Deconstruction Review of Fringe, Episode 2 Season 4, One Night in October
Posted by Karl Withakay on September 30, 2011
A Gold/Yellow Episode
As always, an episode synopsis will be found over at Scott’s Polite Dissent
Retcon Changes/ Other Universe Details
The other universe’s Broyles (O’Broyles) is now alive, thanks to the Retcon.
Fauxlivia is still with Frank
Lincoln Lee still has the hots for Fauxlivia.
Charlie has hooked up with the hot bug lady.
Fauxlivia presumably has no child that she is aware of. (I wonder if they’ll address her de-existed child at some point.)
How Do You Define “Mild”?
I don’t consider any sedative that renders you deeply enough unconscious to be transported to another location without waking to be “mild”.
Iconic Image
I love the obvious homage to the classic ‘80s Maxell Commercial with Walter in the chair behind the speakers listening to loud music.
Wouldn’t It Make a Bit More Sense…
Rather than require Fauxlivia to wear a blond wig for an extended period of time, why not let her come over to our universe to escort Professor McClennan over to the other universe, have Olivia wear a red wig for a shorter period of time, or have a different agent escort him over?
Steak Out
Maybe it’s always been this way, or maybe it’s because of the Retcon, but where we have previously seen canned steak that is kept refrigerated in the alternaverse, now we have Steak dinner frozen meals in cardboard boxes similar to frozen meals here.
A Holmesian Leap of Logic or a House Moment?
OK, from the fact that the guy has 6 frozen steak dinners in his freezer and no food in the fridge, the professor determines that “Dinner is important to him.”, and “He hunts by day.”. Is he aware that just because the box has the word “dinner” on it, it doesn’t mean you can’t eat it for lunch? A lot of single guys’ fridges and freezers look a lot like his did; it doesn’t mean that dinner is especially important to them.
Did the Retcon Dumbify the Other Fringe Team?
How did it not occur to anyone that the professor might see something familiar to his life in the killer’s house? He is after all, sort of the same person.
The Gig is Up
After the professor discovers the truth about the dual universes and Olivias, why does Fauxlivia bother to continue to wear the wig until returning to HQ?
I Know Him Like I Know Myself
Shouldn’t the professor have known what the killer’s reaction was going to be when he confronted him? Maybe the prof was selfless and did know and hoped it would help the killer be a better person. Maybe the professor tapped into his darker side and even knew the killer would commit suicide as a result linking with the professor’s mind.
Memories as Vitalistic Essence?
With a computer, when you move a file, you don’t really move the file. You make a copy in a different location and delete the original file. Memories are really just data stored in the brain. Either the process of transferring the memory destroys the original memory as a side effect, or the memories have some sort of vitalist essence such that they can be transferred like you move a physical object rather than the way you transfer data.
Obvious Peter Reference
Broyles responding to Olivia in regards to the professor retaining what he learned from Marjorie despite not remembering her,
“At the risk of sounding sentimental, I’ve always thought there were people who leave an indelible mark on your soul, an imprint that can never be erased.”
Cordial Deconstruction 
Polite Dissent » Fringe — Episode 2 (Season 4): “One Night In October” said
[…] This week’s Fringe cipher was: LIMBUS. A list of all previous Fringe reviews is available here. As always, Karl has more to say over at his blog. […]
Robert in SF said
What about the Peter reference, when Astrid says that she wonders if Olivia’s type even exists! 🙂
Tom said
Also, in this new timeline, Olivia apparently killed her stepfather rather than letting him get away to haunt her for the rest of her life, as happened in the previous timeline. I’m guessing that was Peter’s influence — in the previous timeline, when Olivia met Peter as a child, he convinced her to tell “Dr. Walter” about her stepfather’s abuse, which may have changed the course of events sufficiently that she wasn’t able to kill him when the opportunity arose.
What do you mean by “O’Broyles”? Is he Irish?
I don’t think that was a wig Fauxlivia was wearing — it looked like she had just finished bleaching her hair in the sink when Alterna-Lincoln (do we have a name for him? HotLee, perhaps?) walked in on her. Surprisingly, Fauxlivia had time to dye her hair red again during the rush back to headquarters to search for the latest victim.
Did the serial killer really commit suicide, or did Fauxlivia somehow manage to shoot the killer from around the corner? Olivia turned her head backwards when she heard the shot, which makes me think it came from behind her.
Karl Withakay said
O’Broyles = Other Broyles
Alternate universe Lincoln is just Lincoln, since we saw him first. Our universe’s lincoln gets the alternate name.
Regardless of whether it was a wig or dye job, it would have been easier to either let Fuxlivia escort him from here, or have Nerdlee do it and hand him off to Fauxlivia on the other side.
He shot himself. At 55 min, he clearly turns the gun on himself and by putting it under his jaw and pulling the trigger. I have confirmed this by re-watching in slow mo on the HD DVR.
RicSantiago said
” Olivia turned her head backwards at the shot moment”: I saw it as a disgust gesture, as “looking away from something sad”. A natural gesture, were she not a seasoned crime-fighter agent… 😉
a. said
Actually, you copy and delete a file only if it has to change partitions.
If you move it on the same partition, the new path is just updated in the file system.
Karl Withakay said
True, a “move” within a partition is really just an edit of the file table, and perhaps I should have added that qualifier, but his situation is analogous to a move from one disk/storage system to another, which is a copy and delete.
The non-science of Fringe: One Night in October « weak interactions said
[…] episode is debunked at Polite Dissent and Cordial Deconstruction, and you can read more about it at Fox, IMDb and the A.V. […]