A comment on the ending of last night's Fringe

[sholio]

I gotta say that, while the episode certainly had fun bits, the ending basically encapsulated everything I hate about the "true love trumps all other considerations" theme that runs through a lot of JJ Abrams' shows (and media in general). Olivia is, in essence, giving up all the other important relationships in her life for Peter -- and this is when she's only been together with him for a few months in the original reality; I think it would feel less imbalanced to me if it was, say, a 20-year marriage, but a relationship of a year or so in which they spent a lot of that time fighting? Er ... yay? Anyway, that whole dynamic (Olivia gives up everything else that's important in her life for ~true love~) mashed down my DO NOT WANT buttons hard.

It wasn't quite as 100% do-not-wanty as it might otherwise be because it isn't strictly an either-or proposition, and Olivia knows it -- her alt-self has close relationships with some of her other friends too (Walter and Astrid, for example), so she won't have to rebuild everything from scratch. And the Observer's "love brought you back" comment to Peter was clearly not referring only to Olivia, but referencing Walter as well. So it's not absolutely, 100% "romantic love is the only important thing in the world!" But it was damned close, uncomfortably close for me, especially since the memory trade that Olivia is making will basically cost her the shared history that she has with everyone else in the world besides Peter -- all the little in-jokes, the memories of missions with the others, any and all differences between this timeline and ours ... if the memory replacement becomes complete (which I hope it doesn't, but the decision she made is based on the assumption that it might), she won't remember any of that. Our memories make us who we are, and it feels like Olivia is basically giving up not only all the other relationships in her life (either severing them, or changing them irrevocably) but also giving up her self to be with Peter. And, even though it's a decision no one is forcing her into, the fact that canon set it up so that this was her decision is something that leaves me tremendously uncomfortable.

Comments

[dossier]

I am still withholding judgment. Nina as Olivia's substitute Mom creeped me out, and while she might be seemingly rejecting her entire life as it is, she is also rejecting a life that was never meant to be, except for manipulation. The thing that I like about Fringe is that the consequences of decisions are explored in many layers. Or has in the past. I enjoy Fringe, but not enough to get invested. I gave up on Lost just about season 4, so I am prepared to bail... soonish

[sholio]

Mom!Nina creeped me out, too, but she seems to be a genuinely decent person - and this is another thing I think is really interesting about Fringe, that they allow people to be good, bad or in-between regardless of what their other-universe counterparts did. It's all about the choices you make.

I'm not super fannishly invested, though, which is probably a good thing. I expect I'll be watching in season five, if there is a season five, but if things keep going like they have been, I'll probably be bailing eventually too.