Fringe episode 3.12: Concentrate and Ask Again

*Originally published on 2/18/11


This episode was pretty good. We got quite a bit of character development despite the self contained nature of the episode. I'm not too sure about Olivia's angsting, then again, I've never had my life taken over by a parallel universe doppelganger, so maybe extenuating circumstances may come into play here.

Olivia's claim that "Fauxlivia" is better than her sounds whiny, but the more you think about it, she may have a point. Even when Olivia was brainwashed into thinking that she was the other world's Olivia, she seemed far more chipper and friendly. Fauxlivia posing as Olivia also seemed more outgoing and friendly. It would be nice to see a bit more of that aspect of her personality come out into the open.

You get the impression that the writers are making this into a love triangle, sort of, I think. Is it still a love triangle when technically, two of the parties involved are the same person? It's very peculiar. You have to give them credit for that though, I don't think anyone's done that before, or if they have, I'm not aware of it.

While Simon is a one-off character, he got fleshed out well. It's an angle that has been used with telepaths before, often in fact, but it was still done well enough that you could feel his plight. It would make sense that he would retreat to the woods where no one's thoughts could enter his mind. It does make you wonder if he can read animals' minds and what sort of things they think about.

Simon's character also allows us to examine Olivia from a different perspective. As we see that her mind is unable to be read, we see that her history will still play a part in her overall arc.

I do find it weird how quickly they were able to come up with nicknames for their counterparts. I'm guessing that those were fan nicknames that the writers decided to use as a nod, but it still sounds weird to hear people referred to as things like "Walternate' and "Fauxlivia". I also can't help but wonder what the nicknames for the other characters would be.

In terms of overall creepiness, the beginning is really the highlight. Between the giggling doll and seeing the effects of the mysterious powder for the first time, its hard to top that initial teaser.

Overall, it's a one and done episode, but we do get some development with the reveals about the various manuscripts that Nina is examining. They're a recent plot point but I am intrigued to see where the writers are going with this particular development.