Fringe: “Subject 9” – Shocking Materialization’s in the Timeline!

Welcome back Fringe fans!

This weeks episode of Fringe, “Subject 9” was an awesome way to start the weekend off. We have all been wondering “Where is Peter Bishop”?

I can tell you the first few episodes for me was lonely because Peter Bishop (Joshua Jackson) was not in them except for a few brief appearances trying to get Walter Bishop’s (John Noble) attention. I am a huge Joshua Jackson fan! Ever since watching him on Dawson’s Creek years ago I have been a fan.

We begin with the question who exactly is “Subject 9”? Could it be…?

In last week’s episode “Alone in the World”, Walter thought he was going crazy hearing this man call for him every time it was quiet or he laid down to sleep. At one point Walter was actually going to preform a lobotomy on himself just because he thought he was going crazy again.

Little did Walter know that Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv), was having visions and hearing Peter herself! As all viewers have realized, in this parallel, altered timeline world Peter has been erased. All will recall that Peter actually did die as a young boy in the “reality”. This “fact” is why Olivia nor anyone else recognizes him, including Walter who has no idea what his grown up son Peter looks like.

A note that this analysis is a team effort with support from Angel and Kenn. Before continuing, we include a video special about the return of Peter Bishop courtesy of FOX Broadcasting we are certain you will enjoy!

Subject 9:

Our episode opened with Olivia being awakened by a blue energy at the foot of her bed that seems to be drawing in all of the metal objects in the room. Of course she is afraid so reaches for her gun. After seconds it has disappeared just as fast as it had came. It looks like the beginning of a wormhole or ‘portal’ but it is a large collective of raw energy! Oddly, the apparition itself does not wake Olivia, but her alarm does as if in a dream. Then, as she jumps out of bed, the energy disappears and the alarm ‘Really’ goes off.

Olivia went to the lab to talk to Walter about what she had seen when she saw him doing experiments with taking pictures from several cameras after throwing peanuts into the air. Walter believed that the person that had been haunting him may be out of phase with their reality so video taping him will not work.

Going off of the sketch he made of the person he hoped that his 28 cameras could catch him. Astrid Farnsworth (Jasika Nicole) was trying to keep up with Walter’s demands as he continued this work. Walter chose twenty eight cameras instead of a single video camera, because of the likelihood the apparition was out of phase with this reality.

Olivia told Walter about the energy and showed Walter a nasty welt on her arm. Walter sent Olivia to get a scraping for DNA-if any, and as she was getting this done, he found an evaluation letter from the psychiatrist about Walter’s ability to work.

 

In Olivia’s apartment, Walter was watching them from his lab. Walter heard a static sound and Astrid heard Olivia yelling for her. The energy was in Olivia’s bathroom and again drawing metal objects to it. Anyone noticing the time bend as well here? It seemed to cause a time effect.

Walter then remembered 25 years ago and the experiments he carried out on children. One kid was noteworthy as he got into Astral travel. Walter felt the energy was coming from one of the other kids and it was reaching out to her because Olivia was always the strongest. The “Favorite” Walter called him “Subject 9”.

 

Next, in the Massive Dynamics building, Nina Sharp (Blair Brown) was addressing the board of directors about nanotechnology. She finished her address with “We create the technology. How it is used is not our concern. We just own the patents”. When she saw Olivia with Astrid she left to talk to them. As they walked down the hallway, Nina told them “the Cortexifan Files have been sealed for 20 years. I’m not even sure if all of them still exist.”

Astrid had Walter on a cell phone so he could hear the conversation. “We never destroyed files!” He exclaimed finishing with “Maybe SHE did, Viper!”. Through the communication, Nina gave Walter a suggestion to try to find the group the subject was in. Astrid cleaned up the actual message Walter said, and Walter knew it. Nina said “Walter has said many things to me over the years, but thank you was never one of them.”

Walter and William Bell’s (Leonard Nimoy) experiments were based on their belief that children had a greater extrasensory ability. Something that they would grow out of. Astrid was subdued as she concluded “So, they experimented on kids?” Olivia said “Yeah” softly. As Walter watched and listened to Olivia and Astrid, he sat back in his lab, looking a bit shaken. Astrid asked what happened to the program, and Olivia told her “I left. I ran away. And Walter said he and Bell shut it down a few years after that.”

Olivia found ‘Subject 9’ in the old database: “His name’s Cameron James (Chadwick Boseman)…” She says as they both look at a smiling little boys’ face with his details.

Olivia and Astrid returned to the lab to see Walter was packed and ready to go. Bear in mind, Walter had not left the lab in about three years. But Walter, feeling protective over Olivia and said he knew the patient and Olivia did not. “You need me” He tells her. “Without me, you can do nothing!” Then, Walter instructs Astrid to man the cameras in his absence, but he called her “Claire”.

Now we are in New York City! Beautiful sky shot and then in the thick of the City, Walter and Olivia walked out on a busy street. The hustle and bustle seemed to frighten Walter a bit, but he held back his fear as they went in search of Cameron James. They ended up at an apartment building and got their way in through Olivia’s knowledge of locks and the excuse: “We got here, and the door was unlocked”.

They entered and Olivia picked up some papers from a desk. “We have the wrong place” says Olivia, as she looks over the resident’s mail. “All this mail is addressed to a Mark Little” Walter told her this was in fact the right place. “Look around” he said “There’s no metal anywhere. He’s even changed the light fixtures.” The landlady (Glynis Davies) entered asking calmly who they were and what are they were doing there. Walter charmed the socks off of her and they found out Mr. Little worked for a furniture company and would be back in the morning about 10am.

 

Olivia and Walter ended up at a hotel where Walter was exclaiming over the rooms being $200.00 a night. Then, Walter started to become a bit irate at all the germs and such in these places! “A veritable Petri dish!”. Olivia showed Walter the remote curtains and how to become comfortable with his surroundings. “If Belly were still here, he’d be delighted!” Walter gazed in wonder around his room.

Olivia went to her own room in hopes of getting a good night’s rest, but was startled by noises from the ice machine in the hallway. She found that the lights in her room were not working either. Then, the wall to her room was impacted with physical force. I thought the energy apparition was back!

No, it was Walter! He had become frenzied in his disgust at the germs and -maybe not so ‘imagined’- diseases residing in the carpet and soft fabrics of his room. Walter had cut his hand. Mysophobia made Walter literally go crazy. Walter laments about his wife Elizabeth who had committed suicide shortly after their son, Peter died. “I’m glad she never knew me like this” he said with a heavy heart. Olivia calmed Walter and they left to get a root beer float to try to relax a while outside of the Hotel.

 

Next, Walter and Olivia were in a cool looking cafe, with their floats and Walter was showing her how to drink one effectively. One stabs their straw through the ice cream and then sucks root beer up too. This results in both soda and a bit of ice cream coming up for ultimate taste pleasure! I have known this for years, it was good to see that for the modern young ones out there. Walter then brought up the letter of evaluation he had seen in Olivia’s possession. Olivia now knew this was the main reason Walter opted to leave the lab.

During this reverie, the energy force was back, and disrupted the entire cafe! People were sent screaming and running to get away from the bright, blue mass. Police came into the action as Olivia showed him her identification and Lt. Daniels was none too pleased. But he saw “Blanket Authority ” and allowed her to proceed with the investigation. Walter was feeling major guilt over what had happened in the past.

 

We then segue to Olivia and Walter who were now back to find Mark Little/Cameron James’ apartment, and as Olivia gained entry to his apartment, Cameron made a run for it! Olivia asked this man why he was doing what he was doing to her. He does not know about that, but said all he had left were the bad side effects. He told them about a date he went on and suddenly all the metal fillings were pulled out from his date’s mouth. Turned out “Cameron James ” was his father’s name. His dad used that name to access the money paid to the kids for their role in the studies. His dad spent it all on dope. Mark then told them he felt like a freak. Walter finally got to apologize to the man.

At that point, the energy was back! Mark yelled at it and the energy stopped. Walter said “You’ve stopped this!” Olivia looked at the now empty hallway, Mark and Walter and asked “If he’s not doing this, what is?”

Now, in Mark’s apartment, Walter was speculating about the electromagnetism not being the root cause, but was causing field distortions in time! Walter remembered he witnessed “Effect before cause” in the video he watched in the lab earlier (When Astrid and Olivia were back in her apartment). So this was not causing the magnetic fields, but it was distorting those that already existed around them. Focusing them, maybe tearing them open. Walter was afraid it would continue to do so until it was demolished. It would grow, consuming everything in its’ path. Walter said they must find a source of energy that would be strong enough to shatter this energy.

They went to the power plant! A power grid terminal on the West side of New York, Groves Power Grid. They went there and unceremoniously cut the locks and got into the power grid area. Mark and Olivia talked about the old days and Mark said “When I had my first experience, I thought that something was coming after me too. Till I realized I was doing it to myself.” Olivia looked at him somewhat surprised and asked “You think I’m doing this? That I’m bringing this on myself?” Mark replied: “I don’t know. Question is would he tell you if you thought you were?” Mark came a bit closer to Olivia as he said, “You weren’t there anymore. I remember he wasn’t happy when the experiments had to stop.”

 

The chain that they had cut to gain entry into the area started to snake along the ground, being drawn to what we know to be the energy! Walter saw it and said “It’s happening!” and ran to Olivia and Mark. We see the bright, blue energy plasma growing in scene. Mark stood, with his hands in gestures of…containment? As the noise builds and the plasma grew larger.

The energy plasma came to Olivia, and a humanoid figure was defined in the plasma. It was like peering into an alien’s face through an inter-dimensional wall. Olivia saw Peter! Something told her to stop the ‘destruction’ of the energy field. Olivia yelled at Cameron to stop. Finally firing a gun into the air to break Cameron’s concentration… She looked at the plasma and said “You!”… The plasma dissipated!

Next we saw a peaceful Reiden lake where two fellows were fishing and suddenly a man shot up from the water. He was apparently naked and unsure of where he was. Flash back to Olivia who was now looking at the power station with a look of bemusement. She had now seen the ‘mystery man’ of her visions in the plasma, and knew that it was important to find out more.

We witnessed the man in the lake (Peter) being assisted by the fishermen to safety…. As our favorite  “Observer” (Michael Cerveris) watched from the shore! Back at the Groves Grid, Olivia was telling Walter it was the man they have both seen in the lab. It was him! Walter, Cameron/Mark and Olivia were leaving the Grid and Olivia said “You know Cameron, if there’s anything I can ever do for you…” And they both watched as Walter walked on ahead of them. Cameron said “Make him forget about me…”

“Do you think we destroyed it?” Olivia asked Walter. Walter said Olivia had acted against all agreement and reasonable protocols, when he does that, “People say I’m crazy. I guess I’ve learned Crazy is a lot more complicated than people think.”

As Olivia got into their SUV to leave, her cell phone rang. It was Agent Phillip Broyles (Lance Reddick). “I’ve just received a disturbing call. A father and son just rescued a man from the middle of Reiden Lake…” Turned out this ‘stranger’ knew a lot about classified information. “Things that no one outside of this division could possibly know. What’s more, he claims to know every one of us.” Broyles told her. Walter said “I had a house at Reiden Lake.”

Olivia and Walter were inside a hospital unit, along with Agent Broyles and they are told by a doctor the man was stabilized. The Doctor said “He keeps talking about an Olivia Dunham.” “That’s me.” Olivia said. “Can you take me to him?” And the doctor told her to follow him. As Broyles was distracted by a phone call, Walter spied the evaluation letter in Olivia’s bag. She had checked off the option NOT recommending hospitalization for Walter.

 

Olivia was led into the room and saw the man standing there, looking out the window at the scenery. He turned to her. “Olivia… Thank god you’re here.” Olivia, looking confused asked him “Who are you?”

 

OMG! So now we know Peter does not realize that he ‘never existed’. He seems to remember everything! It is quite apparent that in the upcoming episodes, things in the new timeline should become VERY interesting! Will they bring Peter back into the Fringe Sciences loop? My opinion is yes, they will have to. Peter Bishop, once a lost person in season one episode one, knows far too much already!

Lastly, what will the Observers do? They seem none too happy that Peter “broke through” into the new timeline!

I would like to give a big thank you to Dragonbayne (Angie Crosby) for helping me with editing and tagging this Fringe review and to Kenn for the finishing touches including the video embedding and for correctly selecting all the  categories. We hope to see you on the other side!

Lastly, thanks to Kenn for completing the staging of the the images and the links, and thanks to you for reading my review and for visiting WormholeRiders News Agency.

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Until next time,

Regards,

Celtica