Well, the angst – the romantic one, at least – is mostly over, at least for now, so I can breathe again. I imagine it’ll come back at the end of the season of Fringe, because of course it will, this is a TV show, but I’m just going to rejoice in the fact that I don’t have to suffer through any more versions of the same conversation.
Though I do have to suffer through Fauxlivia being pregnant, because of course she is. How many men were there in the writers’ room again?
I already discussed my issues with what Fauxlivia did to Peter, and if possible, I have even more issues after getting through the next batch of episodes. I never expected the show to tackle it head on, but I don’t know, I at least expected some sort of …acknowledgement, from someone other than Olivia.
And her acknowledgment was more about the emotional part, too, which, of course, is what this whole storyline is about – making Olivia feel.
Blech.
Some things I appreciate, I do. I feel like Peter had to tell Olivia, and she had to get angry, had to get emotional. She deserved a few episodes to go through all the stages of grief, because she lost something. But considering the show isn’t only from her POV, it’s a little jarring that we didn’t get to see Peter do the same.
Oh yes, that’s because the show didn’t seem to understand he was also a victim. To them he was merely the villain, because he didn’t notice Fauxlivia wasn’t Olivia.
The kid just makes everything, well …much, much worse. The storyline was already icky, now we’re going to have Peter having feelings about a child he’s having with a woman he took advantage of him? Please save me from this hell.
I did enjoy the openness between Peter and Olivia in these episodes, in the sense that the situation forced them to talk about their feelings, which isn’t something the show is good at – I’ve already complained about the bad job they did at setting these two up, and now more than ever, I stand by it.
Though maybe I’m thinking part of that might have been, gasp, intentional, to make the pill of Peter not realizing Fauxlivia wasn’t the real Olivia easier to swallow. Joke’s on them, though, because that’s still a very bitter pill indeed. And no, in hindsight, it doesn’t make more sense.
However, for me, it’s not just Peter. Walter, of all people, should have known. Broyles should have questioned something. Hell, Astrid could have made a comment. No, they’re not as guilty as Peter, they didn’t spend a much time with her, but they’re certainly not innocent, either.
Back to Peter and Olivia…they’re now starting something, and boy, is it gonna be weird. I’m glad they got here, and I’m glad they had all the hard conversations, one after the other, because they needed those. In many ways, though, I just want a respite …a moment where they can be, well, a couple. I like them together, I do, but so much of what makes an OTP special is in the quiet moments, and we’ve barely had any of those with Peter and Olivia.
Hell, we didn’t even get an actual love scene that we could SEE, like we did with Peter and Fauxlivia, which is just more proof that TV shows don’t really know what we want.
I need some moments of happiness. It cannot all be angst. I need something to miss, something to yearn for. Even if it’s just the episodes from here till the season 3 finale. Because if I’m going to do off the deep angsty end again in season 4 without anything to hold onto, well …that’s just not a great OTP.
Or a great show.
Fringe is available to stream on IMDBTV.
