Nothing as It Seems (30 Mar. 2012)

An incident occurs that bears remarkable similarities to an early case in the original time-line, though there are some notable differences. Olivia's memories of the new time-line continue ... See full summary »

Director:

Fred Toye

Writers:

J.J. Abrams (creator), Alex Kurtzman (creator),

Stars:

Anna Torv, Joshua Jackson, Lance Reddick

Cast

Episode cast overview, first billed only:
Anna Torv	...	Olivia Dunham
Joshua Jackson	...	Peter Bishop
Lance Reddick	...	Phillip Broyles
Blair Brown	...	Nina Sharp
Jasika Nicole	...	Astrid Farnsworth
Seth Gabel	...	Lincoln Lee
John Noble	...	Dr. Walter Bishop
Neal Huff	...	Marshall Bowman
Gina Holden	...	Kate Hicks
Clark Middleton	...	Edward Markham
Gabrielle Rose	...	Dr. Anderson
Martin Christopher	...	TSA Agent #2
Daniel Cudmore	...	Daniel Hicks
Emily Jackson	...	Melinda Bowman
Olivia Palenstein	...	Female Flight Attendant (as Olivia Jones)

Storyline

An incident occurs that bears remarkable similarities to an early case in the original time-line, though there are some notable differences. Olivia's memories of the new time-line continue to fade, and Broyles places her on temporary leave, but her memories of original case assist Peter and Lincoln. Lincoln gets infected with a virus and Walter must figure out a cure.

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Plot Keywords:

injection | monster | peanut butter and bacon | palindrome | transformation

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Genres:

Drama | Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Details

Language:

English

Release Date:

30 March 2012 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Bad Robot, Warner Bros. Television

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1 / (high definition)

Did You Know?

Goofs

The shirt worn by the 'changeling' in the opening scene is missing the stitching on the left breast.

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Soundtracks

"The Seventh Son"
(uncredited)
Written by Mose Allison
Performed by Mose Allison

User Reviews

"Weird is a Matter of Degrees"

I can hear them now, the people who may say: "Oh this is a rehash of a Season One Ep" - Feh. Not Quite.

Absolutely not quite. Normally, I would agree and I would spout: "Why are they re-telling THIS?" - But 'they' are not 'retelling this' - 'they' are taking 'this' and making 'THAT' out of it. We have now the opportunity to see how things that were one way in Blue 'Verse play out in the Orange 'Verse. Now there seems to be some dissatisfaction with this ep, but WHY? Cos this is the HEART of Fringe. All aspects of this ep, the story, execution, and Performance, are Top Notch Fringe.

So it is cool that the writers of this Ep could take this plane incident, and tell the "Orange Verse" version of it. We already know, "Different Timeline" vs "Alternate Realities" - As close as the Orange 'Verse is to the Blue 'Verse, there are substantial differences

Of course Jones is behind it in all the 'Verses - But the fact that Jones had not been cut in half by Peter in "Orangeville" makes the present timeline quite a bit different.

This is our Fringe 'Supersoldier' Story arc - What I mean is, the 'Supersoldier' Arc of X-Files was quite a bit different than the earlier MythArc. It was a new Beginning, like we have a brand new MythArc here. Or... Is that "Ark?" Things that happen at the very end of the 'sode hint at a Noah thing happening.

Now as I loved the X-Files 'Supersoldier' arc, I love this new Fringe arc. It's simply a new direction, it does not invalidate the old Fringe stories, it builds upon the 1st Three seasons. "Everything Old will Become New." The FBI Psychoanalyst Olivia Met on the Other Side in Season 3 (Who is Gabriell Rose from the 2nd X-Files Episode "Deep Throat", by the way...) returns to interview our new "Olivia with Olivia's Memories".

Olivia is the Fox Mulder of Fringe - We knew she would not be relegated to sitting on arse while Peter and "Kennedy" (Lee) went out and had all the fun. That's just Not Olivia. Not Olivia or Fauxlivia, neither would accept sideline sitting or the taking of Sick Days or Vacations, not normally. This is another thing I just realised - Fringe is Gender Bent from X-Files, in the two lead characters. If Olivia is more like Mulder, then Peter is more like Skully. But that is all I will read into it, and the only reason I compare the two shows is that I have been watching them side by side these last few weeks.

The 1st Season Episode which served as the basis for this ep, well we can see maybe this was what could have happened in Season 1. But as we see in this ep, "Controlled Conditions" rather than just "Dosing" a person. These people actually wanted the transformation.

It was also great to see Peter's friend Markham with the Bookstore, no reason why they can't have him in the show... Just waiting for Sam Weiss now. Honestly, I do Miss the Season 1-3 characters. Even Newton, maybe he'll come back too. And the Shapeshifter Roger C Cross played... Fringe is rich with characters played by great Character Actors.

I had to stand up for the last half of the ep - I'm about to watch it again. Once more, IMDb does not have all of the actors posted for this ep, was kind of interested to see who they were. The blending of the scenes from the 1st Season ep to new footage was seamless, but I didn't look too hard, it has been 3 and a half years. But the guy looked the same.

The Creature - Looked very good. And multiple creatures at the end, this was the big surprise - We've seen some of these things, if not all of them, before. Although the original creature was a computer animation, they did have a "corpse" made for Season 1. I'm impressed on how well they made the Living versions of the creatures match the dead version. Once again we get Feature Quality prosthetics.

Knowing that Jones is behind some of this, it will be interesting now to see what direction they take it for these last S4 Eps.

And, HEY, it's a (knock knock) Alternate Universe - Why have Alternate Universes and NOT use them? This Episode - It's about time this was done. There should be more like this.

I'm praying this new Arc is leading up to a 5th Season, Fox is Dumb, there is nothing else to put in that slot on Friday.