Peter Figures It Out (with Licorice)

This was a momentous week. First we had our first repeat food (licorice), as well as my first failed attempt to locate a Fringe food (Peek Freans). After much research, I found that Peek Freans, produced in the UK, are no longer sold in the US. They are sold in Canada, and I could have ordered some, but they would not have arrived here in time. Very frustrating. I called all over the Seattle area trying to locate a box, with no luck whatsoever.

I did however locate some chocolate licorice and some cookies that LOOKED like Peek Freans, and ate entirely too many of them. Was there something else I was going to talk about? Oh, right!

The show was pretty freaky this week. The shapeshifters are back, and stole the identities of a couple stoners. Then they started planting devices around town. Walter of course figured out what they were up to, and that a bridge was in the exact center of it. A bridge with the middle span missing (was this ever explained? I don't think so.)

So, Walter also builds a machine using a laptop that, by thumping on the ground, cancels out the magical transdimensional thingy that the shapeshifters are using to bring something (um, a bridge? why?) into our universe. But of course it doesn't work right, and Peter is left out on the bridge to attempt to get it working.

While he's out there an FBI agent gets vaporized, but nothing happens to Peter. When he wakes up in the hospital, he pieces together that he is not from this world, but the other one. Then he checks out of the hospital, and Olivia says that he's vanished. (Hello? Doesn't she work for the FBI or something?)

So -- in one episode Peter finally calls Walter "dad", and then renounces his dadship. Walter is going to be an absolute mess over this. But there was finally an unquestionable Walter food (pecan pie), and in one scene Walter was seen with peanut butter and what looked like homemade bread, so we know what we must do.

Taffy and Time Travel

Our "food" this week was taffy.  Technically I'm not sure that's a food, but we are living in desperate times.  We also had espresso (or coffee, possibly; I am ignorant of caffeinated taxonomy) with chocolate and peppermint in it.

This week's episode was an exceptionally good one.  After a bit of confusion about who the guy on the train was (Peter Sellers?  No, he's dead... Peter Wellers?  Weller!), I knew it was going to be a strong episode if they bothered bringing someone of his caliber in.  It did not disappoint.  He played a scientist who had invented a way to travel through time, which apparently necessitated implanting wires and various bits of metal under his skin.  Walter referred to this as a Faraday cage, which do exist and are used for shielding from electrical impulses.  Sometimes people work inside them (and always for reasons which I can't describe but Google can probably explain), but I've never heard of someone putting one inside themselves.  (Or wearing one for that matter).  But this is Fringe, so we get freaky Cronenberg visuals.

There's a great dynamic that forms between Walter and the time traveling guy; it's like they form a social club for mad scientists.  Unfortunately it doesn't last.  Walter warns him that if he goes back and saves his wife, there will be unexpected consequences.  He explains a bit about how he's struggled with the Peter thing.  The time traveler ignores him though, and goes back; his consequences are much more immediate (and maybe more merciful) than Walter's.

Peter mentioned buying some Peek Freans for Walter.  I'm not sure I've ever had any, and my two companions had never heard of them.  They're British and I'm not sure I can find them out here on the West coast, but I will try.  Walter also was seen with a piece of licorice near his mouth, although he wasn't actually eating it.  That's close enough, particularly with the rough stretch we've had lately with food.  Chocolate covered Twizzlers it is!  That's our first repeat food so far.

Next week's episode, based on the preview, looks like concentrated awesomeness.

Blue Jigglers and the Contagious Cancer Guy

Last week's episode was more than just thin on the food front: there was none.  At all.  So we were forced to do with blue Jello Jigglers (in a nod to Walter's cure for Peter's disease, which was at least a liquid).  I also brought along some blue Gatorade; I'm not quite sure what it was supposed to taste like.  Antifreeze possibly.  (Kids, don't drink antifreeze.  You'll die.  Thanks.)

On to the episode: it was fairly X-Files-esque, with some guy wandering around looking sickly; when he touches somebody, they get sick very quickly and die.  And the guy looks better.  Fringe of course puts their own twist on it, tying it to Old Walter's science experiments involving children.  Inevitably, the guy comes looking for Olivia.  I was very relieved that he didn't touch her; I was concerned we'd have to watch her get all lumpy and gross before Walter found a cure for it by rummaging around someone's kitchen.  But no.  It did not happen.

Olivia also went to see Weird Bowling Guy, who to me will forever be the drug dealer who wore a Charles Manson shirt continuously in The Slums of Beverly Hills.  I like him, and he's a fine actor, but I just can't shake the image.

Walter mentioned taffy, so it's taffy next week.  He also mentioned espresso, which I don't like, and which is not a food, but I have been outvoted, so I'm at least going to sip at it next week while I wait for Walter to mention manicotti, or maybe cheesecake.

Applesauce and a Stolen Peter (80s Edition)

It's been six days since I watched it. I could tell you that my grandfather died (true), that I had company here (also true), that I was discouraged by the complete and utter lack of food in this episode (sadly all too true), but the truth is, I forgot. I will endeavor to do better from now on.

Now where were we: Fringe, right. We ate pretzels and apple sauce in honor of Walter's culinary choices last episode, whenever that was. The pretzels were these puffy things that you cook in the oven in something like four minutes. Just amazing. And I think JayBah was enjoying her apple sauce just a little too much.

As for the episode, it was weird even for Fringe. We finally got to see how parallel universe Peter came to be in our world. I won't even attempt to explain it all, but the Walter we see here is more like our Walter than I would have imagined. It seems like they've softened him a bit, made his motives honorable where Peter is concerned, at least; but I was almost a little disappointed by this. Old Walter was a bastard. Old Walter conducted science experiments on children. Would Old Walter knowingly kidnap someone else's kid? That was an interesting question. The episode sidestepped it, although it did provide a plausible (by "Fringe" standards, anyway) explanation of how things came to pass.

One unintentionally hilarious thing: after Nina tries to stop Walter from going through the wormhole, she yanks her hand back and it's gone all fuzzy. After the Observer pulls Walter and Peter from the water, he tells them that Nina went to seek medical attention. Now what sort of medical attention do you give somebody with a wavy arm, exactly?

Oh how I missed this show. I really enjoyed the 80s style graphics and the 80s style music, as well as Walter showing off a cellphone to the DoD guys. Overall, a solid episode which actually DID deliver answers to our questions, much unlike Lost.

But no food! None. I hope this is not a sign of things to come.

Fringe... the musical?

I could not make something like this up.

Not long now...

Anna Torv is in Esquire

Anna Torv got half-naked in Esquire and talked about doing sex scenes and her love of Tim Tams. She is soooo right about Tim Tams. I think I know what we're eating during Lost night next week.

(Link may not be suitable for work viewing.)

Granola Bars and the Guy With Two of Everything

...well, I think he had two of everything.  They kind of glossed over some of the details, thankfully.

This was the "winter finale", whatever that means, and the show was unusually good.  A building in Manhattan (not our Manhattan, as things turn out) is experiencing earthquakes, then is transported from their dimension into ours, causing horrible problems for one of its inhabitants.  (I've placed the actor, by the way -- he was one of the detectives on HBO's show The Wire.)

Walter determines that Olivia is the best bet for figuring out which of our buildings is likely to vanish.  He brings her to a padlocked building in Florida that's been sitting empty for 20 years -- has anyone noticed on this show that places just sit vacant for decades, completely unchanged and not really all that dusty, considering?  But anyway -- he brings her down there, gets her in a sexy tanktop (thanks Walter!) and feeds her full of drugs so she thinks she's wandering around in the woods somewhere around Vancouver.

After a freaky woodland encounter with her childhood self, she awakens... unable to do anything unusual.  Hmmm.  But at least she's in a tanktop.  Then they're back in New York, where she gets so scared that she and Peter almost kiss, and then, whoa, she can see a shimmering building.  Which the police evacuate in about 30 seconds -- I'm sure that always works -- just in time for it to get sucked into another dimension.

Good work, guys.

Our food tonight was granola bars and tea (is tea a food?), and I brought some sushi along.  I was intending to get sushi for the Lost premiere, but the restaurant was closed.  Maybe they are Lost fans too?

There's no more Fringe until April 1st.  That will be a long enough lag that some of you (and possibly we) will forget what Walter ate tonight.  The answer is: pretzels.  He also ate some apple sauce.