Fringe: “6B” – review

Love knows no boundaries. Love can even last beyond the grave–or between parallel universes. Love will, as one song says, “keep us together,” and as another song says, “love is all we need.” In the Fringe episode “6B,” the strength of the bonds of love is put to the test. The episode is part love story, part ghost story, and all Fringe, in the twists and turns the plot takes as it draws to its great conclusion. Rifts sometimes happen in almost every relationship. What happens when love can potentially tear a rift between universes? Will the only way a vortex can be prevented, due to the rift, be to develop a way to seal off areas as is done in the alt-universe of Fringe, with the use of Amber?

I didn’t know what to expect from this episode given the brief description of it I read online before the show premiered about “a series of Fringe events eventually leads the team to the home of a woman who is still grieving over the death of her husband”; it sounded like it’d be kind of innocuous and run-of-the-mill to me. Happily, the description of the episode didn’t do it justice, and it ended up containing some of this season’s best moments, IMO. Hopefully, if the excellent preview of next week’s episode shown at the end of “6B” is any indication, the rest of the season’s shows will be even more spectacular!

Highlights/Memorable Quotes

1.) The glyphs for “6B” spell out HEARTS. It’s a perfect coded word for “6B.” I wonder if there might originally have been plans to have this episode air even nearer to Valentine’s Day?

2.) The Rosencrantz apartment building where much of the episode takes place sees the occurrence of a mass suicide (or is it?) when six people who had been attending a party there plunged to their deaths, one after the other, to the pavement below. As the bodies stack up, we’re left wondering: “Is the building haunted, or cursed? Did the people who died commit suicide, or were they somehow driven to their deaths, or did they simply fall through the floor of a balcony that suddenly let them pass through solid matter?”

3.) Before these deaths occur, we’re briefly allowed to see into the apartment where the party is going on. I liked the blender that turns on by itself, and the woman near to it who then begins to choke, as if she’s having an allergic reaction to something. I thought, at first, that it would be the lady who would mysteriously die due to the reaction, so it surprised me when bodies started to hit the street below.

4.) It was a nice touch, and once again shows Walter’s soft side, when he prepares a large breakfast for Peter and Olivia close to the episode’s beginning. The hope was that over breakfast, the two would talk, and become reconciled to what happened between Peter and Bolivia. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen, but it was kind of Walter to give it a try.

5.) In reference to this, one Walter quote I really liked and found memorable was in this scene, where he says: “Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. I proved it in 1973.” (The quotes included here might not be totally accurate, as I’m writing this before the show’s transcript comes out, and may have not in all cases written every word down accurately–but, they’re all close to what the actors said.)

6.) The photo I’ve used (above) depicts Walter and Peter on the balcony of the apartment where the party was. Walter tells Peter: “Don’t be a daredevil,” and Peter insists “I’m not. I’m not.” Then, they come to the conclusion that the people who died didn’t jump. If not, then how and why did they die?

7.) Walter’s Realization

The highlight in the episode when Walter tells Peter and Olivia that “Ten times I flipped a coin and ten times I’ve got heads. That’s inconceivable,” is an important part of the episode. It’s where Walter begins to realize that the laws of physics and probability don’t seem to be in effect at the Rosencrantz. He doesn’t believe it’s due to anything like ghosts, which he doesn’t believe in, but that for some reason, the building is a place where a rift is occurring, one that might eventually lead to the creation of a vortex, like what has happened in the alt-universe. He fears that the only solution is to develop a way to seal off the Rosencrantz, and any other areas where such places may show up in the future, by using Amber, like Walternate decided to do in the alt-universe. He starts to see why Walternate is the way he is and begins to empathize with him, but he also fears that he might end up becoming too much like him.

8.) The Glimmer

Olivia kisses Peter, and draws away. She says he “glimmered.” He’s showing signs he belongs to the Other Side, and she’s worried what the glimmering might lead to, if it continues.

9.) Peter and Olivia have to talk the old lady, Alice, into letting go of her dead husband, Derrick. They have to convince her that the man she’s seeing through the thin fabric that exists between the two universes is not really her husband, but she doesn’t want to let go of him, thinking they are not telling her the truth. Her husband died, ironically as a result of a–that’s right–coin toss.

The Laws of Probability (and their bending, or breaking) play an important role in “6B.” Whoever lost the coin toss was supposed to repair some electrical problem, but there was a short that caused her husband to get electrocuted. The alt-Derrick’s wife was the one who lost the coin toss, and was electrocuted. When the alt-Derrick mentions their “daughters” was a highlight for me, because then Alice finally realizes that the man is not her Derrick, as they never had children.

10) The Amber Decision

Walter and Broyles come very close to sealing off the Rosencrantz apartment building with Amber 31422. This is even while they know that both Peter and Olivia are inside the building at the time, trying to convince Alice that the only way that more deaths can be prevented is if she decides to let go of the person she believes is her husband. Walter loves the person he considers to be his son, or as close to his son as he can get, and he cares for Olivia very much, but he seems to be willing to let them go, if it means many more lives might be saved. This is what the Observer was hoping would happen, that when the time might come, Walter would be able to sacrifice his son if necessary. What does this possibly bode for some future episode?

11.) Olivia and Peter (Finally) Get It On

It’s implied that they do, anyway. Olivia tells Peter “I want what you want,” and Peter says: “What do you think we should do about it?” Then, they start walking hand-in-hand up the stairs, presumably to Peter’s bedroom. Will this result in Olivia’s becoming pregnant, just as Bolivia did? I’m thinking, “Yes!”

What’s going to happen in the last episode of the season? What are your thoughts about this, and the episode “6B”? Who will Peter end up choosing? Which side will he fight on? Will either baby, both of which will have Peter’s DNA, be used as pawns or as the energy source to power the Doomsday Weapon, if Peter refuses to play along? Please leave your comments below!