Re: What Did You Watch? 2025-06-15 (Sunday)

On 6/16/2025 7:07 AM, Dimensional Traveler wrote:

Fringe S5E08 'The Human Kind'
IMDb sez: "Following the bread crumbs, Olivia collects a truck with cargo from a scrap yard but runs into bounty hunters. Peter, with newly gained powers, has to make a decision."
 The glyphs for this episode spell out: PLEAD
 Walter mis-remembers Astrid's name yet again; here he calls her "Asner".

At this point, he's got to know her name and is just doing this to mess with her.

At about 17 minutes Walter is using his contraption to revive the brain to analyze the observer tech. This contraption is made up of (among other things) a couple of microwave oven magnetrons.  (Cook them Observer brains!)
   Fringe S5E09 'Black Blotter'
IMDb sez: "Walter Bishop opens Pandora's Box. He finds a young Observer once he has hidden in the Pocket Universe."  (We find out the fate of Sam Weiss in this episode.)
 The glyphs for this episode spell out: GUILT
When Astrid and Walter are walking though the boathouse, an animated green frog with huge blinking eyes can be seen to their left, before reappearing in the animated part of the episode.  (This is your amphibian on drugs!)
In a variation of the show's running gag, Walter calls Astrid by her correct name, an early hint that he's on acid.
The animated section is in the style of Terry Gilliam of Monty Python's Flying Circus (1969).
Walter's inventions in the note book: the portal opener, matter displacement can opener, 'something' bionics, potato fueled combustion engine.  (First step, ferment the potatoes....)
The couple taking care of the child observer say that they have decided to call him "Michael." September, the Observer seen from the beginning of the show who has periodically aided Walter and Co., is played by Michael Cerveris.
  Fringe S5E10 'Anomaly XB-6783746'
IMDb sez: "Young observer remains muted. The team seeks Nina Sharp's help to understand him, but the mission is compromised."
 The glyphs for this episode spell out: SENSE.
(at around 9 mins) Olivia and Peter see a 'Resist' poster with Henrietta'a picture. In the background you see two flyers for a missing child called Calla Dreyer. 'Calla Dreyer' is the head of Makeup for the Fringe series.
Once again, Walter cannot remember Astrid's name. Here, fresh from his acid trip in the previous episode, he calls her "Acid".
When the Observers are searching September's apartment, a surveillance device placed above a doorway can be seen blinking in the familiar Green-Green-Green-Red light pattern just before an explosion occurs.
   Fringe S5E11 'The Boy Must Live'
Young Observer's origin is revealed. And his existence and an additional time travel are necessary to change the history of Observers' invasion.
 The coded glyphs at the commercial breaks spell GRACE.
The song of the music box is "Greensleeves", also known as the Christmas carol "What Child Is This?" The carol's title also serves as a question about the central mystery concerning the child observer character--who is he? What child is this.
The Observers are ectogens - persons who were, or are being, gestated in artificial wombs.
When Donald is telling how his kind are created, we are shown several stages of the gestation. The first stage shown is the same fetal image that has been part of the apple glyph since Season 1.
This episode takes place in 2036 and 2609
Naked Dr. Bishop, in the tank, without swim trunks.  O_O
Donald was "labeled a known offender". He was tagged. His subdermal chip number is 784651. With such a high chip number, it's clear he certainly wasn't the first "known offender".
 Olivia Dunham: Walter, why did you remove your trunks?
Dr. Walter Bishop: They were too restrictive. My body needs to be as free and open as my mind so I can find September.
Olivia Dunham: Are you feeling sufficiently free and open now?
Dr. Walter Bishop: I am. Let's get started.
 [Walter and Donald return to the van, each carrying a covered plastic milk crate]
Peter Bishop: Is that it?
September: You say that as though we're not carrying technology that can bend space and time into a Möbius Strip.
  Fringe S5E12 'Liberty'
'As the Observers evaluate Michael and begin to learn of his abilities and potential, Olivia embarks on a dangerous quest to rescue him.'
 The glyphs for this episode spell out: LOVED
At 25:27 on the TV Fauxlivia walks by, it says that "Chelsea Clinton leads polls in Presidential race". In the text scrolling underneath that, it says "American currency reached record high.", it also says "Detroit voted safest city in America.", and lastly, it says "Warner Bros. announces remake of Harry Potter."
This time, Walter misremembers Astrid's name as "Asgard".
 Olivia Dunham: I made my choices. You made yours. I don't regret any of them and neither should you. You deserve all the happiness that you got.
  Fringe S5E13 'An Enemy of Fate'
"As the Observers close in, Walter and September desperately work to complete the plan, but one obstacle after another hinders their progress."
 The 100th episode.
The glyphs for this episode spell out: CLOSE
The 'inbetween picture' of the skeleton hand has 5 fingers and a thumb. In the final episode, when Olivia and Peter are going through the building with observers and loyalists which they attacked with chemicals, there is a bloody hand print on the wall. This hand print also has 5 fingers and a thumb.
In a twist on the ' green, green, green, red' pattern of lights seen on previous episodes, when Peter (Joshua Jackson) shorts out the keypad, the light flashes 'red, red, red, green.'
 The Goofs section of IMDb has a couple of long, convoluted explanations about how the show could not have ended as it was shown that even I can't follow.
 Dr. Walter Bishop: It's a beautiful name.
Astrid Farnsworth: What is?
Dr. Walter Bishop: Astrid.
 Dr. Walter Bishop: Peter, hold on to these tight. Anti-gravity osmium bullets. Shoot Observers with these and watch them float away like balloons.
Peter Bishop: If we shoot 'em, they're dead. Why'd we want 'em to float away?
Dr. Walter Bishop: ...Because it's cool.
Peter Bishop: That makes sense Walter.
 Captain Windmark: Before we arrived here, we sent a team of twelve. Their mission was to observe and report; however, a strange phenomenon occurred. To some degree or other, they succumbed to irrational emotions. Your kind infected them.
Phillip Broyles: But not you. You seem to be impervious to everything.
Captain Windmark: I will never speak of it again, but I will admit this to you, Phillip. I, too, feel something. I believe you call it... hate.
Phillip Broyles: The feeling is mutual.
 September/David: It's not about fate, Walter. Yours or mine. It's about changing fate. It's about hope. And protecting our children.
 September: When we first came here we did not know the true nature of our expedition.  We were not told.
 

And then the writers decided to retcon it.  ;-)

 Then I watched various disc extras for season 5.
 And that's the end of 'Fringe'
 

Thanks for the recaps.

What Did You Watch?
  

I watched:
Trainspotting (4K disc) 1996 movie directed by Danny Boyle.  The movie stars Ewan McGregor, Johnny Lee Miller, Robert Carlyle, and Kevin McKidd as a group of friends living in Scottland dealing with heroine addiction.  The movie holds up very well.  On the commentary they said Johhny Lee Miller was the only one in the cast who wasn't Scottish.  But for the entire shooting of the movie, he only spoke in a Scottish accent until the last day of filming when they wrapped and he switched to his regular speaking voice.  When he started speaking normally, they didn't think that was his real voice at first.
T2 Trainspotting (4K disc) 2017 sequel directed by Danny Boyle.  Picking up 20 years after the first movie Ewan McGregor returns to Scotland to make amends for stealing $16,000 from his old drug buddies.  But some of his old drug buddies, in particular Jonny Lee Miller and Robert Carlyle, are out for revenge.  This is a pretty good sequel that catches up with the gang to find what they've been up to all these years, and it turns out, pretty much the same stuff.
28 Days Later (blu-ray) 2002 movie written by Alex Garland and directed by Danny Boyle.  The movie stars Cillian Murphy as a man who wakes up from a coma and quickly learns that the city of London has been overrun by people infected by a rage virus.  Naomie Harris and Christopher Eccleston also star.  This was pretty much background noise with the commentary.
28 Weeks Later (blu-ray) 2007 sequel which has the U.S, military trying to reboot England and repatriate its' people.  But in spite of best efforts the virus gets lose again.  But to be honest, those efforts really weren't the best.  The movie has a recognizable cast including Robert Carlyle as one of the survivors who returns to help reboot the city, and Jeremy Renner, Idris Elba, Harold Perrineau, and Rose Byrne as part of the US medical team overseeing the reboot.  More background noise with a commentary, although this was probably better than the first one.  On the commentary they mentioned Danny Boyle helped out by directing some of the third unit scenes.
The Crazies (4K disc) 2010 movie (remake of a George A. Romero movie of the same name) starring Timothy Olyphant as the sheriff of a small town where the residents become infected by a virus that turns them homicidal.  The U.S. government sends troops to the town, but not necessarily to help.  I haven't watched this since I'm guessing 2010. It's an OK movie.  At some point I need to pair it with the George A. Romero original version, which I think I also only ever saw once.