Deconstruction Review of Fringe, Episode 3, Season 3, The Plateau
Posted by Karl Withakay on October 7, 2010
(A Red Episode)
As always, an episode synopsis can be found over at Scott’s Polite Dissent.
But Does the Drink Have Different Ingredients in the Other Universe?
It would seem the spelling of Manhaten with one T in the previous red episode was either intentional, or the writers are doing a good job of covering their mistake. The newspaper vending machine was for the “Manhaten Courier”
Did We go to War With the Netherlands?
The beggar’s sign read;
“ARUBA WAR VET
PLEASE GIVE WHAT YOU CAN!”
Nagging, Unanswered Question
If they want Olivia for her ability to travel freely between universes without dangerous consequences, how did Fauxlivia (and the rest of our world’s Fringe team) travel to our universe again? Will the writers address this question eventually and put in some sort of dangerous consequences at some point?
Decades Beyond Ball Point Pens?
I would guess that ball point pens will be around in this universe for a long time still, despite the iPad. After all, we still have wooden pencils and AM radio, don’t we?
Small Pox Outbreak in Texas
So, did they not eradicate small pox in the other universe, or was it reintroduced, perhaps by a Fringe event?
Interesting Standard of Ethics for Human Research
I’m not sure why they would need to revert the subject back to their original state to determine whether there were any permanent adverse side effects from the nootropic drug; the researcher described that as a necessary part of human drug trials. Unless the subject was already experiencing adverse side effect that they wanted to find out whether they were permanent or not (in which case they would be discontinuing the trial due to the already known adverse side effects), they best way to look for adverse side effects would be continue the phase II trial he was participating in. They should have already discovered any obvious problems in the phase I trial. I suppose they could have wanted to determine whether there were any side effects from discontinuing the drug after being on it for as long as Milo had been on it.
Of course, you have to question whether it would be ethical to discontinue the treatment once the obvious benefit to the subject had been demonstrated. Not being a researcher. I’m not sure how or if the Declaration of Helsinki applies in such a circumstance.
I’m Not Sure the writers Know What Exponential Means
I don’t think the human brain has enough cells to increase intelligence exponentially five times, but I could be wrong.
Anybody Got a Cat, a Radioactive Substance, Some Poison, and a Box?
Assuming quantum events like radioactive decay are really non-deterministic, the best way to defeat a super mentat like Milo would be to use a random, unpredictable event like the radioactive decay of a particle to choose your strategy. Since such an event is not precisely predictable, Milo would never see you coming until it was too late.
Cordial Deconstruction 
Polite Dissent » Fringe — Episode 3 (Season 3): “The Plateau” said
[…] This week’s Fringe cipher was: BREACH. A list of all previous Fringe reviews is available here. Karl has much more to say. […]
FC said
Karl, The spelling of Manhatan is not a new thing. I Believe this has been done on purpose since Season 2-14 Jacksonville. Or are we talking about something different?
Karl Withakay said
That would work against it originally being an intentional spelling if that was in this universe.