My current Fringe theory/questions/random thoughts
Spoiler Alert: Do not read any further if you have not yet watched the December 10th episode. You have been warned!
Ok, so I absolutely love Fringe. It has that perfect mixture of geek coolness and emotional pull that has made Lost such a success for me. The episodes last year when we discovered what Walter did to get his son (well, his new son) and the pull away to the Twin Towers... amazing. A work of art. Fringe is easily the best show on TV now. With Heroes going down the crapper and Lost not around, I'm incredibly grateful to have such a good show on.
So with that out of the day - I've been mostly curious about the adversaries in the show. The 'bad guys' seem to want to destroy our Universe. But why? I mean, if they wanted to take over, they wouldn't destroy it. If they hated us, well, you would have expected to get some kind of idea as to why they did.
When Olivia went over, things looked pretty much the same. I mean ignore the fact that the Twin Towers were still there. You didn't see anything radical like 2 suns, spaceships, or whatever. Of course, we do know that the bad guys have higher technology then ours, but they could simply be 5-10 years ahead. (Think of how much your computer has advanced in 5 years.)
Towards the end of this weeks episode we got a very tantalizing clue. It was quick and easily missed if you weren't paying attention. The bad guy (forgot his name) questioned Walter about his house, he mentioned how there were no trees or grass on the other side. Walter knew about this too and specifically commented on it. This was referred to as the Blight.
Now - that sounds kind of ominous to me. Yet when Olivia went over, you didn't really see any evidence of a 'End of World' panic. That seems to imply that while the Blight may be a big deal, it could be slow. Perhaps something like Global Warming - where some scientists make a big deal out of it but the majority of the public don't really care as long as they can still get their Starbucks.
So if this Blight then is spreading, and has dire consequences for their world, the bad guys may actually be looking to exact revenge. In fact, one of my Facebook friends, Brendan, made a damn excellent point. He said:
My guess is the door 'our' Walter opened caused the 'blight' that destroyed all the vegetation on the 'other side'.
This is fascinating! Walter, in his selfish (if not understandable) desire to get his son back, could be responsible for a slow, creeping doom of an entire planet. That could be the cause of his madness.
Anyway, I've rambled on for long enough. I'd love to hear what other people think.
Unless his door is somehow different or was responsible for some damage they want to correct. Perhaps they have some strategy to 'merge' their world with ours, taking the good from ours to compliment theirs...
But good point - they seem to come here so why are they so concerned about his door. Maybe it just works better.
If we have mercury blooded shapeshifters and the ability to re-attach frozen heads to dead bodies and reanimate them in 2020 I would be surprised.
That being said I would love to see the 'other side' Macbook Pro or iPhone... They must rock!
Also, when Peter and Walter returned the Observer rescued them from car accident too.
Anyone else consider how close Earth 2 and Earth 1 must be in an infinitly variable multiverse. That there are identical people in identical jobs which suggests a very recent split and yet the science is far ahead which suggests a far earlier split (from a shared history point of view).
On the crossover point from Earth 2: if Peter is 33 and was 8 or so when he was abducted then it would have been 25 years since Walter opened the door. Perhaps that is as long as they have been coming to our world.
@Todd: Belly?
I thought Walter was saying 'Billy' as in William but with a faux Boston accent not 'Belly'.
Funny 'blight' picture from the news today that makes me believe we may be Earth 2 not Earth 1: http://images.huffingtonpost.com/gen/125956/thumbs...
I don't think we've ever heard the shapeshifters talk about the consequences of what they're doing. It may well be that they don't believe what they're doing will have the catastrophic effect that Bell warned Olivia about. As a lot of folks pointed out, there already seem to be ways of traveling and communicating (with special typewriters) between the worlds, and if it's causing harm to either world it's not blatantly obvious.
And who's to say Bell isn't lying about the danger for his own purposes? The jury's still out on whether he's a "good guy" or not.
One might argue that they see this as a different Walter, therefore not the target of revenge, but if they are pursuing this plan with the intent of causing disaster, I don't see them as they type to quibble over such a minor detail.
1. I do not think the universe with the 'Blight' is the same one where Olivia meets Bell.
2. I think that Bell's warning to Olivia was bullshits so he could get Olivia to help him stop the dudes looking for him.
3. I also think that the universe Walter took Peter from is the same one as the 'blight' and that the 'blight' was the result of the abduction...somehow.
His time in the looney bin was when he was more over there than he was here.
Since then he has figured out how to spend more time here and I am betting he is in the looney bin over there.
Might explain his lapses in conversation when he comes off with his off the wall comments and cravings.
I think that Walter may actually be the reason why the door stays "open" enough to cause the instability.
But I do wonder if there is a Walter Bishop in the other dimension, just as there was another Peter, and if so whether he's involved with or behind the actions of the shape-shifters.
The biggest reason I think what I do is because when that jailbird tried to go, he got cut in half. He was in both places, like stepping thru a door.. I just think that Walter has a foot on either side of the door and is having conversions in both rooms. Hell, this is like guesing what is going on with LOST, no way we will know until it is over..assuming the writers care to explain.
What I'm waiting for is the realization that there are an infinite number of alternate universes. It seems kinda silly that they are sticking with two so far.
I'm now even more convinced that the "Walternate" (great name, and I think the only bit of humor in that episode, come to think of it) is either in charge of or heavily responsible for the offensive on our world from the other universe. Peter's abduction by someone who looked and sounded exactly like him no doubt tipped him off to the presence of our universe, and he's probably had a full 25 years, uninterrupted by incarceration in a mental hospital and the removal of parts of his brain, to do something about it.
Chuck's question about the Observer perhaps seeing Walter via Walter's window is interesting, but I'm more interested by the episode's implication that the Others can either travel between both universes or (like what Mike G suggested back in Feb. in this thread) somehow exist simultaneously in both (perhaps partially explaining how they can foresee certain events). If it's the former explanation, the ability to travel between the universes without disrupting either universe, maybe they're from a third universe.
Of course, it could be pure greed. I read a great book a few years back where a man discovers a portal to a universe where the Europeans never conquer North America. He uses his knowledge (1950s era) of gold deposits, etc, to basically use this 'virgin America' as a way to get rich.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have a strange urge to go listen to the "Sunday Bloody Sunday." :)