Fringe "Enemy of My Enemy"

Season four is humming along. I'm still nowhere as excited for the show as I was in late two/early three; however, Fringe is exploring some interesting thematic territory. For starters, Orla Brady is back in full force and really sinks her teeth into the material. She's playing AltAltElizabeth. Her Peter died as a child too when OurAltWalter tried to save him. No Observer interveened in this universe. She puts her mind to helping the Peter she never had. Unlike Walter who in nearly every universe is ironically not able to see outside his current predicament (but manipulates his predicament through science), Elizabeth is acutely aware of her surroundings and sees a range of choices to pursue. As I talked about in my last episode review, Fringe seems to have Olivia and Walter as products of their surroundings, but maybe I'm wrong in assuming this is across the board. Elizabeth makes choices. Looking backward, even the Elizabeth that commits suicide is imposing her will on the world. When life paints her into a corner, she goes out on her own terms.

In this alternative dual universe to the the one we've been watching in the first three seasons of Fringe, "White Tulip" never happened and so Walter was never offered forgiveness by God (or fate, or science, or... depending on how you read it). But here, AltAltElizabeth comes to Walter and gives her forgiveness. She was the one that was primarily wronged, and thus her forgiveness rings true. She says she had forgiven Walter a long time ago. While Fringe has some great sentimental moments, it generally doesn't pull at my heart strings. I'm easily emotionally manipulated, but for whatever reason, Fringe doesn't do it for me; so, when I found a lump gathering in my throat when AAE forgives Walter, I was watching some top shelf acting. Really, John Noble and Orla Brady are near perfect in this scene. Part of my delight was seeing John Noble play a different shade of Walter separate from all the other Walters he's played. I've never acted, but doing something like this has got to be a dream for an actor like Noble. We've seen AltWalter who seeks no forgiveness. We've seen Walter who sought forgiveness and found it. We've seen AltAltWalter who needs no forgiveness and yet has grown wise by studing the faults of OurAltWalt, who desparately seeks forgiveness that's never come -- until now. The way Noble plays it, geez. Looking down and away, not wanting to make eye contact, not wanting to believe he's actually found the absolution he so desires. It's heart breaking to see a man so beat down by life and then to see an olive branch that's too good to be true held out to him and to know it's actually the genuine article. It's not too good to be true. It's too good to not be true!

A couple of other things that struck me in this episode: AltBroyles has been killed twice, poor guy, once in each dual universe! Nina is in on the Shapeshifters 2.0. Nina always had the potential to be a great bad guy. Let's see how Fringe plays this out.

 

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