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.

A Gold/Yellow Episode

As always, an episode synopsis will be found over at Scott’s Polite Dissent

Old School Walter

It makes sense that since Walter’s been institutionalized until fairly recently, he hasn’t had much opportunity to learn PowerPoint yet, and he is instead using a Kodak carousel slide projector.  For the real youngins out there, before there was PowerPoint, you used either a carousel slide projector or an overhead projector for presentations.

Brane Freeze

There’s a few issues with the concept of gravitationally collapsing the two universes into a singularity.

First, even if the two Earths were brought together, they wouldn’t have enough density or gravitational force to collapse into a singularity, and if you combined both universes, pretty much the only things that would instantly collapse into singularities would be neutron stars and certain white dwarf stars of sufficient mass.

Also, just collapsing the two universes into one (probably*) wouldn’t cause the entire resultant combined universe to collapse gravitationally into a singularity, at least not instantly, though it might make the resultant combined mass (or altered curvature) of the new universe large enough to eventually result in a Big Crunch.

What it sounds like what he is describing is more like the brane collision model of the creation of the universe which isn’t really gravitational collapse.

* Who knows what new physics could arise from such a collapse?

How Much Does a Grain of Sand Affect a Desert?

Contrary to what ancient people may have believed, the world does not equal the universe.  The visible universe is about 46 billion light years across, which is unimaginably larger than the tiny Earth.  Amphilocite may contain a lot of energy, but come on, how can Jones collapse two entire universes just by linking/ collapsing a few points on one planet orbiting a nondescript star among over one hundred billion stars in a nondescript galaxy among over a hundred billion galaxies in the visible universe?  It’s a small wonder some other world’s version of Walter didn’t destroy the whole universe already a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.

Are There Roaming Charges?

Cell phones and ear cuffs from both sides have functional signal in the bridge complex.

Convincing Proof

Maye Nick would have been more likely to believe Olivia if she had brought Fauxlivia into the interrogation room to show Nick that both sides were cooperating and no longer at war.

It’s Nice Out; Why Not Walk Instead?

Having one Fringe unit standing by in one location waiting to drive vehicles to the site of the next “attack” doesn’t seem like the best way to make sure you get there in time.  How about having multiple units spread across the city waiting for Astrid to call in with the location?  How about having helicopters with assault teams circling the city waiting to swoop down on the suspect when his location was discovered?

The Fringe Division(s): Guardians & Protectors of Two Entire Universes

Even if I trusted Nick 100% (and I wouldn’t), I surely wouldn’t leave him in the custody/protection of only one lone agent.  I’d at least be concerned Jones might try to capture/kill him and would have him under the guard of at least half a dozen agents.  Also, since I wouldn’t trust him or his cortexiphan enhanced abilities, I’d have him locked up (and possibly sedated) as well.

Time Convergence of Reality and Fantasy

At 47 minutes into the episode, the countdown clock in the episode was at 47 minutes.  Nice touch.

A Gold/Yellow Episode

Sorry for the delay, I was out of town on vacation with friends this weekend.

As always, an episode synopsis will be found over at Scott’s Polite Dissent

I Knew it Wasn’t Mass Effect, but…

I did note that what happened to the jerk business guy looked a lot like he got hit by the slam power wielded by a biotic from Mass Effect.

Good Vibrations

I have neither the time nor patience to go into much detail regarding exactly how absurd the whole idea of everything in our universe vibrating with a C note and everything in the Alterverse vibrating with a G note was, but it was really bad in many ways.  To point out just a couple of quick points, everything in the universe doe not resonate with the same frequency, and matter is generally not vibrating with frequencies in the audible range.

Do their Planes Not Crash That Often?

I don’t see how having satellites that intercept and record all commutations to and from airplanes eliminates the usefulness of black boxes in airplanes.  The two different types of black boxes serve several important functions.  The cockpit voice recorder records everything that is said by anyone in the cockpit (what the crew are saying to each other), not just communications with the outside would.  The flight data recorder records instrument readings and control inputs of the aircraft (what’s going on with the aircraft).  Together the information from the black boxes is vitally important to be able to determine the cause of accidents and understand what was going on in the cockpit and with the craft in the time leading up to and during an accident.  I’m pretty sure that we also record all communication between aircraft and the towers, but that information is likely less useful that the black box data in most accident investigations.

Another note:  I guess if a plane in the Alterverse looses its radio before crashing, they just chalk it up to an unsolvable mystery and move on.

Nice Twist

It was a  nice twist that Colonel Broyles turned out to not be a shapeshifter and there was a different explanation for his actions.

Stranger Danger

So the wife of the head of Fringe Division just welcomes into the house any stranger who claims to be friends with her husband, and lets them hang out unsupervised with her son?  WTF?

Doing the Right Thing

I wonder, did Colonel Broyles turn himself in at least in part because when Jones ordered him to plant the device on the bridge (the device saving his world), he realized that there would be no point in saving his son’ life if his world was destroyed?

Alternative Football League Notes

In the Alterverse, the New York Jets NFL football team are still called the New York Titans, which means that there can’t be a Tennessee Titans NFL team.  If the Houston Oilers did move to Tennessee, either they retained their name, or they chose one of the other names they considered using: Bobcats, Stallions, Toros, and Apollos.  If the Oilers did not move to Tennessee in the Alterverse, then perhaps a different city (Los Angeles or Toronto) got an NFL expansion team in 2002.

Oops, It probably Won’t Matter, but…

Fauxlivia forgot to turn the camera back on in Meana’s cell

Now With More Drama!

Instead of immediately putting out a warrant for Colonel Broyle’s arrest and flagging his Show Me, the Fringe team takes the time to travel to Liberty island to apprehend Colonel Broyles in person, why?