", which is exactly right.)
Things I might or might not have remembered to note as I watched: The Gross, Olivia shoots, Olivia drinks, Charlie character notes, Broyles being awesome. Also, I might or might not have remembered to be coherent.
1.01: Pilot
The Gross: A whole plane full of melted people! The most horrifying pilot opener since Now and Again.
Olivia & John: man, they'd have made some pretty kids. Oh, Mark Valley, you will always be my ideal Captain America.
Olivia don't puke! Now and in the future. Iron stomach even in the face of the most gross.
OLIVIA: Take what? That? You're telling me that's my assignment?
BROYLES: Yeah, honey, would you mind?
-- *snort*
re romance:
OLIVIA: I've been sorta bad at this, for a long time. Until you. I wanted to say, I love you too.
Olivia background:
OLIVIA: If my past job performance as US Marine Special Investigator offends you...
BROYLES: Well, Yeah. It does. A man who serves his country for 30 Years has a few drinks and small lapse of judgment does not deserve five years...
OLIVIA: A small lapse in judgment that will haunt three young women for the rest of their lives.
Peter background :
OLIVIA: (in voiceover) His name is Peter Bishop. He's a high-school drop-out, IQ at 190, just 50 points north of genius. Misfit, nomad. Hasn't kept a job longer than two months. He's been a wild land fireman, cargo pilot and briefly a college chemistry professor. He falsified a degree from MIT. He even managed to get a few papers published before he was found out. Sounds like a massive pain in the ass.
Walter and his food obsession. Constant theme.
Peter is intrigued by Olivia from the very start, you can see it in his face. Moreso when he realizes she bluffed him.
PETER: Thanks, sweetheart. I really appreciate that.
OLIVIA: Hey, I didn't tell him you were here. Call me sweetheart one more time, I'd really like that.
-- bwah.
PETER: No, I owe money to a guy named Big Eddie. He had it legally changed. And the thing is, I'm not even a gambler. I mean I never was. It's just ... A couple of years ago I went a bit crazy.
-- did we ever see this resolved?
Olivia is fearless. The mad scientist wants her to take drugs and drill holes in her head? Okay! (In another universe: Olivia Dunham, Green Lantern.)
WALTER: Excellent. Let's make some LSD.
ASTRID: Yeah, I'm Astrid Farnsworth, assistant to Agent Dunham.
-- unfortunately, she's just wallpaper for most of the series. Dammit.
Nina was so awesome in these early episodes, so much hidden potential menace. Too bad that all fizzled out.
WALTER: And this is a show for children?
ASTRID: Yeah, it's huge.
WALTER: Surprisingly profound for a narrative about a sponge.
Action!Girl: the chase reminds me of Bond in Casino Royale, crashing through everything with no regard for personal safety.
Peter tortures Steig for Olivia. That's (incipient) love.
Despite himself, Peter totally gets into helping Walter. He's science!boy.
Broyles knows all about the Pattern.
OLIVIA: I just want to go back to before.
BROYLES: Dunham, I don't think you can.
CHARLIE: I knew him just as long as you did. I'm sorry. Job isn't what it was ten years ago. We're supposed to protect the world, where one breath of the wrong air can incinerate you from the inside out. I mean, how do we protect people, when corporations have higher security clearances than we do? When we're not fully briefed on half the things that we're investigating. You know, when the truth, the truth is - we're obsolete.
-- alt!Charlie gives virtually the same speech later.
Peter stays for Olivia.
1.02: The Same Old Story
The Gross: pregnancy horror. >_< Accelerated pregnancy--season 3 "Bloodline". Also, villain uses similiar mode in "The Abducted." ...also, EYEBALL. I forgot that. yick.
BROYLES: I called you together tonight to introduce you to my new team, who will now be responsible for investigating all these events. (personnel files are reviewed by attendees) Hopefully, they will have more success than our last.
Notes say: !SCIENCE! (??? Some Walter rant, I think.)
(Someone's done a Thomas Dolby vid, right? Right?)
OLIVIA: I'm sorry about the lab. I don't usually...
PETER: What?
OLIVIA: Lose control.
BROYLES: I was thinking that a woman who didn't hesitate to follow the evidence and expose the man she loved at the cost of great personal pain and embarrassment - must surely be worthy of our trust.
-- Quite a turnaround of attitude from the Pilot.
OLIVIA: You knew, didn't you? About me and John?
CHARLIE: I like to think that I have some powers of deduction.
OLIVIA: I took advantage of our friendship. You kept quiet, even though you didn't approve.
CHARLIE: I hadn't seen you that happy in a long time. Look, Olivia, you have nothing to prove.
OLIVIA: I need a cross check of recent unsolved homicides. See if any bodies have turned up with a missing pituitary gland.
CHARLIE: Oh, you say the sweetest things.
OLIVIA: Only to you, Charlie.
Nina tries to recruit Olivia. Heh.
WALTER: If you've read my file, then you know the truth about Peter's medical history. I've been meaning to ask you to--
OLIVIA: Walter... there was no mention of any medical history. Just his birthday.
WALTER: Oh. I was going to ask you to keep it between just the two of us, but, uh... I suppose, then, there's no need.
-- early teaser.
1.03: The Ghost Network
The Gross: A bus full of ambered people. (Amber = season 3.) Brain surgery and cranial drilling on awake dude.
Man, they totally cast the actress for John's mother for her eyes. Same piercing blue.
Charlie being awesome:
OLIVIA: A hero. He used me, Charlie. And he told me he loved me.
CHARLIE: I wasn't gonna tell you this… but he said he loved me too.
(Yeah, okay, someone *has* written Charlie/John, right? Right?)
Walter self-medicating. With "medicine."
Someone's after Peter. Again, did this get resolved?
Olivia's awesome pattern-recognition skills in play.
Broyles knows so much more than he's telling; in retrospect, because he wants to see how much Olivia can deduce on her own?
EVERYTHING IS WALTER'S FAULT. Every case calls back to some old experiment he did.
PETER: I guess the badge is the "pretty please" in that equation. There's no lights on.
OLIVIA: I'm gonna call in, see if we can track down the owner for consent. (Peter tries to jimmy the door) What're you doing?
PETER: What? This is barely even a crime. I used to live here. (the door swings open without effort)
-- *snerk*
PETER: So tell me. Of all the possible career choices, how did a girl like you end up in law enforcement?
OLIVIA: Well, I pretty much knew this was what I wanted to do by the time I was nine.
PETER: When I was nine years old, I think I wanted to be a brontosaurus. (finds an old hiding space) You know, they say the psych profiles of cops and criminals are pretty much identical. Ever consider a life of crime?
OLIVIA: No dental.
ASTRID: I majored in linguistics. My Latin's admittedly a bit fuzzy.
-- this is "Astrid knows stuff as the plot demands."
OLIVIA: So eleven innocent people die today, we risk losing another by drilling through his head, all for something we know nothing about?
BROYLES: Do you ever smile, Dunham? We I.D.'d the shooter. (pulls out file) Matthew Ziegler. When we ran his fingerprints, he popped up on two other pattern-related cases. We're digging into his financials, travel records. Linkage, Dunham. Not only can we now put a face to these people, but we know they're communicating. And how. I'd say that's an impressive day's work.
Wow, a guest star who doesn't die. Good going, Roy.
Cut scene: John's mother gives Olivia his medal. Sweet.
1.04: The Arrival
The Gross: Nasal electrical torture.
Watching the Observer eat gives me heartburn.
The beacon = part of s3's machine? Otherwise, it's never explained.
Walter has a mean streak, shows up a couple times in these early episodes. Shades of Walternate.
Spot the Observer:
OLIVIA: There are many things I'm not good at, too many, but one thing I can do, that I've always been able to do, that game, Concentration. Memory. Connecting things. (brings up files) Putting them together. See.
OLIVIA: (displays evidence) Still photograph from the crime scene at Quantico, 1987. Look. He was there. Look at this. Less than two weeks ago at the hospital in Quincy. It's the same guy. And he looks the same. And he was there with us. What?
BROYLES: Come with me.
(she follows to a room with busy workers, and walls covered with photos)
BROYLES: Excuse us please. It took us a year to spot him. You did it in three weeks.
Astrid looks freaked out when people argue. hmmm.
Walter stabs her IN THE NECK. He never apologizes enough for this.
Olivia shoots Mosley!
The Observer mimicks Peter. Grist for the "Peter is the Observer" theory, although I hate that idea.
Walter's version of an apology to Astrid:
WALTER: What I did to you was very untrustworthy of me. I never intended to harm you. I was simply doing what was necessary to protect us all. If it would help you feel a sense of retribution, I would tell you to inject me too. But... but I'd most likely enjoy it.
Peter's turnaround:
PETER: Olivia, did you hear what I just said? I mean, I'm a fairly open-minded guy, but there are things happening here that I can't even begin to explain. And I am not going anywhere until I can.
Walter's version of the car accident, a lie. Does he remember he's lying at this point?
Olivia's dinner of champions: a glass of alcohol and a bowl of dry cereal. It's good to be an adult.
Cut scene: Walter and Peter talking about multiple earths: "he's suggesting the machine is from a parallel world." Wow, did they cut that because it gave the game away too soon?
(more in a bit)
In general, these first episodes are perfectly good procedurals; the series really ramps up about halfway through the season. (This post does an excellent job of pimpery and also describes the first arc as "not so much Fringe as a prequel to Fringe", which is exactly right.)
Things I might or might not have remembered to note as I watched: The Gross, Olivia shoots, Olivia drinks, Charlie character notes, Broyles being awesome. Also, I might or might not have remembered to be coherent.
1.01: Pilot
The Gross: A whole plane full of melted people! The most horrifying pilot opener since Now and Again.
Olivia & John: man, they'd have made some pretty kids. Oh, Mark Valley, you will always be my ideal Captain America.
Olivia don't puke! Now and in the future. Iron stomach even in the face of the most gross.
OLIVIA: Take what? That? You're telling me that's my assignment?
BROYLES: Yeah, honey, would you mind?
-- *snort*
re romance:
OLIVIA: I've been sorta bad at this, for a long time. Until you. I wanted to say, I love you too.
Olivia background:
OLIVIA: If my past job performance as US Marine Special Investigator offends you...
BROYLES: Well, Yeah. It does. A man who serves his country for 30 Years has a few drinks and small lapse of judgment does not deserve five years...
OLIVIA: A small lapse in judgment that will haunt three young women for the rest of their lives.
Peter background :
OLIVIA: (in voiceover) His name is Peter Bishop. He's a high-school drop-out, IQ at 190, just 50 points north of genius. Misfit, nomad. Hasn't kept a job longer than two months. He's been a wild land fireman, cargo pilot and briefly a college chemistry professor. He falsified a degree from MIT. He even managed to get a few papers published before he was found out. Sounds like a massive pain in the ass.
Walter and his food obsession. Constant theme.
Peter is intrigued by Olivia from the very start, you can see it in his face. Moreso when he realizes she bluffed him.
PETER: Thanks, sweetheart. I really appreciate that.
OLIVIA: Hey, I didn't tell him you were here. Call me sweetheart one more time, I'd really like that.
-- bwah.
PETER: No, I owe money to a guy named Big Eddie. He had it legally changed. And the thing is, I'm not even a gambler. I mean I never was. It's just ... A couple of years ago I went a bit crazy.
-- did we ever see this resolved?
Olivia is fearless. The mad scientist wants her to take drugs and drill holes in her head? Okay! (In another universe: Olivia Dunham, Green Lantern.)
WALTER: Excellent. Let's make some LSD.
ASTRID: Yeah, I'm Astrid Farnsworth, assistant to Agent Dunham.
-- unfortunately, she's just wallpaper for most of the series. Dammit.
Nina was so awesome in these early episodes, so much hidden potential menace. Too bad that all fizzled out.
WALTER: And this is a show for children?
ASTRID: Yeah, it's huge.
WALTER: Surprisingly profound for a narrative about a sponge.
Action!Girl: the chase reminds me of Bond in Casino Royale, crashing through everything with no regard for personal safety.
Peter tortures Steig for Olivia. That's (incipient) love.
Despite himself, Peter totally gets into helping Walter. He's science!boy.
Broyles knows all about the Pattern.
OLIVIA: I just want to go back to before.
BROYLES: Dunham, I don't think you can.
CHARLIE: I knew him just as long as you did. I'm sorry. Job isn't what it was ten years ago. We're supposed to protect the world, where one breath of the wrong air can incinerate you from the inside out. I mean, how do we protect people, when corporations have higher security clearances than we do? When we're not fully briefed on half the things that we're investigating. You know, when the truth, the truth is - we're obsolete.
-- alt!Charlie gives virtually the same speech later.
Peter stays for Olivia.
1.02: The Same Old Story
The Gross: pregnancy horror. >_< Accelerated pregnancy--season 3 "Bloodline". Also, villain uses similiar mode in "The Abducted." ...also, EYEBALL. I forgot that. yick.
BROYLES: I called you together tonight to introduce you to my new team, who will now be responsible for investigating all these events. (personnel files are reviewed by attendees) Hopefully, they will have more success than our last.
Notes say: !SCIENCE! (??? Some Walter rant, I think.)
(Someone's done a Thomas Dolby vid, right? Right?)
OLIVIA: I'm sorry about the lab. I don't usually...
PETER: What?
OLIVIA: Lose control.
BROYLES: I was thinking that a woman who didn't hesitate to follow the evidence and expose the man she loved at the cost of great personal pain and embarrassment - must surely be worthy of our trust.
-- Quite a turnaround of attitude from the Pilot.
OLIVIA: You knew, didn't you? About me and John?
CHARLIE: I like to think that I have some powers of deduction.
OLIVIA: I took advantage of our friendship. You kept quiet, even though you didn't approve.
CHARLIE: I hadn't seen you that happy in a long time. Look, Olivia, you have nothing to prove.
OLIVIA: I need a cross check of recent unsolved homicides. See if any bodies have turned up with a missing pituitary gland.
CHARLIE: Oh, you say the sweetest things.
OLIVIA: Only to you, Charlie.
Nina tries to recruit Olivia. Heh.
WALTER: If you've read my file, then you know the truth about Peter's medical history. I've been meaning to ask you to--
OLIVIA: Walter... there was no mention of any medical history. Just his birthday.
WALTER: Oh. I was going to ask you to keep it between just the two of us, but, uh... I suppose, then, there's no need.
-- early teaser.
1.03: The Ghost Network
The Gross: A bus full of ambered people. (Amber = season 3.) Brain surgery and cranial drilling on awake dude.
Man, they totally cast the actress for John's mother for her eyes. Same piercing blue.
Charlie being awesome:
OLIVIA: A hero. He used me, Charlie. And he told me he loved me.
CHARLIE: I wasn't gonna tell you this… but he said he loved me too.
(Yeah, okay, someone *has* written Charlie/John, right? Right?)
Walter self-medicating. With "medicine."
Someone's after Peter. Again, did this get resolved?
Olivia's awesome pattern-recognition skills in play.
Broyles knows so much more than he's telling; in retrospect, because he wants to see how much Olivia can deduce on her own?
EVERYTHING IS WALTER'S FAULT. Every case calls back to some old experiment he did.
PETER: I guess the badge is the "pretty please" in that equation. There's no lights on.
OLIVIA: I'm gonna call in, see if we can track down the owner for consent. (Peter tries to jimmy the door) What're you doing?
PETER: What? This is barely even a crime. I used to live here. (the door swings open without effort)
-- *snerk*
PETER: So tell me. Of all the possible career choices, how did a girl like you end up in law enforcement?
OLIVIA: Well, I pretty much knew this was what I wanted to do by the time I was nine.
PETER: When I was nine years old, I think I wanted to be a brontosaurus. (finds an old hiding space) You know, they say the psych profiles of cops and criminals are pretty much identical. Ever consider a life of crime?
OLIVIA: No dental.
ASTRID: I majored in linguistics. My Latin's admittedly a bit fuzzy.
-- this is "Astrid knows stuff as the plot demands."
OLIVIA: So eleven innocent people die today, we risk losing another by drilling through his head, all for something we know nothing about?
BROYLES: Do you ever smile, Dunham? We I.D.'d the shooter. (pulls out file) Matthew Ziegler. When we ran his fingerprints, he popped up on two other pattern-related cases. We're digging into his financials, travel records. Linkage, Dunham. Not only can we now put a face to these people, but we know they're communicating. And how. I'd say that's an impressive day's work.
Wow, a guest star who doesn't die. Good going, Roy.
Cut scene: John's mother gives Olivia his medal. Sweet.
1.04: The Arrival
The Gross: Nasal electrical torture.
Watching the Observer eat gives me heartburn.
The beacon = part of s3's machine? Otherwise, it's never explained.
Walter has a mean streak, shows up a couple times in these early episodes. Shades of Walternate.
Spot the Observer:
OLIVIA: There are many things I'm not good at, too many, but one thing I can do, that I've always been able to do, that game, Concentration. Memory. Connecting things. (brings up files) Putting them together. See.
OLIVIA: (displays evidence) Still photograph from the crime scene at Quantico, 1987. Look. He was there. Look at this. Less than two weeks ago at the hospital in Quincy. It's the same guy. And he looks the same. And he was there with us. What?
BROYLES: Come with me.
(she follows to a room with busy workers, and walls covered with photos)
BROYLES: Excuse us please. It took us a year to spot him. You did it in three weeks.
Astrid looks freaked out when people argue. hmmm.
Walter stabs her IN THE NECK. He never apologizes enough for this.
Olivia shoots Mosley!
The Observer mimicks Peter. Grist for the "Peter is the Observer" theory, although I hate that idea.
Walter's version of an apology to Astrid:
WALTER: What I did to you was very untrustworthy of me. I never intended to harm you. I was simply doing what was necessary to protect us all. If it would help you feel a sense of retribution, I would tell you to inject me too. But... but I'd most likely enjoy it.
Peter's turnaround:
PETER: Olivia, did you hear what I just said? I mean, I'm a fairly open-minded guy, but there are things happening here that I can't even begin to explain. And I am not going anywhere until I can.
Walter's version of the car accident, a lie. Does he remember he's lying at this point?
Olivia's dinner of champions: a glass of alcohol and a bowl of dry cereal. It's good to be an adult.
Cut scene: Walter and Peter talking about multiple earths: "he's suggesting the machine is from a parallel world." Wow, did they cut that because it gave the game away too soon?
(more in a bit)
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2011-06-20 09:36 pm (UTC)"IQ at 190, just 50 points north of genius. Misfit, nomad. Hasn't kept a job longer than two months. He's been a wild land fireman, cargo pilot and briefly a college chemistry professor." - now I kind of want to see a Peter Bishop/The Pretender crossover.
"(In another universe: Olivia Dunham, Green Lantern.)" - I will pay someone money to write that. >.>
no subject
Date: 2011-06-20 11:59 pm (UTC)re GL: Inorite? It just makes sense. But I never finished my Barbara Gordon, Green Lantern bits and I'm afraid the tone would be too similar. :/
no subject
Date: 2011-06-20 10:58 pm (UTC)In a lot of ways the first half of Season 1 is like a COMPLETELY different show for me, because the overarching arc is all about John and once it's over we never really discuss him again, or whatshisface who's running around persecuting Olivia, and I stop wanting to smack Broyles in the kisser with a Louisville Slugger. It just ends and We move forward with the whole parallel universes thing and we're still there two seasons later. It's not a complaint exactly, it's just there's such a shift when it swaps over that it's very noticeable. I do love how they start seeding in clues so early. I'd forgotten all about the amber in episode 3 and totally squee'd when I rewatched it.
And I miss Charlie.
no subject
Date: 2011-06-21 12:01 am (UTC)It IS a totally different show--the link I put up discusses that. I'm glad for the rewatch just for the little bits of foreshadowing, but the episodes themselves aren't that inspiring.
Chaaaaaaaarlie.
no subject
Date: 2011-06-20 11:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-21 12:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-06-21 12:05 am (UTC)So glad they reimagined Broyles after the pilot episode. Just...yeah. And I want to know what happened to his last team. Lol.
no subject
Date: 2011-06-21 12:20 am (UTC)Broyles is just so nasty in the first episode, he would have been hard to cope with longterm. Fortunately, he immediately comes to appreciate Olivia's awesomeness. There's a story in the "last team" business, possibly related to the "X designation" mentioned later. *g*
no subject
Date: 2011-12-04 09:48 pm (UTC)CHARLIE: I wasn't gonna tell you this… but he said he loved me too.
(Yeah, okay, someone *has* written Charlie/John, right? Right?)
Someone MUST have.
Not me though. I find Mark Valley shudder-inducing -- like, I wouldn't touch him with a ten-foot pole; it's that bad.
no subject
Date: 2011-12-04 09:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-04 09:59 pm (UTC)I find it physically hard to watch him in Season One. Like, the opening scene?
(By contrast, I quite like the Captain America they've chosen for the movie; he's handsome in ways that Are Not Relevant To My Interests but still nice, you see... :)