Last week Olivia was left with the ominous news that she had to die. Not a believer in predetermined fate, Olivia took the news with her usual stoicism. But this week, she starts to wonder if fate can be predetermined, and what does that mean? Must she die?
A girl is sitting and drawing when she seems to go into a trance. She quickly finishes her drawing and shoves at a man walking down the street. He looks at the drawing and makes remarks to his co-workers that all teenagers are angsty, must be the reason for the drawing. I’m guessing it’s a gruesome scene of him dying. A piece of construction falls from a crane and impales the man. His co-worker screams at his death, looks at the picture, and screams again. It is a drawing of the man being impaled by a piece of construction.
The FBI gets involved and Olivia and Agent Lee track down the girl. Her father is adamant they leave his family alone, he says they’ve been through this before. People find out about them, try to get his daughter to help them, then they send people out to examine and test her. When he stops the testing the family is followed by people at Massive Dynamic, so he keeps moving his family around. Agent Lee and Olivia leave, Olivia hands over her card. I bet the sketch girl is going to contact Olivia the moment her father’s back is turned. Sketch Girl’s father talks with her, and reminds her that they have never been able to stop the deaths she sees, and going to the police wont solve anything, and might put her in contact with the people who like to do experiments on her. She thinks Olivia is different, but her father dismisses her belief. She asks him why this is happening to her and he tells her that God has a purpose for everyone.
My problem with this episode is the actor they got to play the father. He is always playing creepy bit parts and I’m having a hard time believing he would not be a creepy father. But maybe I just watch too much TV.
Creeper to Father, only in Hollywood
But Sketch Girl disobeys her father and contacts Olivia. I knew it! She has a good reason for going behind her father’s back. She has a new drawing, and it is one of mass destruction and multiple deaths. Olivia takes her back to the lab and Walter examines her. She has the face of one man in the drawing, but can’t remember much else. Astrid runs a search and finds out who the man is, Olivia and Agent Lee leave to find him. Peter convinces Walter to hypnotize Sketch Girl and see if she remembers anything more. They discover that a bomb will go off at the Court House.
Olivia was looking particularly hot in her black and red glasses. Smart woman FTW
The man in the picture lost his family through divorce court so he goes and confronts the Judge who does not remember him. Peter and Agent Lee find the bomb in the parking garage under the Court House. Peter gets an idea. Broyles tries to make Olivia leave, so she wont die. But she refuses to live her life in fear. You go girl! That’s what I’m talking about! I love Olivia’s strong woman mentality. I wish I saw more of it in entertainment. The man tries to set off the bomb in the garage, but Peter’s idea has worked and it doesn’t detonate. He then reveals a bomb strapped to his chest and threatens to set that off. Olivia talks him down, telling him that fate is not predetermined. Something she has been questioning since Sketch Girl showed up so soon after the Observer’s warning.
Of course I'm posting a picture of a hot smart man FTW. What'dya take me for?
Olivia and Peter save the day, as usual. But without a usual Fringe shoot out. I’m proud of ya guys. Nope this one ends a little bit quieter. Sketch Girl is gone from her home and her dad thinks its Massive Dynamics. But it wasn’t. The girl has gone to her secret thinking place. Olivia finds her. She is holding another sketch. Of herself, dead. Olivia tries to reason with her, fate is not predetermined, they stopped the bomb. Her dad arrives and holds her hand, and she dies.
Walter determines that she had a stroke. Her brain worked differently than other people. His theory was the traumatic events would send ripples out around them, back into time and her brain caught those waves. But the thing that gave her the ability to predict her death, was the thing that killed her. Before she died, she told her father that she thought he was right. She did have a purpose. Beyond trying to give people a small window of time to say good-bye to the ones they loved. Her giving the sketch to Olivia saved a lot of people’s lives, and maybe that was her purpose for living.
Fan Art by http://mrfixit741.deviantart.com/
Olivia is sitting in Walter’s lab when Peter comes looking for her. She is looking at a picture of the Observer. Peter recognizes the Observer. He explains that Observers are people who experience all of time at once, they just watch. Olivia wants to know if what they see always comes true, or if they could ever be wrong. Peter says he doesn’t see how they could be wrong. They don’t predict the future, they have already experienced it.
I love Peter, he’s just so smart. I love that this show is full of smart characters. It helps me sit still and watch it. I don’t have to be constantly shouting at my television at the characters to be smart and think and figure things out, because they do. While the episodes main story line of Sketch Girl was rather easily predictable (ha, funny, I see what you did there Fringe), I liked that the writers took a moment in time to look at fate and what it means for Olivia. Will she die? Or does she have to die? I think that is the more pressing question. Will Walter and Peter figure out the machine and send him back to his own timeline? I don’t know and I can’t wait to find out.
The Dun Dun Dunnnn moment is a bit quieter too. When Olivia found out that Massive Dynamics had examined and tested Sketch Girl she had gone to Nina and chewed her out. Finally, Olivia is seeing Bad Nina for what she really is, bad! Nope, all Nina has to do is apologize and say she’ll make Olivia soup. Bah Humbug. Though, I do think it really sweet that Olivia realizes her time on this earth may be up soon, so she tells Nina that she loves her. Awww. Bad Nina, Bad Bad Bad!!! She needs a spanking.
Then again, Bad Nina might be in to bondage and spankings. She does wear a lot of leather.
Maybe the Observer outside Olivia’s apartment building will give it to her.
(I Googled “Nina from Fringe Getting Spanked”, and the results were nil. Internets, you fail. And I don’t have time to make up a picture myself. Sorry.)
Absurdly Nerdly 