Fringe: The Equation   Rewatch 
July 7, 2014 7:44 AM - Season 1, Episode 8 - Subscribe

Something New - Not the first time - Experts - Theoretically - Hypnogogic - 32 Years In Marriage - Oboe confession - Out among the rest of us - I'd prefer not to - Phrenology vs. psychopharmacology - Court order - Welcome home - The things I wanted most of all - Apple

The Full Fringe Theme. Recognize any pieces?
posted by the man of twists and turns (13 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Walter starts to remember that his memory is incomplete and, just as Olivia begins to awaken herself throughout Season 1, he begins to piece it back together.

I'm a bit confused as to how The Equation comes to the attention of the people who've been abducted. Was it something that happened at the hospital to the kid? Were the other 'experts' introduced to the equation after they were abducted or were they aware of it before? Walter's theory amounts to "Great minds think alike" but that's a whole lot of coincidence for a show where there's not much room for coincidence.

Walter going back into the asylum is a truly harrowing moment in an otherwise fairly frivolous TV show. It's like, for all the body horror and monster horror so far there's been only hints at psychological horror until this moment.

Having said that, things like
"If any red castles turn up I'll be sure to let you know,"

OLIVIA HANGS UP THE PHONE, CAMERA PANS TO FOCUS ON "RED CASTLE"

OLIVIA DOES NOT IMMEDIATELY CALL PETER BACK, INSTEAD SHE GETS HERSELF INTO SOME DEEP SHIT.

really kind of irk me.

Man, ten years this lady's been working (by "working" we mean abducting, psychologically torturing, and permanently disabling several people, natch) to get the equation and she finally accomplishes it and what does all that time and sacrifice get her? Shot in the heart. That's some cold-ass shit.

The episode ends with a father hugging his lost son. Lotsa groundwork here.
posted by carsonb at 1:23 PM on July 7, 2014


I'd like to put out call for theories on the silent, mean-looking Walter that Walter encounters while back in the asylum.

I took him to be the part of Walter that could ruthlessly rule the world, the part of himself that would have taken ZFT to its extreme and cut out the chapter on ethics, (potentially self-)excised and banished to the asylum where he belongs. The gentle genius part of Walter gets to romp in his lab at Harvard and try to make up for the horrors he initiated before diminishing himself in the asylum.
posted by carsonb at 1:31 PM on July 7, 2014 [1 favorite]


The episode in which we possibly find out who/what drove Walter into the insane asylum. Or was it supposed to be something more pedestrian like guilt over a lab fire that killed an assistant (or was that Olivia?). Yet we find out later that he lost his mind in a very literal sense. Good thing they don't give us any real answers, just patterns and equations. Yay.

Just a couple comments:

- Red castle coinky-dink!
- Hallway escape blinky lights coinky-dink!
- Surely you have more use for an immortal other than just kidnapping and torturer.
posted by P.o.B. at 1:08 PM on July 8, 2014


Quote for this ep.: "What's up, Chachi?"
posted by P.o.B. at 6:15 PM on July 8, 2014 [2 favorites]


DONUT!!!

Can't believe Olivia just threw it away. Must be the cortexiphan.

Also: butter knife. *shudder*
posted by Sonny Jim at 11:58 AM on July 9, 2014


Further questions:

What's with the kid's inappropriate Britpop fringe? Is he in Slowdive?

Are Kirk Acevedo's eyes perfectly spherical? If not, why not?

And most importantly, why is former Canterbury Crusaders captain Todd Blackadder working for the FBI all of a sudden? Surely I can't be the only one to have noticed this?
posted by Sonny Jim at 12:47 PM on July 9, 2014 [1 favorite]


Some thoughts,

7:14 This actor who plays the dad is terrible - worse than nettle face from the last episode.

The actor who plays the boy is clearly Steven Zahn from 1982

9:12 Yuletime cheer&advertising&nausea =Max NoSleeves.

Also has anyone else wondered about Walter's neoliberal politics?

Neocon? @SonnyJim are you high?!

21:00 Peter: you want to send my mentally unstable father [...] to a mental institution?

Yes, how dare you.

28:55 Wait, who is THAT?!!

-Carsonb, I have a (possibly incorrect) theory. It's either Walternate or I think actually the missing bits of Walter's brain. Warning him.

42:00 Look at the red and green wallpaper in the campus accommodation. Looks like Xmas paper as well.

"Numbers make everything work"

I saw no glyphs or red vines at all this episode. Only the pretty lights.
posted by BAKERSFIELD! at 12:47 PM on July 9, 2014 [3 favorites]


I'd like to put out call for theories on the silent, mean-looking Walter that Walter encounters while back in the asylum.
My theory is that it's John Noble.
posted by Sonny Jim at 12:52 PM on July 9, 2014 [2 favorites]


It's not John Noble. That character obviously wasn't Australian.
posted by BAKERSFIELD! at 1:02 PM on July 9, 2014


It's John Noble's French cousin who's really into mime.
posted by P.o.B. at 4:49 PM on July 9, 2014 [1 favorite]


See what I mean? Don't stop to help ladies in distress; bad things happen.

A butter knife. Because it hurts more.

You'd think Peter would have learned by now. But no, he's all "Ok, so what do you want me to do?" Clearly manipulated into compliance over many years, and an interesting foil to Olivia.

Anyone else reminded of Hurley going back to the asylum to talk to the numbers guy?

I think the mean Walter is just the mean voice in Walter's head telling him self-destructive things. Sometimes a pipe is just a pipe.

I missed the Observer in this one. Maybe the pretty lights distracted me.
posted by Athanassiel at 4:36 AM on October 10, 2014


Oh, and how did they bring the dead back to life?!?! I can't remember if this is ever explained. No need to remind me; either way it's a huge dangling participle of a plot thread.
posted by Athanassiel at 4:44 AM on October 10, 2014


(No dead back to life in this one. It's revealed that everything the boy was seeing was induced by a brainwave machine of some sort. In reality he was strapped to a chair with a cardboard facsimile of a piano keyboard in front of him.)
posted by nobody at 11:49 AM on January 23, 2022


« Older The Leftovers: Penguin One, Us...   |  Halt and Catch Fire: Landfall... Newer »

You are not logged in, either login or create an account to post comments