Written on April 14, 2010 at 6:00 am by Rhea Dee

Fringe: Olivia. In the Lab. With the Revolver. 

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By Rhea Dee
I hate it when Fringe previews are misleading. The sneak peek had me believing that this week’s episode would be all about the secret war between Walter and Olivia over whether or not to tell Peter about his alternate universe origins. And while Walter and Olivia do have a mini-argument about that, this episode was more about Olivia struggling with the information about Peter and how to live with that information.

Because of last week’s episode, Team Fringe isn’t back to its normal, half-goofy, half-serious self. Olivia hasn’t been able to sleep since finding out about Peter and Walter keeps himself in check around Olivia, playing down his eccentricities and reacting stiffly to Peter’s praise. Peter of course, thinks that Olivia is acting all weird because of their near makeout party.

Despite all the tension within the group (minus Astrid—which is too bad) the team still manages to work together and succeed in solving the case of the week. A man afflicted with cancer, James Heath, is somehow passing on his disease to other people just by touching them. By passing the disease Heath is able to stave off his cancer for a little while–but it always returns so he’s always hunting his next victim. Walter suggests that only a certain group of people are susceptible to getting cancer by being touched, so Heath cannot transfer his disease to just anyone– he is hunting certain people. The people at risk of getting cancer from Heath? Cortexiphan experiment patients. In other words, Olivia. She’s so lucky, that one.

Throughout the investigation, Olivia struggles with her new knowledge about Peter. She confronts Walter about it pretty early on in the episode. And he doesn’t necessarily discourage Olivia from telling Peter, he only asks for some time before she blabs. She talks to Sam (yaay he came back) and they discuss her situation over a game of Clue. She even confronts Nina with her “I know about Peter” knowledge. I think Nina’s response is probably the best, since Nina is the only one who calls out Olivia for what she’s really doing: trying to find an excuse to not tell Peter. Olivia never wanted to tell Peter, because she loves him (not necessarily in a makeout way) and doesn’t want to lose him. However, she’s fighting against her own morality code to do the right thing–and to her doing the right thing would be telling Peter, and telling Peter right now.

Interestingly, Peter even has some advice for Olivia (although he’s referring to the almost makeout party). He tells her that he wouldn’t want to do anything to jeopardize their little Fringe Family. And even though he was referring to the almost kiss, his words helped Olivia realize that telling Peter the truth would eff things up very badly.

But back to our case of the week. Heath does eventually track down Olivia to try and pass his cancer to her, but she manages to save herself (by beating Heath down with a candlestick in the kitchen, a far cry from the title of this episode). Before she beats him down (in true awesome Olivia fashion) she calls Peter on her speed dial. When Peter finds out that he’s special enough to be on her speed dial, they do a whole “kiss and make-up for awkward times” without any kissing.

At the end of the episode Olivia talks to Walter and tells him that she won’t tell Peter the truth, saying that some secrets were meant to stay secrets. But Walter surprises Olivia by telling her that he is going to tell Peter soon, that this secret has been kept for long enough. Suspense!

Last Thoughts: Diane Kruger, I see you playing a lawyer and then dying at the beginning of the episode! I love her.

Next Week on Fringe: Okay, this isn’t about next week, but the coming weeks. There’s going to be a musical episode. Olivia, Astrid and Broyles are going to perform. Broyles! I can’t wait for that episode to air.

Rhea Dee spends her time collecting vintage junk, daydreaming about Eli Roth, and pondering the genius of John Carpenter soundtracks. She really likes horror films.