In a TV season that already gave us Jessica Lange ’s unparalleled approach to motherhood on American Horror Story , it ’s tough to ideate that any other maternal figure could even vie . But last night on Fringe , in just two scenes , Blair Brown consecrate Lange a foot race for her money in the creepiness section .
freebooter forward …
By far the full thing about the episode was the all - too - abbreviated interactions between Olivia Dunham and her surrogate momma , Nina Sharp ( played by Brown ) . In this new timeline , the one in which Peter Bishop die as a child , Olivia was raise by Nina , and they have a super - confining relationship . Which ostensibly has n’t stopped Nina from do drugs Olivia and doing flaky experiments on her , as part of Nina ’s partnership with the evil David Robert Jones .
And in last night ’s “ Forced Perspective , ” we unwrap that Sharp ’s caller , Massive Dynamic , is still concerned in experiment on little kids despite Nina ’s past claims to the reverse . The episode ’s “ freak of the calendar week , ” who ’s basically a second-sighted Wednesday Addams , is being stalked and plague by Massive Dynamic , who need to study her brain . ( Although some of the still hunt is just in her father ’s over - active imagination , since an unnoted black van turns out to be just a random scary wry - cleaning vehicle . )
In the clipping above , Olivia confront Nina about it , and it ’s really good to see Olivia verbalize what we ’ve known for a while — Nina get word first - hand the frightful after - effect of Olivia ’s scurrilous experiment , for many years , so she knows how terrible it is to experiment on kids . As Nina include to Olivia later , she ’s had to forgive a lot , and get past a lot , to be the person she is . ( And to work with Walter , the humankind who did most of the experimentation on her . Ironically , Walter is now considered the best person to see unusual children , as seen in this episode as well as “ All Alone In The World . ” )
And then in the remnant of the sequence , Nina and Olivia encounter up again , and Nina starts to apologize — only to have Olivia say that it ’s o.k. , and that Olivia lie with Nina because she ’s the closest thing Olivia has to a mom . The extra - creepy tongue crook comes when Olivia mentions about the megrim which Nina ’s in vogue secret experiments on her have caused . And Nina ’s all care , “ allow me make you some soup . And hey , I ’ll get you an young data-based drug to help with the after - essence of the grave experiment I ’ve been doing on you without your knowledge . ” She ’s seriously in the running for Mother of the Year .
( Although I do love the Nina - Olivia stuff and nonsense , it must be note that we ’ve been tell about their mother - girl family relationship a lot more than we ’ve been shown it , at least thus far . It ’s a credit to the brilliant playacting of both Anna Torv and Blair Brown that we corrupt this relationship , without needing to see a whole lot of grounds . )
The other vast Olivia - refer strand this hebdomad was Olivia dealing with September ’s vaticination , a pair episodes ago , that she would have to die . Olivia lecture to Broyles about it , and processes about it a fair mo , but refuses a security item . She also refuses to act it good or stave off going into dangerous situation , since she still require to do her job . ( And presumably September would n’t have trouble to warn her if she was just going to go in a random work - related mishap . Her destruction is important in some cosmic mode . And just as the Observerswent to great length to cook Walter to suffer Peter in last year ’s “ Firefly,”September may have tell Olivia about her fate so she could prepare herself , or accept it . )
We do n’t really see much forward motion on the “ Olivia is going to break ” subplot , except that Olivia grapples with it , and this fresh - timeline Fringe team is still playing catch - up in term of learning about the Observers . ( And yet , the episode uses the terror that Olivia might die out to prove and ramp up tension during the “ courthouse car bomb ” sequence , with special success . )
lamentably , this week ’s “ monster of the week ” plot was pretty forgettable — when Wednesday Addams every which way died of a slash towards the end of the episode , I just sort of shrugged . Hey , it was her time .
And the practice of have a “ monster of the week ” that is thematically linked to something the veritable grapheme are going through is somewhat play out . You know it ’s getting to be an overused twist when the characters themselves annotate on it — as they do in this sequence . Olivia actually turns to the camera and tell , “ Hey , it ’s sort of mirthful that I just receive a prediction of my own destruction , and now we ’re investigating a case in which someone else predicts people ’s deaths . What a coincidence , hey ? ”
This comes on the bounder of a number of other episode in the past match season where the Fringe Division just find to investigate a display case that had thematic significance to whatever personal issue or over - arch plot they were grappling with at the sentence . I know this is a common scriptwriting tactic on television in general , but it ’s reached the demarcation of its usefulness on Fringe . Like I said , when the character reference themselves start commenting on how implausible something is , it ’s time to countenance it go .
The “ Wednesday Addams draws the future ” plot line , of course , is a twofer — not only does it relate back to Olivia ’s predict end , but also to the ongoing monolithic Dynamic commitment to good , strong , kid - test skill . Because sometimes you ca n’t make an omelette without breaking a few kids . At least that part of the plot line is worthwhile , because of the lively ethical issues it wreak up — and on the plus side , the episode did leave us expire to know what happen next in the absolutely squirm Nina - Olivia kinship .
Plus after watch that last scene , we ’re not going to be eat soup for a few day .
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