Deconstruction Review of Fringe, Episode 21 Season 4 Brave New World, Part 2 of 2
Posted by Karl Withakay on May 11, 2012
A Gold/Yellow Episode
As always, an episode synopsis will be found over at Scott’s Polite Dissent
Quote of the Show
William Bell:
“As scientists, we’re taught that fate is nothing more than the convergence of a series of probabilities into one potential outcome, that there’s no such thing as divine intervention.”
Forgotten Point About Last Week’s Episode
Somehow I skipped over it in my note when writing last week’s post, but since Olivia mentioned Bell’s attempt to ignite the underground oil reserve, in this episode, I’ll cover it here. Just superheating up an oil reserve wouldn’t ignite it unless there was sufficient oxygen present to support combustion. You can’t burn petroleum with oxygen.
Like Father, Like Son: Peter’s a Chip of the Old Block
Walter would have been proud of Peter’s reanimation of Jessica’s corpse in an attempt to extract Walter’s whereabouts.
Was that a Light Saber Needle Peter Used?
I’ve never stuck a syringe into a human skull before (I have dissected a fetal pig), but it didn’t seem to take very much effort to get that needle into Jessica’s skull.
Alacadabra!
That was a nice implementation of a classic illusion/ special effects technique of inserting and removing the telescoping probe from Olivia’s skull. Walter even bit down on it to supposedly prevent it form collapsing since we could tell it was a telescoping probe/pointer.
Cordial Deconstruction 
JohnDoe said
In the episode they said that since Peter is from the other universe he can see things from the other universe. Bell’s ship would have been in between the two universes though, so I wouldn’t think the ability would work. Even if Bell’s ship were going into the alternate universe, has it been established that you can see things that are vibrating at the frequency you’re from? Further, even if the ship were at the other side, if the ship were from our universe it would still be operating at the frequency of our universe, therefore Peter shouldn’t be able to see it. This is all sort of irrelevant though because as far as I can recall, the only person with “frequency spotting” abilities is _Olivia_, not Peter. Things from the alternate universe sparkle to her. That still wouldn’t help in this scenario if the ship was from our universe, not the alternate one.
Maybe I’ve forgotten something, I don’t know.
Mukesh said
In addition to JohnDoe’s point, if people from the prime universe cannot see things vibrating at the other universe’s frequency, then why can Peter see things vibrating at the prime universe’s frequency? shouldn’t peter essentially be blind in the prime universe?
shadowkate said
JohnDoe – Maybe it has something to do with the fact that the threads are so thin at that point? That’s what allowed the boat to cross over, so maybe he can see the other universe only because he is from it and because it is thin. IDK. That’s all I got.
Polite Dissent » Fringe — Episode 22 (Season 4): “Brave New World, Part 2 of 2” said
[…] This week’s Fringe cipher was: PURGE. A list of all previous Fringe reviews is available here. Karl, as always, has more to add. […]