Fringe Recap: Vengence with a Side of Breadcrumbs

If you were raised among a cadre of vengeance filled freedom fighters, would your perceptions of morality be a little twisted?  As a Midwestern fat girl, I was raised to hate all pretentious skinny blond chicks, and I gleefully pre-judge all reality stars as a result.  Does this make me a bad person?  Possibly.  Does this make me more interesting to hang out with?  Definitely.

This week is a study in how Henrietta (now referred to as Etta) has developed into a soldier with the ethical code of an American Enterprise Institute flier on the wonders of extraordinary rendition.  We won’t get too high brow, though!  The Scooby gang also starts our fun scavenger hunt through Dystopiaville for a way to destroy the Observers – or at least kick them off our planet.

Previously:

Our original Fringe crew was saved from a 20 year long frozen sleep in Amber.

Olivia is thrilled to meet their daughter Etta after skipping through the painful puberty years.

Walter suffers brain damage at the hands of the Emmy nominating committee.

We begin this week’s episode just like last week, with a look at the day the Observers came.  This flashback, however, is from Olivia’s perspective.  In her eyes, she was the parent who just missed scooping up her daughter to protect.  By showing us this scene, I feel like it’s a bit of shorthand to show both parents’ guilt at not being able to protect Etta from the childhood she never had.

I’m only pissed the show got two episodes of footage from one day of pay.

Of course Olivia wakes from her nightmare to Peter and a quick shot of the crack den Etta’s apartment has begun to resemble.  Didn’t the Observers figure out Etta’s identity in the last episode?  How is this place not the subject of a sneak and peek warrant yet?

Maximum occupancy rules in the future do not apply.

In the kitchen, Walter is using the SkyMall Deluxe Transilience Though Unifier Model-11, or SDTTUM-11, to descramble what’s left in his mind and uncover the secret plan.  Results?  Mixed – Walter can babble in English, Swedish and Portuguese but still can’t remember where he left his pants.  Olivia mentions Walter’s habit of excessive notes and documentation; could he have left notes on the plan at his lab among recipes for lemon tart, taffy and perfect Mexican Cocoa?  While a trip to Harvard sounds like a good plan it comes with one big complication:  Harvard currently serves as a huge Observer base of operations.  Without an SAT of 2100 combined, 50 hours of community service and a stint in Academic Decathlon what chance do they have?

Oh, yes.  We can just follow our favorite druggie!