Fringe — Episode 4 (Season 4): “Subject 9”
A fairly light episode that clarifies some parts of NüFringe, particularly the Cortexiphan trials. Plus, the full return of Peter.
The Plot: Olivia is awakened one morning by a strange blue energy apparition. She notices that the apparition draws metal objects nearer, but she misses the strange effect it has on the flow of time. She is burned on the arm when she comes into contact with it.
Olivia reports what happened to Walter at his lab, and he sends her and Astrid back to the apartment to get some more readings. Watching over the video link from back at the lab, Walter witnesses another materialization of the apparition, only he sees the events before they actually occur. Talking with Olivia later, Walter tells her that the phenomenon reminded him of one of her fellow Cortexiphan subjects, a boy who had the ability to astral project, but also had some magnetism-related side effects. Olivia looks over the Cortexiphan trial notes, now held by Nina Sharp over at Maxiumum Dynamics. From these notes, they learn the subject’s name, Cameron James, and where to find him.
Olivia and Walter head to New York City to talk to Cameron, but he isn’t at his apartment when they arrive; they’re told by a nosy neighbor that he’ll be back in the morning. She and Walter get rooms a hotel, but Walter freaks out with an attack of mysophobia and the two of them end up enjoying late night rootbeer floats at a nearby restaurant. While there, the apparition manifests again, bigger than before, and doesn’t fade away until it disrupts traffic and is hit by a car.
The next morning, Olivia manages to track down Cameron, but he insists he has nothing to do with the strange occurrences. While talking with him in his apartment building’s lobby, the phenomenon occurs again, but Cameron is able to drive it away using what little remains of his Cortexiphan powers (side effects, at this point really). Walter devises a plan to use Cameron’s abilities and a large chunk of New York’s power grid to destroy the apparition once and for all. The energy apparition appears again, and Walter’s plan seems to be working – but then Olivia sees the face and body of Peter materialize in the energy. She stops Cameron and the apparition disappears – but then Peter suddenly surfaces at Reiden Lake and is rescued by two fisherman. A short time later, the Fringe Team arrives at the hospital where Peter is taken. Broyles is understandably concerned that this unknown person knows so much about Fringe personnel and history. Olivia walks into Peter’s room and he is clearly delighted to see her, but she still has no memory of him.
1. Fallout, Boy?
A rad is an all but abandoned scientific unit that measures absorbed radiation. There is a lot of math in figuring out equivalent doses, depending among other things on the material involved, but two rads is roughly the same dose of radiation from twenty chest x-rays, a CT of the brain, or a third of a CT scan of the chest.
2. Needed Better Career Counseling
If Cameron becomes magnetic when anxious, then why drive a truck for a living? There’s a great deal of metal in vehicles, and you’d think driving a truck in big city traffic would get quite anxious.
3. Amalgamated
Dental fillings aren’t particularly magnetic. By the time Cameron was generating enough of a magnetic field to affect the fillings, surely there’d be a noticeable effect on the silverware and probaly the pots and pans in the kitchen as well, if not more.
4. NüFringe Revelations
Changes over past Fringe Continuity:
The ethical fallout from the Cortexiphan trials has not occurred in NüFringe. Knows nothing of any of the other Cortexiphan .
Olivia has shown no Cortexiphan related powers as an adult.
Nina and Walter have quite an antagonistic relationship while Nina and Olivia seem to share a more maternal/child bond.
Walter mentions that his wife Elizabeth committed suicide after the death of “our Peter” — suggesting that she died before Walter crossed over to get the alternate Peter.
5. What’s In A Name?
“Cameron James” — really? Why not also have Spielberg Steven, Polanski Roman, or (for an almost believable name) Lucas George?
A fairly shallow episode, plot-wise, but I enjoyed the new Cortexiphan revelations and the return of Peter — in an almost logical manner, at least from a Fringe point of view — so the Fringe Doomsday Clock will move back one minute to 11:52.
This week’s Fringe cipher was: RESET.A list of all previous Fringe reviews is available here.I’m certain Karl will have more to say over at his blog once he gets back from shooting zombies.
October 15th, 2011 at 12:08 am
[...] As always, an episode synopsis will be found over at Scott’s Polite Dissent [...]
October 15th, 2011 at 8:05 pm
I’m sure the “James Cameron” reference was an acknowledgment of Peter’s method of time travel, which was very reminiscent of that of terminators.
October 17th, 2011 at 8:24 am
Well.. I think they are beginning to “lose” control over the ramifications of Peter’s absence from the timeline..
For example, not referring to any contact with the cortexiphan children -as adults- makes no sense as a consequence of Peter being absent. For example the guy who had the power to transmit his emotions to others around him. His appearance had nothing to do with Peter.
I think there could be other discrepancies too but I m not sure I can remember everything right now..Generally, it feels a bit “awkward”.. cudos on the reviews though, for both House and Fringe :D
October 17th, 2011 at 9:52 am
@Estarian I think no timeline discrepancy is worse than AlterBroyles being alive… o.O
But so far I’m enjoying 4th season, and looking forward to see what they’ll make of Peter’s return =)
October 17th, 2011 at 1:13 pm
Well, up to now I wasn’t really happy with the 4th season (resp. the S03 final). It appears to me that it’s a kind or reboot to retell the same stories again. But now after Peter’s return, I am curious…
I didn’t find Peter’s return that (Fringe) logical, maybe we will learn more. And BTW: Where does “NüFringe” come from/what does it mean?
October 17th, 2011 at 1:22 pm
Official Comment
DC Comics’ recently rebooted continuity is referred to (at least online) as NüDC or Nü52 (for the 52 comics in the reboot). I took the name and ran with it for NüFringe.
October 18th, 2011 at 3:09 am
@Mag
Well, AlterBroyles was a huge surprise for me too, BUT since it was a chain of events with Peter at the center, that led to his death, MAYBE it could be explained by Peter’s absence from the timeline. It still is a bit farfetched, but in the “reasonable” boundaries of “what must have happened if Peter didnt exist at all”.
Messing with timelines is a b^%ch, Ι have to admit
October 18th, 2011 at 4:02 am
Love the reviews. Here’s some thoughts
2. Needed Better Career Counseling
We don’t know if this is his real job, as the neighbout suggests. He might just use this as a cover for something else.
4. NüFringe Revelations: Elizabeth
I don’t think what Walter said necessarily means she died before he crossed over. Shortly after, yes, but not before.
@Mag
It’s not really too weird. AlterBroyles died because he helped Olivia, who recovered her memory after hallucinating Peter. And she crossed over only to bring Peter back. Even Bell might still be alive.
October 18th, 2011 at 6:04 am
To point out, he is working nightshifts, why is quite the calm time to be on the road, so I think his job is fine, because he does not interact with people much and his anxiety is fine.
At least this is how I see it and I don’t understand why he would be at home at 10 o’clock during the day.
October 18th, 2011 at 1:43 pm
There’s no reason to say a timeline change doesn’t make sense because of the absence of Peter. There are many theories as to how much of a change a timeline would suffer due to any specific change. You can take it to extremes and assume everything will proceed exactly as in the original timelines with only minute changes which seems to be the majority opinion here, (i,e.” AlterBroyles makes no sense”) or the other extreme which means even the smallest change will have devastating consequences (Butterfly Effect and Chaos). Fringe is obviously somewhere in between, but the lack of Peter definitely causes enough of a change to affect Walter, Olivia, Nina, Astrid, etc.
For the people who have problems with AlterBroyles, note that Olivia has no cortexiphan powers yet, however has been kidnapped and returned. Since these powers were her ticket to escape the alterverse it’s safe to assume that the chain of events involving AlterBroyles are significantly different and that there’s no guarantee AlterBroyles helped her in this timeline at all. What if Bolivia was detected earlier, captured and then exchanged? The truth is they haven’t explained how these events happened without Peter around.
Right now everything is fair game – until they start explaining themselves and they trip.
October 22nd, 2011 at 5:02 pm
Why are we so certain that AlterBroyles is really alive? They have shapeshifters in that universe. Couldn’t Walternate have replaced AlterBroyles with one if he wanted to keep his death quiet?
October 23rd, 2011 at 11:41 am
Although this episode gave several nods to the changes in our universe wrought by Peter’s absence, it’s still not at all clear that the two sides are working with any sense of urgency toward solving the big problems they’ve got. What are these people up to? Why aren’t we getting stories from the other side? (Was there something about this in the second ep, which I have yet to see?) What is the show about? And what happened to Lincoln Lee?
I was worried from the first ep of the new season that Peter was going to bring himself back ala Dr. Manhattan from Watchmen. I’m not too pleased about that. So far, an uninspiring season. Perhaps, in retrospect, last season jumped the shark; now, there’s nowhere to go.
October 24th, 2011 at 12:43 pm
I’m under the assumption that in the non-Peter universe that Walter failed in bringing him back when they fell through the ice and there was no Observer to jump in and save them. That is why Peter was reborn in the lake.
I will agree with most, this timeline shift is confusing as to what has actually occurred and what we know. Things that didn’t seem to be linked with Peter have seemed to change. It’s too bad it’s not as easy as “Back to the Future” in terms of following the timelines.
November 13th, 2011 at 8:33 pm
[...] episode is debunked at Polite Dissent and Cordial Deconstruction, and you can read more about it at Fox, IMDb and the A.V. [...]
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