Fringe: “Welcome to Westfield” Where More Than Worlds Collide!

Hi Fringies!!

It has been a while since I dropped an opinion. Now is as good as time as any!

The opening sequence is enough to get everyone’s blood pumping as to what will surely be an Fringetastic show! We all have a host of questions as to what Fringe is going to bring us next and I’m sure our questions are not going to be answered over night, but frankly, where is the fun in that if they were?

Before continuing my analysis and review, included below are two extended promotional trailers for this Friday’s new Fringe episode “A Better Human Being” courtesy of FOX Broadcasting for your enjoyment.

Welcome To Westfield:

Let’s get this party started…….. and in bed is always a good place to start a party.

Olivia’s (Anna Torv) mind has much more intriguing images running around in her head and are a lot more exciting and erotic than mine, for sure!! LOL The opening sequence unfolds as Olivia is dreaming about her and Peter (Joshua Jackson) making love. This is a definitely a LOT spicier than what I was expecting!

I loved how the blue colour is surrounding them and putting a ‘Prime Universe’ feel to the scene. Fringe fans believe that blue being the prime universe colour is a good way to get a feel that this dream is a link to the original time line.

It is too bad she wakes up from her dream. Who wants to be awakened up from a nice dream like that…..? I certainly would not mind! *smirk*

Olivia sure seems unsettled from this dream, and perhaps she could use a visit from Sigmund Freud? I laughed when Peter asked her if he woke her and she had that ‘look’ like she had just been busted. Naughty, Naughty, Olivia!

Peter called to see if she could give them a hand with something as they had been working on the machine to get Peter out of OZ  for the last twenty four hours. Hopefully they have a break through.

Walter Bishop (John Noble) and Peter are cozied up behind Walter’s chemistry set as Olivia enters the Lab at Harvard. Walter is up to his ‘old’ tricks of concocting something of interest.

I say old tricks, because they remind me of how they interacted before every thing got out of whack with timelines. It had a ‘old times’ feel to it, and my heart just swelled with a Fringe feeling of HOME.

The two men together taking a break and doing something other than what they are working on, screams ‘geek break’ to me. Gotta love it! Walter pours out a cocktail drink for every one to try and he explains the significance of the morning cock-tail. A cocktail for breakfast is a great way to great the dawn in my books.

Olivia raises her eye brow at that concoction as Walter crows out a salute to a rooster’s good morning! I would drink a hot cinnamon roll, especially if it had butter! Yummy! MMMmmmm 

Peter asks Olivia what’s wrong and she looks embarrassed but quickly confesses to being ‘just tired’ and switches the subject to the reason why she is here. 

Walter and Peter are proud to show her what they were working on, a bio-mechanical device that will enable Peter to control the machine with his thoughts. I must say, those boys have been busy making a cool  toy.

The two gentlemen need Olivia to authorize Agent Philip Broyles (Lance Reddick) to let them test the bio-mechanical device on “The Machine”.

So hopefully this will be Peter’s ‘clicking of his heels’ which is a reference to The Wizard of Oz) to help get him back to his own timeline reality.

Meanwhile, there is a trucker in a semi rolling along singing away to his music playing an apropos song, “I Have Crazy Dreams” by Conway Twitty.

The electronics of his truck starts going hay wire & he stalls out behind a few other vehicles that also seem to have suffered the same malady.  As he joins the other people on the highway, a bright light fills the night sky and an airplane comes in to view as it makes it decent into a crash lnding with a fiery explosion.

What the heck is going on?

During the commercial break I start to think about the three together in the lab marveling over Walter’s propensity to make his wild treats. It was my click. It made me go to a place in my mind that maybe these dreams of Olivia’s are not dreams but memories?  That the falling into a routine of being together and sharing a laugh and a fun task, is not just a coincidence so much as a natural order of things?

Broyles, Olivia and Astrid Farnsworth (Jasika Nicole) are on site in Vermont of the Fringe event and Broyles is debriefing them as to what has occurred. The Atlantic Flight 591 experienced an hydraulic and electrical system failure.

The strange part is that the vehicles on the stretch of highway also experienced electrical and had items suspended in mid air. Astrid is trying to contact Walter on her communication device and is having no luck. But that could be because Walter and Peter are walking up behind her with little smirk’s on their faces.

A funny bit of Walter humour always makes me chuckle. He tells Astrid to ‘For God sakes woman, lower your decibels’ as she shouts into the communication device in hopes of talking to Walter. The look on Astrid’s face was hilarious because Walter showed up in person at a scene.

I guess it was a nice day for a drive for Walter because he gets right to work and starts kicking and pulling off a hub cap where he tosses it towards a truck. It sticks to the door of the truck showing that it is magnetized. But as to what caused the spike in electromagnetic force in the first place, remains a mystery.

Obviously some tests and samples will be required to figure that out. Broyles and Astrid take off to investigate the plane wreck while Walter draws Olivia and Peter into a private conversation to relay some highly critical information. Walter had seen a place down the road that served delicious homemade Rhubarb pie.

I certainly have missed the Walterisms that pop up an make us chuckle and make Peter and Olivia smile.  Walter has been too serious by far for me in this timeline and that he is opening up and becoming more like the Walter we know and love is tickling my funny bone.

Earlier Broyles had mentioned that Walter might want to escape his cage, but Olivia pointed out to Philip that Walter has indeed been, becoming more open and starting to loosen up. Walter has a great idea and I would like some rhubarb pie as well.

As Olivia, Peter and Walter drive into a town called Westfield, Walter is positively giddy with the idea of having his rhubarb pie, but Olivia is annoyed the she cannot get a cell signal to call Astrid. Olivia might have to get their pie to go if she cannot get a hold of Astrid.

Olivia goes to use the pay phone on the corner while Walter and Peter go to get the ‘Best Rhubarb Pie in Westfield”.  Peter and Walter are warmly welcomed by the man behind the counter.

Walter, with his biggest smile, places an order for the biggest slice of pie. The man behind the counter is chatty and asks Walter questions while Peter goes to use the facilities.

When the restaurant owner (Kevin J. Andruschak) asks Walter if they are lost because Walter had no idea where he was. The guy is confused as to how someone drives from Boston to Vermont and no idea where he is.

Walter replies with his sweet honesty, that he is not allowed to drive and he has not renewed his license since he got out of the mental institution. I laughed as Walter said it. Walter can make me laugh like no one’s business.

After all the pleasantries with the owner it starts getting a little weird. Olivia is walking down the street and sees a car running with the drivers door open and no driver and when she tries the pay phone she cannot get service from it. This leaves her with a vexed look upon her face.

Peter is on his way back from the bathroom and hears groaning coming from the back room. Walter is enjoying his coffee and waiting for his pie when the chatty man gets weird too.

He acts like he has never seen Walter before, leaving Walter puzzled and frankly a little disturbed as to how the man could have forgotten that he offered him free pie.

The guy then realizes he forgot the pie and goes to get it with a smile on his face, just after snapping Walter’s head off about stealing food. This guy obviously has “alternate reality” issues and his eyes look very weird. In fact his eyes look crazy!

Things are about to get wild and abnormal. Peter opens the storage room and finds a man laying bleeding on the floor, whom he rushes to help and Walter is finally getting his pie from Mr. Dual personality. Walter should have held the thank you for later as the man grabs a knife, flies over the counter an starts a slash and hack festival all up in Walter’s face.

Walter shouts for Peter and Peter jumps into the fray. The guy lands a boot to Peter’s chest and knocks Peter through a restaurant table. As Peter tries to get his footing the ‘crazy eyes’ dude poises his knife to strike Peter and Olivia walks in to fire her weapon and shoots the man dead.

Peter pushes the man off of him and assures Walter and Olivia that he is fine but the guy in the storage room is not. Walter assesses the man and they need to get him to a hospital. Olivia surmises even with the body behind the counter that the ‘crazy eyes’ guy was not a serial killer, cause she feels there is something “off” about the whole town. 

Next we see Peter and Olivia with Walter in the back seat with the injured man making a rush for the nearest hospital. I think they are all a little relieved to be leaving Westfield. Walter is questioning the hurt man and he is mumbling about not being able to leave. Another character named Cliff Hayes (Tim Kelleher) says the injured man is correct.

They discover they have been passing the sign that say ‘Now Leaving Westfield’ and ‘Welcome to Westfield’ more than once. They didn’t get turned around but something is seriously off. Now is the time to panic with all of them trapped in Westfield.

The Fringe team arrives at the Sheriffs station and are trying to form a hypothesis. It helps that Cliff is feeling better with a blood transfusion from Walter, who has “O Negative” blood and can give him the help he needs. They rule out a virus that is causing the people to go completely schizophrenic over night , and it would not explain the inability to leave the town. 

So what is this situation? What is going on and how do they figure this out? Walter is baffled and listens to Cliff tell about the rest of the symptoms that are affecting the people.

Cliff and his family with some of the other unaffected people are holed up at the high school in town and they are in much need of supplies and HOPE. Peter and Olivia must get a hold of Broyles and Astrid to get some help. Peter is thinking with the radios he found he can jury rig something to get a signal out.

First thing’s first! They need weapons if the town has gone psychotic. Olivia has a theory that it might be a military experiment gone wrong like the time they investigated an incident in Adina, but she is remembering something that never happened to her. Walter was confused as they had never been there but Peter said that ‘His’ Olivia and Walter had been at that investigation.

What is going on in Olivia’s mind? Is she falling prey to the town’s people’s symptoms or is it something sinister from Nina’s drugs that she has been feeding her. First the dream and now this? Olivia brushed it off as that she read it off in Peter’s de-brief.

Olivia begins to get ready to leave the sheriff’s office and Walter informs Peter that he is not a violent man but he needs something to protect himself as well. Peter gives a bit of a sigh and hands Walter pepper spray instead of that nice assault rifle he was eyeing and made sure he knew which way to point it. Lol

I do not think I would want Walter to have a weapon of any kind, but hey..that is just me. Olivia is giving her own instructions on how to use weapons to Cliff, who happens to be a teacher and doesn’t know how to use one. They are ready to go and they are packing!!

Good thing they are. A man (Paul Duchart) walking like a zombie comes out from behind a building and is humming and holding a bloody doll. That was super creepy and Peter and crew were freaked out. The guy just strolled on by which was a good thing.

The car would not start and they needed to get going. They certainly did not need an altercation to slow them down.

On the way to the high school Olivia starts experiencing her glock arm shaking and some dizziness. Is this something we should all be worried about? Is Olivia fading from the realities?

Olivia thinks it is something to worry about. From the look on her face, we know she is actually scared. Olivia hands Peter her weapon and is freaked out by the sensation of feeling like there was someone else in her head. John Scott (Mark Valley) was in her head in season one, I wonder if it felt like that?

As they arrive at the school a man named Brian (Sean O. Roberts) lets them in through the barricaded door. Cliff is reunited with his family but finds out a lady named Theresa (Tracy Waterhouse) has fallen into the strange an inexplicable schizophrenic state that the other towns people had experienced. That brings the number of people unaffected to be a very small number.

Brian is agitated that the FBI has sent only three people, but Olivia took charge and reassured him. Walter was ready to get down to work and find out what is going on with the people and Peter wanted to make sure that Olivia was okay. Peter told Olivia that Walter had to be told that she was experiencing strange symptoms as well.

I must admit I was more than a little worried about Olivia especially after Walter took Theresa to the Biology lab to examine her and take blood samples. Theresa had two rows of teeth and right away Jacksonville (season two, episode) popped into my head. The guy had one body but there were two men. Is that what we are seeing here, a merging of Universes? Walter thinks it might be a rapid mitosis and causing the cells to duplicate, duplicating body parts.

Theresa is remembering things from years past and seems to be stuck in a memory loop. Her prognosis does not look good and neither does there chance of getting out of here based on Peter’s inability to get a signal from too much magnetic electrical interference, even with the school’s generator. Peter becomes concerned with Olivia’s symptoms and wants Walter to examine her as well. I do too! What if she grows some extra body parts? I am sure the male fans would not mind but still.. scary stuff.

Walter starts to examine Olivia an he is convinced it is just Olivia’s ability to empathize with others that is causing her to have psychosomatic symptoms. I think Walter is just trying to comfort himself at the same time. But he is a lot more open and comforting than what he was before Peter came.

Olivia had noticed Walter’s changes and she noted them now and she wanted to know what Peter’s Olivia was like. Peter was willing to tell her and Peter’s tone changed to a softer, happier tone and he described Olivia to a ‘T”.

While Walter was reminiscing about his Olivia and her ability to see the best in people even when they could not see then themselves he recounted a funny story as to how Olivia and him first came to be together.

Olivia gave him a place to call home and their relationship evolved to have special moments that were only theirs to share. ‘A thing’ they would watch cheesy horror movies and order in from Damianos.

For me it was nice to see Peter and Olivia sharing a conversation about what Peter’s life was like. However it was short lived as a scream was heard form down the hall. Theresa had killed herself. I guess the trauma within her mind finally consumed her. I found that to be so sad…

Cliff was worried that the other people would befall the same fate as Theresa and the rest of the town’s people.

Cliff wished he would have taken the job in Philadelphia last year instead of staying here but Olivia reassured him that he was the reason the people here had made it this far. She was sure that all they had to do was figure out how to get out of Westfield.

Cliff and Olivia’s conversation is interrupted with Walter’s voice over the P.A. System announcing for Peter and Olivia to report to the Biology lab. Seriously, I wonder how much fun Walter had doing that? I bet he was thrilled. Lol

As Peter and Olivia arrive at the Biology lab. Walter is excited to announce that he found 92 chromosomes in the woman’s blood. He regaled them with a story of when he and Belly had conducted an experiment of combining a tiny portion of their Universe with the other Universe in a gold fish bowl.

The results were catastrophic, not only to the fish but the results were a terrible affect on gravity and created  electromagnetic fields. Walter believes that is what is happening to Westfield and Peter concluded that the dopplegangers from the alternate universe were combining with the town’s people here.

Walter declared that unfortunately the merge can not be undone and Olivia was beside herself with worry, fretting for herself. Peter asked Walter about Olivia and of course in Walter’s excitement he forgot to mention that Olivia was perfectly safe and her blood was fine. Um… Yes, Walter failed to mention that crucial point of information. He looks so innocent when he blink/winks and tells Olivia that she is perfectly fine. How could anyone one not love Walter?

So, now they have a valid hypothesis but how did this happen? It does not occur naturally so amphilicite has to be the catalyst to this event and more than likely David Robert Jones is the culprit. But why?

What does he hope to gain by destroying a town  creating such havoc and destruction? Right now those questions can be answered later as the problems they were experiencing were only phase one and phase two is about to begin.

Cliff enters the Biology lab to call them to the roof to see something strange. As they look out on the town they see and feel the destruction and disappearance of some buildings.

Walter announces that occurs in phase two of the phenomena. Walter and Olivia are in the school gym discussing the situation. The fundamental forces of physics are colliding and two things can not occupy the same space at the same time.

Walter becomes distraught that there is nothing he can do to save them and the people that are in the gym with them. Olivia hurries to Peter’s side, telling him that he can help Walter and they are good together and that together Walter responds to him. In just a few moments together Walter gets an epiphany from Peter’s clever comment about the off set of forces. It is possible to get to the eye of the storm, where the opposite forces meet and cancel each other out.

As Peter and Walter rush to determine the epicenter of the universes merging, they are hopeful that getting there they will be safe from the destruction. I love it when they work together with such passion, they are in-sync. They both said Cypress and Quinby at the same time. Great minds do think alike!! 

Olivia organizes transportation and Brian gets a school bus to get them all safely to the determined safe location. They are racing against the impending cataclysmic destruction and when they get on the bus,

Walter reassures Cliff’s daughter, Lacey in front of him that they will be okay and she starts screaming. A man at the back of the bus has partially absorbed parts of his doppelganger self and attacks Peter.

I felt this was pretty cool because Walter gets to use his pepper spray in the man’s face and then Olivia shoots the enraged man. Talk about a team effort! I missed this. The Team together solving the problem and saving the day.

But this day is not saved yet. They get almost to the Cypress and Quinby and they have to hoof it, as there is debris falling and littering their way from the earthquake like tremors.. 

They finally reach their safe place by making a run for it and Walter just stands there, grinning like a village idiot in front of the bike shop amazed that Peter was right and this was indeed the “Eye of the Storm”. Peter grabbed Walter by the scruff of the neck and hauled him unceremoniously into the shelter.

As the dust settles the rest of the town is obliterated but the people and the Fringe Team are safe. Now that the phenomenon is over Olivia is able to get Broyles and the FBI out to investigate the area. Broyles’s search team scanned the area. They found no other survivors but they did find evidence of several unusual devices and amphilicite. Olivia sees the handy work of David Robert Jones all over this and I agree. She questions as to what he hopes to gain by doing this to a innocent town. But there are no answers.

In season one, David Robert Jones’s agenda was to show William Bell, {aka Belly} he was worthy of Belly’s regard. This time around his agenda is a complete a mystery to me. All I know is this guy is evil and he has got some serious plans that are very scary. This time he destroyed a town and killed 574 ,give or take, what’s next?

At least Cliff’s family is okay and Olivia lets Cliff know the FBI will take care of a home for him and his family but of course he cannot tell him what happened even if she knew. Cliff said that “We have each other and no matter what happens we will face it together”. 

I think the same could be applied to Peter and Olivia. It does not matter what comes but if they can face it together, could it make all the difference? I think so.

Walter is home in his lab cooking up crepes on his bunsen burner as Peter walks by to leave. Walter is hoping Peter will join him. Walter has come so far from treating Peter like the ‘subject’ he examined when he first fell into Reidin Lake.

Walter’s eyes and face spoke volumes when Peter mentioned getting authorization from Broyles to test the machine. Walter doesn’t want Peter to leave, because I think he realizes he loves him.  Peter leaves and ends up at Olivia’s place. Just before he gets there Olivia is in the bedroom and looks almost serene when doing her hair up in the mirror, like she is getting ready for a date.

When Peter arrives he is curious about Olivia’s warm greeting and is astounded by her ordering from Damianos but not half as surprised as the openly intimate kiss she bestows on him. Peter is in confusion heaven. The collective gasps and swirling surprises exploded on twitter as this kiss was felt through out the Fringe Fandom.

I love the chuckle Anna Torv had when she said the line ‘What do you mean, its Friday. I ordered Damianos… It was a perfect ending to an episode that gave us that subtle feeling of hope through out the whole episode. The feeling of familiarity of a family reunited was the feeling I felt and the also the humour that I enjoy.

Fringe Theory:

I have this theory that Peter is IN his timeline, just that the memory of him had been erased as September said it was supposed to be.  If this is truly what is happening and Olivia is remembering Peter and their past in detail, what does this mean for September’s fate?

Even more so, what does this mean for the team? I know what it means for me. More Walterism’s & a wild ride through the Universes all of which I’m always wanting to see on my Fringe Friday. I’m a little hungry now. I think I’ll order something myself. I wonder if I could get a Joshua Jackson kiss as a side order…?

Do not forget to catch the next episode of Fringe “A Better Human Being” this Friday by watching LIVE at FOX Broadcasting!

Thanks to Kenn for staging the images in my review and as always I appreciate your reading my reviews and visiting me at WormholeRiders News Agency. Please feel free to leave a spam free comment or a question here. I will respond to your comment or question as soon as is possible.

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Thank you,

SheppardsHoney (Melinda)