This week on FOX’s Fringe: We learn that no matter what universe you live in, you’ll always have sweet Johnny Walker to make emotional problems worse.
In the latest episode of Fringe, a flashback to 1985 (six months after the episode “Peter”) chronicles Walter’s experiments on young Olivia during the Cortexaphan trials. As he tries to discover the trigger that will allow Olivia to cross over to the parallel universe, his wife deals with a Peter who strongly believes their universe is not his home. Meanwhile, Walternate falls into a deep depression in the wake of his son’s abduction.
General spoilers follow:
Last season, Fringe delivered what is widely considered its best episode with “Peter”, which steeped the narrative in an aesthetic drenched with 1980’s science fiction. With “Subject 13”, the show hopes to capitalize on the formula that made “Peter” such a success. Devoting its runtime to Walter, Peter, and Olivia equally, the episode had some wonderful moments, but didn’t quite reach the heights of its predecessor. Somehow, “Peter” made a huge arc episode into a character piece with deep and visceral emotion. While the emotion is certainly there in “Subject 13” (mostly for Walternate and Olivia), it felt more like it had to set up certain plot points for later episodes rather than deliver a personal story.
The real star of the show turned out to be Karley Scott Collins as young Olivia. If you pay close attention to her performance, she really nails Anna Torv’s mannerisms and speech patterns. Collins completely sold Olivia’s story, giving more depth to the character. Peter’s storyline, however, fell a little flat compared to his future lover. Peter’s constant insistence that he’s not from our reality went in circles throughout the episode, making scenes with his mother predictable and at times redundant. While children certainly aren’t the most subtle of creatures, the story could have been handled with less blatant outbursts by Peter. His awareness of the change in his surroundings may be a good cause for drama… but it causes a few continuity problems. In the first two seasons, Peter repeatedly stated that he remembered nothing about being abducted or being sick. However, Peter is told several times throughout the episode that his sickness is the reason he thinks he was abducted. Will Walter erase Peter’s memory in a final installment of the flashback series? It seems the only way to solve the continuity problem.
Walter’s experiments with Olivia were very interesting and painted him in a far more neutral light than before. The writers gave Walter great moments where he tried more positive emotions before resorting to testing fear. Perhaps it’s simply because the movie is so well known now, but Jaws didn’t seem like the scariest movie he could have shown Olivia. Knowing Walter, Alien seems like a film he’d more likely pick. It’s not really a fault with the episode, but a silly nit pick.
Olivia appeared to have some very powerful additional powers set up during the episode, including pyrokinesis and (if I may coin a phrase) cryokinses. It’s difficult to judge whether Olivia can change the weather or freeze water molecules… or if her powers extend further. Olivia accidently telling Walternate about the other universe made the episode and became one of the best scenes of the series. The episode really put the audience in the moment with Olivia, leaving us with confusion and then dread. Finally, we know how Walternate discovered the existence of the other universe and the moment didn’t disappoint. Furthermore, Walternate’s scenes were fantastic and served only to give more depth to the antagonist of the series. His increasingly desperate rationalizations for his son’s abduction were heartbreaking, as were his attempts to try to reach a 
common ground with his wife. The make up for John Noble also deserves special commendation, as they shave twenty years off his face and make it look completely believable.
One of the aspects of the episode that worried me the most were the scenes between young Peter and Olivia. Luckily, the writers didn’t go down the route that said Peter and Olivia were designed to fall in love by Walter, which to me would have severely hampered the relationship. Instead, Peter and Olivia scenes are played much the way they are in present day: as two kindred souls who are attracted to each other. By keeping the Peter and Olivia scenes in the background of the episode, we could focus on their individual stories without the need to add too much playground romance.
On completely unrelated notes, did anyone pick up all the 80’s shout outs during the toy store scene? I caught Ghostbusters and Battlestar Galactica. And Joust on Atari! Fantastic.
Overall, “Subject 13” is a very, very good episode, but it just doesn’t have the breakneck pacing and intense drama that made “Peter” such a perfect hour of television. We had important gaps filled for both story and characters, which is most welcome. It’ll be interesting to see how the new story points will show up in later episodes.
8.5/10
Aaron also writes reviews and editorials for his site Media Rushes.
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