Fringe, S5 Ep2 – In Absentia

Okay, well, this episode didn’t cause me quite so much keyboard-smash, but that may well be because I watched it at the end of a day that included a nine-hour car trip.  My one-sentence summary?  Development for the Dunham-Bishops, and advancement in arc, plus a guest character who was more interesting than he seemed at first.  Good stuff.

I can’t say that I wasn’t a little emotional at the return of our crew to Walter’s lab at Harvard.  My one question (surely to be answered at a later date) about this return is: was Gene ambered with everything else?  I hope so.  Anyway.  So far, so good, with the search for Walter’s plan to overthrow the Observers.  I’m on board, although I hope the scavenger hunt aspect doesn’t last the entire rest of the season… I mean, show.  (Sob.)  As much as the characters are a huge part of why I watch the show, it’s also for the smart plotting and I don’t want it to get overly simplistic.  Also, the hatch and mysterious videos (complete with a Henry Ian Cusick cameo) were very reminiscent of LOST.  I may have mentioned it before, but it bears repeating: we don’t need that.  Especially not when we’d like this show to actually make sense as it wraps up.

Just don’t tell me their last name was Van de Kamp.

Also, just how long are we going to have to wait to find out what happened to Etta when she went missing?  That little moment where Olivia sees young Etta with some other man and woman was tantalizing.  I guess I understand why Olivia’s parent-ness would need to be focused elsewhere for this episode, but they have to give us something more soon, right?

On the subject of parenting: I like that both Peter and Olivia had a moment to be parents.  Now all we need is a real Walter-as-Grandpa moment, and hopefully an Astrid-as-Aunt moment.  I was also pleasantly surprised that the emotion Etta saw in her mom was pity, and that she was so affected by it.

I assume we’ll see more of the Resistance soon, too; seems like they can’t help but play a part.  Maybe Eric Lange will come back, too, now that he’s repented of his Loyalist ways.  I wonder, though, whether we’ll get a kind of Prince Caspian situation, where some of the Resistance will welcome the original Fringe team back with open arms and follow them eagerly, while others will hardly believe and/or care that they are who they say they are, and will have their own ideas that they’re not willing to give up.

I like Olivia as a proud mom – but I also require her to do some kickass action soon, preferably with enhanced Cortexipowers.

Overall, I’d say when those involved with the show promised there wouldn’t be any time wasted in the 13 episodes we have, they seem to have been telling the truth.  As long as the plan to defeat the Observers is actually interesting and clever, and things keep developing as they’ve started, I’ll probably love it.  I’ll just try not to think too much about how there are now only 11 more episodes left of my favorite show.