Welcome to the Fringe Pilot Section – your guide to the pilot episode of Fringe.
Here you’ll find news, photos, videos, spoilers – along with our reviews and easter egg Observations, and more related to the Pilot.
As some of you may know, we’ve started our Fringe Rewatch over at our partner site, Seriable.com. We’re rewatching every episode from the Pilot to The Day We Died, with specific focus on new perspectives and the meaning of the story with Peter Bishop apparently ceasing to exist.
Our Pilot Rewatch has already been cooked. Below you’ll find a few select quotes from the article, should you want a taste.
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Welcome to the first of our retrospective Fringe rewatch episodes. If you are reading this with your eyes you will know that we are going back..back in time to revisit each of the 43 aired episodes of Fringe. Loaded with fuller perspectives, we bid to uncover new observations and destroy old standing mysteries that are just begging to be resolved.
Wearing only the “black and gray” garments and armed with powers of perception that a Jedi would be proud of, we aim to gain a unique understanding of Fringe before the third season commences on September 23rd.
This first stop on our rewatch tour takes us back to the nearly beginning – an episode we are aptly re-titling “Just The Beginning“, because Peter said so!
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Synopsis: When a Flight 627 lands with all the passengers and crew dead, FBI Agent Olivia Dunham is called into investigate. A search for someone to help leads her to Dr. Walter Bishop, our generation’s Einstein. There’s only one catch: He’s been institutionalized for the last 20 years, and the only way to question him requires pulling his estranged son, Peter, into help. Under Agent Phillip Broyles, our trio will discover that what happened on that fatal flight is only a small piece of a larger, more shocking truth.
General Thoughts – I was surprised at how easily I slipped back into the show. It was particularly fascinating to see things from a new perspective. Knowing the characters as we now do, it was rewarding to see their fears, limitations and quirks play out all over again. The episode seemed very much like an initiation for Olivia.
In terms of criticisms, I’m not entirely convinced two-hours were needed to tell the story. At times the pace moved too slowly for a premiere showcase. I also felt that there were far too many hammy moments between Peter and Olivia – thank goodness they dialed it down later on in the season. Giacchino’s score was missed and the ‘stock footage’ was bland. The episode was not as polished as it could have been.
Below I outline my New Observations and Perspectives, Unresolved Mysteries, Closed Mysteries and provide my Final Thoughts based on my rewatch.
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In part 1 of The Observer Theory, I offered my thoughts on why the Observer watches certain events (usually ‘pattern-events’ and Olivia’s reactions to those events). In a nutshell, I believe that the Observer is changing reality. I would advise reading the whole theory to fully grasp what I am trying to suggest.
In part 2 of The Observer Theory, sub-titled “Dimensional”, I aim to explain the phenomenon of the Blue Lights (which have appeared at various stages in the show), whilst continuing the overall ‘Observer Theory’.
In my opinion, the blue lights are the effects of observation from another dimension or Universe (possibly a parallel Universe). For arguments sake, I will use the word ‘dimension’, but in truth the you may decide that the word ‘Universe’ is a better fit.
So, we know that the Observer is watching pattern events, which are basically ‘experiments’. We also know that in Quantum Mechanics, the act of observing changes reality. But in the absence of foresight, what indicators are there to suggest that a reality has been observed..and therefore changed? In my opinion the blue lights are these ‘indicators’ – they are they like the indicators of the double slit experiment, or perhaps the outcome of the Uncertainty Principle, which could give us an indication of the size of these ‘dimensions’ relative to our perception:
So, I believe that the Observer is not necessarily from another time (although do believe that to be possible), but moreover, he is from another dimension..or universe. I am not talking about aliens here, I am talking about a world (possibly multiple) that exist within our own world. Invisible dimensions which are just out of our conscious perspective – dimensions which may be tiny (as the above video illustrates), but in actual fact are just as large as our own.
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Easteregg and Clues Round-Up for episode 1.08 “The Equation”.
Red Alert
The green and red dots reappeared in a big way in this episode. They were central to the story-line in which Agent Loeb’s group used green and red flashing lights (A, B) to send their victims into an hypnagogic state. As mentioned, the green and red symbolism has appeared in earlier episodes – “The Arrival” and Pilot episodes, to be exact. In “The Arrival” they could be seen on John Mosely’s hat (C, left) and at the bottom of The Observer’s binocular interface (C, right). In the pilot episode, the green and red dots appeared in Olivia and John Scott’s ‘dream state’, on the “Zeno” Kayak (D) which Olivia referenced as being her Uncles.
What’s Up Chachi?
When Astrid asks Peter “What’s up Chachi?”, she’s referring to his sleeves which have been cut. Chachi is a character from Happy days and Joanie Loves Chachi, famous for his sleeveless shirts.
A Staggering Display of Patterns
The St. Claire’s rec room featured some interesting patterns. The inset images above illustrate three examples of pictures and dominos being arranged in a particular ‘staggered’ pattern arrangement. Interestingly, this is the same ‘staggered’ pattern that can be seen outside Walter and Peter’s apartment building (main picture, taken from episode 1.04) – an effect created by the lights. No doubt this is intentional. There’s some great discussion here which suggests that there’s a hidden message in these patterns.
But-He-Fly Away
In the above picture we can see that the Observer (A) made another appearance, keeping up his 100% episode appearance record. Once again he seems to be observing Olivia, whilst he’s also close to the Pattern-event (or abduction) that’s taking place in the “red castle”. Also in the shot is an image of a butterfly (B) – we believe this to be the clue for the next episode (1.09).
Dungeons & Dragrons
The above screencap is of the “red castle”. We can see from the inset enlargement, that Olivia may made the connection between this building and the information provided by Dashiell, not just because of the buildings color, but also because it’s actually called “Royal Castle Carousel”.
Adam & Eve
For this weeks metaphor, we have Agent Mitchel Loeb and his accomplice Joanne Ostler (Ritz) doing their best to mimic Adam and Eve. Ostler and Loeb seem to be two people tempted by the lure and wonder of scientific possibility (and/or greed). After killing Joanne, Loeb takes a bite out of the Apple he has just pulled through the safe (a remarkable feat), and then declares “It worked” to the ’serpant’ on the other end of the phone. A definite allusion to the Biblical story of Adam and Eve, who were tempted by the serpent (Satan) into eating the apple from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Consequently they were thrown out from the Garden of Eden by God. Many potential parallels to be speculated.
Thanks to Fringe-Forum for the use of some of the images in this post.
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The other day we speculated on the nature of the markings discretely hidden on the St. Claire’s keys from the pilot episode. We considered the possibility that they might be similar writings to that of our Observer – it certainly looked like a possibility in this picture. However, thanks to Scully in the comments, when blown-up and flip-reversed, it’s clear that the markings are actually NUMBERS and LETTERS - 8536T18, to be exact (see left). Could this be some sort of code? What could it be for? This feels like “Little Hill” all over again!
Yes sir, we’re off to the Massive Dynamic employee section to input this code. If you don’t hear from us for a few days, you’ll know that we’re living it large with Nina and friends. Who knows, the elusive Dr. Bell might even grace us with his appearance. ;- )
Thanks again to GaBa and also Scully @ ObserversAreHere for this new discovery.
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Here we see a potentially hidden clue on the keys to Walter Bishop’s old institution, St. Claire’s. On the set of keys (inset, top) are markings, or writings, which appear to be similar in type to those that The Observer scribbled in 1.04 “The Arrival” (main picture). Also, the keys appear to have an “A” shaped Aleph (inset, bottom left), similar to the speculated Phoenician glyph seen on Olivia’s uncles Kayak (inset, bottom middle) and worn as a lapel on David Esterbrook’s jacket (inset, bottom right).
What does it all mean? Who the heck knows, but it could well allude to the idea that Walter has been closely Observed by Creepy Bald Guy (and pals) throughout his 18 years in St. Claire’s.
Observation courtesy of GaBa at Fringe-Forum
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A couple of days ago I received an email asking for my thoughts on why The Observer wasn’t at Holly’s diner in the last episode, when Emily Kramer and the patrons met their gruesome end. My initial thought was that maybe he doesn’t like the onion soup that they cook up, perhaps it’s not hot enough for him? But in all seriousness, how do we know he wasn’t at the diner? Because we didn’t see him? It’s perhaps worth considering whether or not we’re being allowed to see all of the important interactions that happen off-screen.
Even if we suppose that he wasn’t at the diner, this wouldn’t be the first time that he hasn’t been seen at a Pattern-related event. He wasn’t on-board Hamburg Flight 627 in the Pilot episode, nor was he on the bus in “Ghost Network”. At least not from the perspectives that we were allowed to see.
So perhaps it is all about Olivia (they are seemingly linked by the green/red dots), perhaps observing her interactions
with the Pattern is just as important to him as the event itself? Walter said a few interesting things in “The Cure” - on several occasions he remarked on Olivia’s body language in the most accurate of ways. Which leads me to wonder, how much can The Observer tell about a person just by observing them? Does every person that he observes have an aura, some sort of residual energy that informs him of where they’ve been and where they’re going? To understand what happened at Holly’s diner, does the Observer only have to observe those who have investigated the event? After all, he read Peter’s thoughts simply by observing him.
Just how much a part of the Pattern is Olivia..
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When Olivia took down INtREPUS and it’s bigwig David Esterbrook, she not only changed the fortunes of Massive Dynamic who profited financially from their demise, but she also changed “The Pattern” itself. In fact, it could be argued that Olivia and her task-force (Walter, Peter, Astrid etc) have been changing the Pattern since they arrested Richard Steig way back in the pilot episode.
Without Olivia putting people like Steig, Jacob Fischer and David Esterbrook behind bars, the series of events that these people had been unleashing would have continued in a very different direction. For instance, Richard Steig would probably have gotten away and sold the jaw-melting viral toxin to whoever he was dealing with, Jacob Fischer would certainly have delivered “electroman” to his associates, and David Esterbrook would have sold his first ‘human bomb’ to his client.
The question is, has Team Olivia, slowed The Pattern down..or have they propelled future events into a far more terrifying direction?
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It seems we’re not the only ones talking about Olivia’s relationship troubles - Digital Spy have a piece on the broader relationship trends which are common throughout JJ Abrams productions:
There’s nothing like a bit of tender romance to warm your cockles in the midst of a hard-edged sci-fi and action strewn story. JJ Abrams certainly has a fondness for pairing up the characters for a bit of hanky panky in his shows Alias, Lost and now Fringe. But as Cult Spydiscovers, it’s likely to end in more than just tears. Mass bloodshed more like, especially when it comes to the world of Sydney Bristow.
The main focus of the opening episode of JJ Abrams’ Fringe, aside from the flesh-eating toxin gobbling up plane passengers, is the crumbling relationship between Special Agent Olivia Dunham and her duplicitous partner John Scott. It all started off sweet and sincere, as the pair soon confess their love for each other after shacking up in a motel. Consider that the kiss of death in the world of JJ.
Continue reading here.
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