Ability - Rewatch/Speculation and Analysis

[MassivelyDynamic]

Glyph Code: OLIVIA(The episode centers around Olivia and her abilities.)


The Two Dollar Bills



I take this as symbolizing the two universes. Two has always been an important number in the series.


"Charade"

The newspaper salesman mentions a movie called "Charade". I took this possible foreshadowing to the fact that the "sealant" and the bomb are all a charade for Jones to meet Olivia. It could mean even more than that and suggest that Z.F.T. and the war with the alternate universe is all a charade for Bell to prepare them for the coming Observer invasion?

In season four we are shown that Nick Lane was duped by DRJ into still believing that the war was still going on between the universes despite it being long over. Is it a possibility that the war was always used to deceive everyone involved in Z.F.T. to hide the fact that Bell was actually preparing for the Observer invasion by the creation of his new world?


JHU/Dell



Johns Hopkins University, Dell(computer technology company) What is significant about this? JHU is a private research University based in Baltimore, Maryland.

Johns Hopkins was a philanthropist. Philanthropy is an altruistic concern for human welfare and advancement usually manifested by donations of money, property, or work to needy persons, by endowment of institutions of learning and hospitals, and by generosity to other socially useful purposes. This matches with Z.F.T. and how they want to protect the blue-verse from the other side, if you think about it, they do have a sort of altruistic agenda by going to war with a universe that means to destroy their own.

Is JHU one of the companies funding Z.F.T.'s agenda? It is a university that allows private research, perfect way for Z.F.T. to experiment under the public eye. There already is suspicion that Massive Dynamic, under Bell's watch is funding Z.F.T. as well. An FBI agent gives Charlie a list of who the lawyer was getting money from, is JHU one of the organizations Jones is using to funnel cash to Z.F.T.? We known that Massive Dynamic was also funneling him money as well.


Zerstorung durch Fortschritte der Technologie

Destruction by the advancement of technology. Now is this referring to the blue verse destroying the red verse by advancing their technology to something that can combat the advanced tech of the alternate universe? Or is it the Observers, who as we know have advanced technology and they plan to invade? I always stand by that it was always about the alternate universe, but there is a slight possibility the writers could retcon it and say: "Nope it was referring to the Observers." After all, they HAVE done it with Cortexiphan several times. I subscribe that the fascist Observer thing was something the writers pulled out of their butts, but I won't rule it out.


The Manuscript

The Z.F.T. Manuscript was destroyed ten years ago. What happened ten years ago? We know that 17 years ago Walter was put into Saint Claire's after having parts of his brain removed by Bell. The manuscript was said to be destroyed ten years ago, it's 2008 at the time of this episode so, it was destroyed in 1998. Why was it destroyed in 1998? 1998 is the same year that Joanne Ostler disappeared after abducting several geniuses in specific fields.(correct me if I am wrong.) So the manuscript was destroyed the same year in which Ostler stopped the abductions. Does this suggest that she was working with Bell to some capacity?


France

There were a lot of references to that word. If you recall, in Transformation, Conrad was a French citizen. "Charade" takes place in France. In "The Land of Laughs" there is a character named Anna France. Walter created the Disrei with the intention retrieve a French scientist to help Peter when he was sick. Could it be a reference to that? Bell used the alias "Simon PARIS" in season two. A city in France. Is there some connection to France here or the the writers just have an insane obsession with France?


"The Land of Laughs"

In The Land of Laughs, the main characters, upon visiting the town of their favorite writer, they notice a similarity to the town they are visiting: Galen, and the fictional world created by the writer. (Is this hinting at how the two universes are similar, only slightly different? Just a thought)


The Warehouse

Is the warehouse were Z.F.T. was putting Jones in the barometric chamber the same as the empty warehouse in season four that Nick Lane tricks the FBI into raiding to allow his escape? Only, in the S4 timeline, it was never used.

What is written will come to pass.

"The advances of science, which is supposed to expand our knowledge of of the universe, will, if not carefully controlled, destroy the world as we know it."

(What did Walter do? He used his knowledge of science, not to to expand the knowledge of his universe but instead used it for his own personal reasons without any concept of controlling what he was doing. Because of this both universes are slowly being destroyed. Perhaps Bell is referring to how their advancements lead to the Observer invasion and he wants to stop it. OR Peter is reading a re-edit that was done by Bell to hide his involvement in what is going on in the present.)

"Our technological ambitions have not only driven us to the brink of of catastrophe, the catastrophe has already begun. (Referring to how Walter crossed an started the war, perpetuating the universal decay of both worlds. But it has been stated that Bell was preparing for this war prior to that, so could it potentially be the Observer's that are being referenced here? Bell has foreseen their invasion and now wants to prevent it.) What will the apocalypse look like? The answer is a term generally understood, the specifics of which you cannot imagine, in which this document will attempt to describe is warfare." (Warfare between the blue and red universes? Or the Observers?)

"We think we understand reality, but our universe is only one of many, the unknown truth, the way to travel between them has already been discovered(Either referencing how Walter figured out how to cross over or how the Observers can travel outside of time and between Universes.) by beings much like us and who's history is slightly ahead of our own."(Notice the word "slightly" the alt verse is slightly more advanced, the Observers are REALLY advanced, this could discredit the theory.) The negative aspects of such visitations will be irreversible(Referring to how Walter crossing and the damage it has and will cause to both universes. Or is it talking about how the Observer's world got polluted. Did their visitations cause alterations in time that altered their future?) both to our world and there's. It will begin with a series of unnatural occurrences, difficult to notice at first but growing, not unlike a cancer. Until a simple fact becomes undeniable. Only one world will survive. It'll either be us, or them. (The Observers want to invade, not destroy. Walternate wants to destroy the blue-verse, so I think it was always about the other side and not the Observers. Unless it is what was said in season 4 and the war between the universes was a just a diversion to hide Bell's true agenda of creating a new world.)


Jones and Olivia

Jones: "All the assistance in this world could not cure me Ms. Dunham." In THIS world. But in the alternate universe they do have the technology that can cure him, shown in season 4. It's also may be a hint that he wants to go back there, back with Bell to continue there creation of a new world.

Jones: "Who knows, perhaps this task I have set up for you might help me."(Cortexiphan subjects can cross to the alternate universe, maybe he expects her to help him get there. It seems DRJ's first objective is to get medical attention so he doesn't die, secondary: to unite with Bell.)

Jones: "Don't worry Ms. Dunham, if I wanted to harm you I would have done it long ago."

(Does this suggest that Jones knew Olivia along time ago, maybe he was working with Bell during the Cortexiphan trials. It seems like he may have known Olivia's father, might have been a family friend of Olivia's family perhaps.)



The Light Box

In this timeline, Olivia must turn the lights off, in season 4 she must turn them on. Hmm. Any ideas? Or is it just discontinuity on the part of the writers?


Nina's Hand

Nina: "My hand, it's been acting up, I need to have it looked at."

Why? Is Olivia's formely latent abilities causing her hand to malfunction, she is going through a lot of worry that she had been experimented on in the Cortexiphan trials. Was this the emotional stressor that caused Olivia's abilities to infer with her hand? After Olivia disarms the bomb and all the chaos blows over, Nina calls and mentions her hand is no longer malfunctioning. Is this due in part to the fact that Olivia's stress has been releaved for the moment?

Another theory I have is that the amphilicite is reacting to Olivia because it is a material that can be used as a powerful energy source, so powerful that it can allow you to cross universes. Does Olivia have some connection with this mineral?

A third possibility is that Bell replaced the power cell that was already in it, with one that uses amphilicite. He does this because he want's Jones to retrieve it from her arm so he can cross back over to him. The extra power provided by the amphilicite battery causes her hand to behave strangely for a while.

I think the first option is most plausible, the third is also possible.


Other Information


The alternate universe's theme is played for the very first time in this episode. Shortly when Olivia is talking to Loeb and again when Olivia is racing to the warehouse, when Peter is reading to her from the Z.F.T. manuscript.



(This is the track used for the scene with Peter reading off the manuscript to Olivia(the exact part used starts at 44 seconds. The small instance used with Loeb is not in a track.)

[phx219]

The ZFT manuscript may have become more centered towards the AU war while the Time Loop of Destruction is going on, and could have originally meant something totally different.

"Slightly" is relative; in the history of a Universe, billions of years, the 400 years or so the Observers have on us are very slight

[MassivelyDynamic]

"Slightly" is relative; in the history of a Universe, billions of years, the 400 years or so the Observers have on us are very slight

Yeah, you have a point there. Referring to both of your comments.
Only six more episodes to re-watch for season one!

[blubird]

I also thought the way Jones is with Olivia was very odd. As he's being rolled out of the lab...he says "that's my girl." If he knew her during her experiments days or from childhood. not sure. Don't you think Walter would know him?

Massive Dynamic says

Jones and Olivia

Jones: "All the assistance in this world could not cure me Ms. Dunham." In THIS world. But in the alternate universe they do have the technology that can cure him, shown in season 4. It's also may be a hint that he wants to go back there, back with Bell to continue there creation of a new world.

Jones: "Who knows, perhaps this task I have set up for you might help me."(Cortexiphan subjects can cross to the alternate universe, maybe he expects her to help him get there. It seems DRJ's first objective is to get medical attention so he doesn't die, secondary: to unite with Bell.)

Jones: "Don't worry Ms. Dunham, if I wanted to harm you I would have done it long ago."

(Does this suggest that Jones knew Olivia along time ago, maybe he was working with Bell during the Cortexiphan trials. It seems like he may have known Olivia's father, might have been a family friend of Olivia's family perhaps.)

[blubird]

I was also worried about Walter figuring out he wrote manuscript . Sucks have part of your brain partly removed. I am loving the re watch.

[spacefilou]

The Light Box

In this timeline, Olivia must turn the lights off, in season 4 she must turn them on. Hmm. Any ideas? Or is it just discontinuity on the part of the writers?

Yes I may have an idea on this one. I think (if I remember correctly) that in season 4, it's Olivia herself who, when seeing the box, tells Jones that he already asked her to do this one time, and that she had to turn the lights on. I think she deliberately tells the opposite about the lights, to see if Jones has any recollection of this. It's a parallel with what she does with Nina in the episode : she gets Nina to talk about details from the past to know if she's really 'her' Nina (which she's not) . In short, Olivia does all kinds of mind tricks on people in this epy

[WhatsUpDoc1958]

duplicate post.

[WhatsUpDoc1958]

Misdirection as to who wrote ZFT

While the ZFT manuscript uses the word "multiverse", the audience will not likely think that the author comes from another universe. The audience will likely think that a member of our (Blue) universe wrote the manuscript.

According to this episode (1.14), the raised "y" letter in the ZFT manuscript coupled with the raised "y" letter from Walter's typewriter narrows down the author as either Walter Bishop or William Bell, as they shared the same lab. Since Walter has no recollection of writing the ZFT manuscript, and Massive Dynamic is portrayed as diabolical, therefore the audience is intended to conclude that it must have been William Bell who wrote the ZFT manuscript.

Clues in Later Episodes

Walter's German roots comes out in later episodes, and the fact that William Bell took out pieces of Walter's brain allows us to come to the conclusion that Walter may have written ZFT. Walter may have forgotten that he wrote ZFT when Bell operated on his brain.

But our knowledge that Walter kidnapped Peter from Walternate's universe, and our eventual knowledge of Walternate and his anger over Peter's kidnapping allows us to come to the correct conclusion that Walternate, not Walter Bishop nor William Bell from our universe, wrote the original ZFT manuscript. His motives and presumptions about our universe are core to the ZFT manuscript. Walternate would have had the same German heritage as Walter.

Problems

Why would David Robert Jones (DRJ) believe that ZFT was the manifesto for our universe (Blue universe) rather than the manifesto for the Red Universe? It appears that William Bell spent a great amount of time in the Red Universe under Walternate and was very familiar with ZFT. It was probably William Bell who adapted and altered ZFT as a manifesto for the Blue Universe, knowing that war was coming. William Bell may have used Walternate's typewriter from the Red Universe to make the modifications, as Walternate's typewriter would probably have been identical to Walter's typewriter, although Walter's typewriter could have been used as Walter was in St. Claires mental institution and no one else was using it.

[LastHawk84]

I am a new Fringe Fanatic, and the question of William Bell (and DRJ) has been perplexing me. I am still trying to wrap my head around William Bell and his ultimate goals (with Jones or without) pre-Peter's erasure and post. So here were the few questions I had rewatching this episode for the third time:

1.) How do you all think DRJ's ultimate goal changed in the original timeline compared to the new Amber timeline? A lot of people have been suggesting that DRJ's goals were the same in both timelines. The only difference being that Peter got him sliced in the original.
2.) Whether we believe or not that Bell was involved with DRJ in the original timeline...was DRJ's goal in this episode the same as Bell's in s4? Was he trying to activate Olivia?
3.) {This kind of ties in to this episode I think.} Do we all really think that Bell's sacrifice in the s3 LSD episode was not as altruistic as we were meant to believe? I don't know....it would be a big risk on his part sacrificing his consciousness on the hope of some back-up plan revolving around Peter being erased. Unless he found some Observer tech to travel to the future perhaps?

[MassivelyDynamic]

How do you all think DRJ's ultimate goal changed in the original timeline compared to the new Amber timeline? A lot of people have been suggesting that DRJ's goals were the same in both timelines. The only difference being that Peter got him sliced in the original.

I don't believe his goal changed at all. He was always aiming to meet up with William Bell in the alternate universe. Nina's story that he had gone insane and wanted to kill Bell was a complete misdirect. My theory is that Bell knew he was caught red handed and used DRJ as a scape goat in order to make himself appear innocent. Walter said it himself: "Like everyone else, you're blinded by the charming manner, the air of intelligence, the whole damn show."

Z.F.T. was simply a smoke screen to cover up Bell's Neogenesis plot. This way Fringe Division is focused on the war between the two universes and not Bell's agenda. I would even go as far as to say that the Z.F.T. members such as Loeb didn't even know what was really going on, they believed they were working to combat a hostile universe, not working towards Neogenesis. Bell was basically using the war to mask his true agenda. However, once he is caught for funding Z.F.T., he has to abandon Neogenesis lest he risk someone figuring out his true plan.

So, he makes its so DRJ takes the fall for it after making him appear insane. Nina may have been contacted by Bell and told to lie to the FBI or she is just oblivious to what is really going on. Bell readjusts his goals and decides to prevent the collision of universes by pulling Olivia over and warning her about the first wave. I don't believe he did this out of the goodness of his heart either, he just wants to appear to be the savior in the situation rather than the aggressor. With Bell it's all about misdirection. In retrospect, he wanted the collision to happen, he knew it was inevitable that the two universes would do this automatically which allowed him only half the work. He likely was awaiting Jones so they could start work on Neoshifters and the "safe zone".

Due to the fact that the universes were on good terms because of the bridge in the Amber timeline, the collision was prevented. So, Bell had to readjust his agenda to cause the collision himself through the two vaccum machines being connected. When that is foiled when they turn the machines off, he had the backup plan he had prepared which is Olivia and her Cortexiphan abilities. This is why he was having her dosed. Just in case the machine plan did not work out.

Not only is Bell using Z.F.T. as a smoke screen, he is also effectively fueling both sides in the war. With one hand he controls Z.F.T. and is stealing technology/science from the other side. With the other hand he is aiding the Redverse by creating technology for them, even the shape shifters, which are the main cog in the coming war. Walter's statement may have merit: "You say you want to prevent the war while you quietly fuel it." In my mind Bell was working to hasten the collision of both universes by fueling the war.

Do we all really think that Bell's sacrifice in the s3 LSD episode was not as altruistic as we were meant to believe? I don't know....it would be a big risk on his part sacrificing his consciousness on the hope of some back-up plan revolving around Peter being erased. Unless he found some Observer tech to travel to the future perhaps?

When Bell sacrifices himself at the end of season 2, I believe it was genuine and not part of a plan. I believe meeting up with Walter again made him see the light and he decided to do something good. I believe original timeline Bell had a change of heart and became a good man. His second sacrifice in LSD was for the same logic. He was no longer an evil man by that time. The amber Bell is far more sinister in that his plans were not foiled as quickly as in the original timeline. By the time Walter and friends got to him in season four, it was far too late for Bell to be pulled back from the brink of his megalomania.

On the other hand, he very well could have know that the only way to heal the two worlds is with the machine which can only be controlled by Peter. Bell knew how the vaccum machine worked, so maybe he figured that since Fringe Division got the upper hand on the situation by discovering the machine parts, it stood to reason that Peter would be erased when it was all over which would mean he never died at all.

I believe since he was helping the Observers in the future (2036) he had means to travel back and forward through time. We know that part of his Neogenesis goal was to also stop the Observer invasion. There Fringe went again making good and evil subjective. XD Bell knew it would happen and so he traveled to a time before it happened to try and prevent it. Although it isn't the whole reason obviously. That's how he had technology that was "beyond them" as September states. Bell was always big on espionage and stealing other worlds technologies for his own purposes, so it makes a lot of sense.

Whether we believe or not that Bell was involved with DRJ in the original timeline...was DRJ's goal in this episode the same as Bell's in s4? Was he trying to activate Olivia?

Bell wanted Olivia(just as with the other subjects) to be activated. I also believe Bell was the person Harris was speaking to over the phone when he was activating Susan Pratt. I think DRJ wanted Olivia to help him cross to the other side as well before having to resort to the doorway.