Fringe Recap: Scrambled Brains

Back to the future, which I’ll call Dystopiaville:  Peter and Walter are crashed in Henrietta’s place.  Astrid is pissed as the computer is beating her in Words with Insignificant Homo Sapiens.

Astrid’s word:  Galium.  My word:  Tile.

After a disgusting breakfast of Egg Sticks, the entire Scooby Gang is heading off to find Olivia.  Exposition fairy tells us that Olivia disappeared while searching for an important piece of equipment needed to defeat the Observers.  Walter is also surprisingly lucid and calls Astrid by name (Walter was incapable of calling Astrid by name during his ‘crazy’ period).  September, the good Observer seen in past seasons, embedded a 12-step plan in Walter’s brain and then scrambled it to avoid detection.  Did I mention that the Observers can read minds?  Yeah, kind of hard to plot a conspiracy when the enemy can read thoughts.  Sucks to be this future human race – off to Central Park!

I guess the Observers hate trees?

Central Park has been paved over and turned into a large carbon-monoxide factory.  Observers can’t breathe clean air (remember for later).   The rising toxic environment is slowly lowering the average native lifespan to 45 — which explains much of the casting in this episode.  A large Amber deposit is found, but the people trapped have been carved out and taken by Amber Gypsies.

Lay your money down!

The team heads to the local black market to buy Olivia.  Henrietta gives Peter two keys to Olivia’s freedom:  a wad of cash and about ½ cup of walnuts.  The future is gross.  If walnuts were currency I would not be tempted to eat my cash.

Gypsy #1 hits a red button under his counter after directing Peter and Astrid towards the sculpture garden in back, filled with trapped people and mourning family members.  I’m guessing this is not a tourist attraction.  Obviously Peter’s use of the term ‘Loyalists’ didn’t rub Gypsy #1 the right way.  Olivia is nowhere to be found but Peter buys information on her purchaser with his nuts.

Speaking of nuts, we move to the apartment of the crazy conspiracy theory bookstore owner from seasons 2-4!  After seeing his use of Olivia as a coffee table/tv tray, I’m happy when Peter bursts in to turn the tables on him, Corbin Dallas style.  Edward loves Olivia – in a creepy, let me eat dinner on your corpse kind of way.

At least it’s just stew his spilling…just saying….

Peter and Henrietta get Olivia down to the van, but Walter has wandered off…too many good books for him to resist.  I can feel his pain.  I used to spend hours combing through a used bookstore in our Old Market.  Now I have the internet, and dozens of books on a Kindle I haven’t read.  Oh, progress.