FRINGE “And Those We’ve Left Behind Review” Review

FRINGE “And Those We’ve Left Behind” Review Season 4 Episode 6 - So far this season of FRINGE has provided us with great stories and amazing performances. In this episode we get both with great performances by guest stars Stephen Root and Romy Rosemont and the continuing story of Peter’s reappearance. The Fringe team is working to track down the causes of time loops/slips that cause people to see or experience events from the past. The initial focus is on Peter as the cause of the loops because he is experiencing time loops himself (not to mention his mysterious appearance). Walter continues to have a strained relationship with Peter, but finds that Peter is not the cause. As more events occur, the team identifies a pattern to the time lapses and the neighborhood they may be starting from.

This is when we meet Raymond and Kate Reed (played by Root and Rosemont), a married couple where he’s an electrical engineer and she’s a theoretical physicist. Four years ago, Kate had been working on a set of equations to allow time travel, but soon developed Alzheimer’s and became a different person. Wishing to to be back with the woman he loved, Raymond designed a device that would allow time travel based on Kate’s equations. He uses it to revisit his wife in the past and have her continue to work on her time equations, saving the results in a notebook. Each one of the visits improves the equations, which let Raymond visit for more time, but also cause another time loop outside his house.

When the Fringe team reaches the Reed’s house, they find it covered in a force field type bubble that kills you if you cross into it as one agent finds out. Walter provides a portable Faraday cage for Peter to wear that protects him from the time bubble’s effects, and once inside the house Peter confronts Raymond, who confesses to the Kate from the past. Raymond agrees to shut down the device in exchange for immunity, which Peter agrees to prevent another time loop. As the investigators clear out the Reed house of Raymond’s equipment, he checks Kate’s notebook but finds that Kate has crossed out all the previous equations to prevent Raymond from trying again. As the Fringe team wraps things up, we learn that Peter may have been responsible for the time loops after all. Raymond’s equipment didn’t work until three days before, exactly when Peter appeared.

If you thought the Reed’s story in this episode of Fringe may seem a little familiar it’s because it is. The Season 2 episode “White Tulip” had a scientist using time travel to go back in time to save his fiancee, with consequences to those in the present. This episode felt a lot like the Lost episodes “The Variable” and “The Constant”, so much so that I expected Henry Ian Cusack to show up some point. What helps in this episode is the surrounding storyline of Peter trying to fit in with the rest of the Fringe team, and Walter’s refusal to accept him. It also doesn’t hurt that you get a great, convincing performances from your guest stars to convey the emotions involved in Raymond and Kate’s story.

The end of the episode provides some tantalizing clues as to where the story goes next, with Peter seeming to believe that he needs to leave this timeline to get back to where he came from. What if there is no other timeline? At the same time, it’s hard to see how Olivia, Walter and the rest of the Fringe team are going to suddenly remember Peter. It’s possible the writers have permanently altered the timeline like Eureka did last season, but then why take away a relationship like Peter/Olivia that was blossoming last season?

I also wanted to bring up how excellent the visual effects were in this weeks episode. The time bubble effects around the house and in the tunnel were very cool. I especially liked the train sequence with the teenagers, it looked like something out of a movie. They seem to be really going all out this year with the cool effects, and I think it pays off in helping draw in the viewer to the story.

My Favorite Parts of “And Those We’ve Left Behind”:

- Peter’s perfect day dream with Walter’s love of swing sets and Newtonian physics
- Broyles speaking about Peter: “He is a fringe event.”
- Peter about Walter: “Does he still keep his notes on wormholes in the bathroom?”
- Peter after doing a couple of snap time jumps: “This is gonna start getting annoying.”
- Walter to Olivia and Peter: “I know what a Faraday cage is. A baboon would!”

Do you think Peter is right that he needs to get back to his timeline? What did you think of Peter’s perfect day dream? Would you ever want to time travel? I look forward to your thoughts in the comments section.

Next week’s Fringe is the last one for the fall and things are getting curiouser and curiouser. Peter looks for a way back to his timeline and considers a dangerous option, and Olivia proves she’s not afraid of no ghost. Tune in to see “Wallflower” next Friday, November 18 at 9PM on FOX.