Olivia Dunham The First Female Observer.
How that for a catchy title? "Olivia Dunham, the First Female Observer". A little wacky too, yes? How did I come across such a preposterous concept. Basically, it is all David Robert Jones' fault.
I went to bed Sunday night musing about my wacky theory. Too crazy, I thought. It sounded good after my Fringe re-watch but as the Oscar's wound down and I drew sleepy I was beginning to have my doubts. A lot went on in the last episode of Fringe and a lot more questions need answering. First and foremost to me?
What does David Robert Jones want with Olivia Dunham?
According to the ever enigmatic September, Jones is pursuing Dunham for the same reasons as he did during the other timeline. For what? Well, I would think for her abilities of course. He said as much himself. The twinkling of lights and the arcing power of electricity isn't good enough for him. He wants, "Far more".
What could be better than telekinetic powers? We even saw her catch a falling box in midair during the Yellow-verse future. Handy around the house indeed! But we know there is much more. The old Blue universe Olivia could transport herself between dimensions with just a thought. No need to use the machine, Walter's device or David Robert Jones' contraption. No need for instrumentation at all!
Ah! Perhaps that is the key.
Maybe I can understand now why we have seen all these deft little clues to the classic sci-fi flick, "Forbidden Planet". The basic premise behind that movie was a superior race of beings had built a planet wide device so powerful that they had eliminated the need for instrumentation. All they had to do was use their minds and will something to happen. The ultimate achievement. Sadly for this race, the Krell, they didn't count on their collective subconscious to operate the machine and the mindless beast of the Id tore their society apart. Literally.
I'm thinking this movie and its premise was the inspiration for Olivia's ability. The power of mere thought. The will to do and accomplish anything by just thinking. Why would this be the ultimate goal for David Robert Jones? Well, he is developing an army of Shape-shifters isn't he? He is adept at cloning, DNA mapping and genetic manipulation right. What if he was able to capture and clone Olivia and create a race of Shape-shifters version 3.0 and have them serve at his will? They would be undetectable and unstoppable. He could rule not one but two universes and if things go badly between the two, versions 3.0 would survive the apocalypse and start a new "human" race of their own with you know who as their leader.
So how does Olivia fit in as the first female Observer? Remember when September told Peter while they were traveling in what looked to be the inside of a geodesic dome time machine (ahem!) that his son Henry was born to the wrong Olivia? (I have a bone to pick with that later.) I started thinking that if Peter and Olivia had a child what kind of abilities would it have? No need for two people to work together to exhibit strange powers, the child would possess them all naturally. If this child were to be born in such a way and we extrapolate on this to the nth degree, little Henry may be the evolutionary precursor to what eventually becomes the race of the Observers far into the future.
Makes total sense right?
By seasons end or maybe even sooner Jones will have been able to draw out Olivia's cortexiphaned induced powers. She'll be able to aparate herself through time and space, from the past and into the future all by the use of her mind. No need for clunky Observer machines. She is the ultimate Observer with these abilities!
So there you have it. Do I really think she will become an Observer or at least transcend their power? No on the former but I think yes on the latter. A wild and far flung theory yes but perhaps this is the future time line that September is trying to protect. The time line of his race and humanity.
Scoff all you want, I know I've been wrong before but speculating on the future of Fringe is fun and you never know what elements may be correct. I do know this. Now we know why Olivia is always wearing a stretch knit cap over her head. The writers want us to get used to the idea of Olivia without any hair.
Oh yeah!
Dave, any theory to with Fringe can never be 'out there' or 'wacky'. This is Fringe we are talking about. As the slogan says ....imagine the impossibilties' And with Fringe ....we just have to.
ReplyDeleteIm not really sure what DRJ wants with Olivia ....but we can all be rest-assured that it isnt to use her as a remote to turn his house lights on and off!
If the light box is test 1 of 10 ...then just what are the rest? And do these tests have to be completed in order? Do they all have to be passed in the correct sequence for this power to come out? As each test is completed, does it build upon her powers or simply proove that she possesses that power? Too many questions!?!
Whatever, DRJ wants Olivia for .... it has to be something huge. He wants something ...some power over both universes. He always wanted to proove something to William Bell ....but we dont know what it was.
Does DRJ want Olivia to pass all these tests and proove her abilities, just so that he can then ensure that baby Henry is born to the 'right Olivia Dunham'? Is Henry the key? Is he what DRJ wants? Is there something about this child that will help DRJ in his quest?
Maybe you are right. Maybe Olivia will ultimately achieve the powers the Observers have ...to stand out of time and travel back and forth through it. After all, the 'machine' that was made for Peter, is really just a mechanical form of the Observers. And Olivia was able to serve as a 'crowbar' to stop the machine working. What if DRJ wants Olivia ...to stop the Observers? What if he wants to be the 'master' of time. To control everything ...to create the 'destiny' that he wants?
As for Olivia wearing her beautiful knitted caps to get us used to her being bald ..... well whose to say that female Observers are bald? They may be the ones with hair! Beautiful, long blonde hair!!!
I have a Fringe mouse pad at work that says "imagine the impossibilities" so you know I am there.
DeleteI should get back to the "Heroes journey" topic, the tests sound like the trials of Hercules. That would be a nice tie in. If I put something together I'll credit you with inspiration. Not too many questions! I bet the the trials will be in ascending order of power as each will help enable the next. Yes?
I don't think DRJ knows anything about baby Henry. If Olivia and Petey have a child in this confusing time line then woe to that child if DRJ finds out about it. DRJ may even accelerate the birth in order to get his hands on it. Not good!
I think you are on to something with DRJ wanting to be master of time and destiny. Does he know about the Observers? I don't think so. If he senses that Peter is close to re-altering the time line I have no doubt he will do anything to stop it. Especially now that Peter and Olivia have tipped there hand that he dies in the other time line. Big mouths!
It would be a shame for Olivia to lose her hair. It is beautiful. I think Mr. X would shoot Pinkner and Wyman instead if they ever tried that!
Dave!
ReplyDeleteI have a fever, and my mind is completely clouded so sadly I'm going to keep this short, but here are my thoughts:
You, sir, are a genius! I like this theory because it sounds a lot like my theory but you take it even further. I had estimated that David Robert Jones wanted a cortexiphan-saturated shape-shifter. I've been saying this for weeks now and I'm still staunchly supporting this idea... BUT I never answered "why" he wanted a CS-SS. I feel like you answered the why in this blog post. Brilliant, sir. Absolutely brilliant!
I am 100% on your bandwagon with this. Like I said, it goes along with what I, so I kinda have to support it, right ha?
Well played, sir.
Sarah
Hmmm, I do love being called a genius but if you have a temperature over 105 you might be a little giddy. Aw, forget it, who am I kidding, I'll take it anyway!
DeleteI seem to remember you saying you had a theory about the shape-shifters but you didn't share it. But now I know why we think so much alike. I calling it here and now...
Quantum Entanglement!!!
I even saw your twitter post on the galaxy quintent (space porn!)and I had seen the same thing on Space.com
Scary!
Good to know I am not on this crazytrain band wagon alone. Thanks for all the support and kind words my ALSO brilliant friend!
Well... The fever is gone and I still think you're a genius, so it's got to be true!
DeleteQuantum Entanglement... It's the only feasible answer!
I'll dig up my full theory about DRJ wanting Olivia as a CS-SS and share it tonight.
I hope you're smiling.
Peter and Olivia as the founder of the Observers... Sounds like a keeper to me. It would fit in perfectly - the Adam and Eve to Walter's quest for redemption. Walter is Dad, of course. (sigh... it always goes this way...)
ReplyDeleteI still don't quite understand Olivia's importance to Mr. Jones. He must know that if he activates Olivia to her full potential, he is basically toast, so what does that give him? Satisfaction? I don't know.
Henry. I'd like to know your thoughts on that baby, Mr. Dave.
And as for the geogesic... geotistic... geo- Oh, that observation deck thing, all I can say is I was expecting to see Cassandra hanging on the wall somewhere demanding to be moisturized. (sorry, I just had to get my Doctor Who reference in there)
Allons-y! :-)
I wouldn't mind Walter for a Dad. Never a dull moment!
DeleteFunny you should mention toast, that's what Olivia was eating when she spoke of Mr. X and come to think of it Walter was eating toast with sprinkles in this past episode. As for DRJ and his risking a toasting from Olivia; I'm sure he has a plan to bait and trap her. No doubt involving Pierre (see, I know some French)She may become so powerful that harnessing it will allow her to free Peter but allow DRJ to tap into it.
Henry? The evolutionary start of the far flung Observers? I thought September said he had to be the child of Blue universe Olivia and Peter. I'll have to re-watch that. But the old time line must be gone, if not the red universe Henry will still be alive and September seemed to think that was very wrong. So confusing. I'll try to formulate a post on that and you'll be first to know.
J'aime Dr. Who!
Hey guys!
DeleteI wanted to jump in on the Henry portion of this conversation. I don't think there is a Henry at all anymore. When all the Observers had congregated at the end of the finale of season 3, this conversation happened:
"Do you think they remember him?"
"How could they? He never existed."
What if we were duped into thinking this was about Peter but in reality, they were talking about Henry? September basically spelled it out to Peter that because of his interference all those years ago, and all his attempts to course correct that followed, Peter ended up having Henry with Fauxlivia when all along his child was supposed to be had with Olivia.
Had September never interrupted Walternate from finding the cure: Peter would have grown up in his own Universe, but that doesn't mean he never would have ended up here in our Blue-Verse. Perhaps, his coming here on his own terms, later, and his meeting Olivia in this fashion would have kept peace between Red and Blue. Think of September as Rufus and P & O as a love story version of Bill & Ted. They needed to pass history to write the song that causes world peace. Peter and Olivia needed to have a child but September got too far deep in his screw-ups.
Long story short: Henry was never meant to be and I think this WHOLE new timeline happened as a result of erasing HIM not Peter... Peter was a casualty.
I hope this didn't read like rambling :)
Cheers!
Problem is Olivia is not a scientist. She is more of a subject of an experimentation.
ReplyDeleteI will have a problem with them if they make Olivia an observer. On the other hand, she may be very well be an observer if the observers are not really scientists but they thought they were... and they were in fact subjects of an experimentation. Hence, the code name.
Xero, I don't think it's important that Olivia is not a scientist. The time of the Observers is in the far future and their antecedents could come in any form. The important thing is that they are human like us and Olivia. I'm intrigued by the whole code name thing. I wonder WHO gave them their designations. Isn't it interesting that they are people that travel through time (and outside it)and they are named after points of the calendar that measure time.
DeleteGood to hear from you Xero!
Very interesting thoughts on Olivia Dave.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on DRJ's intentions for Olivia. He clearly wants to exploit her abilities for interdimensional gain. What the machinations of that strategy may be, i guess we'll find out.
I would not put it past the writers to make Anna Torv don a skull cap and show us a version of Olivia that is observer-esque. If she can channel William Bell, being bald and monotone should be a piece of cake and it would be a great TV moment so maybe they’ll go there. However I do not think we will see *our* Olivia hairless, maybe a descendent in a possible future. I think their hairlessness is the result of an evolutionary drift over many generations. Hair is vestigial, it has little functional use beyond aesthetics that clothing or sunblock cannot provide. (Except of course protecting the ear canals, nasal passages and eyes from contaminants. Maybe sense of touch.)
I do think the Observers report to a female. All of the references to "hive mind" make me think of a group of drones serving a queen bee. Although I always pictured Nina, not Olivia as said queen.
The idea that Peter and Olivia's family tree might someday sprout Observers leaves me profoundly sad. I guess I can get behind the idea that their offspring might have abilities similar to the Observers. However, Olivia's abilities required cortexiphan to manifest. I'm not sure the abilities are inheritable. Rather, the fortitude to endure cortexiphan seems to be in her genetic makeup. So would descendents still require cortexiphan to unlock the abilities? Olivia’s abilities are tied to emotion and to Peter. The Observers are suited to their mission because their emotions are suppressed, if they exist at all. Even so they screwed up human history simply by being a distraction. An emotional human being possessing the ability to transcend time would be incredibly dangerous even if their intentions were honorable. The temptation to intervene to prevent tragedy, for example, would be overwhelming. In fact this is a great argument for Peter and Olivia to not ever have kids. Imagine the burden that child would bear if born with abilities. They would forever be a weapon for good or evil or forced live with an overwhelming secret. Think of the guilt of inaction they would face. The burden of a superhero?
Let’s say the Observers are descendents of Peter and Olivia. How incredibly bleak to have great(insert infinity symbol here) grandkids that live lives devoid of emotion, little to no individuality to the point that they are assigned generic project names, and are tasked with watching rather than participating in life. That time September remarked to Peter about what it must be like to be a father, for instance, was an incredibly melancholy statement, as though Sept would never experience it. Perhaps the Observers mission is to go back and see when it all went wrong, when their humanity slipped away.
This gives me a little hope: September says to Peter that “Our technology has uniquely afforded us the ability to travel within and outside of time so that we may observe our beginnings.” Technology to me implies that their abilities are not simply genetically inherited. There is an active choice there.
As a final thought I think it would be great if Peter and the right Olivia conceived a child, and despite all prognostications have a daughter. I would love to see the Observers *smile* at such an unforeseen event that truly surprises them.
Ambered in Boston - Lynne (duckyislost)
I really like your idea that the Observers report to a female because of the hive mind Queen bee relation. Nice thought.
ReplyDeleteDon't be "profoundly sad"! It's true cortexiphan helps manifest Liv's abilities, I wonder if it has manipulated her genetic make up wherein mating with Peter and his innate triggering mechanism will produce a child that won't need outside interference.
You mention the burden of the superhero. As Spiderman learns, "with great power comes great responsibility." Do you suppose the obverse or opposite is true of the child of Altlivia and Peter? Little Henry would grow up to be a super criminal (the mother did shoot someone in cold blood)and that is why September said their baby was not to be?
Another nice thought about the Observers and their humanity slipping away. Maybe the offspring of P & O are just one branch of humanity and the rest are fairly normal. Albeit created in a petri-dish. Yikes, that does sound bleak!
Yes, a daughter would be nice. Henrietta!
BTW, if you are ambered in Boston that means you're from the red universe. Are you still stuck in the same seat in Fenway Park?
Ha! Yes maybe I am forever anxious on the edge of my seat waiting for a bottom of the ninth comeback against the Yankees :) -Lynne (duckyislost)
DeleteI remember that in "Jacksonville" episode, Walter tels Olivia cortexiphan increased her empathy, that she was the most developed of all children treated and that she suffered along with them sometimes.
ReplyDeleteBlue universe Olivia can travel through universes with a thought, as you said.
If Peter was erased from the Blue universe timeline and ended up on an alternative timeline (hence on another alternate universe), that means an entire universe had to be reconfigured not to contain any traces whatsoever of Peter's existence after the Reiden lake accident. I history was rewritten in all universes (including the Red one), then he doesn't exist in any of them and he never met Olivia.
Nevertheless... If Peter eas put "outside time" justb like the Observers can do, then Olivia's mind could have been placed "outta time" because of this empathy, this love September explains to Peter and her mind could have tried to go back from this "intemporal" zone, just like Peter did - with the help of the injected cortexiphan by David Robert Jones and the other Nina Sharp.
I think this gives some support to your theory, altough I see this season going on a different direction.
I remember that in "Jacksonville" episode, Walter tels Olivia cortexiphan increased her empathy, that she was the most developed of all children treated and that she suffered along with them sometimes.
ReplyDeleteBlue universe Olivia can travel through universes with a thought, as you said.
If Peter was erased from the Blue universe timeline and ended up on an alternative timeline (hence on another alternate universe), that means an entire universe had to be reconfigured not to contain any traces whatsoever of Peter's existence after the Reiden lake accident. I history was rewritten in all universes (including the Red one), then he doesn't exist in any of them and he never met Olivia.
Nevertheless... If Peter eas put "outside time" justb like the Observers can do, then Olivia's mind could have been placed "outta time" because of this empathy, this love September explains to Peter and her mind could have tried to go back from this "intemporal" zone, just like Peter did - with the help of the injected cortexiphan by David Robert Jones and the other Nina Sharp.
I think this gives some support to your theory, altough I see this season going on a different direction.