When parts of the other universe start to appear on our side, there are many casualties. Unfortunately the universes need to be equal in mass, and so another building of the same mass will disappear from our universe into theirs, killing anyone inside that building. In an attempt to prevent this from happening, Walter remembers that Olivia had the ability to see things that were either about to leave our universe, or things that are from their universe. To try to re-enable that ability, the team goes to Jacksonville, where Olivia was exposed to Cortexiphan. We get a glimpse into the horrors that the children who were given to Cortexiphan were exposed to. Unfortunately, to re-enable the ability Olivia has to be scared, but she has learned to channel her fear into anger. With time running out, Walter and Peter try to narrow down the search for the building by calculating the approximate mass of each of the buildings in New York. When nothing can be done to save the lives of hundreds of people, Peter tries to comfort Olivia and they almost end up kissing, but Olivia realizes that she is scared. She sees the glimmer and evacuates everyone from the building just in time to save them. With the day saved, Olivia and Peter go out for drinks (date?), and Olivia notices that Peter is not from this universe.
And where is the Observer? Nearly impossible to see in this episode, so no worries if you missed him. Actually it is a miracle if you did, so congratulate yourself. As the team arrives at the building with the deformed people at the very beginning of the episode, he appears on camera for almost a whole second walking in front of the fire truck. It is very dark so it is incredibly hard to see. He is below in the picture, in the red box for your convenience. Also, there are some observations of my own below the picture for this episode. They are mainly questions about what happened, so if you have any input, feel free to comment.
Okay, so first, there is the obvious question of when the people were evacuated, wouldn't that change the mass of the building?
Then there is the question, when Walter took Peter from the alternate universe, did something from here replace him?
And finally, the code that Walter input into the lock to get into Jacksonville is obviously going to come up again when he remembers what it is. I think it might be a date, 5 - 20 - 10, May 20th 2010. Maybe the date when the universes collide?
I think May 20th is the season finale, perhaps in that episode the war is going to begin
ReplyDeleteYour first question - I think it is only approximate mass that matters. Taking something really, truly heavy, like a car or really like a building, will throw the worlds off balance, but I don't know that smaller numbers matter. Sears Tower is about 450 million pounds. While I'm sure this building isn't that big, it probably weighed a million or so pounds, whereas 500 people would weigh around 75,000 pounds - small compared to a building, but large compared to a car. Still, I think the worlds were happy being in relative though imperfect balance.
ReplyDelete2nd question - hmm, very interesting.
3rd question - I thought the same thing: a date to become very significant. The season finale fits since that will be in May and the 20th is a Thursday. In the finale, Bell and Bishop face off, according to sliceofscifi.com.
My questions - The glimmer Olivia sees in Peter. Wasn't Olivia there when Peter was taken and brought back - at the bridge? And wasn't she staring at Peter? Was that because of the glimmer?
Thanks so much! I simply could NOT find him this episode.
ReplyDeleteComments: I agree that the mass does change but perhaps by the time the 'mass transaction' begins (when Olivia sees the glimmer) then it is too late for the universe to change its mind, so to speak. They evacuated split seconds before the building vanished so I guess that would be the way to do it.
Also, from the way Olivia said it, it sounded like she thought this one isolated incident was the Storm. I hope not! It seems pretty minor compared to all the other episodes. Or did you guys interpret it as this one incident forshadowing more vanishing/appearing buildings later on (with that being the Storm)?
As for Peter, it's possible that the dead Peter replaced him (after all they were the same age/size when other-Peter was taken), and his grave in our world is empty. My question would be how did he survive for so long? I thought people from other worlds couldn't survive long without getting sick (something William Bell said).
5/20/10 sounds like a date. Can't wait!