Review: Fringe “Lysergic Acid Diethylamide”

With Olivia still possessed by William Bell the Fringe team has less than a day to force Olivia’s true personality to emerge from her subconscious, lest it disappear forever. With Peter desperate to get his girlfriend back, Walter and Bell decide that the best solution would be to venture into Olivia’s mind-scape and find her bring her back. Bell, Peter, and Walter all dose themselves, and plug themselves into the same machine which Olivia used to contact John Scott’s mind in the first episode. Walter and Peter end up in Olivia’s mind surrounded by projections of her subconscious intent on killing them. I originally yawned at the plot as an Inception rip off but then the style transformed into that of a cartoon. Walter and I defiantly had the same thoughts on the matter. 

The stylistic change not only differentiated this episode from Inception, but also showed a nice representation of the infinite capacity for imagination. After riding on a zeppelin, fighting off Zombies, fleeing Olvia’s step father,and encountering a strange man with a black X on his shirt, Peter finds Olivia. In a moment that made me say “D’awww” Peter realizes that the figure he’s talking to isn’t Olivia but another projection of her mind. The real Olivia created her as a test to see if she could trust Peter. At this point she should no longer be worried that Peter wasn’t able to tell her and Folivia apart.

 

The humor in this episode was a nice break from the impending doom. Seeing Peter stoned was funny. I loved his theory that Boyles is an observer because he’s bald. Seeing Boyles stoned upped the hilarity ante. I didn’t expect him cut loose because his character is always so serious.  Lance Reddick must have had fun with the script he was given.

This episode set up some great potential stories. The biggest is the mysterious man the X on his shirt. Olivia says she doesn’t know him but nonchalantly refers to him as the man who will kill her. Has cortexiphan made her precognoscente, and showed her future? She can start fires and hop universes with her mind. Why not see the future? Maybe at some point down the line Olivia will travel to her own past. Like Bruce Willis in 12 Monkeys, maybe  young Olive will see adult Olivia killed.  Maybe the man with the X on his shirt isn’t real at all. He could be a representation of Olivia’s psyche. Peter worried that they shouldn’t enter someone else’s mind for fear of “knocking something loose”. Maybe there’s a reason that Black X was locked up behind chains. He could be something self destructive about Olivia and that’s how he will kill her. maybe he’s Olivia’s bravery. She didn’t seem to care at all that Black X would kill her. She even remarked that the first time in a long time she didn’t feel afraid. This could be a very bad thing because her cortexiphan abilities are powered by fear.
The next three Episodes of Fringe Promis to be big. Lets hope they keep the quality high.

On a scale of 1to Epic (Epic=10) This episode gets a 9.0