Deconstruction Review of Fringe, Episode 21, Season 2, Over There, Part 2
Posted by Karl Withakay on May 20, 2010
As usual, an episode synopsis can be found over at Scott’s Polite Dissent.
Kind of a Short Deconstruction Tonight
Maybe there wasn’t as much to Deconstruct again, but I know I’m burned out from work this week.
Quaternary Park
It’s nice to know that millions of years from now when some other life form rules the Earth, they will be able to extract DNA from humans encased in quarantine amber, clone them, and build a Quaternary Park.
The Name Walternate is Now Show Canon
It’s now the show’s official designation for the alternate universe Walter, thanks to Walter.
Quote of the Show
“The laws of physics were changed into mere suggestions”
Apparently Peter Prefers Brunettes As Well
“…but you hair’s different. I think I like yours better.”
Do They Know Scott Watches the Show?
The comic books on the wall were a nice touch, especially the Red Lantern/ Red Arrow cross-over comic.
Motivation Explained
The motivation for the original espionage against the alternate universe was to obtain their advanced technology for our universe.
Prop Convenience Theater
Did the show explain why the device is keyed to Peter’s genome? Did Walternate obtain it from some third-party source, and is the design therefore out of his control?
You Lost Me at Stars In The Sky
“I’ve traveled between universes so many times, my atoms are ready to split apart at the slightest provocation. You taught me there are as many atoms in the human body as there are stars in the sky. That’s how many atom bombs I am. That should be enough power to get you home.”
There are an estimated 2X10^22 stars in the observable universe, which is an order of magnitude less than one mole of atoms. Let’s take a 70kg human (154lb) for an example. The human body is mostly water (Hydrogen and oxygen) and various carbon compounds. Lets assume every atom in a human body is oxygen (the “heaviest” of those three elements) just to get a ball park number of the approximate number of atoms in the human body. That would make a human body consist of roughly 4000 moles of atoms, or ~2.5X10^27 atoms, many orders of magnitude more than the number of stars in the sky.
Also, I suppose that traveling between universes could increase the internal energy in atomic nuclei, making them unstable, buy not so unstable that EACH atom was as powerful as an atomic bomb. If that were the case, Bell’s body would contain more energy than 9X10^23 kg of antimatter annihilating with the same amount of matter (if we assume a very modest Hiroshima type atom bomb). That is on the order of an antimatter Mars and a regular matter Mars mutually annihilating.
Was William Bell In On The Plan the Whole Time?
For that matter, is that really our William Bell, or was he lying about Willaimternate dying? By the way, hands up anyone who didn’t figure out half way through the show which Olivia was coming back to our universe. I hope there aren’t a lot of raised hands out there.
A Little Out of Character, Don’t You Think?
I would have expected Olivia to be a little more defiant and angry, rather than behave like a frightened little girl at the end
All Math is Approximate In This Post
The numbers are ballpark figures for illustrative purposes. The results of all calculations were imprecisely rounded to give simplified, rough estimate figures. If my figures are off, I’m blaming it on lingering exhaustion form working 32 hours without sleep on Montuesday this week.
Any spelling, grammatical, or typo errors will also be attributed to the same cause.
Cordial Deconstruction 
Polite Dissent » Fringe — Episode 22 (Season 2): “Over There, Part 2” [Season Finale] said
[…] This week’s Fringe cipher was: WEISS [I think] A list of all previous Fringe reviews is available here. Karl has much more to say. […]
RicSantiago said
Another hole in the plot that I noticed was: On “Over There part1” we saw Walternate tell BOlivia that there were many universes – so presumably she didnt know that until then. So, even if she was also treated to Cortexiphan at childhood, she wouldn’t know how to open the portal (as Olivia didnt know until Walter told her on the way in). Would BOlivia have been taught how to do it in the kick interval between being recalled over radio on the street and the grenade explosion? Hard to swallow.
los said
Olivia is probably extra whiney in the chamber because they’re torturing her by isolation, ie the completely darkened and soundproofed room.
cordialdeconstruction said
Agreed, but I figured she’d be a tougher nut to crack than that. She’s had plenty of practice in the isolation tank, after all.
stan said
Olivia behaved like a frightened little girl at the end because of her childhood: remember what happened during the Cortexiphan trials?
FC said
We’re not seeing William Bell ever again, Nimoy already said he was finished with acting (I think Fringe and Star Trek were his swan songs).
BTW I find it interesting no one has mentioned on this board or Scott’s that Bell operated on Walter because WALTER asked him to do it. Bell said Walter was afraid of what he was becoming. This makes a great deal of sense due to all the experimentation and less than noble projects Walter and Bell were conducting. It’s quite obvious at some point Walter decided he had to radically do something to change his nature (hence the defiant and arrogant Walter we saw when fully assembled). In other words Walter saw he was becoming Eeeevil and decided a lobotomy was the way to go. Walternate had no such reservations (and no alternate Bell to counsel him) and the kidnapping of Peter probably fueled his ambition and drove him further into a cold calculating SOB.
BTW I found alternate-Broyle a bit… unconvincing… I mean he dresses radically different, like everyone else, with the super duper G.I. Joe look… but he acts practically the same… no difference. I expected an eye patch and a transformation into something resembling Ultimate Nick Fury.