In this episode, Fringe team investigates an unusual kidnapping involving a familiar creepy bald guy in a black suit.  It was found out that there are more than one observers.  As one of the observers broke the golden rule of not to get involve with humans, someone should pay the price.  This episode got to be the most-hype episode of Fringe… but for me, it did not live up to the over hype and my expectation.  Little questions were answered.  More questions were raised.  But nevertheless, it is enjoyable ride.  We saw more of the observers.  It’s a rare treat from Fringe.

What we have learned from this episode?

1. There are more than one observer.  One is never enough.  So, like what many people had theorize before, yes, we saw more than one observer.  There are at least four observers (in our reality?).  We found out that August is the name of the observer who died in the episode.  Although, not mention in the episode, we saw the names of the other observers in the closing credits.  The “older observer” has a name of December.  The other observer’s name is July.  Our favorite observer is named September.  Since all the known observers got a name of the months, do we assume that we have 12 observers?  Hmm?

2. Observers do not have feelings. I think we also speculated this before.  We saw the observer looks so calm in any tragedy or unusual event.  We also learned before that they don’t have strong sense of taste.  But this episode, finally, prove that observers do not have feelings.  Does mingling with humans influence them?  Humanize them?

3. Observers don’t age.  And they can see the future. Finally, the episode also proves that they had been here for a long time.  The newspaper clippings we saw in August apartment.  The explanation of Brandon in Massive Dynamic.  They also don’t seem to age.  Peter even commented while Olivia driving the car that they could get rich by selling their secret of fountain of youth.  We also learned in the episode that the observers can see the future.  They can predict what would happen.  August manage to save Christine Hollis because he knew that the plane will crash.  We also see in the cliffhanger that December predicted that tough thing will happen to her.

4. Observers must rectify a wrongdoing. Last time, we saw that observers have courier.  Now we learned the observers can hire an assassin to rectify an irregularity in time.  We also learned that they save Peter because it is a consequence of what they had done wrong.  In connection to this, we also found out that Walter and September got a deal or arrangement.  What is it, we don’t know.

What I like about the episode:

1. Observers are not time travellers.  Thank you for that!  I’m happy that they are not time travellers.  And whoever tells me that they are, please show me a proof!  I’m glad that the episode didn’t show observers trying to rectify things by going back to time.

2. No Rachel.  When I saw Ella in the first scene, I was actually scared that I have to see Rachel.  Thank goodness, she is not there!  And there seems to be a hint in the episode that she might be killed off!

3. Human-like Observers.  I’m glad to see the observer in light of having an apartment just like any other humans.  We saw observers also eat in a restaurant, socialize and even fall in love.  The end of August, when he sacrifice his life for Christine is touching.  He even shed a tear for the safety of Christine.  Love that.  Not only that, we see the observers use a car like any other humans (well, except for that amazing touch that automatically switch on the car).

4. The gun and the book.  I think the gun is awesome.  It reminded me of District 9.  But much more amazing for me is cryptic messages found in his book.  The Lewis structure message of August to Walter is so geeky and nerdy, but that made me so love Fringe.

What I don’t like:

1. Same plot.  Nothing amazing about the plot.  It seems like it is a rehash from the previous episodes.  The episode humanizes the observer, like what they did to Broyles in Earthling.  In the previous episode (Of Human Action), we started with a kidnapping, and another kidnapping happened in this episode.  Can we have a different story telling?  At least, episodes far apart, so that audience won’t get so fed off with the plot.

2. Stupid characters.  I’m sorry to say this, but there are four scenes that bothers me.

The first one concerns Walter.  He told Olivia that he speculated that the “blood” sample could be hemophiliac.  Then he put the sample in a slide and he look at it in microscope.  I think any decent scientist would immediately know that the sample is not blood by just looking briefly at microscope?  Chili sauce sample and blood sample can easily be differentiated under microscope.  One got cells, the other don’t!

Second scene: Why Olivia and Peter need to park when they can easily see an assassin with a gun pointing at August?  Isn’t a dumb move?  They could have save August at that time, if they drive straight to the scene or at least, Olivia stops and get out of the car and shout, FBI!

Third scene: Why Astrid, a linguistic major, did not spot the Lewis structures?  More importantly, why the computer did not detect it?  Looking at the Lewis structure, you can easily say that they follow a pattern… a circle with dots around it.  I think a computer can easily spot that.  Hmm… guess what, the scientist who can’t use a microscope can easily decode a cryptic message.

Fourth scene: Astrid never learn her lesson.  She knew that Walter love to drug people.  So why the hell she tasted that strawberry milkshake?  And seriously, do you have to prioritize Walter’s request of buying things in the market to Olivia’s request for Broyles’ backup?  No wonder, the FBI didn’t show up in the motel!

3. Little answers.  As I have said before, only a few questions were answered.  In fact, all the answers given to us are just confirmation of the many accepted speculation of Observers.

4. Couriers.  I don’t get it.  Why Fringe writers present the concept of couriers but they didn’t include it in the episode?  The worse thing is, they presented another character that involve in the mythology of observer – the assassin, who I think will not be seen back in Fringe, anymore.

The After Thoughts.

1. The big question… who is December referring to in the cliffhanger?

My guess is Ella.  My proof is that at that moment, Ella seems to be happier compared to Olivia.  We know that Ella enjoys much rollercoaster, while Olivia is actually scared of rollercoaster.   And I think Olivia is a giveaway.

2. Peter and the gun.

I don’t really understand what is the connection between Peter and gun.  Looking at the previous episodes of Season 2, we can see that Peter is always involved with gun.  In Night of Desirable Objects, Peter managed to dodge the bullet of Olivia.  In Fracture and Momentum Deferred, Peter delivered exactly the same line – I figure between the two of us, you’re the one that carries the gun.  And in Of Human Action, he manage to control the gun that’s meant to be in Broyles’ head.  And I think everybody knows what happened this episode.

Also the big question is the Observer’s gun.  I think I’ll go with Broyles on saying that the gun cannot be fired because its out of ammunition.  Some people say because Peter is from alternate reality so he can fire it.  I just don’t like that, it sounds like a rip-off from District 9.  Peter and the observers are prawns?

3. Observers.

I think I have mentioned a lot of things up there on what are the general characteristic of Observers.  What I do think of them are “entities” that existed since the day humans exist.  They are there to observe and make sure that the reality is on track with its pathway.  They have a golden rule of not getting involve, because they are not meant to influence a different choice or decision that could lead to a different road.  As such, if it does occur, i.e. observer saving someone who supposed to die, they have to fix the irregularity or else face consequences.  The consequence for August is his life in replace with Christine’s life.  The deal of Walter and September is unknown but I got a feeling that it will be a very big sacrifice (could it be involving Mrs. Bishop?).  The reason why they exist in pictures of major events is because they exist within us, they exist in exactly the same time like us.  Having said that, I am not convince that they are time travellers because if they are, then they could just easily go back to time and fix the irregularities… and that is not the case, they hire an assassin to kill Christine and fix the irregularity.  Another thing that this episode prove is that they do travel by the means of our transportation, which I’m glad with.  This means, that they are not “anti-matter”.  They can touch things.  This episode also showed that they are not immortal.  They can get killed in normal means.  However, I still think they cannot be killed unknowingly.  They can see the future, as such, they can avoid death.  I got also a theory that their lack of feeling and sense of taste is due to the fact that they have heightened perception and extraordinary ability.  Similar analogy would apply to people who are blind, they have heightened hearing.   And with the gun, I think their foresight of the future made them have the ability to produce such gun.

Now, why do we only see 4 observers?  I have a theory that every reality got only 4 observers.  Having said that, if we are to follow the months, then we could have 3 different realities.  (This may easily be debunked, because we already been told that we are dealing with only 2 realities, but I will still pursue this.)  Is it possible that the other observers are in other reality to check that they are on the right track too?  Maybe the reason why they are preventing a dramatic change in the reality is because they don’t want to split up their group just to preserve different reality’s timeline?  As such, that is a big consequence in observer’s job.  And perhaps that’s where the couriers come in.  The observers in othe reality cannot communicately directly with each other and needed someone to deliver the message from one reality to another.

Hang on, btw, where did the observer got the money to pay for the chili?

4. Clues and eastereggs

Tropos Air.  Tropos in Greek is τροποσ, which means “way of doing things”; also τροπή, which means “turn” or “change”.  Guess what, Christine’s evasion from death is indeed a big turn or change!

Flight number 821.  This is a real plane crash event.  Check it out here

Green Green Green Red sequence.  The light sequence that showed up in assassin’s high tech phone is the same light sequence shown in The Equation.

Two statues.  In Massive Dynamic, you can see two statues, a girl sitting down handing something to a guy.  I wonder what that meant?

The sink.  Two odd things in there… a comb and pills.  What are those for?

The glyph spelled out: BLIGHT.

That’s all for now, Fringies!