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kerithwynAn episode so great, it actually demanded meta. Kind of. ;)
First scene: unhffff. Olivia's got a hell of a poker face, if she's been having these dreams all along. Sexay! Way to go, network tv. Choosing to believe this memory is post-"9B." But--have you noticed--this show is the worst for sex-interrupting phone calls. :p Also: blue filter for the Blue timeline.
*laughs* I like Walter's idea of a breakfast drink. I am on your side with the foodie experiments, Walter! Even if no one else is.
Walter, Olivia, and Peter joking in the lab again: just like old times. Not an accident.
As many others have noted: suuuuuuper X-Files-ish filming and atmosphere in this episode. It's also Stephen King book(s) and Silent Hill.
WALTER: For God's sake, woman, lower your decibels.
-- *giggle!* Walter out and about! Just like old times.
Good to see Walter's tapeworm continues unaffected by events.
WALTER: Your largest slice of rhubarb pie and coffee, please.
BIG WILLY: Alright. And for you?
PETER: Just the bathroom.
-- Noting it here so I don't forget: Walter's first words to Peter in the first episode were, "I thought you'd be fatter." I kind of have it in my head that Peter is always aware of his previously chunky state, in the back of his head. While he's not compulsive about his food choices, he's definitely aware of them.
Aaaaahhhhh! Creepy doubled irises!
+1 to Olivia's kill total. Someone's gotta be keeping a tally somewhere.
Okay, I was guessing "universe merge" pretty early on--Peter, at least, has seen this before ("Jacksonville," among other incidents). The guy talking about memories from someone else's life should have been a clear tip-off, if nothing else.
"Brigadoon." Bwa!
OLIVIA: I mean, something of this magnitude -- a whole town? Perhaps it was a military experiment gone wrong, like that case we caught in Edina.
WALTER: Where's Edina?
OLIVIA: Uh, Upstate New York. Remember, the whole town's population was disfigured from the military experiment?
WALTER: We never had such a case.
PETER: I investigated a case in Edina with my Walter, and my Olivia.
-- Olivia remembering "Johari Window," which could have happened in this timeline, but apparently didn't (again, what the hell have they been doing for three years?)--and OH YEAH, this is Olivia getting back the previous timeline's memories, like many of us have been speculating all along. :D
Awesome. Zombified dude with doll. BE CREEPIER, EPISODE. OH WAIT. YOU CAN'T.
OLIVIA: No, I'm okay. It's just -- I'm just a little bit dizzy.
PETER: You need some water?
OLIVIA: No becau...(slurred) Oh, Peter, I don't know how to explain it, but that feels like there was somebody else in my, uh -- in my head.
-- Cortexiphan side effects. We've seen those before.
TERESA: You're the man from the government. You're here about our air quality. The air quality's bad here, isn't it?
-- Another Red'verse reference.
... and the doubled teeth. ewww.
PETER: He's a lot like my Walter, this one.
-- yeah, no kidding. :D
OLIVIA: What's she like?
PETER: Pardon me?
OLIVIA: The other Olivia. I'm just curious.
PETER: I don't know, she's, uh -- she's driven. She's very, very stubborn. She doesn't like to lose. But she sees the best in people, even when they don't see it themselves. When she first found me, I was in Baghdad trying to run a scam on these two Iranian businessmen.
OLIVIA: I didn't picture you as the scamming type.
PETER: That's what made me so good at it. Anyway, it was all supposed to be temporary. She told me I just had to babysit Walter while he was working on a case for the FBI, and then after it was done, I could leave, go back to my own life -- despite, of course, how gorgeous she is.
OLIVIA: Well, you've got good taste.
PETER: She gave me something that I hadn't had since -- really since my mom died. She gave me... a place to call home... a place I'd want to call home. Eventually, we even had our own thing.
OLIVIA: A thing?
PETER: Yeah, a thing. A routine, you know? On Friday nights, we'd get together. We'd watch cheesy horror films and order in from Damiano's.
-- I. just. So much sweetness here. Peter telling his Olivia why he loves his Olivia. :)
PETER: Walter, what you're saying is the two universes merged together somehow?
WALTER: Yeah, I'm afraid I am. Um... These two circles... represent the respective universes. And this overlap is the town. Now, for reasons that I am yet to deduce, our Westfield has merged with the Westfield from the alternate universe, trapping the three of us in the overlap.
-- FINALLY.
Ha! I wrote in a previous recap, Is Jones trying to...merge the two universes, maybe? I'm not usually this accurate with the predictions, so I'm savoring the moral victory. ;O
The eye of the hurricane theory makes no sense, but it's a cute solution anyway.
Tee hee, Peter and Walter brain sync. I've missed that.
WALTER: You're leaving? But I - I've made crepes -- breakfast for dinner. Second most important meal of the day.
--JUST LIKE OLD TIMES. mmm, crepes. Hungry now. Aww, Walter's face.
OLIVIA: Hey, come in.
PETER: Hey. I hope you don't mind. I was just in the neighborhood. Thought I'd stop by to see how you're feeling.
OLIVIA: No, why would I? I'm gonna pour you a drink.
PETER: What is that that smells so fantastic?
OLIVIA: What do you mean? It's Friday. I ordered Damiano's.
PETER: W-whoa. Olivia.
-- FIGURE IT OUT. YOU ARE HOME. :D
Most of all, I'm very, very pleased that my insistence throughout this season that Peter was in the right place has paid off; +1 for all the fic that had Olivia getting her memories back, including mine. ^_^
So, on the whole P/O thing....
Peter/Olivia, Lincoln Lee, and my fannish investment in this show
For (most of) three seasons, I had very little issue whatsoever with the Peter/Olivia relationship.
I liked the slow, realistic build of their relationship. I liked how he treated her. I liked that she grew to depend on him after a great betrayal, the way he started to lean on her after years of disassociation. I liked the way they were together, even if (or because?) their road was littered with speedbumps. Almost kiss? Olivia sees a glimmer. Peter finds about his origins and flees to the other side. Olivia follows, confesses her love, they finally--finally!--kiss...and then she's kidnapped and replaced by her double.
There's a lot of feeling in fandom that Peter should have recognized Liv-in-Olivia's clothing, and I agree; for the purposes of the viewing audience, Liv's mannerisms were all wrong, her reactions wildly telling. But in his shoes, yeah, I can see it. I accepted the explanation he gave for not realizing, and moreover, Peter won my respect by telling Olivia about Liv very quickly. If he'd delayed even a single episode, he would have lost me. But Peter accepted his fallibility, and more important, accepted Olivia's anger and her declaration that she didn't want to see him again. He didn't try to argue her out of her decision or her emotions and that, right there, is a huge thing for the state of male/female relationships on tv. I didn't have any problem, either, when she decided to forgive him. (I had more problem, frankly, with the whole Peter-on-a-shapeshifter-murder-spree being swept under the rug.)
And I did love the glimpse of their happy, domestic future in "The Day We Died."
The only thing I didn't care for about their relationship was the stink of fate that started to permeate it. I wasn't thrilled by the revelation that they'd met in Jacksonville as children--even though it fit the story beautifully, even though it made perfect sense in context. It also had a whiff of see, they met as kids and shared a Special Moment, they are meant to be. Nina's declaration that Peter had to choose between Olivias to decide the fate of the universe made me actively want to punch the tv.
So along comes season 4, and Peter is gone! And enter Lincoln Lee.
--actually, back up and rewind to season 3. It is no accident that I started writing Fringe fic during season 3, because Lincoln Lee. I loved everything about the show already, but Red!Lincoln was truly my gateway drug, the catalyst for breaking a five-year (!) fanfic writing block. As Kenzi says*, I luuuurve him.
I adore both Lincolns, Blue and Red, but it's the good captain who really trips my triggers. As it were. :D
(Re)introducing Blue!Lincoln into Fringe Division in season 4, and setting him up as a possible-potential-maybe? love interest for Olivia was like a big FUCK YOU to the fate train, and I was all ready to get on board. I wrote "fuck Peter Bishop, anyway" in someone's journal during early season 4, I was so giddy with the idea. I got really, really cavalier about Peter's role on the show, to the point where I almost didn't care if he never came back.
I'm looking back at my recaps and seeing that I wrote the same thing over and over: that it wasn't Peter himself I disliked, but the idea that "Peter is for Olivia and there is no other fate," which was clearly disproven. The diner scene in "Wallflower": when the set decorations include hearts over Lincoln's and Olivia's head, you know the show's teasing at that too.
But as the rest of the season went on, Peter came back and he and Olivia started very slowly to rediscover their connection to each other--even though Olivia didn't know him! even though Peter was convinced she wasn't HIS Olivia, and wasn't going to make that mistake again (and good on him for that, too)! The inevitability of the Peter/Olivia endgame started to show through. And-- yeah, I'm okay with it, I really am. I've liked Peter a lot since his return, his way of coping with Not His Universe and his determination to get back to his Olivia and his Walter and his life. The writers did an excellent job of reintroducing Peter and reminding me why he was important to the show and to Olivia, and to this universe.
It's actually a real source of solace that this season has so definitively proven that Olivia was just fine without Peter. They're about to find each other again, and now perhaps their relationship can feel like a choice instead of a destiny. I'm down with that.
(All this assuming they get together again, which--can't imagine otherwise, but this show has thrown curveballs before. It's certainly the showrunners' declared endgame, at least. We'll probably have at least one episode of Peter being all WTF!!111!! first, though.)
Do I feel sorry for Lincoln and his nipped-in-the-bud romance? Sure I do. I also appreciate the restraint shown by the writers, in that we never actually saw Lincoln and Olivia kiss, or on a real date, so that Olivia doesn't have to "choose" or break his heart in any real sense. Would I have liked to see Lincoln and Olivia get together? Hell yes. My Lincoln/Olivia tag on delicious is a testiment to my fanfic preferences. (Note also the threesomes there. IT IS THE ANSWER. ;D) Not a lot of pure P/O bookmarked, even when that was the predominant flavor of choice. And I fully expect fanfic to continue to cater to my preference in this arena. *eyes all of you* This is a show about alternate universes! All outcomes are possible.
And I certainly intend to keep exploring all those alternate outcomes. ^_^
* Watch Lost Girl! Because it is shameless and therefore awesome.
First scene: unhffff. Olivia's got a hell of a poker face, if she's been having these dreams all along. Sexay! Way to go, network tv. Choosing to believe this memory is post-"9B." But--have you noticed--this show is the worst for sex-interrupting phone calls. :p Also: blue filter for the Blue timeline.
*laughs* I like Walter's idea of a breakfast drink. I am on your side with the foodie experiments, Walter! Even if no one else is.
Walter, Olivia, and Peter joking in the lab again: just like old times. Not an accident.
As many others have noted: suuuuuuper X-Files-ish filming and atmosphere in this episode. It's also Stephen King book(s) and Silent Hill.
WALTER: For God's sake, woman, lower your decibels.
-- *giggle!* Walter out and about! Just like old times.
Good to see Walter's tapeworm continues unaffected by events.
WALTER: Your largest slice of rhubarb pie and coffee, please.
BIG WILLY: Alright. And for you?
PETER: Just the bathroom.
-- Noting it here so I don't forget: Walter's first words to Peter in the first episode were, "I thought you'd be fatter." I kind of have it in my head that Peter is always aware of his previously chunky state, in the back of his head. While he's not compulsive about his food choices, he's definitely aware of them.
Aaaaahhhhh! Creepy doubled irises!
+1 to Olivia's kill total. Someone's gotta be keeping a tally somewhere.
Okay, I was guessing "universe merge" pretty early on--Peter, at least, has seen this before ("Jacksonville," among other incidents). The guy talking about memories from someone else's life should have been a clear tip-off, if nothing else.
"Brigadoon." Bwa!
OLIVIA: I mean, something of this magnitude -- a whole town? Perhaps it was a military experiment gone wrong, like that case we caught in Edina.
WALTER: Where's Edina?
OLIVIA: Uh, Upstate New York. Remember, the whole town's population was disfigured from the military experiment?
WALTER: We never had such a case.
PETER: I investigated a case in Edina with my Walter, and my Olivia.
-- Olivia remembering "Johari Window," which could have happened in this timeline, but apparently didn't (again, what the hell have they been doing for three years?)--and OH YEAH, this is Olivia getting back the previous timeline's memories, like many of us have been speculating all along. :D
Awesome. Zombified dude with doll. BE CREEPIER, EPISODE. OH WAIT. YOU CAN'T.
OLIVIA: No, I'm okay. It's just -- I'm just a little bit dizzy.
PETER: You need some water?
OLIVIA: No becau...(slurred) Oh, Peter, I don't know how to explain it, but that feels like there was somebody else in my, uh -- in my head.
-- Cortexiphan side effects. We've seen those before.
TERESA: You're the man from the government. You're here about our air quality. The air quality's bad here, isn't it?
-- Another Red'verse reference.
... and the doubled teeth. ewww.
PETER: He's a lot like my Walter, this one.
-- yeah, no kidding. :D
OLIVIA: What's she like?
PETER: Pardon me?
OLIVIA: The other Olivia. I'm just curious.
PETER: I don't know, she's, uh -- she's driven. She's very, very stubborn. She doesn't like to lose. But she sees the best in people, even when they don't see it themselves. When she first found me, I was in Baghdad trying to run a scam on these two Iranian businessmen.
OLIVIA: I didn't picture you as the scamming type.
PETER: That's what made me so good at it. Anyway, it was all supposed to be temporary. She told me I just had to babysit Walter while he was working on a case for the FBI, and then after it was done, I could leave, go back to my own life -- despite, of course, how gorgeous she is.
OLIVIA: Well, you've got good taste.
PETER: She gave me something that I hadn't had since -- really since my mom died. She gave me... a place to call home... a place I'd want to call home. Eventually, we even had our own thing.
OLIVIA: A thing?
PETER: Yeah, a thing. A routine, you know? On Friday nights, we'd get together. We'd watch cheesy horror films and order in from Damiano's.
-- I. just. So much sweetness here. Peter telling his Olivia why he loves his Olivia. :)
PETER: Walter, what you're saying is the two universes merged together somehow?
WALTER: Yeah, I'm afraid I am. Um... These two circles... represent the respective universes. And this overlap is the town. Now, for reasons that I am yet to deduce, our Westfield has merged with the Westfield from the alternate universe, trapping the three of us in the overlap.
-- FINALLY.
Ha! I wrote in a previous recap, Is Jones trying to...merge the two universes, maybe? I'm not usually this accurate with the predictions, so I'm savoring the moral victory. ;O
The eye of the hurricane theory makes no sense, but it's a cute solution anyway.
Tee hee, Peter and Walter brain sync. I've missed that.
WALTER: You're leaving? But I - I've made crepes -- breakfast for dinner. Second most important meal of the day.
--JUST LIKE OLD TIMES. mmm, crepes. Hungry now. Aww, Walter's face.
OLIVIA: Hey, come in.
PETER: Hey. I hope you don't mind. I was just in the neighborhood. Thought I'd stop by to see how you're feeling.
OLIVIA: No, why would I? I'm gonna pour you a drink.
PETER: What is that that smells so fantastic?
OLIVIA: What do you mean? It's Friday. I ordered Damiano's.
PETER: W-whoa. Olivia.
-- FIGURE IT OUT. YOU ARE HOME. :D
Most of all, I'm very, very pleased that my insistence throughout this season that Peter was in the right place has paid off; +1 for all the fic that had Olivia getting her memories back, including mine. ^_^
So, on the whole P/O thing....
Peter/Olivia, Lincoln Lee, and my fannish investment in this show
For (most of) three seasons, I had very little issue whatsoever with the Peter/Olivia relationship.
I liked the slow, realistic build of their relationship. I liked how he treated her. I liked that she grew to depend on him after a great betrayal, the way he started to lean on her after years of disassociation. I liked the way they were together, even if (or because?) their road was littered with speedbumps. Almost kiss? Olivia sees a glimmer. Peter finds about his origins and flees to the other side. Olivia follows, confesses her love, they finally--finally!--kiss...and then she's kidnapped and replaced by her double.
There's a lot of feeling in fandom that Peter should have recognized Liv-in-Olivia's clothing, and I agree; for the purposes of the viewing audience, Liv's mannerisms were all wrong, her reactions wildly telling. But in his shoes, yeah, I can see it. I accepted the explanation he gave for not realizing, and moreover, Peter won my respect by telling Olivia about Liv very quickly. If he'd delayed even a single episode, he would have lost me. But Peter accepted his fallibility, and more important, accepted Olivia's anger and her declaration that she didn't want to see him again. He didn't try to argue her out of her decision or her emotions and that, right there, is a huge thing for the state of male/female relationships on tv. I didn't have any problem, either, when she decided to forgive him. (I had more problem, frankly, with the whole Peter-on-a-shapeshifter-murder-spree being swept under the rug.)
And I did love the glimpse of their happy, domestic future in "The Day We Died."
The only thing I didn't care for about their relationship was the stink of fate that started to permeate it. I wasn't thrilled by the revelation that they'd met in Jacksonville as children--even though it fit the story beautifully, even though it made perfect sense in context. It also had a whiff of see, they met as kids and shared a Special Moment, they are meant to be. Nina's declaration that Peter had to choose between Olivias to decide the fate of the universe made me actively want to punch the tv.
So along comes season 4, and Peter is gone! And enter Lincoln Lee.
--actually, back up and rewind to season 3. It is no accident that I started writing Fringe fic during season 3, because Lincoln Lee. I loved everything about the show already, but Red!Lincoln was truly my gateway drug, the catalyst for breaking a five-year (!) fanfic writing block. As Kenzi says*, I luuuurve him.
I adore both Lincolns, Blue and Red, but it's the good captain who really trips my triggers. As it were. :D
(Re)introducing Blue!Lincoln into Fringe Division in season 4, and setting him up as a possible-potential-maybe? love interest for Olivia was like a big FUCK YOU to the fate train, and I was all ready to get on board. I wrote "fuck Peter Bishop, anyway" in someone's journal during early season 4, I was so giddy with the idea. I got really, really cavalier about Peter's role on the show, to the point where I almost didn't care if he never came back.
I'm looking back at my recaps and seeing that I wrote the same thing over and over: that it wasn't Peter himself I disliked, but the idea that "Peter is for Olivia and there is no other fate," which was clearly disproven. The diner scene in "Wallflower": when the set decorations include hearts over Lincoln's and Olivia's head, you know the show's teasing at that too.
But as the rest of the season went on, Peter came back and he and Olivia started very slowly to rediscover their connection to each other--even though Olivia didn't know him! even though Peter was convinced she wasn't HIS Olivia, and wasn't going to make that mistake again (and good on him for that, too)! The inevitability of the Peter/Olivia endgame started to show through. And-- yeah, I'm okay with it, I really am. I've liked Peter a lot since his return, his way of coping with Not His Universe and his determination to get back to his Olivia and his Walter and his life. The writers did an excellent job of reintroducing Peter and reminding me why he was important to the show and to Olivia, and to this universe.
It's actually a real source of solace that this season has so definitively proven that Olivia was just fine without Peter. They're about to find each other again, and now perhaps their relationship can feel like a choice instead of a destiny. I'm down with that.
(All this assuming they get together again, which--can't imagine otherwise, but this show has thrown curveballs before. It's certainly the showrunners' declared endgame, at least. We'll probably have at least one episode of Peter being all WTF!!111!! first, though.)
Do I feel sorry for Lincoln and his nipped-in-the-bud romance? Sure I do. I also appreciate the restraint shown by the writers, in that we never actually saw Lincoln and Olivia kiss, or on a real date, so that Olivia doesn't have to "choose" or break his heart in any real sense. Would I have liked to see Lincoln and Olivia get together? Hell yes. My Lincoln/Olivia tag on delicious is a testiment to my fanfic preferences. (Note also the threesomes there. IT IS THE ANSWER. ;D) Not a lot of pure P/O bookmarked, even when that was the predominant flavor of choice. And I fully expect fanfic to continue to cater to my preference in this arena. *eyes all of you* This is a show about alternate universes! All outcomes are possible.
And I certainly intend to keep exploring all those alternate outcomes. ^_^
* Watch Lost Girl! Because it is shameless and therefore awesome.
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no subject
Date: 2012-02-13 12:41 am (UTC)I suspect next week if Lee's back, I'll be muttering about there not being enough Walter time instead.
Fantastic episode, loved the interaction between all three of them.
no subject
Date: 2012-02-13 07:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-16 12:15 am (UTC)♥
no subject
Date: 2012-02-13 03:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-13 07:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-13 03:03 pm (UTC)I used to do this, but I lost track somewhere. I should go back and get the list caught up.
no subject
Date: 2012-02-13 07:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-13 04:15 pm (UTC)I'm not saying you're wrong but there are two points I want to bring up:
1. How can Peter be "home" in a timeline where he drowned in a lake? It's clearly a different timeline.
2. It doesn't strike you as disturbing for Olivia to be having memories and dreams about a life she knows she didn't live? If that happened to me or to anyone I know, it would be seen as, well, crazy. I know this is Fringe, but it still seems unbelievable to me that she would buy into this scenario, or that anyone else would either, including Peter. Plus, if the endgame is for the two universes to literally merge, most of the people in both universes will die horrifically, if what happened in Westfield is the norm.
Also if she does somehow take on all of the memories of the Olivia from the Blueverse, doesn't that change this Olivia so much that it would feel to her like she was dying? I've not allowed myself to get very attached to anyone in this timeline (I've been burned by this show too many times now to fall for that) but that still doesn't sound good to me. It sounds horrible.
Okay, that was three points.
no subject
Date: 2012-02-13 07:18 pm (UTC)2. It is crazy! But on a Fringe scale of things...maybe less so. And it's Olivia, she can cope with anything. It'll be disturbing, sure--I'm very curious to see how the show will handle that aspect. And it's not like she's having the crazy by herself, with Peter to corroborate her memories. (...and there's another reason why they'll end up together, if they're the only two to remember the previous timeline.) I don't think the endgame is to merge the two universes--or, well, that's Jones' endame, maybe, with Westfield as a test case and he's still perfecting the process? But it's clearly a negative outcome.
3. Depends, I guess, on how much she internalizes those memories. She could remember the events but not feel them as strongly as her own memories--kind of like when she was still living Liv's life in season 3 but had regained her own sense of self.
I think ultimately, I have to believe that nothing we've seen on screen was "wasted." Everything that happened during the first three seasons still happened, and is relevant--certainly to Peter, now probably to Olivia. But season 4's timeline is equally valid.
no subject
Date: 2012-02-16 12:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-16 12:15 am (UTC)*laugh* No, I really don't think so. I think I mentioned this over at...God, can't find it now; been pouncing from review to review. But basically: I placed the start of the sex dreams at or after 4x10; that's when her behaviour toward Peter shifts.
Sexay! Way to go, network tv. Choosing to believe this memory is post-"9B."
That makes sense, if it's a memory. Could also be a ripple, though -- remember, big events able to throw their shadows forward? The writers are big enough 'shippers to make this a future scene for the two of them...
Also: blue filter for the Blue timeline.
You don't say. *g*
Good to see Walter's tapeworm continues unaffected by events.
Walter is SO me. It's awesome.
-- Noting it here so I don't forget: Walter's first words to Peter in the first episode were, "I thought you'd be fatter." I kind of have it in my head that Peter is always aware of his previously chunky state, in the back of his head. While he's not compulsive about his food choices, he's definitely aware of them.
Ohh, lovely little detail that makes sense. He's definitely not a thoughtless or random eater.
+1 to Olivia's kill total. Someone's gotta be keeping a tally somewhere.
Jesus Christ, no kidding. This season is so far Olivia/her!gun OTP rather than O/L or O/P.
Okay, I was guessing "universe merge" pretty early on--Peter, at least, has seen this before ("Jacksonville," among other incidents). The guy talking about memories from someone else's life should have been a clear tip-off, if nothing else.
Everybody has been saying that -- that Peter is oddly slow, here. I'm chalking it up to the usual Peter problem I for one identified in an earlier long review: that he is my be the brightest boy in the room, but he tends to see the world as he wants it to be. And he's turned the homing beacon on, so to speak...
WALTER: We never had such a case.
PETER: I investigated a case in Edina with my Walter, and my Olivia.
-- Olivia remembering "Johari Window," which could have happened in this timeline, but apparently didn't (again, what the hell have they been doing for three years?)--and OH YEAH, this is Olivia getting back the previous timeline's memories, like many of us have been speculating all along. :D
We rock!
Also, ahahah. Way to go self, to pick a case that was jossed in the Amberverse immediately...
TERESA: You're the man from the government. You're here about our air quality. The air quality's bad here, isn't it?
-- Another Red'verse reference.
So awesome.
PETER: He's a lot like my Walter, this one.
-- yeah, no kidding. :D
Dude. Like, WAKE UP AND SMELL THE BUNSEN BURNER!
OLIVIA: I didn't picture you as the scamming type.
PETER: That's what made me so good at it.
I loved this exchange like CHRISTMAS, 'RITH. PLEASE SOMEONE RIFF ON IT!
Ha! I wrote in a previous recap, Is Jones trying to...merge the two universes, maybe? I'm not usually this accurate with the predictions, so I'm savoring the moral victory. ;O
Well done, you.
PETER: W-whoa. Olivia.
-- FIGURE IT OUT. YOU ARE HOME. :D
:D
I nodded along at your P/O musings. The way the writers handled Peter's story (if not so much the overall arc) in the later half of Season Three really irked me, pushing him into a position that I felt did not work within the dynamics of Fringe as established. But you know that.
The only thing I didn't care for about their relationship was the stink of fate that started to permeate it.
Same here.
I wasn't thrilled by the revelation that they'd met in Jacksonville as children--even though it fit the story beautifully, even though it made perfect sense in context.
It didn't break the narrative, I felt, but I didn't like it anyway.
--actually, back up and rewind to season 3. It is no accident that I started writing Fringe fic during season 3, because Lincoln Lee. I loved everything about the show already, but Red!Lincoln was truly my gateway drug, the catalyst for breaking a five-year (!) fanfic writing block. As Kenzi says*, I luuuurve him.
I loved Olivia before anybody else, truly madly deeply, but very obviously Lincoln Lee really gets me going too -- the Blue version. *g*
(Re)introducing Blue!Lincoln into Fringe Division in season 4, and setting him up as a possible-potential-maybe? love interest for Olivia was like a big FUCK YOU to the fate train, and I was all ready to get on board. I wrote "fuck Peter Bishop, anyway" in someone's journal during early season 4, I was so giddy with the idea. I got really, really cavalier about Peter's role on the show, to the point where I almost didn't care if he never came back.
*nod*
I'm looking back at my recaps and seeing that I wrote the same thing over and over: that it wasn't Peter himself I disliked, but the idea that "Peter is for Olivia and there is no other fate," which was clearly disproven. The diner scene in "Wallflower": when the set decorations include hearts over Lincoln's and Olivia's head, you know the show's teasing at that too.
That heart up there in the diner? Broke mine. Talk about writing on the wall...
It's actually a real source of solace that this season has so definitively proven that Olivia was just fine without Peter. They're about to find each other again, and now perhaps their relationship can feel like a choice instead of a destiny. I'm down with that.
One angle to look at it, I guess.
Do I feel sorry for Lincoln and his nipped-in-the-bud romance? Sure I do.
*sniffle*
I also appreciate the restraint shown by the writers, in that we never actually saw Lincoln and Olivia kiss, or on a real date, so that Olivia doesn't have to "choose" or break his heart in any real sense. Would I have liked to see Lincoln and Olivia get together? Hell yes. My Lincoln/Olivia tag on delicious is a testiment to my fanfic preferences. (Note also the threesomes there. IT IS THE ANSWER. ;D)
Sealed, sold, and delivered to my doorstep with a red bow! Or perhaps a blue one. With an amber cord.
Not a lot of pure P/O bookmarked, even when that was the predominant flavor of choice. And I fully expect fanfic to continue to cater to my preference in this arena. *eyes all of you* This is a show about alternate universes! All outcomes are possible. And I certainly intend to keep exploring all those alternate outcomes. ^_^
Right there with you. *shoulder-bump*
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Date: 2012-02-16 02:16 pm (UTC)--and it's a very blue-sky hope for me, more than anything right now. But I'm hoping that's the way it goes.
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Date: 2012-02-16 05:41 pm (UTC)I am totally taking it as a sign of how in tune the showrunners and I are! ;) I'm already clapping myself on the back for also having Liv state she likes the nice boys.
Yeah.
Man, I want to write fixit!threesome!fic so badly at the moment. Even have a bunny. Hmm. Maybe after sports and cleaning this dump...
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Date: 2012-02-16 09:03 pm (UTC)APPROVED. This is, of course, my favorite s4 solution.
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Date: 2012-02-16 10:18 pm (UTC)...maybe after my shower. Rest of my place actually is looking halfway decent again. Was doing pretty badly yesterday and today during the day (but sports helped, and cleaning, and consuming both bananas and high-quality cocoa in one yummy shake).
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Date: 2012-02-12 09:38 pm (UTC)That was definitely my journal. <3
But I agree with like everything you've written here. The only thing I don't want to see from the writers is a Red! or Blue!Lincoln death before the end of the series. D: I will CRY MY EYES OUT. ALL THE TEARS for that boy. T_T
Don't do it, writers.
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Date: 2012-02-12 09:44 pm (UTC)...oh god don't, don't even, I cannot cope with the possibility. I will lose what is left of my tiny mind.
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Date: 2012-02-13 03:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-13 06:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-20 10:08 am (UTC)Question. Does anyone else have this feeling that people who like Lincoln can't buy the "this is Peter's Olivia" scenario or is it just me?
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Date: 2012-02-20 02:02 pm (UTC)Well, sure, no one wants to see their ships get torpedoed by canon. (heh.) But I was going to write in the recap for "Better Human Being," when I get to it: she's definitely Peter's Olivia, because the writers wouldn't pull the same trick twice, and the "I can see it's you in your eyes" is a direct callback to "LSD."
I'm perfectly happy to multi-ship everyone, but I do feel your pain. *pats*
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Date: 2012-02-20 10:51 pm (UTC)Anyway, there must be something really wrong with me, because even though I know that I should start getting invested into the whole "our characters are coming back soon" thing, I still feel so alienated. And it just feels wrong to put our Olivia into some other Olivia's head, because I know our Olivia and I love her. I can't see her in this Olivia and it's killing me D:
This situation also made me start writing a fic in which Lincoln moves to the altverse to learn the craft of being a Fringe Division agent from the best aka Mr. Captain and Ms. Red xD
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Date: 2012-02-21 02:22 pm (UTC)Fic is an excellent remedy, and I like that plot bunny a lot!