Too Young to Die

The scene of Mark Young falling to his death was awesome, but like most things it’s been done before. This “Watchmen” comparison visually looks like the closest parallel. “Who will watch the Watchmen?!” Heck, “Who will watch Massive Dynamic”? As we posited a few weeks back.

Blue Bell

Nothing major here, but after Mark Young falls to his death we can see that the Massive Dynamic central office is situated on Bell Plaza. Aww, Bellie has a street named in his honour. Also, take note of the blue light-effect.

Massive Observer

The Observer made it nine appearances out of nine, as he observed the soon to be hallucinating Mark Young. Perhaps most interesting is the fact that September managed to get inside the Massive Dynamic building, apparently unnoticed. Could it be that not everyone can observe the Observers presence? Sure, he’s been caught on candid camera, but a snap shot and real-time observation are two different mediums. Perhaps the viewers and Olivia are special in that we can see him when others cant. Yeah, we’re special.

As an aside, it’s worth pointing out that this surely isn’t Michael Cerveris. I’d guess that they’ve drafted in two look-alikeies to portray the Observer for the past two episodes.

Lost in Fringe

Bad Robot tip their hat to their other legendary TV show, “Lost”,with this nice little easteregg of an Oceanic Airlines ticket belonging to Mark Young. In case you don’t know (and you really should), Oceanic Airlines is the ill-fated (or destined?) airliner which crashed our Losties onto the Island. 

Some people have suggested that this signifies a Lost/Fringe cross-over, with Phillip Broyles and Matthew Abbadon being the same person. Dream on! As much as I love both shows, it’s not gonna happen. Lost is on ABC and Fringe is on Fox.  This isn’t Nina and Broyles - they’ll be no quid pro quo. It’s simply JJ. Abrams and co giving a shout out to one of their other productions, just like they did for “Alias” a couple of weeks back with the “Page 47″ and the “Mr. Jones” /Mr Smith” references.

Fear not Lost and Fringe fans, we’ll still get to fangasm when both shows air within 24 hours of one another starting Jan 20. Sweetness.

Whatever The Casey May Be

In Mark Jones journal, the name “Dr. Peretti” is written. If you recall, one of the gravestones in “The Arrival” bore the name “Casey Peretti”. Coincidence? I think not. Even more interesting is the fact that Casey Peretti is buried on the same plot as Robert Bishop, who is possibly Walter’s father.

Anyway, the point is that we should be aware that the name Peretti means something.

Staggering Connections

Mark Young’s journal again: The words “Monarch” (which Olivia later deciphered as being George Morales phone number) is written in a very similar ’staggered’ pattern as those which we observed in The Equation and The Arrival. See here if you don’t know what I’m referring to.

What does it mean? Frack knows, but it’s a pattern and it has now been observed, just in case it holds meaning for future episodes.

Finding Zeno

As Olivia’s laptop starts up, the word ZenoFX Multimedia (and ZenFX) pop up on the screen. Obviously this refers to a piece of software on Olivia’s computer. However, if you remember, “Zeno” is one of the oldest and most debated of all the Fringe clues. It was first seen on the kayak in Olivia’s dream-state (along with the aleph, blue flashes and green and red dots). I doubt that this is a coincidence as this is the 2nd appearance of the word Zeno.

As for what it means, well it could related to “ZFT” (the cell referenced in “Mr. Jones” and in this episode by George Morales). It should also be mentioned that Massive Dynamic have their own “Zeno”. With all that in mind, I’d venture to guess that Zeno has something to do with time-travel.

Napoleon Dynamite

Whilst Olivia runs search returns for “Monarchy”, one of the browsers opens up information on “L’Empereur” (referring to Napoleon’s ‘monarchy’). There’s also a 1989 turn-based strategy game called L’Empereur. This may be of interest to those who speculate that on some level Fringe might actually be a game.

Red? Meet Red

During Olivia’s “Monarchy” search, a nice comparison emerged between two strong red-headed and charismatic women of power. Elizabeth I and Nina Sharp. There’s no denying the obvious parallels, and more can be interpreted with the fact that both Elizabeth and Nina are known for their close association with two men named William (Cecil and Bell, respectively).

We could perhaps go the whole tilt and suggest that it’s Nina Sharp and not William Bell who is the real power house down at Massive Dynamic. “Who does she do?..Who doesn’t she do..”

Blue Dreams

The blue flashes have been absent for a few episodes but they came back in force during Olivia’s dream state. Anyone still thinking that they are only for styling needs to re-think that opinion.

MSSDYN

Mark Young’s business card. Clearly Massive Dynamic want you to call them. Go on, give them a bell. You might also want to email Mark using m.young@massivedynamic.com (inset).

Burn After Reading

Someone asked me to include this. Clearly they’ve never seen the word “burn” on a bin before.

Double J Vision

Some people think that JJ made a cameo in this episode. I hope it isn’t him, Fringe is already twisty enough without the puppetmaster fracking with our heads even more!

Thanks to the Fringe-Forum community for some of the images used in this round-up.

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[See post to listen to audio]

Thanks: Kitta

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The Good

1. The opening sequence. Visually and artistically stunning.
2. The strong and deliberate overarching mythos
3. Olivia’s dream sequence. Conceptually beautiful and re-establishes some delicious possibilities.
4. The “Man of science, Man of faith” overtones with Walter and his Bible. I hope to see more spirituality incorporated into Fringe to balance the all of the science and technology. It was also interesting to see Walter shun the opportunity to put Olivia back into the tank. Remember, this is from a man who loves nothing more than to experiment on himself or others.
5. The return of Nina and Massive Dynamic. Nina always brings something extra to the party and this episode was no different.
6. The introduction of the “smokescreen” suggestion was a good move as it allows Olivia and the viewers to re-evaluate the nature of the Pattern. It’s a bit like the ‘freewill vs destiny’ debate on LOST, only corporate instead of spiritual.
7. The music - gorgeous in places. Not quite up to LOST standards just yet but it’s getting there.

The Bad

1. The “Peter/Tess” story wasn’t very interesting and seemed somewhat out of sync with the rest of the episode. I can appreciate the need to expand the character back-stories but I care less about Peter’s back-story in this episode than when he rumbled the photographer at the beginning of “The Arrival”. I hope this Tess/Mob back-story is going somewhere but I’m pretty dialed out at the moment.
2. As I’m writing this I literally forget her name. No, seriously. Anyway, Astrid - she had a few more lines in this episode but she’s not a key component of the story. For a JJ. Abrams show this is surprising, just look at the first season of LOST - an enormous ensemble yet every single one of those muthas were integral to the story. Don’t get it twisted, we like Jasika Nicole, we just hope there’s more to Astrid than just being ‘there’.
3. Whilst the mythological elements are melding with sweetness, it’s a shame that there isn’t greater continuity between the characters from episode to episode. An example - in The Equation Walter was traumatised from his return to St. Claire’s. In this episode it’s as if that never happened. Whilst I give kudos for actually showing that his request for his own room came to something (he’s now in 112), the show could benefit from tighter integration (aka, make it more serialized).
4. Walter’s “erection” comment. I know the man is insane and crude, but they pushed the Walter-button too far in that moment. It had me cringing for the first time in the series and the joke went down like a lead balloon (so to speak). I don’t want them to sanitize the show, far from it, but something about that gag just didn’t feel right. Perhaps it’s just the thought of a not so young gentleman having feelings downstairs *hurls*. Poor Astrid, will she recover from the shock!? Tune in next week!
5. Lacked some of the ebb and flow of previous weeks. 
6. I worked something out this week. We don’t do the best foot-chases in Fringe. Take a look at LOST. That Keamy v Ben/Kate foot-chase in the season 4 finale was how to do a foot-chase. Either Olivia is chasing someone into the heart of darkness by herself or Charlie contributes nothing to the end result of said foot-chase. Remember Ziegler? Rogue? Ostler? This is probably a harsh complaint considering I love this show, but foot-chases should be exciting, adrenaline pumping events. OK, enough on the foot-chase.
7. Olivia’s return to the tank - not enough bra and panties! Walter has a great figure, why not show it off?

Overall this was a good episode, no question. The main gripe is that it had less exceptional moments/attributes than the previous 3 or 4 episodes, so this is testimony to Bad Robot and their usual bar-raising standards. This was an episode which moved things along and set up some nice little questions for the fan community to speculate over. Rating: 7/10

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Popular Mechanics take a look at the science presented in “The Dreamscape” and ask whether it’s possible to scare yourself to death, and whether it’s possible to strategically access recessed memories from the brain.

Is it possible for someone to scare himself to death?
Mark Young, an employee at the mysterious, possibly evil, corporation Massive Dynamic, is so convinced he is being attacked by butterflies that he jumps out of a window to escape them, and the team is called in to investigate this bizarre tragedy. The butterflies were a hallucination, but the cuts Young suffered from them were very real.

Mad scientist Walter Bishop concludes that Young suffered from psychosomatic effects, which is the ability of the mind to cause actual physical changes in the body. This “mind over matter” philosophy is the same thing responsible for a person getting goose bumps when they are frightened, he claims. In this case, the wounds originated internally and pierced their way through the body tissue.

“Hallucinations have varying levels of reality to a patient,” says Dr. Mark Milstein, a neurologist and assistant professor of neurology at a major New York City hospital. “Some know that what they are seeing or hearing is not really present. Some believe so deeply in their hallucinations that they may act against them, yelling at imagined people, or even trying to attack them.”

Dr. Milstein explains that hallucinations, the perception of sensory information without actual external stimulus, can be as simple as hearing someone when you are alone or smelling apple pie cooking in an empty house.

But to be cut by one’s imagination, as Young was by the butterflies, isn’t possible in reality. The only way for that to ring true in modern science is if Young was cutting at his own skin without realizing it. “If a patient believed that he was being assaulted—by insects, for example—he might end up harming himself to stop the ‘assault,’ ” Dr. Milstein says.

As with most of the victims in Fringe, Young’s bloodstream was exposed to a compound that caused the hallucination; in this case, the compound came from a toad. Dr. Milstein doesn’t list this as a candidate for typical drugs at play in such scenarios. Instead, he says that several sedatives, anesthetic medications and even some treatments for Parkinson’s disease can bring about hallucinations.

“Interestingly, LSD, an illicit drug most historically described to cause hallucinations, actually more prominently causes sensory delusions,” Dr. Milstein says, explaining that these delusions are merely a result of normal sensory perceptions being altered or distorted.

Can you strategically access recessed memories from the brain?
When Dunham first went into the “sensory deprivation” tank nine episodes ago, she got inside the head of Agent Scott. Little did she know that Scott’s memories also got inside her head—and stayed there. Walter Bishop mentioned that the visions (and hallucinations, as it were) Dunham has been having could last for years unless she used a form of repressed memory therapy to bring those foreign memories to the surface and release them from her subconscious.

According to Dr. Milstein (the real neurologist), the memory in question here isn’t one of the typical subtypes of memory. There is immediate memory, which is the amount of information a person may retain for just a few seconds, such as a phone number. There’s working memory, like doing a math problem in your head, and recent memory, such as remembering what you ate for dinner the previous night.

Then there is remote memory. “This is your permanent memory,” Dr. Milstein explains. “What was your childhood address? What is your father’s birthday?”

None of these, however, explain repressed memories of another person. Recalling such memories, such as what Scott was doing while Dunham went to the bathroom on their first date, is impossible, but even if Scott’s memories somehow miraculously became Dunham’s repressed memories, other methods might work better than a tank filled with water.

“There is data that hypnosis may help uncover ‘forgotten’ memories,” Dr. Milstein says. “Additionally, application of a sedative, such as sodium amytal, may create a dissociative state that helps release repressed memories.” This particular sedative, Dr. Milstein explains, is often labeled “truth serum” by science-fiction and thriller authors.

“However, both of these techniques require a skilled practitioner,” Dr. Milstein says. “And in both situations, patients can become very confident about distorted or even ‘false’ memories.”

Luckily, Agent Dunham’s recovered memories led her in the right direction in her investigation, but in reality, her visions likely mean that she is suffering from the same symptoms as Mark Young: hallucinations.

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Here’s the Scene Maker:

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1. Walter confesses that he didn’t expect to return to the project so soon.
2. He quotes Exodus 8:3 - “And the river shall bring forth frogs abundantly..”
3. He compares the regression concoction to an old witches recipe, noting that the effect will be to propel Olivia’s regression into John Scott’s memory.
4. The process takes 4-5 hours, not unlike the time taken to cook a turkey on Thanksgiving.
5. He refers to Astrid as “Astringent“, and shows a head for Saline-saving during these touch economic times.
6. He notes the dangers of Olivia’s identity falling into itself over and over in an endless spiral across the various plains of her own realities. He also notes the powerful opportunities this can yield the individual.
7. His notes are accompanied by paper toads, a photo of Mark Young’s thrashed body and a ‘divine’ depiction of the synaptic transfer process (along with the one from the pilot lab notes).

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Early figure suggest that episode 1.09 “The Dreamscape” pulled in around 8.73 million viewers last night, and scored well in the key demos. However, as pointed out by TVByTheNumbers, the final figure may change due to “House” running over by 8 minutes. Hopefully we’ll garnera few hundred thousand extra viewers, on top of the couple of million who probably TiVo’d the episode.

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Video Cred: Brent

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