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

On 5/18/2025 9:20 AM, Dimensional Traveler wrote:

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.  :)
 

Hold up.  Now just wait a minute.  Are you saying, the science in Fringe wasn't 100% scientifically accurate?  Are you sure?

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.
 

They said the name out loud?

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?
 

I watched:
Doctor Who (Disney+) -  "The Interstellar Song Contest" - The Doctor and Ruby land on a satellite hosting an interstellar song contest, hey that's the title of the episode.  Of course, something really, really bad happens as soon as the Doctor arrives.  This episode put the Doctor in vengeance mode, which we don't often get to see, but he was ready to burn it all down.  When he doesn't have UNIT or a companion to do his dirty work and get blood on their hands, sometimes he has to do it himself.  This episode turned out to be a lot better than expected and had not one, but two major revelations.  Pnebyr Naa Sbeq ercevfrq ure ebyr nf gur Qbpgbe'f tenaqqnhtugre, Fhfna.  Naq gur gehr vqragvgl bs Zef. Sybbq jnf erirnyrq.  Gurl ner *abg* gur fnzr crefba.
Mission: Impossible III (4K disc) 2006 sequel which is where the franchise really took off and everything started to click, starting with finally introducing "Benji" (Simon Pegg) as everyone's  favorite IMF tech support who hopes to one day be promoted to field agent.  J.J. Abrams takes over directing duties so we get some Abrams regulars like Greg Grunberg, and Keri Russell.  Michelle Monaghan also joins the franchise as Ethan's wife Julia.  The villain this time around is a scenery chewing Philip Seymour Hoffman who just wants to know, where is the Rabbit's Foot.
Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (4K disc) 2011 sequel which has Jeremy Renner joining the Impossible Mission force to stop a mustache twirling Bond Villain (Michael Nyqvist) from starting a nuclear war. They let Benji go into the field but didn't let him wear a mask.  Let him wear a mask!  The one ends with Ethan learning about a new evil agency called The Syndicate.
Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (4K disc) James Bond, I mean Ethan Hunt goes up against SPECTRE, I mean The Syndicate.  All the usuals (Simon Pegg, Jeremy Renner, and Ving Rhames) return.  But this time around they are forced to save the day while also hiding from their own government after Alec Baldwin takes over as the new CIA chief and convinces congress to mothball the MIF.  This forces the MIF to have to save the day while avoiding the U.S. government.  Rebecca Ferguson joins the franchise as a disavowed MI6 agent who teams up with Ethan.  And Sean Harris shows up as the evil head of SPECTRE, I mean The Syndicate.
Mission: Impossible - Fallout (3D) Now I won't pretend as if I fully grasp the plot of the various Mission Impossible movies. Much like a Bond movie, the plot is secondary to watching the hero save the day. But the plot of this one is nearly incomprehensible, and yet, it's probably the best one yet.  I had *no* idea what was happening half the time and yet I was enjoying this one to no end.  I hadn't noticed before now, but they basically stole a page from the Daniel Craig Bond movies and turned it into one continuous story, that picks up where "Rogue Nation" left off.  The entire cast is back, including Rebecca Ferguson ans the MI6 agent with questionable loyalties.  Alec Baldwin is back, and now he's he head of MIF.  Sean Harris back as the same villain from the last movie.  And joining the action for this go around are Angela Bassett as the new CIA head who like Baldwin before her, hates the MIF. The movie also stars Henry Cavill's mustache as a CIA assassin under orders from Bassetts to get the job done by any means necessary.  And Vanessa Kirby as the daughter of "Max" from the first movie, a detail I'm sure I missed the first time I watched this.  Also returning is Michelle Monaghan as Ethan's long suffering wife.  This is one of those very rare franchises that someone manages to just keep getting better as it goes.  I mean, they let Benjie not only go on a mission, but even wear a mask.  :-)