Moving to Friday Nights
Fringe returns this week on a new night. The Fringe producers are adamant that this move to the Friday Night Death Slot is not intended to kill the show, so fellow Fringe fans, let’s take them at their word and continue to support what is arguably the best SciFi show still airing on network TV.

The Recap
In the last episode aired things were looking grim. It was what romance fans like to call the BBM, big black moment, a time when all hope seems lost for the hero and heroine. In this case, Olivia was back in our universe and safe for the moment, but evil-Olivia had accomplished her mission—putting the universe in greater jeopardy than ever—and Olivia’s relationship with Peter had hit the wall. Splat!

Olivia Undone
I’ve been rooting for Olivia and Peter to become a couple from the beginning, but the events of this season have put a huge wedge between them. Season three has not been kind to Olivia in general, but the last two episodes were heart-wrenching. Ana-T did a great job of making us unravel along with Olivia as she dealt with finding out that faux-livia had slipped completely into her life, lived in her home, fooled her friends, and fell into bed with the man Olivia had fallen in love with (when SHE  hadn’t even taken that step). It was hard not to want to cry along with her as she fell quietly apart. It was easy to grieve with Olivia, but what about Peter?

Don’t do it, Peter!
As we were forced to watch Peter fall under the sway of faux-livia in the first half of the season, I wanted to scream at Peter in much the same way as you scream at the girl in the slasher movie. Don’t do it!  Everyone knows if you do IT in one of those movies then you are doomed! When Peter failed to figure out the reason for the differences in Olivia after the trip to the other side, I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to forgive him. But that all changed the moment he got the late night call from a stranger with a message from good-Olivia. For me, that was a pivotal moment. It had been clear that he’d seen the signs and had just wanted to believe the changes in their relationship accounted for the changes in Olivia. What guy doesn’t want to think he can make his woman happy?

I ❤ Peter
When Peter got the call, everything changed. You could see it in his body language. His loyalty was with good-Olivia from that very moment. He didn’t hesitate to act. He could have rolled over and ignored the call. It would have been easier to continue on in denial, but everything he did from that moment on made it clear that his heart truly belonged to good-Olivia. As viewers, we all knew the evil deeds faux-livia had been up to, but he didn’t. He could so easily have made excuses for her. She was only trying to protect her world, right? When faux-livia tried to play the my-feelings-for-you-were-real card, Peter shut her down without any hesitation. This reminded me what I’ve always loved about him. He’s smart and he has his own, very clear, moral compass. We know he had a shady past, but he seems to have come through that dark past with his values in tact.

So, while we’re grieving with Olivia, let’s not forget that Peter’s got his own heart-ache and his own set of baggage. His history with Walter made it impossible for him to lie to Olivia about what had happened even when he knew it would forever change their relationship. In his own way, Peter is every bit as wounded as Olivia. He was made a fool of by faux-livia, his newly discovered Dad figure is the one who sent her there to do it, and he has to live with knowing that not only did he let Olivia down by leaving her in a hostile alt-universe for months, he betrayed her in the process. What a mess!

Eeny, meeny, miney, mo, which way will Fringe go?
As Fringe returns, I’m thinking back on the fabulous episodes already aired in season three and wondering where the show will go when it returns from hiatus. Will they continue to focus on the bigger story line of the competing alternate universes? Will they continue to focus on the character relationship story line? Or will they return to a focus on the episodic, fringe-event pattern that launched the show back in season one? I’m hoping the show will continue the delicate balance of all three that we’ve seen in the first half of the season. But, you know what? Every part of this show is good, so whereever they go it is going to be good.

I can’t wait to see what happens with these terribly broken characters and their mixed up, crazy science world!