For the last, I dunno, five episodes or so, I’ve been wondering about this underlying, unspoken, flabbergasting mystery on Fringe:
WHAT HAPPENED TO OLIVIA’S BANGS?
I do not have the best of memories anymore when it comes to complicated tv shows. LOST kind of fried all the parts of my brain that could keep track of everything, so maybe someone can clue me in on what the hell happened with her hair. To elaborate, a timeline as I remember it:
- Olivia travels to the other side.
- Olivia meets and fights Fauxlivia in her apartment.
- Olivia cuts her bangs and dies her hair to look like Fauxlivia and get Peter back.
- Fauxlivia gets revenge by switching places. (note the bangs on Olivia)
- Fauxlivia lives as Olivia, but with bangs.
- Walternate and his evil cronies make Olivia think she’s Fauxlivia and she actually returns to active duty with Fringe Division on the other side for quite some time.
- Skip through lots of episodes and Olivia returns to our world. (amidst sniffles and sobs, I note she has bangs)
- After careful examination of episodes after she returns, I came to the conclusion that she was simply putting so much gel in her hair that her bangs were swept back into her hair.
However, last week, there was this scene and it just looks like she’s back to having long blonde hair. WTF? Anyway, to be continued!
This week’s episode, Immortality, was based in the parallel universe and begins with Frank returning from his medical trip in Texas. Faux picks him up from the airship tower thingie and after they get home, he senses something’s up while we get a glimpse of a photo of Peter in a file that she’s been studying. Bad sign for Frank.
The main storyline is accented by a Fringe case about a man found in the airship terminal, eaten from the inside out by skelter beetles, which is strange since they were found in the now-extinct sheep. While gross, it didn’t seem terribly original, since the whole “beetles under the skin” thing has already been done by The Mummy
My husband wouldn’t care as much about dying from beetles as much as he would care about the absolute horror of dying on the floor of a public men’s restroom. He insists such places are the most disgusting surfaces on Earth.
Alt-Brandon calls Walternate to his lab to inform him that trials of their imitation cortexiphan show the youngest candidate having the most success. After he poses the use of child subjects, Walternate freaks and insists that they will never experiment on children, exposing one of the first signs of empathy we’ve seen and directly contrasting Walter Bishop’s former lack of ethics.
Despite my intense hatred for Faux, I have to grudgingly admit that she’s hilarious. She’s very loose and jokey, especially with Charlie. When they visit Bug Girl together, the way she snickers and teases Charlie over her fangirlism was perfectly cute and fun. Maybe she’s not such a coldhearted bitch after all! Meanwhile, the bad dude is conducting a test for some enzyme and ragesmashes the shit out of his lab when he doesn’t succeed.
Frank is asked to consult for Fringe and while in the office corners Lincoln to secure a weekend alone with Faux to propose. Poor dude is so in for a heartslashing. This is confirmed when Lincoln goes straight to Faux to tell her what’s going on and she reacts like a deer staring into the headlights of Walter’s station wagon.
After supersmart and quirky Other-Astrid suggests they put out a Fringe alert, they get a lead from a doctor who used to know an Armand Silva, a scientist who was obsessed with skelter beetles. Silva doses another man and collects different beetles, these ones larger, but still eating their way out of their host.
Walternate begins to doubt himself and spills his heart out to Joan Chen, a relationship which I found to be incredibly awkward. I think his lover was simply miscast. The scene just didn’t work for me.
Faux gets home and Frank has found out that Silva was doing research on a cure for Avian Flu, which has killed millions in the other universe, and is based upon an enzyme produced by skelter beetles. While she’s running out the door, Frank decides to pop the question on Faux now instead of later. There’s no doubt at this point that she’ll say yes but punch his face in later.
With a location on Silva, Faux and Lincoln head in and get separated when Lincoln gets trapped in the freezer, then Faux is attacked and falls through the floor and onto a lab table where beetles begin to swarm over her. When she awakens, Silva makes her drink something, which means it’s probably bug feasting time for Faux! He reveals he needs one more host for the Queen beetle. Faux totally freaks out when she realizes that he dosed her with something.
Lincoln puts a gun to Silva’s head to coerce him into telling them how to save Faux and he begins to instruct them on the construction of a box. They’re rushing Faux to the hospital, Frank is in the ambulance with her telling her about the risky anti-parasitic he’s about to take. They ultrasound her abdomen for hatching bugs, but instead find a heartbeat. Fauxlivia is pregnant. FIFTY BUCKS FRANK AIN’T NO BABY DADDY!
Back at the warehouse, Silva reveals he didn’t dose Faux, he dosed himself. The queen emerges from his neck in proper disgusting fashion and after he puts the queen in the box, Silva dies while requesting that they spell his name right. And that ends that zzz storyline.
At the hospital, Frank asks Faux the inevitable question of how far along she is. Since she’s six weeks pregnant, it’s impossible that the baby is his. He asks if she’s in love with the father and she doesn’t answer, which means OMG she’s really in love with Peter. As he leaves, he bitchslaps her in the face with, “You… were going to marry me.”
Coldhearted bitch status reinstated!
She arrives back at her apartment to find Frank and all his things gone. Walternate knocks on her door and informs her that her pregnancy will not affect her position at Fringe Division and that she’ll have whatever resources she needs because, “After all, you’re the mother of my future grandchild.” Poor thing, she’s really in for it now with him for a father in law.
I really wish I hadn’t read that spoiler on EW on Thursday. No more stupid idiotic article reading until Fringe Friday is over.
While the alterverse can be interesting, it really sucks that there are no Walterisms some weeks.
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