Fringe: Marionette

By Rhea Dee

So it finally happened. We finally got to see how Olivia handled the whole Peter and Bolivia affair.  And it was just heartbreaking.

Now, I have to be totally honest here: I was not expecting it to be heartbreaking.  In fact, I was expecting it to be kind of annoying.  I mean, have you ever noticed that shows all seem to take a similar stance with situations like these?  A stance that says “Yeah, yeah, okay.  You’re a girl and you’re sad and stuff because your Holy Dude betrayed you.  But you failed to realize that your dude is holy.  So that means no matter what you do, you’re going to be looked on as annoying and whiny and overdramatic because your problems don’t mean crap next to the Holy Dude.  In fact, your problems will be absorbed by the Holy Dude and people will feel sorry for him instead of you, because as we all know, man pain is better than woman pain.”

Supposedly, this kind of story will show a girl character’s “vulnerability”.  But there’s a big difference between a vulnerable female character and a female character that makes men “suffer” because she can’t get her crap together.  (My most hated of those types of stories can be found in Buffy the Vampire Slayer Episode 5×10, “Into the Woods”.  Ugh, that episode.)

Luckily, Fringe rises above. Again.  I really should just stop underestimating this show, shouldn’t I?

Not once in this episode did I feel like Olivia’s emotions were irrational.  Not once during Olivia’s speech to Peter did I feel like she should “lighten up” on him.

I really love how Fringe showed how hard the truth was on Olivia.  In true Olivia fashion, when Peter first told her, she tried to brush it off.  I wouldn’t say she was in denial, despite ripping off her sheets and crying next to her washer, because she seemed genuinely touched when Astrid defended Peter’s love for Olivia and his obliviousness about Bolivia.  I really think that Olivia was trying her best to try and work past this bump, because she loves Peter.  But eventually, Olivia had to come to terms with the fact that it does bother her.  She didn’t really place all the blame on Peter (although she made an excellent point when she told Peter that she listened to a figment of her imagination while Peter couldn’t even recognize that Bolivia wasn’t his Olivia) but rather on Bolivia, who took everything she wanted.

Peter’s response to all of this was amazing as well.  I’m really glad he didn’t try and jump in to defend himself, because, really, what could he say?  He effed up big time.  He got sucked into his little fantasy world and it put a big roadblock on his relationship with the real Olivia.  I actually think this is good for Peter.  I’ve talked at length about his Olivia fantasy relationship that he had with Bolivia, and I think that whole relationship was a huge indicator that he isn’t ready to be with the real Olivia.  In fact, Peter has always kind of been exasperated at Olivia’s tough girl act.  But that’s who Olivia is. The real Olivia is tough.  The real Olivia has problems.  The real Olivia won’t have cutesy moments in the middle of the night as you’re watching Casablanca together.  But I do believe that the real Olivia does love Peter, even now, after everything.  And I think Peter’s lucky to have that, considering.

Last Thoughts: My god!  Baldo!  We needed some Observers up in here.  Although, I did pull my hair out a bit with his cryptic “He’s still alive” phrase.  Who’s still alive: Peter or Walter?  What, does one of them have a bomb in their stomach that was supposed to go off 10 years ago?

Next Time on Fringe: Winter break!  Fringe won’t be back until late January.  On Fridays.  We’ll see how it goes.

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.

Related Stuff:

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the RSS feed to have future articles delivered to your feed reader.