Fringe – Recap & Review – Brown Betty

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Fringe
Brown Betty

Original Air Date: Apr 29, 2010

Rachel – Sr. Managing Editor
rachel@thetwocentscorp.com

Devastated by Peter’s abandonment, Walter turns to “Uncle Walter’s Special Medication” for solace.

When Olivia shows up at the lab with her niece Ella, Walter spins a bedtime story of love lost, with a few show tunes thrown in for good measure. Welcome to Fringe: The 1940’s Sometimes Musical. And the story goes a little something like this…

Private Eye Olivia Dunham is hired by a girl (Rachel) to find her missing boyfriend (Peter). She is (of course) led to Massive Dynamic, where Nina Sharp tells her to drop the case because Peter is a dangerous man. When Rachel turns up dead (and turns out the be an actress), Olivia finds Dr. Walter Bishop, inventor of all things good in the world (like rainbows and bubble gum and singing corpses). Dr. Bishop hired Rachel to pose as Peter’s girlfriend so Olivia, with her soft spot for true love, would take the case. The real reason he wants to find Peter, the matter-of-life-and-death reason, is that Peter stole Walter’s glass heart.

After Olivia is attacked by The Observer in the parking lot, she finds her way back to Massive Dynamic and let’s Nina have it. The weapon The Observer used on Olivia was copyrighted to MD, so Nina must know more. Nina says that “The Watchers” are a dangerous group working for Peter Bishop and they will not stop until Olivia gives up the case. She won’t (obviously) and ends up thrown into Boston Harbor in a pine coffin. And who should rescue her? Why, dashing Peter Bishop (with a total Clooney vibe)!

Olivia learns that it was Peter, not Walter, who is the true owner of the heart… he was born with it. And Peter had been willing to give it to Walter so he could invent more wonderful things, until Peter realized that for every wonderful thing Walter invented, a child was hurt. Walter is a stealer of children’s dreams, you see, so Peter backed out on the deal. When The Watchers break into the hideout and steal the heart right out of Peter’s chest, it’s obvious where they are heading: the lab at Harvard.

Olivia and Peter confront Walter at the lab. Walter pleads with Peter that he can “change and make things right.” Peter takes the heart and leaves, telling Walter that there are some things you just can’t change.

At this point, Ella breaks into the narrative and lets Walter know that that was the worst ending ever; every good story ends with “and they lived happily ever after.” So Ella decides to rewrite it, with Peter breaking the magical heart in half and sharing it with Walter so they can continue to do good things together… happily ever after.

This was a fun and touching episode, and it wasn’t as musical-heavy as I thought it might be. I was nervous it would try to be Once More With Feeling and totally miss the mark. But a high-quality marijuana trip? Perfect. Some of my favorite moments were Broyles on the piano, Gene the Cow in multi-colored spots, Astrid singing a song from A Chorus Line, and MD Lab Boy working at the copyright office. I also really like the scene where Olivia had to put batteries into Peter empty chest… well played, Ms. Torv! What do YOU think? Did you like it? Hate it? Give us your Two Cents in the comment section below!

Next Week: Northwest Passage

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