5.09 "Black Blotter" TV REVIEW
IF YOU'RE YET TO SEE THE EPISODE, STOP READING NOW! SPOILERS LIE AHEAD
Episode 5.09
Writer: Kristin Cantrell
Director: Tommy Gormley
DID YOU SPOT The frog from the animation appears in the background when Walter a🍎nd Astrid arrive at the boathouse (see belo🐠w).
HAVEN'T WE SEEN YOU BEFORE The religious former lab assistant who appears as the devil on Walter's shoulder is Dr Carla Warren (below), played by Jenni Blong. 𒀰She previously appeared in season two flashback episode "Peter" ♋(2.16).
SPECULATION Why have we never seen any female Observers? Surely they 🤡must be out there – not least because the Observer child had to come from somewhere.
SPECULATION 2 Who the hell is Donald? The writers have built him into such an important figure now that he's got to have some serious significance in the remaining four episodes of the show. Could🦩 it be September? The Walternate?
SPECULATION 3 The child Observer is named Michael by his foster parents. Wonder if the writing team named him after Michael Cerveris, w💝ho played original Observer September in the first four seasons of the show.
TRIVIA This is the second Fringe episode named after a pharmaceutical concoction – season two's disappointing musical episode "Brown 𒆙Betty" (2.20) also got its title from one of Walter's narcotic brews.
WHAT'S IN A NAME Tripping on acid is good for Walter in one respect – this is one of the few ep𒐪isodes where he gets Astrid's name right.
WEISS WORDS We haven't encountered Sam Weiss, Fringe's resident expert in both bowling and the First People, since season three. It's good to learn he was part of the resistance, but sad that he died protecting the radio signa🌌l. (These timeline shenanigans are getting rather complicated, though – if only Peter and Olivia can remember the timeline where they encountered Observer Boy and Samuel Weiss, how did Walter and Donald find them in this reality? Will this become important later on?)
BEST LINE
Carla: "You've been him longer than you've been you."
Richard Edwards
Fringe airs on Sky1 in the UK on Wednesday nights at 10pm, and on Fox in the US on Friday nights.
