Fringe – Recap & Review – Amber 31422

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Fringe
Amber 31422

Original Air Date: Nov 4, 2010

Rachel – Sr. Managing Editor
rachel@thetwocentscorp.com

Our Olivia has a problem. Well, more than a few, actually, She thinks she’s Fauxlivia, see keeps hallucinating about Peter, and she is popping little red pills like they’re candy. Claiming to have no lingering side effects from her mental breakdown, she voluntarily submits to some additional testing which Walternate says will help them “win the war.” He tells her the other Olivia can slip between realities and that maybe Fauxlivia can, too. Some sensory deprivation and a weird experience in a gift shop later, Olivia is pulled from the tank more confused than before. This is not going to go well.

Meanwhile, someone monkeyed with an Amber Quarantine site created four years ago. OFD is called in to investigate the unstable material. Charlie notices a new addition to the Amber: Some petty criminal possibly trying to extract purses or wallets from the Amberized victims. Nope. Lincoln notices an amber cast of a body. Now, why would a person want to get a body out of Amber?

When Walternate gets wind of the missing body, he confides in Action Broyles that those thousands of people lost in Amber Quarantines are technically not dead. This is huge. If the general public learned that their loved ones could be retrieved, Mr. Secretary would have a revolt on his hands, even with the knowledge that getting the victims out would make the Amber unstable, trapping others or worse: re-opening the tears that lead to Our Side. He charges Broyles with finding the missing man (another bank robber named Josh, OFD had discovered) so that this really awful and totally uncool secret doesn’t get out.

The investigation leads (in a round-about way) to Josh’s identical twin brother Matt. Matt lives in suburban New York with his wife and kids. He tells Olivia and Charlie he hasn’t seen his brothers, that Josh was an awful person who killed many people with his particular form of bank robbery (causing Amber Quarantines around the city), and that Josh would know better than to contact him if he did, indeed, get out of the Amber. Of course, as soon as the agents leave, he goes to a shed in his backyard where he has been nursing Josh back to help after he got him out of the Amber. But wait… Josh is actually Matt, and vice-versa. Matt (the good twin) tried to stop Josh from killing more people four years ago and got trapped in the Amber. Josh (the bad twin) decided to assume Matt’s public life (Matt’s wife was in on it) while he developed a method to save Matt. Heavy.

Thinking that the trail has dead-ended, Olivia goes home to another Peter hallucination. He continues (as is his M.O.), to tell her she doesn’t belong in this reality, that she is the other Olivia, yada, yada, yada. He then mentions some twins he knew in high school that always got straight As but were not equally smart. Olivia gets it: Matt and Josh switched places. She rushes the OFD to interrogate Matt whom she thinks is really Josh, but he isn’t. They have switched back. She freaks out a bit on Real Matt and Broyles send her home.

Covertly, she works with Astrid on the probable locations of a new Josh robbery site and arrives just in time to get tasered by Josh. Matt shows p, too, to try to stop Josh again, but learns that this really isn’t another heist. Josh knows that the authorities will come after Matt, as the only person ever to extracted from Amber, unless josh encapsulates himself. He and Olivia escape the latest Amber Quarantine.

With some help from Hallucination Peter, Olivia starts remembering things she shouldn’t: like September 11th and her niece Ella. She decides to try the sensory deprivation tank again. This time, when she ends up in that same gift shop, she is able to hang on a bit longer. She crosses to some windows to see the altered skyline of Manhattan. The one without the Twin Towers. She pick up the courtesy phone, dials a number she doesn’t remember knowing, and Ella picks up. She is officially aware that she is Our Olivia. Walternate has her pulled from the tank and asks her what she saw. “Nothing. All I saw was darkness.”

What do YOU think? Now that Olivia knows she’s Our Olivia but still has Fauxlivia memories, how will she be able to keep up the charade long enough to cross back over? Will Henry the Cabbie make another appearance? How aweseom is this show?!? Give us your Two Cents in the comment section below!

Next Week: 6955 kHz [Yes. That’s the name of the episode.]