FRINGE Recap: 'And Those We've Left Behind' - Give Me My Remote : Give Me My Remote

FRINGE Recap: ‘And Those We’ve Left Behind’

November 11, 2011 by  

“You, Peter. You’re the problem.”

Oh, Dream!Olivia. How your words wound. And yet…she’s not entirely wrong. Peter is back and as fans of the series, it arguably makes our viewing experience more complete, more enjoyable, more of the show we know and love. But for these people, the people he — and we — care about, are things really better for them right now? In terms of the two people he cares most about, he’s confused Olivia and he’s massively distressed Walter. (Of course, one could also argue they’re not living up to their true potential without that relationship with Peter, but they don’t really know that.)

And then there’s the tiny little matter that he may have broken time.

In Friday’s hour, “Those We’ve Left Behind,” the time loops got more severe and Olivia thought it might be a good idea to bring Peter to Walter’s for testing, given that these glitches started right before his arrival. Unfortunately for them, they catch a case before Olivia can bring him to their destination.

The mother from the first incident we saw? Entirely too calm. If I ran into my daughter’s room and found the baby version of her instead of her current 5-year-old self? I’d freak out before I picked her up and ran outside. But thankfully for the kid, her mom handled it better and got them both out safe. While Olivia does some investigating with Lincoln at the apartment, Peter bonds with the little girl by finding her beloved stuffed elephant.

But as much fun as crime scenes are, Broyles insists on Peter being tested at the Bishop lab. Walter is angry over the situation, but glares his way through the process. When he concludes Peter isn’t the cause of the problems, Peter is skeptical that he could really figure it out that fast. Walter pouts and retreats to his room. Peter, on the other hand, is distressed that Walter is so sick that he doesn’t even live outside the lab.

Olivia tries to explain away Walter’s annoyance, telling Peter that it was disturbing for Walter to have him in the flesh after those pre-arrival hauntings, something which is also news to the younger Bishop. He gets frustrated and tells Olivia, “You can believe whatever you like, but this is where I’m supposed to be. This is my home. So, I don’t know. Maybe you and Walter were seeing echoes of the other time line, maybe you were –” and then Lincoln cut him off. (I’ve never been so unhappy to see Lincoln in my life. I wanted to hear Peter’s other theories!)

Lincoln’s news is important, however, because there’s been another time snafu — this time, teenagers and a freight train. Peter wants to go with them and as he’s walking, he ends up at the crime scene. He’s puzzled, but even more so when Olivia and Lincoln are there, too, but didn’t experience the same flash he did. “This is going to start getting annoying,” he says after he skips time again. Peter realizes whatever the time events are, they’re man-made and someone has to be causing them.

Which means it’s time to meet Raymond and Kate. Raymond is being a supportive husband, watching as his wife works on a complicated equation. He keeps looking at his watch, clearly anxious about the countdown he has going. When it reaches zero, Kate disappears and Raymond walks over to a chair…where Kate is sitting, staring blankly at the wall, confused by who he is.

Peter examines the time disruptions they know of, and Lincoln provides two more occurrences. They can’t make heads or tails of it until Walter finally joins in and draws a snail-like spiral around the events, noting that the person they’re looking for is probably near the inner point, which in this case, happens to be at Brookline.

Over in Brookline, Raymond calms Kate down and keeps her entertained while he adds her latest work on the equation into a computer which is hooked up to some serious equipment. He pulls a lever which creates all sorts of awkward noises and lights and countdown starts for 47 minutes. (Any other ALIAS nerds giggle at that?) Raymond goes upstairs and finds Kate back to work on her equation.

Peter, Olivia and a whole lot of law enforcement types end up by Raymond and Kate’s house. Before they can get down to business, Peter wants to know if Olivia ever had dreams about them in a park with Walter — the same dream he kicked off the episode with — and if she felt like she knew him in those dreams. Olivia asks why she would feel anything for him. Oh, sweetie…

Raymond panics over what’s going on outside and tells Kate she has to come downstairs. He shows her the machine and tells her he built it from her work. He tells her he built it for her, it’s not perfect (he started it three years ago), but that it can stay open for 47 minutes. He insists she needs to finish it, but she asks him what year it is. He tells her it’s 2007. When she presses for what year it is outside, he admits it’s 2011.

When an agent approaches the house where Raymond and Kate live, he enters a field and immediately knows something is wrong. He calls for Olivia and everyone watches in horror as he vaporizes. Walter realizes (from the lab) that the house is surrounded by a time bubble, and they can’t just walk in without breaking the laws of physics. Peter suggests they use a mobile Faraday cage, which Walter angrily agrees to build. While they wait for Walter, Lincoln suggest they try and reverse the spiral so they can figure out where the next event will be.

Inside, Kate is angry that Raymond built the device, saying that some things are meant to remain theories. When he passionately admits they don’t have time, Kate realizes something must have happened to her to make him this desperate.

The Fringe team realizes the next time glitch will likely be at a tunnel, meaning the potential for mass causalities is huge. Lincoln sets off to prevent as many causalities as possible and Astrid arrives with Walter’s Faraday device. Both Peter and Olivia want to be the one to go inside, but Peter points out he knows the science of it. If Olivia was to lose communication with Walter, she’d be in trouble.

Elsewhere, Kate tells Raymond she solved the equation and it’s written upstairs, but unfortunately they’re interrupted by Peter, who has entered the house. Raymond has a solution for that, though — he knocks out their intruder.

At the tunnel Lincoln calls in to tell them they still have over 50 cars stuck. That nice threatening time hole isn’t making matters any less stressful, either.

And while Raymond may have built the machine, it turns out, Peter may have been a little responsible for what happened — Raymond didn’t get results until three days earlier…AKA when Peter arrived. He wakes up, angry, and threatens to break the machine, but Kate warns him if it’s not shut down properly, he could cause a rip in the fabric of space/time. Um, no big deal and clearly no pressure at all.

Kate says she’ll shut it down as long as there is immunity for her husband, given that he didn’t know what he was doing. Peter goes upstairs to work on that, giving the spouses some time together to sort things out. Raymond is unhappy, saying he doesn’t want to go on without her, that she got sick so fast that he thought she’d have more time and he doesn’t know how to repay her. Kate tells him he isn’t living right now. Finally, she breaks down and says she’ll tell him how to rebuild it again.

Peter comes down and tells them they’re drawing up the paperwork, but Raymond will be safe. Kate tells her husband she loves him and shuts down the machine. Over in the tunnel, the time bubble stops moving forward and the crowd of people — including Lincoln — is safe.

Raymond tells present-day Kate that he has to answer a few questions, but he’ll be back soon. Before he leaves, though, he checks the book Kate finished the equation in. All of her work is blacked out until he reaches the final page of writing: “Raymond, I Love You. How you repay me…just love me and live your life.”

Back at the Fringe Division, Broyles praises Peter’s work, noting it wasn’t his fault these things were happening, after all. Peter notes that Raymond only started getting results when Peter showed back up, so it’s probable he was the cause. “Initially, I thought the time line had to be reset,” Peter explains. “Now I’m thinking it’s me. All the people that I know and love are somewhere else. Now, I just have to figure out how to get home.”

The good news for Peter? Broyles informs him that Walter does own a home on campus, so he can live in the same location he lived in his time line. Hey, at least it’s a temporary home.

Olivia takes him to his new (old) home and tells him there will be an FBI agent outside at all times. I’m with Peter — where would he escape to? But Olivia finally broaches the elephant in the room and questions him about their relationship.

Olivia: I was important to you, wasn’t I? I mean, the other version of me? Because I see the way you look at me when you think that I’m not aware.
Peter: Yeah, she was. She is.
Olivia: Well, I hope that you get back to her.
Peter: Thank you. Me, too.

A few other notable things about the episode….

  • Peter’s devastation over Walter wanting nothing to do with him and discovering his father living at the lab was fantastic. This relationship took so long to build and they ended things in our normal time line in such a good place. As much as I love the Peter and Olivia relationship, the Walter/Peter dynamic is crushing to lose. It’s nice (relatively speaking) to have someone onscreen mirroring the audience’s grief. Joshua Jackson’s “He can’t even look at me” broke my heart.
  • Peter not knowing that he appeared in the lab or in Olivia’s dreams is frightening and intriguing.
  • “You’re a stranger, so what would I feel?” Oh, Olivia. Way to wound. And rather hurtful, given she did later admit she figured there was some feelings on his end towards her alter ego. (Yes, it’s possible she’s scared of what it all means.)
  • “I know what a Faraday cage is! A baboon would!” Angry Walter is tragically hilarious.
  • “Time displacement. There are repercussions. Repercussions I was afraid of.” Kate’s warning wasn’t simply about this episode, was it?
  • “You say that you shouldn’t change fate, but you don’t know. You don’t know what’s waiting for you…how terrible it is.” Yes, Raymond said that to Kate, but really, couldn’t Peter have said the same thing to Olivia? Without his sacrifice, not only would she be dead in 15 years but we don’t even know the full extent of the trauma she and the rest of our universe went through as the other world was destroyed. He gave up everything for her and as of now, he and Raymond are stuck in the same place — being around women they love who have no memories of their life together.
  • So far, this is my favorite hour of the season. Now that you have all seen it, I’d love to know where it ranks for you.

So, what did you guys think of “Those We’ve Left Behind”? Were you thrilled with Peter’s dream? Anxious for people to remember the “real” time line? And is anyone else wishing we could see more from Raymond and Kate?

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Filed under Fringe Recap

Comments

10 Responses to “FRINGE Recap: ‘And Those We’ve Left Behind’”

  1. Donna on November 11th, 2011 10:42 pm

    I’d rank this episode #2 behind the incomparable “One Night in October.”

  2. Marisa Roffman on November 11th, 2011 10:46 pm

    @Donna: That’s my second favorite of the season! Both are *really* strong hours and I don’t blame you one bit for loving “One Night in October.”

  3. Victorious on November 12th, 2011 6:20 am

    I think this episode was excellent! I always say that Fringe is the only show I watch that is consistently better every episode and this isn’t any different. I love how emotional charged it was. It was both interesting and heart breaking to watch. I just loved it!

  4. mrflamethunder on November 12th, 2011 7:09 am

    Thanks for the recap! It’s #1 for me.

  5. ellen on November 12th, 2011 8:05 am

    The parallel between Peter/Oliva Raymond/kate was the focal point of this episode for me……watching Peter watch Raymond say goodbye to his wife…..
    And yes, Peter without his father and Walter without his son–that old theory. Who we are at any moment in time is the accummulation of the moments that preceeded and those that will come next. Now there is no past for any of them that leads to where they are now.

    I must say–I was frustrated initially with the idea that this story was in many ways an iteration on the old amnesia story. You fall in love or you find your father and build a relaitonship and then bang –amnesia (yeah time warp but the same thing)–no one knows you. But here, with this episode we have added the intrigue that perhaps this ‘timeline’ isn’t where they are supposed to be. Peter is not where he thought he should be…..myabe he isn’t really home.
    one does hope though, the all of them find their way back to where they were, because together Peter with Oliva, Walter with Peter–they were their best and most complete selves.

  6. czaradio on November 12th, 2011 9:52 am

    In the scene with the little girl, Peter finds the elephant in the room. i thought this was a clever way to foreshadow.

  7. input on November 12th, 2011 1:51 pm

    Well your first alinea sums up exactly the problem of this season: they should have gone with these new characters in the new timeline without suggesting that they are not complete without peter, because that is not the case. These people never knew Peter, so what is there to miss???
    And of course he is a stranger to Olivia, she never met him.
    And where in the other timeline Olivia and Astrid and MD were allowed to do some thinking besides the Bishop Boys, here it is solely for them it seems.
    What does the FBI do in this timeline?

    The writers have decided to sacrifice Olivia and Walter so that Peter can be central, with that they let Olivia do the part that the audience says poor Peter, as they have already made this Walter filled with selfpity and it has to be poor Walter for him as well.
    Why not opt for evil Walter, this Walter still has the brains that damaged children for life, including Olivia, and let Walter be the one hurting Peter.

    The way it has been set up. Josh Jackson only has to react to the acting of John Noble and especially Anna Torv. And Josh Jackson is not capable to draw people in, but he has special status.
    I give you 1 exemple of the difference between average acting of Josh and brilliant acting of Anna: the scene in which the FBI agent vanishes, the camera only shows briefly Josh, no expression, and then it is close-up to Anna , and in her eyes we see and feel what she sees and what we are seeing. That is engaging acting, that is how you draw viewers in.

    What Anna Torv manages to do with so little backstory in even the smallest scenes is simply amazing.

    The best episodes thi season were 4.02 and 4.04 and large parts of 4.01 and 4.03, with the return of Peter, they gave up a possible Olivia Walter bond and other possible relationships, for some reason the writers have decided that there is only 1 relationship on Fringe Walter and Peter and that is where they write for, Olivia /Peter is more a sideshow to prep up Peter because it diminshes Olivia.

  8. input on November 12th, 2011 2:02 pm

    A question: in this episode you have something positive to say about Jackson . last week about Jackson and Noble, but Anna Torv???
    In the episode 4.02 One night in October that everyone considers probably the best so far and which has multiple scenes of Olivia and Fauxlivia interacting , chemistry between them and truly awesome acting of Anna Torv, you do not even mention Anna’s name, let alone say something poitive about her. And in interviews with you she always has to talk about Jackson and Noble or Peter and Walter.
    Do you have something against Olivia and Fauxlivia?
    So what does Anna Torv has to do to get your recognition???

  9. Marisa Roffman on November 12th, 2011 2:52 pm

    @input – Respectfully, you’re mistaken about my feelings towards Anna Torv and her performance on this show. She is amazingly talented. She’s a phenomenal actress, something I’ve made note of countless times in the past and I don’t see that ever changing. In this particular episode, Jackson stood out to me, but that doesn’t mean there weren’t moments from both Anna and John where they impressed me. The fact is, if I gushed about every time a FRINGE actor impressed me with their performance, you guys would be getting 15,000 word recaps/posts every week. These actors are amazing and are severely underrated. It’s just that simple.

    As far as the interviews, these characters are intertwined on a level we probably can’t even comprehend yet, so it’s only natural to talk to these actors about the relationships. It happens with every actor on the show, but I assure you, not everything asked about Olivia (whether it’s to Anna or the producers) is about her relationship with the Bishop men.

  10. Donna on November 15th, 2011 11:24 am

    Marisa, you’ve always been a huge supporter of the show and now, as you know, Fringe is really up against it in the ratings.

    What should fans be hoping for for the future? Do you think Fringe should end (when it does end) on an open note, or do you think the mysteries should be wrapped up?

    I personally don’t want things neatly wrapped up. Ever.