What Did You Watch? 2025-05-17 (Saturday)

Fringe S2E13 'Johari Window'.  Olivia and Peter are stuck inside a quarantined building trying to find the origin of the pathogen while Walter tries to find a cure.  (There is a reason one doesn't trust bicycle messengers.)
The glyphs in this episode spell "Window".
We all know the "science" in this show is ... not science, but I have to say that in this episode it is so much hooey that an entire herd of incontinent male bovines couldn't keep up.  :)
Dr. Walter Bishop: When the Victoria, the last surviving ship, return to its harbor of departure after the first circumnavigation of the earth, only 18 of the original 237 men were on board.
Small Child: What happened to them?
Dr. Walter Bishop: They all died, young lady. Horrible and most likely painful death. You see, when you open new doors, there is a price to pay. Now imagine... tonight, you look under your bed, and, lo and behold, you find a monster! And you're immediately eaten. Now, if you hadn't looked for the monster, you wouldn't have found it and you'd still be happy in your beds, instead of being slowly digested in the stomach sack of the creature. But, with any luck, your sister or your brothers might have heard your screams, and your endeavor will serve as a valuable lesson to them.
[last lines]
Astrid Farnsworth: Walter, um, inside, upstairs, when you said I can't let Peter die again, what did you mean by that?
Dr. Walter Bishop: Some things are meant to be left alone, Agent Farnsworth.
Like many episodes of Fringe (2008), this one contains several affectionate references to The X-Files (1993): the plot concerns a virus in a black oil that takes over the personality of and eventually kills its host human, something that was also a long-term plotline on "The X-Files"; FBI partners Peter and Olivia have a fight in which Peter (under the influence of the oil) accuses Olivia of betrayal, something that often happened between "X-Files" FBI partners Mulder and Scully while one or the other of them was being mentally altered against their wills; the guest star who plays Steve, Brendan Beiser, was an "X-Files" regular as Agent Pendrell, and Megan Leitch, who also guest stars in the episode played Samantha Mulder.
Fringe S2E14 'The Bishop Revival'.  A Holocaust survivor and 14 of her descendants all die of suffocation at a wedding when no one else is harmed.
The glyphs from this episode spell out: FATHER
This episode includes an appearance of the running joke in which Walter can't quite recall Astrid's name correctly. Here he calls her "Ostrich".
Dr. Walter Bishop: What color are his eyes?
Olivia Dunham: Brown.
Dr. Walter Bishop: Then I was right after all. It is a targeted toxin. They all have brown eyes. That's the common genetic trait. Check the survivors, but I'm sure I'm right.
[to Broyles]
Dr. Walter Bishop: It's a good thing you weren't here at the time, or you'd be dead too.
What Did You Watch?
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I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky dirty old man.