After a few weeks of Fringe-less Fox, we finally got back to the alt-world last night in "Amber 31422," where we learned how to use amber as a spackling paste, and why, at least from Walternate's damaged yet god-like perspective, good and evil are secondary to balance and imbalance. And, as we've come to expect when red titles flash over the J.J. Abrams theme, it was another great marriage of episode with season arc. Read on for the mad science capsules!
Scenario: When the alternate universe becomes unstable, Walternate's special formula of Amber 31422 is used to seal up everything in the area -- including the humans, who remain aware and arrested in whatever worry last crossed their mind.
Plausibility: 9 of 10. The humans' lives, Walternate explains, are "a tragic but small price to pay for the greater good." Utilitarianism is apparently the morality system in the alt-world. So when a man chisels his twin brother out of the amber, it's of course in the interest of the most people to track down the escapee with all the exuberance of Alternate Astrid solving a sudoku, until Joshua, the chisel-wielding brother, seals himself in amber to protect his brother. Olivia guessed all this of course, because, not only can she tear through the fabric of the universe with her cortexiphan-boosted brain, but ...
Scenario: Olivia's Peter hallucinations persist throughout the episode as he drops hints about her case, continually nags her about ignoring him and denying her identity and, thankfully, does not try to jog her memory with tender kisses.
Plausibility: 6 of 10. I'm more and more OK with Peter as a residual artifact of Olivia's memory conditioning. Though he does have a tendency to draw attention to parallels that might be more rewarding if left unmentioned -- for instance, his comparison of Olivia, trapped in the alt-world with no way to escape, to Matthew Rose, who spent four years encased in amber, was about as subtle as all of Walternate's lines about utilitarianism and balance and morality.
Scenario: Walternate plays his patriotism (universism?) card to persuade Olivia to submit to dimension-crossing experiments. Of course he knows she's the real Olivia, but he tells her that, since she and Olivia are exact genetic replicas, they should have the same abilities. (Apparently, in the Fringe show bible, hair color is not a genetic trait? Hmmm.)
Plausibility: 9 of 10. It might be played up a bit too much, but I love how Walternate is drawn as this god-like figure who values balance over morality. Another blunt Walternate proverb: "Increase the dosage," he says as Olivia floats in the sensory deprivation tank, "Only those who risk going too far find out how far they can go." He's the complete antithesis of Walter, only invoking him when he smiles giddily after Olivia returns from her first tank adventure.
Alternate Astrid needs a snappier name to match her snappy facial recognition database skills. Any suggestions?